Sustainable Development and its overall impact Assignment

Sustainable Development and its overall impact - Assignment Example It is related with the utilisation of resources, excess consumption of resources, insufficiency, human rights and availability of facilities. Therefore, evaluation of sustainable development should accept a time limit which can capture both human and environment and react with the requirement of future and present generation. Proper anticipation of future needs should be done on the basis of historic circumstances. The sustainable framework of an organisation should link with the chosen vision and objectives of organisation. A number of measurement amalgamations are effective to provide vibrant indication of progress towards sustainability. By associating the measurement value with the target, organisations can comprehend the ways and the tendencies towards sustainable development (Hardi & Zdan, 1997). Values and Beliefs: Values and beliefs are vital for management of sustainability. Therefore, organisations ought to ensure a level of openness in their operations which can ensure tru st and faith. There is need for applying considerable level of transparency in business performances which also includes measurement of sustainable progress. In order to add value, organisations can maintain close interaction with the government and the public. The involvement of people such as professionals, social groups comprising youths and ethnic people can help to ensure acknowledgement of miscellaneous and fluctuating values. Participations of communities can also help to secure an organisation by connecting implemented policies with consequential actions (International Energy Agency, 2006). Evaluation of Sustainable Development: Organisations need to be iterative, adaptive and reactive to any kind of... Center of discussion in this paper is sustainable development as a kind of development which satisfies the requisites of present times without sacrificing the aptitudes of upcoming generations to satisfy their own requirements. In relation to the case there are five major aspects of sustainable development principles which are: establishing vision, universal perception, needs and rights, values and beliefs, evaluation of sustainable development. Sustainable development is an extensive concept where human and organisational actions can affect the environment and social welfare. Organisations along with individuals have responsibilities to promote sustainable development. From the above analysis of cases, it can be observed that several organisations and bodies implement different measures to protect and to restore the environment and natural resources. In order to accomplish a positive future, above aspects should be considered by organisations and should also implement measures that can reduce the negative environmental impacts. Organisational structure and culture should be changed and adjusted towards better sustainability and the organisations also need to comply with the rules and the regulations of environment. In order to enhance the biodiversity, several projects have been undertaken as a part of sustainable development. One such project is development of â€Å"Bird Flapper† where a disk is linked with the power lines.

United States Essay Example for Free

United States Essay My life is different today than what it was seven years ago. Seven years ago, I lived in my home country, Bangladesh, and now I am currently live in the United States of America. First of all, In Bangladesh, I was in middle school. Attending middle school wasn’t too hard. It was actually a bit fun. In middle school, I had less homework to do, and it was fairly since I did not have many responsibilities. Now I am in college, attending Macomb community college. I am getting really stressed out and having many types of difficulties. I am struggling to keep good grades and have lots of homework to do daily. I had many friends during my days in high school, but as I attended college, friends grew apart; now I am stuck with just a few. Secondly, I did not have any responsibilities seven years ago. But as an adult, now I have to learn to take care of many responsibilities and give my all to live successfully. I did not know how to even cook at the age of 15, but now I know how to cook pretty much everything. Finally, in Bangladesh, I did not need to drive since everything in my town was close. Living in America, on the other hand, I am forced to have transportation to get around. Therefore, I had to get my license to accomplish each day’s task. Many changes have occurred in the last seven years in my life; however, these changes made me live up and the face world daily.

The Birth of China :: The Birth of China Herrlee Glessner Essays

The Birth of China Herrlee Glessner Creel wrote The Birth of China. The book was published in 1937 at Frederick Lungar Publishing in New York City. Creel was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 15 1905. Both Creel’s mother and father were writers. Creel attended the University of Oklahoma, Creighton University, and finally the University of Chicago where he received his Ph.D. in 1929. In 1922 he worked as a newspaper reporter and later became a Sinologist discovering oracle bones that dated back to 3,000 years. Eventually, Creel became a Professor of Chinese History and Literature at the University of Chicago. Creel died in June of 1994, he was then living in Parlos Park, Illinois. His books have been published in England, France, Japan, Italy, and Spain. He wrote once that, â€Å"My principal concern is to understand the origins and the early history of humanity’s most continually enduring civilization, that of China.† The first section of this book talks about the true discovery of china. Creel notes that until the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with the discovery of China’s magnificent marble sculptures and oracle bones, we had to rely on tradition and legend for the knowledge of the Chinese people. He goes on to talk about the excavation of Chinese artifacts and finally the origin of the Chinese people. In the second section Creel goes on to the talk about the great city of Shang. The Shang were the first people known Chinese history. That period in time is now referred to as the Shang Dynasty. He discuses there livelihood, handicrafts, sculpture and bronze, society, war, writing, their gods, and talks about sacrifice. Finally, in the last section, Creel talks about the Chou Dynasty. A huge advance in civilized living gave him a chance to discuss China’s early politics, literature, marriage, family, business, religion, and law. This book got many great reviews. Collectively they all described this book as well written, colorful, and exciting. Alan Priest of the â€Å"New York Times† wrote, â€Å"Mr. Creel produced a most interesting study of the life and culture of a civilization†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Mr. Priest was not alone in his review of the book. Yet, another review of this book comes from and unknown author with â€Å"Time† magazine.

Merck’s Risky Bet on Research

While Kenneth Frazier worked liability suits for Merck, he caught the company’s attention and they hired him in 1992. By 1999 Frazier was appointed Merck’s general counsel. Merck saw that Frazier had several good personality traits and values that would benefit their organization. Kenneth Frazier is a very hard-working man and has been taught not to fail and to push himself to excellence. Frazier has always pushed himself to always do better, he has never just settled. Frazier likes to take risks to see how far he can push himself and to see what he can accomplish. Frazier has a very high self-esteem and a need for achievement. Under the five big personality traits, Frazier best fits under openness to experience. He is willing to take risks and is daring and open minded. I believe one of the most important terminal values to Frazier is a sense of accomplishment. Even though, there are several terminal values that I believe are important to Frazier, I feel this is the most important. Frazier lost his mother at a very young age and was raised by his hard-working father. His father taught him to work equally as hard and to always strive for excellence. Frazier believes that at work he should never back down and always strive for more, and that you must work hard to accomplish everything you want. This especially showed when Merck found their drug Vioxx was doubling the risk of heart attach and strokes and Frazier fought each case instead of taking the easy way out and negotiating settlements. Frazier won 11 of the 16 cases. Frazier was determined to win and he did. Frazier gets pleasure from achieving his goals and enjoys the social recognition that he gets by winning his cases. Instrumental values are just as important as terminal values. The most instrumental value that stands out in Frazier is his ambition. Frazier is not only hard working but understands what it takes to achieve his goals. A few of the other instrumental values that I feel are important to Frazier are being responsible, polite, and daring. Working as a litigator or in management you will not always be liked. At times people will go against you and not agree with what you are doing. Frazier is daring as he goes against others but when he must go against others he does it respectfully and politely so he can get others to take his side and agree with him. Frazier has some very important personality traits that will help him influence Merck’s culture in his role as CEO. Frazier’s openness to experience gives him the ability to have an open mind and the ability to take risk that will allow him to move the company forward. Frazier also has the ability as CEO to mentor other managers to achieve the company’s goals. After watching Frazier handle some of Merck’s liability suites, the company decided that Frazier would be a valuable asset. Merck could see that Frazier had some very important personality traits that could benefit their company.

Comprehensive Continuous Evaluation

Over the years it is the opinion of every educationist, teacher and general public that board or annual school examinations based on tests in two or three hours duration provide limited Information on various elements of curriculum and range of learning in any subjects. ln view of the above short comings in the existing system of evaluation it is desirable that evaluation of students should be not only continuous but comprehensive also.The term Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) is used for school based evaluation of pupils in which their assessment is done on a ontinuous basis throughout the year and which Is also comprehensive in nature, in the sense that It Is not confined to assessment In scholastic subjects but also covers co-scholastlc areas such as performance In games/sports, Physical education, Creative Education, Art, Music, Dance, Drama, other cultural activities and Personal & Social qualities. The main aim of CCE is to evaluate every aspect of the child during their presence at the school.This is believed to help reduce the pressure on the child during/before examinations as the student will have to sit for multiple tests hroughout the year, of which no test or the syllabus covered will be repeated at the end of the year, whatsoever. As a part of this new system, student's marks will be replaced by grades which will be evaluated through a series of curricular and extra- curricular evaluations along with academics. The aim is to reduce the workload on students and to improve the overall skill and ability of the student by means of evaluation of other activities.Grades are awarded to students based on work experience skills, dexterity, innovation, steadiness, teamwork, public speaking, ehavior, etc. to evaluate and present an overall measure of the student's ability. This helps the students who are not good In academics to show their talent in other fields . The National Policy on Education (1986) and the Programme of Action (1992) followe d by the National Curriculum Framework of School Education (1986 and 2000) reiterated the need for developing the personal and social qualities In learners.They stressed the point that the evaluation should be comprehensive In nature, wherein all learning experiences pertalnlng to scholastic, co-scholasuc and personal and ocial qualities are assessed. To make this happen the MHRD announced Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation system which is to be implemented in every school . The CCE method is claimed to bring enormous changes from the traditional chalk and talk method of teaching, provided It Is Implemented accurately.Comprehensive Continuous Evaluation By suvadip_sain provide limited information on various elements of curriculum and range of learning continuous basis throughout the year and which is also comprehensive in nature, in he sense that it is not confined to assessment in scholastic subjects but also covers co-scholastic areas such as performance in games/sports, Phys ical education, This helps the students who are not good in academics to show their talent in other reiterated the need for developing the personal and social qualities in learners.They stressed the point that the evaluation should be comprehensive in nature, wherein all learning experiences pertaining to scholastic, co-scholastic and personal and and talk method of teaching, provided it is implemented accurately. Comprehensive Continuous Evaluation Over the years it is the opinion of every educationist, teacher and general public that board or annual school examinations based on tests in two or three hours duration provide limited information on various elements of curriculum and range of learning in any subjects. In view of the above short comings in the existing system of evaluation it is desirable that evaluation of students should be not only continuous but comprehensive also.The term Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) is used for school based evaluation of pupils in which their assessment is done on a continuous basis throughout the year and which is also comprehensive in nature, in the sense that it is not confined to assessment in scholastic subjects but also covers co-scholastic areas such as performance in games/sports, Physical education, Creative Education, Art, Music, Dance, Drama, other cultural activities and Personal & Social qualities.The main aim of CCE is to evaluate every aspect of the child during their presence at the school. This is believed to help reduce the pressure on the child during/before examinations as the student will have to sit for multiple tests throughout the year, of which no test or the syllabus covered will be repeated at the end of the year, whatsoever. As a part of this new system, student's marks will be replaced by grades which will be evaluated through a series of curricular and extra-curricular evaluations along with academics.The aim is to reduce the workload on students and to improve the overall skill and ability of the student by means of evaluation of other activities. Grades are awarded to students based on work experience skills, dexterity, innovation, steadiness, teamwork, public speaking, behavior, etc. to evaluate and present an overall measure of the student's ability. This helps the students who are not good in academics to show their talent in other fields .The National Policy on Education (1986) and the Programme of Action (1992) follow ed by the National Curriculum Framework of School Education (1986 and 2000) reiterated the need for developing the personal and social qualities in learners. They stressed the point that the evaluation should be comprehensive in nature, wherein all learning experiences pertaining to scholastic, co-scholastic and personal and social qualities are assessed. To make this happen the MHRD announced Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation system which is to be implemented in every school .

Static Electricity Essay

Static Electricity Essay Static Electricity Essay ITT-Tech | Static Electricity | [Type the document subtitle] | Jacque Lazarus | | 7/4/2012 | | Static Electricity Static electricity is the imbalance of positive and negative charge. It’s referred to as the build-up of electric charge on the surface of objects. Those objects keep a static charge until they find a way to be released or until neutralized by a discharge. Static electricity is either current or dynamic electricity, which can be delivered through wires as a power source. It is caused by a process called triboelectrification which is explained through and atomic structure. All material objects are composed of atoms. Atoms have center’ the nucleus contains positively charged protons and neutral neutrons, have no electrical charge. Around the atoms are negative charged electrons. Protons and neutrons do not change, but electrons can move from one atom to another. Electrons are exchanged when two objects touch causing one object to become electrically positive and the other negative. The most common cause of static electricity is the contact and immediate separation of the two materials that is friction, winding, and unwinding. Other causes of static electricity are rapid temperature drop, cutting operations (saw or paper cutting machines), irradiation with high energy (ultraviolet radiation, x-rays, strong electric field). We all have seen and/or experienced examples of static electricity in our everyday lives, such as when we get our clothes out of the dryer, get out of a vehicle, or even a doorknob. Static electricity is not good for computer components because the discharge current generates heat. That heat lead to destruction of joints contacts and break microchips. High voltage also destroys thin oxide film or the field-effect transistors and other elements that are coated. If the components are not completely out of order it’s said to be more dangerous because at some point there can be a short circuit. Computer components are vulnerable to static electricity when exposed to change a hard drive or add memory chips. Our bodies carry a build-up of

The Birth of My First Child. essays

The Birth of My First Child. essays Witnessing the birth of my first child. Giving birth to life is a miracle. Most women give birth naturally. Some women cannot give birth naturally, these women due to science have to be assisted by a procedure called caesarian section. I recently witnessed my wife go through this procedure of caesarian section and it was an unnerving, scary and exciting experience I will never forget. Firstly, I felt nervous because after eight months of pregnancy, our doctor advised us the baby was not turning. The doctor went on to say, that these cases sometimes happen and not to be alarmed. He told my wife and I, that if by the due date the baby had not turned, he would have to perform a cesarean section to take the baby out. This news made me tense with nervousness. I felt my wifes life was in jeopardy because of this complication. My wife assured me the caesarian procedure is safe, that doctors have performed this procedure for quite some time. When due day arrived I woke up at 5am, which was early for me, because the previous night I could hardly sleep, all I did was toss and turn. I could not help but worry what will be the outcome of the caesarian operation. The operation was scheduled for 11am on September sixth nineteen ninety-four I will never forget that day. I woke my wife up at eight oclock, and we said a prayer together. We got ready and left the house at 10am. For some reason, driving to the hospital seemed to take longer than usual; maybe I was thinking too much about the outcome of the caesarian operation. We arrived at the hospital at 10.30am and went through registration. We were sent up to the maternity floor. When we arrived at the maternity floor the nurses there all knew my wife, because she works at that hospital as a nurse. My wife was led into a room were she was hooked up to a sonogram, a dilation machine and a vital sign machine. After the nurse left I asked my w ...

How to Become a Nursing Assistant

How to Become a Nursing Assistant If you’re looking to start a career in the healthcare industry, you have lots of options. Patient care! Tech! Administration! The entire field is growing, and with it grows the demand for qualified health care professionals. But no matter how many new jobs open up in the trendiest areas, there will always be a huge demand for the â€Å"evergreen† medical jobs: for doctors, nurses, and medical staff who work on the front lines, helping patients. If you think you’d like to be one of these front-line healthcare staffers, working as part of a patient care team, then becoming a certified nursing assistant (CNA) just might be the right path for you. What Does a Nursing Assistant Do?CNAs work directly with patients under the direction of physicians and nurses, providing basic care. CNAs work virtually anywhere there are healthcare facilities, including hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, and doctors’ offices. CNAs may work with a variety of patients during a shift, or they may have a more one-on-one relationship with a smaller group of patients. CNAs are often a liaison for the patient, making sure that they have everything they need or working with a team of other medical professionals to ensure that a patient is receiving a particular level of care.A CNA’s tasks may include:Assisting patients with everyday tasks like eating, bathing, and dressingTaking vital signsHelping to prepare patients for surgeryChecking and emptying cathetersMaking beds and cleaning patient roomsSetting up medical equipmentAdministering prescribed medicationAssisting physicians and nurses with medical proceduresObserve and record patient status and changesNursing assistants are responsible for meeting the most basic needs of patients, and for providing a high level of personal care.What Skills Do Nursing Assistants Have?Because nursing assistants are one of the primary caregivers for their patients, they need to have very strong skills and beds ide manner.Patient Care SkillsIn addition to the medical know-how necessary to do the job, nursing assistants also need to have strong customer care and service skills. The nursing assistant will be working with a range of patients, and potentially interacting with families as well, so it’s important to have a calm, caring, and understanding professional game face.Attention to DetailIf things are missed, it can have serious consequences for a patient. Nursing assistants needs to have an eagle eye for detail, and a passion for making sure everything is done correctly and on time, whether it’s administering medication or feeding a patient her meals.Communication SkillsNursing assistants need to be able to communicate with a number of different people: patients, other staff members, and patient families. Being able to understand what’s going on, and communicate to others as necessary, is essential.Teamwork SkillsNursing assistants are key members of a patient care team. That means being a lone wolf just won’t work in this job. It also means a nursing assistant has to be able to work well (and take orders when necessary) from other members of the healthcare team, all in the interest of the patient.Organizational SkillsBecause nursing assistants often spend the most time directly with patients, keeping everything moving along on schedule is key. Many nursing assistants are juggling a number of patients at a time, so keeping patients and information organized is key so that there are no mistakes disruptions to care.What Education Do Nursing Assistants Need?At a minimum, nursing assistants typically need a high school diploma (or equivalent). Beyond that, they will need to complete a Nursing Assistant course from an accredited school, which typically lasts from 4 to 16 weeks.Once you have your Nursing Assistant program diploma, you’ll need to be certified by your own state. Requirements vary by state, so be sure to see what’s required in your state if you’re interested in pursuing this path. Many states also require you to pass a certification exam before you can become a practicing CNA.How Much Do Nursing Assistants Get Paid?According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical assistants make a median salary of $26,590 per year, or $12.78 per hour, depending on location and experience. Many nursing assistants also go on to other, more advanced nursing or patient care roles as they gain more experience.What’s the Outlook for Nursing Assistants?This is definitely a promising field! The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the demand for nursing assistants will increase by 17% by 2024. That is much faster than average, compared to all other careers. Caring, compassionate professionals who can provide high-quality patient care will always be in high demand.If you’re considering going into the healthcare field, and are ready for the challenges of providing hands-on care, t hen this could be the right choice for your career. Good luck!

SODIS in Winter Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

SODIS in Winter - Lab Report Example The plastic bottles were then shaken for a period of twenty seconds followed by filling the bottles completely. One bottle was directly taken to the lab for the initial E.Coli count of the available raw water sample. The remaining eight bottles were labelled as 1, 1F, 2, 2F, 3, 3F, 4, 4F with the numbers on the bottles corresponding to the number of days of heat and sunlight exposure. In this case, F was used to mean foil. Then the F bottles were all wrapped in a foil in ensuring that the samples were prevented from receiving sunlight and thus limited to receiving heat. After being exposed in the heat in the first day, the one and 1F bottles were brought to the lab for purposes of carrying out a E.Coli analysis. This procedure was repeated for the second, third and fourth subsequent days of exposure. In this experimental set up the control experiments were water without the UV-A exposure or sunlight and water without heat or solar reflector. In essence, this was just but raw water sa mple Observations In this experiment the observation were noted following a certain chronological order. In the first day in which the experiment was carried out outside for a period of 2 hours and thirteen minutes, starting at 12.17pm extending to 2.30 pm with the conditions of the day characterized by a cloudy sky with light snow furries along with a little sun shine, it was such that from 1pm to13:40pm, a cling wrap was inserted on the opening in helping prevent snow from interfering with the solar reflector. It was observed that the cling wrap inside surface steamed up necessitating the removal of the cling wrap. In day two in which the experiment was carried out inside and behind glass given that snows were falling outside. In this second day of experiment, the experiment was carried out starting at 12.28 pm extending to 4.40 pm conditions being such that there was no direct sunlight or SNOWING. On day three of the experiment, the experiment was carried out behind glass. From 1 1 am extending to 1 pm, there was a cloudy sky. However, the experiment was not facing the sun’s direction since the direction of the sun could not be determined. From 1 pm extending to 1:30 pm light rain was observed and the experiment was halted at 3.30pm following heavy downfall. On the last day of the experiment, which was on day four, the experiment was carried out from 12:30pm extending to 4:30pm and it was behind glass given that it was slightly snowing outside. As was observed on this day, the bottles had a green/brown colouring sediment and was not attached on the plastic bottle, though as observed it was somewhat denser than water. Results The data wereplotted in table 1 Table 1showing number of E. Coli (in Colony-Forming Units or CFU) and the exposure time (sunlight and heat) for the SODIS Method Experiment E.Coli J+1 J+2 J+3 J+4 Traite UFC/100ml 202 95 96 18 Controle UFC/100ml 427 418 205 241 Discussion According to the graphical representation of the experimental results in F1 above, it was clear that the heat treatment group had fewer E. Coli relative to the raw water sample (control group). More evidently, the sunlight, as well as the treatment group h

Global Organizational Environment Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Global Organizational Environment - Article Example This is a reflective essay which summarises my learning experience gained through the entire model describing each of the sessions undertaken by me all through the course. One aspect has been chosen in each of the sessions’ and an academic journal has been selected which helped me to have a further detailed knowledge about the topics covered in each of the sessions. Session 1: Organizational form and purpose The first session of the module was meant to have an understanding about the various types of business concerns operating in different parts of the world and how they are governed. This session was a great learning experience for me that helped me to have a wide knowledge about different types of organisations, their primary motives or purposes, the concepts of corporate governance and stakeholders and the various ethical issues concerned with the business activities followed by the organizations. The concept of corporate governance and the problems related to the agency t heory was an interesting topic discussed in this session. Agency theory is one of the corporate governance theories which have marked significant importance in the recent years. Jensen and Meckling (1976) are commonly associated with the term agency theory as found in most of the existing literature. The journal named â€Å"A Survey of Corporate Governance† by Shleifer and Vishny (1997) helped me to know more about the issues related to corporate governance systems followed by different business organisations worldwide. It also helped to have knowledge about the concept of ownership concentration found in business concerns. Enron can be cited as one of the many examples related to an organisation which restored to unethical accounting practices because of the existing agency problems associated with the company. It is recorded as one of the major accounting scandals which have ultimately led to the downfall of Enron (Arnold, & Lange, 2004). Session 2: Transnational business a nd its role in contemporary society This session was aimed at having knowledge about the various roles played by transnational companies (TNCs) and how they have contributed to global trade. This session helped me to learn about the impacts of TNCs on the global trading environment, different types of internationalisation strategies followed by organisations, costs and benefits associated with free trade mechanism, and role of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organisation (WTO). Different types of internationalisation strategies followed by TNCs and other global organisations were of particular interest to me. Internationalisation is a process which is followed by organisations to expand their business outside their national boundaries and it can be achieved through various strategies followed by different firms. The journal named "Internationalization strategies for services" by Gronroos (1999) speaks about five types of internationalisation strategies that are followed by service organisations with their motives to establish their business abroad. Those internationalisat

Compare and contrast each of these four concepts, 1) Customer Care (2) Essay

Compare and contrast each of these four concepts, 1) Customer Care (2) Kaizen (3) Just-in-Time( 4)Total Quality Management - Essay Example Kaizen is a management approach to making an improvement in quality as well as maintaining it that emphasizes internally driven and fairly continuous assessments of possible causes of quality defects, after action which is aimed at improving quality. Quality is the meeting as well as more than what the clients expect. Quality will be gained by means of meeting client requirements. Success will be achieved if quality is well managed. Kaizen is the idea that an analysis of the process is the starting point rather than an analysis of the employee. Kaizen seeks to improve the process as oppose to blaming the employee for process flaws. Kaizen works under the basis that improvement comes by small incremental changes using the scientific method. Its main objective is to make changes and look at the results and then adjust them accordingly. This process makes Kaizen very flexible. It is moreover flexible in the sense that; large-scale preplanning and wide-ranging project scheduling are replaced by means of smaller experiments in perfection, which can be rapidly adapted as new improvements are recommended. Something that organizations can do to help improve overall effectiveness or efficiency is to conduct a kaizen. The more American definition is to look at all the processes involved and to look for ways to eliminate any types of waste that there might be. For example Toyota Corporation is a company that has taken part in various kaizens to help with their processes. Eaton Corporation has also conducted different kaizens in attempt to improve a number of their procedures that they have in place in a number of areas. If a company doesnt find ways to be efficient or effective, they will fall behind their competitors in their respective industries. It is extremely essential for companies to utilize any ideas or suggestions that the employees might have in order to turn out to be more effective or proficient. Continuous improvement or Kaizen as it is

Hezbollah(Party Of God) Terrorist organization (Lebanon) Research Paper

Hezbollah(Party Of God) Terrorist organization (Lebanon) - Research Paper Example They bore the brunt of the conflict between the Israeli’s and the PLO. As a result, Hezbollah was born initially as an organization and movement designed to oust the Israel’s and their allies from southern Lebanon. There are three main area of Lebanon that Hezbollah can operate from with relative safely. The first is the Beqaa Valley of Eastern Lebanon. This is the traditional home of most Lebanese Shia. It is an agrarian region with a high rate of poverty that borders Syria. Southern Lebanon bordering Israel is another area with a high concentration of Shia Muslims and is a safe haven for Hezbollah. The final geographic stronghold of Hezbollah is the slum area outside of Beirut. These slums grew as a result of the fighting in southern Lebanon during the Israeli invasion in the 1980’s. The founder of Hezbollah was Sheik Subhi Tufaili. He was educated in Iraq and there was exposed to Islamic Revolution ideology as presented by Shiite leaders from Iran. He brought these ideas to Lebanon and used them to attract disparate Shiite groups in Lebanon. From the joining of these groups, Hezbollah was born. Internal conflicts between Subhi Tufaili caused his ouster in the early 1990’s. Tufaili was upset that Hezbollah was willing to participate in elections in Lebanon. Replacing Tufaili was the current Secretary General Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. The initial purpose behind the formation of Hezbollah was the removal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. Shiite citizens were bearing the worst of the fighting from the casualties in the conflict between the PLO and the Israeli’s. Armed resistance to Israel and its allies was the central focus of Hezbollah from the start. Once the Israeli’s withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah began to take a more nuanced reason for their existence. They began to present themselves as an Islamist group working to spread the teachings of Islam to the world. They state that they want to show the world that Islam

What do you consider to be the core concepts of socialism as an Essay

What do you consider to be the core concepts of socialism as an ideology - Essay Example Despite the emergence of political and economic ideologies in various countries to initiate progressive change and uplift ordinary citizens from poverty, some leaders still practice dictatorship and absolute monarchy thus stunting their country’s growth and development. There are various core concepts of socialism that defines it as an ideology. For example, it has the economic system structured in way that workers participate in a collective means of production. This technique often adopts the social ownership means of producing goods and services while engaging in cooperative management for the benefit of the economy. Similarly, by being a social ownership, socialism deals with common ownership, cooperative enterprises and state ownership. Contrastingly, as a core concept of being an economic system, the socialist ideology focuses on market planning to ensure that institutions have a productive means of serving the interests of the citizen (Carter 2003, p. 110). On that note , socialism tackles different forms of economy under the concept of the economic system to find a balance with a capitalist state that usually fleeces its citizens through serious competitive machinations. There is the planned economy where the means of production is mixed with public ownership to permit distribution and coordination and also facilitate economic planning. This differs fundamentally with the defining features of capitalism because a planned economy has two forms of planning namely the centralized and decentralized planning. Consequently, to boost production, Marxists Leninists adopted the central planning to expand the economy. However, Trotskyites preferred the decentralized planning because they felt that it could be coordinated efficiently to serve all people and also support the local economic conditions. Under the concept of the economic system, socialism is also connected to the self managed economy where only autonomous units are allowed to conduct self-regula tion and other forms of decision making (Freeden et al 2013, p. 156). This model is exemplified by a cooperative economy that connects well with a free market economy unlike in the decentralized system in the planned economy. It equally encourages the application of computers in the management of economic units because it augurs well with the new generation of workers in participatory economics. Another core concept of socialism as an ideology is it being a political theory. In other words, it is both a political philosophy and a political movement unlike its counterpart, capitalism that is fundamental economic based. In that view, it aims for a socialist state where organizations and political parties are all socialist and hence connect to socioeconomic system. Karl Mark and Friedrich Engels remain its pioneer economic theorists who castigated capitalism for its obsoleteness and lack of sustainability to enable economies prosper in the 10th century. They argued that only socialism with the concept of a political theory would overcome the contradictions of capitalism by ensuring that the working class developed a consciousness to rebel against the wage slavery (Soborski 2013, p. 180). As a result a classless society would emerge and end capitalism with its inequalities particularly its grip on production by a few industrialists. The displacement of capitalism as a core concept was also manifested in giving

Hezbollah(Party Of God) Terrorist organization (Lebanon) Research Paper

Hezbollah(Party Of God) Terrorist organization (Lebanon) - Research Paper Example They bore the brunt of the conflict between the Israeli’s and the PLO. As a result, Hezbollah was born initially as an organization and movement designed to oust the Israel’s and their allies from southern Lebanon. There are three main area of Lebanon that Hezbollah can operate from with relative safely. The first is the Beqaa Valley of Eastern Lebanon. This is the traditional home of most Lebanese Shia. It is an agrarian region with a high rate of poverty that borders Syria. Southern Lebanon bordering Israel is another area with a high concentration of Shia Muslims and is a safe haven for Hezbollah. The final geographic stronghold of Hezbollah is the slum area outside of Beirut. These slums grew as a result of the fighting in southern Lebanon during the Israeli invasion in the 1980’s. The founder of Hezbollah was Sheik Subhi Tufaili. He was educated in Iraq and there was exposed to Islamic Revolution ideology as presented by Shiite leaders from Iran. He brought these ideas to Lebanon and used them to attract disparate Shiite groups in Lebanon. From the joining of these groups, Hezbollah was born. Internal conflicts between Subhi Tufaili caused his ouster in the early 1990’s. Tufaili was upset that Hezbollah was willing to participate in elections in Lebanon. Replacing Tufaili was the current Secretary General Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. The initial purpose behind the formation of Hezbollah was the removal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. Shiite citizens were bearing the worst of the fighting from the casualties in the conflict between the PLO and the Israeli’s. Armed resistance to Israel and its allies was the central focus of Hezbollah from the start. Once the Israeli’s withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah began to take a more nuanced reason for their existence. They began to present themselves as an Islamist group working to spread the teachings of Islam to the world. They state that they want to show the world that Islam

IT Manager Interview Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

IT Manager Interview Assignment - Essay Example In his present position as Senior Manager, Corporate Projects, he manages software development projects of all corporate clients. He heads a team of twelve project managers and other ICT professionals under him. 1. Ours is basically a software development company. We develop customized software for our clients. My job is to manage software development projects from our corporate clients. It is my responsibility to ensure that all projects for corporate clients are executed smoothly and delivered and implemented within deadline. I have to ensure quality of the end products and see that the product meets all the projected needs of the client. 2. Our projects involve software development. We develop web-based management information systems, inventory systems, monitoring systems and work flow systems. We also have to take up content development for all the information systems we develop. In fact, software development and content development has to go hand-in-hand for the successful development and implementation of any customized software product. This is one aspect that I try to communicate to all our clients. Keeping software development and content development apart can result in major mismatch between software and content in actual implementation. So we prefer to do customized software development simultaneously with the required content development for the software. We also take up web portal development for our corporate clients. Here, I would like to differentiate between software development and web content development. In software development we work purely for the development of a software-base information system on a definite development platform. The information system may be web enabled. In web portal development, it is an entirely web-based exercise where the entire effort is concentrated on keeping up the web presence. There is an essential difference in priorities. 3. Even though

Taylorism Is An Outmoded And Outdated Form Of Technical Control Essay Example for Free

Taylorism Is An Outmoded And Outdated Form Of Technical Control Essay Perfected by Henry Ford, Taylorism was developed in the early 20th Century and was a revolutionary outlook on scientific management. Its aim was to make the workplace a science, taking all control away from the worker and placing total power in the hands of management. By observing workers behaviour and how long it was taking for tasks to be completed he believed he could say how much an average worker could produce under optimum conditions. Using this he devised a means of detailing a division of labour in time-and-motion studies and a wage system based on performance. At the time and throughout the last century Taylorism was and has been the only way to manage, but is it now outdated and irrelevant. I hope to be able to provide some of the arguments for and against this viewpoint and give examples of Taylorism. First, what exactly is Taylorism? Simply Taylorism is the breaking down of the production process into simple, menial tasks to the extent that even the most unskilled worker can be efficient. He researched these methods knowing that management lacked the knowledge to maximise production and that workers were not efficient. Taylor spoke about rewarding good men i.e. good employees, with higher pay for completing tasks or working harder. He called for scoring and ranking workers, thus posing the argument: how can one compare someone who is really good at a given task against someone who is good at another task? The two individuals may well be very good at what they do; however, it quite often requires a mix of these talents to produce a quality product or service. Taylor also aimed to transfer the control of the work process away from the individual worker and instead have the work performed in a way that is detailed by management who train the worker and share all the responsibilities. He used pig-iron handlers during the American-Spanish war to test his theories. He picked the four best workers and, in exchange for a higher wage, asked them to work under a managers orders. The manager had complete control, telling them when they could have a break, when to pick up more iron, how much to lift etc. The experiment was a resounding success; with one man Schmidt working at a constant 47.5 tonnes a day. This was used to show that Taylorism could work. However it could be argued that the experiment was fixed as it used workers who were mentally sluggish and therefore, by their nature, were more likely to follow orders than to think for themselves. Nevertheless Taylorism became the standard for businesses worldwide and this led to a clockwork world of tasks timed to the hundredth of a minute for standardized factories, machines and the de-humanising of men and women. A man named Braverman argued in his book in the 70s that because of Taylor and Ford, more and more jobs became and are becoming deskilled and de-humanised and the thought processes are being taken over by managers and programmed into machines (Braverman 1974). This raises a very important point about Taylorism; it makes processes so precise and repetitive that humans are being turned into machines. In this state as machines, humans are very easy to control and so it could be argued that Taylorism, whilst being effective as a production method, is also designed to control the workforce and thus highly skilled workers threaten labour control. Read more:Â  Scientific Management Taylorism Such early 20th century thought is being practised not only in business, but in the schools as well where students, like workers, are be scored and ranked. Now we have moved to a system where this ranking and grading of students and schools is of such importance that they are no longer run by teachers, but managed by managers to improve efficiency. Whilst not being a strict example of Taylorism, it shows how Taylors ideas have changed the way people think in that people now assume anything and everything can be ranked. Whilst on the subject of culture changes that have been influenced by Taylor, it can be argued that Taylorism has led to gender differences. Women have been, at least they were, categorized into certain jobs; mainly clerical and secretarial. This may not be as true today with many high-powered businesswomen in the world but, especially in the 60s, this was true. Taylorism is scientific management but how scientific is it? In Websters book there is a case where a businessman complained about how slow his secretary worked and asked, How many times a minute should she be able to open and close a file drawer? The workers handbooks answer would be Exactly 25 times. Times for other open and close operations would be .04 minutes for opening and closing a folder, and .026 minutes for opening a standard centre desk drawer (Webster, J 1990). Another example of the scientific nature of Taylorism can be seen in UPS, the parcel company. Management have said that workers should walk at 3ft per second, packages should be carried under the left arm and that drivers should step into the van with their right foot first whilst holding the keys in the middle finger of the right hand. These are two classic and blatant time-and-motion pigeonholing that leads to the de-humanizing of the worker. This pigeonholing can be classically seen in some of todays big business, especially in fast-food chains. McDonalds, the most classically discussed example, where there is absolutely no autonomy for the worker; they have no option about what to do. Machines are set to cook quarter-pounders in 107 seconds and fries in 150 seconds. Guns exist that put exactly the same amount of sauce in each burger and fill the drinks to the right level. All the worker has to do is put it together and place in a bag. Even the bagging process is Taylorised; workers must place the goods in the bag in the correct order. Ritzer sees McDonalds as a paradigm of efficiency that has led to a consumer being able to go into any McDonalds in the world and expect the same service and the same product. This very tedious monotonous work has very little job satisfaction and so to keep the worker motivated McDonalds have used Taylors idea about incentives. McDonalds have a star system which rewards hard working individuals with stars. These stars are worn on the name badge to show the consumer that they are a noted worker. More importantly it develops a friendly rivalry within the store as workers compete to win stars. This leads to more productive and efficient workers. Some workers can take this to extremes however. A friend of mine started in McDonalds and almost straight away was working up to two hours overtime on closing shifts. He earned his stars very quickly as well as employee of the month two months in a row and within 8 months was promoted to floor manager. This is, in my view, a slightly extreme case as he is naturally a hard worker but shows how hard work is rewarded in McDonalds. The efficiency of McDonalds and its ability to retain workers has made it a very successful multinational company. Leidner argues in his book that the drive for efficiency within McDonalds has led to inefficiency for the consumer as it turns them into involuntary unpaid labour because they have to queue for the food, clear their own rubbish away etc. For McDonalds to be as efficient as it is, it must offer a very restricted menu so that deliveries and production can be streamlined. This leads to a loss for the consumer who can only expect a very small choice from McDonalds. In the beginning this may have been a problem but now people go to McDonalds and expect a burger, fries and a drink which are the same every time. Despite these critiques of Taylorism there are authors who believe that Taylorism is as relevant today as it ever was. Taksa argues in her 1992 article that Taylor and his ideas are still useful in resolving todays management issues especially as firms are larger these days. The limiting of verbal exchange due to written instructions means that the teaching mangers are also under as much control as the workers from the planning group (Taksa,1992). This is especially useful in the large firms of today where middle management can be very large and therefore they must be put under the same controls as the workers. Many firms however are extremely efficient and successful without adopting Taylorist methods. It can be argued that Taylorism is not suitable for every type of business. An example of this is Dixons, where I used to work, where if any type of technical control would greatly hinder the sales of goods and insurance. The salesperson must have the freedom to react to the customers situation and what they say. There would be no way of, for example, telling sales staff that this type of person must have this product or that the sale must be complete in x minutes. It would be impossible to implement as, unlike McDonalds, every customer is different with different needs and without talking these needs cannot be ascertained to result in the sale of a product. Even shops are individual, while common theme run from shop to shop, where products are placed and how they are displayed is up to the mangers discretion and not controlled by main management. So to conclude; Taylorism is a very restrictive practise which leads to the de-humanising of the worker and complete management control. However it is an extremely efficient and productive system. I would say that in certain business environments, like McDonalds, it is the only way to manage that would produce effective results. However nowadays individuals require job satisfaction out of their roles and to that end Taylorism is outdated as it allows no sort of autonomy and thus make working very dull. To that end I cannot conclude either way; Taylorism is very effective in the food sector where customers are indistinguishable from each other but would be highly ineffective once individuals needs must be catered for. Bibliography Braverman, H.: Labour And Monopoly Capital: The Degradation Of Work In The 20th Century, 1974. Monthly Review Press, NY Leidner, R: Fast Food, Fast Talk, 1993. University Of California Press Ritzer, G: The McDonaldisation Of Society, 1993. Pine Forge Press Taksa, L: Scientific Management: Technique Or Cultural Ideology?. Webster, J: Office Automation, 1990. Harvester Wheatsheaf

Types of Credit Facilities Offered by Commercial Banks

Types of Credit Facilities Offered by Commercial Banks The commercial banks are the most important player in the banking system. As at the end of December 2010, there were 9 domestic and 14 locally incorporated foreign commercial banks (BNM, 2011). Below is the list of licensed commercial banks as at 31 December 2010:- Commercial banks (Locally owed) Affin Bank Berhad Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad AmBank (M) Berhad CIMB Bank Berhad EON Bank Berhad Hong Leong Bank Berhad Malayan Banking Berhad Public Bank Berhad RHB Bank Berhad Commercial banks (Foreign owed) Bangkok Bank Berhad Bank of America Malaysia Berhad Bank of China (Malaysia) Berhad Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (Malaysia) Berhad Citibank Berhad Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Malaysia) Berhad J.P. Morgan Chase Bank Berhad OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad Stardard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad The Bank of Nova Scotia Berhad The Royal Bank of Scotland Berhad United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd. Commercial banks offer various types of credit facilities to SMEs. There are working capital loans, fixed assets facilities and trade financing facilities. Besides that, Credit Guarantee Corporation (M) Scheme also offered by participating commercial banks. Credit Guarantee Corporation was established with the purpose to help Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) without or with insufficient collateral to obtain credit facilities by commercial banks (Telekom Malaysia Berhad, 2010). CGC is participating with commercial banks which include Malayan Banking Berhad, RHB Bank Berhad, AmBank Berhad, CIMB Bank Berhad, EON Bank Berhad, Affin Bank Berhad and OCBC Bank Berhad (Business Loan for SME, 2011). Working capital loans is available to finance the shortfall in working capital requirement such as bank overdraft and revolving credit. (Eddie, 2006) Overdraft facility is convenience SMEs to draw additional funds immediately from current account (Eddie, 2006). Besides, the facilities fast in raising capital to operation for business and making investment. Bank overdraft has no fixed repayment schedule, interest will charged when the funds are utilised and no commitment fee for individual applicants on overdraft amounts of RM250,000 and below (Public Bank Berhad, 2011). Revolving credit is a working capital facility normally helpful as short term working capital funding. Borrowers can decide to either repay the full amount or renew the loan tenure by servicing of the interest at the end of the loan period. For SMEs borrower, commercial banks allow the flexibility of drawing funds as and when required, the repayment period is over 1 to 6 months term. A part that, SMEs can choose to repay in full upon maturity or to pay only the interest but the minimum amount of RM100,000 (Public Bank Berhad, 2011). Table 2.1 Asset conversion cycle Days Debtors credit terms 90 Inventory turnover 60 150 Less: Creditors credit terms 60 Asset conversion cycle 90 If the forecasted sales turnover is RM5 million, then the Working Capital Requirement will be 90/365 x RM5.0 million = RM1.23 million For the purpose of fixed assets financing is to finance property, plant and equipment acquisition and also cost of construction for factory and shop house. Term loan, leasing and hire purchase are the credit facilities types of the capital expenditure financing (Public Bank Berhad, 2011). A term loan is a fixed amount of loan from a bank for a period of time and repaid according to specific repayment schedule. The borrowers must be able to manage the cash flow effectively for repayment the loan (Public Bank Berhad, 2011). Trade financing helps to control the companies trade transactions and international business community. There are two group of trade financing which are local purchases or sales, import or export services. For local purchases and import services, Public Bank Berhad providing the number of credit facilities which are letter of credit, trust receipt, bankers acceptance and bankers guarantee. For local sales and export services offering bankers acceptance, bankers guarantee, bills of exchanged purchased and export credit refinancing (Public Bank Berhad, 2011). Credit Guarantee Corporation (M) Scheme includes Credit Enhancer Scheme and Direct Access Guarantee Scheme. Credit Enhancer Scheme eligibility must be Malaysian owned, borrower must have favourable financial record and business enterprises based on the definition of SMEs. Type of facilities offered by Credit Enhancer Scheme is term loan, Overdraft and all type of trade facilities. Total loan amount up to RM10 million. Guarantee cover has 2 portions which is secured and unsecured. The BLR rate is 6.3% (RHB Banking Group, 2011). Maximum interest rate for each guarantee cover percentage bond for Credit Enhancer Scheme as follows: CGC Guarantee Cover Effective Rate 100% BLR 80% 100% BLR + 1.00% 70% 80% BLR + 1.25% 60% 70% BLR +1.75% 50% 60% BLR + 2.00% à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 50% Free to quote Table 1: Interest rate according guarantee cover percentage According to past researcher Daniel Dusanjh, Direct Access Guarantee Scheme can be obtained in CIMB, Maybank and Ambank. Credit facility is range from RM50,000 to 3 million. The interest rates for DAGS ranges from 1.00% to 1.75% + BLR. Past researcher Daniel (2009) said that CIMB Bank offers credit facility under Government Assistance Scheme which is Fund for Small and Medium Industries and . In addition, CIMB Bank also provides Small Entrepreneur Guarantee Scheme. Fund for Small and Medium Industries 2 and New Entrepreneurs Fund 2 eligibility criteria include business enterprises based on definition of SMEs, shareholder fund could not more than RM2 million, public listed and government link companies shareholding not more than 20%. In addition, the Malaysian resident shareholding must at least 51% and the SMEs not exceeding 7 years in operation if more than 7 years in operation banks will consider provided average net profit over the last 3 years. The interest rate for FSMI 2 is 4% to 6% based in risk assessment of SMEs. Credit facility is range from RM50,000 to RM5million. Credit facility could be term loan and overdraft and maximum term of 5 years (CIMB Bank Berhad, 2011). Small Entrepreneur Guarantee Scheme offers much different terms, maximum loan amount is RM50,000 with an interest rate of 1.5% per annum + BLR. It should be noted that this scheme covers much micro businesses (CIMB Bank Berhad, 2011). 2.1.2 Singapore Commercial banks in Singapore offer various types of credit facilities to small and medium sized enterprises, including working capital financing, fixed assets financing, specialized financing, trade financing and government assistance scheme. Working capital financing is vital for the growing business. The purpose is to finance the everyday business operations. A number of general types include factoring loans that give credit for account receivables, overdrafts facility utilized when business make payment exceeding the balance in current account, and revolving loans that the loan amount can be re-borrowed (Government of Singapore, 2009). Factoring loan is an account receivables sold to bank for immediate cash. A charge of 1-3% levied on gross invoice value or an interest of 5-8% per annum. Most of commercial banks in Singapore have this type of loan such as DBS Bank Ltd, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA and Malayan Banking Berhad (Government of Singapore, 2009). Bank overdraft is the cash ready for any business need and also means that withdraw from bank exceed the available balance. Interest charge for bank overdrafts are normally 1-2% above prime rates. Most of commercial banks in Singapore have this type of loan such as DBS Bank Ltd, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, Malayan Banking Berhad, Standard Chartered Bank and United Overseas Bank Limited (Government of Singapore, 2009). Revolving credit is loan sum available for fixed period during which amounts repaid may be re-borrowed. For revolving credit, company assets such as machinery may have to be provided as collateral. . Most of commercial banks in Singapore have this type of loan such as DBS Bank Ltd, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, Malayan Banking Berhad, Standard Chartered Bank and United Overseas Bank Limited (Government of Singapore, 2009). For fixed asset financing, commercial banks offer commercial, industrial and property loans. Like hire purchase is the most common loans for fixed asset financing, the purpose is to finance the business property, machinery and motor vehicles. During the settlement of hire purchase loans, banks will hold the legal rights over the asset until fully repaid. The commercial banks can finance up to 90% of equipment price (Standard Chartered Bank, 2011). Specialized financing is the loans are aimed for sector specific SMEs such as shipping, real estate or dealership. Maybank provide the loans of car dealership and vessel (Maybank, 2011). Another way, OCBC Bank offer shipping, real estate and commercial property loans. In Singapore, government assistance scheme separate to 2 groups which are local enterprises financial scheme and internationalization finance scheme. Local enterprises financial scheme is typically granted for modernization and upgrading the plant and equipment, expanding the manufacturing capacity. Working capital loans facilities and fixed assets financing loans facilities are available under local enterprises financial scheme. Working capital loans include Micro Loan Program and Loan Insurance Scheme. For the Micro Loan Program, maximum loan amount up to S$100,000. This type of loan is unsecured term loan and the loan term is from 1 to 4 years. The minimum of interest rate is 5.5% per annum. Eligibility of this type of loan with no more than 10 employees and the SME must incorporated in Singapore with no less than 30% shareholding (OCBC Bank, 2011). Loan insurance scheme offers an option access to funding for local enterprises through the use of loan insurance (UOB Bank, 2011). This type of scheme do not have limit amount but the insurer has veto right over S$1 million. Now, the government would focus in improving loan insurance schemes to assist small and medium enterprises (Ryan, 2011). In Malaysia, there are several procedures and condition needed for SMEs in obtaining loan. The loan application process generally has three broad stages. These are business plan preparation, the submission of the loan application and the assessment of the loan application (Banking Info, 2011). First stage is preparing the business plan, commercial banks will require information regarding the company before they make decision whether to grant a loan to it. It is essential to provide the full and complete information on the company, the reason is to ensure the loan processing complete smoothly. For a small and medium enterprise, the preparation of a business plan is significant. Business plan is outlining the vision and how the companies manage to achieve the objective. In the business plan, the written must be simple and clear (Banking Info, 2011). Second stage is the application process, to accelerate the application process, applicant should send a suitably completed loan application form together with the business plan and all appropriate documents as required by the commercial banks. Loan application forms and loan application checklists are different in each commercial bank. Although the application forms and checklists are different but required document more or less the same for verification and evaluation (Banking Info, 2011). According to Chuah Mei Lin, there are two checklists provided by commercial for SMEs applicant. The first checklist written down the general types of documents and data required and second checklist setting out the more specific documents or information required for the kind of application facilities. She said that the banks will ask for additional information and documents if get insufficient data (SME Corp, 2010). The following is the documents required for the loan application:- Statutory Documents for Corporation Memorandum and articles of association Certificate of incorporation (Form 9) Return of allotment of shares (Form 24) Register of directors (Form 49) Copies of directors or guarantors IC Form J of directors or guarantors Documents for Partnership and Sole Proprietorship Business registration and license Income tax return Form J of partner or proprietor Financial and Management Documents 3 years audited financial statements (certified by auditors for non corporations) 6 months current account statement provided by other financial institutions All borrowings disclosure and letter offer by other financial statements Loan repayment statement utilisation from other financial institutions Business and cash flow projection Major customers and suppliers list Receivables and Creditors Aging Most up-to-date management accounts Feasibility report (for project financing and new ventures) Company and directors profile, business plan Apart on above documents provided, small and medium enterprises also require prepare the security documents such as valuation report, photocopy of sale and purchase agreement and relevant collateral such as land title deed. Other relevant documents such as invoices and commercial document, documents to prove other source of income also need to submit to commercial banks (Banking Info, 2011). Commercial banks could perform interviews and carry out a site visit to business premises for the intention of understands the business and clarification. This is to facilitate the commercial banks to verify and measure companys financial position (Banking Info, 2011). The last stage is assessment of the loan application. Commercial banks will access the credit application after the borrower submission all the documents required. For assessment the loan application, commercial banks would view for certain basic requirements, for example the business viability, capacity to make repayment for loan application, whether the loan application is for business development, and credit history with commercial banks and to assess whether the risks are acceptable. Besides, commercial banks will also assess for the businesss credit risks that are called 5Cs, character, capital, capacity, conditions and collateral. Commercial banks will analysis 5Cs to decide approval or rejected the loans (Banking Info, 2011). According to Chuah Mei Lin, commercial bank will use 14 to 30 days to process the application depend on the size of the loans. If commercial bank approves the loan application, they will issue a letter offer to the applicant within three working days (SME Corp, 2010). A letter offer will state the term and conditions. The borrower should understand all the term and condition write down in letter of offer. The common term and condition include periods for repayment and payment in default, submission of financial statements, while the company change the nature of the business and the requirement of the borrower After the loan approved, the borrowers can utilised it within 5 working days. If decline offer, the companies can appeal against facilities (Banking Info, 2011). 2.3 PROBLEM FACED BY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN OBTAINING LOAN SMEs have difficulty in obtaining credit facilities from commercial banks when compared to large industries during crisis period even in normal period. The main reason always is low profitability earn by commercial banks. Almost all commercial bankers in the world will interest in the profitability business. Since loaning is the principle activity of a banks and it is its responsibility to make sure that all monies lent out are collectible. As such, commercial banks make sure that the creditworthiness of borrower will repaid the loan through assessing the information provided by applicants. (Anna, 2008) During global economic crisis, loans will be difficult to obtain especially risky loans will become increasingly strict (Factoring Financing Articles, 2011). This is bad news for SMEs since they form the riskiest borrowers. Due to the loan condition of commercial banks too strict, SMEs faced the problem in obtaining loan (Hongbo and Xiaojie , 2009). Insufficient collateral and social guarantee system In Malaysia, some small and medium enterprises do not qualify to obtain credit facility from commercial banks. Such as lack of collateral which is the big issue in obtaining credit facilities from commercial banks. The low value of outdated equipment is difficult to collateral as the credit facilities. (Kian Seong, 2010). Collateral is essential because it decrease the credit risks of commercial banks. In Singapore, Gabriel (2009) said that small and medium enterprises are facing problem in securing essential loans. For unprecedented crisis facing by SMEs, the government assistance schemes still do not far enough and not suitable. But the real problem is the commercial banks unwilling to lend the loan under government scheme because they reluctant pay the cash first. Although the government willing bear 50 to 80 percent of risks but the government guarantee portion is difficult to claw back. But if the borrower cannot pay up, the government agreed to bear the risk for the portion of loans. Most of the SMEs companies need working capital financing that is cash overdraft. For working capital loans, government assistance scheme usually do not seem to provide. In China, when SMEs applying loan who face strict condition for mortgage (Hongbo Duan, Xiaojie Han Hongbo Yang, 2009). Customers asset mortgage as the basis of the commercial banks decided whether to approve the loan application. It means that SMEs insufficient collateral assets, and cannot be effectively secured. Most of SMEs do not meet up the conditions of the collateral assets. SMEs always have lack of plant and equipment for collateral through the view of enterprise asset structure. For the moment of the loan application, the equipments are outdated, the collateral value of which is relatively low (Jiantuo, 2007). Another problem faced by SMEs is the enterprises property legal rights, it is because a huge number of SMEs is having the joint cooperation. This joint cooperation will lead to the ownership of property, plant and equipment and other real estate property not apparent. Therefore, the fixed assets do not used as loan mortgage. Simultaneously, due to the high cost and complicated process of mortgage register, the SME get that guarantee from mortgage will much more difficult (Xiao Li, 2003). To carry out the protection act, SME loan guarantee must refers to the method of assurances of the debt agreement. The warrants credit is increased when all the way through utilize of third-party credit with reward. At that moment, both sites credit can turn to a balance and the capital achieves to a proper scale (Xiao Li, 2005). Even if local governments put more and more efforts to develop credit guarantee institutions for SMEs, they are still facing many problems. SME credit warranty institutions help out the small and medium enterprise to get multi-funding for capital collection. But too small of the capital scale warranty institutions also cannot assist more in SME financing. In most areas of SME warranty funding is governmental financial funding. Although the government put effort to help out SMEs but it is still far from their needs for warranty funding. SMEs still seek for other credit financial support. Simultaneously, issue small loan and bear higher cost in financing also the problem faced by small warranty funding institutions (Xiao Li, 2005). Commercial banks will not simply recognize the information prepared by warranty institutions. Because of the existing tax revenue, bank management system and information service centre cannot obtain a full business and personal records (Howrey 2011). So, bank has to face more risks in lending loan to SMEs. Interest rates and processing costs In Malaysia, raise in interest rate is one of the problems faced by SMEs. SMEs cannot bear those high interest rates. While commercial banks willing to gain high profits, small and medium sized enterprises will be hard to negotiate low interest rates with them. Commercial banks are rejecting the application of small loans due to high supervision and monitoring costs. Commercial banks judge the SMEs as riskiest borrower because of their insufficient assets to fulfill requirement, low capitalization and high mortality rates. For this situation, to raise the fixed and working capital from commercial banks is harder. According to Fazlur (2011), SME face difficulties because of the bank reluctance provide loans to them. Many banks are unwilling issue loans to them because of high processing costs and monitoring costs. In addition, interest rates for SME loans are high due to the high processing costs. But CEO of Unique Trust, Capt rtd Prince Kofi Amoabeng said that they must express disapproval the government to take some decisions to force interest rates down, because low interest rates will lead to the banks stop loan to the SME sector so SME is going to suffer. Therefore, they all have to go to the non-bank financial institutions where they would be given the loans at even higher interest rates (Fidel Amoah, 2011). Poor documentation and management Malaysian SMEs are always regarded as higher risk borrower because of their poor documentation. SMEs have no lucrative projects, low quality, real estate title deed is not clear, no clear business aims and succession business plans, and no available credit history. Besides that, small and medium sized enterprises unable to give necessary documentation like financing accounting and track records for application of credit facilities. Due to that heavy documentation needed by commercial bank so they will delay the processing of application loan(Gloria, 2010). In India, small and medium enterprises suffer losses in their business so they always provide bad track record for application loans. Besides that, SMEs seldom have a long history so they usually hard to get loan (Gandhi, 2011). According to Executive Director of First Banc Mawuli Hedo, it is possible to reduce the rate of bank facilities but majority of the SMEs do not provide proper documentation (Obeng-Sakyi Sobgbodjor, 2010). In Thailand, the major obstruction for SMEs is facing several financial problems which include trouble in debts and lack of working capital. SMEs have facing problem in obtaining loan from domestic commercial banks especially in business of handicraft products. They have deficient plant and equipment and do not use standard accounting procedures. (Arunee and Anongnart, 2000). From the SMEs opinion, they have been complained that shortage of information and guidance provide by commercial banks, complication and trouble related to credit facilities application procedure, insufficient requirement of SMEs, high interest rates charged, and lack of collateral are the major problem access to finance (Sinswat and Subhan, 2010). From the commercial banks point of view, the main obstructions for loaning to SMEs consist of lack of collateral provided by SMEs, inadequate business experience, poor management, untrustworthy accounting system, no business plan, no long credit provided, high transaction and operational costs per SME loan application (Sinswat and Subhan, 2010). In China, most SMEs companies financial performance is not satisfactory by commercial banks. SMEs companies always with low level of average profit because they are in high competitive industries. In addition, their bankruptcy rate is very high for the reason that they are easily affected by business environment, sensitive to the effects of variables and risk. They have poor supervision and sense of credit. As such, after suffering from a huge loss, SMEs normally cannot raise any corrective measures. They attempt to be delayed the payment for interests and principle and let the lending bank suffer the loss. Furthermore, SMEs is difficult to meet the requirement or condition in the way of operation scale and business capacity due to the present credit assessment system is set for large size enterprises (Xiao Li, 2003). With unofficial financial accounting and poor management, so SMEs unable to meet the bank collateral conditions and guarantees due to commercial banks offer most of mortgages loans is secured by real estate. As most SME loan is an urgent require for capital due to short-term liquidity stress, for term of revolving credit cannot be correctly measured and the probability of overdue payback is relatively high. Commercial banks have problems to assess SMEs production business when confront with such complicated SME market (Yanan Chao, 2010). Rejecting Loan Application In Malaysia, if refer to the form of cash flow in SME Company, know that inability to generate cash to repay the loan, commercial banks automatically will rejecting loan application (Banking Info, 2003). SMEs will face problem in obtaining loan such as the commercial banks rejecting loan application, the general reason include poor credit history, inadequate capital commitment, inadequate supporting documents, unacceptable financial problem, lack of financial information and doubtful repayment ability. Besides that, the borrower is the high risk enterprises which overdependence on a single purchaser or dealer (SMI/SME Business Directory Malaysia, 2010). HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd managing director Thomas Varughese said that the top issues to reject loan application is the applicant do not provided enough financial information. Besides that, SMEs do not perform well in managing their financial position. Another issue for rejecting loan application is the poor credit history for the enterprises, director and guarantors. (Kian Seong, 2010). Reduce the facility In Malaysia, Banking info (2003) recorded that commercial banks perform periodical review of their credit risk profile of existing loans and based on this assessment, if their assessment proves a high default risk profile, the commercial banks will reduce the amount of credit facility. In India, if the SME companies without increasing the security, commercial banks will maintain or reduce the credit facilities (Aditi, 2005). In Singapore, Hng Kiang (2009) said that the SMEs credit facility from commercial banks is secured by strong collateral, but they also will reduce the credit facility during the recession period.

Hypertext as a Medium for Writing Essay -- Exploratory Papers

Hypertext as a Medium for Writing This paper will compare and analyze theoretical ideas found in Hamlet on the Holodeck by Janet H. Murry focusing on Chapter 10 â€Å"Hamlet on the Holodeck† as it relates to hypertext as a specific medium for writing, and Writing Space by Jay David Bolter focusing on Chapter 7 â€Å"Interactive Fiction† and chapter 8 â€Å"Critical Theory in a New Writing Space† and their emphasis on digital poetry and the increased role of the reader in the reading process. The information taken from these two works will then be compared to the interactive hypertext webpage entitled â€Å"Heading South† by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) English graduate student, Cheryl Ball. In relation to hypertext, the role of the reader seems to be more interactive than that of a typical offline reading. A large amount of evidence supporting the assumption that the reader plays an increased â€Å"interactive† role in interactive or hypertext material is found in both Hamlet on the Holodeck and Writing Space. These examples show how Cheryl Ball’s poetry is easy to follow and how readers are able to play an interactive part in observing her material. As background information relating to digital poetry and the readers’ role, Janez Strevhovec, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Academy of Visual Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia states, â€Å"Today digital poetry provides us with new, provocative, and challenging, to sensitivity even testing forms of experiencing. It is a medium that can only be understood on the basis of analysis of the present world of the new media, and new perception forms, which originate in the interface culture† (Streh ovec 4). Strehovec’s description of digital poetry simply addresses that it is presented in a new-aged... ...-established outcomes or only a few to choose from. I believe using hypertext as a medium for writing can only increase the importance placed on the reading, not lesson it. The information from Bolter, Murray, and what I have gained from evaluating Ball’s web site has helped me to become better aware of different aspects of hypertext, and what I will and will not use when creating my own webpage. Works Cited Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. Maywah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001. Strehovec, Janez. â€Å"Text as a Loop/On the Digital Poetry.† The University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2003. [Retrieved from the World Wide Web 15 March 2004]. http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Strehovec.pdf

Blackstone Group Essay

The Blackstone Group (Blackstone) is a private equity firm founded in 1985 by two former employees of Lehman Brothers. In May 2007 the firm had $88.4 billion under management and had grown 41% annually since 2001. The firm operated in several business groups but distinguished itself from other firms by extensive collaboration across divisions. It was divided into Corporate Private Equity, Real Estate Funds, Marketable Alternative Asset Management, Corporate Debt Funds, and Advisory Services. In 2007 Blackstone started to evaluate the option of taking the firm public. Reasons why the firm should do an IPO, outlined by the firm’s internal project group, included: †¢Permanent pool of inexpensive capital and a wider group of investors †¢Long-term orientation in compensation package to employees †¢Shares could be used as currency in transactions †¢The firm would become more reputable †¢Partners could monetize their ownership in the firm The firm also identified several drawbacks with going public, including: †¢Quarterly reporting requirements leading to higher costs and more insights in the firm from the market †¢Risk that the market is unable to tolerate the variation of earnings in the firm due to long-term focused investments †¢Changing the firm’s structure and compensation system from a partnership to a corporation includes several challenges In 2007 the firm announced that it will go public and I will in the following five sections elaborate on some of the challenges the firm has to overcome and other implications following the IPO. 1.What are the built-in tensions with a public private equity firm? How does Black Stone’s structure attempt to reconcile them? Openness vs. private governance A challenge for private equity firm when going public is that it looses the benefits associated with being private. In the case of Blackstone, the firm’s management mainly described the need for maintaining the current governance, where the partners manage the firm, in order to ensure the firm operates in the interest of its limited partners. To handle the tension between maintaining governance and comply with the rules for listed companies the firm chose to adopt a Master Limited Partnership (MLP). Fortress Investment Group, that went public during 2006, has used this structure and considering the share price of that firm, it seemed like the investors appreciated the structure. MLP is a limited liability company with units of the firm that can be traded on the stock market. The structure allows the firm to retain the limited partnership form of governance and hence, allow the management team to continue manage the firm. The unit holders (share holders) only have limited voting rights and cannot influence the management team in the firm. By choosing this structure the firm can maintain the decision power in the same way as when being a private company. There is however a risk that the firm should be aware of, the investors can use other form of pressure (media, etc.) to influence the managing partners. Short-term vs. Long-term perspective One of the advantages of being a private firm is that the firm only has to disclose limited information about its operations. Blackstone operates its investment on a long-term basis why the firm has a lot of variability in its earnings. As an example, a fund usually has a return that can be visualized in a â€Å"J-curve†, meaning that the fund is basically loosing money in the beginning due to management fees but catches up in the long run. The stock market is known to be short-term focused and may interpret the fluctuation as negative news and therefore causing a fluctuation in the stock price or an undervaluation. Blackstone is basically using two ways to approach the problem. First, they are aligning the compensation to its employees so it serves the interest of both the limited partners (long-term) and the stock market (short-term). This is further elaborated in the fourth question in this paper. Second,  they are informing the potential investors through a prospect that holding a Blackstone unit (share) is different from other shares in the market. Third, to further smooth out potential fluctuations in the share price the firm guarantees a dividend during the first years after listing. The fact that the stock market tends to be short-term focused further shows the importance of having the MLP structure. To maintain the long-term focus on investments the firm needs to separate the governance of the firm from the shareholders and the limited voting rights will ensure this. 2.If you were a limited partner in Blackstone, how would you view the structure Blackstone has put in place to go public? As a limited partner in Blackstone I would consider the structure as chosen to ensure my interests. Given the fact that the firm chose to go public for the opportunities that a listing brings, it seems to be the best way of doing it. I would be most worried about that the firm would try too much to stabilize the share price and fulfil the interest of the shareholders by focusing on short-term profits. Many of the limited partners in a private equity fund are pensions funds or similar and do not mind to lock their money over a longer time period and, by doing so, seek the long-term profit that the private equity firm can offer. I will highlight the two things that make me confident that my interests as a limited partner will be maintained with the structure that the firm is implementing. First, the structure allows the governing rights of the firm to remain with the partners and therefore the firm avoids that the short-term oriented market gets direct influence over decisions. Second, according to the firm, the suggested compensation package should align the interest of the managers in the firm with the limited partners, or at least maintain it similar to before. However, I am slightly sceptical to this since the only thing that seems to change for them is that a part of their compensation comes in shares. Depending on how the stock market will turn out to react to news from the firm it might be so that the managers realize that they can earn more money by being short-term  focused and that would not be aligned with my interests. In addition, there are a few things that I am worried about as a limited partner despite the measures the firm has taken. The fact that the firm is a public firm is probably more prestigious for the managers than being private. Therefore I am afraid that the focus will gradually turn towards the interest of the shareholders. The firm does not want to have an underperforming or fluctuating stock in the long run and, if this seems to be the case, I am afraid that the limited partners long-term interest may be down prioritized. Another thing that is also worrying is the risk of losing competent people due to the changed compensation package. 3.Would you rather be a unit-holder in Blackstone or a limited partner? Everything taken into account I would rather be a limited partner in Blackstone. If the structure turns out to work the way that Blackstone says it will, the limited partner will be better off. From its history the firm has the competence and procedures to operate in the interest of the limited partner, i.e. long-term focused. Being a shareholder does in general include some aspects that should be considered. The stock price may fluctuate due to information, lack of information, and speculation. Therefore the market may act inefficient and in worst case it can destroy the value of the stock. In the case of Blackstone, where the firm intends to leave less information to the market than a normal firm, the risk of under- or overvaluation of the stock is even higher. By being the limited partner you avoid the fluctuations in share price and if the firm manage to keep its focus and strategy, you can continue to expect a good return. The main problem, which is outlined above, is that there is a risk the managing partners will gradually become more short-term focused so it is good as a limited partner to follow the development of the firm closely. 4.As a potential employee, how would you evaluate the Blackstone compensation package against a commensurate offer from a similar large-scale PE firm that was not public? The suggested compensation package from Blackstone has several intentions behind it. Some of the concerns that are mentioned in the case: †¢The employees should not be worse of than before †¢Their interests should be aligned with both the limited partners and the shareholders †¢Partners and managers ownership should not be too monetized in order to retain competence in the firm The firm therefore decided on multi-phase approach where the compensation includes a combination the management fee, the carry interest, and a number of units (shares). If I would consider starting working for Blackstone after the IPO, i.e. I would not receive any of the shares that the firm initially planned to give to its employees; I would prefer an offer from a non-public firm. The reason is mainly that a part of the salary comes in shares. There are several drawbacks with this. First, a part of your salary will be exposed to fluctuations in the stock market and as outlined in the previous question, these fluctuations may not always be justified. Therefore, since part of the salary will be exposed to risk an employee should request a higher salary compared to if he/she would get it in cash. Second, even though I would, as a private person, want to hold a part of my capital in stocks, I would prefer something else than the firm that I am working for. By having the same shares I am exposed to the success of the firm not only with my salary (risk of losing my job), but also with my savings. I would as a private person prefer to have most of my savings at least in another firm and even better, in another industry. If I would considering becoming an employee before the IPO I might reconsider my decision above depending on how much extra shares I would get initially and see if that outweigh the risk I see with being paid in shares. 5.The question outlined in the case Even though it is not part of the assignment I would shortly like to comment  on the offer Blackstone receives from China where they express interest in buying $3 billion of the offering. As Schwarzman outlines in the case, it would give Blackstone a great advantage if the firm whish to expand its business to China. In today’s more global world this could be a strategic important move and even if the firm does not buy a Chinese firm, it can establish local knowledge and through that better handle deals involving U.S. firms with operations in China. However, by selling 75% of the initial IPO offering to China they may not satisfy the U.S. stock market. Schwarzman therefore considered increasing the offering to 20% of the firm. This would have implications on several levels. The firm would experience an even higher pressure to give out information and it is likely that the managing partners will be influenced by the more involved stock market. Also the suggested compensation package would likely change to a situation where a bigger share of managers’ salary is coming in units (stocks). The risk with this is that the limited partners’ interests will be seen as less important and the firm might become more short-term focused than it is today.

Eng 221 Critique Essay

The Canon iR1210 is an All-in-One office printer designed to make an office more productive. It also has with it a six-page owners manual designed to inform the owner of many features of this printer and how it can make a person’s work around the office more productive by having this printer. This paper will provide critiques of the owner’s manual for the iR1210. The criteria for this critique will be in the following areas, Audience Recognition, Introduction, Glossary, Technical Description, and Graphics. The link to find the manual is by going to www.safemanuals.com and clicking on the Canon iR1210 link and that will enable anyone to download the manual. In writing a manual the goal is to offer customer support. Audience Recognition is a way to decide what to say and how to say. The writer needs to recognize who the readers are and give them what they want. The iR1210 manual does do very good job information in very simple terms what the iR1210 is capable of doing for the reader. The writing is very clear and to the point and avoids using any jargon that the reader may understand. The one downside for the audience recognition it does not have any instruction on how to use the product. It only really gives the readers highlights of the product so it does lack a bit of thoroughness. An Introduction to a manual is a way to promote good customer-company relationships. It is a way to personalize the manual and to achieve a positive customer contact. The iR1210 manual does an outstanding job of personalizing the manual. It does try to speak directly to the owner of the product by letting them know how much they will be benefiting from this product. One area that the manual can improve in is its use of positive  words. The manual does not really make the reader feel like the company is glad they bought their product. The Glossary is a way for the manual to let the reader know what they are referring to if they are using any abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols in the instruction of the products. The iR1210 manual does avoid needing any glossary because it does a very good job of avoiding using any abbreviations, acronyms, or symbols that the reader may not understand. It does lack any real technical instruction in the manual, and there is not any glossary in the manual. Manuals will contain a Technical Description of the product; it could be an explanation or a labeling of the product. May also include a list of the product’s specifications, such as size, shape, capacity, and capability of the product. The iR1210 has a large list of product specifications, which can be very helpful for the owner. It however does not include any kind of photo labeling each part of the system. Some owners may find that helpful to locate different parts of the product. Graphics are a way to make the instruction more visually appealing, and can help the reader understand instruction easier. The iR120 manual does have a number of photos of the product in different work type settings. But it does not include any kind of instruction on how to use the photo with the photos. Overall the manual for the iR120 is a very well done. It does highlight the features of the product and does a very good with audience recognition and personalizing the product. The area that the manual does need to improve on is the instruction of the product. It seems to be more focused on a person who already has a working knowledge of the product. An owner, who may not have the same knowledge, may find the manual lacking proper instruction on how to use the product.

Quality of Healthcare Essay

In today’s consumer market, people are not only looking for the best price for what want, but also the best quality for his or her dollar; health care is no different. The consumer is more educated and particular than ever when determining where they would entrust their health care needs. Word-of-mouth is no longer enough, so people are turning to research firms to help them make their final decision in finding quality care. Consumers are also looking for as many perks and additional services they can receive. Why go to a traditional hospital that only treats the immediate problem then sends a patient back home without aftercare information and support? Specialty, additional, and non-traditional services provided can set a facility apart from others, and provide a higher standard of quality care in specified areas that may appeal to a patients’ need. How do health care facilities and staff improve upon existing services? Patient satisfaction surveys conducted by external research firms such as from DSS research (www.dssresearch.com) can help improve quality of patient experience from the entire facility experience down to specifics such including costs and treatment by staff. Results from research firms help consumers determine what facilities would best suite them with their current and future needs or those of a loved one they are responsible for. Surveys are not only conducted by patients, but also physicians, and staff also. For example, 32.5% of the scoring for the top 10 ranking hospitals in the U.S.in 2009 is based on physician input (Comarow,  2009). Every patient or staff member who completes these quality surveys provides facility administrators the information they need to focus on the areas needing improvement. These results may lead to additional staff training, restructuring, or improvements to the esthetics of the facility. When a patient is in need of emergency care for a cardiac problem, the emergency medical technician (EMT) may ask the patient or a family member what hospital he or she would prefer to be transported to if there is an option. An expectant mother sometimes has several choices of hospital to delivery her baby at through her provider. A person with a chronic condition may want to choose a specific facility to be seen at for his or her condition. Because patients do need to make these decisions, looking into a facility’s availability of specialty, additional and non-traditional services becomes very important to the quality of that patients’ care. Staffing availability and qualifications along facility affiliations affect quality of care. Informed patients want to be seen by doctors and facilities that have the specialty training in their area of need. Peace of mind adds to the quality of care if the patient knows there are options open to him or her through the affiliations between his or her doctors and the hospitals they are contracted with through insurance companies. Cooperative care between affiliated personal physicians, specialty physicians, and health care facilities through the use of current technologies also increases the peace of mind of the patient and reduces risks to the parties involved. Catering to patients’ personal preferences also adds to quality of experience in facilities. In recent years, doctors and hospitals and insurance companies have changed to their approaches to prenatal care and birthing. A family has numerous options open to them as far as what type of provider they choose for prenatal care and the type of facility and birth experience they want to have. As at Baptist Memorial Hospital, quite a few hospitals’ maternity rooms are used for labor, delivery, recovery, and postpartum care (U.S. Health Care System, Axia), and some go even beyond to  include water birthing rooms with special atmospheric conditions, such as, lighting, temperature, and sounds. Quality is a subjective term, one person may highly recommend a facility or doctor, and another may have a negative opinion. The most important thing to do is to research beforehand, and give feedback through surveys after the experience. Health care quality can only change and improve with the help of everyone. Resources Axia College (2010), The U.S. Health System, p194 Dss research, www.dssresearch.com Comarow, Avery (7-15-2009), America’s Best Hospitals: the 200-10 Honor Roll â€Å"They’re the best of the best-the 0.4 percent of all hospitals with high scores in 6 or more specialties† written for U.S. News & World Report