Three Types of People to Fire Immediately Essay Example for Free

Three Types of People to Fire Immediately Essay The article that I read was â€Å"Three Types of People to Fire Immediately† by Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Viton from Bloomberg’s Businessweek. The authors of this article discuss how we are taught to be creative and innovative from the beginning when we are children. They also talk about how another key element to be successful is to teach managers how to fire people. Maddock and Viton talk about how letting someone go can be beneficial to your organization because some employees are part of the problem and not part of the solution. They say that the people who are innovative and willing to learn are the ones who will push your organization to the next level and that there are three types of people that will hold your organization back. These three people are the victims, the non-believers, and the know-it-alls. The victims are the people who say things like â€Å"Can you believe what they want us to do now? And of course we have no time to do it. I don’t get paid enough for this. The boss is clueless† (Maddock Viton 2011). They will often see problems as singling them out and punishing them rather than a challenge that they need to overcome and persevere. Victims are usually angry, annoyed, and always complaining about anything that they can. They are the ones at the holiday parties that are very negative and don’t really want to be there but come anyway just to bring everyone else down. Maddock and Viton say that victims are not looking for opportunities but instead look for problems because that is the frame of mind that they are used to seeing things in. The authors say that the non-believers think like this â€Å"Why should we work so hard on this? Even if we come up with a good idea, the boss will probably kill it. If she doesn’t, the market will. I’ve seen this a hundred times before† (Maddock Viton 2011). Maddock and Viton believe that the only difference between a winning team that is innovative and the losing one that comes up short can be attributed to the lack of willpower within the corporate culture. Good managers are those who can find the believers in the organization and promote them while weeding out the non-believers to make the organization stronger. The know-it-alls will say things like â€Å"You people obviously don’t understand the business we are in. The regulations will not allow an idea like this, and our stakeholders won’t embrace it. Don’t even get me started on our IT infrastructure’s inability to support it. And then there is the problem of †¦. † (Maddock Viton 2011). Maddock and Viton believe that the best innovators are those who are willing to learn and not those who think that they know enough to get by. It is management’s job to make and sculpt the culture in the way that they want. If management wants to have an innovative culture then they must convey a learning culture because that is the best way to be innovative. It is also said that the know-it-alls become very keen in using their knowledge to constitute why things are not possible rather than trying to find a way to make it possible. The authors say that managers should try to retrain or teach the Know-it-alls before firing them because they can be valuable if they can break their bad habits. In my opinion I would have to agree with this article for the most part. I do believe that it is necessary to get rid of certain employees such as the â€Å"Victims† and the â€Å"Non-believers†. The Victims and the non-believers will only bring your organization down with their negativity and poor attitudes. Not to mention the fact that they are usually incapable of seeing anything as a positive opportunity rather than a punishment or waste of time. There are a lot of things in the world that were seen as a waste of time or a crazy idea to people but because of the believers and dreamers we have a lot of new technology and innovation to this day. The part that I would have to disagree with is when they talk about the â€Å"Know-it-alls† and how they are not innovative. I believe that the know-it-alls can be very innovative and can solve a lot of organizations problems. However, I also believe that they might be more realistic in their thinking and this could be a good thing in that it could help keep the dreamers from getting their heads too far in the clouds. So in my opinion I do believe that it is necessary to fire people for the good of the organization but you should always evaluate what the employee brings to the table and how they negatively affect the organization before action is taken.

Balance Of Payments And Trade In Uae Economics Essay

Balance Of Payments And Trade In Uae Economics Essay The UAE is one of the strongest and prosperous economies of the world. It has been growing continuously over the past few years. The country has been growing at the average rate of 6% per year in the past decade. In the previous years the countrys economy was majorly dependant on the revenue generated by export of oil and petroleum products. But from the last decade the economy of the UAE has been diversified and is now contributed by other industries like, tourism, real estate and construction. Currently the oil and petroleum sector accounts only for one third of the total GDP of the country which used to be three fourth parts till 1980. The current per capita GDP of the UAE is one of the highest in the world, 24,000 USD. The export and import policies and strategies of goods and services in UAE mainly depends upon the free trade zones in the country because in these free trading zones mostly non oil products are being traded. The main benefit of these trading zones is that they are exempted from the time consuming and irritating obligations of licensing and all. The foreign and international trade and business relationships of the UAE with other countries like India, China, Japan and European Union has been improved in the past years and the balance of payments and trade has also been increased in these years. Previously the country was in deficit of balance but now the balance has risen to surplus amount. (Balance Of Payments BOP) (Balance Of Trade: Definition) Balance of Payment The balance of payments (BOP) is a record of all transactions between one particular country and the rest of the countries. It compares the difference of value of imports and exports of products, services and fiscal transactions in terms of dollars. The  BOP includes the  trade balance,  foreign investments and investments by foreigners. The BOP calculates international transactions for a specific time period, normally one year. For nation sources of funds like exports and investments are surplus items and use of funds like imports and invest in foreign countries are deficit items. BOP indicates the economic and political stability of the country. You can analyze it, i.e., if a country has a positive BOP, it means that there is substantial foreign investment within that country. The value of national currency of a country gets appreciation if the BOP is positive. If the value of a countrys import is higher than the value of its exports then the balance will be in deficit. A def icit in the balance shows a dependency on foreign investors or an overvalued currency. After including all components in BOP sheet, it must balance. The overall surplus or deficit must be zero. If a deficit in the balance then the country pays off the difference of value by exporting gold or consented hard currency. When a country is not able to pay for its debt repayments then it is called as currency crisis or BOP crisis. It came with rapid decline in nations currency value. It occurs because of large capital flow which is related to economic growth. However at a point foreign investors become concerned about their inbound capital and pull out funds. The rapid drop in the value of currency occurs because of the capital outbound flows. This causes an issue for business firm of affected country who has received loans. Foreign reserves try to support the domestic currency with very limited options after government fatigued. It increases the interest rates in order to prevent declines in value of currency. There are three methods to correct balance of payment imbalance. Adjustment of nations internal prices and adjustments of exchange rates are important methods. (Balance Of Payments BOP) Rebalancing by adjustments of exchange rate An increase in the value of currency of nation make imports cheaper and exports less matched. So it tends to correct current account surplus and make flow of investment less attractive towards capital account in order to help with a surplus. Conversely a decrease in the value of currency of nation makes things expensive for people to buy and increase the competition in exports with the others. Thus helps to correct the deficit. If nation is selling more and imports less, than the demand of currency increases because selling nations currency will be the need of other countries to make payment for the exports. If nation is exporting goods of less value and importing value is more than to pay for the excess import value it replace it with foreign currency so the currency will increase in international market thus value of currency tends to fall. BOP effects are also influenced by the difference in interest rates of nations. (Balance Of Payments BOP) Rebalancing by adjusting internal prices and demand Making changes in the domestic economy is a standard approach to correct imbalance, when exchange rates are fixed by gold standard or when imbalance is among members of currency union. Change is optional for the country which is in surplus but it is must for the deficit country. Mechanism is automatic in case of gold standard. If a nation has favorable trade balance then there will be an inflow of gold. It will increase the money supply because of this prices increase and inflation occurs thus decreases surplus. If a nation has deficit BOP then there will be an outflow of gold and occurs a deflationary effect so that prices reduced and makes export more competitive, thus do the re-balance. (Balance Of Payments BOP) Balance of Trade The balance of trade being a larger part of the economic unit, BOP, which includes all economic transaction between one country and the rest world. If a nation exports more than it imports then it has trade surplus or favorable balance of trade. If imports are more than exports then it has trade deficit or unfavorable balance of trade. There must be a favorable balance of trade but classical economics says it to be more important as for a nation so as to fully utilize its available economic resources rather than to build a trade surplus. The balance of trade indicates the nations international economic position. Factors affecting the balance of trade is inclusive of: The cost of manufacturing of product and services in the exporting country is different than that in the importing country. The price and availability of other subsidiary products, raw material and other required inputs. Fluctuation in exchange rates. Various restrictions on different type of trading medium Non economic hurdles like, environmental, health and social. Trade deficit is bad or not, it depends on business cycle and economy. If a country is in recession then it would like to exports more in order to create demand and jobs. But in strong expansion, nation would like to imports more which raise price competition and limits the inflation. So a trade deficit may help during an expansion but not good in recession. (Balance Of Trade: Definition) The UAE Balance of Payment The UAE is a member of the GCC trade group and also a member of World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund for the past ten years. The country has never required financial help from the World Bank or the International Monetary fund because of its strong financial position and huge treasures of wealth. Balance of Payments which is an important economic indicator to determine the countrys financial condition in the global market, in the previous year was more than 100 billion AED because of the real estate and construction business in the country. In the previous year the official reserve account of the UAE has been increased by 50 billion AED. The economy of the country is majorly driven by tourism, construction, real estate, and oil industry. So the balance of payments has to be done from various perspectives in the UAE. According to the IMF three major accounts need to be taken care of for the balance of payments in such a diverse economy, these accounts ar e: (McRae.) Current Account This account keeps track of the countrys assets from trades of goods and services and one sided transactions from foreign countries. In the year 2004 the UAE Central Bank recorded the total balance of -9 billion AED. Capital Account This account is for the flow of payments of capital items. In 2004 IMF reported 78,062 million UAE capitals of machinery, medical and electricity. The export value of the above capital was 610 million AED. The trade surplus reported by CIA in 2004 was $19 billion. Financial Account This account handles the trade of stocks and bonds, currency transaction. The net investment projected by the International Monetary Fund in 2005 was 26.3 billion AED. The 392 commercial banks of the country have the total deposit of 491,523 million AED. Business Monitor International is a leading publisher of highly specific business information about the global markets of the world. In a report of BMI it is mentioned that the international trade of UAE will increase because of the improved two ways trading with US, Iran and SA. The boost in tourism and expansion in hotel and airport projects will also strengthen the position of UAE in balance of payments, the measure of payment flow between a country and the rest of the world. According to the report the import of the UAE is increasing by 8% per year whereas the export is declining by 6% in 2009 but is forecasted to grow again by 11% in 2011. The report also said that the current account balance of the UAE is more than 20% of the GDP for the forecast period which will definitely rise as the result of improved trading relations and flourishing tourism of the country. The Balance of Payment of the UAE in 2007 was 22.2% of the GDP which decreased till 2009 and is expected to increase up to 25.2% in 2011. According to the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce the export of US to the UAE was increased by 40% between 2005 ad 2006. The re-exporting capability of the UAE is certainly good news for the balance of payments of the country. (FRANCO, 2007) Balance of Payment is the sum of exports products and services and net income like interests and foreign aids. Current account balance is a major indicator of any countrys financial condition. The current account balance or the balance of payments for UAE in the year 2005 brought the country at 13th rank in the world. It is 136.32 percent more than in the previous year. In 2006 UAE was on ranked as 10th country for the current account balance of 36.158 billion US$ which is around 60 percent more than in 2005. In 2007 UAE recorded a decline of 46 percent in the current account balance and rolled down to 20th ranking. In 2008 the current account balance for UAE increased by 13 percent and came at 19th position. In 2009 UAE recorded a drastic dip of 130 percent in the current account balance and came at 163rd ranking in the world. (FRANCO, 2007) The UAE Balance of Trade The balance of trade of the United Arab Emirate in the December of year 2008 was recorded to 231.1 billion AED. The economy of the country is no more dependent on the oil and petroleum products but still they are an important part for the revenue of the country. The major ingredients of the countrys imports are machinery, chemicals, transport equipments, and food and the major trading countries with UAE are India, China, Japan and European Union. The following figure shows the trade balance chart of the UAE. (United Arab Emirates Balance of Trade) The trade balance of the UAE has been very much dependant on the oil and petroleum revenue. The trade balance of UAE including the oil products has always been surplus in the past years whereas excluding oil and petroleum the trade balance was in deficit throughout the last decade. The country recorded a surplus in trade balance (including oil) of 19% of the total GDP in the year 2004, the value of which was 63 billion AED. The deficit in trade balance (excluding oil) in 2000 was maximum i.e. 26% of the GDP which has been decreasing gradually in the past years and as recorded only 8% of the total GDP in year 2004 with the value of 27 billion AED. (U.A.E. Trade Policy) The trade balance of UAE from the past years has been noticed to be shifting from deficit to surplus. A recent report from the Ministry of Foreign Trades of the UAE said about the commercial and business relations between UAE and India that the trade balance of UAE with India which was in deficit of worth 7.3 billion AED in the Q1 of 2009 has now been moving to positive side and in the Q1 of 2010 the trade balance was in surplus with the amount of 2.2 billion AED. The comparison of these two quarters shows that the value of non oil international trade between the two countries has been increased up to 83%. The value of the international trade in the Q1 of 2009 was equal to 20.5 billion AED and the value of trade in the Q1 of 2010 was 37.5 billion AED. These economic indicators are the proof of strong bilateral business and commercial relationships between the UAE and India. The development and the strength of the UAEs economy can also be seen from the results of the fiscal policies a nd strategies of the countries and their execution. The country has now developed a diversified economy and exports of non oil products. (UAE achieves a surplus of Dh2.2billion in its trade balance with India, 2010) Conclusion The above discussion of the balance of payments and balance of trades of the UAE depicts that the foreign trade and international fiscal and business relationships of the country has been improved in the past years. The balance of payments which used to be on the negative side and the country under the debts of other foreign countries has now shifted to the brighter side and increase to the surplus amount. The balance of trade of the UAE was majorly dependant on the export of oil products in the previous decade. But now the trade balance of the country majorly consists of export of non oil products. The trade balance of the country with other countries was in deficit in the previous year but now it has been increased to the positive side and stood up with surplus value.

Review of Rudy Tomedi’s No Bugles No Drums :: Rudy Tomedi Bugles Drums Essays

Review of Rudy Tomedi’s No Bugles No Drums Rudy Tomedi presents his audience with a different view of the Korean War; one that is up close and personal. The oral histories told through edited transcripts in No Bugles No Drums: An Oral History of the Korean War, show the reader the Korean War through the eyes of the men who were active in combat. However, as Tomedi puts it, â€Å"firsthand accounts have their limitations, but they also catch things that often fall through the cracks of a conventional history† (Tomedi, vi). Tomedi provides his reader with a short background of the situation, placing the interviewee into context within the war. This ultimately gives the reader a little insight into the position the person was in and clarifies some parts of the following interview. One limitation Tomedi’s book has is that it is very subjective, allowing the reader to only see a portion of the war through a single person’s view. For example Fred Lawson, an interviewee, stated â€Å"We has no idea what was happening over on the other side of the mountain† (Tomedi, 87). Tomedi does not present his readers with a story of â€Å"what was happening over the mountain.† The book also neglects various perspectives, such as officers and women in the war. The compilation of stories strictly focuses on combat veterans, many of whom did not know what was going on; they were simply â€Å"a bunch of kids†¦trying to do [their] job† (Tomedi, 8). Despite these minor flaws, the book has many positive aspects to it. Probably most important, the book gives the reader an up close and personal account to the war. Each battle comes alive for the reader as a veteran vividly describes what he experienced. For example Vincent Walsh describes his first encounter with a violent death as follows: â€Å"we had occasion to pick up a dead pilot. They fingerprinted him and then he was wrapped in a piece of canvas and he went into a meat box† (Tomedi, 155). Lines such as this, puts a personality behind the speaker and makes it more personal. Also, the stories in the book present the same situations as other oral history novels. A good example of this is when Robert Roy claims â€Å"†¦I could see a line of tanks coming down the road, which we never expected†¦I could see the rounds explode against the tank, but the tank just kept going† (Tomedi, 10-11).

U.S. Attacked :: essays research papers

America was attacked Tuesday September 11th, 2001. How could we be attacked we are the strongest countries in the world? We have one of the world's strongest economies in the world. We have a massive army with equipment to destroy a whole country. Why would someone do this? Who would do this? Who ever did this doesn't value life. They actually made four of our own planes filled with fuel into bomb. They crashed into three buildings. Attacking a military base is bad enough, but to attack innocent people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I think that this could have been prevented. We should have been expecting this. We bombed other countries before killing innocent people. Our atom bomb did not distinguish between military, and civilian personal. We, America, did this to end the war to ensure our freedom. I think we could have been prepared a lot more than we were.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Should we seek justice or revenge? Justice would be to kill who ever did this so anything like this can never happen again. Revenge would be to kill who ever did this and who ever harbors the terrorist. I think that we should seek justice so this can never happen again to us or anyone else. We have to be careful though because this could be the start to world war3. This time if a war breaks out life with have a lesser value than it ever did. There are so many nuclear and biological weapons that nobody life would be safe from side effects. Many more people are going to die in the process of seeking justice. Talk of sending ground troops I think would be one of the worst things that could be done. The only people that win from a war are the people that make military equipment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I don't want a war to start because I know people that are in the are and the

Johnson Beverage Inc Essay

As president and primary owner of Johnson Beverage, Inc. (JBI), Jack Johnson was beginning to realize that retaining long-term customers was becoming a challenge. During a delivery run yesterday, driver Joe Stevens had noticed a competitor’s sales manager talking with the general manager of Saver Superstore, one of JBI’s largest customers. Then, that morning, Johnson’s sales manager, Marsha Ketchum, had mentioned that, during her visit with the same general manager on Wednesday, he was starting to make some noises about wanting to negotiate a lower price. This could cause a dilemma because this customer had been one of the company’s largest and most loyal customers for years. Johnson leaned back in his chair. These things always seemed to come up on Friday— just in time to monopolize his thoughts over what otherwise would have been a restful weekend. Deciding to address the situation head on, he scheduled a meeting with Stevens, Ketchum, and several others for later that afternoon. Company Background JBI distributed beverages to retail customers. The company had been in business for two decades and had become a preferred distributor among several retail outlets in the local area. JBI primarily distributed bottled sports drinks made by small specialty beverage companies, and its business had grown steadily with the popularity of sports drinks over the past 10 to  20 years. Last year, JBI’s revenues totaled $12 million. The company serviced about 20 customers whose beverage purchases totaled anywhere from about $100,000 to over $1 million annually. The undiscounted list price on the sports drinks that JBI distributed was $15.20 per case of 24 bottles. The full cost (excluding customer service costs) of the bottled drinks was $13.10 per case. The company offered discounts to some of its customers, which varied by customer based on a number of factors, including the volume of drinks the customer purchased, the future potential of the customer, and the negotiating success of the company’s sales representative, among others. This case was prepared by Associate Professor Luann J. Lynch. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright ïÆ' £ 2009 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. Rev. 6/09. This document is authorized for use only by madelene manu at Douglas College. Please do not copy or redistribute. Contact permissions@dardenbusinesspublishing.com for questions or additional permissions. The Meeting Johnson opened the meeting by summarizing what he had heard from Stevens and Ketchum over the past couple of days. â€Å"It looks like we’ve got some competition for one of our best customers: Saver Superstore. I guess I’m not too surprised. They’re a big customer.† â€Å"This isn’t the first time this has happened,† added Ketchum. â€Å"You might remember that this same competitor has approached Saver Superstore before. But that time, we were able to keep the business by offering a bit more of a discount. I think we’ll have to do more of that this time, or I’m afraid we’ll lose the customer.† Johnson responded quickly. â€Å"We can’t get into a price war on this. I know this is a big customer, and a loyal one too, but it’s certainly not one of our most profitable. I had Jim pull some numbers together on several of our accounts. Saver Superstore is one of our lowest-margin customers. Take a look.† Jim Thomas in accounting, who was also in the meeting, had prepared a report (Exhibit 1), which Johnson laid on the table for the others to look at. Thomas explained how the accounting group compiled the numbers: For each customer, we just pull the revenues right out of the accounting system. We know what they ordered and what we shipped, and we know what price we charge each customer, so that part is pretty easy. And we know that the cost per case, excluding our customer service costs, is $13.10. So we can multiply $13.10 per case by the number of cases we shipped to get our cost of goods. Then, we subtract our cost of goods from revenues for each customer and get a gross margin. Now, you may remember that we’ve talked about how hard it is to trace our customer service costs to any particular customer. Our customer service costs run about $1.2 million a year, roughly 10% of revenues. To make things easy, we allocate those to each customer based on its share of the company’s total revenues. So if a customer accounts for 5% of our revenues, we allocate it 5% of our customer service costs. Then, we calculate a customer margin for each customer. Johnson looked at the numbers and said: I don’t think we can lower our price to Saver Superstore much more and make any money on this one. And just think, if we offer a larger discount to them, then we’ll have our other customers wanting the same thing—especially the other big ones. I can see it now: Marsha is going to walk in here next  month and tell us that Oscar’s OddLots has heard about the deal we struck with Saver Superstore, has been talking with that competitor, and they want the same thing. This document is authorized for use only by madelene manu at Douglas College. Please do not copy or redistribute. Contact permissions@dardenbusinesspublishing.com for questions or additional permissions. Oscar’s OddLots, a large local retailer on the edge of town, was another of JBI’s large customers. Jason Rodgers, the operations manager for JBI, was listening carefully. This was the first he had heard of the situation, but to a careful observer, his nod would have revealed what he was thinking. He said: You know, I’m not a bit surprised to hear all this. Saver Superstore is a great customer. They buy lots of beverages, and they’re easy to deal with. They place their orders on a regular basis and almost never ask for anything special. I don’t remember the last time we had to run around in the warehouse pulling together a rush order from them. Who wouldn’t want that business? Stevens agreed, â€Å"You’re right. I almost never have to change my delivery schedule because they’ve asked for quick delivery. And they’re right around the corner, so they’re easy for us to get to.† Rodgers continued: I think about some of our other customers. They seem to never be able to  anticipate that they’ll be out of stock. Then they call us and make it our problem to deal with. It seems like we have some customers that we work on all day every day. Why can’t that competitor go after those customers? It’s hard for me to believe that some of those customers are more profitable than Saver Superstore. Maybe we ought to add what we guys in the warehouse call a â€Å"pain factor† onto those other customers and then see who is most profitable for us. As Johnson listened, he realized Rodgers might be onto something. â€Å"Jim, what types of costs are included in those customer service costs?† Thomas replied, â€Å"Well, that number includes several things.† He continued: It includes anything related to handling the beverages, like picking the beverages from the warehouse shelves according to the order instructions, moving the beverages over to the dock, and loading them on the delivery truck. It includes any costs related to taking, coordinating, and administering the orders, like what we pay the people in the sales office who take phone orders from customers, the supervisory costs to administer the order, and similar things. It includes anything related to delivering the beverages to the customer’s location, like the cost of the delivery trucks, truck maintenance, and what we pay Joe and people like him to drive the trucks. It includes anything related to all those rush orders you’re talking about, like overtime, extra scheduling, and stuff like that. And it includes what we pay Marsha for what she does, like visiting the customers to check in on them. So there’s quite a bit of stuff in there. Johnson thought about this. â€Å"So you’re telling me that there are some customers that you are spending a lot more time on than others? And it’s not Saver Superstore?† This document is authorized for use only by madelene manu at Douglas College. Please do not copy or redistribute. Contact permissions@dardenbusinesspublishing.com for questions or additional permissions. â€Å"That’s right,† Rodgers replied. Johnson continued, â€Å"But since our accounting system is allocating these customer service costs based on revenues, and since Saver Superstore is one of our biggest customers, it’s allocating a large share of those costs to Saver Superstore.† â€Å"Exactly,† Thomas said. Let me do this: Let me spend a couple of days collecting some information. I’ll need some help from each of you because I want to try to find out how much of your time you are spending on each of our customers. Maybe it’s time to get more sophisticated about how we look at these customer service costs. It may be worth the effort. Stevens, Ketchum, and Rodgers all agreed to spend some time with Thomas so he could summarize the amount of activity they devoted to each customer. They would meet again the following Friday. Thomas promised to compile an analysis that might help them determine how profitable each of their customers really was. Activity Analysis Before he left for the weekend, Thomas decided to pull together some information about the customer service costs he had described in the meeting: handling the product, taking the orders, delivering the product, expediting rush orders, and visiting the customer. He searched through the accounting system and determined how much of the annual $1.2 million in customer service costs was associated with each of those categories (Table 1). Table 1. Customer service costs during the prior year by area of activity. Area of activity Total $ Product handling Taking orders from customers Delivering the product Expediting deliveries (other than automobile) Sales visits to customers Total $ 672,000 100,000 140,000 198,000 90,000 $ 1,200,000 This document is authorized for use only by madelene manu at Douglas College. Please do not copy or redistribute. Contact permissions@dardenbusinesspublishing.com for questions or additional permissions. Then, on Monday, Thomas met individually with Stevens, Ketchum, and Rodgers. With their help, he determined what he thought to be the primary driver of the costs in each of those customer service categories (Table 2). Table 2. Cost drivers by area of activity. Area of activity Cost driver Product handling Taking orders from customers Delivering the product Expediting deliveries (other than automobile) Sales visits to customers Number of cases sold Number of purchase orders Number of miles traveled Number of expedited deliveries Number of sales visits Thomas determined from the company’s accounting records that the company sold 800,000 cases of beverages and processed 500 purchase orders the previous year. Stevens checked the mileage records for the delivery vehicles and determined that the vehicles had traveled a total of 44,800 miles. Rodgers was able to determine that the company made 4,480 deliveries, 2,500 of which were expedited deliveries. And finally, Ketchum checked her daily travel log to determine she had made a total of 360 sales visits to the company’s customers. Thomas’s next step was to determine how much of these cost drivers were attributable to each customer. Again, he was able to obtain some of that information (e.g., number of cases) relatively easily from the company’s records. Then his colleagues helped him determine customer numbers for the rest of the activities. Exhibit 2 presents this data for the four customers included in Thomas’s first report (Exhibit 1). Exhibit 1 JOHNSON BEVERAGE, INC. Report of Customer Profitability during the Previous Year for Four Customers Prepared by Jim Thomas Net revenues Cost of goods Gross margin Customer service costs Customer profit Customer profit (% of net revenues) Saver Superstore $ 1,168,000 1,048,000 $ 120,000 116,800 $ 3,200 0.3% Oscar’s OddLots $ 1,192,000 1,048,000 $ 144,000 119,200 $ 24,800 2.1% Midwellen Supermarket $ 121,520 104,800 $ 16,720 12,152 $ 4,568 3.8% Downtown Retail $ 454,500 393,000 $ 61,500 45,450 $ 16,050 3.5% Total for JBI $12,000,000 10,480,000 $ 1,520,000 1,200,000 $ 320,000 2.7% Exhibit 2 JOHNSON BEVERAGE, INC. Additional Information from Prior Year for Four Customers Price per case Number of cases Number of orders Number of deliveries1 Miles traveled per delivery Number of expedited deliveries Number of sales visits 1 Saver Superstore $14.60 80,000 16 110 5 10 12 Includes both expedited and regular deliveries. Oscar’s OddLots $14.90 80,000 40 400 19 250 25 Midwellen Supermarket $15.19 8,000 20 200 11 130 18 Downtown Retail $15.15 30,000 30 230 4 90 9 Total for JBI $15.00 800,000 500 4,480 10 2,500 360

Teens Becoming Parents

Teens Becoming Parents 56% of young women and 73% of young men today have had intercourse by the age of 18, compared to the 35% of young women and 55% of young men in the early 1970’s (Facts. ) Each year, nearly one million teenagers in the United States become pregnant. One third of these pregnancies result in being aborted, 14% miscarry, and 52% bear children (Kids. ) What are the effects of having children at a young age? Education, being unprepared, and a change in responsibility are just a few of the effects of having a child at a young age.Seven out of ten teen mothers complete high school or eventually earn their G. E. D. , but are less likely than women who delay childbearing to go on to college (Sex. ) Having a child in high school makes it more difficult to focus on your studies. Late nights staying awake to feed, change, and care for your baby, can have a huge impact on your ability to focus on school and other tasks you face. As a teenage mother in school, you miss out things such as your prom, sports, and other extracurricular activities.Unpreparedness is another effect of having a child as a teenager. Most teenagers if they work, work minimum wage jobs and have no way of supporting themselves and a child. When a box of diapers for a newborn cost around $32. 50, and last maybe a month, and a can of formula that cost $13, last maybe a week, your priorities of how you spend your money also changes. You no longer are able to go out with the girls for an all-day shopping trip or get your hair and nails done. Every penny you make goes to taking care of that child.The combination of the minimum wage jobs and going to school, allows for very little quality time with their child. Without a good support system, raising a child as a teenager is almost impossible. In 1992, the federal government spent more than $34 billion on welfare for families begun by teenagers, which is $16. 6 billion higher than in 1985 (Babies. ) Prior to becoming a teen parent, most high school students have no concept of what responsibility is. They think that life is theirs to do with as they please.If they want to go out with friends and have good time, they do just that. However, when they become a parent they have minimal time to go out with friends. Their main priority should become their child and taking care of that child. Most teen parents rush out and get married to try and hide that the child was conceived out of wedlock, but most marriages in this form end in divorce somewhere down the line. Having a child as a teenager can really change your life. Most teenagers can’t handle going to school and raising their child, so they drop out of school.Being unprepared for a child, makes it that much harder. Teens should really wait until they are old enough, with their priorities in order, and prepared to take care of a child. Raising a child is a full time job in itself. Works Cited 1) â€Å"Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy,† The A lan Guttmacher Institute, 1996. 2) Kids Having Kids, Robin Hood Foundation, 1996 3) Sex and America’s Teenagers, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994. 4) â€Å"Babies Born Into Peril,† Chicago Tribune, 22 May 1994

The American Constitution Madison s Refusal - 883 Words

The American Constitution: Madison’s Refusal On April 18, 1996, Baylor University hosted the annual campus-wide celebration of Diadeloso. This celebration, however was different, because this was the first permitted time in 151 years that dancing was to be on Baylor’s campus. When Baylor first opened in 1845, dancing was a moral wrong, according to Baptist teachings. However, as time went on, things changed and eventually there was no longer a ban on dancing. Biblical law itself was untouched, but the human understanding of it was shifted, and that is when the dancing ban was lifted. Thomas Jefferson argued similarly this idea to James Madison. While both Jefferson and Madison had excellent points, Madison’s rebuttal addresses Jefferson’s concerns and assesses why a constantly revised constitution would not be effective. Indeed, this essay affirms Madison’s position that the constitution should not undergo review. Jefferson wrote Madison a letter wh ile visiting France in 1789. The United States was still new, not quite old enough to have a span of generations. While there is no â€Å"ideal generation† of everyone born on the same date, Jefferson states that there is a substantial shift every 19 years in generations. Jefferson writes Madison about how at the beginning of the century, King Louis XIV of France or King Louis XV could have buried their country in debt. Had that been the case, all of France would have belonged to Genoa. However, with every new generation, every 19Show MoreRelatedThe Impact Of The Federal Trade Commission1049 Words   |  5 Pagesgrowth that continues to benefit American citizens today. In Federalist Paper #10, James Madison discusses that in a large republic, no one faction would take control because of competing interests. In theory, the same principle should hold true concerning businesses in a free market system due to competition. However, when a leader such as J. P. Morgan combines with others in his field to control the market, the result is a monopoly which â€Å"unreasonably deprive[s] consumers of the benefits of competitionRead MoreThe Writing Of The Constitution1351 Words   |  6 Pagesdocument, James Madison hoped to establish a country that worked â€Å"in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.† These words would resonate in history classrooms, political debates, Supreme Court cases, and in all sections of the American government for centuriesRead MoreRelationship Between The Federal Government And The United States1409 Words   |  6 PagesIn American politics, the relationship between the Federal Government and the States have not always been in conflict with one another. They were once â€Å"a firm league of friendship† Dye 71. When the Founding Fathers created the first law document, they were largely concerned with disunion through sectarian exertion. Their common cause for defense brought unity between the two governmental systems under the Articles of Confederation. However, over time the Articles revealed a problematic powerful provincialRead MoreThe United States And The Ratification Of The Constitution2191 Words   |  9 PagesAnti-federalists- were a group of people opposed to the ratification of the constitution. They were less organized than the Federalists. They were united in their fear that the Constitution might lead down a path of government corr uption and tyranny. They believed in restricting government power. Benefits of federalism- Federalism allows people to maintain loyalty to their states; due to increasing the states ability to meet the citizen’s needs. 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The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay - 1389 Words

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fictional work, The Scarlet Letter, is significantly influenced by his experience with transcendental beliefs and values. Transcendentalists believe they are at their best when they are self-reliant and independent. His wife, Sophia Peabody, practiced transcendentalism, but he spent a year living and working at Brook Farm in Massachusetts, which was a transcendental community. Influenced by Sophia’s interest in the transcendentalist movement, Hawthorne invested money in an experimental Utopian community. Transcendentalists believe social institutions such as organized religion, society, and political parties destroy the purity of the individual. Some of these elements of belief can be found throughout Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, especially in Hester Prynne. Hester has an inner battle with society and the nature of her child’s existents reflects transcendental beliefs and values, which shows the notable influence that the transcend entalist movement had on Hawthorne’s writing. The word â€Å"transcendentalism† means that exist that go beyond, or transcend, proof. Most of human values are thought to be outside of the limits of reason and the realm of instinct or intuition. It was a movement that developed in New England around 1836. Transcendentalism was a reaction against the rationalism of the previous century and the religious orthodoxy of Calvinist New England (Telgen). In religion, God is seen as a distant and almighty God that has all authority butShow MoreRelatedThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1242 Words   |  5 PagesLYS PAUL Modern Literature Ms. Gordon The Scarlet Letter The scarlet letter is book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne who is known as one the most studied writers because of his use of allegory and symbolism. He was born on July 4, 1804 in the family of Nathaniel, his father, and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne his mother. Nathaniel added â€Å"W† to his name to distance himself from the side of the family. His father Nathaniel, was a sea captain, and died in 1808 with a yellow fever while at sea. That was aRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne960 Words   |  4 Pages3H 13 August 2014 The novel, The Scarlet Letter, was written by the author Nathaniel Hawthorne and was published in 1850 (1). It is a story about the Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, set around 1650 (2). The story is written in the third person with the narrator being the author. The common thread that runs through this novel is Hawthorne’s apparent understanding of the beliefs and culture of the Puritans in America at that time. But Hawthorne is writing about events in a societyRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne919 Words   |  4 Pagessymbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Scarlet Letter†. Symbolism is when an object is used in place of a different object. Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most symbolic writers in all of American history. In â€Å"The Scarlet Letter†, the letter â€Å"A† is used to symbolize a variety of different concepts. The three major symbolistic ideas that the letter â€Å"A† represents in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Scarlet Letter† are; shame, guilt, and ability. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Scarlet Letter†, the firstRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1397 Words   |  6 PagesFebruary 2016 The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 which is based on the time frame of the Puritans, a religious group who arrived in Massachusetts in the 1630’s. The Puritans were in a religious period that was known for the strict social norms in which lead to the intolerance of different lifestyles. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the puritan’s strict lifestyles to relate to the universal issues among us. The time frame of the puritans resulted in Hawthorne eventually thinkingRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne999 Words   |  4 Pages Nathaniel Hawthorne is the author of the prodigious book entitled The Scarlet Letter. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits adultery with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, soon finds out about the incident after it becomes clear that she is pregnant. The whole town finds out and Hester is tried and punished. Meanwhile, Roger Chillingworth goes out then on a mission to get revenge by becoming a doctor and misprescribing Dimmesdale. He does this to torture DimmesdaleRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne1037 Words   |  5 Pagesthat human nature knows right from wrong, but is naturally evil and that no man is entirely â€Å"good†. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the classic novel The Scarlet Letter, believes that every man is innately good and Hawthorne shows that everyone has a natural good side by Hester’s complex character, Chillingworth’s actions and Dimmesdale’s selfless personality. At the beginning of the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is labeled as the â€Å"bad guy†. The townspeople demand the other adulterer’s name, butRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1517 Words   |  7 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne composes Pearl as a powerful character even though she is not the main one. Her actions not only represent what she is as a person, but what other characters are and what their actions are. Hawthorne makes Pearl the character that helps readers understand what the other characters are. She fits perfectly into every scene she is mentioned in because of the way her identity and personality is. Pearl grows throughout the book, which in the end, help the readers better understandRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne1488 Words   |  6 Pages In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the main character, Hester Prynne, is a true contemporary of the modern era, being cast into 17th century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts. The Scarlet Letter is a revolutionary novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne examining the ugliness, complexity, and strength of the human spirit and character that shares new ideas about independence and the struggles women faced in 17th century America. Throughout the novel, Hester’s refusal to remove the scarlet letterRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1319 Words   |  6 PagesPrynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are subject to this very notion in Nathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter. Hester simply accepted that what she had done was wrong, whereas Dimmesdale, being a man of high regard, did not want to accept the reality of what he did. Similar to Hester and Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth allows his emotions to influence his life; however, his influence came as the result of hi s anger. Throughout the book, Hawthorne documents how Dimmesdale and Hester s different ways of dealingRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1714 Words   |  7 PagesSome two hundred years following the course of events in the infamous and rigid Puritan Massachusetts Colony in the 1600s, Nathaniel Hawthorne, descendant of a Puritan magistrate, in the 19th century, published The Scarlet Letter. Wherein such work, Hawthorne offered a social critique against 17th Massachusetts through the use of complex and dynamic characters and literary Romanticism to shed light on said society’s inherent contradiction to natural order and natural law. In his conclusive statements