Descriptive Essay About Seneca Rocks - 1285 Words

Somewhere Among the Hills Among the Blue-Ridge Mountains in West Virginia, Seneca Rocks remains a place that values preservation of nature, its history, a family-oriented environment, and the safety and well-being of those who visit. I have visited Seneca Rocks at least three times in my 18 years and it is a very common place in my hometown, therefore, my personal experience helps me determine its values. â€Å"Seneca Rocks is a bare white sandstone sheet of rocks with sheer cliffs, towering 900 feet above the surrounding valley in the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia’s Panhandle. This giant slab of rocks has been there for 440 million years. The rock sits along U.S Route 33 and is about 34 miles east of Elkins.† (Bob Downing, Akron†¦show more content†¦Whetsell.† (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) â€Å"West Virginia was chosen for this training school because of the terrain was similar to Italy and its Apennine Mountains which was where the soldiers were headed next. Roughly 180 men and officers went through this school every two weeks to learn alpine combat techniques. The training included easy rock scrambling to extreme tension with pitons. It also included the use of assault ropes and pulleys. Each group made two tactical night climbs on unfamiliar rocks. (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) â€Å"Those who participated in this school camped along the river north of Seneca Rocks. Each climbing instructor had a total of ten men to train. At the end of the first week the instructor had to drop the weakest climbers and the remaining six got an additional week of advanced climbing.† (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) Most people don’t know this history lesson of Seneca Rocks. â€Å"Climbers today have still come across rusting soft-iron pitons that were hammered into the Tuscarora quartzite. This isn’t surprising considering more than 75,000 pitons were reportedly installed on Seneca Rocks by the soldier climbers in 1943-1944. One area at Seneca Rocks has been dubbed the Face of Thousand Pitons.† (Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) Another key value to Seneca Rocks is having a family-oriented environment. It is a very popular tourist attraction, especially in the summerShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesEnvironment 22 †¢ Improving Ethical Behavior 22 Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model 23 An Overview 23 †¢ Inputs 24 †¢ Processes 25 †¢ Outcomes 25 Summary and Implications for Managers 30 S A L Self-Assessment Library How Much Do I Know About Organizational Behavior? 4 Myth or Science? â€Å"Most Acts of Workplace Bullying Are Men Attacking Women† 12 An Ethical Choice Can You Learn from Failure? 24 glOBalization! Does National Culture Affect Organizational Practices? 30 Point/Counterpoint Lost

The United States Health Care System Essay - 1905 Words

The United States health care system is lacking the needs to create a reliable system to achieve quality, access, cost, and educate for the consumers. Despite the efforts of the government to find a common ground to meet the standard for the societies, the system has yet to have a major improvement. These issues must be reexamined to fix the broken system. The United States health care expenditure is another issue that needs to be addressed to achieve the future goals of the healthcare system in the United States. Healthcare societies will need to interact differently by incorporating consumer’s empowerment, technology, and education to meet the future goals of the health care system. Also, the consumer must be highly educated on the purpose of preventive care to lower the risk of chronic diseases which account for a lot health care spending. The process of correcting the United States health care system will take time and effort from all individual to achieve greatness. What is the perfect health care system and how to achieve that system? Unfortunately, we will never achieve what is considered the perfect health care system because we don’t proceed perfection as the same. Some may believe that a blue sky with a hint of sunlight is the perfect opportunity to embrace the use of Vitamin D, and others may believe it is too hot to be out. So, again the healthcare system will never be perfect, but we can try to incorporate all Americans with the decision-making process.Show MoreRelatedThe United States Health Care System1369 Words   |  6 Pagesplans for the United States health care system. The United States health care system has been in need of adjustment for years, with prices being paid over double per capita compared to other countries. While they have some similar views on current issues, there are drastic differences in the candidates’ ideas for change. To begin, Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate, believes that health care in the United States is a human right regardless of a person’s income. Universal health care is a foundationRead MoreThe United States Health Care System1449 Words   |  6 PagesThe United States health care system is the most expensive in the world. It spends more than 16% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, (the highest per person in the world), but ranks behind most countries on many measures of health outcomes, quality, and efficiency. In 2012, over 47 million people were un-insured and millions were under-insured⠁ ´. The cost of health care is rising at least twice as fast as the rate of economic growth. Major companies are passing more of the cost ofRead MoreThe Quality Of Care Of The United States Health Care System2125 Words   |  9 PagesThe quality of care In the United States Health Care System, unlike a lot of people’s perceptions, is not the best in the worl d. In fact, Rose Ann DeMoro, the Executive Director of National Nurses United, Which happens to be the nation’s largest professional association and union for registered nurses, wrote in â€Å"How US Private Insurance Healthcare is Failing,† â€Å"A study published [in June 2011] from the university of Washington in collaboration with researchers at Imperial College London found lifeRead MoreThe Health Care System Of The United States As A Whole Essay1369 Words   |  6 Pagesthe health care system in the United States as a whole. Within this article, the subjects of health care that are reviewed are a) the US government’s position as the insurer for roughly 60 percent of the healthcare spending in the US via the public sector, b) the analysis of the funding for government health care programs such as Medicare, Medicall, and Medicaid and c) the programs in place for the health care of children and program administration for war veterans. The author discusses h ealth careRead MoreUnited States Health Care System Essay3779 Words   |  16 Pages17 Nov 2006 US Health Care System: Does the Public Get the Best Return vs. Investment The United States spends more of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare then any other industrialized country in the world and because of this one would think that the U.S. provides one of the top universal healthcare plans for all citizens without health insurance. Furthermore, the U.S.’s overall health system performance is 37 out of 191 (qtd in U.S. Census Bureau), obviously 37 out of 191 is horribleRead MoreComparing The Canadian And The United States Health Care System1151 Words   |  5 Pagesthe United States health care system. the first part of the paper will focus on describing each country health care system. The second part will focus on analyzing, evaluating and comparing these two countries system efficiency and benefits. The last part, is an overview of the recent policies changes and its effect (positive and negative) on each country citizens and proposed future reforms for better coverage in these countries. Canada health system Canada provides a national universal care thatRead MoreSafety Net Hospitals And The United States Health Care System903 Words   |  4 Pageshospitals have played an important role in the United States health care system. They provide a significant amount of care to low-income, uninsured, and vulnerable populations. While treating these types of populations, they are still able to provide high cost services such as trauma and burn care. They often take on additional roles and responsibilities such as the training of medical and nursing students (Coughlin et al., 2014). These hospital systems are well known for their open door policy (WynnRead MoreComparing The United States Health Care System With The Federal Republic Of Germany2322 Words   |  10 PagesTHE UNITED STATES HEALTH CARE SYSTEM WITH THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY During the past few decades in the United States, health care cost has been skyrocketing, and many people have lost their insurance as result of the high cost. Approximately 45 million American s are uninsured or they don’t have a real health care plan that can cover all their needs. Some Americans have the perception that even with coverage, cost and other problems in the system, the quality of the Healthcare System in theRead MoreThe Health Care System Of The United States857 Words   |  4 Pages 1.) Briefly describe the US Health Care system. Identify the people, professionals and organizations that have something to say about how health care is delivered -- and paid for -- in the US. The Health Care System in the United States is provided by many organizations. The Healthcare facilities are largely owned by private sector businesses. A large part of community hospitals are non-profit and government owned, and only a small percent is for profit. The non-profit hospitals include 60 toRead MoreThe Health Care System Of The United States1218 Words   |  5 PagesCurrently, The United States sits as the thirty-sixth best nation at delivering effective healthcare, and yet the US does so at over $8,200 per capita, more than two and half times the OECD average. This creates and incredibly paradoxical circumstance where â€Å"the most powerful, most innovative, and richest country [on] the plant† delivers on average one of the worst healthcare results among developed countries (Reid 28). Several countries including Canada, England, the Netherlands, France, and Germany

Compliance Standards Assurance and Audit †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Compliance Standards Assurance and Audit. Answer: Introduction: Scientific procedures to the financial report data of DIPL can help in building up the arrangement of review. This arrangement of review can be thought to be a specific rule that should be taken after at the season of undertaking the review. Specifically, this helps the auditor in keeping up expenses of review at a sensible level and helps with turning away misconstruing with the customer base. Systematic way to deal with the financial statements of the firm DIPL alludes to the procedure of dispersal of the data from the financial announcement of the firm. This procedure of assessment can be done by using an assortment of components. Be that as it may, by utilizing a scientific approach of breaking down financial statements, distinctive accountants and also financial experts can interpret data keeping in mind the end goal to help in landing at indispensable business choices. Explanatory approach of regular measuring helps in breaking down the financial revelations to a typical reference point. This thusly helps in contrasting the financial articulations as far as various timeframe or else as far as various organizations. Auditors can think about the diverse line of things said in the financial report, check their method for revealing. For instance, the method for enlisting things, for example, net resources or else net liabilities alongside proprietors' value in the financial revealing of the firm and the look at the deviation from the typical. Benchmarking that is viewed as a systematic method can be used for dissecting review design. Difference of genuine financial announcement from the benchmark helps in perceiving the deviation and helps with examining the reason for the recognized change to decide the underlying driver. Likewise, proportion examination can be considered as a proper logical approach that can be utilized for contrasting financial revelations and surveying design of review. Clarification of the way the outcomes impact arranging choices for the review The consequences of the arranging choices for the review arranging is essentially affected by the aftereffects of the investigative approach received for scattering data from the financial articulations. For instance, results of the proportion investigation to be specific, current proportion of the firm DIPL are ascertained to be 1.42 of every 2013, 1.46 of every 2014 and 1.5 out of 2015. Once more, productivity proportion that is the overall revenue ascertained to be 0.068 of every 2013, 0.60 of every 2014 and 0.06 of every 2015. This productivity proportion can uncover the state of the net wage earned by the firm when contrasted with the net offers of the firm DIPL (Duncan and Whittington 2014). Be that as it may, this also can help the auditor to comprehend whether costs are low or else high and whether the administration of the firm has the necessity to abridge spending plan and in the meantime exhausts of the firm. The ideal or else horrible changes in the proportion can be utilized as a factor of reference for appraisal/review of the soundness of the financial wellbeing and general financial state of the firm DIPL. Once more, for example, the utilization of dissolvability proportion figured to be 0.62 out of 2013, 0.44 out of 2014 and 0.21 of every 2015 aides in comprehension the alluring and in addition undesirable patterns in the financial state of the firm. Correspondingly, correlation of the proportion over the three year time frame can help in understanding whether the general stream of financial of the partnership is sufficiently sufficient to meet both the short and also long haul liabilities of the enterprise DIPL. The auditors can comprehend the relative position of the firm finished the three year time frame and dissect the factor that prompted the undesirable or else negative state of the partnership (Nalewaik and Mills 2016). Distinguishing proof of inalienable risk factors that emerge from nature of business operations of DIPL Accordingly, there are a few critical factors in evaluating that includes rate of material misquotes in the financial declarations of a particular concern. In any case, it can be therefore verify that there are diverse types of precise alongside unsystematic risks that mirror the path towards financial misquotes in the financial announcements of companies. In any case, the identified dangers may potentially be because of both financial and also non-financial variables that in the end can turn away a particular company for mirroring a valid and reasonable perspective of appropriate financial revelations. All things considered, an evaluator may maybe think that its requesting to distinguish certain risks. William Jret al. (2016) opines that recognized dangers may well be connected to various dangers related to exclusion alongside dangers of assorted blunders that is inconceivable for a particular clerk. Fundamentally, this can be viewed as the innate risk that may emerge from nature of business operations of DIPL. As indicated by the given research, it can be therefore verified that there are various exchanges that are especially discarded by the accountants generally the administration of the partnership DIPL. In any case, this can consecutively coordinate lead towards irregularities especially attributable to the incapable arranging of basically the advertising alongside deals exercises. Besides, assessment of the financial affirmations of the firm additionally uncovers the way that the firm has neglected to finish the favored benefit level from the income from deals (Hayes2014). Especially, this may be because of the administration disappointment of the firm in recognizable proof of particular prerequisites and resulting modification of the functionalities of the organization. In this way, it can be thus presumed that the business association has neglected to break down various smaller scales and additionally large scale financial aspects that may maybe be in presence as financial, politica l alongside social components. This is consequently reflected in the poor deals figure of the firm and prompted various inborn dangers (Arenset al. 2016). Aside from this, the specialists of the firm DIPL have additionally heightened the general innate dangers. Because of absence of experience and capability of workers in the organization, the inborn dangers of the partnership have raised considerably. This is on account of achievement of a particular business concern relies upon the competency of the individuals from the staff. The non-capable workforces can upgrade the characteristic dangers since they will undoubtedly confer mix ups for example, the blunders of prohibition that further leads the path towards the misquoted financial declarations (DeFond and Zhang 2014) Once more, other critical aspects that contribute towards the inalienable dangers can be classified into various areas particularly, natural alongside outer features, material misquotes in past periods alongside misrepresented activities. Distinctive ecological aspects that direct the route towards natural risk contains quick adjustments in which there may be issues related to valuation of stock, hardened rivalry in the non specific market alongside lack of satisfactory capital (Knechel and Salterio 2016). In addition, the organization additionally attempt material misquotes that may maybe coordinate towards intrinsic risk in the forthcoming time frame. Assessment of the present instance of DIPL mirrors the way that the complexities and also challenges engaged with the procedure of progression of CEO likewise includes inborn risk. Basically, progression of CEO can be thought to appear as something else and the hopefuls are to a great degree individual (Louwerset al. 2015). Notwithstanding, there are a few risks that are inborn during the time spent progression of CEO, nature of strategy of determination together effortlessly of change as process is taken care of. Along these lines, beginning of the procedure without consenting to the system, starting the procedure late, insufficient inclusion of the CEO and flight of applicants leaving the organization may potentially prompt natural risks. Investigation of the given case uncovers that the procedure of usage of the novel IT framework created certain issues. DIPL did insufficient number of staff to deal with the procedure of execution and establishment and do the compromise and in addition testing basically before the new game plan preceding the finish of the year. In this manner, this prompted the material misquote attributable to innate components that is fundamentally mistake or else exclusion in a particular financial assertion (Eilifsenet al. 2013). Moreover, the recording of the financial receipts by the fund experts of the organization may maybe prompt inalienable risks if not appropriately dealt with. The individuals from the staff need to take after an appropriate succession with the goal that records receivables are legitimately enrolled and debt claims record should be appropriately kept up. Moreover, the bank compromise additionally should be legitimately recorded consequently (Cannon and Bedard 2016). Once more, enrolling the income produced from the digital book, assessing republication of course readings if required in the up and coming period can prompt various natural dangers because of many-sided quality associated with the procedure. In addition, procedure of valuation of various crude material stocks at especially normal cost was not reasonable since the present cost of paper was impressively over the normal cost. Risk and way it may influence the risk of material misquote in the financial report The recognized inalienable risks can be considered as the helplessness of a specific attestation in relationship to material misquote. Over the top weight on representatives and administration: - Excessive workload on individuals from the staff of the partnership prompts poor accounting. This prompts certain ascribes in particular affinity to experience income issues, poor working results alongside poor liquidity (Barton and Bruder 2014). Risks of blunders or else off base distortion: - There remains unwavering quality and complexity inferable from dangers of mistakes and in addition deception at the same time. Uprightness of the whole administration: - Management of DIPL basically needs imperative trustworthiness and from there on they are likewise anticipated that would be set up for notoriety misfortune in the whole business group (Beasley 2015). Uncommon weight on administration: - Sometimes it happens that there exists a motivation for administration that prompts misstatement in the financial declarations (Barton and Bruder 2014). Nature of element business: - DIPL additionally prompts development to major financial alongside aggressive conditions. Once more, these features may influence the general inalienable danger of business substance for investigating review arranging structure in a compelling way (Beasley 2015). Identification and clarification of two key misrepresentation risk factors identifying with errors emerging from fake financial revealing ID and also clarification of misrepresentation risk identified with material error As misrepresentation risk prompts impressive misfortunes of benefits inferable from extortion. The disappointment of the workforce inferable from over the top workload of the representatives can incite them to include in extortion. Furthermore, desires from various speculators to report particular financial results or especially by administration to achieve particular execution targets prompts high misrepresentation risk. There likewise stays solid weight to proclaim particular financial results in an offer to turn away producing the assurances. The real misrepresentation risks that may happen attributable to the operations of the firm DIPL incorporate workforce takes part in false activities because of more elevated amount of disappointment of representatives. The given contextual investigation on the operations of DIPL notices that there stays colossal weight from especially the board to gain a novel bookkeeping framework. This over the top weight on the representatives to complete the procedure of establishment of the updated IT framework for bookkeeping may prompt extortion. This infers the workers may take part in false exercises and handle the method of compromise in a disgraceful way and along these lines material misquote. The contextual investigation additionally represents that the inappropriate treatment of the procedure of execution of the usage of the data innovation for the bookkeeping framework prompted despicable allotment of specific exchanges around the finish of the year. This thusly may prompt misfortune because of material misquote and misrepresentation risk. Another misrepresentation risk that may happen incorporates the risks of financial detailing extortion. When there is intemperate desire from outside lenders to proclaim particular financial declarations or else from administration to meet particular execution targets or else to meet certain objectives to fit the bill for procuring obligation, there stays high danger of dishonorable financial declarations. The announcement of financial position of the organization DIPL demonstrates that the income of the organization has expanded over the period 2013 to 2015. What's more, the gross benefit and additionally the net benefit have likewise expanded. Moreover, the present resources and aggregate resources of the enterprise DIPL has likewise heightened. Notwithstanding, the contextual analysis uncovers that amid the year 2015, the organization has procured an advance adding up to 7.5 million especially from BDO Finance. Other than this, the contextual analysis likewise mirrors the way that this specific credit has a particular advance assertion that requires DIPL to keep up a present a present proportion of around 1.5 alongside an obligation value of roughly lower than 1. This demonstrates this prerequisite may pressurize the organization to keep up the financial proportion so they can obtain the credit. Thusly, this may prompt false activities and prompt inappropriate impression of financial position. Basically, disappointment of the organization to keep up the unequivocal benchmarks can again make the organization non-qualified to get fund from BDO Finance. Clarification of the way the risk factors distinguished As indicated by the given case, it can be thusly expressed that procedure of valuation of various crude material stock at especially normal cost was not appropriate since the present cost of paper was impressively over the normal cost. Danger of distinguishing deceitful activities associated with usage of the better IT framework can be completed by observing distinctive exercises at various stages. The danger of financial revealing can be recognized via completing assessment of financial proclamations by auditors, observing control instruments now and again. Reference List Arens, A.A., Elder, R.J., Beasley, M.S. and Hogan, C.E., 2016.Auditing and assurance services. Pearson. Barton, H. and Bruder, N., 2014.A guide to local environmental auditing. Routledge. Beasley, M.S., 2015.Auditing cases: An interactive learning approach. Prentice Hall. Cannon, N. and Bedard, J.C., 2016. Auditing challenging fair value measurements: Evidence from the field.The Accounting Review. DeFond, M. and Zhang, J., 2014. A review of archival auditing research.Journal of Accounting and Economics,58(2), pp.275-326. Duncan, B. and Whittington, M., 2014, September. Compliance with standards, assurance and audit: Does this equal security?. InProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks(p. 77). ACM. Eilifsen, A., Messier, W.F., Glover, S.M. and Prawitt, D.F., 2013.Auditing and assurance services. McGraw-Hill. Hayes, R., Wallage, P. and Gortemaker, H., 2014.Principles of auditing: an introduction to international standards on auditing. Pearson Higher Ed. Knechel, W.R. and Salterio, S.E., 2016.Auditing: Assurance and risk. Taylor Francis. Louwers, T.J., Ramsay, R.J., Sinason, D.H., Strawser, J.R. and Thibodeau, J.C., 2015.Auditing assurance services. McGraw-Hill Education. Nalewaik, A. and Mills, A., 2016.Project Performance Review: Capturing the Value of Audit, Oversight, and Compliance for Project Success. CRC Press. William Jr, M., Glover, S. and Prawitt, D., 2016.Auditing and assurance services: A systematic approach. McGraw-Hill Education.

Vodafone Measuring the Success of the Strategy Essay Example

Vodafone Measuring the Success of the Strategy Essay Avoidance brand resulting from the sponsorship. Our Strategy Our business strategy and our CAR strategy are Inseparable. Meeting society needs creates enormous opportunities to grow our business. Expanding our business In emerging markets such as Africa and India Is extending access to communications to people who rarely had the opportunity to use a phone before. And our responsible approach to issues like privacy and content builds trust and grows our customer base in mature markets. CAR strategy Our vision for 2010 is to be one of the most trusted companies in the markets where we operate. Our five year CAR strategy developed in 2005 and continually evolving is designed to help us realize this vision. It sets clear priorities to: Capture the potential of mobile to bring socio-economic value in both emerging economies and developed markets, through broadening access to communications to all sections of society Deliver progress against stakeholder expectations on the key areas of climate change, a safe and responsible Internet experience, and sustainable products and services Ensure our operating standards are of a consistent and appropriate level across the Group. This strategy Is based on our assessment of the key CAR-related opportunities and risks for our business. These are priorities through our issues management and risk assessment. Our brand essence Avoidances brand essence is: Red: For the passion and spirit that drives us. Rock Solid: We are dependable and empathetic. People can trust us. Restless: Were always challenging ourselves to improve. A strong CAR strategy is crucial to our Rock Solid brand essence. It also helps us to live up to our values. Our values We will write a custom essay sample on Vodafone Measuring the Success of the Strategy specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Vodafone Measuring the Success of the Strategy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Vodafone Measuring the Success of the Strategy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Our values (or Passions) describe the way Avoidance people are expected to behave within the business: Passion for customers: Our customers have chosen to trust us. In return, we must strive to anticipate and understand their needs and delight them with our service. Passion for our people: Outstanding people working together make Avoidance exceptionally successful. Passion for results: We are action- relented Ana Arleen Dye a easels to De ten Des . T Passion Tort ten world around us: We will help the people of the world to have fuller lives both through the services we provide and through the impact we have on the world around us. In May 2006, we formulated a five point strategy which served us well for more than two years. We have broadly maintained or improved share against our largest or reference competitors in most of our markets and delivered on our key cost targets. We have increased the share of revenue from non-core mobile services from 10% to 15% and we also successfully increased our exposure to higher growth markets. Our dividend policy resulted in an average annual increase of in dividends and our capital structure policy has proved right for the business, particularly in the current market context. However, a number of challenges have evolved. Elasticity on core voice and messaging services remains below one, competitive and regulatory pressures continue to be strong, and recently we have not met our expectations in some markets. We are clearly entering into a more difficult macro economic environment. These factors led the Board to conclude that we should review whether the strategy established in May 2006 remained appropriate for the current environment. The fundamentals of Avoidance and our industry continue to be attractive; the sector leaders continue to be able to generate strong cash flow. In terms of revenue respects, whilst prices are likely to continue to decrease in Europe, the scope for usage growth remains significant, as demonstrated in markets such as the US and India. Mobile data is also proving to be in high demand: effective communications drive productivity benefits, meaning businesses and individuals need more, not less, of our services. A greater range of data devices and portable computers, at increasingly lower costs, are enlarging the addressable market. On the cash cost side, only about a third of our operating costs are fixed, and about a quarter depend on growth in voice minutes and data traffic. We controlled these costs well over the last two years. The remaining component of costs, some 40%, is market driven, providing significant scope for us to adapt in the event of greater economic pressures. Overall, our current European capital intensity of around 10% of revenue already contains a component of investment for growth. Avoidance has three key attributes which strongly differentiate us from our competitors: firstly, our scale in technology with which we continue to drive network and IT savings through consolidation and centralization of core activities; secondly, our strong presence in the enterprise racket, in large corporate as well as in small and medium sized businesses; and finally, our brand, especially in consumer pull markets. Our strategy will now be focused on four key objectives: drive operational performance, pursue growth opportunities in total communications, execute in emerging markets and strengthen capital discipline. We will drive operational performance through customer value enhancement, rather than revenue stimulation, and cost efficiency. Value enhancement involves maximizing the value of our existing customer relationships, not Just the revenue. We ill shift our approach away from unit pricing and unit based tariffs to propositions that deliver much more value to our customers in return for greater commitment, incremental penetration of the account or more balanced commercial costs. This will require a more Oligopolies approach to commercial costs to ensure our Investment Is focused on those customers with higher lifetime value. In essence, we are confident that by targeting our offers, we can deliver more value to our customers and have a better financial outcome for Avoidance. Customer value enhancement replaces revenue stimulation. Cost efficiency requires us to continue to deliver scale benefits through optimization of operating and capital expenditure. We have a significant number of cost programmed across the Group which we expect to reduce current operating costs by approximately El billion per annum by the 2011 financial year to offset the pressures from cost inflation and the competitive environment and to enable investment in revenue growth opportunities. As a result, on a like for like basis, we are targeting broadly stable operating costs in Europe and for operating costs to grow at a lower rate than revenue in MAP between the 2008 and 2011 uncial years. Capital intensity is expected to be at or below 10% over this period in Europe and to trend to European levels in MAP over the longer term. On growth opportunities, the three target areas are Mobile data, Enterprise and Broadband. We have already made significant progress on mobile data, with annelids revenue of E. Billion, but the opportunity remains significant with the penetration of data devices still relatively low in Europe and almost nil in emerging markets. In enterprise, we have a strong position in core mobile services and we have built a lid presence in 18 months in multi-national accounts through Avoidance Global Enterprise. Our strategy is to leverage this strength to expand our offerings into the broader enterprise communications market locally, serving SoHo and Seems with shared platforms and services, supported by our local sales forces. For broadband, we continue to adopt a market by market approach focused on the service, rather than the technology, and targeted at enterprise and high value consumers as a priority. We are already represented in most of the key emerging markets where significant growth is expected in the coming years. Our principal focus now will be on execution in these markets, in particular in India, Turkey and our African footprint following our recent agreement to acquire control of Voodoos. We will also seek to maximize the mobile data opportunity. There are few potential large new markets of interest to us and we will be cautious and selective on future expansion. The final objective is capital discipline. We remain committed to our low single A rating target, which we consider to be appropriate in the current environment, and comfortable with our liquidity position. Our focus is on free cash flow generation and ensuring appropriate investment in our existing businesses. We see increasing dividends as the primary reward to shareholders. Given our credit rating and the current level of cash flow and dividends, this leaves limited debt capacity. We see in-market consolidation as a positive for our industry and we would support consolidation. As previously mentioned, our focus is principally on our existing emerging markets rather than expansion and any significant acquisition would likely need to be funded through portfolio disposals. We remain focused on value creation for our non- controlled assets. Verizon Wireless is one of the leading assets in an attractive market and we are increasingly co-operating on terminals, enterprise and future technology to deliver further value for the Group. Our updated strategy repositions us appropriately in the current environment. We need to improve execution in our excellent Duskinesss Ana allover on our cost targets. We wall pursue growth communications and focus on our existing emerging markets, with only selective and cautious footprint expansion. Finally, we must strengthen our approach to capital discipline. Our priority is free cash flow generation and we will continue to target E lion to E billion of free cash flow per annum, excluding license and spectrum payments and any potential CUFF tax settlement. GOAL INVESTMENT PLANS The planned $2 bin cape in the next two years announced by Avoidance, following the acquisition, may not bring in good results if they want to gain significant market share as its rivals-Breath and Reliance have decided to increase their cape during the fiscal 2007 itself. Reliance may plough in $2. 5 bin in fiscal 2007-08, while around $2. 5 bin could be the investment from Breath Retailer. Avoidances target to achieve 0-25% market share by 2010-11 and market penetration of more than 40% may be realistic.

King Philip II of Macedonia

King Philip II of Macedonia King Phillip II of Macedon reigned as King of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until he was assassinated in 336 BC. King Phillip II was a member of the Argead dynasty. He was the youngest son of King Amyntas III and Eurydice I. Both of Phillip II’s older brothers, King Alexander II and Periddiccas III, died, thus allowing Phillip II to claim the throne of King as his own. King Phillip II was the father of Phillip III and Alexander the Great. He had many wives, although the exact number is disputed. The most famous of his unions was with Olympias. Together they had Alexander the Great. Military Prowess King Phillip II is noted for his military savvy. According to ancient history professor, Donald L. Wasson:   â€Å"Although he is often only remembered for being the father of  Alexander the Great,  Philip II of Macedon (reigned 359 BCE - 336 BCE) was an accomplished king and military commander in his own right, setting the stage for his son’s victory over Darius III and the conquest of Persia. Philip inherited a weak, backward country with an ineffective, undisciplined army and molded them into a formidable, efficient military force, eventually subduing the territories around Macedonia as well as subjugating most of Greece. He used bribery, warfare, and threats to secure his kingdom. However, without his insight and determination, history would never have heard of Alexander.† King Phillips Assassination King Phillip II was assassinated in October of 33 BC at Aegae, which was the capital of Macedon. A large gathering was taking place to celebrate the marriage of Phillip II’s daughter, Cleopatra of Macedon and Alexander I of Epirus. While at the gathering, King Phillip II was killed by Pausanias of Oretis, who was one of his bodyguards. Pausanias of Oretis immediately tried to escape after murdering Phillip II. He had associates stationed directly outside of Aegae who were waiting for him to make an escape. However, he was pursued, eventually caught, and killed by other members of King Phillip II’s bodyguard crew. Alexander the Great Alexander the Great was the son of Phillip II and Olympias. Like his father, Alexander the Great was a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and eventually went on to supplant his father, Phillip II, on the throne of Macedon at the young age of twenty. He followed in his father’s footsteps, basing his rule around military conquests and expansion. He focused on expansion for his empire throughout Asia and Africa. By the age of thirty, ten years after he had taken over the throne, Alexander the Great had created one of the largest empires in the entire ancient world. Alexander the Great is said to have been undefeated in battle and is remembered as one of the greatest, strongest, and most successful military generals of all time. Over the course of his reign, he founded and established many cities that were named after him, the most famous of which being Alexandria in Egypt.

User Engagement Metrics How to Apply Them to Boost Your SEO

User Engagement Metrics How to Apply Them to Boost Your SEO It feels great to rank on the first page of Google for your primary keywords. You get all the love with tons of organic traffic. Ranking on the first page is complicated, however. Brian Dean compiled a list of over 200 ranking factors  that Google uses.  If you’re serious about improving your search visibility, you need to find a way to attend to these factors. I know how challenging this can be. And not everyone is ready to put in the hard work. But what if I told  you that there’s a rather easier way to rank high in the organic results pages?  Would you be interested? No, I’m not going to teach you some blackhat techniques or a secret to hacking Google’s index. Can I be straight up with you? From my personal experience, I observed that the most credible way to improve search performance is by focusing on user engagement metrics.   From the chart below, you’ll notice that shares, engaged time, and comments are the core metrics  for measuring user engagement. Not backlinks or content length. If you play your cards right, you can reverse-engineer user engagement to rank higher, with or without any so-called powerful links. The guide below will show you how to do it. Download Your Free User Engagement Resource Bundle User engagement metrics are driven by strong content. Understanding those metrics requires strong knowledge of analytics tools. To help you apply the advice in this post, weve pulled together these free resources you can use: Five free Google Analytics Custom Reports that show when your social media and email content drive the most traffic to your site (in just a couple clicks). 2017 Content Calendar Template to help you schedule all your content for optimal engagement. Using Google Analytics to Create Smarter Content guide to help you create content readers want, based on real data. How to Apply Powerful User Engagement Metrics to Boost Your SEOWhy User Engagement Matters User engagement is determined by observing user’s behavior. What do they do after they land on your website? Where do they click? How much time do they spend on your website? Understanding user engagement metrics helps you see what works and what doesn’t work. It helps you see what users love on your website. It’s not just about content. Design matters, too. Why? Because great design creates a great first impression and gets better marketing results. According to The Design Council, through your design, you can increase brand visibility by 200%.   The same report also states that, "Shares in companies where design plays a critical role consistently outperform key stock market indicators by 200%," and that â€Å"for every $130 spent on design, businesses that are focused on design realized a $298 return.† Recommended Reading: How to Redesign Your Website (Like ) In 10+ Easy Steps How to Work With Designers With Authentic Advice From 's Designer How to Design the Best Blog Graphics With Free Tools and Design Theory For instance, consider bounce rate. If the bounce rate of a specific blog post is higher than the rest of the posts, this means your readers don't like it as much as they do the rest of the posts. To find the bounce rate for your posts and pages in Google Analytics, here’s that path to follow once you’re logged in: BEHAVIOR = Site Content = All Pages When the statistics load, you’ll see a column for the bounce rates: Similarly, if a post has exceptionally low bounce rate, it could mean that your audience is in love with it. All things being equal. I’m sure you’re asking, â€Å"but, what is a good bounce rate?† Well, the answer isn’t straightforward because we need to consider the industry, content quality, and so on. However, all hope isn’t lost yet. You can see the average bounce rate for different industries. Additionally, GoRocketFuel conducted an exclusive study  to determine what a good bounce rate is. According to their findings: â€Å"Most websites will see bounce rates fall somewhere between 26% and 70%. The average bounce rate for the websites in my sample set was 49%. The average bounce rate for all visits in the set was 45%. I threw out the outliers- the 1% bounce rates. The highest bounce rate was 90.2%; the low (from a properly functioning profile) was 27.33%. The low across all (including broken implementations) was 1.23%.† So when you find blog posts with a good bounce rate, replicate. Create similar posts that your readers will love again. Your chances of ranking higher in Google top pages are high, because Google appreciates  a web page with a low bounce rate. Recommended Reading: How to Create a Killer Content Strategy for Your New Blog The Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts How to Promote Your Blog With 107 Content Promotion Tactics Determine What Users Are Doing On-site It’s high time you get to know what users are doing on your website. Neil Patel  identified five engagement factors that will affect influence your search engine rankings. These include: Traffic. This includes visitors from organic sources. Pageviews and bounce rate. Brand mentions. Mobile-responsive design. Technical SEO (structured for users). Other engagement metrics are: Clicks on internal and external links. Social shares. Scroll depth. Form submissions.Are you paying attention to these important user engagement signals?Note:  All of these metrics and factors don’t influence search rankings at the same time. Most website owners and SEOs find it hard to rank higher in Google when they try to manipulate search rankings. But the truth is, SEO  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ as daunting and complicated as it may seem – still boils down to one simple practice: provide value. The illustration below  shows that the more value you provide, the more of it you’ll get. Source: HubSpot Good #SEO boils down to one simple practice: providing value.According to Search Engine Watch, the correlation between user engagement metrics (i.e., time on site, bounce rate and average pages per visit) and search engine ranking reveals that not all the signals are equally important. These user engagement metrics can be accessed from Google Analytics. This will help you identify the best performing landing pages on your website. These engagement metrics are the results of user’s behavior while on your website. To see these metrics in your Google Analytics account go to: Acquisition - All Traffic - Channels When you’ve identified your best performing landing pages, you need to install a heat map script  so that you can study the user behavior properly. To find your best performing landing pages, follow this path in Google Analytics: Behavior = Site Content = Landing Pages Here's how to find your best-performing landing pages using Google Analytics:Use Heatmaps to Understand Vantage Positioning A heat map tool like Crazy Egg  can show you the exact sections of your website that users are clicking and why? It uses mouse-tracking to determine scroll and clicks. To fully understand what users do on your website, where they click, how deep they scroll, and what they don’t like, you have to use heatmaps- it gives you better insights about users. Source: Piktochart For instance, you saw five pages in Google Analytics with below average bounce rates. At that point, you should ask yourself, â€Å"why do people like these pages more than other pages on the same website?† Do they like the video? Or the infographic? Or the GIFs or something else? This is where a heat map tool gets the job done. You can determine the following using a heat map: How users move their mouse on any given page. Do they move their mouse on the title and images? A click map shows where users click on the page. Are they clicking the new video that you just created? Scroll maps show how deep users scroll. It’s one of the best user engagement metrics that show the point users exit the page. This makes it easier to adjust the length of your page. For a demonstration of CrazyEgg and how to use it to interpret your website data, see the Koozai Guide to Using CrazyEgg. This information,  alongside data from Google Analytics will help you identify the most interactive parts on the best-performing pages. When you’re armed with such insights about your users, it’s easy to create compelling content that will improve your search visibility. Based on Google Analytics and your heatmaps, you can determine what type of content is most suitable for your audience. Lim Cheng Soon  used heatmaps  to track the user behavior on Pair’s landing page (now rebranded as Couple). Here’s what  the homepage looked like  before: Now, see what their  heatmap revealed: The navigation bar at the top left was getting more clicks than the conversion button. It was a distraction. Though they were getting a decent traffic on the homepage, pageviews were counting, and everything was working fine. But they weren’t getting as many downloads as expected. So, Lim removed the navigation bar and conversion rate quickly increased by 12%. He also removed the ‘download for free’ text above the button and it increased conversion rate by an additional 10%. Create More Interactive Content If you want to increase user’s time on your website, you need to add more interaction to your content. You could add interactive infographics  to your post, or embed quizzes. However, there are two forms of interactive content  that truly boost engagement. These include: a).   Calculators: Integrating a simple calculator into your written content can improve your content’s perceived value and take your engagement to the roof. For example, SilkRoad, a HR software for Talent Management created a calculator  to show prospective clients they could become more productive and save with its employee onboarding automation solution. Within 3 months, the company saw an increase in lead generation and content engagement. You'll need to work with your development team to make something like this happen. However, the results are worth it. b).   Interactive video: Video marketing still works. Data from Convince and Convert  shows that audiences are 10x more likely to engage with video content. Sadly, they’re still a static medium, which means that you have a lot of opportunities right now to make your videos interactive. But how? In an interactive video, you’re giving viewers the opportunity to participate in your video as opposed to just viewing it. You could add interactive hotspots so that a viewer can click to learn more about the person, an event, or a topic. Some of the handy tools that you can use to create interactive videos are: Wirewax Thinglink RaptMedia Truth is, interactive videos can quickly improve your audience’s perception of your brand. Interactive videos can quickly improve your audience’s perception of your brand.According to Tom Whatley: â€Å"One of the best examples of interactive video I've seen is the Guardian's "Seven Digital Deadly Sins." In it, viewers can explore the stories of seven users of digital media and how it affects their lives. A 'burger menu' to the side adds to the user interface, and there are several "easter eggs" in the form of one-question surveys that show real-time stats.† Here's a quick look at it: Recommended Reading: How to Make a Video Content Marketing Strategy To Boost Your New Series How to Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing How to Do Facebook Video Marketing the Right Way When you’re looking to create more engagement on your page, adding more interactivity can help. But again, it comes after studying your users closely using tools. Statistics  show that interactive content converts better than passive content. In the study, interactive content converted more than 70% of buyers while the passive content only converted 36% of buyers. Two of the reasons why most people don’t build interaction into their content is because they don’t know what type of interactive content to create that users will love. This challenge can be solved using Google Analytics and heatmaps. What #interactive #content will your audience love? Find out with Google Analytics and @CrazyEgg:To get started, you can create different forms of interactive content with these tools: Qzzr: A simple tool for creating online quizzes for free. SnapApp: It’s a powerful content platform which allows you to turn static content (e.g., PDF document) into an interactive slide presentation). Mapme: Build interactive maps with videos, words, and photos. Infogr.am: Use this tool to create interactive infographics and charts. Once you start creating interactive content, your audience will start engaging with it at a better level. And because Google follows users, your web page will start to gain more visibility in the organic search. Don’t just create any type of content. But rather, make content marketing  decisions based on the feedback from your best-performing content which you found on Google Analytics. It must be based on what your audience is already engaging with. For instance, if feedback from analytics and heat maps reveal that infographics perform better than text. You'd then want to create more infographics to engage with your readers. Recommended Reading: How to Make an Infographic in 7 Easy Steps Craft Beneficial Headlines, Not Clickbait You can use user engagement metrics and insights from Google Analytics and heatmaps to write better headlines. Here’s how. Let’s assume that one of your best performing landing pages has this headline: 12 Smart Ways To Launch a Successful Online Course Then all things being equal, your readers are telling you that they prefer ‘number headlines.’ So, you’re expected to create more of them. If that’s the case, then your subsequent posts might read thus: 11 Product Launch Tools That I Use Every Time 7 Steps To Hack a Winning Product Idea 3 Must-Have Pricing Strategies You Should Adopt More importantly, you can get more clicks on your headlines if you make them beneficial. According to Brian Clark, 8 out of 10 people  will click on your headline. Real headlines that offer value is what you should craft for your interactive content. Clickbait headlines may seem to do the trick, but they will only cause search users to bounce the moment they land on your page and discover that you’ve tricked them. This is not what you want, right? Here are a few techniques to help you write headlines: Make them benefit-driven.  Clearly state the benefit that the readers will get from the content. Here are some examples of such headlines: 7 Ways To Get Your First 1,000 Email Subscribers Here’s another example from Neil Patel’s blog: Keep headlines descriptive. Inappropriate, ambiguous, and unclear headlines might send untargeted traffic to your page. Use A/B test  to prove your best headlines. Optimize headlines. Include a keyword in the headline that will help you drive traffic from search engines. Bonus Tip: Use 's free Headline Analyzer to make sure every headline you write is a winner. A killer headline combined with the content that your users and search engines have shown great interest in initially will rank exceptionally well in search engines. A killer headline + content your users want = search rankings.This type of content doesn’t need a lot of backlinks to rank. As long as users like the content, they’ll share it, and Google will naturally rank it. Maybe not on the first page right away, but as the user engagement increases, this page will climb to the top. More so, if users like it so much, they’ll link to it as well. So, you may not be out to build links, but you’ll earn them nonetheless. Recommended Reading: How to Write Awesome Social Media Headlines Your Audience Will Love How to Write Emotional Headlines That Get More Shares How to Write Headlines That Drive Traffic, Shares, and Search Results How Will You Use User Engagement Metrics to Create Better Content? Focusing on your users and what interests them is truly the best way to create content that ranks highly in Google organic pages. It may seem like a lot of work, and it’s true, but if you dare to listen to your audience more it becomes a lot easier to answer their questions.

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 23

Case Study Example As a director of the company, my first action will be to have a formal talking with Fred about his actions and the consequences of his actions to the company. I will also emphasize of ethical values and respect for others which is the greatest level of integrity in any organization. As part of his working condition terms, one fundamental obligation to the company is to demonstrate high level of integrity and follow the channels of airing his views instead of causing intentional delays and errors in his work. I will lastly consider raising his salary in order to ensure that he is also motivated (Yin 34). In order for the bank to justify its responses on the allegations forwarded to the EEOC by Ruth, it has to provide evidence that there were not discrimination in the dismissal of Ruth Wittman on the basis of her color or any other wrongful basis. The first document that the bank should present to the EEOC is the absenteeism record of Ruth; this will also help in shading light on the allegations that she was constantly absent and tardy. Another document that the back should provide is the record of all other employees’ absenteeism as well as job allocation scheme. Another vital document that the bank should submit is the 54 separate counseling occasion of Ruth as well as other counseling occasions of her colleague in order to justify that its actions were legal. If I were the EEOC District Director, I would first analyze the presented documents about the absenteeism and tardiness of Ruth Wittman. I would then compare it with other employees of the bank and note the frequency of the absence and tardiness of other employees as well. I will also demand the bank to prove that it followed the legal procedure for dismissal of an employee. This will include the provision of a warning letter and being given the dismissal letter within the required period of time before administering the dismissal process. If the dismissal was done in an illegal way, I

Employee Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 5

Employee Relations - Essay Example industrial relations take place within a particular organization is determined by the frame of reference through which its top managers recognize the formal relationship with individuals and/or their representatives. The unitary frame of reference is widespread among managers. According to this unitary perspective, all individuals in the organization are working towards one goal, where there is one sense of power and where conflict is abhorred. Managers frequently view themselves and other managers in the organization as part of a ‘managerial team’, and they expect their employees to pledge to the same point of view. Managers who take this approach consider themselves as the only rightful source of power and authority which they value and protect. They view their role as one of controlling the activities of the workforce and presume that all employees share the common goals of the organization, are faithful to the `management team’ and entirely dedicated to the objective of the organization. On the other hand, a different way of looking at organizations is to view them as pluralities of interest groups, each with differing and occasionally opposing interests, which might come together in alliances, although these alliances shift and modify according to the situations. Whatever the long-term interrelatedness of interest groups, in their daily struggle for resources and in their work-related activities, they emphasize on sectional interests. Here, managers might tolerate and keenly promote freedom of expression and the development of groups, which create their own norms and choose their own informal leaders. In this way, authority and control takes place in a number of areas of the organization and loyalty is commanded by the leaders of the groups, which are frequently in competition with each other for resources. The managers accomplish results by combining the groups, promoting participation, motivating employees and managing their work efforts (Gennard &

Creating a united ummah between 622 and 632 Essay Example for Free

Creating a united ummah between 622 and 632 Essay Explain and comment on the ways in which Muhammad set about creating a united ummah between 622 and 632 Key to explaining the creation of the united ummah is the admission by Islam of the wars that were necessary in achieving their aim. The Muslim belief about 622 is that Muhammad and the muhajirun who followed him from Mecca to Medina were mostly accepted by most residents of Medina. The foundation for this was that they had been asked there in the first place they were supposed to bring about a peaceful revolution in a city wrought with violence and feuds between seperate tribes of people. As such, Islam was going to be the heal on the wounds that were plighting Medina. The non-Muslim view however is that Jews and munafiqun had difficulties in accepting the ideals of Islam and ridiculed it. Muhammad was faced with a challenge in bringing the people round to his point of view, and by the end of 622, had only managed to persuade 1000. The first undisputed, all-out battle of the creation of the ummah was in 624. This was the Battle of Badr. While Muslims claim that the battle was fought out of loyalty to Allah alone, non-Muslims claim that it was based on a desire for revenge against the Meccans who had forced them to leave their original home. The evidence that Muslims claim to have supporting their argument is the very fact that Muhammad and his followers won the battle they had Allah on their side, as is described in Sura 7. Sura 7 is however believed by opponents to have been written at a different time to the Quran, so cannot be taken at face value. Non-believers claim that Muhammad was acting with intolerance, which overrided the supposed obligation from Allah that he had to act on. 625 saw the Battle of Uhud, which saw Abu Sufyan setting out in opposition to Muhammad. His 3000 men would logically make light work of the 700 that Muhammad could call upon Muslim belief follows that Allah was testing the faith of his followers in allowing one side to be so much bigger than the other. Non-Muslim belief obviously ranges, but some have argued that God could not have solely been on Muhammads side, given that the prophet emerged from the battle with war wounds, and that some Meccans disobeyed orders, so there were other forces acting on the battle than those of Allah. Abu Sufyan set out to kill Muhammad again in 627, with the Battle of the Ditches. In this battle, Muhammad and his army were met with the force of 10,000 men. Stalemate arose when Muhammad dug trenches, and a storm saw off the Meccans, who had started disputes between themselves anyway. Non-Muslim suspicion of this story is largely insubstantial, although the morality of murdering 600-900 Jews later on in the year has been brought into question. This, and the sale of women and children into slavery by Muhammads followers has been backed up with the teaching from the Quran reading God does not love the treacherous, the belief by many Muslims that it was the only way they had of creating the religious theocracy that they wanted, and the belief that they had every right to return the violence that they claim had been initiated on them by the Jews and Meccans. Muhammad set out to improve the relations between the Medinans and the Meccans in 628, when the two cities agreed to sign the Treaty of Hudabiya outside Meccan city boundaries. Muslims consider this treaty to authenticate Muhammads status as a reluctant warrior because it was supposed to secure peace and the right for any Meccans to become Muslims if they wanted to. Islams status as being more than a religion is also authenticated by the treaty, which Muslims believe portrayed Muhammad as being a capable politician he also allowed Jews to enjoy religious freedom, in return for an extra tax. The Islamic belief that the Muhammad communicated with emperors of Byzantium and Abyssinia is toned down by non-Muslim theory, which suggests that he spoke to Arabian peninsula leaders at the most. Some Meccans were voluntarily converted to Islam when the faith reached Mecca on a small pilgramage in 629, but the main influx of population to the faith came in 630 when Muhammad took the ciy by force. In the following year, he sent out armies supporting his leaders when they spread the word of Islam the role that these forces played in converting people to Islam is disputed by Non-Muslims. There is much evidence to support the view that Muhammads motives were political and personal, rather than religious. Firstly, it would not have been reasonable for Muhammads motives to have been solely religious. He would not have been able to have been as successful as he was if they had been this is because Islam is, in the eyes of believers and non-believers alike, more than just a religion. The Islamic beliefs take precedence over politics, and the individual desires of one person. This makes it almost socialistic in its principles, which in turn explain how Muhammad found it such a task to actually spread the faith. It is unlikely that Muhammads motives were personal, as in the event that they had been, it would have been unlikely he would have set himself aside for so much criticism or persecution in fighting the Meccans. He would have stayed in Mecca and made a living as a trader if this was what he wanted. He would however have had political motives. These would have been necessary in converting a brutal city into a religious theocracy, and would have to have been backed up with a resolution to act in possibly violent ways to carry them through. What Muhammad was doing was by no means easy he put his life on the line for Allah, who had already put him through visions to tell him what he had to do. Muhammad has been described by some people as being hungry for power, leading to his crusades, battles and treaties across Arabia. What it must be remembered is that he died in 632 as a reasonably old man he fought not for himself but for Allah.

Affects of Alcohol :: essays research papers fc

Alcohol: Best or Worst Times of Life? Alcohol has many dangerous effects and should be banned. That being said, what exactly IS alcohol? Alcohol is a clear liquid at room temperature, it is flammable and it can be dissolved in water. Alcohol is usually produced in two main ways: fermentation or distillation. The alcohol found in alcoholic beverages such as beer or wine is known as ethyl alcohol. Alcohol is rarely found in a pure form. In beer, the ethanol concentration is only 4 to 6 percent. In wine the ethanol concentration is 7 to 11 percent and in champagne 8 to 14 percent. In distilled spirits such as rum or vodka, ethanol concentration can be anywhere from 45 to 90 percent! Alcohol has made its way into western culture; from the good tasting beverage to have after work to the â€Å"cool† thing to do in front of all your friends. The United States has tried to ban alcohol consumption. The Prohibition in 1919 occurred when the 18th amendment was approved; this outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors. However, the ban on liquor was highly unsuccessful. Crime rates shot sky high and the demand for liquor was as high as ever. However, the 18th amendment was repealed by the 21st in 1933 (Mason 2). Where the 18th amendment failed, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 succeeded. The National minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 required that all states change their legal drinking age. If the states refused to comply with this new law, the state would lose its money under the Federal Aid Highway Act (Mason 1). This only proves the point further that alcohol is dangerous and should be banned for a variety of reasons: it has many negative effects on youth, it causes a lot of damage inside the home and out, and there are many physically ill effects. Alcohol has many negative effects on youth. Some of the most influential factors in a youth’s decision to drink are parents and peers. However, past and present research has shown that alcohol advertising also has a significant impact by ‘influencing the attitudes of parents and peers and helping to create an environment that promotes underage drinking. (CAMY 1). Youth are easily influenced through television advertisements. â€Å"A 1996 study of children age’s nine to eleven found that children were more familiar with Budweiser’s television frogs than Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger, the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, or Smokey the Bear (CAMY 1).

Pest Analysis Essay

Political factors include the following types of instrument: – Legislation such as the minimum wage or anti discrimination laws. – Voluntary codes and practices – Market regulations – Trade agreements, tariffs or restrictions – Tax levies and tax breaks – Type of government regime eg communist, democratic, dictatorship Non conformance with legislative obligations can lead to sanctions such as fines, adverse publicity and imprisonment. Ineffective voluntary codes and practices will often lead to governments introducing legislation to regulate the activities covered by the codes and practices. Economical The second element of a PEST analysis involves a study of economic factors. All businesses are affected by national and global economic factors. National and global interest rate and fiscal policy will be set around economic conditions. The climate of the economy dictates how consumers, suppliers and other organisational stakeholders such as suppliers and creditors behave within society. An economy undergoing recession will have high unemployment, low spending power and low stakeholder confidence. Conversely a â€Å"booming† or growing economy will have low unemployment, high spending power and high stakeholder confidence. A successful organisation will respond to economic conditions and stakeholder behaviour. Furthermore organisations will need to review the impact economic conditions are having on their competitors and respond accordingly. In this global business world organisations are affected by economies throughout the world and not just the countries in which they are based or operate from. For example: a global credit crunch originating in the USA contributed towards the credit crunch in the UK in 2007/08. Cheaper labour in developing countries affects the competitiveness of products from developed countries. An increase in interest rates in the USA will affect the share price of UK stocks or adverse weather conditions in India may affect the price of tea bought in an English cafe. A truly global player has to be aware of economic conditions across all borders and needs to ensure that it employs strategies that protect and promote its business through economic conditions throughout the world. Social The third aspect of PEST focuses its attention on forces within society such as family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and the media. Social forces affect our attitudes, interest s and opinions. These forces shape who we are as people, the way we behave and ultimately what we purchase. For example within the UK peoples attitudes are changing towards their diet and health. As a result the UK is seeing an increase in the number of people joining fitness clubs and a massive growth for the demand of organic food. Products such as Wii Fit attempt to deal with society’s concern, about children’s lack of exercise. Population changes also have a direct impact on organisations. Changes in the structure of a population will affect the supply and demand of goods and services within an economy. Falling birth rates will result in decreased demand and greater competition as the number of consumers fall. Conversely an increase in the global population and world food shortage predictions are currently leading to calls for greater investment in food production. Due to food shortages African countries such as Uganda are now reconsidering their rejection of genetically modified foods. In summary organisations must be able to offer products and services that aim to complement and benefit people’s lifestyle and behaviour. If organisations do not respond to changes in society they will lose market share and demand for their product or service. Technological Unsurprisingly the fourth element of PEST is technology, as you are probably aware technological advances have greatly changed the manner in which businesses operate.

Leadership Profile Essay

I am currently the Director of the Patient Care Management Department at one of the local for-profit hospitals. We have gone through some tremendous changes since I have been there. When I started at the hospital, we did not have a director we only had a team leader and the hospital was up for sale. April 2012, the team leader decided to resign. I was then nominated by my co-workers to step up to the team leader position. Immediately the hospital was sold and they posted a job listing for director of our department. For the next year, there were only a scant number of interview prospects for the job listing. I then decided that I should tackle this job opportunity, so I applied. In the midst of all of this, the new owners brought in a consulting firm for our department. The consulting firm mentioned to upper administration that there was great talent already in the department to fulfill the director position. In May 2013, I was promoted to director. I currently oversee the day to day operations in the department. Leadership Weakness I consider Welch’s core principles of voice and dignity to be an area of development. As indicated in Welch’s book Winning â€Å"every person in the world wants a voice and dignity, and every person deserves them†. As an evolving leader, this will be a principle that needs further development. I need to learn to conduct my voice in a professional manner so that I am heard and well respected. I also want to allow my team to have a voice and dignity in the workplace. I want them to bring all their brain power to the table (Welch, 2005) and make sure they know they can do this. Leadership Profile I was given a task to handle in my department even though it really should have been assigned to another department. I did not want to turn anything down being the new person and fear of having a voice, so I accepted the responsibility of writing the policy. I started to work with one of my team members to write the policy. My team member came to me one day and stated â€Å"I really do not mind helping write this policy but it should really be the other department†. I listened and once she was finished I scheduled a meeting with the director of the other department. I met with the other director to discuss that his department should really take a handle on writing this policy and that we would help in any way possible. I had a voice and was listened to because the other department has now been assigned the policy writing. This has impacted me as a leader because we all should have a voice. Everyone in the work-place deserves to be heard. Winning states that not â€Å"everyone’s opinions should be put into practice or every single complaint needs to be satisfied†, however this team members opinion did need to be heard. If I would not have given her a voice, we probably would still be writing the policy. Voice and dignity in relation to my D/C management style, I am very direct and straightforward (â€Å"Everything Disc Management Online Profile†, 2008). This is where I need to be mindful when speaking, that I do not come across as harsh. The voice and dignity principle that I plan to improve will take specific steps. I plan to execute methods within our department that will consistently allow every ones voice to be heard. I will set up monthly meetings where everyone will be able to discuss any concerns or ideas to better improve our workflow. I will keep meeting minutes where I can go back to address these Leadership Profile concerns and see where we can make changes and even collaborate with other team member’s hospital wide. The team will also know that they can come to me at any time or day to discuss issues and that I will listen openly and confidentially if need be. This will give them a chance and opportunity to feel included in the task at hand. Leadership Strength Winning states that â€Å"leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence†. I consider this to be a strength of mine. Before I took this new position, I knew that I had to get the best team together if we wanted to succeed. I had evaluated two employees that were not capable of performing the daily job duties, and released them. I did lots of research on my prospective employees and hired the best. Now that I have a fully qualified team, I am constantly looking for ways to enhance the department and their skills. I also look daily to entertain one’s self-confidence if appropriate. This is a passion of mine to acknowledge others when they have earned it. As indicated in Welch’s book Winning â€Å"when you become a leader, success is all about growing others†. I feel this has impacted me as a leader because I take pride in helping and watching others grow. The growth of others represents my management style in that I am results-oriented. I like to see the end product of my team members. With my style I also need to be conscious not to be so demanding. To further improve on leadership rule number one, I would like to incorporate a monthly evaluation tool that can also be part of their quarterly review. This will allow me to be managing Leadership Profile their production throughout, instead of waiting to the end to do the quarterly review. I believe when waiting until the end of the three month period to do the quarterly review, we lack the ability to constantly upgrade because things are missed or forgotten. This makes the quarterly review less worthy and a disadvantage to the team, the team member and myself. Recommendation As a young leader, I want to learn from the Jack Welch Management Institute and apply my learning daily. I hope to accomplish becoming a more effective leader in the near future. Leadership Profile References Everything DiSC Management Online Profile (2008). Resources Unlimited (3rd edition). Inscape Publishing. Welch, J. (2005). Winning. New York, NY: HarperCollins

Management and Development of Business for Sustainability Resources

Management and Development of Business for Sustainability Resources Introduction The resource-based theory basically explores organizations internal capabilities concerning the formulation of strategies that are intended to achieve sustainable competitive advantage both at the market and in the industries where an organization operates.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Management and Development of Business for Sustainability Resources specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In fact, this theory deals with the competitive environment of an organization but applies the inside-out approach. The theoretical analysis starts with the internal environment of the organization. As a result, the theory is frequently observed as an alternative replacement for the Porters five forces framework which looks at the external environment while taking the outside-in or the industrial structure as the starting point. This paper examines the way internal resources of the firm contribute to the organizations s uccess and sustainability. More emphasis is geared towards the role and nature of intangible and tangible resources in reference to the notion of dynamic capabilities of an organization. The paper also reviews the available literature to shade light on the resource based theory approach and to relate it to how the internal resources of an organization contribute to the success of organization and the gaining of competitive advantage. The resource based approach to the organization strategy The resource based theory is not a new approach to the organization strategy, but it is rather a strategy that has long precursor with links going back to the early works of Penrose. Nevertheless, the resource based theory is majorly associated with works of scholars like Rumelt, Barney, Prahalad and Hamel as well as Peteraf and Grant. These scholars put a lot of emphasis on the organizations internal resources and capabilities in formulating the organizational strategies (De Wall 2007, p.209).Adv ertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As indicated, the resourced based view takes into account the organization internal capabilities and resources in formulating the organization strategy so as to attain the sustainable competitive advantage within market as well as at the industry levels (Barney Clark 2007, p.189). In situations where the organization has capabilities and resources that can be organized and reorganized for a company to attain the desired competitive advantage over competing firms, the organization perspective becomes inside-out (Barney Clark 2007, p.189). In essence, the company capabilities become the determinant of the strategic choices the company makes while competing with others in the outside environment. Similarly, in certain situations, the capabilities of the organization may permit the creation of new markets besides adding value to the org anization clienteles (Miles 2012, p.212). This has clearly been depicted by the Toyota hybrid cars and the Apple iPod. In these cases, it is clear that the organization capabilities are paramount to the creation of the organizations competitive advantage. It is also imperative to note that the capabilities will enable an organization to lay much emphasis on the configuration of its value-chain activities. The reason is that the company will stand a chance of identifying the competencies within its value-chain activities that make available the most competitive advantage (De Wall 2007, p.209). For instance, the much revered Toyota manufacturing system that uses the inbound logistics in the form of excellent inventory and material control system ensure that the levels of the inventory are sufficient enough to satisfy the demands of the clients.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Management and Development of Business for Sustainability Resources specifically fo r you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This system ensures that the inventory and the materials are delivered before the customers order for the assembly. Looking into the various activities that are involved in the value-chain such as operations, there are efficient automated plants with inbuilt quality control systems. These are supported by services through the application of warranties and guaranties, sales and marketing which is augmented through the advertisements as well as dealership networks. At Toyota Corporation, the value-chain activities are linked across the company operations. The linkages between the company value-chain to those of its suppliers are designed in such a way that it gives Toyota distinctive capability over its competitors or the core competencies. It is these core competencies that provide competitive advantage for Toyota. Moreover, Toyota is also capable of appropriating the added value that it gets from these value chain activitie s. A distinctive example is seen where Toyota US makes larger profit than three combined largest automobile firms in the US. Desouza (2005, p.89) asserts that, in situations where firms in the same industry are faced with similar conditions, the expectations are that, putting other things to be equal, the firms will have almost equal profits. However, this is not necessarily the case. There is a wide variation in terms of profitability by firms in the same industry as depicted by the UK retail supermarket chain TESCO and its competitor Sainsbury. The Porters argument that the industrial system whereby firms functions and the manner in which firms position themselves within the system determines each of these firms profitability. This contrasts the resource-based view that does not look at the industry structure rather unique bunch of resources together with capabilities that each organization possesses (Barney Clark 2007, p.189).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The proponents of the resourceds of the intellectual resources involve copyrights as well as patents that are derived from the technological resources of the organization. For instance, the Dayson manufacturing company relies heavily on the intangible intellectual resource of the creative innovative founder, Dayson James. This intellectual property has never been imitated by any competitor to Dayson manufacturing company. Tacit knowledge within an organization is built through the organizational culture and processes. The employees of such an organization have tacit knowledge that cannot be readily transferred. The good will reputation of an organization is constantly being acknowledged as essential tangible asset that can be damaged easily through negative marketing campaigns and ill-thought strategies (Barney 1991, p.109). Companies like Benetton made a point by allowing debate over their controversial advertisements. The debate seemed to equally draw both detractors and supporter s while at the same time gaining useful and free publicity. Moreover, the way Johnson and Johnson responded to the mischievous meddling with their product Tylenol ensured that its reputation consistently persisted at the top. Competencies As previously indicated, the existence of organizations resources does not confer any benefit to the organization unless they are put into productive use. It is the effective and innovative conformation of these resources that provide competencies to the organization. A competency can be described as the attribute that the company needs so as to be in a better position to compete appropriately in the marketplace (Barney 2010, p.45). Competencies are understood as being the prerequisite to the firm’s competiveness within the industry. The competencies alone do not however confer to the organization any competitive advantage (Beaver 2002, p.213). In fact, the competencies are supposed to be thought of being derived from the company internal bu ndle of resources. For instance, for companies to compete well within the automobile industry, they must be in possession of knowledge requisite to design and manufacture the automobile engine and body. Such knowledge will enable the companies to effectively compete within the industry despite their resource capabilities (Barney 2010, p.10). Core competencies Hamel and Prahalad (1990) argue that the most essential duty for the company managers is to come up with products that are needed to satisfy the customer demands, yet such products have not even been imagined. In order to attain this objective, the company management must go beyond the organization boundaries instead of focusing on distinct and separate strategic business units. In essence, Hamel and Prahalad (1993) were right to claim that competencies are derived from collective individual learning within the organization as well as the ability to operate across the organization boundaries. Therefore, a core competency or dis tinctive capabilities can be described as a group of attributes possessed by the organization that enable it to attain the competitive advantage (Barney 2010, p.110). This implies that, it is the ability of the company to configure its resources in a way that allows the company to successfully compete within the marketplace. The classic examples of companies that have achieved the key competencies are Dell and Benetton. Dell has achieved the core competency by the way it has configured its value chains. Organizations have strained to imitate the dells model of direct sales but they have successfully failed. Similarly, Toyota manufacturing company has attained its core competency in the production of petrol-and-electric hybrid cars. Nevertheless, this cannot be measured with the first mover advantage. Indeed, this materializes to be the sole advantage the company gets from being the first in the global in the marketplace (Kay 1993, p.45). Therefore, core competencies should provide c ompanies with access to a broader market. This has been witnessed in the case of Honda core competencies in the engine design which enabled the company to leverage its capabilities to successfully compete in the car and powerboat market. Besides, core competency should add value to the customer end products (Barney 2010, p.109). For instance, the distinctive capabilities of BMW in engineering have enabled it to manufacture high quality cars normally being sold at premium. The company core competency should equally be hard to imitate by any of the company’s competitors. This implies that the value a company gets from the core competency such as the competitive advantage should be sustained (Divanna Rogers 2005, p.103). Thus, for any company to attain this, it must not allow the competitors to imitate the core competency. Still, the core competency within an organization is normally increased as it is being utilized and mutually shared across the firm. Prahalad and Hamel (1993 ) claim that core competencies are the binding factor within the organization. They spur growth and new developments within the organization. However, core competencies within the organization have to be protected for the organization to generate appropriate rewards. Distinctive capabilities Generally it is the organization distinctive capabilities of its resources that provide it with the competitive advantage. But the capabilities of the organization are distinctive if they are derived from those characteristics that other firms do not have (Holbeche 2009, p.34). Having distinctive capability is only necessary, but not sufficient enough to be successful. The distinctive capability must be appropriable and sustainable. That is, it must persist over time to be sustainable (Divanna Rogers, 2005). The distinctive capability must also be seen to benefit the company rather than the competitors for it to have an appropriable characteristic. The organization distinctive capabilities eman ate from the innovation, the company reputation and architecture. These further relate the organization to the stakeholders. It is this relationship that permits the resources of the organization to offer distinctive capabilities through innovation, architecture and reputation (Barney 2010, p.109). Organization architecture refers to the system of relationships that occurs within and out of the company (Barney Clark 2007, p.189). The internal architecture is the relationship between the organization and its employees and between employees themselves while the external architecture is the relationship between the organization and its suppliers and the customers. In fact, architectural network occurs in the relationships between the organizations with other firms within the industry. However, distinctive architecture is based on the employees output (Holbeche 2009, p.34). It permits the value that is created to be easily and readily distributed by the company. As the basis of distinc tive capability, reputation is especially essential in the markets where the consumers are capable of using their long-term experience to ascertain the quality of the product (Barney Clark 2007, p.189). A firm’s reputation is build through its reliable long-term relationships. In most cases this takes a considerable period of time to develop and nurture. Once this long-term relationship has been developed, the distinctive capability of the firm is attained. A reputation of quality product and better services provides the firm with a competitive advantage that the firm can utilize to secure reprise business and charge premium prices (Beaver 2002, p.213). Firms can leverage such reputations when entering into the new markets. For instance, Sonny leverages its reputation while entering the electronic consumer market. The company capability to successfully and speedily innovate is also another basis of distinctive capability that can be appropriated and sustained (Barney 2010, p .109). A company may manufacture innovative products like the Apples iPods and iTunes. For a number of years, Apple has remained unrivaled in product design and functionality. It has made it difficult for its competitors to imitate its products. The ability to constantly innovate and develop products has ensured Apple with sustainable source of competitive advantage over its market competitors. Competitive advantages that have emanated from innovations are derived from the organizations architecture. Innovative processes may be embodied within the organization routines thereby making it harder for the competitors to imitate (Barney Clark 2007, p.189). Through patents and copyrights, organizations are capable of securing their innovative products and ensure that their values are appropriated. Conclusion The resource based view lay much emphasis on the application of the firms set of internal resources and capabilities to determine their competitive advantages. The delineated resourc es, the firms’ core competencies and the distinctive capabilities have also been explored to show how firms can achieve their competitive advantage. However, both core competencies and distinctive capabilities are terms that are interchangeably used, but they relate to how organizations strive to attain sustainable competitive advantage. References Amit, R Schoemaker, PJ 1993, â€Å"Strategic assets and organization rents†, Strategic Management Journal, vol.14 no.1, pp.33-46. Barney, J 1991, â€Å"Firms resources and sustained competitive advantage†, Journal of Management, vol.17 no.1, pp.99-120. Barney, JB Clark, DN 2007, Resource-based theory: Creating and sustaining competitive Advantage, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Barney, JB 2010, Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Beaver, G 2002, Small business, entrepreneurship and enterprise development, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Co ombs, HM, Hobbs, D Jenkins, DE 2005, Management accounting principles and applications, Sage, London, UK. De Wall, A 2007, Strategic performance management, Palgrave McMillan, Basingstoke, UK. Desouza, KC 2005, New frontiers of knowledge management, Palgrave McMillan, Basingstoke, UK. Divanna, JA Rogers, J 2005, People – the new asset on the balance sheet, Palgrave McMillan, Basingstoke, UK. Hamel, G Prahalad, CK 1990, â€Å"The core competence of the organization†, Harvard Business Review, vol.71 no.2, pp. 75-84 Hamel, G Prahalad, CK 1993, â€Å"Strategy as stretch and leverage†, Harvard Business Review, vol.68 no.3, pp. 79-91 Helfat, CE 2007, Dynamic capabilities: Understanding strategic change in organizations, Blackwell, Oxford, UK. Holbeche, L 2009, Aligning human resources and business strategy, Elsesvier Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, UK. Kay, J 1993, Foundations of corporate success, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Miles, JA 2012, Management and organization theory: A Jossey-bass reader, John Wiley Sons Hoboken, NJ.

Bringing a Story of Business and Ayahuasca to Life Reedsy

Bringing a Story of Business and Ayahuasca to Life Reedsy Making "Ayahuasca, An Executive's Enlightenment" Come To Life We love a good adventure story here at Reedsy, so we were delighted to help Michael Sanders bring his book,  Ayahuasca: An Executive’s Enlightenment, to life. Becoming worn down as the vice president of an advertising agency and the co-founder of a startup company, Michael made a life-changing decision to venture out into the Amazon jungle to discover his path to self-transcendence. Michael drinks the psychedelic plant medicine Ayahuasca in three shamanistic ceremonies and connects with the Mother of the Rainforest and creator of the universe. This remarkable story examines the very essence of human nature and how this experience gave Michael absolute clarity as to his purpose and path in life.Michael needed an editor and designer to help take his book to the next level. So he came to Reedsy and now decided to share his experience with us. Enjoy the interview!Hi Michael thanks for chatting to us, just to start with, tell us a little about your book and what brought you to wr ite it.Ayahuasca: An Executive’s Enlightenment is about my journey into the Amazon jungle to drink the sacred and psychedelic plant medicine known as Ayahuasca.At the start of 2013, I was experiencing extreme fatigue. I was working as the vice president of an advertising agency and as the co-founder of a startup in the gaming industry, and I was training athletically and intensely 10 to 14 times each week.I decided to consult with a naturopath who helped me develop a daily meditation and play practice. After a few months working with him, my friend Sid suggested we venture to the Amazon to drink Ayahuasca- something that had been on my radar for about 18 months.Sid, another friend Carl, and I ventured down to the Peruvian jungle on Boxing Day of 2013. We trekked through the Amazon for a week- encountering all sorts of incredible wildlife and adventure, and developing a bond with nature that transcended my previous notions of connecting with the Earth.On New Year’s Eve, we arrived at the ceremonial grounds of Nihue Rao where we had our first Ayahuasca ceremony. Drinking Ayahuasca shattered the paradigm of reality in which I formerly operated and showed me something beyond my wildest imagination. In a nutshell, all of my life’s existential contemplations were resolved during three Ayahuasca ceremonies over the course of four nights.One of my intentions for my ceremonies was to determine a clearer career path, and it was revealed to me that I need to hone my gift for storytelling and write a book. How did you hear about Reedsy and why did you think it was the right place to develop your book to the next stage?I heard about Reedsy while working with Publishizer. Publishizer is a crowdfunding platform for authors, and the company’s CEO Guy Vincent encouraged me to check out Reedsy for all of my editing and design needs.I checked out Reedsy’s website and loved the intuitive design. It was so easy for me to find skilled editors and designers, to communicate with them, and to receive quotes on how much their work would cost.Tell us how you came about choosing Maria D’Marco as your editorI was scrolling through editors and Maria's headline jumped out at me: â€Å"Empathetic, bespoke editor - collaborative partnerships - developmental specialist, copy editor, book marketing, front-to-back support.† Empathy is exactly what I was looking for in an editor, and I also saw that she had worked on a number of fantastic books. When Maria and I chatted, she really resonated with my story, so I knew she was the perfect editor for me.What did she bring that elevated the story the book in some way?Maria brought an objective perspective and a set of fresh eyes. I had worked with seven editors along the way- all of whom are friends of mine- and for the final edit, I wanted someone who hadn’t seen the work before.Maria’s goal wasn’t to infuse her own thinking into my story, but to instead allow me to best tell the story that I wanted to tell. She wasn’t afraid to challenge me: she was very direct and blunt with what needed to be done. My story was pretty polished by the time Maria had her first read, so I didn’t need to make a ton of changes, but the changes she did suggest elevated the narrative substantially.Specifically, Maria had me include more physical descriptions of the characters in my book, which was a really interesting process. Because the people I had traveled with were so familiar to my mind, I had f orgotten that the reader wouldn’t know what the characters looked like. So, adding the physical descriptions really brought the other characters to life.Additionally, Maria suggested I completely change my introduction. Maria explained that the introduction I first presented to her wouldn’t grip anyone who wasn’t familiar with Ayahuasca. I understood her point, and after some contemplation, we arrived at a much better introduction. I’m thrilled that I took Maria’s advice: So many people have told me that they were hooked right from the first page.Now let's talk about Peter, how did you choose him and how did you finalize on the design of the book cover with him?I already had a minimal cover concept in mind, and I was looking for someone to execute it. Searching through designers, Peter’s portfolio of work grabbed me- minimal and evocative. After chatting with Peter, he seemed like the right person for the job.Peter was a joy to communicate w ith, he worked quickly, and he was very responsive and accommodating. He did a fantastic job on the design- both the interior and exterior- and was very knowledgeable on formatting for both the print and electronic versions.Finally, is there any advice you would like to give people who are thinking of self-publishing?Do it.In terms of execution, I recommend writing the book first. Once you have had some friends and editors give you feedback and you have a solid manuscript, you might consider crowdfunding the publication. Crowdfunding only works if you think you can connect with a wide audience and you can offer your backers awesome incentives: it’s important to remember that other people don’t care as much about your dream as you do, so you really have to incentivize them to pay for a book before it’s published. If you’re willing to put in the work to connect with a wide audience and provide awesome incentives, then crowdfunding is an amazing way to gener ate momentum prior to the book’s release.In terms of editing and design, I fully recommend Reedsy. It’s a wonderful and intuitive platform.Lastly, enjoy the journey 🙂You can buy "Ayahuasca: An Executive’s Enlightenment" on Amazon  here.How did you go about publishing your book? Have you considered crowdfunding before? Tell us about your experiences, or ask Michael any question you want, in the comments below!