A Portfolio in Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Characteristics Essay

A Portfolio in Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Characteristics - Essay Example The paper tells that the creation of a business plan will not be acted upon unless the business concept is created. Concepts are based on the ideas of the group members who are planning to put up a business. This process is called idea generation. Idea generation puts emphasis on creativity, and on the discovery of new ideas. Not all ideas are turned into a business concept; it has to be weighed based on its appeal and substance, and the best idea that is chosen is the one used for commercialisation. It is the method used to stimulate and pick up internal, as well as the external ideas. In idea generation, the obtained ideas are being converted into an instrument that helps organisations reach their objectives. Since the process of creating a business plan takes a long time, it is crucial to choose the most appropriate idea to be used for commercialisation, to save time and effort. The success of an entrepreneurial venture depends on the accuracy of the business plan, and the accurac y and effectiveness of a business plan depend upon the ideas that were generated through the process of idea generation. Strategic objectives are extensive, long-term goals, which identify the basic nature and direction of an entrepreneurial venture. It serves as the basis for the decisions made by the members of the group or organisation that are planning a business. It takes into account the necessary information required in the making of a new product or business such as the product or service used as the main attraction, the primary target market, and the designated location. (Crosson and Needles, 2011, p.6). When the members of an organisation have already chosen the strategy to be implemented for the proposed business, strategic objectives have to be designated. It will help them recognise the probable outcome of the strategy and identify the targeted results of the business plan. However, one must ensure that the objectives are definite and assessable, and this can be done th rough including the targeted dates, the values to be attained and the milestones that are aimed by the firm (Stutely, 2002, p.113). Market Analysis and Research Information with regard to the target market, competitors, and marketing trends are seen in the market analysis section of the business plan. The target market is the group of people to whom the organisation wishes to sell or offer its product or service. This group of people is classified and identified through the process of market segmentation. Market trends can be classified into two, and these are industry trends and target market trends. Market research involves the methods used to obtain relevant information that are useful in making accurate and preventing inappropriate business decisions. The giving of questionnaires, polls, and surveys are some of the techniques used in market research. Competition Business competition is fundamentally a contest of product or service salability. Competitors are rival

The security strengths and weaknesses of the Internet Essay

The security strengths and weaknesses of the Internet - Essay Example Internet security is very important for a person who keeps or sends important data over the network. â€Å"A basic knowledge of internet security is essential for anyone who uses the web for tasks such as email, networking and shopping† (Paul). Importance of Internet Privacy Internet security has become one of the main concerns for every individual connected to the internet for any purpose. It is because there are a number of hackers present on the internet continuously trying to break into other computers in order to steal important data or to destroy the important data. Hacking has become so common in today’s world that almost every person who uses internet is a target of hackers. â€Å"Hacking is the process in which a system is tested before it goes into the market for direct use by the customers† (Douglas). Any individual, whether using internet for communication purposes or for information sharing, needs to ensure premium level internet security because hac kers not only try to break into such computers which contain highly critical information but also they try to gain control of such computers which although do not contain any important information but can be used to hack other computers. There are many security measures, which an individual can take to reduce the chances of internet attacks. â€Å"Internet security fundamentals are designed to protect individual Internet users from security risks which accompany use of the Internet† (Smith). Some of the easiest and most effective security measures include regularly changing the login passwords, setting difficult passwords, downloading a personal firewall, setting encryption standards, and installing up to date antivirus software. One can never deny the significance of internet security in today’s world. Internet privacy is one of the biggest concerns for any individual doing any kind of work on the internet. The issue of internet security or privacy is not just limited to big organizations and companies; rather it has become a need for any individual having online presence. â€Å"It is a common misconception that Internet security plays a large role only in organizations, or when people have sensitive information on their computers† (Sundaram). For online businesses, maintaining internet security is of extreme importance. Some of the key steps which every company should take while going online include registering an anonymous domain name, taking steps to protect online communications, making use of e-currency payment solutions, and ensuring local security along with online security. Implementing internet security measures is very important for any individual for many reasons. Some of the most significant reasons include keeping privacy of important information, not letting strangers to view personal information, being online with no fear, protecting personal and business emails, and doing business activities with optimum security. A very i mportant question related to internet security is that what can happen if a person does not care about internet security or why a person needs to implement effective internet security measures. The answer to the question is that if a person does not take steps to ensure internet security, he/she is likely to face many problems, such as, loss of important data, misuse of data, misuse of computer identity, receiving fake emails, receiving hazardous links, and loss of important files. Therefore, maintaining optimum

The Primary Care Clinic Essay Example for Free

The Primary Care Clinic Essay A small primary care clinic has 69 employees, representing 9 different clinical professions and 12 other skills. It operates two (2) sites, one (1) of which is bigger and has the departments for medical specialists, diagnostic labs, and patient services. The clinic also contracts for a variety of services, such as repair and maintenance, referral specialists, and advanced diagnostic services. You are the manager. You report to the owners who are four (4) of the family practitioners and their wives. Two of the wives still work at the clinic as registered nurses. Write a five to seven (5-7) page paper in which you: 1.Discuss the key political, economic, and social forces that may have influenced the development of the clinic. 2.Create a comprehensive mission statement and explain what makes it a comprehensive mission statement. 3.Identify three (3) performance measures you would use to measure the clinic’s effectiveness and provide the rationale for each performance measure. 4.Describe how you would approach decisions regarding clinic expansion and annual plan approval. 5.Describe the role of the clinic as a component of the healthcare delivery system in your community. 6.Examine how public healthcare policy has influenced the formation of outpatient clinics in the healthcare system. 7.Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources. Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: †¢Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. †¢Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: †¢Examine the political, economic, and social forces that have influenced the organizational foundations of the United States healthcare system †¢Explain how public policy has shaped the development of the U.S. healthcare system. †¢Analyze the critical management issues, purpose, functions, and performance measures of different departments within healthcare organizations. †¢Use technology and information resources to research issues in health services organization management. †¢Write clearly and concisely about health services organization management using proper writing mechanics. Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.

Economic Impact of Shale Gas and Tight Oil

Economic Impact of Shale Gas and Tight Oil Why the Economic Impact of Shale Gas and Tight Oil is rather limited The extraction of shale gas and tight oil from unconventional sources is currently subject to a fierce debate. The discussion about benefits and disadvantages stands at a decisive threshold for economic policies at a regional, national and international level. Europe remains divided on this issue while data from the US seems to be promising. The question on the macroeconomic impact of the shale gas boom remains, however, unclear. The author claims that the long-run economic benefits for the US and Europe are rather limited. To prove this, he will critically analyse the claims made by Daniel Yergin and Nick Butler as well as Muehlenbachs, Spiller Timmins article on the subject. The focus of the analysis at a glance Daniel Yergin claims in his article, that US shale gas and tight oil have already changed global energy markets and reduced both Europe’s competitiveness vis-à  -vis the US and China’s overall competitiveness. What is more, he claims that this â€Å"unconventional revolution† in energy will bring a shift in global politics. Although it is probable, that the US will developed to be gas exporting country in the coming years, studies show that they will have to rely significantly on crude oil imports in the future, and not only from Canada, as Yergin claims. Furthermore, there will not be a significant reduction on emissions due to the so called shale revolution. Other local externalities, such as the impact on groundwater, air pollution, and leakages have to be considered. Muehlenbachs, Spiller Timmins article even suggests considerable effects on the housing-market and property values. Furthermore, data of the US case shows that the reduction of the amount of coal-produced energy was triggered by the cyclical decrease in gas prices, which has now largely turned. Shale gas is insufficient on its own to drive out coal of the overall energy-mix in both the United States and Europe. Therefore, Nick Butler’s claim of self-sufficiency within a few years and Yergin’s statement about a shift in world politics have to be treated with caution. Yergin and Butler both come up with the argument, that lower gas prices will strengthen the economy. When looking at the impact of lower gas prices on productivity, two effects can be analysed: Firstly, an income effect due to the fact that gas can now be produced cheaper and thus, ceteris paribus, more income is available to buy other goods. Secondly, substitution effects that are resulting from shifting gas prices that can change the relative prices of goods in which gas is an input and consequently have knock-on effects for productivity in other sectors. Yet, it is not that simple. Analysing the issue out of a microeconomic perspective suggests that the effect on GDP of the two effects is likely to be trivially unimportant, affecting sectors representing only a minor part of the economy (1.2% in the US). Data of several studies suggests average income effects of about 0.575% from 2012 and 2040 for the US. It is important to stress that this is a long-term increase in the level of GDP, not the growth rate. Another key element of Yergin’s argumentation is the reduced dependency on oil imports mentioned above. Increased domestic production of oil and gas leads to a smaller amount of imports. Subsequently, this means that the producer surplus of oil is being transferred from foreign oil exporters to domestic oil producers. But again, this has consequences on the level of GDP in the long term and not on the growth rate. Studies show that, even when considering increases of the exchange rate and other crowding-out effects, there will not be a significant positive impact on manufacturing deficit after all. Similarly to the data shown earlier, the long-run GDP effects of reduced US oil imports are estimated to increase the level of GDP until 2040 of about 0.35%. The addition of these effects leads to a conversion of the long-run level of GDP of averagely 0.875%. Adding these effects to the uncertainty of fracking per se, especially in Europe, one can clearly see that there might not be that much of a revolution going on after all. Considering the argument that the â€Å"unconventional revolution† will create a fair amount of jobs, at least in the US, one has to consider that the American economy was not at that time and is not at full employment of labour and capital now. The estimated short-term stimulus effects due to increased investment, employment, and input spending in the sector are again rather low (0.13% of GDP and 0.48% of GDP). Regarding the change of the balance of competitiveness in the world economy and the claimed unanticipated advantage due to shale energy, one has to consider a few other things. There is no proof that the shale gas boom will lead to a reindustrialisation of the entire American manufacturing sector. Of course, US exports have risen sectors that use gas, but only to almost $24 billion in 2012 compared to a manufacturing trade deficit of roughly $780 billion. Additionally, declines in the real exchange rate in the last years and the consequences of the recession have clearly increased exports and reduced imports. The assumption that the â€Å"unconventional revolution† will lead to a revitalisation of US economy is therefore rather delicate. Furthermore, the net benefits of low-priced gas are likely to be limited to certain manufacturing sectors only, especially the chemicals, metals, and paper sectors according to IMF working papers. In conclusion, the analysis shows that one needs to carefully differentiate between the (positive) effects of the shale gas boom as a technical innovation and it being a revolution per se. As shown above, the long-term benefits in the areas of production and manufacturing competitiveness are relatively small. Additionally, shale gas and tight oil will not replace coal-based energy nor substitute a considerable amount of oil imports in both the US and Europe in the next decades. Therefore, promoting energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies as well as clear energy policies will be even more important than before, especially for the European countries. References Articles analysed: Butler, N. (2014, March 30). After shale gas, now for tight oil. Retrieved from Financial Times: http://blogs.ft.com/nick-butler/2014/03/30/after-shale-gas-now-for-tight-oil/ Muehlenbachs, L., Spiller, B., Timmins, C. (2014, February 9). The housing-market impacts of shale-gas development. Retrieved from VoxEU: Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists: http://www.voxeu.org/article/shale-gas-and-housing-market Yergin, D. (2014, January 8). The Global Impact of US Shale. Retrieved from Project Syndicate: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/daniel-yergin-traces-the-effects-of-america-s-shale-energy-revolution-on-the-balance-of-global-economic-and-political-power Other sources: Celasun, O., Di Bella, G., Mahedy, T., Papageorgiou , C. (2014). The US Manufacturing Recovery: Uptick or Renaissance. IMF Working Paper. Gruenspecht, H. (2013). Annual Energy Outlook (Early Release): with projections to 2040: presentation on behalf of US Energy Information Administration for Center on Global Energy Policy. New York: Columbia University. US Energy Information Administration. (2014, April 16). Annual Energy Outlook 2014. Retrieved from US Energy Information Administration: http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/aeo/tablebrowser/

Essay --

My initial inspiration for this piece was Trifles, which funnily enough only shares the characteristic of detectives being involved within the plot. As per suggestion on my proposal, I developed my idea of detectives solving a case further by including dialogue and inter-personnel relationships similar to those found in Glengarry Glen Ross. Taking the idea of different members of the real-estate office discussing work and plotting in Glengarry Glen Ross, and applying them to a trio of detectives on a case was interesting to say the least. Upon first thinking of what I wanted to get across, I knew that some form of conspiracy was going to be present. This was done in the revelation at the end that Chris actually was working with their chief to kill off a few of the members on the force. The solving of the murders would look good for the precinct and as an added incentive Chris would get a raise. In hindsight, there is a possible allusion to the plot point in Glengarry where Moss conspires to steal the leads from the office (or at least get someone to do it). I initially based the fo...

The Behaviorist, Psychodynamic and Humanistic Contributions to Psycholo

This essay will in turn look at the behaviorist, Psychodynamic, and Humanistic approaches to Psychology. It will evaluate the assumptions and contributions for each approach. Behaviorists emphasize the relationship between the environment surrounding a person and how it affects a person’s behavior. They are primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion. This is a criticism of the behaviorist approach; it is seen as mechanistic and oversimplified, because it ignores mental processes or reinterprets them as just types of behavior. John Watson saw emotions as the secretion of glands and thinking as the movement of our vocal chords without actual speech. However studies have been carried out and it has been found that people can still think even when their vocal chords are paralyzed. Behaviorists make the assumption that in humans; virtually all behaviors are caused by learned relationships between a stimulus that excites the sense organs and a response which is the reaction to the stimulus. John Watson was strongly influenced by the work of Pavlov on classical conditioning. Pavlov trained dogs to salivate whenever he rang a bell. An unconditioned Stimulus (the bell) leads to an unconditioned Response (salivation). When the unconditioned stimulus is paired with another Stimulus (food), this stimulus will eventually produce the response on its own and is then called the conditioned stimulus which produces a Conditioned response. Behaviorists propose that phobias come about in a similar way, for example, somebody who is spider-phobic, might have learned to be scar... ... This essay has evaluated the assumptions and contributions of the behaviourist, psychodynamic and humanistic approaches to psychology. The behaviourist approach focuses on the behaviour of people and seeks to explain behaviour as being learnt. The psychodynamic and humanist approaches are more concerned with the emotional aspects of people’s lives rather than their behaviour. The psychodynamic approach places importance on childhood experience. The humanist approach places more emphasis on the importance of our self image. Bibliography Basic Psychology by Henry Gleitman (First Edition) Psychology, third edition by Cardwell, Clark and Meldrum Psychology – A New Introduction by Richard Gross, Rob McIlveen, Hugh Coolicun, Alan Clamp and Julia Russell (Twelfth Edition) Class lectures and handouts

Agro Credit Case Study

Creating a Process-Driven Organization at AGCredit Answer 1:-AgCredit was a Midwest Agriculture Credit and Loan company. It was a midsize financial institution focusing on agribusiness. It had grown significantly in the past few years and was holding its own against other, much larger banks because of its extensive customer knowledge. Kate Longair to the CEO of the company explained all the processes and the systems the company used and how they were integrated using a diagrammatic view for the same. The CEO then decided upon the need for change into various departments to bring about a transformation in business.Finney, the CEO wanted to focus on AgCredit’s key strategic drivers which included continuous growth, expanded customer relationships, the ability to spend more time with the customer, the ability to cross-sell between business divisions and the ability to provide a consistent customer experience across all delivery channels. The CEO’s vision for growth was to create a customer-centric organization by using technology to support people and processes. Realizing that systems integration by itself would not produce the desired result, management redesigned the company’s business processes from beginning to end.Now the challenge was to redesign the IT organization to support the new organization structure. Answer 2:- IT organizations serve two purposes: development (i. e. , which involves the acquisition of new systems and technology and the implementation of these new systems into the workplace); and operations (i. e. , which involves running the data center, production programs and networking infrastructure is decentralized. It leads to facilitation of various business processes across the bank. IT was in a significant state of disarray.Absence of appropriate IT Governance as well as an architecture plan. IT was organized in silos to mirror AgCredit’s divisional structure and each business unit owned and governed its own IT Pr ojects. The company has outsourced chunks of IT functions. The tasks are unevenly and randomly divided amongst the staff irrespective of their expertise. The current structure seems to be more like the enterprise oriented architecture. Due to irregular IT organizational structure many problems arouse with the business processes which led to different choice for the architecture of IT.The structure moreover has a cross-silo flow which creates confusion amongst the business processes as well as data mess. The information appears in various formats, which is difficult to reconcile. Answer 3:- Key Issues: – IT was completely broken and lack of systems integration. Everyone was aware of adding value to processes to the company but how the business strategy would fit with everyone else’s to deliver enterprise value was unknown by others. There exists lack of knowledge of business processes and how they worked together.The key business processes had never been written down be fore and hence they needed to be documented. The front line staff had to access many systems for simple business processes. IT was in a significant state of disarray. A key problem was application centric approach the organization took to its work. Business people would demand new systems from IT for every process whereas IT staff would always train them to make use of the existing systems. This created data mess as there were various systems with loads of information scattered everywhere.Due to this the information appeared in different formats, which were difficult to reconcile. This was a significant challenge when creating accurate reports for banking and other government regulators. IT is negative in business: expense, inability to get work done in a timely fashion, bad information, customer complaints and poorly trained IT staff. AgCredit starts with no formal IT architecture. It is also about the work the business needs to do first in order to create the right environment for IT transformation, i. . , a process focus and a business value focus, not a systems focus. It stresses that optimizing the enterprise is the new source of business value and this means integrated processes across the company and integrated information. To achieve this, IT will need to transform its structure, governance, and approach to systems development. Answer 4:- Proposed IT Organizational Structure Decentralized organizational structures often have several individuals responsible for making business decisions and running the business.Decentralized organizations rely on a team environment at different levels in the business. Individuals at each level in the business may have some autonomy to make business decisions. The challenge for IT will be in the transformation because it will need to have a structure that supports where the organization is going, while still respecting the fact that it is not there yet. IT should be aligned with processes, not individual business functio ns and all new development should be undertaken with the process owners and with the approval of the Enterprise Integration Program.It indicates that all business-facing IT functions should be aligned with the major business processes that have been identified. Internally, therefore IT will need groups dedicated to each of the major systems that currently support the business. These groups will be responsible for all maintenance and any new development needed to keep the organization running smoothly while new service-oriented functionality and common data are put in place. These groups will be needed to make the necessary adjustments to existing systems as this new functionality is put in place.Pros- Redesigning a company towards a process-based organization implies that all activities, which logically belong together in order to create value for the customer, are grouped together. Customer’-processes are defined and taken as the basis for an organizational unit. ‘Deve lopment’- and ‘planning and control’- processes that are necessary for reaching the core objective of the unit are implied. This implies that the organizational structure of a business or a company is based on organizational units which are organized around the core processes.Structuring a business or a company process-wise implies that coordination across process units is kept at a minimum. The following paragraphs illustrate how companies or business units can be structured around processes. Answer 5:- Project Selection Process to ensure alignment with the enterprise business Vision- Effective collaboration between business and IT is essential to the success of both SOA and BPM. A Business Rule Engine can act both as a technology and collaboration enabler; the below points will explain how the organization can improve business processes and move toward SOA by focusing on these strategies. . Streamline business processes by separating business logic from flow lo gic 2. Create processes that are more agile by making it easy to update business logic 3. Align the business goal of more dynamic decision-making with SOA technology 4. Enable effective IT-Business collaboration by giving IT the control it needs and Business Users the tools they need to maintain business logic Some projects will be foundational in nature, i. e. , be prerequisites to other projects; others may be needed to upgrade the IT infrastructure.It will therefore be important that the IT Steering Committee consider a variety of dimensions of project value, in addition to ROI, in determining which projects they would like to undertake. Projects which are functional in nature would therefore not score as highly as those which contribute towards the overall company strategy. All business leaders should consider all IT projects and make a decision as to which ones to undertake according to their enterprise value. The CIO should also ensure that foundational work is considered and ranked appropriately to enable IT to carry out the business visionAnswer 6:- Manley â€Å"Make the case† for Service-oriented architecture (SOA) helps organizations more easily transform their business processes for high performance by simplifying the underlying information systems. Old architectural approaches that once expanded business opportunities now limit growth—but existing systems cannot be simply be replaced. Service-oriented architecture gives existing systems the flexibility and agility to respond to a business environment which is changing rapidly.Service-oriented architectures allow businesses and governments to capitalize on opportunity by:-Becoming more agile, driving cost reductions, Boosting ROI Manley has to prove that SOA will work and that IT can deliver on what it promises. He doesn’t necessarily have to deliver a project that will have an ROI, but he has to work with the EIP to identify a small sub-process that will demonstrate that SOA ca n deliver functionality in a new way that will be effective for the organization. If he can automate a small process and show how it integrates with various data and systems in a new way, the business will â€Å"get it†.Answer 7:- Internal IT Capabilities should include the following to create an IT department that helps build business architecture:- * A full-time staff of programmers, developers, and other IT professionals * The ability to rapidly develop and deploy large, complex data collection and direct marketing solutions in-house using internal resources * Professional consulting services in the areas of marketing, business process improvement, supply chain management, and process optimization for customer satisfaction.IT will need business analysts who can play an intermediary role between business and technology. These analysts will need to deeply understand a particular business process and have the skills to develop collaborative relationships with the business lea ders of the various functions involved in the process and to work with them to document their process requirements. Solutions architects will need to deeply understand the services approach to assembling systems and to be able to pull together the appropriate services, data and knowledge to deliver the required functionality.Data analysts will be needed to deeply understand the company’s data and to work with the business to create single sources of key business information and to establish data standards. Finally, the company will need excellent IT architects who will build a technology roadmap for data and services and who will manage the processes. Answer 8:- Aspects of IT Governance important for supporting the transformation It is important that everyone in IT understands where IT is going and what their responsibilities and accountabilities are.It is also important that IT staff insulate the business from the technical compromises that will necessarily result from the a ctual transition, which could take several years. Therefore, the business-facing IT governance must be process-centric, while internal IT governance will necessarily be a mix. Business must also clearly understand its responsibilities and accountabilities and these must be enforced. * Define goals and strategies * Define standards, policies, procedures, around financial, Portfolio, Project, service, etc. * Define metrics * Put Governance mechanism in place * Analyze and Improve existing processes Refine and go to the next level Key IT Governance Strategy and aspects for transformation:- * IT Principles * IT Architecture * IT Infrastructure * Business application needs * IT Investment and prioritization * People (human capital) development * IT Governance policies, processes, mechanisms, tools and metrics- decisions on composition and roles of steering groups, advisory councils, technical and architecture working committees, project teams: key performance indicators(KPI’s), ch argeback alternatives, performance reporting, meaningful audit process and the need to have business owner for each project and investment.