Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Analyzing the Operations Management Course of a College

Operations Management Course A Reflective Essay My knowledge of operations managements impact on organizational effectiveness has grown considerably in this course. I now have a better understanding of how the design and improvement of operational processes and systems can be structured so that the resources required for producing and delivering goods and services are optimized to their full potential. I have a newfound appreciation for the role of operations managers. They take on the challenge of improving productivity to grow and enhance the business an effort that spans all business units and divisions including purchasing, manufacturing, shipping, packaging, supply chain, human resources, marketing, finance, and information technology. Operations management involves analyzing work functions to increase organizational output. This also includes managing communication and dispersed knowledge within the organization. When information can get from one department to another quickly and accurately, it can speed up the pace at which the company can operate and insures that all necessary parties get the information they need to be productive. Such knowledge can improve production efficiency, ensure responsiveness to market changes and demands, impact customer service, and ultimately improve a companys competitive advantage (Brandt, 2012). Operations managers are responsible for making sure that the tools necessary to facilitate efficient communication within theShow MoreRelatedI Had More Interest On Computer Science706 Words   |  3 Pagesview with my brothers for going another college to continue my education in computer science with my brothers because they were a source of funding without them I was not able to contin ue study. I got a green signal from brothers for supporting my undergraduate study in the capital city. There were only two public colleges offered BSc computer science program and had a huge competition to get in place for study. I had applied one of an oldest science college in a city and was able to get a secondRead MoreSmall Business Management Essay905 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿ March 23, 2014 MG354 Small Business Management My Strengths and Weaknesses in Running a Small Business Running a small business would be both a wonderful retirement gift and a scary post-military venture. Becoming an entrepreneur would be, for anyone, a dream come true, but jumping into the small business world without a plan, education or experience to do so would be a hasty entrance to the business world. A thorough review of my education and my experience to develop a possibleRead MoreUniversity of West Alabama927 Words   |  4 Pagesneeds, UWAs business programs are at the ready to prepare Alabama with future business leaders. In fact, UWA is the first learning institution to earn the prestigious Integrity Excellence Certification for the quality and integrity of its online course offerings. This certification is offered through the Trusted Seal Program sponsored by the International Center for Academic Integrity International. Bachelor of Business Administration: Accounting UWAs Bachelor of Business Administration in AccountingRead MorePersonal Career Exploration Essay examples1685 Words   |  7 Pagesbelieve doing business is an important way to improve the economy of a nation. I did a research on two different careers. However, they are sort of having a relation with each other. Both of them are in the business field – accounting and financial analyzing. Accounting is basically a service activity. Its purpose is to provide quantitative information that principally used by the managers, investors, tax authorities, and other decision makers to make the financial decisions within companies, organizationsRead MoreHigh Levels Of Service, Ethics And Integrity Essay708 Words   |  3 Pages problem solving and project management. Independent, creative and critical thinker with sound judgment and decision-making authority. Change agent, innovator and pioneer in quality management and performance improvement. Organizational/operating leadership experience in: ï‚ § Incident and Problem Management ï‚ § Team Building and Leadership ï‚ § Budgeting and Cost Reduction/Avoidance ï‚ § Audit and Compliance ï‚ § Compliance and Audit ï‚ § Best Practices ï‚ § Multi-Site Operations ï‚ § KPI’s / Metrics / CSR ScorecardsRead MorePlanning : Strategic Planning Process1487 Words   |  6 PagesPlanning Process No two people go through life the same exact ways. Some choose to live moment to moment while others feel the need to have a grander plan for their future. People develop plans for different scenarios in their life to include what college they will attend, what profession they want to enter, the type of wedding and even, when they want to get married. Individuals who live by a plan can often be heard referencing their Plan B or five-to-ten year plan. Just as individuals like to planRead MoreHow Does Your Company Create Competitive Advantage With Analytics : An Analysis1658 Words   |  7 Pagesforeseeing trends in enrollments and graduation rates, changing course content depending upon changing demands, providing more optimized class schedule depending upon registrations, keeping up with student achievements by continuously keeping track of student performances. There are some processes with in the university that may not be as analytically driven as they can be or should be for example the Support Processes that help run the operations process (human resource, financial affairs, and accountingRead MoreDescribe the Three Management Skills as Mentioned by Robert Katz678 Words   |  3 PagesThe three management skills that mentioned by Robert Katz are conceptual, interpersonal and technical skills. In order to be a successful manager, containing these three skills will give him a strong impact to his career and also the success of the organization. Conceptual skills are skills that utilize the ability of a human to form concepts. Such skills include thinking creatively, formulating abstractions, analyzing complex situations, and solving problems. A manager have such ability can understandRead MoreBusiness Is A Field Abundant With Jobs1274 Words   |  6 Pagesprofessors who have extensive business experience. Louisiana College has four areas of specializations in business: Accounting, Economics and Finances, General Business, and Management and Marketing. These four areas of specialization provide specific skills for understanding and functioning in organizations, as well as offer a basis for a lifetime of professional growth and development in a national environment (Louisiana College). College graduates from the Division of Business are capable of pursuingRead MorePom 651 Syllabus Tues Class Updated.Docx1245 Words   |  5 PagesUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS DARTMOUTH Charlton College of Business COURSE : POM 651/01 ADVANCED OPERATIONS ANALYSIS – Spring 2013 PREREQUISITES : Completion of foundation courses INSTRUCTOR : Brian Plummer; Vice President of Mfg, Cadence, Inc. MBA, BSEE, Office: Tel: (401) 441 1534, E-mail: bplummer@umassd.edu Office Hours: by appt. 1. 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Tuesday, December 17, 2019

1984 By George Orwell Essay - 1327 Words

1984 by George Orwell Summary: The book is set in a fictive future in the year 1984. The world is split into three totalitarian super-states: Oceania (North and South-America, Britain and Ireland, Australia and South-Africa), Eurasia (Europe and Russia) and Eastasia (China).These three super-states are constantly at war with each other, regularly forming different alliances. Each one of the super-states is too powerful and strong to be defeated by an alliance of the two other super-states and therefore it seems to be an endless war. Throughout the book, it becomes more and more clear that the war is an illusion,†¦show more content†¦The third class of Oceania is the Inner Party, which consists of only a few people of the society. In contrast to the rest of the Party, the members of the Inner Party are powerful and privileged. At the top of the society in Oceania there stands Big Brother, the leader and icon of the Party. Except for the Inner Party, the standards of living are disastrous in Oceania and nea rly everybody is living in poverty. Furthermore love, friendship and individuality are abolished in Oceania and are considered as a thought-crime against the Party. The protagonist of the book is Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party who works in the Ministry of Truth, where media and history are constantly re-written and manipulated to make sure that the Party appears to be inerrable and almighty to the rest of the population. Winstons job is to correct articles of old newspapers and books so that in the end the predictions of the Party always seem to have been right. Winston is a very depressed person. He doesnt appreciate the government and he always wonders if things in the past were better than they were now. Unfortunately due to the permanent alteration of the past by the Party, he is unable to remember these things. Furthermore he has to live in fear of the Thought Police, because the smallest sign of discontent with the government could make you to a so-called thought-criminal. Winston thinks that the only hope lies in theShow MoreRelated1984 by George Orwell842 Words   |  4 Pages            1984, by George Orwell, is a novel that is ultimately about a totalitarian form of government and its negative aspects that it imposes on society. The readers clearly see that George Orwell opposes this form of government because it limits not only freedoms, but the idea of freedom itself. The idea of pure freedom is shattered as we see the protagonists mission to overthrow Big Brother fail. Big Brother may have not even been real. However, the fear that this imaginery person/ organizationRead More1984 By George Orwell1038 Words   |  5 Pages 1984 by George Orwell Brittany Beard Creative Writing 12/14/17 Abstract In this essay, I will use three sources to develop an answer to the question: â€Å"What relevance does Orwell’s text, 1984, written in 1948, have on today’s society?†. I will discuss today’s society’s use of words used in, 1984. The sources given are all relatable, but i have chosen these three, because I can give a better reasoning to how they are relatable. I must include Citations for all informationRead More1984 by George Orwell590 Words   |  2 Pagesworld of 1984 technology is used to spy and intimidate society, and it is unlike our current society that uses the technology for safety reasons. In the book 1984 their government uses force and telescreens to brainwash their community to believe something else. In todays world we use our advance technology to better our community and make it safer for others. The technology of cellphones and cameras are not creating a world like 1984 because in our current society it is more free than 1984. WhileRead MoreOrwell s 1984, By George Orwell1617 Words   |  7 Pagesgovernment. Correlating with the basis of being human, humanity is the building blocks of human life, which goes to show its importance, but what if the blocks were being taken away one by one? In the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, these blocks were being stripped away from the citizens every day. Orwell gives the readers insight in a world where technology inhibits daily life, humans lack intuition, and the repression of individuality. For instance, technology today is so prevalent in our daily livesRead MoreOrwell s 1984 By George Orwell2061 Words   |  9 Pagescorrupt thought,† states George Orwell, a well-known author, showing how powerful words are, to the point where they can influence the thoughts of people. This is a common theme throughout history, referred to as propaganda, where those in control present words and information to the public to change their opinion on ideas, causes, or policies. The use of propaganda appears in many forms of literature, but it is an especially prominent idea in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. The plot centers on WinstonRead MoreThe Novel 1984 By George Orwell1332 Words   |  6 PagesINHUMANITY. WHAT CORE ELEMENTS OF HUMANITY THAT NOVEL EXPLORES? George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ shows the crucial need for love, independence, hope and freedom in the midst of inhumanity. Bob Dylan once said â€Å"No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky (Dylan, n.d)†. In ‘1984’ Winston attempts to remain human whilst everyone he knows is doing otherwise. That is until he meets Julia, a young woman who surfaces desire and hope in him. Orwell shows the core elements of humanity such as independenceRead MoreGeorge Orwell s 1984 919 Words   |  4 Pagesattitudes of its citizens. George Orwell examines the dangers of this flawed relationship between government bodies and individuals. In 1984, he illustrates the worst possible outcome, a corrupt tyrannical government creating a dystopian world filled with lifeless citizens. Orwell explores the consequences of a totalitarian society in 1984 through the struggles of Winston, the manipulations of O’Brien, and the perfection of Winston. Once Winston is confined in the Ministry of Love, 1984 examines the characterRead MoreThe Novel 1984 By George Orwell954 Words   |  4 PagesThe novel â€Å"1984† by George Orwell exemplifies the issues of a government with overwhelming control of the people. This government controls the reality of all of their citizens by rewriting the past, instilling fear, and through manipulation. This is an astounding story because of the realistic qualities that are present throughout the text about an extreme regulatory government and its effects. This society is overwhelming consumed with the constructed reality that was taught to them by Big BrotherRead MoreAnalysis Of 1984 By George Orwell954 Words   |  4 PagesSophie Moore Mrs. N. Finley E209R3 – 1984 literary analysis 27 January 2015 Symbolism throughout 1984 The novel 1984 is a futuristic totalitarian society where everyone is kept under close surveillance and is forced to follow all rules and laws of the state. The novel 1984 was written by George Orwell and published in 1950. The main characters were Big Brother, Winston Smith, Julia, O’Brien, Syme and Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston Smith is a low man on the totem pole when it came to the ruling PartyRead More1984 by George Orwell811 Words   |  3 Pages1984 is a cautionary tale, where Orwell is warning the society of possible government takeover. This novel caution people to keep in mind the actions that government is taking. The reason behind this novel was World War II. It’s not a secret that post world war era looked very socialist in order to avoid future wars. Nations like Soviet Union and different European Nations practiced socialism to avoid future uprisings against the government. To some extent his warnings actually turned out to be

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Westpac Banking Corp Vs. Bell Group Ltd Free Solution

Question: Write a report about the Westpac Banking Corp v Bell Group Ltd. Answer: Facts of the Case The said case law was a result of a bond issue that arose in a company based in Netherlands called Bell Groups. In the said case, Bell Group Ltd, NV, which was a company incorporated in Netherlands took part in a bond issue. Bell Group Ltd, NV issued certain Eurobonds with an objective of on-loaning the money it raised to the Bell Group Companies (Langford 2013). The said on-loans were issued by journal debit entries to the loan accounts of the Bell Groups companies along with the Bell Group NV. The said transaction took placed without any agreement between the two companies and therefore, there was evidence of no document stating the said transaction. The said bonds were issues at the time the Bell Group Companies were suffering from financial crisis and the Bell Group Companies had taken a loan from the Banks. D Banks had advanced funds to the said Bell Group Companies on no security given by the said company. Thus the loans which were taken by the banks were on an unsecured footing (Ellinger, Lomnicka and Hare 2011). The history of these loans is that in the year 1990, the certain Banks agreed to advance and extend the Bell Groups Companies loans in return for securities and guarantees over certain assets and transactions of the Bell Group Companies (Tomasic, Bottomley and McQueen 2012). Thus, eventually, went the loan was unpaid, the banks went ahead to realize the said assets and transactions of the Bell Group Companies recovering around $283million. Liquidators were appointed for the Bell Group Companies in April 1991. The said case went on appeal. The primary issue in the Bell Group Companies case was not whether the said company failed to be solvent during the transactions, but the primary issue in the said case was whether the bank had the authority and the power to retain the funds it obtained after the assets and transactions of the Bell Group Companies were realized by the banks (Ferran and Ho 2014). Certain important points were considered before the appeal decision was taken, these points are as follows:- The bank enjoyed a priority in term of its loan against all the creditors of the Bell Groups companies The Bell Group Companys directors had breached their fiduciaryduties under the Corporation Act 2001 by giving the security to the bank The banks were aware of the said breach of the fiduciary duties of the director or intentionally assisted the directors in doing the same (Walker 2015). Directors Duties The rules and regulations made under the Corporation Act 2001 govern all the companies in Australia. Thus, the said Corporation Act 2001 has incorporated director duties which every director of an Australian company has to comply with. Section 180 to 184 of the Corporation Act 2001 discusses all the directors duties which a director has to follow in Australia. Section 180 of the Corporation Act 2001, states, that a director in a company must always exercise his authority with due care and diligence (Tumbarello and Takts 2012). Section 181 of the Corporation Act 2001, states, that the directors of a company in Australia have to exercise their powers in good faith and in the best interest of the company. Section 182 and Section 183 of the Corporation Act 2001, states, that the directors of a company must not use their position and information they possess as directors to gain any advantage for themselves, friend, relative or a personally owned company. Additionally, part from section 180-section 184 of the Corporation Act, the said Act has incorporated certain duties for a director under insolvent situations. Thus, under section 588G, the Corporation Act 2001 discusses director's duty to prevent insolvent trading by company. The section 588G of the Corporation Act 2001 states that in case an individual is a companys director when the said company incurs debts or is likely in a condition to incur debts, it is a directors duty to prevent the company from trading or conducting business (Bakir 2015). Thus, when a company is solvent like the Bell Group of Companies, the directors have the following duties under the Corporation Act 2001:- If a group company is insolvent or fearing insolvency by providing creditors with securities from individual companies from the group companies, the directors have breached their duties if they failed to consider the benefits of the transactions to the individual company (Edelman 2010). In the given situation, the directors of the company will be considered acting in an improper manner for improper purpose, if they further providing security to prevent the company from liquidation. Thus, the said act of the directors will be considered for the interest of the bank rather than the company. In case of groups companies, the directors are prohibited from entering into transactions even for the best interest of the whole group unless the transaction is in the best interest of each company individually along with its shareholders and creditors. Thus, for a director to secure companies with an intention to remove threats of single company or the entire group going into liquidation without giving regards to interest of individual companies along with its creditors and shareholders is in violation of the section 181, section 182 and section 183 under the Corporation Act 2001 (Du Plessis, Hargovan and Bagarie 2010). Thus, in the present case, the directors of the Bell Group Company acting in an improper manner by giving further security when they were aware the company is in financial difficulty. This action was in the interest of the bank rather than the company. Additionally the directors of the Bell Group Companies violated section 588G of the Corporation Act 2001 by violating directors duty to prevent insolvent trading by company as the directors of Bell Group Companies engaged in transactions with the bank when the company as almost insolvent (Du Plessis, Hargovan and Bagaric 2010). Decision The Court of Appeal overruled the previous decision and stated:- There was no documentation to establish any special arrangement which proved bank enjoyed priority to the other creditors of the Bell Group Companies. The Bell Group Companys directors by entering into their transactions with the bank have breached the directors duties under the Corporation Act 2001 and applied objective test stating that no prudent and diligent director whose duty is to act in best interest of the company along with its creditors and shareholders and for proper purposes would consider the fact that entering into any further security transaction would not be in companys interest (Bunn and Guthrie 2013). In the present case, directors also breached section 588G of the Corporation Act 2001 which states Director's duty to prevent insolvent trading by company. Moreover, the bank was aware at the time of the said transaction, that the Bell Group is insolvent and would gain no advantage out of the transaction. Thus, the banks committed equitable fraud (Tomasic, Bottomley and McQueen 2012). Additionally, the court of appeal stated that the bank assisted the directors of Bell Group Companies in their dishonest and fraudulent motives as they were aware of the directors intentions. Thus, in the said case, the directors of Bell Groups companies failed to act in the best interest of the company and acted in an improper manner violating the rules and regulations of the Corporation Act 2001 (Cassidy 2016). Thus, the judgment in Westpac Banking Corp v Bell Group Ltd is the perfect example or a reminder of the consequences that a financial institute and a companys directors can face at the time of financial difficulties (Ellinger, Lomnicka, and Hare 2011). Thus, the directors and the bank in the said case are charged with heavy penalties. Additionally, the proceeds which the bank realized in the said case were retuned back to the Bell Group Companies shareholders and creditors. The judgment in the Westpac Banking Corp v Bell Group Ltd makes all the banks in Australia aware that the Court will charge and punish any financial institute that provide further loan and obtain securities from companies which they know are insolvent or in financial difficulties. The said judgment states that the courts in Australia are not willing to overlook any breaches by the directors in a company only because the said breach looks reasonable and honest (Virgo 2015). The judgment in Westpac Banking Corp v Bell Group Ltd warns all the banks in Australia to refrain from providing loans and acquiring securities when a company is in financial difficulties and assisting the directors of any company in Australia in their act of dishonesty and fraudulent motives. Additionally, the judgment in Westpac Banking Corp v Bell Group Ltd also warns every company in Australia to have proper documentation for every transaction and provides an insight to the consequences a company can face which lacks fully documented transactions and arrangements especially regarding inter-company loans. Reference List Bakir, C., 2015. The exoteric politics of bank mergers in Australia.Australian Journal of Politics History,51(2), pp.235-256. Bunn, A. and Guthrie, R., 2013. Occupational Health and Safety in the banking industry.Legal Issues in Business,11, p.80. Cassidy, J., 2016.Concise corporations law. Federation Press. Du Plessis, J.J., Hargovan, A. and Bagaric, M., 2010.Principles of contemporary corporate governance. Cambridge University Press. Edelman, J.J., 2010. When do fiduciary duties arise?.Law Quarterly Review,126, pp.302-327. Ellinger, E.P., Lomnicka, E. and Hare, C., 2011.Ellinger's Modern banking law. Oxford University Press. Ferran, E. and Ho, L.C., 2014.Principles of corporate finance law. OUP Oxford. Langford, R.T., 2013. The Fiduciary Nature of the Bona Fide and Proper Purposes Duties of Company Directors: Bell Group Ltd (In Liq) v Westpac Banking Corp (No 9). Tomasic, R., Bottomley, S. and McQueen, R., 2012.Corporations law in Australia. Federation Press. Tumbarello, P. and Takts, E., 2012. Australian Bank and Corporate Sector Vulnerabilities-An International Perspective.IMF Working Papers, pp.1-22. Virgo, G., 2015.Principles of the Law of Restitution. Oxford University Press, USA. Walker, R., 2015. Dishonesty and Unconscionable Conduct in Commercial Life-Some Reflections on Accessory Liability and Knowing Receipt.Sydney L. Rev.,27, p.187.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Critical Analysis of Diary of a Mad Black Woman Essay Example

Critical Analysis of Diary of a Mad Black Woman Paper Critical Analysis of the Movie: Diary of a Mad Black Woman Produced: 2005 Director: Darren Grant Producer: Tyler Perry Producer: Reuben Cannon Co-Producer: Mike Upton Executive Producer: Tyler Perry Executive Producer: John Dellaverson Line Producer: Joseph P. Genier Executive Producer: Michael Paseornek December 12, 2008 Sociology 100 Critical Analysis of the Movie: Diary of a Mad Black Woman Helen McCarterhas everything that she could possibly want in life: a huge house, lavish lifestyle and a very rich husband. The morning after attending an awards banquet where her husband (Charles McCarter) receives an award for the most outstanding lawyer of Atlanta, Helen awakes to her husband not in bed on their 18th wedding anniversary. She then goes to his office to surprise him with lunch but finds him there with another woman and two kids. Helen then arrives home with a U-Haul truck parked in her driveway. When Helen goes in the house she discovers a closet full of a new designer wardrobe that she believes is a surprise from Charles. But the new wardrobe is not the anniversary surprise that she was expecting. Charles comes home that evening to tell her that he is divorcing her for a younger woman and to be with his two sons. When Helen refuses to leave, Charles has to drag her out of the house and shut the door on her. Helen is left outside the door crying and is rescued by the U-Haul driver (Orlando) that she eventually throws out of the U-Haul truck. We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Analysis of Diary of a Mad Black Woman specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Analysis of Diary of a Mad Black Woman specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Analysis of Diary of a Mad Black Woman specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Helen then turns to her mother, grandmother (Madea) and her cousin (Brian) who take her in and help her put God back in her life. Helen learns how to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life. When her husband is almost killed by a vengeful client, Helen is faced with the decision of having the heart to forgive him despite all the pain he has put her through. But after much thought, she decides to marry her boyfriend (Orlando).

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Sound versus space essays

Sound versus space essays Very simply, sound is the vibration of any substance. The substance can be air, water, wood, or any other material, and in fact the only place in which sound cannot travel is a vacuum. When these substances vibrate, or rapidly move back and forth, they produce sound. As described in the How We Perceive Sound: The Ear section, our ears gather these vibrations and allow us to interpret them. To be a little more accurate in our definition of sound, however, we must realize that the vibrations that produce sound are not the result of an entire volume moving back and forth at once. If that were the case, the entire atmosphere would need to shift for any sound to be made at all! Instead, the vibrations occur among the individual molecules of the substance, and the vibrations move through the substance in sound waves. As sound waves travel through the material, each molecule hits another and returns to its original position. The result is that regions of the medium become alternately more dense, when they are called condensations, and less dense, when they are called rarefactions. Very simply, sound is the vibration of any substance. The substance can be air, water, wood, or any other material, and in fact the only place in which sound cannot travel is a vacuum. When these substances vibrate, or rapidly move back and forth, they produce sound. As described in the How We Perceive Sound: The Ear section, our ears gather these vibrations and allow us to interpret them. To be a little more accurate in our definition of sound, however, we must realize that the vibrations that produce sound are not the result of an entire volume moving back and forth at once. If that were the case, the entire atmosphere would need to shift for any sound to be made at all! Instead, the vibrations occur among the individual molecules of the substance, and the vibrations move through the substance in sound waves. As sound waves travel ...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Cover Letter Example

Cover Letter Example Here is an example cover letter written in response to an advertisement in the newspaper. Before taking a look at the letter, read through the cover letter tips and useful key phrases to use in your own cover letters. Tips for Writing Cover Letters Always refer to the exact position for which you are applying.  Refer to how you found the position.Point out those aspects of your career which you feel are especially important.Dont point out too many of your qualifications. Youve enclosed your resume for that purpose.  Refer in a positive way to a future interview. Dont be shy about stating that youll follow-up.   Referring to the Position I am writing to you in response to your advertisement for...I would like to apply for the position of ...Im interested in applying for ... Pointing Out Important Qualifications As you can see from my enclosed resume, my experience and qualifications match this positions requirements.I would like to point out... immediately upon his return.During ...., I improved (furthered, extended, etc.) my knowledge of...,I was responsible for ... Referring to Future Interview I look forward to an opportunity to speak with you in person.  I look forward to speaking with you personally.  I look forward to discussing how I can ... Cover Letter Example 2520 Vista AvenueOlympia, Washington 98501April 19, 2001 Mr. Bob Trimm, Personnel ManagerImporters Inc.587 Lilly Road Dear Mr. Trimm: I am writing to you in response to your advertisement for a Legal Assistant specializing in Port Regulatory Law, which appeared in the Seattle Times on Sunday, June 15. As you can see from my enclosed resume, my experience and qualifications match this positions requirements. I especially would like to point out that I graduated Cum Laude from The University of Tacoma and was hired directly upon graduation due to my expertise in port authority regulations. During the four years that I worked for Shoreman and Co., I further deepened my knowledge of the fast-changing regulatory laws in our state. My employer also thought highly enough of my abilities to promote me to head legal researcher after my first year of employment. I look forward to an opportunity to personally discuss the position with you. I will call you within the next five days to arrange an interview. Sincerely, Kenneth Beare Enclosure:

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Management and Leadership Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management and Leadership - Assignment Example A. legitimate B. expert C. information D. charismatic E. referent 4. _____power is based on the capacity to control and provide valued rewards to others A. Legitimate B. Referent C. Reward D. Information E. Expert 5. As the sales manager, Kirk supervises the sales people, hands out bonuses to those who surpass quotas that he assigns, allots vacation time, and determines pay raises. To the sales people he manages, Kirk has___ power. A. legitimate B. expert C. award D. charismatic E. referent 6. As the office manager, Pat has the authority to dock someone's pay who got to work late, to suspend workers who are lazy, and to fire workers who are incompetent. In terms of the office personnel, Pat has _____ power. A. legitimate B. expert C. information D. coercive E. referent 7. ____power depends on the ability to punish others when they do not engage in desired behaviour. A. Legitimate B. Charismatic C. Coercive D. Referent E. Reward 8. During the recent power outage, the janitor was the o nly person who could find the steps and help the people on the eighth floor find their way out of the building. To the people on the eighth floor, the janitor had ____power during the blackout. A. legitimate B. expert C. information D. coercive E. referent 9.____ power is based on the possession of expertise that is valued by others A. Legitimate B. Charismatic C. Coercive D. Expert E. ... A. legitimate D. coercive B. expert E. referent C. information 11. ___ power results from being admired, personally identified with, or liked by others. A. Legitimate B. Information C. Coercive D. Referent E. Reward 12. The president of Hatfield Manufacturing Company threatened to fire all of his line personnel if they continued to ignore the new safety regulations. How will the employees most likely react to this threat? A. with resistance B. with commitment C. with agreement D. with submission E. with compliance 13. Jason is a stonemason who has worked on refurbishing the great cathedrals in Europe. He has agreed to help restore the small Gothic church in Hyatt if the workers want him to. Which would describe the most likely response from the other workers? A. Resistance B. commitment C. acceptance D. submission E. compliance 14. Intelligence, appearance, sociability, and extroversion an all examples of __ that may distinguish leaders from non-leaders. A. demographics B. psychograp hics C. personalities D. traits E. profile items 15. Which of the following statements about the study of leadership traits is true? A. Researchers have identified several traits that are associated with individuals who are recognized as leaders by others. B. For the most part, early research studied historical leaders. C. Most management experts believe that performance is more closely related to the traits leaders possess than the things leaders actually do. D. Recent studies have discovered certain traits that can be used in any situation to determine which individuals will be leaders. E. Researchers have always believed that the key to locating leaders was in the study of traits and have never abandoned this line of reasoning. 16. University of

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Teaching children with dyslexia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Teaching children with dyslexia - Essay Example Owing to the difficulty in diagnosis of the condition, some educators may be essentially baffled by the behavior of a child whose poor performance is mistakenly seen to originate from carelessness (Subramaniam, Mallan, & Mat, 2013). Teachers may punish these students or enroll them in unnecessary remedial lessons, which may make them feel very much underrated, or overburdened in a learning facility. Whereas it may be difficult to differentiate between children who are careless in the classroom and those with dyslexia, it is the responsibility of an effective teacher to create an atmosphere that is favorable for learning by all the pupils. This would enhance early diagnoses for dyslexia and facilitate the implementation of specialized care to cater for the unique educational needs of such students. Â  Owing to the difficulty in diagnosis of the condition, some educators may be essentially baffled by the behavior of a child whose poor performance is mistakenly seen to originate from c arelessness (Subramaniam, Mallan, & Mat, 2013). Teachers may punish these students or enroll them in unnecessary remedial lessons, which may make them feel very much underrated, or overburdened in a learning facility. Whereas it may be difficult to differentiate between children who are careless in the classroom and those with dyslexia, it is the responsibility of an effective teacher to create an atmosphere that is favorable for learning by all the pupils. This would enhance early diagnoses for dyslexia and facilitate the implementation of specialized care to cater for the unique educational needs of such students. Â   Husni and Jamaludin (2009) argue that it behaves a class teacher to comprehend the learning challenges that a dyslexic student may experience within the learning environment. With this awareness, teachers would avoid chances of misconstruing the behavior of a child, which may impair their normal learning processes. In a cordial environment full of motivation, a dysl exic student will develop the perception of self-reliance, which basically yields educational success (Amstrong, 2012). Teaching a dyslexic child requires the knowledge that an impaired auditory short term memory, which results from the disease can result in the student having a poorer capacity to retain the teacher’s input for long.’s input for long. In light of this, an effective teacher should adopt simpler, repetitive teaching strategies when issuing instructions to a class of dyslexic children in order to secure their better understanding of the lessons. Subramaniam, Mallan and Mat (2013) have pointed out that auditory short term memory impairment in a child can impede the victim’s ability to remember the teacher’s input of spoken words, arrangement of sounds in order, and the adequate spelling of the letters. In most cases, children with these learning problems cannot recall even simple instructions. Regardless of the seriousness of the impacts of the impairment, proper teaching interventions in the class have proven advantageous to the victims. Managing the short-term memory Managing the short-term memory is vital to the achievement of better outcomes in the classroom. Teaching a dyslexic child requires the development of the lesson outline, and ending each lesson with a scorecard of the themes covered. By doing so, vital information related to learning will be retained in the child’s memory for longer (Amstrong, 2012). This can also be essential when setting the homework. Teachers should ensure that the dyslexic child properly notes down what is required. Instructors should also ensure that the child carries home the right writing materials. Although a majority of such would find it difficult to remember telephone contacts of their friends, it is important for teachers to have them note down a few contacts on the homework book to facilitate consultation when they face any difficulty remembering the recommended work (Amstrong, 2012). Teachers should also ensure that they use written form of communication for learning activities, since verbal communication would be forgotten easily. A teacher for a dyslexic child should monitor the performance and behavior of the child on a daily

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Cnbc House of Cards Essay Example for Free

Cnbc House of Cards Essay Who the players are? Stakeholders? Technical and ethical issues are? What was the relationship about prices and personal incomes? People started to buy houses that they couldn’t afford and then they were left behind leaving. The economy is falling and so are the communities. Insects, graffiti, dirty pools are left behind since people are evicted and people don’t have were to go. The lenders are not responsive to customers who want to cooperate to pay for their debts. Wall street only cares about the money they can generate from this foreclosure. During the crisis thousands of people were relieved from their jobs MORTGAGE RATES Housing prices were rising faster than incomes making it impossible to keep with payments. The demand for the houses went down and prices SHOULD HAVE been that prices went down but they went up. People will not be able to pay making prices to fall but they didn’t fell. â€Å"Keep going until someone tells you no† (uniformed and uneducated in finance?) the person didn’t know what he was able to pay right now and in the future, and he asked until someone tell him that he couldn’t do so. BUT people keep buying houses. CHAPTER 2 MORTGAGE MARKET ON FIRE Subprime mortgage –mortgage for the credit challenged Freddie and Fannie – the leaders in mortgage lending Quick Loan – for people who couldn’t afford a down payment You didn’t need to prove how much you made, no verifying incomes or assets After 2001 things got crazy. Before 2001 it was difficult to get a loan because more verification was needed such as tax returns, how much you make, and down payment. They had good loans until 2001. **GSE’s accounting scandal (executives could make more bonuses) In 1999 GLB the banks became deregulated causing banks to become commercial banks and mortgage brokers. Fannie and Freddie buyed loans from mortgages firms. They stated the rules. Until this point they were dominant because they only bought loans in which their investments would pay off. Then came the accounting scandals and they are in the penalty box. After 9/11 interest rates were lowered by the government and now houses are more appealing (or just buying was more appealing). Countries that were once stated as poor become wealthy countries and after all this happened (9/11 and Fannie and Freddie). Moral hazard what Dallas say about the wires crossing. CHAPTER 3 – DREAM HOUSES In 2002 government pushed Wall Street and lenders to facilitate mortgages. Adjusting interest rate – low interest rates the first two years and later higher interest rates. He claimed that he made almost four times than what he actually did. Lots of refinancing and lots of spending by the population Irresponsibility by the black lady, she could afford it because the mortgage broker gave her the company’s money * but it reality she couldn’t afford it She should have done a down payment, she didn’t do it Its an adjustable rate instead of a fixed rate CHAPTER 4 – LEGIONS OF LENDERS 20-30 minutes to provide a loan Loan officers with no experience on the industry had the job to provide as much loans as they could, their job was to close the loans. Health problems by the dirty pools left behind CHAPTER 5 – STAMPS OF APPROVAL In 2004 home ownership rates were higher than ever and construction in over 20 years, but they were not sustainable. But we ran out of people who could afford mortgages and even we throw subprime loans. Greater mortgage alternatives rather than the fixed rate loans. Allen came up with the Pay Option Negative Amortization Adjustable Rate Mortgage. Traditional loans had full amortization, fixed rates, and a fixed payment. Instead of having a fixed rate then an adjustable rate was used making possible people to make their payments. The problem was that if it went up, then the borrowers will not be able to afford the payments anymore unless their incomes went up fast. Pay options were also available allowing the borrowers to choose lower payments and the balance of what you should pay and what you actually paid was added to the loan to have a negative amortization. The introductory low rates were called Teaser Rates. The goal was to make home ownership more affordable for more people. Michael Francis and other brokers in Wall Street knew that some of these loans are bad loans but they didn’t cared because they transferred all these loans to whoever wanted to buy them such as pension funds. They are just the intermediary or the pipeline. These pension funds could only buy AAA mortgage loan. The investors wanted to sell their loans to the pension funds but they needed to be rated AAA by these agencies. Their job was to evaluate the risk of the securities. What was the ethical issue here with the agencies? The riskier BBB looked as good as the triple AAA and they looked much safer than they used to be and they started to look more like a AAA security. So AAA requirement got lower as the market got smart. Moodies, SP, and Fitch are the three rating agencies. They didn’t give price but based on their ratings they got priced. The suggestion is that these agencies would come with the investment bankers. The business was getting more competitive so you just wanted to get more business or more business than the other agencies. When Anne Arundel was asked if standards lower she replied, The problem is that if you are the only person to know how these standards work, if investors are not paying attention and banks are only comparing what they will get from you instead of the other agency, then no one is paying attention. This means that the investors are not concerned about the standards but how much AAA securities they could get from each agency. Then no one is paying attention? They are the ones that came up with the ratings, so this is not a fair statement. The investment banks were the ones who hired the rating agencies and they controlled the â€Å"repeating game†. It doesn’t make sense because the investors are the ones who should have made these appraisals instead of the investment bankers. It was advantageous for the investment banks to get as many AAA as possible to sell them as fast as possible since they only accepted AAA securities. They are not responsible for pricing the securities but only to rate them. Your payment goes down and the interest rates went up and the difference was added to the principal. The three rating agencies provided which loans are risky and which ones are not. Investment rate goes from AAA to BBB and this were the ones acceptable. BBB sounded more safe than their used to be and the requirements for AAA were lowered. Rating agencies helped lenders to achieve these requirements but they reject these accusations. So mispricing of risk occurred because they wanted more business than the other agencies. CDO worked really well around the country and around the world. CHAPTER 6 – ARCTIC INVESTORS Takes place in Narvik Norway. The major of Narvik says that the town was getting fewer taxes so the town council took and loan to place the money in CDOs. They bought the securities from Terra. They didn’t know what they were buying but they knew they were AAA rating CDOs. Citigroup was selling CDOs to Terra who knew a little about them and sold them to municipalities like Narvik that didn’t knew anything about them. Narvik taxes levels were going down. The problem was that their inflow was too low, do they decide to take action and increase this inflow. Knowing the risk rating was more important than knowing what it was. CDOs you take lower rated securities and bundle them up and create AAA securities. Why there were CDOS because the AAA are easy to sell but the BBB higher risk are tougher to sell and if you don’t sell them all you don’t make profit. Wall Street investment bankers created these new products. Bill Dallas said it was like a frat party were people didn’t go home, we could have stop it but we didn’t stop it because if we had we are just one company we would have gone out of business and another company would have taken his business. This was not his strategy but these products were doing big money. They talked about greed, a lot. CHAPTER 7 INSIGHT INTO OUTSIGHT The banks were never contacted by the SEC of the FED according to Michael Francis. But don’t use this in the paper because we don’t know if its true. The FED said that they could have done something but unemployment would have gone to 10%. The lack of oversight †¦ allen grenspan (Federal Reserve) there are a number of things, that there is a little thragh in this business. It could have done it buy it would have been politically suicide. The SEC didn’t intervene because they assumed the banks would police themselves. CHAPTER 8 THE BIG WINNER Kyle Bass discovered that bad loans were being made by Quick Loan Funding and decided to bet that at some point they would go bad. He invested $1 billion. CHAPTER 9 A WORLD OF HURT Bill Dallas discovered in 2006 when most of the loans were going bad. Wall Street decided to stop buying these bad loans and no cash was going into the lenders so many lending companies started to close. Quick fund Lending and Own it by Bill Dallas closed. People were not able to make the payment son their loans so they decided to default the loans and the house of cards started to fall. Simmons blames herself and the industry because they made her the unpayable loan. Arturo Trevilla lost his home along with his dream to own a business. Some California neighborhoods became ghost towns filled with empty homes. Then homes prices began to fall and the global credit crisis began. In Norway people began to realize that their investment came to nothing or loses. The losses accounted a quarter of their budget. Narwik didn’t bought home CDOs but municipal bonds. The only winner was Kyle Bass by betting against the market. He made 600% in 18 months. Retail sales went down after the attacks of 9/11 and the country was still recovering from the .com bust and the economy needed money to be invested and money to be spent. The lower the interest rates the cheaper it is to loan. The cost of borrowing became cheaper than the past generation. Prime interest rates were cut down along with mortgage rates. But at the same time prices were rising faster than people’s incomes. The problem was that if prices were going up and people’s incomes at a slower rate, then less people will be able to buy a house and therefore the demand for houses will fall and causing prices to fall. But the reality was that the price and demand didn’t go down. You swing for the fences until someone tells you to stop. Subprime mortgage is a mortgage for the credit challenged and was created in California. Back then getting a mortgage was not easy because a lot of information was needed, such a visit, bank statements, and wait 90 days. You check two years tax returns fully documented. Bill Dallas was 30 years in the business. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by Congress to increase home ownership. They bought mortgage loans from mortgage lenders. They get cash in return and make more loans. They received constant flow from home owners and create the Mortgaged backed security. They dominated the market of mortgage backed security. They dictated the rules for lending. They only accepted loans from people that were able to make the monthly payments but the smaller morgages instutions wanted to change that. They wanted to make sure that everyone could afford a loan or a home and they saw the right opportunity when these two companies got into an accounting scandal and received a penalty. They lost their dominance in the mortgage industry. With no leaders lenders could bend the rules. Who took over? Wall Street. Michael Francis worked with a company that wanted to take over Freddie and Fannie’s place. After 2001 and 2002 the mortgage market got in fire because cash was abundant. Countries that were once poor now had money and they wanted to invest in something and Wall Street had what they were looking; securities backed by American homes and American borrowers. More revenue through more loans. There were no money down for people with good credit. Quick loan funding target people who couldn’t afford a down payment and had a bad credit; these are called subprime loans. You didn’t need to prove how much money you generated and it was called stated income. You didn’t need to look at assets either. The problem was that Wall Street said ok and they decided to buy them. In 2002 the Bush administration pushed people to have a home. Arturo Trevilla dreamed to have an own business and a home. He bought a home with an adjustable interest rates. The first two years with low interest rates and then with higher interest rates. His broker told him that his home’s price will go up and that he could make a cash loan to start his own business. The paperwork was tricky and he didn’t read the contract and couldn’t understand it. He knowingling signed that he generated four times his salary and that he could afford to pay his $584,000. Cynthia Simmons also craved a better life. She lived in a bad neighborhood in California and decided to get out of there. Compton was infested with gang warfare. For her own and her family’s safety she had to get away from Compton. An agent got her a house in New Belinda California, own of the best neighborhoods. Simmons said that her mortgage broker lied on her income and without her knowledge he signed to loans. More of these loans were made and Wall Street was loaded with cash as long with homeowners that had more cash. Retail sales were going up. With the value of their homes rising they were able to refinance their loans and put cash in their pockets to spend. Lots of refinancing and cash occurred. Home values were rising and the equity on their houses was also rising. With this people refinanced their loans and made restorations and improvements. It took a week to close the loan and the conversation was wrapped up in 20 to 30 minutes. The loan officers had incentives to close more loans to generate more fees. Loan officers had no training; including pizza deliverymen. Their training was to close the loan and no license was required. Daniel Sadek was the owner of Quick Loan Funding in 2002 and became a wealthy man. Daniel sold Mercedes to young kids who were loan officers and he realized he wanted in that business. The subprime business was booming. Frank Medina and wife refinanced their loan to finished the back yard and pay their credit cards. Kelly and Mark Gifford refinanced their loan again because the value of their homes were rising. People turned their homes into cash machines. Daniel was financed by many of the industries largest investors (citigroup, Wells Fargo, ben Bernsatein) and he didn’t had a degree and they secured his loans so that he could finance your loans. Wall street created a market for the worst mortgages. He never made a loan that WS will never buy. Almost always they found someone in WS to sell that loan. Bankers became intoxicated with the amount of loans they could sell to WS. (38:00 min) What did banks did? They made this mortgages and used the warehouse line of credit and made a lot of these funds and pooled them. The economic and political environment when it started? What is the long term for the product? Product that came out of Allen †¦ Explain all the parts Why was people taking loans? To achieve the American dream, to pull cash put to do anything such as pay debts, to buy a house, to refinance their mortgage and get a better rate What where the rating agencies job? To assign risk to the securities. One of the problems or moral hazard? Investment banks hired them to rate their securities (you cant say they did it to have more business). Prices were increasing higher that people’s incomes. The issue was that people were using the house as an investment and they were counting on them. Prices rising in the entire economy, and income at a lower pace, so fewer people can afford to buy houses. It can remain that way and Kyle Bass said that income should rise or houses should come down. GSC – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had two roles – they set the rules to what a good mortgage was and they stated the requirements for making a loan. They established what a good loan was. When they came back they bought subprime mortgages. They were regulated agencies and when they were taken out other unregulated agencies took their place. As long as there is someone that will buy something from you, it will continue to supply it. Liar loans? CDOs? Teaser rate? – The initial rate people pay because it is substantially lower before it adjusts. People were not concern that it will adjust because they were going to refinance the loan anyways.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

bank failures Essay -- essays research papers

http://www.worldnewsstand.net/2001/article/bank_failures.htm Bank Failures We have written before about the remarkable ability of banks to create money when making loans, and of their equally remarkable ability to multiply these newly created-from-nothing bank deposits via fractional reserve banking. What we have written is true, and easily verified. But banks fail! That fact is equally true, and easily verified as well. How can we reconcile these apparently contradictory facts? If banks can create, and multiply, money, how can they fail? Could your business fail if what you made was, literally, money, or what people took for money? The qualifier is important. It is what people assume about money that makes modern banking possible. The Federal Reserve itself points out that it is the people's confidence that make paper devices serve for money. Belief (i.e., "credit") is what keeps the system going. Psychology is everything. If modern money is an illusion, then bank failures are an important means of reinforcing that illusion. Consider the alternative. If a bank made loan after loan, and these loans were not repaid, and the bank continued to do business year after year with mounting millions of bad loans on its books, wouldn't that look odd? People would question how the bank could continue to thrive despite so many bad loans. Would they maintain their confidence in the system if the banker cheerfully admitted that he made those loans by simply crediting the borrower's account, and that to do so cost him nothing? Some might wonder why the bank would not honor checks written on insufficient funds, if the banks create those funds from nothing. Corporations which are unable to meet their financial obligations to banks might wonder why they must work to repay the bank for something it got with a flick of a loan officer's pen. No, it is important, if confidence is to be unshaken, that banks appear to be like other businesses, when, of course, they are nothing like other businesses. This means that banks must be allowed to fail, even though they are the source of modern money. Failure occurs when liabilities outweigh assets. What are a bank's assets? The IOUs of its customers. Its liabilities are their deposits. If a customer has borrowed a million dollars from the bank, and given the bank his IOU for that number, the bank has a million dollar asset---un... ...op out of school and go to work? Will he face charges for check-kiting, or counterfeiting? It doesn't seem likely. The illusion can be maintained without such extreme measures! John Maynard Keynes put it succinctly: "If, however, a government refrains from regulations and allows matters to take their own course, the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent, and the fraud upon the public can be concealed no longer." Expect to see more bank failures as the economy declines. Otherwise, the worthlessness of the money might become apparent! Sorry this article is so long but I thought it was a great article and wanted to share it. It makes some great points about loaning money to the government and the fact that when you loan the money them they rarely re-pay the principle, so they have to continue to pay the interest payments. It also goes into some detail about the relationship between the government and banks. The government doesn’t want to see banks fail because they want their sources of money to be strong. I also like the way this article describes how banks fail. It gives some good examples about those banks that fail due to bad debts and non repayment on loans.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Max’s Restaurant Research Paper Essay

1.FRANCHISENAME: Aguillon Ventures, Inc., 2.BRAND AND TRADEMARK: Max’s Restaurant 3.BUSINESS CONCEPT: Max’s Restaurant is a Philippine-based restaurant serving fried chicken and Filipino dishes. What started out as a small cafà © in the Philippines has successfully transitioned into a proud Filipino tradition that is also making waves in the global front as an international brand. Today, â€Å"the house that fried chicken built† has expanded to 123 local and 10 international branches. Max’s is more than just a food brand. It takes after characteristics that are innate to Filipinos – hospitality, generosity and passion for good food. The recipes have been intricately developed for 66 years and given a modern twist to cater to the increasingly discriminating tastes of customers from all over the world. To a lot of people, Max’s is a nostalgic place that reminds them of countless memorable experiences with their family, friends and loved ones. It is a place to nurture relationships, and â€Å"a home away from home.† 4.TARGET CUSTOMERS: Their target customers is high class family 5.TERM: The term of the Max’s Restaurant franchise is six (6) years with the right to renew 3 additional terms; total of 24 years. 6.SITE/LOCATION/ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN: Our Business Development Department can create a detailed site plan indicating the specific location of a desired prototype facility based on specific information and requirements provided by the franchisee about the proposed site. In addition, the department can prepare building plans and specifications detailing the requirements for overall design, furnishings, store layout, equipment, fixtures and interior decor specifications. Max’s Restaurant currently has over 127 branches in the Philippines. The chain also has branches in the U.S. states of California, Hawaii, and New Jersey, and its first Canadian branch in Toronto, Ontario. A store opened in Vancouver, British Columbia in March 2012. More branches will open soon in Sydney, Australia , and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Queens, New York. PRODUCT & SERVICES: It’s signature dish is its fried chicken—Max’s dubs itself â€Å"the house that fried chicken built†. It’s often served with rice and/or kamote (sweet-potato) fries. Other items on Max’s menu are Filipino dishes like pancit, kare-kare, nilagang baka, sinigang na baboy, lechon kawali, pork adobo, bicol express, and crispy pata among others. Service is generally good, but the usually high volume of customer traffic at its mall  locations doesn’t lead to the cleanest or most relaxing of environments at those branches. Max’s is a casual dining restaurant leaning more towards fast food rather than fine dining. Pre-packaged caramel bars accompanying some meals and Max’s bakery kiosks at some restaurants drive the point home. Some services: Takes Reservations Walk-Ins Welcome Good For Groups Good For Kids Take Out Delivery Catering Waiter Service Outdoor Seating 8.PRICING STRATEGY: Max’s Restaurant pricing strategy is based on these costs: Direct costs. These are the ingredient costs associated with the food item itself. This involves the purchasing food, portion sizes, food waste from spilling, overcooking or spoiling. Indirect costs.   Indirect costs are those that do not include the actual ingredients that make up a dish, but the aspects of your restaurant that add perceived value or quality. These provide significant basis upon which to charge higher prices. Preparation and labor. The labor to prepare a menu item is considered an indirect cost. Menu items that require time, effort, artistry or talent to prepare merit a higher menu price than something that simply requires heating and plating. Overhead expenses. Overhead costs for items such as dà ©cor, product presentation, amenities and marketing efforts. Although slightly less common, these can create added value and validate higher menu item prices. Volatile food costs. Many raw commodity food items, or basic ingredients with minimal quality  variance, may fluctuate as often as daily. In a case such as this you have two easy options: raise your prices or work with a seasonal menu. Seasonal menus allow flexibility for buying crops in season, or in supply, to keep costs down. Service type. Prices will undoubtedly change depending on whether your restaurant is a fast-casual restaurant or a fine dining restaurant. Be sure your prices represent the service value your customers receive. For instance, full service restaurants can always charge more for their hamburgers than quick-service joints, because full service restaurants are also providing greater ambience, better service and often better ingredients than the quick-service alternative. 9.QUALITY CONTROL METHOD: Prior to the commencement of operations, the corporate training department will provide the franchisee and eight members of the management team with hands-on training that spans 4 months. This training will incorporate classroom content and applied in-restaurant developmental modules that will extensively cover subjects ranging from administrative and operational matters to marketing. Regular refresher and developmental training programs will also be given as needs arise. Max’s is a firm proponent of su stainable continuous training of all Max’s franchises and employees to closely align our business model and company values and enrich the integral bond between store staff, guests and restaurant profitability. Each franchise store can expect holistic support and servicing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A dedicated Franchise Area Manager will be assigned specifically to assist the franchisee in running the store. The key aim of the operations team is to create sales-building efforts and to ensure that Max’s high quality and safety standards are maintained across all store operations. FAMs will see to it that the store meets its sales targets and increases its profitability. FAMs conduct staff meetings, regularly make store visits and conduct training for procedural updates and rollouts for new programs and menu items. 10.MARKETING SYSTEM: Max’s firmly believes that marketing is the driving force that propels the restaurant brand forward. Our team is composed of marketing professionals and will provide each and every store with the best marketing service available to ensure brand loyalty and saliency in the market. The marketing group will provide support for new  product launches, sales-driven in-store promotions, above-the-line advertising efforts, and viable media planning. You can also expect dynamic local store marketing projects and exceptionally designed merchandising collaterals. Strategic brand mapping, intensive competition analysis, new product development and consumer-based research comprise the marketing support extended to all Max’s stores. 11.ADVERTISEMENT: In earlier television and cinema advertisements, the restaurant usually marketed itself as a place for Filipino families to get together. It also established its slogan â€Å"Sarà ¡p to the bones!† (â€Å"Delicious to the bones!†). More recently, a popular series of television advertisements told the story of a Max’s employee who was the childhood love of a popular TV celebrity, played by Piolo Pascual. The series showed the two characters as children, then as adults accidentally meeting at Maxâ €™s. The denouement of the story is when the celebrity recognizes the employee from their childhood. This commercial became so popular that it launched the showbiz career of Isabel Oli, the model who played the employee.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

In His Tragedies Shakespeare Often Presents Women Merely as the Tragic Victims of Men Essay

‘In His Tragedies Shakespeare Often Presents Women Merely as the Tragic Victims of Men.’ To What Extent Do You Consider This Applies to Desdemona ‘In Othello’? â€Å"There are no Antigones in Elizabethan Drama,† Lyndsey Turner. Turner is here expressing the view that Shakespeare does not use his women as heroines. Instead she is of the opinion that they are used as devices on which the â€Å"tragic impulses of the plays’ male characters are enacted.† They are a device to produce a cathartic response from Shakespeare’s audience. In order to discuss to what extent Desdemona complies with this view, it would appear logical to define a tragic victim. Many say that a tragic victim is a character in a tragedy who suffers at the hand of circumstance and the fates. They suffer through no fault of their own and are brought down by others, they are totally powerless to change their fate and don’t contribute to their own tragedy; they are solely the victims of others. It is also vital that they produce a cathartic response from the audience in order for their suffering to be tragic. Looking at these criteria it becomes clear why Shakespeare often uses women as his tragic victims. In the time Shakespeare was writing women had very little influence on their destiny having to submit either to their father or husband. They were the objects of men. When Iago warns Brabantio of his daughter’s escape he says â€Å"Look to your house, your daughter and your bags.† This shows of how little importance women were, being so powerless they would then be a natural choice for tragic victims, powerless to avoid their fate because of their weakness in society. However, when Desdemona is first presented to us she does not seem anything like a stereotypical woman of the time. Her character is presented as much stronger than that. Her father has not tried to force her into marriage even telling Roderigo that, â€Å"My daughter is not for thee,† even though it is clear that Roderigo is a rich man. At the end of Act one he goes to, â€Å"sell all his land,† in order to pursue Desdemona. As Brabantio is not therefore being in any way a tyrant to his daughter; her ability to escape from the house and deceive him shocks us and surely would have shocked a contemporary audience even more. This woman is not the kind of person you would expect to become a victim. Before the audience have even seen her she is described as a woman of, â€Å"Beauty, wit and fortunes.† She has gone to Othello in the dead of night protected by a, â€Å"Knave of common hire, a gondolier.† This shows Desdemona’s bravery and strength. All of this increases her status with the audience and detracts from the image of a weak submissive woman. In Act 1 Scene 3 she defies what the Duke says, when he requests that she stay at her father’s house while Othello is in Cyprus saying that, â€Å"She did love the Moor to live with him.† For a woman to speak in front of a council of the most powerful people in Venice, not invited to do so, would be shocking to a contemporary audience and really show her strength of character. It is almost as though she is a feminine version of Othello, as Patsy Hall says, â€Å"She cannot be the man, but she can be the husband of the man.† She has shunned the â€Å"Wealthy curled darlings† of her nation unlike most women and instead chooses Othello. She doesn’t care about his age or race she â€Å"sees Othello’s visage in his mind.† The language Shakespeare gives her when talking of her wooing shows how deeply immersed in Othello’s world she is; she, â€Å"Falls in love with the battles† even her language is strong. â€Å"My downright violence and storm of fortunes,† She is presented as incredibly strong certainly not a figure of pity. It is seemingly no wonder that Othello calls her, â€Å"his fair warrior.† Although Desdemona is first portrayed as quite a heroic figure by Shakespeare he soon starts to use her as a cathartic device, as the audience watch her previous strength fall away. It becomes clear that Shakespeare made her so strong willed deliberately in order to shape our response to Desdemona. Doing this makes it that much more painful for the audience. A major episode wherein Desdemona is presented as an object of pity is in the handkerchief episode. Desdemona loses her handkerchief and Othello sees Cassio with it. Despite Othello’s growing suspicion, Desdemona remains ignorant claiming that, â€Å"The sun where he was born drew all such humours from him.† We feel tremendous pity for Desdemona when she says this because Shakespeare has shaped our response using structure and also the irony of her language. In the last scene we saw that Othello was seething with jealousy and vowed to kill her. This amplifies hugely our feeling of catharsis for her because we feel so helpless. Our pity for her is only added to when Shakespeare shapes events in the play so that all her qualities that were viewed as good in the first act of the play cause her to fall even further. However, she is still a victim because she is powerless to stop it; she is a victim of circumstance and ignorance that Iago has been planning her destruction. She continues to mention Cassio even when it is clear it is causing Othello irritance, she thinks that it is a â€Å"trick to put her from her suit.† The audience’s feeling of catharsis is amplified as we can do nothing while her language puts her fidelity in more doubt in Othello’s mind The time when we pity her most however is when Othello strikes her. Again she says precisely the wrong things, through no fault of her own but rather because her loving nature wishes to help Cassio, saying that, â€Å"She would do much for the love she bears to Cassio.† All the audience can do is sit and despair for her. When he hits her we think that maybe her strength will come back but she simply responds by saying that she, â€Å"Will not stay to offend Othello.† We despair because we know that if she submits to Othello she will die at his hands. This is yet more evidence of Desdemona’s good proving to be her downfall. Shakespeare shapes events very cleverly in the next section in order to get the largest cathartic reaction. For a moment it seems like we might see a glimpse of Desdemona’s fight. She claims, â€Å"She has no Lord.† The audience think for a moment she will be fine, however soon she is asking Iago, â€Å"What shall I do to win my Lord again.† The assertive Desdemona from the earlier scenes is gone and the audience despair for her. Even when Othello kills her she does not blame him. When asked who has killed her she says, â€Å"Nobody, I myself.† She dies a symbol of goodness and love, the way Shakespeare shapes her demise is unquestionably tragic. However, is she actually a victim? The audience on the most part at the time would say she is because she does not fall through a flaw in her character. However was she totally helpless and unable to change her fate? Patsy Hall argues that Othello and Desdemona have a, â€Å"Mutual ignorance of each other’s nature,† saying also that she is, â€Å"so selflessly devoted that she cannot acknowledge imperfection in her husband.† I would agree with this statement by Hall. The audience are constantly perplexed throughout the play as to why Othello will not listen to anyone but Iago. This could be perhaps a comment on how women have had to suffer under the patriarchal society in which Shakespeare’s original audience was living, perhaps through Desdemona he is trying to show the unfair nature of their society. But in many ways the same is true for Desdemona. Emilia tries to tell her that, â€Å"Jealous souls are not ever jealous for the cause, but jealous for they are jealous.† But even after this warning Desdemona takes no heed of anyone but Iago, therefore it could just perhaps be confirmation of Iago’s intelligence, this backs up Desdemona’s role as a victim as she is a victim of others. So in conclusion there is no doubt that Desdemona’s demise is very much tragic. Also having examined the criteria it would be accurate to say that in many ways Desdemona is a victim. She suffers through no fault of her own and is the victim of circumstance. However, I am not sure that one could say that she was totally powerless to stop her eventual fate. I would say that Desdemona was not a victim of Iago’s scheming or Othello’s jealousy as she could have stopped these. She was a victim of her own love for Othello. Therefore, I would say that the statement in the title applies to Desdemona so far as she was the tragic victim of her own love for a man.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Womens Sufferage Essays - First-wave Feminism, Womens Rights

Women's Sufferage Essays - First-wave Feminism, Womens Rights Women's Sufferage WOMEN'S SUFFERAGE The traditional view of women in society was to stay at home, clean, raise children , and to help with the family farm. This view started to change around the late 19th century and during the industrial revolution. Male domination kept women at home but in the early 19th century, legislatures and educators began expanding the opportunities of women in education. Though there were exceptions and problems with women and education was women's first step considering they could now get jobs in medicine and law. During the Civil War, women took over their husbands jobs and temporarily stopped fighting for suffrage. They started helping the black slaves achieve freedom. The anti-slavery movement, the 15th amendment, pushed women further down the trail leading to suffrage. Although it took three amendments later and 90 solid years of hard fighting for women to obtain the 19th amendment. They finally did achieve their goal. In the 1820s men were in power. In their homes, in the workplace, and everywhere else. The men philosophy included these ideas. First, it was accepted that women are possessions of their husbands, and therefore they must agree with everything they say. Second, it was believed that most women were uneducated, or stupid, so women were automatically assumed to be incapable of voting for president. Also, because women were unschooled and ignorant, their say was unimportant. And finally that they were superior and that they should stay that way. This was a difficult philosophy for women to overturn. This is one reason why women's suffrage took so long to obtain. (Dickey, 1995) In addition to male domination, women hurt their own cause. The public believed that suffragists were connected with scandal-mongerers such as the Claflin sisters. Consequently, most suffragists limited their work to conventional topics and scorned radical view points. For example, When Anthony Comstock of Boston and Josiah W. of Philadelphia undertook crusades against obscenity, feminists applauded and approved the formation in 1895 of the American Puritan Alliance. Which was why women hurt their own cause. (pg151, Leonard Pitt, We Americans, 1987) However, women helped their cause gathering up the Seneca Falls Convention. The Seneca Falls Convention, in 1848, stated the injustices suffered by women. These injustices included the denial of the right to vote, the fact that a married woman gave control of her property to her husband, the exclusion of women from the professions, and the nearly absolute legal control of women by men. (pg.305, Conlin) In addition to their conservative views, most suffragists were elitists, that is they were not common people. For example, Pitt writes ...the leaders were white college educated, and middle class. They were an elite and a minority within that elite. As a result, suffragists were taken less seriously by the common people. (pg 152, Leonard Pitt, We Americans, 1987) It took an international crises, World War II, for the claims of the suffragists to be taken seriously. Only when the labor of women was need in war time, did the federal government act on considering national suffrage for women. Even though the suffragist movement progressed slowly, their efforts did have an effect on the government. The movement brought the inequality of voting restrictions to public attention. This public attention combined with the heroic service of women in industry during World War I resulted in the passage of the 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, in 1920. The 19th Amendment provides men and women with equal voting rights. After 90 years, the goal of suffragists was achieved. (Grolier encyclopedia, Electronic Publishing, Inc., 1995) It may have taken women a long time to achieve the right of suffrage in spite of their conservative views. Men were threatened by women who wanted to move forward. Since males dominated the United States, they knew they had the power to keep women from getting the vote. Certain states, such as Wyoming, gave women the right to vote in state elections as early as 1869. Male domination played a big part in the whole concept of women getting the right to vote. Now, women are considered to be equals with men. Even though women were considered to be lesser than men, they never really were, were they?

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the Civil War

Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the Civil War Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - Conflict Date: The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought June 27, 1864, during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Armies Commanders: Union Major General William T. Sherman16,225 men Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston17,773 men Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - Background: In the late spring of 1864, Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman concentrated at Chattanooga, TN in preparation for a campaign against General Joseph Johnstons Army of Tennessee and Atlanta. Ordered by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant to eliminate Johnstons command, Sherman had under his direction Major General George H. Thomass Army of the Cumberland, Major General James B. McPhersons Army of the Tennessee, and Major General John Schofields small Army of the Ohio. This combined force numbered around 110,000 men.   To defend against Sherman, Johnston was able to gather around 55,000 men at Dalton, GA which were separated into two corps led by Lieutenant Generals William Hardee and John B. Hood. This force included 8,500 cavalry led by Major General Joseph Wheeler.   The army would be reinforced early in the campaign by Lieutenant General Leonidas Polks corps.   Johnston had been appointed to lead the army after its defeat at the Battle of Chattanooga in Novemb er 1863.    Though he was a veteran commander, President Jefferson Davis had been reluctant to select him as he had shown a tendency to defend and retreat in the past rather than take a more aggressive approach. Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - Roads South: Commencing his campaign in early May, Sherman employed a strategy of maneuver to force Johnston from a series of defensive positions.   An opportunity was lost in the middle of the month when McPherson missed a chance to trap Johnstons army near Resaca.   Racing to the area, both sides fought the inconclusive Battle of Resaca on May 14-15.   In the wake of the battle, Sherman moved around Johnstons flank forcing the Confederate commander to withdraw south.   Johnstons positions at Adairsville and Allatoona Pass were dealt with in a similar fashion.   Slipping west, Sherman fought engagements at New Hope Church (May 25), Picketts Mill (May 27), and Dallas (May 28).   Slowed by heavy rains, he approached Johnstons new defensive line along Lost, Pine, and Brush Mountains on June 14.   That day, Polk was killed by Union artillery and command of his corps passed to Major General William W. Loring. Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - The Kennesaw Line: Retreating from this position, Johnston established a new defensive line in an arc to the north and west of Marietta.   The northern part of the line was anchored on Kennesaw Mountain and Little Kennesaw Mountain and then extended south to Olleys Creek.   A strong position, it dominated the Western Atlantic Railroad which served as Shermans primary supply line north.   To defend this position, Johnston placed Lorings men in the north, Hardees corps in the center, and Hood to the south.   Reaching the vicinity of Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman recognized the strength of Johnstons fortifications but found his options limited due to the impassable nature of the roads in the area and the need to control the railroad as he advanced.   Concentrating his men, Sherman deployed McPherson in the north with Thomas and Schofield extending the line south.   On June 24, he outlined a plan for penetrating the Confederate position.   This called for McPherson to demonstrate against most of Lorings lines while also mounting an attack against the southwest corner of Little Kennesaw Mountain.   The main Union thrust would come from Thomas in the center while Schofield received orders to demonstrate against the Confederate left and possibly attack up Powder Springs Road if the situation warranted.   The operation was scheduled for 8:00 AM on June 27 (Map). Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - A Bloody Failure: At the appointed time, around 200 Union guns opened fire on the Confederate lines.   Approximately thirty minutes later, Shermans operation moved forward.   While McPherson executed the planned demonstrations, he ordered Brigadier General Morgan L. Smiths division to commence the assault on Little Kennesaw Mountain.   Advancing against an area known as Pigeon Hill, Smiths men encountered rough terrain and dense thickets.   One of Smiths brigades, led by Brigadier General Joseph A.J. Lightburn, was forced to wade through a swamp.   While Lightburns men were able capture a line of enemy rifle pits, enfilading fire from Pigeon Hill halted their advance.   Smiths other brigades had similar luck and were unable to close with the enemy.   Halting and exchanging fire, they were later withdrawn by Smiths superior, XV Corps commander Major General John Logan. To the south, Thomas pushed forward the divisions of Brigadier Generals John Newton and Jefferson C. Davis against Hardees troops.   Attacking in columns, they encountered the entrenched divisions of Major Generals Benjamin F. Cheatham and Patrick R. Cleburne.   Advancing on the left over difficult terrain, Newtons men made multiple charges against the enemy on Cheatham Hill but were repulsed.   To the south, Newtons men succeeded in reaching the Confederate works and were repelled after extended hand-to-hand fighting.   Retreating a short distance, the Union soldiers entrenched in an area later dubbed the Dead Angle. To the south, Schofield conducted the planned demonstration but then found a path that allowed him to advance two brigades across Olleys Creek.   Followed by Major General George Stonemans cavalry division, this maneuver opened a road around the Confederate left flank and placed Union troops closer to the Chattahoochee River than the enemy. Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - Aftermath: In the fighting at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman suffered around 3,000 casualties while Johnstons losses were approximately 1,000.   Though a tactical defeat, Schofields success allowed Sherman to continue his advance.   On July 2, after several clear days had dried the roads, Sherman sent McPherson around Johnstons left flank and forced the Confederate leader to abandon the Kennesaw Mountain line.   The next two weeks saw Union troops force Johnston through maneuver to continue retreating back towards Atlanta.   Frustrated with Johnstons lack of aggression, President Davis replaced him with the more aggressive Hood on July 17.   Though initiating a series of battles at Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Ezra Church, and Jonesboro, Hood failed to prevent Atlantas fall which finally came on September 2.    Selected Sources: Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield ParkCivil War Trust: Battle of Kennesaw MountainGeorgia Encyclopedia: Battle of Kennesaw Mountain

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Business Issues and the Context of Human Resources Assignment

Business Issues and the Context of Human Resources - Assignment Example In the year 2007, Vodafone Group achieved the permission or license of mobile phone within the region of Qatar. It is recognized with the name, Vodafone Qatar, which is situated in Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP). However, within a very small time frame, it become successful in positioning itself as one of the reliable and admirable brand in the region of Qatar among other rival players. It is mainly due to its aim to offer distinctive services to its customers so as to create a different image in the market. This strategy proved effective for the organization that enhanced almost 32.3 percent of the total market share and brand value of Qatar among many other contenders such as Qtel. Furthermore, the range of customers also increased from 151,000 in the year 2009 to 814,000 in September, 2011 (Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C, 2011). In this age of competitiveness, sustainability is the prime requirement of any organization, operating in any segment. However, in order to attain sustainability, it’s extremely to analyze the capabilities and evaluate the resources in the best way so as to attain remarkable results. Only then, the productivity of the organization might get enhanced resulting in amplification of the brand image and equity in the market among other existing contenders. Thus, it might be stated that in order to attain competitive position, the business or human resource strategies or tactics need to be shaped in an effective way. Similarly, the organization of Vodafone Qatar, also comprises of varied types of forces that helps in shaping its human resource strategy for future growth and development. Some of these factors are presented below: Talent management: It is recognized as one of the most important factor or force that helps in shaping the human resource strategies or policies of the organization of Vodafone Qatar. This is because in this age, talent or experienced employee is the prime weapon that may help the organization in inventing

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Accounting Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Accounting Project - Essay Example In 2011, its beer market I US was approximately $96 billion which shows a  down of 1%  compared to 2010. However, its net sales show a significant growth of 13.3% showing its success in capturing market share. BREW is now investing heavily in growth.1 Three creative beer making brands are owned by BREW. They always engage in the mixture and make of new beers and they attain even their own seasonal beers available only during their respective seasons. The company owns five brew-pub restaurants giving the company customer awareness that contributes highly to research and development. These restaurants help the company to keep in touch continuously with customers creating a good sense of brand loyalty. The industry the company is operating in is highly competitive and needs very hard work to have success in. Craft Brew competes in both the craft brewing market and in significantly larger alcoholic beverage markets well. This market encompasses imported and domestic beers, spirits, flavored alcohol beverages, ciders and wine. The competition in the specialty beer market and the domestic craft beer segment is based on taste, product quality, freshness and consistency, ability to differentiate products, product support and promotional methods, local appeal, distribution coverage and price. By the proliferation of the small craft brewers, also including the contract brewers, and the significant amount of products that such brewers offer, the craft beer segment has got increasingly competitive. Further, the craft brewers have also challenged us with more competition due to their peers expand distribution. Different regional markets are also means of varying competition. The company is also in competition against imported brands’ producers, such as Corona Extra, Heineken and Guinness. Most of such foreign brewers have got financial resources significantly greater than the company has. Although the imported beers account for a better share of

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

SEO content for a web site selling custom trailers Essay

SEO content for a web site selling custom trailers - Essay Example This is intended to bring closer selected medical services to far-flung community areas not accessible to health services. Lately, some hospital functions were devolved to diagnostic medical health mobile clinics like dental services, x-ray, blood, HIV, pregnancy, malaria and urine tests, MRI imaging, and other possible medical services are now made conveniently available to the public through customized mobile medical trailers. Mobile medical exam trailers are a necessity in far-flung community areas where first-rated hospitals are remote from community and health services that are difficult to avail of. A mobile medical exam trailer should have laboratory and diagnostic medical testing capability with a minimum of three doctors and nine nurses. It is important that a medical diagnostic mobile trailer accommodate around 1,000 patients per week more or less. With a mobile medical exam trailer, selected medical services can now address certain medical health needs of remote communities. Thus, if your community local officials are to purchase a mobile medical trailer to service their constituents, here are some pointers on how to select a customized mobile medical exam trailer. Customized mobile medical exam trailer must have these basic health services: Medical Imaging equipments are expensive to acquire and install. These also need more spacious room to get them installed. So depending on the allocated budget, proponents or those who will be responsible in setting up and operating a mobile medical diagnostic and laboratory trailer will have to check on what their budget can afford. For cheaper options, you may choose to merely have a single health service independent Mobile trailer like providing only a mobile Ophthalmology Clinic or an independent Dental Care Mobile Clinic within the community. Regardless of the constraints, it is highly recommended that any far-flung community that is remote from any prime medical hospital or

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Reviewing The Siemens Information And Communications Network Information Technology Essay

Reviewing The Siemens Information And Communications Network Information Technology Essay Siemens Information and Communications Network are composed of several regional development centers around the world. One of those, located in Bangalore, India, was given the tasks of developing two large scale Softwares during the 1990s. The first of those, called ADMOSS (Advanced Multifunctional Operator Service System) was designed to facilitate modern call centers with some 500 features. The second one which followed after five years was called NetManager, it had a user-friendly, and graphics based user interface and some 6,000 features regarding administration and maintenance of EWSD network-nodes and networks. Both of these projects suffered huge deadlines-slippages, faulty design (at least initially), undetected-till-last-stage errors, embarrassment with customers and miscommunications between ICNs Munich headquarter and its Bangalores development center1. The following is an attempt to analyze the issues, their causes and possible avoidances for any similar projects. By the late 1980s Munich has recognized the talented human resource available in India. It was huge, both in terms of head-counts and knowledge. It was cheap, initially available at just 20% cost of a similar German software developer, which later in decade increased to 25%. It also had unmatched performance, in personal computers programming, in which ICN has deficiency in available human resource. Most ICN developers had worked on large systems and had little to no experience of personal computers programming. In contrast, Indian programmers have grown up experimenting with earlier version of desktops and laptops and by 1990s have reached level of expertise in some areas. Capitalizing on this resource, ICN decided to have the two projects done in India, in spite of huge cultural incompatibilities, language problems, physical distance and visa issues. The first project given to Bangalore was in no way any minor thing. It was made for existing and large customers of Siemens that heavily depend on it. It might be a non-optimal decision made by Munich but being risky it also promises huge benefits at end. ADMOSS had to facilitate telemarketing interface with non-Siemens equipment and handle large conference calls for example, among its other tasks. No surprise that at peak, 150 software developers were working on ADMOSS in Bangalore alone, in addition of local and German managers, testers and other supporting staff. The project was managed centrally by Munich, sending specifications for each of the subsystem to a high managerial level in Bangalore. This decision of central management was made perhaps due to initial distrust by Germans on Indians as it was their first encounter with them. In India, each subsystem was managed by a German or Indian manager who works with little co-ordination with each other. Once a subsystem is developed and tested locally is sent to Munich where it is integrated with the rest of the system. This method, though gave high power to Munich and enforced strict quality control has a design flaw, a programmer might be expert and identify flaw in the subsystem he has worked on, but cannot easily identify any integration errors. This method would have worked if Munich had a good size of its own programmers who tackle all the integration errors. The matters became more complicated due to the fact that the requirements of the software were not totally finalized at the start. While programmers are accustomed to run-time wishes made by clients given after the development has started and try their best to accommodate that, in large systems such as ADMOSS which also requires very large scale of precision (99.999% or five nines) its very hard to accommodate that once a system is already in development. While the project was being developed, a ray of emails and faxes kept coming with change requests resulting in inevitable design flaws and test failures. Later on, the developers had to work long hours to wrinkle out those design flaws to ultimately produce highly reliable software. If we try to find who is responsible for that, the blame comes on the marketing team in Munich that may have over-promised and was definitely not documenting and discussing every requirement with client. Some blame also goes to the client, who being a la rge corporation itself and had used software since a long time should know that run-time modifications often corrupt the project and requires heroic efforts by programmers to save the day. On one occasion, work on a billing application was stopped midstream after half a years work because of customers changing needs. Although this type of work interruption involved only 15-20 personnel at Bangalore each year, a programmer admitted to feeling de-motivated wondering about the intensity of miscommunication between Bangalore and Munich. This sometimes leads to the problem discussed later, high employee turnover, where programmers attempt to shift to those jobs where requirements are perceived as stable. Finally, there was problem of lack of sufficient attention given by high managers in Munich. In the words of a senior project manager, not all specifications were finished by our Munich office since we ourselves were not given enough time! Finally, when all two million lines of ADMOSS code was compiled together to create an integrated system, many problems surfaced. Major of them are: subsystems were found to be more interdependent on each other than desired, and, test criteria and tools were different in Bangalore and Munich. The first of these appears to be a shortcoming on part of developers in Munich who were responsible for integration of the subsystems and in a significantly smaller way on the subsystems developers in India. The second one, is definitely a management lapse made by Munich headquarter, the same test beds as used in Munich must be provided to Bangalore at the initial stage to ensure local error-testing and removal. That would have saved a lots of monetarily and temporal costs that the company had to finally bare. ADMOSS was finally released to the German customer at the end of 1996. As Hans Hauer, VP of Software RD put it, This was with some embarrassment because as Germans we expect delivery on time and with quality. The system turned out not to be fully stabilized and kept crashing. There were some minor problems too, like the user-interface being unprofessional, as the client commented, flashy and distracting, resembling video game interfaces, too technical style of documentation etc. When we analyze the causes of these problems a few things come up: first, the part of embarrassment due to delay is a fault of Indians but not much because at least six months efforts were lost not by any mistake of programmers but by a huge blunder made by client and sales team (discussed above). Second, the part of embarrassment due to delivery of a low quality product is fault of Munich who delivered a product not fully tested. Third, the inappropriate design of user interface is perhaps due to non-suffici ent communication about its requirements made by managers to the programmers. In absence of any stated and restricted user interface requirements, the programmers made the user interface as they liked it which of course not satisfied the customer. Fourth, Indians attempt to make documentation too technical for customer is perhaps due to language problem and cultural mismatches, which cant be blamed to any party. In spite of all of these issues, with time, the Indo-German team corrected the system faults and delivered a stable, working system to Munich. ADMOSS ended up highly popular with customers. The Bangalore site remained active with after-sales service, eventually correcting over 90% of ongoing faults. The second project given to Bangalore was called NetManager. It would be a user-friendly and graphics-based software product that would offer telecom customers a complete range of facilities for performing all operating, administration and maintenance functions on EWSD nodes and networks (e.g. integration of new telephone subscribers, billing, enable traffic studies to understand customer needs, and provide system surveillance etc among its 6,000 functions). Work at Bangalore commenced in early 1996 with an initial force of 30 programmers. The june 1998 pilot release involved some 300,000 lines of code and proved a hit at the customer test sites. Munich learned from the past project and gave Bangalore the same test-bed it was using so that developer can test the system as they develop it. By November 1999, Bangalore sent its complete NetManager Version 2 to Munich for testing. Typically Munich tested stability (or reliability) of new software installed by launching it on Friday afternoon and hoping to find no errors in the test log on Monday. NetManager Version 2, however, ran only one hour before crashing to a halt. A check of the test logs ultimately revealed a staggering 700 faults hidden at various points along some 600,000 lines of computer programming code, with 100 categorized as serious Level 1 faults. Initial trouble-shooting indicated that each fault could not simply be corrected individually, since each correction could create ripple effects across the entire system. A late November 1999 workshop in Bangalore involving managers from Munich and India tracked down the root cause of quality problems. As it turned out, the Indian group assumed, as in the case of most desktop computing applications, that the system would be shut off at night, and that it was acceptable for a desktop-based computer system to crash once a week. This assumption was further reinforced by an understanding that operation of the EWSD switch itself would not depend on NetManager. Furthermore, the Indian team underestimated system usage by an entire order of magnitude. We were ignorant! admitted an Indian programmer, we didnt think of asking what loads to test with, but Munich were also at fault for not telling us! Some of these erroneous assumptions could ultimately be traced to different work schedules. In the crucial summer months, many Germans went ahead with their several weeks-long pre-booked family vacations, often without leaving contact information, stranding the Indians. During crisis periods, Indian programmers, in contrast, typically took only personal leaves of two or three days, and worked 70-80 hours per week or even more. Balanced against this, however the ongoing high attrition rate was in Bangalore. As we analyze the issues and their causes, it is found that although the requirements were stable this time, which was a huge accomplishment on part of marketing team and upper management, it was not fully communicated to developers. This can be traced to faults of middle and lower management. As was in the user interface design of ADMOSS, since requirements were not explicitly stated the programmers made their own assumptions which (like in previous project) didnt match the requirements of the company or the customer. Another cause was often unavailability of appropriate personnel at Munich for communication because at the most crucial summer season of development they are out on long vacations. They do so often without any means of communication left. In that case, a developer would either have to wait for the person to return (which was of course unacceptable) or make his or her own assumptions to continue with the development. The solution is either to reschedule the vacations time period to some less crucial months (lets say spring) or the person keep in contact with ICN through a phone. In case of a vacation trip to very remote location where telephone is unavailable, the person should call to company as soon as he reaches a near city or village with a telephone line. This lack of professionalism on part of Germans resulted in Indians taking no annual vacations, working double hours a week than they are paid for and taking the pain of late modifications in design and code. On part of Indians, the high turnover was a very big issue. Once a developer hop to a better paying job, almost entire computer code written by him or her immediately becomes useless for sometime until some other programmer decrypt it and in some cases even rewrite it. This may have resulted in delays and design flaws when somebody try to modify an already made design in his or her own way not thought by the original designer no longer in company. In January 2000, the NetManager was finally demonstrated to the client. Lots of errors came up. They were traced down to two root causes. First, the German testers presenting the software to the client were not well-prepared. Second, the test-bed provided to Bangalore by Munich in 1996 had gone outdated by now and was not the same test-bed Munich now uses or was used in the demonstration to client. Both of these causes can be easily traced to the faults on part of Germans. The testers had no acceptable reason for unpreparedness. The high management responsible for updating Bangalore with test-bed was ignorant towards this duty. We can conclude that, having worked together for well over half a decade the cultural differences between the two countries were handled well. With time Indians understood what is expected from them and Germans spent substantial time and money training its people to decode Indian communications. A German spent 3 years in Bangalore becoming expert in South Indian English accent and understanding of local culture and hidden meanings of phrases etc. But there is a limit to what humans can accomplish, the physical distance between Munich and Bangalore remained a reality, advent of faxes, telephone calls, emails and even video calls can never substitute face-to-face communication. Two developers working together on the same computer (as in Extreme Programming2) cannot be substituted with two developers chatting on an Instant Messenger (such as hotmail or yahoo) even if through Remote Desktop Sharing they can actually view each others computer screen and run actions on it. It is also learn ed that human conflicts in most cases can only be solved with real, face-to-face communication. In absence of hyper-fast physical transportation (such as one that reduce travel time between the two cities to less than one hour) and no visa restrictions the problems faced by ICN in development of ADMOSS and NetManager are very likely to raise its ugly head time and again.