Well Point Company Internal analysis

Friends was the best tv show essays

Friends was the best tv show essays A decade ago, America was introduced to 6 friends: adorable Rachel, lovelorn Ross, ditsy Phoebe, confused Joey, uptight Monica and sarcastic Chandler. Record paydays, ratings jubilance and Emmy golds no wonder Friends is the number one comedy, but sadly is coming to an end. For ten years in a row, over 30 million North American viewers tune into NBC every Thursday night to catch up with the lives of their favourite friends making Friends the number one primetime series. But before ratings soared off the charts, this consecutively unbeaten sitcom had become one the most successful shows ever. As an added bonus, the theme song Ill be here for you was already a No. I radio hit, giving Friends a jump start to their ratings. Friends has helped NBC climb and claim the number one position for numerous years over all other television networks on Thursday nights. NBC Studios has maintained an astounding 46% lead in viewers for Friends over CBSs Survivor at 8:00. Friends successfulness is the main reason why it and its cast have accumulated so many awards over their ten years running. Alone, the number of Emmy, Golden Globe, Peoples Choice and Screen Actors Guild Awards are enough to cover all the coffee tables at Central Perk. Not to mention countless other awards such as best directing, best scripted comedy, funniest guest appearance, technical direction, best music, countless teen choice awards and the list goes on... Of course, behind every great show there has to be a big pile of cash and Friends is no different. Financing is a major part in the production of Friends where each actor has been making $1 million per episode for the past season! So thats $24 million each, per season just for the main cast. Not to mention wages for the guest stars! But Friends doesnt give out this kind of money without receiving some. Lately, commercials are a major so ...

2012 Budget Proposal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

2012 Budget Proposal - Research Paper Example Such cut-and-invest agenda would create winners and big losers because the President’s budget proposal presumes using the money from some domestic programs to reduce the deficits and increase spending for education, clean energy, infrastructure, innovation and research in order to promote long-term economic growth and global competitiveness of the United States. Definitely, there are certain differences between the Presidents FY 2012 budget proposal and The House of Representatives FY 2012 budget proposal, which will be discussed further in the current paper. President Obama emphasized that the administration needs to construct a new foundation for long-term economic growth with pillars necessary to win in the world economy. Such pillars include an educated and skilled workforce, cutting-edge research into the innovations to power the industries of tomorrow, a modern infrastructure to support a growing, high-tech economy, and the jobs to support a growing middle class. As a re sult, Americans now face a monumental choice about the future of their country. The Republican response toward the President’s call for economic changes came in April, when Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin announced 2012 budget of his party. The main three purposes of The House of Representatives FY 2012 budget proposal is to (a) lift the crushing burden of debt; (b) guarantee health and retirement security for all Americans, especially seniors; and (c) strengthen the base of economic growth and creation of the jobs (Becker, 2011). Paul Ryan informed that the plan would reduce the deficit by $5.8 trillion over the next decade. It can be accomplished due to deep cuts in discretionary spending programs and turning Medicare into a "defined benefit, under which seniors would get vouchers to purchase private insurance. Medicaid would get smaller as the federal contribution to state

Principles of Time and Stress Management Assignment

Principles of Time and Stress Management - Assignment Example Based on the facts presented in the case, there is no evidence linking organization in which Chet works, Norris Company to his level of stress. Norris Company has a perfect structure with effective reporting chain hence providing every employee with room for growth and development. Every employee knows clearly his/her supervisor in addition to roles and responsibilities. Therefore, Chet’s level of stress is unrelated to the organizational (structural) problems of Norris Company. Instead, such stress level is his making. Some of the personal characteristics that are likely to interfere with Chet’s productivity and contribute to his level of stress include emotional intelligence, cognitive style, personal values, orientation towards change, and core self-evaluation. Chet does not seem to be in a perfect mood and sense in managing himself as well as a relationship with others. The lack or insufficiency of emotional intelligence is seen on how he casually relates to people within the firm. He is of very little concern. No wonder, when he was asked to go through the project he has done very little on the same. In addition, his personal values and cognitive style may cause the decrease in productivity whilst increasing the level of stress. Actually, Chet does not seem to be having the zeal of gathering and processing information, especially on assigned tasks. In any case, Chet’s orientation towards change is not very clear within the case. Therefore, these are personal characteristics with a possibility of affecting productivity and level of stress that Chet is currently experiencing.

Journal Review Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Journal Review - Article Example The identification of these profiles are said to help career counselors in assisting their clients in developing career plans The population consisted of lawyers and computer field men. The samples consisted of 213 workers aged 20-50 years in the computer software and hardware field, specifically 126 men and 87 women. They were from five computer companies and four private law firms in the Tel Aviv area. The vast majority were said to report that they belonged to the upper- middle socioeconomic class. The researchers used cluster analysis and had identified three groups of individuals who differed systematically on attributions of relative importance to work and family roles. The report, however, did not mention about the exact sample size taken from what could have been the population; neither was the response rate reported. The findings reported were that there are three distinct groups of participants who differ systematically in their attributions of importance to work and to family roles and in their significant family- and work-related variables. The research also said that incompatible pressures from the work and family domains have predictably different influences on diverse groups of people characterized by the importance they attribute to life roles. Ad... Additional findings point out that support from the spouse and support from the manager was associated with positive influences between the domains. Differences in attribution to work or family were also related to variation in work and family variables such as hours invested in paid work and the receipt of spousal support. The researchers also said that the research demonstrated that the level of W3F (Work, Work, Work, Family) conflict is higher than the level of F3W (Family, Family, Family, Work) conflict even among dual profile members. The research said that apparently the family domain is more susceptible to interference from work than is the work domain from the family. Do the sampling procedures used justify the findings of the study The findings may boast of having used the most sophisticated forms of analysis, but the sampling procedures have to equal such meticulous care. As earlier mentioned, the report did not mention the exact population size; therefore there is no way to size up the sample and the response rate. On account of this, it is now moot to be debating with the findings and how they were presented. Even then, the study analyzed the responses of married persons only, but it was not explained why. In fact, it had eliminated 29 questionnaires due to respondents' non-married status. What is true, however, is that there are married persons who can be said to enjoy lesser stress because of support in their home functions, while there are singles who are heavily bound with home chores. Clearly, civil status is not an adequate measure for presence or absence of possible stress, hence, the study should have explained its preference for married people. It is possible to be non-married and yet be a parent. Utilized by the

Relationship Between Law And Ethics In Islam

Relationship Between Law And Ethics In Islam I would like to start my analysis by posing a few questions about this relationship to stimulate our thoughts. Are law and ethics identical or non-identical in Islam? Are ethics derived from law or is this relationship vice versa? Are they both derived from the same sources? If yes, then are they separate or do they supplement each other? What I found after my analysis is that law and ethics in Islam are complementary. They come from the same sources and they serve to complete each other like a body and its soul. The main source of law and ethics in Islam is Allahs (s.w.t) will in the Quran, the exemplary life of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.), analogical reasoning and consensus. To analyze in depth the relationship between ethics and law in Islam, we should analyze the Fiqh and Sharia, in light of their connection with both ethics and law. Firstly, Fiqh relates the religious conduct with both law and the human moral life by stating that the human conduct should be understood through Quran and Hadith and then formulating moral and legal norms according to that. These norms, that have two joint components, the moral and the legal one, unite together to make what we call a Hukm in Islam. In this sense, the jurists and judges in Islam judge actions through Hukm which is basically based on morality and legislation. In other words, Quran places the acts in its proper moral context and informs the scholars about its Hukm. Hadith is the second source of law in Fiqh, and it represents the exemplary life of the Prophet, a life that has been lived in accordance with the best morals. From the exemplary moral acts and sayings of the prophet, a bunch of Islamic laws have been formulated. Secondly, when we hear the word Sharia, the first thing that comes to our mind is a bundle of rules and authoritative commandments combined together to make the law of God. However, when we deepen our study and sight into Sharia, we find that Sharia is not only a law, but it is a moral way that we should adopt in order to lead the ethical life. In addition, both civil and criminal justice, as well as the regulation of individual conduct (personal and moral), come under the rubric of Sharia. Thus it is evident that Sharia is a law and a code of ethics at the same time, and either of these individual components does not have any value on its own. Hence, law and ethics are extensively intertwined, compatible and complimentary i n Fiqh and Sharia. Historically, one of the most important questions in law and in ethics is what ought to or not to be done. The answers for this question would compose the largest part of ethics and law. The answers are also what comprise obligation in Islam. Let us analyze this obligation in the light of ethics and law in Islam. In order to determine the obligation, an employing of rules or law is needed. The duties in Islam in accordance to these rules are widely presented through the fivefold theory, which classifies acts in moral and legal way. In Islam obligation in morality and obligation in law come from the same grounds (Quran and Hadith) and they overlap in their requirements. According to the fivefold theory, some obligations derive their force from the laws (the required and forbidden categories) and others derive from an attractive ideal of human nature and virtue (the recommended and discouraged categories). In other word, the fivefold theory makes a blend of law and ethics and uses it t o judge the human act. Suppose, if we were to remove the recommended and discouraged acts or the required and forbidden acts from this model, then the model will become totally inadequate according to the facts of morality or to the necessity of the law respectively. In my opinion, the fivefold model of duty in Islam is the best model to judge actions and to answer the original question: what ought to be done? And here we see what is really distinctive about the relationship between law and ethics in Islam is that they conjoin to make the perfect model that humanity has been in search of since the time of Socrates. Both law and ethics in Islam deal with obligations, human character, and righteous actions. Allah (s.w.t.) sent down in the Quran a corpus of commandments and rules that identify the obligations of human beings. The collection of these obligations is the first and biggest source of law in Islam. These obligations shape the human character as well, and guide him towards righteous actions. Righteous actions come under the studies of normative action in ethics which is basically a practical science and less of a theoretical science. However, Islamic law transacts with human action within two domains-the theory and the practice. What is important here is to distinguish whether the Islamic law forms the heart of Islamic ethics or is it the opposite case. What I found from the readings is that the Islamic law is a heart inside another heart, which is the Islamic ethics, and vice versa. Both of them are interlinked to the point that they can never be separated or dealt with individually. Yo u need one to complete the other. There are many non-Islamic notions of law and morality. We will first take a look at the theory of positivism that asks for separating law from morality. The theory claims that law is not a code of morality and that legal obligation should be apart from the moral ones. However, in Islam, Sharia consists equally of law and morality. Secondly, the idea that started in the west first and has now spread worldwide is the notion of separating religion from the state. It argues that the state should have its rules and law distinctive from religion. The obligation in this case is to the law of the state. The law of the state mostly is man-made and is known as positive law. This notion cannot work in the Islamic world unless Islamic law and ethics step aside. Islamic law and ethics is not only a few obligations like prayers and fasting, but a law for life that guides the human acts and conduct in every aspect and involves total submission to God. In general, many people think that law controls the people. However law, while being very important, is not enough by itself to control human life. On the other hand, ethics, if understood deeply, can control the lives of people and lead them to happiness. The truly just and virtuous society is the one that is based on conscience and ethics before looking at the law. The ethical responsibility is more inclusive than the legal one. Furthermore, ethics are stable and immutable but law can be changed and modified according to the legislations. Also ethics control ones internal conduct whereas law dictates the external behavior. Additionally, in ethics people do self-examination and in law, the legal supremacy is the examiner and calls people to account. Therefore, if society builds only on law, it cannot reach its true potential. Law is essential, but, the real significance belongs to ethics. Therefore in Islam, both ethics and law compose the commandments which refer to the requirement s of Quran and Hadith, and they jointly constitute the Sharia which is important in our contemporary time. Thus, from the Islamic perspective, both law and ethics are equally important to lead the human life to the ultimate happiness. Finally, it can be said that although Islamic law and ethics are well-matched, a few recommendations need to be followed to make it well equipped to tackle contemporary issues in medical law and bioethics. In order to deal with this, I highly recommend the establishment of an International Islamic Medical Law and Bioethical Academy. Secondly, since many medical and bioethical issues are still subject to scholarly debate, therefore it requires further detailed research in the light of medical research and Sharia rulings. Thirdly, I encourage introducing Islamic medical law and bioethics into the syllabi of different institutes teaching the health care sciences, and incorporating it into the curriculum at graduate and postgraduate level. Thus, Islamic law and Islamic ethics stand together as an important instance of a moral and legal theory that composes an attractive ideal for all of human life.

SOCIETYS NEED FOR THE REGISTRATION OF HANDGUNS :: essays research papers

Society’s Need for the Registration of Handguns   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Guns are an instrument that even the most careful of people could do harm with. Gun owners should go to firearm safety classes so they will be educated on proper handling and storage of the gun. While this should only be voluntary, something should be done to insure that guns are only sold to people who have a safe background and are of age. Congress should mandate the registration of handguns in order to keep criminals from possessing guns, to cut back on violence in the home, and to avoid accidental or intentional violence among children.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Federal Government today is putting forth much effort in order to control the purchase and registration of handguns. In 1993, Congress approved the Brady Bill that requires a mandatory five-day waiting period when buying a gun. The recent school shootings have pushed Congress to pass a bill requiring approximately 80% of handguns to be produced with child safety locks. The ultimate goal of the government is to ban the sale of firearms to the public. By starting out small, and having big goals, later generations will enjoy peaceful lives.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In today’s world, guns used in the home for protection purposes are becoming more of a danger than an object of security. They have taken over the interest of everyone who thinks they are in danger. Even with the protection of a handgun, statistics show that crimes are still being committed. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics â€Å"an average of only about 65,000 defensive uses of guns each year compared to the more than 800,000 crimes committed with guns† (Mcdowell 1982-84). Guns are a danger in the household if marital disputes and domestic violence are present. If a gun is a readily available object then the chances of it being used to let out anger and frustration instead of self-protection is great. Mercy Saltzman reports that â€Å"having a gun in the home also increases the risk that incidents of domestic violence will result in homicide.† He goes on to point out â€Å"family and intimate assaults involving firearms are twelve times more likely to result in death than non-firearm related assaults† (Saltzman 3043-47). In lieu of these statements, one can see the present danger in keeping a firearm in a household.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another reason to mandate the registration of handguns is because guns and criminals are not a healthy combination.

Provides the following

A Study Guide, which provides the following: a. An orientation of each chapter, along with an outline of the important topics being addressed. B. Sample problems for the student to complete, with the worked-out solutions. C. Self-test questions (true/false and multiple choice) with answers. D. A tutorial on understanding the internal rate of return. E. An In-depth self-teaching supplement on capital-budgeting techniques. 2. Companion Website online study gulled for the student Includes true/false, multiple hooch, and short answer quizzes for each chapter.From my. Prenatal. Com/shown students can also access the Internet exercises, current events articles with questions, and Excel spreadsheets for the end-of-chapter problems. For the teacher: 1. A Test Item File provides more than 1600 multiple-choice, true/false, and short- answer questions with complete and detailed answers. It is designed for use with the Prentice Hall Custom Test, a computerized package that allows users to custom design, save, and generate classroom exams. 2. Companion Website provides academic support for faculty adopting this text.From the www. Prenatal. Com/shown text website, you can download supplements and lecture aids such as instructor's manuals, lecture notes, Powering presentations, problems and case solutions, and chapter outlines. Register online or call your Prentice Hall sales representative to get the necessary surname and password to access these detail supplements or contact Prentice Hall Sales directly at 3. Powering lecture notes. These Powering graphics provide individual lecture outlines to accompany Foundations of Finance.These lectures are class tested and can be used as is or easily modified to reflect your specific presentation needs. 4. Color transparencies for the primary chapters of the text, including a brief overview of the chapter, some of the exhibits in the text, and example problems that are useful in lectures. 5 Excel spreadsheet solutions to end-of-chapte r problems downloaded from www. Prenatal. Com/shown. For any teacher wanting information about the supplements, please contact the Prentice-Hall field representative for your area. Also, feel free to call any of the authors with any questions you may have.By calceolaria e. An in-depth self-teaching supplement on capital-budgeting techniques. 2. Companion Website online study guide for the student includes true/false, multiple choice, and short answer quizzes for each chapter. From www. Prenatal. Com/shown students can also access the internet exercises, current events articles with the necessary surname and password to access these digital supplements or contact Prentice Hall Sales directly at [email  protected] Com. 3. Powering as is or easily modified to reflect your specific presentation needs.

O Brother Where Art Thou essays

O Brother Where Art Thou essays In the film O Brother, Where Art Thou, the Cohen Brothers present to the audience a comedic adventure of three on-the-run jail mate hillbillies led by the hero, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), looking to reclaim a buried treasure. The story takes place back in the days of the Depression-era, Deep South around the 1920s in Mississippi. It is a comedy. The picture is filled with intellectual and witty satire, as well as twists and turns, humorously paralleling scenes and characters from Homers epic poem The Odyssey. In the movie, the Cohen Brothers use various elements to capture the attention of the audience. Just as any other directors attempt to do, they aim to draw the audience into the movie and catch the spirit of the southern, Mississippian, Depression-era hillbillies. In order to generate this affect, one of the key elements the Cohen Brothers use is language. More specifically, they use old-fashioned, southern idiomatic dialogue, which is not really used in todays contemporary dialogue. Yet, most are definitely familiar with it, which serves as the common base to carry out the affect. Just by listening to this southern-type language with its southern accents and all its slang, idioms, and euphemisms, the picture of vast countryside farms and cornfields, old-fashion cars, live-stock, dirt roads, and rednecks and hillbillies in overalls with severe farmers tan instantly comes to mind. Thus, everything becomes more of a reality. However, more importantly, with a whole lot of fresh w itty intellectual satire, there are plenty of laughs through this southern dialogue, which serve as the whole point of making the movie. It is a comedy. Of course the task was not plain and simple. The Cohen Brothers did their research. Throughout the entire picture, there are a countless number of slang phrases, idioms, and euphemisms used. Of course there ar ...

Jared Diamond versus Charles Mann on the Sophistication of Metalwork Essay Example

Jared Diamond versus Charles Mann on the Sophistication of Metalwork Essay Example Jared Diamond versus Charles Mann on the Sophistication of Metalwork Essay Jared Diamond versus Charles Mann on the Sophistication of Metalwork Essay Jared Diamonds theory in his book Guns, Germs and Steel states that the Europeans were able to conquer the Natives because of their favorable geography, a key factor that lent itself to the manufacturing of steel and which Charles Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, also discusses in detail.Both Diamond and Mann agree that the centuries of experience in making steel weaponry in Eurasia gave the Spanish conquistadors an advantage over the Natives in combat; however, Diamond claims that the Europeans had an upper hand because their metal work was more sophisticated, whereas the Natives were merely stuck in the bronze age, (3) for which he discredits their advancements in metal technology.On the contrary, Mann contends that the Natives metal work was more advanced than their European counterparts (3), and that the indigenous societies may not have had steel for weapons, but [they] did highly sophisticated work with other metals (3). Although Europeans had more experience in working with metal, and in developing different techniques in manufacturing metal that seemed more refined, Mann argues in 1491 that the Natives techniques and use for metal was not nearly as primitive as what Diamond presumes in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel.Diamond argues that the Europeans conquered the Natives because of superior metal technology. A close examination shows Manns argument that the Natives metal techniques undermines Diamonds argument that the Europeans had superior metal techniques. To understand the main differences between these two authors, one should examine the specific points before considering their different views on the specific metalworking techniques in the respective cultures.The Europeans had steel and Indians did not, which has led some researchers, Diamond among them, to argue that Indian metallurgy essentially [did not] exist (2). After all, they didnt have the steel axe, (1) Diamond says in the national geographic movie adapted from his book. The Europeans borrowed innovative techniques from steel manufacturers in the Fertile Crescent to build swords, or rapiers, and guns.Judging by his point of view, Diamond presumes that at the time of arrival of the Europeans the new world societies had just begun making bronze artifacts and had not started making iron (Diamond 259). Diamond stresses the crudeness of the Incas metalwork and the tools. He then contends that the Incas used metal for almost nothing useful (3). The term useful can have many implications, but in this case Diamonds definition of useful is using metal to make a device that is going to allow subjugation.Diamond believes that a culture should [seek] to optimize metals hardness, strength, toughness, and sharpness' to make weaponry (3). Diamonds research led him to believe that because the Natives had not developed lethal weapons made of optimize[d] (3) metal, the Natives were far inferior to the Europeans. Diamond discred its any advancements in Native metalwork because he believes that the Natives were not advanced, and only squandering their resources. In his book 1941, Mann believes that the Natives techniques in working the metal were far superior in comparison with the Europeans.He says that Incas metallurgy was as refined as European metallurgy, if not more, but it had such different goals that until recently scientists had not even recognized it as a technology (3). Mann explains the misconception that researchers, namely Diamond, are guilty of asserting: the fact that the Europeans used metal to conquer overshadowed the Natives advances, because they used metal for more practical things. Mann then says that unlike the Europeans, the Natives by contrast, valued plasticity, malleability, and toughness (2).Whereas the Europeans used metal as a symbol of wealth, power, and community affiliation (2), the Natives used it for practical tool making. It is important to look at the specific techniques involved in metalworking in the respective cultures to determine who, either Diamond or Mann, is more convincing. Diamonds account stated that European metalworkers created metal objects by pouring molten alloys into shaped molds (2). Diamond says that rapiers, represented a high point in a very sophisticated metalworking technology.There are many different qualities needed in a sword that the Europeans had to consider: First of all, the metal had to be hard enough to take a sharp edge, and that requires steel that is iron infused with carbon, and the more carbon one puts into the iron, then the harder the metal will be. But if it is too hard, then it will be brittle, and that would not work because when someone would hit someone else with his sword, then the sword would break (3). The Europeans also had to consider pliability as a factor, because an ability to bend and spring back into shape was important in combat (3).Diamond argued that it took centuries of experimentation for th e Spanish to perfect the techniques needed to make the deadly rapier, and he concluded that the budding metal mongers(Diamond 97) had nowhere near the experience necessary to build these kind of weapons. In contrast to Diamonds ideas about the use of metal, Mann argues that the Natives were far ahead of the Europeans when it came to working with the metal; and given the right resources, the Natives could have easily beaten the Europeans in combat.The Natives knew about the European technique of pouring molten alloys into shaped molds (2), but they vastly preferred to hammer metal into thin sheets, form the sheets around molds, and solder the results (2). The Incas employed metallurgical processes such as alloying, casting, cloisonni? , hammering, incrustation, inlay, repoussi? , riveting, smelting, and soldering (2). In 1941, Mann calls their work remarkable by any standard (Mann 143) and describes a bust he found that was less than an inch tall but made of twenty-two separate fasti diously joined gold plates.Mann believes that researchers underestimate the ingenuity that the Natives had in manipulating metal. It is evident that Mann is telling the reader not to disregard the advances made by the Natives in metal just because they are not innovative weapons. The natural inclination is to think in a broad sense that whoever wins the war has better technology. Especially since the Europeans were so outnumbered by the Incas, there had to be a reason why at such a disproportion in numbers the Europeans were able to conquer them.Mann argues that the Natives skills with metal were a cut above the Europeans, and that the Natives could have made better weapons than the Europeans if that is what they were trying to do. Europeans demonstrated expertise in making swords and whereas the Natives focused on more pragmatic applications of their resources. He warns the reader not lose sight of the fact that when the Europeans were pouring metal into molds, the Natives had alre ady accomplished this feat and had moved on to more sophisticated techniques.Both Diamond and Mann acknowledge that the Europeans used centuries of experience to manufacture steel to make deadly weapons. Diamonds contention that the Europeans were more advanced is more appealing to the reader because it is the more intuitive answer. The reader is naturally inclined to choose the Europeans as the superior workers in metal because of their exposure to other cultures advancements and favorable geography; however, Diamonds underestimation of the Natives takes away from his argument because he dismisses anthropological evidence.Diamond makes the point in his book that the there was no shortage of copper, tin, silver and gold in the mountains of the Andes, but then he disbelieves the Natives ability to find value in the metal and use it to their advantage. Manns argument is more convincing because he acknowledges and he gives specific examples that support his opinion that the Natives met alwork stressed functional and utilitarian design (2). What the issue eventually involves is what one views as technology.Clearly, Diamond is holding the Natives and colonists to a higher standard than the Europeans held many years ago and what Mann holds today. Mann says technology refers to any application of a systematic technique, method, or approach for practical purposes (3). He argues that colonial accounts suggest that Europeans then viewed technology in these broad termsand that they were impressed by what they saw in Native American hands; and that to the first European visitors, the encounter with Indians was much more like a meeting of equals than is commonly taught today (3).In summary, Diamond and Mann agree that the weaponry in Eurasia allowed the conquistadors to conquer the Inca; however, they are strongly divided in identifying which culture is more advanced as far as metal working techniques, in addition to the cultures main influences and uses of metallurgy. Mann believes that the Natives metalwork manifests a high degree of sophistication, and that the European efforts to come up with different techniques were not nearly as advanced.Diamond believes that the European techniques were more advanced, and he attributes this to the centuries of experience from the Fertile Crescent. Mann and Diamond both present convincing arguments, and it is difficult to determine who is more convincing, since both have valid points. The issue comes down to whether the Natives or the Europeans were more advanced in metalwork. Judging by both arguments, Manns case is more convincing because he provides great support by directly comparing the ways that each culture manipulated metal, which showed that the Natives had more advanced and sophisticated techniques.Literature Cited(1) www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/show/transcript2.html (2) www.threemonkeysonline.com/threemon_article_ancient_americans_charles_ mann_interview.htm(3) www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles /2005/09/04/Native_ingenuity/?page=full(4) pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/show/episode2.html(5) 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by: Charles C. Mann(6) Germs, Guns, and Steel by: Jared Diamond

Knowledge Management and Information Strategy Coursework

Knowledge Management and Information Strategy - Coursework Example A review of literature on the factors that influence success and failure of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) implementation projects is conducted. This is followed by a summary of the crucial managerial and technological factors that support a successful performance of KMS implementation project. To understand this issue better, the paper derives qualitative data on National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) related to the subject matter. NTPC is an Indian power generation company and it is one example of firms that have implemented KMS recently. Content analysis is applied on the data and a detailed outline of the implementation approach undertaken by this company is given. The challenges encountered during the process, the technology adopted and the benefits derived from the project are also examined. The analysis of this company finds that the KMS project has encountered numerous challenges and its return to the company can be termed as average. It emerged that some of the challe nges have emerged from failure to incorporate some of the crucial factors in the implementation process such as the use of motivational aids. The company needs to incorporate all crucial factors in the implementation process and to find strategies to minimize or overcome the challenges in order to increase value of the project. With the rapidly changing business world organizations are finding it necessary to leverage on KM in a way that any new knowledge is shared across the organization and stored for future use. The concept has gained prominence since the mid 1990s following the work of Peter Drucker. Knowledge is being viewed as a key resource in business for economic growth by developing a competitive edge. Fernandez and Sabherwal (2010, p. 56) defined KM as doing what is needed to get the most out of knowledge resources. KM involves enhancing knowledge creation and sharing it within organization and

International Marketing w6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International Marketing w6 - Essay Example aba College of technology, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, wrote an article on environmental perception in bank marketing strategies during the period of December 2009. In this article, the author has addressed environmental factors that impact on strategic marketing practices. According to his work, environmental issues such as technology in banking, government policy, and economic factors influence the banking industry in diverse ways. His particular focus hinges on the introduction of computer technology into the banking services in the country and all over the world. He further reviews how government policies impact on the acquisition and involvement in the technological developments within the country. In a nutshell, the article captures the environmental variables that have affected the strategic marketing moves of major banking businesses. He further asserts that the rate of technological alterations and the nature of the heated competition for the control of the clientele base form the most important aspects that influence organizational strategies in international business (Linus 2009, 1). From the above article it can be noticed that technological changes do affect the conduct of businesses in a big way. As it emerges, the banking system has been faced with this concern. It becomes upon the players in the banking sector to adopt the new innovations like the introduction of computer banking. It is however an optional issue unlike the legal requirements. One major consideration in such case is the motivation to remain in business (Khandwalla 1997, 55). If any bank aspires to remain in business or retain its market control, then the top management should be under no illusions. It should seek ways to introduce the technology or lag behind and lose out to potential competitors. Another reflection that arises is the fact that the business environment remains very dynamic. In light of this, it is the duty of the business entities’ managements to be on the look out for