Saturday, November 16, 2019

Life-changing Moments through Learning Experiences Essay Example for Free

Life-changing Moments through Learning Experiences Essay As each one of us may agree, life brings us a lot of experiences†¦ Experiences that could influence our next moves and actions in the future†¦ and eventually, these actions can impact changes into our lives†¦ It is a common knowledge that change is the only constant thing in this world. Nevertheless, aside from change, I can say that learning is also a constant and ever-evolving aspect in each individual’s life. It is because of the fact that whatever we do can eventually bring about new learning insights that will cause us to integrate and implement changes within ourselves. As for me, I have been truly aware of the changes that were made possible by the essays I have done for this course. In this regard, this paper aims to exemplify the changes in my outlook and disposition in life. Further, the essence of this paper shall revolve around my very own theme, which says, â€Å"life-changing moments through learning experiences†. The image below (which I especially made for this essay) depicts the theme of this paper, which is engraved in a colorful background. The different colors signify the various circumstances and experiences that we encounter in our lives. Those circumstances may be in green or yellow, red or blue, or perhaps, just plain black or white— life’s experiences can categorically bring about changes into us†¦ Indeed, we will never be the same again†¦

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Time management Essay -- essays research papers

Time Management for College Students We all know the sound that is very familiar to us: tick, tick, tick. No, it’s not the sound of our favorite movie coming on; It’s time moving on. College students often find that time is the hardest goal to conquer. Time isn’t really a goal. Finding time to complete all of our task is a goal. As a student there are some basic principals of time management that you can apply. Identify the best time for studying. Everyone has high and low periods of attention and concentration. Are you a morning person or a night person? Use your power times for studying, especially if you have children. Use your down times for cleaning, laundry, and running errands. If you have a job like most of us do, make a slot in your day for studying. Study difficult ...

Monday, November 11, 2019

Analysis of Nextcard.Inc

Nectar, Inc. Jeremy Lent lunched a company named Nectar. Inc. Aims to earn money by helping people get credit card more conveniently. But there is two huge flaws in this strategy, first, the way nectar to obtain new customers proved to be much higher than the figure Lent had originally projected. Second, the people who signed up for the Neckband credit card proved to be much higher credit risk than Lent had expected. So, the result is big bad debts. But the company officials still Insist that theIncreasing allowance for bad debts Is caused by hackers and other Internet miscreants. Then in late 2001, they got a large class-action lawsuit by the angry Investors. While the real big problem Is what the audit partner Thomas Trigger did. In order to make the workspaces appear as If the addling teams had been ‘right on the mark' all along, he modifying the workspaces and scour the evidences. Instead of scour the evidence, Trigger's subordinate gave It to federal authoresses. I think t he audit Issue we should concern about Is the destroying of documents.As It Is said In the paragraph, the financial markets depend on the integrity of auditors, lawyers and other professionals to do their jobs ethically and fairly. If they fail to do so, the damage is huge, and the mistake is unforgivable. But I didn't appreciate what Outrages subordinate did. He should at least persuade his superior not to do this. He pretend to be obey the boss's order while do another thing behind wisher's back is kind of betraying. On the other side, Trigger is incompetent to be a good mentor. He didn't teach his subordinate to be honest auditor.Whether the auditor should evaluate the soundness of a client's business model is depends on the position of the auditor. If the clients asked about the suggestions, they can give some advices. If they are not been asked to do, I think the business model is out of an auditor's obligations. Analysis of Nectar. Len By redeemed So, the result is big bad deb ts. But the company's officials still insist that the increasing allowance for bad debts is caused by hackers and other Internet investors. While the real big problem is what the audit partner Thomas Trigger did.In order to make the workspaces appear as if the auditing teams had been ‘right on the mark all along, he modifying the workspaces and scour the evidences. Instead of scour the evidence, Trigger's subordinate gave it to federal authorities. I think the audit issue we should concern about is the destroying of documents. As it is said in other professionals to do their Jobs ethically and fairly. If they fail to do so, the Trigger's subordinate did. He should at least persuade his superior not to do this. He didn't teach his subordinate to be honest auditor. Whether the auditor should

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Consumersim, How It Controls Our Society Essay

With the rise of consumerism, our global society has become increasingly focused on consuming goods and services, as a means to feel good about ourselves and to drive the economies of the world. Without consumerism, our economy would collapse dramatically. Advertisers drive our society through manipulation and persuasion to drive their consumers to buy their products which are not relevant to their needs. Through exploration of the psychology of advertising the five stages of life, advertising theories and techniques and the work of composers like Bruce Dawe and Macklemore provide an understanding of advertising by writing about how consumerism is being influenced in our daily lives. Consumerism is a phenomenon that was always immanent in the relatively developed societies, where people purchased goods and consumed resources excessive to their needs. However, there was a major change after the Industrial Revolution. In the 1700’s, people were defined by the type of job they ha d for employment. The role of status in terms of class was formed together around in ways in which work was organised, and their fortune of wealth. This changed because of the industrial revolution as it was a period of great change. New industries like factories were being developed rapidly as a result of a number of inventions such as; the steam engine and spinning jenny, this machinery brought the industrial revolution to become the juggernaut that it was. Focus turned to the newer inventions to make life easier for working individuals and families with children. Now men and women of this modern society are not confined by their choice of employment but their ownership of trendy brands. Advertisements influence our daily lives by introducing new and improved ad campaigns manipulating the consumer into purchasing their product. Advertisements persuade consumers largely by appealing to their emotions, often using sensory information to get consumers to feel as though there is a sense of urgency about the offer, such as saying buy now, or limited time offer. There are many strategies that advertisers use when creating their ads and almost all of these strategies use the consumer’s emotions to make the consumer, desire the product. One of the strategies is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs which is a five level pyramid that people go through to have a fulfilling life. Advertisers use this strategy by appealing to the consumer of a specific  level, if a consumer is on the Stage Three-Love and Belonging Needs, this level on the hierarchy is the acceptance and desire to fit in with other people, this can mean friends, family, significant others, or all of above. The men and women in this category will usually purchase the following item for the following reasons; magazines and anything else that will keep them updated with the latest trends, name branded item, perfumes and colognes, make-up, and sexy clothes to attract people of the opposite sex and gain love, lastly self-improvement books to avoid criticism and to be accepted by society. An example of this strategy is celebrity endorsements; this strategy is used in beauty products such as the Katy Perry Proactive Skin Care advertisement. In this advertisement, Katy Perry is indicating when she used the proactive treatment; her acne automatically disappeared within a short amount of time. Due to this product she started to feel confident in herself with perfect, clear skin manipulating the consumers to feel the same way. These products are not needed for the people living the life in stage five because they are self-actualisation. In this stage, the person feels that they have become everyt hing they possibly can as they have reached the level of extreme peace, knowledge and self-fulfilment they do not need anything else to make them happy. Advertisers tailor their advertisements towards target audiences by broadcasting their advertisements over the internet, television commercials and radio stations using basic methods of persuasion forcing their consumers to purchase their product. The advertisers achieve their goals by using the most common strategy for targeting their audiences which is AIDA. AIDA stands for (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action), this method is very helpful for the advertisers when designing powerful advertisements. An example of this is capturing the attention of the target audience. People see hundreds of advertisements daily, but they only read a small portion of the advertisement. Which is why capturing the consumer’s attention is the important part of designing the advertisement. The advertisers use large exciting headlines to make t heir advertisement interesting such as; Announcing, Breakthrough, Shocking, How to _, these words always breakthrough capturing the consumer’s attention. This kind of strategy works on consumers because the advertisers are making their advertisement seem exciting and new. Starting off with such powerful words make the consumers want to stop, watch, and listen. Another strategy is the Quadrant Theory. The Quadrant Theory relies on the natural path and western culture. In western cultures, people read from left to right and start from the top left corners, travelling right across the page and travelling down. Our eyes are trained to move this way so advertisers will put the most important info at the top of the page and lesser or secondary info at the bottom. The images are designed to attract attention at the top of the page where our eyes would naturally go anyway. An example of this strategy is the Whisker’s advertisement. In this advertisement our eyes automatically go straight towards the bulky grey elephant on the left side of the image, commencing right across the image to see a small kitten attacking the elephant with its claws, ending the advertisement with a message â€Å"Feeding your cat’s instincts†. This kind of strategy works on consumers because Whiskas is indicating to their target audience that the produ ct is meeting their cats’ instinct of desires by capturing their prey, and their prey of desire is captured as the elephant in their food product for cats. Techniques of persuasion are used by advertisers to manipulate the consumer and persuade them that they require to have it, right then and there. There are large numbers of techniques used in advertisements; most of the advertisers use the subtle use of humour and sex appeal. In the Aami Insurance advertisement, Rhonda is referring to her Bali trip as exotic and her interpretation of Ketut’s â€Å"You look so hot today, Rhonda† and †Like a sunrise† lines as flirting, when he is obviously referring to her badly sunburnt skin, is quite humorous and real. As Rhonda is replying with â€Å"Kiss me Ketut†, this is an enormous move away from typical car insurance ads where people have been in a car accident. It is only in the latest instalment when Rhonda returns home from Bali and is relaying her interpretation of her meeting with Ketut to her friend, which a minor car accident occurs. Luckily enough Rhonda was insured with Aami, they were quick to assist her. These aspects of the Aami advertisement appeal to the target audiences because they are wanting the consumer’s to think of the advertis ement when picking a choice of insurance, as Aami will always be there to assist you fast no matter where you are or how small the incident was. Another example of an advertisement that uses persuasive techniques is the â€Å"Despicable Me 2, Happy Meal† McDonalds advertisement which has the characters from the Despicable Me 2 being the main focus. However this ad is most appealing to children as the presence of minions are making it humorous and exhilarating using a mix of illusion and reality together as one. These techniques are pressuring the children to want their product with limited time offers. Even though these techniques are manipulating we are not completely blind to the effects of consumerism because some advertisements end up failing to attract the consumer’s attention and interest which makes the advertisement fail. Some people dynamically point out the negative aspects of consumerism composing poems or soundtracks in the way of which consumerism has taken over and is operating our minds. People like Bruce Dawe who has in sighted us the negative effects of consumerism through his poems. Bruce Daweà ¢â‚¬â„¢s poetry focuses on the concept of consumerism surrounding the modern era. Dawe’s poem â€Å"Televistas† follows a story-line of two characters watching television. He composes this romance converting it over to a parody (making fun of something by pretending it is serious and doing it in the same style) of two people meeting and falling-in-love. Dawe pinpoints this parody by saying that instead of the couple sharing a kiss, they â€Å"shared a samboy† (packet of chips), instead of gazing into another’s eyes, they were â€Å"Crunching in the afterglow† He is highlighting a serious message that perhaps like meeting a person, spending time with them, falling-in-love and sharing a first kiss are being replaced by consumer products such as watching television and eating brand named food. Bruce Dawe wants his reader to contemplate about our relationships and how they are being affected by the concept of consumerism. Dawe’s poem â€Å"Amer icanized† negotiates the negative effects of consumerism. This serves as an extended metaphor for how consumerism examines and dominates our society. His negative tone is made clear through lines such as (She loves him†¦but will not allow him outside. â€Å"The streets are full of nasty cars and men†) she whispers , this quote demonstrates the mother’s fear of her child being exposed to consumerism and how it dominates our society, protecting the child from being manipulated into desiring products he does not need. Dawe also highlights how consumerism compels us to consider buying products  excessively is healthy for us through the quote ‘she loves him’ ‘she’ is the mother for who consumerism is in this metaphor. This is meant to say how consumerism makes us consider it to be valuable to us. Dawe’s achievement is to have his audience realise that consumerism is suffocating by shoving new products into our faces, when in reality we do not need them at all. The song â€Å"WINGS† by Rap composer Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis is about the pursuit of identity through the means of consumerism. The attempt is to dissect our infatuation and attachment to logos, labels, brands an d the fleeting happiness that is intrinsically linked to the almighty power of the purchase. Macklemore talks about how people do not question or even think about consumerist ways but just follow them. He quotes ‘Movement told me to be a consumer and I consumed it’ this is a good example of the trend ‘Nike’. ‘Nike’ is such a popular designer label for sports gear, the society do not care for what the product is or how much it costs, but the value it can have for them. Societies are able to keep up with these latest developments and movements without even blinking. Macklemore also talks about people judging others by the clothes they uniform in the quote’ More than just a pair a pair of shoes’ this is implying the shoes aren’t just ordinary shoes. These shoes are representing this person for who they are. Through ‘Wings’ Macklemore communicates that consumerism has manipulated the society to believe that they ne ed to wear specific brands to fit in and be accepted. Through the exploration of consumerism it has become clear we the societies are restricted by this way of life so much we don’t even realise it. The effect of living in this society is so great it has even been cultured from birth to adulthood contributing to buying popular brands, which the people do not necessarily need for survival and we are always exposed with advertisements everywhere we go. Having the true understanding of the Psychology of Advertising it becomes apparent we will realise how consumerism is dominating our world. This brings awareness of how consumerism and advertisement has taken domination of our lives and addresses out to the public. An analysis of the Psychology and techniques of advertisements has defined today’s society on how it has been dominated and manipulated with use of the poetry of Bruce Dawe’s ‘Americanized’ and ‘Televistas’, with also Macklemore soundtrack ‘WINGS’. With the rise of consu merism, our global society has become increasingly focused on consuming  goods and services, as a means to feel good about ourselves and to increase the economies of the world. Without consumerism, our economy would collapse dramatically. The advertisers motivate society through manipulating and persuasion to force their consumers to purchase their products which are not relevant to their daily needs. However, to make consumers stay interested in the product of desire, the advertisers enhance the awareness of their product sub-consciously to make sure their advertisement stays in their minds for the consumer to buy. In today’s societies, consumerism is the tale of life, even though it has dominated and manipulated us into thinking we have to follow the procedures of buying products we do not need.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

MGT204 Final Paper

MGT204 Final Paper MGT204 Final Paper Group dynamics analysis What are group dynamics? Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group. When we built our first group, we really didn’t know how to start it, so we decided to follow group building process, first of all, know our team, so we decided to use some team building activities to help us get to know each other, building trust, facilitating communication and teamwork.After we introduced ourselves to each other in our first meeting, we decided use â€Å"show and tell† game to get to know each other better, it is a low-pressure way to help people learn about each other. holding a â€Å"show and tell† session where members share their hobbies and interests can help team members discover things they have in common. After we knew each other, it seems like we have a lot of things in common, so it is much easier for us to start conversation. According to Bruce Tuckman’s research, there are five stages for us to buil d a highly-productive team. The stages are: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. So when we shared story with each other, we were going through Forming stage, because in this stage, we were all positive and polite, some of us were anxious, we didn’t understand what the team will do and our team members’ role weren’t clear. After the Forming stage, we went into Storming stage. At the beginning, we decided to find a common goal, it is really hard for us, everyone of us had an idea, but end with doubt and frustration, we didn’t have any argument, but we had some common question: what does this class want? What is group development? Why should we do this? These questions stopped us for a long time, we really didn’t know how to solve these questions. In my own point of view, I think some of us began to have a panic, because we needed to do a presentation about group development. But Brain and Danielle did a great job leading us go fo rward, they kept coming up with new ideas and encouraging us, and finally we figured out an idea and began to move on. In the Norming stage, we began to create our project, we separated this project into different parts fairly and everyone of us chose one to start working. Sometimes culturally diverse group have difficulty in learning, as an international student, I had some questions about our project, my team member were all willing to help me, we were closer than before, we began to try out best to achieve this common goal, during this stage, we communicated online frequently, if someone had a question, other people were willing to help him/her. In the Performing stage, everything was good, our team operated like a well oiled machine, everyone did a great job and we communicated well. In the adjourning stage, we did a great presentation and achieve our goal, everyone was happy about it, we hope we will have a chance to work together in the future. Through these stages, I understands the process of group building, it is not a easy thing, different people has different personality, in our group, our group member always be patient, if there is someone who has an aggressive nature, then our group would confronts more difficulties than we did. Sometimes the first time is the most difficult one, so when I joined the next group, the process became much easier than the first one, because everyone had a experience and understood how to deal with certain situations. I think communication is the key for a group, as a Chinese student, I don’t like talk too much, but from my group, I have learned that if we want to achieve a common goal, we must communicate well, everyone should make sure that we are on the same page, nobody is special, when I was in my first group I didn’t want to talk at the beginning, some of my team members had the same feeling, it was really awkward, Communication is a process because changes in events a nd relationships are part of a continuous flow. But sometimes communication can be

Monday, November 4, 2019

Sykes Enterprises Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sykes Enterprises - Case Study Example The mission of Sykes is to provide its customers with competitive rates so that it can provide its customers with the lowest rates. Sykes' strategy is to compete with the industry leaders on cost. It has to thus ensure that its operations stay profitable for it to continue its operations. Its mission and objectives are aligned with the amount of competition in the market and allows Sykes to target the same companies its competitors are targeting however, offering the lowest rates in town. There is no need to review the mission and objectives, but the strategy needs re-working. It is obvious that Sykes can take more than one action to improve its revenues and build a profitable business. The closure of its operations in India have resulted in consolidation of its costs in the United States. The competitors of Sykes have resorted to opening up call centers in South East Asian nations such as the Philippines to counter the high turnover costs and possible wage rises in Indian cities due to growing economies. One of the strategic alternatives for Sykes could be to introduce a culture of hiring fresh graduates and providing them training and binding them with contracts to serve Sykes for a period of two years. This would result in a significant drop in turnover for a temporary period. Reduction in the hiring and firing costs will result in lower running costs that will allow Sykes to offer lower rates to its customers. It would be wise for Sykes to continue its contracts with various towns and cities and gather benefits in taxation and other utilities offering employment in return. The reduction in taxes would result in a lower deductions in the revenues. The reduction would improve the profitability, though not necessarily the revenues. The current scenario asks for more involvement in the US rather than other countries. Significant cost reduction in Asian economies is no longer an onus and in countries that still offer lower operation rates, there is always the chance of high turnover costs and bad customer experiences - due to accents of offshore employees. Recommended Strategy Keeping into view the tough conditions of the economy, it would be wise for Sykes to combine the two strategies and work towards reducing its costs. Since Sykes mission and objective is reduction in costs to offer competitive rates in the industry, the two strategies could both be used to reduce the costs in order to provide highly competitive rates to corporate customers. This strategy would result in attraction of more corporate clients. However, Sykes should not close down any further call centers nor should it pursue an aggressive strategy within the US - current operations should be maintained until there is a significant rise in the profits. Implementation It would be wise for Sykes Enterprises to consider more large firms in the market other than SBC

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Recent Developments in the UK Housing Market Essay - 1

Recent Developments in the UK Housing Market - Essay Example The researcher states that the government should renovate existing houses because the households earning low incomes are entirely relying on private rented sectors that are not regulated. These areas are characterized by poor living conditions and security. It is important for the government to develop more housing because there are more than 1.7 million families on local authority housing waiting lists. This is a significantly huge number. The government should ensure that the new houses are environmentally friendly and affordable to everyone needing them. The first time buyers in the UK property market are important because they act as liquidity source to the whole housing market. These first-time buyers generally bridge the gap thus enhancing transactions as regards the housing property. The rates of transactions that proceed in the housing market may stall if the first time buyers are unavailable. Between 1998 and 2007, house prices increased steadily in the United Kingdom, makin g the ownership for the first buyers to be unaffordable. Interest rates for the first time buyers affected them to a comparatively wide margin. This is because the group may not have built up a previous equity and many of them may be earning low incomes than other people. When the first time buyers think of house affordability, they first consider the real interest rates given. On the other hand, the first time buyers may face more severe affordability burdens when prices of houses quickly upsurge. Lastly, it is imperative to note that structural shifts in mortgage or credit availability are other factors that led to fall of first-time buyers purchasing homes. In 2010, the government introduced a mortgage rescue scheme that protected the low-income households from being recuperated. The mortgage scheme consisted of two parts including the equity loan which was an interest loan issued by various housing associations. The interest rates could pay off between 25% and 75% of the mortgag e rates thereby reducing monthly costs. On the other hand, an interest rate of 1.75% was implemented on the loan.