Linking Debit or Credit with Normal Balance

QS 2-3 Linking debit or credit with normal balance C5 Indicate whether a debit or credit decreases the normal balance of each of the following accounts: Notes* *Assets = Liabilities + Owners Equity a. Office Supplies e. Salaries Expense i. Interest Revenue b. Repair Services Revenue f. Owner Capital j. Owner Withdrawals c. Interest Payable g. Prepaid Insurance k. Unearned Revenue d. Accounts Receivable h. Buildings l. Accounts Payable A. Office supplies are an asset and debit decreases the normal balance. B. Repair services revenue is an asset and credit decreases the normal balance. C. Interest payable uses credit for decrease of normal balance. D. Accounts recievable is an asset and debit will decrease the normal balance. E. Salaries expense uses debit for decrease of normal balance. F. Owner Capital is an asset and credit decreases normal balance. G. Prepaid insurance uses debit for decrease of normal balance. H. Buildings are considered an asset and debit decreases normal balance. I. Interest Revenue uses credit for decrease of normal balance. J. Owner Withdrawals may use credit for decrease of normal balance. K. Unearned Revenue uses credit for decrease of normal balance. L. Accounts payable uses debit for decrease of normal balance. QS 2-4 Identify whether a debit or credit yields the indicated change for each of the following accounts: *Notes* Assets: Debit to increase, credit to decrease; Liabilities & Equity: Credit to increase, debit to decrease; Income: Credit to increase, debit to decrease; Expenses: debit to increase, credit to decrease. a. To increase Store Equipment f. To decrease Unearned Revenue b. To increase Owner Withdrawals g. To decrease Prepaid Insurance c. To decrease Cash h. To increase Notes Payable d. To increase Utilities Expense i. To decrease Accounts Receivable e. To increase Fees Earned j. To increase Owner Capital a) Store equipment uses debit to increase. (asset) b) Owner withdrawals use debit to increase. (equity) c) Cash uses credit to decrease. (asset) d) Utilities expense use debit to increase. (expense) e) Fees earned uses credit to increase. (income) f) Unearned revenue uses debit to decrease. asset) g) Prepaid insurance uses credit to decrease. (asset) h) Notes payable uses credit to increase. (liability) i) Accounts receivable uses credit to decrease. (asset) j) Owner capital uses credit to increase. (equity) QS 2-5 *Identify whether the normal balances (in parentheses) assigned to the following accounts are* correct or incorrect. a. Office supplies (Debit) d. Wages Expense (Credit) g. Wages Payable b. Owner Withdrawals ( Credit) e. Cash (Debit) (Credit) c. Fees Earned (Debit) f. Prepaid Insurance (Credit) h. Building (Debit) Office supplies uses debit for a normal balance. (correct) Owner withdrawals does not use credit for a normal balance. (incorrect) Fee’s earned does not use debit for normal balance. (incorrect) Wages expense does not use credit for normal balance. (incorrect) Cash does use debit for normal balance. (correct) Prepaid insurance does not use credit for normal balance. (incorrect) Wages payable does use credit for normal balance. (correct) Building does use debit for normal balance. (correct)

Development of syllabuses in schools Essay

How did the changing role of women and our view of children affect the development of syllabuses in schools? As history progressed peoples attitude towards women and children changed for the better. As a result of the two world wars, women and children were able to prove their importance, enabling them to increase their value within the community. As these changes in our perception of women and children occurred, syllabuses in schools were altered. The 1902 model course was developed, as people believed that it was up to children to do physical training at school to prepare them for war. Although it was grown men that had previously been defeated in the Boer war, the loss was blamed on the lack of physical training provided in schools. This is an example of children being considered important for the future of Britain. The model course, however, soon came under attack as it had children doing exercises designed for adults. As a result of this a new syllabus was introduced in 1904 and was more child-friendly. The 1909 syllabus was developed as more concern was being taken over the welfare of children of working-class families and this syllabus ensured a slightly more therapeutic angle. Organised games were introduced in this syllabus; this shows the first tentative move away from military-style Physical Training teaching. The years 1914-1918 saw the tragedy of the First World War. A generation of young men was almost totally wiped out. Consequently this had an effect on the education system, as it was recognised that a more child centred approach was needed. The First World War also improved the social status of women. This was because they had worked in munitions factories and on the land whilst the men were busy fighting. Women proved that they could cope with demanding physical work and this afforded them more equality. Despite this development in the way in which they were viewed, women generally continued to have only limited access to sport. In 1919, after the war a new syllabus was introduced. This syllabus was more child orientated than the previous ones It allowed more freedom and individual interpretation. For the older pupils therapeutic exercises were still the main emphasis. The 1933 syllabus is perhaps one of the most significant syllabuses developed as a result of the way in which children were viewed. It was developed after the economic depression, which started in the late 1920s. During this time there were very poor living conditions for the less well off as they suffered even more than they had done previously. In this syllabus we see a move from a teacher-centred approach to one where more choice is available and decisions can be made by pupils. This is signif8icant as it shows that adults were beginning to view children as being independent and therefore able to make there own decisions. Everyone was touched by the Second World War. Due to the development of aircraft bombers and long-range missiles, the lives of everyone in Britain, including children were affected. People now looked to their children for hope and we now see a further step towards child-centred learning. The training that had been used to create ‘thinking’ soldiers during the war was now adapted to suit schools. Assault course type equipment was put up in schools. Pupils were required to use their initiative and take responsibility for each other.

Best Dining Experience Essay Example for Free

Best Dining Experience Essay My favorite food is Mexican. Being from Arizona, Mexican restaurants are not as good here in Iowa. Although my favorite Mexican food to eat here is from my grandmother’s kitchen; there are a few restaurants my friends and I enjoy eating at. A few of my girlfriends and I have made Margarita Wednesdays a tradition in the summer time at La Casa. My brother, sister and I go to Los Cabos at least once a month in West Des Moines, which is an amazing delicious Mexican restaurant. I also like Monterrey in Altoona because it’s so close to my house, but no restaurant can compare to Tiki Tok in Mexico. My best friend and I were feeling spontaneous so we took a week off work and went on a cruise. We both found it difficult to eat on the ship because we were continually getting sea sick. I’ll never forget the fishy, chewy, and crunchy taste of the little shrimp and cocktail sauce going down my throat, or the unpleasant feeling I had when it was coming up. The only bad memory of my trip was praying that my legs would stop shaking and that my journey would hopefully reach an end so I could stand on solid ground. Other than being sea sick for the first day; I had a blast on the cruise! I got the opportunity to see many things and visit quite a few places. One of the ports of call was Cozumel, Mexico, and my friend Alexandra and I decided we wanted to try some real Mexican food. Of course, we were a little concerned about getting sick, but I’m glad to say that didn’t happen. We asked on the ship where the best place for Mexican food was, but they said that anywhere along the main shopping strip would be good. We then found a place called the Tiki Tok. The place was on the second level of a building. We sat out on the little balcony that they had. They had covered it with sand. The view from the restaurant was amazing. I was hypnotized by the vibrant colors and the employees’ of the restaurants equally vibrant lifestyles. I remember feeling jealous of the workers because they would get to go back to Tiki Tok tomorrow and the day after that, but I wouldn’t. The walls were an explosion of colorful textiles and every color of paint one could think of that was as bold as can be. Vases were on every table with burnt orange and deep yellow dried peppers inside. The chairs at the dining tables were made of a Mexican Serape material. The colors, the fringe, and the feel of it gave the restaurant even a stronger Mexican energy. My favorite part of the restaurants decor was the little cactus lights that strung amongst all the walls connecting each bulb to the wrought iron chandelier in the middle of the room. When one first enters the restaurant the Mariachi band is one of the most noticeable features. Three men were dressed in black with button up shirts and decorative sombreros all standing in the corner of the room. Two men had violins and the third was handling a guitar. As we took our seats the band started playing lively music and a few older couples got up and danced fearlessly. Everything in the restaurant was bold excluding my bashful personality; otherwise I would have danced too. I was in a trance watching the people dance with one another until the Mariachi band shouted in sync, â€Å"AY! † causing me to be brought back to the present. It was then that I had realized how hungry I was. The menu prices were in pesos, so it looked like everything was really expensive, but it wasn’t. We ordered the hot and spicy red enchiladas which were about 60 pesos, and they also brought us chips and salsa. The chips were a little bit thicker than you would get here in the US, and there were three different types of salsas. There was a regular pico de gallo, then there was one made with tomatillos, and the last was a pineapple cilantro salsa that was actually really tasteful. Lexi and I have never had pineapple cilantro salsa before, so we weren’t sure whether it was going to be appetizing or not. After stuffing myself with chips our food finally arrived. It was just about the yummiest thing I’ve ever had. The red sauce for the enchiladas was a little bit different than what I’ve had here, but I can’t tell you how. It was more delicious over there though. There was chicken inside the enchiladas and a touch of sour cream on top. We took the extra salsa we hadn’t demolished with the chips and smothered our enchiladas with it. I ate every last bite of it and was so full afterwards! The amazing food I had in Mexico was the best Mexican food I have ever had. I remember the smell of the ocean and sweet salsa at the same time. The bright colored sombreros and the ocean front view was an amazing sight to see while enjoying the food as well. Anytime I think about Mexico I think about the short beach chairs, sand between my toes, all the smells of the restaurant, laughing with my best friend and delicious enchiladas. This will be a memory that would be difficult to forget because we took so many pictures of the restaurant and it was the best eating experience I’ve had yet. I’m really glad that my friend and I were able to have this dining experience together. Alexandra and I enjoyed it very much! Best Dining Experience. (2017, Mar 30).

Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Accounting - Essay Example Cash flow statement is prepared separately to account for all the cash transactions and determine the hard cash position of the business apart from its profitability and sales figures, etc. If accounting was only based on cash, no credit transactions could have been made; in fact we would have been violating the principle of â€Å"Going Concern†. When we say businesses are a going concern, we usually pass entries to close accounts for an accounting period by transferring the balances to the next accounting cycle. This is done because business transaction keep on taking place as business activities and operations are executed. The key accounting concept for using the accruals versus cash is that the profits & losses are not actually documented by a business at the same time when the cash transaction is made. In fact the two transactions are totally separate from each other and have different accounting treatments. Profits and losses of any business are the outcome of its operations and revenue generating activities which circulate around the ‘income’ and ‘expense’ heads of accounting for that business. This involves expectation of cash inflows and outflows at a later date as well as deferred cash transaction or prepayments, etc. that needs settlement in a later period. Income and expense determine the cash that you might have eared or lost at the end of the day, when all the corresponding cash transaction have been made but they strictly do not mean that cash has changed hands. We record the income and expenses in the period they are incurred in order to complying with accounting standards (Weygandt, Kieso, & Kimmel,

HRM and Collective Bargaining Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words - 1

HRM and Collective Bargaining - Assignment Example A recommendation would be to employ distributive bargaining for better results. Â  The following is an integrative report on the role of the human resources function in terms of negotiating with labor unions. The report will delve into management relations with unions, and how these relationships are likely to be affected if either the union or management take a rigid stand during collective bargaining negotiations, and not exercise flexibility. The report will also look into such factors as health and safety regulations, misconduct, payroll, minimum wage, and others, to establish arguments and issues from either side and will attempt to culminate all these factors to come up with meaningful conclusions and/or provide future recommendations. Â  Where possible, the report will endeavor to provide examples of real organizational cases to strengthen relevant arguments. The report will make use of extensive established literature in the subject area to gain and provide theoretical input towards its discussions. Â  Employment relationship is protected by two different types of regulations namely legal and voluntary regulations (Willey, 2003), where legal regulations refer to standardised laws passed by the government like processes for dealing with complaints about infringement of legal rights; and the provision of solutions; whereas voluntary regulations refer to the additional discretion employers have, in compliance with legal regulations, in determining pay and employment conditions and the procedures followed; use of grievance procedures; disciplinary procedures; the roles of consultation and collective bargaining; and the involvement of third parties to the regulation of employment relations (Willey, 2003; Newell and Scarbrough, 2002).

The Identification of Clear Objectives as Being the Most Important Term Paper

The Identification of Clear Objectives as Being the Most Important Success Criteria in the Undertaking of Research Projects - Term Paper Example The undertaking and successful completion  require proper planning and prior preparation. In the same way, the successful undertaking of any research project requires the prior identification of the research aims and objectives. Defining the nature of the project requires that one clearly selects the ideas making up the project. This process involves having clearly defined goals and objectives as well as evaluating all possible risks (†¦..). Objectives, in any given study, act as the main framework for the entire research (Nwane, 2005).A research project is an assignment that is systematically undertaken to study a specific topic in depth to increase knowledge. New projects and innovations are in return made knowledge obtained from research. The main objective of the research is to establish facts and come up with feasible means to handle projects that yield positive results. The effectiveness of a project is dependent on the results obtained from the research (Straits & Singl eton, 1993). Another objective of research projects is to build upon the confidence of project evaluators on the project being handled by enhancing correctness and ensuring that the project being handled is correspondent to the requirements of the project (Scruggs & Mastropieri, 2006). Research projects are bound to attaining certain objectives or goals by the end of the project. A project objective can be defined as a brief description of what should be achieved by the end. To ensure correctness in the research being undertaken there needs to be correctly laid procedures and identification of the project’s objectives. The objectives of a research project summarize what is required to be achieved by the end of the research being undertaken (Kothari, 2009). The general objective of research projects identifies what researchers expect to achieve by the end.  Ã‚  

Alzheimer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Alzheimer - Essay Example The results also explain the various findings of the study as related to the possible factors that contributed to the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease: use of anesthetics, neurotic personalities or an inability to handle and manage stress, the occurrence of obesity, incidence of depression, and physical inactivity. The discussion gives detailed effects that the disease brings to the people as well as their complications. Finally, the conclusion gives the recommendations and additional information concerning the management of the disease. The problem of the research relates to the people affected by the disease and at what age. The effects the disease creates on the affected individuals, the economy, and the government. In recent years, over 5 million Americans were suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. After attaining the age of 60, most people started to show symptoms of the disease. This could mean that the risk of being infected increases with age. Younger individuals could also get the disease, but on rare occasions. It is important for people to determine their risk factors, in order to prevent themselves from acquiring the disease. This is because other researchers project that the number of infections could rise significantly in the future (Wimo & prince, 2010). The paper shows that age is the main risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. The prevalence of the disease is analyzed and its fatality rate. The disease affects the caregivers psychologically. It is costly for the government to provide medication and treatment services to the infected person. The disease infects a large number of older women as compared to men. The paper discusses the physical effects of the disease in the elderly. Alzheimer’s disease affects the brain in a progressive manner. It could be fatal for the cells of the brain. It interferes with the memory capacity of the brain and affects the normal thinking of a person. If the affected

Governance and Sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Governance and Sustainability - Essay Example Tesco PLC Tesco is the leading food retailer in the UK and operates globally in excess of 2318 stores located in different countries across the globe. It is worth mentioning that Tesco operates in more than 1878 stores alone in the UK. Apparently, it can be stated that the UK is the largest market of the company. At the same time, the company engages more than 326,000 people globally. Primarily, the company has been viewed to operate under four operating divisions namely Superstore, Metro, Extra and Express that does not deal only in selling food products but also involved in selling of various non- food products (Dataminotor, 2004). Additionally, Tesco’s envisages establishing itself as greatly valued company by its customers and the communities where it operates. The company intends to be highly valued not only by its customers but also from its employees and shareholders perspective. Furthermore, it is expected that the market share of Tesco shall expand at a significant ra te in the UK and other parts of the world (Tesco, 2013). Hence, due to the steady growth in its international business, it has been estimated that the company will significantly strive to increase its overall profitability as well as consolidate its strengths in Asian and European nations (Datamonitor, 2004). Moreover, the company constitute the world’s biggest online market with the total annual sales of over ?577million. On the other hand, the profit of the company has also viewed to be increased steadily over the years. Evidently, during the fiscal year 2010-11, the profit before taxation of Tesco stood at 12.3%, which is quite greater as compared to the previous year i.e. 2009-2010. At the... This paper stresses that Tesco along with its competitors like Sainsbury are duly engaged in conducting various important CSR activities. Additionally, the analysis of CSR activities of Tesco and Sainsbury illustrates that the involvement and the accountability of all the stakeholders like customers, suppliers, communities, shareholders, investors and environmentalists towards ensuring sustainable business performance are crucial for the success of an effective CSR strategy. This report makes a conclusion that CSR activities are considered to be one of the important factors for the success of the businesses of different organisations. Evidently, CSR activities are not associated with earning substantial profit from the business operations; rather it deals with ensuring healthy environment and steady community development as well. In relation to CSR activities, Tesco, the UK based leading retail company has undertaken significant approaches towards improving and facilitating enhanced social and environmental development. It is worth mentioning that the business operations of Tesco is not limited within the UK only but scattered throughout the globe. The company strictly follows GRI framework for the preparation of its sustainability reports. Furthermore, the company has shown its firm commitment towards diminishing carbon footprint and other measure relating to CSR. Similarly, the efforts of its one of the major competitors like Sainsbury cannot be overlo oked.

Leadership - leadership versus followership Essay

Leadership - leadership versus followership - Essay Example Bad Leader believes that employees working under him are basically lazy and the work, assigned to them, is distasteful to them. They assume that people are motivated by money. Leaders with bad leadership traits normally or wrongly assume that there must be very detailed work routines and enforced milestones to ensure that every work gets done. According to Allio, a bad leader apart from failing both professionally as well as personally, would destruct the organizations and regrettably the employees and the shareholders A good leader must be tough enough to win a fight, but not tough enough to kick a man when he is down. They find strategies to increase the owners fund, encourage change in the wrong direction rather than resisting it. Further they influence their subordinate in a negative rather than coerce them into a positive path. The Bad leaders are corrupt, misguided and have disregard for the stakeholders. They bring disrepute to the organization and are painful to the employees. Dean B McFarlin & Paul D Sweeney in their book â€Å"Where EGOS Dare-The Untold Truth about Narcissistic Leaders & how to Survive them† defines Narcissistic Leaders as the ones who are fundamentally, insecure individuals who will crave adoration and will act in a negative way to get adoration, eventually only getting negative adoratio n. They compensate by projecting an inflated sense of self worth & competence to those around them. The next important point raised by Allio in the article is that, most leaders start as visionaries having great ideals to lead the organization into high growth. They exhibit high integrity and they take the right path to retain the idealism for what they had dreamt of in the beginning. However, the environmental and resource constraints influences idealism and they become practical and think of alternative ideas. They start of in a big way but when their plans fail to deliver, they take wrong decisions

Get Write Existing Data Sources Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Get Write Existing Data Sources - Coursework Example The weakness of conducting field research is that it is highly subjective and therefore is weak in terms of reliability (Maxfield & Babbie, 2006). Another weakness is that there can be disagreements between researchers concerning the events or subjects of the research. My research is on illegal immigration and high crime rate in the United States of America. Based on my research proposal, the researchers will be collecting information regarding the perception of hate crimes and illegal immigrants from U.S. residents. Therefore, field research is definitely appropriate for this research proposal. The participants in the field will provide significant information regarding their perception about the issues concerning illegal immigration with special emphasis on social crime rates in the area where they live. Being a resident in that area, participants can provide first hand information regarding illegal immigration and how it affects their daily life. Field research will therefore help to gather both qualitative and quantitative data regarding illegal immigration and hate crimes from the residents of the

Assassination of John F. Kennedy Essay Example for Free

Assassination of John F. Kennedy Essay On the day of November 24, 1963, Americans were all shocked by the sudden death of the 35th President of the United States of America. During that day, the itinerary of the president was to join the motorcade from the Dallas airport to the city business district. While the President and the First Lady were aboard an open vehicle along with other political dignitaries in Dallas, Texas, a gunshot was fired as the presidential party approached the Dealey Plaza. Unfortunately, it was Kennedy who was the target and was hit on the head and on his back. The only other causality during that event was John Connally, the Texas Governor who was also shot on the back. Though Jackie Kennedy, the First Lady, was seated near the President in the car, she was left unharmed (BBC, 2008). Many civilians have witnessed this incident because it happened in a public place and it was televised at the local TV networks. Because of these circumstances, many claimed that they have seen where the gunman took his shot. According to Bob Jackson, a photographer from Dallas Times Herald who was then covering the event and situated near the presidential car, â€Å"As I looked up I saw a rifle being pulled back from a window it might have been resting on the windowsill I didnt see a man. † Also, others said that the shots came from the â€Å"window of a building overlooking the road† where Kennedy was shot (BBC, 2008). After the shooting incident, the president was right away brought to the Parklands hospital. But after 35 minutes, Kennedy was pronounced dead. As the protocol, Lyndon John, vice-president, who was next in line was immediately â€Å"sworn in as the new US leader. † This tragedy caught America by surprise that have left them mourning the unexpected death and the brief term in office of President John F. Kennedy (BBC, 2008).

Ethics and Technology Essay Example for Free

Ethics and Technology Essay The biggest limitation of our existing system is its inherent inability to achieve its fundamental goal. Whatever happened to the dream of progress that modern technology would free people from drudgery, and everyone would be able to live in comfort, spending their time enriching the world and thinking great thoughts? Wasnt that what we really set out to achieve? Toward that goal, we can now make virtually any region of the earth comfortably habitable. We can produce food and clothing in staggering quantities, at unbelievable rates of production, using very little labor in proportion to the output. We have greatly extended the life span of our species, and we know how to cure or eliminate the suffering of a great range of diseases. We can communicate around the globe in less time than it takes to hear the voice of someone across a room. An interesting question to consider is this: if the technology necessary to live this way really could be developed, would it result in such a society? Starting from our present society, I would say absolutely not. The technology that could easily feed the world would probably result in mass starvation. The competitive system can produce the tools we need to create a future of freedom and enlightenment, but unless the system evolves, it will work against our using those tools to the benefit of humanity. The system must evolve. Were not spreading the benefits of advancing technology, were using it to exclude more and more people from the fruits of progress. Instead of laying off the excess workers and increasing the stress on those left behind, consider what would happen if we simply reduced the burden on everyone. We dont need to throw out our traditions of free enterprise and individual responsibility. We just need to revisit our vision of progress and see where we want to go, and where were heading. Not all technology is hampering the societys progress. Technology was developed to ease mans work and provide him with a little help . It wasnt invented so that we could just copy and paste an essay for our next paper, or download a ready made presentation from the internet or make google do all things for us. The web is what you make of it, you cant blame technology for ruining your work ethics. Its you whos become super lazy and dependent I am from a time when technology is called progress and it was considered heretical to doubt its benefits. We tend to forget the years before antibiotics when people died from pneumonia and infections. We take for granted the warnings about kidney failure, liver damage and replacement therapy for intestinal flora that accompany todays bigger and better medications. Technology has made our lives very easy, but it turn, has made us lazy. I believe that if we continue to make and improve technology, there can be some really useful inventions. However, we can make sure that the improvements don’t make us lazy, in very simple ways. We can ask ourselves, does this pen that writes down our thoughts and tells us how to spell correctly really need to be in everyone’s daily lives? Technology moves at a pace that can easily outrun ethical standards surrounding its use. The effects of technology on work ethics move at a similar pace with employers moving to establish ethical boundaries that seem to infringe on employee privacy rights and restrict communication abilities. These tactics have led to courtroom battles, quick job terminations and complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board. Special Purpose: To inform my audience of the negative effects by becoming too dependent on technology. Central Idea: By becoming too dependent on technology will give negative effects to our education, behavior and economic. Introduction According to study conducted by a company called McCan Worldgroup, young people are obsessed with their technology until the point that they would rather lose one of their most important sense than to lose Facebook, the internet and their cell phones. â€Å"To them, losing the ability to explore and communicate via technology would be like a blind man losing his stick†. According to Oxford dictionary, technology means machinery or equipment developed from scientific knowledge. Do you realized how much we depend on technology?

Emotional Development in Young Children

Emotional Development in Young Children Introduction Human beings have an extremely rich and complex emotional life that provides value to our experiences, motivation to our actions, and a dimension of communication beyond spoken words. We can suppose that the individuals are mature enough to experience complex emotions and able to recognise those emotions in others. This capacity of emotion, as with other aspects of human development, emerges as an immature quality in infancy, expands through childhood and adolescence, where it blossoms in adulthood, full of subtlety and abundance. Positive emotional development has important benefits for young children. Young children who are emotionally stable and healthy benefit from being more attentive to learning, feeling good about themselves, having more friends and being able to better control their behavior. These all relate to long-term happiness and success in life as children grow older. Young Children Emotions play an important role in our daily lives. From a young age, children show the ability to feel and respond to a variety of emotions. For example: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Even as early as 1 month of age, infants demonstrate emotions (distress, pleasure) that show understanding of what is happening around them. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ By 4 months, a baby naturally recognises differences in faces expressing happiness, anger or sadness, and will react to try to change the expression on a parents face to be happier. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ In the first two years of life, children learn to laugh not only at being pleased, but in response to their own behaviors (flapping their arms, etc.) that get an emotional reaction from others (delight from parents, other children). All of us, including young children, are wired to experience and express emotion. Emotional development relates to a childs developing ability to recognise feelings, distinguish among them, manage emotions and be aware of and respond to the feelings of others. The development of such abilities through time results in a persons degree of emotional intelligence, an important concept that suggests people can become competent in how they handle and express their own emotions and respond to others emotions. Emotional development relates to how we recognise, understand and choose how we feel, think or act. It shapes our understanding of us and also our interactions with others, i.e. family, friends, groups, communities. It often defines what we value, and how and what we learn, as well as what and how we prioritize things in our daily lives. Our feelings provide us with insight and energy, and are involved with almost every decision we make. Emotional development affects a childs capacity to relate to others, interact and communicate, and also his or her ability to express feelings, such as love, anger and trust. Developing abilities associated with emotions are important life skills, meaning abilities that help us relate well to others and succeed in life. Some of these important skills include: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Being aware of your own feelings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Monitoring your moods and regulating expressions of emotion à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Handling anger à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Using emotions positively to help reach our goals à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sensing how others feel à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Using emotions positively in making decisions à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Monitoring others emotions to manage personal relationships Key Aspects of Emotional Development As with other aspects of a young childs growth, children develop different abilities related to emotions as they mature and change. Understanding how young children develop an awareness of their own and others feelings, as well as the ability to manage such feelings, is important. Young children have an enormous capacity for learning. The early years provide a valuable window of opportunity to help children learn about emotions and relationships with others. Caring adults are most important in aiding a young childs emotional development. Some of the best ways to develop emotional intelligence in young children include modeling and creating awareness of their emotions. Children begin to gain greater awareness of their feelings and how to express them in different ways during their early years. Some key points to remember with young children and different stages of emotional development include: Prenatal to 3 Months à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Infants this age develop feelings of trust and attachment through being held or having someone talk to them and respond when they fuss or cry. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ New infants need to feel tenderness and security, see smiling faces and experience responsiveness and warmth as they begin to feel what their environment is like. 3 to 6 Months à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Infants this age are learning to read emotion and express it through observation and imitation. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Infants this age need parents and other caregivers to be responsive and attentive to them, which teaches them their emotions affect the world around them. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Infants this age seek stimulation and emotional reassurance and connection. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Parents can assist emotional development by using expression when talking (baby talk), spending lots of face-to-face time with a baby (gives emotional interaction) and showing different facial expressions (gives a baby practice at reading emotions). 6 to 9 Months à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Infants this age are learning expression of feelings, such as sadness, fear, curiosity and happiness. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Infants this age are learning to distinguish between people they know and those they do not know, and feel reassurance or anxiety related to those around them (stranger anxiety, etc.) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Infants can have feelings about objects, such as fear (of a cat) or desire to play (with a toy), and express invitations or interest in playing with toys, objects or adults. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Infants this age look to parents for emotional cues about how to handle objects, events or people (this social referencing is a sign of emotional security with parents). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Learn that their emotional cues, such as the social smile, will get an emotional response from another person, so they learn to initiate emotional responses. 9 to 12 Months à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children begin to understand they can share feelings, and others will understand them and know how they feel inside. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children become more attached to specific people (mom) and often become anxious when those people leave, crying or being upset. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Reassure children when you leave the room or keep in visual contact if possible. 1 to 3 Years à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children this age recognize their independence from others and express anger, control or other feelings about needing autonomy (desire to put on own clothes, etc.). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children this age become aware of other children and their feelings, but still are developing emotional skills for social interaction, such as sharing, etc. Adults need to have reasonable expectations for feelings about others (empathy, etc.), encourage and model sharing with others. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children feel the need to explore and find autonomy, and adults should understand the common use of No or behaviors that push boundaries as an expression of this feeling. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children this age can identify feelings that adults help them label, such as sad, happy or scared. 4 to 8 Years à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children this age begin to understand and express fear of natural disasters, war, death or other concerns. Parents can assist in coping with such anxiety. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children this age are asked to control emotional responses as they enter school settings or other areas where behavior must be controlled. Practice of emotional responses in such situations and familiarity with the environment can be helpful to children this age. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children can brainstorm ways to overcome or handle particular emotions, such as fear or anger, with guidance from parents and caring adults. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Children increase their ability to get along with others, but may need continuing help to manage hurt feelings or emotional upset with friends or peers. In the very young age, assumptions regarding the state of emotional maturity are restricted due to the infants communicative ability. Newborn expressions consist mainly of distress and relaxed interest. They are driven by the desire to seek a balance between over-stimulation and under-stimulation and they learn very quickly that they can control their environment by influencing their caregivers. Ways that infants manipulate and regulate their environment are typically characterized by vocal and facial indices that are presumed to reflect emotions and the ways parents respond provides a history and basis for emotion control. At around two to seven months, infants are able to recognize different faces and display behaviors indicating discrimination toward primary caregivers and away from strangers. Attachments between the infant and the caregivers are formed through synchronized, one-on-one interactions, which are facilitated by the social smile. Along with the emergence of this caregiver attachment, babies are now showing signs of stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. Thus the emotions associated with attachment lay the foundations for the establishment of mutual cooperation, and other social and cognitive competencies later in development. At around 3 to 10 months, the emergence of playful, intentional, non-verbal communication is observable. Looking at each other, playing short games, taking rests become part of the infants social activity. By the end of the first year, infants are able to receive important information regarding their environment and behavior. This can be quite handy now that the child is becoming much more mobile. They are cruising at 9 months, standing at 12 months and walking without support at 13 months and by recognizing expressions on their mothers face, they can more confidently indulge a curiosity or avoid a painful experience. These social referencing behaviors show that infants are able to recognize the emotional state of another person and know that the emotion is directed at a person, object or behavior. In addition, where experimental failures in social referencing are reported, this could be the result of the childs ability to detect differences between authentic and role-played displays of expression thereby, indicating a truly remarkable sense of observation, discrimination and interpretation. Humans naturally display indicators of embarrassment through blushing, anger through flushing, intense sadness through tears, fear through vocal tension, and surprise through pupil dilation. The ability to recognise when these emotions are present can be very helpful when dealing with other people. In the ages between 2 and 4, children become able to discern what caregivers want from them and modify behavior to meet expectations. Cognitively, they are moving away from centration and egocentrism, which gives them a greater ability to see things from another persons perspective and also grasp more than one quality simultaneously. They begin to display a sense of humor and are now able to understand that one event, like a race, can cause one person to feel happy and another to feel sad at the same time. Conclusion Children enter life and immediately begin to express and experience emotions. As with other areas of development, learning the abilities associated with emotional development takes time and experience. Each domain of development has particular skills associated with it that children can learn and apply in practical ways. The primary skills associated with emotional intelligence include awareness of your own emotions, managing your emotions in positive ways, sensitivity to others emotions and empathy or reaching out to others emotionally. Developing and practicing these skills occur best when they are modeled in caring, meaningful ways in the home.

Friendship in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Essay examples -- Kit

Friendship in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Theme: Real Friendships are more than a stubborn act; they are actions that surround your soul in order to uncover the truth that you're seeking in a friend. Friendship, as understood here, is a distinctively personal relationship that is grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the welfare of the other, for the other's sake, and that involves some degree of intimacy. As such, friendship is undoubtedly central to our lives, in part because the special concern we have for our friends must have a place within a broader set of concerns, including moral concerns, and in part because our friends can help shape who we are as persons. Given this centrality, important questions arise concerning the justification of friendship and, in this context, whether it is permissible to ?trade up? when someone new comes along, as well as concerning the possibility of reconciling the demands of friendship with the demands of morality in cases in which the two seem to conflict. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini explores the struggles that Amir faces that confront him on the path to manhood testing friendship. One of the highlights of their friendship is their competition in the kite fighting competitions that mark the start of winter in Kabul. Amir is a master kite fighter, and Hassan is a mysterious "kite runner? able to retrieve the fallen kites and bring them home as trophies. Amir and Hassan do wonderful things together like they are brothers, but still Amir tries to test Hassan?s loyalty all the time and still is afraid of accepting being Hassan?s true friend. ?Never Mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands, or to bui... ...want to stay for a longer period of time with someone. But does this mean that we want to be friends with each other? Testing your friend?s loyalty in order to see how faithful they are is a fine idea, but when you get carried away it can cause negative feelings and possibly a loss of friendship. A real friend is not only a speaking mouth, but also a helping hand, and sometimes even a shoulder that you can depend on. A real friendship must be tested by a long period, sometimes for ten or more years. And of course, friendship can be promoted onto a higher level, such as love. If you both have love for each other, you will make good friendship. Amir?s ideal true friend was staring at him in the face all the time but it took a while for him to realize that Hassan was the one. Works Cited: Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Canada: Random House, 2004.

American Civil War Blunders and Diplomatic Failures Essay -- Union, Co

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left." --Bertrand Russell In the middle of the 19th century the United States was engaged in one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of the nation known as the American Civil War. The U.S. was at war with a first time enemy known as the Confederate States of America. The southern states had succeeded from the Union and with the battle of Fort Sumter, the war had begun. Both the Union and the Confederates had one goal in mind, respectively. For the North it was to defeat the rebellious states and bring them back into the Union and for the South it was to achieve recognition as an independent country from abroad. The war lasted four years and resulted in over one million casualties including over 600,000 deaths for both sides combined. This was all due to the fact that the North and the South would continue to make mistakes through the four years that would lead to the prolonging of the war. Actions taken by both the Union and the Confederacy resulted in the hurting of their diplomatic goals abroad, thus hurting the ultimate achievement of their goals. One of the first steps that the Confederacy took to hinder its goal of independence would actually happen several years before the start of the war. With the possibility of a conflict with the northern states looming largely in the minds of the citizens in the southern states, precautions began to be put into place. With this, the idea of what would later become known as the King Cotton policy was beginning to be accepted. In a speech given by a former Senator James H. Hammond of South Carolina in 1858, Hammond described the importance of the southern crop and that a lack of cotton being exported would do much more damage... ...ssed November 22, 2013. http://www.history.com/topics/cotton Dattel, Gene. "THE SOUTHS Mighty Gamble on King Cotton." American Heritage 60, no. 2 (Summer2010 2010): 12-16. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 22, 2014). Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 344. Hammond, James. Selections from the Letters and Speeches of the Hon. James H. Hammond of South Carolina (New York: John F. Trow & Company Printers, 1866), 311-312. Hoptak, John D. The Battle of South Mountain, (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2011), 16-19. Prime Minister Palmerston, letter to Queen Victoria, December 5, 1861. "The Emancipation Proclamation." Emancipation Proclamation (Primary Source Document) (January 7, 2009): 1. Points of View Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed December 7, 2014).

Chemistry Coursework †Fuels Essay -- GCSE Chemistry Coursework Invest

Chemistry coursework – Fuels Planning ======== Aim --- In this investigation I will have to find out which of the alcohol fuels: methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol, is the best. The ‘best’ one will be the one which creates the most energy whilst burning. Introduction and prediction --------------------------- A fuel is a substance burned for heat or power. The best type of fuel is one that: can be transported safely without the worry of it catching on fire, gives out a lot of heat for a certain mass, does not cost very much, lights quickly, burns slowly, is safe to use and does not give off any form of polluting gases. When burning alcohols, as I am going to do in this investigation, the reaction is exothermic as heat is given out. Breaking the bonds of the original alcohol by burning requires energy-it is endothermic, making the bonds of the new products of burning the alcohol ie carbon dioxide and water gives out energy-it is exothermic. I predict that Butanol will require the most energy as it has the most bonds holding the carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms together. Propanol will require the second largest amount of energy, Ethanol the third and Methanol the least amount of energy to break these bonds. Methanol CH3OH Ethanol C2H5OH Propanol C3H7OH Butanol C4H9OH Pentanol C5H10OH Therefore I predict that Methanol will be the ‘best’ fuel, followed by Ethanol, then Propanol and the worst fuel will be Buta...

Continental/Fintelco Jv Case Analysis Essay

1. Is entry into the Argentine market a good strategic move for Continental? Entering Argentine market in 1993-1994 was a good strategic decision for Continental as one of the TOP5 cable TV companies in the US despite certain risks for several reasons: 1. Changes in the US regulatory environment created additional challenges for Continental’s core business: 1992 Cable Act limited the cable TV companies’ ability to raise cable rates whereas costs at market prices reached up to $2000/subscriber. This inevitably led to constrained profit margins 2. US market began saturating: long-standing competition on the market coupled with growing demand and consumer selectivity has led to further squeezing margins and forced companies to seek for diversification of revenue streams –by entering non-traditional cable markets, capturing smaller niches, or expanding overseas. 3. Argentine cable TV marked lagged in behind US market by almost a decade: cable TV penetration barely re ached 50%, subscription growth rates approached 60-70% in selected areas. Also, the market was only beginning to consolidate around 4 major players – more than 50% of the market was controlled by a thousand of smaller operators. Although Buenos Aires was relatively more mature market, other regions and provinces presented lucrative opportunities. Telephone, satellite, and other adjacent markets had untapped future opportunities. So far, emerging Argentine promised much brighter prospects for cable TV companies than saturating US. 4. Argentine macroeconomic indicators exhibited positive dynamics despite high level of uncertainty: indeed, after a decade of political turmoil and military rule Argentine was finally building a democratic civilian government. During four years preceding the acquisition, Carlos Menem and Domingo Cavallo launched effective economic and political reforms, including deregulation and privatization in TMT and other major sectors. In particular, legislation became very favorable to foreign investors. However, Argentine was suffering from hyperinflation and chronic recessions during the previous decade. Moreover, political risks were becoming more and more tangible as presidential elections of 1995 approached. As a result, the beta for Argentine was two times as high as that for the US. Is Fintelco an appropriate venture partner? Fintelco possessed at least three characteristics of a good venture partner: a. Knowledge of local market including cultural, political, and regulatory background as well as customer programming tastes. Basically, buying a successful incumbent is one of the best potential moves while entering â€Å"terra incognita† b. Fintelco had strong presence in various regions and owned licenses in MDDS and satellite, which created solid base for revenue streams diversification and future growth. c. Fintelco was still owned and managed by its founder, a prominent serial entrepreneur with diversified assets. Liberman had a very hands-on approach in business, and thus secured complete alignment of incentives between the management and the owners. 2. What are the major opportunities and risks you see in the venture? Success factors and opportunities (excluding market opportunities mentioned above): a. Personal and professional â€Å"click† between Samuel Liberman and Amos Hotsetter indicated good potential for constructive and conflict-free partnership. b. Similar growth strategies and vision: both companies grew using clustering strategy and capturing operating efficiencies by consolidating subscribers geographically. c. Limited access to capital markets in Argentine: Continental had access to capital markets in the US which could significantly foster business development in a country with scarce financial resources. Risks&Concerns: a. Active involvement of Fintelco’s founder and owner in business operations has also created certain problems. For instance, it resulted in a sort of nepotism – many key positions were held by Liberman’s direct relatives. Thus, potential restructuring and changes in management would be complicated. Also, after an acquisition Liberman would have 50% ownership, which could decrease his involvement in this particular business and also led to incentives misalignment. Indeed, he had diversified businesses and could have been looking for a cash-out. Liberman’s full involvement and commitment were crucial for joint venture success. b. Fragmented regional market in Argentine commanded inorganic expansion trajectory for Fintelco, which in turn required capital commitment from both parties. A ceiling should have been established to limit uncontrollable capital pump and its inefficient allocation. c. Exchange rate risks: significant portion of revenue stream born currency exchange risk (peso vs. USD) regardless of geographical and product diversification. These risks were absolutely external and thus could have been hardly mitigated. 3. One could value Fintelco in either of the following ways: a. Peso cash flows discounted at peso rate and then value converted at the spot rate b. $US flows discounted at $US rate Which approach is more appropriate in this case? We analyzed assumptions required to adopt each of proposed approaches. Approach (b) – $US cash flow discounted at $US rate – assumes that: (1) Peso/$US rate would remain constant – despite stable projection of peso exchange rate till 1998, PPP implied exchange rate has a high range (0.999-1.436, 44%) and hence significant volatility. (2) $US discount rate reflects the risk of the project – As revenues of Fintelco are denominated in pesos while a significant portion of its liabilities, including interest expense and a portion of programming costs, would be denominated in $US, the project bears significant currency risk which is not reflected by US discount factor. Although the real currency of the industry in Argentina is in local currency Peso, we believe that finding a proper discount rate in Peso is quite tough and unreliable. Moreover discounting the Peso valuation with today’s exchange may be a biased approach. Hence what we prefer Ä ±s to conv ert the Peso cash flows to USD with the estimated USD/Peso rates for each period and then discount it with the US$ discount rate. 4. Is $80m for a 50% interest a fair value for Fintelco? Based on our valuation we believe that $80m for a 50% interest is a fair value for Fintelco. In our valuation we chose to be conservative with the assumptions as well as try to cover all possible risks and ran multiple iterations to obtain a good understanding of the value ranges. Our valuation is based on the following assumptions: (1) WACC of 15.35% calculated used 9.01% as Rd (BB rating), D/V ratio of 14.44% (current Balance sheet), Re of 17.07% (Lessard model) and tax rate of 40% (Exhibit 1). Beta was estimated using comparable companies (Exhibit 2). We recognize that D/V ratio as well as Return on Equity is subject to our judgment hence we assessed sensitivity of WACC to change in these assumptions. We estimated Re using 4 different models (Exhibit 3) and D/V at the level of comparable companies. WACC ranges between 10.77% and 17.19% (Exhibit 4). We believe that 15.35% is an adequate estimation of WACC reflecting both country and project risks. (2) Terminal growth of 4% based on our view of sustainability. We noticed that Fintelco’s projections imply 7% revenue growth however we do not believe that such high level of growth is sustainable in the long run, hence we suggest more conservative estimation. (3) Conversion to $US based on parity-implied exchange rates for 10yrs. We believe that due to difference in US/Argentina inflation rates over the long horizon only PPP-implied exchange rate reflects true value of money at any given point in time. We used it to convert annual peso free cash flows at the respective rate (Exhibit 5); We calculated terminal value using 2002 $US DCF value and Gordon Growth formula and arrived at Enterprise Value. We further subtracted net debt converted @1994 exchange rate to arrive to Equity Value in $US (Exhibit 6). We also calculated $US value based on spot rates (both official and PPP-implied) to assess sensitivity of the model (Exhibit 7) and concluded that our estimation is reasonably conservative and reflects country’s currency risk adequately. (4) 30% private penalty discount – as Fintelco is a private company, we discount its value further for 30% to account for lack of liquidity. Exhibit 8 contains the summary of our valuation under different scenarios. We concluded that though there are scenarios under which value of 50% share of Fintelco is below $80m, probability of these scenarios occurring is fairly low. Our base case scenario uses Lessard’s model for Return on Equity calculations, PPP-implied 10 years forecasted exchange rate and 30% private penalty discount (result highlighted). 5. In the course pack there is a reading (Estrada (2007)) about valuing offshore projects using techniques proposed by Lessard, Godfrey and Espinosa, Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney. What assumptions underlie each approach? The reading Estrada 2007 describes four models for evaluating investment opportunities in developing markets. Each model estimates a required return on equity by attempting to incorporate country and/or project-specific risk. Unlike the CAPM, none of these models has reached the level of standard-bearer in the finance community, and each rests on critical assumptions that must be considered before using them in a project assessment: The Lessard Approach: R = Rf + MRP*(ÃŽ ²p* ÃŽ ²c) * Assumes that the country beta is a good approximation of country-specific risks (political, sovereign, and expropriation) * Assumes that the risk of a project is not related to the risk of the country (e.g., ÃŽ ²p for oil industry may be low, but should be high for a country which has a history of expropriation) * Assumes that investors do not value the effect of global diversification that the project would bring the company The Godfrey and Espinosa Approach: R = (Rf + YSc) + MRP* [0.60*(ÏÆ'c/ ÏÆ'w)] * Assumes that the yield spread, which measures default risk, is an appropriate risk premium to capture sovereign risk associated with an offshore project * Applies a value (60%) that reflects the average risk reflected by the stock market but not the bond market across all developing markets, thus ignoring country-specific correlations * Assumes that the project’s risk is solely dependent on location. It does not factor project or industry-specific risk Goldman Sachs: R = (Rf + YSc) + MRP* [1- Ï SB * (ÏÆ'c/ ÏÆ'w)] * Assumes that the yield spread, which measures default risk, is an appropriate risk premium to capture sovereign risk associated with an offshore project * Assumes that the project’s risk is solely dependent on location. It does not factor project or industry-specific risk Salomon Smith Barney: R = Rf + MRP* ÃŽ ²p + [{Ï’1 + Ï’1 + Ï’3)/30]*YS * Assumes that three factors can be measures on a scale from 1 to 10 in a robust and consistent way: the company’s access to capital markets, susceptibility of project to political risk, and financial importance of project to the company) 6. Would you suggest any modifications to the structure of the deal? The structure of the transaction described in the case is to form a joint venture. Continental will: c. Purchase 50% of equity stake in Fintelco for USD 80 million. d. Commit to provide USD 70 million of capital for acquisitions and investments in technology upgrade at Fintelco. Samuel Liberman undertakes to provide another USD 70 million for the investments. e. Fintelco will bear a significant currency risk on its balance sheet, as its revenues are in peso, but liabilities, interest expense and programming costs are in US dollars. f. Continental will provide technical assistance to Fintelco on cost basis. g. The deal contained an exit agreement, the so called â€Å"shotgun deal†, whereby after four years the partners could sell to each other our trigger an outright sale to the third party. The terms of the transaction are in our opinion fair for both parties. When being a financial advisor of Continental, we would suggest: * That the commitment to invest USD 70 million in the target company is stated clearly, structured with limited recourse to the new shareholder to prevent undertaking a blanco commitment to invest capital. * Share purchase agreement between Continental and Samuel Liberman contains certain clauses about representations and warranties of both parties to mitigate the risk of financial loss in case of â€Å"window dressing† of the target company. * Shotgun clause to contain more substance over the price of the transaction in the future, giving a call and a put option to both contractual counterparties: * If one party will not wish to sell in the future at a certain price, it will undertake to purchase 50% shares in the target company from the other party at the price it declined to sell at.

Strategic Management Business Case Study for Insight Magazine

{draw:frame} {draw:g} {draw:g} INSIGHT’s MISSION, VISION & PHILOSOPHY {draw:text-box} Insight is a local social magazine founded to satisfy different appeals in the Egyptian society. It are committed to face our challenges by embracing and creating change, through innovative solutions to extend the overall content distribution and marketing model to include websites, digital magazines, virtual events, and other new technologies to establish positive relations and credibility between the magazine and its readers. It is committed to providing an informal yet professional working environment that encourages and rewards creativity, teamwork and enthusiasm. Insight’s operation is environmentally friendly. {draw:text-box} ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING When setting the mission, Insight had to first understand the â€Å"big picture† of the environment, in which it is operating, and the opportunities and threats that lie within. Such understanding of the surrounding environment will enable us to take advantage of the opportunities that will come in our ways and minimize the threats that will face us along the way The Big Picture (PEST ANALYSIS) PEST Analysis helps understanding the â€Å"big picture† of the Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological environment, it ensures that what we are aiming for in our mission is aligned positively with the powerful forces of change that are affecting the press media. Political factor: Understanding the political environment in Egypt is almost the most important step in the scanning phase, the freedom of press in Egypt is not â€Å"as free† as it may seem because of the following: The political environment might not be stable within the next five years due to the presidential election which may negatively influence the market. Egypt's state security investigation apparatus empowered to interfere in almost every area of public life under the state of emergency in force for the last 28 years which forms a barrier for writers to speak up their minds freely. On the other hand, there are some positive changes in the political environment such as the reform program that is a work in progress. Egypt has made substantial progress in developing its legal, tax and investment infrastructure, over the past five years; Egypt has passed, amended and admitted over 15 legislative pieces one of which was the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential elections. Economical factor: The financial crisis and the recession which has recently struck the world all over definitely had an impact on the Egyptian job market in many versatile ways such as: The downfall of the western economy forced the expatriates working abroad consider twice before asking for a high salary, this made the hiring of foreign calibers easier and resulted in the layoffs of many local employees and the increase of unemployment and job market instability. Unemployment in the Egyptian society has aggressively increased during the last five years affecting indirectly the press industry. Many organizations started to adopt the policy of cost cutting and benefit minimization; this as well had the same effect as the precedent point resulting in unemployment and instability. The worsening state of the global economy makes 2009 a â€Å"horror show† for advertising-dependent newspaper and television companies, with some analysts predicting that businesses may have to wait until 2011 to see positive ad growth. It must be noted as well that the Egyptian economy has been gaining, thanks to the wide-ranging amendments & reforms that the country began implementing in 2004 and due to such amendments and administration of many legislative pieces the economy is expected to grow by about 4% to 6% in 2009/2010. Technological Factor: We are living the technology era, every day, a new invention, revolution or innovation strikes the market in every business, if Insight is not open to apply new operational strategies that can help to address the effects of both technological streamlining and better developing meaningful ways of generating an exchange of ideas, it won’t last before its competitors, with a daily increasing pace in the world of technology. The rise of online media presents another challenge: reliability. The internet has become the fastest and easiest way for the readers to get the type of info they claim, low-priced and as diverse as they want, and this rise is obliging the media world to give attention to online advertisement as much as or even at a higher interest that normal printed magazines. Socio-cultural Factor: A cultural change has came into the surface, with he increase of the coffee shops outings, the topics that were point of interest to readers have been changed , Insight carried out new researches to cover a broad range of topics to attract readers. Over the last 5 years, the interest in football, politics and religion ruled over many areas in life, Insight being a social lifestyle magazine it has to cope with the new interests in our society. Given that English is the language of the magazine in an Arabic speaking country; this has enlarged the difficulty of the magazine’s distribution in the Egy ptian market. Environmental Factor: Global warming that became perhaps the most complicated issue facing the world of magazine production after study showed that the carbon dioxide emissions caused by the production and distribution of one copy of an average sized 0. 39 pound magazine total about 0. 95 kilograms including paper from trees, materials, production, shipping and customer use; henceforth, the loss of natural habitat potential from the 0. 39 pound magazine is estimated to be 0. 3 square meters. This has led to a huge increase in the prices of the papers which is the most important element of the magazines industry. {draw:frame} The Small Details (SWOT ANALYSIS) SWOT Analysis is a simple but powerful framework for analyzing the magazine’s Strengths and Weaknesses, and the Opportunities and Threats it faces. Thus, helping Insight to focus on its strengths, minimize threats, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available. Strengths: Insight magazine enjoys a very good image that has a business idea and credibility amongst its competitors. It has an extensive advertising and good promotions that withhold good value and quality. The magazine enjoys good cash flow through advertising which provides space for innovation and expansion. Most of Insight’s staff is between 20-25 years, at these young ages the ability to cope with new challenges of life is much more flexible than older generations and this provides the space to innovate & improve in many fields. Weakness: Any organization has its weaknesses; Insight suffers from the lack of a good distribution plan compared to its rivals. Another weakness facing Insight is the fact that the teams are self managed by junior staff which lack knowledge and experience leadership of its junior staff. Threats: Insight’s main threat is the strong competitors dominating the market and how quickly they can adapt to market changes. The inability to cope with new technologies may also lead to the magazine’s failure. Opportunities: Giving that Egypt is in a state of transition and economic growth, our good cash flow will enable us to seize any opportunity of hiring excellent calibers and adopting new technologies. {draw:frame} STRATEGY FORMULATION Strategy formulation is the process of determining appropriate courses of action for achieving the organizational objectives and thereby accomplishing organizational purpose. The strategies formulated should reflect environmental analysis previously discussed, lead to fulfillment of the mission, and result in reaching our organizational objectives. TOWS MATRIX The TOWS Matrix is a relatively simple tool for generating the strategic options, using it, will enable us to look intelligently at how Insight takes the best advantage of the opportunities open, at the same time that we minimize the impact of weaknesses and protect ourselves against threats. By analyzing the external environment (threats and opportunities), and the internal environment (weaknesses and strengths), we can use these techniques to think about our corporate, business & functional strategies. Corporate Strategy Corporate strategy is one, which decides what business the magazine should be in, and how the overall group of activities should be structured and managed, it is as well a description of the magazine's overall direction in terms of its general attitude toward growth, stability or Retrenchment and the management of its various businesses and product lines. Following the change of the external major forces as well as the declining performance of the distribution unit and the marketing department, the top management had to consider formulating an alternative strategy other than the previously followed growth strategy. A stability strategy is now the new corporate strategy followed by Insight, it is decision of doing nothing new in the worsening situation but instead to act as though Insight’s problems are only temporary, and it is an attempt to artificially support profits when sales are declining by reducing short term discretionary expenditures. Insight magazine is currently following the stability strategy as its corporate strategy knowing that it will be temporarily adopted until Insight settles its weakness in the marketing area and regains a significant position in the Egyptian market. Business Strategies In light of the ongoing economic crisis besetting the world, many business leaders had to consider just exactly how they are going to put together a winning business strategy to help overcome the hard times. Insight’s business strategy is a competitive one, it involves making the right choices in order to achieve cost leadership, differentiation and focus; this is achieved by invest our money and strategies in this area as well as coordinating properly Insight’s distinctive competencies in the provision of the service we provide. In order to sustain our competitive advantage, Insight has to determine the durability and imitability of its main distinctive resources which are the human and the financial resources. Business Model Insight serves English reading customers in Egypt by providing them with the latest lifestyle information; Insight’s Insight sustains a competitive advantage through recruitment through the strong cash flow from advertisements made by top class brands, young calibers who adapt easily with any changes in the external environment, thus allowing diversity in writing materials and articles. draw:frame} Functional Strategies Functional strategy is the approach taken by Insight’s functional departments to achieve corporate and business unit objectives and strategies by maximizing distribution. In each functional area, the manager is concerned with developing a distinctive competence to provide Insight with the competitive advantage that it aims to obtain. Marketing & Sales Strategies After 14 years Insight is still struggling and to maintain, capture larger market share, and continues market penetration. It is very hard to achieve now days especially in our case and similar to many magazines and newspapers in the region and world wide. Insight relies heavily on advertising money for revenue since the price consumers pay when they purchase a copy of the magazine has never been sufficient to cover the production costs much less creating any profit. Insight Magazine’s marketing strategy consists of market and product development as well as dealing with pricing, selling and distributing the magazine through the following: Creativity Launch new campaigns with developed layout and logo. Distribution Generate new distribution plans to cover different venues; hotels, bookshops, newsstands, supermarkets, airports, cultural centers, advertisers, numerous Egyptians and international business peoples and VIPs. Make a deal with a well known distribution agency to circulate the magazine on a wider scale on one hand, and on the other hand to put booths in many different areas and offer special gifts to people in order to attract the readers. Sales Give free issues on special occasions in order to encourage and attract customers Instead of selling space to marketers for print ads, we started selling services that marketers want to have. Diversification To focus more on topics that have overwhelmed people lately especially football. Emphasize profitable material and realign their content production costs with where the revenue is generated. A publisher will need to find the unique and defining material that attracts their readership. Go Green Despite the economic state and the rapid increase of paper prices, the Marketing head suggested to the top management to use recycled papers and environmentally friendly materials in order to save cost and maintain same quality of the product that the customer got used to and at the same time to cope with the green trend of the world. Technology & Innovation Digital marketing media and web publishing have become a very tangible area for improvement and market enlargement, Insight’s strategy for development in print media magazine world is mainly based on enriching Insight’s website, with new means of advertisements such as online purchasing of a wide range of products starting from pictures all the way to specific non published exclusive articles. HR Strategies Giving that a good human resources management practice enables organization to achieve higher profits and better survival rate than do firms without these practice, Insight’s strategies towards its most valued asset-the people had to be reviewed and amended to the following: Insight being owned and managed by a sole proprietor, have always followed a top-bottom strategy, as a new practice, the top management is now opening the door for a bottom-top strategy thus taking advantage of any new ideas, innovations and changes that can increase the magazine’s share in the Egyptian Market. Insight magazine is considering the hire of a mix of young generation, skilled reputable writers and foreign calibers as well, no matter how high they get paid. This mixture will help the different teams at Insight to properly manage themselves and thus achieving high productivity to the magazine. Encouraging the hire of part time employees and free lance writers; it will save cost since they will not be paid for health care benefits, pensions and many allowances offered to the full time employees. Promote new company traditions such as family outings, annual dinners. Improve the communication level between the top management and staff by involving employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible. Recognize excellent performance by implementing new exercises such as employee of the month, additional rewards for high performers. Promote career & personal growth perspectives such as succession planning, trainings, education, challenging, assignments and more. Assign a development team to cope with the recent technologies. Insight’s Culture & Behavior Insight enjoys a very friendly and supportive work environment, everyone is free to speak up their minds, and all new ideas are being appreciated, but giving that the top management of the magazine is being held by the owner, the last word is always up to them. This gives Insight’s a mix of Supportive and Autocratic behavior, any suggestions are being carefully interpreted but the final decision is always up to the owner. Insight’s culture is a Multi-directionalone, being a relatively small organization that has only four distinct function, each department member considers themselves as a part of his function only forgetting that they are a member of a whole body. Insight’s Organization Structure Insight’s organization was structured based on functional groups centered on clusters of titles each led by chief function officer with complete responsibility for their respective business unit as per the below chart. draw:frame} STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION The implementation of organization strategy involves the application of the management process to obtain the desired results. Particularly, strategy implementation includes designing the organization's structure, allocating resources, developing information and decision process, and managing human resources, including such areas as the reward system, approaches to leadership, and staffing. Strategy mplementation skills are not easily mast ered, unfortunately. In fact, virtually all managers find implementation the most difficult aspect of their jobs – more difficult than strategic analysis or strategy formulation. Marketing & Sales Strategy Implementation: Implementing a rock-solid marketing strategy is probably the most important factor contributing to the long-term sustainable success of any business and the one that will set Insight ahead of its competitors. Insight’s main task is to get its message across the market, make sure that its unique selling proposition is articulated in all of its marketing messages, campaigns, and sales channels through the following implementation: HR Strategy Implementation The HR Strategy has at its core maximizing the potential talent of Insight’s staff. Each of these strategic themes are interlinked and are the strategic objectives for each of these themes facilitates the delivery of the Institutional Strategy, the Financial Strategy, enhanced organizational performance and Operational Plans. This is illustrated as follows: {draw:frame} In implementing the desired strategy of Insight to resolve the sales and distribution, The HR function have done the following: â€Å"Get the big picture â€Å" of the whole company, to provide the readers with the ultimate life experience through lifestyle magazine and becoming No. 1 magazine the Egyptian market; Recruit a mix of the young generation and skilled reputable writers and employees who receive high pay and are trained to participate in self managing teams. By implementing this strategy it will result in employee satisfaction and high productivity to the magazine. Hire part time employees and free lance writers; it will not save cost since they will not be paid for health care benefits, pensions and many allowances offered to the full time employees. Encourage diversity in nationality, and age as in aligning with the Egyptian labor law, this strategy has proven higher productivity inside the magazine. Respect employees at all times. Listen to them deeply; use their ideas. Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results. Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the magazine whenever possible thus increasing the loyalty and sense of belonging to the magazine Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance. Value and encourage the magazine traditions through events and gatherings like Family day and annual company dinner. Increase the employees’ skill by providing them with the best training opportunities to enhance their competencies and develop their skills. Outsource professional distributors in an attempt to reach the target. EVALUATION & CONTROL Although the term â€Å"monitoring and evaluation† tends to get run together as if it is only one thing, monitoring and evaluation are, in fact, two distinct sets of organizational activities, related but not identical. Monitoring is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project progresses, aimed at improving the efficiency of organization. If done properly, it is an invaluable tool for good management that provides a useful base for evaluation. Evaluation is the comparison of actual project impacts against the agreed strategic plans. It can be formative (taking place during the life of a project or organization, with the intention of improving the strategy or way of functioning of the project or organization). It can also be summative (drawing learning from a completed project or an organization that is no longer functioning) During the planning and implementation phases, it was crucial to conduct a reporting mechanism to monitor whether the right milestones have been taken towards the targeted goals or not as well as to ensure that employees are keeping pace with the progress. This monitoring was done by Chief executives submitting a monthly report to the Chairman as well as scheduling a quarterly meeting to continually keep an eye on the sales, client feedback, foresee what could be done for improvement of any new ideas that would help in increasing the sales of upcoming editions, and finally to ensure that the business and functional levels are keeping track with the corporate objectives and goals. On the other hand, daily meetings are held in each functional department to continually monitor and evaluate work quality and business progress. After an extensive monitoring process the HR strategy was found week in the following points: No HR interview was made any manager interviews his calibers from his own aspects and cultural background. Huge cultural gaps between foreign and local employees No relatively clear difference between the full time and part time employees in term of salaries and benefits which creates unfairness and injustice among them. The rewards were not given in great value and are not fairly given to all employees. Trainings were not fairly distributed among employees. In order to evaluate the magazine performance we have found the following diagnostic checklist items: CONCLUSION Insight is a local English magazine which has been in the Egyptian market for more than a decade. Although Insight enjoys good cash revenue from the top class advertisements it provides, it is struggling with a marketing and distribution setback which gave the top management the sufficient motives to alter the current strategies followed in order to reclaim its top position in the Egyptian market. Insight’s top management first steps of creating new strategies started by setting a new mission of developing the marketing function followed by an external and internal scanning of all possible threats and opportunities that could in a way or another affect the strategies. The scanning that was done helped Insight distinguish its competitive advantage which consequently assisted in the formulation of new corporate, business and functional strategies. After implementing the previously formulated strategies precise monitoring and evaluation were done in order to conclude the gap areas that resulted in the implementation. One of the gap areas that were found was the wrong implementation of hiring foreigners without giving them a proper induction on the Egyptian culture which lead to a huge conflict in ideas between the local and foreign staff. As a final conclusion to the previous report, Insight top management should investigate what went wrong during the implementation of the HR strategy that lead such gaps and how to overcome these gaps to properly implement the functional human resources strategy that will ultimately reflect its success in Insight’s overall performance. {draw:frame}

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) remains a pivotal figure in American culture nearly thirty-five years after his death.   In his twenties and thirties, he was one of jazz’s foremost innovators, elevating the instrumental solo to a new and important role and helping invent the jazz style of singing.   Later in life, he became a widely popular entertainer rather than an innovator, a sort of â€Å"living legend† who preserved the music of yesteryear and projected a friendly, comical, widely imitated persona by which he is still remembered. Louis Armstrong was born in a poor section of New Orleans on 4 August 1901 but was unaware of his actual birthdate throughout his life.   He always claimed to be born on 4 July 1900, and this was accepted as fact until researchers found a birth certificate long after Armstrong’s death (Wikipedia). Fatherless and virtually motherless (his mother was a part-time prostitute who left him in his older sister’s care), he received little schooling and worked a series of menial jobs from an early age, including delivering coal and working for a family of Jewish junk merchants.   Despite a harsh, impoverished childhood in one of New Orleans’ most crime-ridden neighborhoods, he developed the optimistic personality that many Americans recognize. His musical training began at New Orleans’ Colored Waifs Home, where Armstrong was sent in early 1913 for firing a pistol in the air during a New Year’s Eve celebration.   During his 17 months at the home, he received instruction on the cornet and later recalled, â€Å"The place was more like a health center or a boarding school than a boys’ jail,† though the home was known for its harsh, militaristic discipline (Bergreen 73). After his release, he joined the city’s fertile musical community by performing in local jazz bands under Fate Marable (who taught him his strong professional ethic) and Kid Ory, as well as on riverboats. After meeting Joseph â€Å"King† Oliver and joining his pioneering jazz band, Armstrong became an exceptionally skilled instrumentalist and traveled to Chicago with Oliver, where he began recording in 1922 and went on his own within a few years. After leaving King Oliver’s band, Armstrong’s career flourished.   Biographer Laurence Bergreen writes, †It was as though Louis had taken [jazz] out of its infancy and given it a powerful breath of new life and independence† (Bergreen 200).   He formed a series of bands, most notably the Hot Five, with whom he had numerous hits (the first being â€Å"Muskrat Ramble† in 1926) and displayed his improvisational and interpretive skills.   Though he began as a trumpeter, he began singing as well during this period, using his unconventional, gravelly voice to develop scat singing, which other jazz artists adopted. He attained especially high standing among other jazz musicians for his virtuosity and ability to translate jazz (formerly the music of New Orleans’ street parades and dives) to records.   Bergreen notes that Armstrong â€Å"was the first important jazz musician to anticipate that his legacy would be actual recordings, not half-forgotten memories† (Bergreen 219), showing a shrewd side of his personality because early jazz artists (like its supposed creator, Buddy Bolden) were never able to reach a wider audience simply through live performance. After World War II, Armstrong was no longer a cutting-edge innovator, since jazz had by now evolved away from its New Orleans roots and transformed into swing and bebop.   However, says Bergreen, Armstrong â€Å"carved himself a unique niche in the music world . . . as a newly minted traditionalist† (Bergreen 433).   He began performing not only the New Orleans â€Å"hot† jazz he helped create but also pop, blues, Tin Pan Alley, and show tunes, winning him great popularity with the public but critical scorn. According to music critic Gary Giddins, â€Å"he was excoriated for playing pop tunes, fronting a swing band, appearing with media starts, sticking to a standardized repertory, engaging in vaudeville routines . . . mugging, entertaining† (Giddins 4).   However, this second phase of his career is as important as the first, since he never lost stature among his peers, produced some vital work (especially his collaborations with Ella Fitzgerald), and won an even wider following late in life. Armstrong was largely apolitical but strongly supported the civil rights movement, having experienced the effects of segregation his entire life.   He harshly criticized Dwight Eisenhower’s perceived inaction during the 1957 Little Rock school integration crisis, called Arkansas’ segregationist governor Orval Faubus â€Å"ignorant,† and snubbed the federal government by refusing to participate in a government-sponsored tour of the Soviet Union in 1958 (Wikipedia).   His warm, effusive, laid-back personality and friendliness toward people regardless of race led some to incorrectly dub him an â€Å"Uncle Tom,† though he generally refused to make race a personal issue. Armstrong essentially left two legacies – as innovator and entertainer.   Before reaching middle age, Armstrong’s accomplishments included his helping define jazz in its earliest years, as well as making the solo an important element of modern music.   In addition, he helped define jazz vocals and popularize scat singing, long a key element of jazz. After age forty, his second legacy was his familiarity to the American public and abroad, and he cared little about how some critics dismissed him for joining the cultural mainstream.   According to Giddins, Armstrong played almost any kind of material because he knew â€Å"that no song could diminish him and that he could lift most songs beyond their earthy calling† (Giddins 4).   According to Bergreen, â€Å"He was not just America’s greatest musical performer, he was also a character of epic proportions† (Bergreen 1).   More than thirty years after his death, Louis Armstrong remains one of the most recognizable Americans, hailed as both a creator and performer more than thirty years after his death. REFERENCES Anonymous.   †Louis Armstrong.†Ã‚   Wikipedia.   4 November 2005.   . Bergreen, Laurence.   Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life.   New York: Broadway Books, 1997. Giddins, Gary.   Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong.   New York: Da Capo Press, 1988.      

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony government was able to be, at least partially, simultaneously theocratic, democratic, oligarchic, and authoritarian. It was able to be partly theocratic because of the doctrine of the covenant, which stated that the whole purpose of government was to enforce God’s laws. God’s laws applied to everyone, even nonbelievers. Everyone also had to pay taxes for the government-supported church. This meant that religious leaders held enormous power in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They were able to effectively control who was admitted to the church by conducting public interrogations of people who claimed to have experienced conversion. The last reason it was partially theocratic was one of the main governors, John Winthrop, believed he had a â€Å"calling† from God to lead the Massachusetts colony. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was partially democratic for a couple of reasons. First, the freemen elected the governor and his associates each year. The freemen also voted for a representative assembly called the General Court. The Colony was also partly an oligarchy. It was an oligarchy because only Puritans could be freemen and were eligible to vote. Puritans were even more limited because religious leaders could control who was admitted into the church. Finally, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was partially authoritarian. This was partially because many of the residents were Puritans. Puritans shared in the â€Å"Protestant Ethic†, which involved serious commitment to work and to engagement in worldly pursuits. Everyone was held to these standards because of this. Everyone was expected to do this, even if they weren’t Puritan.

Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 18

Case study - Essay Example Finally, as analyzers, Coke continue to undertake research and scan the environment for changes in demands and customers’ needs and preferences. Porter’s framework uses the five forces: rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitutes and threat of new entrants. Coke’s success in surpassing the performance of its competitors has been due to their continued commitment to review these five forces and determine strategies would effectively address defined threats and risks and tap existing opportunities. innovative and competitive strategies, and responding to the needs of the clientele have contributed to their leadership in a global scale. By consistently delivering high quality and affordable products, coupled with effective strategies for promotions, place, and price, Coke has sustained market profitability and assumed competitive advantage over its competitors. The most appropriate competitive strategy that would allow an organization to develop a sustainable competitive advantage is offering a product with distinct competency that is difficult to copy by competitors. For Coke, their secret formula for the classic Coke had remained confidential and no competitor could copy or closely resemble the distinct taste that made Coke number 1. For Butler, the design strategy that would provide a consistency in Coke’s brand should apply the strategies as defender, prospector and analyzer, in creating a unified design for the global market. Butler’s evaluation of the 450 brands should streamline, delete, replace and maintain only those that are clearly identifiable to Coke. A unified and consistent brand would actually minimize costs and thereby maximize revenues that would further increase Coke’s financial performance and success. The competitive strategies have been successful for Coke due to their ability to implement different strategies as deemed appropriate for the

Nutrition and Illness Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Nutrition and Illness - Research Paper Example The changes in dietary patterns in the population, increase in the use of tobacco and reduced engagement in physical activities have contributed to chronic illnesses, which are related to poor dietary habits. This paper gives a critical analysis on the nutrition practices of the world populations in relation to their contribution to the prevalence of chronic illnesses in addition to the implications on the nursing practice. Statement of purpose The chronic illnesses, which result from poor dietary habits, include obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and some types of cancer, stroke, and hypertension. These illnesses are caused by the changes in dietary life styles in the population and thus leading to disability. Death would also result from these conditions when they become worse. These illnesses affect negatively on the economy because of the high health budget due the loss of human resources (Daniel et al, 2011). Scientific evidence demonstrates that nutrition plays a major role in occurrence of chronic illnesses (Sticher, Smith & Davidson, 2010). Moreover, the alteration of a persons’ diet and changes in the physical activity plays a significant role in determining whether the individual will develop the illness later in life. However, it is notable that even though research on the relationship between diet and illnesses shows a contribution to chronic illnesses, policies and practices have not be en changed to ensure a healthy society. In the developing economies, the food policies are focused on preventing under nutrition but the focus on the chronic illnesses, which are caused by poor health, is neglected. Review of the Literature The energy balance equation determines the weight of an individual. The rate at which the body spends energy determines the health of that person (Burns, Gross & Zanin, 2010). When there is more consumption of calories and fats the chances of one becoming obese increases. The possibility of being obese is facilitated by food consumption, which is not proportionate to the energy breakdown. This is what leads to energy imbalance in the body, which is the basis for chronic obesity. The lifestyles of people have been changed by civilization and urbanization. There is reduced physical activity in urban areas as compared to the rural communities in the developing nations. The energy expenditure by the body is reduced drastically in a sedentary lifestyl e. The work environment in urban centers for example makes an individual confined to the work desk. Moreover, competition among businesses has led to long working hours, which does not allow people, time to engage in physical exercise. The prevalence of obesity is greater in developed countries as compared to the developing economies. In addition, urban centers have more obese people in comparison to the rural environments. This is a result to the differences in lifestyles. In developing countries and rural communities, the lifestyles of individuals promote physical activities, which encourage consumption of energy by the body. There has been a global epidemic of obesity and overweight because of the modern lifestyles which advance storage of fat in the body. Reduced physical activity is demonstrated by the fact that people drive to work. This promotes conversion of nutrients into fat for storage. Reduced physical activities eventually lead to accumulation of fat in the body that ca uses obesity and overw