Saturday, October 12, 2019

Comparing At the Morgue by Helen Garner and Basics Training by Deborah

Comparing At the Morgue by Helen Garner and Basics Training by Deborah Hope AT THE MORGUE – Helen Garner, True Stories 1996 This article is written in the first person's point of view. The style is informal, almost chatty in spite of the morbid topic it deals with. The author uses this style to tell the reader a story, like telling a friend an experience. The author's feelings and thoughts are freely expressed. This helps to put the reader into the author's shoes, to see through her eyes and feel through her heart. This article is a narrative. It does not aim to analyse the topic. It describes the author's experiences at the mortuary and the resulting disturbing thoughts she had. Descriptive language is used to give graphic details. This paints vivid mental pictures in the reader's mind. It contributes to the feeling of personal involvement of the reader. All the author's observations are described in detail. Words used are simple yet effective. The article was an enjoyment to read. It provides an insider's view of what goes on in the mortuary, where not many people can access. It deals with a subject which people do not usually seek information on but are nonetheless intrigued by. The style lessens the formality of the subject, which makes it less scary to deal with. The descriptive language is effectively used. The expression of the author's feeling and thoughts encourages empathy from the reader with the author. BASICS TRAINING – Deborah Hope, The Au...

Friday, October 11, 2019

Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble Case Study

Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble CASE STUDY 1. What is Procter & Gamble’s business strategy? What is the relationship of collaboration and innovation to that business strategy? i. Proctor and Gamble’s business strategy focuses on three main areas. This is to maintain the popular the popularity of its existing brands through advertising and marketing; the extension of its brand to related products by developing new products and the creation of new brands from scratch.To achieve these, the company aims to facilitate collaboration between researchers, marketers and managers. ii. By fostering interaction among employees P&G fosters informed decision making and the sharing of ideas and information which ultimately leads the company to produce quality products. 2. How is P&G using collaboration systems to execute its business model and business strategy? List and describe the collaboration systems and technologies it is using and the benefits of each i.P&G res earchers use collaborative tools to share data on various brands they have collected which allows marketers to access this data to create better targeted ad campaigns and likewise managers access data shared t be able to make informed decisions. ii. – P&G use a suite of Microsoft products such as MS Outlook, MS SharePoint and others that have unified communication and integrate services through voice and data transmissions and allow for instant messaging, email and electronic conferences, web conferencing with live meeting, and content management. P&G use social networking innovations -P&G uses blogs instead of emails that are open to anyone interested in their content and attract comments from others. – The company uses Connect beam which is a search tool that allows employees to share bookmarks and tag content with descriptive words that appear in future searches, and facilitates social networks of coworkers to help them find and share information more effectively â €“ It also uses InnovationNet which contains over 5 million research-related documents in digital format accessible through a browser-based portal. P&G have also adopted Cisco Telepresence conference rooms across the globe that allows researchers to communicate and share data. Some benefits of the Cisco Telepresence include the reduction of travel cost, efficient flow of ideas and quick decision making. 3. Why were some collaborative technologies slow to catch on at P&G? Some collaborative tools were slow for P&G because employees resisted to the collaborative tool because in their opinion that would create more work and delays.Employees were more accustomed to emails 4. Compare P&G’s old and new processes for writing up and distributing the results of a research experiment. Researchers under the old process wrote up their experiments using MS Office tools then print them out and glue the papers page by page into notebooks or they would simply paste results of experiments into word documents and pass them out. Also data and speech recordings are entered into MS PowerPoint and emailed to employees.In the new method however, employees use a collaborative tool such as InnovationNet which contains over 5 million research- related documents in digital format accessible to employees via a browser-based portal. Also P&G uses a Microsoft SharePoint page where all presentations are posted. These presentations are stored in a single location and accessible to employees and colleagues in other parts of the company. 5. Why is telepresence such a useful collaborative tool for a company like P&G?Telepresence is a useful collaborative tool for P&G because it helps to foster collaboration between employees across continents and leads to reduction in travel cost, efficient flow of ideas and quick decision making. 6. Can you think of other ways P&G could use collaboration to foster innovation? Proctor and Gamble could use virtual world technology which creates online 3-D environments populated by employees who have in-built graphical representations of themselves known as avatars.P&G can use this virtual world to house online meetings, training sessions, and â€Å"lounges. † Real-world people represented by avatars meet, interact, and exchange ideas at these virtual locations. Communication takes place in the form of text messages similar to instant messages. P&G could also use Google Apps or Google Sites which is a collaborative that allows users to quickly create online, group-editable web sites in minutes and post a variety of files including calendars, text, spreadsheets, and videos for private, group, or public viewing and editing.Also Google a software such as called Google Wave which is part conversation and part document can be used as a collaborative tool. Researchers or any participant of a wave can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content, and add or remove participants at any point in the process. Users are able to see responses from other participants on their â€Å"wave† while typing occur, accelerating the pace of discussion.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Impact of Information Technology on Customer and Supplier Relationships in the Financial Services Essay

Information technology plays an important role to support the relationships between customers and suppliers in financial industry. Different industry faces different competitive and different business practice. Besides, we can use information technology to determine the opportunities and threats to the relationships between customers and suppliers. In this research, it focus on the financial service industry that is motivated by three factors which are the paucity of research in customer and supplier relationships in service industries relative to manufacturing industries, the sheer size of the financial service sector relative to other service sector and the potential for information technology to positively impact firm performance through channel expansion, cost mitigation and service level enhancement. Financial service industry includes all Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes starting with the digit six. In this research, we only focus on those services typically classified as â€Å"financial†. Financial service companies are the earliest commercial users of information technology. Economic forces and technological advances, especially Internet has driven this consolidation across international boundaries and across type financial services. The financial service companies are relatively unique in regard to their value chains. Without possessing any intermediate product can add value to the finish product. The financial services industry has been doing business electronically for many years. Some customer and regulatory statutes demand the use of paper-based transaction audit trails and reporting those transactions. However, the industry leaders will pressure them to adopt electric distribution and information management methods. This report concerns on electronic connectivity, alliances and partnerships. There is a lack of understanding of and available insight into the emerging role of e-business as a delivery channel and customer connection mechanism make a great concern of many organizations. Research Methodology The first phase of methodology is to identify the current and potential role of information technology to support relationship among customers and suppliers in financial services. It included 5 steps which are definition of scope; determination of survey methodology and identification of sample; creation of a survey instrument; administration of the survey; and analysis of survey responses. In this phase, they limited the scope to the immediate suppliers and customers of the subject companies. So the respondents no need to identify suppliers of their suppliers or customers of their customers. In this research, it conducts two interviews in several sectors. Due to the availability of contacts, three of the subjects worked in mutual fund industry, one in retail banking, two in each insurance carriers, institutional investment companies, and brokerage. Eight of them were conducted by telephone and another two were chosen to supply written responses. The typical respondents are senior managers and vice president. Interviews were recorded manually by interviewer so that it is confidentiality and security. Analysis The collected data were analyzed using qualitative techniques. It seeks to conceptualize theory from data rather than proposing theory. The method involves organizing and understanding interview transcripts, collected documents and observe social or business practice. The methodology involves extracting theory from one case study and studies to augment, refine the theory by using subsequent case. Since the sample is limited, they only drew inferences upon a convergence of ideas across industry sectors. Findings / Results Based on the results of interview, there are consistent patterns in the thought, planning, and implementation processes of various participants. They have group the result into five categories. First is how information technology supports existing customer and supplier relationships. Second and third are the opportunities and threats they foresee when they expand their business. The fourth session is the drivers of change. Finally, they examine how manager predict the future respect to the relationship among their customers and suppliers. The analysis of current activities begins with an examination of the partnerships that support inter-organizational business activities within the respondent’s respective industries. There is high degree of interdependence among various financial service industries. A non-linear relationship among the parties is clearly shown. Besides, the relationships demonstrate a high level of complexity and variability. Existing audio response and Web-based account access functions reduced the cost of delivery for many customers account services. There are many opportunities to strengthen the relationships with customers and suppliers. One of the opportunities is to improve customer service levels by providing new form of service delivery, rapidly response to customers, and improve customer confidence. Besides, information technology creates opportunity to increase switching costs for their customers. By this, they can add more value to the transaction. It includes the assimilation of information that supports the investment decision and motivates the transaction execution. Furthermore, information technology also creates the opportunity to extend the world-wide relationships of both customers and suppliers. Similarly, the opportunity exists to create a new relationship with suppliers to create, purchase and provide new products and services. Some respondents believed that the ability to demonstrate technological leadership is one of the opportunities to improve market perception. Besides opportunities, there is a variety of threats to their existing relationships. It includes security risks, network and systems instability and the difficulty of integrating different systems. An opportunity to create a new channel and relationship can create a threat of disintermediation for others. A related threat is the commoditization of product, because it is common in all industries. Many financial service companies have historically relied on existing customers to build profit margins and create loyalty. Besides, the respondents feared the risk of adopting the wrong standard. Since the technology is moving rapidly. So the standards are changing so fast. Another threat is the challenge of keeping pace with escalating technological and business change. The greatest threat is they worried that they may unable to move fast because they cannot see the upside potential and downside risk of inactivity. Evolving customer expectations also impact the e-business strategies. Nowadays, customers demand access to real-time data and expect to access at any time and any place. Besides, improvement in security technology are also driven change. Many respondents believed that internal and public network reliability is improving and will facilitate more rapid expansion of services. There are two primary areas for future investment in inter-organizational integration by respondents. First path is expanding commitment to existing forms of technology to deliver new or expanded functionality. Second area is investing in new technology forms and enhances the inter-organizational relationships. All respondents emphasis on development of technology-enabled education and advice services. Linkage of inquiry and advice functionality to available tools is a vital component of service level expansion and customization. The need to integrate new technology and service with existing system are motivating those firms to pursue more alliances both software and hardware suppliers. Conclusion In the conclusion, there is less linear in the relationships among customers and suppliers in financial services compare to manufacturing industries. And there is a high degree of interdependence exists among the sectors of financial service industry. In this research, there is many findings have been predicted. The participants believe that opportunity for cost savings and service enhancement resides in expansion of customer account maintenance via the Web. Maintenance and education in new form of functionality place more control. So the responsibility is in hand of customers. One discerning manager pointed out, â€Å"we’re now doing business on the customer’s terms, not the terms dictated by our firm or our industry.† Managers interviewed shared many concerns about how to competitive threats and the risk of expanding e-business activity. They fear the capabilities of new, competitors rapidly enter new markets without the millstone of legacy system and traditional organizational cultures will block the progress of industry incumbents. It will cause imbalanced cost structures with new services and pricing. The managers predict further opportunities to improve quality of service, reduce costs, reach customers worldwide, and provide new services. Some managers believe that demonstrating technology leadership was a important component of establishing industry leadership and promoting customer acquisition and loyalty. It has many limitations in this research first it has short term applicability. This is because the longevity of the obstacles is unclear. Another limitation is that it is descriptive rather than prescriptive. Lastly, the conclusion is drawn in this study by small size of sample. This study is very important for both researchers and practitioners. Besides, this study also help managers in financial services industry to identify and analysis the opportunities, risk of building relationships with their customers and suppliers through electronic commerce. A better understanding of the treats and opportunities to existing relationships allow them to response customers more rapidly, accurately and cheaply.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Lord of the Flies Central Thematic Dichotomy Essay

The theme of the central thematic dichotomy in lord of the flies is conveyed through many ways through out the first three chapters. The once majestic island has begun to seem as if it is only a mask for the true concealed â€Å"beastie.† The seemingly paradisiacal island is very similar to the Garden of Eden as it obtains beauty by the vast amounts of growing foliage such as the â€Å"blue flowers,† â€Å"candlebuds,† and dense green forest. On the crust the cool, calm and peaceful persona is vivid and clear however just below lies the greed and savagery of all man kind which in the biblical story says that evil was exposed through Eve when she gave into temptation and disobeyed god’s commands however, in Lord of the flies the sinister one who gives into temptations and leads others with him is Jack as he gives into his primal urges and disobeys his civilized upbringing because of his constant rationalizations of the fact that they need meat but, in reality his interest in meat for the boys is clouded by his desire to kill. The garden of Eden references are also foreshadowing devices as at first the Garden is full of joy and laughter and then humans fall because of greed and temptation which is what happens to the boys at first they believe â€Å"this is a good island† but soon they fall to the primal instincts from within. This shows that the island although beautiful on the surface is merely a disguise for the underlying evil that is rooting itself into the boys. Secondly in my opinion I believe the island and the boys is very much like Libya, it has a hierarchy, it has an infrastructure, it has rules and regulations. It seems civilized. However it is not. As we know, the hierarchy is a dictatorship conducted my Gaussian, much like Jack who is urging himself to be a dictator which is shown when he says â€Å"Come on, Follow me!† leaving only Piggy and Raplh alone as well as, his control over the choir boys, even though Ralph is leader. Its infrastructure is weak, as is the shelters built by the boys, and lastly the rules and regulations are kept but enforced in a cruel , barbaric way which is how the boys are beginning to edge towards as shown when Ralph makes the boys stand until one collapses and he is left and teased for his lack of stamina. Although the boys try to stay within the paths of civilization they slowly are drifting onto the trail of savagery. Also the components of civilization they brought or found are slowly being destroyed and replaced with demonist items such as fire. They begin with their clothes. Clothes have been worn for 170,000 years, since the dawn of civilization, at first the purpose of piggy removing his â€Å"school sweater† is because of his desperation to escape the heat and although Raplh strips, during the first chapter he eventually puts his clothes back on, showing that within him he still sides with humanity rather than savagery however, as time continues the boys slowly begin to rip and destroy as well as remove more clothing and the most covered, Jack, who begins wearing his long black cloak in the first chapter becomes the least clothed with his â€Å"bare back† described when he is hunting in the third chapter. This shows the backwards evolution of the boys where they are beginning to strip away all that is civil and proper and go back to the nature they were created with. As if the once civilized island is now manipulating them to become Neanderthal like creatures. Secondly Piggy’s glasses represent intelligence and humans overpowering nature and the boys use them as †burning glasses† which shows that they are starting to lack respect for human kinds inventions and innovations and interchange over to a side where items/technology are not worth what they would be in a civilized town. Also the fact that they took the glasses forcefully without Piggy’s consent is a sign that the children have not only begun to loose respect for items but also for manners which coincides with the theme that the boys are loosing respect for proper behavior and therefore loosing respect for civilization. This again also foreshadows the future because Piggy’s glasses are also broken just like the shattering of civilization on the island. Lastly the fire the boys create begins as a sign of hope, they try to create a signal so someone might rescue them however it slowly turns into a much larger fire than expected and sets fire to some of the trees and eventually kills a young boy. This is Goldings way of saying that even something that has good intentions can quickly turn into something heinous if given the chance. It is foreshadowing the boys development from good natured English school boys to savage, cold, cantankerous monsters of human beings. To conclude on the surface the boys and the island seem, pleasant, empyrean and majestic however, the inner core opposes the outer drastically and surfaces when times are tough. This shows that the primitive barbaric attitudes of our ancestors comes fourth when in a time of crisis and pressure even if we have the greatest of intentions in the end as Golding shows no-one has the ability to deny or defeat our urges even ones as pure as Simon. Our greatest enemy is truly ourselves.

Engineering sceince Math Problem Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Engineering sceince - Math Problem Example 2 =0.5 * 1.5*238.762 =42754.7532 Joules = 42.7547532Kilojoules Question 2 Potential energy, PE = Therefore, PE = 440*9.8*3.5 = 15092N Kinetic energy, KE = = =9295N Total energy = 9295 + 15092 = 24387 joules Assuming all the energy is converted to KE since there is negligible friction, the final velocity can be gotten by = =110.85 Therefore final velocity, = 10.53m/s Task 3 Question 1 When a net force is acting on an object is proportional to the displacement of the object from the equilibrium, a simple harmonic motion occurs. This is as a result of the insignificance of the force acting on the object (in this case it is zero). A sinusoidal curve illustrates, which is presented as a function of time, illustrates the displacement of the object when the force is acting on it (object). Ideologically, this signifies the model of oscillatory motion. This represents ideologically the model of oscillatory motion. ... Question 2 Angular velocity = 3000rpm = 314.16rad/s Maximum velocity, v =A =0.24*314.16 = 75.4m/s Maximum acceleration is given by 2 =0.24*314.162 = 23685.653376m/s2 =23.683km/s2 Maximum theoretical force F= ma from Newton’s second law 0.28*23685.653376 = 6631.98N Therefore maximum force is

Monday, October 7, 2019

Mythology and St. Patrick of Ireland Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Mythology and St. Patrick of Ireland - Essay Example As to Patrick's earliest beginnings, the Catholic Encyclopedia writes that St. Patrick was an, "Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 493. [some sources say 460 or 461.-Ed.]," ("St. Patrick" p.1). In the study of historical figures, whether they are of the religious nature or not, it is most imperative to begin as far back in their lives as possible and moving forward from there. To question how and where Patrick was spiritually enlightened, the following section of the Catholic Encyclopedia best describes both parts. ... Known as a very spiritual man in later years leading to his declared sainthood and death, it is important to observe what lead him to that point and as the previous paragraph shows, it was something as horrible as slavery that lead him to find his spiritual center. Like many believers, St. Patrick found warmth and comfort of a magnitude that he may never have experienced before. As he says, the outside elements became non-existent to him and the power of prayer enveloped him in a protective shield and gave him the faith and courage, as well as the hope that surely was needed for him during such a horrific period of his life. "Admonished by an angel he after six years fled from his cruel master and bent his steps towards the west. He relates in his "Confessio" that he had to travel about 200 miles; and his journey was probably towards Killala Bay and onwards thence to Westport. He found a ship ready to set sail and after some rebuffs was allowed on board. In a few days he was among his friends once more in Britain, but now his heart was set on devoting himself to the service of God in the sacred ministry. We meet with him at St. Martin's monastery at Tours, and again at the island sanctuary of Lrins which was just then acquiring widespread renown for learning and piety; and wherever lessons of heroic perfection in the exercise of Christian life could be acquired, thither the fervent Patrick was sure to bend his steps. No sooner had St. Germain entered on his great mission at Auxerre than Patrick put himself under his guidance, and it was at that great bishop's hands that Ireland's future apostle was a few years later promoted to the priesthood. It is the tradition in the territory of the Morini that

Sunday, October 6, 2019

A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers - Essay Example He has great concerns about the welfare of life of his daughter living in a distant land as a divorcee and feels that he can contribute something tangible to lighten her burden. His intentions are good, but not to the liking of his daughter! This retired man from Beijing travels all the way to visit her in Spokane, Washington. She is working there as a librarian. He plans to stay with her till such time, he thinks, she is able find peace through her trauma. The generation gap strikes! The daughter is not much enamored with the ideas of her father. Father is hurt with the negative approach shown by his daughter for his efforts to what he considers as the reconstruction of her life. In that town, he meets an old woman who has fled from Iran to USA, after the revolution. Both of them know not much of English but human emotions score over their own languages, and rare friendship develops between the two. They find a unique unexplainable horizon of hope in life, without knowing what exactly they want from each other, except striking the nearness through each other’s trials and tribulations. The daughter, influenced by the western culture has practical ideas. She wishes to remarry and gets ready for it with a Russian man. In the end, the old woman is sent to a retirement home and the father and the daughter come to terms. The relationship between the daughter and father is normally intimate. But this story reveals why it is different, due to the cultural gap between the two. The father arrives from the rigidly governed Communist China, and the social values are shaped accordingly as per the directions of the State. The position is entirely different in USA, where personal freedom is topmost in the agenda of governance. On the one side the people live with the damaged psyche, women silently bear the desperation of lost love relationships and on the other side new experiments in love-relationships continue to happen without any restrictions from the