Operational management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Operational management - Essay Example The name Starbucks is actually known to have originated from an American novel named Herman Moby. In 1982, a man named Howard Schultz decide to join Starbuck as he was ones impressed by the culture and popularity of Starbucks’ services and by 1990 Starbucks had expanded beyond the borders of Seattle to the rest of the world (Bussing-Burks, 2009, pp. 1-2). 1.1. Evolution of its strategy over time Starbucks strategies have changed over time since it started its operations in the coffee industry. Mr. Schultz, the CEO has changed the culture of its operations from the small shop in Pike place market in 1971 to the now big company that is known all over the world. Starbucks actually changed the manner in which people perceived and drank coffee. Today Starbucks offer their services with Wi-Fi server customers on the sofa as well as on the sub ways which never used to happen back then. With the management of Mr. Schultz, Starbucks expanded so fast and at some point some of its stingy customers abandoned it (Deresky, 2008). Therefore, the company was faced with financial constraints as there sales volume decreased and its competitors in the industry somewhat overtook them. Starbucks later revived its operation leading again in the industry in 2008 with the help of Mr. Schultz’s management. Mr. ... Therefore, its mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit at an individual level one at a time with a cup of coffee and in one neighborhood. Some of the company’s objectives is to offer quality products and services through sourcing of the finest coffee beans as well as improving the lives of the coffee farmers. With all the mission statements therein, the company has fully grown internationally (Griffin, Management, 2010, p. 206). 1.3. How effective is the Corporate governance The corporate governance is seen to be very effective since it’s been responsible for overseeing the activities of the corporate powers and ensuring that the firm’s daily activities are followed to the latter with intentions to foster the company’s goals and objectives. The corporate has also ensured that the necessary skills and experiences needed to meet the company’s goals and objectives are provided for at the correct times (Mullerat & Brennan, 2010). The corporat e has been responsible for the welfare of its partners and has, therefore, ensured that the working environment is free from health hazards. It has further ensured that they offer high standard coffee to its customers by purchasing and roasting fresh coffee (Aras & Crowther, 2011, p. 544). The corporate governance has been quite effective in its management since understand that profitability is an essential tool for the future success. 2.0. External Environment Analysis Starbucks has for a long time benefited from its international operations since 1990. Today, Starbucks does not only depend on the U.S. market but greatly enjoys the international market as they have gone overboard in offering their goods and services purposely to boost their revenue and maintain the rate at which it is

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reflection - Essay Example As the paper hghlights the reporter found meaning in herlife with her children and her total being, without him by her side. Today, her children and she is very happy living together and she is proud to say that she feels accomplished and complete without her husband. The early phase of her married life falls on Erikson’s psychosocial stage 6 which covers her early adulthood. This is the stage when she was longing for intimacy; thus, marrying her husband even if she had to go against the will of herv family. This is the time when she wanted to have a close personal relationship rather than be isolated. The reporter wanted to have a satisfying relationship and develop a family of her own. The later part of her married life is a perfect example of Erikson’s â€Å"penultimate† stage or the middle adulthood stage. When she separated from her husband, that was the time when her focus shifted from herself to her immediate surroundings which are her children. Had she fo cused on herself, she could have just wallowed in depression and not strive to work hard for her children. The reporter   focused on integrity and not despair. She focused on the positive rather than on the negative. She had to do something for the good of my children. Her strength was her children, which is what Erickson terms as â€Å"generativity†. She feared of becoming meaningless or inactive. She knew she had to find new meaning and purpose in life because she did not want to be self-absorbed and stagnate. Her going back to school and finding a job was instrumental in helping her get through this stage. The population that the reporter most want to â€Å"give forward† to are the separated wives who feel so depressed and useless. She wants to share with them my experience. From this paper it is clear that she wants to show them how she was able to rise up again from the pain of being left by a husband. She want to prove to them that they do not need a husband to take care of their children. She will show them how to find meaning in their lives and view the separation as a challenge to improve oneself and be useful to society. The reporter will point out to them that the options that they face are â€Å"generativity† or â€Å"stagnation†. It is her objective that they make the better choice of moving forward and care for the â€Å"next generation†, meaning their children. The reporter will prove to them through her experience that choosing â€Å"generativity† will lead them to the path of â€Å"integrity†, which is the positive result of the eighth stage in Erikson’s stages of development. On the other hand, if they choose â€Å"stagnation†, it will only bring them towards â€Å"despair†, the oppos ite side of the eighth stage. Her   ideal legacy for her family is to be able to give a college education to her children. Hopefully, if they are well-educated, they can become successful individuals both with their careers and their family lives. She may not be able to leave them with wealth but she hopes through their education they can pursue whatever it is they dream for in their lives.

Student action plans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Student action plans - Essay Example According to Holling (1), everything is dependent on everything else. In other words, every organism has a significant role in the ecosystem. For instance, lions kill herbivores for food. On the other hand, these animals feed on grass. Hence, if they were left to reproduce without killing some, pasture land would now be barren. This would then lead to extreme erosion and siltation of water beds, hence endangering marine life. Due to this, I think that the maintenance of ecological integrity is moral and necessary for the survival of all living organisms. Research shows that human activities are the leading cause of environmental degradation. In my case, for instance, the use of petroleum energy in vehicles leads to the loss of a non-renewable resource. Furthermore, vehicles burn up the petroleum oil and release greenhouse fumes into the atmosphere. This leads to negative impacts on the environment, such as global warming. This, in turn, leads to changes in climate, either longer dry spells on extreme rainy seasons that cause havoc to the environment. Such climate changes affect farmers all over the world, who depend on good weather conditions for survival. This, subsequently, results into increased food insecurity and mortality rates. Furthermore, the fumes that vehicles release cause air pollution. People become more prone to respiratory diseases, whereas those already with such experience a lesser probability of cure. In fact, I think that my only positive impact on the environment is in my planting of flowers and trees in my home place. However, this cannot cause a reasonable change in the ecosystem. Thus, everyone has to contribute to the sustenance or renewal of ecological integrity in the world. One way is to encourage everyone in the neighborhood to plant trees. Trees provide a water-catchment area that ensures the survival of soil microorganisms as well as marine organisms. In addition, I can also

Role of Banks in Real Estate Financing in Saudi Arabia Research Paper

Role of Banks in Real Estate Financing in Saudi Arabia - Research Paper Example The real estate boom in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has attracted banks to fund the projects in this sector. Banks financing real estate create a win-win scenario for the owners as well as the banks. There are other financiers in real estate including the Saudi Arabia Government. The terms and conditions for the banks and other real estate financiers vary depending on the project and location. Banks have been playing an important role in financing real estate sector in Saudi Arabia increasing the current boom in the sector, lending banks and the real estate owners profit from this arrangement which may be affected by economic and political factors bringing up some challenges which can adversely affect the profitability to the two partners. The real Estate Sector The real estate sector is one of the fastest growing in the world if not the fastest. It is the only sector in the world that has defied the norm currently. Despite recession and economic slow down in most of the countries in the world, the real estate sector continues to grow at a remarkable pace. This has led to increased prices for both developed properties and undeveloped land. Some of the top hotspot markets for real estate in the world today are: China: The most populous country in the world has been getting high demand for housing. Hong Kong, one of the fastest growing

The True Nature of Paul's Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The True Nature of Paul's Case - Essay Example Then, various interpretations by critics using this reading will be proposed. A summarizing conclusion will express this student’s findings. Paul is introduced by Cather as a young man with brilliant eyes with a ‘glassy glitter’, a narrow chest of which he was rather conscious, and a propensity for lying. In an awkward situation at school, he immediately strikes the reader as a typical sexually-ambivalent youth uncomfortable with his whole life situation, especially when relating to male authority in general, and his father in particular (Cather 1905). His teachers have one prickly impression of him, and are bewildered by their own reactions to his confusing character. His ushering job brings him inordinate pleasure, and it is easy for the reader to picture Paul: â€Å"a model usher; gracious and smiling he ran up and down the aisles; nothing was too much trouble for him... his greatest pleasure in life, and all the people in his section thought him a charming boy, feeling that he remembered and admired them.† (Cather 1905). Hating mundane everydayness and bad domestic smells, Paul is disgusted by his father’s ambitions for him, aspiring instead for refined garments and maintaining that â€Å"a certain element of artificiality seemed to him necessary in beauty.† (Cather 1905) The reader gets the impression of an aesthetic man, with heightened sensitivity and disgust with coarseness, but not necessarily effeminate. He is very attracted to nightlife and guises of theatricality. But â€Å"always tormented by fear†, he is ultimately pushed to an act of embezzlement that finances his deepest desire: to impersonate a well-dressed young man in the New York high life. His wishes are not strange in a reading expressly seeking these traits in a protagonist: these are desires and needs of a homosexual still in the throes of determining the origins and causes of his actions, and deciphering what they mean. The

The Role Public Administration Play in This Modern Society Essay Example for Free

The Role Public Administration Play in This Modern Society Essay Public administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a field of inquiry with a diverse scope its fundamental goal is to advance management and policies so that government can function. Some of the various definitions which have been offered for the term are: the management of public programs; the translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day; and the study of government decision making, the analysis of the policies themselves, the various inputs that have produced them, and the inputs necessary to produce alternative policies. According to Dubios Fattore (2009), the goals of the field of public administration are related to the democratic values of improving equality, justice, security, efficiency, effectiveness of public services usually in a non-profit, non-taxable venue; business administration, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with taxable profit. For a field built on concepts (accountability, governance, decentralization, clientele), these concepts are often ill-defined and typologies often ignore certain aspects of these concepts. Public administration is centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct Many unelected public servants can be considered to be public administrators, including police officers, municipal budget analysts, HR benefits administrators, city managers, Census analysts, and cabinet secretaries. Public administrators are public servants working in public departments and agencies, at all levels of government. Every public officer charged with the duties of administration must therefore implant in his mind that secrecy breeds suspicion and suspicion erodes public trust. An administrator who has no trust of the public is like an administrator who has no authority to do what he or she has been appointed or elected to do. Accountability is important in the face of the truth that there is a need to make the work right, the truth that imperfections are a way of life and the truth that men tend to be consumed by greed, pettiness and desire for power and fame, and the truth that those who caused the work to be done not right must answer for his or her fault. Now, it is a way of life that those who want works that are not right are those who want their deeds hidden. With this reality, there ought to be a system that keeps accountability strong and invincible against these imperfections of life and, with more reason, against those who want to do not right by the impulsion of greed. With these principles in mind, the next challenge really of public administration is how to make use of the modern things offered by modern times. (Evardone) In answering this question, the best way is to know the fundamental governance principles that public administration is a result of the collective consent of the citizens to be governed and the fact that the world has gone too modern. The Definition of Public Administration Public administration, developed in the early 1900s, is a special field of study within the academic discipline of political science. It emphasizes the structure and operation of bureaucracies and organizations, including budgeting, personnel, and formal and informal internal controls. Some public administration programs include study of the special management skills required in governmental (as distinct from private) organizations. Its always hard to make a simple, clear and precise definition to academic subjects, this also happens to public administration. Scholars have long been trying to use a simple phrase to define it, but yet after nearly half century of hard work, it still remains in vain. Although making progress, a perfect phrase length definition is still in process. So what is the problem of defining Public Administration? Some think that its multidiscipline characteristics contribute to the absence of a common definition.

Synthesis of Polyelectrolyte Pani Membrane

Synthesis of Polyelectrolyte Pani Membrane SYNTHESIS OF POLYELECTROLYTE PAni MEMBRANE BYÂ  PHASE INVERSION AND ITS CHARACTERIZATIONS NURUL IZZATI IZNI BT MAT YUSOFF INTRODUCTION During the last few decades, the application of membrane based separation is the leading technology as one of the alternatives used in separating and removal of organic solvents. Moreover, it holds a significant commercial impact in several areas including water and wastewater treatment, chemical, food industries, pharmaceuticals, petrochemical related industries and bioseparation areas (Javed Alam et al., 2012). However, membrane-based separation processes are comparatively new in the field of separation which makes current membranes have limitations that hinder their wide used in aggressive solvents. The situation has led many studies in order to develop this membrane-based technology. Amongst the new generation of intrinsically conducting polymer, polyaniline (PAni) membranes have captured the intense attention of scientific community and one of the promising candidates. PAni is a polymer which poorly soluble in almost all solvents and has been widely known due to its conductive properties. Most important, it is easy to synthesize this polymer and it has an interesting doping and dedoping characteristics. However, the high yield of PAni demands several essential conditions. In order to obtain a higher quality polymer product, highly pured monomers, chemicals and solvents are needed. Besides, a strict control on polymerization conditions are needed since the small variation in the polymerization conditions might alter the nature of the product (Sadia Ameen et al., 2011). From the previous study, there are many research have been done in order to produce a stable and useful PAni membrane in nanofiltration. Most of the researches focused on synthesize, membrane fabrication and doping/dedoping of PAni membrane. However, the study on PAni membrane can be expand more instead of those previous research. The stability and performance of PAni membrane on polyelectrolyte coating should be done to further this study. Polyelectrolyte is a macromolecular species that upon being placed in water or any other ionizing solvent dissociates into a highly charged polymeric molecule (Reza Derakhshandeh et al., 2010). One of the methods of polyelectrolyte coating is layer by layer (LBL) coating. LBL is the simplest process being used by most of the researcher. There are numerous advantages of this method compared to other methods for thin film fabrication. The unique advantages of the method are that, both organic and inorganic can be incorporated into LBL thin films bes ides offers easier preparation and durable (unknown, yr). PROBLEM STATEMENTS There are numerous number of membranes have been develop by researchers. However, membranes nowadays have fixed physical-chemical properties which make separation by membranes very limited to the fixed selectivity of their constituent. Therefore, new membrane materials must be explored to cope with these limiting factors. Next generation of filtration membranes must be more selective and robust which requires low chemical and energy input (Sajjad Sedaghat, 2014). These properties must be considered to meet goals in applications since current membranes often problematic in cost. Membranes basically can be prepared from ceramic and polymeric materials. There are many studies shown that ceramic materials have several advantages over polymeric materials. As example, membrane from ceramic materials is highly stable in terms of chemical and thermal stability. Unfortunately, the market share of polymeric membranes is far greater than ceramic membranes as the polymeric materials are easier to process and less expensive (Khulbe et al., 2008). Instead of those materials, there are also membranes from inorganic materials that have been successfully applied in dehydration of tetrahydrofuran (THF). However, to produce an inorganic membrane requires a high cost rather than polymeric membrane beside their system design is more complex (Chapman et al., 2007). Therefore, membrane from polymeric material is a suitable candidate for the research since it meets the desired criteria. PAni as a polymeric material has been widely researched due to its conductive properties. To date, although PAni has been applied to a number of applications but there are still some deficiency. For instance, PAni membranes which applied to chemically crosslinked swell in THF although it retained their structure while too much thermal crosslinking gave membranes with no fluxes in any solvents at all. Furthermore, unsupported PAni membranes shrank during the process of thermal crosslinking which causing some trouble for large scale membrane productions where certain amount of bending or curling is required (Loh et al., 2008). An alternative to thermal or chemical crosslinking would be polyelectrolyte coating to make them more stable. OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study are: To produce phase inversion PAni membrane from chemical polymerization of PAni in APS solution. To introduce polyelectrolyte onto the synthesized membrane. To characterize the membrane morphological, physical, chemical, electrical and filtration properties. LITERATURE REVIEW METHODOLOGY Chemicals All chemicals and reagents will be used are analytical grade. AnalaR aniline, ammonium persulfate (APS), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), 4-methylpiperidine (4MP), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) poly(allylamine hydrochloric) (PAH), hydrochloride acid (HCL) and lithium chloride (LiCl) PAni synthesis by chemical polymerization To produce an Aniline solution, 37.25 g of 0.4 mol Aniline will be added into a beaker containing 400 mL of 1.0 M HCl. The mixture is well mix. In another beaker, APS solution will be prepared by adding 91.26 g of 0.4 mol APS into 256 mL of 1.0 M HCL. To prevent the mixture from freezing at -15 oC, add 66.8 g and 39.68 g of LiCl into both beakers respectively. After finish the preparation of both solutions, mix them in a conical flask. The conical flask then will be put in an incubator shaker at temperature -15 oC and continuously shake for 48 h. During this period, a reaction occur which polymer filter cake will be produced. After 48 h, filter and wash with 1.5 L DI water to remove any left-over reactants. To deprotonate the emaraldine salt to its base form, the filter cake then is being place in a beaker contain 250 mL ammonia solution (33% w/v) in a beaker and will be mix by using incubator shaker for 12 h at room temperature. Next, the filter cake will be filter and will be wash with 1 L DI water. To remove any low weight PAni oligomers and decrease time drying, the filter cake will be wash again with 500 mL methanol before being dry under vacuum for 24 h. After drying, the dry Emeralidine Base (EB) powder will be pass through a 160 Â µm mesh sieve to remove remaining clusters. Then, the EB powder will be stored under argon at 4 oC until required (Chapman et al., 2007). Membrane production by phase inversion PAni membrane will be produce by wet phase inversion method. First of all, 4MP and NMP will be mix in a beaker to make up the solvent. Then EB powder will be add using a funnel and mix at speed 300 rpm for 12 h. After 12 h mixing, dope the solution by adding maleic acids and mix at speed 150 rpm for 12 h. The solution will turn from dark blue to dark green to indicate that acid doping is taken place. The solution is then left to stand for 4 h to remove air bubble. Next, cast the solution on a nonwoven polyester support fabric and immediately immersed in DI water at room temperature for 24 h. During the 24 h, DI water will be change once after 12 h (Loh et al., 2008). Polyelectrolyte coating Polyelectrolyte coating of PAni membrane will be done by dipping the membrane into an anionic and cationic solution. Anionic solution will be used in this research is PAA while PAH is for cationic solution. To prepare anionic solution, PAA will be dissolve in DI water and 5 M HCl will be used to adjust the pH to 3.5. For cationic solution, PAH also will be dissolve in DI water but to adjust the pH solution to 3.5, 5 M NaOH will be used. Next, PAni membrane will be immerse in PAA solution for 10 min followed by two DI water rinses for 2 and 1 min respectively. The PAni membrane then will be immerse in PAH solution for 10 min followed by two DI water rinses for 2 and 1 min respectively. These complete the first bilayer of polyelectrolyte coating. For the next layer, the steps before will be repeated again which is starting from immersing in anionic solution and then cationic solution. After finish the process, the membrane need to be wash with ammonia and let it to fully dry before bei ng proceed with characterization (Jinhua Dai et al., 2005 unknown, yr). Characterization of PAni membrane Flow chart Stock and reagent solutions preparation PAni synthesis by chemical polymerization Characterization of EB powder by using GPC Membrane production and casting Polyelectrolyte coating Characterization Analysis GANTT CHART MILESTONE Table 7.1 : Milestone EXPECTED OUTCOMES/COMMERCIALIZATIONS REFERENCES Chapman, P., Loh, X.X., Livingston, A.G., Li, K., Oliveira, T.A.C. (2007). Polyaniline Membranes for The Dehydration of Tetrahydrofuran by Pervaporation. Journal of Membrane Science, 309 (2008), pp. 102-111. Loh, X.X., Sairam, M., Bismarck, A., Steinke, J.H.G., Livingston, A.G., Li, K. (2008) Crosslinked Integrally Skinned Asymmetric Polyaniline Membranes for Use in Organic Solvents. Journal of Membrane Science, 326 (2009), pp. 635-642.