Analysis of the Poem the Red Hat Essay

Rachel Hadas’ poem â€Å"The Red Hat† is told from the viewpoint of the parents of a young boy who begins to walk to school by himself. The poem reveals the actions and emotions of the parents who struggle with allowing their son to become more independent. However, this poem is not simply a story of a boy starting to walk to school on his own. The underlying theme is about a boy leaving the protection and safety of his parents to enter the world by himself. In the middle of the first stanza the lines, â€Å"these parallel paths part† interrupt the flow of the poem. Here, at Straus Park, the boy must really separate from his parents. When Hadas write, â€Å"The watcher’s heart stretches, elastic in its love and fear, toward him as we see him disappear, striding briskly†, she introduces the reader to one of the most significant parts of the poem. His parents, the watchers, extend their â€Å"elastic† hearts to their son out of love and fear as well. They look back two weeks, remembering when they held their son’s hand as they walked to school. The parents will not let their son go on alone until they feel satisfied that he can handle the responsibility. Even though the son proves his capability of walking to school, the parents still worry. When they finally let their son continue on his own, they worry about the potential dangers in the world. The parents will always worry, because their boy can never be completely safe. The author uses vivid description to allow the reader to develop a mental picture of what takes place. The boy walks up the east side of West End, while his parents follow behind on the west side. An understanding between the boy and his parent’s permits extended glances across the street, but not eye contact. This unsaid agreement allows the parents the opportunity to look over at their son to check on him, and it gives the boy a chance to occasionally look back and know that his parents are still there for him. The remaining lines of the poem follow in a sequential AA, BB rhyming pattern. When taken literally, this poem is merely a tale of a young boy learning to walk to school on his own and his parents’ concern over letting him go. In order for parents to let their child go off into the world, they must be sure that their child will look both ways before he crosses the street, and that he does not talk to strangers.

What Are the Benefits Outsourcing Web Development Services

Today market being fully dependent of E-commerce technologies, every organization needs to be regularly updated with latest technologies & factors that emphasis on quality picture of their organization. Today E-commerce has become a basic medium to expand your business globally. But to ensure quality of your Web application you need to Outsource Web development service. There is no doubt that anyone can carry out the development on their own. But, if some factors like cost, time, R&D, quality, experience, search engine friendly code, etc are considered, Outsourcing is the highly recommended. Outsourcing companies ensures business quality service by using latest technology available and also you will get your Web application developed on time with no or less bugs left, at reasonable cost. Following points will give you detailed understanding of â€Å"How Outsourcing of Web Development service will be beneficial considering all of this factors?† * Standard development Process: Many Companies follows strict process model. Clients are assured of the standard processing and get their development work completed on-time and delivery without any complication. * Lessen your Development Cost: To develop any quality product, we need skilled & experienced staff, also lots of cost need to be spent on R&D and setup of space for development. While if you outsource development service you need to pay very reasonable amount which in turn guarantees you best service with search engine friendly & light weight web application developed using latest technologies & tested in all terms. * Reliable and Accurate: All these companies have experience & knowledge of development, so the delivered product will be reliable & accurate in terms of outputs which the client demanded. * Future enhancement: As every company wants to maximize their business, these companies provide regular maintenance and notifications to update your product if required. There are many invisible benefits of Outsourcing on client side also. Clients can: * Further concentrate on their routine without bothering about their Web development process. So time is saved. * Save money by choosing Outsourcing which is nearly equal to half the cost required in own development process. so you can use them for future enhancement & maintenance. * Get chance to know new process models & their skilled knowledge. * Expect best recommendations & latest technologies that best suits your business requirements & success on the basis of their experienced skills and requirement analysis.

Maximizing Profits in Market Structures Essay

Profits in Market Structures Market Structures are described as a particular relationship between the buyers and the sellers of goods and services in a specific market (Mathias, 2000). Three different types of market structures are competitive markets, monopolies, and oligopolies. Each of these market structures has a particular set of characteristics that identify it and separate it from the others. These categories are also separated by the way they each use pricing and output to calculate and maximize their profits. Another difference between these three categories is the presence of barriers, which may be present to encourage current companies to exit, as well as new comers to enter that market. Also, each of these three structures has a different effect on the economy, some having more control on the market than others. With all these differences the specific market structures all have one thing in common, they all rely on supply and demand to determine how to maximize their profits. Competitive markets have two primary characteristics that separate it from other market structures. The first characteristic is that, within a competitive market, there are a large number of buyers and sellers. Second is that the product being sold is the same among all companies, making the products completely interchangeable. These factors make the market competitive by insuring that no single buyer or seller can control the market price. Therefore, in order for companies within a competitive market to maximize profits, they must maintain an equilibrium between the price charged for a product and quantity that they produce. This means that a company must take the price being charged for a product and subtract the cost of making the product to figure out where they are equal. As the price of a product in a competitive market is controlled by the market as a whole, the seller must adjust its output to maintain maximum profits. This is important because the company’s revenue is in direct correlation with the price, so if the price goes up $1. 00 per unit then the revenue also will go up the same amount. For example, if a product has a fixed cost of $1. 0, and the variable cost of $3. 00 and the product sells for $5. 00 then the company has to adjust its output to balance that amount, so that it does not cost over $5. 00 for each product sold. One factor that can affect the output of a product, is the lack of barriers that are present for anyone wanting to begin or exit a company. If the amount of sellers change but the demand does not then current companies will need to decrease the output or risk the price dropping below the profitable levels. The competitive markets can have a positive impact on the economy because the competition helps control the cost of products. If there was little or no competition, then companies would have the ability to raise prices as high as they wanted to, especially in the case of items that are necessities (Mankiw, 2007). The characteristics of a monopoly are first, that there is only one company selling a product and there are no substitutions. Second, there is no competition, the product is exclusive to one company. Third, in a monopoly the company completely controls the pricing of its products and can charge as much as they believe a customer will pay (Mathias, 2000). In contrast to a competitive market, a monopoly can chose what to charge for its product. However, the price must be set according to what consumers are willing to pay, while still maintaining a profitable level of production. It is important to control the output of product so, the price must be set to where the company will still be able to sell a large amount of product while maximizing its profits . There are substantial barriers to entering a market that has a monopoly. One barrier is the inability to compete in the market that is controlled by one company. A small business starting out in completion with a large monopoly would incur substantial costs to begin production and they would have to increase their prices to make a profit. This could also be a problem if the monopoly holds the rights to the raw materials that it takes to make a product. Therefore, entering a market that is controlled by a monopoly is very difficult. However, it is possible for a market to be controlled by a small number of companies, similar to the way that a monopoly controls a market. The economic impact that monopolies have can be outrageous prices or limited availability of goods and services to many people (Mankiw, 2007). An Oligopoly is when a limited number of companies control a specific market, with little competition (Mathias, 2000). Some characteristics of an oligopoly are that the companies all make the same or similar items, so they are substitutable, and there are only a few companies that produce this good. As there are a limited amount of producers these oligopolies are also able to set the price of their goods, using things like advertisements and warranties for competition between businesses. Because there are only a few companies making a product the members of an oligopoly have to control the production of their goods in order to control the pricing. If one of the companies decides to increase production then there will be an abundance of supply without the necessary increase in demand. This means that the cost of the product will have to go down to try to increase demand. These companies have to maintain a steady level of output in order to maintain price, giving them the best profits. The companies that are in this small circle of businesses, try very hard to erect barriers in front of anyone who may think about entering their market. By stopping the emergence of new companies the oligopolies can continue to control the market. The affect that oligopolies have on the economy is the ability to control pricing and supply of products, similar to the impact that a monopoly has (Mankiw, 2007). In conclusion, each market structure plays a role in the economy with the focus of these companies centering on profits. They monopoly can be beneficial if the lowest price for consumers comes from having only on producer but in many cases a monopoly means high prices and limited supply. An oligopoly does have less control over pricing only because they are sharing the demand and antitrust laws prevent them from gathering together as one monopoly, to maximize profit. The competitive market is the most economically friendly market because it has to compete to get customers and this helps keep prices affordable and does not limit the availability of goods to the public.

Last One Standing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Last One Standing - Assignment Example Overall, the company is moving with a delighted pace as it is working effectively with a comprehensive business strategy. The company has actually worked out in quality, style and service which are core features of its successive business strategy (Ryerson 3). Working in the rivalry aspect is most important for a company like Elmira which is present in small scale and is relying heavily on single product lines (appliances) to bring business success (Ryerson 3). Actually, working out in competition is the strength of Elmira and that is what describes its generic business strategy (Ryerson). Elmira has effectively filled the space of appliance manufacturing in Canada where major rivalries such as Whirlpool, Camco, Electrolux and Heartland Appliances have left wider space open for Elmira. It is through filling the space well in appliance manufacturing Elmira has out beaten its market competitors (Ryerson). This got possible through Elmira striving vision- striving for the core competencies which included a strong supply distribution network, competent employees, and effective production facility (Ryerson). It was through Elmira’s generic strategy (beating market competition), the company was able to secure its position in the market. And it was through this strategy it enabled the market prospect appear for the company in the coming years (Ryerson 3). It was after ten years of origin, the company Elmira Stove Works reached to its point of success. It was in 1986 when Elmira employed 120 employees, sold 10,000 units annually and was able to secure $12 million revenue (Ryerson 11). It was Elmira’s well adjustment to Ontario’s business environment (market environment) which allowed the company to drives its position in the regional market. This makes Elmira pass the fit test, which talks about a company’s suitable adjustment

Linguistic and Encylopaedic Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Linguistic and Encylopaedic Information - Essay Example It has been an observation that this distinction has often been very metaphorical due to inter-relation of lexical and non-lexical knowledge, and thus one can come across different viewpoints regarding possibility of distinction of linguistic and encyclopaedic information. On one hand, few linguistics advocate invalidity of any distinction between the two types of knowledge and/or information due to globalization of language and knowledge that has resulted in increment in spread of semantics and enhanced dependence on semiotics that do not facilitate any distinction between lexical and encyclopaedic information. On the other hand, linguistics of other school of thoughts deny this argument and oppose that it is essential to distinguish both information, especially from the perspective of linguistics as it will allow an in-depth understanding of different elements of a language. In this regard, different viewpoints exist; however, this paper will now include a brief description and dis cussion regarding dictionary and its entries that will allow a general understanding of information that is provided in the dictionaries, which will later on be considered for discussion on its distinction with encyclopaedic information. ... 93) Nowadays, it has been an observation that a dictionary entry usually consists of lexical information regarding a particular word. For instance, in the above example also, dictionary entry consisted of form, syntax, and semantic information regarding the word ‘cat’. However, latest versions of dictionaries are now coming with additional information as well, such as semantic relatives and morphologies, pronunciations, as well as alternative spellings (Spencer, 2012). In this regard, one can see distinction between different types of dictionaries as well since one can come across general dictionaries, subject dictionaries, translating dictionaries, special dictionaries, etc, and thus, every dictionary differentiates from one another based on its characteristics. In some dictionaries, dictionary entry will consist of orthographic information that is not a linguistic characteristic of a word according to many linguistic experts and thus will not be present in entries of o ther dictionaries. According to few linguistic experts, various additional factors play a critical role in understanding of words in English language; they do affect meaning, and consequently utilization of the particular word. Thus, it has now become very difficult to separate worldly meaning associated with lexical word meaning since native speakers although begin with lexical understanding of the language; however, they left the former as soon as they increase the volume of their vocabulary. In this regard, although one can distinguish between lexical that is dictionary information and non-lexical that is encyclopaedic information; however, it will require selection of a particular lens and/or perspective that will enable

Global strategy case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global strategy - Case Study Example Another way would be through the development of a good customer base through adherence to the concept of value for consumers. Indian consumers have always been bent towards being satisfied by the quality of the services offered; ‘paisa vassol’. Even though India is not developed, Tesco should make an effort of avoiding bias and should treat the customers in India just as they do in their branches in developing countries. The development of branches in cities in the states all over India would also give Tesco an edge in the market while ensuring that she is able to reach more consumers. One of the conditions for the clearance by FIPB was that she should open retail outlets in cities with populations that reach a million (Chandrasekhar, 2014 p 3). There are many cities with such populations and the vibrant establishment of branches would ensure that Tesco has access to both a huge market and gains market influence over time. Tesco would also gain an edge through the creation of a cooperative partnership with her new partner, Trent Hypermarkets. Tesco should honor the shared venture and will definitely benefit from the relationship. This will be so because Trent has experience in the market especially in India and its success in many countries lends more credence to her credentials. Trent will help Tesco understand the Indian market and this knowledge be an added advantage if other competitors enter th e Indian market. Tesco was a world leader in the global hypermarket and had presence in many nations that needed her service of grocery and general merchandise retail. This global presence that she had developed over time has a chance to be utilized in the Indian market as a name definitely sells. Tesco used the hypermarkets in different countries since this in this way; profits could be realized in the shortest periods possible. This is because customers always

Issues of Reliability and Validity of Data Assignment

Issues of Reliability and Validity of Data - Assignment Example One can take both types of data, primary as well as secondary, for the consumers’ demand in these countries. Both the types of data are necessary for finding out the consumer demand in a country. Primary data will provide the information which has not been collected before as it is collected as per the need of the research. Usually the process is expensive and time consuming. The secondary data provides information which has been collected by certain other orgaisations or professionals. So, it minimizes the cost as well as time. It uses the mediums like surveys, focus group, observations and experiments. To understand the consumer behavior through the analysis of secondary data, tools like purchase panels, database marketing, and neuroscience needs to be used. Qualitative as well as quantitative data are very important for analysis and ensuring the validity and reliability of the consumer behavior data. Quantitative data are more reliable and valid than the qualitative data. T he method for establishing the validity and reliability of qualitative data takes the form of expert interview, participant feedback, regression analysis, and statistical analysis. The contents, structure, criterion and consequential effect provide the required validity. The countries from where data on consumer behavior needs to be collected, in order to meet the requirements of the paper, are USA, UK, Australia, India and Poland. Each of the nations has different markets with different consumption and demand pattern.

The Matrix Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Matrix - Essay Example When examining Plato’s dialogue and the film the ‘Matrix’ they are ostensibly diametrically opposed. One is an ancient Greek dialogue and the other is a 20th century science-fiction action film with Keanu Reeves. Still, it’s clear that if one examines the deeper metaphorical and philosophical significance of these texts, they share the same underlining concerns. For instance, in Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ he writes, â€Å"the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images† (Plato). One considers a parallel account in the Matrix, as humanity has been placed in a matrix by intelligent machines that have assumed control of the world. In both texts, then, humanity is only able to grasp reality through a sort of imperfect prism. Similarly, in both texts the prisoners, and Neo, experience a period of awakening as they break free of their bondage and are exposed to the world around them. In addition to the elements described above, there are a number of structural elements that are similar between the two texts. The Matrix presents a dystopian world wherein it is supposed to be much better to assume the virtual reality than grasp the deeper reality. Plato also creates a similar structure within his allegory, writing, â€Å"when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round†¦he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him† (Plato). In these regards, both texts present a world where the true nature of reality is a slightly negative thing to grasp. Another similar structural, or ‘plot’, element between the two works is the understanding that the individuals in both situations are prisoners. While reality the simulated reality is presented as slightly blissful, it’s ultimately understood that this existence is a limited and prison-like state. For

Cybercrime Investigation and Digital Forensics Assignment

Cybercrime Investigation and Digital Forensics - Assignment Example At the same time, this provides backdoors for hackers to intrude into the healthcare information systems and get access to highly confidential information like patient medical reports, lab results, and other potentially lucrative information like insurance details. When a healthcare industry’s data is being breached, it not only results in financial and reputation crisis to the industry and the specific organization but also causes dramatic effects to the patients depending on the nature of the disclosed data. When such incidents happen, digital forensics renders a helping hand in investigating the potential crime scene with evidences that can be presented for prosecution. This report provides a detailed description about the investigation procedure from a perspective of a cyber forensic company’s lead forensics investigator which would help in identifying and prosecuting a potential breach incident that happened in a healthcare company. To begin with, it would be more appropriate to explain our company’s approach in providing the overall plan for processing the potential crime incident that has occurred in a healthcare company. Our investigation team comprises of security and digital forensic professionals who work in close coherence with highly experienced corporate investigators and well trained background verification team (â€Å"Investigating a data breach,† n. d). Whenever data breach incidents happen, our response team would provide complete guidance regarding the post incident proceedings and provide services highly specific to the requirement of the healthcare industry. Our overall planning process comprises of collecting and securing the digital evidences, visualizing indications for data breach using a triage approach, rigorous analysis of evidences, presenting the investigation results for prosecution, and providing remediation for preventing future reoccurrences (Nelson,

Market Segment Analysis (Individual) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Market Segment Analysis (Individual) - Essay Example Porsche is a German automobile brand founded by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931. The organization’s headquarter is in Stuttgart, Germany. However, it is equally popular in all parts of the world for its futuristic car designs and superior performance on-track (Porsche Automobile Holding, 2014). Porsche is popular all around the world and has established a statue of luxury sporting car. The major reason behind massive demand for Porsche is its car designs, luxury, comfort and prestige attached with those who are driving a Porsche. Customers of Porsche do not belong only to the elite class, but it is equally popular among sports car lovers of all age. Porsche major segmentation strategy is explained as following: This segment of Porsche Automobile generates around 27% of the company’s revenue. The consumers of Porsche belonging to this segment prefer a car with superior performance on the track, which motivates them to work even harder to achieve the best and allows complete control on the transmission and drive. Top Guns are also self-obsessed, and they want to show-off so that people can notice them which support the assertion that these customers are status conscious. Top Guns are proud of their success and tell their success stories to everyone so that they can be appreciated (Huffman, Rayess, Habib, & Mitchell, 2012). These are the customers who are passionate about owning the world’s best sports car and are intrinsically motivated towards experiencing new adventures in their lives. For this reason, they select a car which thrills them with its speed and power. Bon Vivant segment is currently generating 17% of Porsche’s total revenues and is considered as being a lucrative segment in the near future. These customers mostly live in urban areas and have the tendency to influence attitudes and behaviors of people in their surrounding (Richardson, 2004). Elitists segment of Porsche Automobile

Running head for publication goes here Essay Example for Free

Running head for publication goes here Essay 1. Introduction 3 1. 1. Purpose of Report 3 1. 2. Current Situation 3 1. 3. Identified Problems 4 2. Data and Knowledge 5 2. 1. What makes data good? 5 2. 2. How is information created? 5 2. 3. How is information used? 6 2. 4. How Dell utilized information 6 2. 5. How KAR Vehicles Ltd can benefit 8 3. Using Systems to Convert Data into Information 8 3. 1. Transaction Processing Systems 8 3. 2. Management information systems 9 3. 3. Decision Support Systems 9 3. 4. Expert systems 10 4. Conclusion 11 References 12 INFORMATION SYSTEMS 1. Introduction 1. 1. Purpose of Report This paper is to discuss and analyze the role of information systems in processing raw data such as statistics, sales figure and demographic data, into useful and valuable knowledge which can be used to support decision-making within an organization. Focus will be placed on a case study of Kar Vehicle Hire Limited, from which valuable real life experience and lessons can be drawn from. 1. 2. Current Situation. KAR Vehicle Hire Ltd has recently implemented a transaction processing system called K-VIS which utilizes a database containing details of vehicles, clients, hire bookings, vehicle collections and returns, vehicle maintenance schedules, etc, as well as other relevant information. Bookings are done through K-VIS and the appropriate information such as booking details, driver details and payment details are entered into and stored in the database. This data entry and updating is done manually by the office administrator. Other transactions and procedures such as the collection of vehicle is also carried out in a similar fashion. With the growing amount of information and data available in the new database, the potential for the use of this information to aid managerial decision-making by uncovering patterns or trends, or in other methods, has been discussed. Knowledge creation to support effective key management decision-making is then the primary concern of Kar Vehicle Ltd currently. 1. 3. Identified Problems The main problem here that KAR Vehicle Ltd faces is that of managing data and knowledge creation. Firstly, managing data is a challenging process, because the amount of data expands exponentially over time; is collected from many sources, both external and internal; and is scattered throughout the organization different branches. The introduction of K-VIS has helped to centralize the collection and storage of data in a standardized format and procedure; however, KAR Vehicle Ltd has limited experience in transforming data to information, and information to knowledge via a knowledge creation process. This requires data that can be understood by the managers and analysts of KAR Vehicle Ltd easily, be accessible conveniently, and hence be able to analyzed using a variety of tools according to their needs to produce information. This information can then be used in conjunction with the experience and personal knowledge of the managers and analysts to create knowledge, which should then be stored in a format that all organizational employees can access and apply, creating a flexible and powerful â€Å"learning organization†. (Rainer, Turban and Potter, pg 96-100, 2006) 2. Data and Knowledge 2. 1. What makes data good? Data is simply a collection of raw facts, figures and statistics collected by people and systems, and then stored in various format. By itself, raw data has no real significance and use, but like all raw materials, it has to go through a process to convert it to information about the world, situations and people, which becomes factual statements about the world, which has meaning and can be useful in certain ways. (O’Brien, 1994, pg. 19) But before raw data can be converted to useful information, it has to be good and â€Å"clean†; that is, data without errors (Rainer, pg 101, 2006). What makes data clean? â€Å"Clean† data which is error free should be accurate, complete, timely, consistent, accessible, relevant and concise. â€Å"Clean† data is of high quality and can be used to generate useful information about linkages and facts about the world. 2. 2. How is information created? Information is data that has been converted into a meaningful and useful context that links various facts together in a relationship which can be used to form factual statements about the world. It is the result of data that has gone through a value added process where it is aggregated, manipulated and organized; analyzed and evaluated; and finally placed in a proper context which is suitable for its purpose or designed end user. This value added process, or what we will call â€Å"data processing†, usually occurs in information systems. For example, raw data is entered by the office administrator and front line stuff into K-VIS, which organizes and process the data to form meaningful relationships, such as a customer demographic data, his sales and records history, a vehicular history and transactions history. 2. 3. How is information used? Information that has real value and is accurate and meaningful is very important to any business organization. Without timely and accurate information which is relevant, businesses would not be able to make informed decisions and carry out activities such as risk analysis, cost benefit analysis, demand forecasting and supply chain co-ordination, among other things. For example, Dell business model is entirely based on timely and accurate information about orders, demands, suppliers and inventory. Making use of accurate and timely information flows, Dell is able to exploit a fundamental competitive factor in its industry to its fullest – the value of time. 2. 4. How Dell utilized information Dell use of information technology to gather, process and disseminate information is vital to the success of it’s business model – namely direct sales and build-to-order – enabling it to make highly accurate and timely decisions about market forecasting to drive production and inventories. It kept track directly of customers’ PC inventory, allowing individual business users to order PCs directly rather than going through a middleman, allowing Dell to build a relationship with customers and making the collection of useful data automated and painless. This data, which was processed into meaningful information, helped Dell to segment its customers into different primary categories. This categorization helps Dell to respond to changes in different customer segments, and make decisions on which customer segment is the most profitable to develop and grow, and hence the segment in which to concentrate its resources on, offering highly customized services to gain and keep their business. In short, meaningful information helped tell to make decisions regarding its most profitable customers, and where its resources would be most efficiently expended on. Dell is also able to minimize part inventories by requiring suppliers to restock parts only as they are needed, and to have available specific components as they are needed to fill an incoming order. This is made possible through very close coordination between Dell’s sales and manufacturing arm, and between Dell and its suppliers. This is achieved by refining its business processes, developing close relationships with a limited number of key suppliers, all the while making heavy and extensive use of information technology systems to facilitate communication within and outside the company, making this close coordination possible and successful. (Kraemer, Dedrick and Yamashiro, 2000) 2. 5. How KAR Vehicles Ltd can benefit KAR Vehicles Ltd can benefit from the information stored in K-VIS as well in many ways. For example, customer demographic information could be used to foster closer customer relationships and to keep and retain profitable and valuable customers. In turn, profitable and valuable customers can be identified from their sales records, which can be analyzed to pick put high value and high volume customers. This information can also be used to create customers segments like Dell did, in order to make decisions as to how KAR Vehicles Ltd can distribute their resources most efficiently. Furthermore, KAR Vehicles Ltd can also make use of the information gathered in K-VIS to minimize inventory turn over rates, and to maximize resource usage. For example, KAR Vehicle managers could analyze sales history and periods, and then determine where and when car inventories should be kept and retained in order to meet demand. This can help KAR Vehicles to reduce its inventory stock, by making each car in its inventory more utilized. 3. Using Systems to Convert Data into Information 3. 1. Transaction Processing Systems. This is what the K-VIS basically is, a system that supports the monitoring, collection, storage and processing of data from the organization business transactions, each of which generates data. The TPS collects data continuously in real time, and are considered critical to the success of any enterprise because they support core operations. It is hence obvious that K-VIS is essential to the continued and efficient operations of KAR Vehicles business operations. 3. 2. Management information systems Management information systems summarize data and prepare reports. These reports are mostly for middle and low level managers, and concern a specific functional area. K-VIS is also a management information system, as we can see that K-VIS is used by the office administrator to print out multipart forms or VIF. 5 forms for all collections due for a particular day. These forms are then used for business transactions as appropriate, and also used to update K-VIS with any new information or details. 3. 3. Decision Support Systems Decision support systems provide computer-based support for complex, non-routine decisions, for both managers and knowledge workers. There are typically two categories of Decision Support Systems – Business Intelligence Systems and Data Mining Systems. These are usually used in conjunction with a data warehouse and allow users to perform their own data analysis. For example, K-VIS enabled with a decision support system module, could be used to conduct what-of analysis to test the impact of bringing in new inventories of cars, relocation of branch offices, or expanding their varieties of cars offered. 3. 4. Expert systems Simply put, expert systems can be thought of as a collection of rules as defined by an expert. These rules can then be used as â€Å"†¦information processors whose applications address highly specialized and restricted areas of expert human knowledge†, as stated by Murray and Murray (1988, pp. 3). The potential benefits of expert systems are enormous, and their applications highly flexible. Watkins and Eliot (1993) identify some of the benefits of integration between expert systems and computer-based information systems (CBIS) as: o Improving the operations and maintenance of the database o Improving sensitive analysis o Acting as a tutor o Making applications more useful and â€Å"intelligent† o Reducing maintenance costs. o Refining the query system This is the area in which KAR Vehicles Ltd should focus on, as it automates decision making support for managers, and can help KAR Vehicles Ltd to identify and exploit any strategic or competitive advantage available in their industry. 4. Conclusion In today highly competitive and complex business environment, the capability to collect data, process it into useful and meaningful information, and then utilize this information in efficient ways to create knowledge or a competitive advantage, is essential towards prosperity and even survival in the business climate. Information systems are indispensable when it comes to this tasks, and there are a wide range and variety of information systems, all of which can be integrated, to collect data, process data into meaningful information, and then make use of this information to support the decision making process used by the managers of KAR Vehicles Ltd. In doing so, competitive and strategic advantage can be potentially identified and achieved, and greater operational efficiency will result as well. References Kraemer, Kenneth L. , Dedrick, Jason. , and Yamashiro, Sandra., 2000, â€Å"Refining and Extending the Business Model With Information Technology:Dell Computer Corporation†, The Information Society, 2000 Murray, Jerome T. , and Murray, Marilyn J. , 1988, Expert Systems in Data Processing, A Professional’s Guide, McGraw-Hill O’Brien, James A. , 1994, Introduction to Information Systems, Richard D. Irwin, Inc Rainer, Kelly. , Turban, Efraim. , and Potter, Richard. 2006, Introduction to Information Systems, John Wiley and Sons Watkins, Paul R. and Eliot, Lance B. , 1993, Expert Systems in Business and Finance, John Wiley and Sons.

Management Skills in Human Resource Development Essay Example for Free

Management Skills in Human Resource Development Essay Technical skills encompass the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. When you think of the skills held by professionals such as civil or oral surgeons, you typically focus on their technical skills .Through extensive formal education, they have learned the special knowledge and practices of their field. Of course ,professionals donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have a monopoly on technical skills ,and not all technical skills ,have to be learned in schools or formal training programs .All jobs require some specialized expertise ,and many people develop their technical skills on the job. Human Skills The ability to work with ,understand ,and motivate other people ,both individually and in groups ,describes ,human skills many people are technically proficient but interpersonally incompetent. They might be poor listeners ,unable to understand the needs of others, or have difficulty managing conflicts .Since managers get things done through other people ,they must have good human skills to communicate ,motivate, and delegate. Conceptual Skills Managers must have the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations. These tasks require conceptual skills. Decision making, for instance, requires managers to spot problems, identify alternatives that can correct them, evaluate those alternatives ,and select the best one .Managers can be technically and interpersonally competent yet still fail because of an inability to rationally process and interpret information Effective vs. Successful Managerial activities Fred Luthans and his associates looked at the issue of what managers do from a somewhat different perspective. They asked the question : Do managers who move up most quickly in an organization do the same activities and with the same emphasis as managers who do the best job? You would tend to think that the managers who were the most effective in their jobs would also be the ones who were promoted fastest .But thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not what appears to happen. Luthans and his associates studied more than 450 managers .What they found was that these managers all engaged in four managerial activities : Traditional Management. Decision making ,planning, and controlling. Communication. Exchanging routine information and processing paperwork.

Swot Analysis On Foreign Direct Investments

Swot Analysis On Foreign Direct Investments The retail industry in India is predicted to increase at a phase of 14 by 2013. The initiative for allowing FDI was first taken in 2006. Since 2006 54 FDI permissions have been received by the government of India and a cash inflow of Rs 901.64 crore in the form of investments into the nation. Retailing includes all forms of business involving sale of products and services to the end users. Retailing includes a retailers commonly a store or a service establishment, dealing with consumers who are purchasing goods and services for their own use rather than for resale. Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other familiar organizations are retailers. Retailing is dependent more on how the trade deals straight with consumers. Retail banking, service based shops; coffee shops are also retailers. With the commencement of online retailing, retailers are no more worried about place of stores. E-retailing has emerged. Consumers are always hungry for modern ways of shopping. Indian retail sector is increasing fast and its employment potential is growing faster. The retail scene is changing really fast. Retailers are rethinking about the best prices they can get goods with. Retail sector in India is also catalyst for the pickup of stalling tactics of below the line marketing used by major retail players such as Spencer, big bazaar, reliance fresh etc. For increasing customers by creating point values of sales displays. So we can say that India is an emerging land of FDI and going to be one of the quickest growing regions of the future. Key terms: FDI, Retail markets, Gross Domestic Product, International, Policies, and infrastructure development. Introduction: As per the current regulatory policies, retail trading (except under single-brand product retailing, FDI up to 100 per cent, under the Government route) is allowed in India. To say it short, for a company to be able to get foreign investments, goods sold by it to the general public should only be of a unique-brand; this condition being in addition to a few other conditions to be stick to. That explains why we do not have a Harrods in Delhi. India being a trademark to World Trade Organizations General Agreement on Trade in Services, which include wholesale and retailing services, had to open up the retail trade sector to foreign funds. There were initial priorities towards opening up of retail sector arising from fear of job losses, procurement from international market, competition and loss of entrepreneurial opportunities. In the series of action, the government in a sequence of moves has opened up the retail sector slowly to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In 1997, F DI including in cash and carry (wholesale) with 100 percent ownership was permitted under the Government approval route. It was given a green signal in an automatic route in 2006. 100 percent investment in unique brand retail marketing was also allowed in 2006. FDI in Multi-Brand retailing is prohibited in India. Allowing FDI in multi brand retail can bring about Supply Chain Improvement, Investment in Technology, Manpower and Skill development, Tourism Development, Greater Sourcing from India, up gradation in Agriculture, Efficient Small and Medium Scale Industries, With around 13% contribution to GDP and 7% employment of the national workforce, retailing no doubt is a strong pillar of the Indian economy. What it requires is more corporate backed retail operations that have started to emerge over the past couple of years.(Arvind Singhal, chief executive, KSA Technopak) Determinants of FDI Policies In India Looking up into the literature survey the major requirements of the foreign investment are technologies, infrastructure and labor skills, If in the case these requirements are not identified it becomes difficult to elaborate different patterns in the geographical pattern of FDI at the world capita income, relative to outbound and inbound FDI (Hummels and Stern, 1994). There are large numbers of government incentives that can be taken into consideration as key factors, besides that there are other factors that determine the corporate plans of international market place. There are factors that influence major part of the investors; factors may be institutional, historical and cultural factors (Martin and Velazquez, 1997). Examiners examined that there are wide varieties of determinants of FDI in the past. There were several studies conducted on determinants of FDI towards the choosing of a group of descriptive attributes that are more useful and most important factors affecting FDI. Study by researchers elucidate that there are differences in factor costs and market size to the FDI spot (Markusen and Maskus, 1999). This shows us the prominence of market size and its wide spread for foreign organizations which are functioning as big industries. Companies score cannot be judged by the beforehand without achievements in the market. They are measured in terms of GDP, GDP per capita and growth of GDP. To put this in simple English the FDI of a company is defined by the investments made by the company in other country than that in a company is based in. Government of India (GOI) has announced the policy of FDI that governs the foreign investment in India as the provision of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) 1999. Policies of FDI related to Retail market: It is advisable to check the Press Note 4 of 2006 issued by DIPP and compound FDI Policy issued in October 2010 (DIPP, 2010) which include the sector specific guidelines for FDI in relation to the conduct of trading activities. FDI allows export trading and wholesale marketing with 100% cash and carry. Subject to Press Note 3 (2006 Series) FDI can stretch up to 51% of the total with a single brand sales and marketing. The policies dont allow FDI to promote Multi Brand Marketing. According to `Wheel of Retailing theory, medians in one retail market give rise to a new one. But in India we find that several markets go in hand and hand. The following are some of the formats adopted by various players: Table 2. Retail formats Adapted from: Indian Retail: On the Fast Track, KPMG and FICCI, 2005 Entry Options for Foreign Players prior to FDI Policy Before Jan 24, 2006, FDI was not allowed by the government of India, but the investors had been operation in the country in other forms. Some of the opening steps used by the Foreign Investors are discussed below:- 1. Franchise Agreements: This is an easiest path to enter in to the Indian market. In franchising and commission agents services, FDI Foreign investors can invest in the product based companies with the approval from the Reserve Bank of India, until and unless prohibited by the FDI act. This is a most general mode for entrance of quick food bondage opposite a world. Apart from quick food bondage identical to Pizza Hut, players such as Lacoste, Mango, Nike as good as Marks as good as Spencer, have entered Indian marketplace by this route. 2. Cash And Carry Wholesale Trading: FDI was allowed at a full stretch in the wholesale trading which concentrates on a large scale distribution to the wholesale market to help the local manufactures. The wholesaler deals with the small retail businesses but not with the direct consumers. Metro AG of Germany was the first to enter India using this process. 3. Strategic Licensing Agreements: Some foreign companies give exclusive licenses and distribution rights to local companies. Using these rights, Indian companies can either sell it through their own stores, or enter into shop-in-shop arrangements or distribute the brands to franchisees. Mango, the Spanish apparel brand has entered India through this route with an agreement with Piramyd, Mumbai, SPAR entered into a similar agreement with Radhakrishna Foodlands Pvt. Ltd 4. Manufacturing and Wholly Owned Subsidiaries: The international brands such as Nike, Reebok, Adidas etc., have whole manufacturing unit using the subsidiaries and are treated as Indian companies and are allowed to retail. These manufacturers are authorized to sell products to Indian consumers by franchising, distributing to the existing retailers, self-outlets etc. For example Nike has entered into India in agreement with Sierra Enterprises but now Nike is wholly owned subsidized, Nike India Private Limited. FDI in Single Brand Retail The Government has not categorically defined the meaning of Single Brand anywhere neither in any of its circulars or any notifications. In single-brand retail, FDI up to 51 per cent is allowed, subject to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval and subject to the conditions mentioned in Press Note 3 that (1) Multi brand products would be sold (i.e., retail of goods of multi-brand even if produced by the same manufacturer would be allowed). (2) Products should be sold under the same brand internationally. (3) Single-brand product retail would only cover products which are branded during manufacturing. (4) Any addition to product categories to be sold under single-brand would require fresh approval from the government. While the phrase single brand has not been defined, it implies that foreign companies would be allowed to sell products sold internationally under a single brand, viz., Reebok, Nokia, and Adidas. Retailing of goods of multiple brands, even if such products were produced by the same manufacturer, would be allowed. Going a step further, we determine the concept of single brand and the associated conditions: FDI in Single brand retail implies that a retail store with foreign investment can only sell one brand. For example, if Adidas were to obtain permission to retail its flagship brand in India, those retail outlets could only sell products under the Adidas brand and not the Reebok brand, for which separate permission is required. If granted permission, Adidas could sell products under the Reebok brand in separate outlets. Concerns for the Government for only Partially Allowing FDI in Retail Sector A number of concerns were expressed with regard to partial opening of the retail sector for FDI. The Honble Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, in its 90th Report, on Foreign and Domestic Investment in Retail Sector, laid in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on 8 June, 2009, had made an in-depth study on the subject and identified a number of issues related to FDI in the retail sector. These included: It would lead to unfair competition and ultimately result in large-scale exit of domestic retailers, especially the small family managed outlets, leading to large scale displacement of persons employed in the retail sector. Further, as the manufacturing sector has not been growing fast enough, the persons displaced from the retail sector would not be absorbed there. Another concern is that the Indian retail sector, particularly organized retail, is still under-developed and in a nascent stage and that, therefore, it is important that the domestic retail sector is allowed to grow and consolidate first, before opening this sector to foreign investors. Antagonists of FDI in retail sector oppose the same on various grounds, like, that the entry of large global retailers such as Wal-Mart would kill local shops and millions of jobs, since the unorganized retail sector employs an enormous percentage of Indian population after the agriculture sector; secondly that the global retailers would conspire and exercise monopolistic power to raise prices and monopolistic (big buying) power to reduce the prices received by the suppliers; thirdly, it would lead to asymmetrical growth in cities, causing discontent and social tension elsewhere. Hence, both the consumers and the suppliers would lose, while the profit margins of such retail chains would go up. Rationale behind Allowing FDI in Retail Sector FDI can be a powerful catalyst to spur competition in the retail industry, due to the current scenario of low competition and poor productivity. The policy of single-brand retail was adopted to allow Indian consumers access to foreign brands. Since Indians spend a lot of money shopping abroad, this policy enables them to spend the same money on the same goods in India. FDI in single-brand retailing was permitted in 2006, up to 51 per cent of ownership. Between then and May 2010, a total of 94 proposals have been received. Of these, 57 proposals have been approved. An FDI inflow of US$196.46 million under the category of single brand retailing was received between April 2006 and September 2010, comprising 0.16 per cent of the total FDI inflows during the period. Retail stocks rose by as much as 5%. Shares of Pantaloons Retail (India) Ltd ended 4.84% up at Rs 441 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Shares of Shoppers Stop Ltd rose 2.02% and Trent Ltd, 3.19%. The exchanges key index rose 173. 04 points, or 0.99%, to 17,614.48. But this is very less as compared to what it would have been had FDI up to 100% been allowed in India for single brand. (Nabael Mancheri, 2010) The policy of allowing 100% FDI in single brand retail can benefit both the foreign retailer and the Indian partner foreign players get local market knowledge, while Indian companies can access global best management practices, designs and technological knowhow. By partially opening this sector, the government was able to reduce the pressure from its trading partners in bilateral/ multilateral negotiations and could demonstrate Indias intentions in liberalising this sector in a phased manner. Permitting foreign investment in food-based retailing is likely to ensure adequate flow of capital into the country its productive use, in a manner likely to promote the welfare of all sections of society, particularly farmers and consumers. It would also help bring about improvements in farmer income agricultural g rowth and assist in lowering consumer prices inflation. (Discussion Paper on FDI, 2010) Apart from this, by allowing FDI in retail trade, India will significantly flourish in terms of quality standards and consumer expectations, since the inflow of FDI in retail sector is bound to pull up the quality standards and cost-competitiveness of Indian producers in all the segments. It is therefore obvious that we should not only permit but encourage FDI in retail trade. Industrial organizations such as CII, FICCI, US-India Business Council (USIBC), the American Chamber of Commerce in India, The Retail Association of India (RAI) and Shopping Centers Association of India (a 44 member association of Indian multi-brand retailers and shopping malls) favor a phased approach toward liberalizing FDI in multi-brand retailing, and most of them agree with considering a cap of 49-51 per cent to start with. The international retail players such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro, IKEA, and TESCO share the same view and insist on a clear path towards 100 per cent opening up in near future. Large multinational retailers such as US-based Wal-Mart, Germanys Metro AG and Woolworths Ltd, the largest Australian retailer that operates in wholesale cash-and-carry ventures in India, have been demanding liberalization of FDI rules on multi-brand retail for some time. (Nabael Mancheri,2010) the Indian Council of Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER), a premier ec onomic think tank of the country, which was appointed to look into the impact of BIG capital in the retail sector, has projected the worth of Indian retail sector to reach $496 billion by 2011-12 and ICRIER has also come to conclusion that investment of big money (large corporates and FDI) in the retail sector would in the long run not harm interests of small, traditional, retailers.(Sarthak Sarin,2010) SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is instrumental for evaluating present day retail industry in India. SWOT analysis is a study prepared discussing about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of retail industry. Strengths An enormous young employed people with average age of 24 years, nuclear families in urban areas, regarded as a basic social unit, with laterally growing working woman population and evolving as prospects in the service sector would be the vital progression carters of the structured retail sector in India. It has also funded to fat size reserves in the real estate sector with main national and worldwide players financing in federalizing the structure and construction of the retailing business. Customers will have right to use to superior range of transnational quality goods. Employment openings directly and indirectly have been improved. Farmers get enhanced rates for their goods though enrichment of price added food chain. Growth in price and consumer desires is vital aspects. Growth in spending for extravagant items is also vital. Huge domestic market with a growing middle class and customers with purchasing power. The governments of states like Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) are very positive about allowing the use of land for commercial development thus escalate the accessibility of land for retail space. The progression of sachet revolution develops for getting to the foot of the pyramid. The magnitude of Indian organized retail industry touched Rs.1,30,000 crore in 2006. The styles that are motivating the development of the retail sector in India are small share of organized retailing and dropping real estate rates. Ranked second in Global Retail Development Index of 30 developing nations drawn up by AT Kearney. The annual progress of departmental stores is estimated at 24%. The profits of bigger organized retail segments are numerous. The customers get a superior product at discounted price. So customers get worth for their cash. Typicality of consumers in terms of diverse tastes and demand for extensive collection of goods. Opportunities When the model picks up, due to demonstration effect, there will be a complete renovation of domestic retail trade. International retail titans take India as crucial market. It is ranked fifth most appealing retail market. The organized retail sector is estimated to raise stronger than GDP growth in the next five years catalyzed by shifting ways of life, proliferation in income and advantageous demographic shape. Food and clothing retailing are crucial factors of growth. Indian retail industry has been regarded as of the most dynamic and fast advancing business with several companies arriving in the market. Indian retail industry can be one of the biggest industries in terms of quantities of workforces and institutions. Countryside retailing is still untouched in Indian market. Threats One of the chief obstacles to the evolution of modern retail formats are the supply chain management concerns. No key modifications are required in the supply chain for FMCG goods; these are well established and effective. For perishables, the structure is too difficult. Government guidelines, absence of ample groundwork and insufficient venture are the potential blockages for retail corporations. The supply chain for agro goods is less complex than the net foodstuffs. But agro goods have an exclusive problem of non-standardization. Its challenging to focus on all segments of society. Hyper and super markets trying to offer purchaser with -worth, diversity and quantity. Large primary investment is essential to manage with other establishments and contest with them. Labor guidelines are also neglected in the organized retails. The absence of even tax system for organized retailing is also one of the hurdles. Poor infrastructure is prospective to be a hurdle in the evolution of organized retails. Concern of vehicle parking in urban regions is grave worry. Segment is unable to engage retail workforce on contract basis. The unorganized sector has supremacy above the organized sector in India due to low investment requirements. Retail nowadays has transformed from marketing a good or a service to marketing a hope, an aspiration and especially an practice that a consumer would like to repeat. Weakness Will primarily satisfy rich and middle class consumers located in metros and will not cater bulk consumption merchandises for consumers in rural regions and insignificant towns. Retail chains are so far, to be established with appropriate range of products mix for the mall outlets. Present day retailing is about investigating and graphing the marketplace, keeping options open, reasonable costs and retaining buyers too. Insignificant outlets are also one of the flaws in the Indian retailing. 96% of the outlets are smaller than 500 sq.ft. The retail chains are also minor than those in the developed nations. The quick expansion of retail sector is the severe upgrading in the accessibility of retail space. But the present scenario in prices, retail real estate hires have amplified extraordinarily, which may cause few retailing business houses to be unavailable. Retail corporations have to spend great rents which are obstacles in the chance of profits. The capacity of sales in Indian retailing is also very little. India has huge population in the globe and an expeditious growing economy. The impact of retail on Indian economy is: Employment Generation Retailing offers occupation to 8% labor in India, because it is highly effort demanding. It has also capable to create eight million more jobs, directly and indirectly. Development of small scale units Retailing also aids small scale units to freely access of the market. They provide a stage for small scale units goods. Retailing in India funds 4 lakh moderate handicraft industries. Growth of real estate The necessity of space is one of the main burdens, so the real estate has also risen over the previous years. In coming days the Indian economy and real estate sector would be shaping into organized retail estate sector. Conclusion Contemporary ways of shopping have been all the time attracting Indians. The retail sector in India is rapidly progressing and the employment potential is mounting day by day. The attitudes of the retailers towards suppliers have been changing so as to extract the best pricing from the suppliers. This secret for all the titans of retail market are planning to invest into the Indian retail sector. India is one the fastest growing economies of the world, by agreeing to FDI in the retail sector there would be a considerable pouring into Indias GDP and economic development. This would also aid the integrating of the Indian retail market with the global retail market. FDI would not only give Indians employment but help Indians to get better wages, incentives and lifestyle, which the present retail market has been unsuccessful in providing. Entry of FDI into Indian market would enhance Indian scenario for supply chain, technology, manpower and skill development. FDI would also catalyze the growth of small and medium scale industries.

Andrew Carnegie Essays -- essays research papers

A man of Scotland, a distinguished citizen of the United States, and a philanthropist devoted to the betterment of the world around him, Andrew Carnegie became famous at the turn of the twentieth century and became a real life rags to riches story. Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on November 25, 1835, Andrew Carnegie entered the world in poverty. The son of a hand weaver, Carnegie received his only formal education during the short time between his birth and his move to the United States. When steam machinery for weaving came into use, Carnegie’s father sold his looms and household goods, sailing to America with his wife and two sons. At this time, Andrew was twelve, and his brother, Thomas, was five. Arriving into New York on August 14, 1848, aboard the Wiscasset from Glasgow, the Carnegies wasted little time settling in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where relatives already existed and were there to provide help. Allegheny City provided Carnegie’s first job, as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory, working for $1.20 a week. His father also worked there while his mother bound shoes at home, making a miniscule amount of money. Although the Carnegies lacked in money, they abounded in ideals and tr aining for their children. At age 15, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in Pittsburgh. He learned to send and decipher telegraphic messages and became a telegraph operator at the age of 17. Carnegie’s next job was as a railroad clerk, working for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He worked his way up the ladder, through his dedication and honest desire to succeed, to become train dispatcher and then division manager. At this time, young Carnegie, age 24, had already made some small investments that laid the foundations of his what would be tremendous fortune. One of these investments was the purchase of stock in the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company. In 1864, Carnegie entered the iron business, but did not begin to make steel until years later. In 1873, he built the Edgar Thomson works in Braddock, Pennsylvania, to make Bessemer steel. He established many other steel plants, and in 1892, he merged all of his interests into the Carnegie Steel Company. This act from Carnegie is fitting with one of his most famous quotations, "Put all of your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket." This firm became one of the greatest indu... ...fiting from Carnegie’s charity include various Carnegie museums of history, science, and art, Carnegie Hall in New York, and other public spirited organizations. Before 1919, when Carnegie died, he had given away $350,695,653, and at his death, the last $30 million was likewise given away to foundations, charities, and pensioners. He left a mark on society not only through his enormous monetary provisions, but also with his own literature. Carnegie loved to promote his ideas and opinions in print, and has written many works outlining these philosophies, including Triumphant Democracy (1886), The Gospel of Wealth (1900), The Empire of Business (1902), Problems of Today (1908), and an Autobiography (1920) (Mitzen 182). Although Carnegie only stood somewhere between 5’2" and 5’6", he "had to be a great, tough, disciplined giant of a man." His commitment to others is not only seen through his many munificent works, but in the way he lived, including his tombstone in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery of North Tarrytown, New York, where the epitaph reads, "Here lies a man who was able to surround himself with men far cleverer than himself."

Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton :: Cry, The Beloved Country Essays

Cry The Beloved Country The quote â€Å"But there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves he seeks no power, therefore he has power,† as stated in the book in the book Cry the Beloved Country is not a true statement. No man has absolute power over any one thing. Although people seek power in many different places, there is only one true power, and that is God. There are many different levels of power in the world, but no level has complete power over anything else. Love is a power that God has given to man, but it cannot be controlled. Man doesn’t have power over love. He can search for it in many different places, but the power he is searching for remains in God. A human has no control over their likes and dislikes. People cannot make something better or worse than it is. Love is the same. One cannot help it if they love something. People or things can touch a person’s life, and they naturally grow to or learn to love it. There are different definitions of love, but the true definition lies with God. People can spend their entire lives searching for more power. The thing that they must realize is that no amount of power will mean anything to God when it comes time for judgment. People base their lives too much on what material things they have, rather than what they have spiritually. They search for happiness in things like money and fame, but they are never fulfilled. It is impossible to find happiness in things like money and fame. No one can obtain happiness in a place where happiness cannot be found. When people start living their lives for the Lord, they will be the ones who hold the power in heaven. God has power over all things, because he created them all. People have the option of turning the power in the direction that best suits them, but God controls what will happen when one does turn the power. No man can control sickness, death, or natural disasters. The only thing that matters in man’s life is what he does for the glory of God. The most important power that man has is the power of choice. Man has the choice to follow God.

Analysis of Columbia’s Final Mission Essay -- Case Study, Case Analys

Putting yourself in the shoes of the managers or engineers in the case (Ron Dittemore, Linda Ham, Don McCormack, Rodney Rocha, Pamela Madera, Calvin Schomburg), consider the following questions? †¢ What prior assumptions and beliefs shaped the way that you thought and behaved during the Columbia mission? †¢ What pressures affected your behavior? Where did these pressures originate? †¢ In what ways did the culture impact your actions? †¢ If you were in that person’s shoes during the Columbia mission, would you have behaved differently? Why or why not? a) Rodney Rocha Rodney Rocha is a NASA engineer and co-chair of Debris Assessment Team (DTS). When possibility of wing damage appeared he requested an additional imagery to obtain more information in order to evaluate the damage. This demonstrates that he actually tried to resolve the issue. However, due to absence of clear organizational responsibilities in NASA those images were never received. Since foam issue was there for years and risk for the flights was estimated as low management decided not to proceed with this request. After learning of management decision Rocha wrote an e-mail there he stated that foam damage could carry grave hazard and have to be addressed. At the same time this e-mail was not send to the management team. Organizational culture at NASA could be described as highly bureaucratic with operations under standard procedures only. Low-end employees like Rocha are afraid to bring any safety-related issues to the management due to delay of the mission. They can be punished for bringing â€Å"bad news†. This type of relationship makes it impossible for two-way communication between engineers and managers, which are crucial for decision-making in complex env... ... Integration, accepted risk of foam problem based on previous observations. She preferred one-way communication and did not pay attention to the specialist (Rocha) opinion for requests for additional imagery. Culture at NASA was converted over time to a culture that combines bureaucratic, cost efficiency and schedule efficiency of the flights. This culture of production reinforced the decisions to continue flights rather than delay while a thorough hazard analysis was conducted. Managers were so focused on reaching their schedule targets that the foam insulation problem did not induce them to shift their attention to safety. It appears that at NASA managers overrule engineers when the organization was under budget and time pressure. In my opinion, high-level managers should avoid making important decisions based on beliefs and instead rely on specialist’s opinion.

Minority Marketing

There are various environmental factors that must be considered in the designing of the marketing strategy.   The microenvironment, as part of the company’s marketing environment, consists of factors that directly impact the company and its ability to serve.   The macroenvironment, on the other hand, includes the larger societal and cultural forces that affect the microenvironment (Multicultural Marketing). Another name for minority marketing is multicultural marketing, which entails communication with diverse cultures or market segments that belong to diverse backgrounds as well as settings.   Cultures determine how members of society think, feel, and act (Haralambos and Holborn, 1995).   Hence, culture also determines the tastes of people in products that they would actually purchase. As a matter of fact, cultural values of a society are reflected in the members’ views of organizations, products, services, and other environmental entities.   Therefore, it is essential for a company planning to market to minorities to gain an understanding of the culture of the minorities in question.   Only by understanding the culture and values of the minorities may the organization be able to provide its targeted consumers with the products and services they would eventually buy. Through advertising and public relations with segmented media, an organization may come into contact with any diverse group that it wants to target through its marketing strategy.   By placing an ad or article in the language of a minority group, the company may easily get its message across.   Experts indicate that it makes very good business sense to include the people of color, different age groups, genders, in addition to people with disabilities, in advertisements as  well as other marketing materials.   This strategy allows for powerful, nonverbal communication which goes deep into the mind of the consumer (Multicultural Marketing). It is also essential for organizations to take into account the meaning of differing cultural universes (Dr. Michael Hurd).   As an example, the American Motor Corporation named its product, the â€Å"Matador,† only to realize later that to Puerto Ricans, the word means â€Å"killer.†Ã‚   Another example revealing the significance of understanding cultural universes has to do with ethics. In this case, a 30-second advertising spot proved to be an expensive error on the part of Doubletree Hotels Corporation, seeing that it was deemed as offensive to the Arab community, portraying the staff of the hotel wearing Arab-style clothing and bowing to guests.   This ad segment was interpreted as the staff worshipping or imploring visitors.   As the majority of Arabs worship the one true God, the ad was seen to ridicule them (International Business Customs). Organizations cannot assume that all people of the nation would have the same cultural values.   Rather, it is ethical to take into account the societal and religious practices as well as beliefs of the people that the organization targets in its marketing strategy as potential customers.   After all, the marketing mix is meant to satisfy customers.   Therefore, it is of the essence for the organization to analyze the what, where, when, and how of consumer behavior.   The social factor is very important in the consumer’s decision to make a purchase.   This factor is influenced by opinion leaders, the consumer’s family, reference groups, culture and social class. Understanding different cultures helps an organization to produce that which a particular market segment demands.   Given that Chinese Americans have a strong preference for communicating in their native language, a company that wants to target Chinese Americans may  want to write the name of its product on marketing literature in both English and Chinese.   According to research, the Hispanics too have a preference to communicate in their own language.   Sixty eight percent of Hispanics in Houston indicated that they prefer to watch Spanish language television.   Hence, an organization that wants to target Hispanic Americans may want to spend more of its marketing funds on ads that would be run on Spanish language television (Qaddumi, 1999). Back in 1998, research further revealed that given the Chinese emphasis on new technology, at least 72.1% of Chinese American families have access to computes and at least 53% have access to the Internet.   Hence, it is easy to target Chinese American consumers through Internet marketing (Chinese American, 1998).   What is more, a majority of Hispanic Americans indicated that food coupons had a great influence on their purchasing decisions. Once again, marketing research based on minorities as the target consumers of an organization, can work wonders for the organization.   Every minority group has differing needs with relevance to its cultural practices.   An organization that includes ethical considerations with special reference to minority groups, is more likely to satisfy its target consumers with its marketing approach, seeing that this organization is not bound to ridicule its consumers instead of pleasing them. One very successful organization targeting minorities through its media campaigns is Southwest Airlines.   The fourth largest major airline in the United States especially targets African Americans as well as Hispanics.   The result? – Today, Southwest Airlines is a model organization that everybody would like to study in terms of marketing strategy. References â€Å"Chinese American Social Behavior Index.† (1998, Jan 24). Asian Trends. Online. Internet. 26 Jul. 2001. Churchill, Richard. (2001, April 2). â€Å"Southwest Airlines Powering a Sales Liftoff – Southwest Airlines Co. advertising targets African-Americans.† Brandweek. â€Å"Dr. Michael Hurd on Effective Therapy.† Dr. Hurd’s Website. Online. Internet. 25 Jul. 2001. Haralambos, Michael, and Holborn, Martin. (1995). Sociology—Themes and Perspectives. 4th ed. London: Collins Educational. â€Å"International Business Customs† Eglobal Greetings. Online. Internet. 21 Jun. 2001. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Multicultural Marketing.† About the Human Internet. Online. Internet. 25 Jul. 2001. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Qaddumi, Thora. (1999, September 15). â€Å"’Impact’: Houston Hispanic market is ripe for Marketing.† Houston Business Journal. Online. Internet. 25 Jul. 2001.

ASIC v Adler Essay

The case of ASIC v Adler is very unique as well as complicated since it involved several breach of duties in the Corporations Act 2001. The HIH collapse was caused by very bad corporate governance. Such breach of duties are, section 9 (director’s duties), section 180 (duty to act with care and diligence), section 181 (duty to act in good faith and for a proper purpose), section 182 (improper use of position), section 182(2) (business judgement rule), section 183 (duty not to improperly use information) and section 260A (financial assistance). All of these contraventions under the Corporations Act 2001 will be discussed in detail below. Section 9 – Who Is A Director And Their Duties Under section 9, a director of a company is defined as a person who is appointed to that position such as a director or alternate director, regardless of what name it is given to that position. Section 9 also includes certain people to be directors even though they are not properly appointed. Such people can act as a director even though without proper appointment of director position. This is where they act in the position of a director (which can be also known as de facto director) or the directors are used to act in accordance with the person’s instructions (which also known as a â€Å"shadow director†). Directors’ duties need to be existed in order to protect shareholders from the risks of directors giving harm towards the company. Shareholders basically have risks such as fraud, where the directors took control over the assets belonging to the company by using it for their personal interest, and mismanagement, whereby directors made an incompetent decision with the financial standing of the company. Furthermore, section 9 also defines the â€Å"officer of a corporation†, which basically includes company executives who held senior positions in the board  level. Such persons can be identified in certain situations where that person (the executives) makes or joins participation into making decisions in which affects the whole or substantial part of the company’s business activities or, the person who has the authority to affect in a significant way towards the company’s financial standings or, basically the same definition of a â€Å"shadow director† where the person are acting towards the instructions given to them to act. In the case of ASIC v Adler, the court held that Adler, the director of HIH, was also an officer of wholly-owned HIH subsidiary which can be related under the section 9 definition of directors. This applies to Adler even though he was not properly appointed as a director or an officer of the subsidiary. Since he has the role of director, the subsidiary holding company and also a member of HIH investment committee, this has showed that he participated in the decision making of the company’s business in which affected it the whole or substantial part of the business. As Santow J gave his judgement on this case, he gave a good summary of principles applicable to directors’ duties. Some of it are; a director must continuously kept informed of the activities of the company, they must be familiar with the fundamentals of the business whereby the company is doing. Section 180 – Duty To Act With Care And Diligence In the section 180(1), it provides that a director or other officer of a company need to exercise their powers and discharge their duties with a standard of care and diligence in which a reasonable person will do if they were the director or officer of a company due to company’s circumstances (section 180(1)(a)) and occupied the office and had the same responsibilities in the company as the director or officer (section 180(1)(b)). Executive directors are full time employees of the company who involved in the day-to-day management of the company. They have special responsibilities with their position and have a high knowledge of daily operations of the company. Non-executive directors, on the other hand, do part-time and have regular involvements in the company. In the case of ASIC v Adler, Williams who was the managing director for HIH and HIHC as well, contravened section 180(1) as he failed to ensure there were proper safeguard before HIHC gave the loan to PEE. Fodera, who was the finance director of HIH, contravened section 180 as he failed to discuss a proposal to give $10 million loan to PEE to the HIH board or its investment committee. As the executive directors of the company, both Fodera and Williams failed to carry out their role properly without informing the HIH board of their intention. Section 180 (2) – The Business Judgement Rule In the section of 180(2), the section provides that a director or any other officer who makes a business judgement rule, will not be held liable in respect of the judgement under the statutory, common law or equitable duties of care and diligence, in which all of the elements can be shown. Such elements are, the judgement was properly made in good faith and for proper purpose, there was not material personal interest in the subject as of the matter of the judgement, the directors and the officers informed themselves about the subject matter of the judgement to the extent they appropriately believed to be reasonable and also the judgement was believed to be in rational in the best interest of the whole company. All of these would be reasonably justified unless any other person in such position thinks that it is completely unreasonable. The business judgement rule basically gives the directors with a â€Å"safe protection† from a personal liability in the relation of the business judgements that they take are valid which is in a good faith and in the best interest of the company. This is because some of their business decisions may turn out to be profit-making or a total loss in honest and rational way. Some of the main reasons for the business judgement rule defences are risk taking and activities in entrepreneurial activities will be encouraged since directors are aware of the specific legislation that if they act honestly,  they will not be punished or personally liable as a result of adverse judicial review. Another rule defence is that better business judgement will be made as a result of removing of some uncertainty of liability under the statutory duty of care and finally, the shareholders interest are better provided by engaging risk taking activities. To make directors be liable for such small erro rs of decision will promote risk-adverse decision-making with contrast effect on the economy. If the directors or other officers are able to satisfy the above requirements, they will have â€Å"safe protection† which makes them to be protected from liability for any breach of their duties of care and diligence. This means that their business judgement in such situations will be reviewed by court. Under section 180(3), the business judgement is defined that any decisions to take or not to take action with respect to matter that is relevant to business activities of the company. This only refers to business decisions that has made relevant to the business activities. It does not include any decisions made in the position of directors powers such as the power to issue shares or pay dividends. By referring to the case ASIC v Adler, the court held that all three Adler, Williams and Fodera breached their statutory duty of care as stated in section 180(1). They also, however could not rely on the business judgement rule as their defence. Firstly for Adler, the business judgement rule did not applicable for him since he cannot satisfy the section 180(2)(b) since he had a conflict of interest in the relation of his decision to invest the $10 million payment from HIHC in PEE. Secondly for Williams, the business judgement rule did not apply to him because of his failed to ensure the correct safeguards were enforced was not business judgement for the purpose in section 180(3). However, even this was a business judgement, since he was a major shareholder of HIH, he basically has material personal interest as in the section 180(2)(b). Other than that, Williams also failed to present any evidence that his judgement was done in good faith for the proper purpose as stated in section 18 0(2)(a). Finally, Fodera cannot rely on his business judgement rule as he failed to refer the transaction of PEE to the HIH board or its investment committee. This was not a business judgement as  stated in section 180(3). Section 181 – Statutory Duty To Act In Good Faith And For A Proper Purpose Under section 181(1), it says that a director or other officer of a corporation to exercise their powers and discharge their duties in bona fide (good faith) for the best interest of the company and also for a proper purpose. The section 181(1) can be contravened if the director thinks that they are actually doing their duties for the best interest of the company in which any other director, in that situation, thinks that is clearly unacceptable approach to do it. This may be happen when a director have a conflict of interest personally with the interest of the company they are handling. In the case of ASIC v Adler, it can clearly be seen that Adler, had contravened the section 181(1) to act in good faith by properly excising his powers and discharging his duties for the best interest of the company. This is because, the transactions that occurred in the HIH, HIHC and PEE had been improperly used, for the sake of his personal interest. Section 182 – Improper Use Of Position Under section 182, the section states that it restricts officers or the employees of a company from improperly using their power to gain advantage for themselves or for any other persons to the company. In the case of ASIC v Adler, the court held that Adler had contravened the section 182 due to the arrangement of $10 million loan from HIHC to PEE which was then to be used to acquire HIH shares on the stock market. This transaction was merely done for the purpose of supporting the HIH shares to increase the price and thereby selling the HIH shares owned by Adler Corporation before PEE could sell off their HIH shares. Because of this transaction, PEE had incurred a total loss of investment by reselling on the HIH shares. In regard of this transaction, Adler was held that he had improperly used his position as a director of HIH, officer of HIHC and director of PEE to gain advantage for the Adler Corporation. The court also held that Williams, also had breached his duties as a director for both HIH and HIHC under section 182, to help gaining advantage for Adler Corporation. This is because Williams, used his position improperly by authorising the $10 million load payment without proper approval from the HIH’s investment committee, which he was required to disclose under the HIH’s investment guidelines. Other than that, the court also held that Adler improperly used his position as a director in the PEE transactions of acquiring a number of unlisted capitals at the cost price from Adler Corporation without obtaining independent valuations of these ventures. With these transactions successful, Adler and Adler Corporation was able to exclude himself from these commercially unviable business operations. Adler basically knew that each of those businesses were having major cash flow problems and each had a significant risk that they would ultimately collapse. Adler, however, failed to disclose his personal interest to the HIH board other than Williams and Fodera. Section 183 – Improper Use of Information As stated in section 183, a person who gets information because they are or are not director, officer or employee of a company, must not misuse the information just to gain advantage for themselves or to any other person whereby causing failure in the company. Section 183 also applies towards resigned or retired directors, officers and employees as well. Informations such as insider information can be taken as an advantage by any person in order to gain benefit by using it to themselves or by giving to other person. In the case of ASIC v Vizard, the court held that Vizard involved in the contravention of section 183, whereby he gained the insider information as he was the non-executive director of Telstra. He misused the information in order to gain advantage for CTI, Brigham and himself as well whereby based on the information that he receives (Telstra board’s decision to acquire  other company and selling their interest on another company), he would act accordingly to buy or sell off his shares ahead of Telstra. S260A – Financial Assistance In section 260A, the section states that it forbids a company financially assisting a person to obtain or acquire shares in the same company of its holding company. However, if some of the conditions are met then the company may proceed to do such transaction. Some of the conditions are, giving the financial assistance will not materially prejudice the interest of the company, its shareholders or the company’s ability to pay its creditors (under section 260A(1)(a)), the financial assistance is validated by the shareholders (under section 260B) or the financial assistance is relieved or exempted (under section 260C). Financial assistance is can be basically referred to where a company is lending money to a person to buy the company shares. This means that the company gives a certain amount of money to a person so that the person buys some of the company’s shares. Another example is where a company gives a surety or guaranteed a person’s loan in which the sum of the loan will be proceeded to buy shares in the company. The company is basically providing a loan to a person for the sake of buying back its own shares off the stock market. Another example is where the company is giving its own assets as a security to a person’s loan in which the loan money will be used to buy the shares of the company given its assets as security. The section 260A clearly states that a company is restricted from giving financial assistance to a person to buy its own shares in the stock market as it will cause material prejudice. By analysing the case of ASIC V Adler, it can be seen that Adler, who was controlling PEE, was clearly contravened the section of 260A by which giving financial assistance to PEE through HIHC, a subsdiary of HIH, which is also a company controlled by Adler. This financial assistance given to PEE, was then used to buy the HIH shares on the stock market. This transaction gives a false impression over the stock market as well as its investors that Adler was supporting the falling share  price of its company, HIH, by buying the shares personally. However, the court found out that Adler does not have the intention to make easy profit and reselling the HIH shares. The real purpose was to increase the HIH share price in benefit of Alder Corporation Limited as substantial shareholding in HIH. The actual evidence is that when PEE went to sell off the HIH shares, it was done only after Adler Corporation decided to sell off its HIH shares in which leads to total loss for PEE’s investment. The Supreme Court of New South Wales held that the main intention of the transaction was that HIHC gave PEE financial assistance in order to acquire the shares in HIH which is HIHC’s holding company. Due to this transaction, according to Santow J, both HIHC and HIH suffered material prejudice, which therefore, contravening section 260A.

Twelfth Night, 3.1.1-26

Michael Nodurft English 208 Mrs. Walter Twelfth Night, 3. 1. 1-26 Jan. 30 2007 True Lies Reading this conversation between Viola and Feste the clown there is definite multiple meanings to each of the words that they both say. You can tell that Viola’s wit is matched to Feste’s which makes this conversation so cleverly written. This passage offers pun’s to the audience who understand that Cesario is truly Viola. And have Feste hinting that he knows Viola’s hidden identity. This passage offers hints to the truth of the Viola and the fact that Feste is truly not the fool that everyone believes he is. In this passage I will prove that this conversation is crucial to the plot, and defines beoth of these characters roles. When Feste enters the room he is playing his pipe and tabor, and is being his normal fool self. The first couple lines are normal speech when Viola asks, â€Å"Dost thou live by thy tabor? †3. 1. 1-2 I like how Viola used the word tabor because it is the perfect description of Feste personality, the way he is always playing games with people for money. When Feste’s witty remarks are matched by Viola, Feste begins his more intellectual wittiness. â€Å"A sentence is but a cheverel glove to a good wit,†3. . 10-11 In this sentence you tell that there is a deeper meaning when Feste is talking about a glove. The way that Feste describes the glove to Viola is interesting because when a person uses a glove it is normally hiding the hand. Feste has stumble onto a crucial part of the play making the plot much sweeter for the audience because they know t he truth about Viola and he doesn’t; Cesario is the glove to Viola. This is perfect not only is the fool being a mocked in the play; his fooling is now involving the audience making subtle hints of something he does not know. The next line Feste says is â€Å"How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward. †3. 1. 11-12 I like this comparison between the glove turning outward and Viola trying to keep her cover, because Viola doesn’t know what Feste knows. Another note that I stumbled on when reading this scene was the fact that Feste repeated the word â€Å",Sir,† when he was addressing Viola. When you look into Feste’s lines it is almost like he is mocking the word sir by putting a coma before and after. I can see the imagery of Feste’s face when he pauses and announces â€Å",sir,† I can see his eyes looking into Viola’s almost jesting that he knows that she is not truly a sir but a woman. It seems like Feste knows a lot but I don’t really think he entire understand it yet. So for the audience who knows Cesario is a woman, it is quite enjoyable seeing Feste sort of stuck in the dark and not truly understanding everything. This is how Feste obtains both the fool in the play and to the audience. Another idea that I have thought about was what is Feste hiding? Feste is the loveable fool that plays tricks for money, but is that his true nature? I believe that the â€Å"glove† sentence applies to both characters Viola and Feste. Viola is trying to keep her cover, but one slip up and she could be uncovered causing terrible trouble. On the other hand Feste, if his cover of being a fool is blown then he has no way of living. If one was thinking hard about this speech Feste is talking about himself. Being witty and fun, but at the same time scared to let his more intelligent side out. He has to purposely put himself outside of the box so that no one can understand his true meaning of life. The way that this passage is put together it is not rhythmic at all. The lines don’t flow together like other parts of the play. There is no iambic pentameter is these sentences they are either too long, or too short. I think that Shakespeare purposely made these lines uncut and off rhythm for a reason. This reason is that Feste is a fool and is always being witty never making a direct point. Viola is fooling right back and not being entirely serious as well. From a literary stand point having the fool talk in such a manner makes them both out of the box or â€Å"party†. It makes sense that Feste talks in such a manner in the play, but I like how Viola’s lines are almost the reiterating the argument that Feste and Viola are very similar characters with their wit. I have showed the evidence threw out my paper proving the idea that Feste and Viola are very much alike. I have shown you the style on how they talk to each other using the wit to the best of their abilities. I have proved the non rhythmic lines that complement the fact that both characters are intelligent fools that think they know what they are talking about but are still in the dark. The fact that Feste is messing with Viola the way he does, shows that he has some knowledge on her true identity. The way that Feste mocks Viola makes this passage so important to the plot of the play because of the funny pun’s it gives the audience; hinting at the fact that Cesario is the glove to Viola. All of this evidence digs deeper into this passage and pulls out the hidden pun’s and messages that you couldn’t see with one glance, and enriches the story with hidden thoughts. Shakespeare, William. â€Å"Twelfth Night. â€Å"The Norton Shakespeare based on the oxford edition. 1997.