Company Analysis - Volkswagen Group in Forest, Brussels Essay

Company Analysis - Volkswagen Group in Forest, Brussels - Essay Example The Group’s production unit in Forest, Brussels, is considered as one of the most important production units of the organization. The production process developed in the particular unit is analyzed in this paper. Emphasis is given on the potentials of the Group to reduce this unit’s costs without affecting the Group’s performance or the quality of the products involved. At the same time, the unit’s logistic process is reviewed focusing on the fact that the various parts of the firm’s cars are coming from different places in Europe and are assembled in Brussels to be then sold all around the world. 2. Production process in Volkswagen Group in Forest, Brussels 2.1 Description of the process In order to understand the performance of the firm’s production unit in Forest, Brussels it would be necessary to present primarily the key characteristics of the production unit involved. Then, the production process should be analytically described, as all of its phases. Finally, the phases of the process that are of key value for its success, meaning the cost management techniques and the quality management techniques as used in the specific production unit, should be further analyzed, followed by suggestions as of their potential update or alteration for supporting the increase of the Group’s performance. Volkswagen Group incorporates a high range of brands (see Figure 1, Appendix). This means that the terms of operation of the Group’s production units internationally need to be carefully reviewed, so that delays or failures in regard to the quality of the products (cars) are avoided. In Figure 2 (Appendix) the monthly deliveries of the Group are presented. It is made clear that the orders of customers in... This essay focuses on the examination and the analysis provided by the researcher, on the topic of the production process of a well-known corporation - the Volkswagen Group. The researcher of the essay discusses the processes that are employed in the Group’s production unit in Forest, Brussels. These processes are reviewed and evaluated emphasizing on the effectiveness of unit’s quality and cost management. The essay aims to show that the production processes used by the Volkswagen Group organization are well organized despite the fact that the logistics management of the organization is quite challenging, since the parts of cars are sent to the firm’s unit in Brussels by various places across Europe and have to be assembled so that the finished product is promoted to the European market. It is concluded by the researcher that the firm’s production unit in Forest, Brussels, meets most requirements of a successful production unit. Still, certain changes are required so that the performance of the unit to be standardized in the long term. The evaluation of the effectiveness of a production process is quite important for estimating the current and future potentials of the organization involved. The review of the production process in Volkswagen’s production plant in Brussels has revealed the strengths of the specific process. It is also assumed that the firm’s performance in the global market, as reflected in its financial statements is highly related to the high performance of the production plant in Brussels.

Mission, Vision, and Goals Essay Example for Free

Mission, Vision, and Goals Essay My mission in life is to be happy with the way my life turned out. Yes, I would love to have a lot of money and to be known, but whats the point of having all of that when Im not happy that I have it? Most people mistake being grateful for happiness. Wrong! Many of the rich and famous are grateful for what they have, but not all are happy with it. No matter how my life turns out, I just want to be happy. Whether I am a homeless woman living in a shelter, or a successful entrepreneur living in a million dollar home, I just want to be happy!! Five-ten years from now, I see myself working on my clothing line and generating a good amount of sales. I see myself getting talked about in some of the hottest fashion magazines saying that I am one of the hottest successful plus size fashion designers around. During this time I hope to have a high rolling website for my line, and that I have a huge amount of customers that buy my items. I would also love to have at least one- two fashion boutiques fully designed and fully staffed. Being a fashion designer is my main career goal. I do not see myself being anything but a designer. Fifteen-twenty years from now, I see myself being in runway shows showing off all of my fabulous designs. I see luxurious clothing stores all across the map with my brand name a logo on the front. My stores will be fabulous and glamorous like Gucci, Guess, Coach, and Juicy Couture. My clothing will be very elegant and formal. Celebrities, both small and plus size will be flaunting my designs to the Grammys, Oscars, VMAs, and more. My name will be everywhere. I have a dream to be compared to other famous designer brands like Prada, Dior, Christian Louboutin, Vera Wang, Fendi and more! I want celebreties to specifically request me and my company to design an exclusive garment for a special occasion such as a wedding. Today, I am studying business management at Johnson and Wales University. My financial aid has recently put me in a position where unfortunately, I will most likely not be attending school next year. Instead, I will be working and saving money, so that I can go to a fashion school and get a fashion degree. While I am working during the summer, I play to buy a sewing machine, and teach myself how to sew clothes. I have been looking to buy a mannequin dress form, but unfortunately they range from $95 to nearly $500, so I have decided to make my own. I will be doing a small project where I will make my own mannequin dress form of my best friends body. My plan to help me get a better understanding of the fashion world, is to be an intern at a fashion company. I hope to land my first job as a fashion assistant, either before I go to fashion school (if Im lucky) or after I receive my degree. Fashion is a huge part of my life, and no matter what obstacles come in my way like not being able to attend school next year, I will make my dreams of becoming a fashion designer come true!

Great Gatsby :: essays papers

Great Gatsby Two prevalent themes portrayed in The Great Gatsby are money and social status, both which coincide with the novel’s four settings: East Egg, West Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and New York. As Natania stated, these different locations are used to â€Å"show the absurdities of modern life,† as well as to dictate social class from the upper royal status of the East Egg community to the common folk of New York. Fitzgerald uses these settings and the actions of characters within them to define and set boundaries between financial and social status of the roaring 20’s. An example of Fitzgerald’s technique lies in the comparison of Myrtle Wilson’s party in her New York apartment to one of Gatsby’s many summer parties in his West Egg mansion. Through descriptions of guests coming and going frequently, and the obnoxious drinking and wild conversation going on at the New York and West Egg parties, the reader can conclude that neither of these locations are above the social standing of an upper class party of East Egg, such as one at Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s without the slight insanity of their dysfunctional family. However, the differences between Myrtle and Gatsby’s parties are great and relevant to Fitzgerald’s theme. For example, the physical description of guests attending the party in New York gives knowledge to the reader of their lower class standing. Myrtle’s sister arrives with a â€Å"sticky bob of red hair† and wild, unnatural eyebrows and makeup, and Mr. McKee with lather showing on his cheekbone. His wife is described as â€Å"shrill, languid, handsome, and horrible,† quite the opposite of guests attending Gatsby’s party, and even the host himself. Fitzgerald describes Gatsby as a very clean cut, proud postured, gentlemanly looking man with hair which looks like it â€Å"were trimmed every day,† just as a stereotypical member of the social upper class should appear. Myrtle’s party included obnoxious, almost insane guests who were quick to speak their rude, blunt opinions and provide proof to Jordan Baker’s statement that â€Å"at small parties there isn’t any privacy.† In fact, Tom Buchanan was so uncivilized a guest as to punch Myrtle, his lover and the party’s hostess, and cause a bloody mess.

If the Coat Fits Wear It Essay

The Oceanic Corporation, a Chesapeake, VA based company, was established in 1994. Glenn Rodgers III founded the corporation, which was privately owned at the time, after his retirement from Norentech Corporation. The Oceanic Corporation was originally formed to provide ship repair services and quickly earned a Department of Defense (DOD) certified Alteration Boat Repair (ABR) designation. Among its specialties were structural welding, piping system installation and repairs, electrical, painting, rigging, machinery and dry-lock work, as well as custom sheet metal fabrication. Other divisions of The Oceanic included Habitability Installation, Industrial Contracting, and Alteration/Installation Teams (AIT). With its initial success and good return on investment the firm opened and operated facilities in California, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington. In 1998, the company went public and its initial public offering was very successful. The stock price had risen from its initial value of $10 to its current level of $35 per share. There were currently 5 million shares outstanding. In 1999, the company issued 30-year bonds at par, with a face value of $1000 and a coupon rate of 10% per year, and managed to raise $40 million for expansion. Currently, the AA-rated bonds had 25 years left until maturity and were being quoted at 91.5% of par. Over the past year, the Oceanic Corporation utilized a new method for fabricating composite materials that the firm’s engineers had developed. In June of last year, management established the Advanced Materials Group (AM Group), which was dedicated to pursuing this technology. The firm recruited Larry Stone, a senior engineer, to head the AM Group. Larry also had an MBA from a prestigious university under his belt. Upon joining Oceanic, Larry realized that most projects were being approved on a â€Å"gut feel† approach. There were no formal acceptance criteria in place. Up until then, the company had been lucky in that most of its projects had been well selected and it had benefited from good relationships with clients and suppliers. â€Å"This has to change,† said Larry to his assistant Stephanie, â€Å"we can’t possibly be this lucky forever. We need to calculate the firm’s hurdle rate and use it in the future.† Stephanie Phillips, who had great admiration for the boss, replied, â€Å"Yes, Larry, why don’t I crunch the numbers and give them to you within the next couple of days?† â€Å"That sounds great, Stephanie,† said Larry. â€Å"My years of experience tell me that when it comes to the hurdle rate for new projects, one size hardly ever fits it all!† As Stephanie began looking at the financial statements, she realized that she was going to make some assumptions. First, she assumed that she assumed that the new debt would cost about the same as the yield on outstanding debt and would have the same rating. Second, she assumed that the firm would continue raising capital for future projects by using the same target proportions as determined by the book values of debt and equity (see Table 1 for recent balance sheet). Third, she assumed that the equity beta (1.5) would be the same for all the divisions. Fourth, she assumed that the growth rates of earnings and dividends would continue at their historical rate (see Table 2, for earnings and dividend history). Fifth, she assumed that the corporate tax rate would be 34% and finally, she assumed that the flotation cost for debt would be 5% of the issue price and that for equity would be 10% of selling price. The 1-year Treasury bill yield was 4% and the expected rate of return on the market portfolio was 10%.

Civil Rights in the 1960’s Essay

Have you ever sat down and wondered to yourself, what it would be like if schools, restrooms, restaurants, and even public transportation were still segregated today? The majority of people who were born after the 1970’s take for granted how lucky we are as a country and nation to have overcome slavery and the steps against racism we have battled are way through. Slavery was ended when Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and was later ratified in December of 1865. Though this law ordered the end to slavery it did very little if nothing to stop the racism that was given towards blacks or any other minority. Until the late 1950’s not many presidents or Congressman had tried to legislate civil rights laws. The Civil Rights struggle that heated up to its climax in the 1960’s was neither a simple nor wanted task by any means. Many Presidents tried taking on the civil rights movement starting with Harry S. Truman. Truman was not for racial equality among blacks and often said so, but he wanted fairness and equality before the law (Patterson 378-382). Once Truman got the ball rolling for the first time since Abraham Lincoln, Truman pushed for a Civil Rights bill and the movement quickly started to escalate and it became one of the main issues of American politics. The next man to take office was John F Kennedy; Kennedy acted as though he had plans to address civil rights issues and is known for saying â€Å"Ask not what your country can do for you†¦ask what you can do for your country† in his inaugural address( ). Kennedy’s plans were never met in his short time as president due to assignation in 1963. Kennedy dying meant Lyndon Johnson was the next president to take president and her went on to make the next big civil rights legislation when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was established. It took the support of millions and the lives of thousands for our country to realize that people should not be segregated because of their ethnicity or color of their skin. One of the first and largest groups of civil rights movement supporters was young people and in particular college students. A college student in 1963 saw a very different daily landscape than a current college student sees today. Today kids grow up side by side with minority kids throughout their daily lives; back then they might have been the lucky few and grown up looking at blacks as equals, but more than likely they viewed them as inferiors, or even just plain animals. Then these young racists knew know better and went away to College and found themselves in one of the first places you could find support of the civil rights movement. There are many reasons to why the ball picked up speed so fast at universities. The first reason being the young people of the 60’s had not lived alongside slaves or indentured servants nor did they see the great depression or WW2 as had many of their parents and politicians of the times, so they had a different view on racism. The young people of the 60’s were viewed by the older generations specially those of the south, as being soft for not having to deal with the hardships they had to such as the great depression and the World Wars ( ). Instead of going to work before graduating high school like people in the1920’s and 1930’s people were graduating high school and even getting jobs. This caused for a more educated and affluent generation which usually runs along with having certain moral standings such as treating people of a different race equally to people of your own. With a generation bigger than ever before and more people going to college than ever before it caused for a huge explosion of self-freedom. There was many different ways students would show there want of freedom (Patterson 407-408). A very common practice in the 1960’s was for blacks and fellow college students to have sit-in’s at all white diners or transportation places. These sit-ins consisted of a group or single African American going in and taking a seat where only whites are allowed to sit and refuse to leave. Hundreds of sit-ins occurred around the nation and many taking place on university campuses run by students themselves. Several of these sit-ins are famed for the effectiveness they afterwards achieved and others for the violence that was caused upon the protestors (Patterson 382-386).The most famous case is the story of Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was on a public bus in the racist Montgomery, Alabama when the bus driver asked her to give her colored seat to a white man, because the white section was full. Rosa refused to get out of her seat and it resulted in her getting arrested. Rosa was not the first African American to refuse leaving her seat for a white person but she was viewed by th e NAACP as the best case to fight in court.( ) In the famous words of Jesse Jackson, â€Å"In many ways, history is marked as ‘before’ and ‘after’ Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation began to come down( ).The support of white students to follow fellow African American students to sit-ins was not always there. Local and national news stations started to air live footage of what was happening on the streets to protestors of segregation. The emotion put on a young college student when they see one of their peers that attend college to get an education just like them gets blasted with a fire hose from ten feet away or gets viciously attacked by police dogs. This picture caused thousands of other students to want to fight for change as well. Along with the new access to live feed news there were people such as Martin Luther King Jr. who were doing all they could to paint the realistic picture of the life of an American black man during segregation. Luther got his point across in multiple ways including his famous memoir, â€Å"Why We Can’t Wait†, in this memoir he explains how horrible the everyday life of an African American in America can be and how politicians for years have just looked over the horrific treatment of blacks and that it has been too long and the time is now(King Jr 11-13). Besides the sit-ins occurring across the nation African Americans and whites were also organizing marches to protest segregation as well. Along with the marches inspiring speeches such as Martin Luther King’s famous â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech were given. King’s 17 minute speech that was given in front of over 250,000 Americans on the steps of Lincoln Memorial, is one of the most well-known and moving speeches in American history(Patterson385-386). A large number of the people in the crowd were college students, due to the appeal Martin Luther King drew from young people. He gained this appeal by talking of equality of races and the chance for any man or woman to become whatever they pleased and not be held back due to race, religion or any other difference a person may have. While students saw the abuse blacks were taking simply for the color of their skin they started to join together on marches and attending civil rights rallies. The more the King, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and many others protested and spread the word of unfair treatment the more support of younger generation people began to support the civil rights movement. Another reason for the large involvement of college students within the civil rights movement of the 1960’s was due to the dramatically growing amount of student organized groups that were fighting for true democracy and equality to all. One of these organizations was the Students for Democratic Society (SDS). SDS was founded in 1960 but had roots dating to the early 1900’s; the goal of SDS was to mainly protest and voice the message that equality to all and peaceful means makes a successful country ( ). SDS was not the only organization that was taking big steps to get the civil rights movement moving, there were hundreds if not thousands of organizations that were meeting about and protesting the civil rights movement. These groups were known for telling young people what they wanted to hear and some even became militant groups. Membership in these organizations grew drastically once Lyndon Johnson started sending more and more troops into Vietnam. The Vietnam War itself had little impact on the civil rights movement of the United States, but it did however portray the world image that America was not going to let communistic governments take control of countries and deny their own people of civil rights. Many Americans did not agree with the war and saw it was neither the time nor the place to go and fight a war on foreign soil when the devastating effects of WW2 were still in the back of people’s minds. The largest critic of the war was overwhelming young people, they saw themselves as the ones being sent to die for a reason that was not worthy of American lives. Though segregation and a war in Asia seem to have little in common on the surface, during the reform of the 1960’s they found each other going hand in hand. Many African Americans of the United States believed that if we were fighting in a foreign country to reserve their people’s civil rights, then they would soon get their civil rights protected as well. They were mistaken and by this and the huge support of the anti-war movement and the animosity growing against the current segregation laws molded into one giant movement. This movement being carried by young people, who saw the possibility of change, carried throughout the nation and became the biggest civil rights movement in American history since abolishing slavery (Patterson 413-422). Now that we have an idea of what growing up with segregation looks like and how it can split a nation in two, I think I can say that joining the activist movement when it began in the 1960’s was almost a no brainer to many young people of that generation. They had a tremendous amount of pressure from their fellow black peers to be viewed as equals, they had an unwanted war fueling a large part of the country, and they were also a generation that believed in change and ending the horrible acts that were committed under segregation. With all the pressures from outside sources and the generation as a whole going through a freedom crisis, college students came together and became the perfect torch barrier’s for the civil rights movement.

The eNotes Blog From Seneca Falls, to Selma, to Stonewall The Rhetoric of President Obamas InauguralAddress

From Seneca Falls, to Selma, to Stonewall The Rhetoric of President Obamas InauguralAddress Watching President Obama get sworn in for his second term, I was struck by one particular phrase: From Seneca Falls, to Selma, to Stonewall.   The literature person in me loves the alliteration; the historian, the immediate images those three places bring to mind: the bravery and determination of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and later, the Suffragettes; the righteous and unwavering demands of Dr. King and the work of the SCLC in Selma, Alabama, the seat of the Civil Rights Movement; and Stonewall, the beginning of true rights for the LGBT community. As a rhetorician, I marveled at how the president blended both language, history, and his vision for his legacy in that one powerful, multi-layered phrase. Seneca Falls. Selma. Stonewall. All American battles for civil rights that once seemed hopeless. All wars that were won with the help and vision of that periods Commander-in-Chief. Here is just a little background on those historic places and events that President Obama referenced. Seneca Falls The Seneca Falls Convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The gathering to promote womens rights was the first of its kind in the Western world. Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the convention produced the Declaration of Sentiments, its chief goal to provide to women the same rights and privileges afforded to men under the United States Constitution. It would be another seventy-two years until President Woodrow Wilson, after much cajoling, would back, and pass, the  Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Selma   In 1965, several years into the Civil Rights Movement, three marches took place. Each began in Selma, Alabama, with the goal of ending in the states capital, Montgomery. The first march is now known as Bloody Sunday. On March 7, 1965, approximately  six hundred peaceful protesters were attacked by police with tear gas and clubs. Undeterred despite the brutality, just a few days later, a second march took place with some 2,500 people, but was forced to turn back in the face of additional threats. A third march was protected by thousands of U.S. Army soldiers and the National Guard. The nation was horrified by the sight of the peaceful protesters being brutalized; the Selma marches turned the tide of public opinion. On March 15, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented, and saw passed, the Voting Rights Act. Stonewall   Early in the morning, on June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall  Inn, a gathering place for homosexuals in Greenwich Village, New York. The raid sparked riots by gays and lesbians who had had their fill of unwarranted harassment and intrusions. They decided to fight back. In less than a year, two gay rights organizations were formed, the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance. Three newspapers were founded to raise awareness of gay issues and to push advocacy for gay rights. In 1970, the first Gay Pride Parade was held. Things have changed a lot for LGBT people since 1969 but still, there is more to be done.   President Obama seems to want to make this last civil rights hurdle a part of his legacy. Just the mention of gay rights in his speech was a historic first. And hopefully, like others who have embraced change before him, this is only a first step.

German Teenage Slang

German Teenage Slang The following is a handful of German slang that can be heard at times from teenagers. Keep in mind that not all German teenagers speak this way and that slang may vary from region to region.   A-L ugeln - to flirtabgallen - to throw upAmateurlocken - matted hairAtze - buddyBarrio - hang-out placeBD - stupidbuggi - to not care (Das ist buggi - Es ist mir egal – I don’t care)Bà ¼ffelbude - schoolchillen - to chill, relaxcremig - coolDrahtfresse - teenager with bracesDrinni someone who stays home all the timedissent - to get upsetdullie - dumb personEmo - from Emotional Hardcore Punk, signifies an emotional personfitnieren - to train in a fitness centerfriedhofsblond - gray-hairedFresskick - eating frenzyfroggy - crazygediegen - coolgruscheln - comes from grà ¼ÃƒÅ¸en (greet) and kuscheln (cuddle)Gà ¼llebunker - toiletHasenhirn - an idiotHeulsuse - woman that cries a lotHirni - an idiotHomie - buddyHood - neighbourhoodIkeakind - a Swedeimba - cooljedn - auf jeden Fall – absolutely/ of courseKackpappe - toilet paperknorke - awesomeKà ¶rperklaus - clumsy, awkward personKP - kein PlanLabertasche - blabbermouthlolen – to laugh out loudlush - cool M - Z Mcdreamy - Prince CharmingMOF - Mensch ohne Freunde – Person without friendsmà ¶bt - nerve-rackingMcDonalds – overgrown eyebrowsmegamßig – super bigOmega – loseroverlappt – totally uncoolphat – very goodrolexen – to boastSchnaddadeng! – Here, look!swag - very cooltrollig – dumbUnderbomber – underwearunst – coolvolle Mà ¶hre – awesomewambo – grosszappo – the end Also check out an overview of German youth slang over the 20th century by Spiegel.de

How to Use Reddit to Unlock Awesome Blog Post Ideas - CoSchedule Blog

How to Use Reddit to Unlock Awesome Blog Post Ideas Blog Do you ever feel like you’re on the edge of breaking through with your content marketing? That you know how to create amazing content for your blog and promote it, but the traffic just isnt quite there. In my experience, the problem typically doesnt lie in your writing skills or knowledge. Instead, its in the ideas that you choose to write about. The best post in the world won’t get any attention if it’s on a topic that your audience doesn’t care about. Look at what Neil Patel, Brian Dean, and other successful content marketers publish.   The content itself is very good, but nothing you couldnt create in most cases. The difference lies in their ability to generate loads of content ideas that their readers love. How to Use Reddit to Unlock Awesome Blog Post Ideas Download Your Free Blog Post Ideas Bundle Start your creative process with awesome ideas from Reddit. Then, turn those ideas into real, high-performing blog posts with these free resources: A Content Marketing Ideas worksheet to help you build a â€Å"swipe file.† A Keyword Research List Template to store your keyword ideas. A Blog Ideas Guide with 150 bonus ideas. A free Content Calendar Spreadsheet template to plan out when you’ll create each idea. A Blog Post Outline Template to easily turn your ideas into awesome blog posts. Chances are that you’ve come up with some great ideas in the past. But there’s one problem that most of us run into ... It’s hard to come up with great ideas on a regular basis. Instead, you probably decide to go with some â€Å"just okay†Ã‚  ideas out of necessity- after all, you want to publish something. The solution to this problem is to find ways to come up with more great ideas on a regular basis; that much is obvious. There are different methods to do that, and I’d like to show you the best one I know of in this post. I’m going to show you exactly how to generate as many blog topic ideas as you need, that your audience will love. Generate as many blog topic ideas as you need, that your audience will loveThe 2 Places That Great Blog Topic Ideas Come From Contrary to popular belief, most great ideas don’t come about from just thinking hard. Instead, they come from observing and interacting with the people you actually write for (or want to write for). I’ll mention it time and time again: your audience is the key to great content ideas. Broadly speaking, we can classify great content into 2 categories. 1. Solutions to Problems that Your Audience Knows Will Help You wouldn’t be reading this post if you didn’t have some trouble coming up with great content ideas. The more trouble someone has with this problem, the more motivated they’re going to be to read this post. That goes for anything. If a piece of content can solve a problem that you know you’re struggling with, you’re going to give a chance. Recommended Reading:  How to Easily Find Awesome Content Marketing Ideas 2. Solutions to Problems that Your Audience Doesn’t Know Will Help It’s a small, but important distinction. If you’re really ingrained into an audience, you’ll be able see some solutions for their problems that they can’t see themselves. This is where real innovation takes place. For example, when travel took too long, people wanted faster horses. Henry Ford came up with the car, which was a way better solution no one had thought of before. Ideas that fall into this category are typically innovative. They bring some new value to your audience, which is great. The downside, however, is that these ideas are much harder to come by (and to execute). Additionally, it’s harder to promote them at first because audiences look for obvious solutions (type #1). They aren’t as motivated (possibly scared) to give something that seems different a try. Key Takeaway: Most content ideas that we’re going to come up with will come from the first category. These ideas are abundant, and easier to execute well. The methods we’re using later on will naturally produce these ideas. Introducing Reddit: The Best Idea Source That Few Marketers Use It’s not a secret place by any stretch- it’s Reddit. Reddit is a solution for many content marketing problems that marketers don’t even consider (yes, that would by category #2 from above). It can be a scary site if you’ve never used it. But once you dig in and learn how it can be useful for content marketing, it will blow your mind. Reddit is the 26th top site in the world as of this moment- it’s huge. It consists of niche-specific communities for about every topic imaginable. Just pure, focused data from actual audiences. It should be a marketer’s dream. The catch? It takes hard work. Be honest with me. How often have you just plugged in a keyword into Google’s Keyword Planner  to get content ideas? It’s quick. It’s easy. Almost every marketer has done it at some point. But you get the exact same ideas that everyone else gets. It’s a lazy solution, and you get the results that you’d expect. Instead, you can invest some time and effort into researching Reddit to get unique ideas. There are 3 ways that you can approach content idea generation on Reddit. I’ll walk you through them all. Recommended Reading: This is the Best 30-Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process Approach #1: Find the Right Questions to Ask I’m going to assume that you understand what a subreddit is, and how to find a relevant subreddit  to your niche. If not, this video will get you up to speed: This is a simple approach, but it takes a lot of manual work. You don’t need to do any sorting. Just go to your subreddit and start looking at thread titles for questions (because questions indicate problems).. For example, here’s what r/Entrepreneur  looks like as I write this: Right away, you can see 4 questions: What should I give my founder? (talking about shares of a business) How should you sell a (lifestyle) business that’s generating significant revenue How do you get sponsors for an event? How do you generate passive income? Tip: You only want to pay attention to questions if the thread has a decent score (the number on the left). A higher score indicates that many people in the subreddit have a similar question and are interested in a solution. Now we can generate content ideas based on these questions: The Definitive Guide to Dividing a Business Among Cofounders A Step-By-Step Guide to Selling Your Lifestyle Business A Simple Process to Get Sponsors for Your Next Event (with examples) X Ways Your Can Generate Passive Income: The Complete List If those posts were well written and posted in that same subreddit, they’d get hundreds of views. Skip any problem if you can’t come up with a â€Å"solution† to create. However, remember that solving the toughest problems usually bring the greatest rewards. At this point, just add every question you see to a list (simple text file, spreadsheet, etc.). Additionally, look in the comments of each thread for followup questions. The top level comments will usually be answers to the original question. But the ones that reply to those comments are often questions. For example, from the above thread about passive income: There’s 4 more questions right there: How do you get physical products manufactured? How do you go from prototype to finished product? Should you build your own homepage or hire a developer? (to extend that - how do you hire a developer for business?) What are the most important skills to have in starting a new business When you reach the bottom of the subreddit page, go to the next one...then the next one...and so on until you have a list of hundreds of questions. This might take an hour or two, but batching it all upfront will be most efficient. Next, come up with different solutions (topic ideas) for each problem. If you can come up with a few different angles, that’s great. If you feel that some solutions are too basic or not worth creating content about, just skip them. After all, you should have hundreds more. Approach #2: Find the Keywords (If You Know Your Audience Well) This is an approach that works well if you’re also trying to drive search traffic. With the first approach, you may or may not have a good keyword to target in your content, but here you will for sure. There are 3 main steps to do this. Go Through Threads and Write Down Potential Keywords Start by heading back to your relevant subreddit(s). While you can leave the threads in the default order, I recommend sorting by â€Å"top†, and then â€Å"of all time†: Now, go through each thread and write down phrases that could be good keywords to target. This includes both the title and comments in each thread. Don’t worry if the keyword might not be great, we’ll filter out the bad ones later. Here’s an example of the current top post on r/Entrepreneur of all time: There 3 obvious long tail phrases in the opening post that might be worth targeting: â€Å"SEO tutorial for beginners† â€Å"Making money from an affiliate site† â€Å"How to get authority sites ranking† Don’t expect to find hundreds per thread, but you can usually find 5-10 (sometimes some duplicates). From one of the comments, I quickly found another one that appears promising: Again, you want to build up a massive pile of these keywords in a text list or spreadsheet before moving on. If you need a target number, look to get at least 200 or so to start. Recommended Reading: How to Improve Your Keyword Research With Latent Semantic Indexing Run Your Keyword Ideas Through a Keyword Tool A lot of those keywords that we just found will have very little, or no actual search volume. Now that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t target them. You could still rank for similar variations that do in fact have some search volume. However, we want to be sure so that you don’t waste your time. This step involves running those keywords through a keyword tool. You can use any tool you’d like. For the examples below, I’ve used Term Explorer. You can do 1 of 2 things: See if the exact phrase match for each keyword has a search volume Get related keyword suggestions based on each keyword (recommended) The second option ensures you'll find any close variants that have actual search volumes. I ran those 4 quick keywords that I found, and it turns out that only one of those has any exact search volume in the U.S.: You’ll find that happens a lot, which is why I recommend starting with a big list. However, most keyword tools will also produce close variants that do actually have search volumes. For example, Term Explorer also found: search engine optimization tutorial - 500 searches per month seo for beginners - 500 searches per month how to make money with affiliate marketing - 500 searches per month hire seo expert - 500 searches per month Keep in mind the relatively recent Google Keyword Planner update  that doesn’t give exact volumes (i.e. 100-1000). It looks like Term Explorer is just taking an average value. These aren’t amazing keywords, but they’re not bad. If you have a large starting of keywords, you will find at least a few excellent keywords to target directly. Keep in mind that all this is different than just plugging in a few broad niche keywords into a keyword tool. You won’t stumble upon most of these keywords using that lazy method. This lets you avoid a lot of the competition who all go after the same, easy-to-find keywords. Base Content Off of Those Keywords Eventually you’ve found keywords mentioned on Reddit and search engines. These keywords allow you to naturally get traffic through multiple channels. Keywords are even easier to turn into content ideas that having to think of a solution to a problem. From above, you might think of: A Step-by-Step Search Engine Optimization Tutorial SEO Simplified: SEO for Beginners That Produces Quick Results The Comprehensive Guide on How to Make Money With Affiliate Marketing Want to Hire an SEO Expert?  Here’s How to Not Get Burned For the most part, keywords lend themselves to straightforward titles. Here's how to turn keywords from Reddit into awesome content ideas:Optional:  Automate This Process Using the Reddit Keyword Research Tool As a developer, I had a huge problem with this approach. I liked the results, but it took several hours (not exaggerating) per month to just research the keywords. So eventually, I built an automated solution that you can also use if you’d like. The tool scrapes threads and comments in a subreddit, pulls out keywords, and checks search volume. All you need to do is find your subreddit, and then plug it into Keyworddit: I ran it with the default settings, except setting â€Å"relevance† to â€Å"high†. It produced a list of 155 keywords scraped from the subreddit that actually have search volume. Automate keyword research with this free #reddit keyword tool built by @DaleCudmore:Out of these, there are still some junk keywords. But, there are also several that I wouldn't have found before. Then, just create content ideas like we did above. I’d encourage you to plug in the best of these keywords into another keyword tool to get even more ideas. Recommended Reading: How to Write a Blog Post: Your 5-Point Checklist to Write a Perfect Post This is the Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts This is the Best Way to Write Catchy Blog Titles Approach #3: Find What Works and Make It Better For the sake of completeness, I’m including this approach. This will be brief, however, because it’s nothing new. Essentially, it’s the Skyscraper Technique  approach. The basic idea is to: Find popular content Make similar content, but make it way better Step 1: Find popular content. Step 2: Make similar content, but make it way better.It definitely works. If an audience liked the original content, of course they will like a much improved version. To do this, again sort your subreddit by â€Å"top†. You can choose between â€Å"All time† and â€Å"Past year† depending on how fast your niche changes over time. You won’t be able to improve every thread. Sometimes you don’t have the knowledge or experience to do so. From above, I’ve identified 2 opportunities for improvement. Original: 37 Tactics I used to grow my company to $50k/month in sales without spending a penny on marketing. Improvement: 85 Tactics you can use to grow your business’ sales without spending a penny on marketing (with proof they work!). Original: How startups such as Dropbox, Airbnb, Groupon and others acquired their first users. Improvement: I studied how Dropbox, Airbnb, and 50 Other Top Startups Got Their First Users: Here Is How They Did It. You have some flexibility in how you improve upon it: Make it longer (more in-depth) Make it â€Å"better† (better writing, graphics, maybe offer video/images) As long as you’ve maintained the core idea, it’s going to do well. Whenever I’ve done this, it’s always surpassed the score of the original thread. Editor's Tip: Store Your Ideas in Once you've generated some awesome blog ideas using Reddit, you'll need somewhere to keep track of them. There are two easy ways to do this in :1. Drop your ideas directly onto your content calendar: 2. Use the Unscheduled Drafts folder to save them for later: Start Generating Better Blog Ideas With Reddit Reddit isn’t the only place to get content ideas, but it’s a great  one to have in your repertoire. There’s a never-ending supply of content ideas for almost every niche. I encourage you to use all 3 approaches so that you can have a huge number of blog topic ideas to work with. One last thing to keep in mind is that not all ideas you get from these approaches will be great. It’s up to you to have high standards of what you actually move forward with and produce.

Agreemnet Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Agreemnet - Personal Statement Example d genuine differences among people to rapidly spiral out of control, further destroying the team’s interpersonal relationships (Griffith & Goodwin, 2012). As such, it is important to adopt positive approaches towards resolving conflicts, whereby discussions and exchanges are courteous, active listening occurs and the focus is on issues instead of individuals. Significantly, it is important to accord parties in the conflict the benefit of doubt since making assumptions and apportioning blame without hard evidence might further aggravate the conflict. Collaboration is another tactic that may be effective in addressing Manuel’s case of conflict. Since in this case job dissatisfaction and unfair pay seem to be the triggers for conflict, it is important to gather all involved parties to brainstorm for possible solutions solution that are mutually beneficial. However, this will only occur after Manuel is able to come to terms with his personal issues. This is because in order for collaboration to be effective in resolving conflict, compromise must occur whereby individuals relinquish their hard stand to find the middle ground. Consequently, Manuel may not be able to compromise if he has not come to terms with his issues and role in the conflict. The ability to compromise will also be helpful in negotiating for the appropriate solution since Manuel will have understood clearly the position of the company and his colleagues and vice

Classical Opera and Popular Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Classical Opera and Popular Music - Essay Example The combination of sound and rhythm are particularly important in music as they enable people to relate to music and drive out the desired intention. Historically, music has been used to make life lively, entertain people and pass messages to the community. Music has gone through stages from the simple forms of art to the complex technologies that are used today to come to compose and record songs. This paper will discuss the evolution of music from the classical opera style to the modern popular music, and elaborate on the similarities and differences of the two music forms. Classical opera was introduced by the Greek and Roman societies, and was related to their scientific and cultural practices of the time. During this time, there were no inventions in drama and music (Naxos). However, religion and tradition had great influence on music of the day since during occasions related to the two there were performances that highlighted music. Classical opera is a form of art that incorpo rates lots of orchestral, lyrical and theatre techniques. Classical opera evolved over time and combined dissimilar genres to be become a form of music. Although it was performed on stage by using the stage, acting and costumes, the words in the operas were sung in order to make the audience more attentive so that they could get the message being passed and enjoy the performance. In classical operas, there existed two forms of singing, recitative and aria types of dialogue. Recitative operas consisted of harmonic conversation that was not accompanied by melody and the aim of this singing was coming up with a plot. Aria reefers to music that was accompanied with a melody and emotional attachments meant to capture the eyes and ears of the audience. In the early nineteenth century, the two forms were joined to form the arioso style, which combined melody and singing. Another component of opera is musical accompaniment, which was used to set the mood for the performance, and this enable d the audience to connect the scenes in the opera. Classical Opera music first came into existence from performances called ‘intermedi’, which were started to celebrate important events such as weddings or holidays (TheatreHistory). The performances were accompanied by simple musical accompaniments that had single lines of melody for catching the attention of the audience. This practice was known as monody and had originated from a prior style known as madrigal, which was a form of singing that used a polyphonic strategy but became outdated. The performances of this age of opera were undermined by some irrelevant scenes, and this stunted advancement of drama and music. A German composer, Christophe Gluck came in to help people fix music into lyrics and he played a significant role in the advancement of opera. This made performances to be dramatic since there was a relation between the performance and the musical background. This purged the recitative opera and music was used for expression. One of Gluck’s compositions was the Orfeo ed Euridice, which was a tragic based mythology from Greece that is still performed in cinemas today (Fuller). In this composition, he made action important in performance since they could help people associate with the scenes. The audiences were prepared for the later scenes from the preceding scenes and this significantly improved drama. The other famous opera is the Magic Flute in which singing was accompanied by dialogue, and this enabled

Activity Based Cost accounting system Math Problem

Activity Based Cost accounting system - Math Problem Example In this case study, the supporting excel computations show that overhead using the traditional cost accounting procedure resulted only P137,994.00 for Lever, P22,079.04 for Spring, and finally P 16,559.28 for pump products. Total manufacturing cost also under the traditional or old fashioned cost accounting procedure resulted to the usual Direct Materials cost of the products P 510,000.00 for Lever, P163,200.00 for Spring, and P 139,200.00 for Pump. Another accounting cost for resulting from the Traditional Cost Accounting procedure is the Regular item Direct labor of P 2,160,000.00 for Lever, P163,200.00 for Spring and again P16,560.00 for Pump. The total manufacturing cost under the Traditional method is the sum of Direct Materials, Direct labor and Overhead. P2,807,994.00 for Lever, P348,479.04 for Spring, and finally P 172,319.28 for pump products. Under the Activity Based Costing, The first cost driver is called VOLUME DRIVER showing amount of P 286,000.00 for Lever, P45,760.00 for Spring and P 34,320.00 for Pump. Another driver in this systems is the PURCHASING DRIVER. The purchasing cost for Lever products is P 14,810,000.00 and P2,369,600 for Spring and, the last item, P 1,777,200.00 for Pump. The next driver is the SET UP driver. Set up driver cost are P 38,533,000.00 and P 6,165,280.00 for Spring and of course P 4,623,960.00 for the last item, Pump. The cost drivers are higher than the total manufacturing cost of the traditional cost accounting system. In this new system, the cost factors can easily be traced to determine what the effects of these costs are to over all manufacturing operations. Some cost activities that will not help in the manufacturing process but sometimes, their costs are included in the factory cost of production in error. The Purchasing cost driver will display if the inventory cost is too high or too low or even unnoticed thus affecting the decision making process of management. Traditional Cost Accounting Direct Materials Lever (100,000

You chose Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

You chose - Essay Example The disaster evolved, as a result of, two basic factors. Seemingly, the hurricane itself and the collapse of the levees that protected the city were built below the sea level. These aspects made Katrina a more complex natural disaster to fight leading to industrial disaster, evacuation challenges, widespread of poisonous pollution, persistent flooding and unprecedented public concerns regarding human safety. The protection against the Katrina is reflected to start with the weather forecasting team early 2005. The meteorologists warned people surrounding the Gulf Coast region to evacuate the region. Additionally, the National Weather Service was concerned in that it warned people that after the storm the area will be uninhabitable hence it advised people for looking alternative places to reside until it was over. The protection efforts by the federal government were seen to be executed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. People in the New Orleans were to evacuate and seek for new shelter. However, the government had allowed some of the population that could not leave the town immediately to occupy the Morial Complex. Jointly, FEMA officials and an emergency-preparedness contractor advised FEMA that the evacuation process was not effective as it lacked sufficient transportation for the large population. There are different techniques that FEMA and other relevant authorities adopted for the mitigation process for the Katrina Hurricane. For instance, the University of Mississippi adopted the radio-controlled warning systems that warned of the Tornado. FEMA addressed and initiated Diamondhead homes in the Coastal regions that could prevent the people from future floods and injuries. It included a reinforced and laminated beams along the ceilings enhanced the roofs’ capability to anchor themselves. After such an event, the constructions of the houses in the affected areas were subjected to the International Residential

Review of Cornel West's Malcolm X and Black Rage for a college-age Essay

Review of Cornel West's Malcolm X and Black Rage for a college-age audience - Essay Example The issues of cultural hybridity, psychic conversation, authoritarian organizations, black supremacy, boundaries and borders in sexuality and other issues looms large in the present society. West states that, ‘ In order to build the best out of Malcolm X’ s ideologies, we must expand and preserve the notion of psychic conversion that cement the groups and networks in which black community, care, love, humanity and concerns grows and take root (West, 170). West has employed pathos, ethos and logos to make his message persuasive to the readers. Cornel west tries to clarify how Malcolm’s Black rage was not only directed to the white population but also to the black Americans, minds. He explains that Malcolm’s psychic conversation will promote blacks to appreciate and love their self worth and culture. Malcolm X was a revolutionary figure and anti-thesis of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi who utilized non-violent ideologies to achieve the same goals as his predecessors. He wanted to put an end to the oppression that targeted the black people. West describes Malcolm X as an ideological leader for the black radicalism including Black Nationalism (collective actions and institutional building), black religion (morality and spirituality), socialism (justice/ freedom and anti-imperialism) as well as panafricanism (internationalism and identity) (West, 172). Malcolm X’s deep pessimism targeted the possibility and the capability of the white Americans to shade their racism led him to downplay the present and past bonds between the whites and the black people. West explains that Malcolm ideologies focused on freedoms of the black population even though he was aware that the majority of the population was racist. Malcolm X questioned the American democracy stating that it had made the black people non citizen. Ideally, constitutional

Question 33 & 34 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Question 33 & 34 - Essay Example From this, criminologists developed the term victim precipitation, which refers to murders that result from provocations by the victims. People act on purpose, before doing something; one makes a decision a process that involves the effective coordination of all the senses within the human system. It therefore becomes practically impossible to kill strangers or people, one can be a stranger but his murderer must obtain some prior information maybe from his contractor incases where one is paid to kill the other. In brief, Wolfman argued that murders result from interactions and the actions of the victims. Some murder victims instigate the conflicts that eventually result in their deaths (Simon &Yochanan, 1996). Tedeschi and Richard Felson who avow that the interaction between the victim of murder and his murder is normally to blame borrow the ideas of Wolfman to develop the theory of coercive actions. School bullies are among a group of victims who purposely coerce others into violent attack that may result in their own deaths. The two asserts that in violent attacks, males are normally more likely to injure their victims while females more likely to be the victims. To this, they allude that gender is never a determinant of the violent attacks but physical strength is (Zachary, Patricia &Paul, 1994). With the understanding that people engage in crimes purposely, Ronald Clarke and Derek Cornish developed the rational choice theory, which assert that people make decision to engage in crimes after considering a number of factors. One of these is the need to maximize pleasure and minimize pain (Zachary, Patricia &Paul, 1994). According to this theory, people engage in crimes that are likely to maximize benefits for them, such crimes on the other hand should present as minimal risks as possible, the benefits thus constitute the pleasure while the absence of risks infers to the reduced pain. Additionally, people are more motivated to engage in criminal

Review of Cornel West's Malcolm X and Black Rage for a college-age Essay

Review of Cornel West's Malcolm X and Black Rage for a college-age audience - Essay Example The issues of cultural hybridity, psychic conversation, authoritarian organizations, black supremacy, boundaries and borders in sexuality and other issues looms large in the present society. West states that, ‘ In order to build the best out of Malcolm X’ s ideologies, we must expand and preserve the notion of psychic conversion that cement the groups and networks in which black community, care, love, humanity and concerns grows and take root (West, 170). West has employed pathos, ethos and logos to make his message persuasive to the readers. Cornel west tries to clarify how Malcolm’s Black rage was not only directed to the white population but also to the black Americans, minds. He explains that Malcolm’s psychic conversation will promote blacks to appreciate and love their self worth and culture. Malcolm X was a revolutionary figure and anti-thesis of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi who utilized non-violent ideologies to achieve the same goals as his predecessors. He wanted to put an end to the oppression that targeted the black people. West describes Malcolm X as an ideological leader for the black radicalism including Black Nationalism (collective actions and institutional building), black religion (morality and spirituality), socialism (justice/ freedom and anti-imperialism) as well as panafricanism (internationalism and identity) (West, 172). Malcolm X’s deep pessimism targeted the possibility and the capability of the white Americans to shade their racism led him to downplay the present and past bonds between the whites and the black people. West explains that Malcolm ideologies focused on freedoms of the black population even though he was aware that the majority of the population was racist. Malcolm X questioned the American democracy stating that it had made the black people non citizen. Ideally, constitutional

HR info system Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HR info system - Assignment Example Some of the benefits include improving management skills, whereby the Human Resource Manager can use technology to evaluate employee performance. Different people can easily get access to their work schedules using online services. However, technology can influence people negatively thus affecting their performance especially when there is poor communication (Lee, 2008). 2) This week, lets explore the web to learn more about employee development. Take a look at the follow two links, the first is an article about employment development and the second is an application specializing in employee development: Strengthen Your Business by Developing Your Employees The Halogen Software is a talent based management system meant to improve worker performance within an organization (Halogen Software Inc., 2014). It mainly reinforces worker performance by providing an organization with talent developing schedules, comprising of hiring, execution management process, acquiring new skills and training, succession development or payment. The business’s inventions include appraisal that handle performance response and differentiation, assess abilities, create execution appraisals and progressive techniques, direct goals and intentions, and maintain staffs talent reports. The software has the e360 Multirater, which manages feedback of implementation, as well as performance of workers (Halogen Software Inc., 2014). Finally, the software entails online learning manager that incorporates training and performance within an organization. There are two main types of training development process that employees use within their organization, which are in job training and out of job training (Lee, 2008). They are usually achieved by providing an environment that facilitates proper learning and training tracked by management software within an organization like the Halogen Software that has several components described above, and can

The Five Management Functions Essay Example for Free

The Five Management Functions Essay The subject of this reflective paper is regarding the most critical organizational management functions. Critical management functions sit at the core of any organization and steer its leaders, managers, and employees toward success by utilizing the people and resources in the most effective manner. My intent is for the reader to be enlightened of how I helped manage a Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) company by implementing some of the same leadership and management methods from our Management 330 college course. Though many of the Theories from the text book are very valuable, I believe some the information is very vague and somewhat common sense in nature. In my opinion, I don’t believe Mark Zuckerburg, Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, Mark Cuban, or Donald Trump used these EXACT theories of management to become successful owners of businesses and organizations. Think of how the main points and sub-headings pertain to your current job or another job you have held in the past. My personal examples provide a simplistic version that proves with the right planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling, a tiny HVAC company could become an even larger success than what the owner had initially hoped for. Enjoy! The Planning Function Upon retirement from the USAF and a short term of employment at Sandia National Laboratories, I was hired to manage a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) company. I was not very familiar with HVAC systems, but as a home owner I knew enough about them that I was comfortable in that type of environment. The owner of the company seldom communicated with the HVAC technicians because he wanted them out of the shop and either on their way to the job site or at the job site no later than 8:00 a. m. The company had seven HVAC technicians, an accountant and me, the company manager. A few of my daily tasks were to maintain the weekly service call, maintenance, and installation schedules. This required extensive planning and communication with the technicians. As the manager, I was responsible for enforcing the owner’s company goals then motivate the employees to reach those goals via several courses of action. I used a variety of planning activities to include bi-weekly staff meetings, reviewing internal and external factors such as employee’s scheduled vacations, budget statuses, job site locations, and the weekly weather forecast. I also had to take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of our employees. Some technicians had more experience and education than others, so I had to match jobs with installers or service technicians. There were some jobs our company was not qualified to do, such as electrical installation and hook up. None of our technicians were licensed electricians, which was a handicap for the organization. If a job required electrical installation or upgrade, I would coordinate with one of our electrical sub-contractors to ensure they could be on the job site when the equipment was ready for electrical hook up and start up. Our accountant was responsible for all aspects of receiving and distributing monetary resources to complete the company’s goals. One of the many challenges we faced was keeping informed of the government incentives for households to install more efficient heating and cooling systems. We were in constant communication with our system vendors to get the latest and greatest government rebates and installation incentives and deadlines. Economic and technological changes were another challenge because we had to stay abreast of new and emerging heating and cooling systems to stay competitive in the HVAC industry. Planning for an organization occurs with some degree of uncertainty because the end result is somewhat unknown. As the manager, I sometimes had to take certain risks with company resources to succeed in a job completion strategy. The Five Functions of Effective Management; Introduction to Management: Achieving Form through Function, Chapter 1, Page 15). Even though this company was relatively small with less than 10 employees, the same planning fundamentals applied to that of a major employer or organization. The Organizing Function When the owner of the company had new tasks or company goals, I was always his go-to person to ensure the visions and processes he demanded were successful. Our task and authority relationship (The Five Functions of Effective Management; Introduction to Management: Achieving Form through Function, Chapter 1, Page 15). as always very professional because we worked together to achieve the organization’s goals. Another important responsibility I was delegated was to decide the best way to organize the company’s resources. The owner usually determined the actual job requirements, what specifically needed to be done, and who he wanted doing the job(s). My role was to inform him of each employee’s status, who was available, who was qualified, etc. , The Staffing Function As an Information Technology geek by trade, my experience with the human resources and staffing functions was limited. During my Air Force career, I was not able to choose who I wanted in my work center. It was my decision as to who would supervise who, but the hiring/firing and interviewing functions were pretty much non-existent in the military; you get who is allocated toward a specific vacancy, get the person trained, press on with the mission, and mold your troops to become leaders in their own right. If they mess up along the way, you reprimand them and hope they learn from their mistakes. As the HVAC company manager, staffing was also delegated to me. Even with my lack of human resource experience, the owner wanted his manager to do the recruiting, selecting, evaluating, and hiring of employees. (The Five Functions of Effective Management; Introduction to Management: Achieving Form through Function, Chapter 1, Page 16). The Leading Function I was taught that to become a truly effective leader you must first be an effective follower and subordinate. I have been on both sides of the leading/following roles and know what it is like to be the low person on the totem pole or the â€Å"boss† making the tough decisions. A key element when trying to motivate individuals to accomplish goals is to present clear tasks to those completing the organizations actual goals. The owner and I would constantly encourage our technicians to be great at what they do, not just be good at what they do, and that if they needed anything from us we were always available for support and mentoring. My boss had a tendency to get a bit excited and raise his voice when something didn’t go as planned. Once he calmed down, he and I were able to sit at the conference table to sort out the events that led to an unsatisfied customer or a derogatory employee internal issue. I would open up the conversation with an open mind and allow the employee(s) to take their time to explain what went wrong or why a customer was dissatisfied. After listening to what had actually occurred, the situation was discussed thoroughly, and a plan of action to remedy the issue was agreed upon by all parties, I could always sense an increase of personal commitment to the organization. The Control Function After a few weeks as manager of the company, I noticed the technicians did not provide customer satisfaction/feedback forms to our customers. I asked the boss about how he receives feedback from our customers and he told me that if there is a problem someone will call you and then you can report the problem to me. I asked how he received positive feedback from a job well done or when an employee goes above and beyond the norm to satisfy a customer. He told me that the employee would just tell him that their customers were very pleased with their service. That didn’t seem like a very accurate customer service measuring tool so I suggested we implement an easy, effective, and yet â€Å"voluntary† customer feedback system. My idea was the next time we needed to order our company invoices, to have the printing contractor add a portion to the customer’s copy where the customer could fill in the survey/feedback form and mail it, fax it or e-mail their comments to me and the owner. Then, we would hold a monthly drawing from our customer feedback file, and one of our customers would receive free merchandise, such as a pocket knife with our company name and logo, a free HVAC inspection, free furnace filters, or a free spring or fall start-up of heating or cooling services. After 30 days, the feedback forms, e-mails, and phone calls increased our customer relations by over 80 percent and business increased by over 25%! Within a matter of 90 days we had established an excellent customer service standard, and an employee performance metric that was created by external factors, not biased internal performance ratings. The owner was impressed with the new system and began to reward employees with free lunches, new tools, use of company vehicles (which helped with advertising), paid time off, and other tokens of his appreciation for a job well done.

The Importance of Psychotherapy and Medication in the Treatment of Buli

The Importance of Psychotherapy and Medication in the Treatment of Bulimia Nervosa This researched argument is on the disorder of bulimia nervosa. The reason behind my writing about the topic of bulimia is because my sister suffers from it and I want to know how to help her. I also would like to be able to share the information I obtained while doing my research. I want to argue the importance of having both psychotherapy and medication in the treatment for the people afflicted with this serious health disorder. Society needs to be altered by the media and educated about the disorders of bulimia and other disorders that are associated with eating problems. Hopefully my essay will inform you about the health dangers and complications caused by bulimia. I also want to readers of my essay to be able to gain a deep understanding for how bulimic individuals are victims and how they are suffering with this disorder. Maybe, if more people are informed about bulimia nervosa, then the number of people suffering from this ailment will lessen. In recent years, an awareness of the negative impact of the media icons on society is extremely apparent in today's youth. Countless numbers of individuals, the majority being women, try to obtain the "ideal" body images viewed everywhere. However, this idealized image is not a realistic one. The terms "Barbie doll syndrome", "yo-yo dieting", "bulimia", and "anorexia" are commonly talked about. Unfortunately, the words are the labels for some serious disorders that have dangerous affects and sometimes lead to the death of many individuals. People in today ¹s society have idea that bulimia, or any other eating disorder, will not affect them. These people are totally wrong to think in such a m... ...e body they want, but then after that moment they can not control their weight and keep on losing more weight. Pictures of half-dead, overly skinny people should be shown to society for everyone to be able to view first hand what the end product of bulimia looks like. That the goal of the bulimic is to be thin and attractive, but the reality is that they become ugly and sickly looking. Is this the life anyone really wants to live? Works Cited 1. Fairburn CG, Overcoming binge eating, New York: Guilford, 1995. 2. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, May 1995 v17 n4 p323(7). 3.the international journal of eating disorders, July 1997 v22 n1 p1(13). 4. Behavior Research and Therapy, March 1996 v34 n3 p197(16), Author G. Tarence Wilson. 5. Patient care, November 15, 1995 v29 n18 p101(3). 6. The Addiction Letter, May 1995 v 11 n5 p7(1).

Personal Narrative- Random Story About my Life :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

Personal Narrative- Random Story About my Life One of them was that I was on my journey with someone. I was on the journey with my boyfriend Dusty whom I have been with for four years. I am more like myself when I am with someone, especially Dusty, than when I am by myself. I do think that spending time with just yourself is a waste of time. You should just be out talking to people because who knows when that dreaded day of death will come. I think that you should just seize the moment and spend time with people. When I am by myself, I am quiet and withdrawn, but when I am with people, I talk up a storm and have a fun time just being me. I donÕt hold things back or try to act like someone IÕm not. Another similarity was when I was talking about the rocks. This is what I said. ÒOh my gosh, we just ran into a huge cave filled with rocks. There are rocks everywhere. It is like a rock country. I can not believe it. There are small rocks, big rocks, pretty rocks, ugly rocks, thin rocks, and fat rocks. It is so amazing. There are rocks on top of the cave that are starting to bother me, they are very big, and they do not look too steady up there. I do not know about those. I tell Dusty and Duke to get away from there because I donÕt want them to get hurt if the rocks were to fall. Duke does not want to listen; he tries to climb up the side of the cave to get a better look at the rocks on top. As he goes up, one of the rocks he is on begins to fall. Duke falls with it and he is not moving. Dusty goes over and shakes him and thank god he is alright.Ó I think that this describes exactly how I deal with problems and how I see problems in my life. I always see them as these am azing ordeals and they often scare me. Then something will happen and I will think that it is going to be the end of the world, and then everything turns out to be just fine in the end. The last thing was when we were all in the garden and this was describing my childhood.

Media and Juvenile Delinquency

Mass media refers to the impersonal channels used to disseminate information to the public.   The information is meant for public consumption and not for personal consumption.   There are a number of channels used which include radio, newspaper, motion pictures and television.   Media is used mostly to portray cultural values and beliefs through the articles and programmes contained in them. (Travis, 2000)   For instance, through the media, national public days are aired; local shows with local touch are aired, as well as sports programs.   In addition, some societal values regarding patriotism, religious and motherhood are shown.Some sub-cultural patterns that have to do with the policeman, business executive or juvenile delinquency are shown via the media to all the people of the community or the mass society.Right from young age to the old age, the members of society are frequently bombarded by the type of stimuli which is presented in a number of mass media. (Travis, 20 00) Mass media’s perverseness is usually reflected in the statistics which are in circulation.   Studies have shown that around 5.000,000 copies if television guides are sold every week and millions of people have access to newspapers. (Joseph, 1975)From this wide dissemination of these articles, the social scientists and the laymen have become interested to find out what type of consequences those media have on human behavior and especially the children.   To be more specific, most parents have deep desire to find out the impact some books on crime and movie dramas have on young children. (Michael, 1999)On the other hand, the advertisers want to find out if their products advertised on the media are selling or not.   Unfortunately, there have been very little scientific studies of the specific impact of mass media on how they motivate humans.   Paul Lazarsfeld, an outstanding researcher on the effect of mass media on the behavior of human, gave his testimony and pres ented it before senate subcommittee in charge of investigating Juvenile delinquency.   He reported that very little is known concerning the kind of impact media has on young children.(Travis 2000)   He therefore appealed for more scientific research to be done to replace impressionistic evidence which has been quoted by some lay individuals. (Joseph, 1975)The Effects Media Has On Juvenile DelinquencyMedia has been accused many times of contributing to the juvenile delinquency.   The lawlessness which is more prevalent among the young people is mostly associated with media.   There are no restrictions placed on the youth and therefore they can access books, television programs, and pornographic magazines at will.   As a result, their way of thinking and acting has been seriously affected. (Rodney, 1990) For instance, action packed movies; detective programs which are full of crimes have a way of training young people on the effective ways of robbery, violence and murder.As a result so many cases have been received regarding youth who have been arrested for committing robbery.   There has been an increase to the crime content, sadism, horror as well as brutality in most comic books, motion pictures and television programs.(Robert, 2001)   The three types of media according to most critics deserve special attention.   They also served as a special focus for senate subcommittee in charge of investigating juvenile delinquency from the year 1954 to 1956. (Michael, 1999)Television, radio, comic books and motion pictures films have been named as significant factors contributing to juvenile delinquency.   The presentation of horror, crime and sequences of brutality is imputed in movies and more so by the lay observers, to be partly to blame for the current juvenile delinquency. (Rodney, 1990) Other effects are moral decadence as a result of watching pornographic movies and reading pornographic magazines.Many young people can be found at the brothels a nd others acts of prostitution.   There are so many dancing styles which have come as a result of the media influence, which can also be called ‘dirty dancing styles’. (Joseph, 1975)The values which have been traditionally believed in no longer matter, whatever young people see on TV are what they tend to believe in more. (Michael, 1999)According top early delinquency researchers, they were only interested with the effect the motion pictures had on the youth.   Cyril Burt made a report around 1925 that approximately eight percent of the delinquent boys had deep interests in motion pictures.   Burt’s report in the film reveals the techniques used to commit crimes as well as crimes which have been positively advertised.   Other studies on delinquents were made by Bronner and Healy. (Rodney, 1990)According to their study regarding non delinquents and delinquents in Boston and Detroit around the 1930, they revealed that the largest number of delinquents were frequent attendees of movies and films. (Michael, 1999) There were reports however, that very small number of delinquents had imitated the techniques used to commit crimes that they had seen on screens.   From the way Bronner and Healy treated movies in their studies the conclusion to be made is that they dismissed films as inconsequential as far as juvenile delinquency is concerned. (Robert, 2001)Other studies were done by Hauser and Blumer, on the impact the films and motion pictures had on juvenile delinquency.   The studies were conducted under auspices of Payne Fund for a period of four years from 1929-1932.   The studies were done by psychologists and sociologists from the university and their aim was to establish the impact motion pictures had on children’s psychological, physical and social behavior. (Rodney, 1990) The most interesting study about delinquency made by Bulmer and Hauser (Sociologists) was from entitled delinquency, movies and crime. (Joseph, 1975) The focus was on the role of motion pictures in the careers of female and male delinquents as well as criminals.   The impact of films on inmates in the rehabilitation centers and non-delinquents girls and boys was also made.   The findings however, were definitive and conclusive and should not be dismissed as rough estimations.   (Michael, 1999)It was obvious that individuals will always perceive the content in the film and make interpretations of the meaning based on the experiences they have had previously on socialization as well as the unique personality they have. (Michael, 1999)   Motion pictures therefore exert effects described as antithetical.   The conventional behavior while in some, they may be more inclined to participate in crime and delinquency.   (Rodney, 1990)According to Blumer and Hauser, the effect of movies, TV program and other media cannot be studied without studying the people watching them.     There is always an interaction between the cont ent of the film and those viewing them. (Joseph, 1975) Blumer further said that films were a significant factor in delinquent and criminal careers of around 10% of males and 25% of females studied.   To conclude their studies, Blumer and Hauser observed that those kids who are more exposed to movies are more inclined to delinquent behavior. (Robert, 2001)A study was made by Paul Cressey on the effect of media on the juvenile delinquency.   He made conclusions which were opposing those ones of Hauser and Blumer.   His study was made in New York City believed to be high delinquency area.   After making a number of observations under conditions which were controlled, Cressey made the conclusion that movies and motion pictures lacked appreciable effect on juvenile delinquency. (Michael, 1999)ConclusionIt is obvious that media has influenced the behavior of the youth in so many ways.   The dressing styles and hip hop styles are largely influenced by the media.   The situation has been made worse by the number of channels that are currently accessible in the comfort of one’s living room.   Regardless of the perspectives that are given by the researchers, we can also make our own observations and narrate our own personal experiences. (Joseph, 1975)First hand information is gotten from the media.   Wrestling techniques are also received from the television.   Despite the warnings that media gives its audience such as ‘not suitable for a person below 15,18 or 20 years’ it is still not adequate to keep off the youth. (Rodney, 1990) Even airing these programs very late at night is still not enough, because some kids stay up late.   It is the moral obligation of the media to censor programs being aired or air only those shows which cannot affect the youth negatively. (Michael, 1999)This move will go along way in reducing the juvenile delinquency currently witnessed and especially at homes.   Children have disrespected their parent s and use vulgar language without understanding the implications. (Michael, 1999) The overuse of derogatory remarks and crazy styles of dressing have made the world difficult to live in.   The erosion of moral values and failure of media to give us the role models who can be emulated by the children has largely contributed to juvenile delinquency. (Joseph, 1975)There is no middle ground.The fact of the matter is juvenile delinquency is made worse by the motion pictures among other types of media. (Travis, 2000) Talk show should replace programs which are full of scenes of violence so that virtues and societal values can be inculcated among the youth.However, we cannot deny that media has had positive impact in terms of the news channels and a host of other entertainment programs but it may not earn credit that it deserves if more of the programs that impact negatively on the youth continue to be aired. (Michael, 1999)The mass media should therefore present to the audience and the public at large, particularistic cultural norms.   There should also be other forms of recreational facilities and thus the children would not be so much into TV. (Rodney, 1990)The internet which has also become a vital part of media should also be censored since the youth can access any information they want and hence controlling juvenile delinquency has become increasingly challenging.   A better society is achievable if measures are taken to reduce juvenile delinquency, through censoring information disseminated by media. (Michael, 1999)ReferencesJoseph, S. (1975) Juvenile Delinquency, Ayer Company Publishers, 2nd EditionMichael, J. (1999) Age, Sex and the Versatility of Delinquent Involvement, Palgrave   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Press, US.Rodney, S. (1990) Deviant Places: A theory of the Ecology of Crime, Harvard Press, US.Robert, J. (2001) Social Disorganization and Theories of Crime and Delinquency, New York Publishers, US.Travis, H (2000) A Control Theory of Delinquency, Palgrave P ress, UK

Achieving Strategic Fit

Strategic fit express the degree to which an organization is matching its resources and capabilities with the opportunities in the external environment. The matching takes place through strategy and it is therefore vital that the company have the actual resources and capabilities to execute and support the strategy. Strategic fit can be used actively to evaluate the current strategic situation of a company as well as opportunities as M&A and divestitures of organizational divisions.Strategic fit is related to the Resource-based view of the firm which suggests that the key to profitability is not only through positioning and industry selection but rather through an internal focus which seeks to utilize the unique characteristics of the company’s portfolio of resources and capabilities. [1] A unique combination of resources and capabilities can eventually be developed into a competitive advantage which the company can profit from. However, it is important to differentiate betwee n resources and capabilities.Resources relate to the inputs to production owned by the company, whereas capabilities describe the accumulation of learning the company possesses. Resources can be classified both as tangible and intangible: Tangible: Financial (Cash, securities) Physical (Location, plant, machinery) Intangible: Technology (Patents, copyrights) Human resources Reputation (Brands) Culture Several tools have been developed one can use in order to analyze the resources and capabilities of a company.These include SWOT, value chain analysis, cash flow analysis and more. Benchmarking with relevant peers is a useful tool to assess the relative strengths of the resources and capabilities of the company compared to its competitors. Strategic fit can also be used to evaluate specific opportunities like M&A opportunities. Strategic fit would in this case refer to how well the potential acquisition fits with the planned direction (strategy) of the acquiring company. In order to ju stify growth through M&A transactions the transaction should ield a better return than Organic growth. The Differential Efficiency Theory states that the acquiring firm will be able increase its efficiency in the areas where the acquired firm is superior. In addition the theory argues that M&A transactions give the acquiring firm the possibility of achieving positive synergy effects meaning that the two merged companies are worth more together than the sums of their parts individually. [2] This is because merging companies may enjoy from economics of scale and economics of scope.However, in reality many M&A transactions fails due to different factors, one of them being lack of strategic fit. A CEO survey conducted by Bain & Company showed that 94% of the interviewed CEO’s considered the strategic fit to be vitally influential in the success or failure of an acquisition. [3] A high degree of strategic fit from can potentially yield many benefits for an organization. Best case scenario a high degree of strategic fit may be the key to a successful merger, an efficient organization, synergy effects or cost reductions.

Peace in Multicultural Society

A particular community of people living in a country or region, and having shared customs, laws, and organisations is called a society. In a society, people depend on each other for life. No society can exist without interdependence and this interdependence on each other has turned the world into a global village. Clashes start when there is differences in customs, laws and organisationswithin the same region or a country. Sometimes these differences become so severe that they become the cause of war and terror.Lack of tolerance, accommodation and patience lead a region and country toward devastation. Today there is great angst around the world and all peace-loving organisations, institutions, countries and human beings are unhappy because of increasing hatred and conflicts. Beside these, poverty, unemployment, insecurity and disasters both natural as well man made are the contributing factors to these problems. These all are because of cultural conflicts between human beings. Cultur e, supposed to flourish human life and provide entertainment, has become the cause of hatred by few extremists in society.We can never eliminate hatred, war and conflicts from our society. Human beings were created with war and conflicts as part of their nature but we can reduce these activities through sincere efforts and work on improving our society. For peace, the primary step is tolerance and accommodation and secondary is the exercise of great patience. This way one can ignore those who abuse your culture, religion or customs. All countries are contributing equally to the spread of hate and hatred. No religion on the surface of this Earth preaches hate.However, elements from all faiths are using grossly misinterpreted religious misinformation to spread extremism and terrorism. East is creating terrorists but the West is publishing offensive cartoons of Prophets. If someone in the East is disturbing the peace in this world, one should only punish the guilty not the whole societ y, region or country. The devilish elements should be blamed and punished for their wrong doings not the whole society or a particular culture or religion. Terrorism and torture of human beings are not allowed by any school of thought.Only a few elements in each society spread hate. Behind hate there are many reasons and here some are highlighted. Exercise of unwanted power of powerful countries against weak countries, clash between capitalism and labour, illegal confinement over other resources, supremacy of few nations and ineffectiveness of world organizations like UNO and others. Even well developed and civilized societies are involved in the disturbance of world peace. As a result, man on the one hand is proceeding toward globalization and on the other, he is creating distances between one another.Culture clash is the most dangerous and explosive reason for the destruction of World peace. For long time, we have claimed illiteracy behind the reason for war, terror and all evils in this world but today we have come to know and realise that in fact there is a serious lack of morality not lack of education behind the world's uncertainty. We torture human beings and in turn destroy their inner respect. The repercussions are retaliations, which are far more intense and inhumane.In third world countries like Pakistan there is feudal system operating in certain parts of the country and this system is inherited from the previous generations that cannot be eliminated easily because only these feudal lords can change the system but they would never want their supremacy to be demolished. Revolutions do not occur daily, they only come rarely, and without revolution, change in some societies is never possible. A common person in Third World countries cannot enter politics and only politicians can change the policies.The West needs work force and they want import of men as labour but they are not ready to share capitalism with labour. Trade of goods is liked by every co untry but countries are not ready for the exchange of art and technologies. If terrorist elements existed in Afghanistan what were the sin of all those innocent men, women and children who had been killed in war on terror? No rule and law of humanity allow us to ruin a nation and country because of one devil. There is great lack of justice, tolerance and accommodation around the world.As a result, the life of modest, peace loving and normal common person is disturbed. Peace is needed this time. Each country in this world is facing terrorism and world's approach toward terrorism is not advocated. If any incident takes place in India, it blames Pakistan for this and vice versa. West automatically blames Muslim countries for any terrorism that happens there. These baseless blames on each other not only increase rivalry between nations but also the real culprits take advantage of this situation and escape.Revival on policies over war on terror has become necessary. North and South, West and East are all suffering from these harsh elements and they should all untidily set a new policy to fight against terrorism. The killing of innocent people around the world has become a passion. It requires a very clear division of â€Å"What is private and what is public†. Religion is a private act of man and one must not interfere in any private matters. While public affairs, need to be handled at government level.If someone is bad in our surrounding, we must deal with those devils with an iron fist but within the circle of law. We must stop anyone in a society through dialogue from preaching hatred against any political party or school of thought and make them realise that they are doing wrong and disturbing the peace. This is not an easy job for any individual. Through local, national and international organisations, we can make this possible. In every society, there should be some organizations for the preaching of peace and love.Like in the tribal areas of Pakistan w here young children are brain-washed into becoming terrorist and suicide bombers so why can the government and national and international NGOs not make them civilized human being? What are they all doing and what are they spending those millions and billions of dollars on? As much as this world is spending on war on terror, if some of that money is spent on the preaching of peace we may be able to change the world in the coming years to some extent. Justice is the firmest pillar of a government.We must define public and private affairs and make sure that no one is allowed to interfere in the private activities of others. Among private activities, religion and traditions are of foremost importance at local, national as well as international level. The concept of minority and division of human beings on the bases of races, colours and tribes are unjust within people and society. In private activities we are always interdependent and this interdependence has made us rational and social animals. We cannot live without interacting with each other as well with our external environment.Interrelationship between people always depends on mutual benefits. Even though it should be a give and take relationship, we do tend to give less and take more. We become more sensitive when our rights are under siege but far less sensitive when someone else's rights are under attack. Honesty is the best policy for the stability of human interrelationship but we do not practise this policy often enough. We should be able to enjoy our freedom to the fullest within the limits of the laws of the land. These limits should be set and watched purely by governmental departments, institutions and agencies.If some things are disallowed in one region and allowed in another, both regions should respect each other's feelings and not impose their own rules upon others. The determination and limitation of freedom must be based upon law, culture, religion of any country or region keeping in view the rights of people of other religions living in minority. The United Nations should set limitations through comprehensive dialogue of all member nations keeping in view the demands, needs and interests of each nation. No country should be allowed to interfere in other country's private affairs.The West claims that they are the protector of human rights but recently they have taken the most actions against humanity by interfering in other countries' affairs and have labelled the loss of civilian lives as collateral damage. The freedom of everyone should be restricted within walls and these walls might be religion, culture, tradition and others. Within Eastern countries, there is another great drawback at grass root level. In most Eastern countries, hate is spread among children through textbooks.In their textbooks, there is great admiration for the personalities who had defeated rival countries, religions, invaders or plunderers and great hate for those who had fought with their ances tors centuries ago. As a result, children hate rival nations and this hatred gets stronger when they grow up and spoils the society. Our textbooks must carry lessons of enlightenment, moderation, respect and importance of others, honour of national and international laws, identification of wrongs and rights, good and evils, sense of responsibilities and interdependence of nations and collaboration with their own country.There is a constant competition among the countries for science and technology, industrial and energy enrichment. This is a good and positive phenomenon if the competition is positive. Above all, these said problems and causes are common at all national and international level and suggestions need to be implemented at both levels if we are seeking peace and love within our society as a whole around the world.