Monday, September 30, 2019

How does Emily Bronte succeed in making Heathcliff remain to the reader a “likeable” character in Wuthering Heights?

Wuthering Heights first appeared in May 1846, but it was not the great success it is today, as the book did not sell many copies, following this Emily Bronte along with her sisters sent their novels and poetry along to publishing houses where it was published properly. They deceived the public at first by using pen names, because at that time women were not seen as intelligent or capable enough to write such a novel. The audience of this book would have been upper class, as they would have been the only people who could afford books, and also be able to read them. The public reaction to Wuthiering Heights were fairly mixed for example, these are extracts from magazines or newspapers at the time of Wuthering Heights publishing: New Monthly Magazine from January 1848 â€Å"Wuthering Heights by Ellis Bell is a terrific story† on the other hand: The examiner, 8 January 1848 â€Å"it is wild, confused, disjointed and improbable; and the people who make up the drama†¦are savages.† The law has changed considiberally from the time set in the book, and this is important when reading the book as Heathcliff's revenge revolves around the laws at the time reflecting how wrong they were, which results in Heathcliff an uneducated cuckoo with no money and no family ends up quite legally stealing and cheating his way into wealth and property as part of his revenge caused by the pain he inflicts. He did this quite cleverly through marriage and death, yet his cruel actions don't make the reader hate this disturbed man however much they should, and throughout this essay I will consider all of the various reasons why the audience warm to Heathcliff. As the story of Heathcliffs life begins Nelly Dean, the nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange, is telling it to a tenant – Mr. Lockwood. As a child Nelly Dean, the daughter of the Earnshaw's maid used to spend all her time at Wuthering Heights playing with the children. Mr. Earnshaw went away for a trip to Liverpool where on the streets he found the starving, dark skinned, Heathcliff and brought him home to Wuthering Heights, immediately the rest of the family were alarmed and didn't welcome him and the children rejected him from being in their company. Cathy warmed to Heathcliff quickly as did Mr. earnshaw and he became his favorite child. However Hindley did not and hated him which made him cruel to heathcliff this is where the reader really feels for heathcliff; a poor fatherless child rejected and bullied by half of his new family and yet never complained; â€Å"he would stand Hindley's blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw a breath and open his eyes, as if he had hurt himself by accident and nobody was to blame.† All this plays a part in the view of Heathcliff later on in the book. Growing up Heathcliff and Cathy were best friends, too fond of each other in fact, and when punishment was endured onto either of them it was for them to be separated. But longing to be with one another, one incident which changed this is when they both snuck out and went to thrushcross grange where the lintons lived they wound them up

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Love: Filipino Psychology Essay

Filipino Values for Productivity Values have much to do with the way we act. It is, therefore, important that we understand our Filipino Values. Understanding our own Filipino Values means looking closely into our beliefs, mores, customs, norms, and traditions, examining them closely, looking at their positive and negative polarities, and harnessing the positive polarities of our values as norms of our behavior at work. Our values and norms greatly affected by the several rulers that came on our country. Some norms are inspired by the Spanish rulers; also, some norms are inspired by the Americans, Chinese and Arabs. Thus, with the variety background of our norms, ethical or unethical, we cannot deny the fact that we management to survived from our struggles with the help of our combined norms coming from the different foreign rulers who ruled and help us mold the so called Filipino Values. Even if these values are copied by our ancestors from the different nationality, we tend to claim that these values, combined by the other values we have learned are the values that will consist our own Filipino Values. Values have much to do with the way we act, in the organization, this is truly manifested. As discussed in my first reaction paper, I did presents the strengths of Filipinos in terms of working under an organization. Filipino values for productivity implies the characteristic of Filipinos of hard-work ( masipag at matiyaga). Also, I did present the ability of Filipinos to make use of the little resources available in the workplace. Giving emphasis on the ability of Filipinos of being creativeness depicts a picture of Ma-utak or Madiskarte. Truly Filipinos possessed these strengths but it out weighted by the weaknesses that I will present in this reaction paper. This is from the book of a popular human behavior book author, a Filipino who conducted study in order for him to know the negative values that affect the quality production of Filipinos. Negative values of the Filipinos that affect the quality production are the following: 1. Ningas kugon 2. Bahala na System 3. Baka makalusot Notion 4. May quality controller naman 5. Hindi naman mababawasan sweldo ko 6. Hindi naman malalaman kung sino ang gumagawa ng mali 7. Di na baling ma-reject, may fixer naman 8. Bakit and iba diyan, mas marami pang reject 9. Tahi lang ng tahi 10. Mamaya System. 11. Kahit may reject babayaran pa rin tayo Some of these negative values are mostly seen in a plantation where Filipino workers usually work. To separate the ones that generally manifested even if office and in some other work place, in this reaction paper I will just discuss the necessary values that greatly affect the productivity of us, Filipinos. â€Å"Ningas Kugon ay isang idioma na nangangahulugang sa umpisa lang magaling at kalaunay mag-iiba’t hindi na ipagpapatuloy ang magandang pagsisimula. † To start right and not to continue a good start as you go on to the work. This is a trait that contradicts the essence of hard-work. For Filipinos, first impression is very relevant to build up your image to your boss. Well, this bad, working is not building your image but it is about working to help the organization attain organizational goal. Maybe, you can build up your personal image to your co-employee and boss as your second priority in the organization because I cannot deny the fact that in an organization human relation exist. Doing good from the start will take Juan from humble beginnings to the top if only, he would just continue that good performance from that of the start. The mere point of motivation is being demolished having this kind of trait. This kind of Filipino value is commonly seen in a Campaign Period in an Election. Candidates are here and there, building up and making some name to the people in order for the people to vote for them. In the campaign period they act like he person that could be trusted and the person who will represent them and answer some social problem but when this candidate win and sit in the position, the fairytale is over. In the start, you could see and talk them, but as the time goes by, it will be the opposite. Filipinos are now fighting this kind of situation by which they tend to know the past performance of every candidate and decide who do not have this kind trait. Relating it to productivity, performing good at the start and not continuing that really affects productivity because the product that you will be giving to your customers will be highly observed especially to those customers who are passionately buying your customers. â€Å"Hay nako, nagbago ang lasa ng tinapay nila dati malinamnam ito. † The satisfactory value from the customers is one of the factors that the workers should consider in order to attain success on productivity. â€Å"Ang pagsasawalang-bahala ay isang idioma na nangangahulugan ng pagpapabaya sa isang bagay at iisiping magiging maayos din ang lahat sa bandang huli. † Bahala na means â€Å"I do not care what will happen†. The thought of ‘everything will going to be alright’ also constitutes the this so called Bahala na System. Keep pushing on something that you know it may be not be successful is one of the examples of the bahala na system. Such notion of leaving everything just the way it is and praying that it will going to be okay is the main ideal of this system. For just an example, in a construction project of a bridge, the project team leader knowing that the newly constructed bridge is unstable and not ready to use, but the city government is pushing for its use and then the project team leader let the city government for its use. â€Å"Bahala na, yan ang utos sakin eh†, is the thought of leaving behind the project and not letting yourself be involved in the liabilities. â€Å"Bakit ang iba diyan, mas marami pang mali? † Counting the numbers of your co-worker’s mistakes will not benefit you neither the organization. Filipinos possessed a trait keeps on rotting an organization until it will go down, it is the Crab Mentality. Crab Mentality has to do with the productivity because it one the elements that tend to decrease the average of quality production of Filipino workers. Looking for a loop hole in the personality of your good performing co-employee will is not an act of helping the organization attain its aspired status. Instead of making some rumors about that person, why won’t you make him/her as one of your motivating factor to contribute your efforts to the organization? An exam would be the practice of politicians running for the same position and they present each other’s mistakes and wrong doings in the past to the people. Pulling down those who are trying they best to climb in the ladder of success is one of the Filipino Values that is considered a hindrance on good productivity of the organization. â€Å"Marami pa naming oras, mamaya nalang yan. † Procrastination, this is an act that also, diminishing the essence of hard-work. Filipinos are fan of saying the words – LATER or WAIT FOR A WHILE. We Filipinos have this innate attitude of doing first what is necessary and then doing what you wanted to do. But, having in mind the urgency of the things that needed to be done do not requires a quick action, we tend to postpone it for a while and continue to do the things that you wanted to do. Thinking about when is the deadline of a project and doing the whole project the day before or on the last minute before the submitting hour or day. In the a plantation, procrastination is not observed for the company should produce more than what is demanded in a fixed period of time. Well, in a company producing items this is true, but in an organization running an office giving services, the urgency is observed. Services should always be there, prepared, so when the time comes, if that specific service is needed. In some cases, services that are prepared before an actual demand by the customer is a good quality product. There is this saying by the Filipinos, â€Å"Aanhin pa damo kung patay na ang kabayo†, services or products that are late will result to poor satisfactory feedback from the customers. â€Å"Hindi na baleng ma-reject, may fixer naman na mag-aayos. † Filipinos love on depending everything to something they know that it can help or cure or fix anything they have done wrong or they will do wrong. â€Å"Di bale nalang† means quitting on it or sort of quitting on something and letting it go the way it is. And thinking about the fixer that will easily fix whatever is wrong in the item is the principle of depending on the machine. Instead of making the item in the right manner in order to lessen the use of a fixer machine, Filipinos continue to do the wrong manner of producing the item just meet the deadline. In this point of view you can now see the relationship of procrastination with this trait of depend the item to the machine and to the time of its deadline. With this kind thinking, it manifests the attitude of sacrificing the quality production. The â€Å"Okay na yan† attitude is also one of the elements of this act. Concentrating on quantity and not on the quality of the product is the main thought of this attitude. Filipinos, usually we, as a student would say – â€Å"Okay na yan, basta may maipasa lang† as a â€Å"pampalubag-loob† in not meeting the desired quality of the project or usually in times of examinations. Settling on the quantity produced and not on the quality is not accepted in the organization strictly observing the quality of the products or services being produced. â€Å"Katamaran – ito ay isa sa mga hindi kanaisnais na katangian ng mga Pilipino na kung saan ang mga dapat na gawin ay hindi naisasakatuparan sa kadahilanang nagkukulang and motibo para maigalaw ang kanyang katawan upang magtrabaho’t magbanat ng buto. † To sum up all that is being discussed above, the word laziness is the back bone of such acts and behavior of Filipinos towards productivity. Laziness means not being productive for your organization’s desired status in the future. Lazy, as a song lyric described, it is an act of doing nothing. Laziness is the opposite side of hard-working. Keeping asleep or just lying in your bed could be one of the common acts of laziness. But in the organization, laziness deals about the behaviors of an individual inside the work place showing nothing or no any single accomplishment at all. Laziness is also in line on the idea of not wanting to work inside in the work environment. It indicates the factors of unmotivated or unsatisfied with the management’s way of handling the working conditions they have gone to. Some Filipinos are people who prefer to take a day for a rest and do nothing instead of doing something that are actually to be done on an appropriate time. Some Filipinos tend to do a certain work and as it goes by and by, they will left it unfinished. Some Filipinos work well on the starting period of his job, but eventually take the opportunity to not work effectively in the succeeding time of his job. While some other Filipinos love to depends everything on something that can be the answer for their undertaking. Well, even in any of this behavior you are under, the bottom line will be the picture that depicts Juan, waiting for that ripe guava to fall right into his mouth.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Chemistry in Life Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Chemistry in Life - Research Paper Example to remember is that all forms of money are collectively called as currency, which in turn refers to all the money coins and banknotes which are generally accepted and in wide use in the country to which it pertains. The currency of a country is its so-called legal tender that in turn implies the medium of payment recognized by the country’s legal system. Implication in a country having a legal tender means it is valid for meeting a financial obligation. In other words, a creditor (lender) is obligated to accept any payment made in legal tender towards the repayment of a debt owed by a debtor (borrower). A good but short example is when someone pays in American dollars then the lender cannot refuse to accept such payment since a dollar is the legal tender in America (although some states accept gold or silver coins as payment). If the borrower intends to pay in kind (like mineral ores or cocaine or cattle or something else), a creditor can refuse such payment since it is not co nsidered as legal tender and can be refused to be accepted to extinguish a debt, financial obligation or some other consideration. However, before coinage was invented, barter was used which is just a simple kind of exchange for one type of goods for another type of goods or resources. An example will be a person wants to buy a loaf of bread but lacking any money, he pays for it with a live chicken depending on their agreed value of exchange (there must be some semblance of parity). Most historians are generally agreed that coins were invented at around 700 B.C.E. (before current era) independently in Lydia (now a part of modern-day Turkey), in India, and in China. Barter is a form of direct exchange by which goods and services were exchanged for another set of goods and services without the benefit of using a medium of exchange (currency). Barter has a set of inherent problems such as the difficulty in determining the exact or accurate value of an intended exchange between two kinds of

Friday, September 27, 2019

Questions about Asia Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Questions about Asia - Assignment Example In a family, it is the number of persons divided by the available arable land. Rate of natural population increase refers to the total birthrates minus the total death rates in a given population. In a family setting, the rate increases with a figure and decline if the figure is negative. Doubling time refers to the period required to achieve a double population growth rate. Doubling time involves dividing the growth rate percentage into 70. A growth rate of 3.5 shows a doubling time of 20 years. Gobi desert, a cold desert and the fifth largest in the world is Asia’s largest desert (Man 8). The desert constitutes of bare rocks unlike many other deserts that are sandy. The desert has a historic treasure for fossils, pre-historic tools and early dinosaur eggs. Gobi desert has extreme environment with temperatures of over 100 degrees in summer and below – 40 degrees in winter. The desert has rapid climatic changes and little rainfall. The desert homes many animals and drought resistant shrubs. Gobi is semi desert and desert and is expanding at a high rate. The desert has a history of human habitation by mostly nomads. The desert has strong dusty winds during the fall and spring and has a water oasis. Gobi is a Mongolian name which means ‘very large and dry’. The Himalaya Mountains block the desert from receiving enough rainfall (Man 10). Taklimakan desert is a dry and hot desert. It is the largest in China and has vast salt accumulation. The desert is sandy and contains crescent shaped sand dunes that can reach 300 meters high. This desert is one of the world’s largest shifting sand deserts. The desert has frigid temperatures. The desert is moving to the neighboring areas due to a shift in the sand caused by strong winds. South Asia has several mountains examples being Himalayas and Mount Everest. The Himalaya Mountains are the highest in the world. The

Thursday, September 26, 2019

What kind of adjusmnets hospital CEO must make to meet helath reform ( Essay

What kind of adjusmnets hospital CEO must make to meet helath reform ( ACA) requirements - Essay Example This paper indicates the possible actions that a hospital CEO would undertake to tackle the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities the Act presents. It is divided into six sections that are meant to answer the question. Likely questions that a hospital CEO would ask him or herself include how the Act will be applied to the hospital, what the Act means for his or her hospital and what strategic concerns should be regarded to prosper in the environment resulting from the Act. The Affordable Care Act is composed of resources and plans to manage growth local, federal and the state workforce. The Act offers loans and grants for persons, hospitals, organizations, and schools. Those who are mainly targeted are those who have interest in low earnings and in the countryside. The Act maintains the number of graduates taking medical courses who are funded by Medicare. It has provisions that allow the redeployment of slots that have not been allocated to anyone. Redeployment of closed hospital slots is aimed at exploiting healthcare resources and prospects in training (Main & Starry, 2010). When the aging workforce is considered with the demand for services in healthcare, especially if the general population is made up of a large number of old persons, then this raises a great concern for hospital CEO’s. Who will take care of this ageing population if the general healthcare workforce in the hospital is ageing? Healthcare professionals and workers above the ages of 55 are regarded as part of an ageing workforce. As the hospital CEO, one will seek to take advantage of the Act and seek the grants that it offers. These grants will then be used by the hospital to sponsor bright needy students undertaking medical courses in institutions around the country. The terms for sponsorship shall include provisions which shall ensure that sponsored students will work for the hospital in return for a period of not less than ten years. This way, the

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Gender in the Middle East Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Gender in the Middle East - Essay Example This paper shall now examine the concept of patriarchy as it operates within the family and the state. Specifically it will answer the question: how does patriarchy impact on the women, the family, and the state? Examples in relation to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia will be included in this discussion. First, an overview of the concept of patriarchy will be presented, followed by a discussion on the background of patriarchy in the Middle East. Patriarchy in relation to women and the family in the Middle East shall then be discussed. Patriarchy within the state shall follow such discussion. A conclusion will summarize and provide an overall evaluation of the article. Patriarchy refers to a system wherein the main authority figure is the father in the family, and in the case of social, political, and business organizations, the male leaders1. Within the political context, patriarchy can also refer to the centralized roles held by the ruler of the state over constituents or members. This situation would imply that fathers have full authority over women and children and the women are subordinated to such power2. In the traditional system, this patriarchal application has been seen in the social, legal, and political settings, not just in the Asian culture, but the Western traditional culture as well. Traditionally, leadership is associated with physical strength and males are physiologically built to be stronger than their female counterparts3. Hence, the responsibility of caring for the family and later the state has been burdened on men. The foundations of patriarchy are built on such premise. The Middle East region has traditionally been a patriarchal society. Its larger area, the Mediterranean region has housed three religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam4. At present, Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Article Review written by R. Eric Barnes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Article Review written by R. Eric Barnes - Essay Example Barnes attempted to establish several arguments in justifying his claims, particularly by trying to inject conclusions with moral, legal and medical bases. He discussed the properties of THC and its various effects when used, and then claiming that the effectiveness of marijuana in terms of its medical effectiveness is not controversial by describing them as the positive its medicinal properties. He then argued that the controversial argument lies in its medicinal value. He deliberated that the medicinal value corresponds to a normative claim which is controversial due to its implications that the medical benefits will then be far greater than the medical cost such as the side effects as well as the implications that there are no treatments which can be used as alternative, and that will be preferable to use in its stead. He claimed that individuals have interests and rights to safe and effective medical treatments, justifying that rights are an important â€Å"prima facie† wh ich the government must respect as well as enforce, at the same, giving credit to aspects such as positive and negative rights, and then emphasizing his assumptions regarding the responsibilities and rights of the government in the regulation of the sales of this drug to ensure the safety of individual. Barnes tackled some options the federal government may undertake with regards to marijuana, some of which are the removal of marijuana from the list of controlled substances which would entail total freedom to purchase by any individual, another is removing the drug from schedule 1 of controlled substances and then moving it to the schedule 2 category. ... ch would entail total freedom to purchase by any individual, another is removing the drug from schedule 1 of controlled substances and then moving it to the schedule 2 category. He admitted that few options are available to state governments regarding this matter, as their authority, in reality, is supplanted by those of the federal government. He then tackled the issues for allowing the prescription of marijuana, claiming that the side effects of using this drug as a medicine is considerably less than other certain drugs that are currently being prescribed. He also claimed that a certain percentage of patients and doctors have an expressed desire towards its legalization for medicinal purposes. He claimed that marijuana is â€Å"effective, sufficiently safe and endorsed by a significant percentage of the relevant medical community†. According to Barnes, there is not enough reason to stop the government from allowing the legal prescription of marijuana, which then entails that it should allow doctors to do so, particularly to patients suffering from certain ailments. He then addressed several arguments that have been raised against the legalization of marijuana such as how the government should not allow harmful medications to be prescribed, discussing the grounds which have been used to justify this argument. He then addressed the second argument, which states that the government should not allow for the prescription of potentially harmful drugs that are not adequately tested, and tried to refute it be underlining the rapid growth of marijuana usage in the country over the past three decades and then emphasizing the need for legalizing further research and testing. The third argument Barnes tried to address is the practical problems associated the legalization of its

Monday, September 23, 2019

Cyber Worlds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cyber Worlds - Essay Example People have different arguments on this controversial issue some considering it as worthwhile while others viewing it as not safe and cost ineffective. Most people view prisoners as outcasts in the community and argue that they should not be treated well. Most countries do not allow inmates to have access to the internet arguing that it insecure and that they will not feel the pain of the sentence. They also say that access to internet may lead to them planning their way out since they can plan with people from outside. Denying inmates the chance to access the internet could also create more time for them to carry out other activities. Removing the family ties by no access to internet could also help them reform by feeling the pain that comes with being away from their families. Most prisons work under a tight budget and therefore removing the cost due to internet access could save much in the end. Prisons without internet access have been ranked top in terms of discipline in the prison and discipline of the prisoners in the outside world after the jail term is over. Internet tends to destroy morals of people in general and prisoners are not an exception. Therefore lack of access to internet reduces the chances of moral destruction .access to internet could also give inmates a chance to smuggle drugs by contacting the sellers of drugs. Access to the internet could also lead to the inmates keeping up with the criminal activities that are being incarcerated. Inmates have also been found taunting their victims through social media and lack of internet access could eliminate this. However, the disadvantages of denying internet access to inmates are very insignificant as compared to the advantages that it comes with. Inmates are human beings and they deserve to be treated like the rest of citizens (Bowden ,4).Prisons should be viewed as rehabilitation centers rather than centres of punishment. They should be

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Critical Appraisal of Business Planning Process Essay

Critical Appraisal of Business Planning Process - Essay Example In most cases, the entrepreneur himself will not be capable of raising the required capital for the business. Sometime, even when the initial capital is brought in by the owner, further expansion or the need for additional working capital requirements will force him/her to approach a venture capitalist or financial institution. In any of these cases, the clarity of the business plan is what convinces the concerned institution for granting finance. A good business plan should be prepared based on an outside-in approach. An entrepreneur should have a good understanding of the external environment in which the business will operate. A vision and mission for the business forms the two main components of the business plan. Vision is the ultimate goal that the business wants to achieve and mission statement states in brief about how the vision will be achieved by the business. Thus a well charted out business plan is an inevitable component for a successful business venture. The following section will give a critical analysis of the various steps of the business planning process. ... Identification of a problem that exists in the market is the first step that an entrepreneur should take. â€Å"If you keep up with your industry, talk to customers, study what is not working in your business, you should have a ton of problems you would like to solve.† (Starak, 2006) Identification of problem will lead to finding of various alternative solutions for the problem. All ideas should be screened well and the entrepreneur should select the one best solution that becomes the real business idea. Thus it can be said that the first thought that should come into the minds of an aspiring entrepreneur is a market problem. Strategic Objectives: Strategic objectives refer to the core business objectives of the venture. It mainly consists of the vision and mission of a business. Apart from that, it also consists of the other objectives of the business. Formulating good strategic decisions are extremely important for the success of a business. Most of these objectives are long term in nature. Therefore, an entrepreneur should have good foresight in order to formulate clear business objectives. Also, the entrepreneur should have a good understanding of the market and environment situation in order to make the objectives clear, focused, realistic and achievable. The objectives are the motive behind a business success. The various strategies that the business should take will depend mainly on the business objectives. Clear objectives imply that half the work of an entrepreneur is complete. He/she just have to manage the business to make sure that it is operating as per the objectives. Market Analysis and Research: It was mentioned that an understanding of the market is very much essential for idea generation

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Young Goodman Brown Essay Example for Free

Young Goodman Brown Essay The people living in the United States of America are some of the most liberated people in the world. The majority of the people living in this country are well aware of their religious freedom and human rights. It is therefore hard to imagine that more than 300 years ago, there was a group of people living in Massachusetts who could not tolerate others; especially those whose views are not in conformity to their own. The Puritans were both celebrated and reviled in history. But for Nathaniel Hawthorne the way they persecuted non-conformists made him loathe them. The only problem is that he is related to some of the most notorious figures of that era. He wrote a significant number of works to help him deal with his connection to this men and the Young Goodman Brown is one best example of how he tried to exorcise the demons of the past. The Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804. He was born in a place used to be called Salem, Massachusetts. His hometown was later renamed to Danvers, Massachusetts and probably for good reason. In 1692 there was a real witch hunt in this town. Suspected witches were hanged and burned. His ancestors were leading men of Salem. One of them was William Hathorne who settled in the colony in the early part of the 17th century and then went on to become one of Salem’s spiritual builders and made a significant contribution in creating a theocratic society (Meltzer, 10). William Hathorne held many offices including magistrate and as a military leader who forced the Indians out of their homeland. Later on Nathaniel Hawthorne will use some of his exploits and misdeeds as the background for his stories. In order to have some perspective, in the year that Nathaniel Hawthorne was born, it was also the same year that Thomas Jefferson was reelected president of the United States and about the same time when Lewis and Clark set out on an expedition to explore the West (Meltzer, 15). It means that when Hawthorne wrote Young Goodman Brown America was still a relatively young country and thus the lessons of the past are still fresh in the memories of many most especially those who came from the primary settlements such as in Massachusetts. For Nathaniel Hawthorne his darkest secret lies in the fact that his ancestors â€Å"†¦earned the reputation of chasing down the wicked like a bloodhound† (Meltzer, 12). The following best describes the situation in the Salem witch trials: While the witch-hunt craze lasted, men and women, young and old, were jailed, their property confiscated and they were forced to invent testimony against innocent others. The court’s central aim was to get a confession out of the accused. About fifty people gave in to the intense pressure and some were executed (Meltzer, 11). It will become apparent later on that Nathaniel Hawthorne made a realization; that he could do something about the dishonorable actions of his ancestors by becoming a writer. But as mentioned earlier American in the mid-19th century was not exactly a highly industrialized nation. This is bad news for an aspiring writer like Hawthorne because this means that it is extremely difficult to earn a decent living writing short stories and novels. He had a rough start as a writer. But then he found his niche, he found his own unique style and the rest is history. The Story The Young Goodman Brown is one of the more important works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and it is about the religious experience of a young man named Young Goodman Brown. The main character was married to a young woman named Faith and one day decided to take on a strange journey deep into the woods right after sunset. It is a curious time to start traveling to another town or to any particular location. It turns out that Young Goodman Brown was invited to attend a clandestine meeting in the darkest part of the woods. The story took a sudden turn when the highly religious Young Goodman Brown was discovered to be meeting with the devil incarnate (McCabe, par. 1). Hawthorne made a cryptic introduction of the devil when he wrote the following: But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake. So curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist and wiggle itself, like a living serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light. Hawthorne did not elaborate why the pious young man consented to a meeting with the devil. This difficulty is exacerbated by the declaration of Young Goodman Brown who said: We are a people of prayer, and good works, to boot, and abide no such wickedness. The abovementioned excerpt may help answer that question – Young Goodman Brown was deceived and did not realize at first that he was talking to Satan. But that is not the most interesting part of the story. The tale became more complicated when Young Goodman Brown saw the most highly respected people in Salem village taking part in the said devious meeting. The young man could not believe his eyes when he saw Goody Cloyse, Deacon Gookin, and the old minister of Salem. The confusion was made more intense by the presence of known sinners including the hated sorcerers from the heathen tribes. The religious people of his village spoke against their kind and yet all are gathered under the trees, seeming to enjoy each other’s company. It was also revealed to Young Goodman Brown that the prim and proper ladies in Salem village are guilty of either murder or unbridled lust. He was shocked to find out about the hypocrisy and the deception. But his life was about to be destroyed by what he saw next. In the beginning of the story Hawthorne made it clear that aside from religion Young Goodman Brown’s purpose in life is to love and cherish his wife, Faith. He was not only madly in love with his young and beautiful wife but he considered her as his anchor and helps him keep focus. At the climax of the story however, Young Goodman Brown saw his wife in the meeting and willingly participated in the demonic rituals. Needless to say, the young man was crushed and he would never recover. He went on to live for a long time. At his funeral he was survived by an older looking Faith, by his children and grandchildren. But he died a broken man full of gloom that his family never bothered to inscribe anything in his tombstone. It seems that it is best for him to die rather than live. The Context As they say it is all about context. The story can be interpreted different ways but the correct interpretation will have to have an understanding of the context. One critic provided the initial foray into the study of context when he wrote, â€Å"Despite Hawthorne’s reputation as a romancer who preferred to create a ‘neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land’ †¦ he paid careful attention to historical settings for most of his literary works (Person, 16). Hawthorne based his story on historical facts but most importantly he based it on the actions of his ancestors. A deeper examination of his lineage will reveal that, â€Å"Puritanism and the history of early Massachusetts settlements – Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Salem – form one important context in which to understand Hawthorne’s writing† (Person, 16). It must be noted that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s great-great-great grandfather was William Hathorne. William Hawthorne was well known for ordering one Quaker woman – Ann Coleman – to be whipped while walking the streets of Salem. John Hathorne the son of William Hathorne was also made notorious by presiding in the equally infamous Salem witch trials in 1692. One should also note that the letter â€Å"w† is missing from the last names of the aforementioned ancestors. This could mean that the author was less than thrilled to be associated with these men. In fact, â€Å"†¦Hawthorne referred to each of these ancestors as a ‘bitter persecutor who possessed all the Puritanic traits both good and evil. Hawthorne felt haunted by these ancestors and took shame upon himself†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Person, 17). It can be said that Nathaniel Hawthorne had to rectify what was done in the past through his stories and novels. The link to the Salem witch trials and the plot of Young Goodman Brown can be seen in how Hawthorne used details from the trial and incorporated it into the story. The most important aspect of the Salem witch trial that Hawthorn used was encapsulated in a concept called â€Å"specter evidence† (Person, 18). This is the belief that people could give Satan permission to mimic them in a supernatural way and then using that likeness, the devil could then move freely within the community to tempt others. In Young Goodman Brown the concept of â€Å"spectral evidence† was used to the hilt. Critics assert that the people that Young Goodman Brown encountered are the specters of everyone he knew (Person, 18). Unfortunately, the young man believed the specter to be the real thing and as a result his life was turned upside down. The sense of gloom felt by Young Goodman Brown is but a reflection of what Hawthorne felt because what his ancestors did he could not forget, â€Å"It was a family bloodstain Nathaniel Hawthorne could never rid himself, of even after more than a hundred years had passed since those ancestors died† (Meltzer, 14). But he tried his best. The Intentions of the Author Based on the preceding discussion and based on a careful analysis of Young Goodman Brown it would appear that Hawthorne had at least three intentions when he began to write this piece of literature and these are listed as follows: 1. Hawthorne wanted to show that it is counterproductive to have legalistic communities; 2. Hawthorne wanted to show that religious bigotry accomplishes nothing of long lasting significance; 3. Hawthorne wanted to show that some of the religious people in the past are guilty of hypocrisy and if truth be told they deserved to be hanged and burned just like the suspected witches in the Salem witch trials; and finally 4. Hawthorne tried to demonstrate that suspicion can lead to distrust and paranoia. Nathaniel Hawthorne was able to accomplish all of the above by creating a great work of fiction. In this work of fiction he used the aforementioned concept called â€Å"spectral evidence† to make Young Goodman Brown believed that the people he saw were indeed acting on their own free will. It was an improbable story but worked well to develop the ideas of Hawthorne. It was the contrasting subplots; the first one shows a group of pious people living in Salem village, the second one shows the same group of people living a double life by being true worshippers of the devil. In Hawthorne’s storyline he was able to criticize and make fun of the religious order of yesteryears. He also made no qualms in exposing the excesses of the Puritans. He was also able to show that if people isolate themselves by persecuting others – especially the nonconformists – and driving them out of the community then they will lack the necessary feedback mechanism that will tell them they are living in excess. The tragedy of Young Goodman Brown is the lack of communication and the inability to reach out to others as shown by the behavior of the main character. Conclusion In Young Goodman Brown the story can only be understood by examining the historical background of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne’s ancestors participated in the violent persecution of those who failed to conform to the standards set forth by the Puritans. This means that those who disagree can leave anytime but for those who wanted to stay, they must learn to live by the rules. Those who will not conform will have to suffer by flogging, hanging, and burning. For Nathaniel Hawthorne building a highly legalistic society can backfire and instead of creating a harmonious community the byproduct is hypocrisy and secret sins. But most importantly if people isolate themselves then they are impeding progress in their spiritual journey. By erecting a facade of religiosity or by not opening up and reaching out to others, people will become paranoid and die with an unresolved inner turmoil. In the case of Young Goodman Brown he made a mistake of judging the specters as real and so he decided not to be in communion with his own people. There could also be another interpretation, that what he encountered were not specters and that what really happened is that he fell asleep and dreamt that he was in a demonic meeting attended by religious leaders and his wife. Irregardless of which one is truth, Young Goodman Brown could have fixed everything if only he reached out to his wife, to his pastor, to the elders of the church and initiated dialogue. But unfortunately Young Goodman Brown took the easy path and it is to build a high wall made out of pride and the erroneous thinking that he alone knew the truth. Works Cited Alkana, Joseph. The Social Self: Hawthorne, Howells, William James, and Nineteenth-Century Psychology. KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1997. Demas, Corrine. Great American Short Stories. New York: Barnes Noble, Inc. , 2004. McCabe, Michael. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown. 27 July 1998 Florida Gulf Coast University. 26 October 2008 http://itech. fgcu. edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/Hawthorne. htm. Meltzer, Milton. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography. MN: Twenty-First Century Books, 2007.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Strategic Role of Budgeting in Health Context

Strategic Role of Budgeting in Health Context Purpose / rationale of budgeting in hospital The traditional purpose of budget have a diagnostic role in measuring and monitoring accounting and hospital performance. Budget also has an interactive role as learning and innovative model to drive strategic changes (Abernethy Brownell 1999). Hospital create budgets to monitor its actual performance compare to the estimated performance incorporates the revenue, health expenditures include operation cost, medications cost, administration cost, cash flows and other associated factors include funding adjustments and growth factors (Bragg 2014). Financial budget transform the activities of individual units into a number value within the health care system. From the value of previous activities, financial budgeting will enable management to forecast and put activities into a plan (Abernethy Brownell 1999). Government will allocated the money as funding to the hospitals, where hospitals will generate activities as a return on the funding begin given and train the capitals (Department of Health 2016). Administration and hospital employees will contribution to spend the funding and to achieve the goals and plans. Every unit within the hospital will require resource in order to operate and deliver services. The purpose of budgeting in the hospital is to ensure its performance and goals and objectives are achieved at the district and state levels. The strategic plan is the basis of the budgeting, the strategic role of budgeting in health care include driving strategic changes to make suitable with the budget set in order to generate high performance (Abernethy Brownell 1999). In Department of Health (2016) Budget 2016-17 stated that the strategic role for the budget is to ensure the health care is both accessible, affordable and the level of health care quality is also sustainable into the future. IHPA (2011) suggested that hospital funding and budgeting is based on the calculation of weighted population and on activity volume performed in an expression of National weighted activity unit (NWAU). Budgeting in the hospital context taken account the activity volume, the budget and funding received is pre-determined fee that reimbursed per activity based on the diagnosis related group (DRGs) (IHPA 2011). Commonalities between Activity Based Funding (ABF) principles and Strategic role of budgeting is the revenue and funding generate is link to patient activity. ABF principles help to create the strategic plan that reflects the hospitals development by volume of service (Eagar 2011). Activity based funding is a patient evidence based budgeting tool to understand the health care cost by episode of care or performance processes (AIHW 2014). It promotes price harmonisation and has the strategic role in supporting decision included costing and measurement potential health care delivery improvement initiatives (Eagar 2011). Where when the current resources allocation is not sufficient within the budgets, a strategic plan will need to be create and modify the budget and resources allocation to achieve the target and goals. Advantages of budgeting in ABF ABF provide efficiencies of the performance in hospital care and improve sustainability of hospital service provision (AIHW 2014).ABF promote best practice and have the advantage to put unmeasurable activities into number values, provide a more accurate picture of profitability and efficiency measure (Eagar 2011). ABF have the advantage to cover and measure value with a different characteristic and in a multi-product environment. The funding methodology create a clear picture include the complexity of the activity that attracts costs to support management in making decisions (Cohen et al. 2012). ABF in budgeting help to address services agreement objectives such as patient care base costing help reduce wait list, activities against peers will encourage competitions to enhance hospital quality and cost efficiency (Sutherland, Repin Crump 2012) Disadvantages of budgeting in ABF Cohen et al. (2012) suggested some disadvantage adopting ABF in budgeting include the high cost associated with the implementation of this budgeting structure. The requirement to ensure accurate budget forecast in ABF involve the large amount of comprehensive data and information to be reported. The disadvantage adopting ABF involve the data not readily available to the cost require to implement this method in data collection. Another disadvantage involves the use of DRGs in calculating the cost of activity may not be fully reliable (Mihailovic, Kocic Jakovljevic 2016). This suggested that adopting ABF in budgeting may incurred financial incentive of provision in unnecessary care due to increase in activity volume (Cohen et al. 2012). The complexities in budgeting to enhance forecast accuracy Hospitals have very complex revenue and funding structure from grants received from commonwealth, revenue generated from medical invoicing; donations receive from individual parties and other budgetary allocations (Department of Health 2016). The goals must be in measurable units, direct and attainable to enhance forecast accuracy (Eagar 2011). It is important to allow appropriated participation level in the budgeting to ensure an accurate and timely in the forecasting process in budgeting. Authoritarian prepare budget from the top down level as an overhead. The budgeting will include the use of capital and other fix asset to enhance the accuracy in forecasting (Mitton, Dionne Donaldson 2014). Participatory measure will allow cost centre managers to identify specific activity and resources such as full time employee to enhance forecast accuracy (Tanaka 2007). Cost centre managers will have the ability to identify difference expense related to their unit where upper management may no t have the ability to. The complexity in budgeting exercise will consider the inclusion of large and small volume of activity cost that include utility cost, human resources cost, clinical cost and other related operational cost (Mitton, Dionne Donaldson 2014). The level of detail will need to be achieving at the right level to facilitate timeline-ness and accurate allocation of resources. (ii) The forecasting of 5percent growth in cost and 10 percent growth in the activity from previous year is not suitable for the organisation. Reversing the forecasting method will be more suitable with the cost on a 10 percent growth and activity on 5 percent growth to ensure the hospital will achieve the target. This forecasting model has adopted the incremental budgeting method (Bragg 2014). It is a simplified budget method to perform a forecast base on the previous years budget and applied the percentage difference to the following year (Bragg 2014). This method is not efficient as it does not examine the hospitals expenditure and activity to achieve the forecasting result. Where the zero base budgeting will allow the hospital to determine expenses according to the activities and associated cost by clinical streams (Rosin 2015).This approach to budget required hospital manager to start from zero and force managers to justify the reason of expenditure and assess benefit of the spending every year (Bragg 2014) . Adopting the zero base budgeting will support the funds allocation in a more cost efficiency approach. Hospitals face multiple challenges on health care cost such as the changing funding structure and the population growth that triggers inpatient volume. The zero bases budgeting approach will support hospital to redesign allocation of funds and resources distribution, to enhance accurate financial budget forecast and maximise benefit and strengthen capabilities (Rosin 2015). (iii) YTD 2015/2016 Actual YTD 2015/2016 Budget Variance Total Activity volume 28000 30000 -2000 Total Cost $124 M $124 M The table above is under performance, it is not achieving the target. The cost in the above does not attract enough revenue from the volume of activity. There is a variance of -2000 in the actual activity volume against budget. Implication of performance organisational financial in revenue and cash flow Analysis of variance from the budgeted figures from different perspective, rate, price, cost (Zelman et al. 2013). The above table provide information to support analysis of variance and the hospitals performance. The reason to analysis the variance so performance can be enhance by identify financial trends and threats, as well as identify any opportunities to achieve hospital objectives (Zelman et al. 2013). Variances between budget and actual cost will lead to adjusting business strategies to achieve goals. Variance and cost of unit per activity volume will help hospital maintain the control over the hospitals expense by monitoring the actual verse budget (Singh Wheller 2012). Assuming the funding model is ABF in a hospital, because organisation has lower activity than the budget and funding allocation is base on the activity level. In this instance, hospital will receive less revenue as its target (IHPA 2011). Funding received will have shortfall against the budget from various sources include government, state and insurance companies (NSW Health 2016). Reduction of the revenue is going to impact the current financial statement result in a lower cash flow. The actual minus budget is unfavourable as the cost of service per activity unit is with a higher cost. Reason of the variance may include changes in admission level, cost of medical equipment or medicine or changes in labour cost (Zelman et al. 2013). Implication of underperformance will reflect in the financial statement as deficits for the year. The income such as health services funding, user charges, grants and other capital gain minus the expenses such as employee expenses, supplies and services a nd loss of investment will give the total cost (Zelman et al. 2013).. Hospital managers will use financial statements to make changes in financial forecast and prompt to reallocate resources to ensure a stronger control of revenue and maintain health care cost. Implication of performance in hospital acute patient services The underperformance in activity volume in this scenario indicated the service cost per activity unit are higher than budget (IHPA 2015). The scenario suggested the treatment provided was more expensive than forecast. The activity volume is also lower than forecast. This may suggest the activity volume in this year had used more input (IHPA 2015). Sometimes the underperformance of activity may due to unpredictable events such as natural disasters that result in increase of sudden increase of emergency admission that result in expensive health care cost. Other reason mat take into consideration may included, the hospital have complete more complicated cases (Dong 2015). The cost of treatment is more expensive and used more resources than usual. In addition, beds were occupied for longer days due to increase of length of stay and cannot accept additional patients hence reduce hospital activity. When health care cost could not generate enough activity, the implication in acute patients services may include decrease in quality of health care service activity (Damian Everhart et al. 2013). The increase of cost will suggest the less generation in funding and with a tighter budget next round. Hospitals with a tighter budget may not be able to purchase new equipment, do any new renovations and unable to recruit more staff (Dong 2015). All these are derive from the performance in hospital patient services. The reduction in revenue will result in nursing staff patient ratio to be increase to reduce cost of activity (Damian Everhart et al. 2013). There will be a potential in significate decrease in the quality of health care delivery. Strategic issue on service agreement It is important to ensure KPI are performance according to the services agreement. Currently the SLHD services agreement has two tiers of KPIs require hospital to perform on (NSW Health 2016). Tier 2 are less important as Tier 1 performance indicators are link very closely to funding and have financial impact in hospital operations (NSW Health 2016). Tier 1 indicators are the main driver and determine the funding hospitals will receive in the next year (IHPA 2015). It is very important to ensure financial sufficient and be sustainable to ensure efficient hospital operation. In a financial point of view, hospitals will generate more funds because the resources are fully utilise and being cost efficient (Zelman et al. 2013). Tier 1 KPI have a strong strategies focus in better patient care include achieving zero waitlist measure, achieving surgery admission within urgency categories timeframe and increase focus on quick emergency admission base on triage categories (NSW Health 2016). Ti er 1 KPI also include financial performance measures such as 100 percent on creditors paid within 30 days, expenditures matches budget and activities are performing against target. Tier 1 indicators help hospital monitor closely the indicators that directly impact on funding. The achievement of zero waitlist measure suggested hospital have use the resources effectively and efficiently activity (Dong 2015). This suggests the hospital is fully utilising of resources from staff to pharmacy and equipments activity (Damian Everhart et al. 2013). The analysis of performance indicators will suggest the area of failing in making satisfactory progress. In this scenario, the activity is not cost efficient and hospital will need to review the underlying cost for higher cost in service. Management intervention to improve scenario To improve the scenario, hospital may train personnel to understand the financial information in health care setting (Britt, Adams Snow 2015). Health informatics may create reports that include balance score cards and key performance indicators (KPI). The report should include more information and create better understanding in a bigger picture. A monthly and quarterly reporting frequently increase will also health managers a better comparison (Zelman et al. 2013). Report will provide more informative and real time information to monitor outcome and take actions to respond to negative variance. Educations to staff on the impact to the hospital from the performance are also important to strength and gain support from staff to changes implemented. Each department may provide data to represent their workload intensity and resources such as patient days, weighted activity and cost. Manager will have a better view by streams to better manager, monitor, utilise better resources and achiev e accurate forecast. (iv) Implication on organisations financials on liquidity and cash flow Small business creditors paid within 30 days refers to 30 days from receipt of correctly rendered invoice (Zelman et al. 2013). Currently in the scenario with a performance of 60% against the target is not performance and not acceptable. The positive side of paying creditors longer than 30 days will increase the cashflow and more buffers on liquidity. The less invoices to be finalise, the more flexibility the cash flow will be. Negative impact will be the cashflow is not reflective to the real situation. Where the actual amount of money the hospital has is not reflective as there are still many debts to be paid. On top of that, losing credit is a huge intangible cost. You may have more flexibility of the cash flow but you create a deficit position to the debtor (Zelman et al. 2013). Firstly, the debt may incur interest on the amount hospital own to other creditors. The interest will create financial burden on the next round of financial statement which increase unnecessary cost and accumulate onto the total health care cost. Secondly, losing credit can lead to losing hospital market and interrupted normal business practices. For example, pharmaceutical company will no longer accept accrual basic method of payment and require hospital to pay upfront for all the medicine provided. This will increase financial and cash flow burden, as well as decrease the ability to better forecast expenditures, with a tighter budget and less flexibility in allocating resources. Management intervention to improve scenario Hospital will need to review the current practice and identify issue why the payment cannot be paid within 30 days (State Government of Victoria 2017). Hospital will need to contact the small business creditor, discuss the problem and dealing with any disputes (State Government of Victoria 2017). If the hospital has difficulties in cash flow for the payment, hospital will need to communicate and negotiate the payment days and terms. Extend any invoice day or revise the invoice day to when product receive instead or order receive days to allow more flexibility in cashflow in order to achieve the target. There are always linkage in activity performance and financial budget. It is always important to regularly monitor financial performance and hospital activity performance to ensure hospital is achieving target within budget (NSW Health 2016). Perform regular monitor of activity will support hospital to identify any error and issue associated with lost, that enable to fix the problem and achieve hospital objective and goals. References: Abernethy, MA Brownell, P 1999, the role of budgets in organizations facing strategic change: An exploratory study, Accounting, Organizations and Society, vol.24, no.3, pp.189-204. Bragg, SM 2014, Budgeting: A Comprehensive Guide ,3rd edn, Accounting tools, U.S.A. Britt,J, Adams, S, Snow, T 2015, From the front line to the bottom line: building revenue intergrity, Journal of the Health care Financial Management Association, vol.69, no.7, pp.34-37. Cohen, M, McGregor, M, Ivanova, I Kinkaid C 2012, Beyond the hospital walls: Activity Based Funding Versus Intergrated Health Care Reform, Canadian centre for policy alternatives, Vancouver, viewed 07 March 2017, http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2012/01/CCPA-BC_ABF_2012.pdf> . Department of Health 2016, Budget 2016-17, Department of Health, Canberra, viewed 07 March 2017, https://www.health.gov.au/internet/budget/publishing.nsf/Content/2016-2017_Health_PBS_sup1/$File/2016-17_Health_PBS_0.0_Complete.pdf>. Dong, GN 2015, Performing well in financial management and quality of care: evidence from hospital process measures for treatment of cardiovascular disease, BMC Health services, vol.15, no.45, pp.1-15. Eagar, K 2011, What is activity-based funding? ABF information series No.1, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, viewed 08 March 2017, http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049context=gsbpapers>. Everhart, D, Neff, D, Al-Amin, M, Nogle, J, Weech-Maldonado, R 2013, The effects of nurs staffing on hospital financial performance: competitive versus less competitive markets, Health care management review, vol.38, no.2, pp.146-155. IHPA 2011, Activity based funding for Austrlian public hospitals: Towards a Pricing Framework, AIHW, Canberra, viewed 07 March 2017, https://www.ihpa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net636/f/publications/activity_based_funding_for_australian_public_hospitals.pdf>. IHPA 2015, Entity Resources and Planned Peformance, AIHW, Canberra, viewed 10 March 2017, https://www.health.gov.au/internet/budget/publishing.nsf/Content/2015-2016_Health_PBS_sup3/$File/2015-16_Health_PBS_4.09_IHPA.pdf>. Mihailovic, N, Kocic, S, Jakovljevic, M 2016, Review of Diagnostic related groups, Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology, vol.3, no10 Mitton,C, Dionne, F Donaldson, C 2014, Managing healthcare budgets in times of austerity: The roles of program budgeting and marginal analysis, Applied Health Economics Health Policy, vol.12, no.2, pp.95-102. NSW Health 2016, Service Agreement, NSW Health, viewed 12 Mar 2017, . Rosin, T 2015 , Should more health systems adopt zero-based budgeting?, Beckers Hospital review, viewed 09 March 2017, http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/should-more-health-systems-adopt-zero-based-budgeting.html>. Singh,SR Wheller, J 2012, Hospital financial management: what is the link between revenue cycle management, profitability, and not-for-profit hospitals ability to grow equity?, Journal of Healthcare Management, vol.57, no.5 State Government of Victoria 2017, How to negotiate payment terms with suppliers, State Government of Victoria, viewed 12 Mar 2017, . Sutherland, JM, Repin, N Crump, RT 2012, Reviewing the potential roles of financial incentives for funding healthcare in Canada, Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, Canada, viewed 07 March 2017, http://www.cfhi-fcass.ca/Libraries/Reports/Reviewing-Financial-Incentives-Sutherland-E.sflb.ashx> . Tanaka,S 2007, Engaging the public in national budgeting: A non-governmental perspective, OECD Journal on Budgeting, vol.7, no.2, pp.139-177. Zelman, WN, McCue, MJ, Glick, ND Thomas, MS 2013, Financial Management of Health Care Organizations: An Introduction to Fundamental Tools, Concepts and Applications ,4 th edn, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Engineers: Communication and Writing Skills :: ESL Essay

Engineers: Communication and Writing Skills   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For many years, in the masses of people there has been made a stereotype of the working engineer. This is a person who spends ten hours straight in front of his computer, making some strange graphs and calculations. He is afraid of sunlight and spends his free time inventing the time machine. When people try to start a conversation he says that he has a lot of work to do and tries to run away as fast as possible. This picture may be a little exaggerated, but it is how media and television draw it. But today, engineers need communication and writing skills even more than actual engineering.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Any engineering career starts from the resume writing. Usually a resume consists of two parts: the list of things that you have done well in your life and the cover letter. Dr. Craig Gunn, a professor of mechanical engineering, clearly explains, â€Å"Many big companies do not require the cover letter, but it will be much better for you to write one, because if a manager will read it for some reason, your chances to get a job will be a lot higher.† A person that is going to give you a job will not see you directly, so you have to convince him or her not to throw your resume in the basket by presenting all of your best qualities in the resume. To write a good convincing resume is a very difficult thing to accomplish without some preparations. A good thing will be to go to a library and read a special book about resume writing. Also, the Internet is full of websites like http://www.7step-resumesampler.com/ that have a lot of important information about this subject.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A cover letter plays an important role in getting a job too. In your cover letter, as dr. Gunn suggests, â€Å"use all your writing abilities to convince the manager of your exceptional importance for this job, and you will be accepted.† Smooth and grammar free cover letter increases chances to get a job very much.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Communication is also a very important part of the work of any engineer. As Dr. Gunn states, â€Å"there is only twenty percent of actual engineering and eighty percent of writing and communication between co-workers and superiors.† Employers, as Paul Osterman points out in his essay â€Å"Getting Started†, â€Å"are not simply looking for technical skills.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Quest for Purpose in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut Essay -- Works of Kurt

Quest for Purpose in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kurt Vonnegut's personal experiences force him to question the meaningless cruelties and conflicting paradigms in life.   As a second generation German-American and a witness of Dresden's bombing during World War II,   he observes firsthand the pointless destruction of which humans are capable (Dictionary 494).   He devotes his works to understanding the chaotic, cruel world he encounters.   According to   Peter Reed, Vonnegut's works feature a "...protagonist in quest of meaning in an absurd world" (500).   While struggling to understand the disordered universe around them, Vonnegut's protagonists attempt to become satisfied individuals by understanding the purpose of human life.    As he probes the chaotic nature of the universe, Vonnegut, according to Ernest Ranly, "...seems preoccupied with genuine human questions, about war, peace, technology, human happiness" (454).   Vonnegut's works show an obsessive desire to answer these questions, and he explores them by narrating quests for order and purpose in human life.   According to Stanley Schatt, Vonnegut "...believes passionately in both the importance of the individual and the need for human love and compassion" (348).   Vonnegut's beliefs become apparent as the searchers invariably realize Vonnegut's truth: the universe is too chaotic to understand, so the secret to order in their lives is simply kindness. In Vonnegut's novel, Galapagos, the narrator, Leon Trout, attempts to understand humanity's cruelty after witnessing the Vietnam War's brutality and lack of purpose.   As a marine in "...a nearly endless, thankless, horrifying, and, finally, pointless war..." (Galapagos 254), Trout struggles to come to terms w... ...nd: A Study of the American Novel in the Nineteen-Sixties.   Yale, 1973.   Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism,   Vol. 3.   Detroit: Gale,1975. Ranly, Ernest W.   "What Are People For?" Commonweal.   7 May 1971, 207-211.   Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism,   Vol. 2.   Detroit: Gale,1974. Reed, Peter J.   "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr."   Dictionary of Literary Biography.   Vol.2: American Novelists Since World War II.   Detroit: Gale, 1978. _____.   "Kurt Vonnegut."   American Writers.   1981.   Scribner's Writers Series. Schatt, Stanley.   "The World of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr." in Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction. Vol. XII, No. 3, 1971.   Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism,   Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale,1973. Vonnegut, Kurt.   Galapagos.   New York: Dell, 1985. _____.   Mother Night.   New York: Dell, 1961. _____.   The Sirens of Titan.   New York: Dell, 1959.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Essay About Family: My Familys Tradition :: essay about my family

For as long as I can remember the guys on my dads side have always gone hunting and the first gun they used has always been passed down to the next generation. When my parents divorced, I was young around eight years old and for a while my dad and I never felt as close as we did before the divorce. So for a while I never had the opportunity. For the last four years me and my dad have been getting along great, he has remarried and I like my step-mom. I got over to their house on the weekends and this past year during fall and winter my dad decided that it was the right time to pass the tradition on down to me. I was very excited and nervous at the same time, and I had many questions because since they broke up I spent more time with my mom and didn’t learn how to hunt, and shoot that much. Thankfully I was a natural born hunter through my dad and I was already could shoot a gun very accurately. As the time to go hunting grew closer, we went target shooting so I could get used to the gun that my dad used to kill his first deer. It felt going hunting would improve the relationship between my father and I. I wanted to kill a deer more than anything else, then finally the night before we gathered our gear and went to bed early to be ready in the morning. The next morning I woke up around four o’clock and went downstairs to get ready. I walked out side to see how cold it was, and on this November day the air was crisp, moist, and cool. We had some breakfast and got in the truck and met with my step-moms brother and my cousin-in-law, who were also hunting with us. One the ride there I rested my head and I had a dream of killing a big deer. We arrived at my dad’s friends land, we loaded the guns wished each other luck and we went our separate ways on the land, with the hopes of killing a massive buck. Me and my dad faced on more challenge before we reached the huntin g stands, was a big steep hill that was wet from the rain we had over the night. On the way up me and my dad both had to rest to avoid falling and injuring ourselves.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Supply Chain

|Module Number: MO0358 | |Strategic Supply Chain Management | |(Individual Project) | INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Objective â€Å"Supply chain management = Order to Cash. As my group project is about Burberry supply chain management so I would like to further explain it here and show you how Burberry successes after apply supply management. 1. 2 The Background of BURBERRYBURBERRY is established in London, United Kingdom in 1865 by Thomas Burberry. The Business concept of Burberry is â€Å"Fashion & Luxury†. At the end of 2007, Burberry started supply chain management in their business and hope that can delivered luxury and lifestyle product to customers at more than 208 concessions within department stores and digital commerce, plus 44 outlets and 192 mainline stores over the world and Burberry employs more than 30,000 people to operate the business smoothly.Burberry offers fashion for women, men, and children, also sells their own-brand beauty, cosmetics and perfume. Burberry has ow n factory at London Castleford but just produce trench coat and some core items. And now Burberry buys its goods from around 100 independent supplies, mostly in Asia and Europe. Burberry corporate with suppliers to develop long-term, sustainable social and environmental standards in the factories for produces Burberry high quality products. Burberry reaches the customers through two sales channels: stores and online.The store is the most important for Burberry as the customers can see the product, try it on and feel the products. Burberry is expanding their business new offerings and via new channels such as internet/ online business, the advantages of offering new channel are customers able to shop online, it can to let customers have the freedom of choice to choose the sales channel that suits customer best at that moment. Burberry stores are spread all over the world. It can be found in United Kingdom, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia.And according to their annual report China will be their very critical regions for their business so Burberry plans to establish more stores in China in the coming year. Burberry is growing not only by turning to customers in new stores and new places. It is at least equally important that the company continually develops. Their fashion categories are including menswear, womenswear and childrenswear. Fragrance & beauty category was in the leading position of the Asia market two years ago. Accessories category contains eyewear, scarves, watches and bags. Supply chain managementAccording to Mentzer, et al (Ballou, 2004), â€Å"Supply chain Management (SCM) is defined as the systematic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purpose of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole â€Å"(p. 5). In order to balance end customers' demands and the hit for profitable growth, Burberry has moved aggressively to build an efficient and successful supply chain management an efficient and successful supply chain management system.It must have five basic components that are considered and acted upon. These components can help to enhance revenue, control costs and asset utilization as well as customer satisfaction. They are including planning, sourcing, make, delivery, and return which is same as the supply chain of Burberry flows from ideas and design, production, distribution centre, call-off, store, finally to the customer. In this paper, each of these components will be discussed in the following paragraphs. 3. 0 Planning First step of supply chain management is planning .The planning component is critical to the success of a good supply chain management system. Therefore, from Burberry year annual report, we can see Burberry do reviews their brand performance of business each year and well plan for next year. Also they will review by each season to make sure everything planned are on tracked. Refer to Burberry 2007 annual report we noticed they mentioned will start supply chain management and also put a lot of money to buy SAP system as their only platform of their system in order to bring Burberry business to globalization.It shows the main objective to any strategy a business industry chooses should be to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care for their business while keeping costs under control. At the beginning of season, Burberry sourcing team and product development, quality control, designer , merchandising planning and buyers will have big meeting to review what the trend is , product and material will be launched for next season in order to plan the strategy.Buyer also will give souring team an approximately order quantity for souring team to give factory in order to prepare raw material, trims†¦ etc , to shorten lead-ti me and to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care while keeping costs under control. 4. 0. Sourcing 4. 1. Raw material Burberry applies cost management and quality control monitor in their supply chain system; Cost is the key factors determining Burberry more successful in the fashion changing market. † The raw materials are sourced locally in different regions for example: China, Korea, Thailand and Japan.Benefit is can save the transportation cost and expenses with similar quality. Burberry souring team will negotiate the cost with supplier by using long term business, letter of credit and payment in time in order to make sure they can have better price to hit target. However, product quality will be enhanced in terms of through sourcing better production technologies and new materials internationally. The purposes of sourcing are to know or explore more new suppliers with advanced Garment Production System/ Technology which able to a ccelerate the production speed so that shorten the lead-time.In addition, that strategy can stimulate the inter-specific competition among the existing suppliers by the importing new suppliers. Existing suppliers will contact Burberry actively and offer the attractive conditions with the aim of getting Burberry orders. That is the most effective method controlling the price and maintains the high product quality of global souring 4. 2. Quality Control Burberry is a luxurious brand in fashion industry and in order to maintain high quality products to their customers, all suppliers and manufactures are needs to meet AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standard with 2. requested by Burberry. AQL 2. 5 means if an order is 10,500 units, they want a 2. 5 AQL they can have 14 defective units or less from the 315 that they inspect. Moreover, suppliers need to submit lab test report to prove quality sell to Burberry are good and no harm for customer . To provide good quality material for making h igh quality final goods, Burberry based on china garment rules and international standard to make a standard and all supplier need to follow it to do the testing, if fail in the testing result, suppliers and manufacturers might be cannot carry on or allow to process orders in the next season.Burberry QC team will also regularly by month or by week to inspect supplier and factories in order to make sure their provided product can meet Burberry standard. However, even AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standard with 2. 5 and lab test report applies on all Burberry products and AQL 2. 5 is very high standard but still have defective items can be found . 5. 0. Make Under supply chain strategy, the process of â€Å"Make† is to provide high quality products in lower cost, so that Burberry can save the cost to gain more profit. 5. 1. Co-markershipBurberry has their own standard on selecting raw material suppliers, which also limited the number of suppliers, this can help them to have a better control on the product quality. Burberry has more than 200 independent suppliers for outsource the production. Burberry has good reputation in maintaining the relationship with all suppliers, by producing Burberry luxury product, stable order volume, guarantee payment and letter of credit etc. Furthermore, Burberry always communicates and reviews the action plan with suppliers every season.To enhance the relationship with suppliers, the key factor is to have a good coordination and linkage with them. Burberry frequently provide training program for vendors, in order to maintain their production standard. What is more , Burberry has a regular appraisal to suppliers, which provide feedback to suppliers for better improvement. The production sites of Burberry are global sourced from over the world such as China, Turkey, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, Portugal, Romania and Hong Kong.The advantage is to essentially cut down the labor expenses, with the bulk production so that enhanci ng Burberry at the competitive position in the global fashion Industry by maximizing the margin of profit to the fashion business. For selecting new vendors/suppliers for cooperate business, Burberry has carries out auditors (internal and external) to evaluate the supplier’s qualification before cooperating The criteria including lead time, quality, quantity, safety, guarantee, availability and flexibility etc, especially Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standard.Any supplier cannot approve by Burberry CSR team, Burberry will not allow that factory to produce their product to ensure Burberry product meet on high quality and corporate social responsibility. However, Burberry is not easy to find qualified supplier because Burberry respect the rules and some developing countries cannot meet Burberry regulation such as safety working environment, labor children, illegal pay and abuse , these problems are always found in these countries.Moreover, safety working environment, h ealthy and compliance with local environmental legislation also are the other challenges for Burberry because they found that most developing countries do not formulate the occupational safety and health regulation and environmental organization. These countries do not install the legitimate fire device in the factory or build up a health and safety working place for the staffs, it absolutely disobey the rules of Burberry. Brand image will be also affected by these negative news.When souring new supplier Burberry facing the political environment problem. For example in Thailand, they do not have a stable business environment. The anti-government demonstration caused the Bangkok city in turmoil. It made factory cannot ship out any goods from the airport. As long as riddled with corruption, unstable public security, terrorism and robbery always happened. We can see that these factors might not provide stable business environment for producing Burberry product. And Burberry also will c onsider kind of factors to choose supplier.To solve these problems, I would like to suggest Burberry don’t put all orders in 1 supplier in order unstable conditional happen again. The fighting sources with competitors as also one of the challenges for Burberry as Burberry share some factory‘s capacity with others fashion brand for example: Polo Jeans, Armani exchange, Marks and Spencer, Gap and J. Crew etc. Therefore, Burberry needs to keep a good relationship with all suppliers to ensure sufficient providing source. 5. 2. Outsource Burberry has 3 global licensing agreements of fragrance and beauty (by interparfums), watches (by Fossil) and eyewear (by Luxottica).In order to make sure the quality of non-apparel products are in a high standard, all licensing can provide professional knowledge and technology of product and it can helps Burberry reduce cost on innovation for non-apparel products. Burberry sourcing teams, quality control teams and CSR team work closely with these partners on product development, quality control, CSR, marketing and distribution activities, and will conduct regular reviews to ensure compliance with the term of its license agreements.Outsource for Burberry is very important because Italy’s fragrance and beauty is expertise because they have long history in this field so it is the best in the world, the eyewear technology in Guangdong, China is the best and reasonable. Hence, Burberry enables to sell the licensing to them in order to maintain better quality. 5. 3. Information System – SAP According to Burberry globalized organization, Burberry has 444 worldwide retail shop and over 31 countries operation. Therefore, different parties will create a lot of information of product.Burberry supply chain system is a technology that to improve information to become more systematic. Started from 2008, SAP is the only system platform for Burberry; it can help to collect information, data and share within the organiza tion. It also can monitor the delivery schedule to ensure everything are on tracked. SAP system is the market and technology leader in business software solutions, providing comprehensive business software through SAP applications, services and support. SAP can manage system and analysis at the same time, It helps Burberry to draw data and use this platform to do an analysis of brand performance.This information can help making decision by the management team to increase competitive advantages, such as production life cycle analysis, raw material forecasting, marketing planning and inventory review. So that everything can be counted and measured by using SAP system. Famous and international company would prefer using SAP system, as these company has different branch office over the world. By using SAP system can help they no limitation on different district. 6. 0. Delivery Transportation is one of the main processes of delivering and distributing goods.It may involve more than one p lace during the transportation, such as place to store and place to sell. 6. 1. SAP system In Burberry, SAP provides a systematic format to handle information transmission, and it brings a dramatic impact to Burberry. For example, SAP system has an accurate control on the raw material lead time, which means factories have plenty of time on mass production; consequently, it reduces shipment delay. Furthermore, due to the well control on the production period, Burberry has plenty of time to ship the goods by sea instead of air.The most obvious outcome is the reduction of logistic cost. 6. 2. DHL 3rd party Moreover, Burberry is in collaboration with DHL 3rd party global to in charge of final goods delivery. They are responsible to collect final goods from different factories, and providing direct delivery service to relative DHL Global center (UK, USA, Spain ,HK), then they distribute the goods to local retail stores. Due to this professional & tailor-make service provided by DHL, Burb erry reduces the need for warehousing at destination, which means this part of expenses can be reduced.Even though worldwide retail shops and operation offices are closed after work, DHL can provide 24 hours logistic services and its reliable customs clearance, which can help to speed up the delivery process, so it can secure the delivery time. For example, new product can be launched in the retail store in time, quick move inventory to distribution centers by special requested. 7. 0. Return Nowadays customer would like to have a pleasant shopping experience, they all don’t like to return to retail outlets or companies. Customers want to have sales approaches, lowest price and friendly service for every product.Consumer prefers more and would like to shop at one stop shopping centers. Burberry is using some of the supply chain techniques to cut costs like given vendor to manage the inventory by using inventory tracking and sales in individual stores and cross-docking fast-mov ing items. Now, Burberry has more convenience, selections, and reasonable price 8. 0. Conclusion In my opinion , Burberry applies â€Å"supply chain management† is a important and correct direction because it can offers a great deal of benefits including sourcing , reduce cost , quality control, product category and quality advantages to Burberry fighting with its competitors.In refer to Burberry annual report, their business are going up and up. It is very vital for Burberry continuously maintaining high reputation . As well as Burberry are facing some competitions in sourcing suppliers directly , so needs to find others or potential suppliers to cooperate To ensure the good relationship between supplier with better price, Burberry should keep the stable and regular ordering in long term. This could highly enhance its bargaining power.In order to having the good quality and lowering the cost (to enjoy more profits) at the same time, Burberry need to do more research on findi ng good suppliers and manufactories in different countries. Even it has long historical experience; Burberry should keep doing research and catch up with the new/ latest trend Burberry also need to shorten the lead-time from the process of supply chain progress . In order to meet the demand and needs in the future. I think that Burberry need to shorten the lead-time of manufacturing and transporting time such as pre-book some raw material.In constant, the challenges of global sourcing are some uncertain factors need to be manage and consider in selecting the suppliers from different country, e. g. political environment, country’s textile quotas and exchange rate. To manage those risks, the top management requires long term perspective in defining the company’s goal and strategy. In order to implement global sourcing successfully, it also requires the experience and commitment of the management in managing the risks and understanding the foreign regulations.In addition, H outsources all the production to over 200 suppliers, Burberry needs to maintain the good and long-term relationships with all the existing suppliers. Despite it is rich in challenges and difficulties when conducting sourcing globally. Social Responsibility is one of indispensable factors to be considered. Balancing Social Responsibility and Business Benefits is the real challenges for Burberry If Burberry does not manage its supply chain correctly, it would lose profits because they are providing products at lower costs than its competitors, so they must also receive lower prices from its suppliers.Therefore, the supply chain of every company should not be overlooked as it may lead to a loss in profits, revenues, and even the company itself. 8. 0. Reference Burberry Group Plc. (2012, Nov 09). Retrieved from Burberry – Iconic British Luxury Brand Est. 1856: http://www. burberryplc. com/ Chan, Chi Kin, and Lee, H. W. J. Successful Strategies in Supply Chain Management. Penns ylvania: Hershey, 2005. Chopra, Sunil and Meindl, Peter. Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, . New Jersey: Upper Saddle River, 2007. Supply Chain |Module Number: MO0358 | |Strategic Supply Chain Management | |(Individual Project) | INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Objective â€Å"Supply chain management = Order to Cash. As my group project is about Burberry supply chain management so I would like to further explain it here and show you how Burberry successes after apply supply management. 1. 2 The Background of BURBERRYBURBERRY is established in London, United Kingdom in 1865 by Thomas Burberry. The Business concept of Burberry is â€Å"Fashion & Luxury†. At the end of 2007, Burberry started supply chain management in their business and hope that can delivered luxury and lifestyle product to customers at more than 208 concessions within department stores and digital commerce, plus 44 outlets and 192 mainline stores over the world and Burberry employs more than 30,000 people to operate the business smoothly.Burberry offers fashion for women, men, and children, also sells their own-brand beauty, cosmetics and perfume. Burberry has ow n factory at London Castleford but just produce trench coat and some core items. And now Burberry buys its goods from around 100 independent supplies, mostly in Asia and Europe. Burberry corporate with suppliers to develop long-term, sustainable social and environmental standards in the factories for produces Burberry high quality products. Burberry reaches the customers through two sales channels: stores and online.The store is the most important for Burberry as the customers can see the product, try it on and feel the products. Burberry is expanding their business new offerings and via new channels such as internet/ online business, the advantages of offering new channel are customers able to shop online, it can to let customers have the freedom of choice to choose the sales channel that suits customer best at that moment. Burberry stores are spread all over the world. It can be found in United Kingdom, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia.And according to their annual report China will be their very critical regions for their business so Burberry plans to establish more stores in China in the coming year. Burberry is growing not only by turning to customers in new stores and new places. It is at least equally important that the company continually develops. Their fashion categories are including menswear, womenswear and childrenswear. Fragrance & beauty category was in the leading position of the Asia market two years ago. Accessories category contains eyewear, scarves, watches and bags. Supply chain managementAccording to Mentzer, et al (Ballou, 2004), â€Å"Supply chain Management (SCM) is defined as the systematic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purpose of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole â€Å"(p. 5). In order to balance end customers' demands and the hit for profitable growth, Burberry has moved aggressively to build an efficient and successful supply chain management an efficient and successful supply chain management system.It must have five basic components that are considered and acted upon. These components can help to enhance revenue, control costs and asset utilization as well as customer satisfaction. They are including planning, sourcing, make, delivery, and return which is same as the supply chain of Burberry flows from ideas and design, production, distribution centre, call-off, store, finally to the customer. In this paper, each of these components will be discussed in the following paragraphs. 3. 0 Planning First step of supply chain management is planning .The planning component is critical to the success of a good supply chain management system. Therefore, from Burberry year annual report, we can see Burberry do reviews their brand performance of business each year and well plan for next year. Also they will review by each season to make sure everything planned are on tracked. Refer to Burberry 2007 annual report we noticed they mentioned will start supply chain management and also put a lot of money to buy SAP system as their only platform of their system in order to bring Burberry business to globalization.It shows the main objective to any strategy a business industry chooses should be to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care for their business while keeping costs under control. At the beginning of season, Burberry sourcing team and product development, quality control, designer , merchandising planning and buyers will have big meeting to review what the trend is , product and material will be launched for next season in order to plan the strategy.Buyer also will give souring team an approximately order quantity for souring team to give factory in order to prepare raw material, trims†¦ etc , to shorten lead-ti me and to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care while keeping costs under control. 4. 0. Sourcing 4. 1. Raw material Burberry applies cost management and quality control monitor in their supply chain system; Cost is the key factors determining Burberry more successful in the fashion changing market. † The raw materials are sourced locally in different regions for example: China, Korea, Thailand and Japan.Benefit is can save the transportation cost and expenses with similar quality. Burberry souring team will negotiate the cost with supplier by using long term business, letter of credit and payment in time in order to make sure they can have better price to hit target. However, product quality will be enhanced in terms of through sourcing better production technologies and new materials internationally. The purposes of sourcing are to know or explore more new suppliers with advanced Garment Production System/ Technology which able to a ccelerate the production speed so that shorten the lead-time.In addition, that strategy can stimulate the inter-specific competition among the existing suppliers by the importing new suppliers. Existing suppliers will contact Burberry actively and offer the attractive conditions with the aim of getting Burberry orders. That is the most effective method controlling the price and maintains the high product quality of global souring 4. 2. Quality Control Burberry is a luxurious brand in fashion industry and in order to maintain high quality products to their customers, all suppliers and manufactures are needs to meet AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standard with 2. requested by Burberry. AQL 2. 5 means if an order is 10,500 units, they want a 2. 5 AQL they can have 14 defective units or less from the 315 that they inspect. Moreover, suppliers need to submit lab test report to prove quality sell to Burberry are good and no harm for customer . To provide good quality material for making h igh quality final goods, Burberry based on china garment rules and international standard to make a standard and all supplier need to follow it to do the testing, if fail in the testing result, suppliers and manufacturers might be cannot carry on or allow to process orders in the next season.Burberry QC team will also regularly by month or by week to inspect supplier and factories in order to make sure their provided product can meet Burberry standard. However, even AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standard with 2. 5 and lab test report applies on all Burberry products and AQL 2. 5 is very high standard but still have defective items can be found . 5. 0. Make Under supply chain strategy, the process of â€Å"Make† is to provide high quality products in lower cost, so that Burberry can save the cost to gain more profit. 5. 1. Co-markershipBurberry has their own standard on selecting raw material suppliers, which also limited the number of suppliers, this can help them to have a better control on the product quality. Burberry has more than 200 independent suppliers for outsource the production. Burberry has good reputation in maintaining the relationship with all suppliers, by producing Burberry luxury product, stable order volume, guarantee payment and letter of credit etc. Furthermore, Burberry always communicates and reviews the action plan with suppliers every season.To enhance the relationship with suppliers, the key factor is to have a good coordination and linkage with them. Burberry frequently provide training program for vendors, in order to maintain their production standard. What is more , Burberry has a regular appraisal to suppliers, which provide feedback to suppliers for better improvement. The production sites of Burberry are global sourced from over the world such as China, Turkey, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, Portugal, Romania and Hong Kong.The advantage is to essentially cut down the labor expenses, with the bulk production so that enhanci ng Burberry at the competitive position in the global fashion Industry by maximizing the margin of profit to the fashion business. For selecting new vendors/suppliers for cooperate business, Burberry has carries out auditors (internal and external) to evaluate the supplier’s qualification before cooperating The criteria including lead time, quality, quantity, safety, guarantee, availability and flexibility etc, especially Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standard.Any supplier cannot approve by Burberry CSR team, Burberry will not allow that factory to produce their product to ensure Burberry product meet on high quality and corporate social responsibility. However, Burberry is not easy to find qualified supplier because Burberry respect the rules and some developing countries cannot meet Burberry regulation such as safety working environment, labor children, illegal pay and abuse , these problems are always found in these countries.Moreover, safety working environment, h ealthy and compliance with local environmental legislation also are the other challenges for Burberry because they found that most developing countries do not formulate the occupational safety and health regulation and environmental organization. These countries do not install the legitimate fire device in the factory or build up a health and safety working place for the staffs, it absolutely disobey the rules of Burberry. Brand image will be also affected by these negative news.When souring new supplier Burberry facing the political environment problem. For example in Thailand, they do not have a stable business environment. The anti-government demonstration caused the Bangkok city in turmoil. It made factory cannot ship out any goods from the airport. As long as riddled with corruption, unstable public security, terrorism and robbery always happened. We can see that these factors might not provide stable business environment for producing Burberry product. And Burberry also will c onsider kind of factors to choose supplier.To solve these problems, I would like to suggest Burberry don’t put all orders in 1 supplier in order unstable conditional happen again. The fighting sources with competitors as also one of the challenges for Burberry as Burberry share some factory‘s capacity with others fashion brand for example: Polo Jeans, Armani exchange, Marks and Spencer, Gap and J. Crew etc. Therefore, Burberry needs to keep a good relationship with all suppliers to ensure sufficient providing source. 5. 2. Outsource Burberry has 3 global licensing agreements of fragrance and beauty (by interparfums), watches (by Fossil) and eyewear (by Luxottica).In order to make sure the quality of non-apparel products are in a high standard, all licensing can provide professional knowledge and technology of product and it can helps Burberry reduce cost on innovation for non-apparel products. Burberry sourcing teams, quality control teams and CSR team work closely with these partners on product development, quality control, CSR, marketing and distribution activities, and will conduct regular reviews to ensure compliance with the term of its license agreements.Outsource for Burberry is very important because Italy’s fragrance and beauty is expertise because they have long history in this field so it is the best in the world, the eyewear technology in Guangdong, China is the best and reasonable. Hence, Burberry enables to sell the licensing to them in order to maintain better quality. 5. 3. Information System – SAP According to Burberry globalized organization, Burberry has 444 worldwide retail shop and over 31 countries operation. Therefore, different parties will create a lot of information of product.Burberry supply chain system is a technology that to improve information to become more systematic. Started from 2008, SAP is the only system platform for Burberry; it can help to collect information, data and share within the organiza tion. It also can monitor the delivery schedule to ensure everything are on tracked. SAP system is the market and technology leader in business software solutions, providing comprehensive business software through SAP applications, services and support. SAP can manage system and analysis at the same time, It helps Burberry to draw data and use this platform to do an analysis of brand performance.This information can help making decision by the management team to increase competitive advantages, such as production life cycle analysis, raw material forecasting, marketing planning and inventory review. So that everything can be counted and measured by using SAP system. Famous and international company would prefer using SAP system, as these company has different branch office over the world. By using SAP system can help they no limitation on different district. 6. 0. Delivery Transportation is one of the main processes of delivering and distributing goods.It may involve more than one p lace during the transportation, such as place to store and place to sell. 6. 1. SAP system In Burberry, SAP provides a systematic format to handle information transmission, and it brings a dramatic impact to Burberry. For example, SAP system has an accurate control on the raw material lead time, which means factories have plenty of time on mass production; consequently, it reduces shipment delay. Furthermore, due to the well control on the production period, Burberry has plenty of time to ship the goods by sea instead of air.The most obvious outcome is the reduction of logistic cost. 6. 2. DHL 3rd party Moreover, Burberry is in collaboration with DHL 3rd party global to in charge of final goods delivery. They are responsible to collect final goods from different factories, and providing direct delivery service to relative DHL Global center (UK, USA, Spain ,HK), then they distribute the goods to local retail stores. Due to this professional & tailor-make service provided by DHL, Burb erry reduces the need for warehousing at destination, which means this part of expenses can be reduced.Even though worldwide retail shops and operation offices are closed after work, DHL can provide 24 hours logistic services and its reliable customs clearance, which can help to speed up the delivery process, so it can secure the delivery time. For example, new product can be launched in the retail store in time, quick move inventory to distribution centers by special requested. 7. 0. Return Nowadays customer would like to have a pleasant shopping experience, they all don’t like to return to retail outlets or companies. Customers want to have sales approaches, lowest price and friendly service for every product.Consumer prefers more and would like to shop at one stop shopping centers. Burberry is using some of the supply chain techniques to cut costs like given vendor to manage the inventory by using inventory tracking and sales in individual stores and cross-docking fast-mov ing items. Now, Burberry has more convenience, selections, and reasonable price 8. 0. Conclusion In my opinion , Burberry applies â€Å"supply chain management† is a important and correct direction because it can offers a great deal of benefits including sourcing , reduce cost , quality control, product category and quality advantages to Burberry fighting with its competitors.In refer to Burberry annual report, their business are going up and up. It is very vital for Burberry continuously maintaining high reputation . As well as Burberry are facing some competitions in sourcing suppliers directly , so needs to find others or potential suppliers to cooperate To ensure the good relationship between supplier with better price, Burberry should keep the stable and regular ordering in long term. This could highly enhance its bargaining power.In order to having the good quality and lowering the cost (to enjoy more profits) at the same time, Burberry need to do more research on findi ng good suppliers and manufactories in different countries. Even it has long historical experience; Burberry should keep doing research and catch up with the new/ latest trend Burberry also need to shorten the lead-time from the process of supply chain progress . In order to meet the demand and needs in the future. I think that Burberry need to shorten the lead-time of manufacturing and transporting time such as pre-book some raw material.In constant, the challenges of global sourcing are some uncertain factors need to be manage and consider in selecting the suppliers from different country, e. g. political environment, country’s textile quotas and exchange rate. To manage those risks, the top management requires long term perspective in defining the company’s goal and strategy. In order to implement global sourcing successfully, it also requires the experience and commitment of the management in managing the risks and understanding the foreign regulations.In addition, H outsources all the production to over 200 suppliers, Burberry needs to maintain the good and long-term relationships with all the existing suppliers. Despite it is rich in challenges and difficulties when conducting sourcing globally. Social Responsibility is one of indispensable factors to be considered. Balancing Social Responsibility and Business Benefits is the real challenges for Burberry If Burberry does not manage its supply chain correctly, it would lose profits because they are providing products at lower costs than its competitors, so they must also receive lower prices from its suppliers.Therefore, the supply chain of every company should not be overlooked as it may lead to a loss in profits, revenues, and even the company itself. 8. 0. Reference Burberry Group Plc. (2012, Nov 09). Retrieved from Burberry – Iconic British Luxury Brand Est. 1856: http://www. burberryplc. com/ Chan, Chi Kin, and Lee, H. W. J. Successful Strategies in Supply Chain Management. Penns ylvania: Hershey, 2005. Chopra, Sunil and Meindl, Peter. Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, . New Jersey: Upper Saddle River, 2007.