Analysis Of Amrhein, Lexie Sr Flavio s Home - 935 Words

Amrhein, Lexie SR â€Å"Flavio’s Home† Background Gordon Parks is an author and photographer. He was born in Kansas in 1912. He has his own museum called â€Å"the Gordon Parks Museum† that displays some of his best work to the public. Parks also has a foundations called â€Å"the Gordon Parks Foundation.† Many consider â€Å"American Gothic† to be his masterpiece. â€Å"American Gothic† is a famous image that Parks took in Washington, D.C., in 1942. He was the first African American photographer for both Life and Vogue. In addition to taking photos and writing books, Parks was also a poet. Some of his poems include The Learning Tree (1986), A Choice of Weapons (1987), To Smile in Autumn (1988), Arias in Silence (1994), and Glimpses Toward Infinity (1996). The piece below is a description essay of one of his most touching photographs that he took in 1990 of a poor boy in Rio de Janeiro. Summary â€Å"I’ve never lost my fierce grudge against poverty. It is the most savage of all human afflictions, claiming victims who can’t mobilize their efforts against it, who often lack strength to digest what little food they scrounge up to survive† (1). In â€Å"Flavio’s Home,† the author gives his readers a descriptive visual of what life is like on the Rio de Janeiro. More specifically, Parks focuses in on a twelve year old boy that goes by the name Flavio. The author and his co-worker were on a mission to gain information

Mental Health within the Criminal Justice System Essay

This essay intends to address the role that state agencies, both within the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and more broadly the institutions of education, employment and health, play in supporting and implementing diversionary programs for offenders with mental health problems. Mental health is clearly one of the most critical issues facing the Australian and New South Wales (NSW) CJS with research indicating that offenders with mental health problems constitute the majority of those within the prison system. The current strategies for diversion will be critically evaluated in order to determine their effectiveness with regard to the delivery and production of justice, cultural sensitivity for Indigenous Australians will also be considered.†¦show more content†¦48). Also for any mental disorder the inmate prevalence rate was almost three times the rate of the Australian population (15% vs. 42% among inmates) (Butler Allnutt 2003, p. 48). These statistics clearly demonstrate the critical nature of the mental health issue within the NSW CJS and in particular the prison system. The social construction of mental illness limit an individual’s life opportunities as they are labelled â€Å"psychotic stalkers, comic figures, neurotics who do everything to excess, or sometimes as sympathetic characters† (DeVoe 2003-2004, p. 926) rarely are they viewed as competent members of society as illustrated by Howard Geld experience, â€Å"many years ago, I was diagnosed manic depressive psychotic and ever since then I have tried to live up to it.† (Howard Geld cited in DeVoe 2003-2004, p. 925). However events such as NSW Mental Health Month (October) which emphasises the promotion of social and emotional wellbeing by encouraging people to maximise their health and increase their mental health literacy provides a great opportunity for reducing the fear associated with this group by raising awareness of mental illness which over time serves also to eliminate the stigma associated withShow MoreRelatedMental Health Services Within the Criminal Justice Sys tem2403 Words   |  10 PagesMental Health Services within the Criminal Justice System Kathleen Drake SOC331: Social Justice and Ethics Erika O’Quinn April 9, 2012 If anyone were to take a look at The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, 4th edition, (DSM IV), they would discover that nearly every human being could relate to â€Å"symptoms† required for some form of mental disorder. The need for effective mental health services in this country is essential, not only for general society, but also withinRead MoreDiversion Programmes And Access Of Mental Health Facilities1106 Words   |  5 PagesSolutions Diversion Programmes and Access to Mental Health Facilities The huge barrier to accessing mental institutions is due to the lack of available beds for the amount of patients which require treatment. Fortunately the suggestion of increasing the number of mental hospital beds is currently being considered by the Mental health Commission (19- 47). Currently Australia is experiencing the situation whereby patients are diverted from mental health facilities into prisons. In order to correctRead MoreChallenges Faced By Female And Aboriginal Offenders Essay1420 Words   |  6 Pagesthe overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system also poses several concerns. Female offenders on the other hand have a higher risk of having administrative, and mental health issues. This paper will address both factions and their individual problems and the reform that is needed within the criminal justice system. Aboriginal offenders have a diverse set of challenges they face in their community, and in the prison system. There are many cases in which the community is involvedRead MoreIntroduction. Mental Illness Today Is A Social Crisis That1650 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Mental illness today is a social crisis that began with the onset of deinstitutionalization leading to a massive increase within our prison population. People with mental illnesses often cycle repeatedly through courtrooms, jails, and prisons that are ill-equipped to address their needs and, in particular, to provide adequate treatment. There are also many other factors in prisons that have negative effects on mental health such as overcrowding, violence, solitude, lack of privacyRead MoreMental Health, Gender And Drug Addiction1236 Words   |  5 PagesDiscussion Within the analysis of the dissertation, it has been recognised that there were three key themes associated with my findings: mental health, gender and drug addiction. We will dis-cuss the three documents chosen and highlight the themes which occurred. Though gender didn’t appear as much in two of the documents, it has relevance to the dissertation and was titled within the MoJ document, which recorded a high degree of statistics relating to gender. Following on from the three themedRead MoreThe Juvenile Justice System1313 Words   |  6 Pages Today s concept of the juvenile justice system is relatively new due to significant modifications in policy overtime. The justice system has been trying to figure out effective ways to treat juvenile criminal offenders successfully for years. The justice system did not always have a special category for juveniles and their crime. Juveniles was once treated as adults when they committed crimes and were subjected to harsh punishments. The juvenile court was the culmination of efforts of the positivistRead MoreThe Mental Impairment And Unfitness Act1285 Words   |  6 PagesThe 1997 Mental Impairment and Unfitness Act has been effective in helping courts to determine persons to place on supervision. However, the determination of whether the policy’s goals are being accomplished in relatively difficult because a huge number of mentally ill offenders are being downgraded to extended status during custodial supervision orders. Moreover, offenders who have been released into the community’s care have been granted such measures through revocation of supervision ordersRead MoreMental Health Issues Are Treated Fairly By The Criminal Justice System1650 Words   |  7 PagesThis assignment will examine if individuals with mental health issues are treated fairly by the Criminal Justice System, taking into account the provisions of the Mental Health Act, the roles of professionals within it and the developm ent of how people with mental health disorders are, and have historically been, viewed in society. Individuals with mental illnesses were initially segregated or incarcerated. The West has seen mental health views change as society has developed and medicine advancedRead MoreThe Death Of Christopher Lopez918 Words   |  4 Pagesmajor issue in a broken criminal justice system. Diagnosed mentally ill patients should not be in prison, they need help that only a mental health facility can offer them. There is a difference between being mentally ill and being a criminal. It is no secret that the state has used the prison system as a dumping ground for the mentally ill. Common sense would lead an observer to conclude that a prison environment is not the best place for a person who is suffering from mental illness. This issue hasRead MoreMental Disorders Within The Criminal Population1357 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Mental illness has always had its place in history. For the people in today’s society, mental disorders are much easily treated allowing for a more normal living. Yet, not all individuals are able to be diagnosed with such disorders often causing negative behaviors. For low level offenders this is often the case. Nearly 20 percent of state and local jail detainees have a history of mental disorders; this percetage can increase considering that about 61.5 million adults are affected

Nursing Care Plan For Catherine

Question: Discuss about the Nursing Care Plan For Catherine. Answer: Nursing diagnoses: Disturbed thought processes related to the inability to coordinate daily activities. Disturbed sleep pattern related to hyperactive mental stimulation secondary to bipolar disorder with manic presentation (Hooks, 2016). ASSESSMENT PLANNING/OUTCOME IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION NANDA Nursing diagnosis Disturbed thought processes Evidenced by: In the past two weeks, Catherine exhibited bizarre and excited behaviours that saw her do house activities in half, commencing one without finishing the other. When her husband, Greg, questioned about anything, she got defensive and irritable. She also spoke in a rapid way without coordinating the topics, an evidence of flight of ideas. She started knocking on the doors of her neighbours in the name of starting a keep-fit club. She applied too much makeup and was dressed in bright colored clothes and jewelry. She also has delusions of grandeur as she says that the neighbours have brought her to the hospital because they are jealous of her super powers. Short term goals In the first 24 hours of admission, Catherine shall demonstrate a mood that is stable and shall practice coordinated activities that promote self-care. They include taking a bath, completing one task after the other, interacting well with the other patients among others (Barlow, 2011). After 48 hours, Catherine shall be able to control her processes of thoughts and demonstrate it physically by being rational and organized in the unit. She shall also cease to exhibit delusions such as the grandiosity that she feels. Long term goal Catherine shall relate well with her husband and stop being irritable by regaining her normal mood status. Moreover, her daily activities shall be restored, and the disturbances to the neighbours shall cease. Furthermore, Catherine shall have an enhanced mental orientation for as long as it takes. Nursing Interventions: During the phase of mania Identify the stimulants within Catherines environment and remove them to enhance sleep and promote relaxation. Monitor the levels of lithium in Catherines blood. Channel Catherines energy in pace activities and also in one direction. Implement the precautions against suicide when Catherines mood swings to depression. Consider the use of other mood stabilizers such as carbamazepine if clozapine and olanzapine do not work (Smith, 2016). During the phase of depression Formulate a contact of safety with Catherine after doing a suicide assessment. Establish the baseline information of Catherine by assessing the intensity and level of her depression. Select activities for Catherine which ensure that she succeeds and accomplishes them in order to boost her self-esteem. Spend much time with Catherine by utilizing the provisions of Hildegard Peplaus theory of interpersonal relations. Observe Catherine on a daily basis for compliance to medications and any adverse effects (Blake, 2012). Day 1-2: Catherine interacts with other clients although the manic characteristics are still expressed. Moreover, she took a bath, went to the toilet and spread her bed without any help. Thus, the goal was partially met. Day3: Catherine remains destructed and fails to demonstrate an understanding of her illness. She still insists that she was wrongly brought to the hospital for treatment and mental assessment. She also remains uncooperative to Greg and her daughter after visiting, and it has sparked some emotional instability to Greg because he often tears and remains worried about his wife. NANDA Nursing Diagnosis Disturbed sleep pattern Evidenced by: Catherine has been having difficulties in sleeping and could wake up during the wee hours of the night such as 3 am and make calls to her friends. She can also wake up at midnight and knock on the doors of her neighbours to explain to them about her plans. The sleeping problems were translated to disturbances. Expected Outcome: Catherine sleeps comfortably just like any other normal adult Short term goals Catherine shall have a regular pattern of sleeping for an adult with an average of 8 hours per day. She shall also have enough time resting during the day and between activities such as family visits and group therapy. This is to be achieved on her first day in the facility. Catherine shall not disturb other patients and the hospital staff during the night to promote their comfortability unless if it is necessary during activities such as emergencies and physiological needs like micturition and defaecation. Long term goal After discharge, Catherine and her family shall report a normal sleeping rate and eliminated levels of lethargy due to disturbed sleep. Nursing Interventions: Administer a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer during the night for a proper sleep. Adjust the environment to favour a comfortable sleep during the night in order to prevent provocation of Catherines disturbed sleep (Gen et al., 2017). Reassure Catherine that sleep is good for health and she should have enough for a comfortable day. Offer Catherine some clean sheets and blankets and enhance her self-care by asking her to spread the bed for a comfortable look that she wishes to have. Use a calm language or an authoritarian approach when asking Catherine to go to sleep depending on the necessity of the approach. Put off the lights and regulate the room temperature to enhance a peaceful sleep for Catherine during the night. This is also suitable for other patients. Monitor the effects of mood stabilizers to prevent an overdose and adverse reactions. If necessary, administer amitriptyline 75mgs when needed as an antidepressant during the depressive phase of Catherines bipolar (Hazard, 2016). Utilize Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to help Catherine moderate her moods and engage in activities that promote sleep such as meditation (Jones, 2012). Enroll Catherine in group therapy so that she can learn some sleeping techniques from other patients with a similar problem (Munsterberg, 2014). Administer therapeutic drugs against a headache, and other side effects of antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Side effects like sweating, acute akathisia, tardive dyskinesia among others deprive Catherine of sufficient sleep. Day 1: Catherine exhibits some difficulties in sleeping but still manages to sleep for 5 hours for the entire night. Day2: Catherine begins to have a normal sleeping pattern with the help of medications. Day 3: She now sleeps well without any form of night disturbances and awakenings. She only woke up due to the urge to evacuate the bowels. The goal was fully met. Nursing care plan rationale First diagnosis. The nurse has a responsibility of protecting Catherine and ensuring that the environment is safe to prevent any form of environmental agitation and fear. Lithium has side effects especially weight gain and therefore needs to be monitored to manage themin advance. Channeling energy in one direction promotes conservation. Taking suicide precautions prevents the overwhelming pressure for suicide especially during the depressive phase of bipolar. Mood stabilizers act by preventing agitation (S.27.04 Emotional processing in mood disorders, 2014). Second diagnosis Reassurance promotes patient comfortability. Clean sheets and blankets ensure that the patient sleeps well and remains calm through the night. Calm communication with Catherine develops rapport and enhances trust. A reduced light in the room during the night promotes sleep by activating retina pigments during the night (Terao and Hirakawa, 2016). Group and cognitive behavior therapies enhance alertness, lowers anxiety and promotes a feeling of confidence as Catherine will realize she is not the only one with the same problem. Compliance to medications prevent the manic and depressive symptoms of bipolar disorder (Munsterberg, 2014). References Barlow, D. (2011).Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Blake, T. (2012). Three medication pathways for bipolar disorder.Nursing, 42(5), pp.28-35. Gen, A., Kalelio?lu, T., Karamustafal?o?lu, N. and Eml, M. (2017). Peripheral Biomarkers in Bipolar Disorder Manic Episode.Journal of Mood Disorders, p.1. Hazard, J. (2016). Amitriptyline.Reactions Weekly, 1599(1), pp.20-20. Hooks, R. (2016). Developing nursing care plans.Nursing Standard, 30(45), pp.64-65. Jones, S. (2012). Cognitive behaviour therapy in the treatment of bipolar disorder.Bipolar Disorders, 4(4), pp.275-275. Munsterberg, H. (2014).Psychotherapy. 1st ed. Auckland: The Floating Press. S.27.04 Emotional processing in mood disorders. (2014).European Neuropsychopharmacology, 15, p.S355. Smith, J. (2016). Olanzapine is effective at a cost in adolescent bipolar manic episodes.In pharma Weekly, NA;(1616), p.22. Terao, T. and Hirakawa, H. (2016). "Light Modulation Therapy" for Bipolar Disorder.Bipolar Disorder: Open Access, 1(1).

Wal-Mart Strategic Management free essay sample

Though out the years since their inception in the 1960’s, Wal-Mart has grown at an alarming rate. Although in the early years Wal-Mart was thought to be unsuccessful, it has since proven to be a retailer of the future. It is the largest retailer in the world. It has the highest gross profits of any company in the world as well as the highest net profits.Wal-Mart has also topped the Fortune 500 4 times. According to â€Å"Wal-Mart Out in Front†i it has the following Corporate strategies: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Broadening Our Appeal to All of Our Customers Becoming an Even Better Place to Work Improving Business Operations and Efficiency Driving Growth in Our International Business Making Unique Contributions to Communities Because the public view of Wal-Mart is some what tarnished, they are making an effort both corporate and globally to address the image issues that they have. Many communities have refused or at least petitioned to have Wal-Marts banned. We will write a custom essay sample on Wal-Mart: Strategic Management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Wal-Mart has tried to gain public interest by lining itself with politicians to achieve its overall goals. While the goals that Wal-Mart has currently for its corporate strategy may lead them to their overall achievement, Team Wal-Mart does not believe that it will lead Wal-Mart into continued success. Wal-Mart has addressed all the issues listed above. However, our team thinks their success, although driven by these goals, contains major problems that arise while putting these goals into action.Some of the recommendations that we have developed are more at the local store level, where some of the goals need to be implemented globally. The public image needs to be addressed, the treatment of their employees both with regards to their pay scale as well as the traumatic treatment that is displayed in the view of the media. Corporate hunger for additional market gain has clouded their judgment when it comes to hiring to retain vs. hiring to fill head count. Wal-Mart also needs to address its views on how to navigate, infiltrate and dominate the global discount retail industry.Wal-Mart needs to address the issues that they currently have with the public, their employees and themselves. Although many work for Wal-Mart it is not the best place to work if you are a single mother, student or minority. Wal-Mart also needs to implement changes on how it treats and work with physically disabled people. Problem Statement The best way to describe the problems that Wal-Mart is facing is the lack of being able to or just not implementing their once believed motto that â€Å"customers are always right†. Although customers are not always right, associates at Wal-Mart should treated people, customers and the public with respect and admiration. The associates at Wal-Mart once had a great company behind them that believed that without them, they would not be where they are today. Wal-Mart needs to regain that perspective in order to propel itself into the future of success. Their corporate tactics of making money and reducing costs incurred by employee benefits needs to be readdressed and realigned with the views of Sam Walton. -2- Situational Description and Strategic AnalysesThrough continual research and readings Team Wal-Mart has gained a better understanding and perspective of America’s fascination with Wal-Mart. Despite the constant barrage of negative press relating to its handling of labor issues, employee benefits, vendor practices and customer service, the retailer is able to thrive. Wal-Martfacts. com brings an enlightening perspective on Wal-Mart views and how they and the public perceive its pitfalls. First, we are going to examine the history of the company. Where did Sam Walton get the idea to come up with a retail store like Wal-Mart?Did he actually expect to be as large of the retailer as it is now? Our team wanted to better understand where Wal-Mart is with its corporate level strategy, business level strategy, strategic formulation and it own views on its implementation. W We will further explore some alternative solutions and make recommendations as to where the public views the company in regards to the topics of discussion, and where our team’s views, and its perceptions of where they are today in how well it is or is not implementing their own strategies.We will also make recommendations and explain how and why those recommendations were derived and how they should be implemented, as well as how Wal-Mart should take action to address those needs. Throughout the entire document you will gain insight into the tactics that Wal-Mart has used to achieve its goals. By reflecting on ideas and principles of where they were, where they want to be and how they perceive their path to gaining the success to achieve its goals a better understanding will emerge. Although our ideas may have some of the same fundamental principles, we view Wal-Mart’s path to achieve its goal in a much different light.Strategic Analysis Overview and History In 1962 Sam Walton opens his first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas. His low price approach to retail soon became a model that all Wal-Mart stores would follow. Sell brand merchandise at low prices. ii Interesting enough, 1962 was the same birth year for Kmart, Target and Wal-Mart. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and establish a discount retail company. In the beginning the stores were started in the small towns in the south. During that time period it was considered as the least successful retailer, however it has outgrown most of its competition.Sam’s mission was to have an everyday low price discount retail store. Five years into founding Wal-Mart, Sam felt that he needed to expand before his competitors out ran him. â€Å"During the 1970s, the retail industry became highly competitive, but at the same time the economy became weak due to inflation Sears was the leading retailer in the nation, during the 1970s, however, the recession of 1974-1975 and inflation affected Sears adversely. Sears targeted middle class families and expanded its overhead. WalMarts strategy was to compete with its rivals and lower overhead expenses.Compared with -3- Sears, who consisted of more than 6,000 distribution centers, Wal-Mart had only 2,500 comparable units. †iii Although Wal-Mart was under financed, it managed to have 30 stores in the 8 years. In order to sell the merchandise at a low rate, Wal-Mart’s purchasing cost must also be at a low rate. However, suppliers and vendors were not willing to supply merchandise at the rate Wal-Mart was asking. As result of this he built warehouses so that merchandise can be bought in bulk at a cheaper price because of the large volumes.At the same time Wal-Mart needed to expand, but did not have enough capital. Sam decided to go public to raise capital. Over all, while his competitors were under the impression that Wal-Mart’s business model will not be successful, Sam has taken the advantage of the time and strategically placed his business to grow. Sam was also able to convince his establish an internal culture in order have everybody on the same boat. This resulted in everyday low prices. He did not have any sophisticated systems, which resulted in less overhead cost.Currently, Sam’s vision has become a global company employing more than 1. 8 million associates worldwide and nearly 6500 stores and clubs spanning across 14 countries. The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want, Sam wrote in his autobiography. And really, if you think about it from the point of view of the customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of good quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours; free parking; a pleasant shopping experience (www. almartfacts. com). † In the 1980s, Wal-mart’s growth, among retailers, placed them in the top sellers in America. Company sales in 1980 were an all time high; those figures were dwarfed in 1989 by a record 26 billion in sales (www. walmartfacts. com). At the end of the 80’s, the company had almost 1400 stores in existence. â€Å"Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. branched out into warehouse clubs with the first SAM? S Club in 1983. The first Supercenter, featuring a complete grocery department along with the 36 departments of general merchandise, opened in 1988.Social Environment: Wal-Mart had launched several programs to highlight popular social causes-â€Å"Buy American†, 1985. The theme was â€Å"bring it home to USA† and its purpose was to communicate Wal-Mart’s support for American manufacturing. In the program, the firm’s exerted substantial influence to encourage to manufacturers to produce goods in the United States rather than import them from other countries. Vendors were encouraged to initiate the process by contacting the company directly with proposals to sell goods that were made in the United States. Also, WalMart was one of the first retailers to embrace the concept of â€Å"green marketing†. The program offered shoppers the option of purchasing products that were better for the environment in three respects: manufacturing, use, and disposal. Management The greatest strength for Wal-Mart from its start in 1969 to this day has been the vision and dedication of the top level management CEO’s David Glass and current CEO H. Lee Scott and no one can deny Sam Walton the founder for his great vision that he made become crystal clear.From the founding to this day Wal-Mart’s top level management has been striving to come up with greater ways to bring Wal-Mart at level it is today and keep it at tops of all retailers and companies world wide. Wal-Mart’s greatest strength after its management is its size which management has helped it to grow with increasing sales and net income since 1993. The way they have implemented their strategic strengths in the industry is first by coming up with multiple store fronts to reach all markets and segments of people. They have created a careful strategic planning on where and when to open new stores.This geographic expansion strategy has focused on opening outward into new geographical areas. Wal-Mart expands into adjoining geographic areas, saturating each area with stores before moving into new territories. This type of strategy created synergy by doing this by clustering new stores in a relatively small area, Wal-Mart could spread advertising expenses for breaking into new markets across all area stores, and a tactic the company used it used to keeps its advertising cost at 1% of sales compared to 2-3% for competitors.Wal-Mart although not the first but the best at everyday low prices having 8-27% below those of such leading supermarkets this in turn has been Wal-Mart’s winning strategy against competitors in find all ways to cut cost and create synergy through the cost cutting there for keeping prices way lower than that of its competitors therefore being the most popular amongst cons umers when it comes to low price retailing. Wal-Mart cut cost on many different levels but its most effective strategy it has found it with its suppliers.Its relationships with its suppliers are its main competitive advantage by having procurement management spend a lot of time with vendors and understanding there cost structure. Thus they made the negotiation process transparent, doing all it could to cut down cost and quote Wal-Mart an attractively low price. Some 200 vendors have established offices in Bentonville to -7- work closely with Wal-Mart on a continuing basis where they are encouraged to voice any problems in their relationship with Wal-Mart and to become involved in Wal-Mart’s future plans.Most vendors view Wal-Mart’s single bottom line price and its expectation of close coordination as a win-win proposition not only because of benefits of cutting out â€Å"funny-money† costs but because they learn collaborative efforts and mutual data-sharing which often had tremendous benefits in the rest of there operations. In executing Sam Walton’s strategic vision of become the largest low price discount retailer in the world they also increased shareholder’s wealth every year almost five times more now in earnings per share than in 1993.Wal-Mart has been the leader in i ts industry and growth rate of more than 32 countries because it has had many strengths but with all strengths there are weaknesses and although I did not see much I did see that Sam’s club was not at the top of its game as all there rest of the other store fronts. Costco the main competition to Sam’s clubs is over performing Sam’s club with fewer stores and is the nation’s biggest retailer of the fine wines (600million). As for opportunities and threats there are many opportunities and threats for Wal-Mart. One is to clean up its recent public image and try to fight or settle the 6000 lawsuits it is facing right now. â€Å"The law suites range from anti-trust and consumer issues to tort claims. A couple of lawsuits have potentially serious consequences like the alleging the company discriminates against women, which has potential to turn into the largest sex-bias class action ever. †viii WalMart also has the threats of having management put out brushfires instead of trying to grow and operate the business.All the threats Wal-Mart can use as opportunities to show the public that it is not a sex-bias company and exuberate what Sam Walton had which was care for the community and all of his employees. Porter’s Five Forces framework †¢ †¢ Potential entrants Wal-Mart does not have to worry about threat to new entrants because of high barriers of entry for companies aspiring to come into the retail industry. Bargaining power of buyers Buyers do not have to bargain wit h Wal-Mart for low prices and higher quality or more services because Wal-Mart has already established the low prices, higher quality, and more services philosophy. Wal-Mart has many pricing philosophies including â€Å"Every Day Low Price†, â€Å"Rollback†, and â€Å"Special Buy† to ensure that their customers get the lowest price possible. Also Wal-Mart does allow customers to match prices from its rivals by showing coupons from its rivals and will honor that price if it’s lower than theirs Bargaining power of suppliers Wal-Mart hand picks its suppliers and has a good and long standing relationship in order to maintain their pricing philosophies, every day low prices, roll back, special buy, Wal-Mart’s suppliers also know that they supply have to be good quality products.Wal-Mart will not sell something that is not to their satisfaction. Also suppliers are put into a tight spot where they have to play by the rules set up by Wal-Mart or loose their contracts they are forced to redesign everything from packaging to even sometimes telling them what it will pay for their goods. Threat of substitute products and services The ability of Wal-Mart to offer the cheapest products that meet both quality and its price standards ensures that it will not incur the †¢ †¢ -8- hreat off substitute products from its rivals cause they are able to meet the customers product satisfaction. Wal-Mart has an excellent customer service. Everything possible is done to ensure that shopping at Wal-Mart will be a friendly experience. Wal-mart was founded on 4 basic beliefs that all Wal-mart employees must adhere to which are, â€Å"respect for the individual, excellence in the workplace, customer service and always having the lowest prices†. Wal-Mart takes these 4 Basic Beliefs very seriously. Intellectual Assets Wal-Mart has not developed any real intellectual assets on its own. It has however incorporated other company’s assets to gain strategic success in the retailing industry. What this means is that Wal-Mart has taken and implemented RFID technology to a level that no other retailer at the time has done. They took internal IT departments and implemented it in every store location around the world, linked the information to their warehouses and made the network a real-time network. This is discussed later. Their real Intellectual Assets are those of other organizations all collaborated to one to propel Wal-Mart into history as the largest, fastest growing and dominating retailer that it is today. Strategic Formulation Business Level Strategies Wal-Mart’s competitive advantage in the world of retailing is greatly attributed to their strategic focus on value chain activities. Efficient and innovative use of inbound and outbound logistics and mastery of complex management operations with large economies of scale have made it difficult for many retailers to imitate the value Wal-Mart has supplied to the world of discount retailing.From establishing their own logistics operations, complete with their own fleet of trucks and a private satellite system to successful management of complex cross-docking strategies at over 19 wholly owned distribution centers, their efficient utilization of value chain activities has made its mark in the world of ‘low cost’ global retailing. Wal-Mart realized very early on that the typical models of value chains in discount retailing involving cost control, efficiency in distribution and purchasing and low overhead-facilities was not going to be enough to compete for a valuable market share.They needed a strategy that would move products from location to location quickly, efficiently and often without ever taking it into inventory first. The logistics technique of cross docking offered such an advantage and has since been a central feature in Wal-Mart’s value chain activities. Instead of wasting time in warehouse inventory, cross docking is the practice of reducing handling costs by receiving new merchandise, selecting, repacking and distributing it across one loading ock to another as quickly as possible. Although efficient in use, cross-docking is extremely difficult to manage and operate effectively. For this reason Wal-Mart’s ability to implement and manage cross-docking -9- strategies provides a central advantage to their logistics operations reducing the cost of sales by 2 to 3 percent compared to its competitors. Since merchandise comes and goes from their warehouses so quickly they needed an effective inventory control system.Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) offered the ability for Wal-Mart to digitally monitor its shipments to-andfrom its warehouses and efficiently manages its supply chain without hindering the effective use of its cross-docking strategies. Wal-Mart’s Information Systems (IS) strategy is a central force in brin ging all operations and logistics of its value chain together. Their IS strategy consists of three basic principles: Centralized IS for operations all over the world, common systems and platforms across the entire organization, and â€Å"be merchants first and technologists second. Wal-Mart was the earliest adopters of supply chain software in the retail industry. Today their application infrastructure allows a scan to automatically signal replenishment of stock, trigger a payment and adjusts inventory level. Therefore, suppliers know what is selling with up to the minute statistics. Through application and maintenance of this technology, a connection was made beyond that at the store level, by analyzing that data as a mission critical requirement they are able to corner the supply-in-demand equation and set them apart from their competition.One of Wal-Mart’s pitfalls in its value chain is in its customer service. They have taken a step in the right direction by implementing interactive online tools, clearly defined their return policies, notification of product recalls, and encouraged of feedback from its customers. Leveraging buyer knowledge through advanced customer relationship management (CRM) automation allows WalMart to build stronger customer p rofiles. This allows Wal-Mart to meet customer’s demands by keeping shelves stocked while maintaining its low price credo. A full outline of Wal-Mart’s Value Chain) 10 Competitive Advantages Sustainability Through its efficient use of cost reducing value chain activities and large economies of scale Wal-Mart’s competitive advantage offers them a significant position in overall low cost leadership by providing a strong industry-wide low cost position. With aggressive construction of sole-owned efficient warehouse facilities, knowledge gained through experience of cost reduction and overhead control in its value chain, Wal-Mart is the model of low-cost leadership industry wide.Their inability to combine advantages by implementing a unique diversification strategy on top of their already successful low cost model has inhibited them from broadening their product offerings and increasing their market share. By offering one-stop shopping of groceries, electronics, lawn and garden, clothing, optical/vision care, pharmaceuticals and now health and medical facilities, Wal-Mart can assure its customers a convenient shopping experience at low prices guaranteed. By combining the differentiation of its diverse products and services Wal-Mart challenges all of its competitors.Grocery chains, optical shops and pharmacies must now all fell the impact of market share when a new Wal-Mart comes to town. The Role of IS in Wal-Mart’s Business Level Strategy Information Systems have played a key role in Wal-Marts management of its business level strategies. By developing new systems that increase performance and reporting they utilize the benefits of leveraging their human capital. By utilizing buyer knowledge information systems allow Wal-Mart to build customer profiles from which they can determine how best to stock their stores.This type of well-defined CRM business process has helped propelled Wal-Mart to its leadership position. By positioning their IT professionals in central roles in Wal-Mart’s organization it is able to develop internal systems that are more inline with the company’s vision. 11 â€Å"In any development effort, our [IS] people are expected to get out and do the function before they do the system specification, design or change analysis. The key there is to do the function, not just observe it. So we actually insert them into the business roles.

Towards a Critical Assessment of the Discipline of Social Psychology

A wealth of literature points to the fact that the term ‘social psychology’ was first conceptualized in the 1860s, but the fundamental issues surrounding the discipline have progressed over a much longer period of time (Jahoda, 2007).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Towards a Critical Assessment of the Discipline of Social Psychology specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This not withstanding, the discipline has over the years courted both interest and controversy, prompting scholars and researchers to assume a deep interest in attempting to examine its most basic tenets as well as its discourse (Greenwood, 2004). This paper specifically aims to examine the discipline of social psychology, including offering a working definition of the discipline, discussing how it differs from other related disciplines, and, finally, explaining the role of research in social psychology. Social psychology may be defined a s the scientific discipline that attempts to understand and explain how individuals think about, feel about, relate to, and influence each other within the social environment, and how a myriad of social factors found within the environment influences our situations, including our behavior (Greenwood, 2004). Specifically, the discipline uses scientific techniques to understand and explain a wide range of social dimensions, including cognition, group behavior, emotion, social perception, leadership characteristics, conformity, social beliefs and prejudice, among others (Potter Wetherell, 2005). In its most basic nature, social psychology attempts to understand our thinking, influence, and relationships by looking for answers to questions that have over the years’ intrigued mankind (Myers, 2010). Social psychology differs from other related disciplines in diverse yet subtle ways. It is imperative to mention some of the related disciplines, which includes sociology, personality psychology, clinical psychology, general psychology, abnormal psychology, and cognitive psychology, among others. According to Myers (2010), social psychology is at the core of both psychology and sociology disciplines. While sociology interests itself with the study of individuals in groups and societies, social psychology is deeply interested in understanding individuals, not mentioning that it uses more experimentation than sociology. Although sociology is also interested in assessing and understanding social behavior and influences, its focus is broad-based and its scope is not necessarily interested in attempting to understand how individuals relate to, and influences one another (Greenwood, 2004). On the contrary, attempting to assess and understand how individuals think about, feel about, relate to, and influence each other is a core critical area in social psychology.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Consequently, it can be argued that while both social psychology and sociology study somewhat congruent topics in individual, group and social life, they inarguably look at these topics using totally different lens and from totally different perspectives In comparing personality psychology with social psychology, Myers (2010) notes that while the former focuses more on individual differences and less on how individuals view and affect one another, the latter is intrinsically focused on attempting to understand how people relate to, and affect one another within the social environment. Eliasz et al (2005) argues that although there exist an overlap between social and personality psychology, the former to a larger extent deals with issues of social cognition, prejudice and stereotyping, self and social identity, emotion, aggression, and social behavior, while the latter to a larger extent deals with issues of identity, motivation, and power. Moving on, clinica l psychology mainly focuses on the study, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of individual mental health disorders, while social psychology is chiefly concerned with assessing how an individual’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior are influenced by others around him, thus the difference (Zaka, 2007). As such, it can be argued that, while clinical psychologists aims to solve a passive problem, hence his role is reactive in nature, a social psychologist functions in a proactive trajectory by virtue of attempting to search for solutions to practical challenges affecting and influencing individuals as they interact with others. Abnormal psychology, the study and assessment of abnormal behavior and psychopathology, is therefore more closely linked to clinical psychology than to social psychology. The contention over what causes behavior facilitated the split that saw social psychology disengage from general psychology. While general psychology assumes a behaviorist perspective tha t suggests external stimuli influence individual behavior and denies any involvement of thoughts, feelings, and emotions in influencing behavior, social psychology, on the other hand, maintain an emphasis on the fundamental importance of thoughts and emotions in influencing behavior (Potter Wetherell, 2005). This contentious issue about causation of behavior has severed the marriage between the two fundamental fields of psychology, though they still remain closely related.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Towards a Critical Assessment of the Discipline of Social Psychology specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The role of research in social psychology can never be underestimated since the two goes hand in hand. Indeed, research in social psychology attempts to understand and explain thought, feelings, and behavior since we all behave differently based on the individuals we are relating to, and the circumstances of th e relationship or influence (Thomas, 2005). It is a well known fact that social psychologists work on theoretical challenges, and apply the knowledge learnt to practical problems affecting individuals within the social setup. To be able to function properly, they must carry out studies on a consistent basis aimed at discerning phenomena and social constructs, thus the importance of research. Additionally, it is imperative to note that social psychology is investigative in nature and, therefore, research comes in handy when dealing with issues in social cognition, attitudes, violence and aggression, personal behavior, prejudice and discrimination, self and social identity, and group behavior, among others. All in All, it can be concluded that although social psychology is still a young discipline, it has managed to secure a niche among other heavyweights within the broad field of psychology. Reference List Eliasz, A., Hampson, S.E., Raad, B. (2005). Advances in personality psycholog y. East Sussex: Psychology Press. Greenwood, J.D. (2004). What happened to the â€Å"social† in social psychology? Journal of Theory of Social Behavior, 34(1), 19-34. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database. Jahoda, G. (2007). A history of social psychology: From the eighteenth-century enlightenment to the Second World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Myers, D. (2010). Social psychology, 10th Ed. New York: McGraw Hill.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Potter, J., Wetherell, M. (2005). Discourse social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behavior. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc. Thomas, S. (2005). Exploring the role of psychological research in social psychology. Web. Zaka, H. (2007). The difference between clinical and social psychology. Web. This essay on Towards a Critical Assessment of the Discipline of Social Psychology was written and submitted by user Guillermo Larson to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Essay Experts 2015 Media Year in Review

The Essay Experts 2015 Media Year in Review 2015 was a full year of speaking engagements where I put out some of my best information about LinkedIn, resume writing, and college essays. In case you missed the live events, I thought I’d highlight some of the appearances that you can still watch! LinkedIn Tips Most recently, I was one of 30+ expert presenters at the LinkedIn Success Summit, a 5-day information-packed event on how to generate leads, sales and profit from LinkedIn. Although you can no longer access my talk for free, if you want to get lifetime access to all the interviews of all the Summit speakers, you can purchase a pass for $147 now through December 31. For  a different type of presentation with more nuts and bolts about LinkedIn profiles, you can view this webinar which I delivered for Beyond B-School’s Get Hired Boot camp on February 18: LinkedIn: The Enhancements That Open Doors. To see me in action, critiquing the LinkedIn profile of Rob Hart, plus giving some other tips on cat photos, check out this  October 28 appearance on Chicagos WGN Radio. Listen here (at about 14:45)! Finally in the LinkedIn Tips  category, the year started off with a January 26 podcast with Angela Copeland of Copeland Coaching: â€Å"Mastering LinkedIn: Secrets from Brenda Bernstein’s Book, How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile† (Podcast #36). LinkedIn was definitely the most popular topic of the year! But there was more! Resume Writing Tips I have only one recorded opportunity from 2015 on the topic of resumes, from a December 9 TV appearance on Fox 6’s Studio A. Preview: I sing New York, New York in this one! If you want more on resumes, please watch my signature webinar, How to Make Resume Writing FUN! (Yes, it can be done!) College Essay Tips If you’re interested in college essays tips for yourself or an upcoming college student, here’s a quick interview for Channel 3 TV on that topic from July 31: View the interview here! To view all of my past TV and radio appearances, visit my TV Radio page. And to catch future events, keep posted with The Essay Experts Calendar of Events and my email/social media announcements. Enjoy the â€Å"TV Watching† over the holidays – I hope the items in this post will balance out other favorites like A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life. If there’s a topic you’d like to see me speak about for any group to get my 2016 media year in full swing, please let me know. I’ll be happy to consider opportunities!

Design a testing method to evaluate and improve a troubled website Assignment

Design a testing method to evaluate and improve a troubled website - Assignment Example The site also has a problem in not being user-friendly or rather rich in content This site is hard to traverse. The clients with different problem such as facial injuries and skin infections cannot easily get information on the site as it does not have valuable info to keep clients informed and involved. In addition, http://www.ameriface.org/ cannot update itself in a timely manner. Webmaster has not been unable to provide it with changes to or responding to the clients  requests in time.  It lacks of control over its own information. the website cannot be static and boring when it has an active news service on its home page to update the website’s information daily. The news style should be engaging and exciting to clients and readers as well. Members who like to chip in to the success of the organization need to be given a chance to contribute and propose ideas. Constructing and growing an organization takes a lot of hard work and dedication. One of the projects is that the websites personally takes over is the news service. Each morning the assigned employee needs to deliver breaking news and conveying significant information to the members. In case http://www.ameriface.org/ club, some of the profits the site offers to members should include: chapter meetings, a resource rich website, news services and weekend Edition Bulletin. Be systematic http://www.ameriface.org/ requires that organization leaders should figure systems for their organization earlier. The website should be created to manage its own membership, its vision vision on choosing a scheme that can house their needs as the organization develop as this is the best decision each websites should opt for in order to achieve its objectives and marketing itself. The websites requires to use a tactical approach, Ameriface website should learn when and how to convey press releases. For instance, by incorporating the press release in the body of the email, attach it to a PDF,

Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Critique - Essay Example The competitors will always try to take steps to improve their position in the market. It is the accountability of the leaders at an organization that is crucial in order to surpass the expectations of the customers by providing them with the goods and the services that meet their demand. This report tries to exhibit how the companies face problems when the changes need to be implemented in the business model. It tries to demonstrate that in order to bring transformation in Blockbusters; it is significant to bring short term wins. The report has followed SMART objectives where it has precisely predicted what it wants to achieve in the stipulated period of time. For instance, the report states that it wants to achieve profitability at 18 months’ mark. However, it fails to demonstrate the steps that the company would take if it is unable to achieve the desired profitability within the period of 18 months. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that the report lacks

Nursing Issues in healthcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nursing Issues in healthcare - Essay Example Patricia has served various leadership roles at Scripps Health, Presbyterian Intercommunity and Southwest Healthcare. In addition to leadership skills, she has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s in nursing leadership. As a leader, Patricia is charged with making sure that the hospital meets its patient care, clinical and staffing standards. She also advises senior management on the best nursing practices and patient care. She is also responsible for managing nursing budgets, establishing nursing policies and procedures. Patricia also plans patient services and participates in cross-departmental decision making with other top managers. In addition, Patricia is responsible for all the nursing departments in the hospital. The discussion regarding generational considerations in nursing was very helpful because the leader provided a lot of light and information on the issue. Recently, much attention has focused on the generational cohorts that define the current society. The generational groups include the veterans, baby boomers, generation x, generation Y and the home landers (Stanley, 2010). The groups have difference defining characteristics and pose different challenges for nurse leaders. As such, it is important for nurse leaders to possess awareness of the generational differences and the accompanying varying communication styles for the different groups. Understanding the groups has implication in nursing from two perspectives. Firstly, it facilitates communication between the nurse and the patients or families. Secondly, it enhances communication among nurses and other health professional working together. The traditionalists are an old generation with members who follow the rules, value authority and chain of command. They are likely to respond to formal communication than casual or a direct approach. The baby boomers grew in a time of prosperity that formed the basis for their

Implications of Collaborative Consumption

Implications of Collaborative Consumption Table of Contents (Jump to) Abstract: Introduction Literature Review Short term Implications The Zero Marginal Cost Theory Long term Implication of Collaborative Consumption: Case Peer to Peer Ride Sharing Implication of Hyper-Consumption on Environmental Sustainability and GDP: Discussion of Result Conclusion Reference Abstract: Collaborative consumption also known as â€Å"Sharing economy† is disrupting long-held ideas about ownership, generating extra revenue streams for people while reducing demand for materials through lending, trading, renting, gifting, bartering, swapping and sharing through technology and peer to peer communities. With the leadership of innovators like Kickstarter and Airbnb, we are finally realizing that there is no real advantage to possessing more things, when we can still have access to stuff that we need or the experiences we crave. Most economists believe that collaborative consumption is the zeitgeist of future, and an innovative socio-economic approach to transforming the way we live. While all these initiatives have led to several multibillion dollar successes and brought community back into fashion in Europe and US, but then it certainly has its share of critics. The question remains whether the sharing economy model that materialized in the current recessive market e nvironment can sustain in the future market. This paper attempts to analyze the implications of collaborative consumption based on collaborative car sharing model to determine if collaborative consumption represents a viable and sustainable alternative to the ongoing hyper consumption economy. Keywords: Collaborative consumption, hyper consumption, sharing economy. Introduction Sharing has always been a common practice among friends, families, neighbors and members of the society. In recent years this concept of sharing has materialized from community practice to a disruptive business model widely popular as Collaborative Consumption (CC) or the Sharing Economy. This model is based on the very foundation of resource sharing and allows people to access resource without having to own them with in a short span of time (Gansky, 2010). Collaborative consumption is form of consumption developed on the premise of peer-to-peer exchange that facilitate lending, trading, renting, gifting, bartering, swapping and sharing of services and goods without having to procure them outright. Instead of paying the full amount to own a product that will probably be go unused; people can have shared ownership of the service or product by paying a small amount. This not only saves consumers expenses but in long run servers the economy and the environment as well (Botsman Rogers, 2010). Several factors have contributed to the rise of collaborative consumption. Venture capitalist Mark Suster at LeWeb conference, London pointed them as debt, demographics, un/under-employment, scarce resources, demographics and globalization (Suster, 2014). Such factors have shifted consumers from 20th century’s consumption behavior of hyper-consumption towards new socio-economic phenomenon. (Botsman Rogers, 2010)In their book â€Å"Whats mine is yours† have identified the key drivers of collaborative consumption as: â€Å"A global recession that has fundamentally shocked consumer behaviors†. â€Å"A renewed belief in the importance of community†; â€Å"A surge of peer-to-peer social networks and real-time technologies†; and â€Å"Pressing unresolved environmental concerns†; The resurgence of the collaborative economy the aroused many questions surrounding the implication and associated risks. One of the major questions is what will be the impact in the economy and can it really sustain in the future and succeed in enhancing economy while addressing the environmental concerns. These questions will be explored in the following sections. Literature Review The consumer market in developed market is going through remarkable changes right now. This phenomenon of collaboration and sharing has disrupted the hotels (Airbnb, Couch Surfing), transportation( Uber, Lyft, ZipCar) and rapidly extending to other sectors such as financing (LendingClub, Kickstarter) and even staffing (Taskrabbit, Odesk). Implication of such disruption to the overall environment and economy is analyzed in the following sections. Short term Implications The traditional market place is undergoing huge disruption due to Collaborative consumption as it is the new model completely redefines the buyer-seller relationship. Here we look at the Auto Industry, where research show that ownership of 9-13 vehicles can be easily replaced by a single car sharing vehicle. To an average car manufacturer this is creates a direct revenue loss of at least $270,000. Further the impact on the eco system cascades from auto parts to car insurance, auto loans, fuels and other services (Owyang, 2013). From this perspective sharing of service and products between customers can lead to a colossal loss of tax revenue to the government. The Zero Marginal Cost Theory Sharing economy can dramatically reduce the production cost of services and goods. The power of the community vastly improves previously inefficient base process (such as taxi regulations) and creates a forcing function for business to generate profit based on products and services that appeal directly to users (Rifkin, 2014). In economic terms, the cost of a product – or a â€Å"good† – can be divided into two parts. The first part is a â€Å"setup cost† which is the cost of assembling the team and tools needed to make the first unit. The second part is called the â€Å"marginal cost† or the cost of producing a single, additional unit (Rifkin, 2014). Traditional manufactured goods like cars and smartphones are in green. As you ramp up output past the pain point, constraints on factory infrastructure, overtime pay and the supply chain eventually make widgets more expensive per unit to produce. Contrast this to digital goods like eBooks and smartphone apps in red. They just get cheaper and cheaper as you scale (Rifkin, 2014) (Cowen, 2013). The ownership of a core process is surrendered to community collaboration. Competitive markets have focused on driving productivity up and marginal costs down, enabling businesses to reduce the price of their goods and services to compete against each other and win customers. (Cowen, 2013) Within service industries likehospitality and transportation, new entrants are succeeding not by optimizing production, but by eliminating production cost altogether. Consider Uber vs. traditional taxi companies. For a traditional taxi company to add another taxi to its fleet, a car and license need to be acquired at significant cost. Instead of shouldering that setup cost, Uber can add another taxi to its inventory at almost no cost by enabling people to share their existing cars, all coordinated via the internet. Airbnb does the same for renting properties vs. acquiring more physical space (Rifkin, 2014). Within the next decade, businesses will need to become much more open and collaborative to survive in an increasingly zero marginal cost economy. The sharing economy and collaborative development will further streamline capitalism, and organizations that figure out how to master this dynamic will succeed. Long term Implication of Collaborative Consumption According to Nielsen’s global online survey of automotive purchase intent, 65 percent of respondents across 60 countries plan to buy a new or used car in the next two years. New car purchase intent is strongest in Asia-Pacific, where 65 percent of respondents say they will buy new, compared with only 7 percent that plan to buy used. In the region, this new car demand will be driven by consumers in India (77%), China (76%), Thailand (68%) and Indonesia (63%), where the expectation to buy is highest. The peer-to-peer rental and sharing economy could lead to more efficient allocation of scarce resources and a cleaner economy. The University of California at Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) recently published theresults of a nationwide survey of over 6,200 car sharing memberswhich shows between 9-13 vehicles shed for every car sharing vehicle in the fleet. Of those, 4-6 vehicles were eliminated as a direct result of joining car sharing and the remainders were avoided/not purchased as a result of membership (Shaheen Cohen, 2013). If we compare such level of consumption to Zip Car every driver who gives up their cars and switch to Zipcar say they save an average of $600 per month. Car sharers report reducing their vehicle miles traveled by 44%, according to Susan Shaheen of the University of California at Berkeley, and surveys in Europe show CO2 emissions are being cut by up to 50% per user (Shaheen Cohen, 2013). On average, Zipcar members drive 2,500 fewer miles per year, saving 219 gallons of gasoline annually. It is expected that at current membership levels, Zipcar will save 16 million gallons of gasoline and 150 million pounds of CO2 annually (The Economist, 2012). Implication of Hyper-Consumption on Environmental Sustainability and GDP: From an economic point of view one can argue that high consumption is good for global economy as the worldwide private consumption expense (household level expense on services and goods) exceeded $20 trillion by year 2000 which is a four old increase from year 1960. Yet on the long run, if we view this from a broad perspective such level of consumption risks ecological degradation which holds back the global economy (Worldwatch Institute, 2011). A report based on research conducted by economists, policy experts and scientist show that current climate change and carbon emission have lowered the global economy by lowered global output by 1.6% of world GDP or by around 1.2 trillion dollars (2010 PPP). Losses are expected to increase rapidly, reaching 3.2% of GDP in net average global losses by 2030. If emissions continue to increase unabated in a business-as-usual fashion (similar to the new IPCC RCP8.5 scenario), yearly average global losses to world output could exceed 10% of global GDP before the end of the century, with damages accelerating throughout the century. The costs of climate change and the carbon economy are already significantly higher than the estimated costs of shifting the world economy to a low-carbon footing – around 0.5% of GDP for the current decade, although increasing for subsequent decades (DARA and the Climate Vulnerable Forum, 2012). Peer-to-peer activity is making waves by harnessing the power of local communities to build a more financially and ecologically sustainable future in ways and on a scale never before possible. From an economic perspective, it could also be argued that organizations such as Zip Car are adding to the output, if in a small way (Buczynski, 2013). GDP measures items bought rather than the use of the items/activity purchased. Take a simple example:the average drill is used for just 15 minutes in its lifetime. GDP measures the number of drills bought but in the case of a drill, this is a poor measure of a nation’s output when its usage is so low. While Government and policy makers obsess over GDP data, any serious economist should agree that an efficient economy is one in which the resources are deployed well, and where output is useful. To put it inRachel Botsman’sterms – pioneer of the collaborative consumption movement – we need to be taking into account numbe r of holes drilled rather than number of drills sold (Bostsman Rogers, 2011). The sharing economy is becoming an increasingly accepted feature of the business landscape. We estimate that the five main sharing sectors (peer-to-peer finance, online staffing, peer-to-peer accommodation, car sharing and music video streaming) have the potential to increase global revenues from around $15 billion now to $335 billion by 2025 (PwC, 2014). Sharing economy firms are disrupting traditional industries across the globe. For proof, look no further than Airbnb which, at $10 billion, can boast a higher valuation than the Hyatt hotel chain (Botsman Rogers, 2010). Uber is currentlyvalued at $18.2 billion relative toHertz at $12.5 billionandAvis at $5.2 billion. Beyond individual firms, there are now more than 1,000 cities across four continents where people can share cars. The global sharing economy market wasvalued at $26 billionin 2013 and some predict it will grow to become a $110 billion revenue market in the coming years, making it larger than the U.S.chain restaurant industry (PwC, 2014). The revenue flowing through the sharing economy directly into people’s wallets will surpass$3.5 billion this year, with growth exceeding 25%, according to Forbes. The business model – where peers can offer and purchase goods and services from each other through an online platform – continues to be applied to new ind ustries from car sharing to peer-to-peer fashion, among many others (Cannon Summers, 2014). Discussion of Result Collaborative consumption provides the platform to connect demand to the spare assets or space capacity. Growth of information and communication technology has eased access and research of all manners of information resulting development of numerous businesses through ground-breaking online applications. Such applications have found innovative ways to meet the demands by maximizing utility through efficient allocation of resource. New Collaborative Economy The new model enables peers offer complimentary revenues for listing their idle resources. This not only reduces the cost of the service or goods offered but acts as the substitutes of the market products. Hence the supply curve shifts rightwards and consumers are left with more choice and better price. The current consumption trend produces huge amount of waste as the most of the current economy is based on â€Å"take, make, dispose† processes. In such context collaborative consumption is the opportunity that tracks the idle capacities and transforms the maximum wastes into value resources. Not only this phenomenon provides financial gains as well as long term economic gains without pushing people to buy new products it also provides affordable way to act for the environmental sustainability. Many traditional business and labor markets have questioned the implication of completely switching to the collaborative economy. In this scenario what business needs to understand is that Collaborative Consumption is not a zero sum game (Gansky, 2010). Rather than viewing this as a competition, it shows the need to adapt them into more efficient, inclusive and better system. In fact traditional big companies have already entered the game such as the rental company Avis entered the market by purchasing Zip-car, BMW has invested in Park-at-my-house and GM has partnered with Relay-Rides (Hamari, Sjà ¶klint, Ukkonen, 2013). Collaborative consumption is socially and economically sustainable because it fundamentally adapts to the needs of the consumer in order to be successful, instead of the other way around. In other words, the consumer is not obligated to sacrifice their individual lifestyle or personal freedom. Because fewer products are needed to satisfy the same amount of people, less waste is created. In this way, collaborative consumption is also environmentally-sustainable. These firms bring significant economic, environmental, and entrepreneurial benefits including an increase in employment and a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (in the case of car sharing services). Conclusion This research shows how a collaborative consumption facilitates easier access to capital goods without owning them and further free up resources and reduce pollution from reduced usage. A limit of this study is the assessment of political and social implications of the collaborative consumption. This could be a logical following work to this research. Through this study, we saw the environmental and economic prospects of collaborative consumption and opportunity it brings to consumers (peers) and businesses to be a part of global phenomenon towards efficiency and sustainability. Even though collaborative consumption is increasingly being valued in billions, it is still a nascent movement in the developing world. Awareness should be raised as it’s the decisions that organizations make today which determines how for the collaborative consumption can live up to its potential. Reference Bostsman, R., Rogers, R. (2011). Whats mine is yours: How collaborative consumption is changing the way we live. London: Collins. Botsman, R., Rogers, R. (2010). Whats mine is yours: The rise of collaborative consumption. New York: Harper Business. Buczynski, B. (2013). Sharing is good: How to save money, time and resources through collaborative consumption. British Columbia : New Society Publishers. Buytaert, D. (2014, September 6). The end of ownership: The zero-marginal-cost economy. Retrieved 11 15, 2014, from The Next Web: http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/09/06/end-ownership-zero-marginal-cost-economy/ Cannon, S., Summers, L. H. (2014, October 13). How Uber and the Sharing Economy Can Win Over Regulators. Retrieved from Havard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2014/10/how-uber-and-the-sharing-economy-can-win-over-regulators/ Cowen, T. (2013). Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation. New York: Dutton Adult. DARA and the Climate Vulnerable Forum. (2012). Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet. Madrid: Estudios Grà ¡icos Europeos. European Commission, Business Innovation Observatory. (2013). The sharing economy accessibility based business models for peer-to-peer markets. European Commission, Business Innovation Observatory. European Commission. Gansky, L. (2010). The mesh: Why the future of business is sharing . New York: Portfolio Penguin. Goucher. (2013). Zipcar Program. Retrieved 11 18, 2014, from Goucher College: http://www.goucher.edu/about/environmental-sustainability/what-you-can-do/transportation-initiatives/zipcar-program Hamari, J., Sjà ¶klint, M., Ukkonen, A. (2013, May 30). The Sharing Economy: Why People Participate in Collaborative Consumption. SSRN, 27. Owyang, J. (2013). The Collaborative Economy. San Mateo: Altimeter Group. PwC. (2014). The Sharing Economy: How will it disrupt your business ? PwC. Rifkin, J. (2014). The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Trade. Shaheen, S., Cohen, A. (2013). â€Å"Innovative Mobility Carsharing Outlook: Carsharing Market Overview, Analysis, and Trends. Berkeley: Transportation Sustainability Research Center, University of California, Berkeley. Suster, M. (2014). The Sharing Economy. Le Web (p. 46). London: Le Web. The Economist. (2012, September 22). The future of driving. Retrieved 11 2, 2014, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/21563280/ Worldwatch Institute. (2011). State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet today. Washington: Worldwatch Institute. Page 1 of 19

Dolphins :: essays research papers

Dolphins   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dolphins are mammals closely related to whales and porpoises. Dolphins have a powerful and streamlined body. They are found in all seas and oceans. Dolphins can be told apart from porpoises by their nose, which is beaklike, and also their conical teeth. Porpoises have a flatter nose, sharper teeth, and a more solid body.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are 32 known species of dolphins. The bottle-nosed dolphin is often the species used in aquatic shows. The common dolphin inspired many Mediterranean folk lores. Both of the dolphins above appear in open waters, usually around cruise ships. They like to show off around the boat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are also freshwater dolphins that live in rivers of Asia and South America. The Buffeo dolphin has been spotted up to 1250 miles up he Amazon River. The buffeo is the smallest of all dolphins averaging about 4 feet. The bottlenose is closer to 10 feet. The killer whale, which is also considered a dolphin, can grow to be 30 feet long. The pilot whale is also considered a dolphin.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dolphins were once hunted by commercial boats for the small amount of oil that can be extracted from their body. This oil is used to lubricate small parts in watches. Cheaper oils have been found, so dolphins are not hunted for this reason anymore. Dolphins can be caught in tuna nets by accident. Since dolphins have to breath at the surface they drown in tuna nets. It is estimated that 4.8 million dolphins were killed in tuna nets from 1959 to 1972. Under pressure from animal rights activists tuna consumers will not accept tuna from canners that do not protect dolphins. Animal rights activists also believe that dolphins shouldn't be in captivity for use in aquatic shows.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dolphins eat a lot of food in a day, usually about one third of their body weight. A dolphin's diet consists of mostly fish and squid. Dolphins can swim very fast, so they are able to easily catch their food. The dolphin has 200 to 250 sharp teeth. Dolphins follow schools of fish in groups. The Pacific white-sided species is estimated to travel in groups with tens of thousands of members, while on the other hand bottlenose dolphins travel in groups that contain only a few members.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dolphin, like whales, breathe through a blowhole in the top of their head. While traveling dolphins break the surface once every two minutes. When dolphins exhale water is sometimes thrown from the blowhole. After exhaling the dolphins inhale and disappear into the ocean. A dolphins lungs are adapted to resist the physical problems that are caused by quick changes in pressure.

Project Management Recommendation Paper Essay

According to Jacobs and Chase (2011), there are five different phases in which the Palomino will need to deliver: Project Conception and initiation: This project maintains medium amounts of risk for risk but this new line of products makes enhancements on past technologies helping reduce the thought of risk. Project Definition and Planning: Sticking to the produced production plan already in place and maintaining costs according to priorities and timelines in association to existing technology is critical. Project Launch or Execution: The project manager will be responsible for the above conceptions, initiations, and planning. Project performance and control: The above named â€Å"Project Manager† will be responsible for timely execution and lunch of product in 9 month production window through effective management techniques and leadership abilities. Project Close: At the completion of project and consumers are providing positive feedback on Palomino impact on their lives, a recap will be provided. This feedback will include notes on production process obstacles, success stories, and personal  feedback allowing for future organizational growth in innovation and creation. Through the table included below a break down on the costs associated with each project allow for you to see the project recommendation in quantitative figures. Risk Critical Path Cost Cost Per/Mo ROI Return Per/Mo Total Profit/ Per Month Juniper Low 6 Mos $325,000 $54,166.67 $250,000 2-3 yrs $20,833.33 (15.6 mos to B/E) $424,999.93 (20.4 mos @$20.833.33 Palomino Med 9 Mos $655,000 $72,777.78 $450,000 5 years $37,500 (17.46 mos to B/E) $1,595,250 (42.54 Mos @$37,000 Stargazer High ($450,000) +$125,000 =$535,000 $300K $550K $750K (5yrs) Tot:7 yrs The verdict on the Palomino project still gives Piper Industries Corporation some positive traction in developing a new line of widgets that have been formed off of existing technology. While the idea of continuing to spend on the new product line, Stargazer widgets comes with great reward, it is not without great risk. While sales and marketing teams have already had minor dialog with a few of your strategic customers, there are still far too many questions. Therefore proceed with the Palomino project and enjoy the deliverables projected including the growth of you widget line as well as the projected ROI of 5 years bringing great profitability over the 7 year projected life cycle. With the delivery of the Palomino project, Piper’s ability to move forward in developing new advancements on existing technology will give you greater insight into how further the Stargazer project further down the line. References: Jacobs, F.R., & Chase, R. (2011). Operations and Supply Chain Management (13th ed.). Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/TOC.aspx?assetid=1733965c-5941-4741- b1b3-2a6518a9897d&assetmetaid=564ca34f-cdef-4bba-9c2d-026be3a2b17f.

fast fish loose fish essays

fast fish loose fish essays In chapter 89, Melville continues to provide more knowledge of the whaling industry, furthermore comparing it to certain things in life. The chapter deals with the definitions of a fast fish and a loose fish. These definitions have a double meaning because they are not only referred to in terms of whaling but also on a complex level with life. In the previous chapter, Schools and Schoolmasters, two types of schools are discussed, one, which is composed entirely of female whales and the other of young bull whales. Following Fast Fish Loose Fish is a chapter called Heads or Tails. This chapter is also another informative chapter in which Ishmael relates another law about the possession of whaling. The chapter suggests the impossibility of knowing the future like the heads and tails. In chapter 89, Melville for the very first time allows the reader to feel a part of the book. Melville asks continual questions about the readers life as a fast fish or a loose fish or even both, yet at th e same time, providing information related to the political laws of whaling of the world. Melville explains that the laws of whaling derived not from a formal code but from the customs, practices, and understandings of the whalers themselves. The only formal whaling code authorized was that of Holland. The laws were so tersely comprehensive that Melville states, they might be engraven on a Queen Annes farthing, or the barb of a harpoon, and worn round the neck, so small are they.(393) He then continues on discussing the peculiar cases about the possession of whales previously chased or killed by another party. Melville claims it is despicable and outrageous moral injustice in doing such acts. An England case is mentioned in which the possession of a whale is argued over, and is compared to a case about a lady being harpooned and abandoned becoming a loose fish. Melville is strongly against the laws of po...

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry This play starts with the younger family waiting for the arrival of the check. The check is on life insurance and is to be given to Lena due to the death of her husband. The family lives in an extremely tiny room where this play takes place. Children of Lena are Walter Lee and Beneatha.Advertising We will write a custom book review sample on A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Walter is married to Ruth while Beneatha thinks of studying and become a doctor in the future. On the other hand, Walter Lee works as a chauffeur. Every member of the family does not want to work with the money. Walter is working together with men from a low social level. However, he is seriously obsessed with money and feels that life is tremendously unfair especially for his wife and children. Therefore, he decides to start a business with two men. This is a clear indication that he wants to get money very fast. In colleg e, Beneatha is courted by two men, George and Joseph. George is a person who is rich and is concerned with the materialist things. On the other hand, Joseph is an African who admires Beneatha’s intelligence and spirituality. This younger family likes George just because he is rich. Afterward, when the check reaches, Lena realizes that the amount of insurance is to take part of her husband. The family advises her to do what she wishes with the money. Walter tells his mother to give him the money arguing that his wife, Ruth is pregnant. Mama makes her mind to pay part of the money for a good house in Clybourne to act as life security for Wilter’s son in future. He pleads with his mother to give him the rest of the money. The whole family is deeply hurt by the fact he misused the money instead of paying his sister’s school fees. Afterwards, Joseph Asagai comes in and helps the family in packing. He finds Beneatha terribly disheartened and asks her get married to hi m. Afterwards, Walter is transformed to a very mature man. The whole family is truly happy; they live the, old, tiny, house and go to live in Clybourne Park (Sussman, Linda, Hansberry, Friedland, and Rikki Kessler). Dreams of Walter, Beneatha, Ruth, and Mama Walter loves money and, therefore, his dream is to continue satisfying his family’s needs. His love for money and his hard work with the street men and his plan to do business with two men are a clear indication of his dream. Wilter asks for the insurance money in order for him to work with it and raise his family’s standards of living. In the play, Beneatha has a dream to study and become a doctor in the future. Mama has a dream of raising her family from poverty to a higher standard of living. Ruth’s dream is to see that her husband owns his own business and offers her the best basic needs. Mama is the most admirable character since she provides her children with unconditional love in a low social economic environment.Advertising Looking for book review on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This play indicates that there is the celebration of materialism as the younger family favors George who is rich. On consumerism, the family of Lena Younger celebrates the insurance money through paying medical school fees for Beneatha and giving a down payment for a good house where they finally move to live. This play does not promote the idea that blacks should want to be like whites. This is because Joseph, who is one of the boys that Beneatha was courting in college, did not lose his identity as an African man to marry her. He did not have to seize his African characters or culture for Beneatha to marry him. There are some conflicts in the play, whether internal or external. Wilter has internal conflict since he is not getting money to provide for his family. This goes on until the time he is seeking for two men to start his own business. This is a conflict that is not solved at any time. This is because he did not save the money his mother has given him for his family. On the hand, there is a conflict that is solved when Wilter is converted to manhood. Also, the conflict between Ruth and her husband does not end since she wants to abort. Wilter is trying to borrow money from his mother to solve this conflict problem but he ends up with no money. Gender issues in the play This is first presented by lack of peace in the family of Wilter Lee and Ruth. Her pregnancy is the one that is bringing this issue of lack of peace in the family. When Wilter uses his sister’s school fees to start his own business, he brings out a gender issue in the play. â€Å"A raisin in the sun† is a quote that has a great meaning in the play. It means that all characters in the play have dreams. First, one of the characters wants to move the family to larger home in, the future, the other oneâ€℠¢s dreams to become a doctor, while the one wants to improve his family’s living conditions. Sussman, Linda, Lorraine Hansberry, Joyce Friedland, and Rikki Kessler. Raisin in the sun [by] Lorraine Hansberry: a study guide. New Hyde Park, N.Y.: Learning Links, 1996. Print.Advertising We will write a custom book review sample on A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More

Discuss the costs and benefits of this change Essay

Discuss the costs and benefits of this change - Essay Example Peripheral growth is practically always at lower densities than urban cores, which simply means that cities tend to become less dense as they grow. According to the UN, it is projected that in two decades from now the world’ urban population will have risen to 60%, representing almost five billion people. The mega rise in the urbanization level is mostly visible in the growth of the biggest cities (ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT 2005). Ironically, this process is on occasion accelerated by planning decision making. For example, the greenbelt movement in London that banned the extension of housing into the near the city’s periphery has resulted to a greater sprawl to far outside the principal urban area (PRASAD 2003). This has been the case since the 2nd World war thereby forcing commuters to travel longer distance and time to urban centers. Most of the world’s urban population and most of its largest cities are found in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The evolving urban form has also examined smaller urban areas. The dispersal pattern is evident there as well even in traditionally compact cities. For instance, Zurich has had all of its growth outside the core city since 1950. Low income cities such as Addis Ababa represents a pattern of urban expansion are not unlike that experienced in Cairo or Istabul (UNITED NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME 2003). It is likely that urban centers will continue to expand as they grow larger, consistent with what might seems like the work of both market preferences and economic pressure for lower cost, more spacious housing. a growth of city is mainly driven by economic development and is characterized by a shift away from agrarian dominated economy to a more industrialized and service economy. Cities are sites of great prosperity and success in many areas, resulting to wealth creation and viable opportunities to many of

American Flatbread Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

American Flatbread - Case Study Example The mission statement indicates that the value of the business is customer satisfaction and employee safety. George Schenk owns the American flatbread company and values community service based on healthy food as well as environmentally friendly workplace. Besides, he values quality and integrity achieved by perfecting simple menus that appeal to families and other pizza lovers. Schenk has been able to bring his own vision concerning food through making a popular American flatbread sold both locally and to other states. Making clean and healthy food has seen his efforts appreciated nationally. Also providing support to the community through hosting regular benefit bakes. Father, he expanded the facility to a wholesale and retail outlets and involves himself in the daily operations of making a stable food model which is reorganized worldwide. American flatbread supports business practices, which are socially responsible through participation in community organizations other than buying local products as much as possible. Occasionally, American flatbread holds meetings that are aimed at raising funds to benefit the community and giving attention to individuals who deserve it (Craig 1). The needy are also considered by the company as they are able to have free flatbreads. Educating children about food through accommodating class trips to enable them make their own pizza. Small business owners should be close with their employees in their communities to enable mutual understanding and fairness that is beneficial in a two way. This also enables a peaceful coexistence of the business and the community members. The benefits associated with franchising a business includes building a vision that is shared and helping in stimulating deeper conversations with the entire community through purchasing and sharing of benefits from the business. The small business franchises may also benefit directly through showcasing already

How to apply motivation in the work place Research Paper

How to apply motivation in the work place - Research Paper Example Leibenstein argued more than forty years ago that â€Å"for a variety of reasons people and organizations normally work neither as hard nor as effectively as they could† and the both of them regarded motivation as an important factor to improve the efficiency of both employees an motivation. Since then, the debate has been on about what really motivates the people in the organization. It was found that an organization would really progress based on the commitment of the employees towards the organization rather than keeping them under their control. This led to the emergence of innovative management practices which targeted to enhance employees’ commitment towards the company through different techniques (Buford, 1993). Research question How to apply motivation in the work place? Background of Study Among the many functions that the Human Resource department has to work on, keeping employees motivated and retaining them is the foremost challenge that any organization fa ce. Hence it is of the paramount importance that the employees stay motivated and hence new management practices be adopted to give them a boost in their motivation so that they can exert much more effort in the business. For any organization the employees are the key resource, neglecting which can lead to catastrophic results like strike, shutdown etc. which will result in insurmountable loss that the company may not be able to bear. Hence organizations are trying to come up with new techniques to attack this issue and lower the retention level. Through foundation of studies, research theories and practical examples this paper will address the issue of what actually motivates the employees and what the managers need to do to achieve it and supports motivation and hence the performance. Literature Review Numerous researchers have investigated the relationship that exists between job satisfaction and work motivation. In the current business scenario, organizations across industries a re experiencing rapid competition. In this competitive environment the companies must consider the human factor that is becoming more and more important for the organization to survive. Business excellence will be achieved only when employees are motivated to work for the company (Dam, 2008). In difficult circumstances like violence, fear, tragedy, job insecurity the stress factor puts burden on the employees which result in reduced performance. Nowadays organizations have come to realize that motivated and satisfied employees are needed to powerfully deliver their task. As employee motivation is one of the primary tasks of management hence it is of prime importance that the management takes care of the employee’s needs. Motivation Motivation is the willingness of the employees to exert high efforts to achieve organizational goals, which must also satisfy some individual need. Here the important factor is the ‘need’ which is internal to the employee that makes ce rtain outcome appears attractive. It is basically the psychological forces which determine the amount of effort along with the persistence level that the employee shows while facing any obstacle. A motivated employee himself finds solution to any obstacle that he will face and keep moving forward (Hay, 2002). The

Investing in Futures and Options Essay Example for Free

Investing in Futures and Options Essay INTRODUCTION Of late, investors who are in the stock and commodity are focusing their attention towards risk management especially due to high volatility nature. Since these volatility movements are uncertain, it has become foremost cause of vagueness for such investors. Since the globalization of trade and free trade between major countries has become the order of the day, all most all the investors have to be under mercy of the exchange rate fluctuations which results in volatility   .The notion that exchange rates , profitability and other factors   influence a firm’s value and therefore the price of its stock is widely held by financial analyst ,economists and corporate managers . The liberalization of economic policies and investment policies due to world trade organization’s (WTO) free flow of investments and trade between member countries and bilateral free trade agreements between countries have augmented internationalization of economic activity and exceptional era of world wide currency and interest rates instability. To counter these financial risks, new pioneering concept commodity and stock market hedging techniques have nurtured at a rapid speed. The main feature of the using derivatives through hedging is to have control over the financial risk and minimizing the effect of uncertain cash flows. Financial institutions have come to rescue to these corporations who have exposure to financial risk with the range of products to assist in risk management. By far the most significant event in finance during the past decade has been the extraordinary development and expansion of financial derivatives. These instruments enhance the ability to differentiate risk and allocate it to the investors most able and   willing to take it – a process that has undoubtedly improved national productivity growth and standards of living .’ Allen Green Span, Chairman, Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System. The structural advantage of derivatives i.e. leverage or gearing   makes them suitable for managing risk can also result in the generation of leveraged profits or in the event of adverse market movement , a significant losses. The main advantage of gearing is that the buyer or seller need only to cough up a small proportion of total price at the time of deal is executed. It may be 1% and 8% depending upon the volatility of the underlying commodity or instrument. In the case of exchange traded transactions, this deposit is recognized as â€Å"initial margin† and is expected to reflect the amount by which the price of a contract may vary in one day’s trading. At the day end, all contracts will be valued and if the price has been found to move against the position, the losing party will have to pay further â€Å"variation margin† calls. In contrary, if the price movement is positive, credit will be given to the party .It is this element of gearing that provides the opportunity to make large gains or losses. Prudent handling of this leverage will result in considerable profit maximization and if it handled inexpertly, may generate losses .In some cases , these losses though high but they are few in number when measured against volume of business and number of participants in derivative business .The contributory factors for sustaining loss includes excessive position taking ( in relation to capital) , fraudulent activity , unexpected market moves, ineffective risk management, insufficient product understanding and inadequacies in corporate policy governing their use. What is a derivative? Derivative is a mathematical word which refers to a variable, which has been derived from another variable and they have no values of their own. Derivatives derive their value from the value of some other asset, which is referred as the underlying. For instance, a derivative of the shares of AT T Corporation (underlying), will derive its value from the share price (value) of AT T Corporation. Likewise, a derivative contract on wheat depends upon the price of wheat. An agreement or an option to buy or sell the underlying asset of the derivative up to a certain time in the future at a predetermined price i.e. the exercise price by way of special contract is known as derivative contract. The contract also has a flat expiry period mostly in the range of 3 to 12 months from the date of origination of the contract. The price of the underlying asset and the expiry period of the contract determine the value of the contract. Financial derivatives comprises of underlying financial asset like currency, debt instruments, equity shares, share price index etc.Exchange-traded derivatives are derivative contracts that has been standardized and traded on the stock exchanges. Over-the –counter derivatives is one which has been customized as per the requirements of the user by negotiating with the other party involved. Some of the common forms of derivatives are Futures, Forwards and Options. Futures: Futures are the derivative contracts that give the holder the chance to buy or sell the underlying asset at a pre-specified price some time in the near future and usually thy come with standardized form like contract size, fixed expiry time and price. The future market is one where continues auction market and exchanges presenting the recent information about the supply and demand as regards to individual commodities or financial instruments like stocks . In other words, future market is one where buyers and sellers of variety of commodities, financial instruments get together to trade. The main aim of the future market is to manage price risk. The future price risk is averted by buying or selling futures contract, with a price level arrived at now, for items to be delivered in future. This is achieved by hedging which helps to shield against the risk of an adverse price change in the near future or use of futures to lock in an acceptable margin between their purchase and their selling price. In futures, bankers, farmers, traders, manufacturers will arrange for the purchase or sale of a futures contract. In future market, commodities are broken down into five categories namely agriculture, metallurgical, interest bearingassets, jndexes and foreign currency. Agricultural futures market includes oats, corn , wheat , soybeans , soy meal ,soyoil,sunflower oil ,cattles , live hogs   and pork bellies, lumber , plywood ,cotton, coffee, cocoa, rice, orange juice and sugar. For every one of these commodities, different contract months are available and it depends upon the harvest cycle. More aggressively traded commodities usually have more contract months available and a new type of contract is available almost every month to meet the growing institutional and corporate market. Futures on Metallurgical Products: Petroleum products and metals is being covered under this group and it includes platinum, gold, silver, palladium, copper, gasoline, crude oil, propane and heating oil. Every month a new type of contract emerges to cater the needs of ever increasing institutional and corporate market. Assets which bears interest: This has its origin during 1975 and products in these categories include treasury bonds, Treasury Bills, Municipal Bonds, Treasury Notes and Eurodollar deposits. It is also possible to trade contracts with the same maturity but different expected interest rate differentials. Futures on Indexes: Now futures are available on most chief indexes such as New York Stock Exchange Composite, SP 500, New York Stock Exchange Utility index, Russell 2000, Commodity Research Bureau (CRB), SP 400 Midcap, FT-Se 100 Index (London) and Value line. These stock index features are settled in cash and there is no delivery of goods is involved in this method. A trader has to settle his positions by buying or selling an offsetting position or in cash at expiration. Foreign Currency Futures: During the post war period, the exchange rates and interest rates were stable and the mechanism of fixed exchange rates of the Bretton Woods era enabled the corporations to know in advance their foreign exchange liabilities for their imports. But the collapse of Bretton Woods’s system after the war resulted in the introduction of general floating exchange rates replacing the earlier fixed system. The introduction of floating exchange rates have resulted in large unexpected movements in exchange rates that too in unforeseen directions and magnitudes which affected interest rate movements as the monetary establishment tried to influence the exchange rates by movements in interest rates. It is to be noted that the forward market in currencies is much bigger than the foreign exchange futures market. Further, there are cross currency futures that are being traded and these includes Deutsch mark / yen, Deutsch mark / French franc. Forwards Options: Forward is another form of a derivative contract but tailored to the needs of the user in terms of expiry date, contract size, and price. These contracts confer the holder the option to buy or sell the under lying at a pre-determined price some time in the future .Call option is one where the buyer has given his option to buy the underlying at the near future .Where as an option to sell the underlying at a specified price in the future is called as Put Option. As regards to the option contract, the buyer is not obliged to exercise the option contract. Generally, options can be traded on the stock exchange or on the OTC. In option, the participants may assume a position in an underlying futures contract at a certain price which is known as exercise or strike price within a particular period of time. The price or premium of the option is determined through action market trading. Swaps: Swaps contract was introduced in 1981 and can be considered as one of the latest financial innovations to manage financial risks. The contracting parties are obliged to exchange specified cash flows at specified intervals under a swap contract. In a nutshell, a swap contract can be defined as a series of forward contracts put together. If the exchange of interest rate payments in one currency for payments in another currency is devised, then it amounts to a currency swap. If the exchange between two parties of interest obligations or receipts in the same currency on an agreed amount of notional principal for an agreed period of time is devised, then it is known as interest rate swap. An interest rate swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange interest payments calculated on different bases over a period of time. Under interest rate swap, one party to the contract makes fixed –rate payments while the other party’s payments are based on a floating rate such as LIBOR. For instance, if a company which has borrowed from a bank at a floating rate (7 m LIBOR) may want to swap that for a fixed rate (7m LIBOR) so that they can cover the risk if the interest rates go up. On one side, they pay 7% (of the agreed notional principal) and receive 7m LIBOR and on the other side they pay 7m LIBOR straight out to repay their loan. Thus they have converted a floating rate loan into a fixed rate loan. The said bank may manages its own risk from the above swap transaction by backing it out with another swap , say by paying 6.95% for 7m LIBOR and thus they earn a profit of 0.5% difference thus avoiding the risk in the interest rate changes . The other different types of interest rate swap are: Basis swap: For instance, swapping 2m LIBOR for 4m LIBOR. Basic swaps are mostly used by mortgage companies because the get the mortgage payments on monthly basis. Both fixed Currency Swap : Both fixed and say fixed $ for fixed  £ Both floating currency swap: 2m $ LIBOR for 4 m Yen LIBOR. Cross Currency Swap: fixed  £ for 2m CHF LIBOR. Companies derive more flexibility to exploit their comparative advantage in their respective borrowing markets under currency swaps. Under interest rate swap, corporations try to focus on their comparative advantage in borrowing in a single currency in the short end of the maturity spectrum vs. the long –end of the maturity spectrum. USES OF DERIVATIVES: Derivatives are mainly used for speculation or hedging. For speculation, derivatives offer us leverage. For instance, instead of buying  £ 5Million bond in the anticipation that its price will rise up, one can buy an option on that bond, which might only cost  £ 2000. The profit chances or opportunities are the same less the price of the option but the risk is much less as the most we can loose in this deal is the option price ( £ 2000). For hedging, derivatives let you to seal the price now for a trade in future or at least limits the rise or fall of that price. An UK company holding a US bond which is on the verge of its maturity could buy an interest rate option to guarantee the dollar / sterling rate did not diminish the value of its bond. Volatility is regarded as the most precise measure of risk and its return. The greater the volatility, the greater the risk and the reward as it is evidenced in the transaction from bull to bear markets. It is to be observed in the bearish market, volatility and risk augment while returns disappear including short –selling returns. History: The very first exchange for trading derivatives started by Royal Exchange in London, which allowed forward contract. Likewise, the first future contract was introduced to Yodoya rice market in Osaka, Japan in 1650. Then in 1848, Chicago Board of Trade was started to handle futures market of US. Russell Sage, a famous New York financier introduced synthetic loans using the principle of put-call parity. Sage could able to create a synthetic loan by fixing the put, call and strike prices with interest rate poignantly higher than the US usury law permitted. Chicago Mercantile Exchange started International Monetary Market in 1972 which permitted trading in currency futures. The Chicago Board of Trade started first interest rate futures in 1975.Treasury bill futures contract was introduced in 1975 by Merc. The Chicago Board Options Exchange was started in 1973 and there were publications for the first time option pricing model of Fischer Black and Myron Scholes. Chicago Board Options Exchange created an option on an index of stocks which was originally known as CBOE 100 index which later known as SP 100. During 1980, Swaps and other over-the –counter derivatives were introduced. It was in 1994, the derivative trade witnessed a series of huge losses and this affected experienced trading firms like Metallgesellschaft and Procter and Gamble. Orange country, California which is the America’s wealthiest city was declared as bankruptcy due to derivative trading and use of leverage in a portfolio of short -term Treasury securities. DERIVATIVES OR DESTRUCTIVE? A CASE STUDY OF BARINGS, UK. Baring Brothers, a British merchant bank went to bankruptcy in 1995 after incurring a whooping loss of  £ 860 million occurred on the Singapore and Osaka derivative exchanges. Nick Leeson, the bank’s star trader and absence of management controls to monitor his activities were the main reasons for this debacle. During the period between 1992 and 1995, Lesson built up positions in futures and options contracts on the Nikkei 225 stock exchange index, which proved highly profitable in the early years. Futures positions were bought by Lesson on the Nikkei index and financed cash calls on them as they fell in value by selling put options on the contract, thereby producing a straddle and thus betting against volatility of the market. Simex derivative exchange in Singapore were used to book the contracts and he run a hedged position on Nikkei index futures and make money by arbitraging between Singapore and Osaka markets. However he ceased hedging on the purchases made in Singapore and took on risk. Due to unexpected volatility in the market, losses were incurred and these losses in fact exceeded the net worth of Baring Bank .Lesson was later imprisoned for the falsification of records in an attempt to cover up his activities. The rationale of this case law is to elucidate how a bank can face bankruptcy if there is no proper risk management system is in force. The case also establishes the concept of ‘value at risk ‘(VAR) which is a simple method to express the risk of a portfolio. Because of the recent derivatives disasters, end-users, regulators, financial institutions and central bankers are now resorting to VAR as a method to foster stability in financial markets .The case illustrates how VAR could have been utilized to Baring Bank case to warn its management of the risk they were facing in advance. VOLATILITY: Volatility has its effect on administered market and it is high when both supply and demand are inelastic and liable to random shocks. According to Rudiger Dornbusch, market always overshoots in reaction to unexpected changes in economic variables. Volatility is a type of market incompetence and it is a reaction to uncertainty and excessive volatility is unreasonable. Volatility in stock and commodity market is represented by sharp changes in prices and inventory levels and level of volatility itself has fluctuated over the time. Changes in future prices, spot prices and inventories are influenced by changes in volatility Volatility is a determinant of changes in price expressed in percentage terms without regard to direction especially in stock price and stock index levels , commodities and in financial intermediaries .For example , an increase from 200 to 201 in one index is as same as the volatility terms to an increase in 100 to 101 in another index , because both changes are 1% and as this 1% increase is equal to volatility terms to a 1 % price decline .There are four ways to explain the volatility or movement and they are historical volatility , future volatility , expected volatility and implied volatility . Historical volatility is an appraiser of actual price variation during a particular period in the past. Future volatility refers annualized standard deviation of daily returns during particular future period basically between current and an option expiration. Expected volatility is an investor’s forecast of volatility utilized in an option method to gauge the theoretical value of an option. Implied volatility is the volatility percentage that illustrates the current market price of an option and it is the indicator of an option’s price. Volatility is described as standard deviation of the yield of an asset and the value of an option always increases with volatility. The greater the volatility, the higher the option chance during its life and convertible to the underlying asset at a marginal profit and this methodology has been proved in the Black-Scholes formula. Black-scholes formula yield results during trends and unsuccessful when the market change sign. â€Å" The implied volatilities are efficient forecasts of future volatility since varying market conditions cause volatilities to change through time stochastically and traditional volatilities   can not correct itself to varying market conditions as ghastly .Stochastic volatility contradicts the assumption required by the Black-Scholes model –if volatilities do modify stochastically through moment in time, the Black-Scholes method is no longer the correct pricing method and an implied volatility derived from the Black-Scholes formula provides no fresh information. Black-Scholes formula is lacking on certain issues like the oblique volatilities of various options on the identical stock tend to differ disregarding the formulas hypothesize that a single stock can be correlated with only one value of implied volatility. The Black-Scholes formula mainly ignores the distribution of stock prices in US market.   Some studies have revealed severe deviation from the price process fundamental to Black-Scholes formula like excess kurtosis, skewness, time varying volatilities and serial correlation. Further Black –scholes deals with stochastic volatility poorly and it relies on impractical assumption that market dickers endlessly thereby ignoring institutional constraints and transaction costs. Stock Charting: Stock charting is the process of a graphical sequence record enables it easier to dapple the effect of cardinal happenings on authoritarian security’s price., its functioning over a period of time and whether it’s trading its higher or its lower or in between these. Traders are very particular in daily, intraday data to forecast short-term price movements.   Investors rely on weekly and monthly charts to mark long term trends and movements. Line chart, Bar chart, Candlestick Chart and point and figure chart are some of the examples of stock charting method.   Arithmetic and semi-log arithmetic scales are two methods of price scaling used in the stock charting method. When the price range is hemmed within a tight range and used in general for short-term charts and trading. Semi-log scales are useful for long term charts to estimate the percentage movements over a foresighted period of time including large movements. Stock and other securities are estimated in relative terms through tools lime PE, Price/Revenues and Price/Book and as such it will be more useful to analyse in percentage terms. Ocillator: This is an indicator which is calculated by taking 10 day moving average of the difference between the numbers of advancing and defining issues for authoritarian given index. An indicator will reflect whether an index is gaining or losing impetus, so the size of the moves is more significant than the level of the current reading. The level of the reading is influenced by how the oscillator changes each day thereby dropping a value ten days ago and adding today’s value. The scale in moves is also helpful when it is compared with the divergence from the index price. If the Dow climaxes at the same time, the oscillator peaks in overbought area and suggests a top. Divergence is said to be negative and momentum is declining when index makes a new high but the oscillator fails to make a higher .One can buy if the index declines at this point but oscillator moves into oversold territory. If the oscillator rises above a previous overbought level though the index rises but does not make new heights, it is said to be upside momentum exists to continue the rally. Support: A support level is the price at which buyers are anticipated to enter the market in considerable numbers to take control from sellers. As the market has its track record, when price falls to a new low and then soars, the buyers who ignored on the first low will be persuaded to buy if price returns to that level back .Fearing of missing out the opportunity for the second time, these traders may enter into market in adequate numbers to take control from sellers. As the result, there is a rally strengthening sensitivity that price is unlikely to fall further thereby creating a support level. Resistance: The price level at which the sellers are anticipated to enter the market in sizeable numbers to take control from buyers is known as resistance level. If price makes a new High and then move back, sellers who ignored the previous High will be predisposed to sell when price returns to that level back. Fearing of missing the opportunity for the second time, these sellers may enter the market in large numbers to overwhelm buyers. As the result, market perception will be reinforced that price is unlikely to increase higher and form a resistance level. CANDLE CHARTING: It is a price chart that shows the open, low, the high and close for a stock each day over a specified period of time .It is known as Japanese candles because they used to analyse the price of rice contracts. When the close is higher than the open , the same is represented by an white empty box in the candle charting .When the close is lower than the open , then it is represented by a solid black candle ,Colored candles are used to reflect the day’s volume. Investment strategies in stock and options Following is the most of common investment strategies for keeping investment objectives, financial means and risk tolerance. Despite of market crash in 1929, market break in 1987, market correction in 1989 and though the prices of all securities fell down drastically but broad movement of the market has seen their value steadily increased. One of the strategies is to buy and hold for long the high quality stocks or futures of stock or commodities .The buy –and-hold strategy offers one to profit from this long term forward trend of the stock market. Further, dividend investment plan offers small investors a painless method of building wealth. Dollar –Cost Averaging: This is also a long term strategy and one has to invest in a stock or mutual fund or futures at regular intervals monthly, quarterly or semiannually. The success of dollar-cost averaging relies on consistency of amount invested and the regularity of the payments so as to minimize pricing and timing risk. The success of the Dollar cost averaging depends upon the following factors. The plan for the investment should be for a long period i.e. from 7 years to 10 years .In the last 100 years, there were about 40 recessions or market corrections or a downturn about every 3 years and If one carry on to invest through about three of these corrections, the profits of dollar-cost averaging tend to be maximized. 2 .Investment at regular intervals is most preferred. Investment should be made regularly regardless of the price of the stock. Give preference to high quality of stocks or mutual funds and a company or fund with history of habitual dividend payments and possible for capital appreciation is a better choice. One has to make sure that he has enough strength so that he can adhere to the plan through highs and lows and sell out at the peak and thus the money allocated for dollar-cost averaging result in wealth-building funds, not committed funds.[i] Going Short: An investor who prefers short i.e. enters into futures contract by agreeing to sell and deliver the underlying at a price and wishes to make profit from declining price levels and thereby selling high now , the contract can be repurchased in the future at a lesser price thus creating a profit for the investor. 16.Spreads: It involve taking benefit of the price difference between two different contracts of the same commodity and spreading is believed to be the most conventional forms of trading in the futures market because it is much safer than the trading long / short futures contract. There are different types of spread namely calendar spread, inter-exchange spread and inter-market spread. Swing Trading: It denotes a technique of placing emphasis on playing the swings in the PPS, selling on the highs and buying on the lows rather than the swiftness of the trade. To complete the swing trade, it may need more than a day, a week or authoritarian month or longer period and channeling stock is pursued by the some swing traders. Flipping: It refers the process of trading a stock very quickly with in minutes or hours etc as past as possible may be on the same day. It is often used to explain a buy and sell with a share that is running and where the trader buys the stock as it is moving up and sells the same on even a higher point in a short period of time. A flipper aim is to maximize his profits by emphasizing on fast trades to earn quick profits. The risk is also less downside as the trader sits in a stock for a less time. [i] Hall, Alvin D., and Carolyn M. Brown. Investment Strategies Made Easy: Heres How to Overcome Your Fears of the Market and Invest like a Pro. Black Enterprise Mar. 1994: 66+. 2.Fisher, Black and Myron Scholes, â€Å"The pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities â€Å"The Journal of Political Economy, 81,637-654. 3.Mackay, Charles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds: New York, Harmony Books (1980). 4.Chance .Don M.† A Chronology of Derivatives† Derivative Quarterly, 2 (winter, 1955) 53-60. 5.Thomas L. Friedman ,The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Stephen Leeb, Glen Strathy ,The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel 7.George A. Fontanills, Tom Gentile The Volatility Course 8.George Soros, Paul A. Volcker The Alchemy of Finance (Wiley Investment Classics) 9.John C. Hull Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition) 10.Marc Allaire ,The Options Strategist 11. George Kleinman, Trading Commodities and Financial Future: A Step by Step Guide to Mastering the Markets (3rd Edition). 12. Sheldon Natenberg ,Option Volatility Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques Jeffrey M. Christian, Commodities Rising: The Reality Behind the Hype and How To Really Profit in the Commodities Market. John J. Murphy ,Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications (New York Institute of Finance John F. Carter, Mastering the Trade (McGraw-Hill Trader’s Edge) 16. Joseph Kellogg, Trading From the Inside 17. Thomas N. Bulkowski ,Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns (Wiley Trading) 18.Stephen W. Bigalow, Profitable Candlestick Trading: Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits