Developing Creativity For Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Developing Creativity For Business - Essay Example An impressive example of a creative individual is Steve Wosnaik. Apple computer is the fruit of labor of this individual as the gadget is co-founded by him. Reaching this height is because of his qualities like – sticking to the idea even when they are challenged , maintaining individuality , courage to question the people in power etc. Considering a business as a jigsaw puzzle , creativity is one elusive piece that wins the game for the participant. Creativity has become important more than ever before. According to Stephen P. Robbins , following is the three-component model of creativity .Based on an extensive body of research , this model proposes that individual creativity essentially requires expertise , creative-thinking skills , and intrinsic task motivation. Expertise - the potential for creativity is enhanced , when individual have abilities , knowledge , proficiencies and similar expertise in their field of Endeavour. Creative thinking skills – this encompasse s personality characteristics associated with creativity , the ability to use analogies , as well as the talent to see the familiar in the different light. Intrinsic task motivation – this is the desire to work on something because its interesting , involving , exciting , satisfying or personally challenging. This motivational component is what turns creativity potential into actual creative ideas. Though these are the basic components of creativity , several others are discussed in the following pages. Thus to investigate the concept of creativity , I have taken the business of supermarket as the topic of my report. According to wordiq.com , a ‘supermarket is a store that sells a wide variety of goods including food and alcohol , medicine , clothes and other household products that are consumed regularly. It is often part of a chain that owns or controls ( sometimes big franchise ) other supermarkets located in the same or other towns , this increases the opportunities for economies of sale.’ According to dictionary.reference.com , ‘supermarket is a large retail market that sells food and other household goods and that is usually operated on a self-service basis.’ According to retailindustry.about.com, ‘Wal-Mart which has more than 8400 stores across the world , is by far the largest retailer in the world. France’s Carrefour is number 2.germany’s Metro AG overtook the United Kingdom’s Tesco chain and claimed third position.’ Due to the intrinsic growth and development of countries all across the globe , the local vendor scenario has been taken over by supermarkets. In recent times , supermarkets have shown a phenomenal growth. They now have in-house pharmacies , florists , catering services , prepared foods such as sandwiches , postal services , etc. Some supermarket chains even offer dry-cleaning services and few have started video-rental service. In a nutshell supermarkets are now providing a one-stop-shop experience. Most

Enterprise and Entrepreneruship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Enterprise and Entrepreneruship - Essay Example What remains after settling all the expenditure is the entrepreneur’s profit. Thus, the entrepreneur can be said to be one who shifts economic resources from an area of lower productivity, to an area of greater yield and higher productivity. The act that the entrepreneur engages in for the purpose of shifting economic resources from a point of lower productivity, to a point of greater yield and higher productivity is what an entrepreneurship is. The roles and values that the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship dispense in the society and towards economic stability and growth cannot be discounted because they are immense and multifaceted. As a matter of fact, economists and business pundits such as Audretsch are poignant that, the (hypothetical) act of entrepreneurs in a given country making a dereliction on entrepreneurship is tantamount to dealing that country a coup de grace (2007, 67). Entrepreneurship and the Economy One of the salient roles that entrepreneurship dispenses i n the society and to that society’s economy is the maintenance of the relationship between the consumer and the entrepreneur himself. Economies, especially, capitalist ones in the extreme aggregates have theoretical levels of infinite demands. Entrepreneurs do this by creating goods and services, and thereby ultimately meeting the demand of the market which is the society. The gravity of this complementary relationship between the consumer and the entrepreneur is that in the absence of entrepreneurs, the demand of the market will exist, but the supply will be inexistent. This means that even essential products will not be realisable. Likewise, the same also means that should the number of entrepreneurs in the society dwindle, then demand will still override supply, and thereby leading to an increase in commodity prices, higher cost of living and a society or an economy beset by inflation (Batabyal and Nijkamp, 2012, 340). Another way in which the entrepreneur benefits the soc iety is by creating wealth. There are several ways by which an entrepreneur creates wealth. One of the ways by which entrepreneurs do this is by shortening the process of production. As the entrepreneur integrates economic resources to make them readily usable, the chain of production is decoupled, since the buyer is saved from the need to expend his synergy in producing the same material. The buyer thus is succored from extra expenditure. For instance, a transport company can be outsourced by a manufacturing company to help facilitate the transportation of materials essential for production. Thus, the company will have saved the revenue it would have spent in buying large trucks, hiring scores of drivers and settling motor vehicle maintenance costs. The same money that would have been used in settling transportation cost may serve as ploughed-back capital, to help the manufacturing firm continue with its production exercises (AMAM, 2010, 75 and Audretsch, 2007, 66). Frederick, Mons en and Hunter observe that increased unit and volume of production emanating from ploughed-back cap

The law of equity Essay Example for Free

The law of equity Essay By the end of the 13th century, the central authority had established its precedence at least partly through the establishment of the common law. The Courts of Exchequer was a court originally dealing with disputes involving revenue, taxation and revenue laws. The Court of Common Pleas was where pleas between subject and subject were brought. And the Kings Bench heard actions to which the King was a party. The common law however, had a number of defects. The inflexibility of the writ system appeared to lead to injustice because matters that were not within the scope of writes recognized by the common law were dismissed. Furthermore, the common law did not recognize rights in the property other than those of strict legal ownership. Nor did it recognize security for loans (mortgages) or the right of third parties in general. The common law courts had no power of enforcement. Also, it did not allow any form of oral evidence. The only remedy provided by the common law were damages, which were inappropriate in certain cases. This led to injustice and the need to remedy the perceived weaknesses in the common law system. The more general a rule, the less likely it is to do justice in all the particular cases to which it applies. Moreover, an attempt to construct in advance the qualifications to the rule necessary to do justice in all cases would lead to a system of rules too complex, even if all the problems could be foreseen. The Court of Chancery emerged as a solution to the common problems faced by the common law system by administering the law of equity. Proceedings before the Chancellor were simple, and were in other respects advantageous when compared with the proceedings of the common law courts. Plaintiffs unable to obtain access to the three common law courts would turn for help to the Chancellor. Moreover, the Chancellor developed several remedies which were not available in other courts, most notably injunction, specific performance, recessions and rectifications. Other improvements made by equity are the imploration of additional obligations on an individual while recognizing his or her rights at common law. By accepting that a trustee is the legal owner of property while requiring the individual to hold it benefit of another. Equity is concerned with individual justice. Therefore, it is only available at the discretion of the court. Also, this means that anyone who seeks equitable remedies must not themselves be guilty of misconduct in the case. The division between the common law courts and the Courts of Equity were eventually combined under the Judicature Acts 1873-1875. Matters of both law and equity is now determined in the course of one set of proceedings: if there is any conflict between rules or law and rules of equity, the latter are to prevail. Injunction is as an order that prevents a person from performing or continuing to perform a particular act. In the case of Kennaway Vs. Thompson, the plaintiff sought an injunction to restrain a motor boat racing club from committing nuisance by excessive noise. The Court of Appeal granted the injunction, holding that the rights of the plaintiff shouldnt be overridden by the interest of the club or the general public. In considering whether to grant an injunction or damages in lieu under Lord Chairns Act, the public interest does not prevail over private rights. In this case, damages wouldnt have satisfied the plaintiffs private rights. Specific performance is an order that requires a person to perform or continue to perform a particular act. In the case of Jones Vs. Lipman, the defendant entered into a binding contract to sell some land to the plaintiff. After the date of the contract, the defendant changed his mind, and sought to avoid specific performance by selling the land to a company acquired by him solely for this purpose and controlled by him. While specific performance would not normally have ordered against a vendor who no longer owned the property, here the defendant was still in a position to complete the contract, because the company was a sham in an attempt to avoid recognition by equity. Thus, specific performance was decreed against the vendor and the company. Recession is an order that returns parties to contractual agreement to the position they were in before the agreement was entered into. Cooper  Vs.Phibbs, Phibbs was the legal owner and trustee of land which, unknown to either party, belonged in equity to Cooper. Phibbs improved the land and agreed to let it to Cooper. On discovering the facts, Cooper sought to rescind the letting agreement. The House of Lords held that, subject to a lien for Phibbss expenditure, it should be set aside. If parties contract under a mutual mistake and misapprehension as to their relative and respective rights, the result is that agreement is liable to be set aside as having proceeded upon a common mistake. Rectification is an order that relates to the alteration, under extremely limited circumstances, of contractual documents. In A.Roberts and Co. Ltd. vs. Leicestershire County Council, the plaintiffs had undertaken to build a school for the defendants. The agreement provided that the school should be completed within the period of 18 months, but the officers of the Council altered the period to 30 months in the draft contract without making it clear to the company. The company signed the contract without noticing the change, and one of the defendants officials was aware of the mistake. Rectification was ordered. In conclusion, equity has greatly ameliorated the common law system. Various forms of remedies other than damages have been made available under specific circumstances such as, injunction, recessions, rectifications and specific performance. However, in most instances there are differences between the operation of law and equity rather than conflict. For example, different remedies may be available in respect of what both systems acknowledge to be wrong. In respect of a nuisance, damages and injunction come into conflict. Bibliography Gary Slapper David Kelly, The English Legal System 6th Edition. M.L Barron R.J.A Fletcher, Fundamentals of Business Law 4th Edition. Helena Wray. Smith, Bailey Gunn, Modern English Legal System, 4th Edition, London Sweet Maxwell. Brenda Barrett, Principles of Business Law, Helena Wray. Paul Latimer, Business Law, 1988 Edition, CCIT Editorial Staff. Clive Turner, Australian Commercial Law, 22nd Edition, LBC Information Services 1999. www.lectlaw.com/files/lws65.htm Jill E. Martin, Hanbury Martin Modern Equity 14th Ed, London Sweet Maxwell Ltd. 1993. Jill E. Martin, Hanbury Martin Modern Equity 13th Ed, London Sweet Maxwell Ltd. 1993.

Indias Rise in Economics and the Challenges it Faces

Indias Rise in Economics and the Challenges it Faces India is not, by a long way a regional power, let alone a global power. That it is necessary to state this obvious fact is a testament to the power of public indoctrination. There is a huge gap between India and the developed world. According to the World Bank, Indias Gross National Income (GNI) in 2009 was $793 billion, compared to the USs $12.95 trillion. India, with 17 per cent of the worlds population, accounts for less than 1.7 per cent of the worlds income. Thus Indias per capita GNI was $1180, compared to the USs nearly $47,240. Even South Koreas per capita GNI was over $19,880. Indias situation is slightly better in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) but even Indias PPP per capita income is ranked 154th in the world  [1]  . For all the rosy projections of rapid growth by India and other Asian countries by 2020, the USs National Intelligence Council admits that per capita income in most (Asian) countries will not compare to those of Western nations. Human Development The situation is far worse in terms of human development. In the UNs Human Development Index, this claims to be a composite of various factors, such as health, education and income, India ranks 119th among 175 countries. Indias under-five mortality rate per 1,000 live births is 69, that is, one in fourteen children die before the age of five. Its maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births is 230, compared to 38 for China  [2]  . We are constantly told that poverty in India is declining, and a great industry has sprung up of academic treatises to show how fast poverty is declining. However, these treatises have reduced poverty by defining the term so that it no longer relates to whether or not people get their minimum requirements of calories. The official National Sample Survey of 2005 revealed that three-fourths of Indias rural population and half the urban population did not get the minimum recommended calories. This is confirmed by nutritional and health surveys, which reveal the following: more than two-fifths of the adult population suffer from chronic energy deficiency, and a large percentage are at the border of this condition; half Indias women are anaemic; half its children can be clinically defined as malnourished (stunted, wasting, or both). Within India half of our rural population or over 350 million people are below the average food energy intake of SSA (Sub-Saharan Africa) countries.  [3]   Poverty as such is not directly observed: the National Sample Survey (NSS) gathers responses to a questionnaire regarding consumption, and the poverty estimates are then derived (after making various assumptions) from this data. But the same NSS directly observes that employment growth plummeted between the last two surveys (1993-94 and 1999-2000). Now, it is virtually impossible for poverty to have declined if unemployment grew sharply, and the methodology of any study that claims poverty has fallen should be questioned. The sector of the countrys economy has seen breakneck growth in the past decade: the provision of software services and business process outsourcing services to foreign (principally US) firms. However, that sector accounts for 0.25 per cent of the labour force. Where are the rest? Nearly half of Indias total working-age population (15-59 years of age) is unemployed, most of it not even counted as part of the labour force. While agriculture continues to employ the majority of those considered employed, it accounts for less than a quarter of the national income, and that share continues to shrink. No Industrial Transformation National income is conventionally divided into three sectors- agriculture, industry and services. All the countries in the developed world passed from being predominantly agricultural economies to being predominantly industrial economies. It was only after industry had brought these entire economies (including their agriculture) under its sway, commodities became vastly more plentiful than in the past, and the economic surplus grew massively, that these economies could sustain growth in the share of services. Today, industry accounts for the largest share of GDP in the economies of China, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, as much as 56 per cent in the case of China. In Indias case, however, the share of industry is low just 28.2 per cent in 2009  [4]  . Industry has never been the dominant sector of the Indian economy. Moreover, its share of GDP has not been increasing, but is stagnant or shrinking. And Indian industrys share of employment is just 17.6 per cent. Indeed, in the two commodity-producing sectors agriculture and industry one cannot find any miraculous takeoff in growth during the period of reform. But one should beware of drawing sweeping conclusions on the basis of two or even three years figures. And while the services sector has led growth over the past two decades, so that it now accounts for 54.6 per cent of GDP, much of the services sector (e.g. growth of police and armed forces, the explosion of financial sector and real estate activity) has no tangible benefit for the people at large. It is true that certain Indian firms (or Indian units of foreign firms) have attained world standards in quality of output, and with their lower labour costs may become highly competitive exporters. Glowing press reports of such units convey the sense that the Indian economy has undergone a take-off. However, these firms are generally dependent on imported capital goods and are strongly linked to export markets; they have few linkages to the rest of the Indian economy. They remain islands in the large sea of underdeveloped India. Contrast this with the transformation of the economy that would take place with the rapid development of industries catering to domestic demand for items of mass consumption. That would create demand for raw materials and indigenous capital goods, in the entire process generating huge employment and promoting indigenous technological know-how.  At any rate, India accounts for less than one per cent of world exports. High technology goods constitute ju st five per cent of its exports. Indias rapid increase in oil imports (and Indias high-profile efforts to secure long-term oil and gas supplies from abroad) is being held up as a sign of its rapid economic growth. It actually is a sign of the absence of national planning. Much of the growth in oil consumption is on account of the great boom in private automobiles. This is in turn the result of the failure of public transport, growing income inequalities, and the massive expansion of cheap credit for car purchases. Moreover, rapid growth of oil imports signifies not the growing strength but the growing vulnerability of the Indian economy. Genuine national planning would have ensured instead (i) restraint on consumption (through the expansion of railways for goods and passenger transport, expansion of public transport in cities, and a variety of energy conservation investments), and (ii) a programme of investment to develop and use the countrys oil, gas and plentiful coal resources effectively and economically. A comb ination of such measures could have greatly reduced the countrys dependence on oil imports. Instead, the share of oil in Indias energy is growing, and the share of imports in its total oil consumption is on course to reach 90 per cent or more in some years. In the last few years, large foreign capital inflows and the booming foreign exchange earnings of the IT sector have resulted in the rapid growth of the countrys foreign exchange reserves. As a result, the Government has liberalised foreign investment by Indian firms. Thus a number of Indian firms have been investing abroad, in many cases acquiring foreign firms. This phenomenon has generated considerable excitement in the business press, which point to it as further evidence of Indias new global status: now, they claim, Indian firms too are multinational corporations. Indeed, for two years, 2003-04 and 2004-05, India ran a current account surplus, which means that it was a net capital exporter. However, much as this may be good business sense for the firms which are making them; but in general they run contrary to the requirements of national economic development. India is not a capital-surplus economy, but an underdeveloped, capital-starved one, with large resources lying idle for lack of investment. It makes no economic sense to export capital from such a country. Indian capitalists may earn financial returns from their investments abroad, but such returns will give paltry stimulus to the Indian economy, whereas investment in manufacturing within the country stimulates demand, productive activity and employment in a number of sectors, with far-reaching benefits for the whole economy. India- A Knowledge Economy As part of the propaganda about Indias emerging as a global power, we are told ad nauseam that India is a knowledge economy, an information technology (IT) superpower, and the like. The truth is that adult literacy in India is just 61 per cent; on this score, it ranks 146th out of 177 countries in the UNs Human Development Index   (that is, many countries with much lower per capita income had much higher literacy levels than India for example, much of desperately poor sub-Saharan Africa). In recent years, on the recommendation of the World Bank, the Indian government has focussed its meagre education expenditures increasingly on primary education, largely abandoning secondary and higher education (as if they were a luxury). Yet official data tell us that 42 per cent of children enrolled drop out before completing primary education (I-V). Another 19 per cent, according to official data, drop out  before completing upper primary education (VI-VIII). And according to Cens us data, 43.5 per cent of the children between the ages of five and nine are not in school. More perturbing is the quality of education that is being imparted in government schools. It is so dismal that half the children in Class IV in government schools in Mumbai cannot do the arithmetic calculations required of a Class I student. When put to the test, 18 per cent of students attending Classes II to V in Andhra Pradesh couldnt do single-digit additions while only 12 per cent managed single-digit subtractions. Higher education, which the Government has increasingly abandoned to a rapacious private sector, is out of the reach of all but a small section. At any rate, the infrastructure and staff of many of the new private institutions are appalling, and thus the degrees imparted to a large percentage of graduates may not be worth the paper they are printed on. Research And Development According to the official publication Research and Development Statistics (2004-05, the latest edition), Indias expenditure on R D has been falling as a share of GDP, from 0.87 per cent in 2000 to 0.77 per cent in 2005. Let us look more closely at this R D expenditure. First, the Indian private sector does not account for much of it. According to official figures, eighty per cent of R D expenditure was carried out by the Government. This was largely not for productive purposes, but for military purposes: 32 per cent on direct military research, 21 per cent on space research (much of which actually serves the missile programme) and 12 per cent on atomic energy (much of which actually serves the nuclear weapons programme). Even allowing for some genuine space and atomic energy expenditures, at least half of R D expenditure in India appears to be for military purposes. To be able to project power, we bought Admiral Gorshkov from Russia and named her Vikramaditya. But where is the sh ip? Where is that power on high seas? Our horizon does not even show the outline of a carrier. The Arihant (the lead ship of Indias Arihant class of nuclear-powered submarines) has not been armed as yet, and we do not have an indigenously manufactured fighter/bomber. Nor do we have the Missile regime that makes the military might of a Regional Power credible. The showpieces of defence R D the Main Battle Tank project (started in 1974) and the Light Combat Aircraft project (started in 1983) have yet not been completed, and, after the expenditure of billions of rupees each, the chances of their actually being inducted into the armed forces are dwindling. For example, the air force is now in the international market for a mammoth order of 126 fighter planes, at a cost of over $6 billion. How then can we call ourselves a Regional Power? To absorb foreign technology properly (in such a fashion that one can further develop it), R D expenditures need to be multiples of technology payments. And finally, much of what passes under the name of R D in Indian industry is merely classified so for tax saving purposes, and actually consists of adaptation of products to local conditions, or even merely quality control. By conventional measures of scientific output, Indias performance is dismal. The standard database in this regard is the US-based Science Citation Index (SCI). In 1980, around 40 Indian journals were indexed in the SCI; this figure has fallen to 10, or just 0.3 per cent of all SCI-indexed journals. In 1980, nearly 15,000 scientific papers from India were indexed in the SCI; this figure fell over the next two decades to just over 12,000 (Chinas figure grew from under 1,000 to over 22,000 during the same period). Indias share of the worlds total research papers published in SCI-indexed journals was just 1.79 per cent in 2002. Finally, Indias world ranking in the SCIs citation impact (the number of times a paper is cited by others) has fallen to an abysmal 119 out of 149 countries listed. The IT sector Indias much-vaunted Information Technology (IT) sector is composed of two parts: the software sector, and the IT-enabled sector (ITES). In both cases, work that was earlier done in the developed world, particularly the US, has been outsourced, or contracted out, to locations in India. In the case of the ITES, the activities outsourced include call centres, medical transcription, data entry, ticket-reconciliation, claims processing, credit card administration, and such other routine office work as can be performed at remote locations. While this work requires knowledge of English, it does not require superior education or skills. Indeed, some of it is so mechanical and repetitive that it is in danger of being eliminated: Optical-character-recognition software is automating the work of Indian data-entry workers. Electronic airline tickets are eliminating some of the ticket-reconciliation work airlines carry out in India. Eventually, natural-language speech recognition is likely to automate some of the call-centre work that is currently going to India. Other countries too are entering the same business, particularly those once colonised by an English-speaking country: the call-centre business is booming in the Philippines.   This is obviously not high-technology or knowledge-based work; new information-and-communications technology has merely made it possible to carry out such work at remote locations. The sole reason for outsourcing such work is that wages for it in India are a fraction of those in the developed world (according to Deloitte Research, one-tenth), yielding massive savings to US and UK corporations. The jobs threatened in those countries are primarily ones that already pay low wages because they require low skills; by outsourcing to India, firms are able to drive their costs even lower. The same applies for the software sector. It is true that Indias annual production of IT engineers is larger than that of the US. However, Indian engineers are employed in relatively low-value work: the less-creative software jobs are the ones being moved offshore: bug-fixing, updating antiquated code, and routine programming tasks that require many hands. The software pyramid, shows a structure with a few thousand architects at the top, followed at successive levels of skill and pay by researchers, consultants, project managers, business analysts, and finally basic programmers. The last categories are the foot soldiers in the information economy, who write codes for applications and update and test them. It is a part of this lowest category that has been off shored, much of it to India. Indian software firms manage applications of programmes owned by multinational software giants; but Indian firms produce virtually no copyrighted programmes which are sold to a large number of customers, and earn a continuing stream of revenue. Rather, both the hardware and the software they use are imported. American investments in India, especially in new technology areas, will help American companies to reduce costs and become more competitive globally. Equally, Indias earnings from these investments will lead to increased purchases from the US. The information technology revolution is built primarily on US computer-related technology and hardware. India is thus not a knowledge economy but a low-wage economy, distinguished from other such by its colonial heritage, English. It does not command increased international status by virtue of its economic strength; rather, the publicity about its emergence as a power is an outcome of conscious US policy.

Philippine Attacks :: essays research papers

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces launched attacks on three southern islands in an effort to wipe out the guerrillas who held a U.S. couple hostage for more than a year, military officers said Sunday. The assaults, which started Saturday after one of the Americans and a Philippine captive died in a rescue attempt, are aimed at the top three commanders of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, said Philippine Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina. Martin Burnham, 42, and Ediborah Yap, 45, died in a shootout Friday when government troops ambushed their captors in jungles of the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Burnham's wife Gracia was shot through the thigh but rescued. "We're now operating with greater ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces launched attacks on three southern islands in an effort to wipe out the guerrillas who held a U.S. couple hostage for more than a year, military officers said Sunday. The assaults, which started Saturday after one of the Americans and a Philippine captive died in a rescue attempt, are aimed at the top three commanders of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, said Philippine Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina. Martin Burnham, 42, and Ediborah Yap, 45, died in a shootout Friday when government troops ambushed their captors in jungles of the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Burnham's wife Gracia was shot through the thigh but rescued. "We're now operating with greater intensity. We will not let them get away with this," said Carolina, head of southern Philippine forces. He said no clashes were reported as of Sunday morning. Carolina said 1,500 and 1,800 soldiers would arrive in the next three days to back troops already hunting the Abu Sayyaf on the islands of Jolo, Basilan and the province of Zamboanga del Norte on Mindanao. "We will have to finish this war because terrorism is a scourge on the Earth," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Sunday. All three mountainous, jungle-covered areas stand in a 60-mile stretch of the Sulu Sea in the southwestern Philippines. It wasn't clear how many troops were already involved in the operations, but thousands of soldiers have been in the area for months - since the military launched its offensive after the Abu Sayyaf seized the Burnhams and several other hostages in May 2001. Carolina said soldiers on Mindanao were hunting Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya, who fled into dense jungle with about 40 men after the army attacked them during Friday's rescue mission. (AP) Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, right, extends her condolences to the family of slain.

The Great Skater :: Personal Narrative Essay

The Great Skater Like any other sport, ice-skating is obliged to creative people who bring something new to it. These people are known to everyone as the inventors of particular jumps, splits, spins. They are given credit for their work and, sometimes, the skating moves they invented carry their names. For instance, the Lutz jump was invented by Alois Lutz before World War II; the Walley jump was attributed to Bruce Mapes who performed with the Ice Follies in the 1930s. With Mabel Fairbanks that was never the case. The spins she invented never have been officially admitted to be exclusively her creation. For me, it was a profound experience to be coached by her, as I was learning not only the art of skating, but also many things that one can learn from a wise person. I treasure her advice very much. Mabel Fairbanks was a brilliant and a hard working skater. The only problem she experienced over and over was the unwillingness of the skating world to admit that she was deeply talented. It was the second quarter of the 20th century, and she was not allowed to perform the major skating movements--the elements she found the most fun to perform. She was black, she was too good, and the other girls in the show wouldn't look as skillful having Mabel performing next to them. In fact, Sonja Heini once refused to allow Mabel to join Sonja's popular skating troupe because Mabel was too gifted. Mabel was restricted in her skating to the simple elements. But, Mabel wouldn't be Mabel if she didn't extricate herself from the restrictions. How? The solution was ingenious: "If they don't let me skate the conventional way, I'll invent something of my own. This way, nobody and nothing can prevent me from skating to my full abilities." Necessity turned out to be the mother of invention. In a short period of time, Mabel, the first black superstar skater in the history of the United States, came up with the new variations of basic spin. They were so gorgeous! She was the star of the shows at British West Indies with the famous Ice Follies, and in Mexico with the Ice Capades. The only sad thing is that the spins she invented have never been called anything more than just spin's variations. If it were for me, I'd call them Fairbanks spins.

Discuss the Importance of Ethics in Business in Light of the Recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC)

The 2008 global financial crisis has affected today’s economy severely based on the collapses on issues such as immoral practices, governance, regulations, enterprise ethics. Factors to consider with the collapse that lead to the financial crisis is the dangerous outcomes that financial companies were not foreseen in advanced of borrowing mortgages for the companies. The change of ethics through enterprises demonstrate how business approaches to ethics over the past years where ethics is seen in different perspectives. Lessons are learnt from financial failures in the lack of awareness in ethical performances to businesses. The recent global financial crisis has recently existed with a lack of awareness on business ethics policies where unprofessional practices are performed on dangerous mortgage borrowers have occurred without having any awareness of the outcomes of financial collapses (Lewis 2010). Business ethics is defined as the significance of moral performances on business in workplaces. Also Lewis (2010, p2) has mentioned that â€Å"lending practices† have become out of control and increasingly inexistence since the finance industry has given out mortgages to people that do not have the capacity to repay back their mortgages which worsens the situation into a financial deterioration. Greed is another issue to consider in the collapse of the financial crisis where financial institutions did not look at peoples abilities on whether the mortgages they have borrowed from the bank can be repaid without any debts arising like in this financial crisis. In other words greed and unethical performances can lead to such situation as the global financial crisis, seeing the collapse of mortgages and corporations in business ethics. Governance is defined as policies or methods installed to administrate how businesses operate and Regulation is defined as a structured type of regulation managed in finance companies (Clarke 2010). There are certain problems existing with the issues on governance and regulation with its attachment to the global financial crisis. Issues such as subprime mortgages and stock markets play a major role to the fall of the economy. The collapse of governance policies lead to the unsuccessful process of giving subprime mortgages to corporations that are incapable of managing their repayments on the mortgages which also leads to a downfall on house prices. With a failure to regulation policies to the financial crisis the stock market began to collapse where when people were unaware of this situation and mortgages started to have trouble increasing their capital on the balance sheets. Borrowing mortgages in the United States can also be part of a culture where citizens want to own their own houses but are still not aware of the dangerous downfalls that have occurred to companies that cannot repay their mortgages. Thus the situation for both regulation and governance collapses will only increase if no solution to the problem occurs such as being more aware of who borrows out the sub prime mortgages and what are the dangers with borrowing mortgages to the financial corporations. The economic crisis and financial disasters also play a role to the downfall of business ethics in the financial crisis where problems such as misunderstanding of communication in ethical behaviour arises (Jameson 2009). Huge companies in the economy had bad predictions and insufficient evidence to prove that mortgage investments were safe to be mortgaged out, where clients are not alert of the future threats of not being able to repay back the mortgages companies have given to the stakeholders. Jameson (2009, p502) states that â€Å"Managers who had inside information about the problems failed to persuade others to take appropriate action† this meaning managers did not perform their duty to inform clients about the troubles these mortgages had in the future. Speaking generally economics and financial disasters can exist from the insufficient communication of ethics to the stakeholders about the dangers of mortgage collapses. The shortage of attendance to business ethics has a big impact to the financial crisis where honesty in ethics plays a major role. Regulators are considered to have good purposes to financial organisations but contain destroying results which is the boom of debts where honestly cannot be found in ethical ways for businesses (Huw 2010). The guidance of teaching more on ethical practices is being greatly regulated by the financial associations that will learn their honesty which will avoid such shortages of unawareness of honest ethical practices. In general ethical practices regulated to the finance industry need to be existing to avoid future problems of financial breakage. The changes of ethical conduct in sustainable enterprises shows how today’s society in business performs different points of views on ethics. To expand ethical enterprises it is very important to be aware of what is morally and immorally correct in different cultures which has an impact on the changes of enterprises over the past thirty years (Potocan & Mulej 2007). The concept of culture in ethical approaches relates to circumstances like Enron and Royal Ahold where a one perspective approach to enterprises was applied. To improve the situation Enron and Ahold should be a lesson learnt for future expansion of ethical practices in relation to perspectives of enterprises. Thus the change of sustainable enterprises can be seen through cases such as Enron and Ahold and how today’s society is moving forward with more awareness on enterprise performances. The importance of financial service industries on having more regulations installed to enforce the performances based on the principles of ethics where seen in past financial crises that has seen huge losses in capital and the motivation to put through transactions that could crash companies downfall on share markets (Cascio, WF & Cappelli, P 2009) . The more time consumed on ethical regulations which will help improve financial companies in their ethical performances in avoiding the financial crisis in business ethics. As Cascio has mentioned financially colleagues in the workplace were jeopardising their chances in reducing themselves by hiding the losses the companies have accumulated business to the loans that were unrepayable. The fixing of regulations in ethical practices in businesses helps make financial areas of the workplace avoid future financial crisis situations from reoccurring. Therefore financial association should aim to be more aware of ethical situation in relation to the 2008 global financial crisis. In conclusion there are plenty of factors contributing to the recent global financial crisis that affect the current existance of corporate governance, business ethics and regulations which will benefit a lot to finance companies. The unawareness of subprime mortgages in the collapse of the financial crisis will only increase if no governance and regulations on ethical performances are installed to avoid future problems. The modification of enterprise ethics has learnt that different perspectives on morals will benefit organisations financially giving important advice about investments before risking companies to a downfall on mortgages, practices on borrowing loans and the management of stock markets.