A New Computer System for Staples Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

A New Computer System for Staples - Essay Example Also corresponding Technology Road Map for the project was presented. Staples, Inc. sells a wide range of office products, including supplies, technology, furniture, and business services. Headquartered outside of Boston, Staples operates approximately 1,695 office superstores and also serves its customers through mail order catalog, e-commerce and contract businesses. Staples, Inc. has a website available at www.staples.com. Each Staples superstore carries over 7,000 brand name products for businesses and home offices, including supplies, furniture, small business machines, computers and peripherals - all at Guaranteed Low Prices. (Staples, The Office Superstore, 2005) With the Big Three of office supplies, Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max, accounting for only 20 percent of the $285 billion market, Staples is focusing on two key areas for growth: small businesses and the Internet. The company hopes to offer small businesses such high tech services as videoconferencing, messaging, and Web-site design. The office giant already bought Quill Corporation, which specializes in direct sales, and telecommunications firm Claricom Holdings while it forged partnerships with Bell Atlantic, Nortel Networks, and CompuCom Systems. Staples also invested an additional $10 million into its new on-line site, which allows customers to purchase over 6,000 items over the Internet. Its rapidly expanding virtual office market is already worth billions of dollars; efforts to improve and refine the site are never-ending. Expansion-happy Staples has surged into 2000. It strengthened its Internet presence by allying with VarsityBooks.com, CloudSource, MarketTools, and TVisions Inc. In early-2000, the company announced that it would offer insurance online as well. Also in 2000, Staples formed strategic alliances with Manhattan Associates, Inc., a producer of management systems; with Plumtree Software, a corporate portal leader; and with Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., a national provider of legal service plans. (Staples, The Scoop, 2000) Staples' customers are various companies from home-based businesses to Fortune 500 companies in 21 countries throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. There are a lot of complaints from Staples' customers that they cannot get the complete information about the goods, fees, discounts and rebates; and therefore they make wrong decisions about purchase. Nevertheless, corporate culture of Staples stated at its website says, "At Staples we strive to be a model of corporate governance and ethical business practices. We are committed to acting with integrity in everything we do and hold ourselves accountable for doing business honestly, ethically, and legally. At Staples, we have built a reputation for

Stock Market Investing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Stock Market Investing - Assignment Example This first pair of stocks belongs to companies involved in consumer non-durables (Coca Cola) and energy (Exxon Mobil) industries primary. Oil production is a world-known powerful business worth on investing. Nowadays all the geopolitics is somehow connected to energy sources, because without energy no production’s possible. However, this also brings specific risks. Like many oil companies, Exxon Mobil relies on oil from often unstable (politically, economically) regions. Thus, any geopolitical events can influence the stock prices. Coca Cola Company is an enterprise, working world-wide for many years, so there’re not many chances Coca Cola would bankrupt as consumer non-durables industry generally, is developing. However, Reeves admits that in 2015 when interest in bearing assets may be back, it would â€Å"rotate a lot of capital out of low-growth, low-dividend stocks like Coca Cola† (Reeves). Second pair of stocks (General Electric and Pepsi) looks pretty much like the first one, yet when looking into history of stock performances on NASDAQ, General Electric shows a poorer dynamic comparing to Exxon Mobil. Meanwhile, Exxon Mobile has their dividends growing during several last years, and though this year prices are decreased comparing to 2014, one can expect they rise along with profit. Coca Cola has generally stable dividends for 3 years with slight increase and performs better this year comparing to 2014. Pepsi performs with increasing success for the last years, increasing stock price and dividends too. Thus, it’s General Electric’s performing (too stable to earn money) what drags Pepsi down with. In third pair, Procter and Gamble has shown a decreasing trend during last months, and despite their dividends are increasing from year to year, other pair member, General Motors has only one year of dividends practice. Thus, it can be concluded that Coca Cola and Exxon Mobile

Ageing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ageing - Essay Example The impact of physiotherapy on healthy ageing is both short and long-term, and, as a result, requires both short and long-term solutions. Contrary to common perspectives, successful ageing is more than just about the absence of disease. There are many disease-free people who do not age successfully, and research shows that the absence of disease is just of a myriad of aspects that need the utmost attention to enable successful ageing. As a matter of fact, successful ageing involves personal, social and economic issues that have a significant impact on one’s lifespan and manner of ageing (Timonen, 2008:31). Physical health, financial security, independence, productivity and employment, good adjustment and a positive outlook, and maintaining participation in activities and with individuals who cultivate support and meaning are all important components of life that contribute towards successful ageing. Physiotherapy has a huge role to play in successful ageing because it involves most of these issues. Physiotherapy promotes physical and mental health and is influential in cultivating a positive outlook of life in individuals. Since health professionals and policymakers have a vital and active role to play in the formulation of health policies (that also affect physiotherapy), they impact successful ageing in many ways (Newman, 1995:46). Just like all aspects of health care, creation of good physiotherapy policies has a positive influence on individuals’ mental and physical health. Government agencies and private organisations have a clear and defined role to play in the promotion of successful ageing. Health professionals (e.g., physiotherapists) can collaborate with government agencies and private healthcare entities in numerous ways to enable the development and promotion of effective, successful ageing policies (Timonen, 2008:33). Collaboration can take many forms depending on the goals and objectives of a specific initiative. For

Teaching Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Teaching Education - Essay Example The issue of teaching then confronts the specialized needs of children and the approaches to learning. More important, are confrontations with the individual child and the way in which they are engaged in the classroom according to personal needs and desires. Looking at various aspects of the complexity of teaching then offers different insight into the methods and approaches which are taken to children in the classroom. The specific challenge of teaching today is based on how to engage students in the classroom and what this means with meeting traditional requirements and offering new solutions to learning the necessary knowledge of different topics. An issue which is engaged with learning and teaching in the classroom is based on engaging the minds of students and how this can be done. According to Barry Schwartz, there isn’t the ability to create a sense of engagement among students, specifically because the occupation of each student’s mind. The reality is that most students are looking at life choices and daily choices on a continuous basis. These come from the necessary consumption that is within society as well as alternatives which are approached in terms of the life questions that consume minds. The idea of consumption of questions and choices is one which comes from the ideologies of belonging to an area that is engaged in choices and the freedom to decide among a variety of things. The challenge to teachers then becomes based on creating the right approach to reach students while understanding that the ideologies of choice and consumption are continuously a part of the mindset of children and their decision to engage in specific activities (Schwartz, 2005). The concept of choice among students and the changing engagement which this leads to is one which is furthered with the new tools and technology that is in the classroom. For teachers, this poses both new challenges and opportunities for teaching. This comes from the same choices and the stimulations that students are surrounded by in the environment that is altering the way in which students learn and the teaching which is available to students. The challenge comes with the engagement in the classroom and the way in which technology often detracts from the ability to create the right atmosphere with teaching. However, other experiments show a different outcome, where technology works as a tool in creating links with children. According to Nicholas Negroponte, an experiment with offering 1 laptop per child created stimulation in the learning where fewer kids were dropping out and more students were becoming engaged with the material that was being learned. The question was then based on the idea of certain choices and technologies that led to deferment from materials, while others used the same materials to create even more engagement to the learning process and to offer exploration with the topics learned (Negroponte, 2006). The challenges and opportunities th at are presented with the learning with children are defined specifically by the way in which teaching needs to be approached in terms of individual needs and cultural affiliations. Teachers are now responsible for looking at the conditions which students are under and the defining points that are associated with this. The affiliations are combined with looking at the pragmatics of teaching, specifically which applies to how a teacher can effectively grab the attention of children and students in a changing world and with different tools that are now available. While the historical and traditional dynamics of teaching are still presented in the classroom, this limits what is

Fed Acts to Fix Jobs Market Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fed Acts to Fix Jobs Market - Article Example Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, this move would urge the people to spend more in buying commodities, investments and exports. The Federal Reserve has given its commitment to this program until the job market scenario in the US improves. This move has resulted in heavy investments in the stock market, gold and other such assets and the Dow Jones average for industries reached a new high after a similar rise in 2007. However, this announcement has resulted in a price hike for basic commodities such as oil that has created unease among the people who fear an impending rise in basic essentials. Though the present program is considerably less compared to the $1.25 trillion and $600 billion bond-buying programs which were launched in 2009 and 2010 respectively, the Federal Reserve has further announced that the current program could be extended to buy agency-mortgage securities and other assets if no major improvement is seen in the job market. Though this move has been criticized as being less aggressive by academics and economists, the central bank chairman has argued that the Federal Reserve is doing its best to stimulate the economy and also the present program could be further extended if and when required. The Federal Reserve has mainly aimed its program on those who have been out of employment and are in need of economic security until they find employment. In his address to the media, Mr. Bernanke noted that the longer people are out of work the harder it is to find another job as their work experience is at stake. The central bank has also announced that it would co ntinue its Operation Twist program through which it would buy treasury bonds amounting to $45 billion every month which will be used to fund the mortgage purchases. And if the economic situation does not improve significantly it has proposed to purchase treasury bonds through money printing in addition to purchasing mortgages. In addition it also plans to keep short-term

The Mechanism that Insurance Companies Use to Underwrite and Price Essay

The Mechanism that Insurance Companies Use to Underwrite and Price that Class of Business - Essay Example Word-counts: 3061 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Insurance and Risk Management 3 Marine Insurance and the Mechanism of Underwriting and Pricing of it 5 Marine Insurance 5 Major Classifications of Marine Insurance 7 Underwriting and Pricing Mechanism of Marine Insurance 7 Underwriting: The logic and the practical applicability 7 7 Underwriting mechanism 8 How Underwriting Works in Marine Insurance 9 Pricing the Marine Insurance 11 Basic Principles applicable to underwriting and pricing of an insurance contract 12 1- Utmost Good Faith: 12 2- Insurable Interest 13 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction In the view of Economics, Insurance is a technique of risk management that is basically used for compensating the risks of a contingent and uncertain financial risk. Insurance is social in nature and economic in practical since it represents the mutual cooperation and collaboration of various individuals as well as groups from their benefits by combining together w ith a view to reduce the consequences of financial risks. As Owojori and Oluwagbuyi (2011, P. 275) pointed out, Insurance is a comprehensive economic and social device for handling various risks that affect life, property and so on. This piece of research paper explains conceptual framework and theoretical underpinning of Insurance and its basic principles in relation to explaining the mechanism of underwriting and pricing Marine insurance by an insurance company.... Insurance company doesn’t guarantee decreasing of the uncertainty for the individual as to whether the financial risk will occur and it doesn’t alter the probability of risk-occurrence, but it reduces the probability of the financial risk that is connected to the specific event-occurrence (Vaughan and Vaughan, 2007, p. 35). For instance, from the business point of view, when the business man insures his ship against perils at sea, the uncertainty regarding the financial loss in that event will be eliminated. Insurance plays imperative role in the development of economy for the following reasons: Insurance helps pooling of the risks and ensures indemnifying the financial loss against risk of life or property, Insurance gives confidence to entrepreneurs that their loss, which may affect their continuity of the business, will be compensated, Ensures greater flow of money as surplus money in various insurance companies are widely used for economic and government related inv estments, Risk, loss and contingencies, if they are not compensated, will cause many companies or businesses go out of their operation which in turn adversely affects the development of the economy. Risk Management is wider term as it encompasses variety of tools including insurance too. Insurance is one of the techniques for risk management. According to ISO Guide 73, risk management is a coordinated, systematic and structured activities that direct and control a business or other organization with regard to the risk it faced (Reuvid, 2010, p. 58). An organization can take any of different forms of risk management tools. The optimum approach to the risk management is to seek attaining a balanced position, by protecting the firm from the impacts of any negative effects

Analyse the market for Tesco Groceries within the UK Essay

Analyse the market for Tesco Groceries within the UK - Essay Example Founded in 1924, Tesco is the largest retailer in the UK market as well as the largest UK based international supermarket chain with 1,780 stores in the UK and 586 outlets internationally. The company which originally focused on food retailing has now expanded in to retailing of clothing, household electronics, fincial services, internet and telecommunications. Company is displaying tremendours financial performance with over 15% growth in its revenue reaching  £ 34 billion in year 2005 and a widely publicised operating profit of  £ 2 billion. With over 1780 stores spread across UK and a strong presence in Ireland and a host of other countries, with its 586 international outlets, Tesco retail operations employ over 240,000 employees. The UK supermarket segment operates on a highly differentiated platform where the segmentation is done on customer profiles, geographic locations as well as product and image offer of each player. The focus on differentiation in the industy is evident in the total expenditure of  £150 million on advertising by key players. Tesco initially positioned itself on â€Å"Best Value† platform and based its operations on the principle of "Pile it high, sell it cheap" approach of the founder Jack Cohen. While this positioning attracted the lower income classes, it created a cheap image of the company and alianated the middle class consumers. To counter this negtive image, the company revised its approach to "inclusive offer" a phraseused by Tesco to describe its aim of catering to all stratas of income gorups from the same stores (Tesco.com 2005) . Under this approach the company offers â€Å"Finest and Luxuary† range as well as low priced â€Å"Value† range to cater t o varying disposable income levels of its differentiated customer bases. The company also differentiate its outlets through five formats, which differ in shop floor size and the range of products sold. These