Saturday, August 31, 2019

Dream Come True

My heart skipped a beat. Every minute when am sitting on the bleachers kept me on thinking about what would happen for the next minutes. I prepared myself. I set my camera, I fed my hungry tummy, and practice myself shouting and yelling. Then, my course began. When I am preparing myself, I hear the crowd's noise. They were shouting. Teens, and even adults scream for the lights turned off and the music was played. It was the very melodic music I've ever heard in my entire life. I took a deep breath and started to scream and stopped.I grab my camera in y pocket and steal some pictures. I capture banners, artworks, and the many fan girls sitting around the performance stage. Following a couple of minutes, the formal program started. The crowd was silent. The program was officially blessed by a prayer played and the Philippine National Anthem was conducted. The opening remarks filled with colorful thoughts was then followed by well-known former seminarian in Dave. And this is what we're waiting for. The program officials and staffs positioned and calibrated the countdown and snap!The crowd began to be wild again. The emcee took his first step up on the stage and welcome us with a great Hello! And make acquainted with the crowd. He then introduce the first performer. He was the son of an executive in GAMMA Dave but I don't actually know who he was. He sang This Love by Maroon 5 and the popular song of the hit singer Jason Mrs., I'm yours. Several performers after the guy performed and act upon on stage. It was already 7 in the evening. The multitude become hot and bothered on who will perform next. The girl beside me asked, â€Å"Is it him?Will he be going to perform now? I answered â€Å"Not yet. † And can you guess who the next performers were? They were the singing priests in Dave City, Rev. FRR. AH Better and Rev. FRR. Civil Bunya. The crowd was alive again. They didn't care about the people instead they join with the music and sing all along with the cr owd. They sang 2 songs and then bid goodbye and said â€Å"Enjoy! † After the performance, the assembly was silent again. After a couple of minutes, the emcee shouted â€Å"Are you ready? † and just as you know, here we go again. I scream, they scream and everybody scream.The countdown set into 10, 9, 8, and the throng became more agitated. 6, 5, 4, 3, I feel the moment. 2, 1, and the long wait was over. The LCD projector showed a mini-slideshows of the pictures of him. Now became wild. I never forget to capture a video and stare to the pictures in the slideshows. I jumped up and down all over again. I didn't know what to do. Then a man stood in front of the people watching up on the stage. He was tall, pinkish-white and a good-looking guy. Did you already know who he was? And what am screaming for? He has the initials of DEJA. And you got it right, he was Daniel John FordPaddled. He wears checkered long sleeved turtle-neck polo, skinny jeans and a black Vans shoes wit h white laces. Shouted. I jumped up and down and took stolen pictures of him and it seems I would faint. I can't actually remember what I did. Shout and shout. I yell here and there, jump here, and roll there. He is so beautiful. He shouted â€Å"Hey! Hello! † and the crowd grumble. His voice is so seductive. I say to myself, â€Å"l could rather be dead. † He sang four songs including his revivals and his original composition that made him known better, the Nasty An Nag LATA.He waved his hand here and there. Banners were raised and cameras took their own flashes and the people were down the stage. It was like a huge stampede. After he sang his four songs with liberation he greeted us a â€Å"Good evening! † Indeed it was a very good evening even when the rain is pouring hard and we don't even care. Even when he talk, everybody is shouting and me? Could never imagined what I will going to do. As the emcee meet him and talk awhile for a short interview, I stared at him. He is so special. Want to touch his hand but I couldn't. This will be a gift.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Microsoft Hazel Case Essay

Hazel had worked for the same Fortune 500 Company for almost 15 years. Although the company had gone through some tough times, things were starting to turn around. Customer orders were up and quality and productivity had improved dramatically from what they had been only a few years earlier due to a company-wide quality improvement program. So it came as a real shock to Hazel and about 400 of her fellow coworkers when they were suddenly terminated following the new CEO’s decision to downsize the company. After recovering from the initial shock, Hazel tried to find employment elsewhere. Despite her efforts, after eight months of searching, she was nowhere closer to finding a job than the day that she had started. Her funds were being depleted and she was getting more and more discouraged. There was one bright spot, though: She was able to bring in a little money by mowing lawns for her neighbors. She got involved quite by chance when she heard one neighbor remark that now that his children were on their own; nobody was around to cut the grass. Almost jokingly, Hazel asked how much he’d be willing to pay. Soon Hazel was mowing the lawns of five neighbors. Other neighbors wanted her to work on their lawns, but she didn’t feel that she could spare any more time from her job search. However, as the rejection letters began to pile up, Hazel knew she had to make an important decision in her life. On a rainy Tuesday morning, she decided to go into business for herself – taking care of neighborhood lawns. She was relieved to give up the stress of job searching, and she was excited about the prospect of being her own boss. But she was also fearful of being completely on her own. Nevertheless, Hazel was determined to make a go of it. At first business was slow, but once people realized Hazel was available, many asked her to take care of their lawns. Some people were simply glad to turn the work over to her; others switched from other lawn care services. By the end of her first year in business, Hazel knew she could earn a living this way. She also performed other services such as fertilizing lawns, weeding gardens, and trimming shrubbery. Business became so good that Hazel  hired two part-time workers to assist her and, even then, she believed she could expand further if she wanted to. Questions: In what ways are Hazel’s customer s likely to judge the quality of her lawn care services? Hazel is the Operations Manager of her business. Among her many responsibilities are forecasting, inventory management, scheduling, quality assurance, and maintenance. What kinds of things would she likely forecast? What inventory items does Hazel probably have? What scheduling must she do? What things might disrupt her schedules and cause her to reschedule? How important is quality assurance to her business? Why? What kind of maintenance must be performed? Hazel decided to offer the students who worked for her a bonus of $25 if she implemented one of their ideas on how to improve the business, and they responded with several good ones. One idea that she initially rejected now appears to hold great promise. The student that proposed the idea has unfortunately left, and is currently working for a competitor. What should Hazel do? Hazel Case Revisited Questions: What competitive advantage does Hazel have over her competitors? Hazel would like to increase her profits, but she doesn’t believe that it would be wise to raise her prices considering the current state of the local economy (she is aware of this current state because of her keen environmental scanning abilities!). Instead she has given some thought to increasing productivity. Explain how increased productivity could be an alternative to increase prices? What are some of the ways that Hazel could increase productivity? Hazel is thinking about purchasing some new equipment. One type of new equipment she is considering is power sidewalk edgers. She believes that power edgers will lead to an increase in productivity. Another type of new equipment would be a chain saw, which would be used for tree pruning. What trade-offs must Hazel think about in her analysis? Hazel is fairly successful in her neighborhood and now wants to expand into other neighborhoods, including some that are up to five miles away. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of doing this? (this is a classic expansion dilemma) Hazel does not have a formal mission statement and a set of objectives. Take one of the following positions and defend it: Hazel does not need a formal mission statement and a set of objectives. Many small businesses don’t have them. She definitely needs a formal mission statement and a set of objectives. They would be extremely beneficial. There may be some benefit to Hazel’s business, and she should consider developing one.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Business Plan

Business Plan Essay 1. 0 Executive SummaryThere are 3 major elements that helped incubate the idea behind Crowdz.com. The first element would be individuals, the average Joe on the street. The second, organizations that cater solely to entertainment more specifically, Clubs. Third the banning of cigarette companies from advertising direct nor indirectly in Malaysia. Crowdz.com has its total idea, image, and vision to thank for by the presences of individuals, specific age group 18 35 years old, with no idea as to where to party for the weekend or any other day for that matter. A group of four guys were sitting down at a cafe down town at Bangsar. Then the question came, Where shall we party tonight? There were silence for the next 10 minutes, serious brainstorming was at work. However none had a clue as to where to go. Hence ending up in a lousy joint where they had partied last week. Spending at a place, which cannot really give the satisfaction that, they were really looking for. Now, this is a true story. Clubbers, partygoers in general dont really know where to go for a good night out. Its boring to be venturing the same old place. There is not much advertisement for new and up coming clubs, even if there is, it doesnt really hit the market that well, as due to lack of funds to be splurged on advertising. The advertising would be minimal and hence not create a big BANG so to speak to the masses. A few questions had been thrown in for the idea behind Crowdz.com. Questions pertaining to Clubs:1)In what ways can small middle and even large scale clubs able to advertise with minimal cost?2)Why cut each other and try to slash prices of drinks with minimal effect to the masses? 3)Why dont clubs have a sense of belonging? E.g. A club that individually caters to playing House Music or Electronic Trance or Rave or Hip Hop RB or Latin Music? 4)How is a club suppose to capture a large group of audience for a certain event or special theme party? Questions pertaining to Clubbers:1)Where should I club tonight?2)Where are there promotions for drinks? / Where can I get a mug of beer for the cheapest price possible?3)Where can I go that solely plays House Music or Electronic Trance or Rave or Hip Hop RB or Latin Music? 4)Are there any theme parties for tonight? Any special events that would be different from normal clubbing nights for me to go to?Questions pertaining to Banning of Advertising for Cigarette Companies:1)How can the money that is supposed to be spent to advertising now be used?2)How cigarette companies are suppose to comply with the law and still have the luxury of advertising their product? 1. 1 ObjectivesCrowdz.com will totally change the way clubbers lead a lifestyle. Crowdz.com is not so much of an information-based site where by individuals will be able to get information on clubs. Its going to be a lifestyle that clubbers abide to. Its going to be the bible for the average Joe on the street that is out for a good time. Its a who le new lifestyle that will help give a guideline to occasional clubbers and hardcore clubbers. It is a meeting point, a melting pot, a union that will bind clubbers together to achieve a common goal, entertainment to its fullest! Crowdz.com will also revolutionize the way nightlife advertising is done. It will be able to help clubs segment the market, plan out parties and themes that will cater solely for optimum profits. Instead of clubs fighting each other to niche a small market, Crowdz.com will help coordinate each club individually so that it will not be jumping into a market segment that is already so saturated. For example, if there are too many clubs that identifies itself with Hip Hop music, Crowdz.com will be able to advise a new club to diversify into for example Latin Music, where there is a demand but not much supply in the market. Crowdz.com will be able to provide low advertising prices to clubs, with maximum impact to the target audience, via the internet. A website with the correct advertising and promotions

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Exchange and markets Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Exchange and markets - Term Paper Example It is very difficult to maintain these macro-economic objectives and at times they are even in conflict of each other. (Sloman, 670) Exchange rates fluctuations are a major reason for balance of payment fluctuations. Before we understand the system of exchange rates we need to understand the method of balance of payments. Balance of payments means a record of all transactions made between one particular country and all other countries  during a  specified period of time (www.investopedia.com). BOP  compares the dollar difference of the amount of exports and imports, which includes all financial exports and imports. A negative balance of payments means that more money is flowing out of the country than coming in, and a positive BOP means that more money is coming into the country. Balance of Payment can be said as a huge accounts book for the country. It also acts as an indicator of political and economic stability. A positive BOP may mean that the country’s functioning i s going in a positive direction with foreign investment and funds coming in and limited resources in the form of cash going out. What are nominal exchange rates? Nominal exchange rate is simply the rate at which one currency is exchanged for other. This may mean for example it is quoted that one dollar is equal to 0.6 of a pound sterling. This may mean that the nominal exchange rate of a dollar to the pound is $1= 0.6 pound. Changes in the nominal exchange rates between two countries will have an effect on all the transaction prices of goods bought and sold between those two countries. This means that it is extremely important for these rates to be stables as these are bilateral rates (Bamford et al, 115). In a free market the exchange rate is determined by the market forces of demand and supply. This is quite similar to the determination of all other prices because where the supply and demand curves meet that is the market rate of the currency. For this lets consider the market pri ce of Euros against dollars. The demand for euro will be a downward sloping demand curve. This is because when the price of euro is high in terms of US dollar, then the euro zone goods and services are expensive to US customers. This means that they will have to may more dollars in exchange for euros. This will result in a low demand for euro zone goods and services in the US. Thus few pounds are demanded on the foreign exchange market. As the value of the euro falls against the dollar US customers are able to get more pounds thereby increasing the demand of pounds on the foreign exchange market (Bamford et al, 117). The supply curve of Euro is upward sloping. When the Euro is low against the Dollar, then US goods are expensive in the Euro Zone and as a result less Euros are supplied in the market to buy US goods. On the other hand if the value of the Euro rises then US goods will become cheaper allowing more people in the Euro zone to buy these goods and rising the supply of Euros. Where these demand and supply curves meet the market exchange rate of Euro against Dollar is determined as shorn in the diagram below. ( Diagram taken from Determination of Exchange Rates, http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/73/EHEP0006/EHEP000673-2.pdf). At all prices above the equilibrium exchange rate the Euros supplied will be greater than the Euros demanded and vice versa. Any changes in the supply or demand of a currency will result in a depreciation or appreciation of the

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Biography of Archimedes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Biography of Archimedes - Essay Example Archimedes may be from an ancient civilization but his ideas were far from ancient. In fact, he might be credited as one of the first individuals that were able to think outside the box. Archimedes was born in the third century BC in Syracuse and we know very little about his life. What we do know is that his father’s name was Phidias and he was an astronomer, which might give us some insight into Archimedes’ character. His intelligence was probably sparked at an early age by looking into the heavens and considering all of the possibilities of the universe. What we do not know is if Archimedes ever had a wife or children. He was killed during the Second Punic War but not after, he made countless contributions to the world of mathematics and psychics. In fact, it is safe to assume that without his inventions and discoveries, the world – especially his immediate world – would have looked considerably different. His inventions shaped thought and shaped the war and his influence cannot be overlooked or diminished. Archimedes discovered the value of pi by drawing a large polygon outside a circle and placing smaller polygons inside the circle. As polygons increase, so do the sides of the polygons and as this number of sides increases, the number becomes an accurate estimate of a circle. When the number of sides of the polygons reached 96, Archimedes calculated their lengths and illustrated that the value of pi is approximately 3.1416. Archimedes also demonstrated how the area of circles is equal to pi if it is multiplied by the square of the circle’s radius. Archimedes is significant to not only to the world of mathematics, but also to the world in general as almost everything contains an element of math, whether we realize it or not. Through his thinking and discoveries, Archimedes makes understanding of the physical world and the phenomenon within it easier. One of his most popular inventions is the Archimean Screw,

Monday, August 26, 2019

Review of film Surviving Picasso Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Review of film Surviving Picasso - Essay Example The essay "Review of film Surviving Picasso" will explore the film "Surviving Picasso" by James Ivory. The genre of film provides an amazingly rich opportunity for artistic expression. The study will find out how effectively this movie portrays the artist's life and work, and why Picasso's life served as a good base for a commercial fare in the first place. First of all, it should be mentioned that Pablo Ruiz Picasso, or just Picasso as the artist preferred to call himself, belongs to the list of the most outstanding persons of the last century, who was as famous during his turbulent life as he is famous now. In the purely artistic terms, Picasso is known as one of the principal founders of cubism, a style of art in which the natural forms of subjects are represented as geometrical shapes. But in his personal life Picasso was known for his relations with numerous women, and this fact played quite a significant role in the artist’s art and in his own vision of himself. It is on this ground that the film â€Å"Surviving Picasso† finds its main theme as it attempts to help the audience better understand the life of this controversial figure. More specifically, the film`s plot is centered on the relationships between Picasso and one of his mistresses Francoise Gilot, with whom Picasso had a relationship since meeting her as a young student of art in 1944 in Paris, and who eventually left him in 1953, which was an unprecedented case for the artist and therefore deeply shook him. This event would be much less significant.... What is interesting is that these women, which in a certain way can be perceived as victims of an evil genius, were apparently drawn to him not unlike moth is attracted by fire. As one of Picasso mistresses Dora Maar puts it in the film: "Without him [Picasso] there is nothing" (Ivory, 1997), and another woman silently confirms this attitude as she saves Picasso's cut hair and nail clippings. In this light, the story of Francoise Gilot is an account of a person who was not overcame by the artist, and who even later had to withstand his attempts for revenge. In the very beginning of their relationship a lot of symbolism is present - Picasso leaves Dora Maars table in order to join Francoise Gilot, which was quite typical for the artist frivolous character, and when she enters the studio of Picasso, he warns that from that moment she was in the labyrinth of Minotaur who had to devour at least two young girls a day in order not to perish. And even a servant of Picasso tells Gilot that i t would be better for her to go home. At this point in the film a question arises as to why Picasso was so irresistible in womens opinion. One of the evident answers offered in the movie, and confirmed by biographic accounts of Picasso, is that it was the inner perception of irresistibility filling him that he was able to easily project on other people as well. Of course, the ability of Picasso not only to create but to constantly maintain his reputation of the greatest artist of his time added to his almost mythical appeal. Still, despite of presence of numerous accurate observations in the film of elements of Picasso's character, the picture does not fully avoid the

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Humanity And Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Humanity And Environment - Essay Example This essay stresses that there is an economic dimension of the problem. For example, one should consider different kinds of pollution to be external costs that emerge in the course of transactions. Since the economy of the world is thriving, there is no wonder that these external costs will appear more often. However, one of the peculiarities of this concept lies in the fact that no one is held responsible for this kind of damage. Moreover, the majority of people would agree that it would not be beneficial for the world to change the existing patterns of economy since that would result in uncontrolled changes. In other words, the people accept these externalities. In response to that, free market environmentalism was developed. This peculiar platform argues that environmental problems can be taken care of without rejecting the principles of free market. This paper makes a conclusion that individual persons should not be held accountable for various environmental issues, such as climate change. First of all, it must be noted that the impact of the human civilization on the nature has already been acknowledge and the scientific community is likely to accept that the world is living in anthropocene. In addition to that, there is a number of various ethical notions that should be taken into consideration while analyzing the relationship between humans and nature. Finally, one should also take into account various solutions to this problem that have already been developed.

Planning, Siting, and Permitting of Landfills Essay

Planning, Siting, and Permitting of Landfills - Essay Example To begin, the construction of a landfill site involves investment in infrastructure to facilitate environmental measures. However, there are particular steps in the construction of a landfill. The choice of the site is an important factor. There is the need to establish and formulate a joint solid waste management program that involves the landfill component, waste reduction, recycling and improved collection (UsAid 1999). Secondly, there is the need to review the land Use policy in the areas. An official application should be submitted to the authority for the evaluation and choice of the potential site. Establish the feasibility of the project and an environmental analysis to assess the impact of the construction. There are also fatal flaws in the construction process of landfills. Position of the landfill is an important factor. The fatal flaw is the positioning of the landfill upstream and near the source of surface or ground water suitable for drinking and domestic use (UsAid 1999). However, this is a public health hazard and results in the poisoning of the local citizens. The location on highly porous soil can cause erosion which results in environmental damage. Location next to the residential, commercial and industrial developments is also a fatal problem because of the increased cost of

Saturday, August 24, 2019

IT - Bit Torrent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

IT - Bit Torrent - Essay Example The partners of BitTorrent have been segregated into different categories which include venture capital, technology and device. The partners of the company in relation to venture capital include Accel, DCM and DAG Ventures. The technology related partners include Virgin Media, Opera Software and ESA Flash Components. The device associated partners of the company include D-Link, I-O Data and Buffalo. The aforementioned partners intend to work with BitTorrent with the intention of moving ahead in the business market competition (BitTorrent Inc., â€Å"Partners†). Thesis Statement The paper intends to make a detailed analysis about a particular technology i.e. BitTorrent DNA which is used by a peer-to-peer file sharing based company namely BitTorrent while transmitting large files through the medium of internet to its several viewers. The purpose of implementing the abovementioned technology along with its various implications will be taken into concern in the discussion. Discuss ion An Overview of BitTorrent DNA It has been apparent to the fact that there lies the necessity of developing as well as implementing efficient technologies in order to perform various technological related operations such as sharing, allocating and delivering huge files through internet. ... sourceful content delivery based technology which is acknowledged as BitTorrent DNA for the reason of considerably reducing particularly the bandwidth costs which are involved during distributing, sharing as well as delivering the large files. This particular technology contributes towards improving the working performance as well as the scalability of the websites on behalf of the company (BitTorrent Inc., â€Å"Company Overview†). Purpose of Introducing BitTorrent DNA The company constantly desires to share and deliver large files such as streaming video and music files among others to its several partners. In order to fulfill this desire, BitTorrent has introduced an innovative service based technology i.e. BitTorrent DNA which is also recognized as BitTorrent Delivery Network Accelerator that assists the company in sharing along with delivering large files to its large base of users. The technology successfully generates a virtual network of the computers of the viewers an d thus enables to speed up the download of popular files from the servers which can be easily shared amid the users. The crucial facet of this technology is that it performs the aforementioned act with more transparency. Moreover, the significant characteristic for which BitTorrent utilizes the technology is that it reduces the bandwidth costs by a considerable extent through which the company can earn maximum revenue along with making huge savings (AOL Inc. â€Å"BitTorrent DNA: Torrenting No Longer A Dirty Word†). The other major purpose of implementing the technology of BitTorrent DNA by the company is to gain superior customer satisfaction by enabling to make downloads of the large files at a higher speed. The downloadable options mainly include streaming videos, music files, downloading

Friday, August 23, 2019

Is the rise of China good or bad for the industrial world Essay

Is the rise of China good or bad for the industrial world - Essay Example The manner in which it has benefited the world economy as well as brought a new and dignified name to the technological domains is somewhat of an interesting study which has come about with the passage of time. Also an effort has been made to find out what binds together the Chinese energy and the workforce which keeps producing solid results and creates benchmarks time and again. In essence, a clear cut demarcation has been made when the talk has gone out loud regarding China being a potent force within the industrial world in this day and age, as well as doing so in the coming times undoubtedly (Li 1999). Hence these discussions will be centered upon within this paper to find out how the world can catch up with China and how China can grow even further from where it is today. With the assistance of major industrial players like the European Union, China can make it big within the global economy. Even though it is doing well, it needs to stamp of approval from the world’s leading economic bodies. What China can bank on meanwhile is that its economic resources in the form of its own people trust in themselves and this is the reason why they are seen as tough taskmasters. They believe in hard work, commitment and devotion right from the beginning of doing any work. The world including the European Union and other significant bodies like the United States see them as dedicated professionals who would go to any length to turn the impossible tasks into possible and doable things. This is the basis why Chinese have been able to showcase significance through their actions while the rest of the world has sat back and enjoyed their laurels. The talent and skills with which these Chinese professionals are filled with is testimony enough that the processes an d systems within the country are based on a solid footing. This is the reason why there are many moments of success when it comes to the

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Managing Financial Resources Essay Example for Free

Managing Financial Resources Essay SUMMARY RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The proposed refrigerator manufacturing and sales project for Tesca Works, Inc. is a financially complicated project which on the surface, given the increase in energy costs and customer demand may seem like a winning proposition. However, when we delve further into the details of the financial projections along with projections of the future of the refrigerator market we are able to make a confident recommendation to Mr. Burton and the executive staff at Tesca Works, Inc. Using the information provided by the Tesca team we were able to create a comprehensive capital budget and cash flow analysis for the proposed refrigerator project. Through our analysis we found that the cost of capital of the project to be 13.487% and a Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) to be at a value of 9.70%. Factoring in the WACC into our projections we found that if the demand maintains at an average rate the project will be at a positive Net  Present Value of $5,997,505.31 with an IRR of 13.21%, a profitability index of 8.84, and an approximate payback period of 6.84 years. Please see Exhibits below for a snapshot of the capital budget and NPV values. This information seemed to be very promising for the project in general. However, our continued analysis showed the project to be very sensitive to the sales price per unit of the refrigerator. We used the average demand scenario to produce a sensitivity analysis and found that with just a 5% decrease in the sales price of the refrigerator the NPV quickly dipped into a negative value thus showing the project to be extremely sensitive to the sales price of the refrigerator. Our scenario analysis also exposed a strong probability of the project giving a negative Net Present Value and giving a probable low Internal Rate of Return of only 4.01%. This is mainly due to the projects sensitivity to the sales price of the refrigerator and the potentially lower sales in the event of weak demand for the product. Because of the high probability for a very low IRR and negative NPV we are recommending that the project be rejected. The information we have uncovered through detailed financial analysis showed that the project is far too sensitive to lower demand and lower sales prices per unit. This is especially true for a lower sales price for the refrigerator. We found that even a small decrease in the sales price of just over 1% would cause the project’s NPV to become negative, even with an average unit sales demand. There may be potential for an average or strong demand in the marketplace, however there is too much risk to recommend project acceptance. A decision to move forward with the project would be mainly based on a ‘gut-feeling’ rather than on sound financial reasoning. Thus it is our official recommendation that Tesca Works, Inc. reject the project. 1) IMPORTANCE OF ENERGY COST SITUATION The question of energy cost being a factor of the decision to move forward with this project is of critical importance. This is because whether or not consumers are inspired to purchase a new appliance may be spurred by  increases in energy costs as well as possible tax benefits or rebates from power generating companies. Some consumers may be aware of the benefits of energy efficient appliances which may cause an increase in the normal demand for refrigerators. Tesca is in a unique position to be able to offer high efficiency refrigerators to the United States public at a time when the public is looking to reduce their use of electricity and other utility costs. When we look at the graph above it can be seen that the cost of electricity has steadily increased over the last 10 years. The price per kilowatt hour has increased almost 50% in 10 years (EIA, 2014). Thus to the consumer the price of energy is a big concern and the costs will most likely continue into the future. There is potential for an increased demand to replace aging inefficient appliances that are causing increased electrical bills for consumers. The energy cost and potential benefits to the consumer are of importance when determining the future of this project. The project is forecast to be of a positive value if the demand for refrigerators is at an average or strong demand from consumers. However, the realization of a high or average demand is mainly based on ‘gut-feeling’ rather than on sound financial information. There are too many variables in the marketplace that could cause demand to be weaker than projected. Such variables as a weak economy or recession could cause sales to drop which in turn would cause the project to lose its value quickly. 2) What is the project’s cost of equity? What is the appropriate discount factor to use for evaluating the refrigerator project? As seen in Exhibit I below, the project’s cost of equity (COE) is calculated to be 13.487%. We found this value by using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) formula by adding the treasury note yield with the beta value, then taking the market return rate and subtracting the treasury note yield. We then multiply those values together to attain the cost of equity value of 13.487%. This means there is a rate of return on investment of 13.487%. The Beta for Tesca Works, Inc. is fairly consistent with their competition. Tesca’s beta value is at 1.3 which means that Tesca’s value has been more volatile than the market. While this means there is more risk when investing in Tesca there is also a greater possibility for higher rates of  return. Exhibit I also shows the table used to calculate the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) or discount factor which we used to evaluate this particular project. We used the following formula to calculate the WACC for this project. We know that the higher the weighted average cost of capital the less likely it is that Tesca will be creating value for its investors. The WACC helps us to determine if a company is creating value and presents the minimum return to satisfy investors and creditors. 3) Which of the two compressors should be used in the refrigerator if you decide to go ahead with the project and why? As seen in Exhibit II we determined that the CM-004 compressor should be used for this particular project. We came to this conclusion by finding the present value of the five year compressor warranty and adding that to the cost of the compressor. We used the weighted average cost of capital as the rate in our present value calculations. While the TS-L12 has a less expensive purchase price it has a more expensive warranty cost for the five year warranty period thus making it a more expensive overall compressor. When we use the present value calculations on both compressors, factoring in the warranty, we found that the present value of the CM-004 is $18.21 less expensive than the TS-L12 compressor. This makes the CM-004 compressor 4% less expensive to purchase for the warranty life of the compressor. It was important to take calculate the present values of both compressors to get an accurate comparison of the costs of the two compressors for the five year warranty costs of each compressor. While on the surface the TS-L12 may have seemed less expensive the overall cost in present dollars was higher when we factored in the value of the five year warranty on both compressors. 4) Forecast the project’s cash flows for the next twenty years. What assumptions did you use? Once we selected the appropriate compressor to use we were able to plug in  certain input values into our equations to create a cash flow projection for the entire project lifetime. We used the weighted average cost of capital value found in our earlier calculations as one of our input values. We also found the present value of the refrigerator, see Exhibit IV, by using the input values given in the financial information from Tesca such as the labor, parts, and compressor costs. We found the cost of the refrigerator to be $1,269.36, see Exhibit III. ASSUMPTIONS MADE: Certain assumptions were made when calculating the projected cash flows for the refrigerator project. We assumed inflation would remain at 2.5% and used that value to increase the sales price, variable cost, and administrative fixed costs each year. Please see Exhibit IV for a breakdown of the inputs used for the cash flow projections. This allowed us to gain a more a more realistic forecast of the project’s potential cash flows for the entire project. We also used the average demand as our base projections for the project. This is because the average demand scenario has the highest probability of 45%. We used straight-line depreciation with regard to depreciating the investment in the project over time. We detailed the first three years of the project, years zero through two with the appropriate investment amounts during each of those years. Since production and sales did not begin until year three we were able to make an assumption of potential tax returns on the invested dollars for years one and two. We used the tax rate of 25% to calculate the tax returns along with the taxable amounts for all years. See the attached spreadsheet for the detailed cash flow projections. We also assumed that since the refrigerators could be produced for a total of 20 years the entire life of the project would span from year zero through year 22. This is because the production of the refrigerators could not begin until year three, thus making the projects timeline from year zero through year 22. With this information and assumptions we found that when the units are in production and being sold the project will yield a positive annual cash flow. The working capital was found by taking the 11% and carrying it over  for each year. We used the initial Net Operating Working Capital (NOWC) found in year two then calculated the difference using 11% of the difference of the sales each year and calculated that for the entire life of the production. 5) Use the appropriate capital budgeting techniques to evaluate the project. As seen in Exhibit V we used the appropriate capital budgeting and performance measures to evaluate the life of the project. Exhibit VI displays the results of the capital budgeting analysis. We found the NPV for the average demand scenario to be $5,997,505.31 which is a positive value for the project given the average demand inputs. The Internal Rate of Return was calculated as 13.21% which, again, is a positive value and could provide for a nice rate of return on the project since it is higher than the weighted average cost of capital and the market return rate. The profitability index was found to be at a value of 8.84. Because the profitability index is higher than 1.0 that shows that the project present value is greater than the initial investments in the project. We then calculated the number of years for a payback on the initial investments in the project. We found that the simple payback of the initial investments would take 6.48 years for the average demand scenario. In simple terms, and if we only used the average demand assumptions, this project would seem to provide positive net results for Tesca. Using the average demand inputs the NPV, IRR, Profitability Index, and Payback Years are at an acceptable level. However, as we will cover in later sections, when we include probability analysis of the other demand scenarios we find that the project is less than desirable. 6) Use the average demand scenario to evaluate the sensitivity of the project’s NPV with respect to sale price of the refrigerator and the cost of the compressor.  We used the average demand scenario to produce a comprehensive sensitivity analysis of the project. We utilized three variables when conducting our sensitivity analysis, the sale price of the refrigerator, the cost of the compressor, and the project’s weighted average cost of capital. We included the weighted average cost of capital as an extra variable to get further details on the sensitivity of the project. We used a scale of 5% increments from -25% to 25% which allowed us to produce a sensitivity analysis with adequate details. Please see Exhibits VIII and IX for the numerical details and sensitivity graph for the project. The sensitivity analysis uncovered the following critical information with respect to how sensitive the NPV of the project was to the given variables. Sales Price Sensitivity We found that even a small decrease in the sales price of the refrigerator of just over 1% caused the project’s NPV to become negative. The graph in Exhibit IX shows the steep sensitivity line with respect to the change in the sales price per unit. Even with an average sales demand, if the price dropped to 15% which is approximately the same sale price of our weak demand scenario the NPV was substantially below zero at a negative value of $-57,667,920. With each 5% increment the NPV values sometimes increased or decreased at a rate that doubled or more because of the projects extreme sensitivity to the sales price of the refrigerator. The profit margin on the refrigerator of 19.41% and markup of only 24% does not leave much room for a price reduction in the sales price of the refrigerator. The data also points to a wide range in NPV with respect to the sales price of the units. There was a total range of over $212 million for the sensitivity of the sales price per unit. This d ata leads to the discovery that the project is extremely sensitive to the sales price of the refrigerator. Compressor Cost Sensitivity The project was not as sensitive to the cost of the compressor, however, it did not take a large percentage increase in the cost of the compressor to throw the NPV of the project into a negative value, just over 5%. Exhibit IX’s graph shows the sensitivity lines for the project. The compressor sensitivity is not nearly as steep as the price sensitivity per unit. Because the cost of the compressor affects the profit margin on each refrigerator the lower the cost of the compressor the better the NPV because  of the increased profit margin per unit. 7) Based on the scenario and sensitivity analysis you performed above, comment on the overall riskiness of the project. Based on the scenario and sensitivity analysis we were able to determine that the project is of a high risk nature. There are several factors that make this project such a high risk which include the narrow profit margin per unit, the uncertainty of the future market, the high cost per unit, and the high administrative costs. Through a scenario analysis we analyzed the three potential demand scenarios for this project. We used the weak, strong, and average demand scenario variables to formulate the probabilities for the project. We found that the probability of the NPV is a significant negative value of $-6,300,213, see Exhibit VII for details of the scenario analysis. We also found that the probable IRR of the project was very low at 4.01%. Given the low IRR probability of 4.01% that means it is significantly lower than the SP 500 market return of 11% and barely a point higher than the 10-year treasury note yield of 2.71%. The low probable internal rate of return is another red flag for the riskiness and viability of the refrigerator project for Tesca Works, Inc. The weak demand scenario produced significant negative values for the NPV and the internal rate of return (IRR). The weak scenario also produced a non-existent payback period within the 20 year production lifecycle of the project. With each scenario the selling price and unit sales were changed, however, the high cost of each unit and administrative costs remained the same, thus adding to the risk of the project since it is highly reliant on an average or strong demand and higher sales prices per unit. While the project has the potential of a very high NPV, IRR, and payback period with a strong demand, the projects sensitivity to price and market demand make this a very risky project to undertake at this time. If there were ways to increase the profit margin or decrease the fixed costs of the project that may help decrease the risky nature of this particular project. 8) Would you recommend that Tesca Works accept or reject the project? What is the basis for your recommendation? We would not recommend this project for Tesca Works, Inc. Our recommendation is for Tesca management to reject the project. Our analysis has shown this project to be too sensitive to market shift and too risky to undertake at this time. While there is excitement across the country for more energy efficient appliances, we feel that the project poses some significant risks for Tesca. The successful outcome of the project truly relies on the demand from consumers. Their demand will determine the selling price and sales volume of the refrigerator units. If this demand is barely below the average demand we will see a negative NPV for the project and thus a negative result for Tesca Works, Inc. Recent economic history in the United States has shown the economy to be unstable and may not provide an average or strong demand for the product. While we feel the energy costs across the country could be of significant importance for a project of this nature we do not feel that there is enough lee way in the profit margin of the project to be economically feasible should demand be lower than anticipated. Our analysis showed the project to be very sensitive to the sales price per unit value of the refrigerator. We used the average demand scenario to produce a sensitivity analysis and found that with just a 5% decrease in the sales price of the refrigerator the NPV quickly dipped into a negative value thus showing the project to be extremely sensitive to the sales price of the refrigerator. Our scenario analysis also exposed a strong probability of the project giving a negative Net Present Value and giving a probable low Internal Rate of Return of only 4.01%. This is mainly due to the projects sensitivity to the sales price of the refrigerator and the potentially lower sales in the event of weak demand for the product. The project’s profit margin is too close to allow for market demand fluctuations which would cause the project to have a negative net present  value. If Tesca were to offer the refrigerator at a higher sales price this would yield a stronger profit margin and may alter the recommended rejection of this project. As we discussed the project is far too sensitive to changes in the sales price of the refrigerators. Even with an average demand of sales volume, if we reduce the sales price we begin to see a negative NPV for the project. Thus, the project is too sensitive to minor changes in the profit margin of the refrigerators. Which is why we are recommending a rejection of this project for Tesca Works, Inc.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Behavioral Theory With Reference To Coca Cola Company Business Essay

Behavioral Theory With Reference To Coca Cola Company Business Essay Leadership theories are widely spread around us with their roots emerging from different practical examples and real time implications from numerous organizations. The basic aim for the evaluation of leadership theories is to provoke an environment of successful management and maintain the smooth running of the management with management and leadership qualities. Following leadership theories are quoted from Coca Cola Company, how the company has gained such phenomenal success and a word from CEO. Coca cola Company mainly sees these theories to build the leadership qualities among their employees. Behavioral Theory With Reference To Coca Cola Company: The developers of behavioral theory suggest that leaders can be made, they are not always born. They believe in the fact that leadership qualities can be learned over a period of time and they are not merely innate traits but they are successful behaviors of describable and explainable actions present in the behavior itself. These actions are easier to be learnt rather than adopting numerous different traits. CEO of Coca Cola Company persuades and ensures that the employees are given a chance to learn and develop leadership skills monitoring the improvement from time to time followed by selecting those employees who possess successful leadership skills. Developing a behavioral theory is comparatively easier assessing leaders and leadership success actions. Here CEO can recognize behavior use which raises to failure there it added a second layer of understanding. Trait Theory With Reference To Coca Cola Company: Trait theory suggests that successful leadership is an amalgamation of traits that defines leadership skills and qualities. Companies like coca cola assess the employees on psychological traits focusing on unique qualities. CEO of Coca Cola Company evaluates the employees on the basis of their behaviors and work structures. Trait theory suggests the possession of the following qualities and skills confirms successful goal leaders and Coca Cola Company focuses on retention of them. Qualities Skills Assertive Willing to assume responsibility Energetic Tolerant of stress Assertive Cooperative Adaptable to situation Persistent Desire to influence others Alert to social environment Achievement oriented and ambitious Decisive Persuasive Organized Fluent in speaking Conceptually skilled Diplomatic and tactful Creative Clever Knowledgeable about group work The above list of qualities and skills are essential in achieving organizational goals and serve as an inherent part of a good leader. Participative Leadership Theory: This theory aims at developing an understanding to decision making in different scenarios. The theory suggests that people working in teams must be more collaborative and less competitive. Team based decision making is better and more committed than individual persons. Coca Cola Company uses this theory and focuses on the development of teams for more focused and cooperative decision making rather than being alone. Leaders are selected for individual teams based on qualities as commitment, collaboration, cooperation, motivation friendly behavior etc. different programs are arranged so that the team member can participate and develop those leadership traits. Coca Cola Company effectively inculcates this process. Leadership Theories Development of Leadership Impact Of Managerial Styles On Organizational Effectiveness At Nestle: Democratic and Decentralized Management: This dynamic world is a constant threat to leaders bringing challenges and even opportunities. To achieve organizational effectiveness Nestle has thereby gained insight to developing and ensuring Democratic and Decentralized Management Style pursuing decision making. Nestle delegates the authority of decision making sharing it among the workforce whereby maintain team leaders to adhere to single coherent direction. The team members are all converged to individual participatory roles for full involvement pertaining to organizational effectiveness. It also believes in sharing of vision and goals and participation of all employees to gain operational speed, removing organizational barriers, leveraging strength of people, and focusing on organizational effectiveness. Nestle supports and employs the idea of minimal levels of management so that the information can be flown through all the levels and there is no communication gap pursuing organizational effectiveness. The idea of minimum spans of control and flexible authority and flatter organizations enable people development and also focusing on fulfilling of targets and goals. Nestle focuses on direct personal commitment and encouragement therefore decentralized management style is the best suited for this organization whilst seeking organizational effectiveness when all the employees will feel themselves a part of the organization and work in correspondence to that. All the above mentioned goals cannot be achieved and organizational effectiveness cannot be in full bloom if applied another management style known as Autocratic, which does not allow the information to be shared among workforce and discourages employees involvement in decision making and gives off a centralized organizational structure not suited to Nestle at this stage. http://www.nestle.com/asset-library/Documents/Library/Documents/People/Management-Leadership-Principles-EN.pdf Motivational Theory Impacting Employee Motivation: Maslows Hierarchy Of Needs: Motivation is defined as a driving force initiating a particular behavior in response to drive (external/ internal cues). A motivated employee is significant to organizational success. They make your organization lucrative and are highly productive and essential to different organizational working conditions. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs theory focuses on the employees internal needs that must be full filled at every level prior going to the next level to motivate their behavior. Considering five basic needs of Maslow involves the fulfillment of these needs along the pyramid as follows: Physiological needs: reflect the basic needs to be fulfilled in the first place which includes food, water, clothing, shelter etc Safety needs: are actually the security needs including medical treatment, adequate wages to support family, better household and the like. Belongingness needs: include the fulfillment of needs of social relationships, maintaining social circles of friends and social networks, being essential part of communities, an active member of society etc Esteem needs: encircle the aspiration for realization, ability, status, and acknowledgment. Self actualization needs: include the upbringing of yourself seeking new opportunities and looking for greater chances of growth in you. If the organization is fulfilling these needs, the employee is motivated and works in order to retain organizational success, development and growth. Example: This motivational theory is found to be in common practice by almost all the firms around the world today including IBM, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Nestle, and General Motors etc ascertaining to employee motivation and morale. http://hotelmule.com/management/html/07/n-2107-5.html Motivating Employees in a Startup Venture from Nataraj Pangal Theories Relating To Work Relationships and Interaction: As the organization continues to grow and expand globally, the evolving work relationships are placed continuously on a broader spectrum. This evolution put forth a challenge to management theory by continually changing the assumptions under which organizations are doing their work. Following theories are focused on work relationships among employees in an organization: Personal Flexibility and Adaptability: This approach is based on the removal of Inter-personal conflicts with its viewpoint to keep the group members appropriate likelihood to develop their own individual comfort zones as being essential part of the group. One way to remove and root out the interpersonal conflicts among the group members is through Mediation approach. http://jethrolmi.com/admin/uploads/attachment-35-J-0031.pdf Systems perspective approach of work interrelationships: This approach delivers the idea that communication is the binding stone as a result of which different systems and subsystems are retained by an organization. Positive synergy: Groups are considered to be more inclined towards performing faster and better when seen in a shared way rather than their individual output expectations. Positive synergy is useful in order to achieve more from the group performance as a whole. Interdependence: Interdependence reveals the fact that all the employees are dependent on each other. The output of one department and employees become the input for other department and employees, if a ball is dropped by one, the group as a whole is likely to meet failure and goals would not be achieved. Homeostasis: Homeostasis refers to the natural tendency of balance, synergy, coordination and equilibrium, maintained among homogenous or heterogeneous groups and teams of employees. Moreover it is also referred to as the propensity for a given system to continue to maintain its stability in the time of change. Politeness Theory: Politeness theory (PT) was developed by Brown and Levinson hence explaining the fact how interactions are maintained and delivered among participants (employees) by using politeness strategies. Based on Goffmans (1967) conception of individuality and face work, in the politeness theory by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) verified when, why, and how interpersonal communication is raised through, or in the absence of, politeness. http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/4984_Dainton_Chapter_3.pdf Characteristics of Different Organization Structures: Organizations are established based on various goals that need to be accomplished over the period of its life, and these functional/ operational goals are achieved by synchronizing the efforts of employees and various other participants of the organization according to the following organizational structures. Functional Structure Functional structure is the division of work force and work processes into separate respective departments. The different departments such as sales force, marketing, finance, research and development departments etc have their own functional perspectives pouring a single coherent outcome. Divisional Structure Divisional structure is used where larger organizations are taken into account, and when the larger organization is divided into different divisions and sub areas. For example, the now-defunct Nestle Company is organized into divisions for each geographic area to handle specific needs. Matrix Matrix structure is an amalgam of divisional and functional structure. Organizations like Nestle a large multinational company, the matrix structure allows for the benefits of functional and divisional structures to exist in one organization. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/different-types-organizational-structure-723.html Culture and Structure of Nestle and its Impact On Organizational Effectiveness: Organizational Structure Of Nestle: Nestle is a worldwide dairy and beverages organization tremendously successful across the world. Nestle exhibits a decentralized organizational structure minimizing the span of control and reducing the levels of management. Decentralized Organization: Organizational effectiveness is a function of organizational culture and its structure depending upon the operations it performs. Nestle is a decentralized organization and it contributes to the success and growth of this organization. Nestle allows its employees equal opportunity to enjoy and sustain a high level of autonomy. This gives them enough courage, sense of responsibility and motivation to perform their jobs fulfilling their job responsibilities. Major changes and the strategic decisions are executed and planned at the headquarters level but the daily routine based activities are handled by the employees. The subordinates are allowed to concentrate, derive and implement daily operations. The responsibility of taking operating decisions is pushed down to strategic business units. The employees enjoy a high degree of autonomy with regard to decisions involving pricing, distribution, marketing, human resources, and so on. SBU or regional managers are not allowed to make operational or strategic decisions on anything except for exceptional situations. Nestle follows a traditional top down hierarchical structure of command. The companys executive body is the Board of Directors. Leading the company is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Nestlà © therefore allows the unchanged person to hold both the positions. Organizational Culture Of Nestle: The culture of Nestle comprises of the distinctive behavior patterns and values that makes up the organization differing them from the rest. A simple and quick assessment of the organizational culture can be made by interacting with the people working in the organization and by exploring how people interact with each other and perform their jobs. A number of aspects of Nestlà ©s values and hence working practices relate to interpersonal relationships among employees, nestle believes in maintaining fair and unbiased relations without any disconcert of race, age, gender and other diverse cultures. All the employees are encouraged to embrace the Nestlà © way of working and interacting with fellow employees and subordinates. Nestlà © aims to maintain fair, sincere, direct, and caring work environment for people making up the organization. Nestlà © has therefore successfully developed a fair and unbiased set of values and principles enabling the employees to get maximum fair and honest treatment. These values and principles clinch the involvement and participation of diverse cultures, respecting them and developing long term relationships with all of its suppliers and customers. These values play a major role in building the organizational culture. The culture of an organization will alter and shift over time, both in response to changes in the external environment as well as to internal pressures within the organization. Nestlà © Lesson Plan from The Times 100 website: www.tt100.biz Case Study: Nestles Growth Strategy http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/261835.html Taking the present merger into account the new organization thus formed needs to be restructured on various grounds. I have thereby stated few dimensions that need to be discussed for employee effectiveness in the new organization: Meeting Notes: Organizations can facilitate information and creativity through effective communication and effective HRM. Creativity is at the heart of all organizations and recently has gained a principal focus. For example IBM focuses in innovative engineering and its success and growth depends on creativity in field of technology and newer unique outputs. While recruiting, strategic HRM is concerned with selecting those individuals who continues to elicit high level of creativity in their work, skills and abilities, who knows how to respond to various solutions in unique ways, and undergoing different problem handling parameters. As IBM has reported that one of the greatest achievement for any organization to have leadership competence is through Creativity http://www.cersi.it/itais2009/pdf/TR_3/itais2009_submission_25.pdf http://executivenewswire.com/2011/02/how-can-creativity-and-innovation-be-facilitated-within-a-company-by-emmanouel-perakis/ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2012.690567 The importance of learning in organizations has been raised to a point that enables the employees to learn from their mistakes and a new organization that is undergoing restructuring after merger must take into account this parameter for performance. Hero merged with Honda Company in India and went into restructuring of organization leading to organizational learning, to help make the new management learn a blend of new and existing organizational operational styles. Organizational learning brings continuous improvement to employees performance and thereby facilitation organizational success, survival and growth. According to the book The Fifth Discipline  by Senge, explains his point of view as The ability to learn faster than your competition may be the only sustainable advantage for your organization in the long run. Moreover Learning organizations helps in generating and practicing new knowledge. This ability enables companies to stay ahead of change and the competition. http://www.leadershipandorganizationalculture.com/2012/04/importance-of-learning-in-organizations.html Effectiveness of Team Learning: Traditional learning had been the practice of the past when the peer team leader primarily acts as a disseminator of information responsible for ensuring learning, solely. On the other hand, team learning means to empower the team members giving them the opportunity to think, plan and act, enhancing their abilities to perform. According to the researches by various institutes including Stanford University and University of Michigan etc, team based learning is an important evaluator for effectiveness of employees (team members). Sharing of information among team members and flexibility to perform and cooperate within teams is essential to the completion of any task on a regular basis. Through team learning, members freely and easily recognize their shared and individual roles and responsibilities in an effective way. Team Learning Effectiveness is a proven and practical diagnostic tool for assessing team effectiveness and improving work group performance in any organization especially for a new restructured one like this. http://teaching.uncc.edu/articles-books/best-practice-articles/instructional-methods/building-learning-teams http://www.reliablesurveys.com/teameffectiveness.html Approaches To Organizational Decision Making: Valuable information is the building block to organizational decision making. Many firms such as Mckinsey and Co. provide consultation on how firms use the appropriate data. Organizations have preordaining access to large amounts of data, including consumers, economic concerns, employees, stakeholders, financial figures, competitors etc in raw and unstructured format. An organizational setting like this binding into a merger recently needs to focus on evaluating the importance of data collected since past. In order to realize value and to help organizations become more sustainable in the longer term, it is crucial to improve the ways they measure and manage their performance. Such mountains of data make decision making difficult and vague. Therefore value data is extracted from the raw data known as information which is meaningful to the organization when updated, relevant, timely and accurate. Using different information systems and information technology tools make effective decision making. Tools such as Decision Support Systems and Management Support Systems etc are of critical value. http://www.auditcommission.gov.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/AuditCommissionReports/NationalStudies/Cranfield_Information_use_review.pdf Approaches To Risk And Uncertainty In Decision Making: Different workshops are conducted enabling the participants to undergo decision making based on simulated situations. This enables them to perform well under actual circumstances. Workshops increase their level of performance and risk handling under uncertain conditions. In addition to this I also prefer the development of mitigation policies to be pursued under risky and uncertain circumstances while undergoing decision making. Integrated assessments can inform decision makers of the relationship between risk involving factors, adaptation potentials, and costs of emission reductions and the benefits of avoiding uncertain scenarios. These assessments have frameworks to deal with incomplete or imprecise data. As with Unilever and Procter and Gamble they estimate the demand and supply based on pre defined policies to handle the uncertain high or low demand times. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/tssts-ts-2-2-decision-making-risk.html Workshop on Risk Assessment and Safety Decision Making Under Uncertainty Evaluation of Effectiveness of Organizational Decisions: Organizations such as International Energy (a masked name) made critical mistakes in decision making incurring extra ordinarily high costs referred to as failure costs. Therefore successful organizations such as Wal-Mart employ a structured approach means establishing assumptions and procedures for the way we make decisions around here. There are five critical elements pursuing effective organizational decisions. The above diagram explains the systematic approach to organizational decision making including criteria, facts, alternatives, commitment, and closure. The main objective of decision making has high lightened that particular goal you want to accomplish in the long run through effective decision making, whereas having vague and incomplete goals leads to failure. Wal-Mart,an online retailer store focuses on goals and makes decisions accordingly. Companies like International Energy focuses on reliable and accurate use of facts when and where required. There is too much data but screening the necessary and vital valued data is an important step t effective organizational decision making. Gaining insight to application of alternatives is essential to making right choices while making critical and great decisions. Seeking for alternatives reinforce the need to examine more than one option and nearly always improves the quality of decision making as the CEO of International Energy reports. Companies like Dow Chemicals, Intel, and Wal-Mart etc embed decisions regarding business-unit strategy in contracts that detail the specific strategic decisions that have been made, the resources required to implement the strategy effectively, and the individuals who are accountable for delivering on the decisions. Moreover when the decision is not communicated,, responsibilities are established with their time frames implementation and a continuous feedback monitoring mechanism for performance, an effective decision will be of no use. Wal-Mart decided not to offer steep discounts during the holiday selling season. On Friday after Thanksgiving, competitors noticed Wal-Marts strategy and began trumpeting their own holiday discounts, sensing an opportunity to draw customers away from the retail giant. But Wal-Mart was closely monitoring results, and its executives figured out that the new scheme wasnt working well enough. They quickly reversed the decision and within days, every store in the Wal-Mart system had returned to the companys traditional practice of holiday discounting. http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/decision-insights-11-how-organizations-make-great-decisions.aspx Analysis of the Effective Management of Change in Organizations: Change management has always been a challenge to the organizations. The dynamic environment surrounding the organizations keeps on becoming uncertain and unpredictable. To manage the flow of events it the principle of change management must be of focal point. Moreover, for an organization undergoing a merger, the new management resulting from the combination of the two pre existing organizations, has to undergo challenging situations of change. This change is necessary as well provoking effective management styles. The change management is about maintaining a dynamic equilibrium within the environment you are operating. By diagnosing the situation which arises as the result of change management one can ensure that: The goals can be achieved as there is enough stability There must be operational continuity so that nothing would be distracted as the result of change The organization is adaptable to different situations and can manage the internal and external events as well as the change There is enough motivation so when the rite time comes the change can be adopted easily The management role is all about coping with the change so that the processes (internal as well as external) should only be minimally disrupted as accelerating change can increase the level of complexity and management problems. It can be a range of activities which can act as a trigger for change like old machinery is beyond repair , changes in legislations , changes in technology , merger and acquisition activity (as in our case) taking place as a consolidation in the banking sector , economic scenarios etc. according to Geliner and Earnst, 1996: The change will bring in Fresh challenges and tasks; this will largely offset the job security situation as more motivation can be gained http://www.mightystudents.com/essay/Managing.Change.Organizations.34325 Summary: The behavioral and traits theories are essential components for understanding the relationship of leadership styles and linking them with innate or learnt behaviors and/ or characteristics. The significance of participative leadership theory is through its implementation at various levels in every organization In addition to this, motivation at every level leads to success and growth promise on part of employees, fruitful for the organization. The different organization styles, structures and diverse cultures operate in large and small organizations. Their base is made stronger with the practice of such rules, policies, structures and cultures making them an inherent part of their organization and allowing new and existing employees to act in unison with them. Lastly the different modes of decision making and the risks in making decisions are also evaluated on experience and judgments based on knowledge and insight. The team based learning helps in better solutions to make the employees perform more collaboratively and less competitively. Conclusion: Lastly I have concluded through my vigorous analysis that leadership theories, motivation styles, organizational culture, structure and styles are most important for the proper functioning of an organization. The effectiveness of decision making factors are also very fruitful and their understanding of flow of information is significant to any organization whether big or small.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Hofstedes Cultural Theory Business Essay

Hofstedes Cultural Theory Business Essay Multinational companies are faced with the challenge of developing their operations in a constantly changing environment. In this way they are placed in the necessity of expanding their businesses in foreign countries which brings several implications. In organizational terms this means that the companies, in order to be successful, will have to go through a deep analysis to determine what their capabilities and weak areas are. But not only this provide the outcome on whether to expand their business or not, this will be just the first stage of a very long journey of understanding the processes that create value and how the company integrates these processes in order to succeed in a foreign market. The main motive of multinational companies to expand in the foreign markets is to avoid the saturation point or to increase the product life cycle. Any company which tends to globalize or internationalize, has to move into a foreign market and make a set up in that country. Today when the world is getting smaller and all the nations are getting close to each other it is very important for every growing organization to eye the foreign markets and increase its exporting and importing capabilities. But problems occur when these multinational firms start operating in different countries and are surrounded by number of issues which create obstacles in their progress. Then let it be the government rules and regulations, the culture of that country or the working environment. Different countries have different approaches towards the business world and companies should study intensively about the infrastructure of a country before entering that market. Especially some nations like India or Pakistan are highly culturally influenced, so there has to be a wise policy before making a move. Different markets have different demand in terms of rules, culture and environment. When companies go global, the governing personals have to be very adaptable in order to cooperate well with the native people or the native market. Mostly multinational companies consider it to be the most crucial step which leads them to study the culture of the country so that they deploy suitable products and well trained personals. Companies set up research and development offices in these markets initially before entering those countries or markets to study the market and the demand and most important the culture of the culture of the people there. Example: Wal-Mart, the giant retailer wants to enter the emerging countries; India is one of the biggest consumer based emerging markets of the world, Wal-Mart has set up research and development offices in Bangalore, India. So they are studying the working environment and the culture of the market in India so as to make a perfect entry strategy. IKEA, a giant furniture retailer has a keen eye on entering the Indian market but has failed as the there is a restriction on the foreign direct investment in India, it only allows a 51% ownership but IKEA wants a 100% ownership, so there are hindrances for IKEA. Different markets and countries have different approaches. When companies intend to expand their operations into a broader scale many difficulties arise, not only because this can be caused by a badly planned entry strategy but also in terms of integration of their internal systems that the company has in order to function adequately and moreover to get well with all together a different culture, people and their taste and demands. The complexities of the issues faced by the companies need to be addressed so that the impact within the organisation is minimised. However the organisations need to be sensitive with their environment in a way that their strategic behaviour finds a harmonizing point between the local and the international environment and the organisation itself. The particular issues between the cross cultural management and personal administration is that is has been building up on its importance since multinational companies are bound to face different issues as they operate in foreign markets. LITERATURE REVIEW: Organizations function diversely in different countries. They prepare policies for every country in which they plan to expand their business. IHRM (international human resource management) should be strong enough in order to help organization in achieving success on alien land. IHRM have to gather and understand cultural information on broader perspective because foreign norm are different from ones own. In terms of cultural analysis, there are two main studies that can be referred as relevant in knowing culture environment of other country. First is Hofstede (2001) tells about the cultural differences through a deep evaluation of social and cultural dimensions. The focus on the social aspects considers valuable information on various topics, such as Collectivism and Individualism considering the data collected from all countries. In the same way this study is also oriented in an international dimension to evaluate the cultural aspects that might have an impact on the organization an d its well-functioning. On the other hand the study of Trompenaars et al (1997) focuses not only on a much descriptive analysis of what are the cultural elements in societies but also links these cultural aspects to the business environments providing awareness on how to deal with inter cultural communication in business relation. HOFSTEDES CULTURAL THEORY: Undoubtedly, the most significant cross-cultural study of work -related values is the one carried out by Hofstedes- Bhagat and Mcquaid (1982). 3 October 1928, Gerard Hendrik Hofstede was born. He was a student of national and organizational cultures. He was an author of many cultural books. Hofstede effort commenced in 1980 ,which was a great success because his research introduced when there was less internationalization among nations due to problem of understanding culture differences. His research had 116,000 questionnaires taken by 60,000 people around 50 nations. From his research he provided four dimensions (Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity/Femininity) .Fifth dimension (Long/Short term orientation) was added after a strong study by Hofstede and Bond (Hofstede 1991b; Hofstede and Bond 1984; Hofstede and Bond 1988). HOFSTEDES FIVE CULTURAL DIMENSIONS: a) POWER DISTANCE INDEX (PDI): PD can be defined as a difference between nations on the bases of hierarchy and relationships. Nations who are falling high on power distance scale follow hierarchy way in there organization. Staff has to wait for a green signal from their officials. Parity is not found in hierarchical countries. There is a large distance between the poor and the wealthy people. Inequality of power distribution leads to exploitation at times in these nations. Students give respect to teachers even after school hours. While, nations with low power distance believes in equality .Relationships and working in a team is significant for them. Powerful people try to be friendly with others .They dont misuse there power. High Power Distance Low MAL ARA MEX IND FRA ITA JPN SPA ARG US GER UK DEN ISR AUT b) INDIVIDUALISM (IDV): In this dimension individualism is opposite to collectivism. Nations having individualistic traits look after their immediate family. They believe in I have done this. On the collectivist said people maintain relationship with extended family as well. We have done this is their trait. In collectivist people give importance to group achievements and group rights. Unlike collectivist, in individualistic countries people need privacy and time is precious to them. Collectivist love to work in a harmony. Individualism Collectivism AUL US UK CAN FRA GER SPA JPN MEX ITA KOR SIN c) MASCULINITY (MAS): Countries that are more masculine are task oriented and they look for result. While countries with low masculine are more affectionate and male/female is at par level .Discrimination is nil in these countries while in masculine, male dominates all over. MAS countries are more competitive in comparison to countries with low MAS. Unlike femininity (small and slow), masculine countries look for fast and big achievements. Masculine traits are success, individual achievement, competition, material love and power. Masculinity Femininity JPN MEX GER UK US ARA FRA KOR POR CHC DEN SWE d) UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE INDEX (UAI): In this dimensions countries differ on the basis of facing threat or avoidance of facing threats. Countries falling strongly on uncertainty avoidance are threatened to face unexpected situations, so they try to avoid it by applying certain rules and regulations. To them surprising situation is dangerous .They adopt formal rules and simple procedures. Countries falling in this dimension are countries with an old history .New innovative suggestion and principals are difficult to be applied in this group. Low uncertainty avoidance nations welcome different (ambiguous) situations because they love to take risky steps .Unwanted situations is exciting for them. Informal rules are adopted all over. Basically countries in these dimensions are young and ready to face risk and innovations are looked by them. High Uncertainty Avoidance Low GRE JPN FRA KOR ARA GER AUL CAN US UK IND DEN SIN e) LONG / SHORT TERM ORIENTATION (LTO): Nations with long orientation look for their future goal. Success of tomorrow is important to them. You are never a loser until you quit trying, is their trait. They believe in vigorous growth and hard work. A Respect for the status is duly given and they have a sense of shame. While, short term nations have a respect to traditions and national pride. Stabilization is their trait. They aim for quick outcome (result). Future is not kept in mind. Status doesnt carry any value in their group. They keep their reputation good, avoid being disapproved. Long Term Orientation Short Term CHI HK JPN TAI VIE BRA IND US CAN UK E/W AFR TROMPENAARS AND HAMPDEN TURNERS CULTURAL THEORY: History: Fons Trompenaar is an author of cross cultural communication and he is a Dutch. His writing includes many books on culture while Charles Hampden turner is a British philosopher in management field. Along with Trompenaar, Hampden created a dimension which shed light on people of different environments and how they behave and interact in their daily life. TROMPENAARS AND HAMPDEN SEVEN CULTURAL DIMENSIONS: a) UNIVERSALISM vs. PARTICULARISM: This dimension emphasize on rules and relationships. In universalism, rules given significance and they applied on everyone. Every individual follow rules and contracts. Rules are meant to tell the truth. While particularism is give importance to relationships .Deals are made on friendships .They believe in flexibility on agreements. And they closely examine the situation to know the truth. PARTICULARISTIC UNIVERSALISTIC PARTICULARISTIC 1. Singapore 2. Spain 3. Japan 4. France UNIVERSALISTIC 1. US 2. Germany 3. Sweden 4. UK Figure: Shows countries falling in universalistic and particularistic dimension Application: In universal society people follow rules and regulations like in US every personnel follow traffic lights to make them feel people are at par level while in particularistic, people break traffic signal as well due to brotherhood. b) INDIVIDUALISM vs. COLLECTIVISM: Individualistic nations love being recognised single. They believe in word I. Group doesnt matter them .Privacy is what they need .They love to work independently .Self benefit is what they look for. Their relationship with others is negligible. While collectivism, believes in teamwork. They believe in we. They are attached to their colleagues, family members and friends. Interdependence is found in them. Benefit of group they practice. INDIVIDUALISM COLLECTIVISM COLLECTIVISM 1. Japan 2. Italy 3. Mexico 4. INDIVIDUALISM 1. US 2. UK 3. Australia 4. Canada Figure: Shows countries falling in individualism and collectivism dimensions. c) NEUTRAL vs. AFFECTIVE RELATIONSHIPS: Neutral groups keep their emotions inside and they dont reveal what they thinking. Revelation of their emotions leads to tension on their face. They remain reserved and cool .Sometimes their emotions explode out. Affective people on the other hand are very much emotional. They reveal their emotions by verbal and non-verbal way. They remain transparent. Anger, happiness is clear visible. They react to the situation there only. AFFECTIVE NEUTRAL NEUTRAL 1. Japan 2. UK 3. Germany 4. Sweden AFFECTIVE 1. China 2. Italy 3. Spain 4. France Figure: Shows countries with neutral and affective cultures d) SPECIFIC vs. DIFFUSE RELATIONSHIPS: People falling in specific dimensions keep their personal and work life away .Their private life is private and when socials then they are open. They look for direct communication. In diffuse, people private lives have number of people in it. There is no difference between private and work life. Common person is needed In between stranger and manager for an introduction in order to do a business. SPECIFIC DIFFUSE SPECIFIC 1. France 2. US 3. UK 4. DIFFUSE 1. China 2. Russia 3. Spain 4. Japan Figure: Shows countries of specific and diffuse traits e) ACHIEVEMENT vs. ASCRIPTION: In achievement, accomplishments are made in order to gain status. Seniors head in office are given respect throughout due to the knowledge and experience they have. Status change according to time as person accomplish more and more. In a culture with ascribed status, people given title based on their gender, birth and wealth. They have not given according to their accomplishment. ASCRIPTION ACHIEVEMENT ASCRIPTION 1. China 2. Russia 3. Spain 4. Japan ACHIEVEMENT 1. US 2. Germany 3. Mexico 4. Figure: Shows countries having achievement and ascription culture. f) TIME ORIENTATION (PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE): In past culture nations, people give value to their traditions or history. They talk about their family tree, its origin, and talk about history. People of the nations are asked to recreate golden age .In present culture, people believe in present moment. Enjoyment and activities are planned for the moment. Present relationship is important. Contemporary impact and style is what they practice. Future culture nations look for future goal. People plan for future achievements and aspirations. They have an interest in youth and in future. PAST PRESENT FUTURE PAST FUTURE PRESENT Figure: Shows countries of past, present and future culture g) INNER DIRECTED vs. OUTER DIRECTED: In inner directed nations people believe that nature can be controlled by humans. If rightly worked and made an effort then humans can dominate nature. In contrast to inner directed, people in outer directed culture believes that nature is above everything and humans are one force of nature ,so they should live in harmony and adapt to the external environment. OUTER INNER OUTER INNER Figure: Shows countries falling in inner and outer cultural traits. PROS AND CONS OF THE THEORIES: HOFSTEDE: PROS: Hofstedes model helped people in day to day life. Making them understand about different culture. Hofstedes model helped organisation, to expand their business on an international level without facing any cultural hindrances. Example: examines difference in attitudes and behaviour (Alden, Hoyer, and Lee 1993), used in advertising (McCarty and hattwick 1992; Gregory and Munch 1997; Zandpour et al .1994), international brand strategies (Roth 1995).While for some Hofstedes model is rigorous and relevant because the time it was made there was little approach in culture and businesses on international was very low (Sondergaard 1994, 448,449) .Hofstedes model triggered people to globalise. CONS: In spite of being successful, Hofstede also faced numerous criticisms from all over. Some finger out over relevance of the model. Researchers said this it is not accurate. While most says that Hofstedes model did not paid attention on community .According to Hofstede all domestic nations have homogenous society. But some countries are group of ethnic units (Nasif et al 1991, 82; Redpath 1997, 336).While as per McSweeney, 2000, says, Analysing through nations is not proper because it is not necessary bounded by border .Some says it is out dated while other says four dimensions did not give sufficient information. TROMPENAAR: PROS: Trompenaars and hampden-turners model gave a tool to staff who works on international assignments and projects .Easy to understand culture of the other country is made easy by them which led others to understand cross-cultures. Their research showed that way of doing business is different among all the countries. CONS: Their research failed to recognise the personal characteristics on behaviour and forget to provide recommendations. As per other authors, the border is diminishing and world should be seen as a single unit . HOFSTEDE AND TROMPENAAR-HAMPDEN TURNERS THEORY: CORRELATION Hofstedes and Trompenaars -Hampdens individualism and collectivism are identical in orientation. In Trompenaars model, how and where status is given importance and where people look for team work shows link to Hofstedes power distance dimension but not wholly because Hofstedes power distance cover other issues as well .Trompenaars universalism /particularism can be taken as Hofstedes uncertainty avoidance and collectivist/individualistic dimension because in these dimension they discussed about how nations differ in giving preference to rules than relationships. Even researches done with the help of Hofstedes and Trompenaars-Hampdens model showed similarity in their result .Example: Japan and India is collectivist they lie low in individualism index while UK, US are entirely individualistic countries. CONTRARY Contrast between Hofstedes and Trompenaars can be seen in there result of research. Example: Unlike in Hofstedes model, Mexico and Spain are individualistic according to Trompenaars model. Germany has hierarchical culture according to Trompenaars dimension while Hofstedes says its low in power distance. Hofstedes has four dimensions to explain culture differences, while Trompenaars and Hampden have extra dimensions. Hofstedes results becoming out of date.1960s -1970s results are not the same for today because culture change over time. According to James Cambridge, Hofstedes reach is more on analysis, but restricted as well while Trompenaars and Hampden Turner are broader in their approach. Hofstedes measures on the variables of cultures, while Trompenaars involved in a method for cultural creation. Trompenaars and Hampden Turner (1997),all cultures face the similar problems but they are contrary in there solutions which led to excel the opposites.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Studies Pertaining to the Clinical Aspects of Malaria :: Health, Diseases

STUDIES PERTAINING TO THE CLINICAL ASPECTS OF MALARIA Malaria is a complex condition exhibiting different manifestations in different parts of the world depending on a few variables (Bin Mohanna et al. 2007). It was found that anemia and splenomegaly are significantly associated with malaria among asymptomatic schoolchildren in Hajr valley, Hadramout (Bin Mohanna et al. 2007). Agina and Abd-Allah (1999) conducted a case control study for the association of nitric oxide levels to the severity and outcomes of cerebral malaria in Yemeni in-patients. The main clinical presentations in cerebral malaria patients were fever (76.4%), pallor (72.0%), hypoglycemia (67.4%), splenomegaly (60.5%), deep coma (39.5%), jaundice (18.6%), pulmonary oedema (13.9%), subconjunctival hemorrhage (13.9%), severe anemia (53.5%), and hemoglobinuria (6.9%) while in non-cerebral malaria patients the clinical presentations were fever (83.8%), pallor (67.7%), splenomegaly (66.0%), jaundice (9.7%), severe anemia (51.6%) and hypoglycemia (3.2%) . The serum level of ni tric oxide was found to be higher in patients with cerebral malaria than those without. In cerebral malaria, nitric oxide levels were highly elevated in patients with deeper coma and longer duration of coma as well as those who died of cerebral malaria indicating its association with indices of disease severity and outcome in patients with cerebral malaria (Agina and Abd-Allah, 1999). Sheiban et al. (1998) studied severe acute renal failure secondary to falciparum malaria among children receiving antimalarial therapy and other supportive therapy as well as peritoneal dialysis referred to the renal unit at Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana’a. In this study, it was concluded that significant differences were found between children who died (43.8%) compared to those who survived regarding age, plasma creatinine, plasma bilirubin, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hemoglobin concentration, urine output, and time from diagnosis to referral. However, gender, alanine aminotransferase level, degree of fever, plasma sodium or potassium levels were not found to be statistically different between these two groups (Sheiban et al. 1998). The author found that previous immunity, as indicated by presence of splenomegaly, was associated with better prognosis both in terms of lower mortality and less hemodynamic disturbance which was evident in the older children owing to pre vious exposure to malarial infection, and therefore development of immunity (Sheiban et al. 1998). It is important to note that malaria was reported to be the cause of 5.9% of chronic renal failure in patients undergoing regular hemodialysis in Hadramout governorate (Badheeb 1998). Recently, Al Rohani et al. (2011) reported that malaria is the most common infectious disease causing acute renal failure (ARF) in Yemeni patients.

German Modernism Essay -- essays research papers

The Era of Modern Germany Throughout time, nations have attempted to become independent from one another by discovering means to help their citizens experience more fulfilling lives. The dilemma that troubled each of these countries is whether or not innovations, in technology and society, led to a higher quality of life. In the book, Rites of Spring, Modris Eksteins examines how innovation affected the citizens of Germany. Eksteins conveys that technological and industrial innovations paved the way for social transformations, throughout Germany. These social changes include a newfound appreciation for Art, tolerance of homosexuality, and a new approach towards warfare. The establishment of the German modern era began at the turn of the 20th century. Eksteins verifies this conviction by stating that Germany made tremendous industrial improvements, during this time. Among these industrial improvements was the introduction of a massive steel industry. Although Germany produced steel prior to 1900, it had never competed with the other European powers. â€Å"By 1914, Gergely, 2 German steel production equaled that of Britain, France, Russia combined? Along with a massive production of steel, other German industries such as iron, chemical, and electricity also flourished throughout this time. Germany finally had the foundation it desired for economic growth. According to Ecksteins, the formation of these industries gave Germany the opportunity to develop as a culture. Industry facilitated culture by shifting a large part of the population out of the countryside and into the city. â€Å"In 1870 Germany’s population was two thirds rural; by 1914 that relationship had been reversed? This gave German industry the possibility of transmitting their ideas to a large audience. The formation of the modern man and women was born. Also, one must conclude that the shift out of the countryside brought an influx of diverse beliefs into German cities. Germans who had previously lived under certain beliefs were introduced to several new convictions. Suddenly Germany transformed itself from a close-minded nation, to one, which was open to change. This newfound acceptance of change facilitated a general belief that Germany had become the most modern state of that time. Gergely, 3 One of the most prevalent examples of German modernism was their newfound attitude towards art. Ekstein... ...ncompass Eksteins argument that Germany was at the heart of the modern Gergely, 5 experience. I agree with Eksteins claim because he presents the reader with perspectives from all aspects of society. In reading other interpretations of modernism I received limited viewpoints, of how modernism influenced society. One example of this is Marshall Bermans, All That is Solid Melts Into Air. This text provides the reader with examples of modernism in different societies. It does not focus on one society, like Eksteins. This method does not allow the reader to get an accurate feel of how modernism encircled society. Instead one leaves with an understanding of how individual changes affected certain aspects of societies. Secondly, Eksteins argument is convincing because it gives various examples of how societies differed from Germany. One is able to comprehend why Eksteins believes Germany is the epitome of modernism, as opposed to other societies. This method is also valuable because it allows the reader to make his/her own decision of German modernism. After reading Rites of Spring, one agrees with Eksteins beliefs because of the outstanding methods he utilizes to deliver his argument.