Saturday, August 31, 2019

Integrated Accounting Final Report Essay

In order to assist in the set up of Riordan Manufacturing’s revenue cycle, some changes are needed. Riordan Manufacturing is going to incorporate the systems development life cycle to their system. Along with this, some detail on how participants in the accounting function will assist in the development of the system will be mentioned as well. There will be information on how the changes have impacted the areas of measure and control that tie to operational performance. Riordan Manufacturing sells plastic bottles, fans, heart valves, medical stints and custom plastic parts. The company’s clientà ¨le include automotive parts manufacturers, The Department of Defense and appliance manufacturers. This paper will outline how to integrate the cycle into an enterprise-wide accounting information system, the hardware needed and show how the accounting system flows through Riordan Manufacturing. Riordan Manufacturing is owned by Riordan with annual revenue in excess of one billion dollars. Riordan uses the income statement to show investors what the income is, and how management is controlling expenses. Riordan Manufacturing does not have an integrated accounting system at this time. All locations have separate systems and the information is sent to headquarters. The company admits that the current accounting system fails in many areas and needs to be replaced. In regard to cost of goods, the company has a common set of procedures for inventory management. Each process is explained thoroughly to insure everyone involved understands. A common set of procedures is necessary to guarantee that all cost of goods is reported properly. A main weakness for Riordan is many portions of the accounting process are still manual where electronic devices could be used. Another weakness is one throughout the entire company. The locations are not interconnected and headquarters rely on specific locations to send in the proper information and they combine the data into one system. Riordan Manufacturing currently provides its F and A data from the different locations by a data file. Some of the files is reported by hard copy and has to be converted to the proper account codes. All these reports are then combined into one financial report. The company needs to come up with one global accounting system. The SAP software is one of the highest recommended international accounting software that is used and has the strongest international features call SAP. It provides multiple currency support. From a balance sheet perspective, accounting for fluctuations in exchange rates has become easier. This software is also in compliance with FASB 52 (Collins, J., 1999-2003). There will need to be global implementation of the software from our I/T department, and training done on the accounting software however, this will save time in compiling reports and the reports will be more accurate. Many different types of information systems exist that will be needed in order to integrate supply and demand into the enterprise wide accounting information system. The first system would be Management Information System (MIS) which would collect information for monitoring the performance and maintaining coordination between purchasing and accounts payable (Introduction of Information Systems, n.d.) Another information system that would be beneficial to Riordan would be the Office Automation System (OAS). The OAS would be beneficial to Riordan because this system is useful for general office work when handling and managing documents. OAS also assists in improving communication within the workplace. Finally, transaction processing systems (TPS) are also an excellent system to have within a company. â€Å"TPS records daily routine transactions such as sales orders from customers, or bank deposits and withdrawals† (Introduction of Information Systems, n.d.). Most organizations have these three types of information systems in place, even though others that could be used. A way to make the revenue cycle run smoothly is by integrating hardware and software to assist in the setup of the various systems. This section of the paper will discuss what hardware and software is needed, and will go on to  identify who accesses this information. In order to integrate cost of goods into the accounting process Riordan Manufacturing will need a system that works for all locations. This would require software that is compatible for all locations. This would also make it possible to share reports such as the income statement and balance sheet. There should only a select few that should have access to the information in the database. These people would include the database designer, the persons installing the hardware or software and database management. This will keep the information contained in the database as secure as possible. This would be the first area of internal controls. The second area deals with transactions and is known as an application control. Application controls are vital to ensure accuracy and legitimacy of the data. Two common input internal controls that would be required are feedback mechanism and edit tests. Processing data controls deals with the data after input. The first internal control needed is an audit trail. This control allows a person to follow the route the data has taken. The final step in application control is the output controls. One area of concern in this area is control of company forms. In the area of revenue specifically, cost of goods sold, the forms that should be managed are purchase orders and inventory control sheets. As a way to make the accounting process easier for all involved, Riordan Manufacturing must brainstorm on how to provide information through the corporate intranet or Internet. In order to decide on where to list information, some details on the meaning of the intranet and Internet are provided. â€Å"The intranet is for internal communications purposes. These computer networks use the same software as the Internet, but are internal to the organization that created them† (Bagranoff, 2008, p. 7). A good way to use the intranet would be to have all locations connected. This would allow all information to be accessible to each location. At the same time, it saves time trying to get information forwarded to corporate. â€Å"The Internet is a collection of local and wide area networks that are now connected  together via the Internet backbone – that is, the main electronic connections of the system† (Bagranoff, 2008, p. 5). The internet is a good place to provide customers with information on the history of Riordan Manufacturing. Another area of interest is listing some information on the products that are being sold. Integrating a new accounting system into the company will greatly improve internal controls for Riordan Manufacturing. With hardware and software implemented, the company will have more consistent and accurate financial reports. Riordan Manufacturing will always know where they stand financially if the new system is implemented. The goal is to change the current process for maintaining, recording, and billing of inventory as related to cost of goods sold (COGS). An entire new accounting information system is not required only additional software program in this one area. Waterfall is the oldest form of systems development life cycle (SDLC) and is the one that is used for this project. The waterfall SDLC includes multiple steps in the life of a project. The steps include: project planning with feasibility study, systems analysis that defines the projects goals, system design, implementation, integration and testing, acceptance, installation and deployment and finally maintenance of the accepted system (Kay 2002). The system is already proposed so the first two steps of the waterfall SDLC have already occurred in some form. The SDLC will be used as check list to ensure all the proper processes are completed when implementing the new system. The steps in the waterfall SDLC should be followed with the creation of a system design as the next step. Once the system design is created with all the required features including operational details the next step can be started. This step is the implementation of the system design into the current accounting system. Once the code is written for this step integration and testing will be required to ensure that the new work is compatible with the old system. In this step the company should also test the hardware involved so when the system is live all is in order. Finally the last step is installation and deployment if the new design has been  accepted. Once the new system and hardware are in place the company can begin replacing the old processes. Maintenance is included in the Waterfall SDLC but as a company maintenance is automatic to ensure good life of the company’s assets. The participants to contribute to the system design of the systems development life cycle would be the database designers. This enables the system to have the needed logical and physical design to have an operational database. In order to make this process successful, one must determine the data to be stored, and determine the relationships of the different data fields. Review the way the old system is set up and see if improvement is needed to make the new system better. The implementation stage would probably involve database management. It means that testing has been done and implementing the system is the next step. Some comparisons have been made with the old and new systems and things are being documented where possible issues may occur later. With the installation and deployment step, the departments involved would be IT and accounting. This step occurs because the system has been approved to go live. IT is assigned to installing the system. It would involve installing the software applications as well. The accounting department’s job would be to make sure after IT installs everything to test their processes now that the system is up and running. This would involve doing actual work and reviewing the results of the work. Make comparisons to how the results of the processes of the old system worked versus the new system. Accounting would be required to review the software applications as well. Again, testing would be needed to see if the applications are running smoothly. The improvements for Riordan if they implement a new accounting system are vast. Some of those include; less clerical errors, more efficient for keeping track of inventory, faster because after initial set up everything goes quicker, better tracking of access to information and no papers to lose  because all the work is done electronically. References: Bagranoff, N. A., Simkin, M. G., and Strand, C. (2008). Core Concepts of Accounting Information Systems (10th ed.). [Electronic Version]. New York: Wiley. Retrieved July 10, 2008 from University of Phoenix, ACC/340, rEsource Web site: https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/login.aspBagranoff, N. A. (2008). Accounting on the Internet. [University of Phoenix CustomEdition e-text].John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Retrieved July 12, 2008, from University ofPhoenix, ACC340 Web site. Collins, J. CPA (1999-2003). Accounting Software Advisor: Foreign Currency. Retrieved July 6, 2008 from: http://www.accountingsoftwarenews.com/charts/currency.htmlIntroduction to Information Systems (n.d.). Types of Information Systems. Chapter 2. Retrieved July 5, 2008 from http://www.ii/metu.edu.tr/~ion501/demo/index.htmlKay, Russell (2002). Quickstudy: System Development Life Cycle. ComputerWorld. May 14, 2002. Retrieved July 24, 2008 from the World Wide Web at: http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/story/0,10801,71151,00.htm

Friday, August 30, 2019

Comprehensive Life Plan Essay

I spent my high school years dreaming of places I wanted to see, things I wanted to do, and people I wanted to meet. After graduation reality set in and I realized I abused my time in high school, making it difficult for me to transition into adult hood. I thought of what I was going to do rather than how I was going to get there; I could not have been more wrong. Therefore the importance of life planning has become a crucial component of seeing my dreams come true. Establishing attainable goals for today in order to determine what happens tomorrow is essential for lifelong success. Franklin Covey Mission Statement Builder (Covey, 2008) created a structured summary of my values and aspirations in life. With this new concept I have a new perspective of how to organize my thoughts and bring them to life on paper. I am excited about this new direction in my life and I believe this mission statement will be a constant reminder of who God is challenging me to become. Mission Statement: I am at my best when I am active and surround myself with people who are outgoing and love the outdoors. However, I am not at my best when I am careless about my diet and surround myself people who are ungrateful and selfish. I will enjoy my work by finding employment where I can make people feel happy, confident, and valued by God. I will find enjoyment in my personal life by reading, studying integrative medicine, and trying new cuisine. I will find the most enjoyment when doing and supporting things my loved ones are passionate about. I will find opportunities to use my natural gifts such as empathy, and honesty in relationships and discernment to guard my heart. I will also find opportunities to use my natural talents such as photography to capture God’s beautifully and wonderfully created people in photographs. I will use my eye for interior design and fashion to decorate my surroundings well and clothe others and myself in a successful way for different occasions. In the future, I have the confidence to start my own clothing company. This company will fund my organization that will provide self esteem workshops for women and girls as well as connect them with God. I will study to become a licensed cosmetologist, an integrative medicine practitioner, and obtain a degree in elementary education. I am also confident that I can accomplish my dreams to become a model for American Eagle, Roxy clothing companies and overcome my fear or heights. My God-sized dream would be to travel the world in an effort to rescue women and children from sex-trafficking. My goal would be to create a snow ball effect by eliminating the sex slave market which in turn would devastate business for drug cartels as well. My hope most important future contribution to others will be that I people would see all of God’s blessings in my life and that they would want the same Savior in their life. I will stop procrastinating and start working on: being forgiving, having self control and self motivation. I will strive to incorporate the following attributes into my life: Persevering, loving God with my life, and seeking to understand Gods word. I will constantly renew myself by focusing on the four dimensions of my life: Staying healthy and active, abiding in Christ and relaxing- reexamining-refreshing-reflecting-renewing my mind. Lastly, I need to be taking time to do things that make me happy and feel refreshed. I want people look at my life 61 years from now and say that I loved God with my life and inspired others to desire the same. I hope I am known for unconditionally loving and welcoming all who met me. I want to be remembered for having a zest for life and a teachable attitude. I also want my future husband to say he is as in love with me now as he was when we got married. The Covey Mission Statement builder was a great exercise and opened my eyes to how valuable it is to write things down that are important to you. By doing this, it feels real to me and now I will be challenged to achieve these goals and see my imaginations become reality. Another exercise that helped me look ahead in a constructive way was the Strategic Futuring Worksheet. This assignment challenged me to envision myself in the year 2026 as well as taking steps backwards in order to determine how I will accomplish this vision in the future. My vision is to be happily married and living in a humble home on the coast of a warm beach. I plan to live an organized, active, and balanced life. I plan to be a teacher, and volunteer with youth ministries such as Younglife. Most of all, I plan to be the best support system for my husband and his career and aspirations. To see my future come together, I need to focus on one goal at a time. The Strategic Futuring Worksheet (Hulme, Uknown) helped me come up with what I think are three attainable goals. My first goal is to be become a consistent person who never compromises with my end goals. Goal number two: Striving to love unconditionally and have a heart after God. Number three: I want to volunteer with organizations like YoungLife. I have a desire to pour into this generation of young people because I was blessed with a great life and I feel that is my calling to give what I so greatly received. Like the Franklin Covey Mission Statement Builder the Strategic Futuring Worksheet was a constructive way to assess what action steps I need to take to see my vision succeed. I feel the goals the Strategic Futuring Worksheet generated for me are measurable and will help me stay focused. It assisted me in gaining a better insight into my imagination. In conclusion, this realization aided me in formulating an attainable vision from my dreams. Since high school my mind has been a struggling mix of dreams and doubts. These exercises will help me focus on my transition into adulthood. Therefore, I am going to now take control of my future. My mission statement will be a valuable tool that I will use to keep me accountable of my choices. Everything I do today will affect tomorrow. This new mindset will challenge me own my mistakes and never compromise my end goals. Finding this great way to get excited about working towards my goals has made me feel like an artist who is creatively painting the canvas of my future.

Social Marketing Company (Smc)

Social Marketing: A Success Story in Bangladesh Mahbubur Rahman, MA, MBA 1 and Toslim Uddin Khan, MA, MSS, MBA 2 Social Marketing Company (SMC) is the largest privately managed social marketing organization in the world for a single country. It is a significant contributor to the reproductive and child health services in Bangladesh. The on-going social marketing programs of SMC include family planning, child health, disease prevention and maternal and neonatal health.SMC's mission is to improve the quality of lives of vulnerable and less privileged population primarily in public health issues through sustainable social marketing efforts in collaboration with national and international governments and donors. Social marketing is the application of commercial management techniques for popularizing and selling products and services that offer clear benefits to the people at prices they can buy. Thus, easy accessibility through wide availability and high affordability forms the key eleme nt of social marketing.The model of social marketing SMC adopted and continues to practice has two components – multi-strategy communications for initiating desired behavior change, and suitable, affordable, readily accessible product and service for sustaining the changed behavior using the techniques of commercial marketing. Because of its remarkable success and its sheer size, social marketing in Bangladesh has become a model of best practices and attracted international attention.Two premier USA based graduate schools of business included the case study on social marketing program in Bangladesh in their curricula, which is an entire chapter of the renowned book titled â€Å"Let Every Child Be Wanted: How Social Marketing Is Revolutionizing Contraceptive Use Around the World† written by Philip D. Harvey. The case on SMC is also included in the â€Å"Asian Marketing Casebook† written by Noel Capon and Wilferied R. Vanhonacker. SMC is ISO 9001-2000 certified co mpany.The company is awarded International Star Award for Leadership in Quality (ISLQ) in 2008 by the Business Initiative Directions (BID) a Madrid-based business organization committed to build better business reputation worldwide. Contribution of SMC to the National Program Social marketing of contraceptives and ORS has proven to be a major contributor to achievement of the health and population objectives of the Government of Bangladesh. Population science experts used three critical measures of contraceptive effectiveness – Total Fertility Rate (TFR)3, Couple Year of Protection (CYP)4 and Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR)5.Between 1975 and 2007, the total fertility rate of the country dropped from 6. 3 to 2. 7, and the overall contraceptive prevalence rate among currently married women rose from 8 percent to 56 percent, with modern contraceptive use at 48 percent (BDHS, 2007). SMC is significantly contributing in the modern contraceptive methods to achieve national cont raceptive goals. BDHS shows that 35 percent of the modern contraceptive users use SMC brand contraceptives (four out of ten pill users, six out of 1 Head of Marketing, Social Marketing Company Head or Research and MIS, Social Marketing Company The average number of children that would be born alive to a woman (group of women) during her lifetime 4 It is estimated that one CYP is provided by 150 condoms or 15 oral pill cycles or 4 vials of injectables. 5 Contraceptive prevalence rate is defined as the percent of Married Women of Reproductive Age using family planning method. 2 1 ten condom users and two out of ten injectables users use SMC brand). According to the Consumers Retail Audit, SMC brand condoms have 81 percent share of the retail market while SMC brand OCP have 90 percent of retail market share (ACNielsen, 2008).SMC distributes approximately 100 million pieces of condoms, 40 million cycles of oral pills and one million vials of injectables annually through out the country. ORSaline was launched in late 1985 to enhance the availability of ORS to address mortality and morbidity due to diarrhea among under 5 children in Bangladesh. The usage of packaged ORS in diarroheal cases among the under five children has increased from 61 percent in 2000 to 77 percent in 2007 (BDHS, 2007). According to the Consumers Retail Audit, ORSaline-N brand of SMC is the market leader of ORS retail market with more than 59 percent share (ACNielsen, 2008).SMC distributes approximately 180 million sachets of ORS yearly throughout the country. Evolution of Social Marketing Company The concept of social marketing came to Bangladesh in 1974 when the social marketing project was initiated to challenge rapid population growth by making contraceptive products widely accessible at a price affordable to the general people. The project was initiated by a US-based non-profit organization Population Services International (PSI) in agreement with the Government of Bangladesh (GOB), and wi th funding from United States Agency for International Development (USAID).In 1990, the project transformed into Social Marketing Company – a not-for-profit private limited company, and since being operated under a voluntary Board of Directors consisting of eminent personalities with private and public sector expertise in different fields. From 1997, SMC had been the social marketing partner in the USAID funded National Integrated Population and Health Program (NIPHP) under a Cooperative Agreement. After end of NIPHP, SMC signed a new Cooperative Agreement with USAID as a partner of USAID Bangladesh Health and Population Program (UBHPP) effective from January 2008.Sales and Distribution Network SMC has one of the most established, extensive and efficient distribution networks in Bangladesh. Nationwide coverage is carried out through twelve offices located in major division and district towns of the country. This enables SMC’s a little over 100 men-strong sales force to distribute products to the far-flung outlet promptly and regularly. On an average, about 223,000 outlets are served by SMC sales force each year of which approximately 35 percent are pharmacies and the rest are nonpharmacies including grocery stores and kiosks.Stocks at the sales offices are replenished through large delivery trucks at scheduled intervals. The sales force cover the territory by SMC’s fleet of delivery vans, motorbikes and boats whenever necessary. In order to ensure efficient and secured storage of all SMC products, SMC has constructed a central warehouse (CWH) and a packaging unit located at Bhaluka, Mymensingh in 2008. The CWH is constructed with necessary warehousing needs like adequate passageway for transporting goods, ventilation, natural light or scope for increasing artificial lighting, optimum space areas for stacking goods as per standard storing guidelines.The widespread sales and distribution efforts of SMC contributed to make its products widely available in the retail outlets across the country. The product availability study showed that 84 percent of the retail pharmacy outlets have at least one SMC brand of Oral Contraceptive Pill (OCP) while 82 percent pharmacy outlets have at least one SMC brand of condom and 91 percent pharmacy outlets have at least one SMC brand of ORS. In addition to pharmacy outlets, SMC sales condom and ORS in 2 he non-pharmacy outlets as a strategy to increase accessibility and availability of the products. One in every five non-pharmacy retail outlets of the country has SMC brand condom and more than two in every five non-pharmacy retail outlets have SMC brand ORS countrywide (Pathway, 2007). The Table 1 shows the availability of SMC products in the retail outlets. Table 1: Availability of SMC Brand OCP, Condom and ORS by Pharmacy and Non-pharmacy Retail Outlets (in percentage) Brand Pharmacy Non-pharmacy At least one SMC brand OCP 84 na At least one SMC brand Condom 2 21 At least one SMC brand ORS 91 44 Number of Outlets 2400 4800 Use of Innovative Communication Channel for Strategic Behavior Change When social marketing began in Bangladesh, many were skeptical about the feasibility of large-scale information dissemination and advertising of contraceptive products. They were skeptical mostly for three reasons. First, Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim society in which reproductive health was not openly discussed. Second, much of the population was illiterate at that time with limited access to media.Third, the majority of the population was very poor and there were doubts that people could be persuaded to purchase contraceptives when these supplies were available free from other sources. To address the prevailing formidable situation in the mid seventies, SMC launched a strong and innovative communication program to facilitate and sustain behavior changes towards family planning and contraceptive use. The program is now recognized worldwide for its creative use of innova tive channels to communicate generic family planning and health messages and to promote sales of branded products.All modern mass media communication channels including regional and national radio, television, and print media were being utilized from the very beginning. The products have been advertised on billboards, signs, buildings, water tanks, shop boards and banners, rickshaws, shopping bags, at sporting events, and through free promotional distribution. Riverboats carried Raja Condom logos on their sails. The Mobile Film Program (MFP) is a hallmark of social marketing in Bangladesh, and a major factor in making SMC the largest social marketing program in the world.The mobile van fleet presents audio-visual shows that reach hundreds of thousands in rural areas with education on health issues and advertisements of SMC’s products. A recently conducted study on MFP showed that 63 percent of the MFP viewers have learned new information on family planning, 53 percent learned new information on STD/AIDS and 32 percent learned new information on women trafficking watching mobile film program (MRC-MODE, 2007). The pharmacists and non-graduate medical practitioners are one of the major sources of health information and prescriber of medicine, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas.As a part of the comprehensive communication strategy, SMC provides training to approximately 17,000 health providers annually to strengthen their knowledge and skill in order to offer better over-the-counter services including counseling. Brands as Demand Drivers Market segmentation, effective positioning and brand development efforts continue to be a major part of SMC’s strategies, and the company now provides a diverse range of pills and condoms targeted at 3 specific market segments and supported with brand-specific advertising and promotion.The efforts have significantly contributed to increase brand awareness and brand loyalty among the target population. For exa mple, Raja condom was introduced in 1976 and ultimately became synonymous with the word â€Å"condom† in Bangladesh with huge advertising and promotional efforts over the last 32 years. A study on Use of Contraceptive Among the Poor Couples in Bangladesh conducted by ACNielsen explored the reasons for using SMC OCP among the current SMC brand OCP users.About 61 percent SMC brand OCP contraceptive users mentioned the reason as it suits with body while 13 percent mentioned it is widely available, 8 percent mentioned that it is a good quality brand, 9 percent mentioned husband purchases it and 2 percent mentioned that they purchase it due to its lower price (ACNielsen, 2008). SMC sells its contraceptive product brands by positioning them at appropriate market segments. Target market for Raja and Hero condoms and Femicon and Femipil OCP are the lower income population. SOMA-JECT injectable and Panther condom are for the lower-mid level of the market, while Sensation nd U condoms, Minicon (progesterone only pill) and Nordette-28 oral pills are positioned at the slightly upper mid segment of the market. ORSaline-N, Monimix and safe delivery kit are positioned for all segments of the market. Table 2 shows different SMC brands with year of launching: Table 2: SMC brands, year of launching, and its positioning in the market. Products Brand Oral Contraceptive Nordette-28 Pill Femicon Femipill Minicon SOMA-JECT Injectable Condom ORS Micro nutrition Safe Delivery Kit Raja Panther Sensation U HERO ORSaline/ORSali ne-N ORSaline Fruity Monimix Safety Kit Year of Launch 1995 1976 1983 1992 2005 006 1983 Positioning Upper and middle segment Lower segment Lower segment All segments Lower and middle segment Lower segment Middle segment Upper segment Upper segment Lower segment All segments 2003 2008 2008 Upper segments All segments All segments 1996 2008 2000 1999 Knowledge Attitude Practice and Perception (KAPP) Study on OCP shows that the Married Women of Reproductive A ge (MWRA) have a wider level of awareness of SMC brand OCP. Eight out of ten MWRA know Femicon brand while about half of the MWRAs know Nordette-28 brand. Those couples who know the brand have a very high level of quality perception regarding brand.Eighty-five percent of the MWRA who know Femicon brand mentioned that the brand is either very good or good while 92 percent of the MWRA who know Nordette-28 brand told that it is either very good or good quality OCP (RCS, 2007). Table 3 shows the quality perception on SMC brand OCP among the MWRA who know the brand: 4 Table 3: Quality Perception on SMC Brand OCP among MWRA who know the brand OCP brand of SMC Response Femicon Nordette-28 Minicon Very good 14. 8 10. 6 30. 3 Good 71. 3 81. 3 36. 9 Not so good not so 5. 4 3. 3 12. 9 bad Not good 1. 9 0. 8 1. 0 Don’t Know 6. 4 4. 1 18. 8 Number of MWRA 2045 597 287 Blue Star Social Franchising Program: Involvement of the Private Practitioners in the Public Health Priority Areas The Blu e Star Program is an all out effort to bring the private sector health service providers (both graduate and non-graduate medical practitioners) into the public health program. The program works through a network of 3600 private medical practitioners. The purpose of this program is to address the unmet need of the target population by improving quality, awareness, accessibility, and affordability of priority public health services through the private health providers.SMC provide comprehensive training, commodity supply, promotional support and supervision & monitoring to these Blue Star Providers. A Program Evaluation Study interviewed 1379 private sector health service providers – half of them were Blue Star Providers and the rest half was not affiliated with the Blue Star Franchising. The study reveals that knowledge level on contraception of Blue Star Providers is significantly higher than the non Blue Star Providers.For example, around 41% of non Blue Star providers have n o knowledge on the side effect of injectable while the rate is less than one percent for Blue Star Providers (RCS, 2006). Currently injectable contraceptive is given along with other health services through this network. Next to the OCP, injectable is the most popular temporary contraceptive method in Bangladesh. According to Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2007, 7% of the eligible couples are using Injectable contraceptive compared to 2. 6% in 1991.As BDHS 2007 shows, one out of five injectable users collect their supplies from private medical sector – graduate and non-graduate medical practitioners and pharmacies, which are considered as the outlets of Blue Star Franchising Program. Social Marketing of Micronutrient Product: A New Avenue in Child Health Program SMC has launched its Micronutrition program in Bangladesh through introduction of †MoniMix† – a branded micronutrient powder for simple and convenient in-home food fortification of complementary food to address childhood Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) in May 2008.Objective of the micronutrient program is to help improve nutritional status of under-five children, particularly of those with childhood IDA, to increase knowledge and awareness among parents and health service providers about the importance of micronutrient containing food and adequate dietary intake, and to promote exclusive breastfeeding and proper complementary feeding of nutrition rich foods.A KAPP study on Home Fortification of Complementary Food among the parents and caregivers of the children under 5 years found that nearly half of the respondents (47 percent) mentioned that they are aware about IDA while the rest (53 percent) admitted their complete ignorance on the issue 5 (ACNielsen, 2008). The findings of the study strongly justify the comprehensive awareness creation campaign on Micronutrition in general and IDA in particular which SMC has started. SMC Factory: Manufacturing ORS to Ensure Product SecurityIn order to ensure the security of ever increasing demand of pre-packaged ORS, SMC has established its own very modern ORS manufacturing facility in 2004. This facility has certainly released SMC from complete dependency on contract manufacturers. The annual ORS production capacity of the factory is around 200 million sachets, and the factory produced 176 million sachets of ORSaline-N in FY 2007. The SMC factory complex is situated on 5. 9 acres of land at Bhaluka on the DhakaMymensingh highway.The factory complex includes raw materials and finished goods store, production unit, quality control labs, services and administration units. Machinery and equipments of the SMC factory are of latest technology and in particular, the sachet machine is state-of-art. The Future: Journey Towards Sustainability SMC is seeking to increase its contribution to the achievement of national health objectives through significant expansion in the services it provides and the products it sells, while enhancing its organizational sustainability through increased revenues and improved management.Over the past years, SMC has steadily improved its cost recovery, which was 74 percent in 2007. Eventually, SMC endeavors to become a self-reliant social marketing company with minimum level of donor assistance. However, the products that are positioned for the lower segment – one condom, one pill and one injectable – would continue as a part of SMC’s social commitment to serve the less privileged and vulnerable groups. Reference 1.ACNielsen Bangladesh, â€Å"Knowledge, Attitude Perception and Practice (KAPP) Study on Home Fortification of Complementary Food†, 2008, Conducted for Social Marketing Company 2. ACNielsen Bangladesh, â€Å"Retail Audit Report on OCP, Condom and ORS†, April 2008 Conducted for Social Marketing Company 3. ACNielsen Bangladesh, â€Å"Use of Contraceptive Among the Poor Couple of Bangladesh†, 2008 Conducted for Social Marketing Company 4. Eve, E. Epstein, â€Å"SMC Story: The History of Social marketing Company†, 2006 written for Social Marketing Company . Institute of Public Health and Nutrition (IPHN), Government of Bangladesh, â€Å"National Strategy for Anemia Prevention and Control in Bangladesh†, 2007 6. MRC-MODE Limited â€Å"Study on Mobile Film Program†, 2007, Conducted for Social Marketing Company 7. National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT), Mitra and Associates, and ORC Macro, â€Å"Preliminary Report on Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007†, 2007. 8. Noel Capon and Wilfried R. Vanhonacker, â€Å"The Asian Marketing Casebook†, 1999 9.Philip D. Harvey, â€Å"Let Every Child Be Wanted: How Social Marketing Is Revolutionizing Contraceptive Use Around the World†, 1999 10. Pathway â€Å"Availability and Market Penetration Study of SMC Products†, 2007, Conducted for Social Marketing Company 11. Research a nd Computing Services (RCS) Limited, â€Å"Knowledge, Attitude Perception and Practice (KAPP) Study on Oral Contraceptive Pill among the Married Women of Reproductive Age† 2007, conducted for Social Marketing Company 6

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Internal Recruitment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Internal Recruitment - Research Paper Example This policy is mainly concerned about promotions where the current employees can be elevated to higher positions on the basis of factors such as merit as well as experience in that particular field. Performance reviews will be used to formulate such policy and the final decisions can only be made by senior management within the organization. Discussion of the characteristics that make such a policy effective There are various characteristics that make such a policy effective. A policy that has been formulated on the basis of impartiality is likely to succeed if carefully implemented in the organization. This entails that all promotions should be done without fear or favour and the results are likely to satisfy the needs of all the employees in the organization. In order to do this, the strategy of carrying out a job analysis should be carried out first before promoting the employees. Basically, a job analysis is described as a step by step process of obtaining information about a job that is done through identifying the skills, duties and knowledge required for taking that job in the company organisation (Grobler, 2006). When this information is available, informed decisions about promoting the right candidates are likely to be made in the company. This also helps the management to make a good job description that can suit the experience as well as qualifications of the employees within the organization who can be considered for promotion. According to Carell (1995), the most important rule when carrying out a recruitment exercise is that from time to time, the human resources management should always strive to attract job candidates with the required competencies and traits in order to be in a better position to perform the required tasks. The other characteristic that makes such a policy effective is that it should be based on talent inventory which is described as a database that contains the information about the pool of current employees (Werner, Schuler & Jackson, 2012). Talent inventories usually include information such as employees’ names, prior job experiences, performance and compensation histories as well as demonstrated performances. This is a very effective way of monitoring talent among the employees in the organization. This also helps the company to make informed decisions when elevating other employees to senior or higher position. Experience and previous performance are two very important factors that ought to be taken into consideration when making a decision about promoting certain individuals in the organization. This is effective in that employees who are selected internally have the knowledge about what is expected from them since they have been working in the company. Impact on employee engagement and retention There are several benefits that can be achieved from implementing an internal transfer and promotion policy in the organization. Of the several advantages of internal recruitment within a company, it can be noted that an increase in morale among the employees is one of the major one. In most cases, promotion often comes with other related benefits and these motivate employees to put optimum effort in their performance which also significantly helps to retain them. Happy employees in the

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Transportation by Sea Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Transportation by Sea - Assignment Example A busy seaport should therefore be viewed as a powerful yardstick for measuring the development in the region in particular and in the country in general. But, the overall development of a port depends on several factors including that of having the port in a geographically advantageous location. The locational advantage, among other factors, plays a prominent role in the growth prospects of a port as it would naturally make the port accessible to the shipping lines of several countries. Apart from the locational advantage, a port should internally posses certain technical advantages too for efficient handling of port operations. and strictly prefer seaports that would reduce transportation costs and time. Port location is therefore one of the prime determinants of its development. The growth of a port also depends on the depth of water, warehousing facilities and the total area. These requirements, along with the importance of location, should be properly studied for port designing and construction depending on the type, size, number and frequency of vessels that would call at the port, type and volume of cargo that would be handled and needs of the warehousing facilities and terminals. ... agoon, in a deep natural bay or river would naturally attract the attention of shipping lines and develop very fast (Internet, Port Planning, Factors influencing sea port locations). Locational advantage When a port is located in a geographically convenient location joining several shipping routes and providing accessibility to several countries, it undoubtedly attains the geographically locational advantage. Such a superior port conspicuously draws the attention of the shipping lines and attracts huge demand for its services. If the port is also located in a deep water zone, it would facilitate the docking of the bigger ships (Internet, A new port in Shanghai, 20 miles out to sea, Para 9). Because of the innumerable advantages of having deep water ports, several countries, including India, have drawn up big plans in this regard (Internet, Ambitious growth plans for Kakinada deep water port, 3 2001). The main advantage of such a port is that its services are generally useful not only for the country but also for its neighbouring countries. Different countries, operating their shipping lines for the transportation of their different commodities and goods, would crave for utilising the facilities of such a port to meet their growing demands. When the advantageous location is effectively aided by the presence of industrial growth in the region, it adds magnificently to the port development (Internet, The fundamentals of ports management, function and role of an international port). Infrastructure While the locational advantage is the nature's gift for a port and serves as the basic ingredient for its development, the port location should be fortified by the presence of excellent infrastructural facilities to render quality services at reduced costs to various

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Writing assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Writing assignment - Essay Example The interviewer was inquiring as to the trouble of instituting democracy in the Middle East and in so doing referred to a traditional concept that the individuals there are simply not capable of democratic order. In refuting this notion, Michael Scheuer remarks that the issue is not a sort of innate resistance to democracy, but instead the long ingrained combination of church and state in the region that makes instituting democracy a highly challenging process. Scheuer indicates that when the West points to its own prosperous ways and the democractic political process that they were brought about through, the Middle Eastern people still believe that this form of government is man-made and has turned its back on God. Scheuer goes as far as to argue that the least exportable thing the United States has is its democracy. The remark underlines one of the critical areas of difference between the United States and Middle Eastern states. Namely this difference is a core value system, with t he West pursuing a socially constructed sense of profit and equity, and the Middle Eastern clinging to an ancient religious order. Within this spectrum of thought, one begins to question the sociological elements that have led to the Middle East retaining their religious affiliations, while the United States has adopted a more profit-centered existence.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Education Curriculum and Standards Reflection Essay

Education Curriculum and Standards Reflection - Essay Example While observing the two teachers featured in the conversation, a feeling of negativity seeped through. The falling standards in education are definitely a concern for teachers across the globe. â€Å"Teachers identified a problem in achievement connected to discourse practices in their classrooms and designed instructional changes to address the problem† (Weiner 42). The governments are more concerned with the upliftment of the downtrodden and the underprivileged thereby ignoring the aspirations of the deserving students. The curriculum is outdated and also not being periodically assessed for its utility in today’s changing world. The value systems of students are also declining due to various reasons like parental negligence, absence of elders in the nuclear family setup, influence of mass media, etc. All these factors are present in our society and the younger generation is completely caught in this tangled web but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There are theories that can be used to improve skills of the students and prepare them to face the challenges of life after institutional learning. Several researchers identify a list of five learning domains, and these are considered to be integral to the development of students irrespective of their cultural differences. The first domain is the cognitive domain. This involves the thinking process and various tests have been designed to test and assess this domain. It involves the ability of students to analyze, think reasonably as well in the abstract. Besides, it also envisages visualization, comprehension and communication which are essential in the learning process. The second domain is the affective domain which mainly involves the feelings of students. This would mean the awareness and understanding displayed by the student and also how emotions are managed at times of stress, etc. The third domain is the spiritual domain. As the name suggests it has got to do with the perception of God or any other faith because such beliefs can become a guiding factor when a student undertakes any difficult task. Students draw inspirati on from a wide range of sources that energize them and activate their thoughts such as nature. They may also draw such inspiration from processes such meditation and prayers. The fourth domain is the physical domain. This is directly related to the fitness level of students. A strong and healthy body will definitely support a healthy mind and thus physical domain is a very important domain in education. The fifth and final domain is called the conative domain. This has to do with motivation. Whatever subject you learn, if the interest of the pupil cannot be sustained, the outcome will be negative. In order to counter such an outcome, it is absolutely essential to ensure the there is a strong motivation to learn. After careful examination of these domains, it is clear that an amalgamation of all these domains is the need of the hour and all educators should strive to incorporate these domains in the everyday teaching process. â€Å"As social and political changes alter the face of p ublic education, it becomes increasingly important that all educators scrutinize and challenge tacit assumptions† (Weiner 44). Children sometimes learn very fast and on other occasions very slowly and they tend to transform from a simple to a complex human being and also infer concepts from general to specific

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Annotated Bibliography Assignment (free internet on campus) Essay

Annotated Bibliography Assignment (free internet on campus) - Essay Example Similarly, the teachers utilize the Internet to supplement their lessons. In essence, the Internet has benefited education by opening up a substantial amount of knowledge to a broader range of students. Anderson, Janna, Boyles, Jan, and Rainie, Lee. â€Å"The future impact of the Internet on higher education.† Pew Research Center. Web. 23 Mar 2015 Anderson, Boyles, and Rainie examine the impacts that the Internet will present to the higher education in the future. The comprehensive research indicates that advancement in technology will compel the institutions of higher learning to expand online courses and change the credentialing structures. The research, which targets the policymakers in education, articulates the positive impacts of the Internet such as increased collaboration, massive online course, and a shift in the instructional methods. The article will be helpful in the research, as it will offer the future perspective of the Internet. Specifically, the article’s findings will inform the recommendation section to show the significance of providing free Internet on campus. The source is valid because it comes from a credible research institute and the authors demonstrate huge expertise in their fields. In addition, the article has explored the subject matter from different dimensions as opposed to one perspective. Andrew, a professor at Deakin University, refutes the popular view that technology can solely enhance the learning experience. The article, which targets the instructors, indicates that a problem in the instrumental view of the Internet exists. The findings of the article emphasize the significance of examining technology from the social, political, and ethical perspectives. The author argues that socio-economic factors have implications on the Internet. The source is credible

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Analyse a Particular Scenario from an Information Systems Perspective Essay

Analyse a Particular Scenario from an Information Systems Perspective Using Data Flow Diagrams - Essay Example Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Discussion and Analysis 4 Scenario Part A 4 1. Context Diagram 4 2. Level zero Data Flow Diagram 5 Scenario Part B 6 3. Principles and Ethics Company should follow 6 4. Recommendation from Helen to the training team 7 Conclusion and Recommendations 8 Reference 9 Appendix 10 Introduction Managing the Human Resource department is one of the major issues of the organization. Often due to the inefficient handling of HR department lead to the dissatisfaction of employees and generates problems in the organization. This report is concerned with the solution for certain issues in an organization on two different scenarios. The system department is responsible to identify the cause of the problems and recommend a feasible solution to the general manager to cope with the issues which arises in the HR department for an efficient organization of the different tasks in the company. The flow of data and transparencies along with ethical duties which the organization should follow are two main aspects evaluated by the system department for the company. ... It gives the top level view of the whole system giving a clear view of the input and the output from the system. In the given scenario A the primary reason for the dissatisfaction amongst the employees is due to lack of transparency amongst the departments and the HR department. While designing the context diagram it is ensures to keep links between the different departments and the HR for an effective communication between the two and the information transferred between the two are then submitted to the management on a weekly and monthly basis. All the departments of the organization like Accounts, Manufacturing, Marketing and Research and Development are connected directly with the HRD for easy flow of information like leave and vacancy information between the departments and effective quick response for the employees from the HR. The HR department is connected with the General Manager and the publishers and the government departments for producing reports and advertisements on cer tain occasions. The context diagram design for the scenario A is attached with the appendix in this report for a clear view of the system. 2. Level zero Data Flow Diagram While context diagram gives an overall view if the system, Data Flow Diagram represents the network of the system with all the components which might be operated automatically or manually. It gives the idea of the individual components which interfaces with the core component. The main focus of designing Data Flow Diagram is to represent the flow of data between the external entities and the core system and the process involved with the database in managing information and effective flow of data (Pcbfaculty, n.d.). The data flow diagram for the scenario A is attached with the appendix of the report

Friday, August 23, 2019

Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 12

Critique - Essay Example The paper is critique based on her book about online writing classes and whether the approach is beneficial to the learners (Kiefer, 2007). Kate Kiefer’s article discusses the various reasons on how it is challenging to teach writing online compared to face to face interaction between the learners and the teacher. She argues that teaching writing in small classes help to manage classes while at the same time provide learners with multiple opportunities and ready feedback targeting their effectiveness in writing. Basing on her experience in teaching languages especially writing, I believe that she has written a strong article with very supportive arguments. However, the article seems to be in support of teaching writing through face to face interactions rather than teaching writing online (Kiefer, 2007). The author argues that teachers who teach writing value shared classroom interactions for a number of reasons. She explains that students are more motivated when they recognize learning community and are more likely to chat and share with colleagues in classroom than when they are alone and learning online. The author asserts that writing cannot take place in a vacuum. She explains that classroom or face to face learning enables students to engage and interact with one another. In addition, students are able to help each other and learn from colleagues on how to improve as writers as well as readers. The depth of conversation about texts and writing further develops the potential of each writer. She argues that writing engagement encourages acquisition of writing skills that can be applied in all classrooms as well as other applications beyond academy (Kiefer, 2007). She states that the preconceptions of the students about their roles in online courses as well as technological chall enges have worked against important interactions in online classes. I agree with the author’s argument

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Political Parties in the New Era Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Political Parties in the New Era - Essay Example Many studies have shown that the Political Parties of today have changed significantly in the past few decades, both in industrialized countries and in the developing nations (third world countries). The changes have inadvertently resulted in the weakening of connections between citizens and the state, however, there remains widespread consensus that political parties are essential elements in democratic societies. A statement made 50 years ago by E.E. Schattschneider was that, "Political parties created democracy and that modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of parties. As a matter of fact, the condition of parties is the best evidence of the nature of any regime. The most important distinction between democracy and dictatorship can be made in terms of party politics. The parties are not therefore Recently, Alan Ware viewed political parties as pervasive elements in contemporary societies saying that, "In contemporary states it is difficult to imagine there being politics without political parties. Indeed, in only two kinds of states today are parties absent. First, there are a few small, traditional societies, especially in the Persian Gulf, that are still ruled by the families who were dominant in the region they control long before the outside world recognized them as independent states. Then there are those regimes in which parties and party activities have been banned; these regimes are run either by the military or by authoritarian rulers who have the support of the military."2 In consonance thereto, here are some prevailing views made by some of the participants in a conference convened by the National Endowment for Democracy's International Forum for Democratic Studies where in attendance were many of the world's leading political parties scholars and practitioners held in Washington DC to "Address the Current and Future Prospects of Political Parties." One of the prevailing views made as articulated by Juan Linz stating that," Today, in all countries of the world, there is no alternative to political parties in the establishment of democracy. No form of nonparty representation that has been advocated has ever produced a democratic government. Thus we are faced with a world of democracies based on parties." However, there were conflicting views made in the same forum to the effect that political parties are necessary for democratic development. Phillipe Schmitter on his part provided the most critical statement saying that, " Political parties are not what they used to be. They no longer structure electoral choices as clearly and decisively, command citizen attachments as passionately, form distinctiveness, or aggregate interests as widely and explicitly as they once did. Clearly, political parties everywhere, both in the industrialized countries and in the developing world, are becoming less and less able to Serapio 3 perform these core functions. In short, they are no longer indispensable for the consolidation and perpetuation of democracy." In view of the foregoing facts let us now analyze

Projective Techniques Essay Example for Free

Projective Techniques Essay Such tests are based loosely on the psychoanalytic concept of projection, the assumption being that respondents project unconscious aspects of their personalities on to the test items and reveal them in their responses †¦ The website of the Association of Qualitative Practitioners (AQR 2004) defines projective techniques as follows: A wide range of tasks and games in which respondents can be asked to participate during an interview or group, designed to facilitate, extend or enhance the nature of the discussion. Some are known as ‘projective’ techniques, being loosely based on approaches originally taken in a psychotherapeutic setting. These rely on the idea that someone will ‘project’ their own (perhaps unacceptable or shameful) feelings or beliefs onto an imaginary other person or situation †¦ Projective techniques may be used in qualitative as well as quantitative studies (Levy 1994) and they are useful (Boddy 2004b) in both. 240 International Journal of Market Research Vol. 47 Issue 3 Projective techniques are commonly used in qualitative market research (Gordon Langmaid 1990) where the aim of the techniques is to facilitate the gaining of a deeper understanding of the area being researched. In discussing projective techniques they distance the use of projective techniques in qualitative market research from that of psychoanalytical practice, and suggest a more pedestrian and pragmatic definition: Projection [is] the tendency to imbue objects or events with characteristics or meanings which are derived from our subconscious desires, wishes or feelings. Dichter (1964) defined projection as meaning ‘to project subjective ideas and contents onto an object’, and said that one person could ascribe their own problems or difficulties to someone else. He described these techniques as being widely used in psychological work (Dichter 1960) and said that they are a non-directive interview technique where the respondent can project himself onto another and thus reveal some of the respondent’s own thoughts, feelings and fears. Projective vis-a-vis enabling techniques The market researchers Chandler and Owen (2002) define projective and enabling techniques quite succinctly and in a way with which most qualitative market research practitioners (Gordon Langmaid 1990; Goodyear 1998) would probably agree. This differentiation is useful to make at the beginning of this paper as the techniques are often used interchangeably and the distinction between them may have become blurred in the minds of some qualitative market researchers. Classically, the idea of a projective technique relates to a device that allows the individual research participant to articulate repressed or otherwise withheld feelings by projecting these onto another character. The idea of enabling techniques relates to a device which allows the individual research participant to find a means of expressing feelings, thoughts and so on which they find hard to articulate. Enabling techniques are held to be the simpler (Will, Eadie MacAskill 1996) of the two techniques as they just help people to talk about themselves. Will et al. ake the useful distinguishing point that while all projective techniques may be enabling, not all enabling techniques involve projection. Other researchers (Lysaker Bradley 1957) make the point that even pictorial devices, which do not function as projective techniques 241 Projective techniques in market research (i. e. devices researchers would nowadays refer to as enabling techniques), may still have utility in generat ing responses. Gordon and Langmaid (1990) state that the use of projective as opposed to enabling techniques is a false distinction in market research as the aim of both techniques is to facilitate deeper understanding. However, they do go on to say that in enabling techniques people are asked to do something that itself has no interpretive value (and so doesn’t itself need to be interpreted). In terms of analysis there is a distinction because with enabling techniques the research participants are talking as themselves (that is not to say that this speech should always be taken at face value), whereas with projective techniques the research participants are talking as someone else and the researcher makes the interpretative assumption that they are talking as themselves. This agreement over the definition of projective techniques is about as far as most research textbooks get on the subject. How they are subsequently used is little discussed and how they are then analysed is hardly explicitly touched on at all (Levy 1994; Catterall 1998), which is a situation that has hardly changed from ten or more years ago. This paper aims to look at current reports of how projective techniques are analysed and what support for their reliability and validity exists, and aims to stimulate debate in this area of market research so that a better and more accessible understanding of the subject can be offered to those entering research as potential practitioners, to interested clients, and to researchers who are more used to a quantitative or direct questioning approach. The origins of projective techniques Projective techniques were employed in market research from the 1940s (Catterall Ibbotson 2000) to encourage research participants to express feelings and attitudes that might otherwise be withheld due to embarrassment or fear if more direct questioning methods were used. Market research originally borrowed (Robson 2000; Boddy 2004a) projective techniques from psychoanalysis and clinical psychology where they are still used (Richman 1996) to gain insights into personality and personality disorders. Projection, as a concept, originated from Freud’s work on paranoia (Lilienfeld, Wood Garb 2000), where he conceptualised projection as a defence mechanism by which people unconsciously attribute their own negative personality traits to others. Lilienfeld et al. say that Freud’s work 242 International Journal of Market Research Vol. 47 Issue 3 was subsequently developed by psychoanalysts and clinical psychologists. This development was based on the hypothesis that ‘research participants project aspects of their personalities in the process of disambiguating unstructured test stimuli’, and several different techniques were developed such as the well-known Rorschach technique, or ‘ink-blot test’, where subjects are assumed to project aspects of their personality onto the ambiguous features of a set of inkblots. Projective techniques in market research A commonly used completion technique (Gordon Langmaid 1990; Will et al. 1996) in qualitative market research is ‘bubble drawing’. This is a device based on a technique called the Thematic Apperception Test where, according to Tucker-Ladd (2001), clinical psychologists use a series of standard pictures and ask subjects to make up stories about them. TuckerLadd says that what people see in the pictures says something about themselves and thus reveals their personality. Projective techniques can be used in a variety of market research situations as well as in social and educational research (Catterall Ibbotson 2000), and these do not have to be aiming at uncovering aspects of personality of any great depth. For example, a bubble drawing was used (Boddy 2004a) by one researcher to uncover students’ underlying attitudes towards the delivery of a lecture on marketing research rather than to uncover any deeper aspects of their own personalities. Projective and enabling techniques are thus useful when research participants have difficulty expressing opinions or feelings and researchers need some way of accessing these from the participants’ minds (Gordon Langmaid 1990; Kay 2001).

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Advantages Of Bus Topology Computer Science Essay

Advantages Of Bus Topology Computer Science Essay A topology is defined as the layout of the network i.e. how the nodes are connected. This describes how the network physically looks or how the network is physically designed. The concept of a topology is important because each network card is designed to work with a specific topology. Conversely, if your network cable is already installed and you want to use existing wiring, you must select your network cards based on the preexisting physical topology. Ideally, you can design your network from scratch. Then you can choose your topology, cabling, and network cards based on what best meets your needs. Physically, a bus topology uses a linear segment of cable to connect all network devices. Devices typically connect to the bus (the cable) through T-connectors. At each end of the bus are terminators. Each terminator absorbs the signal when it reaches the end of the cable. Without a terminator, a signal would bounce back and cause network errors. The physical bus topology uses a logical bus to transmit data on the cable in both directions. In a logical bus topology, only one transmission can occur at any given moment. Otherwise, two transmissions would collide and cause network errors. Termination ensures that the signal is removed from the cable when it reaches either end, preventing possible network errors. Fig. 4.1 Bus Topology Advantages of Bus Topology : The benefits of a bus topology include the following: 1. This is less expensive topology because it requires less cable for networking because using only one cable it is possible to connect many computers. 2. It is an easy way to network a small number of computers. Disadvantages of Bus Topology : The drawbacks of a bus topology include the following: 1. One break in cable cause entire failure in network. 2. It is very difficult to correct the errors because the cable is not related to only one machine. 3. On a medium-sized to large network, reconfiguration is more difficult than the cable Management of a star topology. Star Topology The star topology looks like a star. The hub is at the center of the star, and all devices attach to the hub via a cable. Logically, the physical star topology operates as a logical bus topology by sending the data signal to all nodes at once. The hub at the center of the star works as a signal splitter, which means the signal is split and sent to all computers at the same time, with one exception-it is not sent back to the computer from which the signal sent. The signal is terminated at each network card, thereby preventing the signal from accidentally reentering the network. If this were to happen, data packets would travel the network endlessly-seriously slowing down network performance. Fig. 4.2 Star Topology Advantages of Star Topology : The benefits of a star topology include the following: 1. A star topology is more fault tolerant than other topologies, because a cable break does not bring down the entire network. 2. Reconfiguring the network, or adding nodes, is easy because each node connects to the central hub independent of other nodes. 3. Isolating cable failures is easy because each node connects independently to the central hub. Disadvantages of Star Topology : The disadvantages of a star topology are: 1. If the central hub fails, the entire network becomes unavailable. 2. This topology is more expensive than others to install because of the additional cable and equipment involved. Ring Topology: Physically, the ring topology is shaped in a ring. Cables pass from computer to computer until the ring is complete. When data is transmitted, each workstation receives the signal and then passes it on when the workstation is done with the data. Other than Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), no current networks use a physical ring topology, because a break in the ring makes the entire network unavailable. Logically, a ring topology works by passing the signal, traditionally called a token, from one node to another until it reaches all the way around the ring. Token-passing schemes use the logical ring topology. Fig. 4.3 Ring Topology Advantages of Ring Topology : A logical ring topology ensures access to the network without the risk of collisions, which can occur in logical star or bus topologies. Disadvantages of Ring Topology : The drawbacks of a ring topology include the following: 1. If there is a break in the cable of a physical ring topology, the network becomes unavailable. 2. Physical ring topologies are difficult to troubleshoot. 3. Physical ring topologies are hard to reconfigure. 4. There is limited support for ring networks. 5. The costs for a ring network are significantly higher than for star or bus. Tree Topology Also known as a hierarchy network, The type of network topology in which a central root node (the top level of the hierarchy) is connected to one or more other nodes that are one level lower in the hierarchy (i.e., the second level) with a point-to-point link between each of the second level nodes and the top level central root node, Fig. 4.4 Tree Topology While each of the second level nodes that are connected to the top level central root node will also have one or more other nodes that are one level lower in the hierarchy (i.e., the third level) connected to it, also with a point-to-point link, the top level central root node being the only node that has no other node above it in the hierarchy (The hierarchy of the tree is symmetrical.) Each node in the network having a specific fixed number, of nodes connected to it at the next lower level in the hierarchy, the number, being referred to as the branching factor of the hierarchical tree. This tree has individual peripheral nodes. 1.) A network that is based upon the physical hierarchical topology must have at least three levels in the hierarchy of the tree, since a network with a central root node and only one hierarchical level below it would exhibit the physical topology of a star. 2.) A network that is based upon the physical hierarchical topology and with a branching factor of 1 would be classified as a physical linear topology. 3.) The branching factor, f, is independent of the total number of nodes in the network and, therefore, if the nodes in the network require ports for connection to other nodes the total number of ports per node may be kept low even though the total number of nodes is large à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ this makes the effect of the cost of adding ports to each node totally dependent upon the branching factor and may therefore be kept as low as required without any effect upon the total number of nodes that are possible. 4.) The total number of point-to-point links in a network that is based upon the physical hierarchical topology will be one less than the total number of nodes in the network. 5.) If the nodes in a network that is based upon the physical hierarchical topology are required to perform any processing upon the data that is transmitted between nodes in the network, the nodes that are at higher levels in the hierarchy will be required to perform more processing operations on behalf of other nodes than the nodes that are lower in the hierarchy. Such a type of network topology is very useful and highly recommended Mesh Topology Mesh The value of fully meshed networks is proportional to the exponent of the number of subscribers, assuming that communicating groups of any two endpoints, up to and including all the endpoints, is approximated by Reeds Law. Fig. 4.5.1 Fully connected mesh topology The number of connections in a full mesh = n(n 1) / 2 Fully connected Note: The physical fully connected mesh topology is generally too costly and complex for practical networks, although the topology is used when there are only a small number of nodes to be interconnected. Fig. 4.5.2 Partially connected mesh topology Partially connected The type of network topology in which some of the nodes of the network are connected to more than one other node in the network with a point-to-point link à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ this makes it possible to take advantage of some of the redundancy that is provided by a physical fully connected mesh topology without the expense and complexity required for a connection between every node in the network. In most practical networks that are based upon the physical partially connected mesh topology, all of the data that is transmitted between nodes in the network takes the shortest path (or an approximation of the shortest path) between nodes, except in the case of a failure or break in one of the links, in which case the data takes an alternative path to the destination. This requires that the nodes of the network possess some type of logical routing algorithm to determine the correct path to use at any particular time.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Carol Ann Duffy and Sharon Olds | Marginalised Voices In Poetry

Carol Ann Duffy and Sharon Olds | Marginalised Voices In Poetry Marginalisation can be understood as being outside or on the edge of the rest of society. A person can be considered marginalised because of factors such as race, social class or gender, which make them separate from the rest of their social surrounding. At the time when Carol Ann Duffy and Sharon Olds wrote their first poetry, female poets where marginalised under patriarchy; a social system which believed males to be the superior race. Through their works both poets give a voice for marginalised members of society by using poetry to speak the truth about everyday issues such as love, sexuality and family, from a female perspective. Although marginalised because of their gender, both Carol Ann Duffy and Sharon Olds use of strong subjects have been able to make an impact for the female voice within their poetry. Sharon Olds is highly religious due to her upbringing as a Calvinist; her poetry echoes a lot of this belief in the sense that her works speak a truth and hold a strong theme of morality. Moreover Olds uses her own honesty and morality to often question issues which are ongoing in society, be it a question directed towards the politics of the time or a question about family and love. Because of her honestly Olds poems can often appear controversial or paint a slightly disturbing image. Sex Without Love[1] for instance is a poem which questions sex outside of marriage and love, it begins with a direct question how do they do it, the ones who make love without love?, she then goes onto answer the question herself. Rather than use complex imagery and symbolism to allow the reader to make their own interpretation, Olds uses irony to make her view on the subject clear and detailed. On the other hand, Carol Ann Duffys poems pose the exact opposite approach; through her poems she is also sp eaking a truth using irony, however, she often does this by using surreal imagery and complicating her words to create a usual cynical view towards the subject. Like Olds, Duffy also addresses the issue of love within her works. Duffys Valentine[2] renders a highly cynical view towards love, and the thought conventional gestures of showing affection. Unlike Olds who instantly outlines the poems meaning as a starting point, Duffy begins Valentine by using traditional images of a valentine before revealing her own suggestions on the subject. Duffy uses an extended metaphor in asserting that an onion is more like the true nature of love and therefore it can ultimately be destroyed or destructive on many different levels, just like an onion has many different layers which can be peeled. Both poets reveal a different idea about love, while Sharon Olds is implicating that love is sacred and true; Duffy seems to be suggesting that love isnt as beautiful as it would appear on the surface. Females were often marginalised within literature and therefore their work was not given the recognition it truly deserved, often resulting in females writing poetry but not being considered poets because of their gender. This is because of the once social, economic and cultural marginalisation under patriarchy which ruled a male dominated social and cultural system. Geoffrey Summerfield once stated I regret the omission of women poets from this book. This is simply due to the fact that Britain in the last fifteen years has not produced a woman poet of real stature [3], although spoken before their time as writers, poets such as Duffy and Olds have made an impact from their writing that would arguably change this opinion. Sharon olds Sex Without Love is an attack on people that have sex outside of marriage, her religious background shines through in her choice of word and metaphor in this poem. While she chooses to use words that would usually be seen as beautiful, the choice of word play holds a negative tone throughout making it obvious that she does not approve. The metaphor Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice skaters, over ice would on surface appear that she is accepting, however, the deeper meaning unveils that she is actually implying that like the ice, sex without love is cold and therefore it is simply a performance, just as ice skating is a performance. Unlike Sex Without Love which holds the message that only true love will make you happy or whole, it would appear that Duffys Valentine is in fact a message that is perhaps warning the reader from love. Duffy ends with the lines Lethal, its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife., this cynical metaphor leaves us with the idea that the true nature of love will ultimately destroy us. Although the messages of these two poems contradict each other completely, the marginalised voice in poetry is still established and heard. Both poets represent marginalised voices in poetry as being underestimated and overlooked, by creating powerful poems that touch subjects that affect all people in society, they have been able to establish a place for the female poet ultimately making them no longer marginalised. The strong and somewhat controversial use of the theme of love in these two poems clearly establishes a voice for marginalised groups, therefore allowing them to be recognised. While both Duffy and Olds fall into the same marginalised category because of their gender they do not hold the same morals and values within their poems, this difference between the two reveals to the maybe ignorant eye, that people of the same marginalised category are in fact individuals within themselves. Therefore Duffy and Olds represent marginalised voices as having the same individualities as the people in the centre of society. In the same way that Olds expresses her religious views within her poetry, Duffys works can be perceived as feminist, however similarly they both raise issues such as social class and relationships in the course of their works. Duffys Warming Her Pearls[4] is a poem centrally about a relationship between a servant and her employer, a maid and her mistress. This poem deals with the issue of social class more than it does with gender, the lower social class can also be deemed as marginalised within society this poem recognises this problem and provides a negative attitude towards social, economic and political status and gives a voice to these outsiders. Warming Her Pearls begins Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress bids me to wear them, warm them, the pearls may be seen as a symbolic rope that bides the maid to her mistress moreover the fact that she literally gives the warmth of her body to the pearls immediately questions the relationship between the two classes, outlining the ridiculous extremes that the power of higher classes can actually reach. The relationship between the two characters can be viewed as bidden, because the maid is of lower class therefore she must provide a service for the pri vileged. On the other hand Sharon Olds True Love[5] is centrally a poem about the relationship between a man and a woman that appear to be married as the poem progresses. True Love opens In the middle of the night, when we get up after making love, we look at each other in complete friendship the initial reading of this line leaves the reader somewhat confused by the use of the word friendship, are these two people in love or is their relationship purely friendship? Furthermore that later image of them being Bound to each other like mountaineers. leaves us with the idea that the reason they are still together is because they are married. This assumption comes from Olds religious background, wherefore her belief would hold the idea that marriage is sacred and for life. Therefore perhaps this couple are no longer in love, however they are bound together because of the vows they once took. Both poems address the issues of relationships, however clearly they identify different issues wh ich have binned their characters together. As Duffys poem unravels it reveals a sinister attitude from the maid towards her mistress, she believes that her persistent scent on the pearls are preventing her mistress from ever finding love. This could also be an attack on the social hierarchy in the sense that the maid is not allowed to communicate with her mistress to tell her the problem, so instead she burns All night with the satisfaction of this possible secret revenge she is gaining against her mistress. On the other hand, Olds True Love does ultimately unveil itself as describing exactly what it is titled as. The poem ends I cannot see beyond it., leaving us with the idea that the characters are indeed in love and that it is everything that should be wanted from a relationship. Sharon Olds poem seems to begin somewhat ambiguously with its room for interpretation. None the less its ending reveals what is believed to be the truth about love, making it personal to perhaps her own experiences and definitely representing her own morals on what she believes to be right. These two very different poems represent marginalised voices in poetry as being opinionated, self aware and controversial, it is clear that these marginalised figures of society do indeed have a strong place in society and should therefore be heard. Sharon Olds and Carol Ann Duffy hold similarities and differences within their works, they both appear to me as being fearless and unconventional making them have a strong effect on society. Their highly controversial poems raising issues such as social class, relationships and love have undoubtedly made room for the female poet to be accepted and recognised, not only in poetry but in society as a whole. Along with representing a voice for females their works also question other existing marginalisation within our culture, attacking the politics and beliefs of the culture with live in allows scope for these outsiders to be recognised and ultimately heard. While Olds makes her poetry personal by directly inputting her religious beliefs and morality, Duffy makes her works personal by her complication of words and playful inventiveness to pass of messages that perhaps a conventional writer would not attempt. It is figures such as Olds and Duffy that are needed in our society to provide a truth on such controversial issues. Their open honesty on issues within our culture allows a truth to be heard from these marginalised voices, and it is clear that they have had a large impact within writing and on the society in which we live.

Monday, August 19, 2019

The Origin, Distribution and Classification of Cultivated Broccoli Vari

The Origin, Distribution and Classification of Cultivated Broccoli Varieties Of the many different vegetable crops now under cultivation in both the U.S. and abroad, one that has gained increasing importance is that of broccoli. Although it does not constitute a significant portion of most people's diets, it has nevertheless experienced a kind of "revival" in recent years and has become increasingly popular (Schery, 1972; Heywood, 1978). It may even be said that broccoli has emerged from relative obscurity and attained the status of a worthwhile garden vegetable,"(Talbert, 1953). The botanical family to which broccoli belongs is the Brassicaceae, also known as the Mustard family. The Brassicaceae is a large family comprised of approximately 3,000 described species apportioned among 350-380 genera. The precise number of genera will vary depending on the authority(Heywood, 1978; Keil & Walters, 1988). The classification scheme for broccoli and indeed all of the other brassicas is clear and straightforward until one reaches the species level. At that point the addition of numerous subspecies, varieties, and cultivars results in a rather complex and confusing arrangement of-the taxa in question. For example, the scientific name for broccoli, Brassica oleracea (L.), is also shared by cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, collards, brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, and tronchuda kale, to name a few. Despite the fact that all of the aforementioned varieties are similar to one another and to broccoli, and are therefore referred to as B. oleracea, they are neverthele ss separate entities. Most authorities today consider there are two major varieties of broccoli, B. oleracea (L.) var. botrytis or cauliflower broccoli and B. oleracea ... ... Heywood, V.H. 1978. Flowering Plants of the World. Mayflower Books, New York. Narain, A. 1974. Rape and mustard. pp. 67-70. In J. Hutchinson (ed.), Evolutionary Studies in World Crops: Diversity and Change in the Indian Subcontinent. Cambridge University Press, London. Schery, R.W. 1972. Plants for Man. 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs. Snogerup, S. 1980. The Wild Forms of the Brassica oleracea Group and Their Possible Relations to the Cultivated Ones. pp. 121-132. In C. Gomez-Campo, K. Hinata & S. Tsunoda (eds.), Brassica Crops and Wild Allies: Biology and Breeding. Japan Scientific Societies Press, Tokyo. Talbert, T.J. 1953. Growing Fruit and Vegetable Crops. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia. Terrell, E.E. 1977. A Checklist of Names for 3,000 Vascular Plants of Economic Importance. U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook No. 505, pp. 21-22.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Future of Svalbard :: essays research papers

Recently, a lot of focus has been drawn towards glaciers, and how they may change due to global warming, and in turn, affect the rest of the world around it. Svalbard is one such place with many glaciers, in fact it is comprised of about two-thirds glacial landmass. With such a high amount of land covered by glaciers, and with the ever-increasing risk of global warming, how would Svalbard change with the combination of these and many other factors? Although the rest of the world is worried that with global rising, temperatures will continue to get hotter, Svalbard is likely to suffer exactly the opposite fate. Initially, it will become warmer, but this heat will gradually melt the many ice caps and glaciers found around Svalbard. The freshwater released from these huge sources would slowly change the mindscape immediately around it, with the effects it has on the environment spreading out to affect more and more areas. Firstly, the landscape around would be dramatically eroded. Whereas a glacier pushes out of the way objects in its path, and erodes the surrounding area through a combination of ablation, plucking and freeze-thaw, the glacier itself commonly hides the features it creates, but when the glacier melts, features such as cirques, horns, arà ªtes, hanging valleys and waterfalls can be seen. Also, the melt water would itself cut a small v-shape in the base of the U-shaped valley created by the glacier. The stones in the river, and deposition would cause this. Lateral and terminal moraines would also be created after the glacier deposits some of the rocks and dirt that it will have picked up as it moves. The freshwater from the glaciers would run eventually to the sea, causing sea levels to rise, and also reducing the levels of salt found in the sea. This is in fact disastrous for thermohaline circulation, which carries warm currents to Svalbard from The Gulf Stream, and takes cold water back around to e warmed again. The cold water travels back along the surface of the ocean bed around America, because it has sunk near Svalbard. It sinks due to the levels of salt here. The addition of salt makes the water heavy, dropping to the bottom. When the added glacier water reduces the salt levels, it would, in effect stop thermohaline circulation completely. This would mean that, eventually, warm places would get even warmer, without the cooling sea water, and Svalbard would get even colder, without Gulf Stream water warming the East side of the islands.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Influences on Belizean Youths

Influences on Belizean Youths As we the year passes by it is less common to see any youth showing how proud they are of their culture by dressing and practicing the aspects that their culture represents. It is more common to see the influences that other countries have brought into our country and which have caused a cultural erasure especially in the lives of us the young one. However, society tends to see these changes and take in mind as it doesn’t affect our origins and from where we initiated. Presently today it is very rare to see any youth dressing according to their culture, listening to cultural music and eating cultural food that once used to be the delicacy and cuisine of Belize. For the way of dressing of the youths in Belize, there is more skinny jeans and miniskirts than garifuna headbands and maya mipils. The clothing used here in our country has been influenced by the clothing weared in the United States or other foreign countries. It is visible anywhere because the only ones wearing cultural dressings are the elderly who live in villages but rarely anyone living in towns and in the city. At school you can see that every youth will be dressing fashion according to other societies of the foreign. Now a day’s young girls and boys only speak about Emporio Armani and E- hardy. At stores you can see that there are only important clothing brands on sale of which the designers are foreign and very famous. Music plays an important role for a young adult because that is the way they identify themselves. In this generation most youngsters will listen to hip-hop, rap, regeaton, rock, reage, etc. but for sure never any Rancheras. The closest cultural music found in our country is Punta. Closest I say because today Punta has been mixed with foreign music in order to form Punta rock. The present artists in our country would be Supa-G, Gilhary 7 and Youth Connection Band, which all of them base their music in Punta. Also the influence of music can be seen in our same Belizean arists. Those who participate in Duets and K-TV Latino would only perform foreign songs and never any cultural presentation. It is sadly that our most famous artist, Andy Palacio, who stuck to his culture and sang in Garifuna his Punta songs, has passed away. Will there be any other who would want to follow Andy’s example? Even the food here in Belize has changed as the years passes by. The influences in Belizean diets comes from England, the US and Mexico especially for the youths. At school you can see that students prefer to buy food that is not Belizean such as enchiladas and quesadillas. The most common Belizean cousin that has not lost popularity in our country is the rice and beans although some still prefer Chinese burger or fry chicken. It is true that foreign cousins have a delicious flavor and are very appetizing but so is the food prepared that once our elderly used to cook for us, being 100% Belizean. Belize is a very beautiful home land for us Belizeans and we should appreciate such heritage given to us by our ethnic groups. It is very clear that our culture is being left behind and that the influences of other countries are impacting our youths. The way they dress, the music they listen to and the food they eat all can be seen that there is foreign influence. Belizean youth must not forget that they form part of an ethnic group and that they represent the future of Belize so if they forget their origins so will Belizean history.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Creating a database of computer games Essay

I am creating a database of computer games. It is intended to both aid the customer in choosing which game to purchase, if any. It is also intended to aid the staff of the store by easily providing them with any information that they need for whatever reason (for example helping a customer with an enquiry). They have the problems of there being a lot of different computer games available on a number of different ‘platforms’ (different hardware systems), this means that it will either take a long time for a customer to search through all of the games available to them and to find the look of one that they like, or they cannot see all the games that are in stock, for instance there could be some in the stock room that they do not know about. These problems all currently exist in the shop and there is no way of customers to know the information they require, they just have to ask members of staff. This database will help them, as it will display all the games in the shop and the stock room. It will also display the rating given to the game by a reputable independent magazine for that format (CUBE in this case). It will also display a hyperlink to a review for the game, so that they can find out if the game is suitable to their tastes. In this case it takes them to totalgames. net, an affiliate of CUBE magazine, so the reviews are reliable and coincide with the rating. I chose to use a database software package called Microsoft Access because it allows me to satisfy all the requirements of the product I am working on. It allows me to easily enter the data that I have collected in the form Of a table, it then allows me to create queries so that the user can easily sift through all the data and find the information that they require. It also allows forms to be made, which provide an easy and simple user interface, so that all the functions that the user will require are available to them, and they need not go into any other part of the program. It also allows you to create reports and they can then be printed easily. These are all functions that can be performed in a database but not other software such as a spreadsheet or a Word Processor. Analysis I collected my data from a number of different sources; these include a magazine, which has a directory in the back to allow me to collect a lot of the data which I require (see pages and ) . I also used the website http://www. totalgames. net which has a large database of reviews for games, which allowed me to both provide a direct link to a full and comprehensive review for most of the games listed in my database, as well as allowing me to obtain another review score so as to be able to get an average. I also collected data such as prices for the games (which I could not obtain from the other sources) in the database from shops such as GAME(r). I collected the data from the shops using my data capture form, of which a blank example can be found on page and the completed example may be found on page. I validated my data in a number of ways. I created a couple of input masks so that information could not be entered incorrectly; fig 1. 2 displays an error that was displayed if you entered text in a numeric field. Another one was to just check all entries by proof reading them, both as I entered them and then reading through again after entering them. The second was to run a spell check, to pick up on any spelling anomalies and allow me to check the manually. This picked up on a couple of mistakes which I was able to edit (see fig 1. 1 below).

Exam Review Guide

Exam 3 Review Guide This guide lists the areas that you should concentrate on when reviewing for Exam 3. To adequately prepare for the test, you should first read the General Tso, Meet Steven Covey article to get comfortable with it. Then, as you review the items listed below, think in terms of how the theories discussed in class relate to the particular scenario described in the article. The exam will consist of multiple essay questions. Please don’t forget to bring a copy of the article with you, so that you will be able to have it available for your reference.You may highlight the article but you cannot write anything on your copy. Be prepared to identify issues, sources of the issues, and formulate/justify your recommendations. Should you have any questions in the course of your preparation, please do not hesitate to e-mail or call me. Good luck! Language, Culture, and Communication †¢ the context of language-based communication †¢ low-context cultures and explic it communication †¢ high-context cultures favor a more diffuse communication style †¢ communication on the Internet †¢ ethnocentrism †¢ stereotypesIntercultural Marketing Communications I †¢ clarifying the brand identity †¢ achieving visibility through identity-building brand exposure †¢ involving the consumer in brand-building experiences Intercultural Marketing Communications II †¢ service essentials †¢ the five lessons pertaining to services Great Leaps, Persistence, and Innovation: The Evolving Story of Hyundai †¢ Hyundai’s three-fold strategy †¢ the three pillars of Hyundai’s philosophy The Art and Science of Managing the New Global Corporation†¢ Napoleon’s words of wisdom †¢ being part of the solution vs. eing part of the problem †¢ the differences between managing a privately held business and managing a publicly held business †¢ the leadership model of the Carlson Industries (i. e . , the various components of the circle) Marketing the Arts: The Secret Weapon †¢ the importance of mission for not-for-profit organizations †¢ the important issue of economic nature and the influence of innovation on achieving productivity gains †¢ the third challenge in running arts organizations †¢ the mantra of running a successful arts organization †¢ the two types of marketing according to Michael Kaiser †¢ the two audiences that art organizations cater to