Genentech Case Study

Overview: Genentech Company is facing a lot of problems and difficulties in order to implement and incorporate best technologies for future growth regarding uncertain future of its cancer drugs. The senior vice president of product David Ebersman along with his team is busy outlining the best approach to it. Central Issue: What measures should Genentech employ or implement in order to increase their production and manufacturing capacity to meet the future anticipated and predicted demands over the next 2 to 3 years for a family of new cancer drug? Recommended courses of action: They should try to further improve the current process by boosting throughput. Try to build relationships with other manufacturers and additional companies to meet the Excess demands by negotiating contracts and agreements. Start searching for economical and strategic locations for building up of new manufacturing plant. It’s important to keep looking for space and be ready with a blue print of an additional facility. Try to stay away from messing up with FDA regulations by avoiding long period revalidation. Focus should be laid on fully completing the CCP2 at Vacaville. Basis for recommendations: There is no proper assurance of a continuous growth and increase in sales by creating the CCP3 facility. The investment on implementing CCP3 is worth $600 million. And it is still not clear about the effectiveness and market response of Avastin. The drug could also result in failure and by investing CCP3 will surely cost us $6oo million. The golden rule for the moment is to wait and watch as sales are dependent on market response and there is point investing $600 million with hinting success. Moreover, the location at Vacaville won’t be able to withstand the additional load of CCP3, if we built it on the same location alongside CCP2, which is not fully completed. The process and work force will be at risk of mounted pressure and in turn new employees that might be hired could hurt the comfort levels of existing employees for some time. As the drug is in premature stage it is very risky to play with the existing location and employees. Instead areas like capacity expansion should be researched as it will be costing way less than building up new unit. Also, external cost effective and superior contract manufacturing deals could be stuck from outer suppliers and manufacturers to speed up operation and demands. Through proper research and planning there are incredible chances of improving certain process. They can increase the capacity by 20% by making three changes; by monitoring the raw material to minimize contagion, checking involvement in production process, tightly sealing of the pieces of equipment. Once CCP2 is fully completed the production capacity will tremendously increase. A plan and strategy should be devised to look at cheap, resourceful locations for building new plants and be ready with an action plan. Also, efforts should be laid on hunting technical and cheap labor for building of new plant. Significant factors: Expensive venture CCP3 as building new plant will cost over $600 million. Challenge of facilitating two simultaneous projects. (CCP2 and CCP3 at Vacaville) Uncertain scale and scope of future demand for Avastin. There is a risk of losing profit margins and gloomy sales forecast isn’t helping the cause. Management facing a dilemma and challenge in how to run at large capacity Quality control issues in large capacity.

Breaking Social Norms Essay

Social norms are the customary rules that govern behavior in certain group of individuals. These rules specify how one should behave, and it clarifies what may be considered normal or acceptable to society. The type of norm that I have decided to violate for this assignment is a folkway. Folkways are informal, unstated rules that govern society, unlike laws, which are formal written rules. Folkways are a behavioral adaptation that developed to make social life possible. They are considered less essential to the stability of society since it applies to everyday people. For instance Americans shake hands when meeting, while members of other cultures bow, or kiss. For this assignment I decided to stand outside the mall and hand shake individuals as they walk in and out of the mall. Since norms consist of preferences, rather than demands the mechanism of social control results in sanctions. Whether informal positive or informal negative, these sanctions may result in a simile, or a dirty look. This essay will explore the reaction of individuals when greeted by a stranger and the subsequent actions that resulted. For this assignment I decided to go to South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa. South Coast Plaza is a place where a concierge will check your bags when your arms are too tired, where personal shoppers are at your service, and where your electric jaguar can get serviced while you shop or dine. Around the fancy cluster of shops are Prada, Burberry, Armani, and Tiffany & Co. At the same time you can also find a local McDonald’s, Beackworks, and a Sears at the other end of the mall. Due to its Cultural Diversity I decided to take on the challenge. Considering this, I arrived the location around 10:00am (opening time) on Sunday September 30th. The multitude of individuals roaming the mall were mostly women in different age groups, varying between 20-60 years of age. About 10 people who are walking in and out of the mall are observing me, my intuition is that being a female will prevent these women from feeling harassed and accept my hand shake. As I stood outside the second level Macy’s Valet Entrance I approached the first individual, I extended my hand and smiled at this 20 something year-old Persian woman who pulled out of a white Escalade. She asked if I orked there and if I could guide her to the concierge desk, but she never welcomed my hand gesture. I immediately removed my arm feeling very uncomfortable and guided the way. Breaking this social norm in this case caused a negative informal sanction, and as a result the woman disregarded my hand shake and left me feeling disapproval. The second individual I approached was a Hispanic woman in her mid 30s’ with a stroller in hand, and a 5 year-old boy who seemed very much interested in greeting me. To my surprise, she pretended to have her hands tied up, and asked her son to hold her hand so he would not get lost. Being ignored is a negative informal sanction and it made me feel public ridicule along with rejection. However, a few minutes later an elderly Caucasian woman walking out with her granddaughter acknowledged my greeting. When her grand-daughter did not respond to my hand gesture she exclaimed, â€Å"Honey don’t be rude! Where are your manners? † and the grand-daughter finally welcomed my hand gesture. The polite lady started talking to me about customs and traditions, and how people are not as polite as they used to be. She exclaimed that individuals are too focused on other things and forget their manners. Aside from the previous experiences, breaking this social norm ended in positive formal sanctions; as a result of my gesture the lady smiled and complemented my actions. Correspondingly there were a few other individuals who accepted my greetings, while others looked the other way and pretended I was not there. Individuals who live accordingly to these norms often Theis?.. Almost every single thing we do in life is judged by a certain set of guidelines. When we are growing up, we are taught by our parents of what to do and what not to do. Of course, every household lives by a different set of ideals and beliefs. It can be influenced by religion, the environment they live in, and what kind of government they abide by. However, the one constant which holds true in all households and societies are norms. Norms are established standards of behavior maintained by a society. Norms are important to a society because it pretty much keeps every citizen in a society in check with themselves and their behavior. Laws are not sufficient enough to keep a society at peace. The two types of norms that exist are ormal and informal. Formal norms are pretty much what we call laws in our society, while informal norms are pretty much norms in which there is a mutual agreement among everyone in a society to follow. Norms can be viewed as all the petty things and the serious things combined in which all citizens should abide by. It can be more important than laws in their judgment on looks, whether it is the color of one’s skin, the clothes that one wears and even the way a person carries himself or herself, individuals make instant judgments based on these social prejudices. This perception based on appearance determines the behavior towards the person. A Player Piano In our textbook, â€Å"Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach,† Henslin defines social control as a group’s formal and informal means of enforcing its norms. Two prime examples of social control are positive and negative sanctions. A positive sanction is a reward or positive reaction for following norms. A positive sanction could possibly be given to someone who tries to break and change norms in society for the advancement of the community. A good example of this would be Dr. Martin Luther King’s movement for civil rights. A negative sanction is the opposite, an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm. These reactions can be severe and formal, or they can be mild and informal. How do these ideas of social control apply in the society created by Vonnegut in â€Å"Player Piano? † In the book â€Å"Player Piano† by Kurt Vonnegut, there are many examples of positive and negative sanctions. A perfect example of sanctions affecting lives in a dramatic way was the aptitude test taken by all citizens. If you do poorly on it, then you have to live the rest of your life in the Army or in the Reeks and Wrecks.

Kite Runner Racism

Racism plays important roles in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. The author uses racism to describe the characters and the culture represented in the stories. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses prejudice as a tool to tell this story of betrayal and redemption. He pursues his story with prejudice and racism in Afghanistan as well as in the United States. While the author uses individual characters to tell the story, he portrays the general attitudes and history associated with the characters' Hazara and Pashtun ethnic origins and the conflicts that arise in Afghanistan.Throughout history and even while the story was taking place in the 70's the US of A was going through their tough times with racism and prejudice thoughts and acts towards other ethnical groups such as the blacks, Asians and Latino's. Although during this present era these racist acts and thoughts have been cut down and have been limited to just some states in the south as where in Afghanistan these prej udice acts still exist. Ali and Hassan represent the marginalized group in this story. They are considered by the ruling class to be of lesser value due to their ethnic origin, religious beliefs, appearance and social standing.The author gives us a glance of this when Amir reads about the harassment of, and attempted uprising of the Hazara, and how Amir’s people, the Pashtuns had: â€Å"†¦quelled them with unspeakable violence†. The disregard that people have for the Hazara is reinforced when Amir asks his teacher about what he has read and he responds by saying, â€Å"That’s one thing Shi’a people do well, passing themselves as martyrs†. Assef shows how internalized this hostility is when he says to Amir and Hassan, â€Å"Afghanistan is the land of the Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here†.

Language & Literacy for Young Children Essay

This paper will discuss developmentally appropriate methodologies in teaching language and literacy to young children across a developmental curriculum. Also to be discussed will be the aspects/knowledge’s of language, language diversity and Theoretical Perspectives. In the Beginning There is now evidence that it is never too early to teach a child. Through research it has been discovered that the infant even before he/she is born can hear sound and as we know that is how we acquire language, by hearing spoken words. According to Otto (2010), language development begins when language speakers assume that an infant is a participating partner in conversational settings, even though it is months before the child is able to begin using conventional words. In an article written by Dr. Carmelita Lomeo-Smrtic,Ph. D, she wrote that â€Å"Teaching children to become literate members of society is a daunting task, often relegated to the elementary teacher. However, research on teaching children to become literate suggests that this process must begin well before kindergarten. Research suggests that children are primed for learning language in utero. Also from the Otto text, â€Å"research on children’s perception of speech and the development of the auditory system in utero has determined that the fetus can perceive sounds beginning with the 25th week of gestation and at the 35th week a fetus’s hearing acuity is at a level similar to an adult’s(2010). Knowing all of this has prompted mother’s and some father’s to read to their unborn infant and even â€Å"talk† to him/her. Documented research suggests that infants can distinguish their mother’s voice from the voice of others-including other female voices a first few days after birth (Otto,2010). Aspects of Language It has been established that children begin learning at a very early age, even though they do not begin speaking words for many months. Now we will move on to speak about howthey learn. There are five aspects or knowledge’s of language. -Phonetic, Semantic, Syntactic, Morphemic, and Pragmatic.

Balanced Scorecard

Since the Market downturn in October 2007, a challenging set of economic events has been rocking the financial services industry and AXA equitable has since experienced major changes to keep the company competitive. A well-developed balanced scorecard is what AXA Equitable needs in order to remain a worldwide leader in the financial services industry. In the past, management have believed that the factors critical to the success of a company were based solely upon financial measures; this is why the Balanced scorecard was developed. The BSC has gained increasing popularity as an effective management tool that aligns employee actions and goals with corporate strategy since first being introduced in 1992 (Davis Albright, 2004). Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton proposed the balanced scorecard (BSC). The Balanced scorecard is a widely recognized tool to support decision making at the strategic management level which improves the satisfaction of the strategic objectives (Kaplan Norton, 1992). The BSC provides feedback on internal business processes, performance, and market conditions in order to review the trategy and future plans and  Large U. S. companies, such as General Electric and Federal Express, and non-profit and public organizations have implemented the BSC approach (Creamer Freun, 2010). According to the module, â€Å"financial measures are inadequate, however, for guiding and evaluating the journey that information age companies must make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology, and innovation (Baltzan, Phillips, Haag 2010). The balanced scorecard deals with a proposed model that embraces both financial and non-financial aspects to measure performance of an organization in the financial services industry (Wu, Tzeng, Chen, 2009). The  balanced scorecard[pic](BSC) is a multi-criteria evaluation concept that highlights the importance of performance measurement, and it recognizes that performance measurement should be incorporated in both of financial and non-financial measures; it captures not only a firm’s current performance but also the drivers of its future performance (Tseng, 2010). The balanced scorecard would be a positive force for AXA Equitable as it is a vital part of an overall strategy to become and remain an industry leader. Since times can be unsettling and while no company is immune from the challenges of a volatile market, management should strive to identify the factors that are critical to the success of the company. AXA Equitable needs to implement the measures listed on the balanced scorecard to achieve the company’s critical success factors. This will strengthen the company and continually improve AXA Equitable’s ability to manage through turbulent market conditions when necessary. The Balanced scorecard has four main parts. The balanced scorecard is developed along the four well-known perspectives of Financial, Customer, Internal Business Process, and Learning and Growth Performance, which, at any point in time of measurement, characterize the current status and future potential of organizations (Craig Moores, 2010). The financial perspective includes the measure of an organizations financial performance. For instance, it measures revenue growth, shareholder’s value, assets under management, and cash flow. This perspective links the company to its shareholders with main attention to the question: â€Å"How do we look to our shareholders and those with a financial interest in the organization? † Financial goals include achieving profitability, maintaining liquidity and solvency both short term as well as long-term, growth in sales turnover and maximizing wealth of shareholders (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). The customer perspective includes the measure of an organizations market share, customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer referrals and value added activities. This is the second external oriented perspective that takes a look at the organization’s customers, who are the crucial factor for financial success generating revenue by buying products and services. The question is: â€Å"How do our customers perceive us in term of products, services, relationships and value-added? † (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). The internal process perspective includes the measure of an organizations productivity, research and development, customer complaints and returns, and operational speed. This Measure focuses on the internal processes that will have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction and achieving an organization’s financial objectives. Firms should decide what processes and competencies they must excel at and specify measures for each of them (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). The learning and growth perspective includes the measure of an organizations turnover ratio, hiring goals, education and training of new and existing employees, and number of new and improved products or services. This perspective identifies the infrastructure that the organization must build to create long-term growth and improvement. Intense global competition requires that organizations continually improve their capabilities for delivering value to customers and shareholders. Thus the question remains: â€Å"To achieve our future vision, how will we continue to improve and create future value for our stakeholders? † (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). The best way to measure AXA Equitable’s financial performance is the shareholders value. This shows the value that the shareholders perceive AXA Equitable to be worth. There is strong evidence that the balanced scorecard is an effective strategic management tool that leads to improved shareholder returns (Crabtree DeBusk, 2008). The primary objective of management should be maximizing its shareholder’s value. Since the turbulent economy, AXA Equitable shareholder value is back on the up rise again. This can be seen with the stock price. AXA Equitable stocks, just like most other companies, were not immune to the highly volatile market conditions; However with the market getting back together, the stock price is gradually rising again. The management decisions at AXA should be geared towards maximizing the wealth of AXA Equitable shareholders, which means increasing the value of shares owned by existing shareholders. A good measure of AXA Equitable’s superiority over its competition would be the ability to generate consistent and high total returns that it gives to its shareholders over time. Major company issues will exist with AXA Equitable if management interests are not aligned with those of shareholders. When managers pursue self-serving behavior rather than the maximization of shareholder wealth, several symptoms may become apparent: low stock returns, below-average operating performance, and suboptimal investment decisions. The likelihood of company problems is higher when managerial incentive systems do not coincide with shareholder wealth maximization (Manry Stangeland 2003). It is very important that AXA Equitable management put the interest of the shareholders first. Research suggests that firms with management that pursues its own interests at the expense of shareholders will perform comparatively worse than firms with management whose interests are aligned with shareholders (Manry Stangeland 2003). When a company like AXA Equitable is able to generate wealth for its shareholders year after year, it is able to differentiate itself from the competition and creates better value for its shareholders. Investors who purchase AXA Equitable shares hope that the returns they get on their investments would be higher than what they could get from putting those funds in a risk-free savings account. This shows that the investors are definitely willing to tolerate more risk of ownership in AXA Equitable because of the chance of making higher returns. Assets under management are a measure of the total market value of client assets with the company. AXA as a whole has 1. 46 trillion dollars in assets under management, making it the 13th largest company in the world. One of the biggest advantages of having assets under management as a critical success factor on the balanced scorecard is that focus on increasing the total value of assets under AXA demands continuous efforts and improvement by the management and employees of AXA. This financial measure is not only obvious to AXA management and employees but also those outside the company, i. e. the public. Ranking organization like Fortune 500, use the figures for assets under management as a financial success measure to rank companies against their competition and industries. Constantly increasing the sale of financial products or services is a very important aspect of a company especially one in the financial services industry. AXA Equitable offers a wide range of financial products and services like fixed income investments, equity investments, individual retirement accounts, education planning accounts, life disability insurance and annuities to its clients. The products or services is used to address their needs and help shape their financial futures. The sale of AXA Equitable’s financial products or services is crucial in measuring the financial success of the company. The product or services sale is exactly how the company makes money and becomes profitable. Employees of AXA Equitable earn production credits after each sale of its products or services. Production Credits are the total amount of compensation that AXA Equitable pays to its employees in form of commission for the sale of its products or services. The total amount of production credits earned by each employee is the best way AXA uses to measure employee performance. The Production credits can also serve as a measure of financial performance that AXA Equitable uses as a requirement for other benefits other than commission for its employees. Benefits such as medical plan eligibility, stock options, stocks appreciation rights, AXA Share plan and AXA Equitable Advantage. AXA Equitable should strive for consistent and positive investment results for its investment portfolios. This is very important to a company that deals with attracting new prospects and retaining existing clients. An AXA Equitable client, for example, with a portfolio with poor investment results will not remain with the company if that client can get better results with other financial companies outside of AXA Equitable. AXA Equitable financial advisors manage the managers. Portfolio managers manage the investment portfolios and financial products inside AXA Equitable. Those managers are in turn, managed by the financial advisors that make these investment portfolios available to the clients. The portfolio managers are responsible for picking the equities and bonds available in each portfolio, making changes and the investment results for the portfolios they handle. Clients can benefit from a professional allocated portfolio of AXA Equitable funds that delivers automatic diversification, risk management benefits, quarterly rebalancing, and consistent investment results. The customer perspective section of he balanced scorecard cannot be effective if customer satisfaction is not the number one focus. The first and most important rule for any company in the financial services industry is that the client is of the utmost priority. Financial advisors should learn to put the interest of their clients first before any other interests. Companies in a service industry should understand that customer satisfaction is a great measure of performance. Banks and other companies that deal with providing financial services to the public must first put more emphasis on customer satisfaction, and then on financial return. These companies must ensure that their customers remain loyal to them and develop new markets to attract new customers (Wu, Tzeng, Chen, 2009). A crucial part of maintaining client satisfaction is understanding the clients and their needs. AXA Equitable and its advisors are responsible for making financial recommendations and providing its clients with financial products and services, and financial education to address their needs and help the clients create the retirement of their dreams. AXA Equitable should take sending out client satisfaction surveys to every client on the anniversary date of purchasing a financial product or service very seriously. This Client Satisfaction Index survey is a true measure of customer satisfaction and has helped the company identify the key drivers of client satisfaction. AXA Equitable uses this survey to get client feedback on their financial products and the level of service that their advisors showed the client throughout the year. Value added activity is an important way a company can separate itself from the competition. Companies in the financial services industry primarily offer financial products or services to their clients. Why would a client want to use AXA Equitable’s products and service versus another financial company like American International Group (AIG)? What can AXA Equitable offer that client that no other company can? For example, every financial advisor is required to provide the clients with a contract after every sale of a financial product or service. This contract usually contains copies of signed forms and prospectus. It is better to hand deliver these contracts instead of mailing it to the clients. AIG, a major competition for AXA Equitable, usually sends out thank you cards and client referral forms after every new sale of the company’s financial product or service. This is very effective because it showed that AIG appreciates the client and their business. Value added activities can be as simple as remembering a customers’ favorite drink. Whatever the activity is, managers must find a way to capitalize upon it, as doing so will enable them to gain a competitive advantage. AIG uses this service-oriented strategy to get additional referrals and establish relationships with their clients. BSC is an effective performance measurement tool in performance improvement, which positively affects service quality (Ghani, Said, Laswad, 2010). Exceeding client expectations is another critical success factor on the balanced scorecard that AXA Equitable and its employees should incorporate. When this strategy is taken seriously and done correctly, the clients are satisfied; they stay with the company longer, purchase additional financial products or services and most importantly, refer others to the company. Customer satisfaction offers an immediate, meaningful and objective feedback about clients’ preferences and expectations (Mihelis, Grigoroudis, Siskos, Politis, Malandrakis, 2001). AXA Equitable has provided several tools like eRelationship ® for its financial advisors for client contact. The eRelationship ® platform is a good way for the advisors to have continuous contact and build strong relationships with their clients all year long. For example, doing the simple things like remembering and sending out birthday cards, wedding anniversary cards, seminars invitations, could go a long way in building and maintaining credibility, trust and satisfaction with the clients. When the financial advisor is compassionate and is always willing to help, the clients can now see the true value of the advisors. AXA Equitable needs to generate clients constantly to be successful in the financial service industry. To be successful in this business, the financial advisors have to constantly be in front of their clients. Activities that drive the success of AXA Equitable financial advisors include prospecting and meeting new clients, number of appointments set, running appointments and appointments closed. AXA Equitable uses to 5-3-1 weekly matrix to guide our advisor activities They will be successful every week if they can have five prospecting visits, run three client appointments and sign up one new client†. Internationale Nederlanden Groep (ING), another major competition in the financial services industry uses a performance management strategy to keep track of employee activities. The financial advisors are required to submit their performance goals, development plans, and action plans at the beginning of every quarter to their managers. At the end of the quarter, performance reviews are conducted by the managers to measure the activities and production of the financial advisor. The balanced scorecard will help enhance communication between the client and the organization to ensure favorable organization performance (Wong, Lam, Chan, 2009). The internal business process perspective measures efficiency and productivity level within the company. During the client appointments, after the recommendations have been presented to the client, how quickly and efficiently can AXA Equitable provide the financial products or services needed to the client? This can be done with a software called eDox ®. eDox ® is an online database software that the financial advisor carries with him to every appointment with clients. eDox ® contains information about every product that AXA Equitable offers to its clients as well as links to products from other companies that AXA Equitable advisors can also offer to its client. Intra-industry trade (IIT) has been central to increasing the variety of products available to consumers (Moshirian, Li, and Sim. 2005). eDox ® also serves as a tool that top management uses to send out memos, journals, sales ideas, and information on new product launches to every employee of the company. When the client agrees to go ahead with the advisors recommendation and get the financial products; all the applications and forms necessary to make the sale can also be found on eDox ®. A continual review and constant improvement of eDox ® would be very important to keep productivity levels high to become an industry leader. AXA Compliance department is faced with the task of keeping AXA Equitable and its financial advisors compliant with the governing rules made by the Security and Exchange Commission. The Security and Exchange Commission set rules, regulations and guidelines that govern all the companies in the financial services industry. The SEC draws up new regulations periodically that sometimes make business very difficult in the financial services industry, for example, the 90-24 transfer rule, which involves more documentation for transfers of funds between one financial companies. Meeting these guidelines and standards set by the Securities and Exchange Commission is important to eliminate client complaints, trading malpractice, and negative internal and external audit for AXA Equitable Growth within a company like AXA Equitable does not always have to mean more profits because it is in the financial services industry. To become a leader in this industry, the financial company would have to hire more financial advisors to acquire more clients, which in turn leads to more productivity within the company. AXA Equitable should set hiring goals for its managers each year that the company expects to be met because an increase in the number of financial advisors every year will cause an increase in the amount of business written in that year. AXA Equitable and other companies in the financial service industry are constantly rolling out new financial products or services to keep pace with market volatility and unlimited client needs. The companies equip these products with better features and benefits to make them more attractive to the clients and stand out from the competition. AXA Equitable should be committed to providing its financial advisors with the resources necessary to build a lifelong career. Companies facing intensive competition also have a greater impetus to find ways to differentiate their products and services from those provided by competitors, this frequently results in a greater number of product and service lines and differentiation sought through increased customization of products and services in order to meet specific customer desires. (Guilding and McManus, 2002). The Learning center at AXA Equitable is set up to train and support new and experienced financial advisors. For example, when a new financial advisor is hired, the advisor is required to take some necessary courses on AXA Advisors Virtual University (AAVU) to learn everything about the company, its policies and financial product or services. American International Group (AIG) is another company that has a similar new employee development strategy. AIG developed a New Branch Employee Orientation Program where new employees receive online orientation sessions that include information about AIG, as well as company policies and benefits. AXA Equitable should require additional sessions for training and development for their financial advisors. These sessions should include experiences and accomplishments of experienced licensed financial advisors to keep the all other financial advisors motivated and knowledgeable about everything going on with the company and the industry as a whole. Introducing a balanced scorecard in an organization and implementing the critical success factors identified on it will not be an easy task. When firms develop a  scorecard they often start with a strategic performance measurement system which includes a set of financial and non-financial measures. Afterwards, the cause and effect relationships between the different (sets of) measures are developed further to translate the firm strategy to operational activities (Wiersma, 2009). AXA Equitable’s Management and employees will have to cultivate a change initiative. The increasing use of balanced scorecards is changing the way top managers run their companies. When envisioning a firm’s future development, they no longer focus chiefly on monetary success indicators in the financial area, Instead balanced scorecard is designed to complement financial measures of past performance with their measures of the drivers of future performance (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). Companies need to address issues to help assess competition in their industry. The Balanced Scorecard is generally implemented at the corporate, business unit, and individual level, and also becomes a powerful tool for the directors to monitor the implementation of the corporate strategy.

Challenges Using the AQHR Reseac Paradigm at an Outpatient VA Menral Essay

Challenges Using the AQHR Reseac Paradigm at an Outpatient VA Menral Health - Essay Example (WHO, 2007).Other benefits are; reduced stigma, better access to health care since the patient will be treated for co-morbid conditions such as Hiv /Aids , cancer and diabetes. Using this model enhances easier communication with practitioners and better follow-up of mental health disorders. Integrating of mental health care in primary care systems ensures early detection and prevention of mental health disorders (WHO, 2007). There are a number of challenges in using ARHQ recommendations. Time availability is a major challenge and it leads to overworking of the health care workers due to diverse health care programs. Increasing the number of health care providers can help in solving this challenge. The primary health care providers can also feel uncomfortable when dealing with mental disorders. Reluctance when working with mental disorders is also expected (WHO, 2007). Absence of a good referral system between primary health care and secondary care institutions is another challenge as it reduces the effectiveness of mental health care offered at primary care level (WHO, 2007).Another challenge is organization barriers which include lack of administrative support and appreciation of such research paradigm (Cook and Grant, 2002). Therefore, implementing of this research paradigm may be prevented by bad administrative policies. Organizational barriers are in the form of resistance to change and addition of new responsibilities. Lack of enough infrastructure and staff is another challenge and strengthening of the existing health care institutions can help in solving this challenge. This will involve enabling primary health care centers to offer mental health care services. More medical staff should be trained and recruited to increase competence and quality of services offered, Training of human resource ensures easy identification and treatment of mental disorders. However, this requires more resources which may not be available. Lack of sufficient funding is a

Did Women Enjoy a Higher Status in Early or Late Medieval Societies Essay

Did Women Enjoy a Higher Status in Early or Late Medieval Societies - Essay Example It is important to note from the onset that the family structure in the early Middle Ages was highly patriarchal in nature in that as much as women had rights; the rights of their male counterparts superseded theirs. Bennett (2000, p.142) while quoting the great feminist historian Eileen Power states that the overall status of women during the medieval periods was one characterized with serious problems rife with a culture of misogyny. This assumes female inferiority and a social structure that invests considerable power on the life of men over that of women (Power and Postan 2012, p.22). For example in some societies like Germany and the Roman empire during the medieval times women were of little significance and were seen as objects especially in marriage and family settings. Even in marriage, the man was seen as the head of the union that authoritatively shows that the freedom of the woman both in early and late medieval period was greatly curtailed. Although the women were consid ered inferior during the Middle Ages, some possessed extraordinary power and ability to perform some of the duties and privileges reserved for men. Some of the important and revered women of the middle ages include Hildegard of Bingen, Christine de Pizan and Eleanor of Aquitaine amongst others who were very successful in one aspect of the society or the other. While there is a common belief that women possessed no rights in the Middle Ages, there are situations that show that some societies treated women well especially with the introduction of chivalry that instilled respect for women. Women’s Inheritance during the Medieval Ages Women could not administrate directly their patrimony and laws on hereditary could not favour them whatsoever due to the fact that it was assumed that the women belonged to their parents while they were nubile and to their husbands while in matrimony. Also, the women in medieval period could not divorce their husbands and were not allowed to own any property unless they were widows or inherit property from their parents if they had male siblings. As much as inheritance was greatly controlled by men in the medieval society, some women could make decisions as to the inheritance of property. Most women with vast resources chose to give their property to charities while others sponsored projects such as the construction of roads and bridges that was deemed as missionary in nature. In historical discussions, a woman by the name Frideborg a rich widow who decreed that her daughter should distribute her inheritance to the poor upon her death while in the pagan Germanic society and the Old Icelandic societies, widows had more control over their own finances other women (Wicker 2012, p. 262). The fact that women were buried with their earthly belongings combined with competitive displays of wealth and abundance the women in medieval society lived in. According to Herlihy (1975, pp.1-22), the more the hopes of the woman surviving improv ed and her number of relatives improved the more her social position deteriorated. Therefore, in the early medieval property systems, women had a control over their inheritance and a role in controlling their assets. They however lost this control as the wealth trickled down generations where the control of the inheritance withered (Herlihy 1985, pp.11-13). For those women who wielded wealth and status in the medieval ages, their most important