Central Bank Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Central Bank - Term Paper Example The highly potential and naturally gifted part of the world does not have any central bank. Here in this essay a suitable structure for the proposed central bank will be provided in detailed fashion. The study will also analyze the point of similarities and dissimilarities between the proposed central bank of GCC and European central bank. The essay will also incorporate various arguments for supporting and opposing the proposed central bank. It means the essay will follow a critical analysis. The study will describe the various functions and objectives of the proposed central bank in GCC region. The essay will encourage significant detailed analysis in every section of the essay. The essay will follow a step by step approach which will be highly suitable with the topic of the study. At the end of the essay a suitable conclusion will be drawn. The first step after the decision to form a central bank is taken is to decide on the organizational structure of the central bank. To decide on the proposed structure of the new central bank the organization structure of the central bank of the member nations of the GCC can be taken as an example. If we look at the structure of the central bank of other banks belonging to some member nations of GCC, we find that the central banks of different countries follow central organization structure. All the organizations are headed by board of directors. Under the board of directors come the governor and deputy governor. The deputy governor is helped in his duties by a team of directors who look after different functions and departments of the bank. The figure below shows the structure of the central bank of Qatar as a particular example. While designing the structure of the central bank for the GCC the structure of ECB can serve as a good model. ECB as an organization is made up of three major decision making bodies 1. Governing council: The apex decision making

Case Study About Frauds in Information System Essay Example for Free

Case Study About Frauds in Information System Essay 1. Compose a summary of the case. Include how the fraud was perpetrated, the characteristics of the perpetrator(s) who committed the fraud, the role the auditor(s) had in the case, and the direct and indirect effects the incident had on the organization’s stakeholders (customers, vendors, employees, executive committee, and board of directors). Comerica is being sued by Experi- Metal’s for a $560,000 phishing attack to their bank account. Experi- Metal, a custom auto- parts maker, was hit by phishing criminals in January 2009. The fraud was perpetrated when the bank’s vice president received a phishing email telling him to fill out online paperwork to perform scheduled maintenance. The e-mail appeared to have been sent from the bank. The email was sent from phishing criminals) Once the president sent over his credentials the attack was started. Experi- Metal accused Comerica of failing to take immediate action that could have eliminated some of the loss. The bank processed over a million dollars in wires from the companies account. The attack was done in a matter of hours. Criminals tried to move millions of dollars to an Eastern Europe account. Comerica learned of the attack within four hours of the fraud. J.P. Morgan Chase contacted Comerica to report suspicious activity in the account. The criminals were funding money into the Chase Accounts to move it overseas to Russia and Estonia. Comerica shut down the scam but it was after the business lost money. Comerica shut down the account but still processed 15 wires after finding out about the scam. Comerica filed suit against the bank for the phishing attack and to try to recoup some of the money that was paid out through the phishing attack. The characteristics of the perpetrator are usually people from abroad and the emails have spelling errors. The attacks come from abroad and the emails will contain misspelled and transposed letters. The attackers send out thousands of emails trying to get an individual to respond. The emails are intended to trick users into clicking on the link and entering their personal information. The email will impersonate a company such as a bank. The email will state there is a problem and need the individual to verify their information. It will include a cause of action prompting the user to respond or delete. The direct and indirect effects on the organization’s stakeholders were the bottom line would be understated because of the lost of money. â€Å"Phishing scams deceive you into revealing your personal, banking, or financial information through links in email that refer your browser to a look- alike fake website that requests your personal, banking and/ or financial†.(Roddel, 2008, pg. 93) The board of directors would need to put something in place with the bank to make sure this doesn’t happen again. This is a lack of internal controls because the vice president should have verified the email before providing his credentials. The direct impact is to cripple the company and its availability of funds, breach confidentiality, and safety. Phishing has a negative impact on a company’s revenue which is a direct impact on the stakeholders. The direct effect could include legal fees, and additional marketing expense to recapture lost revenues. An organization should communicate with its stakeholders when a phishing attack happens to eliminate the stakeholders losing confidence in the organization. An indirect effect to stakeholders is responding to media inquiries, and delivering messages to parties affected. 2. Suggest the fraud classification(s) the case can be categorized into (based on the data processing model). Include your rationale for the classification. â€Å"By far the most common form of corporate identity theft used by fraudsters is ‘phishing’. Phishing involves fraudsters sending e-mails under the guise of a bank or other reputable company, which appear authentic, to customers or users of that particular company. The emails invite them to log on to the company’s website and verify their account details, including their personal identification details† (Simmons Simmons, 2003, pg. 8). The controller of Experi-Metal’s received an email that appeared to be urgent. The email stated the bank needed to carry out scheduled maintenance on its banking software. It instructed the controller to log in to the website via the link in the email. The email appeared to come from Comerica’s online banking site. The site asked the controller to enter a security code. The website was fraudulent and was used to get the information to process the fraudulent wires. 3. Suggest the type of controls that may have been in place at the time of the violation. The goal of any organization is to prevent or limit the impact of phishing attacks. The company probably had an in house phishing plan in place. Corporate organizations have policies and procedures to help deter phishing attacks. This should have included training of employees to avoid a phishing attack. The controls in place at Experi-Metal probably included a preventive plan that consisted of employee training and e-mail filters. There needs to be more effective controls in place to prevent this from happening in the future. The controller should never have given his personal information out online without verifying through the bank. Management has to be made aware of the types of phishing attacks through education and an effective policy needs to be in place to cover these types of attacks. The system did not fail it was the actions of the controller which led to the phishing attack. 4. Recommend two (2) types of controls that could be implemented to prevent fraud in the future and additional steps management can take to mitigate losses. â€Å"Avoid emailing personal and financial information. If you get an unexpected email from a company or government agency asking for your personal information, contact the company or agency cited in the email, using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or start a new Internet session and type in the Web address that you know is correct† (McMillian, 2006, pg. 160). A variety of efforts aim to deter phishing through law enforcement, and automated detection. One thing that should be stressed at Experi- Metal is never follow links in an email claiming to be from a bank. Bank institutions never ask you to verify your online banking username and password. The controller should have contacted the bank and verified the information before he entered the code. The motto is trust no email or web site. The business should have in place controls to keep this from happening going forward. Second, Experi- Metal should install a good Anti-virus and firewall protection software and adjust the settings to tighten up web security. Any customer or business that has an excessive amount of wires the bank should place a stop on the account and it needs to be verified before anymore wires are processed. Experi-Metal could have positive pay on the account and this would eliminate any wires from being processed without their approval. Additional employee training should be offered to help employee’s be able to notice fraudulent emails. An individual should never respond to any emails asking for personal information. The bank should follow policy to protect and inform customers about fraudulent activity. 5. Judge the punishment of the crime (was it appropriate, too lenient, or too harsh) and whether the punishment would serve as a deterrent to similar acts in the future. The court ruled in favor of Experi- Metal in the case. Comerica was held liable for over half a million dollars stolen from Experi-Metal. The punishment was not hard because Comerica failed to act in good faith when it processed over 100 wire transfers in a few hours. The bank should have stopped the wire transfers and contacted the company. A customer is holding a bank responsible to keep their money safe. Most of the money was recovered but the judge ruled in favor of Experi-Metal based on the fact the bank did not respond quick enough in stopping the wire transfers. Banks are doing a better job at spotting fraud because of this case but there is still room for improvement. This was a major case because it put pressure on banks to strengthen their security posture. The judge is holding the banks responsible to the safe keeping of a company’s money.

Survive :: essays research papers

Key Word "SURVIVAL" The key word "SURVIVAL" is an acronym to be used as an "immediate action drill" to be performed at the outset of a wilderness survival situation. Use this simple phrase to plan measures that will assist you in surviving in the wilderness and returning to civilization. The Key Word "SURVIVAL" will provide you with two of the most important survival skills--the ability to organize yourself and the ability to stay calm. A. "S" stands for "Size up the situation." (1) Consider your physical condition and perform any first aid required. (2) Concentrate your senses on getting a feel for the area. (3) Conduct an inventory of the equipment you have. (4) Begin planning. B. "U" stands for "Undue haste makes waste." (1) Reacting without thinking or planning can result in faulty decisions and could result in your death. (2) Acting in haste, just for the sake of action, will make you careless. The natural tendency in a stressful situation is to run. You must overcome this tendency and think of your objectives. (3) If you act in haste, you may lose or forget equipment, you may not make a survival plan, and you may become disoriented and not know your location. As a cultural group. Americans have little patience. Know this weakness if it is your own particular Achilles' heel. C. "R" stands for "Remember where you are." (1) Always knowing where you are on the map and how it relates to the surrounding terrain is a principle no outdoorsman should violate. (2) If in a group, always know the location of the maps and compasses. (3) Guard against the natural tendency of allowing someone else to be responsible for navigation. Always be aware of your route, regardless of the mode of travel. (4) Whether you are in a base camp or on the move, you should always know the following things: (a) Direction or location of the nearest populated area. (b) Direction or location to the nearest major transportation artery (river, highway, railroad track, etc.) (c) Location of local water sources. D. "V" stands for "Vanquish fear and panic." (1) Fear and panic are two of the greatest enemies in a survival situation. These are not unusual emotions. The secret is to recognize them and control them. (2) Fear, panic, and anxiety take their toll on the body. They divert needed energy. (3) Many people have never been alone and without diversion. This could subject them to anxiety. (4) The best way to control fear in a survival situation is preparation, Survive :: essays research papers Key Word "SURVIVAL" The key word "SURVIVAL" is an acronym to be used as an "immediate action drill" to be performed at the outset of a wilderness survival situation. Use this simple phrase to plan measures that will assist you in surviving in the wilderness and returning to civilization. The Key Word "SURVIVAL" will provide you with two of the most important survival skills--the ability to organize yourself and the ability to stay calm. A. "S" stands for "Size up the situation." (1) Consider your physical condition and perform any first aid required. (2) Concentrate your senses on getting a feel for the area. (3) Conduct an inventory of the equipment you have. (4) Begin planning. B. "U" stands for "Undue haste makes waste." (1) Reacting without thinking or planning can result in faulty decisions and could result in your death. (2) Acting in haste, just for the sake of action, will make you careless. The natural tendency in a stressful situation is to run. You must overcome this tendency and think of your objectives. (3) If you act in haste, you may lose or forget equipment, you may not make a survival plan, and you may become disoriented and not know your location. As a cultural group. Americans have little patience. Know this weakness if it is your own particular Achilles' heel. C. "R" stands for "Remember where you are." (1) Always knowing where you are on the map and how it relates to the surrounding terrain is a principle no outdoorsman should violate. (2) If in a group, always know the location of the maps and compasses. (3) Guard against the natural tendency of allowing someone else to be responsible for navigation. Always be aware of your route, regardless of the mode of travel. (4) Whether you are in a base camp or on the move, you should always know the following things: (a) Direction or location of the nearest populated area. (b) Direction or location to the nearest major transportation artery (river, highway, railroad track, etc.) (c) Location of local water sources. D. "V" stands for "Vanquish fear and panic." (1) Fear and panic are two of the greatest enemies in a survival situation. These are not unusual emotions. The secret is to recognize them and control them. (2) Fear, panic, and anxiety take their toll on the body. They divert needed energy. (3) Many people have never been alone and without diversion. This could subject them to anxiety. (4) The best way to control fear in a survival situation is preparation,

Habit Is Stronger Than Reason Essay

â€Å"Habit is stronger than reason.† To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge? Human beings have naturally found a way of wanting to discover, analyze and find out things. In more modern times humans have been taught to think in certain ways due to what they want to do in life or through their ancestors that passed down traditions that is carried on through them i.e. culture and religion. The two areas of knowledge I chose were mathematics and history. There is always an explanation in each area of knowledge; in mathematics we can say that there is always reasoning behind everything. But in an everyday life we use mathematics habitually, for instance if you woke up in the morning you had to take two vitamins, every human (unless given a diagnosed problem and or no education) can tell the difference of two, and knowing that you have to take two. Only because mathematics is in bedded within our lives from a very young age and in this case habit is stronger than reason. This all changes once you get to a higher and more difficult level of mathematics because there is no way that the quadratic equation is used on a daily basis as a habit (unless you’re some sort of super genius). So, in the case that mathematics at a beginner level, habit is much stronger than reason. Depending on how the individual grew up and was raised, the knowledge could be affected. It could be tradition to carry on the knowledge of their ancestors. In history there are many sides to the historical even which took place for example World War two, Hitler himself would have had different views and experiences throughout the war and he or someone else may have documented it different to a American journalist who was seeing the opposing side of the Germans, he could be writing his own views according to his country and not only the entire war itself. History is in bedded in the learner, and even the teacher could be accounted for, due to the fact that most of the knowledge i s learned in school at a young age so say if the example of world war two was given again; a German teacher could have a different view point than a American teacher. A good personal example is during the first year of secondary school, I was in history and slavery was being taught; note that I was the only white person in the class. We were learning about the transport and the enslavement off of West Africa and the teacher was so good at explaining how the white masters treated the slaves and was so enthusiastic in his descriptions. At the end of the class no one uttered a word to me just because I was white. This example can also relate to the race of the learner. Every race has its own history behind it, the reason why racism is currently still around is because of peoples history and how their opinions were changed through group knowledge. Reasoning could be stronger than habit through the beliefs and experiences of that individual. However the believes could have been forced against them through family, but looking at a different point of view, it could be because that the family was set certain rules and wanted to continues the family tradition. This could relate to history because it was what their ancestors taught them into believing, and if one of the family members spoke out they could be frowned upon. Religion could be used as this family tradition, for instance if a family who were Christians their entire life, had a family member who was an Atheist, spoke out and gave their opinion would not only be frowned upon by his family, but in the families eye let down by whom they believe in. Without the area of knowledge, answering that question could go both ways â€Å"is reasoning stronger than habit.† It all depends on which cases are matched to the reasoning and habit, because mostly people act differently, people have different views. There are ways though that habit is stronger than reason, due to the fact that people are altered in becoming addicted to something, whether it may be cigarettes and or drugs. The abusers minds are altered from the substance which makes the cigarette and or drug addictive, this means that whatever the substance may be, it has convinced the human mind and body that it needs it. Often the human body and mind changes if it hasn’t got that substance in awhile, for example in crack cocaine abusers, there body tends to crave and need the substance again after it has been taken. It makes the body and person depressed, anxious, irritable, and exhausted even angry of the drug isn’t consumed. This proves that habit is stronger than reason, only due to the fact that the mind has been altered in to believing that it wants that certain substance even though they know it’s completely bad for the body. The question is habit stronger that reasoning is a yes, but also a no due to the fact that the question can be altered depending on what the back ground of person is and what they’ve learnt and experienced, plus the influence of addictive substances. The question could be asked vis versa is reasoning stronger than habit? It could be answered as a yes and no as well because yet again most people are different.

Math Internal Assessment Gold Medal Heights

Gold Medal Heights The heights achieved by gold medalists in the high jump have been recorded starting from the 1932 Olympics to the 1980 Olympics. The table below shows the Year in row 1 and the Height in centimeters in row 2 Year| 1932| 1936| 1948| 1952| 1956| 1960| 1964| 1968| 1972| 1976| 1980| Height (cm)| 197| 203| 198| 204| 212| 216| 218| 224| 223| 225| 236| They were recorded to show a pattern year after year and to reveal a trend. The data graph below plots the height on the y-axis and the year on the x-axis. Data Graph 1 Height (cm) Height (cm) Year YearIn Data Graph 1 the data shown represents the height in cm achieved by gold medalists in accordance to the year in which the Olympic games were held. The Graph shows a gradual increase in height as the years increase. The parameters shown in this are the heights, which can be measured during each year to show the rise. The constraints of this task are finding a function to fit the data point shown in Data Graph 1. Some other constraints would be that there aren’t any outliers in the graph and it has been a pretty steady linear rise. The type of function that models the behavior of the function is linear.This type of function models it because the points resemble a line rather than a curve. To represent the points plotted in Data Graph 1 a function is created. To start deciphering a function I started with the equation – Y = mx + b To show the slope of the line since the function is linear. For the first point the function would have to satisfy 197 = m (1932) + b In order for the line to be steep the b value or y intercept will have to be low to give it a more upward positive slope. Y = mx -1000 197 = m (1932) -1000 1197 = m (1932) m = 0. 619The final linear equation to satisfy some points would be y = 0. 62x – 1000 The graph below shoes the model linear function and the original data points to show their relationship. Graph 2 Year Year Height (cm) Height (cm) The graph above shows t he linear function y = 0. 62x – 1000 in relation to the data points plotted on Data Graph 1. The differences between the function and the points plotted is that the function does not full satisfy all the x and y values. The outliers in this case are from the years 1948, 1952, and 1980 which all of y values that do not meet the function closely.Using regression the following function and graph is found. The function and line found using regression matches the one found by me. The linear function does not cross all points but shows the gradual shape in which the points plotted make. Another function that is used is a quadratic function Quadratic functions are set up as: Y = px2 + tx +b To make this function resemble the points plotted on the Graph 1 the p value will have to be very small to widen the shape of the quadratic The b value also has to be small to resemble the y intercept and to give the graph a more upward slopeI used the function: Y = 0. 0000512Ãâ€"2 + 0. 5171x â €“ 1010 In order for this function to work it must satisfy the point of (1964, 218) Y = 0. 0000512 (1964)2 + 0. 5171 (1964) – 1010 Y = 0. 0000512 (3857296) + 1015. 58 – 1010 Y = 197. 49 + 1015. 58 – 1010 Y = 218 This graph of the function y = 0. 0000512Ãâ€"2 +0. 5171x – 1010 is shown in the following Graph 3 as it is against the points plotted in Data Graph 1 Graph 3 Height (cm) Height (cm) Year Year It is shown in Graph 3 that the quadratic function does resemble the shape of the line plotted by the points in Data Graph 1.In Graph 4 both functions are shown against the original data points plotted in Data Graph 1. Graph 4 Height (cm) Height (cm) Year Year Had the games been held in 1940 and 1944 the winning heights would be estimated as: Y = 0. 62(1940) – 1000 Y = 1202. 8 – 1000 Y = 202. 8 When the x value of 1940 is plugged into the linear equation y = 0. 62x – 1000 the y value, or winning height in the year 1940, would be 202. 8. Y = 0. 0000512(1940)2 + 0. 5171(1940) – 1010 Y = 0. 0000512(3763600) + 1003. 17 – 1010 Y = 192. 69 + 1003. 17 – 1010 Y = 185. 86 When the x value 1940 is plugged into the quadratic equation y = 0. 000512Ãâ€"2 + 0. 5171x – 1010 the y value, or winning height for 1940, is 185. 86. In order to make a more accurate estimate for the winning height in 1940 the average of both terms, 202. 8 and 185. 86, are taken. 202. 8 + 185. 86 / 2 = 194. 33 The estimated winning height in 1940 would be 194. 33 For the estimated winning height in 1944: Y = 0. 62(1944) – 1000 Y = 1205. 28 – 1000 Y = 205. 28 When the x value of 1944 is plugged into the linear equation 0. 62x – 1000 the y value, or winning height in 1944, is 205. 8. Y = 0. 0000512(1944)2 + 0. 5171(1944) – 1010Y = 0. 0000512(3779136) + 1005. 24 – 1010 Y = 193. 49 + 1005. 24 – 1010 Y = 188. 73 When the x value of 1944 is plugged into the quadratic equation of 0. 00005 12Ãâ€"2 + 0. 5171x + 1010 the y value, or winning height in 1944, is 188. 73. To have a more accurate estimate of the winning height the average of the two y values of two functions is taken. 188. 73 + 205. 28 / 2 = 197. 01 The winning height for the 1944 Olympics would be estimated at 197. 01 Graph 5 Year Year Height (cm) Height (cm) Graph 5 shows all the data from the 1896 Olympics to the 2008 Olympics.The red line is the quadratic function f(x) = 0. 0000512Ãâ€"2 + 0. 5171x – 1010 and the blue line represents the linear function f(x) = 0. 62x -1000. The function models that are represented in Graph 5 do not fully resemble the points plotted from the gold medal high jump heights but have an overall shape of the rise in height from year to year. Graph 6 Height (cm) Height (cm) Year Year The graph above shows all data point plotted on a graph. The overall trend or shape resemble that of a cubic. Graph 7 The shape of the cubic resembles more of the shape shown in the data poi nts plotted on Graph 6.The modifications that need to be made on my models are that the quadratic function needs to have a more curve to it than just a straight line. To do that I need to change the variables a, b, and c in the equation f(x) = ax2 + bx + c f(x) = 0. 0000512Ãâ€"2 + 0. 5171x -1010 Graph 8 Height (cm) Height (cm) Year Year In a zoomed out view the graph shows the overall shape of the quadratic shape of the red line and how it goes through the black data points and how the linear equation is completely straight. IB Mathematics SL Year 2 Internal Assessment Gold Medal Heights Date Due: February 11, 2013

Roman Essays - Architectural Styles, Romanesque Architecture

Roman Essays - Architectural Styles, Romanesque Architecture Roman Romanesque - Gothic 50 Minutes/ Rating 9 The difference between Gothic and Romanesque architecture is the spiritual approach. In Romanesque the emphasis was on transcendental and feudalistic systems whereas in the Gothic this approach was humanized and individualized. The Gothic architecture emphasized upward movement towards god, a feeling that cannot be found in a Romanesque basilica although it might have already pointed arches, a key element of gothic architecture. There is just a different feeling in the Gothic architecture gives an overwhelming feeling of mysticism, the dominant spiritual and philosophical movement. The Gothic was mainly about form and function joining together. The supports that held up the structure of the church also developed into the art of the church. Gothic buildings were built through the Renaissance in many of the northern cities until the arrival of the Baroque in the earl seventeenth century. Saints of the East Portal, Chartres, France 50 Minutes/ Rating 8

Hewlett-Packard Organizational Structure Essays

Hewlett-Packard Organizational Structure Essays Hewlett-Packard Organizational Structure Paper Hewlett-Packard Organizational Structure Paper Hewlett-Packard (HP) is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health and education sectors. It specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software and delivering services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise, and industry standard servers, related storage devices, networking products, software and a diverse range of printers, and other imaging products. The company was founded in a one-car garage in Palo Alto by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. Currently, HP is the worlds leading PC manufacturer, operating in nearly every country. It specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software and delivering services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise, and industry standard servers, related storage devices, networking products, software and a diverse range of printers, and other imaging products. HP markets its products to households, small- to medium-sized businesses and enterprises directly as well as via online distribution, consumer-electronics and office-supply retailers, software partners and major technology vendors. HP also has strong services and consulting business around its products and partner products. Major company events have included the spin-off of part of its business as Agilent Technologies in 1999, its merger with Compaq in 2002, and the acquisition of EDS in 2008, which led to combined revenues of $118. 4 billion in 2008 and a Fortune 500 ranking of 9 in 2009. In November 2009, HP announced the acquisition of 3Com; with the deal closing on April 12, 2010. On April 28, 2010, HP announced the buyout of Palm for $1. 2 billion. On September 2, 2010, won its bidding war for 3PAR with a $33 a share offer ($2. 07 billion) which Dell declined to match. Hewlett-Packard is not affiliated with Packard Motor Car Corporation, founded by James Ward Packard and William Doud Packard . HISTORY Founding Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard graduated in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1935. The company originated in a garage in nearby Palo Alto during a fellowship they had with a past professor, Frederick Terman at Stanford during the Great Depression. Terman was considered a mentor to them in forming Hewlett-Packard. In 1939, Packard and Hewlett established Hewlett-Packard (HP) in Packards garage with an initial capital investment of US$538. Hewlett and Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. Packard won the coin toss but named their electronics manufacturing enterprise the Hewlett-Packard Company. HP incorporated on August 18, 1947, and went public on November 6, 1957. THE 1960s HP partnered in the 1960s with Sony and the Yokogawa Electric companies in Japan to develop several high-quality products. The products were not a huge success, as there were high costs in building HP-looking products in Japan. HP and Yokogawa formed a joint venture (Yokogawa-Hewlett-Packard) in 1963 to market HP products in Japan. HP bought Yokogawa Electrics share of Hewlett-Packard Japan in 1999. THE 1970s HP is identified by Wired magazine as the producer of the worlds first marketed, mass-produced personal computer, the Hewlett-Packard 9100A, introduced in 1968. HP called it a desktop calculator, because, as Bill Hewlett said, If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers computer gurus because it didnt look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared. An engineering triumph at the time, the logic circuit was produced without any integrated circuits; the assembly of the CPU having been entirely executed in discrete components. With CRT display, magnetic-card storage, and printer, the price was around $5000. The machines keyboard was a cross between that of a scientific calculator and an adding machine. There was no alphabetic keyboard. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, originally designed the Apple I computer while working at HP and offered it to them under their right of first refusal to his work, but they did not take it up as the company wanted to stay in scientific, business, and industrial markets. THE 1980s On March 3, 1986, HP registered the HP. com domain name, making it the ninth Internet . com domain ever to be registered. In 1987, the Palo Alto garage where Hewlett and Packard started their business was designated as a California State historical landmark. THE 1990s In July 1999, HP appointed Carly Fiorina as CEO, the first female CEO of a company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Fiorina served as CEO during the technology industry downturn of the early 2000s. During her tenure, the market value of HP halved and the company incurred heavy job losses. The HP Board of Directors asked Fiorina to step down in 2005, and she resigned on February 9, 2005. THE 2000s On September 3, 2001, HP announced that an agreement had been reached with Compaq to merge the two companies. 20] In May, 2002, after passing a shareholder vote, HP officially merged with Compaq. Prior to this, plans had been in place to consolidate the companies product teams and product lines. [21] In 1998 Compaq had already taken over the Digital Equipment Corporation. That is why HP still offers support for PDP-11, VAX and AlphaServer. The merger occurred after a proxy fight with Bill Hewletts son Walter, who objected to the merger. Compaq itself had bought Tandem Computers in 1997 (which had been started by ex-HP employees), and Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998. Following this strategy, HP became a major player in desktops, laptops, and servers for many different markets. After the merger with Compaq, the new ticker symbol became HPQ, a combination of the two previous symbols, HWP and CPQ, to show the significance of the alliance and also key letters from the two companies Hewlett-Packard and Compaq (the latter company being famous for its Q logo on all of its products. ) THE 2010s On April 28, 2010, Palm, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard announced that HP would be acquiring Palm for $1. billion in cash and debtÃ'Ž In the months leading up to the buyout it was rumored that Palm was going to be purchased by either HTC, Dell, RIM or HP. On August 6, 2010, CEO Mark Hurd resigned amid controversy and CFO Cathie Lesjak assumed the role of interim CEO. On September 30, 2010, Leo Apotheker was named as HPs new CEO and President. On September 22, 2011, Hewlett-Packard Co. named former eBay Inc. Chief Executive Meg Whitman its president and CEO, replacing Leo Apotheker, while Raymond Lane became executive chairman of the company. Flat OrganiZational structure HP has flat organizational structure with few or no levels of intervening management between staff and managers. * They had well-trained workers who were more productive when they are more directly involved in the decision-making process, rather than closely supervised by many layers of management. * This structure is generally possible only in smaller organizations or individual units within larger organizations. When they reach a critical size, organizations can retain a streamlined structure but cannot keep a completely flat manager-to-staff relationship without impacting productivity. Certain financial responsibilities may also require a more conventional structure. Some theorize that flat organizations become more traditionally hierarchical when they begin to be geared towards productivity. * The flat organization model promotes employee involvement through a decentralized decision-making process. By elevating the level of responsibility of baseline employees and eliminating layers of middle management, comments and feedback reach all personnel involved in decisions more quickly. Expected response to customer feedback becomes more rapid. Since the interaction between workers is more frequent, this organizational structure generally depends upon a much more personal relationship between workers and managers. Hence the structure can be more time-consuming to build than a traditional hierarchical model . Divisional structure Divisional structure in HP allowed the organization to coordinate intergroup relationships more effectively than does a functional structure. Product Structure * Each product division contains the functions necessary to that service the specific goods or services it produces. What are the advantages of a product structure? * Increases the division of labor so that the number similar products can be increased (such as a wider variety of appliances like stoves, or ovens) expand into new markets and produce totally new kinds of products (such as when an appliance maker starts to produce computers or ai planes). Market Structure * Market Structure Group functions into divisions that can be responsive to the needs of particular types of customers. Geographic Structure An organization facing the problem of controlling its activities on a national or international level is likely to use a geographic structure and group functions into regional divisions to service customers in different geographic areas. * Each geographic division has access to a full set of the functions it needs to provide its goods and sevices. HP IS Decentralized HP has Decentralized organizational structure in which daily operations and decision-making responsibilities are delegated by top management to middle and lower-level mangers within the organization, allowing top management to focus more on major decisions. For a small business, growth may create the need to decentralize to continue efficient operations. Decentralization offers several advantages, though relinquishing control may be difficult for a business owner accustomed to making all the decisions. Advantages Empowering Employees Employees can be empowered by having more autonomy to make their own decisions, giving them a sense of importance and making them feel as if they have more input in the direction of the organization. It also allows them to make better use of the knowledge and experience they have gained and implement some of their own ideas. Relieving the Burden * Decentralizing takes some of the burden of daily business operations off the business owner. When the owner allows others to perform such tasks as hiring new employees or ordering supplies, this frees her up to spend more time on big-picture items, such as planning for expansion or meeting with important clients. Preparing for Emergencies * A situation may arise where the business owner must be away from the business for an extended period time because of illness or another type of emergency. A decentralized structure provides a better chance that the organization will maintain self-sufficiency because managers and employees are accustomed to working autonomously. More Efficient Decision-Making * A decentralized organization is able to make decisions more quickly than one with a centralized structure. A manager often can make a decision without having to wait for it to go up a chain of command, allowing the organization to react quickly to situations where fast action can mean the difference between gaining and losing a customer. Ease of Expansion For a growing business, decentralization can facilitate the process of expansion. For example, if expansion results in opening a new business unit in a different geographic area, decentralization allows the new unit to operate as an independent entity, meaning it can react more easily to the specific needs of the area, such as deciding to sell products that appeal to the local market. Mutual adjustment The ongoing informal communication among different people and functions that is necessary for an achieve its goals. Mutual adjustment makes an organizations structure work smoothly, and managers must constantly make efforts to promote it and do all they can to facilitate communication and the free flow of information among functions. * Mutual adjustment, for example, prevents the emergence of different orientations that can cause significant communication and decision-making problems between functions and divisions. * An organization has to build into its structure integrating mechanism that facilitate mutual adjustment and make it easy for managers and employees in different functions and divisions to meet and coordinate their activities. Cross Functional Structure A cross-functional team is a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. It may include people from finance, marketing, operations, and human resources departments. Typically, it includes employees from all levels of an organization. Members may also come from outside an organization (in particular, from suppliers, key customers, or consultants). Cross-functional teams often function as self-directed teams responding to broad, but not specific directives. Decision making within a team may depend on consensus, but often is led by a manager/coach/team leader. Advantages on having this structure The organizational changes have increased transparency for these business functions relative to the company’s strategic roadmap, sharpening the executive team’s focus on customer-facing businesses, further enabling opportunities for synergies across business units, and positioning HP for the opportunities it sees in the market.

Top Ten Tips I Learned about Getting Book Endorsements

Top Ten Tips I Learned about Getting Book Endorsements Putting yourself out there as an author feels very scary especially when it comes to requesting endorsements. One of the hardest things I had to deal with when requesting endorsements or â€Å"blurbs† for my debut memoir Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces was that of rejection. However, there’s a real art to getting them. These ten pointers will increase your chances of getting the right blurbs. 1.  Ã‚     Start with people you already know. It is always easier to ask people who feel a personal connection to you or your book for their time without renumeration. They will be way more prone to do you a favor than celebrity authors. Such contacts can also include those you’ve met at conferences, workshops and writer groups. 2.  Ã‚     Find blurbers via subject matter and demographics. As a former New Yorker, I googled 40-something writers from New York who wrote on Jewish subjects. I’m Israeli so I played the â€Å"Israel card† and reached out to Danny Ayalon, the former Israel ambassador to the US, who gave me a whopping â€Å"yes.† 3.  Ã‚     Find blurbers from other books. Once I had exhausted all my personal contacts, I started reaching out to people whose endorsed books had a similar subject matter, theme or genre to mine. 4.  Ã‚     Ask your publisher or publicist for recommendations. They might also be able to make the connection, making the communication easier. 5.  Ã‚     Make your blurbers’ lives super easy. Offer to send a copy of your book in either electronic or print form, audio if you have it. Give guidelines, like a suggested word count, a deadline and where the blurb will be used. If they express time constraints, offer to write a sample blurb they can sign off on. 6.  Ã‚     Give, give, ask. Figure out what you can do to help potential blurb-writers before approaching them. I began an author interview series for newly featured books. I promoted their work widely. Since I made the effort to do something for them, some of those authors were happy to return the favor 7.  Ã‚     Always point out what you like the best about the potential blurber’s work. Pull the focus away from yourself. After all, you’re asking a major favor! 8.  Ã‚     Expect a 50 percent rejection rate. People are just busy and sometimes they cannot follow through with their initial commitment. Things come up. Don’t take their rejection personally. Authors are human, too. 9.  Ã‚     Ask experts. Since my genre is memoir, I reached out to Linda Joy Myers, president of the National Association for Memoir Writers. (NAMW) In some cases, you might get a more positive response from a big name expert than a famous author. 10.  Ã‚     Plan ahead. Before your book is published, identify the major players in your niche and carefully cultivate relationships with them. Factor in the time it will take for them to read your book, and write the blurb. The key is to stay persistent. I emailed 40 people and got 11 endorsers. With my book just a few months away from publication, I tweet the blurbs as part of my marketing plan. I sent each of the endorsers a copy of the book along with a thank you note. Public thanks can bring awareness to a cause and help you stand out from a sea of authors who are all trying to make a name for themselves.

Plato, Euthyphro, Plato, Apology, Plato, Crito, Martin Luther King, Essay

Plato, Euthyphro, Plato, Apology, Plato, Crito, Martin Luther King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Plato, Meno, Plato Phaedo - Essay Example There are many lessons that modern day philosophers can learn from Socrates and his commitment to seek Knowledge through Philosophy. One important lesson derived from the experience of Socrates devotion to knowledge and truth. Socrates is one of the few individuals to die for what they believe in. This teaches modern philosophers that no other external force should be able to stop one from seeking knowledge and truth, even if it means death (Morrison 123). Through his life, Socrates sought knowledge by raising questions about almost anything, giving lectures and holding public discussions in order to help other people understand philosophy. Socrates also challenged conventional actions in the society by questioning everything in order to evoke critical thinking among Athenians. Socrates urged people to examine their own lives in order to fine good purposes for living meaningful lives. Socrates behavior a philosopher is engaged with Athenians at different levels through intellectual discussions that aimed at unveiling meaningful truth and knowledge. His behavior provoked people to become critical thinkers. From what is documented in the Apology and Phaedo, philosophy is all about seeking knowledge through raising fundamental questions that will lead to an understanding of the society and everything around us. It is necessary to live a Socratic life in order to be a true philosopher. Thus is because Socrates provided a good example for one to seek knowledge. This is based on acceptance of one’s ignorance and willingness to learn. The Socratic Method refers to a dialectical approach of seeking knowledge through raising and responding to questions in a discussion with other people. It involves a debate where a particular point of view is critically analyzed open-mindedly in an attempt to unveil new knowledge and

The role of sociology during Wars Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The role of sociology during Wars - Term Paper Example Since a lot of assets are at stake during a war, it is crucial to resolve the crises and in order to do so understanding the root causes is very important. This paper aims at discussing how sociology can play a crucial role in predicting, understanding and thus, avoiding wars. Sociology is the study of societies, usually modern ones which comprises of people being the sole fundamentals or building blocks of the society, and thus understanding the psyche and societal roles of these people can help understand war more effectively, as proposed by the sociologists (Stanchak 2000). The first part of the thesis comprises of the role of sociology in understanding the concept of war which is the sole pre-requisite for predicting and thus, resolving the issues which have the potential of turning into a war like situation. In this context, Lachmann (2012) argues that war can be traced back in history and can thus be studied in terms of benefits and losses for individuals or groups within individuals. For instance, he states that citizens of a nation associate their collective interests with the state authority, and the state in turn seeks benefits from the state in terms of taxes and services etc. Thus, over the years, the state has developed strong control over the citizens in terms of controlling their socio-economic lives either directly or indirectly, and in this global world, the same benefit and loss patterns have resulted into conflicts between states over resources which are already in scarcity. Supporting this argument, another proposition posed by Shaw (2 007) can be stated which indicates that the reasons behind wars can be related to sociological patterns across society. This implies that war rather than being taken as an absolute entity should rather be studies as general conflicts between individuals or groups, and he focuses on the concept of genocide where a certain group attacks an un-armed group of people to pursue their personal interests. In other

The death penalty is not a deterrent Research Paper

The death penalty is not a deterrent - Research Paper Example These criminologists confirmed the previous finding that there is no deterrent effect for capital punishment. Perceptions and attitudes of peoples towards the death penalty can change with increased knowledge. If there’s enough information campaign by people in government and those concerned, favourable opinion can be gained for the abolition of capital punishment. The European Union adopted its Charter of Fundamental Rights which states that everyone has the right to life and no one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed. This should be binding on all peoples and all states, big and small. But for the victim’s side, there is demand for justice or retribution. When someone in the family is a victim of a crime, such as when a daughter has been raped and murdered, the family demands justice. Rae states that there is an ‘imbalance created in the social order’. There is a demand for justice created by the imbalance and thus a demand for a restorat ion of the balance in society. While society must exercise power and all individuals must submit to that power, society must give everyone a chance. Killing does not solve social ills and it is uncivilized. 1.1 Definition Death penalty is a punishment instituted by society where a convicted criminal is punished and put to death; the crime committed is a capital offense. It is different from unauthorized form of killing, or killing committed for revenge or lynching. (Garland 70) Capital punishment or death penalty can be considered the strictest punishment for a grievous offense. The term grievous or capital offense varies in definition and commission in different countries. Capital crimes include treason, murder, manslaughter, rape, and in some countries, they include arson, counterfeiting, and theft. (Banner 5) 1.2 History of the death penalty Capital punishment is an integral part of American history. The first execution occurred in Jamestown in 1608, when Captain George Kendall w as sentenced to death for spying for Spain. By the middle of the seventeenth century, around fifty people were executed. After a century, executions were done by the thousands. By the end of 1945, more than 17,000 people had been executed. (Allen and Clubb 9) Most ancient countries enforced capital punishment for serious offenses, but sometimes other offenses like blasphemy, adultery, or magic practice and witchcraft, were considered capital offense. English common law listed eight capital crimes, such as treason, petty treason, murder, larceny, robbery, burglary, rape, and arson. (Mandery 21) By the beginning of the eighteenth century, majority of the executed were African Americans or of African descent, with whites appearing to be a minority of those executed. 1.3 Ancient Laws Early laws on the death penalty can be found in the Ancient Laws of China. The Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon enforced the death penalty for 25 different crimes. But murder was excluded from these crimes . The Code followed the principle of â€Å"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,† and set measures to compensate for injuries to slaves, domesticated animals, and property. Thieves who did not have the ability to pay restitution were put to death. The first historically recorded death sentence was done in Egypt in the sixteenth century BC, and the offender, who was convicted of committing magic, was sentenced to take his own life.

Wal-Mart's German Misadventure - case study Term Paper

Wal-Mart's German Misadventure - case study - Term Paper Example Indeed, proper global marketing if implemented correctly has the  ability  to guide a company to the next level. Different  strategies  are employed based on each specific region where  the company is operating (Ocampo, 1). For example, McDonald's varies its operation and attitude towards business based on their restaurants’ location. The company identifies the popular items within a given country and then focuses on marketing the same. Global marketing is particularly important for business organizations that provide products as well as services possessing a universal demand. McDonald’s success story can be well illustrated through the presentation of some simple statistical evidences: in fact, â€Å"McDonald’s is now the â€Å"leading global food service retailer† with 33,000 local restaurants and serving almost 68 million people in119 countries each day (Introduction to McDonald’s)†. ... The following report illustrates the case of Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retail chain that struggled to concrete its feet in Germany, incurring huge loss and experiencing successive obliteration from the German market. Overview and Background of the case company- Wal-Mart Stores, INC is an American public stock company, which is into a business that runs a chain of warehouse stores and discount departments worldwide. Sam Walton founded it in 1962 and since then, the company hasn’t stopped growing, increasing its stores number from 24 in 1967 to 276 in 1980. Nowadays, the company operates in 4400 stores in the US only and has expanded its activities internationally. The company integrated the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) in 1972. Moreover, Wal-Mart has all over 8500 stores in the entire world under 55 different names such as in Mexico where it operates as Walmax, in Britain it operates as Asda likewise Seiyu in Japan and as Best price in India. It has been successful in implementing their concept globally, ranking among the top retailers in the various countries they operate in. In act, after it has started its globalization plans in the 90s, Wal-Mart became by 2003 the largest retailer in Mexico, Canada, Argentina and Puerto Rico. The organization was started as a single store, which soon became the largest retail shop of the world. Thanks to its prolific success, the organization is called the â€Å"TREND SETTER† in retail chain shops by some researchers. Furthermore, Wal-Mart operates each store from the product, which they have in stocks. Wal-Mart has a philosophy of providing lowest price everyday or EDLP and superior customer support. This company uses its unique cross-docking inventory system, which reduces the

Arabs' Generosity and Hospitality in the Arabian Peninsula Essay

Arabs' Generosity and Hospitality in the Arabian Peninsula - Essay Example Another major reason of the extreme generosity and hospitality of the Arabs is that they are encouraged by their religion to be that way. The influence on Islam on the culture of the Arabs cannot be overemphasized. This is evident from almost all good behaviors displayed by the Arabs. For example, the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula frequently make use of these words in their everyday conversation with one another; inshaAllah and mashaAllah, which mean â€Å"if Allah wills so† and â€Å"as Allah has willed† respectively. Islam is the religion of a vast majority of Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula. Islam places immense emphasis on the hospitality of guests and encourages its followers to be highly generous to others. Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) said, â€Å"Nothing shall ensure the welfare (and interests) of your religion except generosity and good disposition† (ezsoftech.com, 2011). This is the reason why Islam has a well-defined system of Zakat i.e. charity. While p aying Zakat is obligatory upon every Muslim who has assets or money above a certain limit, Islam also encourages its followers to pay more than just Zakat from what they have to the deserving; known as Sadqa in Islam. Allah says, â€Å"Take alms from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it, and invoke Allah for them† (9:103 cited in Jabir al-Jaza'iry, 2013). In addition to Zakat and Sadqa, gift-giving is a very popular practice and tradition of Islam. Islam encourages its followers to exchange gifts with one another because it promotes love between them and causes the animosity to recede. It is important to note here that Islam has defined particular standards for gift-giving. Islam encourages its followers to give the same thing to others as gifts that they would choose... It is evident from the study that the Arabs consider being generous and hospitable a matter of honor and feel obliged to display it toward others as if it is a sacred duty that they have to perform. Arabs think of it more as an obligation and cultural duty to be generous and hospitable to each other as well as outsiders than simply a behavior. That is why they are famous for generosity and hospitality. Three main reasons of their generosity and hospitality are their centuries of living and trade in the deserts that made them extremely dependent upon one another, the teachings of Islam that place immense emphasis on the display of generosity and hospitality toward others, and the homogeneity of the culture and demographics of the Arab countries in the Arabian Peninsula. Islam is the religion of a vast majority of the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula, and its impact and influence of the culture of the countries in the Arabian Peninsula is immense. The extreme generosity and hospitality o f the Arab people makes the foreigners feel like at home in the Arab countries. This has benefited both the Arabs and the foreigners as millions of foreigners are employed in the Arab countries and are contributing to the development and prosperity of the Arab countries. Both nationally and internationally, the Arab countries of the Arabian Peninsula have adopted the policies of generosity and hospitality which has helped them foster good relations with other countries of the world.

Why has it proved so difficult to create an effective International Essay

Why has it proved so difficult to create an effective International Criminal Court - Essay Example It took several meetings between the superior nations such as France, US, UK, China and the Soviet Union to finally agree on the membership terms, bodies and other arrangements that would be necessary to set up the UN, and ensure that it met its international security, social and economic goals. It was officially formed in 1945 with 50 member states and five nations being permanent members and holding the veto power. By 2007, it had 192 member states (Hanhimaki, 2008). The terms and conditions initially set were to be later reviewed and maybe changed or revised, something that has never happened to date. Any decisions made on international security, economic development or social levels have to be approved by the nations holding the veto power first, directly or indirectly before being approved. This has led to power imbalance in the UN with other nations feeling sidelined and having no powers to disagree. The existence and operation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is one of the issues being disagreed upon by member states. Disagreements surround charges taken to it and how it only handles cases from some states and not from others and especially those holding the veto power, leading to it lacking the impartiality necessary in a court of justice. Its operation therefore lacks consensus making it difficult to exist and perform its roles. The fact that the operation of the court from its inception seems to be controlled by a few members has brought about more questions than answers, and led to creation of issues of mistrust of the so called justice being sought in the court. The ICC comes in to deal with crimes that the national courts cannot be able to handle. This is because of lack of ability of a country to address the heinous criminal acts or because of the lack of a government. The national court may also lack capacity to prosecute their own cases and especially those of higher magnitude because of lack of resources or the lack of

Arabs' Generosity and Hospitality in the Arabian Peninsula Essay

Arabs' Generosity and Hospitality in the Arabian Peninsula - Essay Example Another major reason of the extreme generosity and hospitality of the Arabs is that they are encouraged by their religion to be that way. The influence on Islam on the culture of the Arabs cannot be overemphasized. This is evident from almost all good behaviors displayed by the Arabs. For example, the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula frequently make use of these words in their everyday conversation with one another; inshaAllah and mashaAllah, which mean â€Å"if Allah wills so† and â€Å"as Allah has willed† respectively. Islam is the religion of a vast majority of Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula. Islam places immense emphasis on the hospitality of guests and encourages its followers to be highly generous to others. Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) said, â€Å"Nothing shall ensure the welfare (and interests) of your religion except generosity and good disposition† (ezsoftech.com, 2011). This is the reason why Islam has a well-defined system of Zakat i.e. charity. While p aying Zakat is obligatory upon every Muslim who has assets or money above a certain limit, Islam also encourages its followers to pay more than just Zakat from what they have to the deserving; known as Sadqa in Islam. Allah says, â€Å"Take alms from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it, and invoke Allah for them† (9:103 cited in Jabir al-Jaza'iry, 2013). In addition to Zakat and Sadqa, gift-giving is a very popular practice and tradition of Islam. Islam encourages its followers to exchange gifts with one another because it promotes love between them and causes the animosity to recede. It is important to note here that Islam has defined particular standards for gift-giving. Islam encourages its followers to give the same thing to others as gifts that they would choose... It is evident from the study that the Arabs consider being generous and hospitable a matter of honor and feel obliged to display it toward others as if it is a sacred duty that they have to perform. Arabs think of it more as an obligation and cultural duty to be generous and hospitable to each other as well as outsiders than simply a behavior. That is why they are famous for generosity and hospitality. Three main reasons of their generosity and hospitality are their centuries of living and trade in the deserts that made them extremely dependent upon one another, the teachings of Islam that place immense emphasis on the display of generosity and hospitality toward others, and the homogeneity of the culture and demographics of the Arab countries in the Arabian Peninsula. Islam is the religion of a vast majority of the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula, and its impact and influence of the culture of the countries in the Arabian Peninsula is immense. The extreme generosity and hospitality o f the Arab people makes the foreigners feel like at home in the Arab countries. This has benefited both the Arabs and the foreigners as millions of foreigners are employed in the Arab countries and are contributing to the development and prosperity of the Arab countries. Both nationally and internationally, the Arab countries of the Arabian Peninsula have adopted the policies of generosity and hospitality which has helped them foster good relations with other countries of the world.

Racial profiling is not beneficial despite expert's findings Term Paper

Racial profiling is not beneficial despite expert's findings - Term Paper Example It suggests that profiling undermines social cohesion, is unjust, and should be stopped. Introduction Racial profiling is a controversial subject that is increasingly on the minds of both minorities and the police. This is a common practice by which people of a certain ethnic background are targeted by the security apparatus on the belief that they are more likely to commit or be involved in illegal activity. There is no other probable suspicion except for their skin colour, and because of it they are subject to search or even detention. There are some that suggest this needs to be done in order to protect our security and to cut down on costs. However, racial profiling is inherently unjust and unAmerican. It is not a useful or acceptable practice and it may even have negative consequences for security. Background To properly understand the role played by racial profiling in the criminal justice system it is important to take a step back and look at the various theories that underlie the system we live in. There are two main models that are used to frame the criminal justice system. These two models are excellent illustrations of the thinking behind a great deal of the policy discussion relating to racial profiling. The first model is called the Due Process model. In this system, the standard to arrest and convict a person is very high. There are numerous safeguards in place to ensure that no innocent person is ever subject to any sort of invasive treatment. Everyone, no matter what the crime or the nature of the evidence, is treated with kid gloves. Not until the judge weighs in with the final conviction is the suspect sent to prison. Trials, under this model, last for a very long time and every scrap of evidence is reviewed. The problem with this model is that it is impracticable. It is very expensive and time consuming. It uses up a lot of resources in a system with limited or finite resources already. It may also permit guilty people to game the system to s ome extent. This system is often promoted by people on the left of the political spectrum. There is a second model called the Crime Control model. Under this system, the police have a great deal of power to act as they see fit. They are empowered to stop people without suspicion and hold people without charge. The prosecutors are usually presumed to be right. The presumption of innocence is somewhat limited. There are few protections regarding the civil rights of those accused under this model. An accusation is similar to a conviction. Trials and investigations are short; everything is aligned against the suspect. Suspicion is akin to guilt. Criminals have few rights and little evidence needs to be presented in order to convict someone. This model is often promoted by people on the right. These two models are good illustrations of the politics behind racial profiling. They also represent two poles, neither of which are an appropriate way to run a criminal justice system. We see that racial profiling falls into the Crime Control model, where suspects have fewer rights, but community security is the ultimate good. Preserving limited resources is important. Rather than randomly searching people, under racial profiling ethnic background is taken to imply a likely disposition to commit a crime or type of crime. Race is used as an investigative shortcut. This is an unfortunate extreme. A much better position is between the two models. Problems with Racial Profiling There are many possible reasons why

Hurricane Katrina Was a Man-Made and Natural Disaster Essay Example for Free

Hurricane Katrina Was a Man-Made and Natural Disaster Essay The hurricane, of course, was a natural disaster. The after effects like the levees breaching, people starving and dieing in the streets, how the government handle the situation were all man made. The reason being a man made were , The man-made part of the disaster is that the government knew the levees wouldnt hold up in a Category 3 hurricane, and they didnt shore them up anyway. What was also man-made was the fact that the government told people to go to the Superdome, and when they did, they were stranded and many died a painful death. The reason being a natural disaster, New Orleans is below sea level, there wasnt much anyone could do to prevent it. A lot of people say that President Bush was lazy and uncaring about the problem and refused to help. However, the truth is he couldnt. In the case of a natural disaster, its up to the Governor of said area to either fix the problem or call in for help. The Governor in charge of that 5 years ago failed to respond, putting our former president in a tough situation. Eventually the government stepped in when it was clear there was no other choice, but saying Katrina was Bushs fault is like saying the oil spill is Obamas. It was a terrible natural disaster that happened 5 years ago, I say we put the past in the past.

Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Essay -- Pride

Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The novel Pride and Prejudice, is a romantic comedy, by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is a story about an unlikely pair who go through many obstacles before finally coming together. Pride is the opinion of oneself and prejudice is how one person feels others perceive them. The novel, Pride and Prejudice, uses plot, the characters of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and the status of women and social standing, to portray the theme of the novel - pride and prejudice.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The plot of the novel follows traditional plot guidelines; although there are many small conflicts, there is one central conflict that sets the scene for the novel. The novel is about an embarrassing; mismatched couple and their five daughters. The novel begins with Mrs. Bennet, telling her daughters of the importance of marrying well. During this time a wealthy man, Charles Bingley, moves close to Netherfield, where the Bennets’ reside. The Bennet girls struggle to capture his attention, and Jane, who judges no one, is the daughter who manages to win his heart, until Mr. Bingley abruptly leaves town. Mr. Bingley is often accompanied by Fitzwilliam Darcy, who is a very proud man. Elizabeth Bennet, who is proud of herself, and Mr. Darcy are not fond of one another from the start, these two characters pose the central conflict in the novel. As the novel progresses, Elizabeth receives a marriage proposal from her cousin, Mr. Collins, and turns him down. Mr. Co llins then proposes to Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s bestfriend, who accepts. Elizabeth then leaves home to stay with, the Collins’ who live near Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s aunt. While this is going on, Mr. Darcy realizes he has feelings for Elizabeth and proposes to her, this is the climax of the novel. She is astonished by his actions, and turns him flat down. She explains that she feels he is arrogant, and feels he stood in the way of Jane and Mr. Bingley marrying, and also feels he is a cruel man, especially in his treating of Mr. Wickham, she is expressing her prejudice towards him. He leaves and they part very angry with each other. Mr. Darcy then writes Elizabeth a letter, explaining his feelings, defending his actions, and reveling the true nature of Mr. Wickham. During this time Elizabeth returns home still baffled about the letter Mr.... ...udice in the social ladder. The Bennet family, although wealthy, was looked down upon, is relation to their social status. They were seen as low on the social ladder, because they had "new money." Lady Catherine, is another example of pride and prejudice displayed through social status, "Now and then they were honoured with a call from her ladyship, and nothing escaped her observation†¦" Lady Catherine noticed flaws in everyone and used her position and title of "Lady" to rise above everyone and make herself seem superior to them. Her position gives her pride and she flaunts it in a negative way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many examples throughout the novel, to support the running theme, and title of the novel, Pride and Prejudice. Pride in not always a good thing, it can lead to arrogance and contempt very quickly. Prejudice is not necessarily a bad thing either, and is never unavoidable, sometimes disliking a person and not being friends with them works out to an advantage. Jane Austen dramatized the theme of pride and prejudice, through plot, her main characters, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, and demonstrated how the status of women and social status can lead to pride and prejudice.

Email Privacy Issues :: essays research papers

Email Privacy Issues   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a result of recent lawsuits against many organizations, companies have developed a policy on proper email practices on company computers. No longer is your personal email regarded as private when accessed on a company’s computer. Companies, in order to decrease lawsuits and increase productivity, have purchased email monitoring software to track email usage during work hours. Therefore, with the onslaught of email monitoring, is a private email really private?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In NetworkWorld’s The Perils of Privacy, Sharon Gaudin discusses the benefits of a company having a well-defined email policy. She provides the pros and cons of whether a company should invest in an email monitoring system. According to Gaudin, companies are held liable for what their employees do when using company equipment. A joke between to college buddies can be deemed sexual harassment by the company and open up a lawsuit if it ends up in the wrong hands. Because of this, companies have begun monitoring not only emails that employees send, but the websites they visit. Is this ethical? Some would say yes. A company has to protect its name and assets. The business arena is just for that†¦business. Employees are not paid to do personal business on company time. Leisure activity on the internet slows productivity and costs money. On the other hand, if a â€Å"clerk uses her lunch break to scan the Web for information on abuse victims, [and] the info rmation she calls up also flashes onto a screen in her boss's office, and now he knows a secret she never told anyone,† isn’t that a violation of her privacy?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While this issue seems to be one of ongoing debate, I am one who does not take sides. On one hand I can see the need for corporations to monitor their employees. Information within an email can be deemed unimportant to the mission and goals of the company.

An Unhealthy Image Essay

Over the years, models have become skinnier and skinnier, and now most models are just too thin. Being a fashion model went hand-in-hand with being slim, but now being a fashion model goes hand-in-hand with no body fat whatsoever. It took the death of a young adult at a fashion show taking place during Fashion Week for officials in Madrid to finally say ‘No more’ to overly underweight models, and others are being to follow suit. Luisel Ramos was one of Uruguay’s top fashion models at the age of only 22. In preparation for Uruguay’s Fashion Week, she stuck to a strict diet of only lettuce and Diet Coke for about three months leading up to the show. Shortly after exiting the runway during a fashion show, she collapsed backstage trying to fight through a heart attack, but because of the lack of nutrition was unable to win the battle (Phillips). The strict dieting Ramos stuck to left her weighing only 98 pounds. This is the average weight of a 12 or 13 year old standing a little over 5 feet tall, but at a height of almost 5’10, this is alarming (Average Height to Weight Chart). That’s a body mass index, or BMI, of only 14.5! BMI is calculated using a person’s weight in conjunction to their height and is used to categorize a person’s weight to determine if they are underweight, average weight, or overweight. (Healthy Weight: Assessing Your Weight: Body Mass Index (BMI)). According to The World Health Organization, a BMI of 16 is already considered starving, so 14.5 is extremely underweight. To add insult to injury, Lusiel’s 18-year-old sister died the following year for the same contributing reason, malnutrition (Phillips). Australia, along with some European countries, and a few case-by-case fashion shows in the United States have already started banning severely underweight models, but a majority of countries have yet to join the movement. There should be a weight minimum on models because without one the pressure to be thin forces unhealthy dieting and eating disorders, the fashion industry is promoting an unhealthy body image, and because we simply should not be encouraging a sickness. There is definitely an undeniable pressure for models to be thin in the fashion industry. According to Martin J. Tovee, a professor at Newcastle University and one of the conductors of the study â€Å"Supermodels: Stick  Insects or Hourglasses?†, â€Å"model cards provide accurate biometric data on the basis of which the models are hired† meaning to models and designers, numbers are everything (Tovee). Unfortunately, it is usually the lower the numbers, the greater the chance of being picked, putting a great amount of pressure on fashion models to be skinny. But there are a host of health problems that go hand-in-hand with being super skinny. One with an eating disorder will most likely suffer from an irregular heartbeat; sensitivity to cold temperatures; thinning of bones; lowered blood pressure but also a lowered pulse, lowered body temperature, and breathing rates. Lack of proper nutrition can even cause damage to vital organs like the heart, brain, or kidneys (â⠂¬Å"Eating Disorders: Complications†). None of these health problems can and should be taken lightly. After reading a list like this, it’s not surprising that 1 out every 10 eating disorders leads to death (Weltzin). What is shocking, however, that it is said that one of the most common causes of death among those with an eating disorder is not directly related to a physical health problem, but instead the mental aspect of it. It appears that suicide among those with eating disorders is one of the most common causes of death and was confirmed in one of the many studies done titled, Suicide and attempted suicide in eating disorders, obesity and weight-image concern, which is a study completed by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rome. They have determined that, â€Å"individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa commit suicide more often than their counterparts in the general population; also a few studies have suggested that suicide is the major cause of death among patients with anorexia nervosa, refuting the assumption that inanition generally threatens the life of these patients† (Pompili). Suicide is often a result of pressure or challenges becoming unbearable. These models are literally dying to be ‘beautiful’. Since 2010 alone, there have been seven reported cases of suicide among models as young as 16-years-old (Coles). With a minimum weight requirement put in place, some of the pressure put on by the fashion industry to be too skinny will be taken off of these young models. The fashion industry is crawling with designers and the â€Å"beautiful† people they chose to represent them. Sadly, the fashion industry’s idea of  Ã¢â‚¬Å"beautiful† is unhealthily underweight bodies attached to pretty faces. In many aspects, models are widely respected. They introduce the world to the up-and-coming trends; they show the world different ways to put together outfits; and they make up a small portion of the population who are portrayed as physically â€Å"perfect† and who doesn’t want to be what others think â€Å"perfect† is? For those who feel they are not already beautiful, they look to these models to try and discover how â€Å"beauty† can actually be defined. A few things might stick out to those who look to models for guidance. They might notice the pretty hair, or the seemingly flawless skin, and they may even notice the models’ above average height, but one thing that cannot be looked over: the modelâ₠¬â„¢s weight. Fashion models are all very petite and most are lacking the natural curves of a woman. But models and the fashion industry are promoting this body image as what ‘beauty’ can be defined as. Former Victoria Secret model, Frederique van der Wal, was in awe at the sight of how skinny the models were who strutted down the runway during New York’s Fashion Week in 2006. She commented on the sight by stating, â€Å"This unnatural thinness is a terrible message to send out. The people watching the fashion shows are young, impressionable women† (Hellmich). It can be agreed that the situation is bad when one of their own comments on it. But there is plenty of truth to stand behind what the model is saying. In fact, a professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago and the vice president of the American Psychiatric Association, Nada Stotland agrees, arguing that â€Å"We know seeing super-thin models can play a role in causing anorexia†¦ because many models and actresses are so thin, it makes anorexics think their emaciated bodies are normal† (Hellmich). With this definition of beauty, young people who aspire to be models are doomed. Whether they like it or not, many models and actresses are seen as role models, and many young girls growing up look to models and actresses as such. When females look to some of the models as role models, and see all the glam, glory, and attention that these models are receiving, it only encourages the disorder. Role models should be that: role models. They should be promoting a positive image, both mentally and also physically. However, overly thin models display the exact opposite. They are mentally unhealthy, and it shows physically. What these young people may not know about wanting to be a dangerously underweight model are the health problems  that being dangerously underweight are linked to. In fact, the models that are participating in being dangerously underweight may not know the health problems they may be bringing upon themselves either. However, this is not a suggestion that thin models cause eating disorder in those who look up to them. One of the misconceptions and arguments against applying a weight minimum to modeling is that thin models do not cause eating disorders, it has yet to be proven so this is a valid argument, but on the other hand, it cannot be denied that it could be an attributing factor in some cases. Another argument against weight restrictions, is that if models are seen as role models to others and are being held accountable, then others in the limelight need to be held accountable, also. The flaw in this argument is that ‘others’ are actually being held accountable. Some may considered musical artists a role model. With this said, newly signed rapper, Wiz Khalifa is known for his reference to marijuana in his songs, but is still adored by the younger generation. However, this caught up with him last year when he was arrested for drug position (Miller). Without this minimum weight requirement, these severely underweight models are only being encouraged. The thinner the model, the more work and opportunities that are available to them. Hiring the thinnest models is justified by saying that designers need models that will fit sample clothes. There has been discussion by The Council of Fashion Designers of America about increasing sample clothing sizes but only few have taken the initiative to increase the sample clothing size. Sample clothing is prototype of clothing designers create for a model to wear down the runway, before mass producing. Sample clothing sizes usually range from a size zero to a size two. A former runway model, Valentine Fillol Cordier, explains, â€Å"The measurements have changed – I’d say the perfect hip size now is 10cm less that it was in the 90’s. All the girls have lost on the hips† (Fisher). She then goes on to explain that since she was unable to keep up with changing measureme nts, â€Å"[she] can’t work anymore† (Fisher). The editor of respected fashion magazine, _Vogue_, Alexandra Shulman, sent a letter to major international fashion houses complaining that â€Å"sample sizes sent by designers are now so ‘minuscule’ they force fashion editors to use models  with ‘jutting bones’ and ‘no breasts or hips'† (Fisher). As sample sizes get smaller and smaller, the healthier models find themselves out of work while the unhealthy models get all the glory. By the unhealthier models getting all the glory, it is only reassuring the models that being severely underweight is a good thing, and encouraging other models to get skinnier when in fact is it absurd. The world might wince at the sight of skin and bones walking around, but as long as these models are being used to showcase designers’ apparel and still getting paid, who is going to stop them? Some have finally said enough is enough to severely underweight models. The first ban on overly underweight models took place in 2006 in Madrid. In order to determine what a healthy weight is for a model, fashion shows taking place in Madrid evaluate the Body Mass Index, or BMI, which compares the models’ height to their weight. Any models falling below the â€Å"healthy† weight limit being turned away. The mayor of Milan in Italy, has decided to do the same. She says that the only way that this policy will be overturned is if there is another to keep the models from looking â€Å"sick† (â€Å"Skinny Models Banned from Catwalk†). More recently, Victoria Beckham banned 12 models from her New York fashion show last year. Even though she is quite thin herself, she did not want to keep the trend going by supporting underweight models. Placing a weight minimum on models would not be put in place to discriminate against models and designers, but instead for the welfare of models and the people who look up to them. Without the weight minimum, the fashion industry is promoting an unhealthy body image. They are sending the message to consumers and the people who look towards the models as role models that it is okay to be severely underweight. Not only is the fashion industry negatively impacting others, but it is also negatively impacting the models, themselves. They are killing themselves to be this idea of â€Å"beautiful† that the fashion industry has defined. Just as important, without this minimum weight requirement, this unhealthy lifestyle, this sickness, is being glorified and encouraged, wherein it should not be. Eating disorders are exactly that, illness, and no one should be cheered on for it. Bibliography â€Å"Average Height to Weight Chart.† _Disability News, Information and Resources – Disabled World_. Disabled World, 28 Oct. 2007. Web. 21 Oct. 2011. . Coles, John. â€Å"Aspiring Teenage Model Gabby Joseph Killed by a Train.† _Metro.co.uk_. Metro, 28 Apr. 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2011. . â€Å"Eating Disorders: Complications.† Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 12 Jan. 2010. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. . Fisher, Alice, and Caroline Davies. â€Å"Fashion Houses Hit Back In Row Over Who’s To Blame For ‘Size Zero’ Models.† The Guardian. The Observer, 13 June 2009. Web. 30 Oct. 2011. . â€Å"Healthy Weight: Assessing Your Weight: Body Mass Index (BMI).† _Centers for Disease Control and Prevention_. CDC, 13 Sept. 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2011. . Hellmich, Nanci. â€Å"Do Thin Models Warp Girls’ Body Image?† _Health & Behavior_. USA TODAY, 26 Sept. 2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2011. . Miller, Carlin DeGuerin. â€Å"Wiz Khalifa Arrested: Rapper Bonds Out of Jail in Time for â€Å"Cheese Eggs Pimp† Breakfast – Crimesider – CBS News.† Breaking News Headlines. CBS, 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2012. . Phillips, Tom. â€Å"Anna Carolina Reston: The Model Who Starved Herself to Death.† _Latest News, Sport and Comment from the Guardian | The Guardian_. The Guardian, 13 Jan. 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. . Pompili, M, Girardi P, Tatarelli G, Ruberto A, and Tatarelli R. â€Å"Suicide and Attempted Suicide in Eating Disorders, Obesity and Weight-image Concern.† _Eating Behavior_ (2006): 384-94. _NCBI_. NCBI, 23 Jan. 2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2011. . Povoledo, Elisabetta. â€Å"Milan Wants to See More Meat on Models.† _The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia_. The New York Times, 15 Sept. 2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2011. . â€Å"Skinny Models Banned from Catwalk.† Featured Articles from CNN. CNN, 13 Sept. 2006. Web. 24 Nov. 2011. . Tovee, Martin J., Suzanne M. Mason, Joanne L. Emery, Sara E. McCluskey, and Esther M. Cohen- Tovee. â€Å"Supermodels: Stick Insects or Hourglasses?† _Supermodels: Stick Insects or Hourglasses?_ 350.9089 (1997): 1474-475. _TheLancet.com_. The Lancet. Web. 22 Oct. 2011. . Weltzin, Theodore E. â€Å"Eating Disorders.† _American Bar Association_. GPsolo Magazine, Oct.- Nov. 2004. Web. 24 Nov. 2011.

Lean Management in a Salon

1. 0. About the organization Yellow Nails Salon is a privately run business which specializes in nail care and started off as a nail-bar 5 years ago. It is a small setup with 10 service staff, one main work floor, 2 treatment rooms, a storeroom, a pantry and a restroom. The owner visits the salon every day for a couple of hours to keep an eye on the over-all running of the salon and to ensure work is being done up to the standard. The salon services about 20 customers on weekdays and up to 40 customers on weekends/peak seasons, and receives about 20% turn-away customers daily. . 1. Main products and services The core services provided by the salon are different types of manicures and pedicures. Since 2010 the salon has grown in popularity and seen a demand from regular clients to offer more varied services, so hair treatments, massage services, hair removal and specialized facials have been introduced. The salon also stocks nail polishes which the customers can purchase. 1. 2. The cu stomers The client base consists of women from low to mid-income families residing in the area.These are women that like the convenience of having a salon close by that they can visit regularly and pamper themselves, yet not blow a hole in their pockets by doing so. A lot of the customers treat their salon time as a requirement rather than an indulgence and slot it in as a job in their busy schedules. 1. 3. Order qualifiers and order winners for the company The order winners for the salon are the prices offered along with the decor and environment.There are no other salons in the area with a matching stylish interior while offering similar competitive rates. Any salons that offer this type of ambience will be too pricey, and those that are not, will not have the same sort of interiors. The order qualifiers are the experience of the staff, the services offered and the location. 2. 0. Challenges One of the biggest challenges faced by the business is that a lot of customers have to be turned away because the salon is unable to accommodate them in several ways.While a lot of similar salons thrive on new and walk-in customers, in Yellow Nails, unless you have pre planned the visit and booked, you will not be attended to, even if is it a case of adding an extra treatment during your visit. Appointments are made and not kept, yet the staff is obligated to sit idle until the customer arrives and turn away walk-in customers. Another major problem is that a lot of time is taken up by each customer alone as a single specialist attends to a customer at a time, while other staff waits for their booking to arrive.There have been occasions when it has been witnessed that some roll-on wax has been thrown away because it has dried up so the attendant has had to open a new case, which is also the case with other beauty products. Seemingly, there is quite a bit of wastage due to old stock being kept. Another issue seems to be that though the staff is very friendly and their work is of a high standard, the space around them is not very organized, resulting in longer waiting time for the customer, even between services.Along with these challenges, the cost of operations is high, as the owner gets the spa products from Switzerland which she visits periodically and stocks up on her visit and has also invested heavily in treatment machines, which require regular maintenance. These factors show that it is quite important for the business to structure its operations more effectively in order to generate more desirable profits. 2. 1. Evidence Having been to the salon many times and witnessing the problems on a first-hand basis, there is no doubt that the problems observed do truly exist.Many businesses have challenges which are buried under a shiny exterior, but when the customer starts facing it directly, you know it’s an issue that needs to be dealt with immediately, possibly more critically in a service-based company. 2. 2. Effects on the Business While the salon is making sufficient revenue, it is losing out on prospective business because the jobs are not streamlined effectively. Having spoken to the manager of the salon about how the business is performing, she said it is doing quite well and they are making â€Å"good money†.On the slightly negative side, she went on to say that they are unable to hire any more staff because they don’t have space to accommodate more customers at one time and the owner had no intention to expand the space. What was perceived from the discussion was that they do recognize that a lot of customers have to be turned away due to which they are losing potential business, and that the owner is interested in hiring more girls in order to boost profit but is unable to, and she doesn’t think there is any other solution to this problem.The obvious answer, as per the owner, is that more staff equals more customers, which means more revenue. ? 3. 0. Lean implementation in the service sec tor Traditionally, Lean practices have been largely associated with the manufacturing industry, with literature and methods of implementation being more accessible in that particular sector. We therefore look at the research of several authors that discuss how lean can be applied in service industries and the factors that need to be focused on in order to be able to do so.We also look at the different frameworks of lean that makes it a recommended approach. 3. 1. Literature Review The term Lean management has first been used in the book The Machine That Changed the World by Womack, Jones and Roos (1990), describing the fundamentals of the Toyota production system as lean production (Coote and Gould, 2006). Following on from which, Coote and Gould’s (2006) literature talks about lean as a concept that has come to mean different things to different people, from claiming that most view it as a collaboration of efficiency and low cost which they depict as being a narrow view.They provide a more wholesome definition describing it as ‘delivering customer value without waste’. As businesses tend to place a high importance to their customers, it would be inevitable that a concept with a large focus on that factor would be adopted, although one would question whether the approach is only fit for a manufacturing company. Abdi et al (2006) state that lean can be applied to service sectors and that there are similarities and differences in adopting the approach from a service point of view.Their literature discusses five different principles from the works of Womack and Jones (1996) and how these lean manufacturing principles can be applied to the service sector, which includes specifying value by service, indentifying the service value stream, making the service flow, supplying at the pull of the customer and implementing the pursuit of perfection and in order to apply these principles, they place the human element as a crucial variable in the service s sector.Another piece of literature, researched by Bonaccorsi et al (2011), concludes that lean thinking has the potentialities to be implemented in the service industry as an effective way to cut costs and increase customer satisfaction. They emphasize that applying lean to service is challenging which is why lean concepts must often be redefined in a proper way, and to solve this, the concept Service Value Stream Management (SVSM) has been developed.This approach is flexible in nature and can be applied to a wide range of cases, including Yellow Nails salon, wherein the principles of lean need to be tailored to the requirements of that particular sector. As SVSM is claimed to be flexible and used functionally as a general guide, there should be no complications to develop a true lean service via its implementation. Piercy and Rich’s (2009) research findings highlight that through the adoption of lean service tools, service business can serve the traditionally competing pri orities both of operational cost reduction and of increased customer service quality.The lean approach is validated in the service context and proposed as a valuable addition to traditional service marketing approaches to services improvement. In their paper, they present the data on the implementation of lean process approaches in the call centre context highlighting rapid improvements such as value identification, process/value stream mapping, and removal of barriers to flow value to the customer. An empirical study by Alsmadi et al (2012), analyzes the differences in the relationship between lean practices and firm performance in the UK manufacturing and service sectors.Although lean practices have been successfully implemented in many manufacturing cases, their effect on firm performance in both manufacturing and service sectors is still limited. First, the empirical findings in both sectors suggest that Lean practices are positively associated with firms’ performance and the degree of impact on performance is also identical between the two sectors, therefore their study supports the positive argument concerning the applicability of Lean practices in service firms and their potential effect on performance.The results also suggested that soft Lean practices related to customer and HR management in the service sector was performing highly which is why it is essential, as stated by other authors, that Lean practices need to be distilled and tailored to the specific features of the sector. Once the idea of lean principles has been accepted that is can be implemented by a service based company, it would be important to focus on the specific internal implementation techniques, wherein Malayeff (2006) attempts to provide insight into the management of an internal service system derived from a perspective of Lean management.He claims this would exist within professional service units of development, engineering, information technology, human resources and c onsumer affairs. In the case of Yellow Nails salon, the focus would be on the HR and consumer functions.. Malayeff’s (2006) study stated that internal service systems have numerous common structural characteristics including the importance of information, process flows across functions, many hand-offs of information, hidden costs and benefits and no explicit motivation for urgency.The wasteful activities can be classified into seven groups: delays reviews, mistakes, duplication, movement, processing inefficiencies and resource inefficiencies, and he found that the most common problems included a lack of standard procedures, long service times, communication breakdowns and poor personnel management, out of which all but communication breakdowns are issues that Yellow Nails salon can be seen as a victim of. Draghichi and Petcu (2011) also propose Lean Six Sigma as a strong leadership approach for improving management rocesses, while reducing errors which can in turn help both t he organization and its employees do things quicker and better through quality principles, resulting in improvements at all service organization levels Bortolotti and Romano (2012) developed a framework based on a study they conducted wherein they found that the automation of a process that is not streamlined can generate problems that can slow down the flow of work and increase errors. They state that a process should first be mapped to highlight waste and only when the new process is streamlined, can it actually be automated.They go on to say that by doing so, the new process will automate only value-added activities recognized by the customers which we will touch upon in more detail for Yellow Nails salon in section 4. 3. 2. Recommendations Though the authors state that through tailored concepts being applied to service sectors, lean can be effectively employed, it is important for authors in the field to depict more focused principles relating to lean practices for a full servic e based business, which seems to be missing. 4. 0. Project Plan for Lean ImplementationIn order to fix the problems that the business is facing, I would propose a new business model incorporating a lean approach. Lean focuses on elimination of waste (Slack et al, 2010) and the following are some of the Muda, or non-value adding work for the customer that can be eliminated with the suggested operational implementations. 4. 1. Reducing waiting time Yellow Nails Salon will benefit from eradicating the appointment system that they are currently enforcing, which in fact ties up the service slot, even if the customer is late due to the business’ policy that could be given to a walk-in customer.Management should instead implement job cards with a list of what treatments the customer wants with service being given on a first-come-first-serve basis. This will allow the business to maximize the number of customers they are taking on daily, not turn any customers away and eventually cut down on the waiting time of the customer. 4. 2. Full utilization of Human Resources Currently, the staff is not being utilized to their maximum capability so it would be beneficial to the business to reorganize the way the service staff is taking on workload.A full utilization of all staff at all times approach should be set into place, so if there is one customer and two staff members available, they should both attend to the client to speed up the service where possible . This would essentially free up 50% of the client’s time in the salon, which no doubt will be give them better value for money. The improved efficiencies can be highlighted by illustrating this using Value Stream Mapping. 4. 2. 1 Value Stream Mapping Value stream mapping focuses on value-adding activities and distinguishes between value-adding and non-value-adding activities (Slack et al, 2010).The following is a simplified version showing the value added activities for a customer at the salon and highligh ts the waiting time as the ‘waste’ which should be eliminated. Example of customer x – Requirement: Manicure, Haircut & Waxing It can be seen that with the current means of operations, a customer with the mentioned requirements will be at the salon for three hours and fifteen minutes, whereas by employing lean practices, their time can be cut down by a full hour and fifteen minutes. 4. 3. JIT implementation for beauty productsThough the owner may view it as a major set-back, it would be an intelligent decision to acquire a local supplier that can provide good quality products that the salon can order in smaller batches when required, rather than purchasing excellent quality products in large quantities, keep the stock in storage over long periods of time and throw a large portion of it away due to it being spoilt.. By introducing JIT, the salon can keep customers happy as well as combat avoidable costs. 4. 4. 5S principles implementationAnother factor that can im prove customer service provided at the salon would be to reorganize the workspace by adopting the 5S lean implementation framework which would help the staff operate in a more orderly manner. The staff is directly customer facing so there is not a lot of scope to waste time locating the required goods to service the customer. 5. 0. Conclusion To conclude, though the business is currently at a good stable position in the market with a loyal customer base, there is scope for growth in terms of increased profits and new business which can only be enjoyed by Yellow Nails if it implements lean practices.The challenges which are currently faced comprising of turning away customers, long waiting time and wastage of stock can all be solved by incorporating the 5 principles of lean thinking, which include focusing on value of the customer, appreciating the value stream, concentrating on improved flow and perfecting quality. The business possesses some very strong attributes wherein some lean values can already be found such as the pull factor as staff is flexible in fulfilling customer requirement, and additional care is given to quality of service.However, there is still a gap in the model which is not allowing the business to perform at its full potential, and by tapping in to this area, going forward, Yellow Nails will be able to see substantial improvements. ? 6. 0. References †¢Abdi, F. et al. (2006) Glean Lean: How to use Lean approach in service industries?. Journal of Services Research, 6 p. 191-206. †¢Alsmadi, M. et al. (2012) A comparative analysis of Lean practices and performance in the UK manufacturing and service sector firms. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23 (4), p. 81-396. †¢Bonaccorsi, A. et al. (2011) Service Value Stream Management (SVSM): Developing Lean Thinking in the Service Industry. Journal of Service Science and Management, 4 p. 428-439. †¢Bortolotti, T. and Romano, P. (2013) ‘Lean first, then automa te': a framework for process improvement in pure service companies. Production Planning & Control: The Management of Operations, 23 (7), p. 513-522. †¢Coote, P. and Gould, S. (2006) Technical Matters – Lean Management. Financial Management, p. 31-34 †¢Draghici, M. and Jenica Petcu, A. 2011) Knowledge Transfer – The Key to Drive Innovation for Service Organizations Excellence. Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology, (4), p. 44-53. †¢Maleyeff, J. (2006) Exploration of internal service systems using lean principles. Management Decision, 44 (5), p. 674-689. †¢Piercy, N. and Rich, N. (2009) High quality and low cost: the lean service centre. European Journal of Marketing, 43 (11/12), p. 1477-1497. †¢Slack, N. et al. (2011) Essentials of Operations Management. Harlow: Prentice Hall Financial Times, p. 1-318.