Essay On Sylvia Rivera - 1284 Words

Born as Ray Mendoza on July 2, 1951, was born of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent. She was given the name Sylvia Rivera by a local community of drag queens and spent her career fighting for solidarity between transgender people, queer people of color, homeless people, and sex workers. Sylvia Rivera was one of the â€Å"street queens† living in New York, and is known as one of the most famous street youth who fought back during the police raid at Stonewall. Modern day, Rivera has come to personify the aspirations and flaws of the modern gay liberation movement. Sylvia Rivera was a survivor of the streets. A part of a thrown away community of drag queens, sex workers, and trans folks; the people that fell between the crack of the gay and†¦show more content†¦After that instance, they started to listen. Rivera spent her time doing everything to try to get the bill to pass, including getting arrested. Yet over time, a struggle within the group arose when those who were in favor of a class-based agenda, like Rivera, who wanted a movement centered around issues of poverty and oppression, clashed with assimilation-focused leaders who suggested that the only thing wrong with the U.S. culture was that it was antigay (Shepard, 99). Rivera quickly learned that even amongst the most radical gay activist, they weren’t interested in the struggles of trans and gender non-conforming people. So, by 1970, she cofounded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with Marsha P. Johnston, another transgender drag queen and trans act ivist. This was the first transgender rights organization, which served as a home for the street gay people, trans people of color, kids with no place left to go, and newcomers to the scene who needed to be taught about street survival. They were able to find a building at 213 Second Avenue which, and were able to clothe, feed, and shelter many queer youths in need. Transforming the space into a community education center, Rivera and Johnston would â€Å"hustle the streets† in order to keep the building going (Shepard, 99), but unfortunately due to financials struggles they were evicted after twoShow MoreRelatedLgbt History And The Modern Era1737 Words   |  7 Pages There are many topics prevalent shown throughout history. History books in today’s society highlight the majority of groups of people and historical events. This essay will prove that there is a problematic issue where LGBT lives and existences are being erased throughout history and the modern era. Throughout, it will be explained how these groups of people are being underrepresented within history, major wars, and the modern era. History covers a very broad spectrum of time, with recorded history

True and Quasi-Experimental Designs Essay Example

Essays on True and Quasi-Experimental Designs Essay The paper "True and Quasi-Experimental Designs" is a worthy example of an essay on education. Design is the structure of any  scientific  work that gives direction and  systemizes  the research. In view of the  second  responder's program: coordinated police and social service response to domestic violence, it is clear that the researchers employed the quasi-experimental design; this being both qualitative and quantitative method (Gribbons Herman, 1997). Field findings of the researchers  are based  on two waves of victims: women who received  second  responder intervention, and women who received police intervention. The experimental and control groups  were defined  by a geographical boundary, a wide range of  demographical  data  was collected. The  second  responder's program  was implemented  in two of its four police precincts’ in Richmond. Interview findings  were presented  in four broad areas: services provided by police and responders, attitude towards police and second responders, the  probability  of receiving follow up, and the likelihood of receiving protection. The study opted for a quasi research design over a true experimental design  because  the true experimental design tends to  prove  or reject a hypothesis mathematically with statistical analysis.  It has more of a quantitative design  method  reason  for this could be due to  the random  assigning of groups that  are approached  in the later design (Gribbons Herman, 1997). Again the true experimental design demands a viable  control group, this design suggests that only one variable can be manipulated and tested yet we see that the research involved testing of more than one variable. The true experimental design also involves a process whereby the tested subjects  are randomly assigned  to either experimental or control groups. However, what we see in the study is that the experimental group  was drawn  from the first and second precincts whereas the control group from third and fourth precincts.

Audit Assurance and Compliance Glover & Wood

Question: Discuss about theAudit Assurance and Compliancefor Glover Wood. Answer: Introduction In the words of Christensen, Glover Wood (2012), audit is the procedure of verifying the different accounts of a firm. In this context, the auditors bear the responsibility for performing and planning the process of auditing by complying with the mandatory regulations, rules and doctrines of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The auditors issue two kinds of audit reports, which include qualified and unqualified audit reports, after performing the audit procedure of an organisation (Becker Bailey, 2014). The qualified auditors opinion denotes that the scope of the given accounting and financial information is restricted and the firm has not complied with the GAAP principles effectively. On the contrary, unqualified audit report implies that the accounting and financial records of the organisation are presented with accuracy and appropriateness. Therefore, the auditors are needed to maintain diverse aspects, while performing the audit operations of an organisation. Firstly, it is necessary for the auditors to maintain their transparency while evaluating the financial reports. Secondly, the auditors are required to take into account the different aspects of the financial position of the firm, which could influence the investment decision of the banks, financial institutions, banks and investors (Chambers Odar, 2015). From the provided case study, it has been observed that the audit report was unqualified after 30 June 2012. However, it could be noted from the audit report of King Queen audit firm, the position of Impulse Pty Limited has been effective at the time of the audit process. The organisation has been suffering from intense liquidity problem, since the turnover of the debtors along with inventory turnover has been poor. This implies that the organisation has fallen short of its liquid assets. The auditor of King Queen has been aware of the fact; however, adequate priority has not been provided to this matter. As a result, the firm has not used effective measures to gauge the appropriate asset values. Along with this, the auditor has not considered the fact that the additional process was needed in order to ascertain the debtor and inventory valuations of the organisation. Depending on the unqualified audit report of the organisation, Easy Finance Limited (EFL) has granted a large sum o f loan to Impulse, since the report depicts the liquidity position of the organisation has been effective. However, the liquidity position of the organisation has declined in 2012 and EFL has been struggling to recover the provided loan amount. The above signifies the case of negligence of the auditors responsibility, in which the auditor has failed to consider the significant aspects of the financial position of the organisation, which has caused problems in recovering the loan amount (Cohen Simnett, 2014). In this context, some identical cases pertaining to the negligence of the responsibility of the auditor are described as follows: The first case has been considered as Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners (1964) AC 465. From the outcome of the case, it has been observed from the court verdict that the auditors report would have direct influence on the decision-making process of the audited parties. Therefore, the auditors negligence has influenced the audited party significantly (Decaux Sarens, 2015). The second case that has been considered constitutes of Law Society vs. KPMG Peat Marwick and Others; CHD 3 NOV, 1999. From the case, it has been identified that the auditor of the auditing organisation believes that the community and the fund of compensation would rely on the auditor decisions. However, the negligence of the auditor has delayed the discovery of the malpractices of accounting, which has resulted in increased costs. Therefore, considering the depicted facts, the auditor could be held responsible for neglecting his professional responsibility (Duncan Whittington, 2014). From the instances of the above-mentioned two cases, it could be evaluated that negligence in the responsibility of the auditor has been a serious offence from the side of the auditor. Hence, the firm of King and Queen is liable to EFL. According to the accounting doctrines of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), both the auditor and the audited party need to maintain confidentiality. Therefore, as per the policy of confidentiality, the auditor could not unveil any information relating to the audit of the organisation (Erickson, Goldman Stekelberg, 2015).Moreover, in special cases, the auditor could not disclose any information related to internal audit to the third party. The special cases denote the instances, in which the classified audit information could enable both the auditors and the audited party to earn something (Homb et al., 2014). According to the provided case study, there could be two chances. The first instance is the situation, in which the auditor could unveil the information pertaining to internal audit to the third party. The decision of investment is greatly dependent on the report of the auditor. Therefore, King Queen would be liable to EFL, as the former has been instructed to unveil the internal position of the organisation to the banks, financial institutions and investors. In the provided case, King Queen has not disclosed any sort of internal financial information to the third party, which has decreased its liability to EFL. This is because it would violate the GAAP regulations for disclosing any kind of information pertaining to internal audit (Knechel, 2016). Thus, the liability of King Queen towards EFL is minimised. Therefore, these are two different types of conditions, in which the answer would vary based on the consent of the audited party. Auditors independence refers to the independence given either to the internal or external auditors from the parties involved in the financial interest of the business being conducted. The independence of the auditor could be featured through objective approach and integrity to the audit procedures. It is the cornerstone of the audit being conducted. It provides the audit approach to the process of auditing and is characterised by the integrity (Mollik Berapi, 2014). The concept of independence requires the auditors to carry his work in an objective manner. Actual Independence: Actual independence is also known as real independence. This actual independence of the auditors is regarded as the independence of mind. It is concerned with the way auditors deals with the specific situation. It determines the ability of the auditors to take the independent decisions even if they are placed in a compromising situation on the part of the directors of the company or the management (Schmidt, Wood Grabski, 2016). The personal integrity and the mental attitude of an auditor determine whether the auditors are actually independent. The opinion made by the auditors on the financial statement of the company is valued by maintaining the principle of actual independence. Perceived Independence: The perception of the auditors in tackling and solving the various problems associated with the auditing process is the perceived independence. The auditors make use of different perceptions in solving the single problems, which helps in arriving at the solution, which is optimal. The judgment of the perceived independence cannot be done using any particular process, as the perception varies across the auditors (Shah Jarzabkowski, 2013). Therefore, there is high chance that could lead to material misstatements while conducting the asset valuations of an organisation. Since the arrangements are perceived in a different way by users and for this, the professional judgement needs to come to the fore. The auditor who faces the issue concerning the perceived independence needs to consider the materiality. It is mainly the consideration of the independence of the auditors by the third parties from the clients participating in the arrangement of the process of auditing. In the first case, Bob is performing two tasks at the same time. While undertaking the studies at University, he is also an audit assistant of the Club Casino. Bob needs to complete the university assignment and at the time of conducting the auditing, he came across the financial information, which would provide the assistance in the completion. Here, Bob is sing the internal information of the company for his own personal use. The principle of confidentiality is being breached by this act of Bob. He has also breached the integrity principle and being the auditor, he is liable to maintain the integrity and confidentiality while conducting the auditing process. The confidentiality of the information should be maintained and he should not disclose or use the internal financial information without the authority. The second case discusses about the Ace limited, where Wendy is the audit partner for long time. The organization does not have company secretary and in the absence, Wendy is performing all the company secretary duties for a period of six months. The entity is required to comply with all the rules and regulation and maintain the professional behaviour in carrying out the activities of the organisation. In accordance with the regulations and rules of GAAP, the acting partner of audit could not perform the responsibility of any member of the directors board or the team of higher management. In accordance with the same guideline, this act could be treated as a major offence in the audit profession. Therefore, after committing such act, Wendy has breached the regulations of audit procedures. Hence, it is suggested to Wendy to put forward his resignation from the secretarial position of the organisation as the safeguarding measure for the action (Shah Nair, 2013). Coming to the third case as per the provided scenario, Leo is the eldest son of the factory worker of an organisation, which is Precision Machinery Limited. During the period of vacation work, Leo has been assigned with the role of acting as the internal auditor of the above-mentioned organisation. In addition, added responsibilities have been assigned to the person, which constitute of the internal control testing and the payments of cash systems associated with the organisation. As a result, this particular act has resulted in breach of the regulations and rules of the audit procedures (Spears, Barki Barton, 2013). This is because according to the audit regulations and rules, the acquaintances of any staff or employee of an organisation could not be appointed as the audit partner of the same organisation. This contradicts the auditing regulations and doctrines. There are two available measures, which could be utilised to protect against such breach of regulations. The first alternative that is available is that Leo needs to resign from the internal auditor position of Precision Machinery Limited. The other alternative available is that the father of Leo could resign from his position, which would allow Leo to continue as the internal auditor of Precision Machinery Limited. Therefore, adopting any one of the two above-stated alternatives would help the organisation to comply with the audit regulations and procedures. From the fourth case, it has been observed that Chan Associates are the auditors of Classic Reproduction Pty Limited. The firm has been passing through stringent financial complexities, since it has failed to settle the fees of Chan Associates for the past three years. Therefore, in order to settle off the dues, the organisation has provided its furniture, which is worth 50% of the outstanding fees of Chan and Associates. Along with this, the latter has accepted 25% shares of an unconnected listed firm in order to recover the remaining portion of the fees from Classic Reproduction Pty Limited. According to the auditing rules and regulations, the auditors could not accept bribes as a substitute of their fees. In addition, the auditors could not accept shares from the unlisted organisations (Sta?iokas Rupys, 2015). This implies the breach of principle on the part of the auditor. Therefore, in order to undertake remedial measures, Chan Associates is required to return the furniture taken and shares obtained to Classic Reproduction Pty Limited. Such remedial action would help Chan Associates to conform to the prevailing audit regulations and doctrines. References: Becker, J., Bailey, E. (2014). A Comparison of IT Governance Control Frameworks in Cloud Computing. Chambers, A. D., Odar, M. (2015). A new vision for internal audit.Managerial Auditing Journal,30(1), 34-55. Christensen, B. E., Glover, S. M., Wood, D. A. (2012). Extreme estimation uncertainty in fair value estimates: Implications for audit assurance.Auditing: A Journal of Practice Theory,31(1), 127-146. Cohen, J. R., Simnett, R. (2014). CSR and assurance services: A research agenda.Auditing: A Journal of Practice Theory,34(1), 59-74. Decaux, L., Sarens, G. (2015). Implementing combined assurance: insights from multiple case studies.Managerial Auditing Journal,30(1), 56-79. Duncan, B., Whittington, M. (2014, September). Compliance with standards, assurance and audit: does this equal security?. InProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks(p. 77). ACM. Erickson, M., Goldman, N., Stekelberg, J. (2015). The Cost of Compliance: FIN 48 and Audit Fees.Journal of the American Taxation Association. Homb, N. M., Sheybani, S., Derby, D., Wood, K. (2014). Audit and feedback intervention: An examination of differences in chiropractic record-keeping compliance.The Journal of chiropractic education,28(2), 123. Knechel, W. R. (2016). Audit quality and regulation.International Journal of Auditing,20(3), 215-223. Mollik, A. T., Berapi, M. K. (2014). Effects of Audit Quality and the Qualifications of Audit Committee Members on the Firms Compliance with IFRS: Evidence from Australias Listed Firms. Pitt, S. A. (2014).Internal Audit Quality: Developing a Quality Assurance and Improvement Program. John Wiley Sons. Schmidt, P. J., Wood, J. T., Grabski, S. V. (2016). Business in the Cloud: Research Questions on Governance, Audit and Assurance.Journal of Information Systems. Shah, M., Jarzabkowski, L. (2013). The Australian higher education quality assurance framework: From improvement-led to compliance-driven.Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education,17(3), 96-106. Shah, M., Nair, C. S. (Eds.). (2013).External Quality Audit: Has it Improved Quality Assurance in Universities?. Elsevier. Spears, J. L., Barki, H., Barton, R. R. (2013). Theorizing the concept and role of assurance in Information Systems Security.Information management,50(7), 598-605. Sta?iokas, R., Rupys, R. (2015). Application of Internal Audit in Enterprise Risk Management.Engineering Economics,42(2), 20-25.

The answer to all answers Essays - Speculative Fiction,

The answer to all answers There was once a boy called Nico who was relatively normal, apart from this one crucial thing, he didn't have a soul. Now most people don't know what a soul is but I can tell you: it's what stops us from using 100% of our brain power, it's what programs your brain, it's the thing that created natural reflexes, and it's the thing that conceals answers. Now Nico didn't know this, he thought he was just a normal boy until the answer of all answers was revealed. Now all answers come after a question and the answer to all answers question was why is humanity here? What is our job?' And this was the dream: he was on a spaceship, now not one of those spaceships you imagine, like alien one, no, this was a proper one and it was amazing! But there was only one thing wrong, half of it was missing. And then the visions came flashing first he was on a planet looking through a pair of five generations away binoculars and saw earth, but there weren't any humans or buildings, only dinosaurs and jung le. Then there came the next vision, he was on a different planet looking through the same binoculars and he saw a star come flying at the planet he had just been on, then came the next vision and he was in some sort of lab, scientists where rushing around everywhere and out the window another star flew into the planet and then he was floating in the galaxy watching as all the planets burned except earth. He was on another spaceship and there where these monsters huddling over human corpses , eating them and then he was in another lab and then he heard two people talking about nothing interesting, but then he heard one say "now that experiment one has failed let's see if the human colonies can live on earth then once there are enough we will destroy they're planet with the star shooter and eat there toasted bodies and once we destroy they're planet we will move onto the next" and then suddenly Nico woke up and realised that humans where just food for the aliens and that they were ma de to be eaten. He got up and looked out the window hoping that the view of the sky would calm him but all he saw was a bright star coming closer and closer.

Behavioural based safety strategy The WritePass Journal

Behavioural based safety strategy Abstract Behavioural based safety strategy ). The safety management systems currently implemented within organisations generally are centred on policies, procedures, objectives, processes such as risk assessment, hazard identification the use of various safety tools such as JSA’s and the wearing of personal protective equipment, or PPE, and focus on measuring compliance against key targets and objectives. This dissertation examines how Behaviour Based Safety, or BBS, aids in the drive to prevent accidents and boost overall employee development (Lebbon, Sigurdsson and Austin, 2012). Qatar holds the position of second smallest country in the Arabian Peninsula after the island state of Bahrain. Qatar’s population currently stands at 2.04 million of Development Planning and Statistics, 94 per cent of which are foreign nationals (Qsa.gov.qa., 2014). Of this 94 per cent the majority is low-paid migrant workers. This number is expected to rise significantly in the coming years primarily due to the coming 2020 World Cup and the need for an influx of foreign labour for the booming construction requirement associated with it (Qsa.gov.qa., 2014). These migrant workers will primarily work on critical construction projects, drastically increasing the need for an effective safety program to be in place. The country has grown in a record breaking manner in the last ten years, to become the wo rld’s highest per capita GDP National (Fromherz, 2013). This achievement is primarily based on the vast resources of oil and gas discovered in the country. As a consequence of this discovery, construction of mega production plants has been the main focus of development in the country. This level of construction indicates an influx of safety challenges requiring an up to date and efficient method of implementation. These projects have historically required vast numbers of multi-cultural and diverse workforces, coming from different parts of the world (Orr, 2008). This being the case there are many challenges and great difficulties in bringing about a consciousness of safe work practices and in instilling a positive safety culture (Fromherz, 2013). The recognition of the need for workplace safety publicly materialized in the work of Mr Heinrich, an Assistant Superintendent of the Engineering and Inspection Division of Travellers Insurance Company during the 1930’s and 1940’s (Heinrich, 1959). His position required an investigation into the high and rising rate of supervisor accident reports during the period .This report revolutionized the working world by concluding that 88% of industrial accidents were primarily caused by unsafe, possibly preventable acts (Heinrich, 1959). This transformative moment in safety strategy motivated an entire industry to introduce reform (Fogarty and Shaw, 2010). Prior to these period witnessed steadily decreasing standards of working conditions that led to the need to reform the system. Heinrich (1959) subsequently published his first book in 1931; Industrial Accident Prevention: A Scientific Approach, laying out a more systematic approach to the study of accident data. This indicat ion of a willingness to embrace change was tempered by the overwhelming capacity that big business interests had to keep costs low, creating a volatile safety environment. The modern era has maintained that safety is significant concern for companies, often requiring a considerable fraction of their overall revenue stream (Fromherz, 2013). This drive to increase performance and reduce injury has resulted in many companies showing excellent improvement in the area of safety performance, thereby reducing cost and increasing productivity. The rationale for this research rests on assessing the potential for improvement of HSE performance in the Oil and Gas sector, specifically in the Middle East; through a means of behavioural based safety. The intention of the study is to establish the appropriateness of this hypothesis, whether as a process to be used as a standalone mechanism, or additionally, for the augmentation of an existing HSE management system. Behaviour based safety concept, or BBS, has been  considered in industry worldwide for around a decade as a means to achieve a positive safety culture and an improved organizational safety performance (M ohr, 2011). An organisations culture can be as influential in achieving good safety results as a safety management system. The positive or negative safety culture of an organisation is directly linked to human factors and the positive behaviour of its workforce (Mohr, 2011). According to Books (1999), the largest influences on safety culture are; 1) the style and management commitment; 2) the involvement of employees; 3)training and competence; 4)ability to communicate at all levels; 5) compliance with procedures; and 6)organisational learning. The current research has affiliation with an earlier study conducted as part of the Post Graduate Diploma award (Turner, 2013). The subject of the previous research was â€Å"Safety Culture or Climate: An Appraisal of Perceptions and Scale†. This research sought to measure the health and safety, culture and climate of the researcher’s employer organisation. In this case the researcher determined that there was evidence of a positive safety culture within the XXXX Group of companies. However, this research also illustrated that this positive safety culture has not entirely achieved the expected and desired outcome of zero harm to people. All these factors in themselves do not prevent injuries from continuing to occur within the organisation. The previous study and current research focuses on the Middle East region. In particular to the varying needs and challenges faced by operations based in the region; specifically those that require the engagement of personnel from a vast array of differing backgrounds and cultures and how the principles of behavioural based safety may effectively be used to influence this specific workgroup. To facilitate understanding, it is also important to outline the distinctiveness of the location, (Qatar), the demographics of the workgroup, and the difficulties and challenges related to the management of such a work group within a safe work environment. Based on the above reasoning this affords the researcher the ideal incentive to both address the topic as an area of research for the required dissertation element in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Postgraduate MSc Degree in Health, Safety Risk Management and to make recommendations that will enable XXXX Group to continue its safety culture development journey; that is, towards a more safety aware, proactive and empowered workforce; ultimately leading to an overall improvement in the safety performance results attained 1.2 Aims Objectives This dissertation research focuses on the potential for improvement of HSE performance in the Oil and Gas sector, specifically in the Middle East; through a means of behavioural based safety. It is evident from recent research that traditional methods of safety management, such as safety management systems and risk assessments, do not wholly protect employees from incidents and injuries, as such organisations are looking for an alternative approach to improve performance and eradicate injury from the workplace, therefore the aim of this project is The following aim has been developed in order to meet this goal of this research: Critically evaluate existing research into behavioural based health and safety strategies, programmes and model with a view to identify a best practice model for future implementation. Objectives: The objectives of the research are as follows: 1) To critically analyse available literature and research studies pertaining to behavioural based health and safety. 2) To ascertain employee perceptions. 3) To identify best practices and success rates of behavioural based safety programmes. 4) To evaluate performance improvement. 5) Determine an appropriate behavioural approach for Labour safety in Qatar. 1.3 Research Questions In order to fully develop this dissertation the following questions will be considered by this research: 1) What is behavioural based safety and how does it impact Qatar? 2) Which elements of the behavioural based safety process are suited for Qatar? 3) What is the best method of behavioural based safety implementation for Qatar? 4) How to assess behavioural based safety effectiveness in the workplace? 1.4 Scope of this research This research examines safety perception and behavioural application from 2000 until 2014 in order to ascertain the best possible elements for future implementation. With a national focus on Qatar this research incorporates studies conducted in similar environments and conditions internationally in order to gain insight for these research objectives. 1.5 Structure of the Dissertation This dissertation will consist of an Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology and Analysis, followed by Discussion/Conclusion. 2 Literature review 2.1 Overview â€Å"BBS is about everyone’s behaviour, not just the frontline† (Agnew Ashworth, 2012:1). 3 Methodology / Analysis 4 Discussion/Conclusion 5 References Agnew, J. 2012. Behaviour based Safety.  Performance management magazine, 1 (1), p. 1. Books, H. 2009. Reducing error and influencing behaviour. New York, NY. Fogarty, G. J. and Shaw, A. 2010. Safety climate and the Theory of Planned Behaviour: Towards the prediction of unsafe behaviour.  Accident Analysis \ Prevention, 42 (5), pp. 14551459. Fromherz, A. J. 2013. Qatar: Politics and the Challenges of Development by Matthew Gray (review).  The Middle East Journal, 67 (4), pp. 649651. Greene-Roesel, R., Washington, S., Weir, M., Bhatia, R., Hague, M., Wimple, B. 2013. Benefit cost analysis applied to behavioural and engineering safety countermeasures in San Francisco, California. Heinrich, H. W. 1959.  Industrial accident prevention. New York: McGraw-Hill. Santos-Reyes, J. and Beard, A. N. 2002. Assessing safety management systems.  Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 15 (2), pp. 7795. Lebbon, A., Sigurdsson, S. O. and Austin, J. 2012. Behavioural Safety in the Food Services Industry: Challenges and Outcomes.  Journal of Organizational Behaviour Management, 32 (1), pp. 4457. Mehta, RK.   Agnew, MJ. 2013. Exertion-dependent effects of physical and mental workload on physiological outcomes and task performance.  The IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors,  1(1), 3-5. Mohr, D. P. 2011.  Fostering sustainable behaviour. Gabriola, B.C.: New Society Publishers. Orr, T. 2008.  Qatar. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. Qsa.gov.qa. 2014.  . Welcome to Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics-Statistics sector website :.. [online] Available at: qsa.gov.qa/eng/index.htm [Accessed: 27 Mar 2014].

dreams1 essays

dreams1 essays Dreaming is an experience that has fascinated people for a very long time. Although researches about dreams have been limited in the past, it has developed tremendously in its field of science. There are many explanations why people dream, but there are three main theoretical explanations for why there is dreaming: the biological view, the cognitive view, and the psychoanalytic view. I will be assessing a dream of my own, using all three perspectives. All three views have been debated thoroughly in the past, but it is the psychoanalytic view that has created the most attention to me. In the end, I will show why I find the psychoanalytic view most valuable. I recently had a very simple dream of going fishing with my dad at a lake. The dream was very vivid, in that I went through a series of steps. The initial step was setting up the fishing gear, the second step was the actual fishing, and the last step was catching fish. I frequently have this dream and it has reoccurred throughout my life. Maybe dissecting my dream with these three theories will help explain why I dream of this so frequently. Perhaps one of the most important discoveries for neurobiology of dreams occurred in 1953. It was the discovery of the rapid eye movement(REM)(Piero, 3). REM is a stage of sleep marked by rapid eye movements, high frequency brain waves, and dreaming (Huffman, 144). It is this stage that influenced the coming of the first theory I will talk about, the biological view or also known as the activation-synthesis hypothesis. It was Alan Hobson and Robert W. McCarley in 1977, who showed that most physiological and cognitive characteristics of REM sleep are associated with the same brainstem physiological control system that activates body and mind in the waking state (Antrobus, 2). In other words as certain cells in the sleep center of the brain stem are activated during REM sleep, the brain struggles to make sen ...

Markets and the Economy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Markets and the Economy - Research Paper Example 1996). Due to unemployment and reduced profits, income reduces hence a decline in tax revenue. Tax revenue is thus lower than expenditure resulting in automatic federal budget deficit. The budget deficit resulting from the recession can help to stabilize the economy. Increased government spending in provision of welfare payments is a source of income for households and this result in increased consumption (Hyman, 2010). As consumption increases, aggregate demand increases thereby prompting producers to produce more hence increased output and employment. The economy thus stabilizes as full employment is reached or aggregate demand equals aggregate supply. Furthermore, improved infrastructure as a result of government spending attracts current and future investments, output growth and employment. Though deficits lead to economy stabilization, there have been concerns about the impact of deficit on national savings. According to Hyman (2010), the financing of deficits by the government from credit markets denies them savings thus inducing increases in interest rates and reduction in private investment hence unemployment and decline in standards of living. The government should thus engage in spending on areas that produce long-term effects such as investment in education to improve workers skills, building infrastructure to provide future employment among other initiatives. Movement from Short-run Equilibrium to the Long-run Equilibrium The short-run supply indicates the quantity of output produced or Real GDP in an economy at a given period. The relationship between the price level and quantity supplied is depicted by a short-run aggregate supply curve which is upward sloping due to a direct relationship between the two. The short-run supply is based on the assumption that wages are sticky and that there are misperceptions in the labor market. An increase in price level pushes real wages downwards and since quantity of labor supplied depends on real wages, labor supply declines leading to low output (Arnold, 2010). Workers often have misperceptions about real wages; if the nominal wages fall accompanied by same proportion of a fall in price level then there is no change in real wages but workers may believe that the real wage has fallen thus reduce demand for labor hence quantity of labor supplied falls as well as output. The equilibrium is reached when aggregate demand curve intersects with short-run aggregate supply. There are other factors that affect short-run supply other than prices. These include wage rates, price of nonlabor inputs, productivity and supply shocks (Arnold, 2010 p. 168). If wage rate increases (stop being sticky), the firm profits decline since the company had already set nominal wages based on constant wage level leading to decline in output or Real GDP as firms are unable to produce more with high costs. The same case applies to other factors of production such as capital and other inputs. This causes shift in short -run aggregate supply curve to the left. If productivity increases, output increases hence shifting the curve to the right. The intersection between aggregate demand (AD) curve and short-run aggregate supply( SRAS) curve determines the equilibrium price level and equilibrium Real GDP which is also determined by whether AD curve shifts more than SRAS curve or vice versa. When the â€Å"

The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition Essay

The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition - Essay Example (Cook, 1988) Language acquisition begins very early in the human lifespan, and begins, logically enough, with the acquisition of a language's sound patterns. The main linguistic accomplishments during the first year of life are control of the muscles that produce speech and sensitivity and the acquisition of native phonetic distinctions used in the parents' language. Interestingly, babies achieve these feats before they produce or understand words, so their learning cannot depend on correlating sound with meaning. They must be sorting the sounds directly, somehow tuning their speech analysis module to deliver the phonemes used in their language (Kuhl, et al., 1992). Shortly before their first birthday, babies begin to understand words, and around that birthday, they start to produce them (see Clark, 1993; Ingram, 1989). Despite the vast differences in language, children's first words are similar all over the planet. About half the words are for objects: food, household items, and people. There are words for actions, motions, and routines. Finally, there are routines used in social interaction, like yes, no, want, hi. Around 18 months, language changes in two ways. ... Once more, children's two-word combinations are highly similar across cultures. These sequences already reflect the language being acquired: in 95% of them, the words are properly ordered according to his/her particular grammatical rules. (Pinker, 1984; Ingram, 1989). Between the late two's and mid-three's, children's language blossoms so rapidly that it overwhelms the researchers who study it, and no one has worked out the exact sequence. Sentence length increases steadily, and because grammar is a combinatorial system, the number of syntactic types increases exponentially, doubling every month, reaching the thousands before the third birthday (Ingram, 1989, p. 235; Pinker, 1984). Though many of the young 3-year-old's sentences are ungrammatical for one reason or another, it is because there are many things that can go wrong in any single sentence. When researchers focus on a single grammatical rule and count how often a child obeys it and how often he or she ignores it, the results are very impressive: for just about every rule that has been looked at, three-year olds obey it a majority of the time (Pinker, 1984, 1989; Crain, 1992). Though our ears perk up when we hear errors, more than 90% of the time, the child is on target. Children do not seem to favor any particular kind of language (indeed, it would be puzzling how any kind of language could survive if children did not easily learn it!). They swiftly acquire free word order, SOV and VSO orders, systems of case and agreement, and whatever else their language throws at them. Even grammatical gender, which many adults learning a second language find challenging, presents no problem: children acquiring language like French, German, and Hebrew acquire

Portfolio management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Portfolio management - Research Paper Example Aim of this work will be then to analyze into details the success factors of this nation on an economic basis, together with a comprehensive analysis of the growth of Qatari market, and the major characteristics of two corporations, Almeera and Qatar Telecom, according to the following factors: Assets analysis Profit and return analysis Growth in shares Market analysis Risk analysis QATAR ECONOMY AND THE FINANCIAL SECTOR For hundreds of years it’s believed by many experts on an academic perspective that Qatar will be a nation where hydrocarbon exports will be the major export driver1, mainly due to the high consistency of the ongoing reserve, despite the geographical limits and relative small size of the country, and due to the increasing trend of oil prices. In this perspective it’s therefore believed that Qatar is and will continue to be a country where oil production and refinery will be a major contributor for the growth of the economy. Oil and Gas sectors, through all the production chain, from the extraction to the refinery and distribution (with the innovative presence of gas liquid transformation sites on the major cities) counts approximately for around 50 percent of the national GDP, according to many experts2. In addition to this, evidence has been found on the fact that oil counts for approximately 85% of export earnings, and 70% of government revenues. The revenues stemming from this sector and industry are very high, and count for the major part of gross national product. Meantime, the Governmental Intervention has recently deeply focused on the development, through appropriate and well -designed incentivizing schemes, the growth of the so called â€Å"knowledge economy†, so that the capability to increase the other sectors of the economy can be made possible on a larger perspective3. With the exception of Oil, other primary industries that are receiving major consideration in this sense are the following: Manufacturing indust ry (which can properly leverage on Health and Educational services: the central government has deeply incentivized the development of a proper net of educational institutions, so that skilled students can enter the labor market and improve the economic condition of the country also by competing with knowledge intensive industries as well. On an economic perspective the growth and the well - designed incentives for the economy have been deeply investigated, and their effectiveness has been already proved. On the other side, however, a major area of concern is related to the administrative and bureaucratic side, due to the fact that on a major and broader perspective a main limitation for foreign investors within the country and for internal entrepreneurs to grow and to expand their business Is highly dependent on the capability to adequately guarantee the administrative speed and accuracy of the operational activity of the companies operanting in this country: on a more precise basis , it’s widely believed that a necessary limit for further growth is related to the governmental authority increasing regulations that may pose a limit to the further development of small medium enterprises, which are the real engine of growth. The financial sector in this field is also increasing its role and

Walmart Business Analysis

Walmart Business Analysis Contents (Jump to) Walmart’s Current Strategy Organizational structure, culture, and control systems SWOT Analysis for Walmart Porter’s Five Analysis of Walmart Key Strategic Issues at Walmart Personal SWOT Analysis Financial Analysis of Walmart Recommendations Walmart store Inc. is not only the retail giant, but also is the largest grocery chain in the world. Walmart store Inc. was founded in 1962. Samuel Walton and his brother J.L. Walton open their first Walmart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas (Walmart History, 2010). For Walmart store Inc., their common mission is: Save people money so they can live better (Walmart corporate, 2010). Compared with their main competitors such as Target and K mart, Walmarts 2009 sales were almost 50% more. Because of its giant size and buying power, Walmart can buy its products at very low prices, exchanging high purchase volumes for low cost then passing the savings onto its customers (Wikinvest Walmart, 2010). Walmart has 8,900 stores around the world in three different business segments of retail stores that including: Walmart stores, Sams Club and Walmart international. All of them offer different kinds of merchandises including electronic appliances, groceries, furniture, apparel and health beauty stuffs etc. For their business segment, they have over 54% of the companys stores are located in the United States, and the others international stores are mainly located in central and south America and China. The company mainly focuses on offering the lowest prices to attract its consumers. Walmart totally earned $408 billion revenue in 2010, increase 1% compare to 2009 (Wikinvest Walmart, 2010). In 2009, Walmart earned $255.7 billion in the domestic segment of the companys revenue. For Walmart stores segment are further categories into three different formats including: Supercenters, Discount stores and Neighborhood Stores. For the Sams club, it is the second largest membership-only retailer club ( Costco is the first largest membership-only retailer) in United States belong to Walmart Inc., their main customers mostly are offices, convenience stores, motels, restaurants and schools etc. (Wikinvest Walmart, 2010). For now, Walmart has total 3,121 international stores all over the world including in Mexico, Japan, Canada, China and countries in central and South America. However, recently Walmart begins to slow down their growth rate in the United State and turn their main focus onto its international stores to develop growth. For international stores locations altogether earned total $98.6 billion revenue in 2009, compared to the sales of 2008, is increased 9.1% (Wikinvest Walmart, 2010). Strategic History of the Industry The whole retail industry in the United States has over $4 trillion annual revenue. The main retail companies are including Walmart, Home Depot, Kroger, Costco, and Target. Some of the large companies dominate some retail sectors such as mass merchandisers and grocery stores, other sectors like auto dealers and convenience stores are fragmented. However, retail industry still has many small and specialty retailers are single-store operations (Hoover, 2011). The economy deeply affects the retail demand. In other words, retail demand depends on the economy. Many different kinds of economic factors such as job growth, recession, personal income, consumer confidence and interest rates can strongly affect consumer spending behavior. When during recessionary periods, the bad economy can affect the retail sales growth rate slow drastically or even sales revenue decline. While the retail spending grows rapidly when in the period of strong economy growth, for example consumers will spend more on grocery when they have more income. However, the rising interest rates will affect consumer purchase behavior and consumer ability to finance large amount of purchase such as purchasing cars (Hoover, 2011). Strategic History of Walmart Store Inc. In the early stage of strategic history for Walmart, they always unchanged their vision always low price for their customers. Until 1990s, Walmart announced that they planned to go global. They wanted to look for international markets for the reasons as following: First of all, Walmart has facing very strong competition in United States such as Target and K mart. These two firms had aggressive expanding their business and had started sharing Walmarts market share. Secondly, the market in the United States is already saturated; it was becoming difficult for the company to continue its growth rate. Thirdly, the US population is accounted for only 4% of the worlds population and if they want to expand their global market, China had the potential massive growth due to their huge population of over 1.3 billion people. The last reason is, globalization opened up new markets in China and created opportunities for discount stores such as Walmart (Walmarts Cost Leadership Strategy, 2004). On the other hand, Walmart is using the strategy that cooperates with local suppliers to purchase their products, even though the organizational culture is standardized with the home country. This strategy is not only use to the products purchasing, but also adapted to the local cultures and stores decoration and designed are also changed to meet local taste all around the world (Walmarts Cost Leadership Strategy, 2004). Organizational mission statement As we know, the mission statement for Walmart is every day low price. In order to insist their mission, Walmart implemented three approaches in the market. First, it increased the local purchasing in order to reduce the purchasing costs and also suit consumers needs in different places. Secondly, it maintained a good relationship with their suppliers, satisfied them by paying within 3-7 days during its initial years. Thirdly, it established distribution centers (DC) and computerized its management system to improve efficiency and reduce costs (ICFAI, 2005). Business Level Strategy For these several years, Walmart has been trying hard on expand its stores outside the United States. It through two different to expand their international business market: new store construction and acquisition. Acquisition strategy of supermarket chains had been a part of Walmarts entry and  store expansion strategy in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China and Great Britain (The Walmart Puzzle, 2008). Over all, the Walmart strategies were including: multiple store segments, lower daily prices, lots of name-brand merchandise, reduce operating costs, emphasized customers satisfied service, wide selection products, disciplined expansion into new geographic markets, and using acquisition to enter foreign market (Walmart Store Inc., 2010). However, no matter Walmart are in which foreign country, their company vision always low prices is never changed. The companys low distribution costs and cost-efficient supply chain management are the big reasons why Walmart is so success and at the same time reduce the products prices. Walmart has get into distribution efficiency compare with their competitors because of its rural store locations. Current strategy for the major operations/functions of the company Current strategies for Walmart are including low costs, high volume, increase customer satisfaction and expansion strategy. Walmart creates name recognition and customer satisfaction, and combined the retailer with the reputation of offering the best prices. They also expand their new business segments to different sectors such as pharmacies, automotive repair, and grocery sales to increase their sales revenue. Expansion strategy: The company realized that building a new store will allow for increase market share value. After their success in the rural areas, Walmart moved to urban areas and then moved to surrounding areas. The expansion strategy made Walmart the number one retail store in the United States. As Walmart continue its expansion domestically, the firm decided to go international. Furthermore, Walmart realized that acquiring an existing retail firm is necessary for expand domestic and international markets. Therefore, Walmart by acquire retail store which enable to expand locally and internationally. Always low prices make customers live better strategy is believed the strongest strategy used by Walmart. The firm developed the idea of dealing directly with the manufacturer and with the power control by Walmart will enable it to get the best deal from the manufacturers and suppliers. Organizational structure, culture, and control systems Saving people money to help them live better was the mission for Walmart. Hence, Walmart negotiates different suppliers and understanding their cost structure in order to reduce the price. Walmart has to be certain that the manufacturers were doing their best to cut down costs. Also, Walmart believed in establishing a long-term relationship with their suppliers. Walmart had 129 distribution centers located at different locations all over the US. Over 80,000 items were stocked in these centers. Walmarts own warehouses directly supplied 85 percent of the inventory, as compared to 50-65 % for competitors. Shipping costs for Walmart is about 3 % which is lower than its competitors, 5%. The distribution centers ensured a steady and consistent flow of products to support the supply function (Walmarts Cost Leadership Strategy, 2004). Walmarts logistics infrastructure was its fast and successful transportation system. The distribution centers were serviced by more than 3,500 company owned trucks. To make its distribution process more efficient, Walmart also uses a logistics technique called cross-docking. In this system, the finished goods were directly picked up from the manufacturing plant from suppliers, and then directly supplied to the customers. The system reduced the handling and storage of finished goods, eliminating the role of the distribution centers and stores (Walmarts Cost Leadership Strategy, 2004). SWOT Analysis for Walmart Store Inc. (S)trengths Reputation Brand Name: Walmart is a powerful brand and pioneer in the retail industry with the wide spread network of stores. It has a reputation for low price, convenience and a wide range of products all in one store for customers. Walmart has captured about 10% of the retail market in the U.S. and continues to expand. Walmart stores continue to open all over the country making Walmart a household name. Walmart has also been widely acknowledged for its social responsibility actions. The company has donated to a variety of charitable organizations and has been accredited for bringing jobs and wealth to less developed communities. Offer Low Prices: Walmart uses its enormous size and buying power to pressure its suppliers into extremely low prices, offering orders of high volumes of merchandise in exchange for low prices. The good thing about Walmart is that its shifts the low cost advantage to customers and available the products at lower prices. It has loyal customer base because it meets the expectation of customer by always delivering the goods at lower prices at compare to its competitors. Expand Global Market: Walmart has aggressively expands its international market over the past few years and has experienced global expansion. For example its purchase of the United Kingdom based retailer ASDA. Technology: Technology is strength to Walmart with its inventory control system that was recognized as the most sophisticated in retailing. The technology linked all the stores to the headquarters and the companys distribution centers. It also enables the warehouse of which the goods are ordered, and direct the flow of goods to the store and proper shelves. Supply chain and logistics management: Supply chain and logistics management are one of the strengths of Walmart. This allows Walmart to utilize the Just- in-time inventory concept and avoid the pilling up inventory to save the extra cost for maintaining inventories in the warehouses. Human Resource: Walmart always keen to provide training to their employees to improve the customer service level. The firm hire locally, provides training programs for its employees. Walmart also gets its employees involve and encourage them to make use of words like: we, us, and ours. It also provides stock ownership and profit sharing with great contribution from the H. R of the firm. Walmart was named one of the best 100 firms to work for. Cross-docking inventory system: Using the cross-dock technique, Walmart was able to effectively leverage their logistical volume into a core strategic competency. Walmart operates an extensive satellite network of distribution centers serviced by company owned trucks. Its satellite network sends point of sale (POS) data directly to 4,000 vendors. Each register is directly connected to a satellite system sending sales information to Walmarts headquarters and distribution centers. (W)eaknesses Employee turnover: Walmart has high employee turnover which costs more money and time for company to train the new employee. Bad publicity: Walmart is currently facing a gender discrimination lawsuit. Their female employees accuses that they were discriminated against in matters regarding pay and promotions. And also, Their female managers were accounted for the minority group in the company. Lock of flexibility: Walmart sell very wide range kinds of products for example like clothes, food, pharmacy or stationary which lack of flexibility compare with other more focused competitors. Other competitors may have the ability to make changes and improve on a certain product lines when the needs of their customers change. Walmart, however, may have too much merchandise and not be able to focus in on sectors that need to be improved. Some products have poor quality: Although Walmart provides low price of products, however, customers sometimes complain about the poor quality of few products. Facing difficulty in International market: It is hard for Walmart to expand their business out of US to totally different countries all around the world. Moreover, Walmart has to facing different culture and customer behavior in different countries, for example Walmart facing difficulty to expand the market in China. (O)pportunities Customers: Because Walmart provides low price to their customers, so they are able to attract more customers. Furthermore, customers basically are able to purchasing everything in one store that satisfied their needs. Walmart 24 hours stores also satisfied their customers. Diversified store types: Walmarts different store types and new locations provide more opportunities to exploit new market. Stores diversified from local, small-based sites to large super centers. International Expansion: No doubt that continued expand the international market is a huge opportunity for Walmart. Walmarts oversea stores have experienced significant growth. There are actually tremendous opportunities for future growth in developing countries and Asian markets than in the United States such as China and India. Creating strategic alliances and licensing agreements with other global retailers are ways to move into different countries. (T)hreats Competition: Walmart faces different strong competitions locally and internationally. Walmart main competitors are including Kmart, Target, Carrefour and Costco wholesale. In 2010, the Net Profit Margin for Walmart is 3.59%, Target 4.22%, Costco wholesale 1.69%, Carrefour 0.38%, respectively (Hoovers, 2010). Target is Walmarts direct competitor in the US, offering a range of general merchandise in a similar store format (Wikinvest, 2010). Economy Recession: The revenue for Walmart is affected by economy recession. Good economy is an opportunity for great business, because customers will have more money to spend. If the economy is great, there will be more jobs and people will shop more. However, if the economy is bad, there will be fewer jobs and people will shop less. Also, with the high price of gasoline and its effect on the economy, Walmart will certainly be affected the most. Strategy imitation: Walmart strengthens its competitive advantage on low-cost products. Other competitors may imitate their low-cost strategy to take over their market shares. Low Brand Loyalty: In the retail industry, customers would like to choose the product with the lowest price. In other words, customers do not care about the brand or which retail stores, if Costco has the exactly same chips that sell cheaper than in the Walmart, then customers will choose to buy the chips in the Costco not Walmart. TOWS MATRIX STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES Reputation Brand Name Bad publicity Offer Low Prices Lock of flexibility Expand Global Market Some products have poor quality Technology Facing difficulty in International market Supply chain and logistics management Employee turnover Human Resource Cross-docking inventory system OPPORTUNITIES OPPORTUNITIES-STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES-WEAKNESSES Customers Build on its already efficient distribution system to further expand in the U.S and globally. Walmart should be awareness and strict to control of the quality of the product in order to keep their customers basis. Diversified Store Types Expand diversified store types to International market in order to increase profit in International market. Set higher employment standards through enhanced training to keep their employees have best performance. International Expansion Duplicated the successful delivery logistic management and the distribution centers into International market. Continue to build on cost efficient pricing and production due to expansion. Go into new markets and buy out their local retailers to gain market share. THREATS THREATS-STRENGTHS THREATS-WEAKNESSES Competition Buy raw materials or products from local suppliers to hold a better political status within the local community further to compete with their competitors. Human resource department should set a benefits long-term promotion program or standard and training program for their employees in order to decrease the employee turnover. Economy Recession Create their own brand of products and increase the quality of products in order to establish customers loyalty. Establish joint venture partnerships or long-term relationship with local retail companies to get the advantages in the International segment. Strategy imitation Develop strong RD and technology to enhance the competitive advantage and avoid imitation from other competitors. Low Brand Loyalty Five Forces Analysis for Walmart Store Inc. Threat of entrances Low The threat of new entrance in the grocery and discount retailer industry is very low. New entrants have to face with the strong low-price competition among exist giant retail companies like Walmart, Costco and Target. New entrants need to invest large amount of capitals to establish their brand recognition, service, and variety of product offerings that Walmart, Target, and others competitors continue to improve on each day. In addition, existing companies can drop prices lower in order to force a new competitor out of the market. Therefore, the threat of entrances is low. Power of buyer-High Customers have many choosing opportunities and consider about products very details. They want the product now and they want it with the best service, best quality and reasonable price. Customers also enjoy increasing choice of products and choose one product that has the best quality and better price. For example, if customers find out Target sells an exactly product that has better quality and price than Walmart, and then they will choose to buy it in Target instead of Walmart. Power of Suppliers   Low The bargaining power of suppliers is very low. Walmart is very famous on giving pressure to their suppliers to cut their price lower and lower in order to offer the lowest price to their customers. On the other hand, become the supplier of Walmart is a very fierce competition. In 2004, about 10,000 new suppliers applied to become Walmart vendors. However, only about 200, or 2%, were ultimately accepted by Walmart (Gwendolyn Bounds, The Wall Street Journal). Therefore, the bargaining power of suppliers is low. Rivalry High The competition in the US grocery and discount retailer industry is very high. The main competitors for Walmart in the local market are Kmart and Target. These companies also have to face competition from wholesalers such as BJs, Costco and even the international market such as Carrefour. Walmart has adopted a cost leadership generic strategy. In the past, most companies have not been able to match Walmarts strategy everyday low prices. However, Walmarts barrier to entry (economies of scale) and strength (supply-chain management) can be easily imitated with sufficient resources. Therefore, retailers are in a fierce competition that see who can offer their customers the lowest price. Threat of substitute Low The threat of substitutes in this industry is low because only few companies have ability to offer such a variety of products available instantly and also low prices. One possible substitute is online shopping; however, customers usually do the online shopping for clothes or other stuffs but not for food or grocery shopping. Therefore, the threat of substitute is low. Key Strategic Issues Issue #1: Open too many new stores close to existing stores lead to new stores taking over the market shares from existing stores. Status Quo Wal- Mart depends on opens many new stores and expands into new market to increase the long-term sales and income growth. However, because of Walmarts large size of expansion, new stores are effects the sales on existing stores. For example, Walmart builds a store relatively close to an already existing store, the new store might take away customers from the old store thus decrease the sales in existing stores (Walmart, 2010). Evolutionary Change (Incremental Improvement) In order to solve this problem, Walmart expands their business segment into international market instead of domestic market. For example, Walmart opened 5 times number of stores in the international market in 2010 compared to domestic stores; most of stores are in Mexico, China, and Central America (Walmart, 2010). Revolutionary Change (Huge/Drastic Change) Walmart is also aggressively to open business segments in India if the country opens up the sector to foreign direct investment. India has retail market more than 1 billion; no doubt India is a huge opportunity for Walmart. However, retailers that carry multiple brands (like Walmart) are restricted to wholesale outlets in India. After Indias policy change, Walmart is allowed to expand superstores and generate revenue in India (Walmart, 2010). Specific tactics to implement the strategy Walmart needs to establish long-term relationship or joint venture with local retail company to get into the market in India. Although in 2006, Walmart announced that it had tied up with Bharti Enterprises Ltd. (Bharti) to get into the Indian retail sector. Bharti was a diversified company, and one of the biggest mobile telephone service providers in India (Walmart and the Indian Retail Sector, 2007). However, because of the government policy, the small retailers groups and the Left parties against allowing the company into India are all the barriers that Walmart has to face it. Issue #2: International competitors Status Quo In order to expand and improve the sales revenue for the economy recession especially in the domestic market, Walmart has been aggressively expand its business segment into international market. However, the local big retailers or small retailers groups are against Walmart to get into their market to take over the market shares because of its low price strategy (Walmart, 2010). Evolutionary Change (Incremental Improvement) Improve its supply chain, logistic and technology segment to lower its delivery and operation costs in order to compete with local big retailers such as Britains Tesco, Frances Carrefour, and Germanys Metro (Walmart, 2010). On the other hand, retail business segment is hard to create products differentiation, because commodity products are all the same for customers. The only way that gains the market shares for retail stores is not only low price but also quality of products. Therefore, Walmart should awareness of its quality of products to attract more customers even in the international market. Revolutionary Change (Huge/Drastic Change) Walmart should acquire and purchase the local retail companies in order to get into the international market. On the other hand, establish long-term relationship with local suppliers to have the win-win situation for their cooperation. Specific tactics to implement the strategy In the beginning of year 1, 2 and 3, Walmart should first focus on improving its supply chain, logistic and technology improvement in order to compete with local big retailers on its lower operation, delivery costs and high quality of products. For the long-term tactics, Walmart should deeply penetrate into the local market, understand different cultures and customers behaviors and then cooperate with local suppliers to establish long-term partnership. Personal assessment SWOT Analysis of myself in relation to the organization (What can I offer to the organization?). (S)trengths: International expansion (China): Walmart is extremely aggressively penetrated into the market in China. Also, no doubt that China has 1.3 billion populations which accounted for the most majority population in the world, creates a huge business opportunity for Walmart. Therefore, Walmart needs a manager who can speak fluently Mandarin and English, and really understand about Chinese culture and Chinese customers behavior. Hence, I can offer Walmart my knowledge to develop more opportunity in Chinas market in order to maximize the profits. (W)eaknesses: Lack of working experience: Even though I can speak fluently Mandarin and understand the Chinese culture and customers behavior; however, I still lack of working experiences. I do have some part time working experience such as working in starbucks, but do not have full time working experiences. (O)pportunities: Because of my professional knowledge (bachelor and master degree are both business management) are expertise on this field which can offer Walmart a professional employees or manager. Moreover, my family also has business in China, Hangchow, which makes me has understanding and interested about China. I can provide Walmart establish partnership with local suppliers and establish long-term relationship with them to compete with local retails competitors. (T)hreats: Many applicants around the world: There is still having many talented applicants around the world apply to get into this company. Some of the applicants have high education degree and business knowledge and also have ability to speak many different kinds of languages. Therefore, I am in extremely fierce competition. Not every business segment in Walmart is my expertise: I have weakened and lower advantages compared to local American because of the speaking and cultural differences. Furthermore, the company does business in many different retail formats, including supercenters, food and drugs, general merchandise stores, cash and carry stores, membership warehouse clubs, apparel stores, soft discount stores and restaurants. However, not every business segment in Walmart is in my field of expertise. Financial Analysis 2010 Annual Sales (Figure2-1) (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) As you can see in Figure 2-1, this is 2010 annual sales for 4 main retail stores in the United States. They are including Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale and Carrefour. Walmart has almost $400 billion sales in 2010. Compared to other competitors, annual sales for Walmart was much higher than other companies. Carrefour annual sale in 2010 was around $100 billion. Annual sales for Target and Costco were just around $50 billion in 2010. 2010 Net Profit Margin (Figure2-2) (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) In Figure 2-2, net profit margin in 2010 for Walmart was 2.98%. Target was higher than Walmart which had 3.69% net profit margin in 2010. Other two competitors, Costco and Carrefour were both under 1.84% in net profit margin in 2010. Figure 2-3 (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) The Return on Asset ratio is useful in measuring how efficiently a company uses its assets to generate profit. By definition, ROA is calculated by dividing the Net Income by the total asset of a company. Refer to Figure 2-3, ROA for Walmart from 2006 to 2010 are much higher than its competitors. Walmarts ROA were around 9% to 10% each year, compared to its competitors which were all much lower than Walmart. This basically means that Walmart utilizes its assets well enough to generate profit in comparison with their competitors. However, ROA in 2007 for Target is higher than Walmart, Target 9.29%, Walmart 9.05%. Targets major competitive advantage over Walmart lies in its customer base: the average household income for Target customers is about $50,000 a year, whereas the average yearly income for a Walmart customer is only $35,000 Figure 2-4 (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) The return on Stockholders Equity (ROE) ratio measures the percentage of profit earned on stockholders investment in the company. In other words, return on equity  measures a corporations profitability  by revealing how much  profit a company generates  with the money shareholders have invested.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   In Figure 2-4, ROE for Walmart were around 20% from year 2006 to 2010, compared to other competitors which are higher than others. Figure 2-5 (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) Net profit Margin is an indication of how effective a company at cost control

The Yanomamo of the Amazon Basin Essay -- essays research papers

Yanomamo Paper Assignment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Napoleon Chagnon has spent about 60 months since 1964 studying the ‘foot people’ of the Amazon Basin known as the Yanomamo. In his ethnography, Yanomamo, he describes all of the events of his stay in the Venezuelan jungle. He describes the â€Å"hideous† appearance of the Yanomamo men when first meeting them, and their never-ending demands for Chagnon’s foreign goods, including his food. There are many issues that arise when considering Chagnon’s Yanomamo study. The withholding of genealogical information by the tribesmen, and how Chagnon was able to obtain his information is an interesting and significant aspect of this study. Why did Chagnon feel that this genealogical information was important? And was Chagnon’s choice to study the Yanomamo, despite their hesitancy to cooperate, a wise and ethical one?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chagnon spent his first five months collecting what he thought was an intricate and elaborate table of genealogical information, marriage relationships, and kinships within the Yanomamo village of Bisaasi-teri. He knew from the beginning that it would be difficult to obtain the actual names of the tribesmen because it is a symbol of honor, respect, dignity, and political admiration. The less your name was spoken in public within the village, the higher you were regarded. And it was considered an extreme taboo to discuss the names of the deceased as well, which made it exceptionally difficult for Chagnon to trace family lineages to the past. Chagnon would interview villagers asking for the names of all members of their community, including the deceased. He recounts many situations in which the interviewee whispered a name into his ear, made him repeat it aloud and then the person whose name he was supposedly calling would cry out in anger while others laughed. It w asn’t until five months into his development of a genealogical chart, on a trip to another Yanomamo village, that he discovered the name he had for the village headman translated into â€Å"long dong† and that all of his names were in fact ridiculous and, of course, incorrect. For months and months to follow Chagnon would have to be incredibly strategic and smart in choosing who to interview and what to ask them. He began to only interview in his hut in private, where distractions from other village members could not in... ...ission. The Yanomamo seemed to be quite hesitant in accepting Chagnon, and even now he recounts events where they try to take advantage of him and the things that he brings. This is part of their culture, but what is the global importance of his research? I’m sure there is an answer because his study is widely accepted and taught, hence this paper, but I have not been able to understand the purpose of such projects other than fascination. In general, the â€Å"ethics† of something is an issue that must be decided by those involved in the situation. The opinions of the Yanomamo as to whether or not Chagnon’s genealogical study was ethical are just as important as the western scientists’ opinions. And if language presents a barrier to communicate and agree on a study taking place, then maybe that study just was not meant to happen. Not everything and everyone in this world is open to be analyzed, photographed, interviewed, etc. by western scientists. So was it ethical for Chagnon to go to Bisaasi-terri, drop his bags and start working? I say no. Was it really that important for Chagnon to go there and study people who didn’t come out and announce their welcoming of outsiders? I say no.

Kingfisher Beer Company Case Analysis Essay

Kingfisher Beer Company (KBC) has enjoyed being in top position in premium beer segment for the past fifty years and is now facing a potentially identity–changing challenge: the traditional premium beer market has been declining due to changes in consumer preferences at a compound annual rate of 4% and KBC for the first time is experiencing a decline in revenue, whilst a change in leadership infuses new energy to bring a change in their product line. Jake Hope, son of the retired president and owner of KBC faces the challenge of whether to introduce a ‘light’ beer in a growing beer segment, as maintaining status-quo would no more be an option to sustain their existing position in marketplace in the next few years (see Exhibit 2). I recommend that Jake would go for the light beer product venture. The recommendation is based on a complex assessment of the company’s financial viability and of more qualitative reflections. Even if for the year 2007 (the case is restrictive for only a 2-year horizon quantitative analysis) projected Operating Margin does not reach levels KBC had enjoyed in prior years, it is positive and growing substantially. Growth from $599,734 to $2,205,235 ($1,605,601 in absolute growth) from 2006 to 2007 with introduction of Light Beer versus of decline from $4,015,024 to $3,414,586 ($600,438 in absolute decline). If KBC will manage to reduce its lost sales of famous Lager (due to market conditions in the premium beer market) from 20% to slightly lower levels then the company could break-even in 2 years (Exhibit 1). From the case’s limited data it is still certain that introducing Light Beer and managing relatively moderate levels of cannibalization (20% or below – Exhibit 3) of the Lager sales opens opportunities to increase the firm’s financials. Moreover, it is essential to capitalize on growing light beer market (4% annually) which also will help fuel possible future expansion or to retain sustainability. According to market research, targeted segment where light beer drinking segment holds â€Å"anti-big-business† values, is already aware of the KBC brand so the firm can leverage on being independent family owned small regional company. In addition, the introduction of a new product will eliminate the risk of being on a single product brand and reduce risk of being in an unfavorable position with regards to distributors who favor more product offerings. On the other hand the introduction of the light beer will affect the brand image, alienate core customers, and squeeze margins. In addition, it is most likely the Company will not be able to sustain advertising and distribution cost against bigger competitors (high entry barrier, competitors strong presence in light beer market). This will lead also to additional unwanted cannibalization of Lager sales and more uneven relationships with distributors and retailers. My recommendation rests on several assumptions (exhibit). The key assumption is that the KBC will attain the 0. 25 market share to break even in 2007. Another assumption is that the light beer market will sustain its growth and consumer preferences will hold in the nearest future.

Brotherly Love essays

Brotherly Love essays BROTHERLY LOVE The snow fell from the night sky like millions of little white stars that lost their hold on the firmament. Little Sammy always one to love the snow ignored it for the moment, showing uncharacteristic concern for his brother. "What's the matter Todd? You've been acting strange all day. I know something's on your mind or you wouldn't have that look on your face. You always look that way when something's wrong". "Oh, it's nothing important little brother, just problems with Sandra again last night. The date went fine and I actually liked the flick this time but later in the back seat I shot jungle juice everywhere before we could even get started. If this had been the first time I wouldn't be so angry but dammit," he accented his curse by punching his thigh, "it's been four times now". Sammy's brow creased for a moment in thought and then his eyes lit up. Being a bit too quick of a thinker, Sammy often stated the obvious and did so now. "Remember that scare you had when you were slamming saddles every night with Judith? She had to go out and buy a pregnancy test. Obviously you weren't having much trouble with her; I think it must have something to do with Sandra herself". Todd could almost see the light Sammy was basking in from the bulb above his head and offered the tyke a warm smile. Sammy was only twelve years old but sometimes he dissapointed Todd with his slow wits. He liked to encourage the boy though and did not mention that he had already come to this conclusion quite some time ago. Even Albert Einstein had trouble in his youth and he could see that Sammy had that kind of potential. In fact he was lucky his brother could think at all. Some kids were born retarded you know. "That's probably right kid but I just don't know what it could be about her that makes me miss the boat and jizz every time. I mean I got my lovebone all poised to slip inside that perfec...

Application of Six Sigma in Supply Chain Management Essays

Application of Six Sigma in Supply Chain Management Essays Application of Six Sigma in Supply Chain Management Paper Application of Six Sigma in Supply Chain Management Paper Application of Six Sigma in Supply Chain Management Anoop P. S. Abstract: This paper hypothesises that, whilst Six Sigma as a change and improvement strategy is delivering significant business benefit to practitioner organisations, it has not been successfully adapted to deliver similar benefits across supply chains. It demonstrates by reference to the literature that most published applications of Six Sigma in supply chains are related to the application of traditional internal Six Sigma methodologies to the internal processes of a supplier to the â€Å"Six Sigma Organisation†. In this paper, the issues particular to an application of Six Sigma in a broader supply chain context are discussed, with reference to specific supply chain issues. It is concluded that Six Sigma does have something novel to offer organisations over and above the contribution of existing approaches to supply chain improvement, and a conceptual model is proposed that is consistent with the literature and has potential to support such an introduction. Although rooted in the supply chain realm, SCOR adherents see a role for the methodology as the gatekeeper – identifying the projects most likely to render ROI using SCOR, Lean or Six Sigma. There is already a natural link between Lean and Six Sigma at the program and project execution level. The model integrates the Balanced Scorecard, SCOR model (Supply Chain Reference model) and Six Sigma DMAIC (define, measure, analyse and improve) methodology in a two-level framework. This is a strategic-level cycle, developing focused projects to generate maximum business benefit, and an operational-level cycle, applying Six Sigma and lean tools in a DMAIC cycle to deliver supply chain improvements. Cautions and requirements for the success in practice of such a model are discussed and it is concluded that the model should be tested in practice to validate and develop further the methodology. Keywords: Six Sigma; Supply chain improvement; Lean; SCOR model; Variability reduction 1. 0INTRODUCTION 1. 1 General Introduction Six Sigma Process Improvement is a rigorous approach to improving business processes by addressing the underlying causes of variation that lead to poor performance as experienced by the ‘customer’, who is the recipient of the outputs. The early exponents were Motorola and GE in the 1980s. Since then, many organisations ranging from manufacturing to service in all sectors, have successfully deployed Six Sigma to deliver measurable cost, quality and time based improvements. 2. 0 LEAN SIX SIGMA In the past, Lean and Six Sigma have at times been viewed almost as rival methodologies, with some companies choosing one or the other as their primary improvement vehicle. Two of the most powerful forces in manufacturing and now the broader supply chain are â€Å"Lean† and â€Å"Six Sigma. Traditionally, many companies have adopted one or the other as their primary approach to operational improvement, or in some cases used both but as fairly independent tools. Increasingly, however, companies are seeing the benefit of combining the two techniques into a more integrated strategy that uses the best of each approach, which can be highly complementary. Many believe this â€Å"Lean Six Sigma† strategy is the best w ay to improve overall supply chain results and tackle process improvement more holistically. Lean, the name given to the Toyota Production System in the book The Machine that Changed the World, has traditionally been associated with the elimination of waste in business processes. Lean was originally focused on improvement on the factory floor, but has since been used in some cases to power broader supply chain improvements. European retailer Tesco, for example, used Lean principles to engineer improved store replenishment processes. Six Sigma is a quality improvement methodology that in general seeks to reduce process and results variation. Originally focused on improving the quality of manufactured components, the approach has also been expanded for use in improving almost any business process. Drug wholesale McKesson, for example, has used Six Sigma to improve a variety of supply chain processes, such as inbound trailer cycle times and pick face replenishment efficiency. 2. 1 Adding Value With SCOR Developed by the not-for-profit Supply-Chain Council, SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) is a model that links process elements, metrics, best practices and features associated with supply chain execution. It helps to identify and quantify critical opportunities for improvements not only within the supply chains of a single company but also between multiple trading partners. It describes a continuum of processes: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and Return. SCOR works best with companies that have an enterprise information platform that can carefully track this continuum through KPIs and scorecards or at least provide the data so that a qualified enterprise platform can acquire the data, analyze it and surface it to the people who need to see it. Although rooted in the supply chain realm, SCOR adherents see a role for the methodology as the gatekeeper – identifying the projects most likely to render ROI using SCOR, Lean or Six Sigma. There is already a natural link between Lean and Six Sigma at the program and project execution level. Six Sigma has the project tracking and financial accountability elements. Lean helps â€Å"surface the rocks† that become ideal targets for Six Sigma. The two combined provide a powerful results-driven program. The opportunities for Six Sigma and Lean application in SCM are numerous. Specifically in warehousing management you may want to look at metrics around fill rates, pick and pack defects and dock-to-stock or dock-to-bench type metrics. Start with Lean and look for opportunities to get the dock-to-stock (time from material unloaded on dock to put away on shelf) cycle times down (this impacts availability rates to the production floor). Take a walk through the warehouse and if you see lots of boxes and pallets sitting around, you know you have opportunities! Once your cycle times are lower, then take a look at defect rates in the other areas of standard warehouse metrics. Let me know if you have some questions I have extensive experience in this one. 3. 0 Bringing Lean and Six Sigma Together Industrial giant Honeywell was among the first to recognize the power of combining Lean and Six Sigma disciplines. When Honeywell acquired Allied Signal in the late 1990s, under the leadership of legendary CEO Larry Bossidy, it created a mechanism for combining Lean and Six Sigma that it called â€Å"Six Sigma Plus. The company hoped to improve processes and results by using Lean to streamline processes and eliminate waste, then improve the consistency and reliability of those processes using Six Sigma. 3M is another pioneer in the application of Lean Six Sigma. When Jim McNerney took over as CEO of the company in 2001, the former GE executive quickly helped drive a Lean Six Sigma program throughout the company. â€Å"Lean Six Sigma always starts by defining value from the supply chain from the eyes of the customer,† says Paul Husby, a former VP of Supply Chain Services at 3M. Every business has either an explicit or implicit strategy and needs the operational supply chain to provide specific performance to support that strategy. Lean Six Sigma has a primary goal of significantly improving operational excellence, and should also greatly improve a companys competitive advantage with key customers and markets. † There are several principles that drive the strategy of bringing Lean and Six Sigma together: Lean cannot bring a process under statistical control Six Sigma alone cannot dramatically improve process speed or reduce invested capital Both enable the reduction of the cost of complexity, but in complementary ways In the past, Lean and Six Sigma have at times been viewed almost as rival methodologies, with some companies choosing one or the other as their primary improvement vehicle. With Lean Six Sigma, that f alse conflict can be formally removed, and companies can benefit from the best of both approaches. The two methodologies can interact and reinforce one another, and there is much evidence that total improvements in a process is larger if Lean and Six Sigma are implemented together. The opportunity is to reduce the variability in value-adding processes,† said SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore. â€Å"Lean should eliminate the non-value added process steps, and then Six Sigma can be applied to tighten up the execution of those processes. † So, from a Lean perspective, what Six Sigma adds is the ability to reduce process variability. From a Six Sigma perspective, what Lean adds is often greater process and cycle time velocity, as well as lower operating costs. It can also be said that Lean focuses on reducing Time variability, while Six Sigma focuses on reducing Process variability. Lean tends to generate more â€Å"Quick Fix† solutions, while Six Sigma takes a more â€Å"Root Cause† approach. It is also possible to think of applying Six Sigma principles at the â€Å"pursue perfection† stage of one popular six-step Lean model. Some companies are taking the concept even further, adding in Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC) methodology as another tool, usually front-ending TOC before both Lean and Six Sigma. This three-way combination is sometimes referred to as TLS (TOC, Lean, Six Sigma). Companies that have focused on either Lean or Six Sigma as a primary strategy to the exclusion of the other, or that use both but as very separate tools, should consider whether there is opportunity to deliver better results from a Lean Six Sigma strategy. 4. 0 THINGS NEED TO KEEP IN MIND 4. 1 Is our data integrated, clean and in one location? Data sitting in silos, incompatible or duplicative data, and – most importantly – data that requires the intervention of the IT department to retrieve will make any business improvement program much more costly than necessary. A robust business intelligence solution is a must. 4. 2 Can I quickly see what is working in quality programs? If you would like to report to Wall Street analysts that a Six Sigma initiative saved $1 million on a new product, do you need to deploy a portion of your staff to dig through information, or is that information readily available on a dashboard? More importantly, is the information up to date? Can a portal tell at a moment’s glance what the quality programs are doing for the company’s bottom line and how they compare to one another? 4. Can my staff visualize the results of quality projects? Six Sigma Black Belts parachute into departments they don’t work in. Being able to show how a process could be improved helps win over reluctant team members to the results of a project. An easily integrated visualization application is an important component. 4. 4 Do I have an application powerful enough to analyze and (especially when using Lean) forecast? Can my st aff – without any programming skills – create â€Å"what if† scenarios that will help identify the best methodology for improving quality and performance? Using SCOR to align corporate goals and develop and execute a plan for improvement targets, and then employing Lean or Six Sigma or both to the prioritized projects, is a way forward for companies that recognize that survival is truly the provenance of the fittest. Just having these methodologies under the roof isn’t enough. They need to be converged and integrated methodologies working off the same platform. A focus on integration will provide the organization with optimized yields and improvements. The trend toward converging methodologies is really about change management and its logical extension to platform status. After all, change is not a one-time event or even a series of one-time events but must be a culturally ingrained part of the organization’s DNA. Organizations want to embrace change, but doing so requires an integrated approach to using methodologies and a strong enterprisewide platform that goes beyond business intelligence to include data integration and analytics.

Martin Luther the Monk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Martin Luther the Monk - Essay Example Martin Luther is one of the most famous Christian religious preachers in the history. He was born at Eislenben in the year 1483. In Mansfeld, Martin Luther’s father, Han’s Luther served as a leaseholder of the smelters and several copper mines. Hans Luther worked very hard to earn his family a good standard of living and he wanted Martin Luther to become a lawyer by profession. In order to accomplish this, he first sent Martin Luther to the Mansfeld based Latin schools. After that, Martin Luther gained education in Madgeburg in the year 1497 followed by Eisenach in 1498. By the year 1501, Martin Luther had turned seventeen years old. That was when he joined the University of Erfurt which was more of a whorehouse and a beerhouse than a university. In 1505, Martin Luther gained the postgraduate degree. Contrary to his father’s dream of seeing Martin Luther as a lawyer, Martin wanted to study the Scriptures. In order to achieve that, Martin Luther went to the August inian canons, where he spent about three years. He was proclaimed to be a priest in the year 1507. Martin Luther offered lectures on the Scriptures and philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. Over a very short period of time, Martin Luther became a very influential and inspiring preacher. Martin Luther commenced the exploration of evangelical perfection and tried to comply with the Augustinian order’s rule, but it did not take him long to realize that there were a lot of doubts and uncertainties in it. Theological problems enhanced his spiritual complexities which particularly included the message of grace and the ambiguities in nature of indulgences. â€Å"Luther had entered on the search for evangelical perfection with serious zeal and sought exactly to fulfill the rule of the Augustinian order, but he soon found himself struggling against uncertainties and doubts† (â€Å"Martin Luther†). Subjects included in the course of biblical exegesis that he taught at the University of Wittenberg included Romans, Psalms and Galatians. Martin Luther served as the professor at this university between 1513 and 1518. His courses of lectures speak of his mind’s maturity and richness. He was appointed as the preacher in the Parish Church in 1514. The pul pit of this church was essentially a locus of the preaching ministry. Martin Luther preached the Scriptures to the common people and made every possible effort to make them analyze their personal lives in context of the religious Scriptures. During this, Martin Luther noticed many things that were inappropriate with his Church as well as with the whole world. â€Å"[T]he Roman Church has always maintained the true faith, and that it is necessary for all Christians to be in unity of faith with her† (Luther cited in Pastor). Therefore, on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther collected Ninety-Five Theses to elicit the truth and attached them to the All Saints’ Church’s door in Wittenberg. This date is known as the All Saints’ Day’s eve. â€Å"Martin Luther, Doctor, of the Order of Monks at Wittenberg, desire to testify publicly that certain propositions against pontifical indulgences, as they call them, have been put forth by me† (Machiavelli and Mor e 273). Although those theses tended to criticize the papal policy, yet they never refuted the papal prerogative. They also did not challenge the doctrine of purgatory much. However, those theses emphasized upon the intrinsic spirituality of the Christian faith. Martin Luther attempted to forward the copies of those theses to his own bishop as well as the Archbishop of Mainz, but the process was interrupted by the intervention of the printing press. In spite of the effort of the printing press to hinder the process, numerous copies of the theses got spread which made an otherwise local issue an issue of huge significance and controversy to be discussed among expanding circles. One of the most