Analysis of the Novel the Broken Boot

The     Broken     Boot by John   Galsworthy The English novelist and playwright John   Galsworthy   (1867-1933) was one of the most popular writers of the early 20th century. His work explores the transitions and contrasts between pre-and post-World War I England. As his popularity increased,   Galsworthy   published other novels of the Forsyte series: Indian Summer of a Forsyte (1918), In Chancery (1920), Awakening (1920), and To Let (1921). Although   Galsworthy   is best known for his novels, he was also a successful playwright.He constructed his drama on a legalistic basis, and the plays typically start from a social or ethical impulse and reach a resolution after different viewpoints have been expressed. This short story by the title   The     Broken     Boot  (1923) and by the author John   Galsworthy   begins with Gilbert Caister, an actor who had been â€Å"out† for six months, emerging from his lodging about noon. The opening of a play, on tour, in which he was playing a part in the last act rewarded him with four pounds a week.He stepped before a fishmonger's and regarded a lobster. The pleasure of looking at the lobster was not enough to detain him so he moved upstreet. Next he stopped before a tailor's window. He could see a reflection of himself in the faded brown suit gotten from a production the year before the war. The sunlight was very hard on seams and buttonholes. He walked on and became conscious of a face he knew—Bryce-Green. He says to come with him and have lunch. Bryce-Green was a wealthy patron in that South Coast convalescent camp.Caister answered that he'd be delighted. He asks Caister if he knows this place and proceeds to order cocktails. Caister thanks him for the lobster and says to himself that he's an amateur, but a nice man. They sat opposite one another at one of the two small tables. Bryce-Green says luck and Caister replies the same. Bryce-Green then asks Caister what he t hinks of the state of the drama. Caister replies awful. Green says yes there's nobody with any genius. Green then asks if he's been playing anything great. Caister says nothing particular.Green then says to have some more omelette. He then says that it must be a topping life, if you've talent like him. Green then says that he shall come and see him that night. Just six inches off the ground was Caister's boot which inspired the question of whether or not Caister was at all â€Å"rocky†. Caister's eyes met the object of the boot. The boot was split right across between lace and toecap. Caister replies to all of this, â€Å"not at all†. Green then states that he has an engagement that afternoon and pays the bill.

Critisism on Curleys Wife Essay

For Of Mice and Men is a Tragedy, a tragedy not in the narrow modern sense of a mere ‘sad story’ (though it certainly is that), but a tragedy in the classic Aristotelian/Shakespearean sense of showing humanity’s achievement of greatness through and in spite of defeat. Some people seem to believe that the function of literature is to provide vicarious â€Å"happy endings,† to provide in words a sugary sweetness we would like to have but cannot always get in real life. To such people, true literary tragedy is distasteful. But the greatest writers and the best readers know that literature is not always only mere sugar candy; it can sometimes be a strong medicine: sour perhaps — at least to the untrained taste — but necessary for continued health[.] Some readers may object to the book’s presentation of low class characters, vulgar language, scenes suggestive of improper sexual conduct, and an implied criticism of the social system. But none of this is presented indecently, or beyond the ordinary norms of contemporary literature. Compared to many modern works, (or to movies and TV) this book is tame indeed. Furthermore, these features are necessary in this book in two ways. First, they are part of the accurate precise reporting of the reality of a particular time and place and environment. Part of Steinbeck’s literary point is that this is true to life. As such, the dirty details are part of Steinbeck’s enlargement of the realm of Tragedy, the democratization of the tragic world. Traditionally, the subjects of Tragedies have been Kings and other Great Ones: Job, Oedipus, Lear. But Steinbeck’s point — a truly American point — is that all men are created equal: Tragedy exists even among the lowly of the earth; even the least of us — even a Lennie or a George — has the human potential for tragic nobility. Of Mice and Men is a tragedy in the modern tradition of The Hairy Ape and Death of a Salesman. Second, the grossness is a way of presenting briefly the complex turmoil of life. This book is not stereotype melodrama. It is not a simpleminded book. There are no purely bad people in it. Conversely, there are no purely good people in it either. All the characters are complex mixtures of good and bad, or rather of bad results from good intentions. They are all — in their ability and in their outlook — limited. And they live in a gross and dirty world. Given their position in that world, they are not able to achieve much. But they are trying to do the best they can; they are trying to be good people and to have good lives. They have good intentions. They have noble aims. The tragedy is that, limited as the characters are, the world they live in is even more limited; it is a world in which the simplest dream of the simplest man — poor dumb big Lennie — cannot come true. â€Å"The best laid plans of mice and men gang oft a-glae [go oft a-stray],† wrote Robert Burns in the poem which provides the book’s title and its theme. And Steinbeck’s story shows why: The best laid plans go oft ast ray because they come in conflict with one another. The simplest good intention — simply to stay alive — of a simple mouse, a simple pup, a simple young woman, is thwarted by Lennie’s urge to pet something soft and beautiful. Lennie’s drive to touch beauty kills the things he loves. But his problem is the same problem that bothers Curley, the Boss’s son, the closest thing to a villain in the book. Like Lennie, Curley doesn’t know how to hold on to what he finds important: his young wife, his status as the Boss’s son, his reputation as a man. He loses each by trying to hold on too tightly. Curley’s aim to be a respected husband/boss/man is foiled by his own limited abilities. The similar but simpler aim of Lennie and George to have a small place of their own where they can â€Å"live offa the fatta the lan † is doomed to frustration also by their own limitations and the tragic chain of circumstance and coincidence that ends with Lennie dead by George’s hand. The point, of course, is that they all — we all — live in a too limited world, a world in which not all our dreams can come true, a world in which we — all of us some of the time and some of us all the time — are doomed to disappointment. The tragic dilemma is that for our basic humanity, for the goodness of our aims, we all deserve better than we get. But because of our human limitations, by our weaknesses of character, none of us is ever good enough to earn what we deserve. Some philosophers, seeing this dilemma, pronounce profound pessimism for humanity. Some religions promise for this world’s disappointments supernatural intercession and other-worldly compensations. The tragic viewpoint (the view of Shakespeare, the Greek tragedians, the Old Testament Job, and John Steinbeck) finds in it the chance for nobility of soul: even in the blackest of disappointments, a human can achieve individual greatness. One may be defeated physically — but one need not be crushed spiritually. One can remain true to one’s dream and true to one’s friend. We humans may die, but we can love one another. Friendship. Love. That too is what Of Mice and Men is all about. Lennie and George, disparate types, are, against all good reason, friends. They share a good dream. They love one another. They are too limited, too inarticulate, to know how to say it, but they do show it — or rather Steinbeck shows it to us readers. So the book treats the great themes of Dreams and Death and Love with simple powerful clarity. It does so with a classically elegant structure — another reason for using the book as a teaching tool: it allows a reader — especially an untrained or beginning reader of literature — to see (or be shown) how structure supports and presents content. Of Mice and Men has the classic situation/complication/twist/and/resolution plot structure uncluttered by diversions, distractions, or subplots. There is inevitableness, a starkness th at makes the point of the story unavoidable. The story has the classic unities of time and place and action. It begins in a small spot of beautiful nature, a secluded camp in the woods by a stream; it moves to the buildings of a California ranch, and ends back in the woods by the stream. The style is simple: clear, direct sentences of description and action, direct quotation of the speech of simple people. Few long words, no hard words. The action is simple: two poor and vagrant workers, big, dumb Lennie and small, clever George, take jobs at a large ranch. Lennie has trouble with the Boss’s son, Curley. Lennie accidentally — more or less — kills Curley’s wife. George kills Lennie to save him from the horrors of a lynch mob led by Curley, bent on revenge. The settings are simple in detail, and simply powerfully symbolic. The secluded spot in the woods by the stream is the uncomplicated world of Nature; the bunkhouse is the bleak home of hired working men trying to make sense of their lives and gain comfort in a limited environment; the barn is the place of working life, of seed and harvest, birth and death; the harness room with Crook’s bunk symbolizes social constraints; the â€Å"little place of our own† about which George and Lennie dream and all too vaguely plan is the Paradise on earth we all hope for. The characters, too, are simple yet significant. â€Å"Begin with an individual, and before you know it you find you have created a type,† wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald; â€Å"begin with a type, and you find that you have created — nothing.† Steinbeck begins with individuals: clearly and sharply crafted characters, a whole set of individuals who are so clearly realized that each — without surrendering individuality — becomes a type, an archetype, a univ ersal character: There is Candy, the old, one-armed worker with no place to go, as useless as his toothless dog; there is Carlson, gruffly and deliberately â€Å"unfeeling,† who can coolly kill old Candy’s ancient dog simply because â€Å"he stinks† and â€Å"he ain’t no good to you†; and there is Crooks, the dignified proud and aloof but helpless and lonely victim of racial discrimination. There is Slim, calm, reasonable, compassionate, the real leader of men. And there is Curley, the arrogant but inept Boss’s son. The man who could lead well does not have the position; the one who has the position and the authority is not a true leader. Curley hides his insecurities behind a mask of macho toughness. His competitive bravado makes him push too far and Lennie, after enduring much, is given permission by George to â€Å"get him.† Lennie in self-protection crushes Curley’s fist in his own big hand, crippling Curley somewhat as Candy and Crooks have been crippled by the punitive harshness of life. Curley is also the one man who has a woman. But clearly he does not — does not know how to — relate to her as a person. She is to him a thing, a possession, a sex-object and a status symbol. For the men, in braggadocio, he flaunts the sexuality of the relationship; and yet, out of his own self-doubts he is intensely jealous of the men’s awareness of her. The young woman has no name — she is merely â€Å"Curley’s wife.† She knows she wants — and somehow deserves — something better than this. â€Å"I don’t like Curley,† she says of her husband. She has grandiose ambitions of being a Hollywood star â€Å"in the pitchers.† She is a lost little girl in a world of men whose knowledge of women is largely limited to memories of kind old ladies and rumors of casual prostitution. All these men are afraid of Curley’s wife, afraid and aware that her innocent animal appeal may lead them into temptation and trouble. In self-protection they avoid her. Only Lennie, in naive goodness, actually relates to her as a person to a person. She talks to him. For a little time they share in their aesthetic sense; they both admi re beauty. Unfortunately, she is too naive, and Lennie is too strong and clumsy. In trying — at her invitation — to pet her lovely hair he is panicked by her quick resistance, and ends by killing her. Just as he had earlier killed a puppy and a mouse. Curley’s wife, a naive Romantic, wants love and tenderness in a harsh crude Naturalistic world; Lennie, big and ignorant, tries to give love. But he is too weak in the mind, too strong in the body. His tenderness is too powerful for weaker, unsuspecting creatures. We readers can identify with Lennie. We sympathize; we empathize. We care. We have — most of us — been in his position; not quite able to cope with the complexities of the world around us, wanting only security, peace, comfort, and something soft and beautiful to pet and love. Perhaps one reason that this book has evoked controversy and censorious action is that it is so simple and clear and easy to understand — and so painful! It hurts to read this book. And some people don’t like their books to hurt them; they want soothing. But great Tragedy is meant to hurt. One needn’t subscribe wholly to the Aristotelian doctrine of ‘catharsis’ by Art to see that one function of literature is to help us deal with the pain of real life by practicing with the vicarious pains of tragic art. Of course Of Mice and Men contains unpleasant attitudes; there is brutality, racism, sexism, economic exploitation. But the book does not advocate them; rather it shows that these too-narrow conceptions of human life are part of the cause of human tragedy. They are forces which frustrate human aspiration. Lennie and George have a noble dream. They are personally too limited to make it come true, but they do try. They try to help each other, and they even enlarge their dream to include old one-handed Candy and crippled black Crooks. Theirs is the American Dream: that there is somehow, somewhere, sometime, the possibility that we can make our Paradise on earth, that we can have our own self-sufficient little place where we can live off the fat of the land as peaceful friends. What is sad, what is tragic, what is horrible, is that the Dream may not come true because we are — each and all of us — too limited, too selfish, too much in conflict with one another. â€Å"Maybe ever’-body in the whole damn world is scared of each other,† says Slim. And George expresses the effects of loneliness, â€Å"Guys that go around alone don’t have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin’ to fight all the time.† What is ennobling in this tragedy of mice and men is the Revelation of a way beyond that loneliness and meanness and fighting, a way to rise above our human limitations: Two men — Lennie and George — who have nothing else, do have each other. â€Å"We kinda look after each other.† says George. And they do have their Dream. And the Dream is there even in the final defeat. For in the end the one thing George can do for Lennie is to make sure he’s happy as he dies. He has Lennie â€Å"look acrost the river you can almost see [the place].† And as Lennie says, â€Å"Let’s get that place now,† George kills him mercifully. It’s a horrible thing to do, and George knows that. And we know that. But in this limited world in this limited way it is all that George can do for his friend. And he does it. That is the horror and the nobility which together make up Tragedy. The Tragic pattern closes. There is a sense of completeness, of both defeat and satisfaction. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck has shown us something about the pain of living in a complex human world and created something beautiful from it. In true great literature the pain of Life is transmuted into the beauty of Art. The book is worth reading for a glimpse of that beauty — and worth teaching as a way to show others how such beauty works.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Letter from a Birmingham Jail - Essay Example He also supports his argument morally and politically. Morally, he believes that just laws are God’s laws while unjust laws ruin God’s law. Politically, he believes that just laws are not applied to everyone while unjust laws are applied which is unfair. In both arguments, King defined segregation as an unjust law. â€Å"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.† This is how King expresses his anger and disappointment. He wanted the Black Americans to stand up for their rights, to speak for their rights, equality, and harsh treatment. He criticizes the perception White people have about his thoughts and actions, how his peaceful non-violent movement becomes a violent movement according to them. King seems to throw light on the fact that most of the times the silence of good people leads to one’s repenting in future because if one might not speak for his/her own rights then no one is going to notice their grief and their emotions, He says ‘We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people†. This quote also seems to highlight the present conditions of King’s times when he got arrested for his parade without a permit during his non- violent protests against ‘unjust’ laws. He seems to be in favor of standing up for oneself and speaking for one’s rights. The quote also highlights the fact that if a person is silent and bears every ‘unjust’ act then it is the fault of the silence of those people that they allow such people to do injustice to them.

International Finacial Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International Finacial Analysis - Case Study Example The accounting and financial reporting standards in the United Kingdom are the responsibility of Financial Reporting Council (FRC). It is an independent professional entity consisting of three auxiliaries viz. the Accounting Standards Board (ASB), the Urgent Issues Task Force (UITF), and the Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP). In the year 2000, the European Commission advised all the European Union listed companies to prepare their financial statements in full compliance with the IFRS for the financial years starting on or after January 2005, so as to enhance the comparability and transparency of financial statements (European Commission, 2000). Ever since then, all the companies in UK are required to prepare the financial statements under the standards issued by International Accounting Standards Board. In the United States, the accounting standards are issued mainly by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). These standards are known as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles on the basis of which, companies in United States are required to prepare the financial statements (Nobes et al., 1997). ... These rules are produced both by the SEC itself and through SEC oversight of private standards-setting bodies such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Emerging Issues Task Force". There happens to be considerable divergence between the US GAAP and International Accounting Standards, however FASB and IASB are collaborating to minimise the discrepancies (Malthus, 2004). The FASB has been continuously working for the improvements in the accounting standards prevalent in the United States. This importance to disclosure and transparency of information has helped on the way of harmonising the US GAAP with the IFRS. In the year 2002, it provided its support to IASB and both the boards signed an agreement to act united in the pursuit of harmonisation of accounting standards and thus the FASB has taken a leadership role second to IASB in the internationalisation of financial reporting standards (Halliday, 2003). Classification Of Accounting Systems Both these countries i.e., the United Kingdom and the United States belong to the Anglo-American model as proposed by Nobes and Parker (1998; 2000) (Wolk et al., 2001). The standards issued by International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) also come into the category of Anglo-American model. The six important factors of international differences with respect to accounting practices as proposed by Nobes and Parker (1998; 2000), both the countries have legal system based on common law, UK and US have strong equity system with greater shareholder influence, greater significance of stock exchange, both the countries have staunch power of accounting profession (Wolk et al., 2001) and both the countries demand

Analysis of the Business Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of the Business Cycle - Essay Example The United States unemployment rate in May 2011 was 9.1 percent slightly higher than that of April 2011 which was 9 percent. Employment rates in government sectors continued to decline while job opportunities were generated in private sector, health care and mining. The number of unemployed person in May 2011 was 13.9 million. Inflation rate in United States has a continuously rising trend. It has systematically increased from 1.6 percent in January 2011 to 3.13 percent in June 2011. While in April and may it sustained on 3.2 percent. United States economy growth rate has greatly decelerated since last few years the above analyzed data shows that United States economy is in a phase of slow recovery with its 3.3 percent GDP growth rate. There had been fluctuations in inflation and unemployment rate- slight increases and decreases and some times the rate sustained at one level. The growth rate here is very slow and it is insufficient for the recovery of United States economy. With the same growth rate it can be projected that the recovery of the economy will speed up in 2015. By bringing down the inflation and unemployment rate and increasing the GDP growth rate United States can fasten up its recovery stage. There had been high rising trends in United States GDP growth rate. It was the highest in the year 1990 with an amazing growth rate of 10.5 percent. A monopolistic firm has to analyze the GDP growth rate, inflation rate and unemployment rate of the economy very carefully as these aspects can have a direct effect on its labor cost and sales rate. As we can see a rising trend in GDP growth it shows that the whole economy is in function and there is an increase in aggregate demand which in turn increases the inflation by demand pull and cost push. At this stage a competitive monopolistic firm must increase its sales as there is a huge amount of money facing a little amount of goods. An increase in sales can occur when the GDP growth rate is increasing along wit h the inflation rate. But when there is a negative trend of gross domestic product a monopolistic firm may face a reduction in its sales rate. Because the economy is functioning in a slow manner the aggregate demand decreases and therefore the firms have to cut down their sales in order to avoid losses. The functioning of a competitive monopolistic firm here would be that it would increase its sales because the data shows an increase in GDP growth rate from 1.8 percent to 3.3 percent which in turn has increased the inflation rate as well from 1.6 percent to 3.13 percent. The monopolistic firm should also cut down its labor cost very cautiously. The wages cost is comparatively lower when the unemployment rate is low and it is slightly higher when the unemployment rate is high. Here the unemployment rate is increasing, as it was 9 percent in April and 9.1 percent in May and the monopolistic firm can cut down its cost but the firms should keep in concern that the labor or wage cost inc reases with the increase in GDP. If the firm will not keep an eye on increasing GDP rate and will cut down its cost to the minimum limit then a competitive firm will become uncompetitive because when the economy picks up and the Gross Domestic Product rises the increase in labor or wage cost may faster than the increase in sales of the firm. Under the present circumstances the firm can cut down its cost slightly and should keep a precautious look on GDP growth rate and unemploy

Ethical Philosophy in Lives of the People Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 104

Ethical Philosophy in Lives of the People - Essay Example For example, I never lie to the people. In spite of the fact that it may be difficult at times, there is a fine logic behind it: I do not lie to the people because if I start lying, everyone could start lying. As a result, there will be no one that can be trusted in the society. This means that lying should not be made a universal law and it should be excluded from my behavior. Another aspect that I would like to mention is treating people as ends only, not as means. It is often suggested that the quality of personal relationship has deteriorated in the contemporary world; it is attributed to the fact that people try to stay autonomous and see others as way to achieve their goals. I despise this kind of thinking. Of course, some of my friends are able to help me with different tasks. However, they are not my friends because they can be useful to me, they are my friends, because we have similar interests and so on (Cornman & Lehner, 1992). In other words, I never think about my friends from this point of view. Finally, I also would like to highlight the concept of good will. The latter means that a person performs an action out of the desire to follow the universal law and behave ethically, not pursuing any other goals. Indeed, I know that sometimes my actions can be beneficial for me; for example, if I report a mistake of a waiter, I will be able to get a bonus from a restaurant. If I see a mistake I would most certainly report it not because I expect some sort of benefits, but because I truly believe that by doing so I help the organization improve their quality of service. Having examined all the points that were mentioned, I might conclude that my ethical philosophy is consistent with Kant’s moral philosophy. First of all, it utilizes the concept of universal law and rejects any action that can’t be made one.

Alternatives technologies to Gas flaring Dissertation

Alternatives technologies to Gas flaring - Dissertation Example The gas is emerged due to the drilling of oil and then separated from oil; it is released by pressure relief valves through vertical pipes. Gas flared through combustion affects the green house gases up to a considerable extent. The flaring and venting of gas from oil drills plays a very important role in emissions of greenhouse gas. The emission of greenhouse gas was at peak during 1970s around 110 million metric tons per year but it has been declined since then by more than three quarters and now estimated around 0.5% of all carbon dioxide emissions. As per the Kyoto Protocol, a carbon bonus had been announced for garbage collecting companies in some developing nations for installing combustion devices for the methane gas. These devices will help in preventing methane to reach the atmosphere by burning it. The burning effect converts the methane into water, carbon dioxide (CO2) and heat. As methane is twenty three times more powerful than carbon dioxide, it will also help in reduci ng greenhouse gas emissions with the same proportion. The gas flared and vented during the drilling process is very worth while and can be used for various purposes. According to a report by World Bank, "Over 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas are flared or vented annually, an amount worth approximately 30.6 billion dollars, equivalent to 25 percent of the United States’ gas consumption or 30 percent of the European Union’s gas consumption per year." The flaring and venting is condensed within some countries. According to the Wikipedia, "10 countries account for 75% of emissions, and twenty for 90%. The largest flaring operations occur in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The leading contributors to gas flaring are (in declining order): Nigeria, Russia, Iran, Algeria, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia, and the United States.[6] In spite of a ruling by the Federal High Court of Nigeria (that forbade flaring) in 2005, 43% of the gas retrieval was still being flared in 2 006. It will be prohibited by law as of 2008." Research Topic: The effects of gas flaring on the environment and to find alternative techniques to reduce its impact on green house gas emissions. Research Objectives / Purpose of study: The research objectives include some overall objectives that will be generalized and also some specific quantitative objectives as discussed under: To identify the risks associated with excessive gas flaring; To identify factors that influence the high and accelerated rate of greenhouse gas emission; To explore past trends of gas flaring; To identify strategies that have been implemented around the world to reduce gas flaring effect; To research and evaluate the possible alternate technologies that can be used to reduce the effect of gas flaring on the environment; & To identify the finest and environment-friendly technology for the purpose of gas flaring. Expected Outcome: The expected outcome of this research work is to achieve all the research objec tives stated above by testing the authentic and established approaches used previously for reducing emission of gas flaring and venting. Literature Review: According to the Fuel for thought: an environmental strategy for the energy sector (a report from the Environment Department of World Bank, 2000), there are many reasons of gas flaring and venting. The most significant one is the lack of resources to utilize the gas emitted

Fuji Xerox Strategic Alliance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fuji Xerox Strategic Alliance - Essay Example However, the 4:1 success ratio of strategic alliances has not deterred companies and business enterprises from continuously forming strategic alliances. The most viable reason for this continuation of forming strategic alliances despite the frequent failures may be the present era's increasingly competitive environment. Business firms and companies in every industry are searching new and more effective ways to increase and sustain their competitive advantage. In this search for new mediums to augment the competitive advantage, most of the companies have realized that, owing to a variety of reasons e.g. cultural and social differences, change in consumer's needs and wants and today's accelerating technological advances, significant improvements in performance and competitive advantage cannot be achieved alone ( Whipple J.M. and Frankel R., 1999). Per se, the traditional response of acquisition to enhance the performance and competitiveness of a company is no longer the only alternative. Strategic alliance is the new alternative that facilitates the merging of partnering companies or firms' individual strengths and expertise while also compensating for the participating companies internal resource scarcities without them having to make the required investments for the actual ownership. The most fundamental aspect for a strategic alliance to be a successful, is finding the right match in which experience, expertise, knowledge and strategic resources of the participating companies will complement each other. However, in the business arena today, the researchers have found out that newly formed strategic alliances are more vulnerable to failure than those which have lasted for some time (Lunnan R and Haugland A.S., n.d1.). According to Steve Steinhilber, the vice-president of Strategic Alliances at Cisco, "companies worldwide launch more than two thousand strategic alliances every year, about the quarter of them are complete failures and more than half never deliver as promised" (Steinhilber S, 2008). However, amidst these strategic alliance failures there is the "Fuji Xerox", the strategic alliance between the Japan's Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd and America's Xerox Corporation, which can be said to be the most successful long term strategic alliance, till date. Hence this paper has been developed as report that envisages the evolution of this strategic alliance between Fuji and Xerox and how it became the most successful strategic alliance as "Fuji Xerox". In the course of understanding the factors that facilitated and made this venture the most triumphant long term strategic alliance, the report perhaps, will also be able to shed some light on the essential building blocks of successful alliances and how to establish them. Creating a

Economics game theory paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Economics game theory paper - Essay Example Rationality is the first basic assumption of consumer behaviour in microeconomic theory. The implication of rationality is that the consumer’s decisions are motivated by the pursuit of maximizing his/her own utility. In the context of long term health insurance, the rational consumer’s objective is to maximize his utility over the long run by insuring against possible utility losses resulting from ailments. Therefore, if the consumer is rational, under certainty, that is if the consumer knew the exact health contingencies that will occur, the purchase will be made only if the resulting long run utility of the purchase is (weakly) greater than the long run utility of the consumer if he/she does not make the purchase. However, what complicates the situation is that the occurrence of some event that causes damage to health is random and the consumer does not know whether it will occur or not at the time of making the purchase. Therefore, the consumer can maximize only his/ her expected utility through buying or not buying the insurance (Varian, 1997). We now turn to the other important assumption regarding the consumer that we shall abide by – intelligence. The assumption of intelligence comes from nomenclature of game theory. Game theory is essentially a method of mathematically modeling situations of conflict or co-operation (Gibbons, 1992). Intelligent players are players who have the capacity to infer anything about the game that we, the studiers of the game are. More precisely, the implication of the players being intelligent is that if we are able to infer that a given strategy is optimal for any particular player subject to the strategy choice of the rival players, then each and every player of the game will be able to draw the same inference as well (Kreps, 1990). We shall assume that the consumer under consideration is both rational and intelligent. We model the given situation as that of a two player stage game. Player one is a ration al and intelligent consumer and Player two is Mother Nature. To keep things simple we assume that there are two possible states of the world - accident and no accident; and which one is to be realized is a decision made by Mother Nature. Suppose Mother Nature chooses the no-accident state with probability P and this probability is common knowledge. At the time of deciding on the purchase, Player 1 does not know whether he faces an accident or not. Suppose Player 1 earns X1 if the no accident state materializes and earns X2 if the accident state materializes, where X1> X2. Essentially we are assuming that the monetary value of the consumer’s health to himself if there are no accidents is X1 and this reduces to X2 if there is an accident. Define U(X) as the consumer’s utility function with U’ > 0 and U’’ U (X1) > U (X2). Now, to bring in the role of insurance in this setup, suppose that the consumer can purchase insurance against the accident state. Particularly, assume that if the consumer pays a premium ‘K’ then a lump sum transfer of ‘L’ is made to him if the accident state is realized in stage 2. Therefore, contemplating purchasing insurance can be rational only under the following condition: U (X2) < U (X2 +L-K). Mother Nature picks the state of the world. We assume her to be indifferent between the ‘

Differences Between Pr and Advertising Essay Example for Free

Differences Between Pr and Advertising Essay Differences Between Advertising and Public Relations Advertising vs. public relations, these two industries are very different even though theyre commonly confused as being one and the same. The following ten properties just scratch the surface of the many differences between advertising and public relations. 1. Paid Vs Free Coverage * Advertising: The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published. For Example: Infosys gives an ad in The Hindu on Wednesdays in the Opportunities column. So it has the liberty and control to opt whether they want to give the ad on a particular Wednesday or not depending on their requirement. * Public Relations: Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, youre focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/services. For Example: Tata Nano is the best example of this. Till now Nano was not advertised and all its publicity is through PR. 2. Creative Control Vs. No Control * Advertising: Since youre paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad. Any feature of the ad can be designed according to the way you want to portray the image of your company. For Example: Close-up portrays a youthful image through its advertisements, whereas Cadbury (which earlier had largely targeted the youth) has shifted its focus and now projects its chocolate as something for the whole family to enjoy during times of rejoicing. * Public Relations: You have no control over how the media presents (or misrepresents) information about your organization. For Example: Reliance did not have a control over the news which was published regarding the conflict between Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani and had to pay for it in form of loss in the share price (initially). 3. Shelf Life * Advertising: Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press release. * Public Relations: You generally submit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor wont publish your same press release three or four times in their magazine. 4. Wise Consumers * Advertising: Consumers know when theyre reading an advertisement theyre trying to be sold a product or service. The consumer understands that we have paid to present our selling message to him or her, and unfortunately, the consumer often views the selling message very guardedly. * Public Relations: When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, theyre seeing something you didnt pay for and view it differently than they do paid advertising. Where we can generate some sort of third-party endorsement by independent media sources, we can create great credibility for our clients products or services. 5. Creativity * Advertising: In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials. Some jingles in the ad have a long bonding with the product. Few Examples: Surf comes with a series of new ads from time to time. Britannia’s jingle is well remembered and is branded even in its website. * Public Relations: In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media. For Example: Apple iPhone is an example of this. Apple created a huge buzz in the market exercising creativity to and extend and the result was a huge demand for the Iphone much before its release date. 6. Target Audience or Hooked Editor * Advertising: Youre looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldnt advertise a womens TV network in a male-oriented sports magazine. * Public Relations: You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event. . 7. Special Events * Advertising: If your company sponsors an event, you wouldnt want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in. Public Relations: If youre sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event. 8. Writing Style * Advertising: Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product. * Public Relations: Youre strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any bl atant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media.

Trait and Types Approaches to Personality

Trait and Types Approaches to Personality Critically evaluate the trait and type approach/perspective of personality, drawing on relevant research. This essay will begin by giving a description of what personality is, before going on to critically evaluate trait and type approaches of personality. The precise definition of personality has been a controversial issue over many years by various theorists. One definition of personality can be described as the underlying causes of individual behaviour and experience within a person (Cloninger, 2000).   Trait and type theory is one of many personality approaches and has been an influential part of personality theory and research. The basic assumption of the trait and type approach is that people possess broad predispositions to respond in particular ways (Pervin, 1993). Therefore, traits are the fundamental building blocks of personality because they produce consistent patterns in our behaviour. Allport and Odbert (1936, cited in Cloninger, 2000), found that the English dictionary lists 18,000 words referring to personality traits. It is difficult to know which of these traits are actually basic and applicable to everyone and which ones are variations of other traits. In order to eliminate unnecessary traits, some researchers have statistically examined which trait scores tend to be correlated. This is done by the use of questionnaires and from this, factor analysis is carried out. Factor analysis is carried out by using a large number of test items administered to many participants , which are then co varied. This enables the identification of groups , clusters or factors of related items. Cattell (1957) proposed 16 dominant personality dimensions. Each of these were defined by a pair of adjectives, such as outgoing versus reserved, tense versus relaxed and suspicious versus trusting. However, later research by other investigators, managed to reduce this number even smaller. Norman (1963, cited in Goldberg, 1990) found five major dimensions of personality, often called the ‘Big Five’. This five-factor model is a descriptive classification of traits into broad domains called neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience. His analysis relied largely upon factor analysis. Within these dimensions are lower-level traits such as, talkative versus silent and sociable versus reclusive, which come under the extroversion dimension. This model proposes that human personality can be fully described in terms of five dimensions, however in order to fully understand what an individual’s personality is, the lower-level trait s are needed. Researchers such as Costa McCrae (1992) claim that the five-factor model is the best theory of personality. Nevertheless, a number of investigators have suggested that there may be even fewer underlining dimensions (e.g. Livneh and Livneh, cited in Gleitman, Fridlund Reisberg, 1999). However, the most influential researcher is Eysenck (1967) who found two basic dimensions of personality. He named these introversion-extroversion and neuroticism (stable-unstable). The extrovert is sociable, impulsive and enjoys new experiences, while the introvert tends to be more solitary, cautious and slow to change (Eysenck, 1967). Neuroticism relates to emotional stability, and Eysenck (1967) states that neuroticism/emotional stability and extroversion/introversion are independent dimensions. Introverts and many neurotics have something in common, they are both unsociable and withdrawn, but their lack of sociability has different roots. Introverts are not afraid of social activities, they just don’t like them, however, neurotically shy people keep to themselves through fear of joining in. In the 1970’s, Eysenck added psychoticism onto his existing two dimension classification. People high on this dimension tend to be insensitive, uncaring about others and opposed to accepted social custom (Pervin, 1993). This third dimension is similar to two of the Big Five dimensions, agreeableness and conscientiousness, and Eysenck regards them as being components of the psychoticism dimension. Although Eysenck (1967) does not include openness to experience in his approach, he argues that it is important because it is related to cognitive and educational traits, including intelligence. An alternative five-factor model was also proposed by Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Thornguist Kiers (1991, cited in Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta Kraft, 1993), and adds impulsive sensation seeking, aggression-hostility and activity to sociability and neuroticism-anxiety to the model. The Big five factor model has been challenged by Waller and Ben-Porath (1987, cited in McCrae and Costa, 1989), claiming that additional research is needed in order to relate the five-factor model to alternative personality systems. However, more research has been carried out by McCrae and Costa (1989), in which they provided evidence that the model can be used to organise the Murray needs measured by Jackson’s (1974) Personality Research Form. Another criticism of the five-factor model comes from McAdams (1992), who claims that although this model may be an important one in the study of personality, it is far from being an integrative model of personality. He also states that because the five factors are so broad, trait scores may not be highly useful in the prediction of specific behaviour in particular situations (McAdams, 1992). However, Digman (1990), states that the five-factor model’s main aim was to be empirical and compatible with other major psychological theories, and this has been achieved. The Big five-factor theory and the three-factor theory seem to agree on two basic points. First, Cattell’s, (1967, cited in Zuckerman et al, 1993) 16-factor personality theory has too many dimensions. Research has also shown that these factors do not seem to be replicable across gender, age, or methods and many investigators have simply failed to find them. The second point is that in the five- and three-factor models, they both agree that two of the major factors are extraversion-introversion and neuroticism. However, there is less agreement on the lower level traits, as proposed by Norman (1963, cited in Gleitman, 1999). In an empirical analysis carried out by Zuckerman et al (1993), they found that there was a great deal of convergence among the major factors in the three-trait models, particularly the two five-factor models. Extroversion and neuroticism are fairly similar in all three models, despite differences in their components. Much research has been carried out in order to support Eysenck’s approach. Two questionnaires were developed to measure extroversion and introversion. One is called the Maudsley personality inventory and the other the Eysenck Personality Inventory, which includes a scale that detects individuals who are faking responses. An example of a question in these questionnaires would be, ‘do you prefer reading to meeting people?’. From the data obtained, they found that individual variations in introversion/extroversion reflect differences in neurophysiological functioning. Introverts are more easily aroused by events and more restrained and inhibited than extroverts. In fact, several studies of identical and fraternal twins suggest that heredity plays a major part in their scores on this dimension (Shields, 1976, cited in Pervin, 1993). It was also found that people high on neuroticism tend to be emotionally susceptible and frequently complain of worry and anxiety, as wel l as bodily aches, such as headaches. It was suggested that individual differences was due to an inherited biological difference in nervous system functioning. Individuals high on neuroticism show a slower decrease in the stress response once the problem has gone and genetic factors contribute significantly to psychoticism (Pervin, 1993). In a study carried out by Barrett, Petrides, Eysenck Eysenck (1998), the factorial similarity of extroversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and social desirability were assessed using gender-specific data collected from 34 countries across the world. They used the Kaiser-Hunka Bianchini (KHB) procedure, however, this procedure was modified due to previous criticism of the validity of this procedure. Eysenck has suggested that it is necessary to collect data for cross-cultural comparisons between countries and cultures using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), as the main measuring instrument. The main aim was to compare the factorial structure of the EPQ within each country, to that of a UK dataset. This comparison would establish whether there is universality of the psychometric scales of extroversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and social desirability. Eysenck and Eysenck (1985, cited in Barrett et al. 1998), claimed that extroversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and social desirability would prove to be universal across countries and cultures because these scales are based upon a biological theory of personality. Although social desirability has not been specified in this way, Eysenck still claims that there will also be universality. The results found that the factors of extroversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and social desirability were strongly replicable across all of the 34 countries. The trait and type theory approach does seem to be effective in describing and providing evidence for personality. Generally in the study of personality, trait psychologists seek to discover the psychological dimensions along which people differ and the ways in which traits cluster within individuals the major focus being on enduring behaviour (Buss, 1989). The impact of experimental manipulations is not always investigated, because the focus is on the content of behaviour not the psychological process underlying the behaviour. This has been debated by many researchers e.g. Mischel (1968, cited in Hjelle, 1992). An experiment by Fenigstein (1979, cited in Buss, 1989), investigated whether manipulations are crucial determinants of behaviour. He placed each participant (with different degrees of public self-consciousness) in a waiting room with two other â€Å"participants†, who were experimental accomplices. In the control condition these accomplices responded to conversation by the participant, but did not respond in the experimental condition. This manipulation found that participants high in the public self-consciousness trait, reported high levels of discomfort and tended to avoid choosing the accomplices as subsequent partners in the second part of the experiment, compared to those participants low on this trait. This empirical research seems to suggest that traits do have an impact on behaviour, and experimental manipulations significantly influence behaviour (Buss, 1989). Another criticism of the trait theory approach is with the use of factor analysis. The results obtained from this, relies heavily on the exact contents of the date set. Therefore, if the items included in the analysis are changed, the resulting factors may be significantly different. Consequently critics argue that it is difficult to claim that any single factor analysis allows us to identify the real dimensions of personality. In conclusion, it seems that the study of personality is not as clear cut as one would hope. Although there appears to be many similarities among the trait theorists, there are also differences between them. It is also important to point out that there are many other approaches and perspectives of personality – behaviourist, social cognition and dynamic perspectives, which may provide a more complete understanding of personality. No one model seems to be appropriate in accounting for the whole theory of personality, but it seems apparent that each theorist does provide a valuable theory of personality. References Barrett, P.T., Petrides, K. V., Eysenck, S. B. G. Eysenck, H. J. (1998). The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire: An examination of the factorial similarity of P, E, N and L across 34 countries. Personality and Indiviudal Differences, 25, 805-819. Buss, A. H. (1989). Personality as traits. American Psychologist, 44, 1348-1378. Cattell, R. B. (1957). Personality and motivation structure and measurement. New York: Harcourt, Brace, World Cloninger, S. C. (2000). Theories of personality: Understanding persons. (3rd Ed). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall. Costa, P. T. McCrae, R. R. (1992). Four ways five factors are basic. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 653-665. Digman, J. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417-440. Eysenck, H. J. (1967). The biological basis of personality. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas. Gleitman, H., Fridlund, A. J. F. Reisberg, D. (1999). Psychology. (5th Ed). New York: W.W. Norton. Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48, 1299-1314. Hjelle, L. A., Ziegler, D. J. (1992). Personality theories: Basic assumptions, research and applications. New York: McGraw-Hill. McAdams, D. P. (1992). The five factor model in personality: A critical appraisal. Journal of Personality, 60, 329-355. McCrae, R. R., Costa, P. T., (1989). More reasons to adopt the five factor model. American Psychologist, 44, 1001-1004. Pervin, L. A. (1993). Personality: Theory and research. (6th Ed). New York: Wiley Zuckerman, M., Kuhlman, D. M., Joireman, J., Teta, P. Kraft, M. (1993). A comparison of three structural models for personality: The big three, the big five, and the alternative five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 757-768.

Jay Gatsby’s character encompasses a lot of characteristics at once :: English Literature:

Jay Gatsby’s character encompasses a lot of characteristics at once Great Gatsby -ambitious? Jay Gatsby’s character encompasses a lot of characteristics at once, making him one of the most diverse characters in the book. As we move deeper and deeper into the novel, we discover that we can narrow down Gatsby’s characteristics down to a few adjectives. One of the main adjectives that can be written onto Jay Gatsby is ambitious. We can say to a very large extent that Gatsby’s character is very ambitious. There are several different occasions that can support things argument. For instance, why does Gatsby throw all his lavish parties? He throws them in order to seduce and get Daisy’s attention. This is directly related to his ambition for getting Daisy, since he never gives up his naà ¯ve view on his love for Daisy. He has thrown so many parties that it is now a custom for everyone to book â€Å"Gatsby’s mansion† on their Saturday’s in their calendars. He never surrenders and feels hopeless over Daisy, yet instead he strives harder and harder as the days go by to seduce her. This is a solid proof of his ambition for love. He has such a strong willed heart that he will never let go of it until the day he dies; which is what happens. In addition he never realized that maybe he can’t ever have Daisy, but of course his ambition has worked too hard to give up when he’s tried for so long. Another great example of his ambition is his business and his striving to become a permanent member of the upper-class. For years he has tried to do great business with Wolfshiem, to get into the right deals, in order to enhance his wealth and set up his position in West Egg. He isn’t a part of the established wealth however through buying his way into everything, especially the social life and Daisy’s heart; he thinks he can be a part of the East Egg lifestyle.

Essay --

Introduction: "Based on five principles of Canada Health Act, Government of Canada introduced national healthcare system in 1962. Canadian government was committed to provide universal and comprehensive healthcare service that is accessible by all permanent residents without restriction based on ones’ income. Canada’s healthcare system is jointly financed by the federal and the provincial government with centralized guidelines established by the federal government to ensure uniform healthcare services across the country. Canada spent approximately $211 billion on healthcare in 2013 with an average of $5,988 per person (CIHI, 2001). Healthcare spending continues to rise and is expected to be 50% of Ontario’s total annual spending in near future. About 70% of Canada’s healthcare cost is publically funded and only 30% is funded by health insurance and out-of-pocket costs (Toronto Sun, 2013). Recent Angus Reid study has revealed that the Canadian healthcare system is struggling to provide satisfactory services to its citizens. It was revealed that 187,000 patients were waiting to receive treatment and 45% of those in the waiting line characterized themselves as â€Å"in pain† (Health Canada, 2005). Waiting lines are common across Canada, for instance, waiting period between primary consultation and surgery is 10.2 weeks in Ontario and 17.1 weeks in Saskatchewan. Due to increase in Demand and aging population, waiting lines have grown by more than 5 weeks since 1967 (Gratzer, 2001). The situation in Ontario and Quebec are more sever compared to other provinces in Canada. In February 1999, demand for healthcare reached a point where it exceed supply and Ontario healthcare had to arrange cancer treatment in United States. Angus Reid poll... ... medical services are said to be free but not many are available without waiting lines. Many issues faced by Canada’s current healthcare system can be addressed by introducing a parallel private and public healthcare system. In order to introduce a two-tier healthcare system, amendments to Canada Health Act at both federal and provincial levels are required. It has been concluded that implementation of two-tier health care system is utmost important as it will be difficult for the government to sustain healthcare funding in future. Two-tier healthcare system will provide efficient healthcare system as waiting lines will be reduced, government spending will be controlled, private sector will provide access to modern technology as well as encourage Canadian physicians to practice in Canada rather than shifting to United States for higher financial incentives."

The Journalist, a Rare Breed Indeed :: College Admissions Essays

The Journalist, a Rare Breed Indeed "Hello?" The police dispatcher answers the phone. "Hi there," I say brightly. "My name is Aaron Mesh, and I'm from the News Chief. Could you please transfer me over to Major Thomas? I need to ask her a few questions about the wreck over on Havendale Drive this morning..." This is my job. I'm an intern reporter at the News Chief, a daily newspaper in east Polk County, Florida. I've been on the job for the past 27 months. Once a week, I come into the Chief's newsroom and get to work: conducting interviews, gathering information, writing stories. Most of my life, I've had a strong interest - some would call it an obsession - with newspapers and journalism. From a young age, I was drawn to the paper, running out to grab it off the driveway and devour the contents. I may be the only 17-year old with an edition of the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual sitting in his bedroom for light reading. Working for a newspaper has helped develop one of my best skills: working with information. I've always enjoyed gathering facts, interpreting them, and explaining to others what I've learned. My internship at the News Chief has let me discover what it takes to find out what's going on in the world, and to understand and relate events to people in a fair, objective way. Weaker areas have also been strengthened by my News Chief work. I have become much better at working in a group setting, making friends and generally being socially adept. (On the other hand, I still haven't learned to type properly. We all have our faults.) Although my News Chief employment is far from my only interest - I could spend multiple paragraphs relating my love of the 4-H program, for starters - working with a newspaper has been a unique and defining facet of my high school experience. Perhaps most importantly, it has helped solidify my goals for the future. My love of the print media has congealed into a desire to work in that media. My goal, at least at this point of my life, is to become an educated, well-rounded journalist - one with a strong grasp of history, philosophy and literature. This understanding will allow me, while recording and dispersing the facts about current events, to communicate the truth in a deep in meaningful way.

CONFLICT IN NIGERIA

Muslims may be a ma-Sorority, but if so they are barely that. Islam has functioned in cultural and pop-Leticia terms to create unity in northern Nigeria. Indeed, as Nigeria moved too 12-state system in 1967 from one of four regions and then to a federal republic with 19 states in 1976, it became nieces-Sara to stress Islamic unity in the 10 northern states where two-thirds of the population was Muslim.In order to maintain the dominance of the north in national politics, Islam had to provide the glue that had disappeared tit the demise of the old Native Administrate-Zion, the regional reassurance, and the party that had ruled the north in the First Republic-the Northern Peoples' Congress. 22 When the military left power in 1979, the NP tried to appeal beyond the north. Under institutional provisions, in orders o Electra president,it had o win at least a quarter of the votes in two-thirds of the states. AT he NP could not campaign as a Muslim party and it had cost the administrative di d hath ad supported the old ruling Northern Pee-apples' Congress. But it retained the sup-port of Islamic elites in the north and it also had the support of many high-ranking officers, some but not all of 21 . Ibid. , p. 23. 22. Dudley, Introduction to Nigerian Govern-meet and Politics, p. 163. 23. In fact, She Shari did not win quite 25 percent of the vote in 12 states but in a series of contested court actions he was declared president in the 1979 elections by virtue of having won 20 percent of the vote in the twelfth state. Homo were Muslims. 24TH he NP was seen as a Muslim party in the north. With the chairman of the NP coming from the west, the president of the republic from the north, the vice press-dent from the east-an alignment us-attained in the second election of 1983- Nap's ointment zone arty traders would have been under pressure if the civilian regime had continued and the posts had to be rotated by place of origin in 1988.At the same time, as it became nieces-Sara to stress Islam in order to maintain northern unity that was under pressure from the creation of more states, Islam itself often worked to intensify fissures opened up by social and economic changes. Appeals for social Justice were made in Islamic terms. Thus, as reform and purifications pavements intentioned to proliferate,' slam s a religions ND a set of cultural symbols was not solely a force for unity in the northern states. It was interpreted variably by different social groups.Elites tried to maintain theirs eminence y manipulating do-erne and traditional institutions in the name of Islam while businessmen lilt mosques and workers made demands through Islamic terminology. At the same time, Muhammad Maria AP-pealed to fringe groups to follow him to an Islamic revival. OFF Rutherford, the 24. The Briar regime, which came in at the end of 1983, actually as had the most Muslims among its leadership of all the five military regimes since 1966-the other four being Irony's, Gown's, Moha mmedan, Bassoon's. Irons and Gown were Christians, as was Bassoon.I have focused much more on the impacts f Islam Han of Christianity n political legitimacy and the role of the state in Nigeria because Islam has been, in the north, an unofficial state religion. Moreover, the struggle to define the relationship of religion to the state has been a struggle around the role of Islamic WI n Nigeria. Thee verve napping- elation of religious symbols both to Jus-tiff the rule of elites and to challenge that rule as been a manipulation of Islamic values and symbols more than Christian ones.There is reason to believe, however, that some Christian sects provide for their followers a measure of autonomy from established authority, both reel-Sioux and secular. The development of Ladder Christianity-the praying churches such as the Christ Apostolic Church and the Cherubim and Sera-pimp in Hardbound-seems to go hand in glove with the development of values and attitudes of industriousness and busin ess. That is, the adherents of the Ladder hurdles o not appear s CEO- omicron addicts,a Thought hem ay insist on a measure of political independence from established authorities. AS o far, though, the impact of Christianity in Nigeria has been less directly cones-sequential for the struggle for political legitimacy and control of authoritative roles at central and state levels than has been the impact of Islam. Nigeria has not evolved political formulas hate explicitly Lori elision r religious theorists defined astigmatic. But there have been struggles carried out in religious terms over constitute-cantonal champions r adjudicating n-flick. Religion as been an element in the conflicts twenty ethnic-language pups.And religion provides a language, a set of values,a NDIS institution's rough which groups struggle and over which groups contend, both within and between reel-Sioux communities. 26. For a major study of the adoption of Ala-durra Christianity, see J. D. Y. Peel, Ladder:A Reli gious Movement among the Your (Loon-don: Oxford university Reese, 1968). P eel is con-current o explain he fundamental characters f a religion f industrialization the Yearbook intent as a new morality of obeying rules. Ibid. , p. 299. 60 This content

Hart Venture Capital Essay

Case study 1 Better Fitness, Inc. (BFI), manufactures exercise equipment at its plant in Freeport, Long Island. It recently designed two universal weight machines for the home exercise market. Both machines use BFI-patented technology that provides the user with an extremely wide range of motion capability for each type of exercise performed. Until now, such capabilities have been available only on expensive weight machines used primarily by physical therapists. At a recent trade show, demonstrations of the machines resulted in significant dealer interest. In fact, the number of orders that BFI received at the trade show far exceeded its manufacturing capabilities for the current production period. As a result, management decided to begin production of the two machines. The two machines, which BFI named the BodyPlus 100 and the BodyPlus 200, require different amounts of resources to produce. The BodyPlus 100 consists of a frame unit, a press station, and a pec-dec station. Each frame produced uses 4 hours of machining and welding time and 2 hours of painting and finishing time. Each press station requires 2 hours of machining and welding time and 1 hour of painting and finishing time, and each pec-dec station uses 2 hours of machining and welding time and 2 hours of painting and finishing time. In addition, 2 hours are spent assembling, testing, and packaging each BodyPlus 100. The raw material costs are $450 for each frame, $300 for each press station, and $250 for each pec-dec station; packaging costs are estimated to be $50 per unit. The BodyPlus 200 consists of a frame unit, a press station, a pec-dec station, and a legpress station. Each frame produced uses 5 hours of machining and welding time and 4 hours of painting and finishing time. Each press station requires 3 hours machining and welding time and 2 hours of painting and finishing time, each pec-dec station uses 2 hours of machining and welding time and 2 hours of painting and finishing time, and each legpress station requires 2 hours of machining and welding time and 2 hours of painting and finishing time. In addition, 2 hours are spent assembling, testing, and packaging each Body-Plus 200. The raw material costs are $650 for each frame, $400 for each press station, $250 for each pec-dec station, and $200 for each leg-press station; packaging costs are estimated to be $75 per unit. For the next production period, management estimates that 600 hours of machining and welding time, 450 hours of painting and finishing time, and 140 hours of assembly, testing, and packaging time will be available. Current labor costs are $20 per hour for machining and welding time, $15 per hour for painting and finishing time, and $12 per hour for assembly, testing, and packaging time. The market in which the two machines must compete suggests a retail price of $2400 for the BodyPlus 100 and $3500 for the BodyPlus 200, although some flexibility may be available to BFI because of the unique capabilities of the new machines. Authorized BFI dealers can purchase machines for 70% of the suggested retail price. BFI’s president believes that the unique capabilities of the BodyPlus 200 can help position BFI as one of the leaders in high-end exercise equipment. Consequently, he has stated that the number of units of the BodyPlus 200 produced must be at least 25% of the total production. Managerial Report Analyze the production problem at Better Fitness, Inc. , and prepare a report for BFI’s president presenting your findings and recommendations. Include (but do not limit your discussion to) a consideration of the following items: 1. What is the recommended number of BodyPlus 100 and BodyPlus 200 machines to produce? 2. How does the requirement that the number of units of the BodyPlus 200 produced be at least 25% of the total production affect profits? 3. Where should efforts be expended in order to increase profits?  Include a copy of your linear programming model and graphical solution in an appendix to your report. Case study 2 Hart Venture Capital (HVC) specializes in providing venture capital for software development and Internet applications. Currently HVC has two investment opportunities: (1) Security Systems, a firm that needs additional capital to develop an Internet security software package, and (2) Market Analysis, a market research company that needs additional capital to develop a software package for conducting customer satisfaction surveys. In exchange for Security Systems stock, the firm has asked HVC to provide $600,000 in year 1, $600,000 in year 2, and $250,000 in year 3 over the coming three-year period. In exchange for their stock, Market Analysis has asked HVC to provide $500,000 in year 1, $350,000 in year 2, and $400,000 in year 3 over the same three-year period. HVC believes that both investment opportunities are worth pursuing. However, because of other investments, they are willing to commit at most $800,000 for both projects in the first year, at most $700,000 in the second year, and $500,000 in the third year. HVC’s financial analysis team reviewed both projects and recommended that the company’s objective should be to maximize the net present value of the total investment in Security Systems and Market Analysis. The net present value takes into account the estimated value of the stock at the end of the three-year period as well as the capital outflows that are necessary during each of the three years. Using an 8% rate of return, HVC’s financial analysis team estimates that 100% funding of the Security Systems project has a net present value of $1,800,000, and 100% funding of the Market Analysis project has a net present value of $1,600,000. HVC has the option to fund any percentage of the Security Systems and Market Analysis projects. For example, if HVC decides to fund 40% of the Security Systems project, investments of 0. 40($600,000) _ $240,000 would be required in year 1, 0. 40($600,000) _ $240,000 would be required in year 2, and 0. 40($250,000) _ $100,000 would be required in year 3. In this case, the net present value of the Security Systems project would be 0. 40($1,800,000) _ $720,000. The investment amounts and the net present value for partial funding of the Market Analysis project would be computed in the same manner. Managerial Report Perform an analysis of HVC’s investment problem and prepare a report that presents your findings and recommendations. Include (but do not limit your discussion to) a consideration of the following items: 1. What is the recommended percentage of each project that HVC should fund and the net present value of the total investment? 2. What capital allocation plan for Security Systems and Market Analysis for the coming three-year period and the total HVC investment each year would you recommend? . What effect, if any, would HVC’s willingness to commit an additional $100,000 during the first year have on the recommended percentage of each project that HVC should fund? 4. What would the capital allocation plan look like if an additional $100,000 is made available? 5. What is your recommendation as to whether HVC should commit the additional $100,000 in the first year? Provide model details Case study 3 Digital Imaging (DI) produces photo printers for both the professional and consumer markets. The DI consumer division recently introduced two photo printers that provide color prints rivaling those produced by a professional processing lab. The DI-910 model can produce a 4†³ _ 6†³ borderless print in approximately 37 seconds. The more sophisticated and faster DI-950 can even produce a 13†³ _ 19†³ borderless print. Financial projections show profit contributions of $42 for each DI-910 and $87 for each DI-950. The printers are assembled, tested, and packaged at DI’s plant located in New Bern, North Carolina. This plant is highly automated and uses two manufacturing lines to produce the printers. Line 1 performs the assembly operation with times of 3 minutes per DI-910 printer and 6 minutes per DI-950 printer. Line 2 performs both the testing and packaging operations. Times are 4 minutes per DI-910 printer and 2 minutes per DI-950 printer. The shorter time for the DI-950 printer is a result of its faster print speed. Both manufacturing lines are in operation one 8-hour shift per day. Managerial Report Perform an analysis for Digital Imaging in order to determine how many units of each printer to produce. Prepare a report to DI’s president presenting your findings and recommendations. Include (but do not limit your discussion to) a consideration of the following: 1. The recommended number of units of each printer to produce to maximize the total contribution to profit for an 8-hour shift. What reasons might management have for not implementing your recommendation? 2. Suppose that management also states that the number of DI-910 printers produced must be at least as great as the number of DI-950 units produced. Assuming that the objective is to maximize the total contribution to profit for an 8-hour shift, how many units of each printer should be produced? 3.  Does the solution you developed in part (2) balance the total time spent on line 1 and the total time spent on line 2? Why might this balance or lack of it be a concern to management? 4. Management requested an expansion of the model in part (2) that would provide a better balance between the total time on line 1 and the total time on line 2. Management wants to limit the difference between the total time on line 1 and the total time on line 2 to 30 minutes or less. If the objective is still to maximize the total contribution to profit, how many units of each printer should be produced? What effect does this workload balancing have on total profit in part (2)? 5. Suppose that in part (1) management specified the objective of maximizing the total number of printers produced each shift rather than total profit contribution. With this objective, how many units of each printer should be produced per shift? What effect does this objective have on total profit and workload balancing? For each solution that you develop, include a copy of your linear programming model and graphical solution in the appendix to your report.

The Effects of Animal Cruelty and Abandonment

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, also known as the ASPIC, is another organization that serves to decrease animal abuse and enforce arrest towards careless pet owners. Among these organizations, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA Is responsible for creating awareness and putting an end to animal cruelty. There are other ways an animal can be a victim of animal cruelty, without actually being harmed. Animal Hoarding, a practice of animal lovers, is ironically another related topic of animal cruelty.In some views, this is an attempt o save the animal, but many other views differ, saying this solution will only cause problems. Even though there are lots of organizations that help prevent animal cruelty and abandonment, there is still more that can be done.Animals should be loved and cherish, Instead of Ignored and neglected, How can this world wide crawls be solved? When animals are abandoned, they naturally begin to reproduce thousands of off spring, and because of this, baby animals roam and start to reproduce at an alarming rate. It has been estimated that more than 50 million cats and dogs live in happy homes in the US.On the contrary, over 50 million cats and dogs have been reported as neglected and abused. People are no longer willing to adopt animals. The population of animals and decreasing interest of owning pets has led to a huge number of animal overpopulation each year. Animal World Network explains that â€Å"For every human born, 7 puppies and kittens are born†¦ One female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in 7 years†¦ One female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in 6 years. † One half of abandoned animals are taken into shelters and the other half are in the streets.About 61% of dogs and 75% f cats are bought to shelters and are killed because people do not adopt these animals In time. Due to the lack of education, shelter, financial and other resources, cats and dogs are first on the list to be housed In a shelter of the shortest amount of time and first on the list of animals to kill. The Humane Society is a worldwide organization supported by 11 million Americans which was founded in 1954. It is one of the best protection agencies for animals all over the world, raising over a million of dollars in order to create awareness to citizens.The mission of the Humane Society of he United States, HUGS Is to celebrate all breeds of animals and also to confront cruel TTY. HUGS states Tanat teen are â€Å"America's mainstream Torte gallant cruelty exploitation and neglect†. They confront these issues and provide animals with rescue facilities and clinics for them to get washed, fed and neutered. They are involved in and responsible for organizing meetings, marches, and forums in order to educate society about animal rescue and animal investigations.HUGS holds advertising campaigns to promote adoption for animals so that the nation knows wha t's going on and how they can help. HUGS partner with other associations to trench the message of their organization and create stronger ties with organization with similar missions. One program known as, â€Å"Humane Wildlife Services†, in the D. C metro area help homeowners and businesses with stopping violence towards animals. The Humane Wildlife Services help maintain valid solutions for problems concerning violent neighbors.HUGS strives to stop cruelty targeting â€Å"practices of dog fighting and cook fighting; abusive puppy mills†¦ Farming in†¦ Confinements of animal in crates and cages†¦ † HUGS does its best to protect all animals and they will continue this mission in confronting animal cruelty on a whole. Another organization that also helps stop animal cruelty is The American Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals known worldwide as the ASPIC. The ASPIC was established in North America in 1866 and still today they are here doing the best that they can offer.The This organization believes that animals should be treated fairly and has healthy environments. The ASPIC are the pioneers of all animal humane organizations, they continue to maintain legal authority to take charge in investigations and arrest criminals that treat animals poorly. The ASPIC claims that it is their mission to â€Å"provide local and national leadership†¦ Raring for pet parents and pets, providing positive outcomes for at – risk animals and serving victims of animal cruelty'.In other words, â€Å"animal cruelty is†¦ A serious issue†¦ N law enforcement and mental†. It is very important that people become involved and work to supply quick responses to these acts of criminal behavior. There is an organization like the Humane Society and ASPIC – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, (PETA) is also involved in solving issues on animal cruelty. There was a lady named, â€Å"Ingrain E. Newsier, an autho r and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who put together essays y people who took the initiative and helped create change. She started PETA in 1980 in her Washington, D. C. Basement to offer people simple vegetarian options and alternatives to products from companies that used animals in research.The nonprofit has grown to 2. 5 million supporters -? the largest animal-rights organization in the world -? and has created a global shift in awareness about the plight of animals†. Petal's focus is primarily on animals suffering on farms, clothing trade areas, laboratories, and in industries around the world. To create aware of their cause, PETA works through education. Meetings are held around the world to raise awareness to many people.They visit schools to educate children and adults about their organization. They also work with â€Å"cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, and celebrity involvement, and protest camp aigns†. PETA exclaims that animals have a Voice' too and all they want is some love to be given towards them. PETA strives to encourage people to take action because it is up to us to make a change. A dichotomous act animal lovers experience is that of animal hoarding. How can animals be negatively affected by people that love to be care for needy animals?I Nils Issue NAS Eden Known to affect as many as u. Animal annually. An extreme case reported there over 800 pets living in one home. When there is see an elderly woman lady, for example, living with 15-20 pets, a problem arises because it is harmful toward those animals, being bunched up together. The are many reasons why animal hoarding is practiced by many people. One of the reasons is that a person experienced a traumatic situation, which induced stress, b living conditions, and tough health problems. A person is then in denial of their owe problems and they in turn look to have large amount of animals to conceal their ow e rife in their lives.Many animals are affected; not Just cats or dogs. Animals such a chickens, snakes, ferrets, birds, goats, rabbits, lizards and many more are affected b animal hoarding. Animal Legal Fund, an organization fighting to protect the lives of animals says that, â€Å"In terms of the number of animals affected and the degree and duration of their suffering, hoarding is the number one animal cruelty crisis facing companion animals in communities throughout the country. † These animals are living bunched up together with no proper equipment to sustain a healthy environment, the start to suffer from unsanitary conditions.In effect, these animals â€Å"are sick, dying and poorly socialized†. LADY listed ways to decrease the amount of animal hoarding in the world. The first strategy is the use of civil action in stopping animal hoarders and documents these cases as acts of cruelty towards animals. The second strategy is to stop animal hoarding by taxing the h oarder that is doing the crimes, instead of the local taxpayer. When animals are rescued from homes, bundles of them are confiscated and this makes it hard for local agencies and organizations to feed and comfort these animals, because there is not enough none.A majority of the time, money is taxed to the average working person when they had nothing to do with it. LADY suggested that the money should come from the hoarders instead of hard working citizens.. The final strategy, which falls in line wit the first strategy, would be that laws are applied very seriously to situations like HTH There will be sentencing given towards animal hoarders that try to repeat criminal acts. LADY is working hard to stop animal cruelty in society. First time offenders of animal hoarding will be prosecuted according to LADY First Strike and You're Out La.In this essay, many sources were stated to inform readers about animal abandonment and cruelty. Many organizations and facilities are doing everythin g possible to decrease violence towards animals around the world. Has the world ma an improvement? Can society clap for them because of a Job â€Å"well done† ? NO! I choose this topic because this is a worldwide issue and it should be discussed moor to make change in the future. Animals throughout the world will continue to experience these situations for a long time, but it is so much that people can do. Animals will still be neglected, mistreated and devalued as living, breathing ratters.This worldwide issue needs to stop and it is up to the people to take a stand. Communities have to be willing to give animals Voices' and help them survive We may have thousands of organizations around the world trying very hard to stop animal cruelty but people need to take initiative in their surroundings; people must realize the criminal act and severity of animal abandonment and its reproductions. Slowly many organizations along with individual communities are creating awareness around animal cruelty, however, somewhere in each community there is a lonely animal roaming ten streets omen snouts report tans to Nell ten Animal.

Organizational Change Plan

In the past few years, many organizations have advanced technologically concerning medical records. By implementing Electronic Medical Records system to the Ambulatory Clinical Setting, managers will be taking a huge leap into the future. Of course, when organizations decide to make an over-haul change of this magnitude, managers need to make sure they have planned strategies for measuring the various outcomes. When the implementation of the Electronic Medical Records system was connected, management needs to focus on the strategies for determining how effective the change to the EMR system is to this facility.The managers must also be able to analyze possible future outcomes of the implementation as well as looked at how they plan to measure the quality and satisfaction outcomes of the implemented change plan. With the implementations of the Electronic Medical Records system managers will have to determine how effective the change to the EMR system was. According to Spector (2010), effectiveness is determined by the degree to which employees behavior are adaptive; moving people in a direction best for employees and the organization.By watching, talking, and gathering surveys from employees, managers will be able to determine if the EMR system was an effective change for the staff and the patients. According to Borkowski (2010), communication is essential to building and maintaining relationships in the workplace. The employees will communicate effectively with the managers informing them on how they think the change process is going. This is a very important step. It will assist the managers in determining if this system is doable or if they need to make some modifications to achieve the goal of effectively implementing EMR.Furthermore, this process will help make sure that the employees and the managers have built an excellent level of shared communication. Because employees are at the forefront of most organizations, it is very important for managers to invo lve his and her employees in change management. If the employees are giving positive feedback and are showing no signs of distress, management should continue to follow the guidelines of Kurt Lewin's change theory of â€Å"refreezing† (Spector, 2010). Methods Used to MonitorImplementation of the Proposed Change In reviewing all of the possible outcome measurement strategies for the implementation of the Electronic Medical Records system, managers looked at the reasons for the change implementation. According to Young (2000), â€Å"technology has continued to move forward at a rapid pace, but many organizational and human issues have slowed the pace of implementation of automated systems for an electronic documentation record. † Contrary to the prior statement, quantitative reports can provide possible outcomes, which can display how this change has affected Clinicians, employees, and families.Electronic patient records can improve patient safety, quality of care, effic iency of staff members, and include all of the disciplines of the health care team (Dove, 2010). By implementing an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) System, the thought was that it would improve the efficiency of this organization as well as making an advance into the technology within the health care industry. Furthermore, reviewing the organizational structure and making sure that the organization was strategically in line financially.Relationship between Organization’s Related Processes, Systems, Personal or Professional Roles and Effect on the Proposed Organizational Change When viewing the implementation of Electronic Medical Records system, finances are viewed closely to determine if the implementation has made an impact on the organization financially. According to Spector (2010), effective diagnosis is the data-driven information via questionnaires, interviews, and observations. Financial and productivity reports are the two most critical reports that reviewed. These reports alone can tell managers and stakeholders if they are financially stable.Of course, managers will need to ensure that all data obtained is accurate in order for the data used in determining future financial outcomes. According to Spector (2010), organizations can use activity-based management to help ensure decisions that as part of the change process. Examining the relationship between the organizations related process, systems, and personal, and professional roles and their effort on the implementation of Electronic Medical Record, one could derive at understanding of how the system works after implementation.When a system is implemented, and training has taken place should result in a work environment in which all team members are aware of his and her frustrations, loss of efficiency and limited effectiveness. Specifically for the organization process, each area had a Champion and Super user to use as a resource for the new EMR system. The available resources assisted in m aking this transition doable. The clinicians and staff were amenable to them as well. Emphasis on throughput and workflow was evaluated to ensure that everyone was aware of his and her roles and responsibilities.Essentially, the goal was to move from paper to EMR within a timeframe with little disruptions in the organization. Communicating Techniques Used to Address Any Implementation Issues Although the employees have been using the Electronic Medical Records system proficiently, managers must ensure ways to keep the employees excited and motivated about the system. According to Herzberg motivational-hygiene theory, he believed that the â€Å"factors on-the-job that can cause staff to be satisfied or dissatisfied where not the same things.†After retrieving data from questionnaires, the employees were motivated because it was a change they believed would increase their level of responsibility. They were not dissatisfied or disgruntled about the level of responsibility. They w ere dissatisfied with the additional training they had to take. The management staff ensured the employees that the additional courses would enhance their self-confidence, increase their skill levels, and enhance their knowledge base of the new system.According to Spector (2010), â€Å"Individual incentives will be most effective in shaping behavior when the individual controls the outcomes being measured and rewarded, when the outcomes are tied to improved performance, when the evaluation of an employee’s contribution is perceived as being valid, and when the difference between rewards for high and low performance is significant. † Additionally, communication techniques are important when implementing a new system within the organization.One could assume that not all staff members are computer knowledgeable and will need additional training and assistance. The installations of the EMR system was initially not as user friendly. Positive communication within the organiz ations was the best tool of communication. Communication allowed everyone the opportunity to articulate his and her concerns, determine if additional training needed, and the focus was on the individual and department needs. In closing, the implementation to Electronic Medical Records systems is a technological advancement.Health care personnel, patients, and family members are able to access information instantly, avoiding the strain of searching through stacks of charts to retrieve patient data (Gurley, 2008). Even though there are barriers that may appear during the process and after the change process, acquire a concrete organizational plan on implementing Electronic Medical Records system will minimize them before they arise. Also based on the data collected, the employees are motivated and want to see the company advance technologically and financially.The proposed plan with the use of internal focus groups and external resources will ensure that the implementation of the Elec tronic Medical Records system is successful. The current system is a hand-written, time-consuming, and inaccurate detailed records system that has delayed advancements in technological development. Effectively implementing Electronic Medical Records system, has allowed the families to have instant access to his and her medical care and treatment plans.

Gemma Lynns Catering Services Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Gemma Lynns Catering Services - Term Paper Example The report will be divided accordingly: The first section of the report will discuss the principles of bookkeeping and accounting, giving an understanding as to why financial statements are important and how Gemma can use these financial statements to aid her in decision making. It will also answer the Gemma's first question regarding her profits. The second part of the report will discuss Gemma's business as it compares with the industry figures. Based on the figures, the report will also indicate the areas in her business that require improvements and provide suggestions on how these can be improved. The third part of the report will discuss Gemma's plans for expansion and provide suggestions on how profitability can be ensured during and after expansion. A section to coordinate the whole report will come after and provide concluding comments regarding the whole report. Gemma's catering business is a private enterprise under single proprietorship. Even though this does not obligate her to publish her accounts, it does not exclude her from having to document her financial records for taxation and other legal purposes. There are at least three minimum documents needed to properly audit her company's finances. Among these are the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement, each of which has a specific purpose within a business enterprise.The balance sheet, from which a company's assets are balanced with their liabilities, "shows a 'snapshot' of the firm at the particular point in time"(Blandon, 2001). It contains important information such as the company's assets (cash in the bank, stock, debtors, and fixed assets), liabilities (creditors, tax payables, other types of liabilities such as long-term loans), and net worth.

My previous personal statement needs to be rewritten a bit and there Essay

My previous personal statement needs to be rewritten a bit and there are some things that should be added to it - Essay Example I am particularly interested in integrating my knowledge of the Russian-speaking world with my studies, as Russia is one of the worlds most exciting emerging markets. I am enthusiastic about expanding my knowledge in the current affairs, more so in the context of business and economy. In several occasions I try my level best to secure some little time off my academics and just read some periodic publications such as The Economist. Steve Jobs, the Apple Inc. co-founder, is one person that has greatly shaped my business perspective and attitude towards life. After reading his story in one of the Economist publications, I have come to develop an interest of reading biographies, autobiographies, and stories about remarkable innovators and business leaders of our time. The time I have spent reading through these publication has been beneficial as it has served to complement the theoretical knowledge acquired in class. For instance, I was fascinated when a story about the current dispute involving Tesco’s and Sainsbury over price comparison promotions. This dispute helped me appreciate the role of ethics in business operations. Other activities that I enjoy doing are mingling with people and just get to understand their perspective about various issues in life. I love sports such as football and skiing. Engaging in these activities have not only taught me the beauty of hard work, perseverance, and practice, but have also taught me how to work within a team as well as lead a team. Knowledge and experience are two things I most treasure in career advancement. It is because of this reason that I am currently furthering my studies to at least bolster my understanding of various issues in business. Previously, I have worked at Technoservice, Moscow, alongside strategists who at that time were investigating ideas on how to introduce off patent car