Advantages of living in big cities

Advantages of living in big cities better transport facilities:shanghai has an extensive public transport system, largely based on buses, trolley buses, taxis, and a rapidly expanding metro system. There are 12 metro lines and 303 stations,with an operating route length of 468 kilometres (291 m'), making the system the second longest in the world. On 16 October 2013, with the extension of Line 11 into Kunshan, Jiangsu province, Shanghai Metro became the first rapid transit system in China to connect two provincial-level administrative ivisions.There are plans to further connect the Shanghai Metro with the metro systems of Suzhou and Wuxi. more Job opportunities : Firstly, the industrialization has given a lot of new Jobs such as services, advertising and marketing. As a consequence, opportunities to work in those brand new fields are widely suggested to everyone. Afterward, multinational companies have been coming to cooperate and set up economic relationships with the country. Facto ries and branches are opened in the city as a result. This has led to appealing offers of large number of Jobs for many dwellers.Thus, It's much easier to find a well paid Job or any Job for despered. better quality of education :schools are incomparable with those in a smal towns. Fudan University, Jiao Tong University, shanghai newyork university Descent medical care and hospitals: when you have an emergency or a serious disease in a big city you can easy find any hospital near a place you live and take a short time to get there. meet more people:Cities have a large population and plenty of people to ommunicate with, often from several nationalities.To meet people from different parts of the world, you may not need to go any farther than the local grocery store or park. the myriad life of the metropolis :easy access to cinemas ,theaters, museums for those who like culture. For fussys, shops on every corner,lots of pubs and restaurants to choose. Places to go and things to do in a city are not hard to find. Dating and nightlife are abundant in cities; plenty of clubs and social gatherings give ou a better chance of meeting friends or that special someone.If you get home from work late and have no time to cook, a restaurant is sure to be close to home. If you are too tired to go out, it is as simple as a phone call to have the food delivered quickly to your door. When you are in the mood for a good movie or concert, there are usually several to choose from within a short driving distance. If you want to shop, the local mall has many stores in one place. Plenty of schools exist close to home for children. By Julieyuyixian Advantages of Living in Big Cities Shanghai has an extensive public transport system, largely based on buses, trolley buses, taxis, and a rapidly expanding metro system. There are 12 metro lines and 303 stations,with an operating route length of 468 kilometres (291 mi), making the system the second longest in the world. On 16 October 2013, with the extension of Line 11 into Kunshan, Jiangsu province, Shanghai Metro became the first rapid transit system in China to connect two provincial-level administrative divisions.There are plans to further connect the Shanghai Metro with the metro systems of Suzhou and Wuxi. more job opportunities : Firstly, the industrialization has given a lot of new jobs such as services, advertising and marketing. As a consequence, opportunities to work in those brand new fields are widely suggested to everyone. Afterward, multinational companies have been coming to cooperate and set up economic relationships with the country. Factories and branches are opened in the city as a result. This has led to appealing offers of large number of jobs for many dwellers.Thus, It’s much easier to find a well paid job or any job for despered. better quality of education: schools are incomparable with those in a smal towns. Fudan University, Jiao Tong University, shanghai newyork university Descent medical care and hospitals: when you have an emergency or a serious disease in a big city you can easy find any hospital near a place you live and take a short time to get there. meet more people:Cities have a large population and plenty of people to communicate with, often from several nationalities.To meet people from different parts of the world, you may not need to go any farther than the local grocery store or park. the myriad life of the metropolis :easy access to cinemas ,theaters, museums for those who like culture. For fussys, shops on every corner,lots of pubs and restaurants to choose. Places to go and things to do in a city are not hard to find. Dating and nightlife are ab undant in cities; plenty of clubs and social gatherings give you a better chance of meeting friends or that special someone.If you get home from work late and have no time to cook, a restaurant is sure to be close to home. If you are too tired to go out, it is as simple as a phone call to have the food delivered quickly to your door. When you are in the mood for a good movie or concert, there are usually several to choose from within a short driving distance. If you want to shop, the local mall has many stores in one place. Plenty of schools exist close to home for children.

Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill

The book under consideration, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, has been written by Jeremy Scahill. The author of this book has presented a very hard-left perception on Blackwater USA, which has proclaimed itself, to be a contractor of private military as well as a security firm.Blackwater USA, according to the author owes its subsistence, reduction of the U.S. armed forced after the Cold War and it owes it’s well-being to the addition in the number of these forces after the tragedy of 9/11 and it further owes it’s disrepute to the fact that it has gained a reputation of being a mercenary setup which has the tendency to finish off the limitations on the army systems that are accountable to state power. Main Theme of the BookIn his well-known book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, the author Jeremy Scahill puts forward information about the Bush Administration as well as its rising reliance on private secur ity forces such as Blackwater USA in particular and the efforts in Congress so as to bring them in. Through his book, the author has exposed the truth behind Blackwater the mercenary firm and the dangers that it brings about because of the outsourcing the government’s domination that it has on the use of force over people.The author of the book has described the growth of Blackwater, since the very beginning with respect to its organizational and instructional functions to what has now turned into a battle position serving as an interior security force in Iraq. In the words of the author, â€Å"Meet Blackwater USA, the powerful private army that the U. S. government has quietly hired to operate in international war zones and on American soil. This is the unauthorized story of the epic rise of one of the most powerful and secretive forces to emerge from the U. S. military-industrial complex† (Scahill, front cover).The book puts forward citations from representatives of the company according to whom Blackwater has the capacity to become so large that it can readily supply brigade-sized forces for civilized reasons, such as matters of maintaining peace as well as low-level disagreements. At the same time as placing emphasis on the likelihood of an a very daring President, who had the courage to take up the services of the mercenaries of Blackwater clandestinely, the author underrates the consequence of exposure on the deniability that he considers as crucial for happenings like these.Debatably, he also negates and that too in a very light manner the image of Blackwater which has now come down to a sort of reputable successor to a long and praiseworthy custom of indenture soldiering. Eventually, Blackwater as well as its other less famous equivalents flourish not just because of a neoconservative plot in opposition to the democratic system, as the author pronounces, but for the reason that they present comparatively low-priced substitutes and options in surroundings that have higher budgets as well as litheness at a time when war is progressively more erratic.The book presents to us the truth about Blackwater as well as its actions along with information about its rise as well as an account of the streets of Fallujah, to the bloodshed taking place in Najaf as well as the US gulf wrecked with storms and Washington DC, where higher authorities of Blackwater continue to be considered heroes fighting the war on terror. The book says that the resistance of the Iraqi people is perhaps the fault of the American soldiers themselves. According to the book, â€Å"the ensuing slaughter by U. S. troops would fuel the fierce Iraqi resistance that haunts occupation forces to this day† (Scahill, front page).Conclusion In the light of the above discussion we can hereby culminate that the book under consideration namely Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army was written by Jeremy Scahill. In this book, the autho r puts forward the truth about Blackwater as the rising most powerful mercenary army as well as the way by which the Bush administration hired it secretly and the problems that it poses. Works Cited Scahill, J. Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. United States of America. Nation Books. ISBN-10: 1560259795. Pg 1, front cover

Pigs are emotional and sensitive Research Paper - 1

Pigs are emotional and sensitive - Research Paper Example Regardless of how intelligent and emotional pigs are, humans still raise them as livestock and treat them in less than humane ways. This paradox lies in contradiction with a number of assumptions we hold about the world we share with our fellow creatures (Fudge). In spite of a popular concept of a pig as a filthy, mechanical being, scientists know pigs are capable of complex emotions and thoughts. The domestic pig belongs to the genus Sus, as classified by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. There are approximately 2 billion domestic pigs on the planet; they are remarkably social and intelligent animals. One of the first animals to be domesticated, domestic pigs can be made to perform any number of tricks and tasks. They are commonly raised for meat (or pork) as livestock and for leather. Inconsistent with popular perceptions of pigs, it is actually the case that the pig’s sensory life is filled with a mass of information, requiring the animal to interpret and filter it quickly in order to deal with the world. Quite acute, the pig’s sensory inputs include highly adept senses of sound, sight, touch, olfaction, and taste. Despite having a relatively poor sense of sound, pigs use verbal communications in a quite advanced way. Auditory signals and vocalizations convey complex sets of information between pigs, such as the sender’s identity (Held, Cooper and Mendl 48). For example, piglets recognize the grunts of their own mother. Like their sense of sound, pigs do not have a particularly strong sense of vision. Poor visual acuity and color discrimination in pigs suggest vision is only a secondary sense as the pig seeks out food. The domestic pig’s sense of touch is far more acute than either its sense of sound or sight. Pain, by definition, functions to bring attention to specific areas of tissue damage to protect an area of damage. There is a difference between short- and long-term pains; the

Produce a report comparing the methodological approaches undertaken by Essay

Produce a report comparing the methodological approaches undertaken by the authors from two peer reviewed journal articles - Essay Example Numerous researches have been conducted and are being conducted in various fields of studies. If a person wants to know some new thing of certain issue or enhance his/her knowledge regarding some commonly known issues, then indulging himself/herself in through research regarding the issue of his/her concern would be the best thing. It will also help others to know about certain things. However, conducting research is not an easy thing. A systematic way has to be adopted to obtain reliable and viable results. A research method comprises of various steps. There are also different kinds of research methodology. Methodology of researched vary according to the purpose and objective of researches. This paper will put its focus on comparing the methodological approaches undertaken by the authors from two peer reviewed journal articles. For the purpose of this study, two articles should be chosen from same field of research otherwise comparison of the methodologies will not be quite helpful. Various kinds of researches can be conducted in the same field of study and hence methods also differ on the basis of purpose of the studies irrespective of the field of study. In this paper a particular topic area has been chosen. The topic area under consideration is impacts of holding the world cup in a country, the pros and cons. The two research articles chosen for the present study belong to the topic area selected for the present purpose. The prodigious sport events have become so much demanding and super popular throughout the globe both for both the developed and developing countries in terms of property and possessions (Swart and Bob 2009). Hosting mega events like Olympic, the FIFA World Cup or World Cup Cricket, World Cup Rugby, World Cup Hockey, FA Cup and other mega sports events bring up some significant the long living on the hosting countries. It has been a kind of norm that Economists have been very skeptical about hosting very big events such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup, or the FA Cup because these events have reasonable costing scale and seem to have tangible benefits. These doubts are seldomly used by policy makers and the population who remains very excited about such events. Very often people talk about economic impacts of hoisting mega sports events. By the help of different trade models various researches have shows that hosting such big events do have a positive impact on national exports. Statistically, this effect is robust, large and permanent for countries who host such mega events. Also there are phenomenon where unsuccessful bids to host such events like Olympics have a similar positive effect on national exports. Here it can be said that the effect of mega sports events have a positive impact on trade wherein they send a signal that countries will have higher profit margin more in bidding to host the games rather than actually going out carrying out the mega events. But it is not very clear how this large effect on t rade can be reconciled with the fall in GDP. Most probably, there is a signaling effect and a winners’ curse effect that works out over here. However, the effect of hosting mega sports events is not only limited to economical factors. The impacts can be economical, foundational, environmental or social. The impacts can be good or bad. It is really interesting to examine the impacts of hosting

The sovereign funds in the Gulf area and how they are affected by Essay

The sovereign funds in the Gulf area and how they are affected by different international circumstances - Essay Example As per the findings obtained, it has been apparently observed that the occurrence of worldwide financial crisis during the period from 2008 to 2009 largely affected the SWFs operating in the Gulf region. It is strongly believed that over the few preceding years, SWFs have played an imperative role in offering capital globally, making significant improvements in traditional investment approaches. These improvements can be measured in the form of raising direct investments, augmenting the exposure of the SWFs in selective emerging business markets and diversifying their respective portfolio across diverse industries (Ali & Al-Aswad, 2012). Although the numbers as well as the size of the SWFs have risen dramatically in this present day context, as an instrument of maximising investment returns, this research study would provide a brief idea about how these SWFs provide benefits in the Gulf area and gets affected by varied international circumstances. It is worth mentioning that this particular research study will reflect about how the SWFs have imposed extensive impact on maximising the investment returns in the Gulf area and how these fund were in turn influenced by any sort of intern ational situation. This research study has been taken into concern in order to assess the imperative roles that have been played by the SWFs towards making the Gulf area richer in various comprising employment and greater financial liquidity among others. It would be vital to mention in this similar concern that this research study would be backed up by critically analysing various literature studies concerning the above stated research title and framing appropriate research objectives along with questions. In addition, various other important contents that encompass research design, data collection as well as analysis and finally, a conclusion

Chemistry in Daily Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Chemistry in Daily Life - Essay Example This world is made up of matter. We human beings are part of matter as we live in this world. Our body is made up of matter of different kinds. Matter is embedded in everything that contributes to protect our life - right from the food we have to the environment we live in. And, from what we eat to where we live, it is all related to chemistry. The human body thrives on organic compounds like proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, etc., and defends itself with enzymes such as catalase, reducing agents such as glutathione and cysteine, and we eat antioxidants such as vitamin C, E and polyphenol, etc.,) as our food to survive. Men in pre-historic age lived by using natural things / materials to a large extent. By the passage of time, man has now learnt to use natural resources to develop things for us as per his needs. Today, there is hardly any area in which Chemistry does not play a critical role in a man's daily life. Toiletries, cosmetic and beautifying products are some other items which are of use in our daily life. There are products like carbolic acids, toothpaste, mouth-fresheners, moisturizers, skin creams, face powders, deodorants, shampoos and soaps which sets off a day in our life. In all these products, lots of chemical ingredients are used. Carbolic acids are used as disinfectants to protect the bathroom and toilets from causing infections and keeping them clean. We start our day early morning by brushing our teeth. We use tooth paste to keep our teeth fresh, shiny and to protect them from decaying. We also use mouth fresheners (liquid) to keep bad breath - Halitosis in scientific term - at bay. Toothpaste includes water (H2O), Glycerol (CH2OH), Dibasic calcium phosphate (CaHPO4), Sodium N-lauroyl sarcosinate, Carrageenan, Fluorides, etc., and some toothpastes even contain salt in their ingredients. Isn't it amazing that there are so many chemical ingredients involved in a small tube of toothpaste! Cosmetic items like moisturizers, skin creams, face powders, deodorants, lipsticks, shampoos and soaps include numerous ingredients like water, emulsifiers, preservatives, thickener, color and fragrance components. A bathing soap may contain chemical additives like caustic soda, citric acid, sodium chloride, mineral oil, scent, etc. Similarly, a detergent soap and powder and dishwasher soap or powder may contain many chemical compositions. Chemistry and food As we enter the kitchen, the main object that stands out is the stove. Most of the kitchen in this modern world is furnished with gas stoves. A gas stove mainly runs on cooking gas containing butane, ethane and propane and may also include methyl or ethyl mercaptans. Though not substantially used of late, stoves running on fuel like kerosene and gasoline had been of much use in the yesteryears and are still in use in remote places where there is scarcity of cooking gas. What is essential to lead a healthy life is food. Every food that is cooked includes chemicals which further multiply into more chemicals due to the reaction while cooking. For instance, rice contains carbohydrates and when it is cooked, it undergoes many chemical reactions, multiplying the available chemical elements into numerous other chemical

Hot house song Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hot house song - Essay Example There is trading depicted where the four; Dizzy Gillespie, Parker, George and Stan Levy change turns from trumpet to piano then to trumpet as the drums are being played at the background. The role of the guitar is to give a fast tempo to the melody as the drums gives the transition sound change from trumpet to piano. The piano and trumpet are the main instruments giving the harmonic structure of the melody. The sequence of events in the melody begins with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker introducing the melody at the same time as Stan Levy plays drums in the background. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie play alto sax and trumpet in turns respectively. Later George Shearing play the piano alone after the trumpet and finally the melody is concluded by Dizzy and Parker. Dizzy appear to be the main soloist. His participation is impressive since he shows facial expressions implying he is filling the melody within himself. The solo is successful in the melody since his facial expression attracts the audience attention and interest.

Effect of Taxation on the Investment Decision in Firms Research Paper

Effect of Taxation on the Investment Decision in Firms - Research Paper Example The government dishes out sops to specific sectors and fulfills its task of generating enough growth in high risk sectors. The investment decision of firms depends upon various factors like the political will and stability, the infrastructure and the tax regime. The taxes levied on corporate investments also have a direct bearing on the profitability of these firms; hence they become a vital factor while taking any investment decisions. This therefore makes tax rates an important instrument with governments who manipulate it to ensure economic growth of a country. This paper examines the effect of taxes on investment decisions of the firms. It explains the various factors that affect firms functioning in the high risk taking sectors and the various instruments available with the government by which they can assist these firms to attain a better economic growth both for the firms and the country. In the end a case study of the steps taken to promote investments in the European Union amplifies the points made in the paper. The profits that a firm earns are directly affected by the rate of taxes that are levied on its produce. This has a bearing on its investment capacity. The poor infrastructure and institutional facilities combined with high tax rates can make any country a poor investment destination for firms. The tax system is an effective tool in the hands of the government to encourage those sectors which require investments of long gestational periods or poorly developed sectors where there is a need of capital investment. By altering the tax rates governments can shift the investments from more lucrative to high risk sectors by giving cuts in corporate tax and accelerated depreciation so as to increase the post tax profitability of the firm. This will lead to long run growth of the business as well as the economy. The effects of the proposed tax cuts like the capital gain tax, import duty exemption or local indirect taxes should be measured in relation to the expenditure change that they can offset. Such reductions in tax rates increase the firm's investment capability. Lower taxes help to reap a higher profit by the firms. The role of the government The government hands out large incentives to firms that are keen to invest in high risk sectors but which are good for the overall growth of the country. These sops can be in the form of tax holidays, import duty exemptions, exemption from custom duties etc. The firm's investment decision is greatly influenced by these tax exemptions. Other major factors that also affect the investments are the political and economic stability of the nation, infrastructure facilities, transport system, roads etc. These factors have an important bearing as they make the environment more conducive for investment, tax rebates are important but cannot be the sole incentive for investment. Especially in the case of MNC and FDI, studies reveal that the investors are mostly influenced by the market, political factors and tax rebates which are being offered. The government attracts foreign investment in targeted high risk

Change of Focus For Your Financial Organisation From Transactional to Essay

Change of Focus For Your Financial Organisation From Transactional to Relationship Marketing - Essay Example II. Background â€Å"Today’s financial services customers is a ‘Butterfly Customer’, sceptical, and not loyal to any product or company, and yours only until the next good thing comes along† (O’Dell & Pajunen, 2008, p.24). Because of this, HSBC requires a sound methodology for conducting market research to ensure more customer volume increases. HSBC Australia conducts routine customer-related surveys to gain quantitative information about the brand in the eyes of customers, willingness to recommend HSBC over other target competition, and a variety of customer service feedback systems. Refer to Appendix A for a chart of survey results associated with intent to recommend HSBC from the company’s 2010 annual report which highlights the very low level of word-of-mouth HSBC can rely on based on this quantitative information. Financial services at HSBC include personalized planning from HSBC financial planners in areas of superannuation, retirement p lanning, wealth creation, borrowing for investment purposes, and personal insurance policies (hsbc.com.au, 2011). Since it has been determined that HSBC is not meeting its Board-mandated sales results in gaining customer loyalty for using HSBC for its financial planning, the business must revamp its current marketing strategies and change its current format of reliance on market research tools. Tightening of monetary policies from the government has a very hard impact on interest rates during a recession. This makes investment less attractive to customers and they instead seek bank loans (Bolton & Freixas, 2006). It has been established that HSBC outperforms most of its Australian competition in banking, and it is necessary to try to restore confidence in target consumers to ensure that existing banking customers and new customers choose HSBC for its financial planning and investment services offerings. III. Discussion It is being proposed that HSBC conduct a new type of market rese arch program that includes qualitative data in the form of questionnaires rather than the traditional survey format. Qualitative research provides key insights into emotional capacity of consumers, their confidence in banking and investment, and also serves to uncover the psychological dimensions of what is driving such a high resistance to financial planning services. Why is this a preferred research format over the survey currently being utilized? Financial investment services represent risk to the consumers. Financial decision making is driven by the willingness to accept risk along with intuitive factors, such as trust in a brand, as well as data and options analyses (fsa.gov.uk, 2005, p.9). Intuitive factor is the key phrase in this proposal, since most of this is based on sociological or psychological factors which determine how a consumer structures and plans their investment strategies. Identifying which financial services planners best fit the buyer needs is a very elongate d search process that include pricing, perceptions of reliability, service quality, and many other factors (Laffey & Gandy, 2009). The longer a search process takes, the less chance a brand has of gaining consumer interest immediately in areas of promotion. The data gleaned from qualitative research

In the Time of the Butterflies - the Main Ideas Movie Review

In the Time of the Butterflies - the Main Ideas - Movie Review Example Minerva, played by Salma Hayek in the movie In the Time of the Butterflies, was invited to dance with Trujillo. During their dance, Trujillo elicited an indecent proposal to Minerva, which she declined by slapping Trujillo in the middle of the crowd, and she then walked out. The next morning, her father sent a letter of apology to Trujillo, but it was not accepted, and her father was imprisoned along with the killings of their relatives. Minerva wanted to take revenge, and in the course, she met Lio, played by Mark Anthony, who was studying law. However, Trujillo did not stop pursuing Minerva, and when she decided to study law, Trujillo made her entrance to schools difficult. With this on hand, Minerva created a deal with Trujillo, and in the long run, she was able to graduate from law school. Even so, she was not able to get her license and practice. In the wake of her desperation, she was offered by Trujillo to sleep with him, and in return, he will leave her family at peace. Howev er, Minerva declined the offer, and she and her sisters decided to fight alongside the anti-Trujillo group where they were known as the Butterflies. After tiring himself from pursuing Minerva, Trujillo ordered for the death of the Mirabal sisters and covered it as a car accident. The Dominican Republic was once governed by Trujillo, who is an authoritarian dictator from 1930 to 1947. He was able to control and train the police and the army during his regime in order to exercise power over those who resisted his dictatorship. For this reason, many of those who were against Trujillo went underground in order to escape the hunt by Trujillo’s army. This is one of the themes of the movie, the cruelty, and the resistance during the time of Trujillo.

Solid Objects Virginia Woolf Essay Example for Free

Solid Objects Virginia Woolf Essay Virginia Woolf The only thing that moved upon the vast semicircle of the beach was one small black spot. As it came nearer to the ribs and spine of the stranded pilchard boat, it became apparent from a certain tenuity in its blackness that this spot possessed four legs; and moment by moment it became more unmistakable that it was composed of the persons of two young men. Even thus in outline against the sand there was an unmistakable vitality in them; an indescribable vigour in the approach and withdrawal of the bodies, slight though it was, which proclaimed some violent argument issuing from the tiny mouths of the little round heads. This was corroborated on closer view by the repeated lunging of a walking–stick on the right–hand side. â€Å"You mean to tell me . . . You actually believe . . .† thus the walkingstick on the right–hand side next the waves seemed to be asserting as it cut long straight stripes upon the sand. â€Å"Politics be damned!† issued clearly from the body on the left–hand side, and, as these words were uttered, the mouths, noses, chins, little moustaches, tweed caps, rough boots, shooting coats, and check stockings of the two speakers became clearer and clearer; the smoke of their pipes went up into the air; nothing was so solid, so living, so hard, red, hirsute and virile as these two bodies for miles and miles of sea and sandhill. They flung themselves down by the six ribs and spine of the black pilchard boat. You know how the body seems to shake itself free from an argument, and to apologize for a mood of exaltation; flinging itself down and expressing in the looseness of its attitude a readiness to take up with something new—whatever it may be that comes next to hand. So Charles, whose stick had been slashing the beach for half a mile or so, began skimming flat pieces of slate over the water; and John, who had exclaimed â€Å"Politics be damned!† began burrowing his fingers down, down, into the sand. As his hand went further and further beyond the wrist, so that he had to hitch his sleeve a little higher, his eyes lost their intensity, or rather the background of thought and experience which gives an inscrutable depth to the eyes of grown people disappeared, leaving only the clear transparent surface, expressing nothing but wonder, which the eyes of young children display. No doubt the act of b urrowing in the sand had something to do with it. He remembered that, after digging for a little, the water oozes round your finger–tips; the hole then becomes a moat; a well; a spring; a secret channel to the sea. As he was choosing which of these things to make it, still working his fingers in the water, they curled round something hard—a full drop of solid matter—and gradually dislodged a large irregular lump, and brought it to the surface. When the sand coating was wiped off, a green tint appeared. It was a lump of glass, so thick as to be almost opaque; the smoothing of the sea had completely worn off any edge or shape, so that it was impossible to say whether it had been bottle, tumbler or window–pane; it was nothing but glass; it was almost a precious stone. You had only to enclose it in a rim of gold, or pierce it with a wire, and it became a jewel; part of a necklace, or a dull, green light upon a finger. Perhaps after all it was really a gem; something worn by a dark Princess trailing her finger in the water as she sat in the stern of the boat and listened to the slaves singing as they rowed her across the Bay. Or the oak sides of a sunk Elizabethan treasureâ€⠀œchest had split apart, and, rolled over and over, over and over, its emeralds had come at last to shore. John turned it in his hands; he held it to the light; he held it so that its irregular mass blotted out the body and extended right arm of his friend. The green thinned and thickened slightly as it was held against the sky or against the body. It pleased him; it puzzled him; it was so hard, so concentrated, so definite an object compared with the vague sea and the hazy shore. Now a sigh disturbed him—profound, final, making him aware that his friend Charles had thrown all the flat stones within reach, or had come to the conclusion that it was not worth while to throw them. They ate their sandwiches side by side. When they had done, and were shaking themselves and rising to their feet, John took the lump of glass and looked at it in silence. Charles looked at it too. But he saw immediately that it was not flat, and filling his pipe he said with the energy that dismisses a foolish strain of thought: â€Å"To return to what I was saying—† He did not see, or if he had seen would hardly have noticed, that John, after looking at the lump for a moment, as if in hesitation, slipped it inside his pocket. That impulse, too, may have been the impulse which leads a child to pick up one pebble on a path strewn with them, promising it a life of warmth and security upon the nursery mantelpiece, delighting in the sense of power and benignity which such an action confers, and believing that the heart of the stone leaps with joy when it sees itself chosen from a  million like it, to enjoy this bliss instead of a life of cold and wet upon the high road. â€Å"It might so easily have been any other of the millions of stones, but it was I, I, I!† Whether this thought or not was in John’s mind, the lump of glass had its place upon the mantelpiece, where it stood heavy upon a little pile of bills and letters and served not only as an excellent paper–weight, but also as a natural stopping place for the young man’s eyes when they wandered from his book. Looked at again and again half consciously by a mind thinking of something else, any object mixes itself so profoundly with the stuff of thought that it loses its actual form and recomposes itself a little differently in an ideal shape which haunts the brain when we least expect it. So John found himself attracted to the windows of curiosity shops when he was out walking, merely because he saw something which reminded him of the lump of glass. Anything, so long as it was an object of some kind, more or less round, perhaps with a dying flame deep sunk in its mass, anything—china, glass, amber, rock, marble—even the smooth oval egg of a prehistoric bird would do. He took, also, to keeping his eyes upon the ground, especially in the neighbourhood of waste land where the household refuse is thrown away. Such objects often occurred there—thrown away, of no use to anybody, shapeless, discarded. In a few months he had collected four or five specimens that took their place upon the mantelpiece. They were useful, too, for a man who is standing for Parliament upon the brink of a brilliant career has any number of papers to keep in order—addresses to constituents, declarations of policy, appeals for subscriptions, invitations to dinner, and so o n. One day, starting from his rooms in the Temple to catch a train in order to address his constituents, his eyes rested upon a remarkable object lying half–hidden in one of those little borders of grass which edge the bases of vast legal buildings. He could only touch it with the point of his stick through the railings; but he could see that it was a piece of china of the most remarkable shape, as nearly resembling a starfish as anything— shaped, or broken accidentally, into five irregular but unmistakable points. The colouring was mainly blue, but green stripes or spots of some kind overlaid the blue, and lines of crimson gave it a richness and lustre of the most attractive kind. John was determined to possess it; but the more he pushed, the further it receded. At length he was forced to go back to his rooms and improvise a wire ring attached to the end of a stick, with which, by dint of great care and skill, he finally drew the piece of china within reach of his hands. As he seized hold of it he exclaimed in triumph. At that moment the clock struck. It was out of the question that he should keep his appointment. The meeting was held without him. But how had the piece of china been broken into this remarkable shape? A careful examination put it beyond doubt that the star shape was accidental, which made it all the more strange, and it seemed unlikely that there should be another such in existence. Set at the opposite end of the mantelpiece from the lump of glass that had been dug from the sand, it looked like a creature from another world—freakish and fantastic as a harlequin. It seemed to be pirouetting through space, winking light like a fitful star. The contrast between the china so vivid and alert, and the glass so mute and contemplative, fascinated him, and wondering and amazed he asked himself how the two came to exist in the same world, let alone to stand upon the same narrow strip of marble in the same room. The question remained unanswered. He now began to haunt the places which are most prolific of broken china, such as pieces of waste land between railway lines, sites of demolished houses, and commons in the neighbourhood of London. But china is seldom thrown from a great height; it is one of the rarest of human actions. You have to find in conjunction a very high house, and a woman of such reckless impulse and passionate prejudice that she flings her jar or pot straight from the window without thought of who is below. Broken china was to be found in plenty, but broken in some trifling domestic accident, without purpose or character. Nevertheless, he was often astonished as he came to go into the question more deeply, by the immense variety of shapes to be found in London alone, and there was still more cause for wonder and speculation in the differences of qualities and designs. The finest specimens he would bring home and place upon his mantelpiece, where, however, their duty was mo re and more of an ornamental nature, since papers needing a weight to keep them down became scarcer and scarcer. He neglected his duties, perhaps, or discharged them absent–mindedly, or his constituents when they visited him were unfavourably impressed by the appearance of his mantelpiece. At any rate he was not elected to represent them in Parliament, and his friend Charles, taking it much to heart and hurrying to condole with him, found him so little cast down by the disaster that he could only suppose that it was too serious a matter for him to realize all at once. In truth, John had been that day to Barnes Common, and there under a furze bush had found a very remarkable piece of iron. It was almost identical with the glass in shape, massy and globular, but so cold and heavy, so black and metallic, that it was evidentlyalien to the earth and had its origin in one of the dead stars or was itself the cinder of a moon. It weighed his pocket down; it weighed the mantelpiece down; it radiated cold. And yet the meteorite stood upon the same ledge with the lump of glass and the star– shaped china. As his eyes passed from one to another, the determination to possess objects that even surpassed these tormented the young man. He devoted himself more and more resolutely to the search. If he had not been consumed by ambition and convinced that one day some newly–discovered rubbish heap would reward him, the disappointments he had suffered, let alone the fatigue and derision, would have made him give up the pursuit. Provided with a bag and a long stick fitted with an adaptable hook, he ransacked all deposits of earth; raked beneath matted tangles of scrub; searched all alleys and spaces between walls where he had learned to expect to find objects of this kind thrown away. As his standard became higher and his taste more severe the disappointments were innumerable, but always some gleam of hope, some piece of china or glass curiously marked or broken lured him on. Day after day passed. He was no longer young. His career—that is his political career—was a thing of the past. People gave up visiting him. He was too silent to be worth asking to dinner. He never talked to anyone about his serious ambitions; their lack of understanding was apparent in their behaviour. He leaned back in his chair now and watched Charles lift the stones on the mantelpiece a dozen times and put them down emphatically to mark what he was saying about the conduct of the Government, without once noticing their existence. â€Å"What was the truth of it, John?† asked Charles suddenly, turning and facing him. â€Å"What made you give it up like that all in a second?† â€Å"I’ve not given it up,† John replied. â€Å"But you’ve not the ghost of a chance now,† said Charles roughly. â€Å"I don’t agree with you there,† said John with conviction. Charles looked at him and was profoundly uneasy; the most extraordinary doubts possesse d him; he had aqueer sense that they were talking about different things. He looked round to find some relief for his horrible depression, but the disorderly appearance of the room depressed him still further. What was that stick, and the old carpet bag hanging against the wall? And then those stones? Looking at John, something fixed and distant in his expression alarmed him. He knew only too well that his mere appearance upon a platform was out of the question. â€Å"Pretty stones,† he said as cheerfully as he could; and saying that he had an appointment to keep, he left John—for ever.

Transparency in Central Banks: An Analysis

Transparency in Central Banks: An Analysis Introduction The origin of central banking system can be traced back to 1694 when the Bank of England came into being as the first ever central bank. The bank was established to help King William III out of his governments financial crisis but it did not behave as a lender of last resort until much later (See Lovell, 1957)1. Central banking has undergone a remarkable change during the last decade. The new paradigm in monetary policy appears to be central bank self-governing and transparent. First of all lets see what central bank and transparency means, a central bank is a Government agency that performs a number of key functions: (1) central bank is the only bank which has the authority to issue currency on behalf of its nation; (2) central bank has authority to increase and decrease the supply of credit in the economy which controls the interest rates; (3) manages the external value of its currency in the foreign exchange markets; (4) central bank holds a percentage of deposits as reserves of other banks and other central banks so as to reduce the risk of banks overextending themselves and suffering from bank runs, (5) acts as Fiscal Agent for the central government, when the government sells new issues of securities to finance its operations; and (6) The central bank also plays a vital role of reserving the nations emergency funds, and it is because of this the central bank is called lender of last resort. Transparency in the physically meaning, transmitting light, in the conceptually meaning, clarity, in the economically meaning, symmetric information, and in the practically meaning, openness, honesty, clarity, common understanding2. We can say that central bank is a combination all these that is, it openly correspond or communicates important and necessary information to the investors, shareholders and the public in short absence of asymmetric information between central bank and other economic agents. Therefore a central bank is said to be transparent when there is less or no information asymmetry. Moreover a central bank is said to be transparent if its actions are easily identified, its policies are readily understood, and its statements are honest or true. A central bank is transparent when it provides at all times sufficient information for the public to understand the policy regime, to check whether the banks actions match the regime and to pass judgment on its performance.3 Over the past years, financial institutions have tried to implement various strategies to increase its transparency. One of the important strategies among these is, disclosure of information in published accounts has been prominent even though it was present but less prominent. A great amount of focus was given towards economic policymaking so as to become more transparent particularly with respect to monetary policy, inflation targeting a very transparent monetary policy regime was adopted by and a number of central banks, including Swedens Riksbank and Britains Bank of England. Yet, few other countries like the United States have not yet subscribed to inflation targeting, but the Fed has also become much more transparent about its policymaking and operations over the past 15 years. The New Basel Accord (Pillar 3) has introduced a number of disclosure requirements that aim to improve the markets ability to assess a banks risk and value. The drift towards central bank being more transparent can be easily seen in our day to day life by casual observation. Some of the prominent examples of various central banks who have given great importance to becoming transparent are the central banks of New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden. These few nations have adopted a framework of inflation targeting from the early 1990s itself, which is characterized by an explicit inflation target and the publication of inflation forecasts.4 Many others countries have even started to give importance to having adopted greater openness as well, even if its not in the form of inflation targeting or inflation forecasting. The few other central banks which have adopted this includes central banks in emerging markets like Brazil, the recently founded European Central Bank (ECB), and even the well established central banks like those of the United States, Japan and Switzerland. Literature Review Consider the legions of economists whose sole function it is to interpret U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspans every twist and turn of phrase so as to divine which way the monetary winds are blowing. Caroline A. Baum, The Last Word p.645 From the above phrase, two important points can be looked upon; one is that by trying to assume what the actions of monitory policy will be the resources are used up. The other is that statements are being made by the central bank that might yield some insight into its future plans, but the messages are not typically transparent. The economic policy outcome can easily be identified to a great extend by the increased transparency on central bank through various channels. It cannot be assumed that all the aspects points out the same way. Moreover, central bank transparency cannot be universally defined in all aspects6. The concept of transparency differs from authors to author in various ways, some may focus mainly on the decision-making process, while some others may focus on various other aspects like models, preferences, and even more some may look into the knowledge about the shocks hitting the economy, or the implementation of policy decisions.7 The private informations about the central banks objectives or intentions can be easily assumed from the models derived by Faust and Svensson (2000, 2001), Jensen (2000), Geraats (2001a), and Tarkka and Mayes (1999). The model by these eminent economist states that, transparency is modeled as the degree of asymmetric information about control errors (Faust and Svensson (2001) and Jensen (2000)) or (anticipated) economic shocks reflected in the policy instrument (Cukierman (2000a,b) and Tarkka and Mayes (1999)). Kuttner and Posen (2000) yet another eminent economists explains about the reduction of exchange rate volatility when there was a shift in the Federal Reserves and the Bank of Japans degrees of transparency.8 In addition to this, political pressures, increased accountability, facilitation of fiscal and monetary policy co-ordination, and improved internal organization of central bank analysis is yet another arguments in favor of transparency in monetary policy.9 Analytically, the three different regimes of transparency that is the least transparent, highly transparent and the extreme transparent are being distinguished by Faust and Svensson (2001). In the first regime, that is the least transparent, neither the employment goals nor the intentions of the central bank can be seen by the public. Inflation intentions of the central bank can be easily observed by using the second regime that is highly transparent. As a result of this increased transparency in inflation intentions there arises a lower inflation rate because the sensitivity of a central bank is increased which in-turn increases the reputation to its actions, making it more costly for the central bank to pursue a high-inflation policy. In the extreme transparency regime, that is the third according to the author, both the intentions of the central bank as well as the employment goals can be seen. The central banks reputation as well as its actions are no longer conveyed about the in flation bias. Higher inflation, inflation volatility and unemployment variability can be reached at as a result of inflationary bias.10 Yet another similar structure to Faust and Svensson (2001) was adopted by Jensen (2000) assuming that central bank is informed privately about its output target and that publics capacity to assume the inflation control error is greater. On comparison with Faust and Svensson (2001), whos main focus was on the future credibility effect of central bank, while Jensen (2000) focus was towards the marginal cost of inflation within the current period with the help of new Keynesian elements (staggered price-setting and monopolistic competition). Due to this increase in the transparency, there was an increase in the discipline and credibility to the reputational costs of deviations from the inflation target. According to some of the eminent economist, transparency is not only the tool used for independent central banks to be held accountable, but it is often argued that the economic point of view too can be desirable from it. The effect of central bank being transparent is being immensely discussed by various policymakers and researchers. Although most of the literature tends to favor transparency of central bank, its not the case, the debate still continuous whether or not central bank should be transparent or not. Most of the practical and observed research concludes that the transparency maintained by central bank previously were desirable from an economic point of view. An important question to be asked is, whether central banks pushing toward more disclosure of information are beneficial or not. Indeed, there are a number of good reasons to it. First, it can be argued that banks from the early time itself are opaque institutions, and increase in disclosure might not change this opaqueness. Second of all, transparency might not necessarily be reached at by just simply increasing the quantitative disclosures. In the words of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan: A more complex question is whether greater volume of information has led to comparable improvements in transparency of firms. In the minds of some, public disclosure and transparency are interchangeable. But they are not. Transparency challenges market participants not only to provide information but also to place that information into a context that makes it meaningful (Greenspan 2003, p. 7).11 Third, disclosure is costly. Clearly, requiring disclosure of information imposes a cost on banks, as on any firm, and this cost must be offset by resulting benefits for it to be justified (Schaffer 1995, p. 26).12 Publishing information and producing information are some of the direct cost involved in the cost of disclosure, even though these are the direct cost involved, when a bank publishes its information in the financial market, there arises a threat of its competitors exploiting the information which might result in indirect cost. Cukierman and Meltzer (1986) eminent economists developed concept of central bank transparency13. Bankers, mainly the central banks use of monitory policy control was in great fault or imperfect in order to hide their intentions. In other words, the absence of transparency with control error was evident to meet the central banks objective, at least possible reputation cost. More recently, with the setup from the Cukierman and Meltzer, Faust and Svensson (1999) was able to differentiate more between transparency and control error. Central bank chose the pair that maximizes it objective and it was to be opaque. There are still some argument that incomplete transparency is optimal, as by being incomplete optimal, the central banks ability to control inflation has to be balanced against the private sectors wish to see price stability, employment and output.(see for example Faust and Svensson, 2001 or Jensen, 2000). Others argue that for operational reasons, it is important to have certain restrictions on transparency. The main idea behind this is to differentiate between the need to know (see Eijffinger and Hoeberichts, 2002) and the need to understand factor (Issing, 1999) and to reinforce the Banks credibility. There are yet more evidence of central bank being transparent and central bank transparency being one of the important feature of monetary policy, which is been recorded in one of the most comprehensive survey being conducted till date on monitory policy of central bank. Its been recorded in the 1998 survey of 94 central banks by Fry, Julius, Mahadeva, Roger and Sterne (2000). This survey discloses that about 74% of central banks consider transparency as a vital or very important component of their monetary policy framework, only exceeded by central bank independence and the maintenance of low inflation expectations (with 83% and 82%, respectively; Fry et al. (2000, p. 135)). Subsequently, the relevance of transparency have only increased when certain changes are being done by central bank. Analysis According to one of the famous journalist, Caroline A. Baum, she says that from the phrase given by Alan Greenspan, the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, the resources are being used up at the same time the statements made by the central bank are far too less transparent. What it means to say is that the central bank should be more transparent enough so that its monitory policy at the same time its future plans can be easily understood by even a layman who might have little knowledge about the norms and policies of the central bank. By central bank being more transparent, the economic policy outcome can be know to a certain extend through various means, but it cannot be said that by central bank being transparent, all the aspects related to it can be easily viewed at. The concept of transparency differs from person to person, while so concentrate on the decision making process, others may look into the fact of policy making etc. Therefore it can be said that there is no universal meaning to central bank and varies from person to person and country to country. For example the transparency of central bank in India might not be same as the transparency in England besides taking into some common facts. According to some of the eminent economist, central bank should have an optimal degree of transparency mainly for the monitory policy, but on analysing the facts by few others about whether central bank should be more transparent or not, two aspects can be taken into account, one is the uncertainty and the other is information overload. If central banks becomes more transparent, it could lead to uncertainty, that is, when lots of information are provided to the public, they tend to look at the complexity of monitory policy making and the uncertainly around it which might not be as complex as it seems to be. The second is the high degree of information overload or confusion. If large amount of information is being disclosed to the public, there is a high risk of information getting overloaded or confused. Therefore analyst say central bank should have an optimal transparency. Kuttner and Posen states that when central bank becomes more transparent, there is less volatility in the exchange rate. Yet other important factors supporting central bank transparency are the fiscal and monitory policy coordination, political pressures, accountability etc. According to Faust and Sevensson, transparency can be segregated into three divisions, the least transparent where in the public does not know about the employment goals as well as the intentions, this has also been stated by Cukierman and Meltzer. In the second division, that is if central bank in highly transparent, the inflation intention can atleast be know by the public and finally in the case of extreme transparency, both the intentions as well as the employment goals can be seen. It can seen that Jensen another eminent economist has also taken up a similar structure to that of Faust and Svensson where the difference is that while Faust and Svensson focus on the future credibility effect of central bank, Jensens focus was on the marginal cost of inflation. Some argue that by increasing its disclosure doesnt completely increase the transparency, to support this economist states that banks have been an opaque institution from the past itself. Greenspan says that transparency is not reached at by just simply giving quantitative disclosure; it should be both quantitative and at the same time should be relevant and meaningful. Moreover disclosure is costly, that is when central bank publishes information, it incur cost both direct and indirect. Some other economists (Eijffinger and Hoeberichts and Issing) state that central bank should transparent in such a way that the information which should be known to the public should be disclosed rather than disclosing all the information. Conclusion The dispute whether central bank should be more transparent or not is still being discussed immensely by various researchers and policymakers. Most of the economist favour central bank being transparent, as well as according to the study done, it can be understood that central bank being transparent will give a clear cut information to the public regarding the various monitory policies, its decision process as well as its goals and intentions. Moreover by central bank being transparent, it reduces the macroeconomic uncertainty like the interest rates, inflation etc, promotes financial stability and mainly helps the central bank to stand out from the various other banks that is being independent. References Petra M. Geraats, Central Bank Transparency, (2007). Cruijsen and Eijffinger, Actual versus perceived central bank transparency: The case of the European central Bank, (2007). Ursel Baumann and Erlend Nier, Disclosure, Volatility, and Transparency: An Empirical Investigation into the Value of Bank Disclosure, (2004). Petra M. Geraats, Central Bank Transparency, (2002). Joseph H. Haslag, On Fed Watching and Central Bank Transparency, (2001). Georgios Chortareas, David Stasavage and Gabriel Sterne, Does it pay to be transparent? International evidence from central bank forecasts, (2001). ICMB, Why do Central Banks Need to Talk, (2001). Gary Gorton and Lixin Huang, Banking Panics and the Origin of Central Banking, (2001). Websites http://www.blurtit.com/ http://www.answers.com/ http://papers.ssrn.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/ Analysis of Hospital | Advocate Good Samaritan Analysis of Hospital | Advocate Good Samaritan ADVOCATE GOOD SAMARITAN 1 Advocate Good Samaritan is an hospital located in Illinois, and it is one of the best hospitals in United States. This organization has some of the best medical facilities, and highly skilled doctors and medical practitioners working for it. This medical organization was founded on the biblical principles of taking care of your neighbor, and it is managed by religious organizations. Introduction: Advocate Good Samaritan is a medical organization that is found in Downers Grove, a location in Illinois. This organization was opened in 1976, and since then, it has transformed itself into a national health care leader, managing to be listed as a top 100 hospitals for four times. This paper addresses the mission of the organization, its organizational structure, its SWOT analysis, sources of funding, its management information system, and the nature of the hospital. Mission and Goals of the Organization: Advocate health care is a hospital which has about 12 acute care facilities, with more than 250 outpatient locations. The mission of the organization is to offer home health care services, corporate health services, hospice and occupational health services. The company aims to achieve this mission by employing highly skilled medical personnel who have a dedication to research, education and patient care delivery. These skilled medical personnel will also be involved in the development of policies that the organization needs to pursue. The policy under consideration must be one that reflects the mission of the organization that is providing high quality services in health care (Montalvo and Dunton, 2007). The hospitals core values of excellence, compassion, stewardship and partnership provides the foundation upon which the patient and his or her family are the nucleus of the organization. On this basis, the policies that the hospital formulates are centered on the needs of the patient. In regard to this, the mission of the organization is to formulate and pursue policies aimed at taking care of the needs of the patients. By taking care of these needs, the organization believes that patients will be able to recover quickly from the various diseases and medical problems that they encounter. The organization does not only seek to carter for the needs of patients (Montalvo and Dunton, 2007). It also seeks to ensure that its employees get an opportunity to advance their career, and succeed. This is by training its medical personnel on the better medical and nursing practices. It also seeks to achieve this objective through research and development aimed at developing better medical practices that its employees need to use and adapt. In conclusion Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital values human beings as people created by God, and on this basis, it seeks to carter for their health needs based on the knowledge that people are creatures of God (Montalvo and Dunton, 2007). Organization Structure and Corporate Culture of the Hospital: For any organization to succeed, it must have an organizational structure that helps employees to know who their leaders are, and how they should relate to one another. Advocate Health Care has a top to down organizational structure whereby orders come from the top, and are channeled to the various officers down the ladder. This is for purposes of implementing the policy under consideration. The following is the organizational structure of Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital from the top, to the junior managerial staff. The President, who also acts as the Chief Executive Officer. The Executive Vice President who also acts as the Chief Operating Officer. The Executive Vice President who also acts as the Chief Medical Officer. The Senior Vice President who takes up the roles of the Chief Human Resources Officer. President of Advocate Medical Care Group. President of the Ambulatory and Physicians services. Senior Vice President who acts as the Chief Marketing Officer. Senior Vice President who acts as the Treasurer. Senior Vice President who is in charge of strategic planning. Senior Vice President who is in charge of Spiritual Care. Senior Vice President who is in charge of information. Advocate Good Samaritan also has an organizational culture, and it is diversity. The employees of the organization came from different backgrounds, cultures and racial origins. These people help in bringing about their experiences, personalities, and talents into the business organization. This is one of the main reasons as to why the organization managed to achieve success in the provision of health care, making it a top 100 hospital in United States of America. The organization does not only encourage diversity in its work force, but also focuses on meeting the various diverse needs of its customers. SWOT Analysis of the Organization: The following are the strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the organization (Truven Health Analysis, 2013); Strengths: It is the biggest integrated health care system in the US. It operates the largest emergency trauma network in the state of Illinois. The organization treats the highest number of pediatric patients in Illinois. The organization diagnoses and treats the highest number of cancer patients in the state of Illinois. It has more than 250 health care sites and this includes 10 hospitals that offer acute care, and a children’s hospital, which has two campuses. It has a high number of human resource personnel, and this includes approximately 30,000 associates, 9000 nurses, and about 6000 physicians. The hospital has teaching and academic affiliations with major universities that are located at the Chicago Metropolitan Area. The organization also has teaching hospitals namely Lutheran General Hospital, Christ Medical Centre, and Masonic Medical Centre. These institutions are responsible for training health care workers on primary health care systems. Weaknesses: Due to the large size of the organization, policy formulation always takes a long process. The top to down management policy makes it impossible for junior officers to participate in the process of policy formulation. The organization spends so much money on paying salaries and wages, at the expense of providing other services such as research and development of new medical practices/ techniques. Opportunities: The opportunity to earn more customers and referrals because of the high quality of its services, and the availability of resources to handle any type of medical condition/diseases. Opportunity to form more partnerships with learning institutions and health care providers for purposes of carrying out a research on the various medical problems that affect the society. The opportunity to attract highly skilled and talented medical practitioners because of the organizations attractive salary package and benefits. Threats: Financial uncertainty is one threat that faces the organization. This arises because of high levels of unemployment, and the state of the American economy, which is only coming out of recession. The health care reforms initiated by the Obama administration, and specifically the affordable care act, popularly referred to as the Obama Care laws. These laws area aimed at changing the structure of the health care system in the United States, creating uncertainties on how the hospital will work with other stakeholders for purposes of providing better health care services. Sources of Funding: Advocate Good Samaritan is a not for profit hospital, and it gets most of its funding from donors. The organization runs a program referred to as Giving, which aims at raising money for its various activities/ programs. People are encouraged to make a donation through a secure online payment system, or through a cheque payable through the internet. The office responsible for receiving these funds is Advocate Charitable Foundation (Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, 2014). The following are the programs initiated by Advocate Good Samaritan for purposes of raising funds. Thee first program is referred to as Matching Gift Program. Under this program, the organization encourages companies to prevail upon their employees to contribute some amount of money to the organization. It also encourages the employees of these companies to offer some volunteering services to the company. The company also accepts bonds or stocks offered by donors (Truven Health Analysis, 2013). This is also advantageous to the donor because he or she will receive a tax break, or pay less taxes incase his or her stocks increase in value. The organization also encourages co-operation organizations to give under the co-operate giving program. This program aims at providing information to cooperate organizations on the various programs and activities of the company, and hence the need of supporting the activities under consideration. To raise funds also, the organization has created the Presidents Health Society Association. People of all walks of life are encouraged to become members, but they have to pay an annual membership fee of $ 1000. (Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, 2014) Finally, the organization has an endowment policy, which is a long term financing program for the activities of the organization. Under this strategy, an individual finds an activity that he or she wants to support. The same individual must make a commitment that he or she plans to support the program over a long period of time. The Nature of the Hospital: The hospital is a teaching and referral hospital. It has approximately three hospital units that are responsible for teaching and training medical practitioners, and this includes nurses and doctors. These teaching centers are, Lutheran General Hospital, Christ Medical Centre, and Masonic Medical Centre (Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, 2014). The organization is also a referral hospital, and this is because of the facilities and resources it has. The organization has an up-to date cancer care centers, making it the leading center for cancer diagnoses and treatment in the state of Illinois. Management Information System: The organization uses technology for purposes of communicating with its employees, and patients. For example, the organization has developed computerized software referred to as Active FAX. This software helps the organization to store all the information concerning patients, and members of staff, electronically. This information management system aims to reduce the usage of files for purposes of keeping information (Truven Health Analysis, 2013) . The main advantage of this type of information management system is that information is readily available to the concerned party, at the click of a button. The organization advocates and uses the CPOE. As of 2009, it was the target of Advocate hospital that 55% of all patients must make an order, using the physician computerized order entry. Conclusion: In conclusion, Advocate Good Samaritan is one of the best hospital organizations in the United States. The hospital enjoys a good public image and reputation, partly because of the quality of services it offers, and its philosophy of putting the needs of patients at the fore-front. The hospital is not a profit making organization, and it mostly depends on donors and financial grants for purposes of carrying out its various programs and activities. This paper therefore manages to highlight virtually all aspects of the hospital. This includes its mission and goals, organizational stricter, its swot analysis, its management information system, and the kind of services it offers. References: Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. (n.d.). Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. Retrieved  January 21, 2012, from http://www.advocatehealth.com/gsam/ Montalvo, I., Dunton, N. (2007). Transforming nursing data into quality care: profiles of  quality improvement in U.S. healthcare facilities. Silver Spring, Md.: Nursesbooks.org,  American Nurses Association. Truven Health Analysis. (2013). 100 top hospitals: study overview. (20TH ed.). Ann Arbor:  Truven Healt Analytics.

Analysis Of Tescos Corporate Strategy

Analysis Of Tescos Corporate Strategy In this report I have discussed Tescos corporate strategy. The first section provides background into the company and shows that it currently dominates the UK grocery market. The next section explains the importance of a corporate strategy for long term success in any market place. Tescos is operating a two tier strategy; the first includes expansion into non food products within the UK market and creating strategic alliance with RBS for example, to create Tesco Personal Finance. The next one includes aggressive expansion into overseas grocery markets. The main aim of this report will be to study the corporate strategy regarding expansion into Middle East India. This is followed by a review of Tescos expansion plans explaining why it is necessary for Tescos to expand into overseas markets. Some of the points discussed are that Tescos UK market share in the grocery has reached a saturation point and it faces price wars from budget supermarkets such as Lidl which puts a downward pressure on profit margins. Also, Tesco earns three quarters of its revenue from UK sales and in a competitive environment it and needs to expand into India and the Middle East to increase revenue sources. The next section provides analysis on Tescos corporate strategy. The first part of the analysis is based on Porters Generic Strategy that provide options available to Tesco to sustain a competitive advantage. Cost Leadership strategy is suitable for operations in India as low prices will attract volume sales. However a combination of differentiation and niche strategy is necessary to remain profitable in UAE market due to its smaller population but higher GDP per capita. Porters five forces model is used to assess the competition in the target market with use of generic strategys attributes to defend against these competitive forces. SWOT analysis is carried out to analyze Tescos present corporate strategy showing the external factors that influence the business. Strengths include Tescos high growth in UK and overseas and its commercial standing and known brand. It has access to cheap lending and Economies of scale. Its biggest strength is its consumer oriented approach which caters to needs and demands for local consumers. Weaknesses include potential to enter into price wars with has a detrimental affect on profit margins. Also while it may offer multiple non food product lines it may not be able to compete with specialist retailers. Finally regulatory barriers in India that restrict foreign ownership of retail stores could slow down expansion into the region. The report concludes by evaluating the present corporate strategy for Tescos expansion into overseas grocery markets. The expansion is important to sustain a competitive edge. Tesco needs to ensure that in order for successful expansion it needs to remain flexible and consumer oriented and avoid mistakes made by Walmart in Germany and Brazil and Carrefour in Eastern Europe. Introduction Background Tesco was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen in East London, It is now a UK-based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain. It is the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share, with profits exceeding  £3 billion. It is currently the second largest retailer in the world based on profit. Originally specialising in food and drink, it has diversified into areas such as clothing, consumer electronics, financial services, telecoms, and home and health products. (http://www.tescoplc.com/plc/about_us/tesco_story/) The aim of this report is to analyse Tescos present corporate strategy with emphasis on what it could do to improve its business. I will provide evidence and reasons on why the companys present strategy has potentially high profitability and the aspects that need to be altered. Even though Tescos primary business of selling groceries is not unique but it is the business model that differentiates it from the rest and maintains its global market share. It has generated high profits through aggressive overseas expansion into US, Eastern Europe and South East Asia. It has maintained a strong customer focused business model, with extensive use of its club card loyalty scheme and utilizing top of the range information systems to maintain a very efficient supply chain. (P. McGoldrick, 2002) Tescos Corporate Strategy Strategic management is a set of managerial decisions and actions that determine the long term performance of a corporation. Many companies can manage short term bursts with high performance but only a few can sustain it over a long period of time.Of the original Forbes 100 companies listed in 1917, only 13 are still in business. (E.D. Beinhocker, 2006) In the last decade, Tesco brought about a lot of strategic changes and has grown to become UKs number one retailer. It is also considered to be one of Europes fastest growing financial company and probably the most successful internet supermarket in the world. (A. Seth G. Randall ,1999) Tescos is operating a two tier expansion strategy. The first part is expansion into non food sector within its home market in the UK. This includes offering home and health, pharmacy, telecommunications and financial services products. It has continued to maintain its market share in its grocery sales via aggressive pricing and targeted marketing while expanding into more risky and high profit areas with good success. Tesco setup a strategic alliance with Royal Bank of Scotland whereby it offers most of RBS banking services in its stores around the UK. It has taken advantage of its widespread network of stores. In 2008 Tesco Personal Finance had posted  £71m half year profits with 5.6m customer accounts. It is aiming to increase that profit including from other services including telecommunications to  £1bn. (J. Bamford and D. Ernst, 2002) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6257331.stm (The Economist, Supermarket Finance: A Mortgage from Tesco? 2nd Oct 2008) The second part of Tescos strategy is to expand its grocery business into Continental Europe, India, South East Asia and the Middle East Review of Tescos Expansion Plans Tesco has had great success in the UK market where it has gained over 30% of the grocery market share. There are too many hurdles such as restrictions from competition commission and local groups that will not allow Tesco to open many stores in new locations along with planning restriction in the UK. It has however continued to profit from its share in financial services and telecommunications sector. It also gained the first mover advantage when it launched tesco.com. From the figure above, we can deduce that majority of Tescos sales are from its UK operations (100-23.4 = 76.6%). This makes it more important to continue aggressive international expansion as it provides more opportunities for revenue growth. The UK grocery market share has reached a saturation point. With low cost brands such as Lidl and aggressive price war with ASDA in the UK, the profit margin for grocery products have fallen. The strategy is to diversity grocery sales into other countries and make use of the fast growing economy of India and cash heavy consumer of United Arab Emirates. In todays competitive environment Tesco cannot rely on three quarters of its revenues from one country. Of the worlds top 250 retailers, 104 have no international operations at all, according to Deloitte, a consultancy firm. Tesco could be the first one to enter the market in UAE and India to obtain the first mover advantage. (The Economist, Global Retailing:Trouble At Till, 2nd Nov 2006) In this report I will concentrate on Tescos strategy for overseas expansion in the grocery market as I believe it carries more opportunities and has higher growth potential. The primary objective of this report is on Tescos expansion plan in the India the Middle East. Analysis of Tescos Corporate Strategy The reason to carry out external analysis is to identify potential opportunities and threats facing Tesco. External analysis provides information that strategic managers use in planning, decision making and strategy formulation. It helps reduce environmental uncertainty (B.K. Boyd J. Fulk, 1996) Michael Porter has made major contribution to corporate strategy and I will use some models to judge potential of success for Tescos existing corporate strategy. Porters Generic Strategies They outline the three main strategic options available to Tesco to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. They are cost leadership, differentiation and focus/niche strategy. http://tatler.typepad.com/images/strategy.jpg Cost Leadership: The company producing products at the lowest cost can obtain competitive advantage. This strategy is suited to Tescos business operations in India as currently their involvement is restricted to wholesale sector. Foreign firms in India are unable to have 100% ownership at retail statge. Technopak, a Delhi-based retail consultancy, expects Indian retail sales to rise to nearly $430 billion by 2010. Modern retailers share will rise from just 3% now to 16-18%, it says. A low cost/low price business model will yield the highest returns and sales volumes due to size of Indias population. (The Economist, Retailing: Setting up shop in India, 2nd Nov 2006) Differentiation: It involves selling products that have unique attributes preferred by customers and as a result they are willing to pay a higher price. Although Tescos business of selling grocery products is not unique, Its business model differentiates it from rivals. Especially its club card loyalty program that allows Tesco to react to changes in consumer preferences faster and gain advantage by being the first one to address any new demand for products. Niche: Its usually suited to smaller corporations, they can enter particular segment of the market and offer specialist products. Michael Porter argued that in order to be successful in the long run, a firm must choose one of the strategies or they will not benefit. However, contemporary research has shown evidence of firms practicing such a hybrid strategy. Hambrick (1983 cited by Kim et al. 2004, p.25) identified successful organisations that adopt a mixture of low cost and differentiation strategy. A combination of differentiation and niche strategy would be most effective in the UAE market. First of all due to small population of 6m, Cost leadership model would not work as there is little potential for higher sales volumes. UAE is still a developing market and there are not many supermarkets chains with large market share. Also Tesco could offer unique products, such as its healthy living range and finest brand range that would appeal to the expatriates community which makes up 80% of UAEs population. GDP per capita of UAE is over $54,614 and high disposable income due to absence of income tax, this makes i t an ideal market for niche, high end products that carry high profit margin. M. Porter, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors http://tatler.typepad.com/images/strategy.jpg (The Economist, Retailing: Setting up shop in India, 2nd Nov 2006) Porters 5 Forces Porter explains that there are five forces inherent in markets that determine the level of competition and profitability for Tesco in UAE and India. The first force is the threat posed by new entrants, Tescos rivals, Wal-Mart and Carrefour are also expanding into overseas markets and this could lead to aggressive pricing to retain market share which may have a detrimental effect on profit margins. Currently Tesco has sufficient purchasing power to experience economies of scale which acts as a barrier to entry for other businesses. Also, it is planning a partnership with Bharti Enterprises in India where by Tesco will control wholesale market and distribution network responsible for supplying products to 5000 stores. (The Economist, Retailing: Setting Up Shop In India, 2nd Nov 2006) The second force is threat of substitutes, Grocery products have highly elastic demand and customers have alternatives if price is set too high. For example, in UAE retail sector, Tesco could establish itself as a premium grocery retailer. Once way to reduce the threat of substitutes is to diversify the business and expand into non food sectors. It could form strategic alliance with local firms to offer services, similar to its partnership with RBS in the UK. The third force is the threats from the bargaining power of buyers, this is strong for all retailers in the grocery market. It could gain significant market share if it offers products to cater for western expatriates as currently there is limited availability of English grocery items. Also, it could reduce threat of substitutes by extending its loyalty program to the UAE. Such as club card scheme, Healthy living club and Tesco Vine club etc. With prices for eating out rising fast, it could offer healthy and finest range ready meals to increase its customer base. Finally the threats from the suppliers bargaining power, its fairly low for Tesco as its usually a major customer for most suppliers and has the power to control its supplier pricing to an extent. Also in terms of rivalry, there is several small supermarkets within the UAE but none of the big ones such as Carrefour and Wal-Mart have yet entered the market. The five forces analysis gives an improved understanding of the degree of competition faced by Tesco. The analysis shows that the grocery industry can be highly competitive, with buyers possessing powerful influence over the large number of substitute brands available to them. From the previous section we can see that generic strategies each have attributes that help to defend against competitive forces. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis has proven to be the most enduring analytical technique used in strategic management. In a 2007 McKinsey Co global survey of 2700 executives, 82% stated that the most relevant activity for strategy formulation were evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the organisations and identifying top environmental trends affecting business performance over 3-5 years. (J. Choi, D. Lovallo A. Tarasova, McKinsey Quarterly Online, July 2007) Strengths Tesco has published sales gain of 13% for UK markets which is higher than rivals in the UK and 26% revenue growth in international markets. Tesco has a strong brand and excellent commercial standing. It won the retailer of the year 2008 award at World Retail Awards. On basis of its size and credit worthiness, Tesco can experience economies of scale and obtain funding for expansion into India/UAE even during credit crisis. Tescos approach is very flexible, they dont always push the Tesco brand name unless it has an advantage when entering a market, for example in Turkey Tesco maintained the name Kipa as local customers were familiar with it. http://www.worldretailcongress.com/page.cfm/action=Archive/ArchiveID=7/EntryID=1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4781458.stm (The Economist, Global Retailing: Trouble At Till, 2nd Nov 2006) http://www.worldretailcongress.com/page.cfm/action=Archive/ArchiveID=7/EntryID=1 Weaknesses There are regulatory barriers in obtaining retail trade licences in India. At present a foreign company can only operate as a distributor/wholesaler. However it is still a good opportunity to enter the market as a wholesaler and establish a distribution network. If it enters into a price war with local retailers, the margins will suffer and since UAE population is only 6million, the low margin high volume strategy will not be effective. Tesco is a public company and if it spends too much of its capital on overseas expansion the UK market may suffer in the short term and shareholder may oppose some expansion decisions. Tesco may offer multiple product lines in the same store, but since there are specialist stores for electrical products for example; Tesco may struggle in non food sector. (The Economist, Retailing: Setting up shop in India, 2nd Nov 2006) Opportunities UAE allow foreign investment and ownership which combined with ease of funding provide low barriers to market entry. Tesco has created a very efficient home delivery network in the UK, It could utilise its expertise to create the very first home delivery service for grocery products in the UAE. With wide access to the internet among UAE residents, Tesco could enter the online market for food and non food product. Economic growth in India has maintained at 6-8% per annum Despite the credit crunch UAE has experienced a growth rate of 23%in 2008 with double digit growth in grocery sales. The GDP per capita of a UAE is $54,607 making it an ideal location to offer high margin top end products such as the Tescos finest range. Tesco could follow its business model in the UK to setup strategic alliance with local firms to diversify its products and services on offer. http://uaeinteract.com/docs/UAE_GDP_soars_23_to_Dh934_billion_in_2008_/36962.htm http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/02/weodata/index.aspx http://www.arabianbusiness.com/574404-uae-grocery-sales-growth-slumps-in-2009 Threats Rising prices of raw materials and food products may lower profit margins. People tend to vary of new brands. This problem can be overcome since Tesco has a strong internationally recognised brand. In addition Tesco tends to enter the market via partnerships or familiar brand name to avoid alienating the local consumer. Local communities in some parts oppose Tesco and other major retailers from setting up stores as they believe it will destroy their community and small businesses. Lower available income will impact and strategic focus may need to change to lower priced basic products with less focus on higher priced brands suggesting a switch in price architecture. Retailers who set out on foreign adventures need to remember three basic rules. First, dont forget the local touch. Wal-Mart got off to a bad start in Germany by appointing a country manager who did not speak German. In Brazil it failed to notice that people like to shop en famille: the aisles of its shops were too narrow to accommodate the standard family party. Successful foreign adventurers adjust their formats to local needs. BQ, a British do-it-yourself retailer, discovered that Chinese people look down their noses at doing things themselves. It became a buy-it-yourself, and get somebody else to do it for you, retailer. Second, make sure your timing is right. In 1995 Yaohan, an aggressive Japanese retailer, opened one of the worlds biggest department stores in Shanghai. It planned to build 1,000 Chinese shops. But a decade ago Chinese people were too poor to support its vision and in 1997 Yaohan filed for bankruptcy. Third, be selective about what you try. Tesco, which has been pretty successful in foreign markets, is shortly going into America-but with convenience stores only, because it reckons the supermarket business is too crowded. (The Economist, Global Retailing: Trouble At Till, 2nd Nov 2006) Conclusion In this era of globalisation an organisation can no longer trade in its locality and sustain a competitive advantage. Tesco needs to continue its expansion overseas as UK market has reached saturation point in the grocery sector. It needs at least half of its revenues from overseas operations to reduce its over reliance on UK sales. The Porters generic strategy and SWOT analysis shows some promising opportunities in India and UAE which could turn into profitable operations. Some of the potential threats can easily be overcome. The key to success for Tesco in its expansion strategy is flexibility and timing. India has recently allowed some Foreign Direct Investment even though its restricted to ownership of wholesale sector, its a good opportunity as retail sales in India are forecasted to be $430bn by 2010. Unlike Wal-Mart which failed to enter the market in Germany and Brazil due to lack of knowledge of local trends and consumer preferences. Tesco has been successful in entering several overseas markets. This is due to their consumer oriented approach and their study of local demand prior to setting up. Before expanding into the US, researchers, including a small cohort of Tescos top executives, spent two weeks living with 60 American families and studied their grocery purchasing habits. Strategic management is an ongoing process, the key for managers is to remain flexible, open and alert to changing circumstances. Strategies dont always succeed, results may fall short due to internal short coming or predictions about external opportunities and threats were inaccurate. Whatever the reason we change the strategy as needed to take advantage of new information.

Free Capital Punishment Essay - Criminals Need the Death Penalty :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Essays - Criminals Need the Death Penalty Is the death penalty just? Politicians, lobbyists, philosophers, and experts from all walks of life continuously debate this controversial subject. Has any one of these individuals listened to the rest of us? The answer in many cases is no. The United States is a democracy of embodied officials, who represent the people, their wishes, beliefs and ideals. That means, through elections, we decide what policies are to be enacted. In the case of capital punishment, various polls report that seventy percent of Americans are in favor of the death sentence. That is a clear majority. So called experts are free to petition grievances and speak freely according to our constitution. But the fact of the matter is seven out of ten Americans have evaluated the dilemma of capital punishment according to their own values and beliefs. Their conclusion was favorable to the death penalty. At this juncture of time, the question of it being just was answered by the majority - and the majority rules. Many experts who speak against the death penalty cite it as barbaric. The definition of murder, according to Webster, is "the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought." Therefore an uneducated person would classify murder as equally barbaric. The mitigating factor of the death penalty is, or should be, an already established punishment for this crime. The killer willingly committed the heinous act of taking a life, knowing they would be subject to this penalty. Therefore, he decided to gamble on not being caught, or thought that he was above the law. In either case he willingly forfeited his life with the taking of another. The killer may not agree with "Lex Taliones", but the consequence of his action were obvious. While critics argue that an innocent person may be put to death, most agree this may unfortunately happen. However, we must protect the people of this country from killers, and unfortunately, short of calling in the army, we have tried all other options. Capital statutes usually allow the trial court to impose death only after a postconviction hearing, during which circumstances of the crime are reviewed. If the "aggravating" factors prevail, the case is automatically reviewed by an appellate court. The accused may also appeal the decision or request a stay of execution as he sees fit. Although the risk of an accidental death is there, the legal proceedings are in place to prevent an unwarranted death. An argument put forth by many is that the economics involved with capital punishment is irrelevant.

A Separate Peace, The Natural, The Scarlet Letter, and The Old Man and the Sea :: Separate Peace Essays

A Separate Peace, The Natural, The Scarlet Letter, and The Old Man and the Sea In the society-centered world that has existed for thousands of years, Emerson's and Thoreau's recommendation of living as a self-reliant individual can be a difficult task to accomplish. Society puts pressure on its members to conform to its standards. Nonconformists are shunned by society and as a result have difficulty retaining their nonconformist position. According to Emerson's Self-Reliance, though, this nonconformist, independent stance is the only thing that can bring a person peace. Emerson believes a truly great man lives in the world, but at the same time trusts himself, believes in himself, and is, in a word, independent. Many people have applied the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau not only to their lives, but also to the characters in books they have read, regardless of whether the author intended such interpretation. The ideas of Emerson and Thoreau can be applied to many of the novels we read in class this year, including The Natural, A Separate Peace, The Old Man and the Sea, and The Scarlet Letter. In each of these novels the main character experienced many difficulties in which he either succeeded or failed. The successes and failures of any particular character were a result of his self-reliance or of his society-reliance. In The Natural, by Bernard Malamud, the main character, Roy, failed to focus on what was best for him because of his reliance on society rather than on himself. This problem became evident early in the story when the woman Roy met on the train shot him. Had Roy focused on his game, perhaps gone out and practiced baseball rather than visited the woman, he never would have gotten shot. Having such skill as he had, he could have easily signed with the Cubs, and he could have had an extraordinary baseball career. Unfortunately for him, Roy put too high a priority on his relationship with the woman from the train. As a result, Roy's baseball career not only didn't start for another 10-15 years, but also was nothing compared to the career he would have had with the Cubs. Generally, people learn from their mistakes. As Malamud writes on page 217, "He [Roy] thought, I never did learn anything out of my past life, now I have to suffer again." Rather than straightening out his priorities in the years between the time he was shot and the time he actually played baseball, Roy made no change.