The strategic plan for my future vision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

The strategic plan for my future vision - Essay Example Social assessment shows that my social domain has been steady till present. In the future Scenario 1 shows possibilities of it increasing with events such as marriage and children whereas Scenario 2 shows that it may remain steady if no such events occur. 13 The diagram above displays my transportation domain which has gradually increased over time. Scenario 1 shows possibility of it increasing further if my goals are met, where as Scenario 2 shows how it may remain the same over the period of time. 14 Although it is not possible to spell out the exact map of the future, there are always ways to develop a viable vision (Kenichi, 2003). This report describes the strategic plan for my future vision. It is based on concepts from the article titled "Personal Futuring: A step-by-step guide" by Verene Wheelwright. Since personal assessment begins with vision (Brott, 2009), therefore this report assesses my current stage in life and uses various information to develop scenarios for the subsequently stages of my life. It further goes to analyze the life trends and forces which impact our lives as humans, and describes the role various foreknown forces play in motivation of actions. Strategic planning helps provide professional vision (Morrissey, 1992, 2) so finally all the information is developed into strategic plans for achieving my future vision. Life Stage According to Wheelwright the phases in our life can be divided into tens stages, namely Infant, Child, Adolescent, Young Adult, Adult, Middle Age, Independent Elder, Vulnerable elder, Dependant elder and End of Life. Each stage differs significantly from the one before it even though transition from one stage of life to another is gradual. Current Life Stage The stage of life I am currently occupying is the Young Adult stage. I am in fact an Early Young Adult at the age of twenty-two. I am presently enrolled in a master's program in university and in the process of completing my education, working part time as I plan for my long term career. Due to my current financial situation I am under some degree of financial pressure. Future Vision Life Stage Future vision is essential for every stage in an individual's life, since each stage is distinct and requires a distinct set of plans. However, I feel that the stage in my life which is the most critical for planning is the Middle Age. This stage is most appropriate to construct a future vision for because concentrating on this phase will not only allow me to meet goals I plan for that time period, but also to work

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Coursework Example Anne Catherick is â€Å"the woman in white† in the book (Pykett, 40). She is mentally ill and is locked up in a psychiatric hospital. She has a striking resemblance to her sister Laura Fairlie. She escapes from the asylum. It is after the escape that she meets with the main character in the story Walter Hartright on his way to work at the Limmerage House. Laura also falls in love with Walter when he moves to Limmerage House in Cumberland to work as a drawing master. She is however bound to her secretive and mysterious husband Sir Percival Glyde, who at times assaults her, but even the law cannot protect her. Glyde tells his best friend Count Fosco of the resemblance between Laura and Anne. They come up with a scheme switch Laura’s identity with that of her sister Anne after Anne’s death. The plan succeeds, and Glyde then inherits Laura’s marriage settlement worth 20,000 pounds. When Walter returns from Honduras, he is determined to restore Laura’s real identity. While doing his researches, Walter discovers that Glyde was a con. His title and property were illicit. Glyde suspects Walter is about to discover his secret. He tries to destroy the registry entry to hide his secret. In the process, the church burns down and Glyde dies in the fire. Walter confronts Laura’s mother and learns that Anne and Laura have the same father. Fosco tries to flee from the country, but Walter catches him and forces him to write a confession that can enable him restore Laura’s identity. Their son becomes the heir of Limmerage. (Pykett, 127). As seen through the experiences that Anne, Laura and other female characters go through in the book, Wilkie Collins paints a picture of a society that mistreats and oppresses women just because of their gender. Women undergo many forms of mistreatments including assaults by their husbands to denial of the rightful inheritances by their male siblings. Through the book, the writer paints a

ICELAND'S FINANCIAL CRISIS Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

ICELAND'S FINANCIAL CRISIS - Case Study Example During this time period, home values began to fall dramatically and sub-prime rates eventually readjusted so that individuals owed up to double their original mortgage value on homes that were no longer even worth their original market value. A vast variety of the sub-prime mortgages offered to individuals who actually did not maintain quality resources to sustain an adjustable home loan interest rate were suddenly forced into foreclosure, which left lending institutions with a significant inventory of now bank-owned homes worth less than their mortgage values at the time of signing. As the housing bubble burst and grew more fiscally unsound, global investors found that the many derivatives (swaps) associated with home mortgages were no longer viable and lucrative opportunities for investment (Simkovic, 2011). Many investors from the European Union and the United States began looking for better investment opportunities, leaving financial institutions offering these derivatives with c onsiderably less quarterly and annual revenues stemming from mortgage-backed swaps and securities. Because mortgage-related derivatives were, for many years, adequate and lucrative profit opportunities for financial institutions, many offering these securities backed by mortgage guarantees had not diversified their revenue-earning capacities. As such, investment trading partners in the United States witnessed capital depletion rapidly where many institutions required significant fiscal bailouts to keep the entity afloat. Further complicating this situation was what is referred to as a bank run, where nearly five billion dollars in investment resources were withdrawn domestically and internationally in a 48 hour period by concerned and speculating investment firms and independent investors (Altman, 2009). Low-valued credit default swaps, a variety of mortgage related derivatives, and banking facility capital depletion soon hit Iceland and many other European countries. Iceland, after banking privatization had been established, was very dependent on making investments in international capital markets (Olsen, 2010). However, this instability and credit downgrading that occurred during the sub-prime crisis in the U.S. had destabilized multiple investment opportunities associated with mortgage-backed securities and derivatives. Thus, a once lucrative revenue source for Icelandic banks and other financial institutions no longer provided adequate capital infusion for the now-private banking facilities in the country. Since there had not been enough portfolio diversification in Iceland to spark domestic investment opportunity to offset dependencies on international investment losses, the exchange rate of the Icelandic currency value was affected and derivatives relationships with foreign banking partners were largely nullified. As the IMF and the U.S. Central Bank began changing monetary policy and increasing regulation to correct the sub-prime crisis, it inflated the U.S. dollar which only served to further weaken the value of the Iceland currency on the international exchange markets. How could the Iceland Crisis have been Avoided? Firstly, Iceland should have recognized that the U.S. would not necessarily have explosive gains on mortgage-related securities and derivatives that would endure indefinitely. The U.S. had a long history of a volatile housing market which should have provided adequate

Wheelchair. Design, Materials and Manufacture Essay

Wheelchair. Design, Materials and Manufacture - Essay Example This equipment is so economical and its operational features are so simple. They are commonly used in nursing homes for evacuating patients from one location to the other. The facilities provided in a wheel chair is in view to care patient and the seats are with large fleets. The design of a wheel chair is in such a way to make it move either by the patient himself or by any supporter by pushing. This provides independence and self sufficiency among disabled persons. Moreover the wheelchair has a remarkable role in the transportation process of disabled persons. Today there are different varieties of wheel chairs and the consumer can choose the apt one according to his convenience and requirements. In order to meet the various requirements of the disabled persons the wheelchairs can be classified as follows. They are manual wheelchairs, light weight wheelchairs, ultra light weight wheelchairs, standard wheelchairs, recliner wheelchairs, sport wheelchairs, heavy duty wheelchairs, tilt wheelchairs and wheelchairs run by artificial power. With respect to their function and facilities the current varieties are far forward than the past ones. Introduction of superfine materials and high class seat cushion technologies in the current varieties of wheelchairs have created remarkable variations from the older ones. Product designing process Comparing to past years experience the process of designing different variety of convenient wheel chairs has taken remarkable improvement. Among these varieties there are wheelchairs which can be operated to climb on stairs and barriers with out any difficulty. A wheelchair having adjustable seat dimension are highly welcomed by the users allover the world. Hence it is high time to think about manufacturing wheelchairs having skilled caring facilities with respect to various environmental conditions. But nowadays people prefer light weight wheelchairs which have advanced adjustments and facilities. Moreover they have started choosing pleasing varieties to have beautiful look. Lighter chairs are highly reliable and provide maximum mobility to the concerned disabled person. Since these wheelchairs are the life long equipments to be used by them it will be better to design varieties which can meet their maximum requirements under highly functional and reliable conditions. To cope up the se requirements the wheelchairs can be designed with respect to environmental friendly techniques so that maximum advantages regarding convenience can be attained. The suitable and easy way to implement this technique is to choose environmental friendly material for manufacturing the wheelchairs. The traditional wheel chairs are often with fixed and large wheel bases. If the seats are to be adjusted according to requirements they can be fixed on proper rail rods with the help of small wheels or any adjustable mechanisms. Another adjustable part of the wheel chair is its seat's frame. One of the side frames can be fixed on to the driving side wheel and the other part of the frame can be fixed to the guide wheel. This mechanical device enables the wheelchair frame to adjust

Water from Iceland. Bottled Water Industry Speech or Presentation

Water from Iceland. Bottled Water Industry - Speech or Presentation Example In his mind, as the case tells us, he had business thoughts in his mind. Since his tour in Europe, fully funded by his parents as his graduation present, the waters of Ice land fully captivated him. For one reason, he felt that he would do good business if he started a company that was to import this water to the United States. Ice land did not have any industries. Mainly, it relied on the fish export business for its income. The idea kept ticking in his mind until he made up his mind to conduct a market research for the viability of his idea. Later in this presentation, I will discuss his findings after the research. After much thought, perhaps he realized he was more business oriented as he went into the research full throttle. It is interesting to find a fresh graduate contemplating on becoming an entrepreneur at the expense of a full time job. However, due to his business acumen, Otis was ready to make his idea a reality in case he found the industry viable enough. He was certain that if the idea were successful, the company would be a success. Water from Ice land tasted wonderful. In comparison to the United States water, what he tasted during his trip was great. He considered an imports company that would import water from Ice land and bottled it in the United States for the United States market. Armed with a business idea in his mind, he went to the market to conduct a market research about the American bottled water industry. ... Further, he gathered that there were several types of drinking water in the market. These were treated or processed water, mineral water, sparkling water, effervescence water and spring well water. Through the entire investigation, he realized that no water was from European region. This was a big opportunity for him. To make his dreams even appear more real, he realized that the consumption of water was increasing with time. Four reasons were responsible for this growth. Among these factors was increased awareness among the consumers of the impure nature of the city water supplies, increased dissatisfaction with the taste and odour of the city water, rising social influence and the increased desire for consumption of caffeine, sugar, and other coffee substances as well as soft drinks. Further, the highest consumers of bottled water were in the states of California, Texas, Florida, New York and Arizona. He also found out that the industry made numerous profits annually both on the re tail and wholesale business. For instance, in 2001, a total of $6.5 billion accrued from wholesale alone and $7.7 billion in retail. In the recent years, some companies had started importing water. Although this kept rising, between 1998 and 2000 the volumes had declined. He discovered that ice land in specific accounted for only 0.05% market share of the total water imported into the United States. With this information, Otis extended his research on two significant countries in his imported water from Ice land. The United States bottled water regulation and the economic condition of Ice land. Regulation of the bottled water industry in the United States was both at the federal government level and by various states government levels. While some states had stringent

Operation Iraqi Freedom Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Operation Iraqi Freedom - Research Proposal Example The Operation Iraqi Freedom is also called the Second Gulf War or the War in Iraq. It is a military operation that is still on and began in March 2003. The military comprises mainly the US and UK troops and backed in smaller proportions by troops from Denmark, Australia, Poland and a few other countries. This operation was publicly supported by all the Arab nations. However, NATO did not publicly support this invasion and the Eastern European nations were willing to support the operation. Earlier before this operation, Iraq was believed to possess weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The WMD present a threat to the national security of Western countries. UK totally supported this assessment while France, Russia and Germany did not. The United Nations inspector of weapons however did not find any evidence of WMD. This raised the support to earlier criticisms about this war. After this invasion, the Iraq Survey Group made a conclusion that Iraq stopped its WMD projects in 1991 and did no t have WMD programs at that moment but intended to resume the programs once Iraq sanctions were lifted. The US also claimed that Iraq supported financially the families of suicide bombers in Palestine. More accusations included abuse of human rights by the government and lack of democracy in Iraq. The Iraqi military was defeated and Saddam Hussein executed. The US led coalition tried to install a new democratic government. This caused violence against the coalition forces. Many Iraqis lost their lives and millions sought refuge. The failure Iraqi reconstruction is viewed by many as having failed. The lucrative contracts have failed to show any signs of improving the country's infrastructure. Contracts for rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure were given without competitive bidding. These contract awarding was the responsibility of the US Agency for International Development. Mistakes were committed just after the Iraqi invasion. Four years after the Iraqi military campaign about 21 billion dollars were used. However, Iraq now produces less oil and electricity than it was before the war. The plan to reconstruct the country was a poor one. Plenty of scandals erupted after the war. Reconstruction contracts were given out without any competition. Beneficiaries of these contracts include Kellogg Brown and Root and Bechtel. Both companies are closely linked to the Bush Administration. It is a great scandal that even the humble infrastructure before the war was not saved and the reconstruction's planning was very poor. Output from the money spent on rebuilding is just a fraction of what the Iraqis expected. The original plan the largest portion of the money, 5.56 billion dollars, was to improve electricity production. It would upgrade power stations, transmitting of power and distributing. That was reduced to 4.24 billion dollars. Oil projects had their 1.89 billion dollars reduced to

Business Psychology Essay Example for Free

Business Psychology Essay In this era of globalization, every organization must design its own strategy in terms of running its business at excellent level to survive and stay in competition. Trigger factors of higher demands that addressed to organizations are; emergence of free market which means that competitors are not only from the local market but also come from organizations all over the world, technological advances that developed rapidly over time also has role in higher demands that has been exposed to organizations in determining that everyone inside the organization must be compatible with the rapid development of technological advances at their workplace. Intense competition environment as already mentioned above certainly lead to tendencies for organizations in emerging innovations, creativities, enhancement of added value, service excellences, competitive prices and acceleration of process business plot as an objective to be â€Å"the winner† in competing with other organizations. A paradigm shifting in the design of the organizational strategies is necessary to be developed by organizations in order to survive in spite of the free market enforcement. One of the strategies that can be applied is building an effective team in the organization, the transformation in working method from individual to team work as the main focus must bring psychological effects for every individual in the organization. Every member in the organization is forced to be part of their team, regardless to their preference to work as individual or as a team. This phenomenon also brings the â€Å"domino effect†; each member in the organization will be evaluated not only for their field competencies related to their job performance, but also personal competencies related to perform effectively as a team member (team work competencies) will be evaluated by the organization. In the realization  of forming an effective team, more than one strategy related to competencies in team building, which are parts of the business psychology area, must be combined in a synchronous way. Business psychology can be use as a source in designing and implementing an organizational strategy, especially for the accentuation in understanding individual behavior and self improvement basis when they are put and work together in a team. There some business psychology focuses that can be used in designing a strategy which at the end also can be used as references in building personal competencies needed in order to perform as an effective team. These are the beneficial focuses: 1. Perception and personal reality Every individual has cognitive limitation in responding to information that they received, as a result of that phenomenon, they are forced to pick information selectively regarding to which received information associated as valuable and which is invaluable, which data that will be taken to the next level of information process. Related to selectivity process, individual tend to use heuristic process, an information processing which characterized by incomplete usage of given data, only based on general issues and experiences, and all those information processed quickly. This information processing form has potential in bringing biases, misunderstanding, and inaccurate result in processing information. Based on the implementation of information processing above, in interacting with other individual, stereotypes and expectations emerged. Stereotyping is a judgment processing of someone that made only based on perceptions to the group where they can be categorized. Expectations from each individual not always positively responded by the other party where they are interacting with each other. Expectations also correlate with communication styles that will be used in interactions. 2. Team ship In building an effective team, many approaches must be used and collaborated in a synchronous way. Defining roles in each team member is an important aspect for balancing the roles of team members in order to optimize the team’s outcomes and coherence. One of the models that can be used in describing team roles in details is â€Å"team roles model† by Belbin : An effective team, in the process basis is characterized by these indication processes; active listening, sharing leadership, taking turn-not interrupting, positive reframing, rescuing eac other’s views, spontaneous and open praise and elaboration of ongoing ideas. In terms of their task performance, an effective team is characterized by these indication processes; analyzing, focus on results, reflecting, open rejection-goal oriented, open rejection-based on data, seeking opinion, seeking clarification and closure. There are some important key behavior in an effective team, such as: open communication, mutual respect, shared output responsibility, agreement through consensus, active disagreement, clear individual responsibilities and roles, subordinate own goals to group objectives, engender high team morale, receptive to new ideas and change, and constructive and supported feedback. There are two applicable models that can be useful in order to design the strategy for establishing an effective team, and they are: Jungian model and Tjosvold model. a. Jungian Model b. The Ideal Team System by Tjosvold Sharing organizational expectations, business strategies and visions, core  values, organizational cultures and organizational objectives, can be defined as envisioning. Showing interest about team member’s visions, task clearances, valuing intercultural differences, and transferring the idea of the team ship’s paradigm importance are efforts in uniting the team. Bringing out loyalties, responsibilities, knowing potential of team members and assigning them based on that, and motivate them when they need motivation are characteristics in the empowering step. After being empowered, exploration in discovering problems and focusing on finding solutions can be established, diversities can be managed in finding the best solution, and all that will raise the team’s awareness to the importance of learning over time to have the upper hand in the market competition. After the best solution is reached, reflecting what the team has been through at every step of the cycle above can be very important as the source of any plan or step that needs to be revised on the next period in order to perform as an effective team. 3. Conflict resolution There are some causes of conflicts that usually appear in organizations: competition, scarcity of resources, interdependence/dependency, conflict in objectives and tasks, differences of opinion and of influence, differences in status, cultural differences, change, misperception, miscommunication, different ways of seeing things, personal preferences, pace of response, range of response and form of response, individual differences and emotional defenses. Traditionally, from all causes of conflicts that mentioned above, individual differences and emotional defenses are the main issues in organizations. In dealing with conflicts, there are three natural reactions that are usually expected from the individuals involved: striking back (leads to escalation, potentially damaging the relationship), giving in (usually results in poor outcome, can be seen as rewarding bad behavior), and breaking off (sometimes can be beneficial, often very costly, hasty and regretted). Regarding to conflict resolution, application of negotiation competencies can be very useful. There are five stages in negotiation process; orientation, position taking, search for solutions, crisis/deadlock, settlement and finalization. It is important to each team member to identify their position in those stages that are related in optimizing conflict resolution process. By knowing and sharing their each position, they can build the same perceptions in finding the best conflict resolution scheme. Principled approach is a combined technique in negotiation from soft and hard style of positional bargaining. In this approach, participants are problem solvers, the goal is a wise outcome reached amicably and efficiently, people and the problem must be separated, must be soft on the people and hard on the problem, independent of trust is proceed, the focus is on interests not the positions, interests are being explored, having a bottom line is avoided, options for mutual gain are invented, multiple options are developed, the use of objective criteria is insisted, a result is reached based on standards independent of will, there is tendency to be open to reasons and yield to principle, not pressure. Conflicts can lead to project delays, missed market opportunities, confused communication, inconsistent information, teams fail and difficult to retain good staff. Considering the effects of unresolved conflict, there are three category : first order effects (quantifiable) can be counted by employee replacement cost, including termination costs and recruitment, second order effects (harder to quantify) which can be observed by increased supervision or management activities , and third order effect (impossible to quantify) when its already revealed in passive aggressive behaviors. Look more:  problem focused coping essay There are two types of conflict; task focused, which is characterized by differences of views and opinions, based on facts and reasoning, and related to intellectual matters. The other type is relationship focused conflict, characterized by anchored in personal differences, influenced by history/assumptions, and related to feelings and emotions. There is a model by Thomas Kilmann which explained deliberately about correlation between  assertiveness and cooperativeness in dealing with conflict. 4. Decision making There are two types of decision making process that people tend to implement, they are: width (diverging) and depth (converging). Diverging type is characterized by some points; seeking options/strategies, works with multiple perspectives, requires more options, considering new ideas, combining options/lateral ideas, and creative suggestions. On the other hand, converging type is characterized by: seeking consensus, seeking clarification, seeking structure, review based on new information, analytical, making inferences, assess consequences based on data, strong defense of viewpoint, clear decisions and outcomes. The usage of both types can be based on the situation that the decision making processes is taking place in the organization. Combination of width and depth are expected and can be the best option in decision making process.