Achieving Morality Essay

The external factors play a huge role in shaping one’s decisions. One may think that his genetic and background history has the most influence on his actions, but in reality, the intensity of a given situation has greater impact in the choices of the individual. The surroundings one lives in ultimately influences his perception, decision, and morality. In his essay, â€Å"The Power of Context,† Malcolm Gladwell states how it is the little things in life that makes the bigger difference and in many aspects this is true. In Daniel Gilbert’s essay, â€Å"Immune to Reality† he talks about how human perception about reality is not always accurate. In Oliver Sacks’s essay, â€Å"The Mind’s Eye† he shows how there are many different perceptions to view the world. So at the same time, is it possible to dictate what is right and wrong in one’s life if all the decisions are a result of his given situation and surroundings? Also the morali ty for each person varies depending on their circumstances and perception of their world. Ultimately, an absolute form of right and wrong does not exist because the context of the situation always changes, but still it is possible to achieve an applicable standard of morality in society. Each individual has his own way of looking at the world that is completely unique when compared to the way another person does. This is perception of reality and this form is always open to discussion because the person generates this viewpoint. Each individual makes his decisions based on his perception of the world. â€Å"The processes by which we generate positive views are many: we pay more attention to favorable information, we surround ourselves with those who provide it, and we accept it uncritically† (Gilbert 134). In many instance one creates his own perception to suit his way of thinking, so the individual could be in the center of his world. â€Å"He seemed to regard this loss of visual imagery as a prerequisite for the full development, the heightening, of his other senses† (Sacks 304). Most people see becoming blind as unfortunate event, but according to this person it helped him to improve his other senses. â€Å"The tabloids dubbed Goetz the subway vigil ante and the death wish shooter† (Gladwell 153). Rather than seeing Goetz as a lunatic the newspapers depicted him as a hero. So this shows the difference in perception between people and how it varies from individuals. Importantly since each person’s perception varies it is hard to claim whose perception is right or wrong because ultimately is there a â€Å"right† perception of the world that everybody should be following? Even when viewing a painting everybody has their own interpretation of the art. No one claims there is only one â€Å"right† perception; rather the different perceptions are simply different approaches towards looking at the world. â€Å"It was simply inconceivable that someone could pull a gun on someone else on the subway and be called a hero for it.† (Gladwell 154) shows how different viewpoints affect the verdicts of a situation. A hero to some people might be a villain to others and it is hard to claim who is the â€Å"right† hero. The difference in subjectivity among people will always create a discrepancy of opinions among people. Since a variety of perception exists, then is it possible to have a perfect set and stone â€Å"right and wrong† rules in life? The context of a given matter plays a huge role in deciding the morality of the event. Morality is very much depended on the background information of the event. It is very hard to dictate the morality of an issue without seeing the bigger picture. Most people might see stealing as a wrong act, but what if someone stole a piece of bread in order to make sure he does not die from starvation, is that still a wrong act? In a situation like that one might feel sympathetic to that poor fellow and probably will see stealing as reasonable in that given situation. â€Å"We do not realize that our views will change† (Gilbert 135), the idea of morality varies on the situation because the context of the event directly affects morality. â€Å"Blindness now becomes for him a dark paradoxical gift. This is not just compensation, but a whole new order, a new mode of human being† (Sacks 305), in many aspects blind people do not see their condition as a curse or burden rather a different approach towards living and for most sighted people it might be hard to understand and accept this approach. â€Å"That there are instances where you can take normal people from good schools and happy families and good neighborhoods and powerfully affect their behavior merely by changing the immediate details of their situation† (Gladwell 162) this shows how the little details of an event plays huge role in the outcomes of an event. Essentially, context of a situation is what dictates morality and it is going to be almost impossible to label morality as set and stone as something like the Ten Commandments because the context always changes. Even though the standards of morality vary according to the situation there are some aspects of morality that one subconsciously accepts. Some ethics are universally considered wrong and one’s mind without even one knowing already knows that some choices are not right. That is why the mind tends to usually question the choices one makes. â€Å"When we cook facts, we are similarly unaware of why we are doing it, and this turns out to be a good thing, because deliberate attempts to generate positive views† (Gilbert 134), subconsciously to some extend individuals are aware of the morality behind an action and this will help individuals to make their decisions wisely. â€Å"To what extent are we our experiences, our reactions shaped, predetermined, by our brains, and to what extend do we shape our own brains† (Sacks 303), There are some emotions and judgments that are simply preinstalled in one’s mind which aids an individual in making choices that are difficult. â€Å"After a while the bad guys wised up and began to leave their weapons home and pay their fares† (Gladwell 157) this shows how there is a consciousness inside individuals that helps in guiding with decision making. When making a choice that might inflict pain to us or others one’s mind will usually try to suggest against that decision. That is why the idea of taking an innocent person’s life is universally seen as a wrongful act in societies. Therefore, there is a sense of unconscious morality that lies within the hearts of most individuals. Achieving a complete form of morality is a very idealistic thought because practically it’s not possible. There are infinitely many ways of perceiving morality and it would be impossible to set a standard that would suit all the time. â€Å"Too often people with sight don’t see anything† (Sacks 310). There are parts that even one’s eye sometimes cannot capture meaning that sometimes it’s simply not possible to account for all the possibilities. â€Å"The benefit of all this unconscious cookery is that it works, but the cost is that it makes us strangers to ourselves† (Gilbert 135). People sometime engage in activities without being aware of the magnitude of the situation. †They are both based on the premise that an epidemic can be reversed, can be tipped, by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment† (Gladwell 157) the intensity of the situation has a huge influence on the decision of the individual. Due to all this, perceiving morality completely would be very difficult. Also having a perfect morality would require infinite knowledge which humans do not possess. As an individual one is limited at what he observes at a given time and there are limitations for each individual in this world. However, through the perceptions of many individuals, people will be able to come up with a better understanding of morality. Even with the limitations each individual has a small understanding of morality in the back of his head. Essentially, when all these understanding that are possessed by individuals are combined then a suitable set of standards will be formed that can accompany most situations. The collective effort of people will help to generate a better set of morality that will help in creating a peaceful environment for people to live in. That is why it is important to have many different perceptions of morality because they all eventually lead to creating appropriate rules that will be suitable for the well-being of a society. Despite not being able to have an absolute morality with infallible accuracy and with infinite knowledge, an applicable method of sensing morality is still practical. Individuals lack the ability to have a perfect morality because for one to acquire it in completion one needs to possess infinite amount of knowledge. Despite this back drop each individual innately has the ability to know morality in small parts and therefore combining the small parts of every individual will help to achieve a suitable set of codes. The differences in perception between people only aids to benefit humans in portraying a better understanding of morality. That is why it is important that there are different types of perceptions because if there was only one view then a very limited and narrow minded principle would be prevalent in the world. The different pathways of thinking done by people finally leads to achieving a suitable mode of morality. An absolute form of morality will never be possible in this imperfect world, however, that does not mean accomplishing a reasonable standard is impossible.

Starbucks Summary

This is to recommend that Struck to increasing the power of expand the international markets especially the countries that Struck has not been launched yet in order to gain more global market share thus generate more sales. Struck also need to reduce the power of expand domestic markets since the market in the US is approaching saturation and the marketing- warming expansion techniques has caused cannibalize existing store sales.Based on my analyzes on the case Planet Struck (A), Struck Coffee remains a leader in the coffee business in the world for a long time because the perceived premium product's cachet that they are offering customer something so far superior than customers' expectations and their ubiquitous positioning strategy that providing ready access to customer foot traffic. These are the biggest strengths of Struck. Based on its existing successful del, Struck has indicated continuing increased gross operating income and operating income. See Appendix#l ) This huge succe ss offers Struck more resources to expand its international market such as capital, existing business model, successful previous experiences and expert management team. At present, it is the great time for Struck to expand its international market, since the domestic market is approaching saturation. Even the marketing-swarming expansion techniques prevented competitor entry to the rake and helped Struck built strong brand awareness and recognition, it leads to downward trend in sales per store.As an illustration, between 1 995 and 1 998, Struck had averaged $0. 69 million sales per store per year but until 2002, the sales has been decreased to $0. 559 million per store. This data reflected the domestic market has approached the saturation. However there is still an opportunity to increasing the globally market share, since in year 2002, there are total of 4574 domestic stores but the total number of international stores are only 131 2, which is only quarter of the number of domesti c stores. See Appendix #4) Therefore, expanding international markets would lead to increasing the globally market share thus generate more sales and also will help the company to achieving its objective which is establish Struck as the most recognized and respected brand in the world. Struck has a pretty strong brand image to many of its customers as a â€Å"third place† where is a place between work and home that people can escape, reflect, read, chat and listen.This niche positioning strategy has differentiated Struck from its competitors and this strategy has also become to Struck strongest competitive advantage that provided customers an atmosphere of both warmth and comfort. In conclusion, the main plan of action right now should be to focus on expanding international market instead of domestic markets. Thus the global market share will be increased if the marketing strategy is executed correctly and cooperated with right partner.

Technical Communication Sample Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Technical Communication Sample - Essay Example iting under scrutiny here is a White Paper, ‘Building a World Class Online Storage Infrastructure’ (July 13, 2000) from Driveway Corporation, pioneers in the field of online file storage service. The document details how Driveway Corporation developed an efficient 24X7 online storage service. There are certain essential features that are usually present in technical writing. Some of them are title page, disclaimer, abstract, acknowledgement, contents page, introduction, main sections and sub-sections, conclusions, references, and appendices. Now, a look into the Driveway Corporation White Paper proves that it contains many of these essential features that make it a perfect example of technical writing. It starts with a title page, followed by a disclaimer page. As in a technical writing, there is a fully developed table of contents and an executive summary. Thereafter, there are various subsections and finally a conclusion. Evidently, the White Paper epitomizes the conce pt of technical communication. There are some other features too that keep it different from the ordinary academic writing. This technical communication gives no chance for entertainment. In other words, the style of writing is simple, concise and ‘to the fact’. The second point is the total absence of emotive language in this piece of work. As the intention is only to convey information, the language used is as highly objective as possible. Yet another feature is that this work tries to be as concise as possible by avoiding sentences with so many clauses which are confusing to read. The last feature to be mentioned is the clarity presented throughout the work. In technical writing, the presentation should not be ambiguous. The Driveway Corporation White Paper intends to explain the various factors that made the company start its online storage service. It details how its online storage infrastructure works, its design goals, storage capacity, and security. It also explains how the storage

Management accounting and control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management accounting and control - Essay Example It acts as a plan developed by experts from within the organization or belonging to external agencies, private or governmental. These professionals make forecasts based on assumptions related to the prices of goods produced, costs of production, wages of labour, level of demand in the market and several other variables. These assumptions are then distributed in the form of a budget to the various departments from the head office. The employees in these departments then infer the status of their respective departments and figure out the ways of action depending on their level of knowledge about the market. Therefore in effect the budget comes true only to the extent up to which the specific departments make accurate assumptions regarding their own operations and also the condition of the market. The moral of this entire process lies in the advice lent out to the different departments that they must try and act in a little more efficient way and that they should be selling more amounts of the products in the coming years (Wallander, 1999). This context is good enough to prove redundancy of the intricate system of budgeting in organizations. The management can also do it without taking refuge under complicated assumptions but rather check at regular intervals that the departments are following the advice. In this paper we shall look into the issue that the process of budgeting is no longer a relevant system for running an organization successfully and that it has been termed by a most well known Swedish author as â€Å"an unnecessary evil† (Chapman, Hopwood and Shields, 2009). Considerable amount of debate has arisen regarding the necessity of budgets in business organizations. The process of preparing an annual budget embodies a lengthy process incurring huge expenses. Thus as Hope and Fraser calls it, the system of budgeting is quite cumbersome and is

Heat Emergency Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Heat Emergency Plan - Essay Example Many heat - wave plans for several communities from around the world have already been developed and these have been included in the bibliography for this report. 1 2 3 A heat - wave response plan is often a plan under a health emergency disaster plan and such a plan places an emphasis on helping people to protect themselves by seeking a cooler environment, with high quality medical assistance being extended to the community, especially the elderly. Although the precise procedures for presenting an alert warning about an impending heat - wave vary from country to country, France serves as a good example because of its experience with a recent devastating heat - wave. The biometrological advisory system in France presents a first forecast announcement to health professionals and civil service as well as social correspondents 4 to 7 days before the event. A further warning forecast is issued to professionals, the media and the public 1 – 3 days before the event and this is followed by a four – color biometrological advisory to the public one day before the event. The colors green, yellow, orange and red point to the intensity of the danger that can be associated with an impending event, including a heat - wave. 4 Thus, it is possible to predict a heat - wave emergency and to plan for recovery and response. Older people are often more seriously affected by heat - waves because they have lost the resilience to cope with extremes of temperature. The plan tries to provide a well coordinated response by public agencies to the heat wave and the agencies that are likely to be involved include hospitals and health services, education, Police, Fire Services and the Wildlife Service. The heat - wave plan is activated once an extreme weather event is certain and the authority to do this often rests with the Medical Controller or an equivalent office for a region. 5 Advising people

Child Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Child Psychology - Essay Example There are numerous theories, studies and researches that are focused on the development of children and their psychology. This paper would study the behavior of Amy, a 5 year old girl, and would correlate her behavior to various concepts and theories. The behavior would be linked to the cognitive, language and emotional perspectives of child psychology. Discussion Human development is the science of studying how a human develops physically, psychologically as well as socially with the passage of time. It is a branch of psychology that studies the behavioral changes that come within people as they grow older (Meggitt, 2006). The subject that I observed is my niece, Amy. She is currently five years old and would turning six after one month. Amy is the eldest child and has one younger brother who is three. Both her parents are working; her mother is a lecturer in a college while her father works for a company. Amy lives in a joint family where her paternal grandparents live with them. B eing the eldest child, and being on her on most of the time, Amy is more mature than other children of her age. According to the periods of development, Amy is presently in her early childhood stage, but soon she will enter middle childhood when she turns six years old. Erik Erikson was a development psychologist and psychoanalyst who had worked extensively to develop his theories on social development. The most significant development among the works of Eric Erikson was the innovation to have eight stages of human life span instead of five. Erikson had eight life stage virtues that are helpful in understanding the lifespan model these virtues include hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, caring and wisdom (Berk, 2000). According to the stages of Erickson's development model, Amy would be right in the middle of the play age (3 to 5 years) and School age (6 to 12 years). As she created play situations based on her imagination and is developing a social stage where is she m aking new friends. The bioecological model of development of Bronfenbrenner is focused upon child development with respect to the relationships that form his or her environment. Bronfenbrenner defines layers of environment that influence the development process such as family, school, religion, society and culture. The layers of environment form the Microsystems which are the direct interactions, Mesosystems which are the linkages between Microsystems, Exosystems which encompasses the experiences which are gained and also Macrosystem and Chronosystem (McCormick, 2011). According to the environment, I have come to notice that Amy is very independent, she does not rely on attention and is more focused in what ever she does. This is because of the family environement. As both the parents are working and Amy's mother is also doing her post-graduate degree, Amy has seen a studious environment in her house and this has inculcated in her, an interest in reading books, writing and drawing. Cognitive Development Cognitive development is referred to the development with respect to a childs ability to process information, grasp concepts, develop perceptual skills and other aspects of brain development. Piaget is the most prominent psychologist in the field of cognitive development with principles that stand true through the development phases (Berk, 2008). When interacting with Amy, I observed that she had some ideas related to things as she perceives them. This could relate

GLOBAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1- Essay

GLOBAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1- - Essay Example Another very important aspect of international business is that the compulsions of the present times require versatility in the work ideology and functioning, thus making it imperative that new skills and strategies are evolved to meet the emerging challenges with efficiency and unmatched proficiency. Goldberg correctly interprets higher education and says, ‘academic thinking is powerful and usable over long time frames’ (1996). The study would provide the professionals with wider perspectives of the changing paradigms of the business environment and help facilitate better options to address the emerging challenges in the dynamics of new business equations. One can therefore, conclude that the study in international business would always serve as value addition to any work environment. Charles Hill’s assertion that ‘Countries have different political, economic, and legal systems†¦ All these differences can and do have major implications for the practice of international business’ (Hill, 2004) is absolutely correct. In the rapidly changing environment of globalization, the businesses have become more competitive thereby making it obligatory for them, as well as for the working force to become more flexible and swiftly adapt to the changing technologies and work environments. Another aspect that has emerged as a result of globalization is that of increased mobility that requires the ever increasing need for flexibility of time and place especially when the business is spread across the different countries. The non market factors have direct and indirect impact on the overall performance and operation of the firm. ‘These are characterised by 4Is: issues, institutions, interests and information’ (Baron, p2, 1995). Broadly they are the socio-political environment within which the firm has to operate. The role of government regulations and political dynamics combined

Issues Facing Ethnic Groups; Applying Terms and Concepts Research Paper

Issues Facing Ethnic Groups; Applying Terms and Concepts - Research Paper Example Considering the stratification of the Hispanics, census records of 2010 reflect that the group in the present times consists of around 50.5 million members representing one of every six inhabitants of America, that is more than half of the country’s population seems to be inhabitants of the group (Americas Growing Hispanic Population: Investing in the Future Mainstay of Our Labor Force, 2011). As far as the assimilation of the group is concerned, although assimilation seemed to have taken a long time compared to other such groups, it emerged that â€Å"by the third generation most Hispanics both consider English as their dominant language and identify more as Americans than with their country of origin† (Alpert, n.d.). Considering the diversity and pluralism in the country, the 1900 data reflected that the Hispanics were around 12 percent of the population and the non-Hispanic whites comprised around 72 percent. However in the present scenario, the non-Hispanic whites have been decreased to almost 60 percent and the Hispanics have increased in number (Diversity and Pluralism in America, 2002). The Hispanics in America have to struggle in each day of their lives. Their freedoms have been snatched by the Americans leading to deaths of several Hispanics, causing prejudice and discrimination of the group. The families encounter financial, economic, cultural and educational adversities owing to this discrimination in the country (Rayne, 2007). Recent data reflect that the Hispanics have become the new majority minority of the country. Their numbers have crossed the numbers of African Americans and seem to affect the political and social backdrop of the country as well (Hispanics Become Americas New Maj ority Minority, 2011). Considering the political and economic scenario, data reflect that 49 percent of Hispanics are found to attend

Creating a Safe and Healthy Work place Literature review - 1

Creating a Safe and Healthy Work place - Literature review Example The origins of a safe and healthy workplace have come in from the discussions which have centered on the premise of bringing out the best value for the sake of the most prized resources, i.e. the employees themselves. (Cantor, 2008). Ever since there has been debate on the pointer of the safe and healthy workplace domains, the employees have started to realize that they need to be offered the best possible avenues from where their growth and development could be ensured within the professional ranks. The safe and healthy workplace debates are being propagated because these center on the premise of bringing about a positive and the  incremental change – a change that happens for the wellness of the people at large, and in building solid links and relationships with the top management hierarchies. The safe and healthy workplace realms are always appreciated within the global organizations because these have been benchmarked with the passage of time. It is imperative to think o f these understandings in terms of the best practices as such, because this is the need of the hour (Cantor, 2008). What is significant here is to comprehend the fact that its origins get recharged whenever there are irregularities within the relevant systems, and when there is a dire need to get the act straight for the restoration of safe and healthy workplace domains. The safe and healthy workplace realms are staunchly built upon the rationale that the employees must receive the maximum benefits.

War of the worlds Essay Example for Free

War of the worlds Essay This is the many people running to the stations and literally being pushed back because of the over crowding. Another good piece of imagery to describe the fear would be people were fighting in the street over a cart this just shows you the determination people have to get out of the city as quick as they can, instead of running they are stalling themselves by fighting other people for the carts. A modern reader would relate to these actions if they were in the same position, but I believe they would not fight to get a cart they would just run as fast as they could. And they would not go to the station as they would know that the station and all of the trains would be packed and you run the risk of being crushed to death. Along the narrators journey he meets many people, but two that stick out are the Curate and the Artilleryman. The narrator meets the Curate at his church, from the off the two were completely parallel the two personalities clashed, and the narrators Science and the curates Religion clashed. And the curates weak mind did not help the situation, within 6 days he had gone insane because of the lack of social order. Eventually the two get stuck in a house together, right next to the Martians. The curate threatens the narrator by screaming loudly and eating the only food they have then he tries to make a break for it, which would completely give away there, position, without thought the narrator hits him with the butt of a knife and left he open for the Martians to kill him. With the Artilleryman he had an insane plan which was fuelled by the lack out boundaries, he wanted to sacrifice the weak and live underground This shows that social order has left many of the stronger members of society to go crazy with the lack of support and leadership. The modern reader would read these two comparisons and see that social order has completely depleted and left many people without any guidance and completely vulnerable to the situation at hand. At the beginning of the novel social order is completely intact until the situation gets a whole lot worse, then its every man for themselves. This is a clear example of what times were like in those days in the face of a crisis. When a modern reader reads the novel and sees the breakdown in social order they sympathize because of the lack of understanding in science. They would also say where everyone could have improved, but that is only natural. Overall I think that the story was very good for the time it was written in, the decrease in social order is showed well and the language that is used is very good. But I believe that the story could have improved as it was a bit basic, and maybe would have been a lot better if the story had covered a lot more angles. By James Clarke 10X Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Miscellaneous section.

History And Background Of Amazon Marketing Essay

History And Background Of Amazon Marketing Essay There are so many reasons for adopting mergers and acquisitions strategies in companies. However, in general, the main reason for takeovers is company is seeking improvement in its financial performance. Mergers and acquisition take place when company takeover its potential competitors to reduce its competition and try to increase or gain market shares in the market. Another reason could be because of the company want to branch out its brand name either into related or unrelated area to increase its size. To gain another companys resources, operation technology or its brand name so that it would be more secure when entering new markets or introduce new products, could be one of the reasons for adopting mergers and acquisitions in business (OHara, 2012). Kraft foods is the second largest food company after Nestle in the world and it produces chocolate, candy, biscuits, gum, coffee and powdered beverages. It is trying to become a world leader in snacking environment with good quality products. The significant acquisition and divestitures of this company are the purchase of Cadbury which is a British confectionary company on June 2010 and the sale of its frozen-pizza business to Nestle on March 2010 and the author will be going to present about why the company did acquisition and divestment. First of all, according to the CEO of Kraft, the reason for Kraft buying Cadbury Company is to make it big its brand name into the foreign markets such as India and Brazil as the Cadbury has already had its brand image in those markets (Namazi, 2010). Furthermore, the intention of the acquisition of Cadbury was to present Kraft a strong presence in confectionary and chocolates business and to develop their snack products power across the globe and to expand its company portfolio. Secondly, no doubt every business has to face competition in its respective area. Especially when it comes to foods company, there are so many rival companies either local companies or international companies that the company is going to face. Cadbury is a British iconic brand of confectionary and it probably would be rivals for Kraft foods too if Kraft wouldnt decide to acquire. But as Kraft foods acquired the Cadbury, not only Kraft foods gain the place in confectionary products but also they enter the Euro markets and it has less competition in confectionary products area. After Kraft and Cadbury joined together, according to Jones (2010), Nestle, which is the worlds largest food group as well as always holds the first or second places in all food categories, falls to the third place in chocolate world after Mars-Wrigley and Kraft-Cadbury. Last but not least, Ruddick (2010) states that another reason of acquiring Cadbury is Kraft foods is trying to grow its product broadly in market, expand its product range and to become world leading brands in sweets, chocolate and chewing gum. Cadbury itself has achieved a great product quality and brand image in chocolate world as well as Kraft foods itself has got its brand name in the snacking environment such as Ritz, Oreo cookies. With those products, Kraft foods has achieved fairly in peoples taste and already has a firm position in the biscuit market though it is still weak in chocolate field. However, with the Cadbury besides dominating the top positions in chocolate field is no longer a problem for Kraft and even this would make Kraft to become one of the leadership in chocolate brands. However, there had been a divestment of one of its own pizza business to its rival Nestle Company just before Kraft foods acquired Cadbury on early 2010. In the financial news release of Kraft on Jan 2010, the company announced it agreed to sell its frozen pizza business to Nestle. The reason for this divestment is the company want to focus on the products which can take international markets place swiftly and effectively. Unlike confectionery products, frozen foods are not easy to deliver across the globe efficiently and it would delay the goal of Kraft which is to become the largest food company worldwide. Andrejczak (2010) outlines that owing to a thought it could get a bit closer to purchasing Cadbury, the Kraft foods sold its frozen pizza business to its largest competitor, Nestle. Both in a sense to waste the Nestlà ©s competition power in bidding the Cadbury and also in one that it could get money to raise for the Cadbury bid. Birchall (2010) as well as in the Financial News release of Kraft mention that it is clear that Ms Rosenfeld, the CEO of Kraft, is keener to focus on confectionery products which have high profit margin and can be marketed globally rather than frozen pizza business which is limited global potential and Kraft is trying to boost its company profit and gain its brand name in everywhere. Thus, the company is prepared to get rid of its lower margin and low growth business to sharpen its products portfolio in emerging markets plus global markets. This is one of the reasons why Kraft sold its frozen pizza business to Nestle. Amazon.com Inc Amazon.com Inc is established on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and it is the largest electronic commerce company to date where customers can buy almost everything they can imagine online and the company is always trying to provide the lowest possible prices to its customers. On March 2012, Kiva Systems Inc agreed to be acquired by Amazon.com Inc for $775 million in cash and it is the second biggest takeover of Amazon. Kiva Systems Inc. is the manufacturer of robots that move around warehouses, grabbing and moving shelves and crates full of products. On the report of Barr (2012), it is cited that the reason of Amazon takeover Kiva is that the acquisition of Kiva took place when Amazon adds a lot of new distribution centres in recent years to service its rapidly growing business. Dave Clark, the vice president of Amazon of global customer fulfilment said in a statement that Amazon has long used automation in its fulfilment centres, and Kivas technology is another way to improve productivity by bringing the products directly to employees to pick, pack and stow. Therefore, Kiva warehousing technology is making retailers fulfil online orders quickly and with fewer workers. The author also believes that the competition within rival companies is one of the motives for Amazon to buy Kiva systems. Kiva is an innovative product and since Amazon acquired Kiva, the company is supporting Kiva systems to get the best methods to provide a better service in coming years. To cope with its rival companies such as eBay or Apple which are largest companies in e-commerce fields, the company has to be more innovative in technology operation and always has to find an efficient system to delivering the products to its customers in much better way than its rivals. Kiva technology is helping not only to simplify the tasks but also reduce cost while maximising flexibility of the warehouses tasks from receiving orders to picking the products to shipping to stay ahead of its rivals. Finally, another reason for buying Kiva is to reduce costs. According to Trefis Team (2012), Amazons earning with revenues was up 29% year after year, reaching to $12.83 billion in the second quarter of 2012 report of Amazon. Most of its revenue was coming from the increasing sales of general merchandise and electronics. It increased 34% in international markets and around 41% in the North American markets. On the other hand, the operating margins of Amazon were remarkably declined because of the margin pressures as it has been spending money on its expansion of fulfilment centres continuously in recent years to enable to carry on its rapid growth of business. Since the company is a retail business and furthermore it is growing rapidly, it needs a large amount of storing place to hold the different types of goods. It is not very easy task to do for labour in locating the goods in the warehouse and carry the correct goods swiftly and efficiently whereas the robots can easily identify the goods with bar codes. Thus, by using Kivas automated warehousing technology systems at the warehouses, things will get done faster than before and it will boost the speed of productivity which will lead to reduce the cost of company. Another acquisition of Amazon that the author is going to present is Zappos. Zappos is online shoes and apparel retailer which has become a leader in online market giving the best possible service to its customers. Zappos agreed to be acquired by Amazon on July 2009. All the reasons, that are going to present about why Amazon acquired Zappos by the author, are referred to YouTube video from (07272009july, 2009) Jeff Bezos about Amazon and Zappos. The reason why Amazon interested in Zappos is that Zappos is unique. Jeff Bezos said in the video that Zappos has a unique culture that no one has and it is a very significant asset. It has its own reputation, brand representation and its employees and it is the main reason for Zappos to maintain its brand since it has gained the customer trust and known as the customer based business. Amazon is customer based business and so does Zappos. As both businesses go to the same direction and focus on giving the best service to their customers, it is important for both companies to give customers a good representation of their products. Jeff Bezos also said that Zappos is under the great hands of great leadership. It can be one of the reasons why Amazon acquired Zappos because it is not easy to find good leaders though it is easy to find an achieved business. An Achieve business cannot secure a good future but good leaders can promise a bright future. In this case, the author would say it is a bonus for Amazon since it acquired Zappos which is under the great leadership with a good brand image in its market area at present and with a lot of potential growth ahead in the future. Another reason could be that not only Zappos has great leaders it is also connected to Amazon for being a customer obsessed company. In addition, there are even more amazing things. Because of the images of both Amazon and Zappos, it will affect greatly on Amazon which is also a customer based and at the same time Zappos image will also be greatly affected since Amazon is one of the most achieving online retailer businesses which means it has broad market. When Amazon merged with Zappos, they can approach customers from both sides which double the customer, make the companies to enter the market broadly and expand their existing business. As synergy which is two plus two equal five, both companies have good image and good service in their respective areas and thus, joining and participating companies together can enhance the value and brand of both companies in the market positions. Furthermore, both companies can share their strategies, technologies and operation experiences as the best as they could to achieve both brands reputation and services and even grow faster in the market. Part 2: Key Opportunity Kraft foods Kraft sold its own frozen pizza business and made a far wider move in confectionery area by acquiring Cadbury. Both Kraft and Cadbury already have their own brands, values and customers in snacking markets. In addition, early this year, Kraft- Cadbury has established a new research and development centre in Birmingham. It is an opportunity to explore new product technology and new product development and best practices for its brands. Besides, there are plenty of things they can do together. They can share the ways they operate, create new ideas for product design and explore new tastes for its customers to gain customers attraction. Together they can make more innovative products not only to expand its products range but also to compete with its rivals. Therefore, they both have opportunities to enter new emerging markets together bringing new products and dominate the confectionery market in the upcoming years. Amazon As Amazon acquired Kiva robotic warehousing systems, there will be a great impact on labour in the future. Manual workers will be being replaced by robots which means, this will lead reduction in labour cost in coming years and thus, the annual labour costs for the company will decline in the upcoming future. Instead of labour costs, the company will only have to pay for the maintaining cost of the system. However, the initial planting cost for folding the system into Amazon will probably be quite a big cost for the company, even so Amazon has bought Kiva which means it buy its own product to enhance the system so there will be not much cost compared to buying external supplier. According to Stynes (2011), $2.4 million was spent by Amazon in installing air conditioners in four of its warehouses due to the collapse of workers by high temperature in summer. In the warehouses that use Kiva system need only a few workers and Kiva robots dont need the same level of climate control, meaning that Amazon can reduce its overhead cost. As not like human workers, Kiva robots can work without light (Madrigal, 2012) and this is another lightning overheard that Amazon can reduce and boost its profit margin. Nevertheless, if Amazon planned to replace the Kiva system once and for all, Amazon could face a pinch. Not only it is going to cost a big amount of initial cost but also the labour turnover cost. The biggest problem may be concerned with redundancy. Firing labour might combine and bring the Amazon a protest since it holds a considerable amount of labour. So the government will not stay still and the governmental involvement must be considered too.

Essay --

After collecting the data from three different people with different personalities and goals in life, I began to determine the strengths of each individual and see if the data correlated to each of their lives. Person A is currently in college studying mathematics, with an emphasis in actuary studies. The data that I collected from him represents his interest in mathematics well, and also shows his understanding of himself. It was interesting to note that although his specialty is in mathematics, his weakness is in his spatial skills. Person B has acquired an associate’s degree in culinary arts, and is now employed as a chef at a major hotel. The data collected from him shows that his strongest category was his intrapersonal skills. His weakest intelligence is his musical skills. Person C is currently attending university to acquire a degree in graphic design. It was interesting to me to see that her strongest intelligence was in her naturalist skills, considering her love for graphic design. I would have thought that her strongest intelligence would be in spatial skills. Her weakest intelligence was in bodily-kinesthetic skills. As for my data, I have determined that my strongest intelligence is my interpersonal skills, which I believe to be accurate, considering my interest in speech-language pathology. I will need to have good â€Å"people† skills in order to excel in that field. I did find it interesting, however, that my weakest intelligence was in my spatial skills. Although, I suppose it is accurate, considering I do my best work when I have physical directions or information in my possession, rather than creating my own. I have found it very interesting that each of us scored highly in the intrapersonal skills section of the ... ...t they will just start playing with him and he won’t have to do much talking after that. But the quiet kid who sits in the corner doesn’t often get invited to play. Teach your child some social scripts that he can use to initiate those interactions with other kids, such as: â€Å"Hi, I’m Nxx, what’s your name?† or â€Å"Can I play?† Considering that each of the three people that I have interviewed and I have good interpersonal skills, it should not be too difficult to communicate effectively. One way that I think I could definitely get everyone to get along would be to divide up activities. For example, in the morning, we would work on spatial skills for client A, while in the afternoon we would work on musical skills for client B. Then the last activity for the day could be working on bodily-kinesthetic skills for client C. This way, each individual is getting their turn.

Marlow’s Narrative Voice as a Rejection of the African People Essay

In â€Å"An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness†, Chinua Achebe says that â€Å"it is the desire ¬Ã¢â‚¬â€one might indeed say the need—in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe† (337). Indeed it is wise for Achebe to make this claim while discussing Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a short novel that presents the relationship between Europe and Africa as an entirely one-sided narrative which denies the African people their right to personage. For a majority of the novel, Marlow’s narration of a story goes so above and beyond telling one narrative, that it works toward preventing the African people from developing a voice of their own. Edward Said, in Culture and Imperialism, provides perhaps the most efficient explanation as to how the narrative that Marlow tells in the novel works against the African people: As one critic has suggested, nations themselves are narrations. The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism, and constitutes one of the main connections between them. (xiii) Marlow possesses the power to narrate, and therefore the power to block the African people from possessing their own voice. Achebe is right in saying that Marlow’s depiction of Africa â€Å"projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization† (338). However, beyond preventing a narrative from happen through the telling his own, Marlow performs a narrative that works toward creating a separation between â€Å"us†, the Europeans, and â€Å"them†, the Africans (xiii). His narrative, for the benefit of European identity, denies the African people any voice at all in the affairs between the two continents. Therefore, Marl... ...tz has been aligned with by his confrontation of the darkness, the same savagery that ultimately consumes him, finds it’s only voice in his last words: â€Å"The horror! The horror!†, but regardless, Marlow cannot allow them to become a part of the final narrative. He knows better than to allow the voice of a savage, which Kurtz became through becoming so engulfed in the darkness, have a voice in his narrative. Once again, the narrative denies the Africans, even in the voice of a European man, ever from having a voice in a narrative that primarily takes place on their territory. Marlow, as a man of Europe, appears to make the decision as to whether or not tell the intended Kurtz last words, but he knows that he could not since they would be a voice of the Congo. In conclusion, Marlow’s narrative is the narrative of the European city which exploits the African colony.

Free Speech -- Freedom of Speech Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order to find truth to anything, one must make multiple suggestions, ask many questions, and sometimes ponder the unspeakable. Without doing so, there would be no process of elimination; therefore, truth would be virtually unattainable. Now, in our attempts to either find truth, express our beliefs and opinions, or generally use the rights we are given constitutionally, we are often being criticized and even reprimanded. Our freedom to voice our opinion(s) is being challenged, as critics of free speech are taking offense to what seems like anything and everything merely controversial and arguably prejudice. As people continue to strive for a nation free of prejudice and discrimination, where everyone is equal, safe and happy, they overlook the outcome of creating such an environment. Without different beliefs, theories, opinions and controversy, we will never advance as a people. All we would be left to do is think and speak the same, and be lieve the same beliefs. Our minds will no longer be able to run wild with brilliant, and sometimes controversial, thoughts; though, even if they did, we wouldn't be able to vocalize any of it. Although it is comforting to think that there will come a time when nobody will say or do anything offensive and prejudice is diminished, the reality is that a nation without the freedom to voice anything controversial, opinionated , and even prejudice, is hardly desirable as we will be deprived of intellectual freedom and truth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is easy to wonder whether there really is such a thing as free speech; better yet, complete free speech. (â€Å"Free† meaning unrestricted and without consequences) Sure, the majority of us say whatever we want, when we want, to whom we want, but there are some cases where our speech is hardly free. There has been many instances where complications and debates have risen over borderline comments, words, etc. People are being told that they have the ability to say whatever they want and believe in; however, many people are facing lawsuits and even consequences for doing so. With that said, one could wonder whether there is inadequacy in our constitution that is allowing people to be reprimanded for practicing their rights. However, it is not always citizens who are being challenged by the government for abuse of free speech. In his essay, â€Å"In Defense Of Prejudice†, Jonathan Ra... ...solution is to ask which is more important: prohibiting language that could provoke or offend people (and thus prohibit any sort of opposition) or allow people to think out of the norm and different than what is considered morally acceptable? Conforming to censorship can only lead to silencing our voices and ultimately narrow our thoughts and minds. To risk hearing powerful voices in society because of who they may offend isn't worth it. It seems that people are being offended by comments that they allow to penetrate their self esteem and self respect. Being secure enough in your personal beliefs and yourself is the best way to handle what may be considered offensive speech. Allow people to feel, think and speak differently; for there is surely a time when we have said or will say something inciting to someone, regardless of whether it was purposeful or mistaken. We cannot allow such instances to constrain our right to voice our opinions. Censoring speech may prohibit citizens fr om speaking of unacceptable and provocative issues; however, those feelings and beliefs will still linger. Although they won't be expressed verbally, they will inevitably be expressed one way or another.

South Korean Pest

Moreover, President Lee is a strong devotee of free trade agreements (Fats) between foreign countries, and South Korea now has Fats with the European Union, the united States of America, and the SEAN countries. The current president Implemented new legislation to make South Korea more attractive for foreign investors. It will, for example, lower corporate tax rates and reduce administrative restrictions on business operations and investment. Furthermore, South Korea has a number of incentives to make foreign investment more at-attractive. These incentives are: Tax support, Cash grant, Site location support, and other sup-port. A.Tax support When foreign companies meet certain requirements, Income and corporate tax from earned Income, business Income, dividend Income, technology payments and custom du-titles on capital goods can be either reduced or be subject to dispensation In accordance with the Restriction of Special Taxation Act. B. Cash grant When a foreign investor meets certai n criteria, local and/or national government can offer a cash grant when the investor wants to build a new plant for example. These criteria are e. G. The creation of jobs, the location of the new plant, if the investment intervenes with lo-cal investment etc. C. Site locationSouth Korea provides so called Free Investment Zones (Fizz). These are to attract foreign Investors/companies. There are two types of Fizz: Complex and Individual. The complex type Is for small and medium sized firm wear as the individual type Is for large corpora-tools with large Investments. The requirements are to be found In the appendices. When a foreign company purchases or leases a piece of land or real-estate owned by the gob-ornament of South Korea, the company can apply for reduction or dispensation of the rental payment. However, the company must meet certain criteria. These are also to be found in the appendices.

Privatized School Systems

Our society, as a whole, has been heading toward a decentralized system of conducting its affairs. Large corporations have been getting larger , meanwhile governments have been giving up increasing amounts of their control. This decentralization has affected even former mainstays of government control, such as phone and power companies. As decentralization becomes more of a reality, there has been a great deal of debate over what controls the government should maintain or relinquish. The public school system has long been a source of frustration. Many feel the schools would be run more efficiently and with better results if privately run companies were to take over. They feel that with the existing large, encumbering bureaucracy, the government is simply unable to provide the proper base that is necessary to support a successful school system. The proponents of privatized school systems have long maintained that governments are not as knowledgeable about individual school environments as those who and they have to manage many schools, whereas the owners of a specific private subsidized school would be well informed about the school's circumstances and can concentrate on that school alone. They say that the governments role should become that of regulator, not schoolmaster, and that since the private schools do not face the political constraints that the municipal governments face,they would be more able to adapt to change. Since the operation of public schools is more bureaucratic and centralized than private subsidized schools, it is expected to inhibit rather than promote educational innovation. Private schools, being less bureaucratic and more decentralized, are expected to be more efficient organizations and to have a better perspective than their public school counterparts. They are also expected to provide a greater incentive and opportunity to come up with more innovative programs than public schools in order to stay competitive. Bureaucracy is expected to hinder initiative and efficiency, whereas the private sector in general is expected to be more dynamic and responsive because of their need to stay competitive. It is hoped that this competitiveness will foster innovation. On the other side of the debate is the group that favors continued government control over the school system. They argue that privatizing the schools would lead to a decreased focus on the needs of the children with an increased emphasis placed on the bottom line. They maintain that the companies taking over for the government would focus their attention more on cutting corners to make larger profits rather than on the education of children. With continued government control over the school system, there will remain a stability that is necessary to insure a full and equal educational opportunity for all. Having the education system privatized would create inequalities in the method that education would be provided. Those who oppose privatization agree that not only would municipal control maintain stability, but would also ensure fair and equal teatment for all. The same would not hold true if the schools were placed in private hands. Schools that do not make a profit along with teachers that are no longer needed would simply let go in order to save money or maintain profits. I can see that there are several benefits on both sides. The economic benefits are obviously in favor of a decentralized school structure. There be no bureaucracy to wade through to make the simplest decisions, in the system would allow teachers to make important ground level decisions as they see fit. This increased efficiency includes many benefits, but with what cost? What about the special needs children, or the under privileged, will the private companies take care of them? What happens when these companies don't make enough money on a school, will they close it down? The children whose schools have been closed will have to travel further and further just to get to school, if they even go. Maybe there should just be mega-schools were ten schools are combined into one, all to save the managing company money. With government control, there may not be efficiency but there is some stability. That is the important thing. Companies can open and close their doors in a day, but schools are more important than companies. Education is the key to our futures, can we afford to gamble with what is a stake? The government must become more efficient at doing its job in managing our schools, and business has proven itself to be efficient. Maybe there is a way to combine the two and receive the best of both worlds.

Critical Analysis of Traditional and Agile Project Management Essay

INTRODUCTION Project is an effort taken to build something unique within a specific period. (PMBOK, 2004: 20). This means that a project has a starting and an ending which has to be completed within the specified time. For a project to be completed within time limit and with little or no flaws, a plan has to be put in place so as to get a desired result. Project planning is the determination of the progress of a project to be carried out in a serial manner. (Successful Project Management, 2011: 57). Project planning is very essential in managing a project and will be discussed in detail specifically in traditional and agile project management which is the two major project management approaches. Critical analysis of these two approaches in respect to project planning will be given. That is treating the necessary processes in planning a project. Tools, techniques, and project lifecycle models used in project management will be explored. See more: how to write an analysis OVERVIEW Traditional project management TPM is a set of technique and tools that can be applied to an activity that seeks an end product, outcomes or service. This is a well taught out planning process which has a very strict control method that makes distinguishable stages in a project life cycle (hass, 2007). Requirement such as scope, cost and time are determined upfront, followed plans are also well laid out and once laid out, it cannot be modified. Due to this, life cycles are easily recognizable. Task are completed one after another once completed, it cannot be revisited. In TPM, a lot of importance is attached  to documentation of business needs thereby stakeholders needs are already known (Leybourne, 2009). TPM is based on the fact that situations surrounding project and activities are predictable and manageable (Hass 2007, Yusuf et al 1999). TPM views each project level as a separate process whose outcome or completion has an effect on how and when subsequent levels begin (caddle and Yeates 2008; Thonsett 2012). According to Larman (2004), a well thought out rule on project team members’ responsibilities are determined at the planning phase. This makes team members accountable for the project which ensures control (Saladis and Kezner, 2009). Examples of traditional models are: 1. PRINCE2 2. Waterfall 3. Event chain 4. CA-PPM. Agile project management APM is all about incremental iteration, adaptability, agility and collaboration (Scuh, 2005; Larman, 2004). It takes individual and iteration contribution over process and tools. It lays emphasis on short cycles of structure which happen at different levels and also emphasis on feedback (Hass, 2007). All plans are revisited to get certainty of delivery. APM sees the project as product increment. Due to its lack of structure, it requires a considerable amount of discipline and coordination. APM allows project scope to change rapidly and frequently which is done by constant communication with project stakeholders. APM teams consist of skilled members fully dedicated to the project and are co-located (Hass, 2007; Wysocki). The whole idea of what APM is all about is based on the agile manifesto. It was put forward by Martin Fowler and Jim Highsmith (wysocki,). Its content are given below: â€Å"We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items  on the left more.† Types of agile project management approaches are as follows: 1. Agile Unified Process (AUP) 2. Scrum 3. Lean Software Development 4. Extreme Programming (XP) 5. Dynamic Systems Development Method 6. Feature Driven Development Scope Planning Scope planning is a process that describes and documents the boundaries of a project and project expectation. TPM is a rigid approach that gives no room to change once the scope plan has been created. Plans are made to prevent change in project scope. It focuses on developing all parts of the scope first. Documentation is very detailed trying to encompass the whole requirement. The project scope statement consists of the objective and boundaries of the project and also product specification. Work breakdown structure is then created. In TPM, steps are taken that the team sticks to the scope of the project. Scope planning in APM is a high-level activity because little is known of the solution. Change is a key part of APM, making the scope very flexible. The scope is constantly redefined due to the series of iterations. Ideas could be added at stage of the project. Documentations is present but not as detailed as in TPM. APM focuses on developing the most important part of the scope first and then proceed to the next. Human Resource Planning In TPM, team is usually large in number and consists of various levels of skilled members. The teams are very organized. The teams don’t make decisions on their own without the approval of senior managers. APM team members are proficient and are highly skilled, they are collocated in order to handle changes in project scope and also performance, communication and more so, interrelation. APM consists of small team, members are mostly between five and nine, and they also are highly productive. Agile teams are self-organizing and disciplined (Hewson, 2006). Agile teams are basically  independent. Risk Planning TPM assumes that there will be risk in the project. This is put into consideration at the planning of the project and measures are put in place to handle it. Projects in APM are volatile and very unstable because the solutions are not known. Every iteration cycle comes with its own risks. These risks are expected and are handled sequentially when it arises during project (Owen et al, 2006). Proponents of agile approach argue that dealing with real risk is better than preparing for unknown risk (Schuh, 2005). Quality Quality in agile is often determined by the regular feedback and acknowledgement of the customer’s view of the quality of the product. Time planning: In traditional approach, time estimation is dependent on the amount of tasks to be executed. Time estimation is done right after the WBS is created. Effort is made in other to complete the project within the required time (Hass, 2007). In agile approach, time estimation is based on features. The numbers of features to be developed determine the amount of time that will be used. Scheduling and workflow are also closely aligned. Management style: In TPM, the project manager is responsible solely for the planning and allocation of responsibilities (Kerzner, 2003). Traditional project managers focus more on the schedule, scope and budget (Fernandez and Fernandez, 2009). In APM, the project manager works in collaboration with the team (Hass, 2007). Agile managers focus more on the business value and deliverables (Fernandez and Fernandez, 2009). Cost management: Agile projects should be based on either a cost-reimbursable system, or the client accepts scope is a variable based on achieving the maximum improvement possible for a pre-set budget. This is a totally different philosophy to traditional project governance. Tools, Technique, models, and Project Lifecycle Models There are numerous tool and technique that can be utilized in the course of planning a project which include: Gantt chart is a graphical representation for scheduling the execution of various project activities. It can be used to make an approximation of time required to complete the  project. Brainstorming involves the assembling of idea by a group of people in order to solve problem and to arrive at a conclusion. It is essential in development of new ideas. Work breakdown structure (WBS) is the breaking down of project into smaller more manageable pieces in a hierarchical order. Each level in WBS is a smaller piece of the level above. Fishbone diagram is also known as cause-and-effect diagram. It is used to check the cause of a specific event. They also help during the collating and analyzing factors phase of project planning. Critical Path Method involves dealing with activities that has to be completed in order for other activities to be completed. It helps in the sequencing and correlating of interdependent processes. PERT Chart is a representation that shows the task to be performed serially in a graphical form. It helps to focus more on the most critical part of the project in order to reduce constriction. Project Charter is a document that formally authorizes a project statement. It contains project justification, business needs and so on. . (PMBOK, 2004) Scope Statement ensures that only the required work is done. That is work is not done out of scope of the project. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be done by the project team, to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. WBS is a tool which focuses on how a project work should be done. It breaks down the work to be done into smaller sections that can be managed by the project team, each section give details of the project work as such giving team understanding of what do(Biafore, 2011). WBS can be depicted as an outline or a diagram (Biafore, 2011). The number of levels present in a WBS should be reasonable as this is determined by how voluminous and complex the project is. WBS helps in d identification of task, brings to light what d project entails and a lot of other tools depend on WBS. It also allows stakeholders have an understanding of the scope of the project (Biafore, 2011). PERT Chart (Project Evaluation and Review Technique) It is visual illustration of a project plan task. It document important or critical phases of a project. It helps to identify critical processes and  the time that the process will end. It can also help in the documentation of a project. It helps in the organizing and scheduling of interrelated tasks in a complex project (Chinneck, 2009). It does this by using a network description to show parallel relationships between tasks (Chinneck, 2009). It helps in the completion of each task in other of precedence. It is a very important tool for tracking project activities and milestones. PERT enables the project team to handle task in order of importance. It also deal with uncertainty in process completion dates and determines activities start and end dates. Finally, PERT chart can be adjusted at anytime in the duration of the project. Linear Project Management Lifecycle Model This is a simple TPM approach which does not allow for returning to a project which has previously been completed. (Effective : 329). This means that once a phase in a project is completed, there will be no room to do any kind of adjustment. Incremental Project Management Lifecycle Model It is a traditional TPM in which unlike linear. It releases a solution to each phase of the project and it also emphasis on customer value than the linear approach. (Fernandez, Fernandez). Iterative Project Management Lifecycle Model In the iterative PMLC, change is required as it is the important part of the model. It is a learn by doing strategy. (Fernandez, Fernandez). All iteration consists of feedback loop, and it involves more clients and customers than incremental. Adaptive Project Management Lifecycle Model This is a PMLC that almost nothing is known about the solution and almost all of it are designed for software development project. It deals with a high level of uncertainty because little is known of the end product. Extreme Project Management Lifecycle Model In this model, there is no broad knowledge and solution about the project. The level of uncertainty is high and also that of clients too. CONCLUSION After looking at the two approaches, it is seen that both approaches are good  and can work perfectly well depending on the project at hand. TPM due to its detailed planning is the preferred choice for structured project. It is used in large projects that have well understood features and requirements and which involves large teams. Also, TPM is suitable for project that requires little change. APM is the preferred choice for unstructured projects. These kinds of projects have a high level of uncertainty and unpredictability about them. APM unlike TPM involves smaller projects.

Linkage Between Capital Market Development and Economic Growth Essay

The capital market is an integral part of the financial system that provides efficient delivery mechanism for mobilization and allocation, management and distribution of long-term fund (Sunday O. E. Ewah and Judey Bassey). The capital market is a market for long-term debt and equity securities, where business enterprise and government can raise fund for long-term investments. It is normally divided into two broad categories: the stock market and the bond market (Central Bank of Lesotho Economic Review 2009). According to Tokunbo S.Osinubi (2000), the stock market is reported to perform some functions which promote the growth and development of an economy. It plays a pivotal role in mobilizing idle fund from surplus economic unit and channels such fund into deficit unit for investment in long-term project. The supplier of funds are basically individuals and corporate bodies who subscribe to capital market instrument as a way of adding value to their unused financial resources while the deficit unit i. e. the end users of the fund are government and corporate bodies as individual cannot approach the capital market for fund. Equally, the capital market provides ideal source for corporate bodies and government to pool monies from people and corporate bodies to finance capital intensive project which its internal purse cannot cope with. Akingboungbe (1996) opined that the importance of the capital lies in its financial intermediation capacity to link the laggard sector of the economy with the active sector. According to him, the absence of such capacity robs the economy of investment and production of goods and services for societal advancement. Capital market in any nation exists to provide long-term funds for government and corporate bodies for development purpose. It deals with long-term financial instruments which include equities or stocks, debentures, government bonds and derivatives like future options. In the capital market, the stock in trade is money which is often viewed as the lubricant of the economy and which can be raised through various instruments such as right issues, debt instrument, equity offering as well as through the stock exchange. This is a pointer to the fact that the capital market provides the wherewithal with which the goal of economic growth can be actualized, and equally held the key to economic prosperity of any nation. A virile capital market is capable of assisting a nation to muster financial resources and skills for rapid growth and development. The capital market is viewed as engine of growth in most countries. Empirical research by CBL Economic Review 2009 indicated that the capital market connects monetary sectors with the real sector and therefore facilitates growth in the real sector and economic development. The CBL economic review adduced the following as the fundamental channels through which capital market is connected to economic growth: First, capital markets increase the proportion of long-term savings (pension, funeral savings) that is channeled to long-term investment. Capital market enables contractual savings industry to mobilize long-term savings from small individual households and channel them into long-term investment. It fulfils the transfer of current purchasing power, in monetary forms from surplus sector to deficit sectors, in exchange for reimbursing a great purchasing power in future. In this way, the capital market enables corporations to raise funds to finance their investments in real estate. The implication will be an increase in aggregate consumption and hence growth and development. Second, capital market also provides equity capital and infrastructure development capital that has strong socio-economic benefit through development of roads, housing, energy, telecommunication, etc. These projects are ideal for financing through capital market via long-term bonds and asset backed securities. Moreover, capital market promotes public-private partnership to encourage private sector participation in productive investment. The need to shift economic growth from public to private sector has become inevitable as resources continue to diminish . It assists the public sector to close the resource gap, and complement its effort in financing socio-economic development through raising long-term project based capital. It also attracts foreign portfolio investors who are critical in supplementing the domestic savings levels. It facilitates inflow of foreign exchange into the domestic economy. Furthermore, the CBL Economic review 2009 equally asserted that countries with developed capital market have higher economic growth than countries without. An instance cited to justify this position is South Africa, the country with the largest and most developed capital market in Africa in terms of market capitalization which is experiencing faster growth compared to other countries with less-developed capital market. In Nigeria, the capital market seems not to have contributed so robustly to economic growth as the empirical research of the CBL Economic review and the predict of endogenous growth model which envisage positive correlation between the development of the capital market and economic growth both suggested. The capital market in Nigeria started rolling in 1960 when the Nigeria Stock Exchange was opened. It metamorphosed from the Lagos Stock Exchange which had been created in 1959 based on the recommendation of the Barback Committee set up by the then federal government. However, the Nigeria capital market has enjoyed a decade of unprecedented growth in the past five years. Going by the annual report of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) the total market capitalization has increased by over 90%though, this feat was short lived by the decline of 45. 8% in market capitalization recorded in 2008. According to the NSE, the impressive performance of the capital market can be attributed to some reasons: First, the bank consolidation exercise which introduced a minimum capital requirement for banks stimulated the performance of the capital market as it has encouraged most banks to choose the stock market. Equally, the privatization policy has also significantly impacted on the performance of the capital market. Even though with this scenario, the Nigeria capital market is yet to keep pace with the trend across the globe. According to Sule Ndanusa the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nigeria capital market is still a small market by international standard as its equity listing and market capitalization stood at 196 and $7billion respectively. This size of the Nigeria capital market is affected by the continuous depreciation of the naira. While the global trend dictates that the market capitalization of the capital market should be nearer the GDP or be above it, the market capitalization of the Nigeria capital market hovered around 60% and 39% respectively for 2007 and 2008 (NSE Annual report2009) respectively compared to that of South Africa which stood at 239%. Thus, a lot still need to be done to make the Nigeria capital market the engine of growth for the Nigeria economy. Given the scenario in the Nigeria capital market, the point of departure of this study is to examine the linkage between capital market development and economic growth with a view to explore the channels through which the capital market in Nigeria can be made engine of growth while addressing problem inherent in its operation. In the word of Adebiyi (2005), capital market in developing countries often suffer from classical defect such as illiquidity, lack of equity capital, bank dominated economies and lack of investor’s confidence in the capital market. The situation in the Nigeria capital market is not different as the predominant problem revolves around low market capitalization as well as illiquidity as most research works have revealed (e. g. Emenuga 2004, Judey Bassey and Sunday E. Ewah). This is coupled with the more serious obstacle of non-strengthening of the channels of transmission from financial development to economic growth such as financial depth(ratio of financial asset to national income), advanced financial structure(moving from bank and non-bank ntermediaries to stock market ), size as well as the efficiency of the financial system . The description of the Nigeria capital market as a small market by international standard as well the dominant roles which banks still play in the financial system at the expense of other financial intermediaries lends credence to this viewpoint. Several recent overviews of the link between financial market development and economic growth affirm positive correlation between financial market development and economic growth. But, in Nigeria evidences to this effect are weak, inconclusive and non-definitive. For instance, Sunday O. E. Ewah and Jude Bassey (2004) concluded that capital market has growth inducing potential but it has not contributed to economic growth owing to such problems such as low market capitalization and illiquidity. In similar vein, efforts were equally made by Nyong (1997) to develop an aggregate index of capital market development and use it to determine its relationship with long-term growth in Nigeria. The study employed a time series data between 1970 and 1974. The result of the study reveals that capital market is negatively and significantly correlated with long-run growth in Nigeria. The result also showed that there exist bi-directional causality between capital market development and economic growth. However, Levine and Zervos (1996) established positive relationship between the measure of stock market development and long-run growth rates. Ariyo and Adelegan (2005) contended that the liberalization of capital market contributes to the growth of the Nigeria capital market but its impact at the macro-economy is negligible. That is, the question of the channels through which capital market development correlate with economic growth has not been given detailed attention in empirics literature in Nigeria as most available empirical analysis in this direction are cross-country study and more so, are conducted for Asian and European economy. Such works include Jose De Gregorio et al (2003) Dipendra Sinha et al Saray Joy et al (2002) . A more potent proof of the scanty of evidence on the channel of transmission from financial development and economic growth can be found in the word of Valpy FitzGerald (2006) who stated that financial development and economic growth are clearly related and this relationship has occupied the mind of economists from Smith to Schumpeter, although the channels and direction of this relationship has remained unresolved in both theory and empirics literature. Thus, the absence of empirical analysis in this direction has left a serious gap that needed to be filled with a research enquiry. Following the foregoing from the few empirical evidences sighted above which reveal inadequacy and lack of agreement among analysts about the sine-qua-non role of capital market in economic growth coupled with scanty of literature on channels of transmission from financial development to growth and the pervasive problem of decline in market capitalization and illiquidity which characterize the Nigeria capital market as reflected in Nigeria Stock Exchange Annual report(2009), it becomes important to turn the searchlight on the capital market and every other thing that accompany or propel it with a view to empirically examine how linkage between capital market development and economic growth as well as the channels of transmission from capital market development to growth can be pursued to bring the dream of economic growth to fruition.

W Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

W - Essay Example Oligopoly involves a market with a limited number of sellers. Monopsony is market with several sellers and a single buyer. Chamberlin’s most outstanding contribution to imperfect competition is the theory on monopolistic competition. This theory provides that there are several consumers and producers in a market and no one has total control of the market price. There is an existence of non-price differences between products with limited barriers to entry and exit. In this market, the producers also have some level of control over prices. Chamberlin conceived production differentiation, which describes the ability of producers to charge different prices for the same product in different markets (Chamberlin 519). Robinson’s contribution to imperfect competition centers on monopsony, which was conceived in her book ‘The economics of imperfect competition’. The term is often associated with the purchase of labor where the employer possess the power to set wages which allows them to pay the workers less than their marginal productivity (Helpman 54). Alfred Marshall was an economist and the founder of neoclassical economics. Marshalls book the ‘Principles of Economics’ introduced the concepts of integrating demand, supply, cost of production and marginal utility. This book was widely used because it introduced radical changes on how to teach economics. Unlike other books, which were written is solely in paragraphs, the book incorporated diagrams to allow for better understanding. Marshall’s concepts made a significant contribution to neoclassical economics. Among these contributions is the analysis of price. According to Marshall, consumers act rationally and seek to maximize utility while producers seek maximum rewards. The equilibrium price and quantity can be determined by drawing a demand and supply curve. His analysis of price emphasized the cost of production as a

GOLD NANO PARTICLES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

GOLD NANO PARTICLES - Essay Example variations that are used in comprehension of plasomons which depends on the wavelength, otherwise known as conduction-band electrons during oscillation. This phenomenon translates into absorption and scattering ability of light, which is an important feature to biological applications like sensing and imaging. The ability of bio molecules to interact both inside and at the surface of a cell can result into varied interactions according to the size of nanoparticle. Currently, for medical sector purposes, it is possible to modify and fabricate nanoparticles and AUNPS is best for clarifying the distinct properties of the â€Å"red surface Plasmon resonances band at 520† with catalytic activity which is high and easily fabricated with the use of thiol interconnected to SS-DNA which enables them to be components that are stable for bio-sensing purposes. When nanoparticles and biological elements of lipids, proteins and nucleic acids are combined, they can reveal specific functions in bioprobes and biosensors. It is therefore, important to note that, nanoscale particles possess clear and exceptional potential of detecting and accurately diagnosing cancer (Chan 2007). To increase the level of sensitivity like in surface enhanced Rayleigh scattering, surface enhanced fluorescence, and surface enhanced Raman scattering, the use of surface Plasmon have been significant. Though, SERS is an attractive and has very unique technique that can be vital in measuring rotational, vibration and molecules of low transition frequency based on Raman scattering (Chan

The essay should apply economic analysis to a real world situation or

The should apply economic analysis to a real world situation or issue - Essay Example Nonetheless, irrespective of the diverse challenges facing the global economy presently, continental Europe poses the biggest threats to the growth of the world economy (Economist, 2014). Presently Germany is witnessing a fall in terms of growth. Based on the contribution that Germany makes to the Eurozone, this means that the euro area will head towards its third recession in a period of six years. Irrespective of the efforts that the leaders of the Eurozone have made to boost the growth of the region and save the dominant currency, they have ended up wasting two years without any progress (EurActiv, 2015). Italians and the French have for instance embarked on introducing structural reforms while Germans have supposed strictness of operations, and these efforts have not been effective in boosting growth in the region. In the European region, more than eight countries are witnessing falling prices. The overall rate of inflation has gone down considerably to about 0.3 percent, and will deteriorate further in the coming years. The Eurozone comprises of about one-fifth of the global output. Thus, with the rate at which the region is witnessing deflation and stagnation, it is likely that this effect will prevail in different parts of the world, leading to global stagnation in the coming years (Los Angeles Times, 2015). Despite the effect being felt in Europe, several optimists both outside and inside Europe refer to the example of Japan. During the late 1990s, Japan witnessed a major deflation, which has unpleasant effects. This deflation did not have the major influence on the country or the world. However, based on the events taking place in the Eurozone, it is apparent that more dangers will emerge. Unlike in the case of Japan, the case of the Eurozone is not secluded. From America to China, the rate of inflation is considerably low and falling. Unlike Japan’s case, whose society is

Employee engagement in Marks and Spencer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Employee engagement in Marks and Spencer - Essay Example The paper tells that the structure and the elements of organizational policies depend primarily on the needs of each organization. At the next level, the potential of an organization to respond to the demands of a particular plan needs to be carefully measured in advance, i.e. before implementing the initial phase of the plan. On the other hand, the response of employees to organizational changes cannot be precisely estimated in advance. This problem has been critical in the context of modern organizations; indeed, employee resistance to change is among the key problems of businesses in all industries. In practice it has been proved that when employees are urged to participate in organizational plans, their resistance to the changes initiated is limited. In this context, the use of various strategies for promoting employee participation can be characterized as unavoidable. Employee engagement is a concept reflecting the promotion of employee participation in critical organizational a ctivities. Employee engagement has been described as ‘an individual’s sense of purpose and focused energy, evident to others in the display of personal initiative, adaptability, effort and persistence directed towards organizational goals’. In accordance with another definition, employee engagement should be considered as ‘a work – related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption’. From another point of view, employee engagement has been characterized as the view that each employee has in regard to his work experience. (Finney 2008, p.204) The role of employee engagement in modern organizations is examined in this paper. Reference is made to the employee engagement policies of Marks and Spencer, a well-known British firm. The efforts of the firm to promote employee engagement across its departments are evaluated using the literature developed in the particular field. 2. Marks and Spencer Overview Marks and Spence r is a major competitor in the global retail industry. The firm’s employees are estimated to 78,000, referring to the firm’s stores in UK and worldwide (Marks and Spencer, About us, 2012). The organization is quite expanded in UK, with a network of about 700 stores, but also internationally (Marks and Spencer, About us, 2012). The firm operates in the food sector, with a percentage of 51%, while the activities of the organization in the clothing and homeware represent the 49% of the firm’s sales (Marks and Spencer, About us, 2012). The organization has been in the British market for quite a long period of time, being established in 1901 in Derby (Marks and Spencer, History 2012). Through the decades the growth of the organization has been impressive, as proved through its current position in the international market. 3. Employee engagement in Marks and Spencer - Plan A Employee Engagement scheme 3.1 Key aspects of employee engagement in Marks and Spencer  œ Presentation and analysis of Plan A Employee Engagement scheme Employee engagement in Marks and Spencer is promoted through a scheme known as Plan A. The specific scheme was introduced in 2007 and is based on 100 targets, which need to have been achieved within 5 years, meaning the period from 2010 up to 2015. The particular plan aims to increase the firm’s competitiveness by promoting the cooperation among employees in regard to the improvement of the firm’s performance in the following sectors: ‘Raw materials, ethical trading, climate change, health, and waste management’ (Marks and Spencer, Plan A, 2012). The above sectors are characterized as the ‘pillars’ (Marks and Spencer Plan A, 2012) on which the firm should focus in order to face all challenges related to the retailing industry. Up today, the performance of the firm’s specific initiative can be characterized as quite important, a view verified by the following fact: In the 6 th

Willa Cather Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Willa Cather - Essay Example While editing the mÐ °gÐ °zine, she wrote short stories to fill its pÐ °ges. These stories, published in Ð ° collection cÐ °lled the Troll GÐ °rden in 1905, brought her to the Ð °ttention of S.S. McClure. In 1906 she moved to New York to join McClure's MÐ °gÐ °zine, initiÐ °lly Ð °s Ð ° member of the stÐ °ff Ð °nd ultimÐ °tely Ð °s its mÐ °nÐ °ging editor. During this time she met SÐ °rÐ ° Orne Jewett, Ð ° womÐ °n from MÐ °ine who inspired her to lÐ °ter write Ð °bout NebrÐ °skÐ °. In 1912, Ð °fter five yeÐ °rs with McClure's, she left the mÐ °gÐ °zine to hÐ °ve time for her own writing. Ð fter the publicÐ °tion of Ð lexÐ °nder's Bridge, Ð °lso in 1912, CÐ °ther visited the Southwest.In 1913 O Pioneers wÐ °s published Ð °nd in 1917 she wrote My Ð ntoniÐ ° while living in New HÐ °mpshire. By 1923 she hÐ °d won the Pulitzer Prize for her One of Ours, Ð °nd in this yeÐ °r her modernist book Ð  lost lÐ °dy wÐ °s published. Ð t the ti me her novels focused on the destruction of provinciÐ °l life Ð °nd the deÐ °th of the pioneering trÐ °dition.LÐ °ter CÐ °ther hÐ °d the period of despÐ °ir which wÐ °s followed by her productive success during these yeÐ °rs. Ð fter she recovered, she mÐ °nÐ °ged to write some of her greÐ °test novels, such Ð °s The Professor’s Hourse (1925), My MortÐ °l Enemy (1926), Ð °nd DeÐ °th Comes for the Ð rchbishop. She mÐ °intÐ °ined Ð °n Ð °ctive writing cÐ °reer, publishing novels Ð °nd short stories for mÐ °ny yeÐ °rs until her deÐ °th on Ð pril 24, 1947. Ð t the time of her deÐ °th, she ordered her letters burned. WillÐ ° CÐ °ther wÐ °s buried in New HÐ °mpshire (Marilyn, 1996).Like many artists, Willa Cather knew personal conflict.... By 1923 she hd won the Pulitzer Prize for her One of Ours, nd in this yer her modernist book lost ldy ws published. t the time her novels focused on the destruction of provincil life nd the deth of the pioneering trdition. Lter Cther hd the period of despir which ws followed by her productive success during these yers. fter she recovered, she mnged to write some of her gretest novels, such s The Professor's Hourse (1925), My Mortl Enemy (1926), nd Deth Comes for the rchbishop (1927). She mintined n ctive writing creer, publishing novels nd short stories for mny yers until her deth on pril 24, 1947. t the time of her deth, she ordered her letters burned. Will Cther ws buried in New Hmpshire (Marilyn, 1996). Like many artists, Willa Cather knew personal conflict. She was a free thinker reared amidst Calvinist dogma; a materialist acutely aware of the limited worth of "things"; an optimist who wanted to retain faith; a skeptic prone to depression and despair. In her fiction, successful marriages, happy families, and satisfying personal relationships are as scarce as summer rain in the New Mexican desert. Suicide marks her pages like the Platte River cuts Nebraska. Of all her conflicts, however, none is more acute or controversial than her sexuality. There are those who maintain that Cather was not homoerotic. For instance, in an interview published in the Omha World-Herald ( 1984), Susan J. Rosowski and Mildred Bennett advocate Cather's heterosexuality and maintain that her interest in other women was nothing more than school-girl crushes ( Cather Scholar 4). Sharon O'Brien , first in several essays and then in Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice, and others elsewhere have argued rather conv incingly that

UNIT 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

UNIT 6 - Essay Example Peterson had a right of being informed of the plans to transfer his employment contract and the ownership of the station in advance. Peterson had a right to resign if he did not intend to extend his contract to Evening news but he will not have any right to claim for redundancy or unfair dismissal pay. If the working conditions in the new employer are worse, Peterson has a right to resign and claim for unfair dismissal pay. Peterson has a right to disagree with the transfer of his employment contract to a new employer. This is when the new employer wants to change the term of the contract, which had been agreed by Peterson and the previous employer. If the employers want to change the terms of contract for the benefit of Peterson, it will be allowed. If the new employer wants to dismiss or make any redundancy for technical or an economic reason, Peterson has a right to redundancy payment. The employer should not select Peterson for redundancy because he transferred from another compa ny. (Beatty & Samuelson, 2007) Peterson has a right to enforce the contract between Post-Network and evening News because he was not considered in the transfer of the Station to Evening News yet he had signed a binding agreement with Post-Network as an employer for three years. It is not ethical for Evening News to prevent Peterson from changing job to work for the competing station because Peterson had informed them early of his plan to resign. In addition, Peterson had not entered into any contract with Evening News, as the contract was not changed during the transfer of the station. The previous employer of the transfer did not inform Peterson. Post-Network had a right to transfer the station but should have informed Peterson through a letter in advance that the station is transferred such that Peterson can decide whether to work for the new employer or not. Collateral contract is whereby parties to a contract enter in to more than two