Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Earth Is A 1998 Indian Period Drama Film Directed By Deepa...

EARTH Earth is a 1998 Indian period drama film directed by Deepa Mehta. The story is set in Lahore in the time period directly before and during the partition of India in 1947. The film recounts the holocaust of Partition through the eyes of Lenny, a crippled Parsi girl. Lenny s parents live in Lahore with an army of servants, including the delectable ayah, a beautiful Hindu woman, Shanta. The movie starts with Lenny revisiting her childhood days as a student coloring her drawing, and remembering the downfall of British Empire in India as she states something which indicates the theme of story that it will portray for next 101 minutes and upon which the story will build around. The words she stated accounts as- â€Å"Hindu, Muslim and Sikhs who had lived together as one entity for centuries suddenly started to clamor for pieces of India for themselves. The arbitrary line of division the British would draw to carve up India in August of 1947 would scar the subcontinent forever.† This dialogue clearly states that India was very near to getting its independence from the British Rule and for the final time the nation might have to become a victim to British’s much famous â€Å"DIVIDE RULE† policy which will blow the nation into partition forming 2 separate countries- INDIA PAKISTAN and in the dialogue she clearly predicts the ill effects people will have to face at the time of partition as she says that it would scar the subcontinent forever. Such a line of difference would beShow MoreRelatedEarth Is A 1998 Indian Period Drama Film Directed By Deepa Mehta2713 Words   |  11 PagesEarth is a 1998 Indian period drama film directed by Deepa Mehta. The story is set in Lahore in the time period directly before and during the partition of India in 1947. The film recounts the holocaust of Partition through the eyes of Lenny, a crippled Parsi girl. Lenny s parents live in Lahore with an army of servants, including the delectable ayah, a beautiful Hindu woman, Shanta. The movie starts with Lenny revisiting her childhood days as a student coloring her drawing, and remembering theRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesopening decades of the twentieth century and a major break from the prevailing dynamics of the cold war. In addition to the problems posed for conceptualizing the twentieth century as a discrete era of world history due to overlap with the preceding period and disconcertingly radical shifts in the course of global development in the 1900s, contradictory forces and trends, which perhaps more than any other attribute distinguish this turbulent phase of the human experience, render it impervious to

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Social Stratification Is Affected By The Interactions Of...

Social Stratification in Our Community People in our society are often judged, consciously or unconsciously, by the way they look. How someone presents and carries themselves says a lot about them. For this assignment, I chose to go out and judge strangers based on their appearance. The reason I chose to do this was because it was something that I constantly do. Every time I go out, I analyze what class I think a person belongs in and why. In order to come up with accurate predictions, I use the symbolic interactionist view point, which is a framework for building theory that sees how society is affected by the interactions of individuals (Macionis 2014:20). This theory is focusing on the interactions of individuals instead of society as a whole, and why they react in certain ways. I pay attention to the smallest details about that person in order to come to a conclusion. I went out to three different locations and analyzed the seventh person I encountered in each. In order to properly analyze the individual, I used my micro-level orientation, which is a close-up focus on social interaction in specific situations (Macionis 2014:20). The first individual I analyzed, I mentally placed in the lower middle class. My reasoning for this was located in his clothes, location and body composition. He was wearing a grey hoodie with a police logo on it, sweat pants, worn out black sneakers and a drawstring bag. His clothes initially led me to believe that he was in the lower class,Show MoreRelatedHumanity and Social Forces763 Words   |  3 Pagescontrolled by forces of social interaction, while in turn the behaviors of humans control the forces of social interaction in a cycle that controls many aspects of life. The way in which people behave and conduct their lives can be based on a plethora of factors such as social stratification. Through social stratification people are grouped into social â€Å"layers† based on their property, power, and prestige (Henslin). Social locations also play an important role in human behavior. Social class divides peopleRead MoreThe Impact Of Social Stratification On Minorities1195 Words   |  5 Pages†¨During the course of this class I have learned about social problems within the society in which we live and around the world. It is disturbing to learn that poverty, social inequality, race and cultural discrimination, gender stratification, environmental damage, population growth, and urbanization are among the social problems and controversial issues that still exist in the United States. What is Social Stratification Social stratification is defined as a system by which society ranks categoriesRead MoreSociological Imagination, By C. Wright Mills Essay1611 Words   |  7 PagesI SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION CONCEPTUALIZATION As conceived by C. Wright Mills, sociological imagination is the mental ability to establish intelligible relations among social structure and personal biography that is observing and seeing the impact of society over our private lives. Sociological imagination helps an individual to understand on a much larger scale the meaning and effect of society on of one’s daily life experience. People blame themselves for their own personal problems and they themselvesRead MoreSocial Stratification : Social Class, Ethnicity, Age, And Gender1074 Words   |  5 Pages It is in the human nature to be social beings, and have a social identity. Social stratification is the organization of individuals into social groups based on their access to basic needs. Aspects that affect social stratification are wealth, power, and prestige. Wealth is the amount of currency or goods that an individual or family owns. This can include money, houses, livestock, etc. Power is the ability for one to achieve their goals regardless of opposition. Wealth is directly related toRead MoreThe Conflict Theory Of Economic Inequality In Modern Society887 Words   |  4 Pagesgap came to exist and the consequences of such an economic state on the interaction between the middle-class worker and the wealthy businessman. The conflict perspective highlights the notion that society consists of individuals of different social classes and status groups that are of conflicting self- interests. As society is developed, institutions are formed as a means of facilitating the daily lives of the individual; factories multiply the production of goods and educational systems produceRead MoreSynthesis Essay - race and class1447 Words   |  6 PagesWhat is the relationship between social class and race? This question is both problematic and significant because, when attempting to analyze social classes in America, it is important to determine what factors contribute to the establishment of social class. In modern America, despite advancements in civil rights and equality, many things are still divided along racial lines. Are individuals of different races set on pre-determined courses for specific social classes, due simply to their skinRead MoreGender Inequality Within The Workplace Essay1502 Words   |  7 Pagesespecially employment equity, the distinct barrier between genders in the workforce, has become a topic of contention as its affecting working individuals worldwide, especially women. Before examining this problem, we must further understand what gender inequality is in the workplace. Gender inequality is an ascriptive factor, in which limits individuals to reach their full potential in their area of expertise by discriminating based on gender (module †¦). Both genders can have the same qualificationsRead MoreA Sociological Theory Of Health And Illness1668 Words   |  7 Pagesphysicians. According to the health studies patients receive health services from various different medical professions, but only importance of physicians is overplayed(Covington, 2008). Functionalist believes that medicine helps the society and individuals by performing positive function. So they bypassed the downside of medicine. For instance, some of the treatments are given without the cons ent of the patients; especially those given to mentally sick people .Several other medicines can cause illnessRead MoreSocial Stratification : Racial Stratification1878 Words   |  8 Pages#000824068 Week 16 May 6, 2016 Sociology Final Project Stratification 1.1: Racial Stratification Social stratification, as described by our textbook, is the structuring of inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards. Essentially, social stratification ranks people in a society in a vertical arrangement, also known as a hierarchy, which defines them as superior or inferior. In terms of racial stratification, this means that some populations that share certainRead MoreThe Effect Of Neighborhood Environment On Birth Outcomes993 Words   |  4 Pagesinformation about individual exposure was collected retrospectively, which raises serious concerns about recall bias. For example, women with undesirable birth outcomes may be more likely to recall any substance use, and may negatively rate their stress levels and social support levels during pregnancy. Thus, differential misclassification of many individual exposures is highly likely, and hence estimates form the study could be biased. Authors did a good job adjusting for individual socioeconomic variables

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Nike ERP Implementation free essay sample

1. What are the failure factors for the first NIKE-i2 ERP-SCM implementation? All ERP implementations have risks associated that can lead to failure situations. The complexity of ERP systems together with demanding business environment, represent big challenges for companies when implementing an ERP. In the case of Nike, the situation is even more challenging because of the worldwide ERP deployment, and the large and complex scope of the project. Inevitably, and like all ERP implementations, Nike-i2’s project faced complications at the different stages of the implementation cycle but those complications could have been minimized if the so called â€Å"Critical Success Factors† (CSF)1 had been planned and managed properly. Using the 5 stages structure proposed in the report â€Å"Drawing Competitive Advantage through Successful ERP Implementation Projects†2, the failure factors are analyzed in detail in the following sections. First stage of implementation (project preparation): ? One of the failures in the Nike-i2 ERP implementation was the lack of Formalized project plan/schedule. We will write a custom essay sample on Nike ERP Implementation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Feeling the market pressures, Nike did not commit to a disciplined plan and rushed up ERP’s implementation, by â€Å"began to input data for its forthcoming Spring 2001 line when the system was still to stabilize†3 , giving reason to the opinions that projects cannot be driven by external deadlines4. Industry experts also warned about the boomerang effect (tight and unrealistic deadlines would come back in low quality results in the future) but Nike felt â€Å"i2 technology was smaller and therefore easier to implement†. The result was the project failure and a financial storm (reduced profits) in the following financial periods. ? The executive team as the responsibility to define the mission and scope of the project by analyzing the project business benefits and goals, and aligning them with strategic business goals. It is clear that in this case, Nike’s executives were too ambitious by trusting blindly in a forecast system that was not completely adequate to Nike’s business model (model was order based and not demand forecast oriented). As stated in Cnet â€Å"I2 had past success projects with big clients such as Boeing, Nortel Networks, Raytheon and WalMart.. proving that i2 software is not perfect, but if implementation is done correctly, with proper planning, investment and scheduling, it will work well. 5 Implementing software is not a goal by it itself, remaking the business with the help of software is. Nike business goal was to create an efficient global supply chain by reducing inventory and manufacturing cycle, and this was a large and complex goal, thus, the software implementation could not be taken as simple and easy as Nike’s executives toke it, failing to give Sustained management support to the project. In the second stage of implementation (Business Blueprint) the failures were: ? Nike relied too much in the (supposed) power of the forecasting technology and underestimated its impact on the business processes changes such as orders processing, raw materials purchasing, fabric production, and demand management. That impact also affected the way employees and partners used to work. Anytime companies changes employee’s working habits, it can get difficult to them to adapt to the new reality, thus, an Effective organizational change management is critical. Nike failed ensuring that this complex change got the right results by not integrating properly people, process and technology. ? Nike’s business context was very complex (120000 SKUs, operations in all continents, four seasons product turn over and product life cycle very short), thus, a deep knowledge of this industry was critical when implementing new business processes and ERP systems. Despite previous supply chain applications were troublesome Nike hired i2 that was inexperienced in the footwear industry. This situation could have been avoided if Nike had appropriately used consultants by integrating third-party specialists with industry experience in the project’s team. By not managing this factor, Nike took a big risk and increased the probabilities of failure. ? Nike’s business requirements were too complex and over detailed (like footwear’s forecasting for styles, colors, sizes). If Nike had appropriately used consultants and also had promoted User involvement and participation, those experts could had shared their know-how in the definition of business requirements more realistic and aligned with the real organizational needs. The failures in the third stage of implementation (Realization) were: ? â€Å"i2’s software did not offer all the required functionalities†6. Usually, ERP systems do not provide all the functional requirements and i2 system is not an exception. That’s why, ERP vendors offer interfaces to communicate with third-party products. The problem with Nike implementation was that there was not an Critical Success Factors is a concept presented in the report â€Å"Drawing Competitive Advantage through Successful ERP Implementation Projects†, by Jose Esteves Instituto de Empresa (Spain) and Joan Pastor Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona (Spain) 2 ibid 3 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike From failure to success 4 http://www. cio. com/article/32335/Five_Lessons_Learned_from_Nike_s_i2_Debacle 5 http://news. cnet. com/i2-Nike-fallout-a-cautionary-tale/2100-1017_3-253829. html 6 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike From failure to success 1 ? adequate infrastructure and interfaces prepared in advance and tested before going live. The result was that the â€Å"Demand application and its planner did not integrate easily†¦ †7. Nike’s demand for high customization was one of the main failures in this project. To Avoid ERP customization, Nike could have appropriately used consultants to reduce the need of very detail level forecasting (style, color, size). Consultants could have brought also an experienced business vision, focus on ERP processes really needed to run Nike’s business, alignment between Nike’s requirements and ERP functionalities, and ERP best practices (including i2’s recommendations and methodology) Forth stage (final preparation) is critically important to ensure the quality of the results, Nike’s failures were: ? To ensure that the ERP accomplishes the business requirements defined at the beginning of the project a Formalized testing plan is mandatory. In theory, this test plan should cover functional tests, data flow between systems, user testing and performance tests. Nike did not perform any of those tests activities and the catastrophic results were: â€Å"System could not process large amounts of info. It was very slow and crashed†, â€Å"System could not handle thousands of variables to generate forecasts†, â€Å"Demand application and its planner did not integrate easily because different data formats. †, â€Å"System sent inaccurate orders to manufactures and errors were not detected†8 ? In this phase, User involvement and participation, Adequate training program and Preventive troubleshooting are critical to guarantee that: the technical staff and end-users know how to use the system; to prepare users to perform tests; and to prevent unexpected situations. These activities were not performed and under-evaluated by Nike as confirmed in the case: â€Å"it would work with requiring a pilot test†; â€Å"i2 application was smaller†9; No communication between forecasting and inputs from sales and marketing; and no super users used in training. ? Data migration and data testing are crucial activities before system go-live because data is what really gives competitive advantage to a company and data is the core foundation for all business decisions, thus, an Adequate data migration process is essential. â€Å"Analysts raised questions about adequacy of information that Nike input into the system. †10, this means that Nike did not planned in advance the data activities (migration, conversion, cleaning, etc. ) and in the end the result was â€Å"Input data was estimated and didn’t reflect the business reality, thus, forecasts could never be accurate†11 For the final stage (go live) Nike failed in: ? Not giving sustained management support since â€Å"Executives did not hold review meetings, neither analyzed forecasting results†12. This transmitted a sense of no ownership and no own involvement to employees, resulting in no encouragement of system usage. From other point view, Nike also failed on the study of vendor’s evaluation criteria: ? According to the â€Å"six-stage model of the buying process for ERP software†13, one evaluation criteria is â€Å"Association with or the availability of third party vendor/partners† and other criteria is â€Å"Qualifications, experience, and success in delivering solutions to organizations of a similar size, complexity, and geographic scope†. It was clear that i2 did not had experience on the footwear industry and was not prepared for Nike’s business complexity, so Nike should had decided for another vendor with industry knowledge or as an alternative to integrate i2 with a specialized third-party. ? Nike seemed to desire the best-of-breed for each application area, ex: SAP for ERP, i2 for planning SCM, Siebel for CRM, etc. , which is not always the best option. As for i2, Nike knew that there were many disadvantages to choose this vendor, such as: i2 technology could not met all business requirements; data models were different between i2’s demand and planner application raising integration problems with legacy systems; high effort was necessary to customization; there were 2 development and delivery cycles at the same time (one for i2 and other for SAP); and i2 had no experience in industry. A better option would have been to integrate planning SCM with SAP from the very beginning, which turned out be what exactly happened after the i2 SCM project failure. Conclusion Nike-i2’s ERP implementation failed in all stages of implementation on several CSF and also on the evaluation of the vendor. The failures were related mainly to project management and organizational factors proving that success is much related to people and process and not just technology. 7 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike From failure to success ibid ibid 10 ibid 11 ibid 12 ibid 13 â€Å"A six-stage model of the buying process for ERP software† by Jacques Verville and Alannah Halingten 8 9 2. How do you evaluate the role of i2 in this process? Many factors which Nike failed to manage can also be applied for i2, resulting in a shared responsibility for the project failure. ? i2 did actually recommended Nike to â€Å"minimize customization to 10-15% of the software†14 but at the same â€Å"Nike and i2 worked together to incorporate the desired changes†. 15 This means, i2 agreed to do the changes when Nike insisted on high level of customization, thus, i2 also has responsibilities on the high customization failure. Responsibility could be different if the level of customization was written in the contract to be limited by 10%, and above that, i2 would not offer product guarantee. ? The project did not have formal plan and no realistic deadlines. i2 as company, cannot be just a software vendor, it must participate on the plan definition and monitoring. By accepting Nike’s deadlines, i2 was also responsible for the delays and for the low quality of the delivered software. ? Nike began to input data while the system was not yet stable but i2 did not force Nike to stop this. A vendor must deliver his product when it is ready and according to negotiated deadlines. ? i2 did not have footwear industry knowledge but accepted to be part of the project, taking a big risk and being too ambitious like Nike was. The result was that i2 became overwhelmed with the business complexity and in the end the forecasts did not worked out as expected. i2 should had analyzed better Nike’s business and industry, and sub-contracted a third-party specialist in that industry. ? Nike did not use i2’s implementation methodology; executives did not hold review meetings, neither analyzed forecasting results; there was no pilot test and no training. A vendor must also be part of the project management team to: define and negotiate formal deadlines, implementation phases, methodologies, tasks, roles, test plans, risk management plans, performance goals, etc. A vendor must assure that the contract is clear about: who owns the project; who is responsible for what; what resources will be available during the project; what are the expected benefits and results. 3. Describe the main problems associated with ERP software modification (short-term and long-term) Short-term ? More time to implement a modified ERP compared with the time to implement an original ERP. ? Higher costs during project’s implementation to pay analysts to define customized business processes and to pay programmers to customize the new functionalities on the system. ? Higher costs to run additional tests to guarantee customized functionalities work as expected and do not affect the original system capabilities. ? Additional costs to train end-users on the customized functionalities. ? Changing an original ERP that is known and proved to work well may create unpredictable instability, crashes and performance problems. ? Original ERPs typically have pre-built connectors to communicate with other systems. Changing an ERP require additional time, effort and cost to integrate those new functionalities with other systems. Long-term ? The bugs, performance problems, etc. on original ERP are responsibility of the vendor. The customization effects on performance, instability, errors, etc. are responsibility of the customer, increasing future maintenance costs. ? Modified systems may output wrong information, because the original system was not built to be modified and results may be unpredictable, leading to high business risks (including wrong ordering, excess of inventory, etc. ) that in the future may lead to big financial impact on profits for long periods. ? An unstable modified ERP may also create unpredictable instability on legacy systems that worked fine previously. Thus, the impact may be multiplied for other systems and create additional problems in the future. ? Who owns the modifications? If the modifications are made by in-house analysts\programmers, the knowledge stays in-the-company but the company as to pay to retain those employees. If the modifications are made by the vendor\external consultants, the company is locked in with externals. In both cases, the costs rise compared with the no-modification option. ? Original ERP will survive future upgrades, and any problem with updates is responsibility of the vendor. For modified ERP, the customizations may not be compatible with upgrades, demanding new investment in retesting or even re-implement the modifications again.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Prison Population free essay sample

Prison Population: Getting in and Staying in Prison is something everyone fears, someplace no one would ever crave to be. When people speak of prison, it is thought of as a ghastly place, a detrimental affluence. With the vast amount of faculties intended for getting populace into prison, one may start to believe that the regime of our country would relatively incarcerate anybody experiencing a lawful crisis, rather than deal with the predicament and allocate them to lead liberated lives.The rising population, of inmates in the United States, is beginning to be an emergent epidemic, and the faculties for getting people into prison are ample. The United States Judicial System should focus further on creating faculties intended for keeping citizens out of prison by creating more sufficient laws, and producing more thoroughly organized correctional faculties. These steps, altogether, will decrease the overall prison population. Before contemporary America, laws created to get someone into prison were abundant. We will write a custom essay sample on Prison Population or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The number of inmates estimated to be incarcerated in February of 2010, compared to the actual number of inmates incarcerated is nearly equivalent. (McNeil, â€Å"Trends in prisons admissions and population†) According to McNeil, a nine month approximation was taken for the number of inmates expected to be incarcerated in 2010. This number was compared to the number of inmates actually incarcerated, and each time the numbers exceeded no difference greater than two hundred and fifty inmates. (McNeil) Annotated Works Cited Butterfield, Fox. Study Finds 2. 6% Increase In U.