Harvard Business Review - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 17 Words: 5009 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/09/26 Category Business Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? SPOTLIGHT CAN ENTREPRENEURS SAVE THE WORLD? Spotlight ARTWORK Josh Keyes, Burst I, 2009 acrylic on panel, 30 x 80 A New Alliance 56 Harvard Business Review September 2010 HBR. ORG Bill Drayton is the CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a global organization with headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Valeria Budinich is the founder and chief entrepreneur of Ashoka’s Full Economic Citizenship Initiative. Working together, corporations and social entrepreneurs can reshape industries and solve the world’s toughest problems. by Bill Drayton and Valeria Budinich or Global Change September 2010 Harvard Business Review 57 SPOTLIGHT CAN ENTREPRENEURS SAVE THE WORLD? Social Ch Change PROFILE Making Emergency Care More E? cient Medical Care In India, many lives are lost for want of timely medical care. Not acceptable, decided a group of young Indian professionals, who started Dial 1298 for Ambulance. This initiative makes ambulances simple to access through an easy-to remember four-digit telephone number and provides service regardless of a person’s ability to pay, charging on a sliding scale. With the help of global positioning and real-time tracking systems, the quick dispatch of 1298 ambulances has so far saved some 50,000 lives in Mumbai. —Rasika Welankiwar W work is performed, and businesses grow. Collaborations between corporations and social entrepreneurs can create and expand markets on a scale not seen since the Industrial Revolution. These markets will reach everyone, but especially the 4 billion people who are not yet part of the world’s formal economy. They will offer new and remarkable products and services in sectors as diverse as education, transportation, and finance. You may be skeptical of this claim, and with good reason. The citizen sector—the term we use to define the millions of groups established and run by mission-minded individuals across the globe who are attempting to address critical s ocial needs—has long been regarded as understaffed and inefficient. But that has changed. We work with some 3,000 social entrepreneurs worldwide, and over the past 30 years we’ve seen the citizen sector catch up with business as it has increased its productivity, size, and reach. Its organizations are attracting talented and creative leaders, and their work is changing the game in critical industries and areas such as energy and health care. For-profit organizations today have an opportunity to collaborate with citizen-sector organizations (CSOs) on large-scale problems that neither group has been able to solve on its own. The power of such partnerships lies in the complementary strengths of the participants: Businesses offer scale, expertise in manufacturing and operations, and financing. Social entrepreneurs and organizations contribute lower costs, strong social networks, and deep insights into customers and communities. But to work together effectively, they must focus on creating real economic as well as social value. We believe they can do so by forming what we call hybrid value chains (HVCs), which capitalize on those complementary strengths to increase benefits and lower costs. We are witnessing a sea change in the way society’s problems are solved, This trend has been developing for years, and we’ve participated in pilot projects that have delivered impressive results and promise extraordinary growth. HVCs can now be found in many industries all over the world. Collaboration between corporations and CSOs has reached a tipping point: It is becoming standard operating procedure. Indeed, we believe that if you’re not thinking about such collaboration, you’ll soon be guilty of strategy malpractice. The Vibrancy of the Citizen Sector Before we explore the inner workings of hybrid value chains, it may be helpful to look at how we got here. In the 1700s business became entrepreneurial. Upstarts devising fast er and more-efficient ways to produce goods ushered in the Industrial Revolution. They introduced innovation after innovation, ultimately changing the world. After remaining flat for a millennium, per capita income in the West rose by an average of 20% in the 1700s, 200% in the 1800s, and 740% in the past century. But while the for-profit sector enjoyed sweeping progress, the citizen sector languished. It faced little outside market pressure and relied heavily on funding from governments that, as monopolies, feared competition. CSOs felt little push to innovate; as a result, they fell far behind in productivity, performance, pay rates, confidence, and reputation. By 1980 the imbalance between the business and social sectors of society had become intolerable. (We had great TVs but lousy education. ) New opportunities emerged across the world (except where governments got in the way), and the citizen sector restructured itself to become entrepreneurial and competitive. It rapidl y increased productivity and scale, lowering the cost of goods and services it provided relative to business’s offerings. Since then, the citizen sector has been creating jobs about three times as fast as have other employ- 8 Harvard Business Review September 2010 A NEW ALLIANCE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE? HBR. ORG Idea in Brief The time is ripe for collaboration between for-pro? t businesses and mission-driven individuals and organizations. By forming â€Å"hybrid value chains† the for-pro? t and citizen sectors can together remake global economies and create lasting social change. Businesses o? er scale, expertise in operations, and ? nancing. Social entrepreneurs o? er lower costs, strong social networks, and a deeper understanding of customers and communities. EXAMPLE Local citizen groups helped to persuade Amanco, a maker of water-conveyance products, that small farmers in Mexico represented a signi? cant market opportunity. They partnered with the company to organize f armers into loan groups, promote irrigation technologies, and even install systems. The social entrepreneurs are helping the farmers get ? nancing so that they can a? ord Amanco’s products. This newly created dripirrigation market is worth about $56 million a year—and farmers are enjoying higher yields. ers in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. In Brazil the number of CSOs rose from about 36,000 to nearly a million over the past 20 years. In the United States their number has grown by more than 300% since 1982. Today millions of these groups attract talented individuals who long for challenging and lucrative work that is consistent with their personal values and goals. Take David Green, who helped start Aurolab, an India-based nonprofit that produces intraocular lenses to restore sight to cataract patients. It has managed to reduce the price of lenses from $300 to $10 or less, by using emerging technology and restructuring its manu facturing costs. Aurolab is the manufacturing division of Aravind Eye Hospitals, which charge patients for the lenses on a sliding scale depending on their income. It has captured about 8% of the global intraocular lens market and sells about 1. 5 million such lenses each year in 109 countries. Green, working with Ashoka, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, and Deutsche Bank, has also launched The Eye Fund, a $15 million loan fund that will enable eye-care groups to grow far faster than they otherwise could, significantly speeding the reduction of blindness. Or onsider Rodrigo Baggio, who created a chain of computer schools serving hundreds of slums across Latin America and Asia. He persuaded one organization after another to donate, warehouse, and transport their used computers, and thousands of slum dwellers to set up and run the schools. These schools now boast some 700,000 graduates. We could go on and on. But our point is that many social entrepreneurs are already out there changing the world—and businesses have largely been overlooking them. It was previously safe to ignore the citizen sector, because this segment of the economy was relatively small in scale and low in productivity. That’s no longer true. The companies that work with and learn from the sector and its leaders will reach large new markets. They will also gain competitive advantage from new business models and firstmover benefits. The time is ripe for collaboration because the two sectors are now equally innovative. Together they can promote changes as powerful and widespread as those produced by the Industrial Revolution. Hybrid Value Chains Hybrid value chains represent a systemic shift in the way businesses and CSOs interact. They are collaborations that redefine value in game-changing ways, with each side clearly understanding (and willingly accepting) the risks and rewards. Consider the housing industry. Currently, onesixth of the world†™s population lives in slums and squatter cities. That’s a billion people who are shut out of the formal housing market. If you’re a cement company, a tile maker, a brick manufacturer, a banker, a developer, or a utility, just think: What would it mean for your business if you could unlock the potential of a trillion-dollar housing market? Until recently, that was nearly impossible, because the business world acting alone—with its existing cost structures and limited understanding of local markets—could not reach those customers. Nor, for their part, had governments or CSOs figured out If you’re not thinking about HVC collaboration, you’ll soon be guilty of strategy malpractice. September 2010 Harvard Business Review 59 SPOTLIGHT CAN ENTREPRENEURS SAVE THE WORLD? Social Ch Change PROFILE Providing Public Schools with Supplies DonorsChoose. rg operates on the basic idea that we can improve public education by providing schools with the r esources students need to learn. It gives benefactors a chance to connect directly with classrooms through a website where teachers post projects and individuals can donate to the one that most inspires them. As of June 2010, DonorsChoose had raised more than $50 million, funded more than 130,000 projects, and helped more than 3. 3 million students. —R. W. Public Schools how to serve them. But look what happened when a for-profit ceramic tile maker partnered with a South American CSO. Colceramica (a Colombian subsidiary of Corona, one of the largest building-materials retailers in South America) wanted to learn more about the low-income market for ceramics and home products. We introduced the company’s executives to Haidy Duque, a cofounder of Kairos, which grew out of a human-rights organization that works with people displaced by armed conflict. They collaborated on market research and developed a business plan. Colceramica provided the product—its Iberica tile line—and the technical and business know-how (sales and marketing techniques, for instance). Kairos, in return for fees, recruited and managed a female sales force. That model generated income for previously unemployed women and pushed the product into the hands of potential customers, rather than waiting for a storefront to pull them in. It reduced Colceramica’s distribution costs by a third, so the company could afford to pay a percentage of its profits to the women sales promoters and community partners. Other local CSOs performed administrative functions in return for a percentage of revenues, which they reinvested in community projects. The program, now called Viste Tu Casa (Dress Your Home), launched in January 2006. In 2009 its sales reached nearly $12 million as it expanded to five of the six largest cities in Colombia, in partnership with five CSOs. It has helped more than 28,000 families improve their living conditions, and 179 saleswomen are each earning $230 a month. In India, Ashoka is working with mortgage companies, for-profit housing developers, and local citizen-sector groups to create a thriving housing market—delivering affordable new apartments for the â€Å"informal† members of the local workforce. These consumers often have a steady source of income but lack proof of stability and therefore are ineligible for mortgage loans. India’s housing deficit has been conservatively estimated at about 24. 7 million homes— perhaps the largest potential housing market in the world. And that doesn’t include what will be needed as more than 700 million Indians move from villages to cities. Within this new-construction HVC, CSOs can serve as demand aggregators, bringing groups of consumers to for-profit developers, or as full design and investment partners. More than 2,500 homes are being built, with the promise of another 7,500 within the next 18 months—representing more than $100 million in sales. Agriculture is another market that profits from hybrid value chains. Consider drip-irrigation systems in Mexico, where more than 2 million small farmers live on less than $2 a day and work, on average, fewer than five hectares (about 12 acres) of land. Most companies believe it isn’t cost-effective to serve such low-income consumers. But Ashoka and local citizen groups persuaded Amanco, a maker of waterconveyance products, otherwise. Viewing these farmers as a significant market opportunity, it is reengineering its business model to increase the value of small individual transactions. CSOs are critical to this effort: They organize farmers in loan groups, promote irrigation technologies, and even install systems. They also help the farmers gain access to consumer financing so that they can afford Amanco’s products. This newly created drip-irrigation market is estimated to be worth $56 million a year. The customers have become more-efficient farmers and enjoy higher and more-certain yields of multiple crops, sometimes tripling their prior income. A Win-Win-Win Proposition Businesses that enter into HVCs can expect three kinds of return on their investments: Pro? ts. HVCs unleash many opportunities for growth. For example, on the basis of their joint research, Ashoka and the consulting firm Hystra estimate that a $553 billion market exists for safe, clean, and affordable energy for low-income consumers. Moreover, if a business can construct an HVC to profitably serve lower-income consumers, it can often provide those services to higher-income consumers as well. Knowledge. Companies that pioneer HVCs will run up the learning curve, leaving competitors behind. And as they gain experience, they can carry their new knowledge into different environments. In â€Å"How GE Is Disrupting Itself† (HBR October 2009), Jeffrey R. Immelt, Vijay Govindarajan, and Chris Trimble write: â€Å"Success in developing countries is a pr erequisite for continued vitality in developed ones. † GE is pushing to â€Å"reverse innovate† products in emerging markets because they can â€Å"create brand-new markets in the developed world—by establishing dramatically lower price points or pioneering new applications. When designed correctly, HVCs, too, can be a prime source of such disruptive offerings. 60 Harvard Business Review September 2010 A NEW ALLIANCE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE? HBR. ORG Talent. HVCs require entrepreneurs who can spot opportunities, devise creative solutions, and collaborate with a diverse group of partners. They give companies a chance to identify and encourage talented leaders. They also attract progressive thinkers and increase commitment to employers, because working on this new frontier of business is exciting, socially relevant, and challenging. CSOs will gain at least as much, beginning with access to cheaper capital. McKinsey estimates that philanthropic capital actually costs those seeking it vironment, customers are often asked to make big compromises because existing business models are inflexible. HVCs can help organizations figure out ways to lessen those compromises. For instance, in many parts of India people use stoves fueled by kerosene or wood to cook and to heat their homes, at great cost to both their personal health and the environment. On the advice of the late C. K. Prahalad, BP partnered with local manufacturers and two Indian Ashoka fellows, Muthu Velayutham and Prema Gopalan, to manufacture and sell biofuel for stoves. What would it mean for your business if you could unlock the potential of a trillion-dollar housing market? anywhere from 25% to 40% of what they get, once the expense of pursuing grants is factored in. Capital from for-profit finance firms typically costs 2% to 5%—and, surprisingly, business sources are much more patient. CSOs, especially early actors, will take market share from other CSOs that can’t pro vide the same goods or services. This will allow them to scale up, driving costs down further. The profits from an HVC can be reinvested in the group’s work or used to subsidize those who can’t pay full price for the service or product. CSOs will attract and retain talented people who want their work to make a positive difference on a large scale. And, last but not least, CSOs will vastly improve the lives of the people they sought to help in the first place. Customers, too, benefit greatly from an HVC. They get lower-cost access to high-quality products, from building materials to medical diagnostic kits. Not every situation calls for an HVC, of course. Three kinds of opportunities are particularly ripe for this form of business strategy: Users’ monthly energy costs dropped, as did their exposure to indoor smoke. Although this business is still in its infancy, the goal is to reach 20 million households in rural India by 2020. BP has decided not to continu e, because it considers the business outside its core product line, but local Indian companies in partnership with CSOs and rural retailers have stepped in to fill the gap. When charitable funding and â€Å"free services† can be replaced with genuine markets. Innovative pricing and new approaches can lead to goods and services that deliver both traditional and new value. Microcredit comes to mind: Thanks to the work of Grameen Bank and similar lending organizations worldwide, microborrowers have been able to create their own businesses—spurring economic growth in their communities—while generating a multibillion-dollar finance industry. Constructing a Hybrid Value Chain From our experience devising HVCs and working with organizations involved in hem, we offer the following advice to executives who are ready to build their own: When the citizen sector is large and growing fast. Ashoka estimates that the global low-income health care market is now worth $202 bi llion but will grow exponentially because of emerging business and social innovations. The global low-income food market is even more immense: a fast-growing $3. 6 trillion. Any entrepreneur’s heart would beat faster thinking about all this untapped potential. Ask hard questions about how the business is currently done. The value chain concept, developed simultaneously in the 1980s by Michael Porter and a group of McKinsey consultants, replaced a framework called the business system, which essentially created a product, made it, and sold it. The value chain involves choosing, providing, and September 2010 Harvard Business Review 61 When market values are changing dramatically. In markets such as energy and the en- SPOTLIGHT CAN ENTREPRENEURS SAVE THE WORLD? A Huge Market, and Not Just at the Bottom tom What’s the value of the untapped markets that might be reached by hybrid value chains? If we consider only lowincome consumers, it was more than $6 trillion (in in ternational dollars) in 2005, according to a pioneering study by the World Resources Institute and the International Finance Corporation. Market opportunities in emerging economies have increased sharply since then, because of rising populations and incomes in India, China, Brazil, and elsewhere. A conservative estimate is that these markets have grown 5% annually since 2005. The bulk of the total value comes from: $ 2 202B MARKET FOR HEALTH CARE MARKET FOR LOW-COST HOUSING 4 $424B Look for pricing and ? nancing innovations. communicating the value. It forces managers and strategists to examine the relationship between benefits and price. It pushes executives to think deeply about how customers define price: Do they focus on purchase price or lifetime costs? How price sensitive are different segments? How elastic is demand? These are all critical questions for the would-be creator of a hybrid value chain. Organizations considering one must think holistically about their business str ategy and the industry they’re in. atients in rural areas lacked transportation and needed to work long hours. By putting clinics nearby and using technology to bring doctors to patients, Healthpoint unlocked latent demand, showing that even low-income consumers are willing to pay for quality services. This is a critical point. Just like businesses, HVCs need different types of capital at different stages of their life cycles. They may need up-front seed money, but sooner rather than later, customers will have to pay for the product or service they’re receiving. And designers of HVCs will have to come up with appropriate financing solutions. They may work with nontraditional partners—some utility companies, for instance, provide â€Å"retail† financing at relatively low risk because they are close to their customers— or they may need to work with the usual suspects in unusual ways: The Indian company Selco brought its $400 solar home-lighting sy stem within reach of customers by working with banks and microfinance institutions to help the lenders understand how solar products increase productivity. Other organizations turn to leasing models. Commercial microcredit funds are an early (if small) example of how the finance industry profitably provides direct investments in citizen-sector work. The industry can do so because there are 120 to 150 large, well-established microcredit lenders in whose securities these funds can safely invest large sums without incurring significant expense. Financial institutions will have many attractive opportunities to invest in markets created by hybrid value chains. Indeed, HVCs present a huge opportunity for the finance industry. Here is why: First, because HVCs are businesses, they are both stable and easily understood by businesspeople. Second, HVCs with successful financing structures can generate what finance firms love—millions of loans that $ Reconceive value along multiple dimensions to ? nd new markets. The for-profit Healthpoint Services, incubated at Ashoka, brings together Indian businesses, citizen-sector groups, and forprofit venture capital and social funds to deliver modern, evidence-based health care to rural villages in India. Its clinics, called E Health Points, use telemedicine—video technology and electronic medical records—so that patients don’t have to travel for a day or more (and sacrifice income during that time) to reach a doctor. The clinics keep costs low for patients with a combination of advanced point-of-care diagnostics, generic drugs, and careful local staffing. Consultations are just $1. Many diagnostic tests cost less than 50 cents; none costs more than $4. The clinics also provide clean drinking and cooking water on a monthly subscription basis at a cost of roughly 5 cents a day per household. And when customers come to collect their water, staffers take the opportunity to raise awareness of hea lth issues and early prevention. On the basis of initial success, the finance minister for Punjab has asked that 600 E Health Points be built in that state. Models like this can be exported to many countries, including developed ones, turning scarcity into abundance. Healthpoint already has pilots planned in Southeast Asia and Latin America. For its target market, the scarcity was access to services: Most 62 Harvard Business Review September 2010 A NEW ALLIANCE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE? HBR. ORG 3 36 $ t trillion o 5 3 553B have low transaction costs and low to moderate risk. (Such financing structures themselves are commonly HVCs: CSOs make the loans and sell them to bankers. ) Third, packaging these loans allows financial companies to give their clients a choice among significant social impacts (from housing to education) and locations (from Brazil to Poland) along with solid returns. At least for early movers, the ability to offer so much choice will confer a competitive advantage. Itâ €™s time for the finance industry to develop smart ways for clients to invest in the world and the people who want to change it. Right now, those investors are limited to foundations and various kinds of â€Å"impact philanthropy. † Individuals and institutions should instead be able to invest in financial products that deliver solid returns and enable people to irrigate their land, rebuild their homes, educate their children, and transport products to market. Investors should be able to weigh their risks and rewards on the basis of financial as well as other returns they value. Organize to innovate. Two distinct innovation challenges arise when building HVCs—finding good ideas and developing business models to deliver them at scale. Ideas are everywhere, of course, but they increasingly come from emerging markets. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, says, â€Å"Twenty years from now we will not talk about garages in Sil icon Valley. We will talk about projects in rural areas of India, which are then scaled all over the world. † The Ashoka-Lemelson Fellows program has identified 100 inventor-entrepreneurs, largely from developing countries, who have launched social enterprises in clean energy, mobile technology, water and sanitation, and many other areas. We’ve already mentioned that GE and others have learned to reverse-innovate products designed for emerging MARKET FOR ENERGY MARKET FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND FOOD These markets are all much larger than the oft-touted and explosive one for mobile telephony among low-income populations—and the potential market for HVCs overall certainly exceeds their total value, because HVCs can spread across the economic spectrum. Consider the need for improved education and health care among the urban middle classes in developing countries, or the demand for lower-cost health care, morenutritional food, and a? rdable housing in wealthy c ountries like the United States. markets. Keeping a close eye on these markets is a good first step. Because HVCs are still evolving, there’s no single formula for success. But experience has taught us some lessons about the second challenge—developing business models. We know, for instance, that companies wrestle with where to house their hybrid ventures. We recommend not categorizing such efforts as corporate social responsibility, because the CSR arms of most companies focus on doing good and demonstrating impact but are rarely asked to generate healthy returns. Appoint a leader. HVCs, which start as constellations of potential players, are not self-organizing. It’s time the ? nance industry developed smart ways to invest in the world and those who want to change it. Someone must take the lead and decide who is in and who is out. Because HVCs are a pathway to explosive growth, both partners—corporations and CSOs—will want to assign talented e xecutives to the opportunity. Those people must be patient, persistent, and able to earn the trust of all the actors—that is, they must be empathetic, good at team building, and willing to work directly both across sectors and with unfamiliar suppliers and customers. A corporate intrapreneur or the head of a CSO might lead the team—whoever it is, he or she will have to manage lots of complex moving pieces as the HVC forms. Give the team time and permission to fail. Organizations can afford to tolerate missteps and September 2010 Harvard Business Review 63 SPOTLIGHT CAN ENTREPRENEURS SAVE THE WORLD? The Four Criteria for an HVC Hybrid value chains hains ains can transform industries and create whole new ones if they es meet these criteria: teria: 24 13 HBR. ORG The business has the s th potential to be la in large arge ss scale and to cros borders. ross b wi h ill The best HVCs will have impact, n , enormous impact, not only bott bottom tt on a company’s b tto m millio o lives ons line but on millions of lives. social For-pro? ts and s cial ent trepreneurs work together wor rk her t to create multip kinds ple multiple o val Companies of value. Companies and ompa c citizen-sector organizations org ganizations c capitalize on their particutheir lar areas of expertise to reas expe ertise deliver valuable deliver a valuable product o or service that ne either neither partner could provide on provide its own. C Consumers— —broadly Consumers—broadly d de? ned—pay for the y p product or s service. This s is is not charity work or a y r C CSR project. Sustainability ainability a scalability and scalability rest on p pro? tability. A system-changing idea provides the basis for new c competition. Muhammad Y Yunus’s microcredit idea o of 30 years ago has been e expanded to include health care and insurance products as well as ? nancial services. failures when the goal is to exploit an immense opportunity. Learni ng what doesn’t work will move them one step closer to discovering what does. Of course, results are important—sooner or later the business model needs to show that it can be profitable and scalable. It’s critical to strike a balance between being patient and being demanding. Remember Tracy Kidder’s marvelous book The Soul of a New Machine, about a project team and its race to develop a new computer? Forming a hybrid value chain is a similar story: It involves a relentless team of players who are ready to welcome risks and challenges because they believe strongly that what they are doing is not only about profits but also about human progress. MANY PEOPLE today have the sense that as change accelerates, the world’s problems are multiplying faster than solutions. Slums are growing daily; affordable and sustainable energy is elusive; we are failing to provide adequate health care for many citizens. Whatever the issue may be, we believe that the most powerful and profitable answer is often a new form of partnership between business and the citizen sector, which is now composed of millions of competent and competitive organizations, often led by entrepreneurs. The more eyes we have on society’s problems—and opportunities—the better our chances of coming up with viable solutions. HBR Reprint R1009C â€Å"Impressive resume. Can you still be reached at [emailprotected] com? † CARTOON: TIM LACHOWSKI 64 Harvard Business Review September 2010 Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009 Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business Publishing Newsletter content on EBSCOhost is licensed for the private individual use of authorized EBSCOhost users. It is not intended for use as assigned course material in academic institutions nor as corporate learning or training materials in businesses. Academic licensees may not use this content in electronic reserves, electronic course packs, per sistent linking from syllabi or by any other means of incorporating the content into course resources. Business licensees may not host this content on learning management systems or use persistent linking or other means to incorporate the content into learning management systems. Harvard Business Publishing will be pleased to grant permission to make this content available through such means. For rates and permission, contact [emailprotected] org. Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009 Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business Publishing Newsletter content on EBSCOhost is licensed for the private individual use of authorized EBSCOhost users. It is not intended for use as assigned course material in academic institutions nor as corporate learning or training materials in businesses. Academic licensees may not use this content in electronic reserves, electronic course packs, persistent linking from syllabi or by any other means of incorporating the conte nt into course resources. Business licensees may not host this content on learning management systems or use persistent linking or other means to incorporate the content into learning management systems. Harvard Business Publishing will be pleased to grant permission to make this content available through such means. For rates and permission, contact [emailprotected] org. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Harvard Business Review" essay for you Create order

Women s Rights Of Women - 881 Words

Twenty –first century ladies are discovering it a daunting task to keep up both sexual orientation parts as an aftereffect of the women s activist development. They are presently assuming liability for both the supplier and the nurturer, battling like never before to acquire and keep a superior personal satisfaction. Woman s rights has supported in equivalent vocation opportunity, battling to get ladies acknowledged into the employment advertise, and what initially began as ladies strengthening transformed into ladies ensnarement, straightforwardly bringing about the quantity of females living in neediness lopsidedly to the quantity of men. Ladies rights activists used to criticism social structures that advanced careerism, are currently encouraging ladies to incline in. Ladies don t have a place in 12-hour-a-day official positions (Kay Ebling 170), a lady s regular organic outline is tyke bearing, and despite the fact that she can go work a 12 hour movement doesn t mean she o ught to have the superfluous commitment to do as such. As the neediness rate amongst single parent family units rises, the nature of living, for example, sustenance, health awareness and instruction for her youngsters starts to exhaust. When low wage has been built up, it is gone down from era to era sustaining the cycle. In spite of the way that, lady s rights have asked the women to think occupation, it moreover made a shift in sexual orientation parts. The radical ladies activists pointShow MoreRelatedWomen s Rights Of Women Essay1455 Words   |  6 Pagesa myriad of women have expressed through outlets such as public assemblies, literature, and speeches. There have been three waves of the women’s movement, each targeting a variety of issues within each era. 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I am basing my definition from our modern understanding of woman, our general view, and the popular experience. People are using younger women voting for Bernie Sanders as proof of gender’s irrelevant in this election, that women have achieved their rights. Even if women ‘have rights now’ it doesRead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1393 Words   |  6 Pages Women all over the world are being treated different than men. Iran is one of the places that women are being treated the worst. From restrictions to punishments, women in Iran are being treated with no respect, and that is not okay. Women’s rights activists have tried to get it to change, and have traveled to many places to try and get more people to join their movement. There are many issues with women not having the same rights as men. One of the main problems is that they are treated lessRead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1272 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout history, women have fought a strenuous battle for equal rights. Many men, and even some women, all over the world believe that women do not share the same value and importance to society as men do. On September 5, 1995, Hillary Clinton spoke at the 4th World Conference on Women, on behalf of women all over the world. Clinton raised awareness on how women s rights are being violated and why it is important to recognize women s rights as equal to everyone else’s rights. Even today, in 2016Read MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1052 Words   |  5 PagesThe family has traditionally been the basic unit of Chinese society where women have long been charged with upholding society s values in their roles as wives and mothers. Especially in the Qing Dynasty, women were required to balance society s i deals with the reality of raising a family and maintaining a household. Throughout the imperial period and into the beginning of the twentieth century, the relationship among family members was prescribed by Confucian teachings. The revered philosopherRead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1159 Words   |  5 PagesWomen’s Rights is an extremely ethical topic that is surrounded by ethical theories and has a lot of history. While some of the theoretical systems in ethics have helped to gain women their rights, others have assisted in preventing women rights. Women in America have seen much improvement in our modern day society regarding Women’s Rights, but what about the women in less economically stable countries? Women continue to fight against abuse, hatred, and discrimination worldwide. I will be discussing

Dating Terbrugghens Works free essay sample

The following paper attempts to classify Terbrugghens art in terms of certain stylistic attributes which stand out to classify his art in three categories: Early Period, Middle Period and Late Period. The following paper attempts to date the works of Terbrugghen according to periods in his life. The paintings that are analyzed in the early period are Crowning with Thorns in Copenhagen (1620), Execution of St. John the Baptist in Edinburgh, and Christ at Emmaus in Potsdam. The works that are classified in his middle period are: Lazarus and the Rich Man in Utrecht (1625), Gamblers in New York (1623), and Boy Lighting his Pipe (1623), and finally the works analyzed in his late period are: Jacob, Laban, and Leah in Cologne (1628), The Concert in Leningrad (1626) and Backgammon Players in Sweden (1627). `The chief problem one faces in confronting Terbrugghens art is that of dating his work. The majority of his works are undated and dating them is difficult because Terbrugghen never had a set pattern. We will write a custom essay sample on Dating Terbrugghens Works or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page You cannot set up a chronology because he was an artist, not a thinker, and, therefore, not one to proceed step by step in his works. Terbrugghen was never outstanding as an inventor of motifs but liked to pick up ideas from others and elaborate on them. Throughout his career he used ideas from other artists. He did not use any one artist as an influence in just one period of his work, but tended to use ideas of the same artist throughout his life. An example of this is the influence of Caravaggio that can be seen in some of his works throughout his lifetime as an artist.`

Jae Hwang Essays - Early Middle Ages, , Term Papers

Jae Hwang January 11, 2001 Mr. Bowen Chlodwech and year 496. Chlodwech whom refers as Clovis (466~511) was a son of Childeric I and founder of the Merovingian monarchy. Originally little more than a tribal chieftain, he became sole leader of the Salian Franks by force of perseverance and by murdering a number of relatives. After his marriage (493) to the Burgundian princess Clotilda a Catholic, he had his children baptized but was not immediately converted to a Christian. He converted to Christian after defeating Alemanni in the late 490s. some Gallo-Roman bishops lead by Remigius persuaded Clovis to become a Christian believer. Chlodwech and three thousand of his troops were baptized in Rheims on Christmas day year 496. However, there were some problems that had to deal with conversion of Clovis. Clovis and his troops believed Jesus Christ as a figure who protects them from the battle where they fight. Also they believed Jesus will bring them a victory from the battles. However, in teaching of Jesus Christ, he never talks about he will bring the victory in the war. He never talks about help killing other people. In addition, Gallo Roman bishops offered Franks a liturgy in their own language or to give them a vernacular translation of scripture.

The Other Side of Truth Essays

The Other Side of Truth Essays The Other Side of Truth Essay The Other Side of Truth Essay ‘The Other Side of Truth’ is a novel written by author, Beverly Naidoo. The novel is mainly based on telling the truth and lying, and when it is right to do either. In the book are various types of situations where characters need to make a decision on whether to lie or to tell the truth. Beverly Naidoo provides the correct decisions and the wrong ones in the story. Naidoo shows in the novel, when it is ok to lie and when it is not. Naidoo suggests that if your life is in danger it is considered ok to lie, but if you assume your life is still in danger when it’s actually not you might accidently lie to the wrong people. Naidoo displays this when Sade and Femi find the father in a detention centre and ask him why he is not able to come back home with them. Folarin says that he cannot because Sade lied about who they were to the officials. Now the officials do not believe Folarin when he says that they are his kids. There is a strong message that sometimes one lie is ok in the right circumstances, but consecutive lies could end you up in a lot of trouble. An important quote from the book states this idea, â€Å"A lie has seven winding path, the truth has one straight road. pg. 148. Lying could be a very dangerous thing, telling the truth is the best way to go, but even the truth can land you in trouble. The truth is a very powerful thing, it is important that you tell it, this is portrayed by Naidoo in her novel. Naidoo has based the whole novel around the truth. In the story it is used when it should and shouldn’t be. Folarin Solaja is the main protagonist in the novel when it comes to the im portance of telling the truth. He states several quotes about how important in his mind, it is to tell the truth.

Definition of Social Distance in Psychology

Definition of Social Distance in Psychology Social distance is a measure of social separation between groups caused by perceived or real differences between groups of people as defined by well-known social categories. It manifests across a variety of social categories, including class, race and ethnicity, culture, nationality, religion, gender and sexuality, and age, among others. Sociologists recognize three key types of social distance: affective, normative, and interactive. They study it through a variety of research methods, including  ethnography and participant observation, surveys, interviews, and daily route mapping, among other techniques. Affective Social Distance Affective social distance is probably the most widely known type  and the one  that is the cause of great concern among sociologists. Affective social distance was defined by Emory Bogardus, who created the Bogardus Social Distance Scale for measuring it. Affective social distance refers to the degree to which a person from one group feels sympathy or empathy for persons from other groups. The scale of measurement created by Bogardus measures this by establishing the willingness of a person to interact with people from other groups.  For example, an unwillingness to live next door to a family of a different race would indicate a high degree of social distance. On the other hand, willingness to marry a person of a different race would indicate a very low degree of social distance. Affective social distance is a cause of concern among sociologists because it is known to foster prejudice, bias, hatred, and even violence. Affective social distance between Nazi sympathizers and European Jews was a significant component of the ideology that supported the Holocaust. Today, affective social distance fuels politically motivated hate crimes and school bullying among some supporters of President Donald Trump  and seem to have created the conditions for his election to the presidency, given that support for Trump was concentrated among white people. Normative Social Distance Normative social distance is the kind of difference we perceive between ourselves as members of groups and others who are not members of the same groups. It is the distinction we make between us and them, or  between insider and outsider. Normative social distance is not necessary judgmental in nature. Rather, it can simply signal that a person recognizes differences between herself and others whose race, class, gender, sexuality, or nationality may differ from her own. Sociologists consider this form of social distance to be important  because it is necessary to first recognize a difference in order to then see and understand how difference shapes the experiences and life trajectories of those who differ from ourselves. Sociologists believe that recognition of difference in this way should inform social policy so that it is crafted to serve all citizens  and not just those who are in the majority. Interactive Social Distance Interactive social distance is a way of describing the extent to which different groups of people interact with each other, in terms of both frequency and intensity of interaction. By this measure, the more different groups interact, the closer they are socially. They less they interact, the greater the interactive social distance is between them. Sociologists who operate using social network theory pay attention to interactive social distance and measure it as the strength of social ties. Sociologists recognize that these three types of social distance are not mutually exclusive and do not necessarily overlap. Groups of people may be close in one sense, say, in terms of interactive social distance, but far from another, like in affective social distance. Updated by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.

Wellness plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Wellness plan - Essay Example As an individual, daily exercise has been part of my life since my childhood in my home country [United Arab Emirates]. I have to admit, however, that my university studies in the United States have had a bit of disruptions on the daily exercise hours. I had to reorganize myself for better grades in my first year, and as such, a lot of gym time had to be slashed to keep the scholarship grants flowing. The fear of failing myself and my parents who were very much against my studies abroad at age 17, which they considered too young to face the outside world individually. As a person with knowledge about the benefits of exercises informed by a long history of family engagements with physical exercises, it is a concern that I had forego the daily physical exercises, for the health consequences are but serious both in terms of monetary cost and health wise. I, thus, plan to increase and breaded my daily exercises to include walking upstairs rather than the use of lifts, outdoor bicycle rid es, among other co-curricular activities such as swimming. In my yet to be reorganized schedule, four sessions a week in the gym will be a mandatory undertaking by week four. In the meantime, more so in the very first week, I have purposed to take in swimming, playing tennis, carting and bowling. These activities are not only fun, but does help to enhance my health even without going to the gym everyday. That in addition to the physical exercises, good nutrition and a healthy body weight must be pursued to guarantee a person’s overall health and well-being. Due to pressures of class work, I have developed poor diets, with fast foods getting on my menus almost on a daily basis. Changing my food diet will, thus, help a great deal in my pursuit of a healthy lifestyle as well as jolting my efforts in keeping up with warding off lack of exercise related diseases. Such foods rich in

Week 6 posts 6330 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 6 posts 6330 - Assignment Example Insertion of urinary catheters using aseptic technique in female patients is very sensitive practice and it requires a comprehensive knowledge in the area in order to avoid causing any harm. The description you have given is quite informative and I must agree that the systematic learning experience will definitely ensure the students that attend the class are well versed with the technique. Similar to what Billings and Halstead (2012), state in their text that learning objectives and checklist provide direction for students while practicing and learning the clinical skill, I found this to also apply to your learning experience design. It is true that may people do not consider self-administration of insulin to be a sensitive matter that needs care and hygienic conditions. You have mentioned that the skill will be learned over several sessions. Do you think that patients will be patient enough to attend all those sessions? Your post made me recall a sad situation I had in my childhood when a fellow student leg had to be amputated due to a wound infection that was not well dressed. He had stepped on a nail on his way from a camping site and after going to the nearby health Centre, the nurse who attended to him did not carry out the right procedure and soon after my friends leg was in a worse situation. It is therefore important for nurses to prioritize such a small topic such as would assessment with great interest. Just the way Silverstone (2004) elaborate more on the importance of proper educational practices a proper evaluation method that is valid and authentic must be used to leave no room for

Advancement of video games Essay Example for Free

Advancement of video games Essay In this paper I will show and explain how the advancement of video games consoles has changed Humanity in more ways than one. I will show how the inventors started their Empires by selling plain, simple playing cards all the way to online gaming linked all around the world. How Nintendo and Atari started as two of the giants in the gaming world and then how Nintendo almost died out when Sega came out with their console. I will also explain how the video game mindset changed overtime and evolved into something worldwide. Hanafuda (President) was the name of the very first 52 deck set of playing cards sold by Fusajiro Yamauchi and his Nintendo Koppai. Fusajiro had a bigger plan and dream. This lead to the first Beam Gun made by Nintendo in 1969 (See PIC. 1) A new employee to the company by the name of Gunpei was told that he should â€Å"Do something new† for Nintendo as the Christmas season was swiftly approaching. Within a few short days, Gunpei introduced the Ultra Hand which was an arm toy. This sold a whopping 1. 2 million copies. (Unknown Author, 2011) The Beam Gun was an Opto-Electronics and was the first of its kind. This was the beginning of Video Game Consoles. (Moby Games, 1999-2012) Even though the Beam Gun was a major success, the official â€Å"Video Game Craze† would not kick off until 1975, when Nintendo signed a contract to work alongside Mitsubishi and produce the first known Cabinet Micro-Computers also known as Arcade Systems. (Moby Games, 1999-2012) Around this same time two friend’s names Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney would also create their own version of a coin-operated arcade cabinet with a space like theme and called it Computer Space. Both Bushnell and Dabney would become Co-Founders of the Atari Company, Nintendo’s first biggest competition. With all the success of Nintendo, a second known Video Arcade company would step up to challenge Nintendo in sales. This company was Atari Co. Atari’s first break-through was signing a deal with Sears Roebuck Co. and having their â€Å"Atari Pong† featured in Sears Roebuck’s catalog. (See Pic2) The Atari Pong went on to sell over 150,000 units. This set the way for Atari’s most known and most popular creation, The Atari 2600. (Unknown, 2011) The Atari 2600 was released just before the Christmas season of 1977 at $199. 99. The Atari 2600 was the first console that introduced Pac-Man and went on to sell well over 30 million units before being discontinued in 1992. While Atari had the 2600 with Pac-Man to play on it, this pair was pretty much the â€Å"match made in heaven† but Nintendo didn’t cross their hands and let Atari win over the industry they created. Nintendo introduced the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System, see PIC. 4) The NES was released in July of 1983 and featured classic games such as Zelda, Tetris, Donkey Kong and the most popular game of them all, Mario Bros. Nintendo showed to be the stronger of the two as the NES went on to sell over 61 million units before Nintendo discontinued the system with the release of the Super Nintendo which was a 16bit unit as to the NES which was an 8bit unit. These two companies would be the only two standing video game companies until Sega Genesis came out in the early 90’s and promised to give Nintendo a good challenge. Sega came out with a bigger marketing scheme and also, a much faster system. By this time, more than 800,000 Nintendo NES units were sold worldwide making it difficult for any company to come anywhere near Nintendo’s sales numbers and simultaneously get the consumer to spend another $150 on a new console that had faster graphics and more life-like sports games. Sega spent a lot of money marketing their Sega Genesis system by bashing on Nintendo’s graphics. Sega Genesis made several commercials and a slogan stating â€Å"Sega does what NintenDON’T† (here is a link to one of the commercials, http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=zlulSyBI2aY). By the early 2000’s Sega had developed a system that connected to the internet. This would be the beginning to a whole new gaming world. (Unknown, 2007) Sega invented the Sega Dreamcast which had the feature of being able to log online from your console. This was great at first until consumers noticed that the unit kept crashing and slowing down while online. This was never corrected by Sega which lead to the downfall of the Dream Cast system. Nintendo and Sega would stay at the forefront in the gaming industry until Sony decided to invest into the â€Å"Gamers world† creating the first ever Sony Playstation in 1994 (See PIC6). Sony had perfected what the Dreamcast lacked in and featured faster online game play and up to 4 jacks for 4 player gaming. Sony decided to release the Playstation 2(See PIC7). I personally remember this system because at the time of its release in November, 2000. I was working for Montgomery Wards. The night before it was scheduled to hit shelves nationwide, there was people camping outside to be the first to buy the Sony Playstation. I remember stopping and staring for a while as hundreds of people lined up with camp tents and blankets to keep them warm on a freezing cold Chicago night just to be the first to purchase this Sony sequel to a very successful Playstation system. The PS2 went on to sell well over 154 million systems worldwide making it the most popular gaming unit and taking the historic sales that the NES had produced from the 80’s and early 90’s. I highly doubt that Mr. Fusajiro Yamauchi would have ever thought that his company would go from selling plain old playing cards to a gaming world never thought possible. Lets forward to 2012. To this date there are three major consoles out in the market. The PS3 made by Sony playstation, the X-BOX 360 made by Microsoft and the Nintendo WII (See PIC8, 910). The features on these units are incredible. For example, the PS3 has an integrated blu-ray reader so you can play your blu-ray, DVD and CD’s on the PS3 console. Both the PS3 and X-Box 360 have online gaming where the player can actually login online and play a game with someone on the other side of the planet. There are headsets where you can listen and speak to other gamers from anywhere in the world. The PS3 and Nintendo WII have taken it one step further. On these two consoles you can now download Netflix and watch an unlimited number of movies straight from your console. In this essay I have shown and explained the advancements of video game consoles and how they changed Humanity in more ways than one. In my opinion the advancements of Game Consoles have been a perfect example on how we as people progress and improve over time. Anything we did 20 or 30 years ago cannot compare to what we have now. We can be talking about cars, buildings, computers, the way we communicated from mail to email to facebook and video gaming is no exception to these constant improvements and progress. PIC. 1 this was the Beam Gun created by Nintendo PIC. 2. This was the Atari Pong featured in Sears Roebuck Co. Catalog PIC. 3. Atari’s biggest creation, the 2600. PIC4. Nintendo’s NES system PIC5. Sega Genesis Console. PIC6. Sony Playstation PIC7. Sony Playstation 2 PIC8. Microsoft X-BOX 360 PIC9. Sony PS3 PIC10. Nintendo WII Video Game Consoles Annotated Bibliography Unknown Author, 2011). The History of Nijtendo: 1960-1970. http://www. snesclassics. com/history/nintendo. php This article explains a history on how Gunpei designed Nintendo’s first hand held video game and opened the door to a new concept for the Nintendo Company. Moby Games (1999-2012). The fall of Nintendo: Nintendo’s Beginnings. http://www. mobygames. com/featured_article/feature,15/section,129/ : This article provides information on the beginnings of what eventually would become the largest manufacturer of Video game consoles, Nintendo Co. It explains how Fusajiro Yamauchi, began the company in a small town in Japan. The company manufactured playing cards known as Hanafuda. This was a 52 deck set of Japanese playing cards. The article explains how the company evolved from playing cards to manufacturing a system called the Beam Gun Series which used opto-electronics in 1969. In 1975 Nintendo signed a contract with Mitsubishi to produce the first ever electronic video recorder (EVR). This evolved into the cabinet micro-computers also known as coin operated arcade games in the 1970’s and kicked off the arcade game craze. Unknown Author(2011). Video Computer System: Atari 2600. http://www. atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600menu/2600menu. htm : This article explains how Atari’s first home video game console, the Atari 2600 was developed and sold in 1977. The initial selling price was $199. 99 which was a lot of money back in the 70’s. IT also explains how a merger with Nintendo was about to happen until Ray Kassar, Atari’s CEO was let go. This made Nintendo change their mind and went on to produce their console solo. Unknown Author (2011). Atari Consoles: Atari Pong. http://www. atarimuseum. com/videogames/dedicated/homepong. html : The Atari Pong was very popular in bar scene during the early 70’s. Atari arcade engineer Bob Brown designed a home version of Pong and got Sears Roebuck Co. to add it into their catalog. Sears was hoping to sell 50,000 units by Christmas of 1977 and ended up moving 150,000 units. Unknown Author (2007). Sega Genesis: Where were you when the 1980’s were about to end? http://www. digitpress. com/systems/genesis. htm : This article is great because it explains how the feeling was around the time when Sega Genesis came into the market to give Nintendo a run for their money with the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog and slogans such as â€Å"Sega does what Nintendon’t†.

Periods of European History that Demonstrated Changing Attitudes Towards the Education of Women :: European Europe History

Periods of European History that Demonstrated Changing Attitudes Towards the Education of Women Throughout the early portion of modern European history, women were never encouraged to undertake any significant education. Though the problem lessened over time, it was still a strong societal force. There were three major time periods when substantial changes took place in attitudes towards women's education -- the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Seventeenth and the early Eighteenth centuries. The earliest time period, the Renaissance, may have actually been the most liberal time period for women's education. The church was the only force at this time that discouraged education. In Erasmus's book "The Abbot and the Learned Lady", The church's position on this issue says that education does not protect the chastity that was necessary for women. There were still, however, a certainty that women could and should be educated. For example, in Castiglione's book "The Courtier", it is stated that women are capable of everything that men are. Also, Roger Ascham has described his female student(the future Queen Elizabeth I) as equally bright as any other male student of his. Furthermore, in a letter by the poet Louise Labe`, she states a need for women to "raise their head above their spindles" and take up studying. The next age, the Reformation and the catholic Reformation, saw a dramatic and conservative change toward the attitudes of education for women. Martin Luther, a leader of the Reformation, was quoted as saying that God made men with broad shoulders to do all the intelligent, and women with broad hips to do the "sitting" and housework. Agreeing with Martin Luther, was Emond Auger, a French Jesuit, who said "there is no need for women to take time out from their work and read the Old and New Testament" and also that "Women must be silent in church". The third age of early modern European history is the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, in which men at large were still strongly against the education of women, but they had reached a compromise to some extent. They allowed women to be educated on a minor level, as Mme. de Maintenon(wife of Louis XIV) says "Educate your middle-class girls in the middle-class way, but don't embellish their minds", but a women could never go beyond that. It seemed also that some men had conflicting view points on this issue. In Moliere's play "The Learned Ladies", educated women are

Daniel Goleman Theory of Emotional Intelligence Essay

The cognition ability among humans is as varied as their physical abilities. However, one apparent fact is that they all possess some similar characteristics. Psychologists have often tried to understand humans by studying their behavior and explaining it in terms of sense cognition. As such, it has been argued that the way a person perceives and interprets his physical world, described and exhibited in behavior, is determined by intelligence. However, psychologists are not yet agreed on the exact definition of intelligence even though there are some agreed upon attributes that can be attached to the concept. The ability to comprehend complex ideas, handle situations effectively and reason is varied among humans. It is recognized that this variation is substantial but never consistent as an individual will exhibit different intellectual performance on different occasions. The concept of intelligence is thus aimed at rearranging and clarifying these complex phenomena. There has been progress with regard to rearranging and clarifying these complex phenomena even though they still do not command universal assent. Psychologists have often focused on cognitive aspects on their analysis of intelligence. In other words, emphasis has always been laid on such aspects like memory and problem solving skills. However, some psychologists recognize the importance of non-cognitive aspects in analyzing intelligence. In his definition, David Wechsler identifies such factors like rationality, purposeful action and ability to handle the environment effectively as the main features of intelligence. In his early works, Wechsler identified non-intellective as well as intellective aspects. By intellective and non-intellective aspects, he was referring to social, personal and affective factors. (Wechsler, 1940: 444-445) He further held that the possibility of success in life is dependent upon non-intellective abilities. In recent past, a new aspect has emerged with regard to intelligence and this has been motivated by the need to explain how emotions and thought impact on each other. It is thus in the interest of this paper to look at this aspect of intelligence which has gained prominence in the field of psychology. This new aspect is what has been referred to as emotional intelligence. In this paper, I will look at the development, theories and elements of emotional intelligence. What is Emotional Intelligence: Background The term emotional intelligence was coined by Salovey and Meyer in 1990. When they coined this term, they were well aware of the previous work by other psychologists on non-cognitive aspects of intelligence. In their description of emotional intelligence, Salovey and Meyer viewed it as the ability of an individual to guide his or her thinking and action through monitoring his or her feelings and emotions (and those of others) and compare them against his own. As such, they considered it a form of social intelligence. The study in this field of social intelligence emerged as a result of research in the field of cognition and affect. Research in this area also gained prominence as a result of works by other psychologists who pointed out that there could be a cognitive connection between mood and judgment. These psychologists suggested that there could be a possibility that when a person gets happy, for instance, he is bound to cognitively judge his past positively thus elevating his moods further. On the other hand, bad moods lead to negative thoughts thereby increasing or worsening the condition. Robert Zajonc (1980) suggested that in determining attitudes, feelings played a bigger role than cognition. His argument was that it is feelings which paid attention to the physical world. This view emanated from an empirical conception of human life. It is a widely held position that it is the senses that is responsible for feeding the brain with information for interpretation. This on the other hand affected or is affected by moods and memory. The influence of mood on memory was examined by Gordon Bower who described an activation model of memory. He observed that happy moods influenced happy thoughts while on the other hand, sad moods influenced sad thoughts. (Bower, 1981) According to him, if one was in the state of happiness, he is bound to view his past social actions positively which in turn stimulates positive thoughts. On the other hand, if one is sad, he is bound to view his past as a series of failures within the social realm thereby increasing his sadness. As such, the state of mind influences attitude and cognition. This analysis by Bower helped in the comprehension and explanation of many empirical aspects of emotional intelligence. Much contribution in the field of emotional intelligence was brought by Clerk and Fiske’s ‘Affect and Cognition’. A departure from research on the interaction between emotion and cognition was marked by the study of emotion and thought by social, personality and cognitive psychologists. The concept of defense mechanism by Sigmund Freud even though put emphasis on the pathological factors, also recognized and emphasized on the interaction between thought and emotion. The view that emotions prejudiced and disrupted thought was inherited when the cognition and affect literature surfaced. The idea that emotions and thought caused biasness went hand in hand with the idea that emotions could be adaptive for thought. This went on as inquiries into emotions and thought diverged from an emphasis on psychopathology to normal everyday thoughts and moods. The result was the idea that intelligence and emotions can integrate to perform complex information processing that either cannot manage independently. This was the development of the concept of emotional intelligence. Salovey and Mayer in their attempt to develop accurate and valid measures of emotional intelligence initiated a research program which was also meant to explore its significance. Daniel Goleman recognized their work which led to his formulation of the theory of emotional intelligence. Theories of Emotional Intelligence There is a general conception that emotion and intelligence are two distinct concepts which cannot integrate. As such, the term emotional intelligence appears as a contradiction. However, emotions often convey messages which can be processed. That is, they signal relations. This assumption makes the term sensible. Philosophers have often inquired into the nature and meaning of emotions and came into a conclusion that they define the relationship between an individual and other members of the society. As such, every emotion defines an individual’s relationship with himself and his relationship with others. There is a universality and regularity in the meaning of emotions. Comprehending the universal meaning of emotions was adopted by cognition and affect researchers. A system which defined joy as a positive feeling which comes after an assurance that an action will be rewarded and relief as a positive feeling which points to the absence of punishment was outlined by Roseman (1984). A similar approach was taken up by Ortony, Clore and Collins (1988) which defined joy as a â€Å"well being† emotion which comes as a result of self reaction to desirable occurrence. Emotional intelligence can be fragmented into four branches of abilities. These include perceiving and expressing emotions, integrating emotions in thoughts, comprehending and managing emotions. All these are important in the overall theory of emotional intelligence. Perceiving Emotions Accurate perception is the first step in emotional information processing. The system of emotional perception is a product of evolution built through time so as to facilitate communication between parent and child. The child therefore learns emotions from the mother. For instance, when the infant smiles, her mother reflects back the kind of face associated with smiling which in this case is contracting the cheek’s muscles. As a person grows, he learns to generalize patterns of how emotions are manifested in the physical realm which includes objects, artwork and even other people. For instance, a person may associate a relaxed shouldered posture with calmness. Emotional integration After the perception of an emotion, it has the capacity to influence cognition at various points of processing. Emotional integration thus focuses on the contributions that emotion makes in the reasoning process. Various suggestions have been put forward on how emotions may facilitate cognition. According to Easterbrook (1959), Mandler (1975) and Simon (1982), emotions provide an impulse to prioritization. (Tad. In John D. Mayer, Emotions, Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence. p. 420) For instance, someone in deep concentration in say, a movie is oblivious of the surrounding environment, even the couch he is seated on. Nonetheless, he may experience a growing sense of anxiety and on hearing the voices of children outside; he realizes that he is supposed to be in a psychology class. The interrupting anxiety to some extent is a second processing system independent of the central cognitive system. As such, it enables cognition to direct resources to a problem until and unless a competing response emerges. Another way through which emotions help cognition is by functioning as a secondary store about emotions themselves. For instance, if an artist wants to paint suffering, he reflects back on an experience or scene of suffering and recreates the feeling. The act of mood cycling or mood switching is another way through which emotions contribute to intelligence. Cognitive system is often refreshed by mood alterations. These mood alterations have a consequence of bringing various emotional tools to handle a particular problem. According to Mayer, a shift in judgment through increasing motivational direction may enhance functioning. (Ibid. 421) A cycling of moods also provides different perspectives on a subject or problem thereby enhancing creativity. Mood can also assist intelligence by providing implicit information on past experiences. As such they act as references in decision making processes. For instance, one may have some facts on a given event but still would not be in a position to choose which of his alternatives is best for him. As such, he reflects back on his feelings towards those alternatives. Emotions thus summarize these past experiences. Comprehending Emotion The closest branch to traditional intelligence is understanding emotions. The hypothesis is that there exists a mental processor whose main function is to understand, abstract and reason about emotional data. Labeling feelings and understanding what they represent are just but part of this processing. For instance, one may label a feeling love. As such, he or she recognizes that love reflects upon relationship with other people. Emotion Management This is the final branch to emotional intelligence model. It involves the management of emotions for personal development and growth. For instance, an informative emotion enables one to gather information about his environment, especially the social environment, if one opens himself for such information. People open to sadness will best understand the painful conditions which man has to grapple with in the course of existence. This also enhances the good in the sense that one may not be in the position to appreciate blessings if he doe not understand the difficulties in life. For instance, after sacrificing ones time to study hard, he may achieve happiness when he graduates with a first class honors. However, openness is not the end of management. The knowledge gained from perceiving, integrating and understanding emotional dispositions must be put into practical use in order to maximize emotional management. In other words, it is through perceiving and understanding emotions that one knows the consequences of experiencing them or blocking them. The theory has left open the way in which emotional intelligence manage emotions. Intelligence enables one to explore and evaluate possibilities with their own goals in mind. Even though one may hope that many people manage their emotions well, emotionally intelligent individuals at times manage their feelings negatively. Discussion The foundations of the new theory of emotional intelligence are based on the field of cognition and affect. As inquiries were made on how thoughts were altered by emotions by cognition and affect researchers, a shift emerged from the clinical researchers who emphasized on how thoughts were pathologized by emotions. Normalization of such phenomena was started by the cognition and affect researchers who who found them in everyday human behavior. The focus of emotional intelligence was thus how emotions and intelligence facilitate each other mutually in order to create a high level of emotional information processing and a higher level of thought. A model of emotional intelligence was formulated which viewed it as a form of intelligence mainly concerned with processing emotional signals related to relationships. As such, emotional intelligence is concerned with the capacity to consider emotions rationally for better management. Measuring Emotional Intelligence The assessment of intelligence is done entirely by ability tests. As observed earlier, theoretical model construction and measurement procedures are involved in the development of emotional intelligence. Individuals who take ability tests are subjected to relevant mental tasks within a controlled environment. This is meant to measure their optimum mental performance. However, the examination of many different skills which may be tied to intelligence is a requirement for the establishment of intelligence. This is so because the existence of intelligence is based upon the intercorrelation between skills which also develop with age. The Value of Emotional Intelligence When people are confronted with setbacks or failure, they tend to make some causal attributions. Optimists tend to make external attributions that are temporary and specific while pessimists make internal attributions which are universal and permanent. This is according to learned optimism construct developed by Martin Seligman. In a research carried among salesmen by Seligman and his colleague, they found that optimistic new salesmen sold more insurance in their first years than the pessimistic ones. When the company hired another group of individuals who failed normal screening but scored high on optimism, the made more sales than the pessimists by 21 per cent. (Schulman, 1995). an aspect of emotional intelligence which has exhibited much success is the ability to handle stress and manage feelings. Tests of Emotional Intelligence According to Goleman, even though entry level executive positions require technical skills and IQ, high emotional intelligence is an integral part of high performance leadership. A simple emotional test based on theories by Goleman can help identify emotional intelligence and leadership. As such, one may establish his emotional intelligence through the use of emotional intelligence test so long as it is based firmly on emotional intelligence theory. A happier and more balanced lifestyle can be achieved by an awareness of ones emotional abilities which may also help in improving his emotional intelligence. Rating of ones ability to regulate his emotions in a balanced and healthy manner can be achieved through emotional intelligence tests. After the completion of the test, an individual is in a better position to comprehend his greatest emotional strengths and weaknesses which enables him to evaluate his aptitude in every emotional category. Emotional intelligence theory is also important in identifying the emotional intelligence of a child which provides abase for emotional intelligence training. Developing emotional intelligence skills require that one is in a position to identify his emotional intelligence strengths and weaknesses. References Bower, G. , H, (1981) Mood and Memory. American Psychologist. 36, 129-148 ed. John D. Mayer, Emotions, Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence. p. 420 Goleman D. (1995) Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Mayer, J. & Salovey, P. Choosing a Measure of Emotional Intelligence: The Case for Ability Scales. In R. Ban-On Handbook for Emotional Intelligence. Guilford Wechsler, D. (1940) Non intellective Factors in General Intelligence, Psychological Bulletin, 37, 444-445 Zajonc, R. , B. , (1980) Feeling and Thinking: References Need No Inferences. American Psychologist, 35, 151-175

Discuss the different factors that might affect individuals Self-Presentation Essay

Self-Presentation is a concept used to describe the behavior of ones self to create an impression which can influence others around us. One factor that may affect our Self-Presentation is the situation one is in, also known as the context. This may influence our Persona, the ‘masks’ we wear or our Performance, how ‘sincere’ or ‘cynical’ we are. For example, if one was on a first date, we may be very cynical to give a good first impression or give an impression of our ideal-self, however, if the individual had a high self esteem, they may seem to be more sincere. Another factor that could affect ones Self-Presentation is the props or costume we wear. This is called Staging. The ‘costume’ we may wear can influence other people’s image of ourselves. For example if one wears a flamboyant outfit it could suggest they feel very insecure and have a low self-esteem and they are trying to ‘cover up’, however to others they could come across confident and outgoing. This illustrates the sheer power our Self-Presentation has over others opinions of ourselves. Over time, this could also alter our perception of our self-image, that we are â€Å"playing an unconscious role and believe we are being ourselves† stated by Burton and Dimbleby. It’s not just about what we wear, the props we use or our surroundings that can affect our Self-Presentation, but also who we are with. We act differently around our close friends to our colleagues and in fact, our family. Our Persona or our ‘masks’ change depending on the people we surround ourselves with. The company we keep is also known as our ‘Teams’. In a similar way, the roles we may have will affect our Self-Presentation. Ones role as a friend will be different to ones role as a shop assistant or a teacher. We have to change our self-image to suit our role and our role changes throughout the day. Depending on how high our self-esteem is, ones persona may not be needed or used as much, which may reflect on our self-disclosure. If one has a high self-esteem, they may not feel the need to wear ‘masks’ to hide their identity. If one is open and willing to disclose information about their  private self their Self-Presentation will not be as dramatic and will seem more like their true self. This will also contribute to their personal Johari Window Model, as their ‘open’ area will be much larger. Self-presentation could also be seen as a self-maintenance strategy, trying to change our self-image. This could be due to Cognitive Dissonance, were our perception of ourselves will differ from what society expects which causes tension. Finally our Personal Style can affect our Self-Presentation. This is because, without personal style, ones performance will not flow and will seem fake.

Investment vs fiscal regime in small scale solid mineral mining in west africa The WritePass Journal

Investment vs fiscal regime in small scale solid mineral mining in west africa Introduction Investment vs fiscal regime in small scale solid mineral mining in west africa Introduction 1. Analysis 1.1. Literature Review 1.2. Research Methodology 1.3. Deductive and inductive reasoning 1.4. Research Limitations 1.5. Data Analysis 1.6. Overall analysis ConclusionREFERENCESRelated Introduction Small scale solid mineral mining (SSM) in the West African region of Nigeria and Ghana has been subject to analysis by many writers before to bring out the hidden aspects related to the outcomes of taxation and investment in the industry. However most of these studies are focused on the volume related outcomes rather than the strategic scenarios of the region. SSM industry output in Nigeria in 1959 contributed a mere 1% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.   By 2010 mining contributed just 0.3% to the total GDP[1]. This insignificant contribution made by the mining industry to the country’s GDP is attributed to the vast petroleum deposits (African Development Bank and the African Union, 2009). In Nigeria the existing mining law is incorporated in the Federal Minerals and Mining Act of 1999 and the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development[2] is responsible for the oversight of all management of mineral resources in the country. The Law has been developed from the rudimentary system of regulations starting from 1903 when mining industry in Nigeria was launched by the British colonial government (Ayine, 2011). By the 1940’s the country was one of the leading producers of coal, columbite and tin. The government monopoly over SSM in Nigeria came to an end in 1999 when the government began to sell assets in mining corporations to private entrepreneurs. However, it must be noted that the Law governing the SSM in Nigeria [3]was not as sophisticated as that of Ghana. Ghana’s fiscal policy measures were particularly conducive for the development of the SSM industry on a small scale. Though the country too has a sizable amount of oil it did not neglect the SSM related developments. The fiscal policy regime in Nigeria concerning SSM has been described by researchers as one-sided, i.e. it is overloaded with petroleum resources related developments while tax concessions to SSM business, especially private is almost non-extant. Thus this study analyses the outcomes related to the possibility developing SSM related fiscal and investment framework in Nigeria in comparison to Ghana (The Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007). 1. Analysis 1.1. Literature Review Nigeria’s SSM cannot be well understood without a reference to its gradual neglect of the industry as well. For instance according to many writers on the subject during the 1980’s the country had relied on coal and wood as a source of fuel for most of the countryside population’s day-to-day cooking needs (www.dundee.ac.uk). Subsequently coal was sought to be replaced by diesel for the railways though the rural communities continued to use coal and wood into the foreseeable future for their cooking needs. Just 73,000 tons of coal were produced in 1986 as against a whopping figure of 940,000 tons in 1958. The same fate befell the columbite and tin mining because by the end of 1980’s high grade iron ore was almost completely depleted. The  Ministry of Mines and Steel Development  was created with a view to developing the solid mineral industry in the country (www.mmsd.gov.ng). Though the Minster himself has assured the international investors of good opportunities and invited them to come and invest in the SSM industry there is a general trend of reluctance among investors primarily due to the inadequacy and inefficiency of fiscal regulations to assure good returns on their investments (Alison-Madueke, 2009). Fiscal policy [4]measures adopted by Nigeria concerning SSM have been known to be scanty and sparse.   SSM related fiscal policy and investment measures in Nigeria have to be studied against the Ghanaian developments in SSM because the latter has adopted some of the far reaching changes in respect of the country’s SSM thus encouraging the small scale investors to identify and invest in more lucrative areas of the industry (Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department, 2006). Nigeria right now has one of the most undeveloped fiscal policy regimes in the whole continent concerning SSM while on the other hand Ghana has adopted some advanced features in the system of taxation. In addition to the macroeconomic policy reforms the country has extensively adopted MMS related policy reforms in order to attract investment to the country. The Mineral and Mining Law (PNDCL 153) of 1986 [5]vests all rights of ownership in the Ghanaian government thus creating one of the most successful pillars for effective governance of the industry (files.africanstudies.webnode.com). Subsequently two addendums were introduced – the Additional Profit Tax Law (PNDCL 122) and Minerals (Royalties) Regulations (LI 1349). These laws along with highly generous tax incentives and exemptions to foreign investors have served as the cornerstone of the entire SSM in Ghana. But nonetheless these laws were codified in the Ghana Internal Revenue Act [6]since 2000. By 1994 the level of corporate tax in the industry was brought down to 35% in Ghana while the capital expenditure allowance to investors was increased to 20% in the first year. Subsequently in each year the investor is entitled to 15% .of allowances from 1986. The Royalty rate calculated at 6% of the total worth of the mineral was subsequently reduced to 3%. All other duties such as import duty, mineral duty and the foreign exchange tax were done away with. The import taxes on machinery and equipment were also exempted (www.dundee.ac.uk). These developments created a positive cumulative impact on the SSM scenario in Ghana. There was also the provision to permit the leaseholder to retain 25% of the foreign exchange earnings in a foreign bank account. This is intended to facilitate the purchase of equipment and machinery. Ghana’s fiscal policy measures on SSM are wide and varied. For instance the net present value of the investment is sought to be maximized for the investor in conformance with a comparison on probable net returns from alternative investment vehicles such as purchasing government or/and corporate bonds, shares and other investments in funds (www.ghana-mining.org). After tax yield of the investment matters so much that the net present value of the company ought to be maximized especially in an SSM environment. Mineral taxation systems [7]ought to take into consideration the realized profitability as against the potential and empower the firm to pay back capital borrowings at an early date. Tax duplication must be avoided and any structural adjustment initiatives undertaken by the company must come to a successful conclusion with the help of the tax system (Hossain, 2003). Since the SSM industry requires a higher level of capital investment for a longer period of time before adequate positive earnings are made the tax system of the country must be designed to accommodate concerns of the investor. According to some recent research works tax systems on mineral exploration and development often run into rough weather in times of economic recessions because governments fail to provide adequate buffer against the investment failure (Economic Commission for Africa, 2004). If the government fails to maximize the net present value of tax revenue and earn more tax revenue during periods of high profit earnings by companies, then there would be some incapacities coming into the system to prevent it from registering positive growth. Marginally productive mines have to be brought into higher yield capacity through capital intensive production techniques. Internal cost drivers like administration and research development [8](RD) must be controlled in such a manner to avoid cost rises in production. 1.2. Research Methodology Secondary data was collected through an extensive research effort conducted in libraries and online. The information regarding SSM was collected in order to analyze and come to conclusions. Secondary data is regarded as the second hand data or the data that have been exposed before for various reasons. It is not fresh data as the primary data. It is relatively easier to find secondary data than the primary data (Twerefou, 2009). Various sources are used to implement the objective by using secondary data gathered from such sources as textbooks, professional journals, and various university publications, corporate reports of various companies and the government, and university theses. These sources were used to analyze and provide the reliable accurate inferences regarding the SSM in Nigeria and Ghana. These secondary data sources have provided an extensive understanding of the fiscal policy measures adopted by Nigeria and Ghana (Davis, Ossowski Fedelino, 2003). The comparison has been made to show that Ghanaian system of taxation [9]is far superior in the solid mineral mining and exploration industry when compared to the Nigerian system.   Ã‚  Various textbooks and publications were used to build and draw reliable theoretical conclusions and make findings. References were taken from most of the research material available in the field.   Theoretical analysis is much well facilitated than primary material which is basically limited to responses in the questionnaire and the survey. Also there is considerable reflection on the state and relevance of current research.   Relevant web sites and official documents links were accessed to provide more credibility to the study and for further reference (Onugu, 2005).  Ã‚   Future research possibilities in the field are discussed in depth to show how theoretical underpinnings evolve with time and space with specific reference to the current developments in the SSM field. 1.3. Deductive and inductive reasoning This paper used deductive reasoning as against inductive reasoning. Deductive research refers to a process in which a more general approach leads to a more particular approach. For example the researcher may start off with a theory on the subject and then build up a series of hypotheses to arrive at specific details of the research topic (Campbell, 2009). Deductive reasoning is sometimes known as top-down approach. On the other hand inductive reasoning refers to the opposite process or approach. In inductive research the researcher starts from more specific hypotheses and then go on to generalized areas of study. This is sometimes known as bottom-up approach. 1.4. Research Limitations The industry-centric research methodology aspect was focused on both the quantitative and qualitative paradigms but nevertheless the qualitative aspect was hindered by a variety of shortcomings including the inability of this researcher to obtain quality testing measures.   However it must be noted here that this detailed study would pay more attention to qualitative shifts than to quantitative data shifts caused by an industry in transition (Daniel Keen, 2010). The skewed nature of published data cannot be stressed on too much either because such bias and prejudice are only too common at each level. However for the purpose of ascertaining the tax system related outcomes such skewed data did not have a greater negative impact on conclusions. Next the all too well known limitations, viz. cultural bias [10]and prejudice displayed by researchers in Nigeria and Ghana might have hampered the efforts of this researcher to a certain extent. By following strict control mechanisms and a set of relevant guidelines the accuracy of the analysis can be made right though. This tendency apart some data sets were characterized by a degree of inaccuracy with regard to analysis. The recent developments in the SSM were not adequately borne out by these analyses (MBendi, 2011).   Thus the qualitative research aspect also assumes a significant dimension of right or wrong. Organizational settings could have hampered the data collection efforts of many researche rs and as a result they might have been influenced by cultural attachments and biases. The most significant data sets for any serious conclusions have been sifted to come to some conclusions that have a direct bearing on the learning outcomes of this study. For instance the Nigerian fiscal policy measures as based on attracting foreign investors to invest in solid mineral mining and exploration is particularly influenced by a desire on the part of the government to provide employment to local population (Chamber of Mines Newsletter, 2001). 1.5. Data Analysis Source: developingmarkets.com/dma/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/minister-of-mines1.pdf Table 2.5.1: Nigeria’s seven strategic solid minerals Source:developingmarkets.com/dma/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/minister-of-mines1.pdf      Table 2.5.2: Gold Production in Ghana Source:ghana-mining.org/ghweb/en/ma/mincom/mainStageParagraphs/06/childParagraphs/01/document/Major%20Minerals%20Prod%2090-07.pdf 1.6. Overall analysis Tax analysis with emphasis on fiscal policy in Nigeria requires a systematic theoretical analysis of the net present value. When corporate taxes are considered the firm is entitled to interest expense deduction which enables it to increase value of its assets. According to Modigliani Miller (1963) the tax exemption allows the firm to reduce the leverage-based premium in the cost associated with raising the equity capital. Subsequently Miller added personal taxes to the equation. An investor ought to make an investment only when it has a positive Net Present Value (NPV). Those investments or projects whose returns are negative must be disregarded.   The following formula is generally used to depict the NPV [1]of an investment or a project. The hypothetical example that follows the formula shows a positive NPV equal to  £123,928.60 at the end of the five year period. Here the opportunity cost of capital is assumed to be 12%. Year  Ã‚  Ã‚   Cash flow  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discounted cash flow 0  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   =    £-(10,000.00) 1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   10,000.00  Ã‚  Ã‚   =     Ã‚  Ã‚    £ 8,928.57 2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   20,000 .00  Ã‚   =       £ 17,857.14 3  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   40,000 .00  Ã‚   =       £ 35,714.28 4  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   50,000.00  Ã‚   =  Ã‚     Ã‚    £44,642.85 5  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   30,000 .00  Ã‚   =       £ 26,785.71 NPV  Ã‚   =  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚    £123,928.60 Thus by adopting it as the discount rate for all future cash flows one can effectively obtain the NPV for them. This gives a few advantages. In the first place proper financial management requires a realistic opportunity cost to be set against capital. Though over a period of 5 years there can be considerable pressure on interest rates, a steady return of earnings would be ensured through proper cash flow management. After all the above cash flow forecasts are assumed to be constant though, in reality they might vary. The decision to make the investment is based on the apparent returns by way of future cash flows and it does not take into account the risk factor involved. For instance the investor has totally disregarded DCF method because he probably considers those future returns to be final and conclusive with respect to their values. The DCF calculations and the NPV figure of the total investment show that the decision is fairly justifiable because the NPV is equal to  £ 123,928.60 which is a considerable value against probable future inflationary pressure, i.e. the opportunity cost of capital. The importance of discounting future cash flows by using these formulas also depends on other factors as well. Discounted cash flows give a real picture of the future possibilities.   Since DCF[2] is what an individual is willing to pay at present in order to have what he   expects to have in the future, it’s a process of expressing future revenue flows in terms of today’s value. Probably the most important reason behind DCF is the fact that inflation erodes the value of money in times to come, i.e. future. Therefore it’s essential to make up for the loss. That is why in each subsequent DCF multiplied by the number of years, a lower value comes up (Notermans, 2000). The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) [3]sets the present value of all future cash flows of an investment equal to zero. IRR usually holds the assumption that all future cash inflows would be reinvested at the internal rate as calculated at present. Assuming that there are investment projects with returns that exceed the cost of capital or interest, such projects would be seriously considered for investment. In other words when the IRR is greater the investment is more attractive. However it’s the NPV that every investor seeks to adopt because it has a less number of disadvantages or flaws. However there is abatement or mitigation of systematic risk through hedging. Individual investment decisions concerning risk mitigation are inevitably focused on the capital adequacy rules. Concurrent decisions to mitigate risk and maintain capital adequacy are nothing new in the investment sphere. Sharpe ratio is used to calculate the amount of systematic risk: Here the performance evaluation is based on risk-adjusted measures. Now the question â€Å"is the return adequate compensation for the risk?† has to be answered by working out the returns given the risk involved. The following explanations are used to work it out. The Sharpe ratio enables the adjustment of returns on investments to be conclusive with respect to risk-free returns and the degree of volatility of an investment. Rp   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   = Average return on the portfolio Rf   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   = Average risk free rate Sp  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   = Standard deviation of portfolio return (total risk). While Sharpe ratio is useful in determining adjusted risk and performance of a portfolio, there are other measures as well that have to be used in order to determine the level of risk accurately. Treynor ratio: rp   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   = Average return on the portfolio rf   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   = Average risk free rate ÃŽ ²p  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   = Beta of portfolio (systematic risk) Treynor ratio is used to measure returns that are in excess of what could have been made on risk-free investment.   For example Treasury Bills are less risky than other volatility-prone assets. That’s why it’s sometimes called reward-to-volatility ratio. It uses systematic risk. Thus higher the Treynor ratio, the higher the returns made on investments. However it is not like Sharpe ratio which is a measure of the excess return and does not help much. Next there is the Jensen’s Alpha, a measure that calculates the excess returns above the security market line as done in the capital asset pricing model (CAPM).[4] CAPM also uses beta as a multiplier to determine the total value of returns. Jensen’s Alpha is a risk adjusted portfolio performance metric. It’s calculated by using a regression technique to determine the performance of a given portfolio of a manager tested against a benchmark. On the other hand unsystematic (un-systemic) risk refers to a risk inherent in a particular industry or market that falters due to a specifically divergent variable. Unsystematic risk[5] (or residual risk or diversifiable risk) can be overcome by resorting to diversification of one’s portfolio (Lo, 2005).   Since unsystematic risk is specific to a particular market/industry or market segment, diversification helps investors either to reduce risk or totally cancel out depending on the relative offsetting effect of less risky investments. Unsystematic risk essentially presupposes the existence of a remedial measure without resorting to hedging which can be uncertain for a number of reasons. In the first place hedging is carried out with the intention of obviating systematic risk which occurs as the result of an exogenous variable going astray. In the case of unsystematic risk exogenous variables are assumed to behave in the predictable way (Lehmann, 1990). Thus forecasts are reliable to the extent that the individual potential investor does not feel the need to shuffle the basket of investments. Fund managers whose instincts the investor relies on, do not feel obliged to advice clients on the contrary decisions. In fact such advice depends not only the instincts of fund managers but also statistical forecasts. As the portfolio is more diversified unsystematic risk moves closer to zero. Accounting risk[6], financial risk [7]and economic risk[8] are all part and parcel of unsystematic risk. They signify the very nature of risk. For instance a financial risk might involve mistakes in cash flow forecasts thus leading to liquidity problems. These residual risks do not have a big impact on the whole system. The systemic imperviousness stands out as the most credible security against risk. But nevertheless the degree of this imperviousness is determined by a number of other factors that are inherent to the system itself. Calculations involve the same process as above. However, CAPM is often used to measure an individual security or a portfolio. Additionally the security market line [9](SML) is used to measure the reward-to-risk ratio of a security in relation to the total market as shown below. Finally total risk is the sum total of systematic risk and unsystematic risk. While the choice of the individual investor between different types of securities or investment instruments matters here, there is the need for the investor to make some decisive decisions involving which risk out of systematic and unsystematic risks to be reduced visvis the other. The following graph illustrates the hypothetical scenario of a company which invests in a given portfolio of securities. The red line is the Security Market Line. the horizontal axis shows the betas of all companies in the market   the vertical axis shows the required rates of return, as a percentage Assuming that the risk free rate is 5%, and the overall stock market will produce a rate of return of 12.5% next year the following would give a clearer picture of fundamental financial ratio analysis. The imaginary investor/shareholder/company has a beta of 1.7. This result is obtained by substituting a few sample betas into the CAPM equation as follows. Ks = Krf + B (Km Krf). Table 2.5.3: Beta Values Security Beta (It’s a measure of risk) Rate of Return Risk Free 0.0 5.00% Overall Stock Market 1.0 12.50% Utopia Company 1.7 17.75% Source: www.teachmefinance.com    This figure and hypothetical data can be applied to understand all three types of risks in investing in the Nigeria’s solid mineral mining and exploration industry.    Conclusion Time and again it has been argued that Nigeria’s existing fiscal policy regime in general and the tax system in particular regarding the SSM requires urgent revision to invite both local foreign investors. It has also been suggested that such a revision or an overhauling would be worked out in conformance with SSM’s current developments. Nigeria has been heavily dependent on its oil resource and in fact has been neglecting solid mineral mining industry [1]while another West African country Ghana has been systematically developing its solid minerals industry at a consistent pace. Thus the analysis is focused on a distinction between industry related features in Nigeria and Ghana to bring about a conviction of the existing tax anomalies in the former. While the paper focuses attention on a variety of tax related shortcomings in Nigeria ranging from the near total absence of a well structured corporate tax system in the solid mineral mining industry[2] in general and the SSM sector in particular, it has stressed on the significance of fiscal policy measures that require a systematic effort sustained over the years to bring about both a qualitative and quantitative shift in the solid mineral mining industry. The comparison with Ghana is made to in order to delineate a series of positive developments that have taken place within the Ghanaian taxation system in the solid mineral mining and exploration sector. Ghana has put in place a number of corporate tax incentives and relaxed its rules and regulations on the acquisition of mining rights[3] to assure the potential foreign investor that net returns on their investment in the sector would produce more than anticipated net returns. Nigeria just needs this kind of change in its tax sys tem to create a series of positive synergies. REFERENCES Books African Development Bank and the African Union, 2009. Oil and Gas in Africa, New York: Oxford University Press. Campbell, B., 2009. Mining in Africa: Regulation and Development, New York: Pluto Press. Daniel, P. Keen, M. (Eds), 2010. Charles McPherson (Editor) the Taxation of Petroleum and Minerals: Principles, Problems and Practice, Oxon: Routledge. Notermans, T., 2000. Money, Markets, and the State: Social Democratic Economic Policies since 1918 (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Journals Lehmann, B., 1990. ‘Fads, martingales, and market efficiency’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol .105, pp. 1–28. Lo, A., 2005. ‘Reconciling efficient markets with behavioral finance: the adaptive markets hypothesis’, Journal of Investment Consulting, vol.7, pp.21–44. Modigliani, F. Miller, M. H., 1963). â€Å"Corporate Income Taxes and the Cost of Capital: A Correction†, American Economic Review.   Articals Alison-Madueke, D., 2009. Opportunities in Nigeria’s Minerals Sector, Available at: developingmarkets.com/dma/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/minister-of-mines1.pdf [Accessed 03rd May 2011]. Ayine, D., 2011. Natural Resource Investment Review In Developing Countries: Ghana’s Mininng Sector In Perspective, Available at: http://www2.americanbar.org/calendar/section-of-international-law-2011-spring-meeting/Documents/Friday/The%20New%20Gold%20Rush/NATURAL%20RESOURCE%20INVESTMENT%20REVIEW%20IN%20DEVELOPING%20COUNTRIES-%20GHANA’S%20MININNG%20SECTOR% [Accessed 03rd May 2011]. 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