Legal and Ethics Free Essays

How Conan Doyle Successfully Uses Setting in The Hound of the Baskervil

How Conan Doyle Successfully Uses Setting in The Hound of the Baskervilles Conan Doyle began his vocation as a specialist. He opened a medical procedure however was not exceptionally effective as he didn't have numerous patients. He required cash so he started to compose short stories. He concocted Sherlock Holmes in 1888 who included in his accounts as a private criminologist who had abnormal diagnostic aptitudes. The analyst type utilized in his stories was ideal for the time as there was an extraordinary enthusiasm for riddles and brain science. The developing enthusiasm for writing made it a extraordinary time to begin composing. He figure out how to incorporate all the major highlights of a decent investigator novel, including the splendid lawbreaker what's more, significantly progressively splendid criminologist, the person in question, a riddle, pieces of information which the peruser could get on, and some that they couldn't or were confused by, a peculiar and complex wrongdoing, the unconventional character o the investigator, and a closure were acceptable wins and fiendishness is rebuffed. Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles was first distributed in Strand magazine in sequential structure, and later made into a book. This epic fulfilled the key components of an analyst story. It is an undertaking to discover the who or what is behind the puzzling homicides. The homicide of Sir Charles Baskerville I said to be weird and unnatural by the individuals living close by, and this upheld up by the legend of the dog. Sir Henry Baskerville shows up from Canada, not long after the passing of Sir Charles, to acquire the premises of Baskerville Hall. He sets out to the abandoned fields with the direction of Holmes and Watson. They are there to attempt to understand the secret encompassing Sir Charles demise. Conan Doy... ...l setting to the occasion in the plot. Setting can likewise give an ethical setting to the occasion in the plot. For instance, the balance straightforwardly with the arranged, secure, moral universe of 221B Bakers Street, London. Setting doesn't simply show place, yet in addition the condition related with it, in specific the climate and climate conditions. The climate at that point mirrors the state of mind of the characters. This is a case of the way setting can have a functioning influence in a novel. It hushes up great to begin a novel by setting it in a steady London since perusers feel secure, which has the effect of been tossed into the open country more grounded. Peruser is gotten unconscious and trusted into the environment of anguish. The book is organized by setting the end in London, so that the climate is put away to that of quiet and serene state.

Helping Others Can Increase Happiness and Reduce Stress

Helping Others Can Increase Happiness and Reduce Stress Happiness Print Helping Others Can Increase Happiness and Reduce Stress By Elizabeth Scott, MS twitter Elizabeth Scott, MS, is a wellness coach specializing in stress management and quality of life, and the author of 8 Keys to Stress Management. Learn about our editorial policy Elizabeth Scott, MS Updated on January 29, 2020 Westend61 / Getty Images More in Self-Improvement Happiness Meditation Stress Management Spirituality Holistic Health Inspiration Brain Health Technology Relationships View All According to an annual survey from the American Psychological Association, stress is an all-too-common experience and far too many of us feel stressed beyond our coping abilities. Between work, money issues,  family stress, and other obligations, it can be easy to feel overworked, frustrated and burned out. While you can practice stress-relieving techniques like yoga or meditation, you may find that helping others, while it can make a schedule busier, is also a powerful form of stress release that could even improve your physical health. When you focus your attention on the needs of someone else, your stress levels have been scientifically proven to go down. That helps minimize the impact of stress on your body, improving your physical wellness as well as your emotional health. Research backs this up. Impact of Stress on Health A 2015 study published in the Clinical Psychological Science journal found that relieving the impact of stress on health can be accomplished by helping others. While it was a small study, its results were eye-opening. 77 adults between the ages of 18 and 44 participated in the study. Each night, they received an automated call reminding them to complete a daily questionnaire. The questionnaire had queries about the days stressful events, such as the commute, work, and finance. It also tracked helpful behaviors and small acts of kindness and the resulting emotions. The researchers found that those who performed more daily acts of kindness were less likely to feel stressed. On days when they could not do any acts of kindness, they reported more stress and negativity. The study suggests that we can help ourselves manage stress and feel better by doing good deeds for other people. Further study will need to be done to analyze this theory, but it has promising implications for those experiencing high levels of stress. Small Acts of Kindness to Reduce Stress You dont need to be extremely wealthy or have tons of free time to get the benefits of altruism. Even small gestures, like holding the door for a stranger, had the potential to reduce stress. Here are a few simple deeds you can do to help others and potentially lower your stress levels: Pay It Forward: When youre at the drive-thru window, you can pay for the car behind you. When they get to the window, it will be a very unexpected surprise for them and requires only a small amount of money.Share With Others: Bake a cake or other dessert and bring it into the office break room for everyone to share. Your coworkers will be thrilled. Or simply bring a little extra with you when youre packing materials. Bringing extra earplugs to a concert, extra tissues during cold and flu season, or sharing whatever you can spare is a simple way to help others.Clean out the Closet: De-clutter your closet or basement and donate old clothes, toys and books to a nearby shelter. Youll help people in need of these goods while streamlining your home. Youll also be reminded of how much you have and how lucky you are to have it.Volunteer: Volunteer your skills to a local non-profit. Whether you are a photographer, web-designer or cook, non-profits are always in need of help from professionals and would appreciate the assistance. Or, you can work directly with those in need by volunteering at a homeless shelter, animal rescue or soup kitchen. If this is more of a time commitment than you have, you can always simply donate your change to charity when you go grocery shopping, or help in smaller ways like this.Share the Love:  The best things in life are free, and this applies to smiles, hugs,  and other gestures that show you care. You dont have to commit your time or money to do something kind for someone else. A simple squeeze on the shoulder can let people know youre supporting them and that you care. You dont need to do grand gestures in order to make a difference and help your health. Small acts of kindness done over time can reap large rewards for your well-being.

A Brief Note On Alternative Dispute Resolution And Other...

Alternative Dispute Resolution Conflict resolution is used in various aspects of counseling and other forms of helping professions. It is vital that conflicts between opposing parties are managed in order for progress to be achieved. By maintaining a controlled environment during the negotiation process, the two parties will often be able to come to a resolution of their differences. Sometimes it can be difficult for two parties to work together without the help of a third party to assist in the process. This person can work as a mediator or arbitrator between the parties, able to make suggestions throughout the negotiation, and or make a decision for the parties (Barsky 2000). These are forms of alternative dispute resolutions that are†¦show more content†¦1 Kings 3:16-18 tells the story of King Solomon using a form of arbitration to settle a dispute between two women who were in disagreement about who was the mother of a baby they brought to the king. In I Corinthians 6:3- 6, Paul recommends mediation or arbitration to be employed to settle civil disputes between Christians instead of taking their problems to court and bringing disgrace upon the church. In colonial North America, a group of respected men from the community would hear disputes and decide on a resolution. It was used occasionally for some years after afterwards, but was not until 1898 that Congress gave official authorization for mediation to be used in formal disputes. In the early 1900s, the Federal Arbitration Act was passed, which furthered the capabilities of arbitration to be used in conflict resolution and for its results to be upheld in court. The American Arbitration Association was founded in 1926 to assist in guiding parties working through arbitrators. The Age Discrimination Act of 1975 brought forth claims of discrimination in workplaces, which were often mediated by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. After the 1980s, many schools began to offer courses related to alternative dispute resolution, and now some type of alternative dispute resolution is integrated into the majority of law school programs

Climate Change And Its Effects On The World Today

It is known climate change is occurring because of multiple factors, including greenhouse gases, human activity, and some scientists say solar irradiance. What most people do not know or simply have not thought of is how far back in history was climate change a problem or if it was an issue for early civilizations. It is apparent that early civilizations weakened for several reasons, but one reason in particular is affecting the world today. One particular civilization that is popular for their agriculture are the Mayans. The Maya empire occupied land that is now Guatemala. They were the most dominant native people before the 16th century and were intelligent in the way they did agriculture. With new research available, it is plausible to†¦show more content†¦This method was used because it efficiently removed unwanted parasites and plant in the rich soil. Not only slash-and-burn increases climate change, but also was a problem after 2-3 years of using the soil, it would ero de and reduce the nutrients, resulting in insufficient growth of crops. After the soil erodes, the process was repeated, but in a different area. It is an effective method if practiced by smaller land and a smaller population. Since the population of the Mayan empire expanded, more trees were needed to provide essential needs. The endless cycle of slash and burn increasingly became severe for the Mayans. The lack of trees allowed greater amounts of CO2 to be released into the atmosphere. The top country that has the highest deforestation is Brazil. Deforestation not only opposes a threat to the climate and habitat loss, it also causes problems for people living in Brazil and other countries near Brazil. Mass deforestation can put these people at risk of losing their livelihood. Soil erosion can add waste into drinking water systems making the water non-drinkable. Burning trees add carbon dioxide to our atmosphere and removing trees lowers the number of trees available to transform c arbon dioxide into oxygen. Deforestation continues the effect of global warming in this way. A disruption in the water cycle can have a ripple effect on the environment. Guatemala, once preoccupied by the Mayans, is still very much

Interesting Comparison Essay Topics Help!

Interesting Comparison Essay Topics Help! The Basics of Interesting Comparison Essay Topics If you don't connect the points and explain their similarities and differences then you won't be in a position to accomplish a high grade. Your comparison should really help somebody's understanding of the objects you're contrasting. In a lot of the scenarios, you should search for items to compare that have some differences but similarities also. The differences are also rather obvious. New Questions About Interesting Comparison Essay Topics The option of compare and contrast essay topics isn't a simple task because you must clearly show your analytical skills. You can begin with the sort of topic you select for your compare and contrast essay. It is possible to also order a fully written compare and contrast essay and alleviate the quantity of work you must do. Compare and contrast essays are among the most fascinating essay types. The essay requires you to have good understanding about two subjects and be in a position to discuss them in good detail. Comparison essay writing may appear complicated, but when you get get organized it is going to flow. A number of the essay topics below may appear to contain subjects that don't have anything in common. Picking out essay topics is most likely one of the most difficult things about writing an essay, whatever sort it is. An argumentative paper is part of the persuasion. Introduction with the highly effective hook and thesis statement stays the same. It's possible for you to restate your thesis statement and point out a number of the arguments used over the full essay that backs it up. You must research the selected topic and discover facts to contradict your primary thesis. Although you're just beginning to compose essays, you shouldn't struggle attempting to develop something to discuss. After you have read our helpful on-line article, we'd love to provide something you couldn't even imagine. For example an individual may pick a topic like, life in the shoes of a werewolf. For example, you may attempt to spell out the way that it tastes to be Dracula. At any time you catch yourself feeling captivated by a person's essay or article, take a good look at it. The reader ought to take the author's side by the close of the reading. For that reason, it must be something unique yet pragmatic to obtain the interest of the reader. The most suitable beginning to writing the essay ought to be to pick the ideal topic that may lead your way to success. Keep in mind which you need to make it sound appealing and original, as nobody would want to complete the text that's dull or old news. The primary reason is they are comparison of two aspects either of the identical story or between two topics. Finding the perfect topic isn't the hardest job in the planet, all you need to do is to take a few factors under consideration. Picking out the appropriate topics might take a while in case you don't have a list of sample topics facing you. Since you may see, the topics are split between multiple categories so it would be simpler that you select one. Before you begin, it is imperative to choose topics which you really know well. In the majority of instances, the topics you pick should be closely related. The Truth About Interesting Comparison Essay Topics You only have to order a great essay from experts with the greatest academic degrees in a number of fields. Remember your final grade significantly is dependent upon the topic. On-line assistance from expert writers will help you save you a plenty of time. Students who excel in writing about such complex topic can have an opportunity to be enrolled into a number of the ideal Art universities to come up with their abilities and talent.

Rite Solutions Case Essay Example

Rite Solutions Case Paper Other employees could invest virtual money in the idea, provide comments, or volunteer tort short projects that would move the idea forward. The stock market LOL provided an interesting vehicle for harnessing the creativity of employees, Rite-solutions had created Mutual Fun for its own use, but filled it to be so powerful that the company wanted to license it as a product to others, The New York Times article generated a tremendous amount of interest in Mutual Fun, and the Rite-Solutions put on a series of day-long workshops for companies interested in learning more about it. Duncan avgas an executive with a consumer products company, with a large portfolio of products such as soaps and detergents. Her company avgas struggling to come up with new products. Duncan attended one Of the Retributions seminars, and learned about the stock market game. However, she quickly realized that the game was just part of a culture of collaboration and creativity at Rite-Solutions. She wondered Whether Mutual Fun would help enhance innovation at her company, and whether she could apply Other lessons from Rite-Solutions Within her company. I All quotations are from interviews with the author, unless otherwise specified. We will write a custom essay sample on Rite Solutions Case specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Rite Solutions Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Rite Solutions Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer David Hoyt prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Hexagram Raw as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective r ineffective handling of an administrative situation, Copyright C 2006 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, e-mail the Case Writing Office at: [emailprotected] Standard. Du or write: Case Writing Office, Stanford Graduate School of Business, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5015. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means h electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise h thou the permission of the Stanford Graduate School of Business This document is authorized for use only in Strategic Impresario y Plan De Ingenious 2013 by Mart? N Alterations at University Of Palermo from April 2013 to October 2013.Rite-solutions: Mavericks unleashing the Quiet Genius of Employees: HRS-27 RITE-SOLUTIONS Rite-solutions was founded in Rhode Island in 2000 by Jim Lavabo and Joe Marino. Lavabo and Marino had been long-time executives of a software company which had gone public, and had become a large company, They noticed a change after going public, which Lavabo described as going from make it happens to make us money. i They had talked about starting their own business, and after their company was bought by a larger company, they soon left their positions as executive vice presidents to strike out on their own, The two had made a lot of money from their stock options, and had enjoyed long, successful careers. Lavabo and Marino were well suited as partners in the new venture. Lavabo was a creative, visionary thinker. Marino had an excellent attention to detail, and was a strong operations manager. Equally important, they each recognized their own limitations, valued the others strengths, were DOD friends, and had an exceptional working relationship. They did not want to start a conventional company. Marino explained, tatter leaving a company with thousands Of employees, eve started the company with the idea that theres got to be a better way to do business in the 21st century. We decided that] if we(re going to do this, if wire going to Start 3 business at our age, and at this point in life, then iris going to be one big experiment[wire going tool do all those things that we always wanted to do as managers Of a public company He continued: It also takes a lot of pressure off of the top two guns if you freely admit to people that this is one big experiment, and we really dont know where it is going. But we do promise [to employees) that wire not going to do anything that will jeopardize your wellbeing. These people have families. It is not like wire a bunch of cowboys, But theres a certain liberation that goes along with saying that were going to try some stuff;some things will work, some things arent going to work, We actually have a model for it, things that we cant mess around with that might interfere with peoples lives. But theres a piece of the business that e purposely break every once in awhile to say, el_ETSI try this, because by trying this it isnt going to send the company down the tubes, but it could map out a new direction for us, and a new way of doing Our COO calls this our Doctrine of Disruptive States. The central tenet of the companys philosophy was trust, what Marino called tithe currency of the company?the underpinning of everything we do. i They wanted employees Citizens) to feel that they were part of a community, or Marino explained their concept of a company community: Why is the business world separate from any other community that you ever are a part of? You start off as a family thats your very first community. And then you go to school. All of the communities are loving, embracing, nurturing. Then you get into the business world, and everything youve ever experienced is thrown out the window. So, the whole feeling that we want people to have when they come in here is a continuity Of this is just one more community,i not 180 degrees out from every other community [theyve] ever belonged to. So, it is a This document is authorized for use only in Strategic Impresario Plan De Ingenious 2013 by Mart? N Alterations at University of Palermo from April 2013 to October 2013. RiteSolutions: Mavericks Unleashing the Quiet Genius of Employees: HRS. 27 nurturing community. Its a responsible community, you have responsibilities, you have accountability it is, after all, a business. But, the whole idea of hove people are treated, and the relationship they should have to each other and with the management team why should that be different from any other community that you belong to? Lavabo and Marino incorporated these concepts into all aspects of the company culture through a wide variety of techniques, some of which will be described later. Ay 2006, the company had about 165 employees. The primary office was in Middletown, Rhode Island. Other offices were in Packet, Connecticut and San Diego, California. Though no managers were given revenue growth goals, the company had grown at an impressive rate, and was financially successful. They had an extraordinarily dedicated and loyal workforce, virtually no employee turn-over, and no debt. Rite-Solutions Industry and Competitive Environment Rite-solutions was a software company With clients in both the government and commercial sectors. Its initial clients were primarily casinos, for which it provided software for games, management, ND back-office functions. It also had some government contracts, and many of its employees had experience working with the military, particularly with the Navy. Ay mid. CHIC, the company offered a wide range of products and services, including Navy training curricula and simulations, AD situational awareness simulations, casino games and back-office software, and a consumer game platform developed for Hasher (discussed further below). However, invoice and Marino did not think of their company in terms of the products they provided so much as the knowledge they possessed which could be used to meet potential customer needs. Lavabo commented, Woos companies say this is what we do. i We say, what can we do with what we nova? If Thus, Rite-Solutions open to ideas for new products that leveraged and extended their knowledge base. The companys industry competitors varied dramatically with the market, but both the military and commercial segments contained very large and very small companies Many of the small companies oeuvre either niche players, or were struggling. In the military sector, the large competitors, companies like General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, saw themselves as system integrators. In the commercial sector, Rite-solutions competed with other providers of casino software, such as KIT, Harris Entertainment, Goethe, Scientific Games, and Bialys. The large competitors were generally resistant to innovation, as they wanted to maintain their legacy products. New entrants were always a threat, but there ever barriers to entry in the government and casino sectors. In the government sector, developing training programs for the military or Department of Homeland Security required a deep understanding of the subject matter (Which was often classified), as well as substantial technical competence. In the casino business, a supplier had to be highly respected for the integrity and security of its product, as well as 24/7 support;an unknown entrant faced the challenge of proving its dependability. This document is authorized for use only in Strategic Impresarios Plan De Rite-Solutions: Mavericks Unleashing the Quiet Genius of Employees: HRS-27 Rite-Solutions Culture The culture that Lavabo and Marino created could be seen from the moment someone logged onto the company Web site (w. Www. Retributions. Com). On each page of the site was a drawing of an owl, with Ohio? Scrolling across its face. Clicking on the owl brought up a page with a picture and short biography of a Rite-Solutions employee, including hobbies and other items of personal and professional interest. For many of the pages, clicking the owl several times would bring up profiles Of different employees, each of whom had expertise in the area described on the Web page. Thus, Web visitors could communicate directly With a large number Of employees, a signal that indicated the company trusted employees to represent it well. The hiring process focused both on technical competence and cultural fit. The company described its employees as none of F. E. W (Friends Enjoying a slogan that was on each employees business card. It described the hiring process as a try. Out,i to find citizens in our community and partners in our culture,ii Attributes that people looked for in new employees included an upbeat, optimistic attitude, a collaborative nature, and someone would want to share an office with. i As of mid-2006, most new employees had been referred by existing employees. ROR to joining the company, new employees were sent an e-mail with all the intimation they would need to know, including links to Intranet pages where they could find necessary information. On the first day of work, the new employee was given a welcoming party, complete with cake and wrapped gifts (company mug, T-shirt, etc. ), The objective, as described by Lavabo, was to make the new employee feel that theyre home. I want them to feel like they belong here. As opposed to: they are employed here, or they have a job here. Ally want them to feel like they are home. Tithe new employee created a Ohio page, as described above, which became part of a accompanied database When employees needed to contact people that they did not know, they could refer to that persons Who page, see a picture, and learn about any common interests. Employees described this as helping them to feel more comfortable calling people that they didnt knobs. The Ohio idea had originally come from an employee playing a game called mutual Fun,i (to be discussed shortly). On the third Thursday Of each month, the company had a presentation Of interest to the employees, followed by a social period. Communications were extremely easygoing, enhanced by the openness that Lavabo and Marino demonstrated, and the personal friendships that they cultivated with the employees, many of whom had known one another for many years. Open communication and trust were also demonstrated in the employee newsletter, which gave extremely detailed information about company contracts and other sensitive information ¶far beyond that which was shared with employees at other companies. The culture of openness and trust extended to relationships with customers. For instance, each project had a team room on the company Intranet in which all plans, schedules, status reports, and other documents were stored. The client had access to the team room for its project, and 2 http://Ã'‘mm. Retributions. Com/home. HTML Try-Outs tab) (July 31, 2006). This document is authorized for use only in Strategic Impresario y Plan De Rite-Solutions: Mavericks unleashing the Quiet Genius Of Employees: HRS-27 could kick at any document, as well as submit its own. If a client wanted to evaluate the status of a project, that information was available. If a client wanted to check the priority of software fixes, that information was also availableand the client could modify the priorities as appropriate. Thus, clients were always informed of details of their projects, and if they needed to discuss them, the discussion was a high-value-added meeting rather than a recitation of facts. The Puzzle Ensuring a Meaningful Relationship with Employees Lavabo and Marino ad observed that the employee-employer relationship in most companies was transactional. The employee was hired to do a job. The questions that the employee faced were: Can I do the job, and am I going to behave according to the companys rules? It the employee couldnt do the job, or refused to behave, the relationship was terminated, However, this was far short of the meaningful relationship that Lavabo and Marino sought with their employees. A meaningful relationship existed when employees cared about the company and trusted it, when they thought about the companys future, and contributed to that future. But, employees would only participate in that way if they believed that they oeuvre important, that they belonged, that the company cared about them and trusted them. Employees also had to believe that the company wanted and listened to their input. Finally, the company had to recognize and reward the employees. Only When those pieces were in place could the employee and company have a truly meaningful relationship, providing benefits to both parties far in excess of those shared when the relationship was merely transactional. Lavabo and Marino developed these concepts into a puzzle (Exhibit 1). If a piece was missing n the transactional stage, the remedy was simple;the employee quit or was fired. However, if the employee could do the job, and followed the rules, and the company did not accomplish any Of the Objectives represented by the puzzle pieces required for a meaningful relationship, the consequences were more draining. The employee could play a puzzle piece called screw Your The two founders believed that this was the most damaging situation an employee who met the basic employment requirements, but who brought negativity. Such an employee could poison an otherwise outstanding organization, The final nine of the puzzle related to staying involved with the company after retiring. In industrial companies, workers typically did not want to stay involved in the company after retirement. An auto worker for instance, would probably not want to come back to the factory after retirement. As companies evolved, and employees contributed on an intellectual level, they did not necessarily want to totally withdraw when they retired. They might want to travel, spend more time on hobbies, but they also might want to spend some time making a significant personal contribution in their professional field, or to a company that they cared about. This required a viva of staying involved in a meaningful way. Lavabo characterized knowledge capture,i the practice of documenting the knowledge of retiring employees, as IL want to know votary know, and put it someplace electronically so wont hue to know you anymore. He wanted to create a vehicle for knowledge tethering, which he described as: IL dont want to suck your brain out. Ant to know how you think. Want to know What you think. Want to know what interests you. i Ingenious 2013 by Mart? N Alterations at Linearity of Palermo from April 2013 to Organization Structure Organization structure was an essential element of he Rite-Solution culture. The cultures page tooth company Web site included a glossary of terms (Exhibit 2). In the section labeled into in Our Vocabulary,i organization was defined as IA pyramids Pyramid was defined as IA tomb for dead people,i and an organizational box was defined as IA storage bin for dead people stuck in a pyramid. 3 Lavabo described what he called tithe pyramid game: You have to know how to play the pyramid game in a big company/ There are fewer boxes above you than level with you. Which means youve got to be better than someone in [your peer group] to get to [the next higher] line. Thats why he pyramids are such an awful, awful structure. When we sold the company, we made a dozen people wealthy. But we left I ,800 behind who got to keep their job when we sold the company. Why? Because they werent as good at playing pyramid as we were. Now, there were guys a heck Of a lot smarter than me back in the old pyramid. They just didnt have the moves, didnt have the theater, didnt have the passions It is interesting to watch people just try to do their best. And their best can be good enough in a good community. You dont have to be a politician to be a good citizen;and it is the politicians that Win the game f pyramid. Another drawback of the pyramid model, according to Lavabo and Marino, was the perception that people at each level were smarter than those below them. Where this perception existed, it placed severe pressure on people at the top to constantly be right, and it inhibited input from people elsewhere in the organization. Lavabo and Marino freely admitted that good ideas were likely to come from anywhere in the organization. Rather than think of the organization as a pyramid, they thought of it as an adaptive community of knowledge,i supported by tour guideposts: stability, innovation, empowerment, and vision ND coaching (see detailed description in Exhibit 3), Two senior people were assigned to each guidepost (increasing as the company grew), chosen so that they each brought complementary capabilities (or lying and yang)_ Lavabo and Marino were the vision and coaching guidepost. The empowerment guidepost consisted of the GO, whose strength was information, and a technology/ automation expert. Guidepost partners made an agreement specifying what each expected of the other The empowerment guidepost focused on the infrastructure that was needed to support the efforts of employees. The stability deposit focused On the nuts and bolts Of operations and maintaining the businesse. G. , order receipts, getting paid, and the other necessities of keeping the business in operation. There was a yin and yang between guideposts as well as within them. Lavabo described the interaction been the innovation stability guidepost by describing measures Of success: http:,/www. Retributions. Com/home. HTML (cultures tab) (July 31, 2006). Menacing 2013 by Mart? N Alterations at University of Palermo from April 2013 to lifebuoy in the innovation block, youre not going to be measured on how innovative you are, because already know youre innovative limit going to measure you on how stable your innovations have been for the company. For the stability people, limit going to measure you on how innovative youve been in putting new products in the customers hands. So, now it forces these guys to work together, because oeuvre dependent on you for the innovative ideas that wire going to leverage into my customer base. While the company used a community/guidepost model rather than a pyramid to describe the organization, this did not mean that there avgas no hierarchy. Lavabo was CEO, Marino was the impassions president. There were vice presidents and directors, group managers and project managers. The hierarchy was driven by the need for accountability and effective customer service. In addition, performance appraisals and salary revive. Required a degree of hierarchy. But the overriding principle was that people could play multiple roles in the organization, unconstrained by ibexes. i People were free to seek the advice of the best person available without the boundaries of a Chain of commando Company Ownership Another important aspect of the company culture was the fact that it was employee owned, with o need for outside investors. Lavabo and Marino believed that an ownership interest was important to a meaningful long-term relationship with employees. Employee ownership was in the tort tot stock options, but employees were not eligible for options until they had been with the company for one year. Since the objective was a long-term relationship rather than a quick pay-off, this enabled both the employee and company to take stock of the situation and make sure that there was a good fit. If there wasnt a good fit, it wasnt in the interests of either the employee or the company to continue the relationship. This typically centered around the collaborative nature of the company, and the central concept of trust. Lavabo explained: We have a forcing function at the one- year mark. If they arent the right fit, we] help them find another job, where they would probably be very comfortable, because it is the norm, and this is not the norm. They just arent perfect for us. It doesnt mean they arent smart. They just dont get [the concept on trust. Lavabo elaborated on the importance of basing relationships on the assumption of trust, rather than having trust come only after being earned by long experience: If you dont Start out from a session of trust, just about the time [a person SSL about to gain your trust, they do something you dont understand, so you distrust them. My God, thats too many calories for me. Why not trust everybody, and once in a while youll get screwed. As opposed to dont trust anybody,i and youll never trust anybody. Ownership fostered the employees sense of belonging and accountability, but in order for it to have economic meaning, there had to be a way for ownership to be modernized. This presented a potential problem. Lavabo and Marino did not plan to take the company public, nor to sell it to a Menacing 2013 by Mart? Alter-son at University of Palermo from April 2013 to larger compartmenting of which would have serious consequences for the company culture. (Lavabo noted wryly that one advantage of not having a pyramid organization structure Vass that it made a takeover unlikely acquiring company would have no idea how to assimilate the organization. ) Terry Feely, director Of new ventures, had founded a successful laser company in 1980, which he had sold. After doing some consulting, he heard about Rite-solutions, met Lavabo and Marino, and joined the company. An important part Of his job as to find ways to noontime company ownership. While employees talked Of working for the company because Of the culture, and how well they were treated, Feely believed that it was aneve to think that employees didnt also want to make a substantial amount of money from their company ownership. He observed: Theres a tremendous loyalty to Jim and Joe, and thats a wonderful thing. I also think theres an expectation that they will get taken care of. Thats an expectation because that culture is here. We stay here because wire treated well. UT treated well when youre getting ready to retire looks different than Ewing treated well when youre 20 years old. Since live been both 20 and ready to retire, limit committed, and Joe and Jim are supporting me, on creating liquidity. The company planned to create liquidity by developing products and/or services that could create lasting value. Feely cited the example tot Keep, which had sold to eBay for SSL . 4 billion. He believed that some of the ideas and intellectual property that Rite-solutions was working on had the potential for very high returns. However, Lavabo and Marino recognized that if the concepts they had used in creating and developing Rite-solutions was truly to be a business model or the 21st century, it could not be limited to small, privately held companies. It would have to also be applicable to larger, publicly held companies. MUTUAL PLAN Mutual Pun was created as a way of fostering trust, collaboration, and the ideas of employees throughout the company. While avgas often referred to as a game,i in reality, it was a powerful tool for innovation and employee involvement. It also served as a unifying structure to enhance the company culture, and to bring forth the benefits that the culture provided. It was launched in January 2005. Mutual Fun was an internal stock exchange. Consisting of three arrests: Savings Bonds, which were ideas that could save the company money or increase efficiency; bow Jones,i which consisted of ideas that utilized existing technology to create new products or services; and spaded,chic contained ideas of new technologies that the company should explore for potential future use. Like technologies that formed the basis for companies on the NASDAQ, some technologies worked well, and others not so well. The study of a new technology could lead to a decision to return to a proven technology rather than an emerging alternative. The knowledge spasms of investigating emerging cosmologies was worth the investment to the company and its knowledge base. (Exhibit 4 shows representative stocks on each exchange. ) Putting an Idea Onto the Market TO put an idea onto the stock market, an employee (the inventory) went to the Mutual Fun Web site and clicked on a button to create an expect-Los. (Exhibit 5 is a flow chart Of the stock market process. Exhibit 6 shows some of the Mutual Fun Web screens. ) The Expect- LIST was a simple, one-page, form that described the idea. (Exhibit 7 provides an example of a completed Expect-us for an idea that was later incorporated within Retributions, and then sold as a product. In order to guide the inventor, the Expect-Us form had some simple screening questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Is this idea in our path? Does it leverage what we know? Does it allow us to learn new things? Would we use this? Do we know anybody else that would use it? Will this make us a better company? These questions were intended to coach the inventor into areas that might be of use to the company, as opposed to money-making ideas that were totally outside the companys competence (such as opening a dry-cleaning store). Even if the idea seemed far-fetched, however, the inventor could still pursue it. The Expect- Us also had space for a description of the idea, and then asked: Whats the key to success for this? Whats the potential savings or growth? Whats the return on innovation (knowledge gained, product developed, etc. )? What are the success beacons (how do you know when youre done)? After completing an initial draft of the Expect-us, the inventor had to find a prophet,i another person in the company Who Would act as a mentor and evangelist for the idea. There were about 40 people in the company who Lavabo and Marino had approved to be prophets. An inventor would select 3 prophet Who s/he thought might provide DOD guidance, and who would be interested in the idea. If a potential prophet was interested, s/he would agree to help. This fulfilled one Of the important rules of Mutual Fun the two-man rule,i which ensured that at least bono people were interested in the idea before it proceeded. The prophet could be anywhere in the company, and did not have to have any other relationship with the inventor. Sometimes the prophet would change as the idea progressed;a technical person might be the prophet at the start, handing it off to a business person once the technical issues were understood and a business case was required. More than en prophet could help with any idea. Rite Solutions Case Essay Example Rite Solutions Case Paper Other employees could invest virtual money in the idea, provide comments, or volunteer tort short projects that would move the idea forward. The stock market LOL provided an interesting vehicle for harnessing the creativity of employees, Rite-solutions had created Mutual Fun for its own use, but filled it to be so powerful that the company wanted to license it as a product to others, The New York Times article generated a tremendous amount of interest in Mutual Fun, and the Rite-Solutions put on a series of day-long workshops for companies interested in learning more about it. Duncan avgas an executive with a consumer products company, with a large portfolio of products such as soaps and detergents. Her company avgas struggling to come up with new products. Duncan attended one Of the Retributions seminars, and learned about the stock market game. However, she quickly realized that the game was just part of a culture of collaboration and creativity at Rite-Solutions. She wondered Whether Mutual Fun would help enhance innovation at her company, and whether she could apply Other lessons from Rite-Solutions Within her company. I All quotations are from interviews with the author, unless otherwise specified. We will write a custom essay sample on Rite Solutions Case specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Rite Solutions Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Rite Solutions Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer David Hoyt prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Hexagram Raw as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective r ineffective handling of an administrative situation, Copyright C 2006 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, e-mail the Case Writing Office at: [emailprotected] Standard. Du or write: Case Writing Office, Stanford Graduate School of Business, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5015. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means h electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise h thou the permission of the Stanford Graduate School of Business This document is authorized for use only in Strategic Impresario y Plan De Ingenious 2013 by Mart? N Alterations at University Of Palermo from April 2013 to October 2013.Rite-solutions: Mavericks unleashing the Quiet Genius of Employees: HRS-27 RITE-SOLUTIONS Rite-solutions was founded in Rhode Island in 2000 by Jim Lavabo and Joe Marino. Lavabo and Marino had been long-time executives of a software company which had gone public, and had become a large company, They noticed a change after going public, which Lavabo described as going from make it happens to make us money. i They had talked about starting their own business, and after their company was bought by a larger company, they soon left their positions as executive vice presidents to strike out on their own, The two had made a lot of money from their stock options, and had enjoyed long, successful careers. Lavabo and Marino were well suited as partners in the new venture. Lavabo was a creative, visionary thinker. Marino had an excellent attention to detail, and was a strong operations manager. Equally important, they each recognized their own limitations, valued the others strengths, were DOD friends, and had an exceptional working relationship. They did not want to start a conventional company. Marino explained, tatter leaving a company with thousands Of employees, eve started the company with the idea that theres got to be a better way to do business in the 21st century. We decided that] if we(re going to do this, if wire going to Start 3 business at our age, and at this point in life, then iris going to be one big experiment[wire going tool do all those things that we always wanted to do as managers Of a public company He continued: It also takes a lot of pressure off of the top two guns if you freely admit to people that this is one big experiment, and we really dont know where it is going. But we do promise [to employees) that wire not going to do anything that will jeopardize your wellbeing. These people have families. It is not like wire a bunch of cowboys, But theres a certain liberation that goes along with saying that were going to try some stuff;some things will work, some things arent going to work, We actually have a model for it, things that we cant mess around with that might interfere with peoples lives. But theres a piece of the business that e purposely break every once in awhile to say, el_ETSI try this, because by trying this it isnt going to send the company down the tubes, but it could map out a new direction for us, and a new way of doing Our COO calls this our Doctrine of Disruptive States. The central tenet of the companys philosophy was trust, what Marino called tithe currency of the company?the underpinning of everything we do. i They wanted employees Citizens) to feel that they were part of a community, or Marino explained their concept of a company community: Why is the business world separate from any other community that you ever are a part of? You start off as a family thats your very first community. And then you go to school. All of the communities are loving, embracing, nurturing. Then you get into the business world, and everything youve ever experienced is thrown out the window. So, the whole feeling that we want people to have when they come in here is a continuity Of this is just one more community,i not 180 degrees out from every other community [theyve] ever belonged to. So, it is a This document is authorized for use only in Strategic Impresario Plan De Ingenious 2013 by Mart? N Alterations at University of Palermo from April 2013 to October 2013. RiteSolutions: Mavericks Unleashing the Quiet Genius of Employees: HRS. 27 nurturing community. Its a responsible community, you have responsibilities, you have accountability it is, after all, a business. But, the whole idea of hove people are treated, and the relationship they should have to each other and with the management team why should that be different from any other community that you belong to? Lavabo and Marino incorporated these concepts into all aspects of the company culture through a wide variety of techniques, some of which will be described later. Ay 2006, the company had about 165 employees. The primary office was in Middletown, Rhode Island. Other offices were in Packet, Connecticut and San Diego, California. Though no managers were given revenue growth goals, the company had grown at an impressive rate, and was financially successful. They had an extraordinarily dedicated and loyal workforce, virtually no employee turn-over, and no debt. Rite-Solutions Industry and Competitive Environment Rite-solutions was a software company With clients in both the government and commercial sectors. Its initial clients were primarily casinos, for which it provided software for games, management, ND back-office functions. It also had some government contracts, and many of its employees had experience working with the military, particularly with the Navy. Ay mid. CHIC, the company offered a wide range of products and services, including Navy training curricula and simulations, AD situational awareness simulations, casino games and back-office software, and a consumer game platform developed for Hasher (discussed further below). However, invoice and Marino did not think of their company in terms of the products they provided so much as the knowledge they possessed which could be used to meet potential customer needs. Lavabo commented, Woos companies say this is what we do. i We say, what can we do with what we nova? If Thus, Rite-Solutions open to ideas for new products that leveraged and extended their knowledge base. The companys industry competitors varied dramatically with the market, but both the military and commercial segments contained very large and very small companies Many of the small companies oeuvre either niche players, or were struggling. In the military sector, the large competitors, companies like General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, saw themselves as system integrators. In the commercial sector, Rite-solutions competed with other providers of casino software, such as KIT, Harris Entertainment, Goethe, Scientific Games, and Bialys. The large competitors were generally resistant to innovation, as they wanted to maintain their legacy products. New entrants were always a threat, but there ever barriers to entry in the government and casino sectors. In the government sector, developing training programs for the military or Department of Homeland Security required a deep understanding of the subject matter (Which was often classified), as well as substantial technical competence. In the casino business, a supplier had to be highly respected for the integrity and security of its product, as well as 24/7 support;an unknown entrant faced the challenge of proving its dependability. This document is authorized for use only in Strategic Impresarios Plan De Rite-Solutions: Mavericks Unleashing the Quiet Genius of Employees: HRS-27 Rite-Solutions Culture The culture that Lavabo and Marino created could be seen from the moment someone logged onto the company Web site (w. Www. Retributions. Com). On each page of the site was a drawing of an owl, with Ohio? Scrolling across its face. Clicking on the owl brought up a page with a picture and short biography of a Rite-Solutions employee, including hobbies and other items of personal and professional interest. For many of the pages, clicking the owl several times would bring up profiles Of different employees, each of whom had expertise in the area described on the Web page. Thus, Web visitors could communicate directly With a large number Of employees, a signal that indicated the company trusted employees to represent it well. The hiring process focused both on technical competence and cultural fit. The company described its employees as none of F. E. W (Friends Enjoying a slogan that was on each employees business card. It described the hiring process as a try. Out,i to find citizens in our community and partners in our culture,ii Attributes that people looked for in new employees included an upbeat, optimistic attitude, a collaborative nature, and someone would want to share an office with. i As of mid-2006, most new employees had been referred by existing employees. ROR to joining the company, new employees were sent an e-mail with all the intimation they would need to know, including links to Intranet pages where they could find necessary information. On the first day of work, the new employee was given a welcoming party, complete with cake and wrapped gifts (company mug, T-shirt, etc. ), The objective, as described by Lavabo, was to make the new employee feel that theyre home. I want them to feel like they belong here. As opposed to: they are employed here, or they have a job here. Ally want them to feel like they are home. Tithe new employee created a Ohio page, as described above, which became part of a accompanied database When employees needed to contact people that they did not know, they could refer to that persons Who page, see a picture, and learn about any common interests. Employees described this as helping them to feel more comfortable calling people that they didnt knobs. The Ohio idea had originally come from an employee playing a game called mutual Fun,i (to be discussed shortly). On the third Thursday Of each month, the company had a presentation Of interest to the employees, followed by a social period. Communications were extremely easygoing, enhanced by the openness that Lavabo and Marino demonstrated, and the personal friendships that they cultivated with the employees, many of whom had known one another for many years. Open communication and trust were also demonstrated in the employee newsletter, which gave extremely detailed information about company contracts and other sensitive information ¶far beyond that which was shared with employees at other companies. The culture of openness and trust extended to relationships with customers. For instance, each project had a team room on the company Intranet in which all plans, schedules, status reports, and other documents were stored. The client had access to the team room for its project, and 2 http://Ã'‘mm. Retributions. Com/home. HTML Try-Outs tab) (July 31, 2006). This document is authorized for use only in Strategic Impresario y Plan De Rite-Solutions: Mavericks unleashing the Quiet Genius Of Employees: HRS-27 could kick at any document, as well as submit its own. If a client wanted to evaluate the status of a project, that information was available. If a client wanted to check the priority of software fixes, that information was also availableand the client could modify the priorities as appropriate. Thus, clients were always informed of details of their projects, and if they needed to discuss them, the discussion was a high-value-added meeting rather than a recitation of facts. The Puzzle Ensuring a Meaningful Relationship with Employees Lavabo and Marino ad observed that the employee-employer relationship in most companies was transactional. The employee was hired to do a job. The questions that the employee faced were: Can I do the job, and am I going to behave according to the companys rules? It the employee couldnt do the job, or refused to behave, the relationship was terminated, However, this was far short of the meaningful relationship that Lavabo and Marino sought with their employees. A meaningful relationship existed when employees cared about the company and trusted it, when they thought about the companys future, and contributed to that future. But, employees would only participate in that way if they believed that they oeuvre important, that they belonged, that the company cared about them and trusted them. Employees also had to believe that the company wanted and listened to their input. Finally, the company had to recognize and reward the employees. Only When those pieces were in place could the employee and company have a truly meaningful relationship, providing benefits to both parties far in excess of those shared when the relationship was merely transactional. Lavabo and Marino developed these concepts into a puzzle (Exhibit 1). If a piece was missing n the transactional stage, the remedy was simple;the employee quit or was fired. However, if the employee could do the job, and followed the rules, and the company did not accomplish any Of the Objectives represented by the puzzle pieces required for a meaningful relationship, the consequences were more draining. The employee could play a puzzle piece called screw Your The two founders believed that this was the most damaging situation an employee who met the basic employment requirements, but who brought negativity. Such an employee could poison an otherwise outstanding organization, The final nine of the puzzle related to staying involved with the company after retiring. In industrial companies, workers typically did not want to stay involved in the company after retirement. An auto worker for instance, would probably not want to come back to the factory after retirement. As companies evolved, and employees contributed on an intellectual level, they did not necessarily want to totally withdraw when they retired. They might want to travel, spend more time on hobbies, but they also might want to spend some time making a significant personal contribution in their professional field, or to a company that they cared about. This required a viva of staying involved in a meaningful way. Lavabo characterized knowledge capture,i the practice of documenting the knowledge of retiring employees, as IL want to know votary know, and put it someplace electronically so wont hue to know you anymore. He wanted to create a vehicle for knowledge tethering, which he described as: IL dont want to suck your brain out. Ant to know how you think. Want to know What you think. Want to know what interests you. i Ingenious 2013 by Mart? N Alterations at Linearity of Palermo from April 2013 to Organization Structure Organization structure was an essential element of he Rite-Solution culture. The cultures page tooth company Web site included a glossary of terms (Exhibit 2). In the section labeled into in Our Vocabulary,i organization was defined as IA pyramids Pyramid was defined as IA tomb for dead people,i and an organizational box was defined as IA storage bin for dead people stuck in a pyramid. 3 Lavabo described what he called tithe pyramid game: You have to know how to play the pyramid game in a big company/ There are fewer boxes above you than level with you. Which means youve got to be better than someone in [your peer group] to get to [the next higher] line. Thats why he pyramids are such an awful, awful structure. When we sold the company, we made a dozen people wealthy. But we left I ,800 behind who got to keep their job when we sold the company. Why? Because they werent as good at playing pyramid as we were. Now, there were guys a heck Of a lot smarter than me back in the old pyramid. They just didnt have the moves, didnt have the theater, didnt have the passions It is interesting to watch people just try to do their best. And their best can be good enough in a good community. You dont have to be a politician to be a good citizen;and it is the politicians that Win the game f pyramid. Another drawback of the pyramid model, according to Lavabo and Marino, was the perception that people at each level were smarter than those below them. Where this perception existed, it placed severe pressure on people at the top to constantly be right, and it inhibited input from people elsewhere in the organization. Lavabo and Marino freely admitted that good ideas were likely to come from anywhere in the organization. Rather than think of the organization as a pyramid, they thought of it as an adaptive community of knowledge,i supported by tour guideposts: stability, innovation, empowerment, and vision ND coaching (see detailed description in Exhibit 3), Two senior people were assigned to each guidepost (increasing as the company grew), chosen so that they each brought complementary capabilities (or lying and yang)_ Lavabo and Marino were the vision and coaching guidepost. The empowerment guidepost consisted of the GO, whose strength was information, and a technology/ automation expert. Guidepost partners made an agreement specifying what each expected of the other The empowerment guidepost focused on the infrastructure that was needed to support the efforts of employees. The stability deposit focused On the nuts and bolts Of operations and maintaining the businesse. G. , order receipts, getting paid, and the other necessities of keeping the business in operation. There was a yin and yang between guideposts as well as within them. Lavabo described the interaction been the innovation stability guidepost by describing measures Of success: http:,/www. Retributions. Com/home. HTML (cultures tab) (July 31, 2006). Menacing 2013 by Mart? N Alterations at University of Palermo from April 2013 to lifebuoy in the innovation block, youre not going to be measured on how innovative you are, because already know youre innovative limit going to measure you on how stable your innovations have been for the company. For the stability people, limit going to measure you on how innovative youve been in putting new products in the customers hands. So, now it forces these guys to work together, because oeuvre dependent on you for the innovative ideas that wire going to leverage into my customer base. While the company used a community/guidepost model rather than a pyramid to describe the organization, this did not mean that there avgas no hierarchy. Lavabo was CEO, Marino was the impassions president. There were vice presidents and directors, group managers and project managers. The hierarchy was driven by the need for accountability and effective customer service. In addition, performance appraisals and salary revive. Required a degree of hierarchy. But the overriding principle was that people could play multiple roles in the organization, unconstrained by ibexes. i People were free to seek the advice of the best person available without the boundaries of a Chain of commando Company Ownership Another important aspect of the company culture was the fact that it was employee owned, with o need for outside investors. Lavabo and Marino believed that an ownership interest was important to a meaningful long-term relationship with employees. Employee ownership was in the tort tot stock options, but employees were not eligible for options until they had been with the company for one year. Since the objective was a long-term relationship rather than a quick pay-off, this enabled both the employee and company to take stock of the situation and make sure that there was a good fit. If there wasnt a good fit, it wasnt in the interests of either the employee or the company to continue the relationship. This typically centered around the collaborative nature of the company, and the central concept of trust. Lavabo explained: We have a forcing function at the one- year mark. If they arent the right fit, we] help them find another job, where they would probably be very comfortable, because it is the norm, and this is not the norm. They just arent perfect for us. It doesnt mean they arent smart. They just dont get [the concept on trust. Lavabo elaborated on the importance of basing relationships on the assumption of trust, rather than having trust come only after being earned by long experience: If you dont Start out from a session of trust, just about the time [a person SSL about to gain your trust, they do something you dont understand, so you distrust them. My God, thats too many calories for me. Why not trust everybody, and once in a while youll get screwed. As opposed to dont trust anybody,i and youll never trust anybody. Ownership fostered the employees sense of belonging and accountability, but in order for it to have economic meaning, there had to be a way for ownership to be modernized. This presented a potential problem. Lavabo and Marino did not plan to take the company public, nor to sell it to a Menacing 2013 by Mart? Alter-son at University of Palermo from April 2013 to larger compartmenting of which would have serious consequences for the company culture. (Lavabo noted wryly that one advantage of not having a pyramid organization structure Vass that it made a takeover unlikely acquiring company would have no idea how to assimilate the organization. ) Terry Feely, director Of new ventures, had founded a successful laser company in 1980, which he had sold. After doing some consulting, he heard about Rite-solutions, met Lavabo and Marino, and joined the company. An important part Of his job as to find ways to noontime company ownership. While employees talked Of working for the company because Of the culture, and how well they were treated, Feely believed that it was aneve to think that employees didnt also want to make a substantial amount of money from their company ownership. He observed: Theres a tremendous loyalty to Jim and Joe, and thats a wonderful thing. I also think theres an expectation that they will get taken care of. Thats an expectation because that culture is here. We stay here because wire treated well. UT treated well when youre getting ready to retire looks different than Ewing treated well when youre 20 years old. Since live been both 20 and ready to retire, limit committed, and Joe and Jim are supporting me, on creating liquidity. The company planned to create liquidity by developing products and/or services that could create lasting value. Feely cited the example tot Keep, which had sold to eBay for SSL . 4 billion. He believed that some of the ideas and intellectual property that Rite-solutions was working on had the potential for very high returns. However, Lavabo and Marino recognized that if the concepts they had used in creating and developing Rite-solutions was truly to be a business model or the 21st century, it could not be limited to small, privately held companies. It would have to also be applicable to larger, publicly held companies. MUTUAL PLAN Mutual Pun was created as a way of fostering trust, collaboration, and the ideas of employees throughout the company. While avgas often referred to as a game,i in reality, it was a powerful tool for innovation and employee involvement. It also served as a unifying structure to enhance the company culture, and to bring forth the benefits that the culture provided. It was launched in January 2005. Mutual Fun was an internal stock exchange. Consisting of three arrests: Savings Bonds, which were ideas that could save the company money or increase efficiency; bow Jones,i which consisted of ideas that utilized existing technology to create new products or services; and spaded,chic contained ideas of new technologies that the company should explore for potential future use. Like technologies that formed the basis for companies on the NASDAQ, some technologies worked well, and others not so well. The study of a new technology could lead to a decision to return to a proven technology rather than an emerging alternative. The knowledge spasms of investigating emerging cosmologies was worth the investment to the company and its knowledge base. (Exhibit 4 shows representative stocks on each exchange. ) Putting an Idea Onto the Market TO put an idea onto the stock market, an employee (the inventory) went to the Mutual Fun Web site and clicked on a button to create an expect-Los. (Exhibit 5 is a flow chart Of the stock market process. Exhibit 6 shows some of the Mutual Fun Web screens. ) The Expect- LIST was a simple, one-page, form that described the idea. (Exhibit 7 provides an example of a completed Expect-us for an idea that was later incorporated within Retributions, and then sold as a product. In order to guide the inventor, the Expect-Us form had some simple screening questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Is this idea in our path? Does it leverage what we know? Does it allow us to learn new things? Would we use this? Do we know anybody else that would use it? Will this make us a better company? These questions were intended to coach the inventor into areas that might be of use to the company, as opposed to money-making ideas that were totally outside the companys competence (such as opening a dry-cleaning store). Even if the idea seemed far-fetched, however, the inventor could still pursue it. The Expect- Us also had space for a description of the idea, and then asked: Whats the key to success for this? Whats the potential savings or growth? Whats the return on innovation (knowledge gained, product developed, etc. )? What are the success beacons (how do you know when youre done)? After completing an initial draft of the Expect-us, the inventor had to find a prophet,i another person in the company Who Would act as a mentor and evangelist for the idea. There were about 40 people in the company who Lavabo and Marino had approved to be prophets. An inventor would select 3 prophet Who s/he thought might provide DOD guidance, and who would be interested in the idea. If a potential prophet was interested, s/he would agree to help. This fulfilled one Of the important rules of Mutual Fun the two-man rule,i which ensured that at least bono people were interested in the idea before it proceeded. The prophet could be anywhere in the company, and did not have to have any other relationship with the inventor. Sometimes the prophet would change as the idea progressed;a technical person might be the prophet at the start, handing it off to a business person once the technical issues were understood and a business case was required. More than en prophet could help with any idea.

Women on a Beach Essays

Women on a Beach Essays Women on a Beach Essay Women on a Beach Essay Women on a beach discussion After reading and analyzing the poem Women on a beach written by Ann Michaels, I have noticed many occurrences of imagery and the use of literal and figurative language manipulated into the poem. The first use of imagery is when Ann uses light chooses white sails, the bellies of gulls. Ann is describing the scene of the poem in a unique way so that its not very dull and boring and makes it more amusing for the reader. Since its the first line of the poem, you want to engage the reader to continue reading by making it interesting. Another case of imagery that appears in the poem is when Ann says, the beach glows grainy under the suns copper pressure. This is another unique way that Ann uses to describe the scene because she points out that the heat from the sun is shinning down onto the sand and its very hot out making it glow. Shes explaining the temperature of the setting In intonating way making it more interactive for the reader. An additional use of imagery that Ann uses in her poem is when she says, the wind finger against your cheek like a tendril of hair. This is describing the slight breeze that is taking place In the scene using personification. Shes attributing human characteristic to something nonhuman, which in this case is the wind. In conclusion, Ann Michaels used Imagery throughout her poem to transform the everyday Into the unique. Cyrus Montreal

50 Cause and Effect Journal Prompts

50 Cause and Effect Journal Prompts When we ask the question Why? about a subject, we usually begin to explore its causes. When we ask So what? we consider the effects. Cause-and-effect writing involves drawing connections between events, actions, or conditions so as to achieve a clearer understanding of the subject. Whether we choose to focus on causes (the reasons for something) or on effects (the consequences of something) depends on our subject and our purpose for writing. In practice, however, the relation of cause to effect is often so close that one cant be considered independently of the other.Youll find that some of the following topic suggestions emphasize causes while others focus on effects, but keep in mind that these two approaches are closely related and not always easy to tell apart. 50 Writing Prompts: Causes and Effects The effect of a parent, teacher, or friend on your lifeWhy you selected your majorThe effects of cramming for an examinationThe effects of peer pressureWhy some students cheatThe effects on children of a broken marriageThe effects of poverty on an individualWhy one college course is more rewarding than anotherWhy many people dont bother to vote in local electionsWhy more and more students are taking online classesThe effects of racial, sexual, or religious discriminationWhy people exerciseWhy people keep petsThe effects of computers on our everyday livesThe downside of smartphonesThe environmental effects of bottled waterWhy reality shows are so popularThe effects of pressures on students to get good gradesThe effects of a coach or teammate on your lifeThe effects of not keeping a personal budgetThe causes of noise (or air or water) pollutionThe effects of noise (or air or water) pollutionWhy so few students read newspapersWhy many Americans prefer foreign-built carsWhy many adults e njoy animated movies Why baseball is no longer the national pastimeThe effects of stress on students in high school or collegeThe effects of moving to a new town or cityWhy sales of DVDs are decliningWhy growing numbers of people shop onlineThe effects of the rapid increase in the cost of going to collegeWhy students drop out of high school or collegeWhy college mathematics (or any other subject) is so difficultWhy some roommates dont get alongWhy adults have more fun than children on HalloweenWhy so many people eat junk foodWhy many children run away from homeThe long-term effects of unemployment on a personThe influence of a book or a movie on your lifeThe effects of music downloading on the music industryWhy texting has become such a popular means of communicationThe effects of working while attending school or collegeWhy workers in  fast food restaurants often have low moraleThe effects of not getting enough sleepWhy increasing numbers of children are overweightWhy TV shows and movies about zombies are so popular Why bicycles are the best form of transportationThe effects of video games on young childrenThe causes of homelessness in your communityThe causes of eating disorders among young people

Strategic Financial Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Strategic Financial Management - Essay Example Understanding current approaches to managing risk and uncertainty in the appraisal of capital investment projects require a deeper insight into the role of financial management in the modern business corporation. Unlike in the past when finance managers merely oversaw the accounting function, recent advances in technology changed the way business is conducted around the world, resulting in the radical transformation of financial management. Presiding over processes that cut across the business, financial managers set strategy, lead crucial change initiatives, and act as real partners in decision-making. The title Chief Financial Officer (CFO) indicates a bigger role for financial managers in ensuring corporate growth. They design ways to maximise shareholder value on a sustainable basis, not only to meet quarterly targets but to transform the corporation into a forceful influence on their industry, nation, and the world. In a globalising world where financial markets operate 24/7, the CFO has to know how to build world-class resource support that would keep the business sustainable. This requires the CFO to instil in the corporation a more positive approach to structural and process streamlining and risk management (Read & Kaufman, 1997, p. v-vii). Events in the past decade highlight the transition of the finance function into strategic financial management, giving emphasis to the importance of present decisions on the future of the business. The focus shifted from profits and into strategic issues of control and adding substantial shareholder value on a sustainable basis. In the wake of the financial scandals early this century, CFOs have focused on managing uncertainty and risk, working hard to avoid nasty surprises in financial reporting, ensure the firm’s conformity with laws and regulations, and sustain a strong credit rating. In fact, managing risk has become one of the most important functions of strategic financial management. Every business

The Statute of David Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Statute of David - Essay Example Commissioned by the Cathedral Works Committee in 1501, Michelangelo created The Statute of David, which was his testimony to the beauty of God’s creation. The sculpture was a representation of King David in the Bible. During the critical times of the Florence Republic’s threatening and powerful rival states along with their rival the Hegemony of the Medici Family, the Statute of David symbolized the defense of civil liberties. The Statute of David or â€Å"the Eyes of David† was later turned towards Rome. In 1873, the Statute of David was placed in the Accademia Gallery in Florence. The original location of the Statute of David was replaced with a replica of the sculpture. Michelangelo’s deeply spiritual faith to do God’s Will was an influence in his creation of the Madonna Della Pieta or the bust of the Virgin Mary. The sculpture was created for the St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Michelangelo sculpted the compassion and serenity in the Virgi n Mary’s face. His purpose for the Madonna Della Pieta was to embody â€Å"the spiritual beauty of the infinite beauty of God.† The Madonna Della Pieta was Michelangelo’s testimony to his eternal love for God. The sculpture is a symbol of the Christian faith. Michelangelo’s spiritual obedience to do God’s Will influenced his artistic work. His spiritual faith allowed him to create many artistic masterpieces that influenced the Italian Renaissance. He created inspirational masterpieces for the world. He is Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, â€Å"the divine one.†

Their eyes were watching God :: Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of many dreams and ambitions that were setback due to the slavery age. Nanny, Janie's grandmother, being a slave in her youth is an example of this fact. Always wishing for what she could've had, she tries to stress to Janie the importance of freedom. Although Nanny dies after the first couple of chapters, it is seen throughout the book that other characters that counteract with Janie, have common thoughts and emphasize on the idea that Nanny ones had. When it comes to love Nanny believed that wealth and protection came before the actual meaning of love, the idea that a strong emotional bond exists between a man and a woman. As much as Nanny cared for Janie and what she stands for, she wanted Janie to marry a man who can give her a lifetime of luxury and protection. This idea only stands due to the fact that Nanny never had this in her life, being a slavery made her always fight for what she had and look out for her well-being as well as her c hildren?s. Consequently Nanny grew to teaching the idea to Janie that marriage should be about power, wealth, and protection even if the emotional part of the relationship doesn?t exist. Janie marries Logan Killicks for she believes he offers protection, she then marries Jody Starks for she believes he brings vibrant wealth and power, but not so much do these two bring emotional bond Janie utterly desires and as a result Janie spends the rest of her life trying to experience the emotional side of love. Logan Killicks was Janie?s first husband. He was chosen by Nanny because she thought he offered a black woman everything she would want, a lifetime protection from the outside world. Logan was an older man who knew what was good and what was bad just as Nanny did. He wanted Janie to love him and feel his importance because he offered her a home in which she can feel safe. Nanny being forced to have sex with her master at an early age as a result gave her Leafy. Furthermore Leafy was raped at an early age as well which brought about Janie. From these two facts one can conclude that Nanny feared the idea that Janie can be a repeating cycle of her and her child Leafy, thus giving Janie?

High Performing Teams

Introduction This paper will cover several topics related to high-performing teams and work groups. It will discuss how these two kinds of workplace people sets and how they differ in their pursuit of organizational strategy and compare these differences to virtual teams. It will identify the characteristics of successful leaders of high-performing teams and finally discuss why high-performing teams are important to organizations. High-Performing Teams and Work Groups Before we can define high-performing teams or work groups, we will need to define the term team first. A team can be defined as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. â€Å"That definition lays down the discipline that teams must share to be effective (Katzenbach, 2005). Organizations utilize teams to perform operational and project based tasks. People working in teams have the capacity to solve complex problems that cannot be solved by individuals working alone. People working in teams bring more resources to a task, including a variety of perspectives, knowledge, skills, and experience (Capella University, 2008). This diversity of perspectives, knowledge, skills, and experience allows a team to outperform the sum of its parts and is a critical component of a team being labeled as a high-performing team. Teams come in many forms, they can be permanent or temporary, they can be leader-led or self-managed, and they can be co-located or virtual. Regardless of their purpose and form, all teams are made up of individuals interacting interdependently to achieve common organizational goal. Furthermore, all teams share the following: clear boundaries, common tasks, differentiated member roles, autonomy, dependence on others, and collective responsibility (Capella University, 2008). Teams definitely are forms of work groups, but not all work groups are teams (Brounstein, 2011). A work group is also a collection of individuals however; they may not have complementary skills, a common purpose or a set of shared goals. In a work group, each member is responsible for only their own individual contributions. He or she achieves outcomes or makes their contribution to the organization in (relative) isolation. Individuals need not have any concern about what other members of the group achieve. Within a work group, there is not the interconnectedness and shared responsibility you see between team members. Each member of a group can say ‘I did my best; it is not my fault that others did not pull their weight (www. leadership-development-coaching. com, 2011). ’ To add more context to the difference between work groups and teams refer to Table 1 (Brounstein, 2011). Work Groups| Teams| Individual accountability| Individual and mutual accountability| Come together to share information and perspectives| Frequently come together for discussion, decision-making, problem solving and planning. | Focus on individual goals| Focus on team goals| Produce individual work products| Produce collective work products| Define individual roles, responsibilities, and tasks| Define individual roles, responsibilities, and tasks to help team do its work; often share and rotate them| Concern with one's own outcome and challenges| Concern with outcomes of everyone and challenges the team faces| Purpose, goals, approach to work shaped by manager| Purpose, goals, approach to work shaped by team leader with team members| Table 1: Difference between Work Groups and Teams High-Performing teams have deeper characteristics that separate them from any team with the ‘team’ characteristics mentioned previously. Members of high-performing teams tend to develop a collective purpose that goes beyond that which the organization has established for them (Capella University, 2008). According to Harvard researcher Richard Hickman, high-performing teams must meet three effectiveness criteria (Capella University, 2008): * The team must consistently produce high-quality output. * The team must promote the personal growth needs and well-being of team members. The team must grow and learn as a unit. The Pursuit of Organizational Strategy It is not too much of a stretch to see which scenario is preferable when it comes to pursuing alignment with your organization’s strategy. Those in a workgroup, although maybe tied in roles and responsibilities to the organization’s strategic imperatives, is not concerned about others in his group or departm ent, and therefore has no vested interest in another succeeding. High performing teams, on the other hand, consider their team as equally or more important than themselves. A recent study of Fortune 1000 companies conducted by the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California concluded that 68 percent of the organizations in the study use self –managed or high-performing teams†¦but the study also shows only 10 percent of workers were in such teams (Capella University, 2008). Therefore, as much as we can agree there is a benefit from moving those in work groups into high-performing team environments, these environments are difficult to create, lead and maintain. A failed attempt to create a high-performing team could be more detrimental than keeping a group of individuals in the work group mode, and thus making each individual accountable for driving alignment with the organization’s strategy. Virtual teams can play an interesting twist on this strategic alignment anomaly. This author suggests that virtual teams are no different in driving alignment with organizational strategy than co-located teams, with one exception. In the role of operational support, where, for example a help-desk or call-center can take advantage of the â€Å"follow-the-sun† support methodology, you can find significant benefit by tying a virtual team’s performance as a team to an SLA, where individuals are working together to answer phones within a certain amount of rings, meet a certain first call resolution statistic etc. This type of virtual team, if lead properly can be a very high-performing team, as their bonuses and overall performance can be tied to these SLA results of the team. Successful Leadership Characteristics of High-Performing Teams Leadership of high-performing teams have been mentioned twice in this paper; once to summarize how difficult it is to maintain high-performing teams, the second to note how to lead a high-performing virtual team. Managing any team is not an easy task. Managing and maintaining high-performing teams is increasingly difficult. Creating and managing high-performing teams is as much an art as it is a science. There is no magic formula that will uarantee team success, nor is there one best way to lead a team (Capella University, 2008). We can define four team leadership skills that will help drive work groups and teams into high-performing teams: 1. Invest in ongoing personal development 2. Provide team direction, structure and resources 3. Help the team manage boundaries 4. Manage the type and timing of interventions The Importance of High-Performing Teams We have shown the significant benefit of creating and maintaining high- performing teams concerning an organization’s strategy and team accomplishment. High-performing teams tend to require less management since the team assumes a purpose as a whole and not individuals. These teams tend to be self-managed, or slightly managed by a leader, more so in a facilitation role than what we know as a daily manager. The most important task of the team leader is to create a work context that inspires and enables the team to do its work rather than directly intervening in the team’s day-to-day work (Capella University, 2008). This is increasingly important to organizations as the economic outlook continues to force reductions in departmental personnel. References Brounstein, M. (2011). Differences between Work Groups and Teams. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from Dummies. com; Making Everything Easier: http://www. dummies. com/how-to/content/differences-between-work-groups-and-teams. html Capella University. (2008). TS5160: Business Foundations (2nd Custom ed. ). Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing. Katzenbach, J. (2005, July 1). The Discipline of Teams. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from Capella University: http://web. ebscohost. com. library. capella. edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? vid=3;hid=119;sid=0579d6ae-2d3d-4908-9971-cea2472130f6%40sessionmgr112 www. leadership-development-coaching. com. (2011). Team vs Group: implications for leaders. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from Leadership Development Coaching: http://www. leadership-development-coaching. com/team-vs-group. html

Should College Be Free For Everyone - 999 Words

Higher education can be considered a luxury for most people in the world. Attending college can cost up to $40,000 per person for all four years; and it can cost more if a person attends graduate school. According to statistics, about 3.0 million students will enroll in graduate school programs. Most people do not have the money to just go to college and finish. Based on my own experience, I have had difficulties finding ways to pay for my college funds and to keep finding funds to continue for the next semesters. College should be free for everyone because society itself would be more efficient, a college degree increases lifetime earnings, and it would still only affect the middle class society. We have all heard the term, â€Å"school is not for everyone† and that is true. Most of our society does not even want to attend college and just enter the workforce after high school. According to National Center for Education Statistics,† About 7.0 million students will attend 2-year institutions and 13.2 million will attend 4-year institutions in fall 2015.† But if college was free for everyone, people would have a choice to go to college. Our society would be more productive if our workforce was educated. In the article titled â€Å"Higher education: Should college be free for all?† Carol Christ makes a point by saying, â€Å"But individuals are not the only ones who profit from college; the nation, and the states that compose it, benefit from a more skilled and educated workforce and theShow MoreRelatedShould College Education Be Free?1266 Words   |  6 PagesThe Proposal: Should College Education be Free There are people who are in our nation right now that can t afford to go to college and gain the education they need to succeed. People have a deep conviction about this controversy. This issue has lead to the debate should the first two years of a college education be free. If college was free for the student the yes, it comes to the taxpayers to come up with the money. There should be rules and regulations in place and should be maintained byRead MoreCollege Education Should Not Be Free879 Words   |  4 PagesI argue that college education should not be free. While the cost of entering college for further study is really huge, many argue that college education should be free to prove everyone a chance to get a bright future especially for the poor, and some also wonder that going to college means going to success, they blame their failures to lacing of college educations . I disagree with these ideas and I insist college education should not be free because in the end, someon e will pay salaries of professorsRead MoreBenefits Of Community College746 Words   |  3 PagesShould community college should be free? Now everyone can get an education if they wanted to, community colleges or a university can help people get a career to succeed. Some students dont really have enough money to go to a university because is really expensive but there is a solution community college can help everyone earn their associates degree and transfer in the future. Community colleges gives students the opportunity to get the same education as a university but with less money. CommunityRead MoreEducation Be Free765 Words   |  4 PagesShould College Education Be free Everyone? Should education be free? As a parent do you ever ponder on wasting millions of dollars on you child? Yes it is a good cause, but that also includes where they live, food and other hobbies. Shouldnt the education be free? In my thoughts I think everyone wishes education was free. I think education shouldnt just be for the rich or the smart, it should be the ones who work hard as of everyone who does but no matter rich, poor I think education should beRead MoreShould College Be Free College?1688 Words   |  7 Pagesto cover the costs? Free college is now brought up as a debate whether or not students should receive free college tuition while attending college. Some individuals would like this idea, but I am definite the taxpayers would not like it or support it. If the government cannot afford what they are in debt with now, I am quiet uncertain how adding free college would help the debt go down. I am sure that the government would find some way to get their money back from allowin g free tuition, or twice theRead MoreShould College Tuition Be Paid?981 Words   |  4 Pagesalways been a complaint to people who are paying and attending college, most say it is too expensive, some say it should be free. Is that a good way to go? Making college something that anyone could attend? Some say that free college would allow students that are less fortunate, wealth wise, to attend college and have hope for a better future. College plays a very important role in the economy and in my opinion, I certainly believe that college tuition is there for certain reasons. The reasons for highRead MoreThe Benefits Of A College Education1032 Words   |  5 PagesA college education has become a necessity in today’s society. Students all around the country are putting so much effort into getting perfect grades. Trying to finance every students education has become difficult. Although, many students, teachers, and other people have wondered if giving students a free tuition sh ould be granted. I believe that students should be granted a free tuition and that it should be funded by the U.S government because this could help students focus more on their studiesRead MoreThe Importance Of Higher Education745 Words   |  3 PagesThe United states provides free public education for students kindergarten through the twelfth grade. Going to school for these years is now becoming a necessity, but now so is college too. In order to make a career for ones self it is necessary for them to attend a university, so wouldnt you say one needs college in order to make a career for yourself. Higher education is important because it can pave the path to a better economy and society, starting a career, and ensuring a better life, thatRead MoreThe Cost Of A University872 Words   |  4 Pageswhat college they may look into: locations, academic profile, graduation rate, school size, and ,to some the most important, the cost of the university. The cost of a university can pl ay one of the biggest deciding factors in furthering your educations. Many students don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars and there are many poor people in this world who want to attend college and earn a degree to support themselves and their family and be able to live a more comfortable life. Everyone shouldRead MoreFree Education May Not Cost Paper Money983 Words   |  4 PagesFree education may not cost paper money, but it will cost society dire consequences. With election season coming up, it has remained a hot topic amongst the candidates. The Democratic party believes in the idea of free education while Republicans are more concerned with the economic aspect of it and what it will do with our economy. The consequences facing free education could potentially include higher taxes, lowering the value of education, and limiting employment opportunities. When a person