White body, wheels shining, dust flying

White body, wheels shining, dust flying. This is how it began. Sam Blake's new top of the range saloon pulls into Lunpona, he can see it now, tall factories, noisy equipment and more money then he dared think of. Only something stood in his way, the people of this dirty, foul, black tribe village. Far removed from his civilized western world these people lived in near squalor. He thought back to his wife and children in their palatial manor house on the outskirts of the city, if he could get this over with quick enough he would be back there inside a week. This was ingenious; instead of importing the wood for his highly successful furniture business he would ‘harvest' natures already plentiful supply. His aim was to speak to the village elder or some such person, he wasn't all too familiar with this bizarre black man hierarchy obsession. He wanted these village people to become his employees – they would do his dirty work, dirty work for these dirty black bastards, they would cut down the trees, prime them, sort them, and ship them to him, and all for a pittance, it couldn't fail. There was a crowd already waiting they'd seen him across the plane some time ago. He stepped out of his car, his brand new, shoes messing themselves in the mud that was the yet to be converted base for his idea. He took a cigar from his holder, his movements smooth and graceful. A host of small children had already gathered by his car, inspecting every nook. A tall, old man, with a wizened face, and mysterious eyes approached, before he could speak, Sam launched into his much practiced speech; â€Å"Sam Blake, of Blake and Associate.† He says gruffly. â€Å"Welcome to Lunpona mate,† said the Aboriginal, â€Å"what business brings ya here Sam?† â€Å"Very important business, business that could make a village like yours quite rich. Providing you don't mind a bit of change.† â€Å"Yeah? That so is it bud?† The old mans eyes gaze over Sam, probing him, seeing into him. The chief turns and says something in his native tongue, the crowd parts and goes back to their business. Sam is led into a humpy (shack like building) at the head of the village. As they pass through the village, they walk over a rickety old wooden bridge. Bright roughly drawn, markings adorn it, it seems steeped in spiritual history. Sam is offered a seat, they sit down to talk, an open fire to their right blazes away, some form of native coffee or some such drink is brought by a good looking aboriginal girl, tall and slender, deep black eyes, full lips, and a mat of thick, black, long hair. Blackness forms a harmony of beauty. They talk solidly for a couple of hours, until Basra (the chief) rose. â€Å"Wait here.† He said as he turned and walked out. Soon he returned, the look on his face said it all. â€Å"I'm sorry Mr. Blake, my people, they do not see sense in your deal.† â€Å"What! You must be kidding me you stupid old black prick! You go and tell them again. This will go ahead whether they like it or not. You idiotic wogs should learn some sense† â€Å"How dare you? Get out of my bloody village now, you ignorant bastard!† With this Sam pulled out his gun, he always brought it with him when he came to places like this, he never did trust these types of people. Before he could think in his enraged state, he pointed the gun straight to the man's chest and loosed a bullet. With a deafening noise the bullet left the gun, and hit the man in the right side of his chest, he was knocked to the ground. As he struggled for breath, he spoke these words that cut through Sam like a razor blade; â€Å"You do not realize the full impact of your actions, ignorant white men such as you are careless and have no regard. A curse upon you and your operations after my death. Be gone with you.† With this his eyes closed and he drew his terminal breath. Sam's rage turned to perfect fear. By now people were arriving from all over the village, he ran. He ran faster then he had ever before, he could feel something pursuing him, not human, not physical. He ran to his car, and fled. On his way back he was shaken, scared, and tired. He stopped off at a hotel, and booked in for the night. Too tired to go for a drink he went straight to bed. All night he tossed and turned, his dreams were plagued by visions of woodarchis. Visions of his own death. He didn't get much sleep that night, tossing, turning, waking every hour or so. In the morning he woke up, washed, and decided to go for his breakfast. As he slipped on his shoe, the mud was still there, clinging, a reminder of the brutality. He took his other shoe in his hands, n tried in vein to brush off the mud. It was useless, something told him he wasn't going to forget this. Just as he was about to put his shoe on he heard the last words of Basra, the curse. All of a sudden he felt a pang on pain in his foot, he'd been bitten, he looked down, it was a black widow spider, she crawled from his shoe and up his trouser leg, twice more inflicting her deadly poison. He knew that a bite from such a spider was fatal, but three in quick succession would have you dead inside 20 minutes. Thoughts rushed through his head, where was he? The nearest hospital was 60km away at best, unless the hotel had any antidotes he was in trouble. After get over the initial pain he tried to get up and walk. But he couldn't his leg was swelling and the pain immense. He reached for his phone, and as he dialed the battery failed on him. He could hear the curse again, as if carried on the wind. He cried out for help in desperation. But nobody came. He was slipping in and out of consciousness. He looked at his watch, it was 45 minutes since he'd been bitten. He slipped out of consciousness for the last time. As if by some supernatural force the old mans voice echoed through his head; â€Å"Samuel Blake,† it said, â€Å"you are suffering, not vengeance for my death alone, oh no, but for all the of the wrongs white man has done black man. Your corporate enterprises, and your money-making schemes don't belong in the bush. Keep them to your cities. Have your suburbia and be happy. You keep your ‘civilized' lives, and we'll keep out ancestral traditions. May you learn a lesson with your life.† With this he passed. A lesson indeed learnt. And financed by his own life.

James Joyce Background Information

James Joyce Essay: First Two Pages James Joyce, author of â€Å"Araby,† â€Å"Eveline,† and Ulysses, attempts to correct the way of life in his home town of Dublin, Ireland, through his works. He does this through the theme of coming of age and recurring religious allusions in â€Å"Araby†. Additionally, Joyce talks about family in â€Å"Eveline† through the themes of escape and betrayal. In Ulysses, he uses stream of consciousness to depict the importance of a father by rewriting Homer’s The Odyssey.James Joyce addresses many Irish problems of his time through his works: such as, religious issues in â€Å"Araby† and â€Å"Eveline† and social problems in Ulysses. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in Dublin, Ireland (â€Å"James Joyce† 1). His inspiration for writing came from his experiences in this town. For example, James Joyce’s father was a highly regarded tenor singer in Ireland; but being a singer, no steady income existed for his family (1).Adding to this lack of stability, his father was also an alcoholic, so his family never had much money to live on during Joyce’s childhood (1). This situation with his father most likely gave James the inspiration to write about paternity in his novel Ulysses. James Joyce, however, not only wrote about his own family, he also wrote about the entire society in Dublin. When Joyce traveled to Paris, France, in 1902, he discovered a â€Å"liberated city completely opposite that of his native city† (â€Å"The Life and Work† 1). For this reason, Joyce wrote all of his pieces of literature about Dublin.He wrote about Irish politics, which his parents introduced him to; and he wrote about what he thought life should be like in Dublin based on how it is in Paris (1). James Joyce additionally wrote about his wife. His wife, Nora Barnacle, provided Joyce with a person for him to develop his groundbreaking female charact ers, such as Molly Bloom in Ulysses. For Molly Bloom, Joyce actually asked his wife to cheat on him so that he would be in the same situation as the characters in Ulysses (Ellman 58). From his life in Dublin, James Joyce received ample inspiration from the social unrest of his hometown.

BUS401 Wk 3 Discussions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

BUS401 Wk 3 Discussions - Assignment Example The analysis of the current market condition is critical in determining which marketing strategies work well in given situations. The assessment of opportunities is crucial in a strategic alternative bundle. This enables the management to spot and take advantage of new customer groups as well as to expand into other geographical markets. The strategic alternative plan also comprises of identification of the target market. The management must gather information to guide them in the potential consumer tastes and preferences (Nanjundaiah & Ramesh, 2010). The goals of an alternative strategic plan are important in the realization of greater revenue and efficiency. The strategies that transform the goals into results include pricing, promotional and distribution strategy. The strategic alternative bundles should be implemented in a given period. The time line devotes each department to the time limit for the implementation of a task. Companies that need good strategic alternative bundles should adopt a strategy that suits their budget. A contingency plan is the action that an organization implements in the event that an unplanned incident occurs (Nanjundaiah & Ramesh, 2010). The alternative plan is rolled out in case the expected outcome fails to materialize. The unfortunate happenings that hinder the materialization of plans are known as triggers. Companies that have contingency plans react quicker to disaster, stay ahead of their competitors, enjoy confident leadership and enables more accurate forecast on market trends. A good contingency plan should be time conscious. It should define the phase for the implementation of a plan. The plan should identify the trigger and determine the situations under which the plan can be implemented (Nanjundaiah & Ramesh, 2010). The plan should be plain and in simple language. The plan should be considerate of available resources as well as identify the

Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

Final - Essay Example This report will examine how the ministry collected information, the major events that occurred in the ministry, the plans that the ministry has to improve its performance, the challenges that the ministry faced, and recommendations as to how these challenges can be mitigated. The goal of my ministry is to spread useful information to every part of our empire within the shortest time possible. As the minister I aim to facilitate the smooth running of this ministry. I will unite my team and motivate them to work towards achieving this goal. I believe information is vital to the economic growth of our empire. The ministry was involved in collecting information in various fields. I led my team to collect information and analyze it. The collected information, after analysis, was sent to the concerned Parties for necessary action to be expedited. We, as a ministry, ensured that all the necessary information including the texts were handwritten and published in the sense of being made public and distributed in relative numbers. We saw that it was essential for your Excellency to be acquainted with the fact that it is our gratification that all limitations which were formerly advanced in official pronouncements regarding the Christians should be known by all, and this was our mandate as a ministry (Rosenwein 313). We worked hand in hand with other stakeholders including other ministries like the ministry of finance, the ministry of security, and the ministry of the police to collect intelligence information from all over the empire. Our spying team collected information from those people who were spreading propaganda against the leadership in our empire, and those who were spreading negative rumors were punished according to the laws of the land, your Excellency. I ensured that all your speeches were well written and published. All your directives were forwarded by my team to the various departments for necessary actions by various bodies. The

News assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

News - Assignment Example According to the news article, there was also police militarization when managing the protests in Ferguson. The turmoil continued on November 24th, 2014, after the law enforcement officer who shot Michael Brown was indicted by a grand jury. According to the Sneed (1), the writer who came up with the article, these problems are not Ferguson’s alone, but they represent an entire problem being faced by the entire United States. He argues that the problems might even be more dramatic in other regions of the Unites States, but they are not being reported. The law enforcement is faced with demands for increased protection and service in ghetto neighborhoods. However, the hostile patrol practices thought essential to meet these demands themselves lead to tension and hostility. The article identified factors such as lack of employment, education, housing and discriminatory traits towards a biased justice system and an improper government program, which led to the mass protests in Miss ouri (Sneed 1). Chapter 5 and 6 of Criminal Justice in America discusses the use of excessive force by police officers as well as the conclusions made concerning police officials (Cole, Smith and DeJong 107). There were detailed applications of forces by police officers against citizens, which violate either constitutional rights, as well as other departmental policies, through exceeding the degree of force permissible and significant in a given scenario. Some of the conclusions made about are that they use force infrequently, but they occur in the lower end of the force spectrum, which mainly involves pushing, grabbing or shoving (Cole et al. 109). Also, use of force normally takes place when police officers are attempting to make an arrest, but the suspects is opposing. From the Michael Brown shooting, we could see that the police definitely used excessive force to calm the situation, which eventually led to

IT Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

IT Security - Essay Example For any information system to be operational, government mandated compliances need to be undertaken by the chief information officer (CIO) and government officers. For a system to pass these security compliances it must meet the criteria set for; the system boundaries for the hardware, software, users and interactions with the environment must be clearly defined so as to assess any threats. Therefore, a CIO must provide a plan of action for the system and also state any contingency measures needed in the case of a security threat. Moreover, the chief information officer then gets certification and accreditation from the government once this is achieved (Enloe, 2002). Information systems are required to be secure in order to facilitate business success and their resilience in the changing information society. This means that a CIO ought to ensure that the system is secure enough to deliver vital information and services at the right time with no compromise. This is because secure syst ems increase public confidence and trust in the organization and in their products or services. Information security also ensures that performance of all the stakeholders in the organizations from management to junior staff is effective (Bowen, Chew and Hash, 2007). In addition, security also reduces the chances of risk to the organization and protects the integrity of the information or data stored in the organization. In the design of an information system, the CIO needs to be aware of information security elements, which must be in line with government mandated compliance. Moreover, considering that security planning of a system it is very important for a CIO to know who accesses the system at any time, and thus, the role of an information system officer in the system needs to be understood and clearly defined (Enloe, 2002). The authorizing officers in the organization and other users including the management need to be issued with access codes for authorization. Through this he will track and know who accessed the system at what time and which information was accessed or modified with use of these codes. The CIO should provide the management with the capital estimates required in running and maintaining the whole system and the time required to change or upgrade the system. In addition, he must conduct awareness and training campaigns on the whole organizations. This is to educate the users of a system on the different types of security threats present and how to evade them. Thus, a CIO is required to conduct risk assessment for the organization management, and explain to the personnel and management how the system will meet the organization’s mission and goals (Enloe, 2002). To this effect, the CIO must design a system that provides as stated in NIST: â€Å"Information security protection from unauthorized access, use or disclosure, disruption and modification of information.† The system must also comply with the standards set up for policie s, procedures and guidelines by national law and legislations. The CIO is also responsible for developing and maintaining agency wide information security programs, policies and control techniques for the organizations systems. Moreover, he is required to develop disaster recovery management program, to

Finding Magic in the Natural and the Common Essay

Finding Magic in the Natural and the Common - Essay Example This essay explores the magic in daily life through these stories. What is magical in people's lives is their ability to imagine and to appreciate common events, acts, and liberties. Human imagination presents fertile ground for magic, as it concocts beautiful ideas and images that cannot be realistically enjoyed in real life. Cortazar's Letter to a Young Lady in Paris is about a man who vomits bunnies. Such an occurrence has not been documented yet as possible in real life, but the idea of creating bunnies in itself is a creative idea that makes life magical. With an active imagination like Cortazar's, people can escape life's chaos and dreariness and live in another world. They can find new ways of seeing and doing their duties and tasks and enjoy the novelty of their creative ideas. New images also, by themselves, generate magic, such as magic of wonder, enjoyment, and happiness. Imagination presents magical moments that can occur in daily life. Common events and acts can also lea d to magic. Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema talks about a society that turns common activities and behaviors into something magical. The Nacirema are people who both ironically value and devalue their physical bodies through their spiritual rites. On the one hand, they value their physical bodies by ascribing holiness to their body parts. ... Very sick people also go to latipso ceremonies. These ceremonies are quite perplexing to other people not used to these customs. Apparently, the Nacirema can only enter the temples that hold these ceremonies by bearing lavish gifts, even if they are aware that â€Å"[it] is where [they] go to die† (Miner). At the same time, these â€Å"patients† cannot also leave the temple without bearing more lavish gifts. In other words, they pay to get hurt. What is magical in these acts is that they are crucial to people's development. Miner cites Malinowski who says that without crude and irrelevant magic, â€Å"early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization.† But what is higher civilization anyway? Perhaps a higher civilization is one that is kinder and more loving. Otake et al. shows that kindness is magical too, because it makes people happier. The more kindness that people â⠂¬Å"give† forward, the more they feel connected to other human beings. This can be the kind of connection that makes people more human, and in turn, helps them feel happier â€Å"in† their humanity. Even in desperate times, kindness can alleviate the emptiness of life. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl argues that people can find something meaningful in what could otherwise be meaningless existence. As a former prisoner during the Holocaust, he is a man who has survived great tribulations and has come out with his identity and soul intact. He believes in the value of being â€Å"worthy† of one's â€Å"sufferings,† for it provides â€Å"spiritual freedom† that makes life worth living for (72). People can

Group Leadership Project Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Group Leadership Project Reflection - Essay Example Prior to the start of this assignment, it is essential to define leadership. Leadership put in simple terms, according to Susan Ward (Concepts of leadership, 2011) â€Å"is a process by which a person influences the behavior of his subordinates for succeeding towards a goal or objective and directs the team in a manner that makes it more consistent and logical†. But it can be said without creating a trace of doubt in anybody’s mind that Leadership is that quality summed up in a person who has the power to make or remake the workings, and the ideals of any group of people, be it large or small, political or business. This gives rise to many questions and this research paper will employ precisely these points in answering those questions: †¢ Leader and Follower roles †¢ What worked well? †¢ Leader’s effectiveness / efficiency †¢ Follower’s effectiveness / efficiency †¢ How and what were the roles developed. †¢ How dynamic / static the group were †¢ Power culture and structure †¢ Leadership style †¢ How conflicts were handled and decisions made Women and Business Leadership †¢Leader and follower roles: history is evident of the face that women have more often than not suffered from the very well-established male-dominate societies and businesses. In short, the male-superiority power. Even now in so many countries of the world, especially the third-world countries, women are beaten and thrown in dark rooms. This has given men the nerve to regard women as the followers and not as the leaders. Nevertheless, the women of today have fought tooth and nail to change that ideal and establish themselves also as the leaders. They have same or even better qualifications as men.

Ethnicity and Culture in Disease Prevention Essay Example for Free

Ethnicity and Culture in Disease Prevention Essay Importance of addressing race, ethnicity, and culture when developing programs for prevention of disease Name: Subject: Instructor: Date: The campaigns against diseases have a number of times botched as a result of non-recognition of environmental, biological and behavioral factors as major determinants as of individual health. In public health, the three terms (ethnicity, race and culture) are often used interchangeably. The implementation of disease prevention programs in a community requires full knowledge of the health status of its members. With this regard, racial and ethnical categories often define populations in a manner that is meaningful to their health status (Nnakwe, 2009, p. 337). The concept of race, ethnicity and culture plays a significant role in understand human behavior. Thus it is rational to incorporate the aspect of race, culture and ethnicity a when designing disease prevention programs in communities. For instance, designing a disease prevention program require the use of social ecological framework. The framework focuses on interactions between an individual’s physical, cultural and social setting and thus it may be the only necessary move in a fight against disease in an ethnic group. In this case, the knowledge about a disease should not only be transferred but also needs to be cultivated thought peer support, supportive social norms and cultural values. Consider a case where the government decides to put up a facility for provision of free condoms at the core of a very conservative community as part of a program for prevention of HIV/Aids. Will such a program receive support from the community? Of course not as this will be taken as a violation of the community’s cultural values since it may lead to moral decay among its members. Therefore cultural values of a community must be addressed and prevention programs should be aligned with those values. Health care providers need to train on cultural competency in order to understand barriers and influence of culture and society on health behaviors as well as the use of behavior change tools that are culturally sensitive. Ethnicity /race may also affect, directly or indirectly, the success of a disease prevention program in a community, e. . cultural beliefs about HV/Aids (Edelman Mandle 2005, p. 48). For example the risk of obesity starts at a person’s prenatal period. Race/ethnicity may therefore affect the prevention of obesity since it influence the timing of pregnancy, number of pregnancies together with intervals between pregnancies. In conclusion, the public health approach towards prevention of disease must into consideration culture, race and ethnicity within a social ecological framework as an effort towards sustaining a disease free society.

Pestle Analysis Of Vietnam

Pestle Analysis Of Vietnam Knowledge about PESTLE topic and expectations prior to the class I understand that BE refers to external factors and that enterprises have to take into account to their strategic and operational planning processes for success. My business requires a good understanding of the BE elements that may create opportunities or threats to rural SMEs for the development of interventions to BE improvements. I also know that a good enabling BE will create competitive advantages of a country and interest to foreign investors for economic growth. I know how to use SWOT tool to stakeholders analysis. My understanding about PESTLE  [1]  factors is all about Vietnam only, below are summaries of my knowledge prior to the class. For politics, Vietnam is adopting a mixed economy and government still plays a big role in planning and governing and many countries do not recognise the market economy for Vietnam yet  [2]  even its WTO adhesion since January 2006. The approved official documents of the 11th National Party Congress clearly stipulate that Vietnam continues to apply the market economy with socialist orientation, and the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) still play the decisive roles of Vietnam economy. This may break the enabling BE and create threats to private SMEs. For economics, Vietnam maintains a stable and high economic growth (7% in average for the last decade). Local enterprises are facing up to challenges in access to expensive credit and financial management due to high inflation (9-11%), high interest rates of saving (13-17%/year), and to currency devaluation (three times in 2010)  [3]  . For social factor, Vietnam has a young population with 46% of population are in working age and around 1 million new entrants into labour market each year, but overall productivity remained extremely low and is only three-fifths the ASEAN average or around one-tenth the level in Singapore  [4]  . Vietnam is the only country in Asia to enter Top 5 of the 2009 Happy Planet Index (HPI), announced by the New Economics Foundation (NFF) in July 2009. Vietnamese peoples are very optimistic to their future thanks to stable political regime, peace and economic growth. For technological factor, power shortage is now very current with increasing demand; internet is widely accessible with reasonable price; counterfeit and imitation, especially in software products, are widespread in Vietnam. For Legal factor, Vietnam has available Enterprise Law, Investment Law and other global and regional agreements (WTO, ASEAN, APECà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦), in theory, all kind of enterprises (SOEs, private enterprises, joint ventures) have to play the game with the same rules, but in practice, the implementation of Laws is a real challenge due to poor quality of human resource in public service and corruption issues (116/178 ranked countries)  [5]  . For Environmental factor, Vietnam has a long coastal border (2500km) and is considered as one of the most vulnerable countries due to natural disaster risks, climate change and sea level rise. Enterprises in Vietnam have to take seriously into account the environmental factors to their business planning and operating processes. Vietnamese peoples do not tolerate easily to business practices that harm to environment. For example, the Vedan Vietnam Limited JSC, a wholly Taiwanese-invested firm has to pay a high cost for its pollution to Thi Vai River, the Coop Mart Supermarket System and retailers refused to sell Vedan products, promotional activities encourage the clients to say NO with Vedan and the company is facing to bankruptcy in 2007-2009. My consultancy services support rural SMEs to access to opportunities and to prepare for threats. I also work with government authorities to improve BE for SME development, including: Entrepreneurship Education. This intervention are to improve the entrepreneurship knowledge and skills to the youths, to develop their entrepreneurship mind set and finally to prepare them working productively in enterprises. Public-Private Policy Partnership and Dialogue (PPD). These forums are to reflect on the PCI  [6]   results and to critically debate on BE improvements, administrative reforms and BDS supports in favour to SME development. Making Market Works Better For the Poor. Such as business management training to business people in remote areas, the value chain analysis and upgrade in favour to poor producers, support for collaboration and coordination among poor producers for their greater bargaining power. Recently, I have created my own enterprise named Initiatives and Informal Education Promotion Company, called as IIE Vietnam and I work as the company Director, providing technical consultancy services to national and international organizations working in the area of local socio-economic development. My expectations from the class are about the comprehensive academic approaches and tools for PESTLE analysis. I wish to be able conduct stakeholders analysis, the scenarios planning, taking into account of PESTLE issues in order to improve my business. I also wish to have a broader understanding to global BE, especially the good enabling BE of EU countries, USA, Japan, the improving BE in major BRIC emerging countries and the worst BE in Africa, Cuba, Venezuela. I expect to be able to identify and explain BE context in those economies. Key learned ideas from this session Organisational Form and Purpose. There are different types of organisations; each of these organisations has its relative vision, mandates, values, advantages, disadvantages and stakeholders. When making strategic decisions about the organizations direction and scope, managers need to examine the organizational purpose, vision and stakeholders expectation for the future. Managers have to make sure that commercial organisations should be high accountable to the owners first, then that conflicts and different expectations from organizational stakeholders are properly responded. I am able to use the power/interest approach and tool for stakeholders mapping and analysis of my own company. Understanding the Managerial Environment. Managers will need to evaluate the current context and trends of BE for organisational strategic planning and operating, it includes the evaluation of local, regional political stability, government commitment to business, main economic indexes, labour force, technological development and availability, legal documents and finally environmental issues affecting business. With the results of BE analysis, managers are able to identify main opportunities and threats of their company. I am able to interpret the PESTLE framework for identifying, evaluating the impacts of key external environmental factors and developing 2011 scenarios to my own business. The Economy and the Role of Government. The Circular Flow of Income describes the operations of an economy; the consumers provide resources to firms for income, firms produce goods and services to consumers for margin, income and margin are used to pay living and operating costs, taxes for government spending, investments for productive capacity, technological development and savings. Government plays the role of policy maker and referee, ensuring the achievement of economic and social goals of a society, including high rate of decent employment, stable economic growth, low rate of inflation, trade surplus. Government use fiscal policy (taxes and public spending) and monetary policy (money supply and interest rates) as major tools of macro-economic management. Fiscal policy is a tool for managing demand, if government wants to increase the demand, it may reduce taxes and/or increase spending, if it wants to reduce the demand, it will do the opposite. Government has lot challenges in achieving simultaneously all the economic goals, an increase in demand may create high inflation. Government also use monetary policy for macro-economic management, an increase in interest rates will increase saving, reduce consumption and reduce investment spending, and thus reduce inflation. The interest rates affect exchange rates and banks/investors will spent their energy and efforts just to trade the money and not the production. The European Environment. The rationale of reduction in trade barriers and mobility restrictions is for costumers rights protection, competitive and technological enhancement. The main benefits for countries in joining EU include access to a largest and fairly competitive market, with safe and predictive BE, well established infrastructure, social protection, education, research and development. The main challenges for EU enlargement includes different educational, technological, cultural, infrastructural and competitive level between countries, politics, human rights issues, especially the legacy of the Soviet economy. United Kingdom, Switzerland are considering their EMU member due to negative factors such as economic cycle, sovereignty issues, unique values, transition and employment costs. Understanding the Global Environment. Globalisation is an inevitable trend of the World thanks to the development of ITC and education, to which countries and firms have to duel for success. The key globalisation drivers include politics, economics, market, costs and competition. Globalisation is bringing both opportunities and challenges to peoples. For competitive advantages in the global market, countries have to increase their political and social connections between peoples and states; firms need a good assessment of global costs. Globalisation allows firms not only to profit of better production factors, but also to gain market share and/or to access to growing market. Managers need to have strategic decisions on whether outsourcings, offshorings or insourcings for cost advantages. Government policy makers have to ensure the reasonable inequalities between rich and poor, the control of dominance and monopoly of biggest global firms, cultural degradation, global dependence and g lobal crime. Emerging Countries in Three Continents. The Japanese MITI with selective industrial policies, the keiretsu with alliance of firms with banks, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and with the Japanese government, the kaizen with continuous improvement or change for success, the kanban with scheduling system, have created the economic and technical success of Japan in 1980s. The reforms with special economic zones, the gradual opening of economy, the calls and government supports to FDI have transformed China from a backward agricultural economy to the words major manufacturing centre in 1990s, but the political regime and human right abuse in China is not appreciated by the international communities, and the world is facing up to social and environment costs with rapid expansion due to poor governance of social and environmental responsibilities. The replacement of interventionist economic policy by the liberal economic reforms together with the good investment in high-tech educati on and research have made India become a modern economy, the rapid economic growth in a complex cultural legacy and Hindu caste system is also creating lot of social issues in India, including poverty, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS. The ASEAN with its regional cooperation, cultural diversify, high level of general and scientific education, high saving and investment ratios, young and dynamic population, rapid growth of technology, openness with interventionist industrial policies, is creating a high interest of international investors and politicians (10 Primer Ministers of ASEAN, plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, S-Korea and Foreign Ministers of USA, Russia, and UN General Sectary participated in 2010 Hanoi East Asia Summit, 500 big local and international firms jointed the 2010 Hanoi ASEAN-BiZ Summit Conference)  [7]  . Even with rich natural resources, but the dependence on agricultural production and exports, the negative impacts of slavery, colonisation and socialism , the predominance of authoritarian regimes, poor access to education, public services, sanitation, water, poor governance with corruption, inefficient politicians, ineffective international development assistance and loans, uncontrollable internal rules, conflicts, diseases have left most African countries at the mercy of the world markets. Market Structures and Industry Analysis. Monopolists are able to control both production and purchase rights. In a high competitive market, specialism and location allow operators control over price. In the oligopoly market, competition of non-price methods such as advertising and sales promotion is appropriate. But the greater competition makes companies more efficient and the consumer has a bigger choice of good and services, policy makers have to build rules for fair competitiveness and anti-monopolistic competition. I am able to interpret the Porters Five Forces (current competitors, new entrants, buyers power, substitutes, and suppliers power) to market and competitive analysis of my business. The results will be used to defining and positioning my business, including the development and implementation of key success factors. Delivering Customer Value and Managing Marketing Performance. Firms need an appropriate targeting strategy due to different needs of customers. Customer segmentation allows firms to critically analyse characteristics of customer groups for the provision of relevant services and goods. Appropriate promotions with segmentation approach help firms not only to save costs, but also to provide desirable products and enjoyable prices. A good understanding of existing and potential markets through assessing current and potential market attractiveness, evaluating company and competitors current and potential strengths and weaknesses in serving a particular market, allow firm to take competitive advantages. Company brands are built from knowledge, esteem, relevance and differentiation. I am using the gained knowledge from these sessions to develop my business strategy with demand-driven and non-price competitive approaches such as owner branding, expertise enhancing, attitude improving for dif ferentiation and success. Making sense of Uncertainty. In a stable BE, forecasting works well to develop company future directions, but peoples are living in a fast changing environment with many unpredictable events; scenarios building is good tool to manage uncertainty. Scenarios building should be credible and includes PEST analysis. Companies need to build more than one scenario with both optimistic and pessimistic context to predetermine a list of trends and key success factors. Difficult concepts and Improvement plan Scenarios building, Brands building are two most difficult concepts with me, my improvement plan includes: Further reading: Due to time constraints for both learning and working activities, annual review and planning processes, I havent much time to do extra reading of suggested documents from the class; I planned time for further reading after Lunar New Year. More exchanges with colleagues, friends and experts: Informal discussions, exchanges through emails, chats with them will enable me to gain more knowledge. Participation in short and intensive workshops: The VCCI is organising short and intensive workshops on scenarios and brands building to support the entrepreneurs of SMEs, I will register for my participation to knowledge improvement. Learning from doing my works. I am the owner cum director of my small company; I am building scenarios and brands to my company and will learn from both success and failure. Extra reading and key learning points. I have visited the http://www.forbes.com and read the summary of the special report named Best countries for Business 2009, published at http://vneconomy.vn and have drawn the following key learning points: Vietnam dropped from number 113 to 118 in 2009 list of à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Best Countries for Businessà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ . Due to its weak export capacity, high trade deficit, weak protection of foreign investors. Denmark was ranked as the best place to do business. Thanks to its high per capita (36.000 USD/year), surplus trade (+2,9%), good ratio of public debt/GDP (41,6%). The US saw the biggest fall in 2009 ranking, falling to number 9 from the second position in 2008. Due to long-term issues such as lack of investment in infrastructure, increase of costs in health and retirement, high trade deficit. Venezuela is the worst country. Due to its robbery (nationalisation) of foreign firms. The top 10 of weakest countries of 2009 business environment are in Africa. Due to poor governance, abuse of human rights and democracy, poor investment in education, pubic services, basic human needs and imperviousness of international values. Annexes Reference sources: Much above information is summarised from the follow sources: Harrison A., Business Environment in a global context, Oxford University Press, 2010, New York, USA University of Gloucestershire Business School, Global Organizational Environment handouts

Policy Response to the Mobility Economy

Policy Response to the Mobility Economy The model of transportation as we know it today is poised to make a transformation. This transformation is projected to happen in the next seven to ten years. This transformation will be a complete overhaul of our current understanding of how people and goods transported from one locale to another. The existing model of transportation has become outdated and is extremely inefficient. What we currently term as transportation is evolving into what will be known as mobility. The concept of mobility brings with it a whole new concept of how people and goods are going to moved more efficiently. Sustainability will be the major benefit of this shift in the way we view this model of mobility. This new model shaped by user demand and public policy is responsive to the user. The way policymakers are responding to this new model of mobility is the focus of this paper. Policy Strategies that Create tax incentives to consumers that in effect help manufacturers get their products to market. There is cutting edge technology that is essential for the transformation. How policymakers are responding to the challenges that this technology will bring is also another focus of this paper. Another element that will be crucial for this mobility concept to develop will be the infrastructure needed for a totally connected system of integrated, intelligent transportation systems. How policy makers make the essential infrastructure upgrades will be dependent on funding. What are the possible sources of this funding? Our current transportation model references only the mode of movement. Examples are cars, trucks, commuter trains and buses. The actual act of movement of transporting people or goods from one place to another. The current transportation model is inefficiencient. Inefficiencies include longer commuting times due to traffic congestion and parking difficulties. Public transportation inadequacies. Use difficulties for non-motorized transportation options. The inefficient use and loss of public space. Extremely high maintenance costs. Huge environmental impacts i.e. poor air quality and noise pollution, non-renewable energy consumption. Accidents and safety, heavy land use consumption, problematic logistics for urban freight distribution. Briefly. If looked at from a purely economic standpoint, in 2013 traffic congestion cost Americans $124 billion in direct and indirect losses, this number will rise to $186 billion in 2030. (Robert Mendelsohn, 2007) Poor air quality initially regulated by the Clean Air Act is still causing substantial damage here in the United States. Specifically, ammonia and the five criteria pollutants fine and coarse particulates, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and volatile organic compounds. These contaminants come from the use of fossil fuels; these contaminants cause damages that range from $75 $280 billion annually. (Robert Mendelsohn, 2007) Then there is the issue of noise pollution. This contaminant directly affects the quality of life in a community. How will this new concept of mobility reduce or eliminate these negative externalities produced by the current transportation model? Lets start by defining what is meant by mobility. Mobility will be a consumer or a user-centered concept. See Illustration 1. Mobility will be a reference to the connectivity and the accessibility of how we transport. A system of interconnected vehicles such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs) or compressed natural gas vehicles (CNG). These vehicles will have technology that will bring new applications of information technology that will facilitate vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to network communications. The network of connectivity will result in a seamless transportation system. Another element of this new concept of mobility will be fuels. What fuel technology preferred over others. Vehicles connected through a yet to be built infrastructure. Infrastructur e refers to the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city or area, including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function. In this sense, it means the physical components of the interrelated systems that are providing the commodities and services that are essential to enabling, sustaining or enhancing the standard of societal living. An infrastructure upgrade, in turn, will create opportunities for consumers to choose between the modalities that will emerge as our system of mobility begins to form. Modalities such as car sharing, car-hailing, ride sharing, modern jitneys, vehicle autonomy and bike sharing. (MIT Energy Initiative, 2016) A connected system of transport will eliminate waste. Eliminate congestion and the wasted hours of nonproductivity. When vehicles communicate with one another, there will be an increase in safety and a reduction in car crashes. Autonomous vehicles will eliminate the need for large amounts of land use devoted to pa rking and storage of vehicles. Vehicle to network and vehicle to vehicle communication can monitor traffic conditions real time, and alternate routes can be suggested to the user if road capacity is reached. If a road hazard develops vehicle to network communication will alert the network so the appropriate personnel can be dispatched to rectify the problem. Mobility recognizes that transportation products and services must be responsive to the needs, habits, and preferences of consumers. Consumers will shape how these elements of mobility are deployed. Just as important as consumer choice will be public policy. Â   Â   Figure 1 (MIT Energy Initiative, 2016) On the other side of the model with just as much influence on the elements of new modalities, technology, vehicles, fuels, and infrastructure is public policy. Federal, State and local governments have implemented a wide range of policies in recent decades to reduce transportation-related fuel consumption. Policies that set emissions standards to address air quality. Policies that attempt to manage traffic congestion. Now we need policies that will address the challenges that mobility will create. All these policies, and more fall into three major categories: price-based policy, regulatory policy, and policy promoting research and development. The price-based policy is a market-based instrument that uses the market and price to provide incentives to reduce or eliminate negative externalities. In this case, policies that will continue to incentivize the use of alternative vehicle propulsion units and renewable energies. Regulatory policy instruments also called command-and-control; public policy can mandate the specific performance to be achieved. As in the case of emission standards and CAFÉ standards. Regulatory policy can also be used to command and control the technologies to be used. The policy promoting research and development. There are a number of tools that exist currently to do this. These tools include direct funding of government research facilities, grants to university researchers or private-sector researchers, government contracts for specific projects, and tax incentives. However, each of the categories will require decisions to be made about how to structure the specific program. The Federal government has enacted price-based policies and legislations that promote the U.S. market for electric drive vehicles. A new effort has been proposed to support advanced technology vehicle adoption through improvements to tax credits in current law. The Federal government has made significant investments in research and development and competitive programs to encourage communities to invest in the infrastructure supporting these vehicles. Charging stations, busses, street design, light rail, shared ride ordinances giving preferential treatment to shared ride vehicles. Some of the Federal policies that encourage consumers to purchase electric drive vehicles include The Federal Purchase Incentive. Battery electric vehicles and Hybrid electric vehicles purchased in or after 2010 are eligible for a federal income tax credit of up to $7,500.00. The credit varies based the battery used to power the vehicle. Based on (kwh), this credit will begin to phase out to 50% of the full credit amount once the manufacturer has reached 200,000 plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sold. The Fixing Americas Surface Transportation (FAST) Act incentive expired December 31, 2016, but will remain posted until the federal tax filing deadline. reauthorized the tax credit for EV charging supply equipment until 12/31/16. If the charging station is considered personal property, the tax credit is the smaller of 30% of the stations cost or $1k; if the charging station is considered business property, the credit is worth the smaller of 30% of the stations cost or $30k. Here in Michigan, there are state policy initiatives that are promoting the use of alternative fuel vehicles that will accommodate the transition to mobility. The Vehicle Inspection Exemption: alternative fuel vehicles are exempt from emissions inspection requirements. The Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment Rebate: Indiana Michigan Power provides rebates of up to $2,500 to residential customers who purchase or lease a new plug-in electric vehicle and install Level 2 electric vehicle supply equipment with a separate meter. Customers must also sign up for the Indiana Michigan Power plug-in electric vehicle time-of-use rate. The rebate is available to the first 250 qualified customers who submit a completed application. Consumers Energy provides qualified customers with a reimbursement of up to $2,500 to cover the purchase, installation, and wiring for qualified Level 2 electric vehicle supply equipment. Plug-In Electric Vehicle Charging Rate Reduction: Indiana Michigan Power, Consumers Energy, and DTE Energy offer a special time-of-use rate option to residential customers who own a qualified PEV. Interestingly, the history of battery powered vehicles. In the late 19th and early 20th century, electric vehicles (EVs) rivaled steam- and internal-combustion-powered cars for outright sales. In fact, in the very early 1900s, more EVs were sold in the US than any other vehicle. They were quiet, did not require drivers to toil with a hand-crank, clutch or gearstick, and limited driving ranges mattered little because they were typically used for short journeys in urban areas. With the advent of widespread oil exploration, the introduction of the electric starter motor and Henry Fords mass-production techniques, internal-combustion cars became cheaper to buy and run, more practical too. As a result, electric mobility spent much of the 20th century consigned to history or the golf course. But during the last seven years electric cars have enjoyed a renaissance, as improved battery technology, the need to reduce vehicle emissions and government incentives combine. The Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S and Renault Zoe have all appeared during this period. Mercedes and Volkswagen were among the manufacturers that announced all-new commitments to the segment at last Septembers Paris Motor Show. Policy makers will be guided by the need to craft policies that are consistent with larger public goals of clean air, reducing congestion, promoting sustainability, improving livability, promoting the use of renewable energy and noise reduction. With these goals as a guiding force mobility can address each of these issues and virtually eliminate some. The path to developing mobility will be local policy that is focused on livability and sustainability. This focus could result in an acceleration of vehicle electrification technology that will be further enforced by National and global emission standards. Budgets are always the chief concern of local and State governments. State and local governments are doing more with less. An idea may be to create a framework for private entrepreneurs to lead the way constructing the infrastructure that will be necessary for the connection of the mobility system. A network of connected vehicles. We can spend billions on new roads, bridges and light rail to move people and goods. Or, we can make a much smaller investment in the communications technology that allows more vehicles to operate intelligently on current streets and highways. Smart cities of the future will be those that embrace and integrate intelligent transportation systems. Driverless cars may be a long way off; vehicle connectivity is not. (King, 2014) (SUMC), S.-U. M. (MARCH 2016). SHARED MOBILITY AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC TRANSIT RESEARCH ANALYSIS. Chicago, IL: Transit Cooperative Research Program, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, The National Academies. ABRAHAM, J. (FEBRUARY 4TH, 2016). CITY OF DETROIT FROM MOTOR CITY TO MOBILITY CITY. Detroit, MI. Adela Spulber, E. P. (August 2016). The Impact of New Mobility Services on the Automotive Industry. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Center For Automotive Research. Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy. (December 20, 2016). (p. 55). WASHINGTON, D.C: EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT. Barry, B. (2016, Q4). Leading The Charge. International Journal Of The FIA, Auto, pp. 46-51. Bloomberg New Energy Finance. (October 2016). AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE ON THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY. McKinsey Company. Board, T. R. (2015). Between Public and Private Mobility Examining the Rise of Technology-Enabled Transportation Services. Washington D.C.: Committee for Review of Innovative Urban Mobility Services. Daniel Morchain, S. F. (January 2011). Strategising sustainable urban mobility in EU Neighbour Countries. Guerrini, F. (2014). Traffic Congestion Costs Americans $124 Billion A Year. Forbes. ITDP. (August 2015). Harnessing Shared Mobility for Compact, Sustainable Cities. Jeremiah Owyang, C. T. (2013). The Collaborative Economy. Altimeter Group. MIT Energy Initiative. (2016). Mobility of the Future Examining future changes in the transportation sector. Boston: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Peter Viechnicki, A. K. (2015). Smart mobility Reducing congestion and fostering faster, greener, and cheaper transportation options. Deloitte University Press. Robert Mendelsohn, N. Z. (2007). What do the Damages Caused by U.S. Air Pollution Cost? Washington, DC: Resources for the Future. Scott Corwin, J. V. (2014). The future of mobility, How transportation technology and social trends are creating a new business ecosystem. Deloitte University Press. Sharon Feigon, C. M. (June 2016 ). Shared Mobility and the Transformation of Public Transit. Washington D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. VANHULL, L. (2016). Michigan races to stay in the drivers seat on autonomous vehicle legislation. Crains Detroit Business.

Functions of Management Essay -- Business Management

There is no one definition for the term management. However, Fayol (1916) defined the term management as; â€Å"To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control.† Mc Ilwee.T and Roberts I, (1991): p.g117 Management is not standardized and is undertaken at all levels of the organization, as it is an integrating activity. Managers have to manage in order to achieve the overall objectives and strategy of the firm. All firms are seeking effective managers, and the quality of management is a key element of business success. The four functions of management are essential to building strong teams and stronger organizations. Common to all managers, the four functions are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The aforementioned functions of the manager are the activities, which all managers must perform regardless of the industry, the level, the title, or the activity in which engaged. In this paper we will be examining all four of these ingredients and then we will apply them to real world examples. These four things are used any time when initiating a new project or dealing with any change, which we all know is constant. A lot of us may be all ready using or have seen others, but just never noticed it or didn't know how to identify the methods. Let us start by looking at the definitions and examples of each. Planning Planning is the function of â€Å"doing.† It’s the first management function both because it lays the groundwork for all o...

Now and Then :: Technology Media Essays

Now and Then Once upon a time, there were friendly places near and far... Boy is that an understatement in today's society! Today's society depends upon fighting for you and you alone. Not caring what the other person wants, needs or deserves. Fifteen years ago a small community, such as the one Jen's grandmother lives in today, was very friendly. Small communities pulled together in times of need. If your neighbor ran out of sugar, she didnt care to come knocking on your door with a measuring cup, instead of going all the way to the store to get more, simply because you were her friend. In todays society, if you run out of sugar, you hop in your car and drive 25 minutes to get 5lb of sugar in order to drive 25 minutes back home. You dont know your neighbors, and your neighbors dont know you. There is no hope in wanting to know them and vice versa. Our society has changed drastically over the past twenty years. We have become an information society. Relying on our televisions, radios, and computers to obtain information that was once obtained by going to the local beauty parlor or stopping for a cup of coffee and chatting with the judge executive of your town. Cell phones have also become a major source of information. Instead of going out and having a nice serene sit on your front porch in the afternoon of a warm day, people would rather sit in front of their television and watch Oprah, Judge Judy, and The John Walsh Show. Could the reason that we dont leave our homes as much as we used to, be because of all the violence that today's society has brought with it? The local news on television has publicized roughly five murders in the past week. All these murders have been in the state. Is the television shaping societys view of the world, causing citizens to become couch potatoes? Television is one of the biggest society shaping effects that there is in todays world. There are various cable companies and numerous channels within each company. The view you take on life all depends on what channel you are going to watch on television. If you watch the presidential debate on one channel, that channel may make Mr. Snuggles, whose platform is terrific, and who is an all out good guy, look like a cruel and evil villain in a bad comic book, while another channel shows his true identity.

Introduction To Marketing Mr B

Club Cards The creation of the Tests club card was a advantageous idea, but the club card can provide incorrect information about the customer who handles the art and give Tests Mobile the wrong image Of the customer, in terms Of knowing what that customer likes and want when they're shopping at Tests Mobile. This can occur if the club card is handled by someone else who is not the owner(e. G. The owners son), resulting in the actual owner receiving offers and information about things they did not actually purchase.For example lets say the son of the owner of the card it is bought a video game then the actual owner may a lot receive emails/letters about that game or things that are in relation to that game. Tests believe that everything bought on the card is researched by its owner, which is not the case sometimes, resulting in invalid information being produced on the club card. Questionnaires Questionnaires can be helpful for a company when the questions are produced correctly and given to the right people.Questionnaire have a low response rate in general, therefore Tests Mobile shouldn't have a high expectancy rate of receiving questionnaires back when they send them out to their customers. When questionnaires are posted people tend to just chuck them in the bin because they can't be bothered filling them in a posting it jack to Tests Mobile, even though they got a Freeport envelope alongside the questionnaire. Due to the lack of response back with questionnaires you wouldn't be able to generalizes e. If Tests Mobile sent out 3000 questionnaires out and only received 300 back then they would be unable to generalizes. This would make it difficult for Tests Mobile to figure out what merchandise to sell. People may give out false answers on questionnaires because they may just tick any answer or they may be intimidated by the question etc. This would result in Tests Mobile stocking product people do to actually want. When Tests Mobile conduct questionnaires, th e questions asked are usually closed questions, this is so that it is easier to generalizes and analyses the customer answers.Tests Mobile may also choose to put in leading questions as it gives the person the impression that their opinion is valued. Interviews Having interviews conducted it valuable to Tests Mobile but what is said and what is asked can have limitations. Tests Mobile could invite some of their customers in for an interview and the interviewee could feel intimidated by he interviewer, this Is called the observer effect; resulting in the interviewee hesitating and giving the interviewer the answer they think they want to hear.In addition to this people may feel the need to lie so that they don't look inferior to the interviewer, and in fact sound more superior. People may be unwilling to tell the truth because they may feel vulnerable this may because they feel they're being judged on their ethnicity, age, appearance or gender. This likely to become apparent when per sonal questions are being asked during an interview. For example 21 year old may feel uncomfortable in talking to some who is 65, as they may feel they're inferior or superior to them.Depending on the type of person interviewed, they may tend to give short answers in order to get the interview over and done with, which could limit the amount of research being collected. Short answers would also make it harder to analyses because there would be enough information. On the other hand the interviewee may be garrulous and feel comfortable with the interviewer and begin to start a conversation which is off-topic; having an effect on the data collected.Having a talkative interviewee could mean that it will be harder to analyses information due to the amount of content they've given. If the interviewer answers the questions in the wrong way it could result in incorrect answers, meaning that time and money has been wasted on conducting an interview. Secondary Research Many limitations are in volved when using secondary research such as, the date the research was conducted, as it may be out of date when you want to use the research and many companies who provide that data will tend not to eddo market research as it's already been done.A limitation that may also occur is that you don't know the exact set of questions that were being asked, as the exact questions aren't displayed when you buy the secondary data nor are the exact answers. Only the concluding results and the amount of people involved in the market research are given to the buyer. The cost of secondary data can be extremely expensive depending on how recent the research is and the company who's selling it.

Agro Credit Case Study

Creating a Process-Driven Organization at AGCredit Answer 1:-AgCredit was a Midwest Agriculture Credit and Loan company. It was a midsize financial institution focusing on agribusiness. It had grown significantly in the past few years and was holding its own against other, much larger banks because of its extensive customer knowledge. Kate Longair to the CEO of the company explained all the processes and the systems the company used and how they were integrated using a diagrammatic view for the same. The CEO then decided upon the need for change into various departments to bring about a transformation in business.Finney, the CEO wanted to focus on AgCredit’s key strategic drivers which included continuous growth, expanded customer relationships, the ability to spend more time with the customer, the ability to cross-sell between business divisions and the ability to provide a consistent customer experience across all delivery channels. The CEO’s vision for growth was to create a customer-centric organization by using technology to support people and processes. Realizing that systems integration by itself would not produce the desired result, management redesigned the company’s business processes from beginning to end.Now the challenge was to redesign the IT organization to support the new organization structure. Answer 2:- IT organizations serve two purposes: development (i. e. , which involves the acquisition of new systems and technology and the implementation of these new systems into the workplace); and operations (i. e. , which involves running the data center, production programs and networking infrastructure is decentralized. It leads to facilitation of various business processes across the bank. IT was in a significant state of disarray.Absence of appropriate IT Governance as well as an architecture plan. IT was organized in silos to mirror AgCredit’s divisional structure and each business unit owned and governed its own IT Pr ojects. The company has outsourced chunks of IT functions. The tasks are unevenly and randomly divided amongst the staff irrespective of their expertise. The current structure seems to be more like the enterprise oriented architecture. Due to irregular IT organizational structure many problems arouse with the business processes which led to different choice for the architecture of IT.The structure moreover has a cross-silo flow which creates confusion amongst the business processes as well as data mess. The information appears in various formats, which is difficult to reconcile. Answer 3:- Key Issues: – IT was completely broken and lack of systems integration. Everyone was aware of adding value to processes to the company but how the business strategy would fit with everyone else’s to deliver enterprise value was unknown by others. There exists lack of knowledge of business processes and how they worked together.The key business processes had never been written down be fore and hence they needed to be documented. The front line staff had to access many systems for simple business processes. IT was in a significant state of disarray. A key problem was application centric approach the organization took to its work. Business people would demand new systems from IT for every process whereas IT staff would always train them to make use of the existing systems. This created data mess as there were various systems with loads of information scattered everywhere.Due to this the information appeared in different formats, which were difficult to reconcile. This was a significant challenge when creating accurate reports for banking and other government regulators. IT is negative in business: expense, inability to get work done in a timely fashion, bad information, customer complaints and poorly trained IT staff. AgCredit starts with no formal IT architecture. It is also about the work the business needs to do first in order to create the right environment for IT transformation, i. . , a process focus and a business value focus, not a systems focus. It stresses that optimizing the enterprise is the new source of business value and this means integrated processes across the company and integrated information. To achieve this, IT will need to transform its structure, governance, and approach to systems development. Answer 4:- Proposed IT Organizational Structure Decentralized organizational structures often have several individuals responsible for making business decisions and running the business.Decentralized organizations rely on a team environment at different levels in the business. Individuals at each level in the business may have some autonomy to make business decisions. The challenge for IT will be in the transformation because it will need to have a structure that supports where the organization is going, while still respecting the fact that it is not there yet. IT should be aligned with processes, not individual business functio ns and all new development should be undertaken with the process owners and with the approval of the Enterprise Integration Program.It indicates that all business-facing IT functions should be aligned with the major business processes that have been identified. Internally, therefore IT will need groups dedicated to each of the major systems that currently support the business. These groups will be responsible for all maintenance and any new development needed to keep the organization running smoothly while new service-oriented functionality and common data are put in place. These groups will be needed to make the necessary adjustments to existing systems as this new functionality is put in place.Pros- Redesigning a company towards a process-based organization implies that all activities, which logically belong together in order to create value for the customer, are grouped together. Customer’-processes are defined and taken as the basis for an organizational unit. ‘Deve lopment’- and ‘planning and control’- processes that are necessary for reaching the core objective of the unit are implied. This implies that the organizational structure of a business or a company is based on organizational units which are organized around the core processes.Structuring a business or a company process-wise implies that coordination across process units is kept at a minimum. The following paragraphs illustrate how companies or business units can be structured around processes. Answer 5:- Project Selection Process to ensure alignment with the enterprise business Vision- Effective collaboration between business and IT is essential to the success of both SOA and BPM. A Business Rule Engine can act both as a technology and collaboration enabler; the below points will explain how the organization can improve business processes and move toward SOA by focusing on these strategies. . Streamline business processes by separating business logic from flow lo gic 2. Create processes that are more agile by making it easy to update business logic 3. Align the business goal of more dynamic decision-making with SOA technology 4. Enable effective IT-Business collaboration by giving IT the control it needs and Business Users the tools they need to maintain business logic Some projects will be foundational in nature, i. e. , be prerequisites to other projects; others may be needed to upgrade the IT infrastructure.It will therefore be important that the IT Steering Committee consider a variety of dimensions of project value, in addition to ROI, in determining which projects they would like to undertake. Projects which are functional in nature would therefore not score as highly as those which contribute towards the overall company strategy. All business leaders should consider all IT projects and make a decision as to which ones to undertake according to their enterprise value. The CIO should also ensure that foundational work is considered and ranked appropriately to enable IT to carry out the business visionAnswer 6:- Manley â€Å"Make the case† for Service-oriented architecture (SOA) helps organizations more easily transform their business processes for high performance by simplifying the underlying information systems. Old architectural approaches that once expanded business opportunities now limit growth—but existing systems cannot be simply be replaced. Service-oriented architecture gives existing systems the flexibility and agility to respond to a business environment which is changing rapidly.Service-oriented architectures allow businesses and governments to capitalize on opportunity by:-Becoming more agile, driving cost reductions, Boosting ROI Manley has to prove that SOA will work and that IT can deliver on what it promises. He doesn’t necessarily have to deliver a project that will have an ROI, but he has to work with the EIP to identify a small sub-process that will demonstrate that SOA ca n deliver functionality in a new way that will be effective for the organization. If he can automate a small process and show how it integrates with various data and systems in a new way, the business will â€Å"get it†.Answer 7:- Internal IT Capabilities should include the following to create an IT department that helps build business architecture:- * A full-time staff of programmers, developers, and other IT professionals * The ability to rapidly develop and deploy large, complex data collection and direct marketing solutions in-house using internal resources * Professional consulting services in the areas of marketing, business process improvement, supply chain management, and process optimization for customer satisfaction.IT will need business analysts who can play an intermediary role between business and technology. These analysts will need to deeply understand a particular business process and have the skills to develop collaborative relationships with the business lea ders of the various functions involved in the process and to work with them to document their process requirements. Solutions architects will need to deeply understand the services approach to assembling systems and to be able to pull together the appropriate services, data and knowledge to deliver the required functionality.Data analysts will be needed to deeply understand the company’s data and to work with the business to create single sources of key business information and to establish data standards. Finally, the company will need excellent IT architects who will build a technology roadmap for data and services and who will manage the processes. Answer 8:- Aspects of IT Governance important for supporting the transformation It is important that everyone in IT understands where IT is going and what their responsibilities and accountabilities are.It is also important that IT staff insulate the business from the technical compromises that will necessarily result from the a ctual transition, which could take several years. Therefore, the business-facing IT governance must be process-centric, while internal IT governance will necessarily be a mix. Business must also clearly understand its responsibilities and accountabilities and these must be enforced. * Define goals and strategies * Define standards, policies, procedures, around financial, Portfolio, Project, service, etc. * Define metrics * Put Governance mechanism in place * Analyze and Improve existing processes Refine and go to the next level Key IT Governance Strategy and aspects for transformation:- * IT Principles * IT Architecture * IT Infrastructure * Business application needs * IT Investment and prioritization * People (human capital) development * IT Governance policies, processes, mechanisms, tools and metrics- decisions on composition and roles of steering groups, advisory councils, technical and architecture working committees, project teams: key performance indicators(KPI’s), ch argeback alternatives, performance reporting, meaningful audit process and the need to have business owner for each project and investment.

Charter School Marketing Strategy

New Heights Business Academy of Sports Leadership and Development (NHBA), a start-up charter school, located in the warehouse district of Southeast section of Memphis, Tennessee, will have its first class in August 2011. NHBA will enhance the charter school movement by introducing students to the business-side of athletics. Educators, supporters, and parents became concern after noticing the poor business decisions many athletes make during their careers. A mutual decision arrived that athletes did not know how to market themselves. On this idea alone, plans for NHBA were underway. What are charter schools? Charter schools are independently-ran public schools created by concerned individuals who saw there was a lack of quality education in the public school system. These schools are free to select their own educational goals and curriculum, choose their own teaching staff, and set their own standards for student behavior. In addition, they have the freedom to extend the school day and year. According to the Tennessee Charter School Association (TSCA), since 2002 seventeen charter schools operating in the State of Tennessee, with applications submitted each year. Approval for new charter school applications is through a state mandated agency, the Local Education Agency. Currently there are 24 charter schools operating in Memphis. (www. mcsk12. net) The charter school law mandates that charter school has to open it doors to all students, including physically and mentally impaired students and students of a diverse background, with first priority given to students that : * have previously attended a charter school * attend poor performing schools * scored below proficiency on the TCAP and Gateway exams * receive free or reduced lunch The law states that charter school can only select 25% of their students qualifying on free and/or reduced lunches. The remainder will come from the above categories. Charter schools are the school of choice for many parents because of the quality of education they provide. Parents are at ease knowing their child is in a safe, learning environment; their individual needs are met; and will receive the necessary tools for success. These schools have set high standards in education and must adhere to those standards if they want to remain open. However, public schools remain open no matter how they perform. According to the TCSA, 100 % of charter school funding is issued from the state and local governments. They are entitled to Title I and Special Education funds based on student enrollment. Unlike public schools, charter schools have to depend heavily on grants, donations, and fundraisers to cover costs, such as, start-up, renovation, construction, and other expenditures not incorporated in the funding budget. Commercialappeal. om printed an issue in July 2010, which stated last year charter schools received $10,394 in funding per child. Since Memphis City Schools is being tasked with overseeing charter schools, a fee of 3% will be charged. After the fee is placed, charter schools will receive $7,633 per child, excluding school lunches and other fees not obligated by the district. There will be fifteen charter schools affected by this fee. New Heights Business Academy of Sports Leadership and Development (NHBA), is a publ ic charter school that will serve prospective students in 9th thru 12th grades. NHBA will address the needs of students academically and athletically, in a business environment. As a charter school, our focus is to prepare students for college through innovation and abundance in an attractive and meticulous college-preparatory educational program, which meets the needs of today’s students. In conjunction with learning the regular subjects like Math, English and Science, NHBA focuses on Business as it prepares students for college and life, and introduces athletes to enrichment that will allow them to excel physically and psychologically. We plan to introduce students to a setting that hinges on business and athleticism development. NHBA will open in the fall of 2011 and will be accepting applications for enrollment for 100 Ninth-grade slots. The school plans to add a grade each year and hopes ultimately to serve 500 hundred students in grades 9th through 12th. NHBA is conveniently located, in Southeast Memphis on the corner of Riverdale and Winchester at 7060 Winchester Road Memphis TN 38125, in the warehouse district. Mission. At New Heights Business Academy of Sports Leadership and Development (NHBA), our mission is to academically develop and prepare students for the social environment of business and athletic professionalism through a core curriculum profoundly based on preparing them to be business literate and knowledgably confident in marketing themselves in whichever venue they choose. In pursuant of our mission, NHBA aspires to provide structured curriculums with a business foundation. Our focus is to educate and prepare potential students for college and ultimately life. NHBA’s core values include exposing prospective students to rigorous educational development to prepare them for college while instilling self worth so that our athletes recognize their value. Partnerships with parent’s students and teachers to are important to our success, so it is a priority. NHBA is a college preparatory school with a small classroom setting; we offer student-teacher ratio of 1 to 13 and focus on our number one goal the children. Environmental Analysis/Competition Southeast Memphis consists of zip codes 38141, 38125, and 38115. The combined populations for those three zip codes are 87,247. For the population for this area of the city, almost 20,000 are families with children who could be prospective students at NHBA. As a public charter school our competition are the public schools, the private schools and the optional schools in and near this area, to include other charter schools. At least eight high schools serve this vicinity, not including the private schools. Of those schools in the area, two of them are on the list for striving schools (Memphis City Schools, 2010). NHBA will focus its target first on middle schools in the Eastern section of the City of Memphis, such as Ridgeway, Kirby, Southwind, Germantown, and any other schools in the area. Our main competition will be established and upcoming charter high schools, such as Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering, Memphis Academy of Health Sciences, and KIPP Academy. Then we will expand out target market to other areas of the city. The southeastern part of the city was selected for the reason that there are no charter schools in this area. A charter school in this area will serve as a convenience to working parents who want to enroll their children in charter schools. Trends Affecting the Outcome Our school structure is in desperate need of transformation. Only 54 percent of African American high school students and 56 percent of Latino high school students graduate. Even students who receive high school diplomas often lack fundamental academic skills; nearly a third of first-year college students require remediation in math or English. In many major cities, the education crisis is confounding. In Detroit, for example, only 3 percent of economically disadvantaged eighth-graders are proficient in math (Tennessee Charter Schools Association, 2010). July 2010 Memphis school board approved fees from charter schools, over time Memphis City Schools will charge a three percent fee for overseeing the charter schools. The school board’s decision to charge the fee will mean less money for students of some charter schools (Roberts, 2010). Possible legal or regulatory issues Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a significant amount of funding has been targeted to improve state and local education systems. Tennessee was chosen as one of the two states out of sixteen to receive grants. Over the next four years, Tennessee will receive $500 million to implement their comprehensive school reform plans (Learning Point, 2010). For NHBA’s survival, recruiting will be an important factor in retaining students. If we retain students, we receive funding. If we receive funding, we can offer an attractive program that will entice parents to enroll their students at NHBA. As with any business, the first year is the most difficult. To overcome these obstacles, NHBA and its supporters must ensure that our school offered an attractive package. We needed to know: * Did we have a clear and concise mission and vision statement? * Were we being honest and realistic about what NHBA has to offer? * Did we have a live point-of-contact and follow-up information for questions? * Is there a demand for the type of school you are marketing? * Did we know our target market? NHBA is aware that our best recruiters are out parents and students. With the aid of our supporters, we will be able to reach our target market. Other methods of advertisements will include: * Live broadcasting media – radio, television, newspapers, word of mouth * Internet – webpage; free social networks (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace) * Open houses and school workshops * Join the local chamber of commerce and/or local business associations * Mass mailing, posters, flyers, brochures At NHBA, your child will encounter a challenging, exciting, and rewarding experience that will assist them in gaining the skills and habits for college. Our faculty will go that extra mile to ensure students grasp the fundamentals in order to be successful. Due to the new trends in technology, we want to make sure our students are prepared for college. With the small learning environment, NHBA has to offer along with the student-to-teacher ratio of 13:1, students will develop close-knit relationships with their teachers and learn from individualized learning plans. In addition to this, students will benefit from added programs and student activities such as: * Advanced Placement Courses These courses are college-level courses set up where students can receive college credit after successfully passing an exam. E-courses E-school is geared to provide NHBA students with an online class experience as they would in college. * Athlete-to-Student Mentor Programs This program will afford the students to be paired with an athlete for guidance and to promote academic success. Our athletic volunteers will come from our local professional sports teams, arena sports teams, and local colleges and universities * Mandatory Parental Involvement NHBA bel ieves that parental involvement adds to the success of students. * Summer Sports Camps To promote academic and athletic leadership, NHBA will be able to participate in sports camps hosted by our professional sports teams, arena sports teams, and local colleges and universities. * Volunteer Opportunities NHBA is passionate about community service. Community involvement is one of the main reasons we will be successful. * World-wide Awareness Programs * A sport is a worldwide activity, and hopefully some of our students will play for an international team. NHBA feels that it is important for our students to be aware of what is going on in the world. In conclusion, New Heights Business Academy of Sports Leadership and Development is geared to enhance the charter school movement. Most schools promote athletic leadership, but NHBA will promote athletic development by introducing its students to the athletic business preparations. Upon graduation, NHBA students will have a clear knowledge of the athletic business goals and strategies. Our program will produce business-literate students that will be knowledgeable in marketing themselves and becoming productive citizens in the community and in any endeavors, they chose to seek. Reference Page Learning Point . (2010, June ). Retrieved 2010, from Learningpt: http://www.learningpt.org/pdfs/RttT_State_Legislation.pdf Memphis City Schools. (2010). Retrieved September 8, 2010, from www.mcsk12.net: http://www.mcsk12.net/ Roberts, J. (2010, July 20). Commercial Appeal. Retrieved September 9, 2010, from Commercial Appeal website: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jul/20/mcs-board-approves-fee-from-charter-schools/ Tennessee Charter Schools Association. (2010). Retrieved September 09, 2010, from tncharterschools: http://www.tncharterschools.org/

Managerial Accounting Case Analysis Essay

Compare assigned costs per product under both methods. Why has Activity-based costing changed the total costs assigned to each product? By comparing the two cost assigned methods, there are some differences existed: Unit Product Cost:| Gadgets| Smidgets| Smadgets| Smadgets| Traditional Costing Method| 400| 1,000| 1,350| 850| Activity-Based Costing Method| 590| 1,100| 760| 1,250| Overhead Cost| Widgets| Gadgets| Smidgets| Smadgets| Traditional Costing Method| 200,000| 600,000| 800,000| 400,000| Activity-Based Costing Method| 390,000| 600,000| 210,000| 800,000| I deduct the main reason for that are: Traditional Costing Method use the Overhead Rate (200% of direct labor) and the Activity-Base Costing Method just use the Overhead Cost Drives. As for Traditional Costing Method, the company just accumulate costs into a cost center (Three kinds of costs: director material, director labor, Manufacturing Overhead) , and the Manufacturing overhead just equals the director labor multiply by 200% , the Overhead Rate. These three kind of costs added together we got the total cost, and the total cost divided by the each unit built, we get the final unit product cost, I think it is a rough calculating process. The result depends on the direct labor hours and regardless of any other elements, if direct labor dose not account for a larger portion of the product, the result will not be accurate. In terms of Activity-based costing method, the company use Overhead Cost Drives (There are three allocation bases in the ABC method: depreciation, machine set-up and rent). The Overhead expense just use cost drivers (Such as Machine hours, Set-up hours and Rent) to apply the costs on the products. On the basis of these three, we can get the Overhead cost drive’s Pool Rate, and we also get the actual Cost Driver Quantity for Product Line, and finally we can know what is the exact Activity Cost for Product Line with respect products, finally, we got the total ABC Overhead cost for the three products. So I think this allocating process is more accurate, because it use the Cost drives into different part in detail.

Euthanasia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

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Strategic Marketing Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

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