Bike Helmets :: essays research papers

Arizona needs a law requiring adult bicycle riders to wear a helmet! Have you ever known somebody who was injured in a car accident? What do you think his attitude about seat belts was after they saved his life? If you knew that a seat belt would save your life, you would buckle up! It took years of legislation and public awareness campaigns to make seat belt use mandatory. Now a new topic regarding public safety is coming to light: people are dying or becoming seriously injured in seemingly minor accidents on bicycles when the rider's head strikes the concrete. When the head is unprotected "the brain continues to move in a forward motion while the skull stops moving" (Macyko1), causing trauma. What is needed is a way to protect the brain "by absorbing the energy from the impact, buying extra time for the brain to slow down" (Macyko1). Bicycle riders need to wear helmets to protect their brains from injury, yet unfortunately the public is simply not aware of this need and many people will continue to die or be seriously injure d unless something is done. Bicycle helmets save lives and should be required by Arizona State law for riders of all ages. Opponents feel that bicycle helmet laws are too strict and are misdirected. Principally, they feel that helmet laws do not prevent accidents and point out the fact that "motor vehicles are involved in 90-92% of bicyclist deaths" (BHSI/Compendium 4). Creating awareness among drivers by lowering their speeds would create a safer cycling environment. Furthermore, opponents of helmet laws believe that "requiring motorists to wear helmets will save more lives" (Convissor 1) since statistics show the likelihood of fatality while riding in passenger cars is nearly double that of bicycling (Bicycle 15). They are also concerned for the overall popularity of their sport when helmet laws go into effect. After helmet laws went into effect in Australia, "surveys in Sydney found the helmet law reduced cycling by 38%" (Convissor, 1). Another issue is the argument that helmets are inconvenient and uncomfortable. The opponents of helmet laws seem to have a good argument. Helmet use cannot prevent an accident and Department of Transportation statistics indicate seventy five percent of bicycle related deaths are in collisions with motor vehicles (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons 2), which implies the real problem is with automobile drivers causing accidents with bikes.

An Essay on Telephone Marketing :: essays research papers

An essay on telephone marketing Issues surrounding telephone marketing can never be over analysed. There are many factors which influenced the development of telephone marketing. Cited by many as the single most important influence on post modern micro eco compartmentalism, telephone marketing is featuring more and more in the ideals of the young and upwardly mobile. Inevitably feelings run deep amongst the aristocracy, trapped by their infamous history. Relax, sit back and gasp as I display the rich tapestries of telephone marketing. Social Factors As Reflected in classical mythology society is complicated. The immortal and indispensable phrase ‘honesty is the best policy’ [1] created a monster which society has been attempting to tame ever since. Much has been said about the influence of the media on telephone marketing. Observers claim it is crunchy on the outside but soft in the middle. Our post-literate society, more than ever before, relies upon telephone marketing. To put it simply, people like telephone marketing. Economic Factors We no longer live in a world which barters 'I'll give you three cows for that hat, it’s lovely.' Our existance is a generation which cries 'Hat - $20.' Of course, telephone marketing fits perfectly into the Custard-Not-Mustard model of economics. Inflation telephone marketing It is apparent from the graph that the influence of telephone marketing is strong. What is the secret to its strength? Even a child could work out that inflation has always depended upon telephone marketing to a certain extent, but now more that ever. In the light of this free trade must be examined. Political Factors No man is an island, but what of politics? Comparing the electoral politics of most Western and Eastern European countries is like comparing pre and post war views of telephone marketing. Let us consider the words of that silver tongued orator, the uncompromising Vatusia Shandy 'A man must have his cake and eat it in order to justify his actions.' [2] He was first introduced to telephone marketing by his mother.

With Every Drop of Blood: Johnny’s Character Development

They hear a shrill scream and both slam their bodies to the ground. Johnny gets up a minute later, covered In a thick layer of dirt, and realized that Cush Is dead still and oozing with blood. Johnny could leave Cush there to die, but he carries him onto his wagon and insists that he stay keep Cush company while his leg heals- even though Cush suggested that Johnny leave him and head home.The book With Every Drop of Blood, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, is a story about an unlikely friendship between Cush, n African American union soldier, and Johnny, a southern white boy, set during the civil war. In the beginning of the book, Johnny is an ignorant racist. However, Johnny's friendship with Cush helps him overcome his racist views. Johnny is shocked when he is captured by Cush. He is used to being superior to African Americans, not being commanded and pushed around by one.Everyone back home says It Is beneath the dignity of a white man to have to fight â€Å"darkl es† as equals, and Johnny agrees. He is even questioning whether or not Cush has the rains to know how to shoot a rifle. Johnny thinks to himself, â€Å"Darkles weren't smart enough for much, which Is why they had to have white people over them to tell them how to do things† (p. 77). Being surrounded by racists his whole life has shaped Johnny's opinions about black people, but those opinions change as he gets to know Cush better. Johnny starts to see things from the African American's point of view.He pretends to go to bury EJB, when he was really going to make an escape and go head mom. He gets caught by the Union soldiers and brought back to the camp. There, he gets talking to Cush about his former life as a slave. Cush tells Johnny how his back was whipped raw Just for taking a piece of pork from a pig, right after his father was sold off. Johnny thinks about his home, where people said blacks were lazy, greedy, and too dumb to take care of themselves without a mast er. Johnny thinks, â€Å"l never asked a dark how they felt about being slaves.Was everybody back home wrong? ‘ (p. 42) Now he realizes that everything he was told about slavery could be distorted. Because Cush Is an African American In a union uniform, he gets caught by some Confederates who lock him up in an old tobacco barn in Appoint. Johnny pretends that his family owns Cush, and that they really need the extra help on the farm. The Confederates refuse to release Cush, so Johnny leaves the barn without him and goes to look for Colonel Marshall to see if he'll be any help. Marshall is nowhere to be seen, so Johnny asks a man named Mares Mclean.Mclean tells Johnny that the war has ended. The gunshots stop, and the Confederate soldiers release Cush. Johnny stands by the barn with him and thinks â€Å"It was mighty hard to believe that Cush was lower than me. † Then Johnny offers Cush some company on his way home. Johnny goes from a an Ignorant racist to someone that risks his life to save a black talks to Cush, the more he feels empathy for slaves. Johnny ends up becoming very good friends with Cush, and they both save each other's life. Johnny's friendship with Cush helps him overcome his racist views.

My Childhood Blank-kee

Most people have something they treasure since childhood. For some, it may be their first baseball mitt or first basketball. As for me, it is my Chinese traditional blanket. It holds priceless memories of my (1)blissful childhood days when my only worry was how to avoid the vegetables my mother forced on me. It was my constant companion, my partner in crime, and my source of comfort.I was born into a warm, financially stable family. As the youngest child, I was well-loved, so much so that my family (2)indulged me with everything I wanted. That’s why I had the best toys and gadgets among my childhood friends. Although I was showered with these luxurious things, there is one thing that I will never forget—my beloved â€Å"blank-kee,† my priceless possession which I kept over the years.I used to call my blanket a â€Å"blank-kee†, because I can’t pronounce the â€Å"ket† in the word â€Å"blanket.† It was given by my godmother to my mothe r the day after my mother told her that she was pregnant with me. It is an authentic Chinese traditional blanket. Although others think it is (3)repugnant and in poor taste, it is classical in its own way.It is sewn together with different shades of red, embossed with a traditional Chinese Dragon. According to the lunar calendar, I was born in the year of the dragon, and the Chinese tradition states that red is a symbol of happiness. Thus, this blanket was bestowed upon me for luck, (4)prosperity, and happiness.Although it is a perfect gift for a person of Chinese decent, the blanket may seem ill-designed for others because it is an abomination to any design philosophies or principles I have encountered.Plus, I don’t particularly like the color red because I find it corny.   However unsightly this blanket may seem, I still love it! When I was a child, every time I felt lonely, I used this blanket to feel more secure and at ease. It was like a magical blanket that gave me ha ppy thoughts. That is why I have nurtured some sort of love-hate relationship with my blanket.My unique blanket is approximately 3 ½ inches by 5 inches. It used to fit easily into it when I was a child. Now that I have considerably outgrown it, the blanket barely covers me. As it is made of silk cloth, its smooth sensation gives me an unfathomable feeling whenever I rub it against my skin.The stains in it reflect its age and the moments that I have shared with it.   Because of my clumsiness as a child, it was soiled by food spills and several accidents I had, leaving permanent stains. These stains, however, did not make it any less comfy.As a child, my blank-kee was my constant companion. I was the youngest and my sister is 10 years older than me. The â€Å"generational-gap† between us made it a bit difficult to communicate with my sister and develop a good relationship with her. Nonetheless, my blanket never failed to provide me (5)relentless emotional support by giving me more comfort than its capacity to warm.I have been through a lot with this blanket. That is why it was my â€Å"best-partner-in-crime†. I remember the days when my mother force-fed me with veggies. Whenever my mother fed me with something that looks green or has an (6)uncanny smell (EWW!), I spat it out when she was not looking and covered it underneath my blanket.I also have this vivid memory of my mother getting mad at me for my naughtiness. You see, I was a really chubby kid when I was young, so my mother wanted me to go on a diet. I had to cut down my sugar intake, but controlling my craving for sweets was proving more difficult than I thought.When I can’t hold it any longer, I stole from our refrigerator a can of Coke and a Snicker chocolate bar that was a left over from one of our dinner parties. I have not yet drunk the whole can when the doorbell rang, which was an (7)indication that my mom is back from a day of hell.Ihurriedly hid my can of Coke and the cho colate wrapper underneath the sofa out of (8)sheer panic, accidentally knocking over the can. With the adrenaline rush, a brilliant idea came to me and made me use my blanket to wipe off the Coke on the floor, leaving it flawless and sparkly clean. There was nothing to be found in the crime scene.I thought that my partner in crime that saved me would remain to be my sole witness. Later that night, as everyone finished dinner and started approaching the family room to watch TV, my mother found the can and wrapper under the sofa! It was really stupid of me to forget the most important thing to do after a crime—(9)dispose of the evidence!Since no one is willing to admit the misdeed, I stood up and confessed. My mother already knew it was me. My mother even saw my wet blanket and she confiscated it from me. I was like a fish in an aquarium whose oxygen was removed.

A workout for working memory

New research suggests that mental exercises might enhance one of the brain's central components for reasoning and problem-solving.People may be able to remember a nearly infinite number of facts, but only a handful of items–held in working memory–can be accessed and considered at any given moment. It's the reason why a person might forget to buy an item or two on a mental grocery list, or why most people have difficulty adding together large numbers.In fact, working memory could be the basis for general intelligence and reasoning: Those who can hold many items in their mind may be well equipped to consider different angles of a complex problem simultaneously.If psychologists could help people expand their working-memory capacity or make it function more efficiently, everyone could benefit, from chess masters to learning-disabled children, says Torkel Klingberg, MD, PhD, an assistant cognitive neuroscience professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Children with at tention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for example, might especially benefit from working-memory training, says Rosemary Tannock, PhD, a psychologist and psychiatry professor at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.â€Å"It could be that working-memory problems give rise to observable behavioral symptoms of ADHD: distractibility and also poor academic achievement,† she says. Working-memory deficits might also underpin some reading disabilities, as it controls the ability to recall words read earlier in a sentence, says Tannock.But how–or even if–working memory can be expanded through training remains a topic of hot contention among psychologists. Some argue that working memory has a set limit of about four items, and that individual differences in working memory arise from the ability to group small bits of information into larger chunks. However, new research suggests that working-memory capacity could expand with practice–a finding that cou ld shed new light on this central part of the mind's architecture, as well as potentially lead to treatments for ADHD or other learning disabilities.Functional limitationsOne such study–by researchers at Syracuse University–hit upon the potential trainability while attempting to resolve a debate in the literature on the limits of working memory.Since the 1950s, psychologists have found one aspect of working memory–sometimes referred to as the focus of attention–to have severe limitations. For example, George Miller, PhD–a founder of cognitive psychology and a psychology professor at Princeton University–established that people generally can't recall lists of numbers more than seven digits long.Those who exceeded that limit tended to make smaller groups of numbers into larger ones, using a process called â€Å"chunking.† For example, people familiar with U.S. intelligence agencies would see the letter group â€Å"FBICIA† as two chunks, rather the six letters, and that set of letters would only occupy two slots in a person's memory, rather than six.In recent years, however, evidence is mounting that the limitation of working memory is somewhere between one and four information chunks.The downward revision results from new techniques to keep people from chunking information, which can create the illusion of greater fundamental storage capacity, says Nelson Cowan, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Missouri–Columbia. In one common chunking-prevention method, participants repeat meaningless phrases over and over while performing working memory tasks such as memorizing lists of numbers.A recent literature review by Cowan, published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Vol. 24, No. 1, pages 87–185), makes the case that a variety of working-memory measures all converge on a set limit of four items.Other researchers have suggested that working-memory capacity is limited even further œto just a single item. In a study by Brian McElree, PhD, a psychology professor at New York University, participants underwent a test of working memory called â€Å"n-back.†In the task, the participants read a series of numbers, presented one at a time on a computer screen. In the easiest version of the task, the computer presents a new digit, and then prompts participants to recall what number immediately preceded the current one. More difficult versions might ask participants to recall what number appeared two, three or four digits ago.McElree found that participants recalled the immediately preceding numbers in a fraction of the time it took them to recall numbers presented more than one number ago–a finding published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition (Vol. 27, No. 1, pages 817–835.)â€Å"There is clear and compelling evidence of one unit being maintained in focal attention and no direct evidence for more than one ite m of information extended over time,† says McElree.In an attempt to reconcile the two theories, psychology professor Paul Verhaeghen, PhD, and his colleagues at Syracuse University replicated McElree's experiment, but tracked participants' response times as they practiced at the task for 10 hours over five days. (See November Monitor, page 35.)â€Å"We found that by the end of day five†¦their working memory [capacity] had expanded from one to four items, but not to five,† says Verhaeghen. â€Å"It seems that both theories are correct.†The focus of attention might expand as other working-memory processes become automated, Verhaeghen says. Perhaps practice improves the process of attaching a position to a number, freeing up the mind to recall up to four numbers, he notes.Some researchers believe the practice effect uncovered by Verhaeghen reflects more efficient information encoding rather than expanded working-memory capacity. According to McElree, the respon se time measures used by Verhaeghen do not provide pure measures of memory-retrieval speed, and the changes in response time with practice could indicate that participants in his study simply became more practiced at encoding numbers vividly, he says.If Verhaeghen's findings can be replicated using other tasks, it could change how scientists conceptualize working-memory limitations. Rather than there being a set limitation, working-memory capacity could improve through practice–suggesting that those with working-memory problems could improve their capacities through repetition. However, practice would need to occur on a task-by-task basis, says Verhaeghen, and, as he points out, â€Å"It is doubtful that practice on n-back generalizes to anything in real life.†Stretching the limitsNew research on children with ADHD, however, might show tasks such as n-back can improve working memory in general, and could help children with the condition.People with ADHD tend to have di fficulty with working-memory capacity, and that deficit could be responsible for their tendency to be distracted and resulting problems at school, says Tannock.Seeking to alleviate such difficulties with his research, Klingberg ran a randomized controlled trial of 53 children with ADHD in which half of the participants practiced working-memory tasks that gradually increased in difficulty.The other half completed tasks that did not get harder as the children became better at them. Both groups of children–who were 7 to 12 years old–practiced tasks such as recalling lists of numbers for 40 minutes a day over five weeks.The children who practiced with increasingly difficult memory tasks performed better on two working memory tests–which were different than the practice tasks–than the control group, reported Klingberg in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Vol. 44, No. 2, pages 177–186.)In addition, the parents of child ren with memory training reported a reduction in their children's hyperactivity and inattention three months after the intervention, while the parents of the control group participants did not.Subsequent, yet-unpublished experiments build on those results, Klingberg says.â€Å"We have looked at other groups too: adults with stroke, young adults without ADHD, children with†¦traumatic brain injuries,† he says. â€Å"A general pattern [we've found] is as long as you have working-memory problems and you have the ability to train, you can improve your abilities.†Some researchers suggest that memory training may have more of an effect on motivation than working memory.â€Å"It seems to me that children in the training group may have learned to have a better attitude toward the testing situation, whereas children in the control group–who repeated easy problems–may have learned that the testing situation was boring and uninteresting,† says Cowan. â₠¬Å"The differences that emerged on a variety of tasks could be the result of better motivation and attitude rather than a basic improvement in working memory.†Or, says Klaus Oberauer, PhD, a psychology professor and memory researcher at the University of Bristol in England, the practice effect in both Klingberg's studies might result from people learning to use their limited working-memory capacity more efficiently–perhaps by grouping information into larger chunks or by enlisting long-term memory.â€Å"I think the practice effect [they found] basically is just an ordinary practice effect, in that everything gets faster,† he says.So, even if working memory can't be expanded, adults with grocery lists and children with ADHD may be able to make better use of what little space is available by practicing the task itself or repeating tests of general working memory. And, in the end, the milk gets bought and the reading assignment finished.Reference:Cowan, N. (2005). W orking-memory capacity limits in a theoretical context. In C. Izawa & N. Ohta (Eds.), Human learning and memory: Advances in theory and application: The 4th Tsukuba International Conference on Memory. (pp. 155–175). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Klingberg, T., Fernell, E., Olesen, P.J., Johnson, M., Gustafsson, P., Dahlstrom, K., et al. (2005). Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD–A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(2), 177–186.  Martinussen, R., Hayden J., Hogg-Johnson, S., & Tannock, R. (2005). A meta-analysis of working memory components in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(4), 377–384.  McElree, B. (2001). Working memory and focal attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 27(3), 817–835.  Pernille, J.O., Westerberg, H., & Klingberg, T. (2004). Increased prefrontal and parietal activity after training in working memory. Nature Neuroscience, 7(1), 75–79.  Verhaeghen, P., Cerella, J., & Basak, C. (2004). A working memory workout: How to expand the focus of serial attention from one to four items in 10 hours or less. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 30(6), 1322–1337.   

Analysis of Aravind Eye Hospital

An Eye on Hope Miracles do happen. Don’t believe me? Ask that boy whose eyes would finally be able to see how the face of his mother is much more beautiful than even that angelic face that he had always imagined while listening to the lullabies she sang for him or how his cricketing hero actually looks like or how his kingdom of sand – that the world calls as a playground actually bore the signs of his footsteps or how the faces of his friends, who cheered for him for being specially-abled or who dissed him for his disability, change expressions on seeing him again. Now, here is a question for all the B-School students who are taught to derive the equivalent clink of coin-sound for all human emotions, day-in and day-out or for all the professionals who have grown up taking pride in putting a dollar tag on every single sentiment on this earth. Can you put a price tag on this miracle? How much would you be ready to invest if you could make this miracle a mundane reality for millions and millions of people in India? Can you be stoic enough emotionally to discard this proposal by taking help of an equally heartless financial jargon of profit-margins and return on capital employed? Or would you take a step forward and approach this problem the right way rather than the easy way. Arvind Eye Hospitals, since their inception, have proven time and again, year-after-year, that a business that deals in miracles like this can be self-sustainable if you have the right sentiments, intentions, vision and the sincerity to cater to the base of the pyramid, which because of its sheer volume, in a country like India can prove to be a self-dependent and autonomous business model. Put yourself in the shoes of the patients just for a moment, and you’ll understand how it can prove to be an economically viable model with a focus on intangible benefits rather than the tangible ones. Imagine a hypothetical case of Laxmi, who lives in Tangachi Mattam, a village forty kilometers away from Madurai, who decides to bring in her 10-year-old, bespectacled son Vishnu, to be examined at the centre this Saturday when he complained of irritation in his left eye. Ordinarily, it would have taken them a whole day to go to Madurai by bus and back, not to mention the cost of Rs 200 round trip. If the vision centre develops in every city, the consultation with the Doctor cost them Rs 20 – at less than the price of a coffee cup in a hip cafe, one little boy’s eyes can finally return to his school books. The model certainly can be emulated if the businessmen can abandon their perennial thirst for endless money for this cause and concentrate more on the intangible benefits of this exercise rather than tangible ones. But the question is how? Part-I – How ? If we look at the current status of blindness in India, about 90% of blindness is relatively easily treatable and cataract remains a major cause of blindness. Our annual cataract surgical rate is about 3. 5 million but the current levels of cataract surgery are far below the number required to clear the existing backlog, besides taking care of incidence. There is an urgent need to perform more cataract surgeries every year. If we look at the current service delivery pattern, the Government does about 25%, NGOs and voluntary organization 41. 2% and private 33. 8%. There is also an increasing shift towards IOL surgery. The increasing need in the community for eye care services combined with poor utilization of existing resources indicate a strong need for organizational development aimed at such eye care providers. One major need is to better equip these institutions to deal with the burden of blindness, to aid in the transition towards IOL surgery other standard procedures, to standardize duality of eye care provided by them, to promote cost effective practices for self-sustainability and finally to help the hospital leadership to articulate a well defined vision and goal for their hospital. Based on Arvind Eye Care’s experience, a capacity building process with other eye hospitals should be initiated. Arvind should set itself a target of partnering in capacity building with 100 voluntary eye hospitals that were under performing or in the start-up phase. The ultimate goal would be to help in developing each of these hospitals into a facility capable of doing high volume, high quality work and become financially viable. The financial viability will remain a critical issue in order to protect these voluntary organizations from the uncertainties of external funding. The first initiative in this direction has already come from the Lions International who wanted to establish a process for capacity building for the hospitals supported by them and as a spin off other INGOs like Sight Savers, CBM, Seva and IEF too joined hands for their partner hospitals. LAICO is currently partnering with 140 eye hospitals, of which 118 are from India and the remaining are from other countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Africa, Cambodia, etc. LAICO, is working on the following 4-step strategy to help with the capacity building of the under-performing and other NGO hospitals. The results so far have been astounding for LAICO. The following graphs show how the capacity development workshops have been a path-breaking success for this business model in general and the participating hospitals in particular. The resulting efficiency increase through the economies of scale is also evident in the cost recovery of the participating hospitals as shown in the graph below. But the biggest challenge in terms of the execution of the plan is to ensure the sustainability of this execution. The above analysis leads us to identifying some of the factors that affect the capacity building process as many of the hospitals have drastically increased, while some hospitals have shown no improvement or decrease in the performance. The leadership of the hospital is a major factor. The location, availability and involvement of the leader affect capacity building. Wherever there has been a permanent leader with a vision, those hospitals have shown a very good improvement. Resistance to change and openness among the team members are also crucial. The hospitals need to have teamwork rather than one person doing the entire show. If the institution is not interested in doing high volume or is satisfied with the current level of services, capacity building is difficult. Where ever the leader focuses more on resource creation rather than on resource utilization, an imbalance between performance and capacity arises. Operational areas, even having a single ophthalmologist or part-time ophthalmologist also affect the long-term sustainability of the hospital especially when these doctors leave the hospital. The pattern of compensation also affects the growth of the hospital. To some extent incentives help the hospital increase its performance but this does not help the hospital to grow as an institution. This brings us to the vital question – what should be the change in the outlook of the organization to sustain this change and continue to register growth in the strategy chosen. Part-II – How sustainable is sustainable? No matter the individual or the reason at hand, all effective leadership styles have one thing in common- they all contain the Four Cs- Character, Communication skills, Consistency, and the Creativity needed for successful problem solving. Of course, within each of these four traits, variances of extreme proportions are noted by those most inclined to utilize them. The ability to get onto the correct path for creating your own effective leadership style stems from within the individual, for realizing that it is the followers who recognize if a leader is successful is the first step. Share the glory with your team, but keep the pains to yourself. Small, cash-strapped nonprofits often find that the most accessible funding is restricted to specific initiatives, programs, and contracts. They accept them because they nominally fall within the organization’s broad mission statement, but they are much better aligned with the donor’s strategy than with the nonprofit’s. Because the funds barely cover the direct costs of the additional activity, much less the indirect costs, the nonprofit reenters the funding market again and again, each time as a bigger, less focused, and more cash-starved entity. Hence, within the non-profit sector, one can safely say that â€Å"The tree dies from the top†. As a consequence of this stick-and-stretch syndrome, nonprofits often develop anaerobic life styles. At one extreme is the bloated bureaucracy: It may have some hardworking parts, but as a whole, it’s slow moving and survives because of mission legitimacy, not mission performance. At the other is the ever-busy nonprofit characterized by action paralysis. The organization is so busy executing the day-to-day stuff, raising money, implementing programs, and so on, that it never steps back to consider the full implications of its actions. The combination of stickiness to the mission and stretchiness to market demands can undermine a nonprofit’s effectiveness. The stretchiness keeps it very busy on a day-to-day basis; it’s constantly executing programs and working to raise funds. But in a strategic sense, the organization moves very slowly because the stickiness holds it in place. Before it can move forward, it must unstick the inertia at its center and then creep forward one step at a time, carrying with it all its baggage. To create a strategy that is both ffective and measurable, nonprofits first need to translate their core mission into a narrower, quantifiable operational mission. Next, the nonprofit needs to convert the operational mission into a strategy platform using the following 4-step strategy process. Step 1: The Mission Statement. This statement tends to be broad and far-reaching and usually identifies the customer need the organization attempts to serve, such as hunger, homelessness, or une mployment. The purpose of the mission statement is to inspire. Its credibility lies in the significance and scope of the problem it has identified. A powerful and compelling long-term goal will draw the attention of funders, workers, and volunteers. Habitat for Humanity International’s goal is â€Å"to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the face of the earth [and] put the subject of inadequate housing in the hearts and minds of people. † The mission tells you the nature of the problem, but it doesn’t identify how Habitat will address that need or how much of it will be served by the organization. Step 2: The Operational Mission. This step brings the lofty, inspirational mission into the realm of quantitative goals. While the big mission should be broad enough to guide action through periods of organizational and environmental change, the operational mission must be narrow enough to allow the organization to trace its impact. The organization’s work should always be measurable, even if it must use proxies to do so. Habitat for Humanity, for example, tracks not only the number of homes it has built, but in some areas it also estimates the extent of poverty housing yet to be eliminated. Step 3: The Strategy Platform. This delineates how the operational mission will be achieved, including which programs to run and how to run them. The strategy platform consists of four important components: client and market development, program and service development and delivery, funder and donor development, and organization development and governance. (See the exhibit â€Å"Blueprint of a Strategy Platform. †) Each one should directly relate to the operating mission and should dovetail with the other components. Most important, every program should correspond to its appropriate strategy platform component. Step 4: The Choice of Programs. Once an organization has the platform for supporting the various strategy components in a coherent way, the day-to-day tasks of choosing which programs to fund and which to cut are much better guided. When a new program appears on the organization’s radar, the first question to ask is, How does the program contribute to the appropriate strategy component—funding development, for instance, or operational development? Conclusion: The leader in a non-profit like that of Arvind Hospital, should instead of trying to be all things to all people, should pick a niche, craft an operational mission and, flowing from it, formulate a coherent strategy platform. Then it should vigorously pursue those programs that support the logic of the entire strategy. That approach improves nonprofits’ chances for changing the world. Unfortunately, too few nonprofits conduct such strategic assessments of their work. And it is this difference which determines that how sustainable is sustainable?

Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Management Essay - 5

Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Management - Essay Example Moovers and Shakers must focus heavily on internal human resources strategy to ensure that service staff members positively and enthusiastically represent the business brand. Their performances coupled with moderate and competitive pricing will help Moovers and Shakers gain market interest and achieve better profitability. Moovers and Shakers 1. Introduction Moovers and Shakers is a small, mobile food service business that will be serving Coventry, the 12th largest city in the UK maintaining a population of 316,900 as of 2011 (Coventry City Council 2012). Coventry maintains a diverse variety of different commercial centres, stadiums for sporting events, and five colleges and universities that will assist in sustaining profit for the business. Moovers and Shakers will consist of three mobile food carts, staffed in different locations within the boundaries of Coventry operating between the hours of 11am and 8pm, except during special events (e.g. sporting, school functions or arts and drama) in order to capture lunch and dinner crowds; especially commercial professional customers. Moovers and Shakers will carry a limited, yet targeted menu consisting of hamburgers, gourmet franks, nachos and cheese, pretzels and accompanying frozen and fountain soft drinks. What makes Moovers and Shakers so extraordinary will be the moderate pricing structure and an emphasis on food serving flair provided by recruited operators (staff) to make the Moovers and Shakers dining a complete and interesting experience. Moovers and Shakers will be established as a sole trader organisation. This structure will provide the owner with more control over the business, ranging from administration to accounting, and this business structure requires much less regulatory restrictions and licensing necessary for a small start-up. The sole trader format also gives the business owner much more control over exit in the event that the business is not achieving expected profitability or in the event of the owner seeking a different business opportunity. This is due to the fact that the sole trader maintains 100 percent liability for the company. Until the business is able to expand, maintaining profit control for a single business owner is necessary to ensure proper wage accumulation without split capital. The key to success for Moovers and Shakers is food quality and variety, however it is the finesse and flamboyance of food preparation by the mobile cart operators that will gain customer interest and build more allegiance to the Moovers and Shakers brand identity. Mobile cart operators will operate the frozen drink machines and accessories much like a high-class bartender, putting on a display for customers during preparation. These expert employees with the skills for food prep panache will perform a variety of tossing and juggling when assembling the customers’ products, giving Moovers and Shakers a rapid reputation for a stylish food experience. As such, the business plan will focus on recruitment and retention needs as employees will be vital to building a positive brand and how to reduce risk of losing qualified, expert employees. The business plan will also rely heavily on advertising in order to compete. The business plan therefore focuses on models of marketing that are known to bring more buyer interest and how Moovers and Shakers intends to apply these lessons to this innovative mobile food business. The