Political Campaign

As the political campaign manager for Oprah’s Presidential campaign in 2012, I follow the five basic management functions: planning, leading, organizing, control, and staffing. Each of those functions will be important roles to the different divisions I have created. The staff and volunteers that will help the campaign are hard working people that enjoy working, have self-control and are trustworthy, like Theory Y people. All decision-makings will be a team effort. Meaning each department is able to have a say so we can find the best solution. The department consists of scheduling, field, finance, communications, legal, and technology. The people that run the department has the skills and experience to know what will work for this campaign. I trust they will do what is best for the campaign. Each department will have their own set of volunteers and their own objective to reach our goal, to win the Presidential campaign, if not at least let everyone know who Oprah is and what she stands for. The scheduling department is responsible for Oprah and her campaign to have full exposure in the public eye so the voters know who she is. The team will arrive to events before the candidate to make sure everything is in order. As the campaign manager, I am responsible for scheduling, planning events for Oprah to attend, managing her personal and campaign schedule, and the schedules of all the coordinators. The coordinators will be in charge of their staff and volunteers. Also part of the scheduling department is event planners Nate Berkus and Peter Walsh. They are responsible for addressing Oprah’s purpose and message, in meeting formats including seminars, conferences, trade shows, executive retreats, incentive programs, golf events, and conventions (Hard). They will make sure the location, food, and people, are set to come and enjoy. In the field department, there is Laura Berman, the organizer, Gayle King, our volunteer coordinator, and Mark Consuelos, the GOTV (Get out the vote) coordinator. Laura is responsible for organizing the jobs such as making phone calls, sponsoring a coffee or brunch, putting up yard signs, typing, mailing address envelopes, computers, distributing brochures, driving, giving rides, registering voters, etc. Gayle is responsible for recruiting volunteers. Each volunteer will â€Å"fill out a volunteer card with their name, address, ask if [they are] able to make a contribution and if not how they can help (Gray 244). The purpose of this is to keep track of who we have volunteering and making sure they get the right recognition when the campaign is over. Gayle and Laura oversee the volunteers and make sure jobs are assigned to the right people. They both have to plan out how to distribute their good volunteers throughout the different areas and consistently check up on the volunteers, making sure work is getting done. As the coordinators, Laura and Gayle have to avoid bruising egos and prevent bad days. Mark’s job is to plan the GOTV efforts. He will work with volunteers and his team has to encourage those who have not registered to vote. They have to explain to non-registered voters why their votes are important. Recruiting the right people is very important. Some of the traits they should have are alert to social environment, cooperative, persistent, adaptable to situations, ambitious, willing to assume responsibility, achievement oriented, energetic and dependable (Dessler 273). Once volunteers are establish, they will go through a brief orientation about our campaign and will receive a job description from the departments. They will choose which they prefer. Suze Orman will be the financial coordinator and is charge of money and fund-raising. She has to prepare a budget and see how to get the money for each budget item. Suze will be maintaining a balance sheet of all the expenses the campaign is charging for the necessary things such as, headquarter rent, stationery and envelopes, office supplies, postage, printing of the brochures, maps, etc. She will also have to keep up with the operating budget for the departments, making sure they are staying to the budget they receive. As the financial coordinator, she has to spend as little as possible on the necessary item because more money will be needed in advertising. Suze will also be responsible for raising the money, but she won’t do it herself. Under her will be Jean Chatzky, the fund-raiser coordinator, who will work with Nate and Peter, the event planners, to plain a fund-raising event. The fund-raising event would be a high-priced sit-down dinner with Oprah. Another fund-raising technique it to send out e-mail messages to potential donors asking for money. The volunteers will be asked that for every event they work, to ask for donations. Every cent will make a difference. The communications department oversees both the press relations and advertising. They are responsible getting out the campaign's message and image. Press releases, advertisements, phone scripts, mailing list, and other forms of communication have to go through this department before they are released to the public. People working in this department include press secretary, who monitors the media, manage the campaign's relations with the press, set up interviews between the candidate and reporters, brief the press at press conferences, and perform tasks that involves in press relations (â€Å"Campaign Staff Training and Jobs†). Another person working in the department is Marianne Williamson, the rapid response director, who makes sure that the campaign responds quickly to the attacks from the other campaigns. The staff constantly monitors the media and the moves of their opponents, making sure that attacks are rebutted quickly. There are two other people part of this department, the political consultants and the professional speech writers. The political consultants will advice Oprah throughout her campaign when she needs it. The speechwriters are there to help Oprah give a great speech from her and not from someone else. Volunteers will be making, folding, and sending out letters, making signs and posting them everywhere and they will also be making many phone calls to the general public. The legal and technology department are self-explanatory departments that requires many staff members. The legal department will have dozens of lawyers and treasurers making sure that the campaign's activities are consistent with the law and also make sure that the campaign files have the appropriate forms with government authorities. They are also responsible for tracking the finances, such as bank reconciliations, loans and donations (â€Å"Campaign Staff Training and Jobs†). The technology department has armies of computer professionals spread throughout state or country handling the website’s designs and maintains the campaign technology such as Voter File, blogs, and databases. They will oversee the online forums, and help create â€Å"buzz† worthy news about Oprah. As Oprah’s Presidential campaign manager, I work with all five departments to make sure we get out Oprah’s message across America. I am a participative leader with an authoritative and democratic style, because I believe that problems should be solve with everyone who is involve. Making sure everyone is staying to the plan and creating a great team with 100% participation and communication with each other. You could say I follow the situational leadership model. It is not just I who will be affected but also everyone who worked hard to get to where we will be. Each department interlace with one another. Not one department is left alone to do all the work. The departments are divided into a smaller area to create a flat organization. Everyone who is part of this campaign has their own skills that will have a great effort on one another. With the help of the many volunteers, I believe we will have a successful campaign.

Unifine Richardson Case

Executive Summary- This report will evaluate an analyze Unifine Richardson’s current purchasing strategy. The company currently purchases approximately one million pounds of honey per year. A majority of the purchased honey is a 50-50 blend of Chinese and Canadian honey. Unifine Richardson’s main honey supplier is Harrington Honey. Unfortunately, Harrington Honey has informed Unifine Richardson that they can no longer supply the company with honey from China. Harrington Honey’s decision to stop importing honey from China was based on China’s use of chloramphenicol, which is an antibiotic that is band for use in food-producing animals.As a result of the Harrington Honey’s decision to stop importing honey and not having secondary supplier, Rob Pincombe (Unifine Richardson’s purchasing manager) must make a decision on how to proceed. Because he does not have a secondary supplier which I think is the root of his problem, Rob has to make a decisio n based on the following analysis points: †¢He has a small window to make a decision †¢Honey expenditures make up 3 to 5 percent of the firms total expenditures †¢He must analyze the other import options oCanadian only will cost $1. 75/lb. oUS only will cost $1. 10/lb. US dollar) o50/50 Argentina/Canadian cost $1. 42/lb. ?US imposed a tariff tax on Argentina honey ?There’s a chance that the honey for Argentina may be recalled n by management. Recommendations discussed include: Problem Statement: In spite of meeting the company’s current delivery schedule, there are several issues that must be addressed by the Quality Assurance Director and the company’s other directors. As indicted by the General Manager there is, â€Å"lack of a quality attitude in the plant†. Because of that lack of quality Below are some of the identified issues; 1.Quality Processes are not being followed 2. Operations personnel are not properly trained to operate machin ery 3. Maintenance personnel are not performing the proper scheduled maintenance 4. Purchasing is not properly coordinating with the sales representatives. 5. Design and Packaging potentially developed a defective product, 6. Lack of coordination between manufacturing and the other department 7. Marketing poor coordination. These issues are reducing the quality of the product that’s being produced and probably costing the company a lot of money.Analysis Plans: For the analysis, a Strategic Factor Analysis Summary (SFAS) Matrix (Wheeler, 2011) will be used. This matrix will be used to identify the external and internal factors that are causing this company to produce products that are not meeting the desired specifications. Based on the data provide, the matrix will focused on the following factors: man, machine, materials, and methods. These factors appear to play a part in the product variations. Each factor will be weighed and ranked based on how the company responded to th e factor in the document.Assumptions/Other Data: B-Cycles are primarily locations are in downtown Denver, Cherry Creek and Denver University neighborhoods (Denver B Cycle, 2012). This case study is being generated under the assumption that if the rider does not live in these are primary locations of the bikes, they are commuters and they either commute via RTD or their private vehicles. So, the alternates cannot be fully eliminated from the equations. Conclusion – This company’s SFAS Matrix (Wheeler, 2011) weighted score is 2. 05 the average is score is 3. 0. This company is not paying attention to the factors that could lead to the production of a quality product. Based on the information provide, this company is more focused on meeting the order demand vice delivering a quality product. Employees are cutting corners and processes in order to meet the delivery schedules, there are no process related decisions being made. It appears that quality and safety come second to schedule The General Manager is the ultimate cause of these quality and safety oversights.His schedule is causing employees are taking shortcuts to meet it, which in turn, is causing variances that are leading to products that aren’t being product to the desired specification. Recommendation – My recommendations to Mr. Kolb are: 1. In the short term ensure that the over pressurize cans follow the proper process. If they require rework, for the safety of the employees he has to ensure that’s what happens no shortcut. 2. He has to bring his findings to the General Manager (GM), the GM may not have a clear understanding of how his schedule is effecting the entire plant. . I would recommend a Kaizen Event, that’s attended by all process owners from each business area. The groups can define their processes an identify how they impact other business areas. The group can make process improvements as needed Figure 1 Strategy Canvas of Alternatives to B-Cycle T able 1 Attributes for the Alternatives Figure 2 Strategy Canvas for B-Cycle Table 2 Attributes for B-Cycle Works Cited Denver B Cycle. (2012). Retrieved from Denver B Cycle: http://denver. bcycle. com/home. aspx Downtown Denver Bicycle Trends and Conditions: June 2012. 2012, Jun). Retrieved from http://www. downtowndenver. com/LinkClick. aspx? fileticket=O8RegjT0HAs%3D&tabid=566 Hertz Global Holdings INC. (2011, 12 31). 2011-12-31 Annual/10K Report. Retrieved from 2011-12-31 Annual/10K Report: http://ezproxy2. library. colostate. edu:2735/documents. php? compnumber=116020 Partnership’s, D. D. (2012). State of Downtown Denver. Retrieved from State of Downtown Denver: http://downtowndenver. com/LinkClick. aspx? fileticket=p%2bRv8bvTlF8%3d&tabid=538 Wheeler, J. D. (2011). Essenials of Strategic Management.

Performance appraisals in mc donalds Assignment

Performance appraisals in mc donalds - Assignment Example Living up by the brand name and delivering the customers with the desired services that meet their quality and taste considerations make up for the company policy. Further, ensuring equal care for the employees is also part of McDonald’s policy and procedure. McDonalds makes use of result based evaluation of the employees. This is based on the results and the satisfaction level of the customers. This is better compared to the other two mentioned because it comes directly through the customers response. Keeping the customers views as priority, the evaluation according to the customers’ response also helps assessing the employees accordingly. On the job based behavior and responses is also a key to evaluation. McDonalds Company takes into account all the professional company requirements. This is done so on account of the quality management skills incorporation. These skills and standards make the training and development process a mandatory part of the overall business procedure. This is done so by the companies in order to make up for the quality needs that are set forth by the quality assurance based companies and quality techniques such as Total Quality management and other customer centric processes and business purposes. At McDonalds, the evaluation process consists of input from number of sources. Based on this the output is a blend of external sources as well which include the supervisor’s opinion as well as the client’s response. Since the evaluation is largely based on the on the job details and descriptions and the customers are a key source to the on the job description and behavior determination, therefore the McDonalds employees evaluation is based on the multiple discipline based assessment. Multi source feedback is an essential tool of marketing and business activities with regard to determination of customers interest and overall performance of the organization. McDonalds makes use of the 360 degree feedback. This

Assignment 4 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Assignment 4 - Term Paper Example As per (Sanburn, 2011 ) â€Å"Microsoft, The information technology and software behemoth topped the institute’s list as the multinational corporation that keeps its employees the happiest†. As a human resource co – coordinator, I would look forward to a comprehensive compensation package which can attract skilled employees in the market. ( Thesis). Working in Microsoft as a human resource co – coordinator would come with a large responsibility and obligation. I would be in charge of formulating policies and plans in a partial way and this needs much knowledge about human resource managerial principles. A human resource department has the entire responsibility of managing and rewarding the employees. Some of the core responsibilities of human resource department are to recruit, train, compensate and evaluate the employees on a long term basis. Any company needs a good compensation plan as employees need to be motivated to get the best out of them. A compensation package has a key role to play in attracting the right worker to an organisation. Microsoft being a top most company in the world needs the best people in the job market. For this, the company needs to have a comprehensive and well planned compensation package. Creating a good compensation package means finding a balance. Employees in a new job look forward to the compensation package as they wanted to be rewarded well for their skill, knowledge and experience. Formulating a compensation package is not a simple as it needs to be competitive to attract best employees around. A compensation package should have adequate incentive to motive employees to perform at their best. The compensation package includes basic salary, commission, incentives, bonus , medical insurance and other facilities. As per (Enterpreneur,2014 ) â€Å"Employers of choice provide a comprehensive employee benefits package to attract and retain employees. In addition to a competitive

Is it sometimes necessary to sacrafice a few freedoms to protect Essay

Is it sometimes necessary to sacrafice a few freedoms to protect national security and to ensure the long-term viability of civil liberty - Essay Example Internal security involves protecting the United States citizens against internal threats like organized crimes. This involves with issues which are domestic (Watson, 2008). Civil liberty is the right for the United State citizens to enjoy their rights. These rights include the right for privacy, right to speech, protection and to be treated fairly. It is the right of every citizen in the United States to enjoy their civil liberty. This paper looks at the issue of sacrificing a few freedoms to protect national security, both the internal and external security and to ensure the long term viability of civil rights. It looks at which freedom can be sacrificed and to what extent the government should affect civil rights. It also looks at the importance of making these sacrifices. The paper also looks at instances where the civil rights are violated so to emphasis on the importance of the government to ensure that it does not cross the limit. These instances include unlawful detentions and torture. National security consist of a number of elements, it consist of the social and political stability which ensures that there harmony in a state. It also consist of territorial security of a state where in protects its borders against external invasion. This also consists of economic freedom where there is a free market for investors to operate in freely. Finally, this should consist of peace with externals. This is where a state ensures that it good relations with other countries. This is to be able to protect the state’s interests in those countries. The national security ensures the safety of citizens from threats. The national security includes the internal security which protects citizens from internal threats and the external security which protects citizens. Internal threats include things to do with economic sabotage through activities like smuggling, money laundering and counterfeiting. Issue concerned with organized crimes can also be a major

Creative marketing strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Creative marketing strategy - Essay Example The emergence of competition in the industry among the different sectors has come up due to the fact that the labels compete on the quality of their products rather than the price. A person would buy a well known product for instance Louis vuittion or Gucci at a very high price compared to the same product without the logo. Due to this factor of attractiveness, marketing or product promotion has been a key tool to great sales for the fashion industry with different modes of advertising and marketing used. Currently, the fashion industry is a multi-billion industry that has seen a lot of investors and entrepreneurs enter the broader textile and apparel industry. The amount spent in US on fashion each year is 250 Billion USD and according to the analyses, the amount is set to double in the next ten years. This translates that number of people employed is set to increase and the annual global fashion industry revenue is also set to be rising in the near future. In today’s era of fashion industry, it is more than just availing products in the international markets, but it entails marketing, branding and shipping of products. Due to the differentiation of the world markets, uniformity in marketing may be hard, but with increase use of technology, marketing and availing goods in the market has become easier (Tungate, 2012). The problems of different trade policies, difference in trading currencies, laws and infrastructure have been reduced .The companies that have been leading in pr oviding assistance to small scale designers and Fashionist include; council of designers of America, Editd (UK) and Nike. These organizations have helped young designers scale up the tough competition through helping them brand and market their products. Economic boom or recession influences the general income of the fashion industry. During the boom, people will tend to spend more on luxury and new trends because they

Business to Business Office Depot Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business to Business Office Depot Inc - Essay Example Office Depot Inc. recorded revenues of $14,278.9 million during the fiscal year ended December 2005, an increase of 5.3% over 2004. Company could not translate this increase into profitability owing to some intense competition in the sector. As a result the company could generate an operating profit of $348 million during FY 2005, a decrease of 34.3% over 2004 while the net profit was $273.8 million in fiscal year 2005, a decrease of 18.4% over 2004. However the quarterly results for FY 2006 have been quite encouraging so far. The final figures for third quarter indicate an operating profit of $55 millions as compared to $42 million for the same period in 2005. Company is now on a massive expansion spree with newer acquisitions like Papirius with operations in Czech Republic, Lithuania, Hungary and Slovakia. Office Depot has also entered the biggest consumer market and one of the fastest growing economies i.e. China with the acquisition of AsiaEC, one of the largest dealers of office products and services in China. It is worthwhile here to mention that the company is not dealing with too many retail customers, therefore it is not possible to interview the retail customers as such. The best method to study and analyze a company operating in B2B environment is; i. To sift through the reports from some of the marketing agencies, company's quarterly/ annual reports, newspapers and journals ii. Speaking to some of the business customers and gathering their feedback. Therefore, I carried out this research mainly by studying and analyzing the latest Internal reports, annual reports/ quarterly reports of Office Depot, market research by Datamonitor, newspapers, Journals and other printed materials. In addition I also studied the reports of some of its competitors like Circuit City Group Inc., IKON Office Solutions, Inc., Staples, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and United Stationers Inc. SWOT analysis Office Depot is the second largest office products company in the US selling a wide range of office supplies, business machines, computers office furniture and related products through superstores in major regions like North America, Europe and Japan, besides using other channels like contract delivery sales force, and the internet. As compared to other divisions, the North American delivery division has recorded strong growth in fiscal year 2005. Strengths Strong Brand Image: Though a relatively newer company, but Office Depot has been able to establish a strong brand image. In the US, Office Depot has become synonymous with office products. Adopting the tagline "Taking Care of Business" into its logo has further given it a unique identity. The company has successfully finalized a multi-year alliance with NASCAR under which it became NASCAR's official office products partner. This has helped in boosting the brand visibility of Office Depot products. While entering newer markets, like the Asian subcontinent, a strong brand image helps in an easy and formidable entry. Balanced Product Mix: Product mix of Office Depot includes branded office products and own brands with general office supplies, computer supplies, business machines and related supplies, and office furniture under various labels, including Office

Technology and culture class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Technology and culture class - Essay Example Bill Joy, on the other hand, talks about the threat of artificial intelligence to mankind in his book â€Å"Why the future doesn’t need us†. He talks in a very pessimistic manner and he talks about how robots will take over from humans and will perform everything without the help of human technology. Bill argues against the â€Å"rise of the robots† and predicts a horrific future for mankind because of this. He predicts that the acceleration in improvement of technology mean s that humans will fuse with robots. A comparison of the two authors works show that Ray is more of an optimist about the improvement of technology, while Bill is a pessimist. Bill claims that the doom of humans will occur because humans will drift towards robot control. This is because the problems in future will be s complex on artificial intelligence will be able to solve them after which robots will take control of everything. Ray, on the other hand, believes that the exponential improvement in technology will bring about changes that will shock mankind. He does not talk about the doom of the human

How do you configure hardware and software Essay Example for Free

How do you configure hardware and software Essay The most common colour depths are:   16 colours   256 colours   High Colour (16 bit, or 65,536 colours)   True Colour (24 bit, or over 16 million colours) Higher resolutions are greater number of colours require more memory. At 256 colours, each pixel requires one byte of memory. There are 8 bits in a byte, so each pixel in High Colour requires two bytes, and each pixel in True Colour requires three. Because of this, some video cards may restrict you to fewer colours in higher resolutions, due to the amount of memory required. For example, a True Colour display with a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels would require memory of 1280 x 1024 x 3 = 3,932,160 bytes, or nearly 4Mb! Drivers Different printers have different features, such as the ability to print in different fonts, and different resolutions (i. e. numbers of dots per inch) when printing graphics. Even where there are common features, such as the ability to print in bold, the codes that the computer needs to send to switch that feature on and off can vary from model to model. What the computer requires is some software called a driver, which can translate the codes generated by the program into codes suitable for the printer. In Windows, the drivers are installed centrally in the Control Panel so that each application, e. g. Excel or Word, can use the same drivers. In the days of DOS, each program often had its own printer driver. Other hardware devices, such as video cards, modems and scanners also require drivers. These perform the same function, allowing the computer to control the device. Sometimes the same driver can be used for similar devices (e.g. you may hear about Hayes compatible modems, or HP LaserJet compatible printers), but even in these cases it is often only by using the specific driver for that device that the most advanced features can be utilised. WYSIWYG and TrueType Fonts One of the problems with printing from a word processor or other application is that your text may not appear on paper as it did on the screen. With modern Graphical User Interfaces, this should be less of a problem, but with older character-based systems (such as DOS, or UNIX), fonts on the screen were not proportionally spaced. Characters could only appear at fixed intervals across the screen, and so it wasnt possible to insert fractions of spaces to justify the text. This meant that sometimes you could print out justified text, but not see what it was going to look like on the screen. A solution to this problem came with the arrival of WYSIWYG user interfaces. WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get, and means that your print should appear exactly as it does on the screen. Word (in Page Layout View, at least) is a WYSIWYG word processor; you get exactly what you see as you are typing. Other word processors, such as WordPerfect 5. 1 offer a halfway house solution, with a character-based input screen, and a graphical print preview. Even with GUIs and WYSIWYG word processors, there was still the problem of the fonts being used in the printer not being exactly the same as the ones used for display on the screen. This could lead to things not quite lining up, or not appearing as expected. A solution for this came with TrueType fonts. A TrueType font is used by Windows both for display on the screen and for printing. When you select a typeface in, say, Word, the TT symbol indicates a TrueType font. If you select one of these, you can be sure that your document will appear in the same way on paper as it did on the screen. Limitations of Hardware and Software Sometimes, due to the limitations of the hardware or software being used, a system will not be able to fully exploit the features of a peripheral. You will not be able to use certain fonts that a printer may support, for example, if the word processor you are using will not let you select that font, or if you are printing from, say, Notepad. Also, there is no point in you being able to scan things in 24-bit colour (i.e. 16 million colours) if your monitor cannot display that many, or you need to save the image as a GIF (GIFs only support 256 colours; if you want more colours than that, save your picture as a jpeg). Some modern printer drivers are applications in their own right, and have minimum hardware requirements specified. The drivers for my printer at home, for example, will not run on a 386. Examination Questions When installing or configuring a particular word processing package, the documentation states that the correct printer driver must also be installed. What is a printer driver, and why is it necessary? (1997) A company sells a range of health foods at five different shops. It also sells directly to the home from a number of vehicles. There are hundreds of different items of stock and many items are seasonal, so items in stock are constantly changing. Customers purchase goods and pay by cash, cheque or credit card. The company is considering a computerised system to help manage sales and stock control. Discuss the capabilities and limitations of current   communications devices,   input devices,   output devices and   storage devices.

English Is Declining Essay Example for Free

English Is Declining Essay From Indo-European to Germanic, from Anglo-Saxon to the English of Chaucer, from Shakespeare to Henry James, English language is rich and extremely malleable that has survived barbarian invasions. â€Å"Language is the most important and the most powerful weapon in the hands of a state that has decided to transform human beings† (qtd. in p. 79 John Rodden). I have noticed that the languages being used in old time movies sound more articulate and powerful than the languages we use today. George Orwell described many of the â€Å"bad habits† in English writings in â€Å"Politics and the English Language†. Some other people argue that the information age, for various technological and cultural reasons, has launched English into a new creative state. In his essay â€Å"Politics and the English Language†, George Orwell pointed out two qualities of the five specimens of the English language have in common (473). The first is staleness of imagery; the other is lack of precision. He also said that â€Å"if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. It is important to write in honest and clear language and vague writing can be used as a powerful tool of political manipulation. † â€Å"Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties. † (478) On the contrary, younger generations living in the new technology world think that a language lives, and will be subject to change. Jack G. Ganssle, a lecturer and consultant on embedded development issues, wrote that â€Å"Technology is leading to the total breakdown in the use of English. † He complains that â€Å"writing itself is degenerating as it mirrors the every-changing argot of the common person, as if there is some gold standard that statically defines a language for all time. Most of us accept the evolution of language over time. † He also used his favorite movie â€Å"The Mikado† as an example to justify his thoughts. In the movie, Gilbert’s cantankerous father scoffs at his son’s use of the newly-invented telephone, sniffing that â€Å"it will only lead to the further erosion of the English language. † And clearly the grumpy old man was wrong. I agree that the invention of the telephone is the most remarkable innovation in the history of mankind. Jack G. Ganssle used it as an example to imply that time would prove he is right on technology changes the way English is used. People like George Orwell and his supporters are not open minded to accept the change and development of new concepts in the world and still stick to the old rules. What Ganssle did not realize is that the invention of the telephone is not just a pure new technology, it enhanced the way how people communicate each other. Before the invention, people had to meet and talk, or rely on mailmen to deliver letters to each other. After the use of telephone, it made communication much easier and faster. People do talk and communicate much more than before. New technology might provide more channels people communicate each other, but it can’t replace the role of English language plays in people’s life. It is not the media that matters; it is the English language people use that matters. Interestingly, referring back to Orwell’s viewpoint on political writing I would like to ask Jack G. Ganssle and his supporters a question, â€Å"What would you do to deal with the fact that North Korea conducted asecond test of a nuclear weapon on May 26, 2009? † Text messaging â€Å"OMG! Stop it! †? That’s about the best method I can think of by your theory. Evidence shows that English is declining worldwide. The Philippines have been known for having the highest standard of English in Asia. According to Jonny in Manila, â€Å"English as a subject has suffered from lack of money, along with public education as a whole. † â€Å"The government-approved textbooks they will study illustrate the problem. A passage in one for 8-year-olds reads: â€Å"The dog rolled on the floor so fast and fell on the ground. There he laid yelling louder than ever. The dog yelled on top of his voice. † A book for 11-year-olds advises, mysteriously, â€Å"Just remember this acronym—DOCSiShQACNMN—to make it easy for you to remember the order of adjectives in a series. † I heard about a mother who sent her kid to school with the swine flu since she couldn’t afford to pay a babysitter to look after her sick child and she couldnt afford to stay home from work. If people dont even care enough to make tough decisions about the safety of their children, and other peoples children, how can proper education be made a priority? People are more money oriented and materialistic than they were before. Statistics also shows that by comparison, people nowadays study for future careers instead of self-interests developing. This also resulted in the declining of English. William M. Chace wrote, â€Å"The stability of these ideas in the postwar years, from the late 1940s until the early 1970s, permitted the spectacular growth in English departments. The number of English majors spurted up from 17,000 to 64,000 and the number of graduate students from 230 to 1,591. But by 1985/86, the number of undergraduate English majors had fallen back to 34,000, despite a hefty increase in total nationwide undergraduate enrollment. In the foreign languages, philosophy, and history, the story was the same: impressive growth followed by swift decline. The history of enrollments reveals, then, that the study of English and American literature enjoyed only a momentary glamour. † He also pointed out â€Å"Finding pleasure in such reading, and indeed in majoring in English, was a declaration at the time that education was not at all about getting a job or securing one’s future. In comparison with the pre-professional ambitions that dominate the lives of American undergraduates today, the psychological condition of students of the time was defined by self-reflection, innocence, and a casual irresponsibility about what was coming next. † Yes the new technologies have brought the whole world into a new era. There are much more temptations out there for people to own. When I was a kid, a plastic gun was good enough for me to enjoy my whole childhood. We played with dirt, with sand and water, with whatever the nature could offer. Parents and neighbors got together with kids reading stories. Let’s take a look at what kids grow up with today. Video games, cell phones, computers and internet. I am thrilled for the change and I also enjoy it. It seems like if all things around us start talking and listening meaningfully and we have enough bandwidth, there will be no need for reading or writing skills for most people. Road signs will be replaced by talking GPS. It sounds like a fantastic world. We have so many crutches to assist us in our daily life. People no longer need to memorize anything on their own. All you have to do is to make enough money in order to be able to afford them. I do enjoy the convenience and efficiency the advanced technology brings to us. Yet I pray every day there better be no power outage. We had a couple power outages in the server room at work these days. Guess what, I couldn’t do anything but wait for the power coming back since all my stuff are stored in company’s intranet and I can’t get connected to the server to extract the information to work on. Can you imagine what the world would be like if one day our crutches are not working properly? Would it be too late to find out we cannot even communicate properly on our own? I am in favor of George Orwell’s viewpoint. We ought to be able to speak and write English properly and precisely. New technologies can’t replace the power of English language. Works Cited Rodden, John. Scenes from an afterlife: the legacy of George Orwell. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2003 Orwell, George. â€Å"Politics and the English Language. † Acting on Words: An integrated Rhetoric, Reader and Handbook. 2nd ed. Ed. David Brundage and Michael Lahey. Toronto: Pearson, 2009 471-81 Chace, William M. â€Å"The Decline of the English Department: How it happened and what could be done to reverse it† Autumn 2009 http://www. theamericanscholar. org/the-decline-of-the-english- department/ Ganssle, Jack. â€Å"The further decline of English. Technology is leading to the total breakdown in the use of English. Or something. † Nov. 2, 2005 http://www. embedded-systems. com/columns/embeddedpulse/173402052 Jonny. â€Å"Philippines: The Declining Standard of English† June 17, 2009 http://jonnynz. blogspot. com/2009/06/philippines-declining-standard-of. html

Bioinformatics Analysis of DGAT1 Gene in Domestic Ruminnants

Bioinformatics Analysis of DGAT1 Gene in Domestic Ruminnants SIROUS EIDIVANDI Abstract Diacylglycerol-O-acyltransferase (DGAT1) gene encodes diacylglyceroltransferase enzyme that playsan important role in glycerol lipid metabolism. DGAT1 is considered to be the key enzyme in controlling the synthesis of triglycerides in adipocytes. This enzyme catalyzes the final step of triglyceride synthesis (transform triacylglycerol (DAG) into triacylglycerol (TAG). A total of 20 DGAT1 (8,9 Exones) gene sequences belonging to 5 species include cattle (Bos Taurus and BosIndicus), Goats, Sheep and Buffalo were analyzed, and the differentiation within and among the species was also studied. The length of the Exone 8 and Exone 9 respectively were 75bp and 64bp (total: 139bp). Observed genetic diversity was higher among species than within species, and Bos Taurus had more polymorphisms than any other species. Novel amino acid variation sites were detected within several species which might be used to illustrate the functional variation. Differentiation of the DGAT1 gene was obvious among species, and the clustering result was consistent with the taxonomy in the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Keywords: DGAT1gene, Bioinformatic, Ruminnants Introduction Bioinformatics has become an important part of many areas of biology. In experimental molecular biology, bioinformatics techniques such as image and  signal processing  allow extraction of useful results from large amounts of raw data. In the field of genetics and genomics, it aids in sequencing and annotating genomes and therefore we can observe polymorphic sites, Gene Expressions,Similarities and differences between and within gene sequences in the varies Species and etc. on the other hands gene mapping research has led to the discovery of many polymorphic sites throughout the Ruminants genome that can serve as genetic markers for selection in breeding schemes (Jing-Fen K.et al., 2008). Diacylglycerolacyltransferases (DGATs) are involved in the process of catalyzation of the final step of the triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis (Hatzopoulos et al., 2011). This enzyme has been found to be encoded by two genes (DGAT1 and DGAT2 ), of which the most studied and important one reavealed to be DGAT1 . This gene is responsible for the codification of the protein related to DGATs activity (Cases et al., 2001). In bovine, this gene is located on the centromeric end of the bovine chromosome 14 (BTA14), harboring the QTL with a large impact on milk production traits (Grisart et al.,2002; Winter et al., 2002). DGAT1is a microsomal enzyme catalyzing the addition of fatty acyl Co A to 1, 2, diacylglycerol to yield CoA plus triglycerol and is important in lipogenesis in many tissues, including mammary gland (Kuhnet al.1998). DGAT1 gene is considered to be a very strong positional candidate gene for fat percent of milk. Kaupeet al., 2004 reported the frequency of this substitution in various cattle breeds and grouped them from very low frequency to fixation inBosindicuscattle breeds. DGAT1 gene is considered to be a very strong positional candidate gene for fat percent of milk. Kaupeet al. [2004] studied Polymorphism of this gene in Bostaurus and Bosindicus breeds. They claimed that K allele of DGAT1 gene is a wild type and the A allele substitution probably occurred after the divergence of Bostaurus and Bosindicus (Kaupeet al., 2004). Recently, many studies showed a significant association between polymorphism of this gene and milk production traits (Grisartet al., 2002; Kharrati Koopaeiet al., 2012; Ripoli MV et al., 2006). There is a general consensus in the literature that the alanine to lysine amino acid change (K232A) in exon 8 of the DGAT1 gene is associated with reduced milk production (Spelman et al ., 2002; Thaller et al ., 2003a; Banos et al., 2008), Materials and Methods A total of 20 sequences with Exons of the DGAT 1 gene and the amino acid sequences belonging to 5 species were obtained from GenBank (Table 1). All the sequences were aligned using the Clustal Omega program implemented in EMBL-EBI service. DnaSP (version 5.1) software was used to analyze the haplotype diversity (Hd), the average number of nucleotide differences (Tajima 1983), the  nucleotide diversity (p), synonymous nucleotide diversity (ps), nonsynonymousnucleotide diversity (pa) with the Jukes and Cantor correction, the polymorphic site(S), the singleton variable sites (SP), and the parsimony informative sites (PIP) for each species, and the average number of nucleotide substitutions per site between species (Dxy) (Lynch and Crease, 1990). The phylogenetic tree among 5 species based on the D xy was constructed using the unweight pair group method with the arithmetic mean (UPGMA) implemented in Mega 6 software. Table 1: DGAT1 gene, Exons 8 and 9 sequences of 5 species Results and Discussion DGAT1 gene, Exon 8, The Exon sequence of 8 has 75bp in domestic ruminants. We used 6,4,4,4 and 2 sequences of the exon respectively in BosTaurus, Bosindicus, Bubalusbubalis, Ovisaries and Capra hircus(table 1). DnaSP (version 5.1) software was used to analysis of them. The haplotype diversity (Hd) within the sequences of sheep, goat and buffalo was 0, because there wasn’t any polymorphism in these sequences. The haplotype diversity (Hd) within the sequences of bostaurus and bosindicus were shown respectively, 0.733 and 0.5 with 3 and 2 polymorphic sites. DGAT1 gene, Exon 9, The Exon sequence of 9 has 64bp in domestic ruminants.The haplotype diversity (Hd) within the sequences of goatbostaurus and bosindicus was 0 but the haplotype diversity (Hd) within the sequences of sheep and Buffalo was 0.5 with 2 polymorphic sites. Polymorphism and Genetic Diversity among Species The alignment of 20 sequences of 8 and 9 exons within the region of 139bp and containing gapswas carried out using BioEdit. The results of DnaSP analysis indicated that theselected region (1–140) of the 20 sequences from different species have 139sites, excluding sites with gaps (2). There are 134 invariable (monomorphic) sites and 4 variable (polymorphic) sites that include 3 singleton variable sites and 1 parsimonyinformative sites.The nucleotide diversity (p = 0.00885) and the average number  of nucleotide differences ( K = 1.221) for all sequences are lower than the highest values in bostaurus (p = 0.01014 ,K = 1.4). The polymorphic information and haplotype diversity of the DGAT1 gene (8 and 9Exons) for each species are listed in Table 2. Table 2: Genetic diversity of the DGAT1gene(8 and 9Exons) in 5 species h, Number of haplotypes; H d, haplotype diversity; K, average number of nucleotide differences; Ï€, Nucleotide diversityÏ€s, synonymous nucleotide diversity; Ï€a, nonsynonymous nucleotide diversity; S, Number of polymorphic sites; SP, singleton variable sites; PIP, parsimony informative sites. The most variable sites (3), singleton variable sites (2), and average number of nucleotide differences (1.4) were found in bostaurus, whichshowed that bostaurus had the highest genetic diversity. Usually, more genetic diversity is most useful for natural selection. The higher genetic diversity of the DGAT1 gene in bostaurus might be related to its extensive adaptability and survival for a polyembryonic animal (Jing-Fen K.et al., 2008). Amino Acid Variation and Genetic Effects Higher polymorphism was observed among species than within species, after the 20complete amino acid sequences were aligned using the Clustal Omega program implemented in BioEdit software. The stop codons in thesequences of the exon 8, 9in Ovisaries, Capra hircus, bosindicus and Bubalus bubalisare onlyUGA but in bos Taurus there are UGA and UAA.Also the exons of bos Taurus had CAC that code histidine and this codone was shown in the other species. The differences between Bos Taurus and the other species in this study maybe related to difference effects of the DGAT 1 gene one the milk production traits. There is a general consensus in the literature that the alanine to lysine amino acid change (K232A) in exon 8 of the DGAT1 gene is associated with reduced milk production (Spelman et al, 2002; Thaller et al, 2003a; Banos et al, 2008), DNA Divergence and Clustering Analysis The average number of nucleotide substitutions per site (Dxy) of the DGAT1 gene between species is shown in Table3. Dxyis the index of DNA divergence between or among the sequences. The larger D xy has the smaller the genetic distance. Based on Dxy, a phylogenetic tree was constructed for all the species using the UPGMA method (Fig.1). The divergence time among different species was also labeled on the scale bar calculated from the average nonsynonymous nucleotide rate(0.85 9 10 – 9per year, Li and Dan1991). The dendrogram of different species based on the differentiation of the DGAT1gene agreed with the taxonomy of NCBI. The smallest D xy(0.0000) and divergence showed the closest relationship between Sheep and Goat, which basically accords with that of Yang and Yoder ( 2003) and Wildman et al. (2003). The largest D xy(0.0146) and divergence time displayed the earliest differentiation between BosTaurus and Buffalo, Sheep and Goat, with the average value of 0.0087 for all speci es(Table 3, Fig1). Table 3: Average nucleotide substitution per site(Dxy) Fig. 1 Phylogenetic tree of the DGAT1(8,9 Exone)gene among 5 species References Banos, G., Woolliams, J.A., Woodward, B.W., Forbes,A.B. and Coffey, M.P. (2008) Impact of singlenucleotide polymorphisms in Leptin, LeptinReceptor, Growth Hormone Receptor, andDiacylglycerolAcyltransferase (DGAT1) geneloci on milk production, feed, and body energytraits of UK dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science91: 3190–3200. Cases S, Smith SJ, Zheng YW, Myers HM, Lear SR, Sande E, Novak S, Collins C, Welch CB, Lusis AJ,et al.(1998) Identification of a gene encoding an acyl CoA:diacylglycerolacyltransferase, a key enzyme in triacylglycerol synthesis. ProcNatlAcadSci USA 95:13018-13023 Cases S, Stone SJ, Zhou P, Yen E, Tow B, Lardizabal KD, Voelker T, Farese RV (2001). Cloning of DGAT2, a second mammalian diacylglycerolacyltransferase and related family members. Journal of Biological Chemistry 276:38870–38876. Grisart B, Coppieters W, Farnir F, Karim L, Ford C, Berzi P, Cambisano N, Mni M, Reid S, Simon P, Spelman R, Georges M, Snell R. .( 2002) Positional candidate cloning of a QTL in dairy cattle: Identification of a missense mutation in the bovine DGAT1 gene with major effect on milk yield and composition.Genome Research.12, 222-231. Grisart B, Farnir F, Karim L, Cambisano N, Kim J, Kvasz A, Mni M, Simori P, Frere J, Coppieters W,et al.(2004) Genetic and functional confirmation of the causality of the DGAT1 K232A quantitative trait nucleotide in affecting milk yield and composition. ProcNatlAcadSci USA 101:2308-2403 Jing-Fen K., Xiang-Long L., Rong-Yan Z., Lan-Hui L., Fu-Jun F. and Xiu-Li G.(2008)Bioinformatics Analysis of Lactoferrin Gene for SeveralSpecies.Biochem Genet 46:312–322 Kaupe B, Winter A, Fries R and Erhardt G (2004) DGAT1 polymorphism inBosIndicusandBostauruscattle breeds. J Dairy Res 71:182-187. KharratiKoopaei H, Mohammad Abadi MR, Ansari Mahyari S, EsmailizadehKoshkoiyeh A,Tarang AR, Potki P. (2012) Effect of DGAT1 variants on milk composition traits in Iranian Holstein cattlepopulation. Animal Science Papers and Reports. 3, 231-239. Kuhn CH, Thaller G, Winter A, Bininda-Emonds O, Kaupe B, Erhardt G, Bennewitz J, Schwerin M and Fries R (2004) Evidence for multiple alleles at the DGAT1 locus better explains a quantitative trait locus with major effect on milk fat content in cattle. Genetics 167:1873-1881. Ripoli MV, Corva P, Giovambattita G. (2006) Analysis of a polymorphism in the DGAT1 gene in 14 cattlebreeds through PCR-SSCP methods. Research Veterinary Science. 80, 287-290 Smith SJ, Cases S, Jensen DR, Chen HC, Sande E, Tow B, Sanan DA, Raber J, Eckel RH and FareseJr RV (2000) Obesity resistance and multiple mechanisms of triglyceride synthesis in mice lacking Dgat. Nat Genet 25:87-90. Spelman RJ, Ford CA, McElhinney P, Gregory GC and Snell RG (2002) Characterization of the DGAT1 gene in the New Zealand dairy population. J Dairy Sci 85:3514-3517. Tajima F (1983) Evolutionary relationship of DNA sequences in finite populations. Genetics 105:  437–460 Thaller G, Kuhn C, Winter A, Ewlad G, Bellmann O, Wegner J, Zuhlke H and Fries R (2003) DGAT1, a new positional and functional candidate gene for intramuscular fat deposition in cattle. Anim Genet 34:354-357. Winter A, Kramer W, Werner F, Kollers S, Kata S, Durstewitz G, Buitkamp J, Womack W, Thaller G and Fries R (2002) Association of a lysine-232/alanine polymorphism in a bovine gene encoding acyl-CoA:diacylglycerolacyltransferase (DGAT1) with variation at a quantitative trait locus for milk fat content. ProcNatlAcadSci USA 99:9300-9305.

Hemingway & the Crack-Up Report :: Fitzgerald Hemingway Essays

Hemingway & the â€Å"Crack-Up† Report Works Cited Missing Between 1935 and 1936, F. Scott Fitzgerald suffered a mental breakdown, which would be referred to as the â€Å"Crack-Up.† Many things precipitated this meltdown including tuberculosis, alcoholism, Zelda’s deteriorating condition, and â€Å"his [troubled] sense of himself as a man† (Donaldson 189). During this period, Fitzgerald had been advised by his doctors to take time off work for the sake of his health. Heeding their advice, he decided to relocate to western North Carolina, most notably, Hendersonville, for some fresh mountain air. His confessional â€Å"Crack-Up† essays were first published in Esquire Magazine in November 1935. The most well known essays were â€Å"The Crack-Up†, â€Å"Pasting It Together,† and â€Å"Handle with Care,† published in February, March and April of 1936 (www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/facts/facts1.html). These essays were touted as being candid, with the intention of ‘exploring Fitzgerald’s â€Å"dark night of the soul†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Donaldson 194). In fact, much of the truth is omitted; Zelda’s illness is not mentioned as a possible factor, and the role of drinking is not credited as a part of Fitzgerald’s increasingly serious problem. The most powerful and literary part of his essays is his compelling use of metaphor, most markedly in his referral to himself as being â€Å"a cracked plate† (Donaldson 195). Fitzgerald believed that he had no real self, and the Fitzgerald who existed consisted of borrowed personaliti es. His â€Å"intellectual conscience† was derived from Edmund Wilson, and his â€Å"artistic conscience,† from Ernest Hemingway (Donaldson 195). Hemingway disagreed entirely with the way Fitzgerald handled his breakdown. In a letter to Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald, Hemingway observed that Fitzgerald, has â€Å"a marvellous talent and the thing is to use it- not whine in public† (Donaldson 196). Hemingway also cited two of Fitzgerald’s other flaws that contributed to his downfall, both mentally and as a writer. First, Fitzgerald was plagued by a lack of courage; second, Fitzgerald never grew up and â€Å"jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood† (Donaldson 196). Hemingway never directly wrote to Fitzgerald with criticism. Instead, he more publicly humiliated him in his short story, â€Å"The Snows of Kilimanjaro.† Published in Esquire magazine in August 1936, a passage from the story directly implicates Fitzgerald, [They] were dull and they drank too much, or they played

Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye :: essays research papers

Holden Caulfield can be analyzed through his thoughts, actions and circumstances which surround his everyday life. Holden acts like a careless teenager. Holden has been to several prep-schools, all of which he got kicked out of for failing classes. After being kicked out of the latest, Pency Prep, he went off to New York on his own. Holden seems to have a motivation problem which apparently affects his reasoning. The basis of his reasoning comes from his thoughts. Holden thinks the world is full of a bunch of phonies. All his toughs about people he meets are negative. The only good thoughts he has are about his sister Phoebe and his dead brother Alley. Holden, perhaps, wishes that everyone, including himself, should be like his brother and sister. That is to be intelligent, real and loving. Holden’s problem is with his heart. It was broken when his brother died. Now Holden goes around the world as his fake self, wearing his mask. Holden is looking for love, peace and understa nding. He is scared to love because he is afraid he might lose it like he did with his brother. That is the reason for Holden's love of the museum, he feels safe because it never changes it always stays the same. Holden is troubled with the pain of death, it effects every aspect of his life causing him to not care about the future, himself or anyone, except Phoebe and Alley.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The theme of alienation is demonstrated by Holden. He alienates himself from the world because he fears change and false people, he wants love and security. Holden alienates himself from all the changes that occur around him. Holden isolated himself when he didn't go down to the seats for the final football game at Pency. He isolates himself because he gets kicked out of all the schools he goes to. All those changes scare Holden off, he becomes afraid to feel secure. Holden also alienates himself because he trusts no one, he thinks everybody is phony. When Holden was in a bar and he lied and said he had to go, just to not talk to his brothers old girl friend; Holden thought she was annoying and left the bar even though he didn't feel like it. Holden is also alienated by his inability to love. Holden seems not to care about his old girlfriend Sally, he told her he loved her but he didn’t mean it.

Selfridges Essay

SWOT and Financial Analysis of Selfridges Selfridges PLC has four stores, one of which is the second largest in the UK. The essay will evaluate the key facts about the company and why they are important. This essay will cover the financial performance, marketing strategy and a SWOT analysis for Selfridges. The company is well known and unique because of its history and how it currently operates. SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. By analyzing the four topics, it is easier to inspect the current business situation.Once all the issues have been identified changes can be made in order to improve the company. The PEST analysis and other similar strategies can also be used in addition to the SWOT for further investigation and improvement. Background Selfridges is located in the centre of London, on Oxford Street. After taking just 12 months to build, the store was opened on 15th March. Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridges wanted to build an American department store in London. The store supplied many products and services including, perfume, clothing, home appliances and jewellery.Selfridges is now a Public Limited Company which means it sells shares to the public. Marketing strategy Marketing strategy includes the products, pricing, promotions and relationship management. A way of remaining loyal to customers is by offering them a loyalty card, when the customer uses their Selfridges loyalty card they will receive one point for every pound they spend. Selfridges offer products which vary from luxury items to high street brands. On some occasion celebrities will visit the store and this attracts many customers on one single day.Selfridges also promotes the store by having sales which offer discount on items in order to attract the customer. Financial performance When Harry first bought the land where Selfridges would be built it cost him him $400,000 however in the 21st century the property was valued at more than ? 324m. Selfridges was sold In July 1951 for ? 3. 4 million to Lewis's Investment Trust and 52 years later the store was re-sold for ? 600m to Canadian food and specialist retail businessman Galen Weston and his family. In 1991 a seven year, ? 00m renovation was completed which updated the look and size of the store. The profit in 2009 was ? 84m and is set to increase steadily annually. SWOT analysis Strengths Firstly, Being situated in the heart of London is a major advantage for Selfridges because central London is such a popular place. Secondly, the products offered vary from toys, clothing, cosmetics, home appliances, furniture, jewellery and food. Selfridges has its own website so it can sell products online to people if they are unable to visit the store for any reason.Furthermore most of the products sold in store are also available online so there this saves time for customers and employees as well as saving space in store. Selfridges consists of over 500 diverse brands in st ore, this means that it saves people from having to go to different stores so it is a lot easier for people to shop. People are able to view luxury brands such as Bvlgari, Christian Dior, Prada, Versace and many more. Topshop, Lipsy, FCUK and AllSaints are just four of many high street brands for people to look at.Selfridges cater for different markets so there is something for everyone in store. Weaknesses Even though Selfridges is planning on opening new stores in the future, there are currently only four stores. Stores such as John Lewis and Debenhams have over 100 stores across the UK which makes it more accessible for people. Some of the services Selfridges provide may be expensive in some people’s opinion. For example the car park at the London store costs ? 7 minimum, this may cause customers to park and shop somewhere else.With today’s increasing problem of global warming and animal cruelty, some products may become a problem, or need changing in order to adapt to regulations. For example, the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton decided to boycott shopping at Selfridges because foie gras (a food product made from duck or goose liver) is being sold in the stores. Selfridges has a number of competitors, its main rivals are Harrods, Harvey Nichols and John Lewis. Opportunities According to the Independent, there are future plans to develop the north section of the Oxford Street store and create a hotel, offices, leisure.In the future Selfridges could possibly open new stores in England or abroad in a different country such as America where it is likely to succeed, exchange rates are also low. Selfridges already has their own clothing range for females so it might be good to start a new range such as male clothing or cosmetics. The market is always changing and adapting, new brands and products are always being created. So the fact that Selfridges is always renewing their range is an opportunity. Loyal customers will always return to view the latest products in the market. ThreatsStores such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols and John Lewis all pose as major threats to Selfridges PLC because they are all situated in the centre of London and also attract many potential customers. All the stores will be competing with each other with costs and products. The current economic climate is bad for the company because it affects many customers and the way they spend money. Taxes, politics and government also have a major affect on stores such as Selfridges. The current economic climate is probably the biggest factor for Selfridges. Economic climate has affected people and how they spend money.Because Selfridges specializes in luxury goods, the prices may be slightly high in some people’s opinion which will cause them to be reluctant to buy products from Selfridges. Some people are going to choose to shop at other high street shops which offer better priced items. Conclusion In my opinion Selfridges continues to remain successful during the economic crisis and remain competitive against all other retail stores. In conclusion the main strengths are that is it located in the centre of London on Oxford Street and there is a major variety of products.The main weakness for Selfridges is possibly the current economic crisis because it effects how people spend money. Miss Selfridge, the woman’s clothing range started in 1966 and has grown continuously and is now a major high street store. A new opportunity could be that Selfridges might possibly open new product ranges or services such as hotels or leisure. Bibliography http://www. georgianhousehotel. co. uk/london-shopping/selfridges. asp (30/11/2010) http://www. selfridges. com/en/StaticPage/Our+Heritage/? msg= (30/11/2010) http://www. ndependent. co. uk/news/business/news/selfridges-announce-profits-increase-700045. html (30/10/11) http://www. missselfridge. com/careers/ss10/recruitment/pages/timeline. html (30/11/2010) http://www. personneltoday. com/articles/ 2007/07/02/41308/selfridges-human-resources-director-maria-stanford-reforms-the-retailers-hr-brand. html (30/11/2010) http://companies. jrank. org/pages/3724/Selfridges-Plc. html (30/11/2010) http://business. timesonline. co. uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article5536583. ece (08/12/2010)

Negative effect of Computer on Children Essay

Topic sentence: Regular use of computer can have negative effect on children. Cause 1: Danger of headache and vision problem * exposer to screen bright light * effect on vision and head Cause 2: long use of computer deprived children from outdoor activities -gain weight and obesity Cause 3: Use of computer may lead children to topics that are beyond their imagination -unreal world -world created by technology In conclusion, excessive use of computer may cause overweight, headache, and vision problem. Regular use of computer can have some negative effects on children. First, children who use the computer for a long time may be at the danger for developing headache and vision problem. According to Anttila (2002), â€Å"It is often observed to tense and tender in children with headache.†(p.17).Second, most of children gain weight when they use computer for a long time because they are deprived from outdoor activities. In addition, Burke, Beilin, Durkin, Hougton and Cameron (2006) reveals that â€Å"television viewing and computer use are widely considered to contribute to the current increase in overweight and obesity in children †¦to fatness in most reported studies.†(Television, computer use, physical activity, diet and fitness in Australian adolescents, p.1) One of the most serious negative effects of computer on children is the exposure to topics that are beyond their understanding .Furthermore, Peter Mansbride points out that â€Å"the simplicity of the past is gone, replaced by a realism easily created by the latest technology† (The bloody bad games, para.1).In conclusion, excessive use of computer may cause overweight, headache, and vision problem. References 1. Tornoe,B.&Skov,L.(2012) Computer animated relaxation therapy in children between 7 and 13 years with tension-type headache: A pilot study.37(1),35- 44,10p. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=71671677&site=ehost-live&scope=site 2. Burke,V.,Beilin,L.Durkin,K.stritzke,W.G.K.,Houghton,S.&Camron , C.A. (2006) Television, computer use, physical activity, diet and fatness in Australian adolescents.1(4)248-225,8p. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=23220041&site=ehost-live&scope=site 3. Mansbridge,P.(2003)The bloody bad games,116(50)20-20.2/3p. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=11642732&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Impact of Illegal Immigrant Workers on the US Economy Essay

Illegal immigration is tightly woven into the fabric of the US economy. Its prevalence impacts all corners of the financial world, but affects the greatest impact on educational funding, healthcare expenditures and taxes. Illegal immigration tends to be viewed from extreme viewpoints in our country often influenced more by personal biases and political opinions than statistical facts. In reality, the positive and negative effects nearly neutralize each other and it has become a delicate balancing act for politicians to create and maintain a system that works to please both sides and retain economic stability. Illegal immigrants are defined as anyone who is not a US citizen and who is in the country in violation of our immigration laws; this could mean anyone who has entered the country undocumented or falsely documented, those with expired visas or any permanent resident who commits a crime after entry and remains after deportation orders. It is virtually impossible to report exactly how many illegal immigrants reside in the country since they deal with fears of deportation they don’t readily identify themselves, but the INS, Census Bureau, and US General Accounting office estimates put the number somewhere between 2 and 12 million. There is also likely fluctuation based on time of year depending on availability of agricultural work. Most of the illegal immigration debate over the last two decades has focused on Mexican immigrants and California has been used as a model for influencing regulations across the country. This is due to the fact that in the US those of Mexican origin account for over 54% of all illegal immigrants and that California houses over 40% of the illegal immigrant population. This is important to recognize because many of the arguments and proposed or passed laws with regards to this issue stem from the Mexican immigration dilemma in California. (Here is what I could recover- I can get it done by Sunday on the school computers if it will make your due date- I am so sorry again. . . I have been freaking out ‘cause of my computer and then I was stuck at work and couldn’t get to any computer all day yesterday.)

On the Subway Essay

The poem â€Å"On the Subway† by Sharon Olds is a free-verse poem about a white woman and a young black man who find themselves alone with each other on the subway, facing each other from the opposite sides of the car. As they observe each other, the woman relates her thoughts about the situation, which reflect the fear and tension of living an urban life. The fact that the young man before her is black is of particular significance to her. She reflects on the general predicament of blacks, and emphasizes the inequality between her and the young man. Most of the poem’s intended message, expressed from a socially-aware perspective, is explicitly stated; although Olds uses symbolism and figurative language, even a literal take on the poem will deliver much of her intended meaning. Virtually everyone who reads the poem will be familiar with the issues it takes up, so the poem does not inform, but reminds the reader of the woeful imbalance of power and privilege in society. It is only through the poem’s title that the reader knows the setting and contextualizes the poem’s body; even before body of the poem is read, the title is able to set the tone to some degree: the subway is a dark and lonely place, where people are squeezed together but remain cold and uninterested in each other. The woman finds herself alone on the car with a young black man with the â€Å"casual cold look of a mugger,† as she puts it. She also mentions that she wears â€Å"†¦dark fur, the / whole skin of an animal taken and / used†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (11-1), which prefigures her coming discussion of the propensity of her â€Å"kind,† which is the white race, for taking advantage and stealing the rights of others. This brings her to a consideration of the boy’s possible behavior towards her, making her contemplate the possibility that the boy would choose to take his vengeance on this member of his white oppressors. The speaker’s thoughts revolve around the imbalance of power in the car, and she contrasts it with the imbalance of power in society in general. The narrative is communicated from a socially-aware perspective. She speaks of â€Å"†¦eating the steak / he does not eat†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (19-20) of â€Å"†¦how easy this / white skin makes my life†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (27-28), where â€Å"†¦without meaning or / trying to I must profit from his darkness† (22-23). She is here speaking of the prevalent racial inequality that is still very much a part of social reality. The narrator is the more â€Å"privileged† side of this temporary dichotomy, although the distribution of privilege becomes obscure in the brief period of time that they share the small space on the car, isolated from the rest of civilization: â€Å"I didn’t know / if I am in his power† (14-15), â€Å"†¦or if he is in my power† (18). The two observe each other quietly, without interacting. In this tense situation, she observes how weak she is, and how the young man is physically superior to her. She is â€Å"†¦wearing dark fur†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (11), and she points out that â€Å"he could take my coat so easily, my / briefcase, my life† (16-17). She observes â€Å"†¦how easy this / white skin makes my life, this / life he could take so easily†¦ † (27-29). She is aware that, without the protection of society, she could easily become the oppressed, and he the oppressor. By juxtaposing her concrete physical powerlessness compared to the boy with what she believes is the general powerlessness of blacks and the weakness of the black identity in the white-dominated world, she creates a striking pseudo-paradox. The speaker contrasts her socially-constructed position of privilege with the boy’s obvious â€Å"privilege† of strength and almost absolute power over the speaker as long as they are in the car. Here the speaker highlights the irony found in the fact that, although she belongs to the more powerful â€Å"race,† she is temporarily powerless before this young member of the less powerful portion of society. There is perhaps something objectionable about the speaker’s attitude towards the young man. She speaks of his â€Å"casual cold look of a mugger† (8), and of his shirt, which is â€Å"red, like the inside of the body / exposed† (10-11), suggesting an association with violence. She immediately associates the young man with urban crime, and gives him too little credit for being a person in his own right, but instead reduces him to a stereotype, to no more than a representative of the suffering and wickedness of his race. She does not blame him or his race, however, but instead blames â€Å"†¦the murderous beams of the / nation’s heart†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (24-25). Nevertheless, her condescending â€Å"appreciation† of the boy’s predicament is probably as unwelcome as the oppression that she unintentionally â€Å"inflicts† upon him. Granted, the situation discourages any attempt of either passenger at getting insight into the other’s personality, so she cannot get any deeper appreciation of the young man. Olds uses a simple and familiar situation, which is riding on the subway, as a vehicle for her reflections on the perversities of society. It is an extremely familiar worldview that the poem’s narrator expresses, and thus there are no radical ideas. The essence of this poem is nothing that has not been said before by countless others, but the poem stands out because of the juxtaposition of the two kinds of power that she reflects upon as they observe each other. However, to fully appreciate this poem, it must be realized that the speaker is not to be trusted entirely; she does a disservice to the black race by the method of her approach to the matter. She ignores that fact that the young man is a person and instead renders him into an abstract entity. Thus, the poem provokes a two-fold criticism of the white race: their oppressiveness, and their tendency to stereotype the oppressed. The heavy realism and simplicity of the poem effectively delivers its message of condemnation for the perceived oppression of whites by blacks. This message also benefits from the poem’s free-verse form. There is also no explicit pattern and no pretensions in the delivery of the speaker’s thoughts, suggesting the narrative’s unadulterated honesty. Through the poem’s simplicity and directness, what Olds ultimately communicates is an attitude of abstract concern for a concrete individual.

Black Men And Public Spaces Essay Research

Black Men And Public Spaces Essay, Research Paper Today, when a black individual walks around at dark, they are automatically thought of as being a trouble maker. Peoples will frequently make everything possible to avoid a black individual, be it walk on the other side of the street or traverse a street at a different country. Black Men and Public Space, by Brent Staples, demonstrates merely what truly happens to a black individual when he/she is walking about at dark, or even during the center of the twenty-four hours. Staples uses personal experiences and narratives he heard about other black work forces to turn out his point. He leads off with an illustration of a adult female who was walking down a street in Chicago and Staples was walking down the same street behind her. He noticed that she kept picking up her gait of walking, finally making a slow running gait. Within seconds, she disappeared from his sight, all because he was a black adult male walking down a street at dark. It was because of this one experience that he learns of his ability to change public infinite in ugly ways. Staples describes himself as a softie who is barely able to take a knife to a natural poulet, allow entirely keep one to a individual s pharynx. Many black people today, who are merely like Staples, are mistaken for muggers, rapers, and liquidators. He realized that being perceived as unsafe is a jeopardy in itself. All he needed to make was to turn a corner into a bad state of affairs, or herd some scared, armed individual, or do an errant move at a constabulary officer, and he could weave up injury or even dead. He so moved to Brooklyn, and it is the same here as it was in Chicago. Women will non look at him when he passes by, they have their bags cleaving against their organic structures, and they forge in front as though they are playing football and are being tackled. He understands why adult females act this manner towards him. Womans are peculiarly susceptible to force and immature black work forces are the representatives of these pe rpetrators. He attributes his non-violent attitude to his childhood. In the vicinity that he grew up in, he was barely noticeable against a background of pack warfare, street knifings, and slayings. He was one of the good male childs, and he had to endure as if he was one of the bad 1s. I saw infinite tough cats locked off ; I have since buried several excessively ( Staples 153 ) . He has seen a adolescent cousin, a brother, and a friend all lowered into the land. Due to all of this, he chose to stay a shadow-timid, but a subsister. Other illustrations Staples utilizations to demo his ability to change public infinite are when he was mistaken for a burglar in his ain office. The director called the constabulary and the lone manner Staples could turn out that he in fact did work at that place was to happen person who knew him. Another clip he was killing clip before and interview and decided to travel into a jewellery shop. The proprietor excused herself, and so returned with a large Doberman pinscher ready to assail. He took a intimation, and left the shop. He besides describes a narrative he heard about another black journalist who was mistaken for the liquidator in a narrative he was covering. What is this universe coming to when a black journalist can non cover a narrative without being under intuition that he is a suspect, all because of his race? Equally chilling as this may sound, it is the truth. Be it in a large metropolis or one the size of Williamsport, these sorts of things happen. One could set this theory to the trial. Just base on a pavement for an hr or two on a busy dark, and number how many people will change their way in order to avoid contact with a black individual. One could reason that black people have the same rights as Whites do today. Yes, the fundamental law says so, but what about the right to walk down a street and non be thought of as being a liquidator or raper? Yes, black people and white people are purportedly treated every bit, but inkinesss today do non hold all the same rights as Whites do.

Financial Management in Nonprofit Organizations Essay

Financial Management in Nonprofit Organizations - Essay Example urban, sub-urban, rural area. Most of the non-profit organizations are small in size. For-profit organizations are basically profit motivated. They do not depend on funds or donations but depend on other sources like loans, debentures, ventured capital and leasing among others. The accumulated profit is divided among the stockholders themselves rather than investing it in the company. Both the organizations have their own mottos and goals. The paper intends to discuss the financial management in the non-profit organizations. Also, the study aims to compare the management of finance in non-profit organization with that of for-profit organizations. The different head under which the classifications are made include sources of funds, use of debts, performance evaluation, and utilization of funds and governance mechanism. This investigation also comprise of a dedicated concluding section along with certain recommendations. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 4 Introduction 4 Comparison and Contrast of the Application of Financial Management Techniques in Nonprofit and For-Profit Organizations 5 Sources of Funds 5 Performance Evaluation for Non-Profit Organizations and Profit Organizations 7 Use of Debts 8 Governance Mechanism In Non- Profit Organizations 9 Utilization of Profit Earned 10 Conclusion 12 Recommendations 13 References 15 Introduction Financial management primarily refers to proper planning or management of activities of an organization for its smooth operation. In other words, the economic management of an organization to achieve the desired objectives is termed as financial management. Essentially, it is the technique of proper utilization of resources so as to achieve the preferred targets. Financial management includes the financial evaluation, financial planning and financial control. Financial planning entails future planning that assists in identification and management of risks and threats. It is generally the judgment of the performances of t he organization (Economy Watch, 2010). Non-profit organizations are those that utilize the raised funds to achieve the organizational goals rather than distributing or sharing among themselves. The objective of non-profit organizations is to achieve the set goals rather than achieving profit. Non-profit organizations generally ignore profit distribution. Non-profit organizations are also referred as the voluntary organizations as they provide primarily charitable services towards their stakeholders. However, for-profit organizations significantly vary from non-profit organizations. For-profit organizations, as the name signify, primarily desires to earn profit. The decision totally depends on the management if they want to retain the total profit with them or would like to spend sum on the operations of the organization. Generation of profit is the basic motto of for–profit organizations. There are basically four categories of the enterprises, i.e., sole proprietorship, partn ership, joint venture and company that come under for-profit organizations (Porter & Norton, 2010). Comparison and Contrast of the Application of Financial Management Techniques in Nonprofit and For-Profit Organizations Financial planning consists of proper strategizing in relation to financial aspects and its implementation. Financial planning of an organization depends on its objectives. The objectives of both non-profit and for-profit

Business Ethics and Organizational Culture Essay - 2

Business Ethics and Organizational Culture - Essay Example The article stipulates that the organization theory along with the concepts of business ethics usually reflects on the organization of man’s cooperative activities and how they should actually be organized. However, the article suggests that the probable symbiosis that exists between the fields of business ethics along with organization cultures has not yet been fully identified. The article does provide a brief summary of organizational theories for the purpose of providing non professionals in the field of business ethics with appropriate information on the running of business. This article additionally provides information concerning the four research subjects that are applicable in the organizational culture field along with the business ethics one. It also offers several diverse theoretical perspectives on the business ethics along with organizational culture fields (Heugens & Scherer, 2010). Finally, the article also explores what organizational theories have to offer to the field of business ethics along with what could be the potential boundaries of this contribution. The author provides an upbeat description of the relationship that exists between these two fields while insisting that the latent symbiosis that exists between them is inspiring and enormous. It is relevant to business ethics since to the employees of an organization; their management utilizes them in setting the firm’s tone along with their general working environments. This is done by helping to state their professional rights along with private rights within an organization. They also greatly assist in determining how employees should behave in the course of performing their duties. In addition, they also help in ensuring that the working environments are safe while making the organizations work schedules to be fair and thoughtful of their welfare. This article states that when the management of an organization fails to uphold the employee’s ethical rights,

Practical Life Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Practical Life - Research Paper Example For example, coming up with a Montessori classroom and environment oriented to foster learning. Logically, human beings are gifted with the need to learn. Education acquired by an individual person cannot be advantageous to another person since an individual need to achieve it by him or herself. Children learn faster from their environment because they possess a higher sensitivity, compassion, and curiosity to learn. Montessori developed a program that uses specially designed materials, which are intended to instruct. For example, enough room in a large Montessori classroom where children will move freely and be at liberty to undertake a task they want. These are ages of growth for human beings due to a very high stimuli response they possess to the surrounding environment. Montessori approved that a child’s fast growth is between birth and the sixth birthday, a period which, the child has a fast rate response to skills that when made use of the child can master abilities like language. The child is capable of mentally modeling their brain in response to the environment. For example, during the sensitive period for requesting assignment, the child is interested in coming up with suggestions. These are the periods of a child development whereby a child is highly motivated and determined due to their high sensitivity to seek new encounters and learning opportunities in their surrounding environment. During this period, the child experiences an unconscious development and occurs within the first six years of age. The Montessori classroom was designed to seize this moment in a child’s development. The environment proposed by Montessori is rich and reflect the dominance of stimulating all the primary senses. For example, when it comes to remembering issues taught in class and performed them without understanding. They occur in a child-learning environment and they have a rapid torrent of concentration. Montessori ruled out that, the precision of

Noise is the enemy of communication Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Noise is the enemy of communication - Article Example Claude’s discovery has impacted the modern world since it is the basis of all communication that exists today. The challenge of noise had was a big limitation during World War II but he managed to solve the problem by developing a universal communication method where all people could understand one another. During the World War II, the military utilized radio communication, which was one of the factors that made the war push to all corners of the globe. There were significant advancements in Cryptography since I was necessary to send messages very fast and keep them secret. Airplanes were being used in the war and there was need to be able to detect them before they appeared in the horizons. Claude was designing a mechanism to perform this role. He was also determined to device a means of shooting down a plane immediately it appeared (Andrew, 2012). He managed to make a breakthrough but it was not useful since it was not accurate. The challenge made him and others think of information propagation after the war. He was torn between, radar signals, phone calls, television and videos since he wanted an accurate method of communication. Having a perception that noise was not favorable for communication, he was focused on storing and transmitting information that rejected noise. He knew that communication was equally challenging as mathematics and engineering and hence focused a lot on his mission. His basic idea was that any mode of communication should have minimal uncertainty for it to be effective. He understood that here being many languages, some words had a lot of meaning to some people than others. Shannon discovered that establishing various codes and symbols would solve the problem and people speaking diff languages could understand each other well. His discovery was a unifying factor since the world war involved different people and they had no common communication language. Shannon coding systems was based on reducing

Performance Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Performance Management - Essay Example The employees who are in lower levels than the management are disregarded. The management failed to comply with giving proper employee compensation and proper performance evaluation systems. The effort of achieving low operating expenses is often found the main reason why management is giving low compensation rate. The management's pay rate is set based on two other law firms: Melbourne-based and Sydney-based law firms. This type of political system is not good since it tries to limit the pay rate at some level, which in our study is of equal rate. This type of management is biased since it eliminates the employees' right in situations where pay rate is inversely proportional with its job functions. On the management's part it will only sound effective if the agreements between firms are followed. But the case was not, the management failed to climb up to the rate level imposed by the other two firms which led them behind in the competing market. The power to dictate market activitie s is unethical in nature. The fact that these market levels are set by business owners giving less consideration to the employees' part showed management's overuse of authority. 2-Within the case study organization, how should performance management be integrated with other management activities One of the main issues confronting management is employee management. Employees are often disregarded by some organization despite the fact that they are playing a very crucial role in the organization in achieving its goals. Employees are considered as one of the primary resources of any organization. Successful Human Resource Management is giving value to developing and motivating employees to cooperate towards achieving productive outputs. To motivate employees is to give them due respect, give them proper compensation, and maintain employment equality by avoiding discrimination in terms of rank and gender. In our case study, there are problems that the management needs to address: Equal employment opportunity, compensation, recruitment and retention. All of these are the main functions of HR department, and are all affected by systems of performance management. Performance management should be integrated with other management activities since though these activities differ from e ach other in lots of ways, but the bottom line is still the same. These are all directed towards high productivity rate, cutting down operational expenses, and maintaining competitive advantage. As stated, the firm is dominated mostly by males. In the issue of equal employment opportunity, it is biased to give female employees lowly levels in the organization. In the issue of recruitment, selection, and retention of employees, the management should consider the value of hiring employees that fits the qualifications needed for any vacant positions. The picture of a male dominated organization should be wiped out. Every individual should be given equal employment opportunity regardless of gender, age or disabilities as long as he/she is found effective and qualified for any position being applied. Employee selection system should be clear on the viewpoint of any organization to encourage new applicants, and existing employees could clearly see that the organization treats all employee s equally and considers them valuable. The compensation system of the firm is not effective. The procedure of how the compensation system work should be clear at the viewpoint of the employees. Performance appraisal is playing a very important role in determining the proper compensatio

Financial Crisis 2007-09 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Financial Crisis 2007-09 - Case Study Example Other factors include surge in subprime mortgages as an answer to high housing speculation and growth of the bubble. The main culprits were lenders, because they were responsible for lending funds without taking into consideration the risk of defaulting. After the central bank lowered interest rates and flooded the market with cash. The lenders, like investors, had ample capital to lend, and more willingness to undertake extra risk to increase their returns. The financial crisis commenced in the US and spread throughout the world. The failure of Lehman Brothers teaches us the importance of risk management because this institution had invested in risky securities loosing much value after the U.S housing bubbles. In addition, the crisis teaches us that it is important to retain the confidence of the financial market because once shattered, it becomes difficult to restore. When such confidence is shattered, it can lead to a full-blown confidence crisis in the entire word. The housing bubble resulted from the enormous savings from developed countries, and the low interest rates that existed in the U.S. Due to the available funds, there was demand for high-yielding investments leading to the housing bubble. Some small banks in the US reduced lending; therefore, governments and consumers could no longer borrow and spend before the crisis. Businesses also had to reduce their workforce because the recession meant less funds. The credit crunch deepened as the losses increased

Infrastructure Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Infrastructure Management - Essay Example In the technological world all odds have been met to ensure ease is experienced in spreading and accessing information. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is one field that has made information flow smooth and more efficient. Literature Review In the Business world, ICT has enhanced the possibilities of entrepreneurs to keep on the battle for survival in this competitive arena (Apellt, 1999). New mechanisms of accessing new market and the needed information from far distances with continuous knowledge gain is an advantage of good ICT employment. Additionally, the information between different organizations becomes real-time which tends to enhance the relationship between the customers and the organization. ICT is also the key factor to enabling business people get immediate feedback from their customers and use it as a way of indentifying their strong and weak points. The feedbacks from the customers also help in noticing the changes of demand, preferences and new marke t by an organization. ICT in companies or organizations is one platform that has to be closely monitored to ensure the best of it is achieved. IT professionals are employed in these areas to ensure that each and every required data from the networks is sufficiently reliable and available. In big companies, different departments are interconnected (intranet) to ensure much is shared and creates the virtual company of working from different offices (European commission, 2000). The intranet is established through local area networking or wireless networking. Information flow within a company is determined by how the ICT infrastructures are laid and managed. This infrastructure depends on a company’s customization but the general overview of this would involve clients, routers, bridges, servers and virtual firewalls then the web. The client connects to the server through a router or a bridge; the server accepts the request and sends back the requested data. If a client needs to c onnect to the internet, the server will send the request through the firewall to the worldwide web. The replay path will be the same i.e. web-firewall-server –client through the router. This brings us to common point in noting that, if a company properly utilizes the potentials presented by the ICT sector, then supply, customers and knowledge enhancement will be well managed. Statement of the Problem If we now analyze this scenario using Global Water Company, we find that the information channels are mostly used for communication within the regional locations. The company’s three locations namely, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States only communicate using the public networks. This seems to do no good to internal and external communications of the company. We are also quick to note that the rapid growth in the global business has made the communications here more difficult and unreliable in this company. Moreover, we find that the South African division is th e most clogged with a max of 300 clients being used by 400 workers. West Bromwich in UK also rags behind in efficiency since 200 computers are being used by 350 people. This is a great loop hole in the company in trying to keep up with the pace of the competitive world. The management has also come to its senses and noted the cost that the poor ICT structure is bringing to the company. Thanks to the management, the much required platform in gearing up