Strategy and practise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Strategy and practise - Essay Example Strategic decisions are concerned with the issue of setting a direction for the organization to move or the course the organization will follow Though very crucial, yet preparing 'strategic moves' for future often is not based on hard fact, but on presumptions. It involves past experience, forecasting and 'surround-effect'. Strategic management can be described as what Bernard called 'maintaining the organization in operation'2. For any organization to function effectively; three main aspects are critical; Contribution from the concerned helps in widening the thoughts, assigning responsibilities helps in implementing and constantly monitoring the results and feedback helps in devising a still better strategy. It is said that organizations are not passive components. They are live, full of activity and environment-responsive like living beings. Organizations do acquire character and develop a typical personality with time and we tend to make an image of the employee depending on the organization he/ she works for. This very personality of the organization considerably influences the functions of the organization in the long run. For example we tend to remember some companies as employee friendly, as well paying, as investor friendly, as market friendly, as customer friendly etc. depending upon their past performances and behavior. To meet and exceed customer satisfaction, the business team needs to follow an overall organizational strategy. Traditionally 'maximizing' profits has been considered to be the objective of any organization. Not any more.This criteria has been discarded. Now organizations are supposed to have multiple objectives, monetary as well as non-monetary. There are short-term objectives as well as long-term ones. Strategists are supposed to prioritize all such objectives, so that there is clarity and ease of decision making in situations where there is an apparent clash of objectives. Situations like these at times present testing times for organization. Failure doesn't come with a one off decision, in fact it is the result of continuous interactions in a system. It has structure and sequence. John Martin, CEO, Taco Bell says, "When you are on the right road and the wind is behind you, you can make all kinds of mistakes."3 And the real test comes in overpowering these mistakes and taking corrective and preventive steps. Strategic intent cannot be planned all in advance. It has to be a continuous evolut ionary process depending upon the experiences. Henry Ford say, "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently"4 Basic Building Blocks of Strategy: 1. Environment Analysis 2. Doing a SWOT Analysis 3. Preparing a Business Policy. Environment Analysis: It involves studying and analyzing the surroundings to identify the competitors, the threats and opportunities. Maslow's hierarchy of needs argued that the driving force for human actions is the urge for satisfaction of one or the other need. These needs go on changing depending upon a number of factors. In fact the needs of consumer/ customer and those of the organization are inter-linked because organization too is an active component so needs of the

Aquatic Biomes and Tropical Rainforest Essay Example for Free

Aquatic Biomes and Tropical Rainforest Essay An aquatic biome is an ecological community dominated by water. This biome can be broken down into two categories: oFreshwater, which includes rivers, streams, ponds, lakes and freshwater wetland. oMarine or saltwater, which includes oceans, seas, estuaries, coral reefs and saltwater wetland. Each of these aquatic ecosystems can be defined by variables such as temperature, the presence or absence of light, and the availability of nutrients. Aquatic biomes cover almost all the world (around 75% of the surface) and only 3% of them are freshwaters. Freshwater ecosystems This ecosystem is defined as having a low salt concentration of less than 1%. It helps to make up all the different animals’ life in this planet. Ponds and lakes range in size from few yards to thousands miles across, and they are divided into the littoral zone, limnetic zone and the profundal zone. The littoral zone is the part of the lake or pond which is shallow and located near the shoreline. In this zone there is abundant light, nutrients and plants. Those plants provide protection and food for animals, insects and crustaceans. The limnetic zone is offshore, where the water is deep and it receives enough sunlight to support life. There are tiny forms of life called as phytoplankton, which are tiny plant forms, and zooplankton, which are tiny animal forms. Those tiny forms of life lead to bigger animals’ life such as fish, which feed from those planktons. The profundal zone is beneath the limnetic zone, where it doesn’t receive light to sustain plants’ life. The organisms that die from above this zone settle down and are being eaten by decomposers. Because ponds and lakes are isolated from other bodies of water, they don’t have new species of animals or plant, or it is limited. Streams and rivers are defined by the flow of water in one direction. The source of these regions can be the snowmelt from the mountains, runoff of rains, or the outflows of a lake. They flow until they empty into another body of water and they usually lead ultimately to oceans. The flow of water of streams and rivers changes as it moves. At high elevations (mountains), the water’s flow moves swiftly and makes them clear and oxygenated. As it moves slower, it allows a more diversity of plants and animals. Because the water’s flow moves slowly, it carries more sediment and there is less oxygen in the water. Wetlands are standing water’s regions that support aquatic life. Wetlands can receive many names such as swamps, marshes and bogs. Marine or saltwater This ecosystem is defined by its high salt concentration. Oceans are the large aquatic ecosystem that dominates the Earth’s surface. It is divided into four zones: the intertidal zone, the pelagic zone, the benthic zone and the abyssal zone. The intertidal zone is the area that is covered and uncovered with the rising and falling of tides. Because of this, the communities are constantly changing and most of the living organisms live only where the high tides reach. The pelagic zone is the area away from the lands, which is the open ocean. This zone receives little sunlight and it has abundant plankton, which feed animals such as whales. In this zone, there are still some plants anchored to the bottom of the shore. The benthic zone is beneath the pelagic zone and it doesn’t receive sunlight, which makes it darker and colder. The abyssal zone is the deepest area beneath the benthic zone. This area is very cold, it has a great pressure, but it has a low nutrient level. Coral reefs are abundant in tropical water and it consists of a barrier of corals, anemones, and algae. The sunlight penetrates this area, which makes the water clearer and allows a diversity of living organisms. Estuaries are those areas in which freshwater merge with the ocean. This supports animals such as oysters, worms, and crabs; and supports plants such as algae and seaweeds. Tropical Rainforest Biome This is the most diverse terrestrial biome on Earth. It has a warm and moist environment and is dominated by broadleaf evergreen trees. The combination of constant warmth and moisture makes the tropical rainforest a great environment for many plants and animals, which made this biome as the only one that contains the greatest biodiversity in the world. Because of the great quantity of trees in this biome, the soil is infertile and acidic. This is because when an organism decomposes in the soil, the plants absorb it quickly for their quick grow and survival. This biome has several layers of vegetation. The tallest trees reach approximately 50 meters; below them there is a continuous canopy of treetop of approximately 40 meters. And the lower level is composed by small plants, mosses, and fungi. Most of the fauna in this biome is arboreal because the food near the ground is scarce.

Descartes Meditations Essay -- essays research papers

Meditations is a discussion of metaphysics, or what is truly real. In these writings, he ultimately hopes to achieve absolute certainty about the nature of everything including God, the physical world, and himself. It is only with a clear and distinct knowledge of such things that he can then begin understand his true reality. Descartes starts by looking at our usual sources for truth. Authority, which is churches, parents, and schools, he says, are not reliable sources for truth because time shows we all die, and that we are eventually proved wrong, much in the same way the accepted truths of science have changed dramatically over the course of history. Also, he considers the generally excepted view that our senses dependably report the absolute nature of reality. Simiar to authority, Descartes discards the senses as a source of truth because of the â€Å"Dream Argument† or the belief that based on the senses there is no definite way of proving that you are dreaming or that you are awake. Therefore it is possible that everything we believe is false, making the senses an unreliable source. Upon establishing this, Descartes doubts the existence of a physical or external world. Despite that he has an idea of things in the world, he has no way of knowing if they exist past his own mind. Another point he addresses is mathematics. He soon realizes math’s truth isn’t completely reliable because of the â€Å"Demon Hypothesis†, which acknowledges the possibility of an all powerful being that is deceiving him about everything, including mathematics. As a result, Descartes ponders the possibility that he has no way of being completely positive about anything, even his existence. It is only after some deliberation that he decides that it is impossible to be incorrect about everything because he has doubt, and to posses doubt, there must be a doubter. Hence, he doubts, therefore he exists. With the assurance of his existence, he is presented with the deeper question of what he, himself, actually is. Descartes knows that he is not just a body based on his doubt of the senses. Despite the fact that he feels he is not a body, he does believe he has properties, such as doubt, that make him a substance. From this he concludes that his is an immaterial substance and that his essential property is self-consciousness because you can have no real proof of yourself except through your own... ...man life is acquisition of salvation and eternal life. Conversely, what science tells us is that the world is completely deterministic or all just a course of random evolution. Descartes feels that the two, mind and matter, are in completely different arenas, both of which were created by God. The mind deals chiefly with freedom, and personal responsibility, which lies in the field of religion. Whereas matter is more connected to science, buts doesn't negate the influence of God because God provided us with a system, mathematics, to better understand the physical world around us. Thus, if accurately comprehended, no conflict should arise between science and religion. Descartes' focus in Meditations is absolute certainty. To achieve this he first must strike all that he has come to accept as false and only then start to rebuild is foundation of knowledge. To insure the integrity of his newly acquired understanding of reality, he uses the method of doubt. It is only through this method that he can grasp the true nature of reality. After establishing the existence of himself, God, and the external world through this method, Descartes feels he now possess a clearer picture of reality.

This house would make the student pay

I strongly disagree in making university students pay for their tuition fees as I feel that education should come as a right and not have to come at a price. We all know that if there were no fees for university everybody who has the required grades for the specific university would have the chance to attend as often high achieving students miss out on the opportunity of university as they had come from a less – privileged family and this is unfair, but also it is discrimination to those from poorer backgrounds. As a result only those that are privileged and can afford the education can send their children to university. Student loans are offered as an option to help pay tuition fees but they tend to do more harm than good as there are unforeseen consequences. Tori Siler dropped out of Purdue University in 1999 after borrowing the maximum amount of federal student loans in America, about $46,000. Today, the single mother of two boys earns $32,000 a year as an administrative assistant, while her unpaid student-loan debt has ballooned to more than $100,000. Her lender wants her to repay $650 a month — one-quarter of her gross income — for the next 35 years. By the time Siler made the last payment, she would be 78. Hundreds of thousands of student borrowers are discovering what Siler has learned: that student loans are increasingly difficult to escape, regardless of the burden repayment might be. Unfortunately many students are having no option as universities tragically withdraw the person from their course due to the inability to pay for their courses which hinders their learning. Loans start being paid off when the student has a secure job which earns a minimum of fifteen thousand pounds and takes at least three years to pay back with interest added on from day one of payment. Therefore a large proportion of students are leaving university with a substantial amount debt. It is hard to agree with the fact that if there were no tuition fees with grants made available then more people will feel inclined to apply for university. Therefore these people would make something out of their lives. Graduates benefit the society as a whole but if fewer people graduate there are less people to fill spaces for specialty jobs e.g. doctors and lawyers as they are not as they will not have the sufficient knowledge and skills for the jobs. The UK is currently below average on how many young people are attending university as several other countries are sending more than sixty percent of young people in their population to university. Finland and Scotland are two perfect examples of countries in which people do not pay university are doing very well. The evidence of this is Edinburgh in Scotland has the most graduates in the entire world and their students are not paying fees! Surely that already shows how university fees are putting the country behind? It can be argued that independence and experience are gained and it prepares them for the future lives as they will have to be paying for those themselves, but in most circumstances parents end up paying so how is it in any way giving them or even offering any independence. The loans students have when they have graduated from university cause them to begin their lives after education in debt and there is no guarantee that they will even be able to pay it off for a very long time. It might be the in the priority of the government to put schools and hospitals first with taxpayers money as they only have a certain amount to pay for but services, hospitals and police but education as a whole should not have to come at a price as it is not a privilege but a basic right. As countries are becoming more developed they need a more highly – trained and skilled workforce. From one point of view it can be seen that the system is fair to students from different backgrounds as the fees are only paid back when a certain salary threshold is reached so someone who fails to benefit from their education doesn't apply for it, but I can easily make it clear that tuition fees discriminate those from poorer backgrounds who are less able to get into debt because even if they choose to go to university, students who happen to have rich parents are a great advantage compared to those who have to pay off the fees themselves. We need to cancel all debt for those leaving university. At the moment it would be persuasively argued that too many people are applying to university (around thirty five percent of all students). So obtaining a degree is simply not worthwhile for some people given their future employment plans; the time could be spent more wisely and constructively in actual work because nowadays universities are feeling pressurised to take as many people as possible as they are funded per student but it is not always in the students best interest as many choose to skip lectures, but what sort of government presumes to decide on behalf of the public what career they should follow? Everyone should have a free choice in deciding whether they want a degree or not, the argument of those opposing me is purely elitism, which is not right in a society like this. Those statistics just conceal the true problem without solving what is needed to be solved. It is like trying to ignore a river by building a dam. The water, like the problems, will just build and build†¦ This country is more developed and is still moving forward therefore more skilled graduates are needed. My own mother who left university nine years ago to her surprise saw that in her last bank statement money for her student loan had been removed from her account and this is happening to an increasing number of people as years go by. It has become more evident that many more people as years go by will be living off benefits and digging the country into a deeper hole. This is because more problems may arise such as crime as many people are becoming idle. The money the government doesn't want to pay on university will just be spent on jails and other problems to arise from this poor decision. It is up to you – lose: and you will be inevitably leaving university with debt to pay off or win: and won't be discouraged from university as you will not have student loans and extra debt to pay off.

Ethical Issues in the Pelican Brief

In the hit book, The Pelican Brief, John Grisham's depiction of lawyers who will do anything for money and their clients presents an interesting ethical dilemma. In the book, two Supreme Court justices are killed by a hired assassin, Khamel. FBI, CIA, and the press are working hard to find who the killer is. The only people who know the truth are attorneys from White and Blazevich, Nathaniel Jones (also known as Einstein), Jarreld Schwabe, Marty Velmano, and F. Sims Wakefield and their client, Victor Mattiece.The action commences when Darby Shaw writes a brief about who she thinks is responsible for the deaths of two Supreme Court Justices, Rosenberg and Jensen. She shows the document to Thomas Callahan, her professor and lover. He hands the brief over to his friend Gavin Verheek, he is special council of the FBI Director. That's the way the â€Å"Pelican Brief† goes the round through the FBI, the CIA and of course the White House. The president now has to restructure the Cour t because of Rosenberg and Jensen's death. That is Victor Mattiece's aim.He knows that the president will chose conservative justices who will vote for Mattiece’s  plans  of gaining the oil in Louisiana. Mattiece also becomes aware of the â€Å"Pelican Brief† and decides to kill everyone who is involved in it to keep his  plans  secret. He hires the killer â€Å"Khamel† to murder Darby Shaw and Thomas Callahan. The story develops as Victor Mattiece, as well as, White and Blazevich firm attempt through either illegal or unethical measures to hire someone to kill anyone who knows about the brief and could jeopardize their plans.It is a book, so it all ends up more-or-less happily-ever-after for the young girl and Grantham, the journalist, who meet on the island of St. Thomas after exposure of White and Blazevich and Victor Mattiece. Grantham helps Darby Shaw by publishing a story revealing involvement of White and Blazevich and Victor Mattiece in the death of the two Supreme Court Justices. However, for attorneys of White and Blazevich, one must pause and wonder what their fate, professionally speaking at least, would be after their lie exposes. For these attorneys commit a number of professional ethics iolations, all in an effort to get money. From the outset of their professional relationship with Victor Mattiece – the Supreme Court Judges – attorneys trip over ethics. â€Å"Sims: Advise client, research is complete – and the bench will sit much softer if Rosenberg is retired†¦Einstein found a link to Jensen, of all people†¦Advise further that the pelican should arrive here in four years†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Grisham 340). This memo notifies F. Sims Wakefield, one of the partners supervising Mattiece’s case, who â€Å"†¦had no other clients. And no one client had as much to gain from a new Court as Mattiece† (Grisham 341).This is an unethical practice of law where attorneys help their cli ent plan a murder to financially benefit them and their client. One possible solution for this ethical dilemma could be refusal to help Victor Mattiece in finding out which Supreme Court Judges could be killed. Attorneys from White and Blazevich should think about the consequences of their actions. Better yet, Sims could make a complaint to appropriate authorities about receiving a memo from Einstein and at least free himself and other attorneys, while Mattiece and Einstein would go to jail.The fee agreement between the firm and Mattiece also poses an ethical problem: â€Å"†¦Mattiece was not paying White and Blazevich its standard hourly rate†¦the firm has taken the case for a percentage of the harvest† (Grisham 339). Rule 1. 5(b) of the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct states, â€Å"the basis or rate of the fee shall be communicated to the client, preferably in writing, before or within a reasonable time after commencing the r epresentation† (Miller and Urisko 69). Collecting the fee up front is certainly consistent with the practices of many practical and ethical lawyers.Unless there is a written fee agreement, and there is certainly no evidence to support the existence of one in the book, funds paid by a client at the beginning of the representation are presumed to be an advance fee payment. Advance fees, of course, must be deposited into a trust account, and withdrawn only when earned. Retainers aren’t usually â€Å"†¦ten percent of the net profits from the wells,† and real lawyers must know the requirement (Grisham 339). One of the solutions to this ethical dilemma could be to sign a retainer. If White and Blazevich attorneys want money, why wait?Let Mattiece sign a retainer, pay them, and wait for Court’s decision. Nathaniel Jones (also known as Einstein), Jarreld Schwabe, Marty Velmano, and F. Sims Wakefield are all relying on being paid for their services after the d ecision on the case. They could save a lot of money and avoid jail if they would follow standard Model Rules. Just because F. Sims Wakefield â€Å"†¦was very close to Victor Mattiece and often visited him in the Bahamas,† it is not an exception to conflict-of-interest situations. Even if Victor Mattiece is a friend of F.Sims Wakefield, he should pay for services rendered, or the attorney could refuse to provide services knowing that there could be a conflict-of-interest. The most serious of White and Blazevich attorney’s professional ethics dilemmas is one that few lawyers ever face. In the book, the attorneys do not tell anyone about Mattiece’s plan to execute the two Supreme Court Judges. The Model Rules state that â€Å"an attorney is allowed to reveal a client’s information to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm† (Miller and Urisko 99). Attorneys’ decision to hide Mattiece’s plan is good for a book, bu t is it professional?This is unethical. Instead of following along with Mattiece’s plan to find a way to win his case in the Supreme Court of the United States, the attorneys could refuse to assist him in his killings plan. If Mattiece’s threat to kill does not seem to result in certain death or cause serious bodily injury, White and Blazevich they could continue representing the client without revealing any confidential information and not jeopardizing their careers. Another ethical dilemma that White and Blazevich firm faces actually leads to their indictment later, involves confidentiality agreement between the client and the firm.A file or a document sitting on your desk, if observed by a third party, may reveal an identity of a client or enough information to suggest the client’s identity† (Miller and Urisko 102). If there is no disruption on Wakefield’s desk and secretaries are not in and out every second, Curtis Morgan, who finds the compromi sing memo, would not take the memo by accident. â€Å"Finally, after waiting fifteen minutes, Morgan picked up his files and documents from Wakefield’s cluttered desk, and left†¦as he reached for a file, he found a handwritten memo on the bottom of the stack of documents he had just brought to his office.He had inadvertently taken it from Wakefield’s desk† (Grisham 340). This ethical dilemma could be avoided if Wakefield would not let secretaries go through his office back and forth, or let anyone put folders, files, or documents on his desk while there are other notes or documents there. If Wakefield is on the phone, he should let everyone know not to bother him. If someone comes into his office to ask to review something, he should tell them to come back. Don’t let that person mix his files with the files that he has on his desk. Unluckily for attorneys and client, lies reveal at the end of the book.Indeed, as the book wraps up, Velmano, Schwabe, a nd Einstein get indicted. Wakefield commits suicide and Mattiece also gets indicted. However, they do not get such punishment without being responsible for the killing of innocent people along the way. They go through all this trouble just so that they would get financial reward. Too bad for them, their plan fails.Works Cited: Grisham, John. The Pelican Brief. New York: Doubleday, 1992. Print. Miller, Roger LeRoy. , and Mary S. Urisko. Paralegal Today: The Essentials. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.