Layout Strategy - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 17 Words: 5094 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/09/14 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? 1. INTRODUCTION: Strategy is about deciding where you want to go and how you mean to get there. A strategy is a declaration of intent: This is what we want to do and this is how we intend to do it. Strategies define longer-term goals but they are more concerned with how those goals should be achieved. Strategy is the means to create value. A good strategy is one that works, one that guides purposeful action to deliver the required result. Moreover, companies everywhere are changing the way they manage in order to be more competitive. A key measure of management in the 1990s and beyond lies in results attained relative to the opportunities and constraints created by rapid environmental change. A primary way to gain competitive advantage is to manage people more effectively. Developing and implementing human resource strategies ensures that actions in managing human resources are aligned with competitive demand, as reflected in business strategies. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Layout Strategy" essay for you Create order To win in the global marketplace, companies are seeking to provide distinctly superior customer service, develop new capabilities and employee commitment, pursue innovation and creative initiative, and manage change through teamwork and cooperation. Most are striving to manage with fewer employees, fewer management levels, and more flexibility in management practices. 2. GENERAL BUSINESS STRATEGIES OF VISION OIL COMPANY Vision Oil Company’s strategy is more upstream, profitable downstream. Upstream is about searching and recovering more oil and gas. Downstream is about refining and delivery of products to their customers. The profitable down stream is Vision Oil Company’s mission statement. Vision Oil Company’s strategy is more upstream; however their profitable downstream remains on track. Vision Oil Company levers a strong, wide ranging energy portfolio to meet the challenge of providing energy in a secure and responsible way. In their upstream business, they are continuing to focus on developing new projects with long and productive lives. Vision Oil Company’s strategy seeks to reinforce their position as a leader in the industry and provide investors with a competitive and sustained total shareholder return. Their commitment to technology and innovation continues to be at the core of Vision Oil Company’s strategy. They use a range of technologies and skills to explore for oil and gas in a ways that reduce the risk of error. Vision Oil Company’s strategic plan is to streamline, which means reducing risks, costs, complexity of processes and increasing downstream profitability. For the customer this makes it easier to work with Vision Oil Company across the globe. For the employees of Vision Oil Company it means getting things right first time and every time, and access to accurate and meaningful management material as well as making efficient use of time and energy. The streamline strategy will improve the way Vision Oil Company does its business with its customers. The streamline strategy has two components, which include customer service relocation (CRS) and global system application (GSAP). GSAP looks at processes and technologies, which replaces existing fragmented IT systems with a single global system. Therefore things will be done more consistently, quickly and efficiently. Looking at streamline, we come to the conclusion that it will prevent errors and at the same time the processes will be the same worldwide. 3. HR STRATEGY OF VISION OIL COMPANY Before we outline the HR strategy of Vision Oil Company, we need to define strategy. The word strategy originates from the word strategia which means generalship. But we prefer to refer to Johnson et al (2008:3) that summarizes strategy as follows: â€Å"strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, which achieves the advantage in a changing environment through configuration of resources. Therefore strategy can be used at all levels within the organisation. Having already discussed the general strategy of Vision Oil Company, we would like to further discuss the HR strategies of Vision Oil Company. The HR strategies of Vision Oil Company evolve mainly around two HR functions, namely, attracting, retaining and maintaining the employees and then training and development of employees. We will firstly discuss attracting and retaining and maintaining of employees. The attraction of human resources involves the requisition of required human resource, further more it deals with: †¢ Recruitment Selection †¢ Hiring/placement †¢ Induction †¢ And socialization Meanwhile retaining and maintaining is more about the utilisation and conservation of the organisation’s Human resources such as performance and appraisal management, training and development, career and succession management, compensation and reward, collective bargaining, communication motivation and leadership, as well as maintaining sound relations. Having established that, Vision Oil Company emphasises its HR strategy around cost effectiveness while attracting. We mean that as a large Company, when it comes to attracting Vision Oil Company recruits and selects through employment agencies and use two well known agencies based in Cape Town. The placement fee that Vision Oil has negotiated with their agencies is 10% instead of the usual 17% cost. Furthermore the risk lies with the agency not with Vision; therefore Vision Oil Company does not spend time with recruitment, but consults the employment agencies. Vision Oil Company meets with their employment agencies on a frequent basis in order to discuss recruitment needs. At these meetings, they will also discuss the evolution of employees hired. The employment agencies provide temporary, permanent as well as contract placement to Vision Oil Company. The employment agencies come in handy by identifying people with talent and recruiting at graduate level. Vision believes that recruiting the best people saves money. Vision Oil Company sets specific guidelines for the agencies when it comes to recruiting potential candidates. Agencies are required to look at the level of competence, the individual’s ability to adapt to change, leadership capabilities, business acumen, and whether the potential candidate has a strong sense of the bigger picture of the business. Then once Vision has acquired the right people, they then put measures in place in order to retain these employees by offering consistency in salaries, bench market and bonuses. Vision Oil Company gives performance bonus to its employees on a monthly basis on top of the normal salary. The performance bonuses start at 20% and can be more depending of the extent of the employee’s good performance. Vision assesses the current estimated potential of employees by giving employees extra projects. A mentor is assigned to guide employees who have been targeted to be future leaders, hence exposing them to different training. For example, a future leader in his first year is assigned a mentor who helps him or her to be exposed to other roles, the second year he gets assigned to a project mentor, the third year, he gets assigned to a specific area of work to look after, and finally on the 4th year he gets appointed on a team leader or supervisor role. So the focus is on a capacity, achievement and relationship. Other aspect on which the HR strategy orients itself is globalisation of the organisation. For example, recently there has been a change HR system whereby the company has moved to an online employee management system. This system has been created in order for employees to get the best use of HR system. For example employees can now apply for leave on-line by completing a leave application form. Employees can also review available leave on-line. This focus on changing the HR system to an online system is in order to promote a paper-less environment. Another example of using an online HR system is that external job-seekers can browse available positions and complete an application on line. Using soft skills for performance is part of Vision’s HR strategy. How people accommodate themselves within a diverse cultural environment due to different languages within the organization. For example, Dutch culture, French culture versus South African culture and others. Finally, socialisation comes in through events such as the year end function where all the employees get to meet each other. This event is usually a dance with refreshments – HR is to sure keep in mind health, safety, security and environmental policies. 4. THE TWO HR FUNCTIONS WITHIN VISION OIL COMPANY Normally the HR department within the organisation possesses more than two HR functions but the two HR functions within the HR department which are most critical to the effective and efficient implementation of the organisational strategy are: Recruitment and Training and Development. 4. 1. RECRUITMENT FUNCTION The Recruitment Function â€Å"is the process of acquiring applicants who are available and qualified to fill positions in the organisation† (Grobler et al, 2006: 166). The recruitment procedure should be followed at all times as all applicants personal details are treated confidentially. The first recruitment method that will be used to acquire applicants for a job is the one of a recruitment agency. This method saves the organisation money by reducing recruitment and selection costs. Vision Oil Company will communicate to the recruitment agency well in advance giving them clear parameters of what is expected in a potential employee. The recruitment agency will then be responsible for advertising the available position, locating and screening potential, short-listing candidates and coordinating interviews. The agency will then send the final selection to Vision Oil Company. This saves Vision Oil Company the time and energy invested into doing this procedure themselves. The recruitment agencies will only send those candidates through to Vision Oil who have the best chance of being re-interviewed and perhaps being hired. On the other hand, the HR specialist proceeds to assist employer with the task of sourcing, interviewing and the accurate placement of relevant job seekers in applicable job vacancies. [ NOT SURE IF THIS FITS IN, MIGHT NEED MORE ELABORATION? ] The recruitment agency is considered to be the bridge between job seekers and employer which is the organisation and in this case Vision Oil Company. This ensures that the right candidate ends up in the right role and fulfils the staffing requirement of the employer. It also provides the core utility of human resource management, candidate sourcing and vacancy placement. Thus, the organisation as employer outsource their staffing requirements to multiple recruitment agencies so as to amplify his reach to a greater pool of job seekers and thus to improve his chances of finding the perfect fit between candidate and vacancy. Vision Oil prides itself in developing talented individuals by means of the Graduate Develop Programme. One can build a rewarding career, with one of the world’s most successful businesses, in any of our existing classes of business or functions. Vision Oil Company is often present at the Career Fairs of the different tertiary institutions around the country. In these different tertiary institutions, the students come and visit the company’s stand and they are given more information about a career at Vision Oil and what they will be offered as an employee. 4. 2. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT 4. 2. 1 THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING DEVELOPMENT: To begin this section, I would like to highlight the importance of training and development as an HR function by listing some of the advantages that it can bring to an organisation. 1. Training and developments aids in the optimal utilisation of Human Resources within an organisation by helping employees to achieve organisational and individual goals 2. Training and development helps to provide an opportunity to development the human resources technical and behavioral skills within an organisation. This ultimately also helps the employees in attaining personal growth. 3. Training and development can help increase job knowledge and skills of employees at each level. 4. Increases can be seen in productivity of employees through training and development. This further helps the organisation in achieving its long-term goals. 5. Training and developing employees can lead to improvements in organisational effectiveness. 6. Training and development helps build positive perceptions and feelings about the organisation. 7. Training and development helps in creating healthy working environments. It can also help build good employee relationships. This aids in the alignment of individual and organisational goals. 8. Lastly training and development aids in developing leadership skills, motivation, loyalty and better attitudes. Visions Oil’s business strategy identifies key points where employees are concerned. I have listed them below; †¢ Identify people with talent and recruit at graduate level. †¢ Retain people †¢ Develop the talent pool of the business over 4 years †¢ Initiate mentoring programs A clear link can be drawn between the importance of training and developing in order for Vision Oil to reach its organisational objectives. This also highlights the importance of a successful HR strategy in reaching strategic objectives of a company. 4. 2. 2 VISION OIL COMPANY – TRAINING DEVELOPMENT The below segments have been taken from *Vision Oil’s General Business Principles manual – please refer to the underlined sections. I have chosen to highlight these specifically as I feel they clearly indicate Vision Oil’s commitment to their employees with regards to training and development. Our Values *Vision Oil Company employees share a set of core values honesty, integrity and respect for people. We also firmly believe in the fundamental importance of trust, openness, teamwork and professionalism, and pride in what we do. Responsibilities *Vision Oil Companies recognise five areas of responsibility. It is the duty of management continuously to assess the priorities and discharge these inseparable responsibilities on the basis of that assessment. c. To employees To respect the human rights of our employees and to provide them with good and safe working conditions, and competitive terms and conditions of employment. To promote the development and best use of the talents of our employees; to create an inclusive work environment where every employee has an equal opportunity to develop his or her skills and talents. To encourage the involvement of employees in the planning and direction of their work; to provide them with channels to report concerns. We recognise that commercial success depends on the full commitment of all employees. The name of the company has been changed as requested by the company HR person in order to protect company strategy 4. 2. 3 DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION DEVELOPMENT: According to Vision Oil Company’s business profile found on their website – their developed definition for Diversity and Inclusion is as follows: â€Å"Diversity and inclusion means making the most of the different skills and experience peopl e of different cultures, genders and ages bring to the work place† Diversity and inclusion development aligns with the core values and business principles of Vision Oil Company. Vision Oil Company understands the value that a diverse workforce and inclusive employment practice can add to aiding in effective teamwork enhanced decision-making, increased creativity, lower absenteeism and staff turnover, and, in the end, reduced costs. Vision Oil company also fully realises the potential in having such a diverse workforce and the positive effects it has on their business strategy. The advantage is that Vision Oil Company have the ability to use employees from different backgrounds in order to help them better understand the needs of their varied customer base as well as build stronger relationships with them and other important external stakeholder groups. In order to create and maintain a diverse and inclusive workplace, Vision Oil Company actively supports attraction, development, retention and promotion of diverse talent from different regions. They also aim to increase the amount of women in leadership positions as well as offer specialised training programs with the aim of promoting inclusion. . 2. 4 TRAINING DEVELOPMENT STUDENTS Vision Oil spends much time and energy targeting and investing in students who are interested in doing internship work. They have gone as far as developing a first class student internship program whereby they are able to source many talented students who soon become future employees. One of the reasons for this is that Vision Oil hope to secure talented students before they are absorbed by the competition or fall into other industries. Internship programs can last anywhere from four weeks to 1 year and students are able to receive many benefits, for example: †¢ They are afforded the opportunity see inside the energy industry †¢ They are able to take part and be involved in real projects †¢ They get to deal with actual day to day business challenges †¢ They get to work with other Vision Oil employees and students †¢ They receive valuable feedback from senior managers Internships with Vision Oil are paid and taken very seriously. Students gain valuable work experience and are given real work responsibilities and business challenges to deal with. The aim of the Vision Oil’s intern programs are to ensure that students can get maximum benefit from their experience with the company as well as take away a positive image of the company. Vision Oil tailors internships around the abilities and interests of each student. The performance of the interns is continuously assessed. Regular feedback meetings keep the interns updated as to where they are doing well and weaker areas are highlighted and worked on. The aim of regular performance feedback is further develop skills, knowledge and business acumen of the interns. The below resource has been taken from the Vision Oil Website and details the experience of Jide an ex-intern from the Vision Oil Intern Program. Jide highlights the various opportunities, responsibilities and successes that he was exposed to through his internship. Meet Jide A work placement/internship with *Vision Oil Company Gas Power led to real responsibility and challenge and a job offer too. If you think work placements/internships involve little responsibility, youre wrong. Heres what I did during mine. I redesigned the procedures manual for a $3 billion Liquefied Natural Gas plant, which meant taking an in-depth look at issue management methods. I created a sensitivity analysis model to help the negotiating team make informed decisions on a proposed pipeline project. I researched four African countries Angola, Mozambique, Cameroon and Gabon preparing suitability reports and recommendations for the business development team. And I dentified the need for a website, created a structure and wrote a report its now gone forward to the build stage. An internship with *Vision Oil Company definitely stretches you and broadens your thinking. *The name of the company has been changed as requested by the company HR person in order to protect company strategy 4. 2. 5 TRAINING DEVELOPMENT GRADUATE Another on of the highly acclaimed training and development programs offered by Vision Oil is their Graduate Program. All graduates that join Vision Oil Company are automatically entered into the Graduate Development Program. The aim of the Graduate Development Program is to fast track high potential graduates to first line managerial roles within 3 years and to prepare them for senior leadership roles in longer-term. Vision Oil Company takes the personal and professional development of every employee very seriously. Vision Oil has been forward thinking by recognizing that people are what is largely behind their success. They have always been openly committed to providing the training needed to fully optimise the skill and potential of all their employees. Graduates are provided with a variety of training over the course of their program. Training is tailored in order to meet the individual’s personal development and business needs. During the graduate program you be exposed to many of the following training and development programs. †¢ Managerial and leadership skills †¢ Technical and functional skills †¢ Training for recognized professional qualifications †¢ And even English for those who do not have it as a first language Further training that one will receive is: On-the-job learning –enabling graduates to move both sideways and upwards through the business †¢ Training for recognised professional qualifications either through external organisations or Vision Oil Companys own extensive training services and facilities †¢ Personal development programs †¢ Direction and support – from mentorship program and regular appraisals with line managers. 4. 2. 6 TRAINING DEVELOPMENT †“ALL NEW EMPLOYEES *VISION OIL COMPANY LIFE PROGRAM. All a new employees starting out at Vision Oil Company will undergo tailored training and a series of inductions as well as the *Vision Oil Company Life program. Vision Oil Company Life is a highly experiential and interactive program designed with the aim of developing leadership potential. This program also allows employees to reflect on their personal direction, interpersonal effectiveness and business awareness qualities. The *Vision Oil Company Life Program consists of the following aspects: †¢ Five intensive days introducing *Vision Oil Company’s global businesses †¢ Development of business, interpersonal and leadership skills †¢ Networking with other employees from around the world †¢ Challenging of perceptions of yourself and the organisation †¢ Self-confidence building Business awareness *The name of the company has been changed as requested by the company HR person in order to protect co mpany strategy 4. 2. 7 VISION OIL KEY PRINCIPLES FOR EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT The key principles that form that basis of all Vision Oils development programs are as follows: 1. ASSESS DEVELOP – REASSESS After an employee’s skills are assess – feedback and insight is provided highlighting specific strengths and development areas. Each employee is encouraged to recreate an effective development plan with their supervisor based on their strengths and development areas 2. INTERTWINING OF BUSINESS AND DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES Vision Oil understands that business objectives cannot be separated from personal development objectives. In the development plan of each employee is is clearly indicated how their individual impact on the organisation will help it grow. This can become an enormous motivator for employees. 3. THE STRONGEST LEADERS USE THEIR STRENGTHS In order to perform at his/ her best, every employee needs to know what his/her strengths and development needs are. Vision Oil works with each employee to achieve the required functional, personal and leadership competences. . 2. 8 IN CONCLUSION – TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Through the above mentioned examples of a few of Vision Oil Company’s training and development schemes, it is easy to see and understand that as a global company, Vision Oil, are fully behind their employees as a resource aimed at effectively achieving the companies strategic goals. Training and development as an HR func tion has been clearly build up over time and evaluated and implemented to become a complete company function running alongside the company’s strategic objectives. Vision Oil understands the importance of investing in their employees in order to maximize potential, delivery, skills, development, personal and business growth and many more key elements which aid in achievement of key business goals and the successful running of this global empire. 5. SWOT ANALYSIS 5. 1. INTERNAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF VISION OIL Vision is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. Their aim is to meet the energy needs of society in ways that are economically, socially and environmentally viable, now and in the future. The objectives of the Vision Group are to engage efficiently, responsibly and profitably in oil, oil products, gas, chemicals and other selected businesses and to participate in the search for and development of other sources of energy to meet evolving customer needs and the world’s growing demand for energy. They believe that oil and gas will be integral to the global energy needs for economic development fro many decades to come. Their role is to ensure that thy extract and deliver them profitably and in environmentally and socially responsible ways. They seek a high standard of performance, maintaining a strong long-term and growing position in the competitive environments in which they choose to operate. They aim to work closely with tier customers, their partners and policymakers to advance more efficient and sustainable use of energy and natural resources. As a global energy company they set high standards of performance and ethical behaviours. They are judged by how they act, their reputation is upheld y how they live up to their core values, honesty, integrity and respect for people. The Vision General Business Principles, Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics help everyone at Vision acts in line with these values and comply with all relevant legislation and regulations. Vision Group companies wee one of the first global companies to state and share their beliefs when they published their General Business Principles in 1976. As part of these principles, they commit to contribute to sustainable development, balancing short and long-term interests and integrating economic, environmental and social considerations into their decision making. All Vision companies are expected to comply with the Vision General Business Principles. In joint ventures, they use their influence to persuade their partners to adopt and apply principles consistent with theirs. They also expect contractors to conform to the principles in all aspects of tier work with Vision companies. Vision is a global company operating in a challenging world. Their Code of Conduct guides employees on how to apply the VGBP in line with their core values of ‘honesty, integrity and respect. It provides practical advice on how to comply with laws and regulations and how to relate to customers, communities and colleagues. Regulatory requirements placed upon them have never been more complex or demanding. The Vision Code of Conduct clarifies the standards they expect their employees to follow and the behaviours they expect them to adopt. The Vision Code of Conduct covers topics such as: National and International Trade, Health Safety and the Environment, Personal and Business Integrity, Financial and Asset Protection, People and Information Management. The Code of Ethics is for Executive Directors and Senior Financial Officers of the Vision Group. This Code of Ethics governs how each of Vision companies groups conducts their affairs. Vision’s key strengths include development and application of technology, and the financial and project management skills that allow them to undertake large oil and gas projects across all of their businesses. They also benefit from having a diverse international business portfolio and customer-focused businesses built around the strength of the Vision brand. As such, they are well placed to be preferred partners for governments and other resource holders, now and in the future. In HR they are responsible for optimizing the success of the Vision business through the effective management and deployment of their most valuable resource – people. 5. 2. External Opportunities and Threats OPPORTUNITIES ? Re-establishment of image ? Make amends with people affected by operation ? Creating parties which will be held accountable for unethical practices ? Establish partnership with local stakeholders ? Extensive research and development Explore new fields Creating a new dependable, ethical culture is daunting for Vision Oil. The least that the company could do is to conduct an ongoing dialogue with local stakeholders who are otherwise are affected by business practices of the company. In addition, Vision Oil must venture into the development, research and promotion of renewable energy sources. The company should conduct studies and researche s about the techniques, materials and policies that would contribute in decreasing the company’s reliance on oil that is very harmful to the environment and human health. The company should also increases its demand on nuclear, solar and hydroelectric as sources of power. The exploration of potential oil fields in order to ease the dependence on Middle East oil could be another opportunity that Vision Oil could exploit. THREATS ? Continued opposition from local nationals who are affected by operations ? Continued discrediting of operations ? Continued negative images and publicity ? New oil players ? Lobby groups Biennially, new oil players emerge within the global oil industry, and they can quickly adjust to the market demands and requirements. Further, these companies are equipped with new technologies and materials in their products and are somehow less affected by state legislations and regulations which govern the use of oil and petroleum products. Lobby groups are another threat to Vision Oil wherein local and international legislations are being influenced in order to make law and statutes stricter, and in a way that it will uphold the ecological and environmental protection. Publicity and press releases are among the many avenues that lobbyists and special interest roups are using in order to convey the message while thereby damaging the reputation of the company. 6. DISCUSSION OF THE HR STRATEGY AS AN HR PROFESSIONAL In order to ensure that the two HR processes or activities effectively contribute to the overall organisational strategy, our HR strategy will be focus on the following: SKILLS DEVELOPMENT We have found a direct threat to Vision Oil Company is the skills shortage in the South African labour pool. In ord er to compensate for this threat, our strategy will involve ensuring that we implement extensive skills training for all staff. Staff skills will also be evaluated regularly in order to ensure that each employee is constantly developing the required skills to perform at his or her best. These evaluations will also aid us in identifying which areas or work tasks employees find the most difficult so that we know specifically which areas of the job to centre training around. LANGUAGE SCARCITY Vision Oil Company needs to recruit employees who are fluent in foreign languages such as French, Dutch and Flemish. The South African labour pool does not have many people with necessary skills that can speak the required languages fluently. In order to combat this threat, we would look into the option of hiring graduates from overseas. This would save time and money that is currently being spent on language training. In addition to that, in order to remain within our legal requirement, we have to hire a certain amount of South African employees. We would like therefore look at extended the current language training from six weeks to six months or even a year. This will help employees that are not French, Dutch or Flemish speaking originally to come to grip with the languages better and instilling more confidence in the employee. It will also aid the company because more South African employees will then be able to be placed in greater roles usually requiring foreign employees. RETENTION Many international competitors of Vision Oil such as Schumberger and Chevron have begun infiltrating the South African market. This means that the labour pool becomes smaller due to the Human Resources being absorbed quicker and my more companies. Our strategy in order to retain employees would be to implement various team building and incentive programs. For instance we would like to arrange a weekly lunch for all employees. We would allocate a day of the week where a cooked meal will be served with refreshments. We feel that this will contribute to good relationships amongst employees and promote a positive working environment. In addition to that, we would also like to implement departmental competitions and incentives where we would have different competitions and schemes running. Employees would be able t win prizes based on individual or departmental performance. The prizes that we would offer would be for example holiday packages nationally and internationally. We feel that this will help increase employee’s motivation, team-work and again promote a pleasant work environment. 7. CONCLUSION 8. REFERENCES 1. Financial Analysis  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Vision Oil. Report. Research and Market Retrieved on www. researcghandmarkets. com/reports/353424/. The Top Ten Oil and Gas Companies. Industry Report. Gravitie Limited. 2. Website Reference www. shell. com

Alzheimers Disease, The Third Leading Cause of Death

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been ranked the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. New research suggests the ways of identifying the causes of death had previously underestimated the impact of AD, a disease that robs memory and physical abilities in seniors (3). The Alzheimer’s Association says the disease cost the US $203 billion in 2013, and by 2025, an estimated 7.1 million people will suffer from the disease (12). Recent decades have focused on ï ¬ nding genetic causes. But now, researchers are looking at how environmental factors may interact with genetics. One genetic factor associated with late-onset AD is called apolipoprotein E (APOE), a gene on chromosome 19 that makes a protein that carries cholesterol and other types of fat in the blood stream. The APOE gene has 3 alleles. APOE2 appears to reduce the risk of AD while APOE3 doesn’t seem to affect the risk at all. But APOE4 is recognized to increase it. 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It is the most common form of dementia, and it is found in around sixty to eighty percent of all cases of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a progressive disorder (physical ailment whose course in most cases is the worsening, growth, or spread of the disease), and it isRead MoreAlzheimer s Disease Is The Most Significant Risk Factor1074 Words   |  5 PagesAlzheimer s Disease Abstract Alzheimer’s disease currently represents the second leading cause of death in people older than 65 years residing in the modern world. (1) Census records attest to this assertion, which has prompted medical researchers to further investigate the etiology and course of development of the disease in order to better treat the debilitating condition. This paper investigates how Alzheimer’s entered the medical lexicon and how its definition has shifted over the past century

The Secret of Ella and Micha Chapter 24 Free Essays

Ella â€Å"Are you sure you want to do this?† I ask Lila for the thousandth time. She piles the last box into her trunk and slides her glasses over her eyes. â€Å"Hmmm†¦ let me think. We will write a custom essay sample on The Secret of Ella and Micha Chapter 24 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Go back to a home where I’m nothing but a burden? Or go back to the campus with you and have some fun?† I pick some dirt out from underneath my fingernail. â€Å"I’m just making sure, before you get too committed.† She takes my hands and gives them a swing. â€Å"I want to go with you, okay, so go say good-bye to your dad so we can hit the road.† â€Å"Okay, I’ll be right back.† I head across the front lawn for the door when Ethan’s truck pulls up in my driveway. I walk up to his window and rest my arms on it. â€Å"So you got my message I take it?† He looks like he just came from work, grease on his face and clothes, and his dark hair has some shavings of rust in it. â€Å"Yeah, I figured I’d come and say good-bye to both of you.† I slant my head to the side and pierce him with an accusing gaze. â€Å"Don’t try and pretend that you’re here for me.† He places his hand over his heart, faking hurt. â€Å"My heart is breaking and you’re making jokes. Wow, you really are evil.† â€Å"Yeah, yeah,† I back up so he can open the door and climb out. â€Å"I’ll give you two a minute.† â€Å"I think you’ve overestimating what’s going on between the two of us.† â€Å"Well, I wouldn’t have to if one of you would tell me what’s going on.† He shrugs and then rounds the back of the truck. Rolling my eyes, I walk into the house to tell my dad I’m leaving and that I plan on coming back in a couple weeks to meet up with Dean. After a long talk on the phone with him – and I’m sure a lot of persuading from Caroline – we decided to meet up here, when Dean can take off work, and give my dad an ultimatum. It’s probably one of the hardest things I’ll have to do, because I know there will be things said during the conversation that will hurt me. I’m going to push through it, though, because now I understand what I can handle. I find him on the couch, eating a microwave dinner, with a six-pack on the table in front of him. He’s watching the television, with a cigarette in his hand, and he barely notices me enter the room. â€Å"Hey Dad,† I say from the doorway. â€Å"I’m getting ready to leave.† He rips his eyes from the television, startled, and I wonder if he was even watching it or if he was dwelling in his thoughts. â€Å"Oh, okay, well drive safely.† I rub my sweaty palms together and walk into the room. â€Å"Dean and I are going to be coming back in a few weeks.† He sets his tray down and grabs a beer. â€Å"What for?† I pat my hands on the sides of my legs uneasily. â€Å"We want to talk to you about something.† He sets the beer down. â€Å"I thought Dean was still here.† I shake my head, feeling guiltier about leaving. â€Å"He went home a week or two ago†¦ but Dad, can you try and take care of yourself a little bit better?† I take a deep breath and throw a hint out into the open. â€Å"And maybe stop drinking so much?† He glances at the row of beers in front of him like he just realized they were there. â€Å"Oh, I don’t drink that much, do I?† I sigh and sit down on the couch beside him. â€Å"You didn’t used to, but now it’s kinda all you do.† He bobs his head up and down. â€Å"Alright, I’ll try to cut back.† I know he won’t, but hopefully Dean and I will be able to convince him to go to rehab where he can get the help and counseling that he needs. I give him a hug, even though he winces. Then I walk away, hoping he’ll be okay, but knowing that until he makes the decision to change all I can do is try to help him. How to cite The Secret of Ella and Micha Chapter 24, Essay examples

Retail Loading Inventory System free essay sample

Introduction Along the rapidly advancing technology, there also arises a need to adopt the easy way to earn money. In every corner you will find an E-Load station. At the rate that people use their mobile phones and prepaid broadband connections, loading is now a basic need. It is needed for services ranging from communication, internet, bill payments and sales. A reloading business seems to be an easy way to earn money. It is because mobile phone now a day is necessity. Everyone asks for loads meaning everybody are customer. Dealers and retailers don’t need to ask people to buy their product because customer will automatically go for it when they need a mobile phone loads. This business is the most feasible business today it is because there about 35 million mobile phone subscriber and sending 1 million messages daily in the Philippine. Now a day, Entrepreneurs and consumers are investing and spending their money in easiest way to earn profit with the help of advancing technology. They can manage easily and manipulate their business without monitoring their sales per hour sales to compute the expected target income. With this, the researcher saw the opportunity to improve their business skills by creating an inventory system that will enhance their knowledge in manipulating and managing reloading business. Background of the study In a prepaid mobile phone, topping-up or reloading is needed to further enjoy the service offered by the proprietorship. There are a lot of options on how to reload a prepaid mobile phone. The most popular process is through purchasing prepaid card but due to security precautions, electronic reloading was developed. The technology of Electronic Reloading was first introduced in the Philippine by Smart Communication branding the service as SmartLoad and considered to be the world’s first electronic reloading service. The service offered micro-top ups meaning prepaid subscriber can top-up prepaid credits with small denomination. The service gained popularity and soon after other service provider also used technology in offering prepaid top-ups to its subscribers. In the Philippines, service provider uses different branding for electronic reload service. Smart Communication, Globe Telecoms and Sun Cellular use SmartLoad, AUTOLOADMax and XpressLoad respectively in branding the service. Entrepreneur and retailer of reloading businesses encountered problem in monitoring their targeted income. They also need to have an easy way to manage their returning customer by offering fast and good services. Purpose and Description The purpose of this study entitled â€Å"Retail loading inventory system of major network: GLOBE, SMART, and SUN† is to provide entrepreneur, proprietor, manager, and retailer an easy way to monitoring and updating their targeted income for the week, month and year. Aside from this, the researcher saw the need to minimize the hard work for the returning customer and need to establish inventory system to help both retailer and consumer to gain income and provide good services. Retail Loading Inventory System of major network: GLOBE, SMART, and SUN can encourage entrepreneur and retailer to have a retail loading business because this project has already formulated system to compute the targeted income of the business owner. The development of the system can help retailer to have technology advancement. Conceptual Framework This study entitled â€Å"Retail loading inventory system of major network: GLOBE, SMART, and SUN† help entrepreneur and retailer to easily manage and monitor the financial aspect of the retail loading system. By keeping the track of how much and how many times the retailer has reloaded so that the system can compute the expected target income. The target income should be enough to recover the expenses acquire and capital investment. Input Process Output The Figure above shows that the system requires the user to input the username and password for them to access the system. There was a manual process where retailer does the manual typing the list of customer reloaded to automatically compute the financial statement needed. It is resulted to Financial Statement and Files record of customer where the retailers can easily monitor and manage the targeted income and minimize hard work for multiple works. Statement of the Problem This study aimed to develop a Retail loading inventory system of major network: GLOBE, SMART and SUN. Specially, this sought answer to the following questions: 1. Do you earn more than your investment in Retail loading? a. Yes b. No c. Maybe 2. Is Retail loading profitable? a. Yes b. No c. Maybe 3. It is difficult to avail this kind of business? a. Yes b. No c. Maybe 4. Is it your retail business in demand in your place? a. Yes b. No c. Maybe Hypothesis It is hard to manage retail loading business in terms of computing targeted income you need to earn? a. Yes b. No c. Maybe Scope and Limitation The system require advance technology such as computer to the purpose of monitoring and managing financial stability of the retail loading business, minimize work of reloading the returning costumer and creating strategies to make business more in demand to the people. With the inventory system, the retailer can track and monitor the income and expenses acquired by the business and help them to know whether their income can be enough to recover the expenses acquired. It is also help them to minimize work of reloading returning customer because every number of customer is already recorded, their unique number use to track the transaction and know how many times their transact. This can be used to make promos for the returning customer. In the development of the system, software is use Microsoft Access 2010 and SQL database. The system requires atleast 300 RAM, colored monitor, keyboard and mouse. It can be used without internet connection. With regards to limitation, the system is restricted only with the retailer because he is the owner and right to making changes in the system. The system is track and monitor by each network provider which is Globe, Smart and Sun including their sub network such as TM and TalkNtext for the Globe and Smart respectively. Significance of the Project Study entitled â€Å"Retail loading inventory system of major network: GLOBE, SMART and SUN† can help to the following: To the Entrepreneurs. The developed system provides business that the investors put their money and have a business that can help economic stability. To the Retailers. The developed system helps to minimize the hard work about the multiple returning customers and formulated financial statement needed for the business. To the Manager. The developed system provides and efficient way to manage and monitoring whereabouts they can easily access the system and making strategies for the business. To the Researcher. The developed system plays a big role in helping their to discover, learn and enhance their knowledge in enhancing the business and doing the entire system. Definition of terms Technical terms The following terms are defined technically: Software. A general term used to describe a collection of computer programs. Microsoft Access. Is a database management system that combines relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with graphical user interface and software-development tools. ( office. microsoft. com/en-001/access) SQL. Short for Structured Query Language providing data manipulation (store, retrieve, update, delete) and database creation. Inventory System. A process of tracking and monitoring different network provider to maintain target income. E-Loading. Short for Electronic reloading prepaid subscriber can top-up prepaid credits in small denomination. Operational Terms The following terms are defined operationally. Retailer. A business or a person that sells load to the consumer and has thr right to access all program in the system. Username. An identification used by retailer to access the system. Password. An secret word or phrase that can identify the username to access the system. Financial statement. Include the incomes statement, and expenses acquired and real income earned. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES This chapter discussed the literature and studies on Retail loading inventory system which has evident relation to the study. Related Literature Foreign Literature According to Mr. Eugene F. Brigman, Fundamentals of Financial Management, 5TH edition, it cited the importance and effectiveness of using computer database inventory system. According to him a computer start with an inventory counts in memory. Withdrawals are recorded by the computer as they are made, and the inventory balance is constantly revised. When the recorded point is reached, the computer automatically places an order, when this new transaction is received, the recorded balance is increased. It used the latest technology in supporting this project to secure and to maintain the earn profits of this financial inventory system. Results were automatically produced by the system therefore saving valuable time and resources. According to Dollar Days the Basics of Retail Math, Retailing is all about change, because consumers change and so do their tastes. If you don’t change, you don’t grow. Financial Freedom, Setting your own schedule, being your own boss. Take your pick no matter what your collateral reasons for opening a retail store, the numbers are obviously what drive your decision about whether or not to invest the large and intense amount of time and effort it takes to build a business you can call your own. By Marvin Traub, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bloomingdale’s. Bloomingdale’s is an upscale chain of department stores currently owned by Macy’s Inc. Founded in 1861, its primary competitors are Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York, Lord Taylor and Nordstrom. According to a website (http://www. studymode. com/essays/Chapter-Ii-Related-Literature-And-Studies-767850. html), It cited that it is nearly impossible to overemphasize the importance of keeping inventory levels under control, â€Å"Ronals Pachura wrote in an article for IIE solutions ( IIE reserves the right to manage its system and network resources utilized by each web site, and to make whatever changes necessary to ensure optimum performance for all of our customers. ), â€Å"Whether the problems incurred are cause by carrying too little or too much inventory, manufacturers need to become aware that inventory control is not just a materials management or warehouse department issue. The purchasing, receiving, and accounting departments all contribute to the accuracy of the inventory methods and records. â€Å"It is little wonder that business experts commonly cite inventory management as a vital element that can spell the difference between success and failure in today’s keenly competitive business world. Writing in Production and Inventory Management Journal, Godwin Udo described telecommunications technology as a critical organizational asset that can help a company realize important competitive gains in the area of inventory management. According to Technology Advances in Retail In the general enterprise market, wireless LAN’s are being adopted primarily as part of the networking infrastructure, to support standard desktop applications such as email, web browsing, file server access, and other conventional enterprises applications. In the retail industry, wireless LAN’s are deployed to support much more specific and Innovative applications, with a focus on either improving existing processes or adding new ones. According to a PDF file document (ARUBA NETWORKS), Improving Margins using Wireless Networks. The retail industry is one that lives and dies on margins, with managers on a never-ending quest to increase revenue and decrease costs. Technology has been an area of intense focus in retail industries as a way to accomplish both goals. Improvements have been made in areas such as supply chain management, Inventory management, customer experience, and loss prevention. Wireless technology, permitting communication between people and devices anywhere and without cables, has enabled the dramatic transformation of business processes in the past, and continues to do so. However, wireless deployment, inadequate management solutions, lack of standards, and availability of innovative solutions. Rapid advances in wireless local area network (WLAN), technology in recent years along with widespread adoption of the technology. This white paper discusses the applications for this technology, the security requirements in a retail environment, and considerations when selecting the right architecture for mobile network deployments.