American Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Abercrombie and Fitch and the Moral Degradation of...

Abercrombie and Fitch and the Moral Degradation of America This past month I made my last visit to the popular teenage/college student retail store Abercrombie and Fitch. Finishing up some back to school shopping, I was on a quest for jeans, and I knew the place to get them. My last two favorite pairs were from Abercrombie and Fitch, and I was planning on buying the same kind once again. Happy and relieved that I would not spend the afternoon ransacking the mall for one pair of jeans, I entered the store to the pulsating beat of techno dance music. In front of me was the teenage Mecca of what is truly hip -- the first thing I noticed were the life-size pictured that covered the walls -- half-clad muscular and glistening young†¦show more content†¦Overwhelmed by the stimuli, I set out to find the jeans I wanted as quickly as possible. Searching through pile and rack, I found Wide leg tomboy, Tomboy flare, and Bootcut tomboy, but none of the plain Tomboy I has previously owned. Disappointed and a little disgusted, I left th e store empty handed. It was not so much that I had failed to find my jeans that upset me, but rather the realization that this store had somehow reached a point where it was controlling the minds of my fellow young shoppers. The store I had just left seemed to be advertising more than Tomboy flares and wool V-neck sweaters -- the music, the pictures on the wall, the salespeople -- they all set the level of what is cool just a little bit higher, while the customers mindlessly followed. Then next week I was reading the Star Tribune newspaper when I came across and editorial written about Abercrombie and Fitch. The author was disgusted with the store because of its blatant promotion of college-age drinking. The issue came up in one of AFs quarterly magazines. Instead of sending out free catalogs of their merchandise to customers, AF sells a retail magazine which they distribute four times a year for the small fee of five dollars per issue. The magazine is filled with pictures similar to the life-size ones which cover the store walls -- tan, beautiful and

Business Process Management Systems Strategy and Implementation

Question: Discuss about the Business Process Management Systems for Strategy and Implementation. Answer: Introduction: Unilever Limited is an Australian business that operates under the large and well known Unilever PLC and a subsidiary of Anglo Dutch FMCG Company Unilever. Officially it is known as Unilever Australasia. Its headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia and operates in many different towns in the country like New Zealand, Epping, Sydney, Australia among others. Being a subsidiary of a multinational consumer goods company that deals with beverages, cleaning detergents, foods and personal care products it also specializes in the home and personal care products to be specific (Unilever Australia, 2010). The company is named as one of the best businesses that produce good quality and effective consumer goods that are well satisfying and popular to the consumers. Australasia specializes in products like ice creams, olive oils, teas, snacks and meal products which are on the category of consumer products. The home care products include: cleaning detergents, laundry detergents as well as fabric conditioners. While the personal care products are: soaps, body sprays, body deodorants, antiperspirants to name just but a few. To help the company achieve the market and customer demand, it has its research laboratories in different places of the country like North Rocks, Minto, Tatura and Petone (Unilever Australia, 2010). These factories are able to produce all the products that are sold by the company. With time the Australasia has grown and developed its operations both externally and internally. The use and utilization of advanced technology and its improved information systems has contributed to growth and business operation effectiveness. Additionally, the businesss operations involve the use of accounting systems and software packages that generally help it grow and develop its daily activities with the aim of achieving its objectives and goals. Therefore, this gives it the chance to be used as a business of reference for such an assignment. Australasia Current Organizational Structure The organizational structure of a business refers to the principles and laws that govern the employees and the management team to be able to achieve the businesss objectives. Therefore, the organizational structure of Unilever Australia Limited involves the improvement and increase in business productivity towards achieving optimum customer satisfaction. It focuses on product growth and development especially when it come to the quality and price of its products. In addition to that, it has a large number of employees who are well skilled and experienced in customer service and relations as well as product production. Looking at the management structure and its internal systems, the business uses some of the best accounting systems to control and manage its financial operations which lead to better management techniques. Therefore, I can say that the business is able to be successful because of the increased use of accounting systems to manage and control its operations. Therefore, t his gives me a reason to use it as the business of reference in this assignment. The operational problems of an organization may be caused by the fact that it does not use effective and efficient internal systems and especially the accounting systems. Therefore, the following are some of the operational problems that may face Unilever Limited Australia include: Effective and efficient communication structure if very vital for a business that needs to succeed. However, not any other communication but specifically sharing of information concerning the financial status of the business. The organizational accountants and financial analysts should be able to communicate effectively with the management team and other financiers. The business may face frequent financial challenges by changing the organizational structure. When a businesses grow and developed, the process involves new employee hiring and or change in business operations. Apparently, there is always a cost incurred during the acquiring of the new business structure and budgeting for the new employees payments as well as technology and system changes to suit the new structure (Hung, et al, 2016). This can be improved by installing effective and efficient accounting systems in the organization. Apparently large developed businesses have been frequently faced by this challenge. The organization grows and expands but the top management team remains the same which often leads to poor management. This may also be caused by lack of effective internal systems especially the accounting systems which always offer great support to the managers specifically when it comes to financial management and other business operations. Most Likely Acquisition Method for Australasia Limited The best acquisition methods for the company is the ERP software system which is currently being used by so many other successful businesses in the world. This system is generally used to manage and control a business operations including the financial, procurement, inventory and raw material stocks, human resource, supply chain, product transportation and distribution among other business aspects or departments. The ERP system is suitable for the company because it will help it manage the businesss operations, the product brand range and the large market share and segment which are the core aspects of the business success factors (Pearlson et al, 206). Through the use of the accounting software systems, the business will certainly be effective and efficient in terms of production and especially the businesss internal systems because they will be able to function together with the ERP system hence improvement in business productivity. The technical support include factors like the labor availability, energy, time, machines like the computers and the internal systems that support daily business operations. These are actually some of the most important aspects of a businesss sale system (Sedera et al, 2016). They include the involvement of the employees, management team and the physical structure like equipment. Therefore, if Australasias sales system lacks any of these aspects, then it is most likely going to fail. However, since the company has the opportunity of using the accounting systems for its operations it is certainly able to cub this problem. This will definitely relate to how the customers and the sellers communicate during and before the process is commenced. Since the system relies on the information that is fed into the machines especially the computers, the people involved should make sure that the data is correct and according to their needs and desires for each one of them (Jha et al, 2016). Therefore, for the case of Unilever Limited, it is able to manage and control its sale communication procedures because of the implementation of the accounting systems that help in the process. Australia Limited is said to be one of the best producers of consumer products. This means that it has certainly been using modern and updated accounting soft wares, policies and principles to run and manage its operations. This is especially for the case of the financial, procurement operations, marketing and advertising, supply chain, human resource management, budgeting issues, growth strategies to name just but a few business departments and issues (Pearlson et al, 2016). This has certainly been of great help to the business because they are able to perform its operations at the set budgets and without financial crisis or pressure which is often one of the main issues with large companies. Therefore, through the use of the accounting software packages, the business has managed to increase its growth and development rate of the whole business operations. The use of good accounting systems has contributed greatly to the growth and development of the businesss market share. They have played a great role especially in its management strategies and business control operations. For instance, it has established different locations in which it operates from like New Zealand town, Sydney, Australia among others. Also, it has a wide range of products made from different brands. The products are also grouped into three different categories with each category having very good quality and well-priced products. In addition to that, the company has many factories around Australia whose responsibility is to produce the products accordingly hence helping the business meet its market demand. Therefore, all this information is an indication of the large market share that Unilever Australia Limited has. With this fact in mind, it is clear that the company uses the accounting software systems to manage and control its market share and segment. Market Leaders and Their Competitive Advantage The Procter and Gamble and Colgate Palmolive Companies are the closest competitors of Unilever Australia Limited. However, since the companies also have subsidiaries in Australia, they pose a great competition factor for Unilever Australia Limited. This is simply because they all offer the same product brands, product quality and specifically for the same groups of consumers. In addition to that their goods are also used for almost the same purposes (Unilever Australia, 2010). However, the competitive advantage that the two companies have over Unilever is the fact that they have a larger market share, better internal systems for the operations and their specialization on few product brands which makes them of even better quality than those of Unilever Australia. Nevertheless, Unilever Limited uses its accounting systems strategies to win and maintain its market share no matter what the situation and no matter the competition status of the market. The users of these software packages are mostly the accountants, financial analysts, market analysts, financial advisors, auditors among others. Some of the problems that they may face include the following: Lack of knowledge and skills. Every software analysts must have the required skills, experience and expertise to operate an accounting software or package (Marabelli et al, 2016). Nevertheless, in the current world there has been frequent technology changes and advancement which makes the operators skills and experience to be challenges. Lack of enough facilities or machines to run the systems which basically refers to technical support. This relates to internet, software, computer packages and computers themselves. A business that does not have enough equipment to run the systems and make them function will be increasing its chances of making errors financially and also its daily operations. This will definitely be a challenge for the users. Australasia Limited should ensure that its users have the required skills and knowledge especially when the systems or technology develops. This can be achieved through conducting training and conferences to teach them about the systems. Also, the company should ensure that its machines and other technical support needed to operate the software is available and enough for the operation. References Hung, S.Y., Huang, W.M., Yen, D.C., Chang, S.I. and Lu, C.C., 2016. Effect of Information Service Competence and Contextual Factors on the Effectiveness of Strategic Information Systems Planning in Hospitals.Journal of Global Information Management (JGIM),24(1), pp.14-36. Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016.Managing and Using Information Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley Sons. Marabelli, M. and Galliers, R.D., 2016. A reflection on information systems strategizing: the role of power and everyday practices.Information Systems Journal. Arvidsson, V., Holmstrm, J. and Lyytinen, K., 2014. Information systems use as strategy practice: A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and use.The Journal of Strategic Information Systems,23(1), pp.45-61. Cassidy, A., 2016.A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press. Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016.The Strategic Management of Information Systems: Building a Digital Strategy. John Wiley Sons. Jha, A.K. and Bose, I., 2016. Innovation research in information systems: A commentary on contemporary trends and issues.Information Management,53(3), pp.297-306. Sedera, D., Lokuge, S., Grover, V., Sarker, S. and Sarker, S., 2016. Innovating with enterprise systems and digital platforms: A contingent resource-based theory view.Information Management,53(3), pp.366-379. Chang, James F.Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press, 2016. Khanam, Suby, Jamshed Siddiqui, and Faisal Talib. "Role of information technology in total quality management: a literature review." (2016). Abbasi, Ahmed, Suprateek Sarker, and Roger HL Chiang. "Big data research in information systems: Toward an inclusive research agenda."Journal of the Association for Information Systems17, no. 2 (2016): 3.

Science Alchemy Alchemy, Ancient Art Practiced Especially In The Middl

Science Alchemy Alchemy, ancient art practiced especially in the Middle Ages, devoted chiefly to discovering a substance that would transmute the more common metals into gold or silver and to finding a means of indefinitely prolonging human life. Although its purposes and techniques were dubious and often illusory, alchemy was in many ways the predecessor of modern science, especially the science of chemistry. The birthplace of alchemy was ancient Egypt, where, in Alexandria, it began to flourish in the Hellenistic period; simultaneously, a school of alchemy was developing in China. The writings of some of the early Greek philosophers might be considered to contain the first chemical theories; and the theory advanced in the 5th century BC by Empedocles?that all things are composed of air, earth, fire, and water?was influential in alchemy. The Roman emperor Caligula is said to have instituted experiments for producing gold from orpiment, a sulfide of arsenic, and the emperor Diocletia n is said to have ordered all Egyptian works concerning the chemistry of gold and silver to be burned in order to stop such experiments. Zosimus the Theban (about AD 250-300) discovered that sulfuric acid is a solvent of metals, and he liberated oxygen from the red oxide of mercury. The fundamental concept of alchemy stemmed from the Aristotelian doctrine that all things tend to reach perfection. Because other metals were thought to be less "perfect" than gold, it was reasonable to assume that nature formed gold out of other metals deep within the earth and that with sufficient skill and diligence an artisan could duplicate this process in the workshop. Efforts toward this goal were empirical and practical at first, but by the 4th century AD, astrology, magic, and ritual had begun to gain prominence. A school of pharmacy flourished in Arabia during the caliphates of the Abbasids from 750 to 1258. The earliest known work of this school is the Summa Perfectionis (Summit of Perfection) , attributed to the Arabian scientist and philosopher Geber; the work is consequently the oldest book on chemistry proper in the world and is a collection of all that was then known and believed. The Arabian alchemists worked with gold and mercury, arsenic and sulfur, and salts and acids, and they became familiar with a wide range of what are now called chemical reagents. They believed that metals are compound bodies, made up of mercury and sulfur in different proportions. Their scientific creed was the potentiality of transmutation, and their methods were mostly blind gropings; yet, in this way, they found many new substances and invented many useful processes. >From the Arabs, alchemy generally found its way through Spain into Europe. The earliest authentic works extant on European alchemy are those of the English monk Roger Bacon and the German philosopher Albertus Magnus; both believed in the possibility of transmuting inferior metals into gold. This idea excited the imagination , and later the avarice, of many persons during the Middle Ages. They believed gold to be the perfect metal and that baser metals were more imperfect than gold. Thus, they sought to fabricate or discover a substance, the so-called philosopher's stone, so much more perfect than gold that it could be used to bring the baser metals up to the perfection of gold. Roger Bacon believed that gold dissolved in aqua regia was the elixir of life. Albertus Magnus had a great mastery of the practical chemistry of his time. The Italian Scholastic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, the Catalan churchman Raymond Lully, and the Benedictine monk Basil Valentine (flourished 15th century) also did much to further the progress of chemistry, although along alchemical lines, in discovering the uses of antimony, the manufacture of amalgams, and the isolation of spirits of wine, or ethyl alcohol. Important compilations of recipes and techniques in this period include The Pirotechnia (1540; trans. 1943), by the Italian metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio; Concerning Metals (1556; trans. 1912), by the German mineralogist Georgius Agricola; and Alchemia (1597), by Andreas Libavius, a German naturalist and chemist. Most famous of all was the 16th-century Swiss alchemist Philippus Paracelsus. Paracelsus held that the elements of compound bodies were salt, sulfur, and mercury, representing, respectively, earth, air, and water; fire he regarded as imponderable, Science Alchemy Alchemy, Ancient Art Practiced Especially In The Middl Science Alchemy Alchemy, ancient art practiced especially in the Middle Ages, devoted chiefly to discovering a substance that would transmute the more common metals into gold or silver and to finding a means of indefinitely prolonging human life. Although its purposes and techniques were dubious and often illusory, alchemy was in many ways the predecessor of modern science, especially the science of chemistry. The birthplace of alchemy was ancient Egypt, where, in Alexandria, it began to flourish in the Hellenistic period; simultaneously, a school of alchemy was developing in China. The writings of some of the early Greek philosophers might be considered to contain the first chemical theories; and the theory advanced in the 5th century BC by Empedocles?that all things are composed of air, earth, fire, and water?was influential in alchemy. The Roman emperor Caligula is said to have instituted experiments for producing gold from orpiment, a sulfide of arsenic, and the emperor Diocletia n is said to have ordered all Egyptian works concerning the chemistry of gold and silver to be burned in order to stop such experiments. Zosimus the Theban (about AD 250-300) discovered that sulfuric acid is a solvent of metals, and he liberated oxygen from the red oxide of mercury. The fundamental concept of alchemy stemmed from the Aristotelian doctrine that all things tend to reach perfection. Because other metals were thought to be less "perfect" than gold, it was reasonable to assume that nature formed gold out of other metals deep within the earth and that with sufficient skill and diligence an artisan could duplicate this process in the workshop. Efforts toward this goal were empirical and practical at first, but by the 4th century AD, astrology, magic, and ritual had begun to gain prominence. A school of pharmacy flourished in Arabia during the caliphates of the Abbasids from 750 to 1258. The earliest known work of this school is the Summa Perfectionis (Summit of Perfection) , attributed to the Arabian scientist and philosopher Geber; the work is consequently the oldest book on chemistry proper in the world and is a collection of all that was then known and believed. The Arabian alchemists worked with gold and mercury, arsenic and sulfur, and salts and acids, and they became familiar with a wide range of what are now called chemical reagents. They believed that metals are compound bodies, made up of mercury and sulfur in different proportions. Their scientific creed was the potentiality of transmutation, and their methods were mostly blind gropings; yet, in this way, they found many new substances and invented many useful processes. >From the Arabs, alchemy generally found its way through Spain into Europe. The earliest authentic works extant on European alchemy are those of the English monk Roger Bacon and the German philosopher Albertus Magnus; both believed in the possibility of transmuting inferior metals into gold. This idea excited the imagination , and later the avarice, of many persons during the Middle Ages. They believed gold to be the perfect metal and that baser metals were more imperfect than gold. Thus, they sought to fabricate or discover a substance, the so-called philosopher's stone, so much more perfect than gold that it could be used to bring the baser metals up to the perfection of gold. Roger Bacon believed that gold dissolved in aqua regia was the elixir of life. Albertus Magnus had a great mastery of the practical chemistry of his time. The Italian Scholastic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, the Catalan churchman Raymond Lully, and the Benedictine monk Basil Valentine (flourished 15th century) also did much to further the progress of chemistry, although along alchemical lines, in discovering the uses of antimony, the manufacture of amalgams, and the isolation of spirits of wine, or ethyl alcohol. Important compilations of recipes and techniques in this period include The Pirotechnia (1540; trans. 1943), by the Italian metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio; Concerning Metals (1556; trans. 1912), by the German mineralogist Georgius Agricola; and Alchemia (1597), by Andreas Libavius, a German naturalist and chemist. Most famous of all was the 16th-century Swiss alchemist Philippus Paracelsus. Paracelsus held that the elements of compound bodies were salt, sulfur, and mercury, representing, respectively, earth, air, and water; fire he regarded as imponderable,