How Much Is a Database Worth Essay

1) Many small business owners have found it financially advantageous to purchase their own building. As one owner remarked upon his retirement, â€Å"We did well with the business, but we made our real money by buying the building. † Explain why this might be so. There are three reasons why a small business owner might want to own the building in which they operate. First, the cost of moving around is expensive. Some small business might need large equipment to operate and completing a move might take months. This would interrupt the flow of the business and put a dent in profits. FlexTime is a good example. FlexTime, a gym has an array of workout machines that would be impractical to move over night. Most all those machines need to be taken apart and reassembled which is costly. The second reason is that historically, the price of commercial real estate has gone up. Which means while the owner is paying off his mortgage the value of the building will be increasing. Finally there is very little commercial real estate being developed. Due to this fact, vacancy rates have dropped and rents are rising. According to Conerly (2011), Very little new construction has been completed, and what has been built is almost all owner-occupied or build-to-suit. Almost no speculative real estate has been constructed this past year. Thus when the economy improves, rents will rise immediately (p. 1). 2) To what extent does the dynamic you identified in your answer to item 1 pertain to a database? Do you think it likely that in 2050, some small businesspeople will retire and make statements like, â€Å"We did well with the business but we made our real money from the database we generated? † Why or why not? In what ways is real estate different from database data? Are these differences significant in your answer? Three times Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L.  Friedman wrote a book titled â€Å"The World is Flat. † Friedman maintains that due to the increase in the use of technology â€Å"the global competitive playing field is being leveled† (p. 8). Now, in 2012 it is evident that his theory is true. In 2050, small business owners will make the above statement because like described about real estate in question one, the owner of the business may sell his database upon retirement. Along with real estate, data or information does not depreciate in value. There are some differences. Some databases have been collecting important data, related to customers, for years. This information could prove to be more valuable than real estate to a competitor in one’s respective industry. Information on customers is priceless. A detailed, in depth database is instrumental in finding out customer needs, habits and reactions to discomforts in the market and can contribute immensely to a small business owner’s success. 3) Suppose you had a national database of student data. Assume your database includes the name, email address, university, grade level, and major for each student. Name five companies that would find that data valuable. And explain how they might use it. Corporate gyms like La fitness and Lifetime fitness would find the student records named above useful. Using the name field they could figure out if the student is male or female. From there they could decide whether to offer jazzercise or boxing classes. Based on what university they belong to the gym can figure out if they have a location in that area to pursue the student. Using e-mail address they could send out promotion deals. Chegg. com is an online company that buys, sells and rents student textbooks. Using the fields; name, major and email address Chegg. om could effectively target students in certain majors and therefore rid their textbooks more efficiently. Major hotels would be all over a student database. Though the university field they could figure out what areas to target which universities. For example, hotels in Florida are likely to send information to students in universities on the east coast, where as Mexico and California hotels might stick to universities a li ttle more west. Hotels in Vegas could use student records like grade level to find out if students are of age. It would be hard to sell Vegas to a student under aged. Delta Airlines would find the information equally valuable because they could promote flights based on university’s vacation schedules along with student names and emails. BikesDirect. com is an online company that allows you to buy, sell and rent bikes. A large number of students ride bikes and for a company like this a student database can be instrumental in their success or expansion. Figuring out which university to target is important. For a bike company they might want to target larger campuses. Through the name field they could figure out gender and email is a good place to send promotions and receive rders. 4) Describe a product or service that you could develop that would induce students to provide the data in item 3. Students in need of tutoring would have to supply the relevant data. If one were to set up a tutoring service that connects all the universities to one database would be useful. From a student’s email account they could request a tutoring session. The university the student provides would be relevant data because the online tutoring service would have to contact one of its tutors in that area so they could easily meet. They would have to supply grade level and major so that the database can match them with a relevant tutor. 5) Considering your answers to items 1 through 4, identify two organizations in your community that could generate a database that would potentially be more valuable than the organization itself. Consider business, but also think about social and government offices. If the Department of Motor Vehicles lost its database it would be catastrophic to the department and our community. The DMV’s database is vast and contains all kinds of records that are important to other government agencies as well. The police department collaborates with the DMV on a daily basis when dealing with traffic situations and suspended licenses. Another organization or agency that has an extensive database is the Department of Labor. They store information like the amount of full time and part time employees, average wage. The Department of Labor’s data is instrumental in figuring out the median income, unemployment rates and the overall direction of the economy.

Healthy Food Essay

Many ways to define healthy food. Firstly, healthy food consists of all the essential nutrients that your body needs like proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, calcium, vitamins etc. Secondly, it is hygienic & doesn’t contain any germs that can harm your body. Thirdly, it should include all sorts of eatables like veggies, fruits, meat, dairy, sweets etc in right proportion. In a nutshell, healthy food keeps your body fit & at its top. Less junk and more home-made stuff. Health food is food considered to be beneficial to health in ways that go beyond a normal healthy diet required forhuman nutrition. Because there is no precise, authoritative definition from regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, different dietary practices can be considered healthy depending on context. Foods considered â€Å"healthy† may be natural foods, organic foods, whole foods, and sometimes vegetarian or dietary supplements. Such products are sold in health food stores or i n the health/organic sections of supermarkets. Healthy eating means eating a variety of foods that give you the nutrients you need to maintain your health, feel good, and have energy. These nutrients include protein, carbohydrates, fat, water, vitamins, and minerals. Nutrition is important for everyone. When combined with being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight, eating well is an excellent way to help your body stay strong and healthy. If you have a history of breast cancer or are currently undergoing treatment, eating well is especially important for you. What you eat can affect your immune system, your mood, and your energy level. No food or diet can prevent you from getting breast cancer. While researchers are still studying the effects ofeating unhealthy food on breast cancer and recurrence risk, we do know that being overweight is a risk factor for both first-time and recurrent breast cancer. In this section, you can learn how to eat in a way that keeps your body as healthy as it can be. Read on for information about food groups, nutrients, how to create a healthy eating plan, how to figure out portions, and how enjoy your food without overeating. In this section, you can read about: Understanding Food Groups How Your Body Gets Nutrients From Foods What Happens to Food in Your Body? Designing a Healthy Eating Plan Portion Size Enjoying Your Food

International Foundation Programme Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

International Foundation Programme - Essay Example 1. Question One According to the statistics from the United Kingdom Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), the number of international students from Europe enrolled in UK’s institutions of higher education was about 428,225 for the year 2010-2011. This indicates that there was a considerable increase in the number of students of approximately 6% compared to 2009-2010 405,810 students. International students make up 14% of full-time first-degree students, 70% of post degree full-time students, and 48% for full-time research degrees students (UKCISA). Among these, 26% are currently students in London, with about 11,320 of these students originating from Cyprus. Majority of the students currently studying in the UK are from the Republic of Ireland, with a student population of 16,855 (UKCISA). Majority of these students opt to study in the United Kingdom, as the standards of the education system in the UK are way above those in their countries of origin. If we look a t Cyprus for instance, the state is a relatively small island with lack of competitive marketing especially in the education sector. Therefore, UK becomes an enticing option for most of the Cypriots, as it is quite a big and powerful country. After completion of studies, a significant portion of these international students hopes to find employment opportunities within the UK labour force industry (UKCISA). 2. Question Two Because of globalization, the importance of English is growing inevitably. An analytical look and study at the world today indicates that there are 53 countries that predominantly use English as their official language or widely spoken. Statistics indicates that there are 192 independent countries across the globe. When we put this number into math, nearly 27% of the world countries do know English. Twenty-seven percent is quite a high number when compared to variety of different languages (Georgieva and James, 2010:37). Now if we look at this research it is clear that the demand for English should be high. Strong countries such as, UK, USA and Canada are English speaking countries, which makes English even more alluring. As seen from the analysis of world in general, English is stronger in some countries than in others across the world. If we take Europe for example, English is not that important. All rules and regulations are written in every language, which this creates more flexibility in terms of trade. English is quite important in world countries therefore nowadays countries like China are getting stronger in world market. As china now has one of the strongest economies and production power, this may make Chinese a must language rather than English. Globalization has made English such an important language that people compare it to basic skills of modern life, comparable to using a personal computer or driving a car (Georgieva and James, 2010:38). 3. Question Three International Foundation Year (IFY) helps students in their English as well as informing them of the education system of UK. The foundation incorporates rules of writing essays and the manner in which to do presentations. The international foundation year helps the student to gather all these important information so that they can improve their English. In addition, the foundation helps the person for the 1st year of university education (Page, 2006:119). It instils a sense of discipline among the students such that they do not fail in

Managing risk through a global capital strategy. Financial situations Research Paper

Managing risk through a global capital strategy. Financial situations of hospitals (especially in US) - Research Paper Example Back in 1958 in the Economic Review Modigliani and Miller proposed two very different optimal capital structures and since then there has been much debate going on as to what exactly is an optimal capital structure. Their first proposition concludes that in economic equilibrium conditions and perfect capital markets on which there is no tax liability, a firm is independent of an optimal capital structure to maximize its value. Five years after that, in 1963, they propose a different theory stating that introduction of corporate taxes provides a tax shield for debt that can escort a firm that is financed with 100% of debt. This props further questions like; aren’t firms wasting tons of money in tax payment to underuse debts (assumptions are; bankruptcy costs moderately) or other factors can take part in diminishing debt’s tax advantage? One such factor is the personal-corporate tax interaction where slightly different treatment of equity and debt (at personal level) that lessens the observed debt value. Corporate tax advantage is fractionally balanced by personal tax disadvantage by paying interest payments (Miller, 1977). The good thing is it confirms to both Miller and Modigliani. If there are no tax disadvantages then debt level returns back to the levels defined back in 1963. On the other side, advantages of debt get terminated by terminating personal equity tax. Personal income tax rate becomes equal to marginal corporate rate while suffering losses at corporate level. Probably in the long run, a capital structure under these forces may not be of much help in explaining the phenomenon of optimism but when tax code and variations are considered, business risks help explain the short term optimal capital structure of a firm. The capital structures constructed by health care providers have both negative and positive effects on the hospital business and success of organization. These capital structures built by combinations of debt and equity are now relatively modified as compared to previous decades’. In the aftermath of financial crisis of 2007-2008, the volatile situation of stock market, interest rate indexes, innovations in financial products especially in OTC markets for bonds and derivatives and changing dimensions of credit markets present a new challenge for providers. Specification of thesis – main point   What is an optimal capital structure and what are the ways to determine an optimal capital structure of a firm? And how risk can be managed through a global capital structure? Risk is present all the time, in capital markets, which affects the capital structure of firms. So instead of avoiding it, a better strategy is to have well managed capital strategy in place. c) Three supporting opinions/reasons   1. Enterprise Risk Management Balance sheet risk management will always remain most important in overall financial risk management. A well established and well operated risk management for treas ury practices is the major force in mitigating the financial stress of a balance sheet risk. Hospitals and health care facilities have different profiles and risk/return objectives with different market share and risk exposures, therefore there isn’t a standard capital structure that fits all. Every hospital and health care facility will need to have their custom made. One move that definitely fits almost all health care providers is to have a global capital strategy. A strong liquidity packed with position low forward capital needs would probably call for floating rate debt and appropriate interest rate

Revolution in Egypt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Revolution in Egypt - Essay Example Currently, similar protests are ongoing in Libya and Yemen, creating lot of political and economic uncertainty in the Arabic world. This paper expounds on the causes and the effects of Egyptian revolution in the country and in the world. Causes and effects of Egyptian revolution In the streets of Sidi Bouzid city in Tunisia, a twenty six year old university graduate, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in late December 2010, allegedly for lack of job and harassment by the government officials for hawking groceries in the streets. This incident sparked the now popular revolution in the Arabic countries that have for so long resisted the political changes occurring around the globe. In highly globalized world, the actions of Bouazizi elicited anger and desire for political and economic change especially among the youths across these countries, through social networking sites. Within a brief period, the Tunisian president resigned, and simultaneous protests broke out in Algeria, Albania , Libya, Mauritania and Oman. Other countries where similar protests have since spread include Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Morocco (Blue, 2011). These protests have ultimately changed the political environment in Arabic world, resulting to resignation of presidents and implementation of economic reforms. For about three decades, Egypt demonstrated a sense of stability in the extremely politically volatile Middle East region. Since President Hosni Mubarak succeeded Anwar Sadat in 1981, the country has enjoyed cordial relations with the United States, mainly because of the critical role that Egypt plays in maintaining peace between Israel and other Arabic countries in the Middle East (ECFA, 2000). For a president who had served for such a long period, winning with landslide victories in a series of presidential elections that had been conducted in the country since 1981, his ouster was a surprise to many political observers in the world. There are several causes of the revolution in Egypt and in other Arabic countries in general. For long periods, autocratic leadership that undermines basic human rights and liberties enjoyed in the free world characterizes political governance in most Arabic countries (Bruce, 2008, p63) Egypt is not an exception. Historically, major revolutions across the world originate from a variety of reasons, but the main underlying factor is the gross abuse of human rights. The main causes of revolts include gross abuse of state power, whereby the state uses violence, threats and intimidation to suppress dissent, freedom of expression, association and other forms of public expressions. In most cases, the suppressed populations are at economic disadvantage, experiencing high levels of poverty and discrimination in accessing employment opportunities in the government or public service (Mythen, 2008, p19). The causes of Egyptian revolution in 2011 originated from autocratic governance, economic problems, corruption, and re volutionary movement that had just happened in Tunisia accelerated Egyptian movement (Blue, 2011). The major concerns for the youth who played a crucial role in the revolution included lack of employment opportunities, abuse of basic human rights, including freedom of expression (Blue, 2011). According to ECFA (2000), the Egyptian government has invested in education of the youth and the country has one of the highest populations of university graduates in the

Marriege & Family Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Marriege & Family - Assignment Example Young girls and boys are taught how to view marriage as a lifetime commitment and prepare adequately for it. I was fortunate enough to learn the values that should govern the marriage institution from a tender age. When I became of age and was ready to get married, I knew that I needed to find someone who could complete my life. I was well aware that I needed to have good qualities so that I could have something to contribute to my marriage. Therefore, I began to cultivate good qualities that define a noble wife before I got married. When I met my husband, I did not rush into a relationship. I ensured that I got to know him well enough and understood his strengths and weaknesses. Before we got married, we prepared adequately for our union. The most critical preparation was making decisions that could define our lives in marriage (Rubio 44). For example, were clear about the number of children we wanted to have, as well as how we would share responsibilities within our family. I ensured that we had similar perspectives regarding the most important aspects of life. Notably, two people cannot have exactly the same perspectives. However, some fundamental issues in marriage cannot work out if people have different perspectives. When I was sure that I could spend my life with him, we began to formalize our relationship. Finally, we held a beautiful wedding that marked the beginning of our marriage. We held a church wedding that symbolized our commitment before God and people. Therefore, it was obvious that separation or divorce was not an option from the start. My culture has strong values attached to marriage and does not condone divorce. The men in our society have learned to appreciate the social views concerning marriage. In addition, our men are willing to make marriages possible. In addition, the cost of marrying a woman is too high to consider divorce. Although many people may consider our society highly

Midterm for Business Law Ethics Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Midterm for Business Law Ethics - Term Paper Example In the second stage of the cycle, action is seen to occur and regardless of the immediate effects that might have been caused by the action, the monetary cycle is seen to move on an things eventually end up correcting themselves. The third stage of the cycle is the inefficiency stage that is seen to characteristically be marked by the inability of the market to sufficiently create wealth as a result of the actions taken during the more frantic times. The fourth stage of the cycle which is the circumvention stage is seen to involve for a lobbying of the removal of the restrictions seen to be placed in the second stage of the cycle and the development by the firms of activities designed to try and circumvent the established rules and achieve the same effects as the forbidden practices. The regulatory cycle is seen to critically affect management decisions in the automotive industry. This is exemplified that in line with the cycle, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions and the result ant attempts by various governments and organizations to try and limit or curb these emissions essentially helps mark out the first stage of the cycle. The decision making of managers in the automotive industry is seen to have been affected by the cycle as they made various decisions to try and act on the increasing CO2 emissions developing various technologies such as biofuels. Question 2: The value of Corporate Sustainability Corporate sustainability which is commonly defined as being the basic corporate response to sustainable development where the organization engages in a number of practices and strategies that are designed to ensure that the organization is able to address the key issues pertaining to the world’s sustainable development. The value of corporate sustainability can never be exaggerated as is demonstrated by the efforts by various companies to try and quickly respond to any crises that might be seen to be endangering the image of the company’s corpor ate sustainability as was the case seen at KFC when reports emerged of excessive animal cruelty at one of its slaughter houses. In the incident, workers were shown displaying excessive animal cruelty when they were recorded stomping on chicken, flinging them mercilessly against the wall and at times even squeezing them to death. In response to this, the company is seen to have responded quickly by sending inspectors to the plant and implemented measures that saw the contractor fire 11 of the employees and extract pledges from the employees at all the other 25 plants to treat animals in a more humane manner (Trevin?o and Nelson 323-324). Taco Bell, a fast food restaurant, is also seen to have quickly responded to a Mexican tomato pickers workers strike by improving the pay offered to the workers and promising to monitor the company’s suppliers as well as adopt an improved code of conduct that would enable the company to be able to drop any suppliers that were seen to abuse far mworkers (Trevin?o and Nelson 324). Trevin?o and Nelson, point out that by effecting a pragmatic approach to matters relating to corporate social responsibility and sustainability, it is possible for an organization’s manager to be able to effectively scan the environment

Modern philosphy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Modern philosphy - Essay Example Essentially, Descartes was seen as deigning to question the dependability of science based on empiricism since scientific investigation can only be inference from by means of sensory examination. To prove his point, Descartes underwent what is commonly referred to as an intellectual rebirth and to achieve this he had to deconstruct everything he had learnt from birth since he had leant it through his senses and he wanted to prove that they could deceive. To this end, he postulated a few arguments among them the dream theory, suggested that when one dreams of say a fire, they feel warm and experience the selfsame experience they do when they are actually basking in a fire. The same argument can be extended to cover other sensation that people perceive even the absence of stimulating agents or situations. For example, one can dream they are falling and they will wake up with a sense of terror and probably break in to a sweat with fear exactly as they would have if they had actually bei ng falling. Similarly, he makes an argument about whether God actually exists or whether a deceiving demon or evil genius manipulates humans. He argues, can one know that they have no body but they simply exist in the form of a mind in which information is fed and the physical sensations are actually imagined. This concept has been demonstrated in several works of art more so films such as â€Å"inception† where the plot involves a situation in which the characters are able to move and manipulate events in the lives of others by accessing their brain while they dreamt. In the wax example, Descartes further demonstrates the unreliability of the senses by claiming that a piece of wax in its solid form will look, feel and smell very differently from itself if it were melted. Therefore, someone not familiar with wax may see two entirely different things by looking at wax in its different forms although essentially they are the same thing. At the end of the day, Descartes wishes t o invite his audience to abandon their blind, (so to speak) reliance of scientific enquiry and investigate everything from a rational point of view. In the famous cogito argument , he claims I am therefore I exist, to prove this he chooses to doubt everything including his own existence which is after all only aware of by means of sensory powers (Kaufman 12). When he figuratively scraps of all his knowledge, he remains with the only bit that is not based on empiricisms, and the fact that he doubts everything means that not everything might actually exist. Nevertheless, that he is capable of doubting is proof of the existence of his doubt and this translates into this existence since he must be existing to doubt. This argument while seeming farfetched and illogical to the non-critical eyes actually bears a point that almost everyone including his greatest critics would agree. An individual cannot know much about something else than about himself because as proved by Descartes, one do es not need to apply sensory powers to prove their own sense of being (De Marzio 312). Therefore, the most qualified way of understanding one’s self is the one that does not use empirical reasoning, why them, Descartes seems to

IT metrics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

IT metrics - Essay Example The economic value of IT to a company tends to depend on the particular business needs of the company under focus. Broadly speaking, IT tends to contribute to four major areas in nearly all businesses. These areas include the corporate market position and revenue generation; customer support for business operations; direct and indirect fiscal benefits such as cost savings; and investments in IT that enhance the business operations through value addition. Depending on the nature of the business in focus, it would be pertinent to measure the value of IT contribution accordingly. It has been suggested that IT’s contribution to economic value can be measured most effectively considering the absence of the relevant IT services to a business (Sliger & Broderick, 2008). The economic value of IT to a business can be measured best when considering what would happen if IT services and goods were removed. Although this may seem an extreme method of quantification, it provides the most re alistic scenario. In a similar manner, businesses should focus on areas that matter most - such as the delivery of goods to customers after booking. This allows businesses to see how IT adds to the baseline operations and lets the business realize in what way IT system would augment revenues best. The implementation of IS in a business operation is to ensure that security breaches are not able to affect the entire business operation negatively. Quantifying the returns provided by IS to a business operations environment may not be simple at all.... This allows businesses to see how IT adds to the baseline operations and lets the business realize in what way IT system would augment revenues best. IS Value Assessment Models The implementation of IS in a business operation is to ensure that security breaches are not able to affect the entire business operation negatively. Quantifying the returns provided by IS to a business operations environment may not be simple at all. On the one hand, there are businesses that are transacting secure information such as credit card numbers using IT; on the other hand, there are businesses that are doing little more than providing customer support online. Using similar methods to measure IS value addition for various businesses is highly unrealistic so various models are in place that depend in large part on the nature of the business in question. It is recommended that businesses define in detail what areas are to be valued most in terms of security. The reasons behind such value addition class ification should also be expounded based on value addition to business operations. Once such value addition areas have been specified, the next step should be to classify IS value addition (Tsiakis & Pekos, 2008). Applicability of Traditional Financial Ratios and Measurements Traditional financial ratios and measurements cannot be applied to IT and IS directly, but instead, they require some manipulation before they can be applied. It is pertinent to note that fiscal ratios and measurements are not fully applicable to a number of different IT and IS areas such as the provision of bandwidth, virus detection rates, etc. However, this does not indicate that fiscal ratios and