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www. hbr. org Even as companies are being told that the future lies in globalization, some are severely punished for their international moves. A simple test can help you decide what makes strategic sense for your organization. When You Shouldn’t Go Global by Marcus Alexander and Harry Korine Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 When You Shouldn’t Go Global 8 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applicationsReprint R0812E This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. When You Shouldn’t Go Global The Idea in Brief Globalization promises substantial advantages like new growth and scale. For some companies, itâ €™s paid off handsomely. But global mania has also blinded many firms to a hard truth: global strategies are devilishly tough to execute. The landscape has become littered with some of these unfortunates’ remains.DaimlerChrysler and ABN Amro— dismembered and bought up by activist shareowners—are particularly painful examples. To escape this fate, don’t assume you should go global, say Alexander and Korine. Instead, determine whether a global move makes sense for your firm. Ask: †¢ Could the move generate substantial benefits? †¢ Do we have the capabilities (for example, experience in postmerger integration) required to realize those benefits? †¢ Will the benefits outweigh the costs (such as the complexity that comes with coordinating far-flung international operations)? A yes to these questions suggests globalizing may be right for you.The Idea in Practice THREE QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE GOING GLOBAL Could the strategy generate substantia l benefits for our firm? The global race can lead you to overestimate the size of the prize. Example: Redland, a UK manufacturer of concrete roof tiles, expanded around the world to leverage its technical know-how beyond its home market. But it often sought opportunities in countries (such as Japan) where local building practices provided little demand for concrete roof tiles. Thus, there was no value in transferring its technology to such markets. Do we have the capabilities needed to achieve those benefits?Companies often lack the skills needed to unlock the coffer holding the prize. Example: Taiwanese consumer electronics company BenQ’s acquisition of Siemens’s mobiledevices business failed because BenQ lacked integration skills. It couldn’t reconcile the two companies’ incompatible cultures or integrate R&D activities across the two entities. BenQ’s German unit filed for bankruptcy in 2006. Will the benefits outweigh the costs? The full costs o f going global can dwarf even a sizable prize. Example: TCL, a Chinese maker of TVs and mobile phones, has expanded rapidly into the United States and Europe through acquisitions and joint ventures.It now has numerous R&D headquarters, R&D centers, manufacturing bases, and sales organizations. The cost of managing this complex infrastructure has outweighed the benefits of increased scale—creating large losses for TCL and several of its joint-venture partners. THREE INDUSTRIES WITH PARTICULAR GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES †¢ Deregulated industries. Formerly stateowned industries (telecommunications, utilities) have globalized after deregulation to spur growth and escape stiffened competition at home.They assume they can use their existing competencies in new markets to achieve cross-border economies. But it’s been difficult, for example, for utilities to optimize electricity flows over uncoordinated grids. †¢ Service industries. Many service businesses (retailing, insurance) go global to generate growth beyond home markets threatened by foreign rivals. Their strategies hinge on coordination of people or processes—no easy feat. Wal-Mart, for instance, has struggled to get its partner firms and employees abroad to adopt its work methods. †¢ Manufacturing industries.For automobile and communications equipment makers, for example, global mergers and partnerships seem to offer the size needed to compete against consolidating rivals. But the complexities of integration can cause delays in achieving those gains. These companies thus have become vulnerable to economic slowdowns, which constrain their ability to pay for expansion and consolidation. COPYRIGHT  © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. page 1 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine.Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. Even as companies a re being told that the future lies in globalization, some are severely punished for their international moves. A simple test can help you decide what makes strategic sense for your organization. When You Shouldn’t Go Global by Marcus Alexander and Harry Korine COPYRIGHT  © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Economic globalization is viewed by some as the best hope for world stability, by others as the greatest threat.But almost everyone accepts that businesses of all types must embrace it. Even smaller enterprises—urged on by the ? nancial markets, by investment bankers and consultants, by the media, and by the moves they see rivals making—feel the strategic imperative to go global in one form or another. Although the current ? nancial crisis is putting a damper on such activity, the pressure on companies to globalize is likely to persist. With this sense of inevitability, it’s easy to forget the serious mistakes s ome companies have made because of their global strategies. Dutch ? ancial-services ? rm ABN Amro, for example, acquired banks in numerous countries but wasn’t able to achieve the integration needed to generate value with its international network. AES, a U. S. -based energy ? rm that operates 124 generation plants in 29 countries on ? ve continents, has in recent years struggled to show that it is worth more than the sum of its individual geographic units. Daimler-Benz merged with Chrysler in 1998 in order to create a Welt AG—a world corporation—but never attained the power over markets and suppliers that this global position was supposed to deliver.And these days, companies can’t always chalk their mistakes up to experience and move on. Industry rivals and activist share owners are increasingly forcing ? rms to undo their international investments—despite, in many cases, early endorsement by analysts and the market—and even to ? re the sen ior management teams that made them. ABN Amro was dismembered last year by the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis, and Banco Santander, largely along geographic lines. AES’s share price has tumbled since investors’ initial enthusiasm for its globalization strategy, and some investment advisers are calling for the ? m to be split into three or more parts. The architect of the DaimlerChrysler deal, CEO Jurgen Schrempp, ? nally yielded to share-owner pressure and resigned, freeing up his successor to sell harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 2 When You Shouldn’t Go Global Chrysler to the private-equity giant Cerberus in 2007.Indeed, we believe that businesses with illconsidered globalization strategies are poised to become the next targets for breakup or corporate overhaul by activist share owners, just as companies with poorly thought-out business diversi? cation strategies were targets in the past. Today’s activists include private-equity ? rms, hedge funds, and traditional pension funds, and they wield in? uence through a variety of means, from vocal use of the platform offered by a minority stake to all-out takeover and sell-off. All right, even the best executive teams are going to make mistakes in a business environment as complex as today’s.And no one would deny that the forces driving globalization are powerful and that the business bene? ts of becoming a global player can be tremendous. What concerns us is that so many companies seem to share unquestioned assumptions about the need to go global and are lulled by apparent safety in numbers as they move toward potential disaster. We highlight in this article several industries where this mind-set has been prevalent and a number of companies that have paid a high price for adopting it . Avoiding Ill-Fated StrategiesBusinesses have had international ambitions at least since the founding of the British East India and Hudson’s Bay companies in the seventeenth century. Truly global corporations began appearing early in the last century, and their number has grown—with both successes and failures along the way—ever since. But the accelerated removal of political and regulatory barriers to cross-border trading and investment over the past 15 years, along with the advent of technology that enables companies to conduct business around the world 24 hours a day, has made a global presence a generally accepted requisite in many industries.From the late 1990s onward, with a brief pause during the 2001–2003 bear market, we have witnessed a head-over-heels rush by companies to globalize: Foreign direct investments are at record levels, cross-border partnerships and acquisitions are burgeoning, worldwide sourcing continues to increase, and the pursui t of customers in emerging economies grows ever more heated. Marcus Alexander is an adjunct professor of strategic and international management at London Business School, a director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre in London, and a coauthor, with Andrew Campbell, of â€Å"What’s Wrong with Strategy? (HBR November–December 1997). Harry Korine ([email  protected] edu) is a teaching fellow in strategic and international management at London Business School and a senior research fellow at IFGE in Lyon, France. He is a coauthor, with Pierre-Yves Gomez, of The Leap to Globalization (Jossey-Bass, 2002) and Entrepreneurs and Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Both authors have worked with some of the companies mentioned in this article. Although such moves have bene? ted—or at least not irreparably damaged—many companies, we’re beginning to see fallout. Sometimes ? ms have failed because their global strategies were deeply misguide d, other times because execution was more dif? cult than anticipated. We think that many failures could have been prevented—and would be avoided in the future—if companies seriously addressed three seemingly simple questions. 1. Are there potential bene? ts for our company? Just because a move makes sense for a rival or for companies in other industries doesn’t mean it makes sense for your own company or industry. The race to globalize sometimes leads people to overestimate the size of the prize.UK-based roof tile maker Redland, for example, expanded aggressively around the world beginning in the 1970s with the aim of leveraging its technical know-how beyond its home market. The problem: It often sought opportunities in countries, such as the United States and Japan, where local building practices provided very little demand for concrete roof tiles. Although the company was fully able to transfer the relevant technology, there was no value in doing so in such ma rkets. 2. Do we have the necessary management skills? Even if potential bene? ts do exist for your company, you may not be in a position to realize them.The theoretical advantages of globalizing—economies of scale, for example— are devilishly dif? cult to achieve in practice, and companies often lack the management key needed to unlock the coffer holding the prize. By the late 1990s, industrial conglomerate BTR had developed a presence in many countries. However, each business unit was run as a largely autonomous entity, with stringent pro? t accountability and little encouragement to work with others. This approach made sense in a fragmented world, but as BTR’s customers globalized, they came to expect coordinated supply and support across borders.Although the opportunity was clear and BTR seemed well positioned to seize it, the company found it impossible to implement an approach so alien to its traditions. Even after a change of CEO and other senior staffers, the company culture blocked attempts at global integration, and the 1999 merger with Siebe was seen by many analysts as an admission that BTR simply could not make the changes needed. harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement.To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 3 When You Shouldn’t Go Global 3. Will the costs outweigh the bene? ts? Even if you are able to realize the bene? ts of a global move, unanticipated collateral damage to your business may make the endeavor counterproductive. Too often, companies fail to see that the full costs of going global may dwarf even a sizable prize—for example, when an effort to harmonize the practices of national business units drives away customers or distracts national management teams from the needs of their markets.The increased complexity of managing international operations is a lso a threat. TCL, a Chinese maker of electronics and home appliances, has expanded rapidly into the United States and Europe through a series of acquisitions and joint ventures. As a result of deals in the past few years with Thomson and Alcatel, TCL has found itself with four R&D headquarters, 18 R&D centers, 20 manufacturing bases, and sales organizations in 45 countries. The cost of managing this infrastructure has outweighed the bene? ts of increased scale and resulted in large losses for both joint ventures.Globalization’s Siren Song Companies neglect to ask themselves these seemingly obvious questions because of their complacent assumptions about the virtues of going global—assumptions that are reinforced by seductive messages from, among other places, the stock market. Although the siren song of globalization has lured companies of all kinds into this risky strategic space, recently the call has been particularly insidious in certain industry contexts, three of which we describe here. (For a description of how a management imperative such as â€Å"Become more global† can rapidly spread, see the sidebar â€Å"TheSusceptibility to Managerial Fads. †) The Susceptibility to Managerial Fads The belief that companies must become more global is the latest in a long line of widely held and generally unquestioned assumptions that can undermine the rational behavior of companies or entire industries. The management trends—you might even call them fads—that grow out of these assumptions can be dangerous because they often lead to sloppy thinking. For example, the label used to describe a trend may get stretched far beyond its original meaning. â€Å"Reengineering† has come to mean nearly any corporate reorganization; â€Å"related diversi? ation† is used today to justify acquisitions within categories, such as â€Å"communications media† and â€Å"? nancial services,† that are so broad as to be almost meaningless. More troubling, the stampede by companies to join peers in mindlessly embracing such trends can cloud managers’ judgment about what is worthwhile and achievable in their particular case. The pathology of management fads has an underlying dynamic that is worth exploring: Company X, with talented people at the helm, pioneers a new management approach. The ? rm does well, and others take notice. Maybe one or two experiment with similar innovations.Then stock market analysts and journalists spot the new approach. They view it as part of a broader pattern, and someone comes up with a clever-sounding label. The word â€Å"paradigm† may even get tossed around. As the phenomenon gains visibility—often in publications like this one—academics develop â€Å"frameworks† to help companies understand it. Their codi? cation, intended simply to explain the phenomenon, further validates it. (Consultants also develop frameworks, though usually w ith the aim of selling the trend as a product. ) Over time, people use the now-familiar label more and more loosely.They group all manner of activities under the heading. Despite its ambiguity, there is a growing sense that activities under the rubric are worthwhile. Investment bankers cite the concept as a reason for companies to make acquisitions or other moves, and in the enthusiasm of deal making everyone glosses over the dif? culties of integration and implementation. Financial markets sometimes reward companies just for announcing that they have adopted the new approach. Sadly, the original insight, not to mention an appreciation of the context that gave rise to it, soon gets lost as ompanies scramble to become part of the trend. Before long, they are copying all sorts of elements and manifestations that are at best tangential and often irrelevant to the sought-after bene? t. By the time a few books have come out on the topic, managers are embarrassed if they can’t poin t to examples within their own organizations. As the herd piles in, smart managers are already scanning the horizon for a new idea that will give them a competitive advantage. But others continue to give little thought to whether the trend has played out—or was never likely to bene? a company in their situation. There is always a lag before misapplications of the concept start to affect companies’ numbers. Even when they do, many corporate managers, with stacks of statements and presentations extolling the virtues of the approach, are reluctant to abandon it. The stubborn ones carry on regardless of mounting costs— thereby setting the stage for activist share owners to step in and force a change. This discouraging scenario doesn’t unfold because the original concept was wrong. (Globalizing isn’t necessarily bad; not globalizing isn’t necessarily good. It plays out because embracing a trend often precludes careful examination of the pros and cons of the speci? c choices made by a single company in a particular context. harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 4 When You Shouldn’t Go Global Deregulated industries. Many businesses in formerly state-owned industries, such as telecommunications, postal services, and utilities, have responded to deregulation with aggressive global moves.Faced with limited growth opportunities and often increasing competition in their home markets, companies have accepted that geographic expansion is the best way to exercise their new strategic freedom. These companies, the argument goes, can apply existing competencies—providing voice and data communication, delivering letters and parcels, distributing electricity and water, even dealing with the deregulation process itself—in new m arkets. They will enjoy signi? cant savings by sharing resources across their international operations while â€Å"sticking to their knitting. The latter point—the importance of focusing on what they know how to do—is a key part of the argument, since unrelated diversi? cation, itself once a widely touted strategy, has been largely discredited. This apparently sound logic has turned out in many cases to be oversold by investment bankers or to be just plain ? imsy. Companies frequently pay far too much to enter foreign markets. Furthermore, many of the deregulated industries are â€Å"glocal†Ã¢â‚¬â€that is, customer expectations, operating environments, and management practices for what seem to be globally standard services can vary greatly depending on location.Water distribution, for instance, may not in fact be the same industry in the regulatory settings of two different countries. In addition, cross-border economies, if they exist at all, may be hard to ac hieve. It is dif? cult, for example, to optimize electricity ? ows over uncoordinated grids. Faced with such challenges, a number of companies have struggled with or reversed their global moves. Kelda, a UK water utility, sold its U. S. business six years after acquiring it because differences in pricing, environmental regulations, and distribution proved so great that the business could be run only on a stand-alone basis.Partly because of national differences in customer behavior, Deutsche Telekom has ended up running its U. S. unit, T-Mobile USA, as a completely independent business that could be sold off at any time. Rival telecom operator Vodafone has been forced by dissatis? ed share owners to unload its Japanese subsidiary, J-Phone. Deutsche Post, in assembling an international network of mail, express, and logistics services, overpaid signi? cantly for the U. S. express-delivery services DHL and Airborne. Germany’s former state-owned monopoly has also had great dif? ul ty integrating DHL’s entrepreneurial management culture with its own. Some analysts value the sum of Deutsche Post’s separate businesses as 25% greater than the market value of the company—an assessment that is likely to increase pressure to spin off some of those businesses. Service industries. Companies in traditionally national and fragmented service industries, such as retailing, consumer banking, and insurance, have viewed globalization as a way to realize scale economies and to generate growth beyond home markets themselves facing an incursion of foreign competition.In some cases, globalization seems to make sense because customers and suppliers are also becoming more global. As in deregulated industries, however, the â€Å"global† customer may be more national than anticipated. And obtaining scale economies across borders requires management skills and experience that many companies lack. For example, serving a customer that is truly global in a co nsistent way from multiple national of? ces is no easy task. Service businesses seeking to capture the bene? ts of a globalization strategy must, like ? rms in deregulated industries, pay attention to a mix of global and local factors.Purchasing can bene? t from careful coordination across borders, but marketing and sales may suffer from too much standardization. Certain services travel much better than others that seem remarkably similar. In shoe retailing, for instance, offerings targeted at the wealthy or the young are far more global than those aimed at the middle market, which remains doggedly local. In service businesses, many of the implementation challenges of a global strategy involve the coordination of people or processes. Wal-Mart, for instance, has struggled to get its partner ? ms and employees abroad to adopt its work routines. ABN Amro’s global empire was dismantled by predators because the international business was a collection of mostly unrelated operations in countries ranging from Brazil to Monaco. The company achieved few economies of scale: In marketing, harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 5 When You Shouldn’t Go Global for example, it didn’t enjoy the ef? iencies resulting from a single global brand, because local banks mostly kept their original names. Furthermore, its attempts at sharing information systems, management processes, and other bits of infrastructure were repeatedly delayed and then implemented haphazardly, creating few savings. The outcomes of some other service companies’ global strategies have not been so dire—but they have still fallen short of expectations. Starbucks has pursued international growth at a breakneck pace, even though margins abroad have been only about half those of the compa ny’s U. S. operations.Axa, the global French insurance group, has enjoyed satisfactory ? nancial performance from its many units around the world but has so far been unable to reduce its global cost base or convincingly roll out innovations, such as its U. S. variable-annuity program, internationally. Thus, although the globalization strategy hasn’t destroyed value, it also hasn’t added as much as originally envisioned. Manufacturing industries. Over the past decade, companies in manufacturing indus- tries, such as automobiles and communications equipment, have viewed rapid crossborder consolidation as necessary for survival.Global mergers and partnerships seem to be the only way for companies to obtain the size needed to compete against consolidating rivals, to reduce their reliance on home markets, and to gain manufacturing economies of scale. These bene? ts, though arguably easier to achieve than those sought by service companies (because local differences se em less problematic), are often outweighed by operational and organizational challenges. The complexities of integrating organizations and operations can cause costly delays or failures. And companies haven’t had the luxury of much time to realize the bene? s of integration. Counting on the bene? ts of size and scale to drop quickly to the bottom line, many manufacturers have become particularly vulnerable to economic slowdowns, which constrain their ability to pay for expansion and consolidation before an increasing debt-to-equity ratio forces their executive teams to cede control to ? nanciers or new management. Royal Ahold’s Downfall Dutch supermarket operator Royal Ahold is best known in recent years for an accounting scandal that led to the resignation of its CEO and its CFO in 2003. The ? nancial irregularities must be seen in light of the company’s mbitious, and ultimately unsuccessful, globalization strategy. Royal Ahold began its international expansion in the 1970s and accelerated it in the 1990s, eventually acquiring businesses throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States, to become the fourthlargest retailer in the world. But the bene? ts of owning this network of stores were hard to realize or didn’t exist in the ? rst place. Global economies of scale are one of the main rationales for international expansion. However, such economies, dif? cult to attain in many businesses, are particularly elusive in food retailing.Purchasing economies can be achieved only with items furnished by global suppliers to all markets—and these typically represent at most 20% of all supermarket items, because of cultural differences and the frequent need to source fresh food locally. Even apparently â€Å"international† products, such as hummus, must be adapted to different countries’ distinct tastes. Additionally, realizing synergies across a far-? ung network requires common information systems and mana gement processes, and Ahold made little effort to integrate its acquired businesses into the existing organization.Different information systems thus continued to coexist across the company, sometimes even within the same country. Ironically, the lack of integrated systems and processes needed to secure global bene? ts helped conceal the company’s ? nancial irregularities. And the failure to attain those bene? ts undoubtedly put pressure on top managers to produce favorable—if false— ? nancial results. When the new executive team ? nally introduced common management processes in the wake of the scandal, those processes did little to improve such activities as common purchasing across markets.As recently as last year, key suppliers were charging Ahold different prices in different countries. Ahold’s 2007 sale of most of its U. S. operations to private equity ? rms highlighted the nearly complete abandonment, under pressure from dissatis? ed minority share owners, of its once ambitious globalization strategy. The dissidents were concerned not about the usual over-diversi? cation of business types— after all, Royal Ahold remained focused on retailing—but about the over-diversi? cation of geographic locations. (Tests for suitable business diversi? ation are discussed in â€Å"Corporate Strategy: The Quest for Parenting Advantage,† by Andrew Campbell, Michael Goold, and Marcus Alexander, in the March– April 1995 issue of HBR. ) With the focus on governance at Ahold, the underlying story of failed globalization did not receive adequate attention until activist share owners jumped on it. harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 6When You Shouldn’t Go Global The merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler is a poster child fo r this problem: The German and U. S. automakers were different in almost every respect, from company cultures to purchasing practices, and they were never able to attain such bene? ts as the promised billions of dollars in savings from common supply management. Taiwanese consumer electronics company BenQ’s acquisition of Siemens’s mobile-device business followed a similar story line, including incompatibility of cultures and processes, as well as dif? culties in integrating R&D activities.In a haunting echo of the scramble by Daimler-Benz and Chrysler to merge, BenQ didn’t visit Siemens workshops and production lines before inking the deal, relying only on due diligence documents. Although BenQ continues to be active in mobile equipment, its German unit was declared bankrupt in 2007. In both of these cases—and in numerous others—the strategic logic for globalization was tenuous, and the skills needed to implement a globalization strategy effectivel y were in short supply. A Continuing Danger We aren’t saying that all globalization strategies are ? awed.Telefonica, Spain’s former telephone monopoly, has successfully expanded throughout much of the Spanish-speaking world. The past ? ve years have seen General Electric’s Commercial Finance business move rapidly and effectively into dozens of non-U. S. markets. Renault’s pathbreaking alliance with Nissan has to this point proved bene? cial for the French and Japanese automakers. But focusing on such success stories only reinforces the conventional wisdom that a globalization strategy is a blanket requirement for doing business—which in turn leads many companies to insuf? iently scrutinize their proposed global initiatives. (For a discussion of one of the gravest cases of failed globalization, see the sidebar â€Å"Royal Ahold’s Downfall. †) We expect this trend to continue, as ? rms in various industries recklessly pursue global str ategies. Take the emerging renewableenergy industry—companies developing technologies for biofuel, solar energy, and wind energy. We have talked with executives who, racing to establish a global position in this booming ? eld, are planning rapid expansion over the next few years in Africa, Asia, nd Latin America—and completely underestimating the management challenges involved. Many will, after initial applause from the ? nancial markets, ? nd their hastily conceived strategies challenged after the fact by activists. We also anticipate that problems will recur in industries that earlier rushed to adopt globalization strategies, with activist share owners ready to pounce on companies as evidence of poor management choices surfaces. Activist share owners have already taken signi? cant positions in some companies mentioned in this article.Other target companies, perhaps not quite ripe for direct intervention—and temporarily shielded from attack by the current credi t crisis and turbulent equity markets—are nonetheless being discussed in the boardrooms of rivals and by the investment committees of pension funds and private equity ? rms. Ironically, some predators, having spotted the weaknesses of other companies’ global strategies, may be poised to fall into the same trap. For example, the Royal Bank of Scotland is known for its highly successful 2000 acquisition of NatWest, a much larger UK rival, and for the subsequent overhaul of its target’s culture.But RBS may ? nd it dif? cult to achieve similar results with the disparate banking assets—spread across more than 50 countries— that it acquired from ABN Amro. And though the recent government bailouts of RBS and Fortis aren’t a direct result of the ? rms’ international strategies, the acquisition of ABN Amro assets stretched their balance sheets and made the companies more vulnerable to the ? nancial crisis. We also worry that activist share own ers and private equity ? rms may reproduce ? awed globalization strategies in their own portfolios. The largest of these players are now more diversi? ed, both in ype of business and in international footprint, than many of the giant conglomerates of 30 years ago that were subsequently broken up and sold off. Indeed, as you look out on a landscape littered with the remains of dismembered companies weakened by failed globalization strategies, you have to wonder: Could today’s predators be tomorrow’s prey? Reprint R0812E To order, see the next page or call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500 or go to www. hbr. org harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement.To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 7 When You Shouldn’t Go Global Further Reading ARTICLES Managing Differences: The Central Challenge of Global Strategy by Pankaj Gh emawat Harvard Business Review March 2007 Product no. R0703C The main goal of any international strategy should be to manage the large differences that arise at the borders of markets. Yet executives often fail to exploit market and production discrepancies, focusing instead on the tensions between standardization and localization. Ghemawat presents a new framework that encompasses all three effective responses to the challenges of globalization.He calls it the AAA Triangle, with the As standing for the three distinct types of international strategy. Through adaptation, companies seek to boost revenues and market share by maximizing their local relevance. Through aggregation, they attempt to deliver economies of scale by creating regional, or sometimes global, operations. And through arbitrage, they exploit disparities between national or regional markets, often by locating different parts of the supply chain in different places— for instance, call centers in India, factories in China, and retail shops in Western Europe.Ghemawat draws on several examples that illustrate how organizations use and balance these strategies and describes the trade-offs they make as they do so when trying to build competitive advantage. Emerging Giants: Building World-Class Companies in Developing Countries by Tarun Khanna and Krishna G. Palepu Harvard Business Review October 2006 Product no. R0610C As established multinational corporations stormed into emerging markets, many local companies lost market share or sold off businesses—but some fought back.India’s Mahindra & Mahindra, China’s Haier Group, and many other corporations in developing countries have held their own against the onslaught, restructured their businesses, exploited new opportunities, and built worldclass companies that are today giving their global rivals a run for their money. The authors describe three strategies these businesses used to become effective global competitors despite f acing financial and bureaucratic disadvantages in their home markets. Some capitalized on their knowledge of local product markets.Some have exploited their knowledge of local talent and capital markets, thereby serving customers both at home and abroad in a cost-effective manner. And some emerging giants have exploited institutional voids to create profitable businesses. Getting Offshoring Right by Ravi Aron and Jitendra V. Singh Harvard Business Review December 2005 Product no. R0512J Recently a rising number of companies in North America and Europe have experimented with offshoring and outsourcing business processes, hoping to reduce costs and gain strategic advantage—with mixed results.According to several studies, half the organizations that have shifted processes offshore have failed to generate the expected financial benefits. What’s more, many of them have faced employee resistance and consumer dissatisfaction. A three-part methodology can help companies reform ulate their offshoring strategies. First, prioritize company processes according to two criteria: the value these processes create for customers and the degree to which the company can capture some of that value. Then keep highest-priority processes in-house and consider outsourcing low-priority ones. Second, analyze the risks that accompany offshoring.Finally, determine possible locations for offshore efforts, as well as the organizational forms—such as joint ventures—that those efforts might take. page 8 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. To Order For Harvard Business Review reprints and subscriptions, call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500. Go to www. hbr. org For customized and quantity orders of Harvard Business Review article reprints, call 617-783-7626, or e-mail [email  protected] harvard. edu

Jane Eyre and Social Class Essay

Life is made up of routines and patterns. Every human being has their own unique system of how they carry themselves through the day. These systems are how we survive, and they tend to become part of our subconscious. But there are those who get so caught up in their own conformity that daily life becomes much more demanding than it should be. The results of this perpetual routine can cause someone to forget who they are as a person, and what they are meant to do outside of daily life. Due to the foreboding repetition of their own daily lives, the protagonists in both Hamlet and Waiting for Godot neglect their true purpose, which suggests holding back can be destructive to oneself. In Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon experience each day as it passes without any happenings and with this transition comes their demise. The pair can be described as two interchangeable characters who share the same routine. Even from the beginning of the play, Vladimir and Estragon often argue back and forth. VLADIMIR. It hurts? ESTRAGON. Hurts? He wants to know if it hurts! VLADIMIR. No one ever suffers but you. I don’t count. I’d like to hear what you’d say if you had what I have. ESTRAGON. It hurts? VLADIMIR. It hurts! He wants to know if it hurts! (Beckett 3). Textual repetition between the two is already a sign of something repeating in the lives of our protagonists. Following the basic structure of all stories there is conflict, and with conflict comes the desire to leave. ESTRAGON. Let’s go. VLADIMIR. We can’t. ESTRAGON. Why not? VLADIMIR. We’re waiting for Godot. (Beckett 8). The act of waiting is redefined by the two men who do it day by day. There is no evidence of whom or what Godot is, or what he means to the men. We do not see that there are any physical barriers that are preventing Vladimir and Estragon from getting up and moving on with their lives. All that matters is that everything in the finite lives of these two men depends on the arrival of this mysterious figure. A radical version of Vladimir and Estragon is seen in the characters of Pozzo and Lucky, who have a daily reappearance in the lives of Vladimir and Estragon. Pozzo is the extreme version of Vladimir, since he is the impulsive, more right-brained one. Lucky is the extreme version of Estragon, since he is the left-brained, more intellectual of the two. However, they represent getting through life with someone else just like Estragon and Vladimir. Relating Pozzo and Lucky even more so to Vladimir and Estragon, Pozzo also has a moment of doubt as to whether or not he shall leave this place. â€Å"I don’t seem to be able†¦ (long hesitation)†¦ to depart.† (Beckett 50). The uncertainty of leaving anticipates the same way that Vladimir and Estragon are left waiting at the end of each act. Despite actually admitting that he can’t seem to leave, Pozzo actually does manage to leave, unlike Vladimir and Estragon who remain even as the curtain falls. In Pozzo and Lucky there is an extreme reflection of Vladimir and Estragon, while the messenger represents false hope. He comes only to tell the pair â€Å"Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won’t come this evening but certainly to-morrow.† (Beckett 55). After learning of this, Vladimir and Estragon acknowledge that they both want to leave. The dialogue of â€Å"We’re waiting for Godot† repeats, yet the fact that â€Å"Godot† is not coming tonight is still not strong enough for them to take any direct action. Instead they are left to wait upon their fate from someone or something else to act on. As Hamlet becomes more obsessed with avenging his father, he begins to see more of his own downfall as time passes. Seeing the ghost of his father raises Hamlet’s suspicions of the whole kingdom. Thinking that people will write it off as grief, Hamlet acts strangely, hoping that this will help him catch Cladius as the one who murdered his father. But all this acting and waiting takes up precious time that Hamlet simply does not have, especially as a prince who is not living up to all of his potential. At the same time,  his lover, Ophelia, is forbidden to see him. Ophelia’s father Polonius takes notice of Hamlet’s apparent madness, and tells the king and queen â€Å"Your noble son is mad/ Mad I call it /for, to define true madness, / what is’t but to be nothing else but mad?† (II.ii.92-94). Now it is more about just Hamlet acting mad as a means of trying to catch Cladius, but his madness becomes so realistic that other people in the kingdom take n otice. When Cladius later inquires Hamlet about his state of mind, he replies that he is â€Å"Excellent, i’faith/of the chameleon’s dish/ I eat the air/ promise-crammed† (III.ii.84-86). Since it is not the typical response one would give when one is asked about how they are doing, it only serves to further confirm the fear that Hamlet is going mad. These outrageous acts only push Hamlet further away from his true self. The central point of Hamlet’s waiting and delaying of action is expressed with his â€Å"To be or not to be† soliloquy. A significant amount of time is passing, and Hamlet has thus seen the ghost of his father and knows what he must do. Yet he asks himself about suicide, and weighs the moral outcomes of living and dying. â€Å"Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer/The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,/ Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,/ And, by opposing, end them?† (HAM.III.i.58-61). Even when he considers suicide as a viable option, he questions what happens in the afterlife. If Hamlet therefore chooses to not commit suicide, is he delaying a possibly better life after he dies? He then turns to philosophy as a way to choose between killing Cladius or killing himself. But either path he chooses won’t end or solve his misery. â€Å"And enterprises of great pith and moment/With this regard their currents turn awry,/And lose the name of action.† (HAM. III.i.87-89). With Hamlet, it is evident that despite how miserable he is, he continually ignores any sort of action that can be taken to put an end to this misery. He forgets that he is still the prince and has a significant say it what can be done. The true Hamlet and his purpose are so far gone from his mind that he contemplates things such as suicide. He waits too long for an outside action to push him forward in the right direction, instead of taking the first step himself. In order to deal with the tasks of regular life, humans have been known to  set up routines of how they believe they should go about their day. Each pattern is unique, and they nearly always consist of repetition. These systems become a part of us as we go on. But when routines become more than just something we follow and they become who a person is, life becomes a lot more difficult than it needs to be. In both Hamlet and Waiting for Godot, the protagonists become their routines, and in this they destroy themselves and lose sight of their true purpose. The product of their blindness to the outside contaminates their souls and leaves them trapped in their own destructive ways. Works Cited Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove, 1954. Print. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Washington Square, 1992. Print. The New Folger Library Shakespeare. Due to the foreboding repetition of their own daily lives, the protagonists in both Hamlet and Waiting for Godot neglect their true purpose, which suggests holding back can be destructive to oneself. In Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon experience each day as it passes without any happenings and with this transition comes their demise. As Hamlet becomes more obsessed with avenging his father, he begins to see more of his own downfall as time passes. The product of their blindness to the outside contaminates their souls and leaves them trapped in their own destructive ways.

First Reflective Journal of My First Clinical Experience Essay

This journal reflects my first clinical experience at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre. The experience has made me re-examine and analyze a lot about my path towards reaching my goal and becoming an RN. I felt that being able to touch and feel the working environment is extremely important for a future nurse and indeed for any health care provider. Real life experience is so important in learning. At first I was nervous, not yet to say scared but I found my self curious to know what the clinical setting would be like, how it would feel caring for someone unfamiliar. My nervousness quickly disappeared . I was touched and inspired to see how caring my † buddy mate† was to the residents of Wascana Rehab. There was no one who seemed strange to her, she shared her love equally with everyone. She cared for them like they were all special to her. I was so amazed to see how much a for a stranger. She made each and every resident feels like she was there for them to and not just doing her job. I then realized that no one can be strange if we see them with a human eye and welcome them with an open heart and loving manner, respecting them for who they are. In my childhood I heard about a godmother coming to the world, spreading her love to everyone and making differences in people’s life. Oh yes, I now know I can be that person who can make differences in people’s lives. What is next—-In my next clinical session i m hoping to apply everything that I learned on The first day and will try my best to further explore what can I learn to help me to build a strong foundation for my future dream career as a nurse.

Choose a federal law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Choose a federal law - Research Paper Example This policy paper will identify the history of the Act; trace its implementation, its impact on business and society as well as its strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, the paper will provide some recommendations for future policy makers. The legislation which came to force in 2002, has 11 major elements. The key provisions that this paper will analyze their implementation include Sarbanes-Oxley Sections 302, 303, 401, 404, 802, 906 and 1106. Sarbanes- Oxley was named after its sponsors Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley who were US Senators and Representative respectively. With the implementation of SOX, it became mandatory for top managements to personally certify the accuracy of the information that is provided by their organizations. Between 2000 and 2002, large corporate frauds occurred in various firms due to variety of complex factors. In addition to Worldcom, and Enron as noted earlier, other frauds included Adelphia, Tyco International, and Peregrine Systems. Apart from the conflict of interest that emanated from the frauds, they also resulted into problems during the incentive compensations practices. Through the analysis of the infamous frauds, the pioneers attained the ground for the introduction of the bill leading to the passage of SOX in 2002. According to Senator Paul Sarbanes, the market had problems that resulted to loss of hundreds and trillions of billions in dollars. Some of the notable issues that led to the mega frauds included lack of independence for the auditors, inadequate accountant’s oversight, conflict of interest on the part of stock analysts, weak corporate government procedures, ineffective disclosure procedures and providing low funds to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Before the introduction of SOX, auditing firms which are noted as watchdogs for the investors did not perform auditing or any consulting

Andrei Rublev's The Holy Trinity Research Paper

Andrei Rublev's The Holy Trinity - Research Paper Example Olsufiev describes Andrew Rublev as one of the iconic painters in the Russian History. He lived between 1360 and 1430. Information on Andrew’s biography is very scanty. Nevertheless, the available history shows that he was born in Pskov. He is considered a hero in painting of the Russian icons and frescoes. His name is associated with the flourishing period of the Russian art. Additionally, it is also linked with the revival of the Byzantine art after its ruin under the Ottoman rule. In the 1380, he was one of the artisans in the Prince’s cartel. They engaged in painting and decoration of churches. According to the Russian Orthodox Church Andrew was first mention as a painter when under the apprenticeship of Theophanes the Greek. This was in the Trinity Sergei Lavra Monastery, where he was a pupil of Prokhor of Gorodets. The two artists painted icons and frescos for the Cathedral of Annunciation of the Moscow Kremlin. It is in this monastery that Andrew did most of his painting. He moved out of this monastery after the death of his friend, Danil Cherny. He relocated to Andronikov Monastery in Moscow where he painted the frescos of the Savior Cathedral. That was his last painting. He remained in the same area and no wonder most of his paintings are found in or around Moscow. He died in 1430. A museum was constructed in the Andronikov Monastery, where the art and the epoch of Andrew Rublev are displayed. Smirnova observes that the surviving work shows that he belonged to either early Muscovite school or Vladimir-Suzdal.

Public health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Public health - Essay Example r gotten from over-the-counter for other reasons besides those for which they are meant or in an excess way.† It is the use of any substance in a harmful pattern for the purpose of mood alteration. The drugs commonly abused include those with psychoactive effects such as alcohol, cannabis, caffeine, amphetamines, nicotine, opiates, and the hallucinogens (Boyd, 2009). Other drugs not categorized and have a potential of abuse include steroids and other drugs used for performance enhancement. In addition, some medical preparations have also been used for various intentions, besides the intended use. An example is erythropoietin, which is used to increase the volume of blood and also improve the performance of athletes. The use of the above mentioned substances has been related to abuse, physical dependence and addiction. This has led to an overall public concern on the issue of drug abuse and its health consequence. Addiction is defined as the craving of chemical substances such as drugs, tobacco and alcohol which the person addicted finds difficult to control (McCarady, 1999). National Household Survey of Drug Abuse (NHSDA) in the United States is the body concerned with epidemiological investigation of substance abuse. This survey divided the substance abuse into illicit use and abuse of drugs vs. legal use (Tobacco and alcohol). The illicit drugs are further divided in to 9 categories: cocaine, marijuana, heroin, inhalants, hallucinogens, pain relievers (non-medical use), stimulants, tranquilizers, and sedatives. The common abusers of drugs and alcohol are the adolescents due to their experimental nature and pressure from the peers. Older adolescents and young adults also make a significant contribution in the statistics. For instance, a nationwide survey taken by Monitoring the Future in 2010 on the rate of substance abuse in the US showed that 48.2% of the pupils in 12th grade had used illegal drugs in the past. 41.2% of them had taken alcohol 30days before

Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Leadership - Essay Example A person’s beliefs, values, character, and ethics play a big role in determining what kind of a leader they will be. Today, we experience both good and bad leadership in different situations. Bad leadership is harmful to the society in many ways, therefore, should be avoided. Good leadership is what the society should adopt, as this is beneficial in many ways. This essay will therefore, address the concept of good leadership, and some of the steps one must follow to ensure good leadership. Knowledge and skills contribute to the leadership process. However, personal attributes such as values, and character, are the ones that make a leader to stand out among all the others. For instance, in order for one to practise good leadership, they must be impartial. This enhances trust and credibility of the leader by the people. These are aspects that are earned by the leader, and do not merely come with the position. However, if a leader acts ethically and professionally, they will be a ble to win trust of the people. Impartiality mainly refers to the treatment of everyone in an equal manner, devoid of favouritism. This improves relationships between the leader and the people, since the people will be sure that their leader does not have hidden outcomes in their position, neither will they question motivation. In this case, a leader must therefore, apply equal standards to all people and perform unbiased evaluation. Good leadership requires strong confidence. A good leader must therefore, be confident in themselves. Confidence includes a leader having an honest understanding of who they are, their skills and knowledge, as well as their capabilities. This is the first step of confidence on the leader’s side. Similarly, the people must have strong confidence in their leader, as this will prove that the leader is effective. The people judge and determine the effectiveness of their leaders. Therefore, if people do not trust their leader or lack confidence in the m, this means the leader is poor. Therefore, a good leader must work toward building their confidence, as well as the confidence of the people they lead. This is because; one must prove to people that they are capable of good leadership. For good leadership, a person must be capable of learning from their mistakes. Normally, it is always hard for people to accept their mistakes and take lessons from them. However, as a leader, one must be ready to accept their mistakes and learn lessons from them. This is an important step in learning, growing, and improving in the leadership position. A good leader must therefore, not blame their mistakes on the people, but admit them, as this is known to accelerate immense progress. If a leader made a few failures in the past, this should not deter them from moving on. They must have the confidence and courage of learning from their failures, and using the failures to produce success. Mistakes and failures are crucial in leadership, as they offer the leader more experience in specific situations. It becomes probable that after making a certain mistake, or failing terribly in a specific situation, a leader might not repeat the same mistakes in the future, and they will not fail if the same situation presents itself in future. Therefore, accepting past mistakes and learning from them, makes a good leader. Good leadership involves putting the needs of others first. This is the virtue of selflessness. True leadership requir

Motion and grauity Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Motion and grauity - Research Paper Example ys, â€Å"An object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless the object is acted upon by an outside force† (Croce, pp. 38). From this explanation, it is an understanding that a body remains in motion unless some other force stops it down. From this definition, this other force can be either friction or gravity, and thus, understanding of motion itself is an efficient way of understanding the force of gravity. The second law says, â€Å"Acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables - the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object† (Quah, pp. 57). This law explains that mass and force are the two indicators that decide the rate with which the body slows or accelerates. Thirdly, Newton stated, â€Å"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction† (Quah, pp. 57). In this regard, these three laws of motion are the best ways of defining and understanding motion. Specifically, from these understandings, motion is any change that occurs in the location or place of a body with regard to time and space. In addition, it is an observation that in physics, scientists always define and explain motion with respect to different references, such as friction, gravity, time, velocity, etc. However, without gravity, there can be no definition of motion. In particular, gravity is the most fundamental concept of nature that allows objects and bodies with any mass to interact, and more specifically, attract each other (Garnow, pp. 23-25). In addition, gravity enables the objects and bodies with masses to acquire weight that results in their falling on the ground. In this regard, gravity or gravitation is the basic force that keeps existence of sun, earth, moon, etc in the universe in balanced manner, whereas, its absence would have caused irregularity in orbits of the universe. Therefore, gravity is the fundamental force that directs and manages motion of bodies and objects in the time and space (Garnow, pp.

Preferred management decision case study - Logistics of International

Preferred management decision - Logistics of International workers to Mitigate Ebola epidemics - Case Study Example Currently, some parts in West Africa are currently fighting the deadly Ebola virus that has so far resulted in the death of approximately 5,000 people. Many international organisations are sending their workers to help in offering health care services to people affected by these Ebola virus in the countries affected in West Africa (Baas, 2012; Bueche, 2004). International health care workers are playing an important role in ensuring that people in these regions are isolated to prevent further prevalence of the disease, and those already diagnosed with the virus get necessary medication before they are deeply affected (Parker & International, 2003; Hirschmann, 2007). In sending their workers to these countries, organisations are faced with many considerations before making his important decision in the interest of their workers and people in countries affected by the virus. This paper examines some of the management decisions that human resources managers in international organisations sending their workers to Ebola infected countries in parts of West Africa. It focuses in the effect that various management decisions over the welfare of its workers are being arrived at. As pointed, management of workers is an important function of human resource management in any organization (Gilmore, 2009). In this case, the organisation has to put the interest of its workers ahead of its functions. The organisation has to consider its future activities when deciding on the way to manage its workers in the face of the need to take care of people in the Ebola infected country. It is always important that an organisation focus on its future functions before deciding on the strategies to use in the management of its workers. Faced by the dilemma of sending workers back to the United States and the cost implications, the organisation has to consider some of the following important aspects. First, the health of the workers is

History of Geothermal energy and its effects on environment Essay

History of Geothermal energy and its effects on environment - Essay Example It has been observed that biological environment is also affected largely by the abovementioned factors due to the geothermal energy. Moreover, socio-economic effects of the geothermal energy have also been observed by the experts. In Iceland, development of geothermal resources was considered for a study by the launching of an enforcement program in the year 1995. Geothermal plants in Iceland were studied, in order to understand the impact of high-heat fields of geothermal energy in the country. Since the year 1997, a number of projects are under way according to the regulations of Geothermal Implement Agreement by the International Energy Association. Historically, R&D programs of various governments have included geothermal energy as one of the renewable sources of energy along with the options of solar, biomass, wind, etc. One of the major characteristics that have been studied and found by the experts since years is its low emissions of greenhouse gases that make it one of the environmental friendly sources of energy. However, certain limits can be observed in the friendly nature of geothermal energy, as an entire industry could be discredited due to any attempts of obscuring production of this energy. The Bruntland Commission was the first one to derive the proper sustainability of geothermal environment in terms of the environment. According to this commission, production levels of geothermal energy can be sustained for a long period by the production systems of this source of energy. 1 Due to such efficient sustainability of geothermal energy, economic goals and objectives are also being considered by the investors due to i ts capability of quick payback. Such energy has also been considered for the production of various equipments, which are providing huge revenues to the investors. One of the most significant examples is the geysers, which is providing enormous profits to the investors with the utilization of geothermal energy resource. 2 Since

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 28

Case Study Example With the Freemium Pricing Strategy in place, it was obvious that the company’s user base would definitely increase. The strategy worked effectively in that Dropbox managed to grow from at least 4 million Dropbox users in January 2010 to more than 200 million users by November 2 years later. In as much as the company never revealed its exact revenues, it was reported by an industry analysts that the company made more than $400 million by 2012. Five years after it was launched, it can be reported that Dropbox was valued at more than 4 billion dollars. This means that the company benefited from the strategy. Alternatively, the company managed to secure a large share of Dropbox users especially for the cloud storage. This therefore enabled the company management to switch its attention to corporate customers. First, the strategy led to overcrowding with minimal competitors. Alternatively, getting users was somehow tough because of bureaucratic delays especially in making them integrate the services. There is also the notion that the freemium strategy would end being a costly affair for the company. It was feared that the strategy would leave the company with thousands of freeloaders and higher operating costs. It was also difficult to get individuals pay since most mainstream users were not used to paying for the services. Another challenge of this strategy is that the company might suffer from value perception of the services. The fact that the basic package is free, most users might have the perception that any other version that company offers has little value. Lastly, issues with competition are common. After the success of the freemium strategy, Houston started to target the corporate customers directly. Whereas the consumer Dropbox version started at only $120 per year, the business type was estimated to cost more than $800 on a yearly basis for users. Termed as the Dropbox for Business version, the strategy featured

Education, Teaching and Curriculum Essay Example for Free

Education, Teaching and Curriculum Essay Education has always been an important aspect in the course of personal and societal development as a whole. Every individual has an urge and personal willingness to learn valuable information that varies from either practical knowledge o scientific ones. However, all of these relevant informations are very much needed by every individual to be able to develop their own self and become self-sufficient and productive members of the society. Education has many methodologies from which one individual can attain it in a scientifically formulated pattern. This is actually the main pattern accepted and utilized by all educational institution in their formal learning process and even implemented by those who implement informal ones. Gradual and progressive pattern is the most effective and easiest way used in learning process because it mainly accommodates normal brain development and innate learning abilities of the person. In this learning process, the main methodology commonly used in the per curriculum basis encompassing teaching instructions for learning individuals. Curriculum is literally defined in education as a set of courses regarding different classes or subjects offered in different educational institutions such as a school or a university. Embedded in its process are different specific classes for minor and major aspects that are all conjoined in adherence to the course objective of the entire curriculum. This is actually formulated and expressed in terms of its learning outcomes and for the development of the students taking up the said curriculum. Curriculums in general, whatever its subject or class is, are all created to envelope the learning process of individuals learning their specific course to develop and acquire valuable and relevant skills in that specific field. The main learning approach commonly used in the curriculum teaching is based on a set of instruction, which are all directed to guide the students in the gradually process of learning in the curriculum. Instructions are a basic aspect of the learning process. They are all formulated to guide students in their gradual learning process in their respective fields. In educational curriculum, instructions serve as a form of communicated information that has a command and explanation nature. Thus, instructions are descriptive explanations for how an action, behavior, method, or task is to be begun, completed, conducted, or executed. Because of their significant relevance to the learning process of individuals, instructions are explicitly used in the approach system and learning process in a curriculum. Learning instructions are generally formulated and given to students to guide them in discovering and thus learning the different specific informations and processes that are significant in the execution and completion of their respective subjects that are enveloped in their curriculum. With consideration of the definition and significant or the two main aspects in the learning process, curriculum and instruction have a direct relationship with each other. In the education aspect, curriculums are generally composed of specific set of instructions in specific subjects based on its respective course. Instruction are formulated and applied by the educational institutions to guide and educate explain to their students the knowledge and information in the different subjects encompassed in the gradual learning process of their different curriculums in every courses or fields. Thus, curriculum and instructions go side-by-side in systematically developing and directing the educational system to better address the normal mental development and innate learning process of the students thus encouraging more productive and efficient learning approach for the society. In terms of the higher level of educational set up, the curriculums offered as well as the regulations are diversely changed to apply to the demands required for the learners. Obviously, the requirements of concentration and focus from the students are heightened. However, this does not add the directly instructional as compared to that of the lower levels of learning. Obviously, this is primarily because of the fact that the students in this level are already matured enough to be still instructed on what they are supposed to do. The students are rather expected to place higher concentration and intend to pursue in a better level of focus on the proper learning attitude needed for them to survive this particular stage of learning. The instance of being able to survive the scholastic challenges presented by the higher and more demanding environment of education is a primary achievement among those who are concentrating to attain the best out of their learning in this level of educational state. Most of the time, the students are known to be pressured in this set up, but all these procedures are strongly applied to actually help in the process of making the students see the real implications of their lessons in actual life.

Rhizoremediation of Lead Using Alternanthera Versicolor

Rhizoremediation of Lead Using Alternanthera Versicolor Shalini S., Priyasha G., Sohini B. and Jabez Osborne W* Abstract: Anthropogenic development has been a major drawback due to the increased discharge of heavy metals into the environment containing the saturated and unsaturated zones of soil. Heavy metals are those which have density more than 5gram per cm cube. Lead causes major health hazards like Plumbism (lead poisoning) at higher concentrations. In the present study the ability of Alternenthera versicolor to phytoremediate toxic lead contamination was assessed at different concentrations of lead. To enhance the uptake capabilities of Alternenthera versicolor, bacterial organism capable of lead degradation was supplemented. The samples were uprooted at an interval of 10, 20 and 30 days. The uptake of lead was assessed by AAS, chlorophyll and anthocyanin content was also checked. Further the effective strain were characterised by 16s rRNA sequencing. Keywords: Rhizoremediation, 16s rRNA, PGPR, AAS, Anthocyanin, Chlorophyll INTRODUCTION The most common heavy metals found in hazardous sites are Lead(Pb), Copper(Cu), Chromium(Cr),Nickel(Ni) and Zinc(Zn).Ionic and hydroxide forms are the general forms of these heavy metals found in soil, ground water and surface water (Gade,.2000). Heavy metal contamination is a major concern because they cannot be degraded (Lone et al,. 2008). Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria are heterogeneous group of bacteria that can be found in the rhizosphere, and in association with roots. The plant-bacteria synergistic interaction in the rhizosphere is determinants of plant growth and fertility. These involve the ability to produce indole acetic acid which is an important growth regulatory hormone, to produce siderophores which enable the uptake of solubilised mineral phosphate from the soil, HCN production and Ammonia production. Morphological studies involve the root and shoot length. Hence depending upon the results obtained for each concentration, we can determine the maximum concentrat ion at which the bacteria can withstand lead contamination. Thus the present study involves the phytoremediation of lead supply by Alternenthera versicolor followed by the rhizoremedial clean up by the synergistic interaction between the effective rhizobacterial isolate and the plant. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sample Collection For the isolation of lead degrading bacteria, tannery sludge was collected from four locations in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. All the samples were collected using sterile polyethylene bags and were preserved immediately (McGrath et al,. 2001). Isolation of lead resistant bacteria from tannery sludge sample Lead resistant bacteria were isolated from tannery sludge using serial dilution technique and 10-4 dilutions onto MSM agar plates supplemented with 150 mg/L lead concentration. The obtained pure colonies were purified on MSM agar plates with 150mg/L lead. Screening Techniques The effective isolates obtained from the tannery sludge sample, were screened for its PGPR traits. Indole Acetic Acid Production For estimation of IAA production, the method described by (Gordon et al,  2000). was followed. The isolates were inoculated in Nutrient broth and were incubated in the shaker at 120 rpm for 24hours. 100  µl of inocula from overnight culture of NB was inoculated in MS Media that was supplemented with 5mM L-tryptophan and was incubated in shaker for 48hours. The cultures obtained were centrifuged at 10000 rpm for 10 minutes. 2ml of supernatant was taken and few drops of Salkowski’s reagent was added to it. Optical density was taken at 530 nm using spectrophotometer. (Hussain et. al,. 2013) Phosphate Solubilisation For the detection of phosphate solubilising capability of the effective isolate, Pikovskaya agar media was inoculated with effective isolate and zone of inhibition was observed after 4 days incubation at RT. (Hussain et. al.  2013) Growth Kinetics Study For growth kinetics study, seed culture of the effective isolate VITPSS1J was prepared in MSM. 2% inoculum of 0.5 OD culture was added in LB broth. O.D readings were taken at every 30 mins till stationary phase was achieved and a plot was plotted against O.D. and time interval. Preparation of pot cultures 64 pots were prepared each consisting of one control and three test pots (Cosio et al, .2004). 2 kgs of sieved garden soil was used to plant Alternanthera versicolor plantlets (20 cm in length) in each pot. Pots were placed in greenhouse for 10 days for the plantlets to get adapted. The pot culture sets were prepared according to two criteria: 1. According to various concentrations of lead being added and 2. According to the number of days of study (10, 20). After the adaptation was completed, various concentrations (25mg/L, 50mg/L, 75mg/L and 100 mg/L) of lead was added at regular interval. Fig 1: Pot cultures of Alternanthera versicolor prepared in 2 kg soil with varying lead concentration Treatment of effective strain in pots Seed culture of effective isolate VITPSS1J was prepared in Nutrient broth (incubated at RT for 24 hrs). The bacterial culture was further mass multiplied by inoculating 100ÃŽ ¼l of seed culture into 4 Erlenmeyer flasks, each containing 250ml NB. 10 ml of this mass multiplied culture was added to each pot and left for next 10 days (Hussain et al,. 2013). After 10 days, first set of plants were uprooted from the pots (10th day pots of all concentrations). Further studies were carried out on the uprooted plants in order to study the uptake of lead by these plants in association with bacteria in 10 days. Morphological characterization The root and shoot length of the uprooted plants was calculated. The length of root and shoot of the test plants were compared with that of the control plants. Comparison of the root-shoot length was also done among plants uprooted from various concentrations. The colour of the plants was also observed. Anthocyanin Estimation Anthocyanin is a pigment responsible for the red, purple, blue colour of several fruits and vegetables, cereals and grains. Anthocyanin can also be used as a pH indicator. Each plant was studied for the amount of anthocyanin present. The leaves of a plant were taken and ground with 70% ethanol and 7% acetic acid (in the ratio 3:2) in a mortar-pestle and transferred to Falcon tubes. Sterile water was added in all tubes including the controls. The tubes were kept in rotary shaker for 10 minutes and then centrifuged (15 mins, 4 ºC, 4500 rpm). The supernatant was removed and 400  µl of methanol was added in each tubes. The anthocyanin content was measured by taking the UV spectrophotometric reading at 530 nm and 657 nm. The same procedure was followed for all the 12 plants. Chlorophyll Estimation Each plant was also studied for determining the chlorophyll content. The leaves were cut into small pieces and mixed with 70% ethanol and ground using mortar-pestle. The mixture was then transferred to Falcon tubes and centrifuged at 6000 rpm for 10 mins. Supernatant was used for spectrophotometer assay of chlorophyll at 665nm and 652 nm. RESULTS Isolation of lead resistant bacteria A total of three morphologically distinct colonies were observed in MSM agar plates supplemented with 150mg/l of lead and named VITPSS1J, VITPSS2J, VITPSS3J Fig 2: Mother culture plates of the isolated bacteria from tannery sludge B. PGPR analysis of isolates Indole Acetic Acid Production: The ability of obtained isolates for IAA production was assessed. Pink coloration was observed for isolate VITPSS3J. Hence VITPSS3J was used for further studies. Phosphate Solubilisation: For the detection of phosphate solubilisation, a clear zone of inhibition is considered as a positive conformation for solubilisation. As the isolates were not able to produce any clear zone observed in the Pikovskaya media plate, the isolates were considered negative for phosphate solubilisation. Growth Kinetics: Growth kinetics was performed for effective isolateVITPSS3J. Stationary phase was achieved at 270 min (Graph1) B. Morphological Characterisation: The leaves of Alternanthera versicolor are originally reddish purple in colour. But it was observed that after the supply of lead in the soil the colour of leaves turned green. Root and shoot length were measured for Alternanthera versicolor at regular interval of 10, 20 days to check the effect of toxic lead concentration of plant growth (Table1, Table2). Table 2: Root and shoot measurement after 10 days of observation Table 3: Root and Shoot measurement after 20 days of observation Anthocyanin and Chlorophyll concentration Anthocyanin is a pigment responsible for purple, blue colour of several fruits grains and flowers. Chlorophyll is a pigment which provides green colour to the plant. (Table 3, 4) Table 4: Anthocyanin and Chlorophyll estimation after 10 days of observation Table 5: Anthocyanin and Chlorophyll estimation after 20 days of observation Figure 1 Estimation of anthocyanin after 10 days of observation Figure 2 Estimation of chlorophyll b by using spectrophotometer (652nm) Figure 3Fig 5: Estimation of chlorophyll a using spectrophotometer (665 nm) after 10 days of observation Figure 4. Estimation of Anthocyanin after 20 days of observation Figure 5Fig 7: Estimation of chlorophyll b by using spectrophotometer (652 nm) after 10 days of observation Figure 6Fig 8: Estimation of chlorophyll a by using spectrophotometer (665 nm) after 20 days of observation Molecular characterization The obtained isolate was characterized molecularly by 16s rRNA sequencing (Sarita et al,. 2005). Effective bacterial strains were characterized using the universal primers 27F (5’-AGAGTTTGATCCTGGCTCAG-3’) and 1492R (GGTTACCTTGTTTTACGACTT-3†). DNA extracts from cell’s DNA and the 16s Rrna sequence was determined by fluorescent dye terminator method using the sequencing kit. Products were obtained and run on a sequencer. DISCUSSION The present study deals with rhizoremedial treatment of the plant Alternenthera versicolor using bacterial isolates of tannery sludge. The plant has been tested as a hyper accumulator of lead which is a toxic heavy metal. Many plants have been worked upon for phytoremedial and rhizoremedial studies using n Alternenthera versicolor different heavy metals such as isolation of potent PGPR isolate; tannery sludge was serially diluted and plated onto MSM agar plates. Carassco et al,.2005 also isolated lead degrading bacteria using Nutrient Agar Medium.  Alternenthera versicolor was tested for its ability to be proved as a potent hyperaccumulator of lead. Hyperaccumulators are plants that have the abilities to take up higher concentration of toxic contaminants or compounds. Some of the hyperaccumulators already proved are Agrostis castellana  (McCutcheon et al,.2003),  Brassica juncea  (E.lombi et al,. 2001),  Brassica napus  (McCutcheon et al,. 2003),  Helianthus annuuus   (Schmidt et al,.2003). The ability of VITPSS1J to act as a potent PGPR isolate was assessed. VITPSS1J was found to be positive for Indole Acetic Acid production (Hussain et al,.2013), but it showed negative result phosphate solubilizing agent, indicating it has effectiveness as a PGPR organism. Alternenthera versicolor was tested for its ability to phytoremediate toxic lead concentration at 25mg/L, 50mg/L, 75mg/L and 100mg/L concentrations of lead. Earlier reports have suggested the use of Brassica juncea as a potent hyper accumulator for lead. Thus shoot and root length was checked at regular interval and it was found be similar as compared to the control; suggesting the effectiveness of Alternenthera versicolor in remediating lead contamination.(Hussain et al,. 2013). Anthocyanin and chlorophyll estimation also suggest the similar result as anthocyanin and chlorophyll content of a plant are a major indicating factor for its toxic uptake studies. Higher level of anthocyanin and chl orophyll at day 10 and 20 suggest that toxic effect of lead has been neutralised by various mechanism taking place in the plant like phytostabalisation and phytovolatalisation (Irene Kuiper et al,.2003). Thus the present study proves that Alternenthera versicolor can be used as a hyperaccumulator of lead at concentration ranging from 25 to 100 mg/L. CONCLUSION Alternenthera versicolor has hence been proved as a potent hyperaccumulator of lead at concentration ranging from 25 to 100mg/L and VITPSS1J can be used to remediate lead contamination. Hence further study on the synergistic interaction between Alternenthera versicolor and VITPSS1J. V. REFERENCES 1. Arvind Gulati, Pratibha Vyas, Praveen Rahi, Ramesh Chand Kasana (2009) Plant Growth-Promoting and Rhizosphere-Competent Acinetobacter rhizosphaerae Strain BIHB 723 from the Cold Deserts of the Himalayas 58:371–377 2. Althaf Hussain Sk. and Srinivas P (2013) Evaluation of Plant Growth Promoting Traits by Pseudomonas and Azotobacter Isolated From Rhizotic Soils of Two Selected Agroforestry Tree Species of Godavari Belt Region, India 431-436 3. Solon A. Gordon, Robert P. Weber (1950) Colorimetric Estimation of Indole acetic acid 4. Shirin Heydari1, Parviz Rezvani Moghadam2, Seyyed Mehdi Arab3 Hydrogen Cyanide Production Ability by Pseudomonas Fluorescence Bacteria and their Inhibition Potential on Weed Germination 5. Brianne L. Clark, Dr. Ranjan Chakraborty, Chair Dr. Bert C. Lampson ,Dr. Lee M. Pike (2004) Characterization of a Catechol-Type Siderophore and the Detection of a Possible Outer Membrane Receptor Protein from Rhizobium leguminosarum strain IARI 312 6. E. Nicole Bridgersa, Mari S. Chinnb, Van-Den Troungc (2010) Extraction of anthocyanins from industrial purple-fleshed sweetpotatoes and enzymatic hydrolysis of residues for fermentable sugars 613-620 7. Simcha Lev-Yadun and Kevin S. Gould (2009) Role of Anthocyanins in Plant Defence 978-0-387-77 8. Irene Kuiper, Ellen L. Lagendijk, Guido V. Bloemberg, and Ben J. J. Lugtenber (2003) Rhizoremediation: A Beneficial Plant-Microbe Interaction1105-01 9. Sushma Bondre, Pallavi Patil, Amaraja Kulkarni, M. M. Pillai (2012) Study on isolation and purification of anthocyanins and its application as pH indicator698-702 10. Sabyasachi Chatterjee*, Anindita Mukherjee, Agniswar Sarkar, Pranab Roy (2012)Bioremediation of lead by lead-resistant microorganisms, isolated from industrial sample290-295 11. A. Rehman, S. Ashraf, J. I. Qazi, A. R. Shakoori (2005) Uptake of Lead by a Ciliate, Stylonychia mytilus, Isolated from Industrial Effluents: Potential Use in Bioremediation of Wastewater75:290–296

The University Should Raise Tuition Each Year Essay -- Argumentative P

The University Should Raise Tuition Each Year Tuition usually increases once a year, for the main purpose that schools go over their budget and they have to make up that money in some way. The schools are using that extra money to make that school a better place so that existing students and new students think its worth spending their money on, going there for a higher education. There are good and bad things about tuition increases, but the big thing to think about is, are these increases going to help the students? Yes, they are, the schools are increasing tuition so that the students can get there higher education, and feel that they are getting it at a great place. Schools want to help their students get the best higher education they can, but to do that, they have to raise tuition so they can afford to help their students. Universities have budgets which they are supposed to stick to, and now that they are not sticking to them, they need to raise tuition so that they can make up for the extra money that they spent. â€Å"The University of Virginia saw a 20 percent cut in their tuition bill in 1999, is planning a midyear tuition surcharge as bad state-budget news continues to poor in,†(Hebel, 2002). Universities are having a very hard time with their budgets that they need to raise tuition. There is a really good question to ask, why are they going over their budgets? There are many answers to that question, one of them is that the government isn’t giving universities as much money as they used to, another answer is that, they have so many students paying to go to their school, that they feel that they have to keep them there, so they spend money improving programs to help their students get the higher education ... .... This way the students get their higher education, and better programs to help them achieve that higher education. Programs such as tutoring really do help students with their classes, and help keep their grades up. Some students have scholarships, and without good grades, they loose their scholarships. As long as raising tuition helps the students, it’s a good idea. Otherwise, they should think about leaving the tuition alone or putting some of that extra money into some new or existing programs. This way, the students know where their money is going; doing this will help students be ok with the idea of tuition increases. If the students are fine with the idea, then it won’t be such a hardship retaining more students and keeping the existing students, because the students are getting something for their money, not just a higher education, but programs and help.

The Gospel of Thomas Essay -- Informative, Manuscripts

Discovered in the twentieth century, The Gospel of Thomas was founded by peasants that were digging for fertilizer close to the village of Nag Hammadi, Egypt. The peasants revealed a container containing thirteen leather-bound manuscripts that were buried in the fourteenth century. The container contained fifty-two tractates that represented â€Å"heretical† writings of Gnostic Christians. Dated back to 200 A.D., there was not much known about the Gospel of Thomas besides that there were only three small fragments from Oxyrynchus. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of literary works that contains 114 ‘opaque sayings’ of Jesus that were collected and written down by St. Didymus Jude Thomas, but nobody knows if St. Didymus Jude Thomas wrote the sayings down for sure, it is just said that he did. St. Didymus Jude Thomas was said to be Jesus’ twin brother, assumed by a few early Christians. Thomas is actually Hebrew for twin, and Didymus is Greek for twin as well. According to saying twelve, the disciples said to Jesus, â€Å"We know that you will depart from us. Who is to be our leader?† Jesus said to them, â€Å"Wherever you are, you are to go to James the righteous, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being†(Gospel of Thomas: saying 12). As I was reading the Gospel of Thomas and read over saying twelve, I believe that Jesus is stating that his brother James is the go to guy, the leader, when they are to be departed. I also believe that saying twelve is evidence that, in the second century, someone who admired James had help write the Gospel of Thomas. Furthermore, I think that the writer of the Gospel of Thomas most likely has had access to the Gospel of John. This is because the writer references Jesus as being a light. Only John's Gosp... ...ng how Christianity would be different if the Gospel of Thomas were in the New Testament is impossible to answer because no one could say in regards to the details. However, it would be safe to say that Christianity as we know it would not exist. The Bible would now contain opposing teachings on salvation. This kind of contradiction would certainly lead to confusion and distrust in the veracity of any of the Gospel accounts. The Canonical Gospels can be traced back to the earliest Church via the writings of the Ante-Nicene Church fathers. The Gnostic Gospels cannot be traced back to any writer who is connected to Jesus in any manner. Furthermore, all the texts within the Old Testament and the New Testament were never in question among believers at any point, while the Gnostic texts were seen as texts simply using the name â€Å"Jesus† to teach different â€Å"truths.†

Keplers Laws and Planetary Movement Essay -- Physics Science Planets

By the turn of the 1600's, the way in which the solar system and the universe as a whole was viewed began to change. With the controversial conclusions of Copernicus, scientists already began to adopt the idea of a heliocentric solar system. Further advancements in astronomy came about through the research of Tycho Brahe and his assistant Johannes Kepler. The three planetary laws developed by Kepler with the data gathered by Brahe shaped the way in which science viewed the structure and motion of the planets of the solar system in profound ways, lasting to this day. A Brief History of Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler began his studies in astronomy as an assistant to the astronomer Tycho Brahe, whom, by his own right, was a formidable observer of the heavens, despite his rather illogical conclusions about the Earth and the movement of other celestial bodies. Brahe’s observations were phenomenally accurate, especially considering the technology available at the time, often accurate to less than half of a minute of arc. In hindsight, however; Brahe’s creditability as an astronomer is diminished due to his lack of acceptance of the idea of a heliocentric solar system created by Copernicus. He agreed that the other five known planets revolved around the sun, but that the Earth would be incapable of such movement and would certainly be detectable by the inhabitants of the Earth if that were the case. Kepler's First Law Since his introduction into astronomy, Kepler had held a strong faith in the accuracy of the theories of Copernicus. Under Copernican theory, all planets traveled in perfectly circular orbits around the sun. However, Kepler’s observations, especially in regards to the orbit of Mars, suggested that planets trave... ...'s Third Law. What else should be noted is that the constant (4π^2/Gm) is included in the equation. thus creating an equation that not only proves Kepler's Third Law, but is also far reaching in its practical applications. For instance, if the peroid and distance from the sun of a planet were known, the mass of the planet could easily be calculated. Conclusion The remarkable aspect to Kepler’s Laws is that they were able to unify the seemingly complicated motion of the planets in the heavens with relatively simple concepts. The conclusion that the orbits of planets are elliptical rather than circular paved the way into developing concise relationships between all the planets by explaining the variance in the velocity of a planet as it travels through its orbit. This proportional relationship, T^2 = KR^3, unified the motions of the planets beautifully.

Health Care Utilization Paper Essay

The health reform debate is in full swing. Millions more people will gain health insurance, coverage will be more affordable, and people will have access to the health services they need. Health Care Reform and Access The reason for Health Care reform is to make it easier on the citizens to be able to afford health insurance in the case they were to get sick or prevent them from getting sick. The law makes it more affordable instead of the rising cost, it is lowered so people can have insurance. The Health Care Reform act made it to be were the insurance companies will be held accountable on how much they raise their rates and how their money is spent. Plus, the new law will help lower costs through new tax credits and new marketplaces where insurers will have to compete for your business. At one time insurance companies were taking advantage of the people but now they have to make sure that everything is affordable. It was amazing how they could deny children that needed medical attention because they had prior health problems. Children that were born with asthma or born with other defects were being denied health coverage. Insurance companies were putting an amount on the coverage that would giv e the patient and if that failed they would find any little mistake in the paperwork to drop their health care coverage. The Affordable Care Act creates a new Patient’s Bill of Rights that protects you from these and other abusive practices. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s 80/20 rule, if insurance companies don’t spend at least 80 percent of your premium dollar on medical care and quality improvements rather than advertising, overhead and bonuses for executives, they will have to provide you a rebate. Things are much better now that the insurance companies have to cover many preventive services without it being any deductibles or copays required unlike before when you had to have certain screenings and were charged deductibles and co pays. Before many Americans with pre-existing conditions were locked or priced out of the  health insurance market due to their pre-existing conditions which is not fair because many people have pre-existing conditions. Alread y, 54 million Americans with private health coverage have gotten better preventive services coverage as a result. It is good that they have made insurance companies accountable against discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. In 2014, insurance discriminating against anyone with a pre-existing condition will be illegal. Access and Utilization Several factors such as proximity to health care providers, perceived quality of care, fees charged and perceived severity of illness have been shown to affect access and utilization of health services. The wellness models is focusing on the health of a person’s mind, body and spirit. If more people took time to prevent themselves from diseases this would slow the growth of health care expenditures. What people who fell to realize is that it is cheaper to go to a class and or treatment group, instead of having to use insurance to provide medications, procedures and treatments. Getting involve with a wellness consultant can also help with obesity. According to The U.S. Health System,† The increase in obesity in adults as well as children also increases the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart failure† (Barsukiewicz,Raffel &Raffel, 2010, p.12). If people start now with their children by teaching them healthy ways of eating there will be a decrease in t he risk of chronic disease. The choice is in the parents hands because a child eats what a parent gives. Also as a person 65 and older gets up there in age there are more chronic diseases that they are at risk of getting and more prone to get them again or worse, which than leads to more health resources such as hospitalizations or put into a nursing facility. No, we cannot from aging but we can take care of ourselves now to avoid the risk of chronic diseases. Focusing on a wellness model can reduce healthcare costs because if a patient is given the proper information needed to recognize the signs of certain diseases and the proper information to prevent certain diseases, the patient will not always have to go to their doctor every time they sense something is wrong. Another way to reduce healthcare costs would be to educate people on how to live a healthier lifestyle. Adapting a healthier lifestyle reduces healthcare costs because if an individual is eating right and exercising dai ly; they can ultimately reduce their chances  of become obese. Living a healthier lifestyle also reduces the cost of treatments and medications of some of the diseases that are associated with obesity, such as heart disease or diabetes. Universal Care: Compare and Contrast Universal health care is the belief that all citizens should have access to affordable, high-quality medical care. Universal health care is a broad concept that can be structured and funded in various ways. The common factor for all universal health care programs is that they require some form of government involvement, whether it is through legislation, mandates, or regulation. One of the key functions in a managed care is gate keeping (The Payment Process, Insurance and Third-Party Payers: A Austin PhD. Welte R.N. 20-12) which basically is a way of controlling how much health care a person can receive over a period of time. Unfortunately this means that some patients who require intense treatments mat have to get authorization prior to getting the treatment which may cause a delay in treatment that can lead to more issues for the patient. The advantages of managed cares are only for the company. Managed care plans allow doctors to be paid for each member enrolled each month which m eans that regardless of how many patients he treats he will only receive a certain amount of money this limits the access a patient to specialist or rehabilitation services. Since the doctor is only getting paid a certain amount he must see a certain amount of patients which cuts down the amount of time spent with each patient. This is the where disadvantage of Managed care comes in. The patient cannot receive the proper care because his/her HMO only pays a set amount. References Comparisons. (2013). Universal Health Care. Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu Healthcare.gov. (2013). Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from http://www.healthcare.gov The White House. (2013). Get the Facts Straight on Health Reform. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov