Capstone: Foster Care and Amp Essay

Conceptual The task was intended to address high increment in destitute youth not changing into adulthood effectively. In fall 2011, a survey of the writing affirmed the presence of high paces of destitute youth not changing into adulthood effectively. The writing ascribed the issue to a few causal variables of low salary occupations, joblessness, and absence of formal training. There has not been a model task led inside the writing. A need evaluation study of the objective populace and an information extraction instrument was utilized to speak to the objective populace demonstrated that new program would help in tending to this issue. A change venture was planned toward the start of the semester, and the destinations were to expand the information on essential fundamental abilities by 10%. Assessment discoveries demonstrated that the new program expanded the degree of information on essential abilities and pace of youth coming back to vagrancy diminished by 10%. Chapter by chapter guide Section Page Number I. Presentation 5 II. Survey of Literature 7 III. Needs Assessment 19 IV. Undertaking Implementation 38 V. Undertaking Evaluation 44 VI. Organization and Stabilization 51 VII. Joining of Relevant Concepts 52 VIII. References 53 IX. Supplements 59 Section I: Introduction Foundation of the Problem Today, encountering vagrancy has nothing to do with a person’s natural worth. Vagrancy is an unpredictable social issue with numerous factors. Shockingly, for those encountering vagrancy, the effect of the estimations of the 1640s are as yet inescapable. In America many despite everything hold to this precept, that one just needs to get themselves by their bootstraps and into the quest for the American dream and for the individuals who can't, they have the right to be down and out for they bring no ‘added value’ to society (Thompson, Bender, Windsor, Cook, and Williams, 2010). Vagrancy implies not having a home, living in a spot not proposed for residence, or temperamentally housed. Vagrancy in the United States is principally tended to by giving crisis and transitional safe house offices that don't straightforwardly address the reason for vagrancy (Culhane and Metraux, 2008). The Industrial Revolution beginning during the 1820s-‘30s individuals started relo cating from the ranch to the city looking for occupations. Philadelphia and New York had numerous individuals strolling the boulevards causing the country’s first dish taking care of laws. City correctional facilities became true safe house frameworks. Poor wellbeing guideline caused a great deal of physical handicap and passing. Those debilitated and widows, numerous with subordinate youngsters had no way to accommodate themselves and no place to turn. The 1850s brought the primary recorded instances of destitute youth, a significant number of whom were kicked out of their homes in light of the fact that their suppliers could no longer bear to raise them (Thompson, Bender, Windsor, Cook and Williams, 2010). Fundamental issues have been set up after some time. Individuals living in generational destitution don't have the assets and backing to get taught and move out of neediness. Racial partitions despite everything happen in the regions of medicinal services, training, access to contracts, access to rise to paying employments among numerous others (Thompson, Bender, Windsor, Cook and Williams, 2010). There has been an expansion in vagrancy among African American male and female young people in the City of Philadelphia. In doing this examination, the reason for existing was to address destitute youth progressing into adulthood internationally and locally. In taking a gander at vagrancy internationally and locally, there are numerous causes, contributing components, and potential intercessions to diminish vagrancy in America, yet on the planet. Youth who are destitute are in the circumstance for some reasons that don't credit to their own doing. Destitute youth changing into adulthood have a troublesome undertaking, when one doesn’t have or wasn’t showed the abilities to do as such in the public arena. In Philadelphia, youth that age out of child care position at age 18 are left to go to crisis covers, house jump between relatives, or resort to life in the city. The scope of the lodging issues among youths who have left child care might be thought little of as 12% to 14% of youngsters experience vagrancy inside a couple of years after they leave the framework (Fowler, Toro, and Miles, 2009). The requirement for lodging situation, instruction, and work are administrations that destitute youth need their lives (Fowler, Toro, and Miles, 2009). ). The exploration expresses a few causes and contributing variables run from familial maltreatment, strife, or disregard, psychological wellness issues, sexual directions, absence of training, absence of business, absence of moderate lodging, and lodging programs finishing at 21 years old. Destitute youth experience difficulty with finishing school because of the absence of satisfactory lodging. Furthermore, because of the absence of lodging these young cutoff their chances for productive work. In doing this examination, the attention is on approaches to forestall or diminish vagrancy in youth who are maturing out of child care or maturing out of lodging programs at 21. The data given by the exploration will give a casing of reference of the causes and answers for vagrancy. All through the investigation, the outcomes will decide whet her the examination has secured all causes, potential arrangements, and impediments to those arrangements in managing this issue of vagrancy. Part II: Review of Literature Destitute has been the mark given to young people that are released from child care, unreasonably old for the gathering homes, or kicked out of guardians homes putting fault on the adolescent. This writing survey will address the issue, the causes, and the arrangement identifying with Homeless Adolescence fruitful progress into Independence. This audit will conceptualize the issue, considering different methodologies and mediations that may diminish the degrees of destitute youth in the United States. The data in this audit will cover the years somewhere in the range of 2007 and 2012. Creators with comparative introductions will be contrasted and those and varying perspectives will be differentiated. Review Today, those encountering vagrancy has nothing to do with a person’s inherent worth. Vagrancy is an unpredictable social issue with numerous factors. Lamentably, for those encountering vagrancy, the effect of the estimations of the 1640s are as yet unavoidable. In America many despite everything hold to this principle, that one just needs to get themselves by their bootstraps and into the quest for the American dream and for the individuals who can't, they have the right to be desperate for they bring no ‘added value’ to society (Thompson, Bender, Windsor, Cook, and Williams, 2010). The Industrial Revolution beginning during the 1820s-‘30s individuals started moving from the homestead to the city looking for employments. Philadelphia and New York had numerous individuals strolling the lanes causing the country’s first dish taking care of mandates. City correctional facilities became true haven frameworks. Poor wellbeing guideline caused a great deal o f physical incapacity and passing. Those handicapped and widows, numerous with subordinate kids had no way to accommodate themselves and no place to turn. The 1850s brought the principal recorded instances of destitute youth, huge numbers of whom were kicked out of their homes on the grounds that their suppliers could no longer bear to raise them (Thompson, Bender, Windsor, Cook and Williams, 2010). Foundational issues have been built up after some time. Individuals living in generational neediness don't have the assets and backing to get taught and move out of destitution. Racial partitions despite everything happen in the territories of medicinal services, training, access to contracts, access to rise to paying occupations among numerous others (Thompson, Bender, Windsor, Cook and Williams, 2010). One way to deal with battle destitute was in New York City. Safe houses were utilized to house numerous vagrants, ladies and youngsters in the city. In 1979, Robert Hayes brought a claim against a vagrant. Through this claim, he refered to Article XVII which pronounces that the guide, care, and backing of the penniless are an open concern and will be given by the state. This claim furnished vagrants with cover in the event that they had any psychical, mental, social issues (Jannson, 2009, p. 585). Another way to deal with take care of the issue of vagrancy is to increment reasonable lodging. As indicated by Milburn, Rice, Rotheram-Brous, Mallet, Rosenthal, Batterham, and Duan, in Western created countries, the ordinary formative direction for teenagers has been very much archived. From right on time to late immaturity, youngsters progressively push toward freedom and self-sufficiency with the relationship as well as the overall impact of families, companions, and social establishments as mingling operators moving after some time. By early immaturity, the job of family has changed while the significance of companions and companions, just as that of instructors and others in institutiona l settings, increments Extent of the Problem Vagrancy implies not having a home, living in a spot not planned for residence, or unsteadily housed. Vagrancy in the United States is fundamentally tended to by giving crisis and transitional asylum offices that don't straightforwardly address the reason for vagrancy (Culhane&Metraux, 2008). More than one million youth are without a steady living arrangement on a given night and more than 750,000 are of young (Tierney, Gupton, &Hallett, 2008). Tierney, Gupton, and Hallett (2008) express a little more than 5 percent of all adolescent in America who are under 18 will encounter vagrancy sooner or later before adulthood. Evaluations demonstrate that roughly 1.7 million youth are destitute in the United States (Oliveira and Burke, 2009). In any case, as indicated by Fowler, Toro, and Miles (2009), around 3.5 million American youth are destitute and the number doesn't appear to be diminishing in spite of developing activities to stem developing paces of vagrancy. Fowler, Toro, and Miles (2009) express that assets are accessible for those leaving child care with assistance fro

What Part Does Cultural Compatibility Play in Determining The Success Essay

What Part Does Cultural Compatibility Play in Determining The Success of Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions - Essay Example Regularly, contemplations corresponding to financing and techniques have become the fundamental worry in acquiring the procurement targets or merger accomplices that are generally reasonable for a company’s reason. As a rule, choices are made relying upon specific issues, for example, accessibility, cost and plausible income. At the point when their movement falls flat, the investigation of merger disappointment or frail execution is frequently centered around the reconsideration of specific factors that started the choice for determination (Schweiger and Goulet 2005). Regularly, poor determination choices for mergers and acquisitions are related with an excessively high price tag, ineptitude of directors in accomplishing objectives, or that the organizations basically don't coordinate one another. These variables have been ceaselessly analyzed at this point M and A movement has not acquired the fundamental upgrades (Teerikangas 2007; Seo and Hill 2005). Along these lines, universal acquisitions make up irregularities: in spite of the way that business practice and scholastic research have detailed that a considerable lot of these exercises neglect to accomplish their goals, diverse acquisitions despite everything stay to be a well known system for worldwide organizations. In this way, it is fundamental that the reasons for worldwide merger and obtaining disappointment are inspected just as the procedures for tending to such issues. As revealed by Galpin and Herndon (2007), in an investigation of 190 top administrators who were associated with the worldwide securing, it was accepted that social contrariness was seen as the best obstruction to the accomplishment of their M and An exercises. Besides, the 1996 British Institute of Management overview revealed that when consolidating two societies is disparaged, it turns into a noteworthy factor for disappointment (Carleton and Lineberry 2004).

Identity @ SIPA Defining Who We Are COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

Identity @ SIPA Defining Who We Are COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog On October 25th, SIPA hosted a discussion on identity within the school. Seven fellow second-year students and I, all holding a multitude of salient identities, gathered around a table to discuss how identity plays an integral role in their experience at SIPA. Surrounded by an audience of our peers, we discussed the importance of diversity in higher education, how our identities have shifted since coming to SIPA, and the misconceptions people place on them because of their identities. The hour-long discussion ended with a QA session where students in the audience asked questions on the shaping of identity and shared stories of how their identities have interacted and interplayed as students at SIPA. L-R: Katy Swartz, Karla Henriquez, Mike Drake, Maria Fernanda Avila Ruiz, Kier Joy, Maggie Wang, Lindsay Horne, Nitin Magima One of the themes that revealed themselves over the discussion focused around many international students’ reconciliation with coming from racially/ethnically homogeneous spaces to the diversity that SIPA holds. One student discussed how in her home country in Latin America, she has always been seen as white but upon moving to America, she was seen as a person of color. Another student talked about how her citizenship identity became emphasized when she moved to SIPA. Even as a domestic student who hasn’t been in as diverse of spaces as SIPA, I can say I experienced a shift in identity where my Americanism has been emphasized as it contrasts with the dozens of different nationalities SIPA has to offer. Students also discussed how community at SIPA has been one of their strongest support structures when facing the difficulties of grad school at SIPA. Many shared moments where they were able to lean on fellow SIPA students during hard times. This ultimately led to a discussion on the importance of allyship for those with privilege to be able to listen, support, and advocate for those who are historically underserved and underrepresented. As the President of the Student of Color organization at our school, I’ve found that there are always non-person of color allies always willing to support our initiatives. The support system embedded within the student body at SIPA has been one of the most rewarding features of my grad school experience. One of the coolest parts of the Identity @ SIPA event was the playlist that was created to play as students entered and left the discussion. Each student panelists contributed two songs that represented their identity. I chose F.U.B.U. by Solange and Born This Way by Lady Gaga. You can hear the entire playlist here on Spotify.

Essay about Janies Marriages in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janies Marriages In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Lora Neale Hurston, the main character engages in three marriages that lead her towards a development of self. Through each endeavor, Janie learns the truths of life, love, and the path to finding her identity. Though suppressed because of her race and gender, Janie has a strong will to live her life the way she wills. But throughout her life, she encounters many people who attempt to change the way that she is and her beliefs. Each marriage that she undertakes, she finds a new realization and is on a never-ending quest to find her identity and true love. Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake each help Janie progress to womanhood and find her identity. At age sixteen, Janie†¦show more content†¦So one day she meets Joe Starks and after spending some time together, Janie asks Logan what he would do if she ran away. Logan, rather than responding honestly, lies and hides his true feelings through insults. Janie learns that a marriag e does not always withhold love. Love is something that must come naturally without force or thought and Janie sees that she has no such feeling towards Logan. Hence Janie runs off with Joe Starks and Logan is never heard of again. Joe Starks is an admirable person. He promises Janie beautiful material things and happiness unlike Logan who only tried to control her and offered her no love. Janie is overwhelmed by this proposal and believes that Joe may be the bee that has come to fertilize her and make her happy, but she is proven wrong. After she runs away from Logan, Joe and Janie travel to a new town that is only occupied by African Americans. There, Joe becomes mayor and is well respected by all. He gains wealth and gives Janie the material things that he promised her, but forces her to work in his local store all day long. He does not allow her to attend parties or have any fun and makes negative comments about her constantly. He says, Janie, wheres dat last bill uh ladin?Â… If youd git yo mind out de streets and keep it on yo business maybe you could git somethin straight sometimes. Dats ‘cause you need tellin, it would be pitiful if Ah didnt. Somebody got to think for women and chillun andShow MoreRelatedJanies Three Marriages in Hurstons There Eyes Were Watching God 1075 Words   |  5 PagesThe book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. 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The Myth And Its Impact On Development And Aging - 1805 Words

退éˆ  ÃªÅ¾ ªere have been different myths developed with regards to development and aging. The first myth relates to the brain. The myth that people only utilize 10 percent of their brain is an attractive spectacle among psychology scholars and academic aspirants. There have been numerous studies that speculate to the truth concerning the utility of brainpower. Most of the studies have concluded that 10 percent was the appropriate amount. The majority claim is contrasted by a survey that indicates people use only 6 percent of their brain. Neuroscientists that performed a similar study of academic individuals that formed 41 percent of the demand express this claim. The myth has sustained its relevance due to the media that reminds people of their hopes through unconventional means. Published content describing the 10 percent ideology as fact have been circulating as method of uplifting the confidence of the public about their potential. 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Motocross Free Essays

Did you know Motocross is thought to be the most popular kind of motorcycle racing? It was established in Europe during the 1930’s and over a period of time it became popular all across the world. The game is made up of forty riders that compete on the same track at one time. A pro race will last around thirty minutes and a amateur race will last about 5 minutes. We will write a custom essay sample on Motocross or any similar topic only for you Order Now My name is travis staubs and I have raced motocross for eight years of my life. Today I’m going to talk to you about the importance of gearing up for safety, how to operate the bike, some tips for you to enjoy racing. First you will need the proper gear and that includes: boots, knee pads or braces, chest protector, a helmet, goggles, gloves, and the racing jersey and racing pants. That gear will help protect anyone from seriously becoming injured. Hitting the ground isn’t fun when you do not have any protection on. Second, you need to make sure your bike is ready to ride. Your bike needs to be filled with fuel, have right amount of oil, your spokes need to be tighten, and the brakes work, really just the basic maintenance. Before starting the bike, you need to make sure the gas is on and the choke is on since you havent started the bike in a while. and then pull the kick starter out and kick down on the kick starter a few times and the bike should start. Once the bike has started, put the choke back in and let the engine warm up. It shouldn’t take that long for the bike to get warm. Once its warm, hope on the bike and make sure you have all your gear on. Pull the cluth in and click down on the gear shitfer. The cluth is on the handle bars infront of your left hand. But do not pull the throttle all the way back and take off , you will wreak. You want to ease out the clutch and have little gas to take off. To shift gears and to go faster you need mid rpms and once you do you want to pull the clutch in and shift the gear shitfer up to change gears and when you click down, you go into low gears for low speeds. Here are some tips for you:Try to ride all the time. The more you ride the faster and better you getDo not focus on trying to be perfect. No one is perfect just work on little pieces at a time. Such as elbows up, look forward, come into the turns, good line slections, and when you hear someone coming up behind you, do not go across the track, stay where you are because their going to go around you. Bike set up. Bars in a comfy position not to high or too low and like I said earlier about the maintenance. Its all about having a good time so just have a good time and don’t push yourself too hard. How to cite Motocross, Papers Motocross Free Essays Good morning class. The theme of my IA is motocross but today I will speak specifically on the topic â€Å"The development of motocross as an established sport†. What is motocross?†¦. We will write a custom essay sample on Motocross or any similar topic only for you Order Now Motocross is defined as a timed motorcycle race over a closed outdoor course consisting of a winding dirt trail with hills, jumps, sharp turns, and often muddy terrain. This sport originated in Britain as an off-road event called scrambling. The first known scramble took place at Camberley, Surrey in 1924. The earliest motorcycles were little more than bicycles with small internal combustion engines attached. During these early years people sometimes, used the tracks built for bicycle racing for scrambling events. These early scrambling events were used to show case motorcycles entered by manufacturers to publicize their brand in much the same way they do today. By the late 1920’s â€Å"Scrambling† had become very popular in both Britain and France. The French added new dimensions to the sport, they shortened the tracks added laps and man made obstacles such as jumps. They also changed the name to what it is known as today†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Motocross which is a combination of motorcycle and cross country. The bikes used for motocross during the late 1920’s were very similar to those used on the streets at that time such as Harley Davidson’s and Indians, which had rigid frames. By the 1930’s these then gave way to frames containing suspension and more advanced swinging fork rear suspension by the early 1950’s. According to the FIM motocross went international in 1947 when the Dutch national motorcycle federation hosted a competition called the motocross des nations for national teams on an estate in the Netherlands. Three countries were entered in the first year of the competition they were Great Britain, The Netherlands, and Belgium. The riders competed in races consisting of two heats each of eight laps, over a two mile circuit. Scoring was done by computing the total times of the top three riders from each national team. The British who were represented by, Bill Nicholson, Fred Rist, and Ray Scovell riding 500cc bikes manufactured by the British Small arms company won the competition, beating the Belgians by only 9 seconds. The popularity of the event was shown to have greatly improved as the second staging of the event in Belgium attracted thirty thousand spectators. The British continued to show their dominance in the sport as they went on to win the motocross des nations 15 times in the first twenty years of the event. In 1952 the FIM (Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme), the motorcycling’s international governing body, created an individual European Championship, and then upgraded it to a World Championship title in 1957. In 1962 a young engineer in East Germany Walter Kaaden, made a technological breakthrough that greatly improved the two-stroke engine and its usefulness which in turn â€Å"revolutionized† the motorcycle industry. His discovery was that of the principle of the expansion chamber, which when properly shaped, instantly increased the power of a two stroke engine by over 25 percent. This gave the 2 stroke engine a power to weight ratio that easily exceeded the 4-stroke engine. Another benefit of the 2 stroke engine was that it was less complicated and much cheaper to mass produce. As a result of this many industrial nations including Germany, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, Sweden, Spain, and Japan quickly embraced the new technology. As engine design and power improved competition for 250cc motorcycles the class in which 2 strokes performed their best, began to gain in popularity and in 1962 the FIM created a 250cc world championship. As a result of the introduction of the 250cc class the growth of motocross during the 1970s was nothing less than a motorsport revolution. The growth of motocross when measured by the number of American motorcycle association sanctioned events grew one hundred fold between 1965 and 1975. In the 1980’s the sport developed even more in the US, the 250cc class went through the decade and in 1985 the East/West 125cc class which was created for the younger less experienced riders was formed. During the 1990’s the 250 class remained in the spotlight, with the main focus now moving from Europe where motocross had been more popular, to the USA, where riders such as Jeremy McGrath and Jeff Stanton consistently dominated the sport. Today, as a result of the advancements and achievements in the world of motocross it has allowed for the world to recognize it as an established sport in which many have excelled and shown greatness †¦. persons such as Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, and James Stewart are some of the greatest names associated with the sport of motocross. How to cite Motocross, Essay examples

Carnival Cruise Lines Case free essay sample

Situation Carnival has a strong market expansion strategy for selling the mass-market cruise category and first-time cruisers. They have a clear vision and knowledge about the industry and a commitment to their brand essence, which is fun. Problem Statement One area that Carnival needs to improve upon in order to stay competitive within the industry is information technology. Carnival has a large IS group, but the focus has been on maintenance and operations of the existing infrastructure. In order to gain new customers they need to know who to market. By analyzing customer data they could find out who to focus their marketing efforts on. Analysis Management at Carnival had been discussing what strategy to use in order to personalize their marketing to the customer and how to make them loyal customers. One option was to use CRM software. By utilizing the customer information within their database, they can create a strong CRM program that will differentiate Carnival from competitor cruise lines and ultimately other land vacation destinations. We will write a custom essay sample on Carnival Cruise Lines Case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Also, CRM would help with cross selling. CRM had been a fad that had recently swept the industry, but due to Carnivals conservative stance toward IT they did not follow suit. Recommendations and Next Steps Once they are ready to implement the CRM system: 1. Make collecting the customer information as easy as possible. Either by adding fields on line that the customer must fill out in order to book the cruise or by simply downloading the data from their sail and sign card. 2. Have a central location for all the data to be stored. The information needs to be easily accessible by the data analysts; The information also needs to be presented in an easy to understand format. 4. Data mining tools need to be used in order to organize the data so patterns can be identified. From there customers can be profiled and a sales and marketing strategy can be made. 5. Ultimately use the information to enhance the customers experience. By knowing what customers want and providing that to them you will be able to gain loyal customers. The customer data could also be used to personalize the customer’s experience. They could offer preferred customer discounts to some excursions for repeat customers only. Anything they can do to make the customer feel special and appreciated would enhance their cruise experience. If they can achieve that then the customer is more likely to refer others to Carnival and cruise with them again which will in turn increase their bottom line. Furthermore, repeat customers tend to spend more money than first-time cruisers, from spending extra on nicer rooms to adding more excursions. CRM will allow Carnival to increase that all important repeat customer number.

The Perfect Plan Essays - Brian Welch, Converts To Christianity

The Perfect Plan The Perfect Plan When you only know a few and want to know more you learn to be who you are not. You live 100 different lives. Some people know you as this and some as that, and the only one who knows the truth is you. But it truly is amazing how acquaintances that are at different levels at the social hierarchy can move you up. As I entered my senior year of high school, I did not kick it with many people. Strictly a, not by choice, select few. Always, there are the cool popular people who everyone wants to be like. I decided to make it my goal to be part of each of their lives and I would have a million people to kick it with. Everyone is friends at the school, but inside this main friendship, there are sub categories as far as friendships grow. It breaks all the way down to a person's best friend. There could be 50 guys that always hang out together but only 2 that would ever sleep over each other's house just for fun. This, just being an example. As I went through my classes I had to spot out the king pins of the trendiest groups in the grade. People I could actually grow on and use them to network to different people. But you need a reason to talk to them. Of course homework is the easiest but after a while it gets boring. I needed conflict, a situation, something to happen. An early weekend into the school year, one of my, I would say 10 real friends, and I basically *censored*ed the same girl at the same time who we had met only 3 hours prior. So we got lucky, wow. But on Monday it had began. Ever watch TV and see stupid high school shows that spread rumors within like an hour and the e whole school knows. Well everyone was asking me what happened. This is the attention I needed to begin my climb. To the guys a god, and to the girls someone with experience. By telling people and also not telling and keeping them guessing makes you a ?top talk? on their list. Now a girl in the elite category of school, I was lucky to have 3 classes with. Her and I began to talk a lot. Me just being seen with her was enough to make me look ?cool? to the cool people. She did not realize it because of my humbleness but it was helping my reject ass climb. Now the other cool people accepted me. Slowly invited to parties and also given a lot more attention my reputation was being constructed. To maintain your cool image only a few cool things must be done once in a while to remind the dumb-asses that you are still cool. A web site for a senior prank. Even better, I got the attention of the whole senior class. All eyes on me. Now being called, never having to call myself, I am asked to be places, kick it with people, asked if I needed anything, treated like a god. My job is now done. It was all triggered by one *censored* one weekend early in the year. All eyes on me. Now, I don't run these people, but I am now part of their lives and am very close with a lot of them. Not but 7 months ago did I ignore and they ignore me in the halls even though we knew each other. I call m yself the human icebreaker. The trick is to let them know you first, and then they will bring themselves closer. But you have to control letting them know you. The girl in the elite class thinks I *censored* every weekend because of my one escapade. Some guys really know I don't get girls, or al least as many as some people think. Some people think I am a pothead, some think I would never touch a pipe if my life depended on it. And the funny thing is, I control how they perceive me. YOUR OPINION OF ME IS WHAT I ALLOW IT TO

8 Classic Storm Poems

8 Classic Storm Poems Poets love stormy weather. The powers of the natural world revealed in a tempest can be shocking, terrifying and destructive, but they are also awe-inspiring, exhilarating, and metaphorically rich- a perfect source of poetic inspiration. Here we’ve selected a few classic poems describing or inspired by storms. Attune yourself to the natural havoc outdoors by reading them while you’re safely sheltering inside from a storm, perhaps, or declaim them to the sky outside after the storm has passed. William Shakespeare, Storm speech on the heath from King Lear (1623)William Cullen Bryant, â€Å"The Hurricane† (1854)Walt Whitman, â€Å"Proud Music of the Storm† (from Leaves of Grass, 1900 edition)Algernon Charles Swinburne, â€Å"A Channel Passage† (1904)Amy Lowell, â€Å"Storm-Racked† (1914)Robert Frost, â€Å"A Line-Storm Song† (1915)Siegfried Sassoon, â€Å"Storm and Sunlight† (1918)Jean Toomer, â€Å"Storm Ending† (1922)

Philosophy of Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Philosophy of Education - Essay Example In order to compensate for the deficiencies pointed above, a lot of hard work from earnest educators is necessary. It is perhaps a reflection of my deep compassion for children that I have decided to be an educator. Moreover, I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching young kids, especially of elementary school level. With modern education technology much advanced than what it was a few decades ago, it would be an exciting time to be a teacher. For example, today there are overhead projectors, personal computer terminals, on-line library databases with extensive catalogs, sophisticated research methodologies, etc that are available to the instructor. Using all these, I intend to create for my students a wonderful learning experience in the classroom and beyond. At another level, I would like to contribute toward positive changes to our education system. At present, as research conducted on SAT score data reveal, there is a definite race-bias in many of these standardized tests. There is also the problem faced by Hispanic-American kids, whose mother tongue is Spanish. The way in which some schools get funded easily while others struggle to garner government support is also problematic. This is illustrated by the obvious failure areas of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in the last few years. Despite so much social progress over the centuries, socio-economic background and race/ethnicity are significant determinants of academic success. And I am interested in working on viable solutions for these problems.

Nutrition Trends Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nutrition Trends - Essay Example Taking advantage of this trend companies are coming up with products enriched with amino acids GABA, L-theanine and tryptophan (Helm, 2009). 3. Catnap food: To meet the everyday challenges it is essential to procure healthier sleep at night. For this as many as 30 food products including beverages have been launched that claim to induce sleep, encompassing chocolate and hot cocoa drinks (Helm, 2009). 4. Planetary health: Apart from personal health trend also paves the way for "eco friendly"; "go green" products are being promoted including the kind of packing that has been adopted to have a safe environment (Helm, 2009). 5. Defensive foods & inflammation fighters: Trend implies the inclination for food products that keeps the doctor away and enhance immunity through vitamin C and antioxidants, thereby, promoting foods minimizing the probabilities of chronic illness akin to heart and obesity related issues or diabetes (Helm, 2009). In order to evade the risk of chronic diseases, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans[Dietary Guidelines] affords scientific recommendations to endorse health and to trim down menaces. Repercussions of underprivileged dietary practices and physical sluggishness encompass cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis and some cancers. The following guidelines suggested are: 1. Adequate nutrients within calorie needs with least saturated and trans fats, salt, sugar, high cholesterol and alcohol. Depending upon the age and pregnancy conditions the food must be adequately supplemented with vitamins B, C, D, minerals, iron and calcium. 3. Recommended Food Group: Ample of fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, low fat milk and milk products must be consumed. It is directly correlated with the age. The diet must be low in fat and should be rich in mono- or polyunsaturated fatty acids, the same also holds true for poultry products. The food must comprise ample of carbohydrate and fibres. Sodium

Looking At Presales Bid Management Information Technology Essay

Looking At Presales Bid Management Information Technology Essay This topic s not a primary focus of this book but this is included here for greater awareness. The chapter has a major real-time case study at the end. This chapter takes you through the preliminary concepts and then introduces the third party consultants and their role in large deals. Role of onsite relationship managers is also discussed here. What Is Presales Bid Management? Presales involves lead generation follow-ups, solution preparation, final proposals, product demonstrations, proof of concepts (POC), and many other marketing related activities till the customer is acquired. Bid Management is a vital Presales support service that provides copywriting, administrative and technical resources to ensure the quality of proposal documentation and presentations. A bid managers role is to present a proposal to client that meets their business and cost objectives, while minimizing business risks and maximizing profit margins (to her parent organization). Bid manager is the owner of proposal making process. She studies the request for proposal (RFP docs) from the client, which can be very comprehensive and legal in nature. She plans the whole proposal making like any other project and is solely responsible for keeping quality, costs and schedule for the whole bidding process. She needs to work very closely with sales, technical, delivery and commercial teams to co-ordinate the preparation of a winning proposal. The sales, delivery and technical teams can belong to different verticals and might be scattered across the globe, so the effective coordination and inter personal skills are the key here. A bid manager may not have any direct control over any of the teams, she is working with. For participating executives from different verticals, proposal making may be an extra add to their already tight day-to-day schedules, so getting quality time from them can be one of the biggest challenge in the process. The term winning proposal is very important here; because if we dont win, the whole exercise will be just a big overhead to the organization and how many such overheads your organization can absorb without significantly affecting the bottom line? Following are the main functions that can be categorized under presales and bid management. Qualification and prioritization of proposal and tenders. Co-ordination with sales, solutions, delivery and finance departments To ensure the availability of complete and quality information from each source within set timelines. Proposal documentation. Final presentations to the client with sales team that may involve technical consulting and product demonstrations. Who Fits? A good fit here would be a person who knows the company and its offerings inside out. Good communication, co-ordination, presentation, and interpersonal skills are usually required. It will help if the person for the bid manager post has work in similar projects/ products (as required by RFP) and can appreciate their commercial as well as technology aspects. She will be required to do a lot of number crunchings say for schedule, cost and scope and quick what-if computations to deal with variations in these factors. A thorough understanding of industry segment in which she is working will be a big plus. Not to forget stress and round the clock working under extreme pressures of dead lines is an integral part of this job. The Organization For Presales And Bid Management This will vary from company to company. In IT services companies there may be a few people marked working for presales function at each vertical/ department level. Typically it is headed by a manager presales. For large deals there can be a presales group working at corporate level that helps presales managers at different verticals. The corporate level presales group might involve very senior and seasoned professionals as far as the whole process of bid management is concerned. Whenever the organization receives a RFP (Request for Proposal), pre sales group may need to draw people from different verticals as per the expertise required in making proposal. Technical writers, commercial and legal managers are invariably required in case of large deals. There can be a bid manager designated for every individual RFP depending upon the size of the deal. In case of smaller deals, a single bid manager might takeover multiple bids. A bid manager is like a project manager with a responsibility of complete bid process. The bid manager typically belongs to the presales organization but there can be variations; if the stakes in proposal from a particular vertical are more, they may like to appoint the bid manager in consultation with pre sales. Once the bidding process is complete, expert from other verticals may go back to their regular assignments. Role Of Third Party Consultants In Execution Of Bids Companies typically specialize in their line of business; floating a tender and managing the whole process may altogether be a different ballgame. Its true especially when the stakes on the buyer side are high and tenders floated globally. The buyers side may find it an uphill task to manage the whole bidding process and fortunately consultants are there to help. In the whole process of bid management, consultants can be employed by both buyers as well as sellers. On buyers side they help in writing documents for RFP (Request for Proposal) and manage the whole bid process till the right vendor is selected. RFP document is important as it tells exactly what goods and services are required along with location, price, constraints and other terms and conditions. Its a legal document and forms the base for writing proposal on the suppliers side. Similarly on buyers side, third part consults help in evaluating the proposal. Typically they can take the role of a bid manager on the suppliers side and do coordination with verticals as required, and manage the whole bidding process. When third party consultants are engaged by the buying organization, they are the sole contact points for vendors for the whole bid-life-cycle. For buyers, they ensure quality of RFP and supporting documents, the right placement of the RFP (putting to select qualified vendors), the assessment of vendor capabilities and fit, the the documentation is as per agreed standards and finally help the buyers to rate the vendor proposals to conclude the bidding process. They may also monitor the transition and change management for buyer and typically oversee steady stare operations for an agreed period. Role Of Onsite/ Customer Relationship Managers (RM) Its often onsite relationship managers, who are first to know yes! Some thing right is going on there. They may bring in the lead; much before the official tender is floated. They help to ensure, their company is also a party to the bidding process. In many strategic deals the tender may not be floated publicly but the buyers place it to select companies, who they believe, have the capabilities to deliver as per their requirements. Onsite coordinators can bring in vital information about buyer groups, managers and their motivation behind floating such a tender. Some time approximate budget is also known. All this information can be vital in upbringing of a winning proposal, in fine-tuning the commercials and other details in last minutes if required. Post win onsite managers play a lead role in transition and ensure required levels of co-operation from clients end. Its the familiarity of onsite coordinators with client managers and their business (and also on what will fly) that ma kes them a crucial link in the whole process. Section B: Sales marketing of IT Companies Definitions Many of us do not appreciate the fact that sales are an important sub-part of marketing. Marketing is everything you do to promote your business. If you have an apt marketing strategy, most of the job is done. If the customer values your product services, she will herself make an effort to buy them. And you need little or no sales effort at all. The primary job of marketing is to create interest of the customer in your companys products and services. Marketing strategies deal with business development, selling techniques, communication and customer relationships. Marketing creates value for your customers as well as the company. With this, I think we understand the difference between sales marketing. Now; when we talk of IT we are generally concerned with marketing selling our solutions. For the purpose of this discussion; a solution is a mutually agreed-upon answer to a recognized problem that should provide some measurable improvement. So whats different here? We have two processes in any business scenario purchase and sale. The solution sales processes depends more on the buyer, who must feel the need for value from the organization, beyond its standard product or services being sold. The buyer must also perceive the prospective seller as having the credibility to deliver that expertise. At the same time the buyer must feel trust in supplier to discuss a problem share information that may be crucial for his survival. After that only a supplier may be allowed to do due-diligence and offer a solution and associated commercials (to the buyer). So we can make out the difference between a buyer in two situations solutions selling and selling standard products services. Fair enough! Critical Success Factors In Solutions Selling Already so much has been written on this topic in the management literature. We will discuss only a few of key points for the sake of completeness. Believing the emotional value and benefits of solution offerings: It is important to get an emotional understanding of your service offerings along with technical and business aspects. You need integrity and a strong belief in your offerings. For making a sale you should be able to transfer all this into the hands of buyer. Ability to find qualified buyers: Meaningful selling happens when you can find people who have a certain need and you can fill that need. Establish trust: Selling always requires building relationships and determining the buyers true needs. If trust cant be established; selling a solution might be extremely difficult. Match needs/wants to product benefits: It is critical to understand the buyers true needs and be able to match them with the solutions benefits. Ability to ask for the sale and deliver: Simply presenting the benefits of solution isnt enough. You must be able to ask the prospect to take an action in the form of placing an order. Once the order is placed you must be able to deliver on what you proposed. This is directly linked with your credibility to make next sale to the same customer or in the greater market place. How Technical Background Helps? It is very difficult to find people who are well-versed in selling solutions. Companies are investing a lot many $ in training qualified people with relevant technical backgrounds so that they are able to find the right solution for the customers. An effective solutions sales executive should be capable of processing a potential clients business needs, comprehend the technologies available and help designing a solution that delivers desired value to the customer and maximize the profits for her company. Most successful solution sales profiles have good engineering and business backgrounds. They have the right soft-skills, and thorough understanding of market. The key soft-skills that count here are business communication, public speaking, conflict management, and negotiation. Challenges Faced By A Customer Relationship Manager (RM) One of the most important skills RM needs is the ability to multitask and utilize various skill sets depending on the assignment at hand. Each day can bring its own set of unique responsibilities and challenges. For example it is anchoring a series of client meetings to discuss a large proposal for outsourcing their infrastructure ERP maintenance. It can well be a networking event to congregate the important stake holders, both from business and IT for a big project. Managing several different tasks at the same time might be challenging. The variety of responsibilities a RM has, to keep the business and relationship running can be very interesting at times. Back in office, there can be reviews of ongoing projects in onsite- offshore model with a couple of meetings per week. There can be one-on-one meetings with the client and other stake holders. Other meetings can be with the offshore teams late in the evening. Effective presentation and negotiation skills are very important for a RM. It can be periodic presentations to clients CIO on overall engagement or it can be presentation regarding resolution to a major break down in IT services. At times RM is there only to listen and make a compromise or mediate difference of opinion on project scope between project owner and the offshore project manager. One major task for RM is Bids and new initiatives as we have discussed in earlier sections. RM is one of the very few persons present on client side (from vendor) so she is the one who takes the first reaction from the client for both good and bad of offshore teams. She needs to be a true diplomat if you want to say it short! RM vs. BRM We are very much familiar with the role of customer relationship managers (RM) in solutions selling. The role of Business Relationship Manager (BRM) is a relatively new role in IT organizations. The BRM is an important link between IT and the business. The BRM needs to have significant knowledge pertaining to both technology and the commercials. BRM generally talks for the business within an IT organization, without any additional responsibilities to sell products or work on upcoming business deals. BRM role was actually created by CIOs in IT as a solution to what business sees IT as a barrier. Many times business doesnt understand how swiftly IT organization can respond to their fast changing needs or simply doesnt appreciate the capabilities of IT? BRM is supposed to fill this communication gap. BRM needs to know both business and technology to a reasonable level. This position also requires an ability to understand the business adequately to communicate the substance of projects t o the technology teams. On the other hand, BRM also needs to comprehend the technology sufficiently to communicate its complexity in simple terms for the business. Case Study: A Complete Bidding Cycle for a Multimillion $ IT Outsourcing Deal Y Inc. is a US based IT outsourcing company dealing in Information Technology products and services. It has marketing and development offices in more than 50 countries all over the world with sales revenue running in multi billion dollars from services alone. The services IT portfolio covers almost every segment ranging from high end ERP consulting, internet, mainframes to legacy applications. Y Inc. has development centers in all Indian metros with total staff exceeding 40,000 in India alone. ERP services and Web Applications are the most revenue earning activities throughout the globe. Y Inc. had received a request for proposal (RFP) from a European conglomerate (AtoV inc.) for managing their IT operations worldwide. They wanted to outsource their entire IT operations in order to achieve better operational efficiencies, substantially , reduce IT operations costs and get an ability to focus more on their core manufacturing and retail business. AtoV Inc. has diverse interests throughout the world that include heavy engineering, consumer goods, house hold electronic equipment, electric distribution grids, automobiles and retail businesses. They also have a fully owned IT company (IT Ltd.) that is supposed to manage IT operations for all their group companies. The group IT Company (IT Ltd.) is seriously short of skilled manpower to support other group companies in a cost effective manner. Also there is a lot of interference in the operations of IT Ltd. itself by the corporate (AtoV Inc.) and its not free to price its services as per market standards. Many a times IT Lt d. is forced to give resources free of cost or at nominal rates to other companies in the conglomerate to manage their IT operations. Appointments at top level in IT Inc. are also dictated by the corporate (AtoV Inc.); and there are many more such reasons, this group IT arm (IT Ltd.) is fast becoming economically not-so-viable for providing IT services to the group. The corporate was forced to look outside for better options (vendors) that are market driven and can be held responsible incase of non performance. This was the first occasion in past several decades where AtoV Inc. had floated a RFP outside to its group empire for outsourcing IT operations. They were extra cautious and are taking every possible effort to make it a success. The RFP was not advertized publicly but only a few major players across the globe were invited to put forward their proposals. AtoV Inc. thought these were the IT services companies who could sale up to their standards in terms of quantity, quality and reliability. Total nine global IT service providers were invited to participate in this prestigious worldwide bidding exercise. Each one of the participants had annual sales revenues well exceeding $ one billion. All were global players. They all had expertise build up over the years in the areas desired by AtoV Inc. These nine service providers were selected based upon a comprehensive research project undertaken as a part of preparing formal RFP documents. The selection of final vendor would depend upon how well these service providers understand the requirements of AtoV and present a customized solution. Pricing and other commercials of the proposal were to play an important role. However the contract could be awarded to a vendor who se quality and solution perfectly suited the needs of AtoV. In that case the pricing could be second or even third best (amongst all the bids submitted). We see therefore, the pricing was not the sole criteria. The total pricing of goods and services asked by AtoV Inc. was likely to run into several hundred million $, spread over the contract period. Depending on the annual performance reviews, the contract was likely to be extended up to 5 years. As expected, this bidding exercise attracted the attention of business press, the worldwide. In India it was in headlines in national business news papers, as much of the contract was likely to be executed from India (that is perceived a low cost region). Almost all the contestants for this contract had major back office presence in India. Executives of AtoV had no prior experience in dealing with the bidding processes of this magnitude and geographical spread. So they engaged a third party consultant (TP Con.), specializing in bid management for large deals, to manage the selection of most suitable vendor for them. TP Cons were given complete responsibility from concept to closure. The selection of a suitable vendor was the closing point of the bidding process. TP Cons were also supposed to monitor the transition and work out a plan for change management. Both AtoV Inc. and TP Cons were headquartered in California. TP Cons started talks to various department heads and CXOs of companies within AtoV group that were likely to be parties in this off shoring exercise. It required almost a months due diligence for TP Cons to figure out the IT needs of various participant companies. It was decided to contract out IT operations in phases. For the first phase Infrastructure Services (IMS) and ERP were chosen. These services ba dly needed an overhaul and they were the ones, consuming the maximum portion of IT budget; almost in all the cases (Companies). After everyone agreed in concept for inviting proposals in order to contract ERP and IMS services, the first step was to write a request for proposal (RFP) document. RFP is a comprehensive document that mainly focuses on the scope of goods and services requirements and conditions governing the bidding process and the contract there after. As stated earlier this was to be a multimillion $ contract spanning over 5 years. The RFP document itself was running close to hundred pages including many annexure. The main document had many sections. The first section included company back ground (AtoV Inc.) and the intentions behind floating the RFP. Various acronyms used in the main RFP document and its annexure were defined. It had contact points for the purpose of proposal from AtoV side. It also had proposal submission timelines and terms and conditions governing the whole process of proposal making. It also had the general requirements that a vendor and its proposal needs to fulfill as a prequalification note. It had executive summary of the overall scope being outsourced. And as main content it had two sections on the detailed scope of goods and servi ces sought from prospective vendors. One section contained detailed description on ERP services and the other one detailed infrastructure service (IMS) outsourcing requirements. It had a NDA (non disclosure agreement) to be signed by prospective vendor as AtoV was sharing a lot of confidential information regarding their applications and infrastructure. All this information was vital to the prospects for an accurate proposal making. The RFP also had a template (an outline format) for proposal and broad guidelines on what proposal would contain terms of solution and commercials. Apart from the said details in the main body of RFP; there was a number of supporting annexure documents in including some detailed spread sheets. They included NDAs, formats for commercials, legal terms and conditions governing proposal, application landscape and their interface details with multiple ERPs in the scope of proposal, details of servers and diagrams of network architecture and many other details to work out the solution and commercials of the proposal as accurately as possible. After issuing RFP, the suppliers were given a chance to raise their questions regarding proposal and bid processes. The proposal was to be submitted by email before a stated due date (fixed) and time that was to be followed very strictly. After two weeks of making proposal, each one of the 9 prospects was to be given a chance of oral presentations to a selection committee comprising of senior executives from AtoV and TP Cons. The period between floating of RFP and final award of contract was approximately 2 months that is typical to deals of this magnitude. After the contract award date, there was a transition period of 3 months to transfer application and Infrastructure services to the bid winner, Y Inc. in our case. TP Cons were to chalk out and execute a plan for transition and change management. During transition all expenses were 50-50 between Y inc. and AtoV. Expenses included salaries for Y Inc. and AtoV, all overheads, software/ hardware and whatever it takes for smooth trans ition of services to Y Inc. The transition was to work under an onsite/offshore model from India as offshore base. Main onsite locations were spread in North America, UK, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Australia. After all transition is done TP Cons were to monitor the steady state operations for an additional quarter. Once Y Inc. officially received the RFP; a RFP response team was to be formed. First member, the bid manager was from presales team as it happens in many cases. He was the project manager for this mega proposal making exercise. The team members were required from infrastructure group and ERP competency. Almost all the elements of IT infrastructure like mobile devices, phones, copiers, PCs, servers, data centres, software, networks and the processes including help desk were involved and IMS was the biggest component of RFP. Three to four senior experts were needed to cover all the areas of IMS required in the proposal. As usual the resources were already busy doing other billable projects. Making a proposal was important to organization but it cant be billed to any client obviously. So taking a project manager out from his billable role for a couple of month was a difficult call for any functional head. For ERP stream we required experts from SAP, Oracle Apps and People Soft HRMS syst ems both technical and domain experts. Though the size in terms of $ value of ERP stream was smaller but we needed many more members there because of diverse nature of functionalities involved and we had 3 core ERPs to support. In ERP stream also the story was the same all designated members for proposal making were busy in billable roles. To start with, the members in both the streams were put in dual roles of working in their regular work and contributing in proposal making s well. All the team members including bid manager were busy in study and analyzing the RFP documents from the client. Legal and finance teams also studied the proposals. Around 35 questions from all the streams were sent to the client for clarifications. Sending too many questions is considered as if you have not done your home work in analyzing information supplied in RFP and at the same time sending too few (of them) may be taken as if you have not studied the RFP in the depth required for making the proposal (so its a fine balancing act). All the nine prospects sent in their list of questions to AtoV for getting more information and clarifications, which they thought were required to make a decent proposal. AtoV executives took about one week to get back with answers. QA from all the 9 prospects was combined and this combined list was circulated to each participant. This is a typical practice to make sure each prospect is benefitted by the questions raised by others and all of them have maximum possible information (right information) before they start working the proposal. AtoV along with TP Cons also hosted a pre-bid face-to-face meeting in whic h all the prospects could discuss the answers and ask on any remaining questions. This was the last chance for all the participants to raise their questions or ask for more information. After closing of this meeting till the submission of final proposals, any officials from the potential vendors (9 prospects) were not supposed to talk to ANYONE from the client (AtoV). Any such attempt could disqualify the prospect from making a proposal. With all this information now it was imperative for Y Inc. to work on proposal on a war footing. They had 40 calendar days time left and team was not in place yet. Except bid manager himself nobody else was confident on content, clauses and scope of the proposal. Y Inc. decided not to engage a third party consultant for writing a proposal. Being an IT services major, making such proposals was routinely done. More over they had a specialized team under presales for such large deals. Even with large deals team, the experts were to come from respective team of ERP and IMS competency verticals. Including bid manager and two members from the large deal group a total of 14 members were identified for making this proposal. All had prior experience in making such proposals. Two technical writers were also included in the team. One of the team members from large deals group was of the level of general manager. The day came when all designated proposal team members were detached from their regular work and they were all packed in a conference hall of the corporate office. No land lines in the conference hall (conf hall) and all mute cell phones only hot discussions! They were sometimes useful and sometimes not so useful. But great, all team members were available in a room to exchange ideas and technical writers standing, to take notes and make things presentable. First bid manager presented a schedule on how to make it who will do what by what date? A net 30 calendar day program no offs; not even weekends. Start by 7:30 or 8:00 AM till half past mid night sometimes but no compulsions. Breaks for tea and smoke; snacks made available inside the room; all make to order. The motto only one, get it done whatever it takes. You can take your offs later. Some model proposals were studied and things start taking shape. 0.1 draft versions was ready first everybody is seen disappointed. A senior member from the large deals wanted everything to be redone. The onsite manager insisted inclusion of everything as per ITIL standards as it was very important from the clients perspective. One ITIL expert and one graphics designer were also added to the team now. First draft was ready. Technical writers had to compile 485 pages for it. But finally things started taking shape. Suddenly a new policy decision came from the client side. Written proposal was OK but more emphasis was now on the oral presentations. So everything was redone on power point slides. Thanks to the timely inclusion of a graphics designer in the team. Commercials, the heart of proposal was still under making. Commercials took about a week but they occupied only two slides in the final proposal. It was close to $300 Million proposal. Real strategic for the company! Need to win it any cost. Nearly 8 to 10 what-if scenarios were worked out using different combinations in schedules, effort, resources, onsite-offshore ratio, scope and rates. Approval for all of them was taken from the corporate and the finance department in advance. These scenarios were for accommodating last minute changes prior to or during live proposal presentations. Excel work sheets were kept ready to work out any more custom scenarios if required. In the last minutes inputs from sales team become very important and y ou might need to change the commercials accordingly. The final day in a San Francisco hotel witnessed three different committees from consisting of client and TP Con officials. And the final presentations made. Written proposals were submitted a couple of days advance in emails and seven print copies in sealed envelopes. All dropped in a designated physical mail box. AtoV wanted a month to study different aspects of the proposals made. They came back in just two weeks. Now its up to you to guess who was the winner? TP Con made evaluation matrices and criteria and the whole process was transparent only to AtoV. Now it was transition of a huge number of applications and infrastructure. TP Con was the boss. They explained the process to transition team. They gave around 30 elaborate templates and forms to be filled for each stream at each step. All this was to be loaded in an orderly fashion on a web portal, designated for this transition. The progress of transition in real time was now available to everyone including top management of Y Inc. and AtoV, one more challenge, probably tougher than making the winning proposal. Main transition sites were offices and plants in Texas and New York. A couple of them added from Germany, UK and other places too. Y Inc. roped in 4 transition managers one each in California, Texas, Chennai and Noida. The transition team structure was 50-50 for offshore and onsite. More onsite presence was required to cover the learning curve and attend face to face learning sessions with AnV subject matter experts. Later the onsite offshore was to be reduced to 80 20 an d finally 90 10 in the long term. TP Cons deployed not more than 3 members from RFP till the transition was over. A total of 6 months; end to end! As it was learned later TP Cons walked away with a handsome consulting fee. Much better than one could have imagined in the starting! Want to manage bids as third party consultant Summary RFI, RFQ, RFP, Bid manager, Large Deals, raising a Team For Proposals, Proposal making, What Ifs, Commercials, legal,

Custom Snowboards Inc. Analysis Essay

European Expansion Historical Analysis To make a decision about expansion to Europe, we must first analyze past performance as an indicator about future performance. A historical analysis was completed on the company’s past balance sheets. Custom Snowboards Inc. has had increased net sales in the past three years. Net sales went up .23% in year 13 and .93% in year 14. Cost of goods sold (consisting of direct material, labor, and overhead) and in relation Gross Profit, also increased by the same percentages. Using the historical data, we use the trend analysis to determine what sales will be like in future years. The company’s trend analysis shows this increase in net sales and gross profit will continue well into year 17. Using base year 12, historical data shows an increase to 100.2% in year 13 and another .7% increase to 100.9% in year 14. Then to further review the upcoming year’s predictions, Custom Snowboards uses year 14 as the base year at $6,955,200. Year 15 increases to $7,163,856, a 3% increase. Year 16 slows slightly to $7,094,304, down a percent from year 15 but still an increase of 2% from the base year. Year 17 shows net sales at 103.7% of the base year 14 earnings. This indicates the compan y has worthy cost control in revenue. When reviewing European sales forecast for years 15-19, we see the same trend as with Custom Snowboards Inc. trend analysis. European net sales will increase from $1,391,040 to $2,423,748, or 74% during the 4 years. Using year 15 as the base year, in year 16, net sales are predicted to be 120%,  144% in year 17, 158% in year 18, and 174% in year 19. Operating Expenses. The selling expenses that include transportation out, sales commissions, and advertising increased at the same rate as revenue. The related increase fluctuates with units sold as it should. This is another indication the company can manage its cost control. The future operating expenses in the European Sales forecast indicate that advertising expenses will decrease and sales commissions, transportation out, factory manager/ staff expenses will increase as expected with an expansion. The overall selling and admin expenses move from $215,048 in year 15 to $251,480 in year 19. Using year 15 as the base, there is expected 7% increase by year 16, 15% increase by year 17, 11% in year 18 and ending with a 17% increase by year 19. Coupled with the increasing net sales, this continues to show positive cost control. General and admin expenses increased disproportionately. In year 13, the expenses increased an overall 7.24% and another 6.50% in year 14. The hardest hit areas in this area are the other general and admin expenses in year 13 and compensation in year 14 bringing the total operating expenses to an increase just over four percent each year. Since compensation increased, this could mean additional employees. More workers would explain why an increase in utilities. Since sales went up, it would be justified in the employee increase however, the percentages should be more similar. Expenses should have gone up a smaller percentage, one closer to the .23% and .93% numbers shown in net sales. Expenses growing at a faster rate than sales is poor cost control. Net earnings shows a trend of declining over the past few years by 25-30%. This decrease – and another unfortunate cost control – is mostly due to the decline in interest income. Interest went down 28% in year 13 and 90.63% in year 14. The interest income could be influenced by the fact that short term investments also declined in year 14 by 83.3%. Interest expenses decreased as well indicating that Custom Snowboards Inc. is paying the minimum payment on the amortization schedule instead of paying on the principle. Assets. Cash and cash equivalents increased for Custom Snowboards Inc. 114.2% in year 13 and another 30.6% in year 14. Consistent increase shows well for the company but since sales went up 23% in year 13 and .93% in year 14, the cash should have increased more in year 14 however, furniture, fixtures, and equipment went up 200,000 which means the company purchased more assets for the company. Custom Snowboards is putting the money back into the company without taking on more debt which indicates a decent cost control. Custom Snowboards most likely took money from their short term investments to pay for the furniture. The short term investments dropped significantly in year 14 by more than 80%. This caused a decrease in total current assets but the overall total assets remained healthily increasing, partly due to increase in finished goods and raw materials inventory. Overall, Custom Snowboards uses respectable cost control in assets. Liabilities. Accounts and notes payable increased proportionately to the net sales increasing total current liabilities by the same proportions. Mortgage payable decreased consistently over the three years as did other long term liabilities. Overall, liabilities continued to decrease over the three year period. Stockholders Equity increased over the three year period. Common stock remained steady at $200,000 ($1 par) and so did paid in capital. Retained earnings increased every year, a plus for the bank. Return on total assets, return on common equity, and price/ earnings ratio are significantly higher than the competition, Winter Sports. Overall the company remains stead and the bank can deduct from reviewing the financial statements that the company will continue to make strong decisions and increase net worth over the next few years. Cost Control Improvements Custom Snowboards has good cost controls in place however some improvements can be made. The company currently uses Traditional Cost Base (TBC) method by using a predetermined overhead rate and then costs are divided evenly  among the products regardless of what is actually used. This does not give a true picture of costs. For the most part this is working well but the company could use better cost control by implementing the Activity Based Costing method. In this method, overhead manufacturing costs are divided in a more rational and deliberate manner. Costs are allocated by how much it actually costs to make a specific product group. Each product would be placed in a group with other items with the same costs, regular vs personalized snowboards for example. This includes labor hours, machine costs, etc. Although the ABC method is more complex and time consuming, it will be worth it to Custom Snowboards. The company will be able to better assess how and where money is spent and drive down expenses and increase net earnings. In the specific case of Custom Snowboards two types of boards, regular and personalized, the ABC method helps the company manage its money. In traditional costing, the regular bikes are $119 per unit. The personalized snowboards are $162. However, using activity based costing, the regular bikes are only $105 per unit and the personalized units are $218 each. In total production costs, the company is spending $522119 more on regular bikes than it would using ABC, and [$522119] less than it should on personalized bikes. This shows that in TBC, too much money is allocated for the regular snowboards, and not enough for the personalized units. The company needs to improve its cost controls with the ABC method to decrease expenses and increase profits. Another way the company can control more of its costs are to itemize and budget ore specifically. Line items like other general and admin expenses should be much smaller and contain items that are tracked. Having a more specific budget can also allow the company the opportunity to seasonalize its budget as well. Utilities may go up in the winter because of heat, or up in the summer due to air conditioning. Snowboard sales are more likely to be higher in the months leading into winter than the summer months. Identifying seasonal funding requirements could save Custom Snowboards a lot of money and increase net profits. Custom Snowboards can control costs by using aggressive funding strategies versus conservative ones. The cost of long term financing is more expensive  than the cost of short term financing. Being aggressive in its borrowing, the company can lower interest expenses and raise net earnings. Short term investments are riskier because of the fluctuation in interest rates, but coupled with the tighter budget, the company should be able to predict when the best time to finance is. Day to day activities can help control costs for Custom Snowboards. Collecting account receivable as quickly as possible but not losing customers from high-pressure collections, better customer service, faster and more efficient mail, processing, and clearing time reduction when collecting from customers (collection and disbursement floats), and controlled disbursing, paying accounts payable slowly (but still on time to avoid credit damage) are all ways to accomplish better cost control. Inventories should be classified into three categories: raw materials, work in progress, and finished goods. Proper management should be strictly enforced to ensure funds are used wisely by keeping inventory low, but having enough inventory on hand to quickly fill orders and prevent production delays. This is in direct relation to knowing the seasonal demands of the products and predicted sales. If the company uses the ABC method, it can use the calculation Total Cost=(OxS/Q) + (Cx Q/2) where O = order cost per order, S = usage in units per period, and Q = order quantity in units. A re-order point (including lead time) should be set by management to determine when more materials should be purchased so as to not upset the balance. The just in time (JIT) management system is ordering materials so they arrive at exactly the moment they are needed for production. This minimizes inventory investment but also takes extensive coordination with near perfect quality and consistency to be successful. The company must work with suppliers and shipping companies to ensure correct arrival times in addition to internal controls to make sure the correct items are ordered on time. Both Custom Snowboards’ raw materials inventory and finished goods inventory increased over the past three years. The JIT method will help the company keep these numbers under control. Risks Custom Snowboards is considering expansion into Europe either through merging with or acquiring European SnowFun, or by simply building a new facility. Mergers happen to improve a company’s share value, expand externally, diversify produce lines, reduce taxes, and increase owner liquidity. With the benefits of a merger, there are risks. The CEO of Custom Snowboards is concerned about internal operations risks associated with an expansion to Europe. She is also concerned about Custom Snowboards reaction to external risks encountered by the expansion as well. Internal risks Custom Snowboards faces could have a negative impact on the daily operations of the company. These are the risks from circumstances the company has control over. For this merger, Custom Snowboards will need to consider internal loss of focus on current operations, cultural differences including the language barrier, different financial reporting systems, different customers, new monetary system, and new management. Although the culture is an external factor, the way the company handles the risk is internal. The culture of the new market is vastly different and will need new strategies to continue sales regardless if the expansion is a merger or not. If Custom Snowboards does not understand its new customer base, it could lose sales quickly plummeting the company into bankruptcy. To mitigate this risk, research and development will need to do some work to help management communicate with a new market; associates, suppliers, shipping companies, etc. Some gestures and nuances we use in the United States may not be used in Europe or vice versa. Something we think rude, may be acceptable there. They could be offended by something innocent to us resulting in sales loss. The marketing department will also need to adjust the way it relates to customers. What sells in American, may not see in Europe. The use of multiple new languages will also need to be addressed. Bilingual employees, particularly the customer service representatives would be beneficial and help mitigate the risk of losing customers to a language barrier. It will also help the employees communicate with each other as  many current employees will have to go to setup the expanded portion of the company. A look into the competition will assist the company quite a bit as well. Increased costs in everyday business. Translators, new paperwork in different languages etc. must be mitigated with pre-planning and research. The company will need to complete new reports using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFSR) which could also be a costly change for the company. Even worse, the change in accounting standards could prove to be more costly if reported incorrectly. Proper training and understanding of the new system will mitigate this risk. All monies will need to be converted to the current system in that country as well. All costs should be pre-budgeted to ensure the company has enough cash flow for start-up costs as well as an operating budget. Realistic business plans should be in place. Hiring an outside local agency to assist in the accounting the first few years may be a smart way to invest into the company and mitigate the cost risk associated with an international expansion. With all the focus on getting the new part of the company up and running smoothly, there is a tendency to let the current operations fall behind. Oftentimes companies will send their best people to assist with the expansion leaving behind employees who can barely keep the current operations afloat. This leads to missed deadlines, mismanagement of operations, and quality control issues. To mitigate this risk, the company should find a balance of more experienced employees as well as less seasoned ones for the project team. The new management team can also be a risk to the company as foreign markets have different business practices. Business mistakes could cost the company money or its reputation. Inexperienced in how the company works, the new team will need lots of training. Custom Snowboards can mitigate this risk by ensuring an extensive training program is available as well as hiring qualified individuals in European business practices as well as those of the US. Offering some current employees benefits to work in Europe until the expansion portion of the company is up and running will also benefit the  company. Keeping in mind of course, the balance of current operations and those of the expansion. The new management team may also have different management styles. This could be good for the company as it tries to adopt the European market business culture. In addition to cultural barriers, another external risk is the local laws and regulations of the expansion country. In addition to the IFSR, there are specific laws that must be followed. This includes local labor, wage laws. Without knowing these laws, the company could inadvertently break them, leading to large fines, legal action against them, or being disallowed from doing business there. The best way to mitigate these risks are to educate, educate, educate. Custom Snowboards must learn the new laws and ensure everyone is trained on following them. A quality team should be in place to follow up on compliance as well as a consultant to get things going. External market plays a role in the success of the expansion. GDP growth rate, interest rates, consumer growth rate, the unemployment rate, etc. can all effect business for the company whether it is in the form of shipping costs or sales. To mitigate this risk, the company should do a thorough analysis of the market and benchmarks set prior to making the commitment to expand. The company should also take into consideration any political issues in the new country as this could cause instability and effect the market. So do government regulations and tariffs so Custom Snowboards should research, analyze, and be prepared. Potential Returns To make the most informed decision about expanding to Europe, we must look at the potential returns for the investment. The company will fund the expansion through increasing capital structure. To analyze potential returns, we look at net present value (NPV) and internal rate of returns (IRR). The NPV measures profitability which is the main goal of any business. It identifies the dollar amount the company will make from the project, using the current rate. An in depth look at Custom Snowboards capital budget reveals the NPV for the expansion via a new facility is $167,479. A positive NPV is an indication the company should move forward with the expansion. Had the NPV been zero, or less, the venture should have been rejected. An analysis of NPV for the merger has not been conducted. The IRR, also known as the expected rate of return, is the point in which the project’s cash flow equals cost. This too will tell Custom Snowboards if the venture will be profitable. The hurdle rate set by Custom Snowboards is 10%. Which means if the IRR falls below that, the company does not feel the investment is worthwhile. If the IRR is above 10%, the company should move forward. The IRR for Custom Snowboards was analyzed for years 15 through 19 with $1,000,000 investment, the IRR is 14.4%. This indicates the company should move forward with the expansion. Both potential returns indicators demonstrate Custom Snowboards the expansion is a viable option and should be moved on. The company should accept the project as the expected return on investment would prove a significant asset. Merger vs Acquisition Since the company knows now that an expansion is the way to go, it must then decide if a merger is appropriate. The growing percentage of total sales is expected to continue rising. The company can opt to expand to Europe by way of building a new manufacturing facility with a lease option or by merging with SnowFun, a European company. Custom Snowboards can also acquire SnowFun. SnowFun’s product is less durable but offers a personalized paintjob that increases sales. Custom Snowboards Inc. uses 10% hurdle rate for capital budgeting and expansion decisions. Merge. The IRR discussed earlier indicates the merger will be a profitable decision for the company at 14.4%. The NPV for the merger was established at $167,479, both indicating the merger will be profitable. Merging with SnowFun means  shareholders of SnowFun would stock swap three of their existing shares for one share of the combined company. The stock purchase price for the company after merger would be $2.40 per share. SnowFun has 300,000 currently outstanding. Which would mean 100,000 shares of Custom Snowboards would now be owned by former SnowFun shareholders, diluting the shares owned by Custom Snowboards stockholders. Expected earnings per share (EPS) after a merger would decrease .06 to .92. The EPS for European SnowFun is currently at a low .27 but will increase dramatically to .92. The company would have to decide if the value decline in EPS for Custom Snowboards is worth the increase from European SnowFun stocks. Positively, the merge would provide the company with pre-established workforce, facilities, and customers. As discussed, this can also be a risk to the company. Build. Building a new facility means spending $800,000 on building and equipment and, $200,000 working capital is required for startup. The build option will increase assets for the company while simultaneously return profits. The build option will cause the company to incur debt. Custom Snowboards has decided that if this option is chosen, the company will fund the expansion through increasing capital structure. The company would raise capital by issuing long term debt, sale of common stock, or a combination of both. All of these options effect the company’s financial leverage. It is recommended that both be done to maximize the value of the company for shareholders. Custom Snowboards could enter into a sale-leaseback at 6%, or purchase a preexisting facility over time, also at 6%. The shorter term lease would be the most beneficial to the company. The annual loan payment would be $189,917.12 versus the annual lease payment would be $195,000. The $5,082.88 yearly difference is an acceptable risk in this venture as the lease option preserves more working capital. The lease option requires cash outflows of $653,355 while the purchasing option requires outflows of $809,409, a $156,054 difference. Custom Snowboards Inc. can reinvest that money back into the company. This option provides tax advantages rather than paying property taxes. The purchasing option will have the company pay property taxes but will also provide advantages by way of depreciation. Acquire. The total present value for an acquisition is $732,522. After a $720,000 purchase price, this would put the NPV for acquisition as $12,522. This makes an acquisition a profitable measure as well. This option is less expensive up front and still increases the company’s assets. Acquiring SnowFun would also mean a stock purchase price of $2.40 per share. With 300,000 outstanding shares, that means $720,000. This option also provides the benefits of an established workforce, facilities, and customers, and the risk that comes with that. Recommendation Based on the analysis above, it is my recommendation that Custom Snowboards expand to Europe using the build with leasing option building the most working capital than the other options. The NPV indicates the investment will have a positive return on investment as does the IRR. A merger or acquisition would eliminate SnowFun as a threat however their inferior product and outstanding stocks would decline business for Custom Snowboards. The risk of the preexisting structures and products is greater than the company should accept. The tax advantages would contribute to the working capital of the company. The excess working capital the company gains from the expansion, can be placed back into the company, covering the startup costs. As the company builds its own reputation in Europe, a future acquisition may be more feasible. Custom Snowboards product is higher quality therefore, it may force SnowFun into a position of being acquired at a lower rate in the future. In selecting this option, the company must lastly choose how to fund the decision. There are a few ways to finance the build. The capital structures are: 100% long term debt, 30% long term debt and 70% common stock, 80% long term debt and 20% common stock, and 100% common stock with no long term debt. The long term debt will yield an average .47 earnings per common stock (EPCSS). The least beneficial to the stakeholders. In year 15, the earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) is $81,912, the income available for common stock is $10,809, bringing the EPCSS to .054. In year 16, the EBIT is $134,544, the income available for common stock is $50,283, and the EPCSS is .251. In year 16, this option  yields the best results. In year 17 with an EBIT of $198,116, the income available for common stock is $97,962, and the EPCSS is .490, .703 in year 18 with EBIT $254,959 and $140,594 income available for common stock, and with an EBIT of $295,639 and $171,104 income available for common stock in year 19, a yield of .856. Using the long term debt option will look the least beneficial to the stakeholders in the first year, but then maintains the best return for all subsequent years. The 30/70 option will yield in year 15, an EPCSS of .084, .156 in year 16, .243 in year 17, .320 in year 18, and .376 in year 19. This is the second best option in year 15 but in the middle for the other years. On average, this option will yield .236 EPCSS, making this the second worst option. The 80/20 option will yield an EPCSS of .070 in year 15, .201 in year 16, .360 in year 17, .502 in year 18, and .604 in year 19. This option isn’t bad in year 18 but not the best for the other years. This option will yield .347 on average. The no debt option will yield an EPCSS of .088, the most beneficial in year 15. In year 16, the EPCSS is .144, .212 in year 17, .273 in year 18, and .317 in year 19 making this the least beneficial of all the options the rest of the years. Over the course of the 5 years, this option will yield .207 EPCSS, the least return of all options. Although the benefits start slow with a lower EPCSS in year 15, my recommendation is to fund the build with the long term debt option. Although the 100% common stock option produces more income available for common stock, the long term debt option will yield the highest returns at an average EPCSS of .477. Longevity will prove to work best in this scenario. Over time, this option will yield the most benefits to the stakeholders. Securing capital in this way will ensure the highest earnings, producing more income for common stock money for future investment into the company.