Entrepreneurship Essay Example for Free

Entrepreneurship Essay The public perception of entrepreneurs today is almost legendary. They seem to seamlessly start up small businesses and make them grow and develop themselves almost overnight to big successes. (Beaver, 2005) This essay will briefly cover the differences and similarities between managers, business owners and entrepreneurs. Differences and similarities between managers, owners and entrepreneurs Back in the 19th century being a businessman, in other words being an owner-manager, was not regarded a profession. These people were coordinators, arbitrators, innovators, interpreters of the market and risk-takers at the same time. The purpose of their activity ranged from interest from capital to profits for bearing the risk of operation. (Zaratiegui Rabade, 2005) However they required ownership of over 50 per cent of the shared capital to have control over the business. (Burns, 2007) From that early stage the traditional management as mentioned first in Henri Fayol’s General and Industrial Management in 1949 (in French, 1916) evolved which dominates our public perception still today. Here we notice a distinct separation between the owner, or the proprietor, of a business and the people those owners hire to get their business managed and administrated. (Fraja, 1996) Those managers are required to have certain capabilities, i.e. leading people and administrating operations, finance and resources. They are the ultimate authority in the organization and therefore responsible for the social, legal, environmental and ethical aspects of the company. An entrepreneur is not exactly the latest form of performing business activities as Joseph A. Schumpeter identified entrepreneurial entities already in 19341, however, the term got increasingly popular by the end of the 20th century. People like Steve Jobs, Sir Richard Branson or Mark Zuckerberg are just some of many famous entrepreneurs. The Oxford English Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as â€Å"a person who attempts to profit by risk and initiative†. Therefore Gartner, et al. (1992) suggest that an entrepreneur is both a manager and an owner, with a willingness to accept risk, uncertainty and an eagerness to exploit change and profit from market niches. What is even more striking is that entrepreneurs have a certain 1 â€Å"A person, ‘a contractor’ who coordinates, organizes and supervises (posses managerial skills) an enterprise with exceptional moral qualities, perseverance, and knowledge of the world and society’s needs.†- Schumpeter, 1934 Similarities and differences between a manager, a business owner and an entrepreneur By Henry Amm set of skills that is superior to that of a manger in terms of productivity and profitability. Typical entrepreneurial capabilities comprise features such as investigating opportunities, believing in innovation, and strategic planning upon the latest developments on the market. (Piperopoulos, 2011) Any manager can behave in a more entrepreneurial way, if he or she is aware of the individual effectiveness. This can ray out more confidence towards customers, investors or subordinates and therefore increase productivity and profitability. (Piperopoulos, 2011) Research has shown that entrepreneurs and managers might have different goals and working styles. (Stewart, et al., 1999) But even though everyone has different working preferences, the literature suggests that being an entrepreneur can be learned, especially regarding the way entrepreneurs work on tasks and complete them. What the typical manager can copy from an entrepreneur is his personal organization and interpersonal interaction. (Piperopoulos, 2011) Burns (2007) notes that owner-managers, entrepreneurs and managers can be distinguished by their character traits and the type of business they run. An owner-manager typically has a high need for independence and achievement and an ability to live with uncertainty and measured risks. Therefore he often runs a lifestyle firm that is based on trade or craft which, however, will not grow to any considerable size. The entrepreneur in turn is opportunistic, innovative, self-confident and acts proactive and decisive. He is highly self-motivated by his vision and is therefore willing to take even greater risks and can live with a high uncertainty. That is why the entrepreneur has a growth firm and is pursuing growth and personal wealth. Lastly the manager is administrating, or in other words managing, an entity that does not belong to him. His ‘purpose’ is to build up the organisation, by means that are similar to larger firms. (Burns, 2007) However there are some exceptions from that generalization: An owner-manager of course can have a growing business, while an entrepreneur could manage a business he owns together with a business associate and therefore has not complete control over the capital. (Burns, 2007) As Fraja (1996) suggests every firm can be assigned to either one of the following types: Either it is an entrepreneurial firm, where the owner-manager or entrepreneur is in exclusive control, organizes production, borrows funds and retains any residual returns from his work. Or it is a managerial firm, where the individual that has the right to residual returns remains outside the company and the individual that has the right of control is hired from the owner. Similarities and differences between a manager, a business owner and an entrepreneur By Henry Amm Modern approaches like ‘corporate entrepreneurship’ try to overcome those boundaries by incorporating advantages of entrepreneurship into common management. Companies try to facilitate diversification with internal development workshops. That makes activities necessary, in areas that are usually only loosely related to the current ‘domain’ of competence of the company. That is to engage innovation like you have it with a start-up company, but within an established organization. (Burgelmann, 1983) Conclusion Exceptions prove the rule; mangers, owners and entrepreneurs can be distinguished not only by their character traits but they are also more likely to lead an organization that is typical for their respective role. Modern organizations try to incorporate selected features of entrepreneurship to be more competitive. It seems like those terms still are about to change, or maybe always will need adaption to our contemporary view onto management, ownership and entrepreneurship.

What Is Astrology :: essays research papers

What Is Astrology Astrology is the study of planetary influences and their affect on the world and everything in it. Astrology is usually limited to human beings--their nature, and their affairs, although a chart can be drawn up for just about any event. The horoscope is a blue print or pattern of the solar system cast for a particular moment of time. It is from this that the astrologer bases the interpretation or delineation as indicated by the nature of the sun, moon, and planets. The natal horoscope is a chart drawn at the moment of birth to see and understand the nature and makeup of the soul of the newborn as it takes residence in the physical vehicle or body. The human soul is a focal point of cosmic energy, and the pattern of the heavens, as charted in the horoscope, is the means the soul comes to know itself and its destiny. Astrology points the way to soul development and growth. The soul's strengths and weaknesses are noted in the horoscope. Life is an opportunity given to soul for further enhancement. Because the heavens are in constant motion, and because this motion is quite ordered and exact, it is possible to project the positions of the sun, moon, and planets for any given time. Astrologers use this information to draw-up a horoscope and forecast the "influences" that will affect the soul at that time. Astrologers usually do not predict actual events in the future. They can only say what might happen, or could happen, but not what will happen--much like a weather forecast; although many psychics do make predictions, and astrology is the tool they use to focus their abilities. Another common feature of astrology is the comparison of birth charts to ascertain the compatibility of two people. This is a straightforward method used by over-laying one chart upon the other. The aspects or angles formed by the planets are then analyzed to determine how the energy fields of each person blend together.

Electronic Health Records Essay

The medical and healthcare field is characterized with the cumbersome practice of obtaining and maintaining extensive documentation of patient information. Medical staff, physicians and healthcare practitioners are legally responsible to maintain a comprehensive, efficient as well as effective way to collect, maintain and archive patient information. Traditionally, this process of information collection and maintenance was accomplished manually resulting in an endless paper trail of information. Everything from patient encounters to informational charts to billing was executed in a paper based environment and soon this record keeping method became too overbearing and tedious to manage. The integrity of this manual paper-based process continued to be compromised with issues surrounding the convenience, data mining ability, cost and safety of this method. The advent of new health care disciplines such as nursing, medical technologists and associated health care disciplines, and the emergence of hospitals, infirmaries and clinics as formalized structures of health care delivery expanded the scale of interaction between health care providers and health care consumers. However, in spite of these and associated developments, the tradition of privacy and confidentiality remained. Operationally, the new health care professions were seen as extensions of, and as subsidiary to, the medical profession and similar injunctions concerning privacy and confidentiality applied. (Doyle, 2001) Further, health care decision making continued to centre in the direct and interpersonal relationship between the professional and the client that had characterized it from its very beginning. An important step in the transformation of this scenario occurred with the introduction of electronic means of storing and manipulating patient data. The pace of this transformation was accelerated by the development of advanced computer-based information technology. At first glance, these developments may seem like purely technological improvements: mere steps, as it were, along the road to the greater ease of collecting, storing and manipulating patient data. However, what actually happened was more profound. The advent of electronic means of data storage, retrieval and manipulation facilitated the evolution of health care decision-making structures away from the small-scale immediate-contact model that had characterized medicine and health care from the beginning to a new model that no longer dealt with the physician-patient encounter as sole decision-resource but instead centered on the information package that described and defined the patient from a decision-making perspective. That is to say, considered in one way, the modern electronically based data package that describes the patient can be seen as a mere variation on the traditional package that was paper-based and that involved the manual manipulation of a material medium. From that perspective, electronic records do not differ fundamentally from paper-based records. While electronically based records may be more compact, more easily available, etc. , this is merely a peripheral difference as far as their nature as records is concerned. Therefore in this sense, there is nothing about electronic patient records that in principle makes them different from paper based records. It’s a normal trend for clinical departments to work for years with their own people, budget, and vendors to come up with a method of capturing their patient and billing data electronically, and that personalized method is one definition of an EHR. In actual fact, one point of argument regarding EHRs is simply a question of semantics. There are various definitions for an EHR. At one end of the scale, an EHR includes everything from patient’s past medical history to diet and lifestyle preferences. At the other end, it can be as simple as an e-mail message to a fellow clinician. Our definition of an EHR is simply a repository of clinically important data that may be accessed and searched with relative ease and in a rapid manner. Today, the use of EHR systems has revolutionized the medical field industry by facilitating a more efficient record keeping process and a more effective communication medium for medical personnel to exchange information. Many healthcare personnel now understand the importance and the impact these EHR systems are having on the overall delivery of customer service and the general administration of healthcare. Medical practitioners are constantly faced with challenges including the need to improve the quality of care, adhere to new clinical restrictions and processes, reduce waste and reduce errors. In recent times these challenges have been less of a burden as automated integrated systems help coordinate such process much better. Computerized systems like EHR systems help in reducing the amount of paperwork for medical offices, providing an easier way to access patient information, promoting more uniform delivery of processes and in some respects suggesting appropriate diagnosis and treatment for certain conditions. While the health care information superhighway has brought such benefits as detailed health and medical information and has increased the efficiency of managed care organizations in data collection and analysis, outsiders who have access to patient s’ medical histories are using them as tools of discrimination in employment, promotions, insurance coverage, and even politics. Dr.  Denise Nagel, president of Coalition for Patient Rights of New England, state, â€Å"The traditional right of medical privacy, protected by the Hippocratic Oath, is being eroded as our medical records become transformed into commodities desired by insurers, employers, researchers, and yes, even police. † (Gellman, 2002) She goes on to give the example of a woman, who with only average computer skills, was able to access information about the psychiatric condition from her medical record in an insurance company’s database. Concerned that future employers would obtain it as easily as she had, she requested its removal, but was turned d own by the company (Tobler, 2002). When a confidential list of 4,000 AIDS patients wound up in newsrooms in Tampa, Florida, last year, it was discovered that the computerized medical records had been tapped by a major pharmaceutical company (Bennett, 2002). These examples arouse concern about how private medical data really is. Patients have the right to keep their medical history private for their own protection, but that privacy is increasingly being threatened by the growth of the information superhighway. There would have to be a provision that even for legitimate purposes, the subjects of the records would have to be notified if patients’ records were to be accessed, the reason why they were being accessed, and the extent to which such an intrusion into the privacy of the individual was going to take place. This would have to go hand-in-hand with the right of the subject of the record to challenge the claim that privacy must be breached by the duly empowered social agency. Similar remarks apply to the activities of other duly authorized social institutions. For example, some jurisdictions have started to construct networked data sharing agencies that monitor the filling of medical prescriptions. (Bennett, 2002) The alleged purpose of such a surveillance network is safety: It is to ensure that the prescriptions that are actually being filled for a given patient do not conflict or synergetically interact with each other, or otherwise have a deleterious effect on the patient’s health. Another, ancillary purpose is to control the misuse of drugs, to prevent physician-shopping for multiple prescriptions of controlled substances that are then sold illegally, etc. Specifically, one may distinguish between social harm that would be avoided or minimized and personal harm for the individual patient. If the claim is that societal harm would be minimized by such an intrusion into personal privacy, certain considerations must be borne in mind. First, any action that limits the application of a principle has consequences that extend beyond the immediate action itself. Thus, abandoning the principle of privacy on a given occasion has the tendency to undermine the sense of trust that people have in social institutions and in the maintenance of their rights. Consequently, when such an intrusion for security purposes occurs, care must be taken that the potential harm in undermining confidence in societal protection of individual privacy is outweighed by the harm that it is intended to prevent. Second, the Principle of Equality and Justice would entail that any such abrogation of the individual’s right of privacy must be demonstrably necessary and could not be achieved by a less intrusive course of action. Third, any such abrogation of the individual’s right of privacy would have to be limited in extent, such that it may not go beyond the limits necessary to achieve the otherwise legitimate aims that have been justified by the preceding two considerations. In other words, it must adhere to the principle of the least intrusive alternative. By contrast, intrusions into privacy that focus in the welfare of the individual patient could not be justified in such a fashion. The reason is to be found in the Principle of Non-Malfeasance itself. The core of the Principle of Non-Malfeasance is not simply that harm should be minimized, but harm should be minimized where the nature of that harm is determined not by the agent but by the intended recipient of the action.

Education System Essay

The education system of India is very old. It has started from the ancient times. The Vedas, puranas, ayurveda, yoga represent some forms of education. There are evidences of imparting formal education in ancient India under the Gurukul system. Under the Gurukul system, young boys who were passing through the Brahmacharya stage of life had to stay at the Guru or the teacher’s home and complete their education. Earlier women and people of lower castes didn’t have a right to educate themselves. But Jainism, Buddhism and Sufi movements had some liberating effects. The Britishers can be credited for bringing a revolution in the Indian education system because it is the English language and the reformation movements of the 19th century that had the most liberating effect in pre-independent India. India Education Present Condition  After independence, making education available to all had become a priority for the government. As discrimination on the basis of caste and gender has been a major impediment in the healthy development of the Indian society, they have been made unlawful by the Indian constitution. The 86th constitutional amendment has also made elementary education a fundamental right for the children between the age group- 6 to 14. According to the 2001 census, Total literacy rate – 65.38%. The female literacy rate – 54.16%. Only 59.4% of rural population is literate as against 80.3% urban population according to the 2001 census. Read more: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/education/education-system-of-india.php#ixzz2KBxKSaq0

Excessive Compulsive Disorder essays

Excessive Compulsive Disorder essays I know my hands are clean. I know that I have touched nothing dangerous. But... I doubt my perception. Soon, if I do not wash, a mind numbing, searing anxiety will cripple me. A feeling of stickiness will begin to spread from the point of contamination and I will be lost in a place I do not want to go. So I wash until the feeling is gone, until the anxiety subsides. Then I feel defeated. So I do less and less, my world becomes smaller and smaller and more lonely by the day (Healthy Place: OCD Community). The writer of this poem has a disease call Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In OCD, it is as though the brain gets stuck on a particular thought or urge and just can't let go. OCD can persist throughout a persons life, gradually worsening. If not treated, OCD can drastically affect all aspects of a persons life: work, school, friends, and family (Weiskopf). Worries, doubts, and superstitious beliefs all are common in everyday life. However, when they become so excessive as to interrupt ones daily life, then the diagnosis is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a disorder that is not commonly heard of, but surprisingly it affects 2% of the population, more than those with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (Plexus Staff). OCD is an anxiety disorder that manifests itself through obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted, overwhelming, recurrent, and unpleasant thoughts. Dr. John R. Smith says, The obsessions are recurrent thoughts, which an OCD sufferer experiences as being outside their control, although they know those thoughts are coming from their own mind. (McShane 14). A person with OCD might constantly repeat a thought in their head, which can be triggered by an external or internal object. Some common obsessions include repeated impulses to kill a loved fa mily member, incessant worries about dirt or contamin...

Accounting Rules and Joint Ventures in Europe

Accounting Rules and Joint Ventures in Europe Bridging the GAAP The International Accounting Standards (IAS) was supposed to be a unifying conceptual framework which would bring accounting practices of various firms and industries under a single umbrella of standards. No matter if it is a Greek shipping magnate or an Italian fish processing plant, the EU envisioned that they would work within a single standard to better facilitate trade amongst various nations. Indeed, the EU attempted to achieve this through the means of directives, which were soon abandoned. Directives, aimed at forcing compliance with EU accounting standards and practices were discarded because of complaints such as those voiced by the 2003 Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes with regards to the Czech Republic that â€Å"The wording of primary and secondary legislation suggests that the Czech Republic’s real priority is compliance with EU directives, rather than adoption of IAS.† Indeed, these two seemed to be not only different goa ls, but mutually exclusive ones- companies could either sate the directives issued or the requirements of the IAS, but rarely both, especially in Eastern Block nations where both concepts were fairly new. Now, however, a new complication is on the horizon in the form of bilateral trade with the U.S. and U.S.-E.U. joint ventures. Obviously the directives, which have been scrapped in any case, would have no force of law in U.S. courts. But nevertheless, there has been considerable movement on this issue as of late. In 2006, the IASB issued a paper called â€Å"A Roadmap for Convergence between IFRSs and US GAAP- 2006-2008 Memorandum of Understanding between the FASB and the IASB†. The memorandum, based upon work done during a 2002 meeting between the FASB (U.S.) and the IASB, as well as subsequent meetings in 2005, stated that â€Å"the FASB and the IASB reaffirmed their commitment to the convergence of US generally accepted accounting principles (US GAAP) and International Fi nancial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).† Nevertheless, this is bound to be a complicated venture because it can not be resolved by boards or government agencies. As the memorandum itself recognized, â€Å"the ability to meet the objective set out by the roadmap depends upon the efforts and actions of many parties—including companies, auditors, investors, standard-setters and regulators.† In other words, bridging the gaap is not merely a matter of ironing out a combined framework of accounting practices. It is a matter of a company in Los Angeles following the same accounting standards and practices that a company in London would. It is also a question of training assessors and auditors in this new standard so that they can ensure compliance with it. For these reasons, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently put forth a proposal which would allow U.S. listed companies to choose between IFRS and the U.S. GAAP. While some in Europe and the U.S. fear that a llowing companies to make this choice would hinder the process of converging the two systems (Johnson, 2007) it is nevertheless a practical solution which should be given serious thought and consideration. The European Union, an offspring of NATO, was fifty years in the making. The idea that uniform standards can be achieved on both sides of the pond between thousands of individual companies is fanciful. As a pragmatic matter as well, people are often leery of change- especially change that is being forced upon them, which was another reason the Directives approach previously discussed failed. While the ultimate goal of uniformly adopting the IFRS may well be desirable, it is certainly not something that can or will happen overnight. Allowing a choice between GAAP and IFRS for U.S. companies should not be viewed as an effort to â€Å"halt or slow the convergence process† (Johnson, 2007) but rather as an acknowledgement of the real world difficulties inherent to any large-scal e transitions.

Children's Literature - The Owl Service Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Children's Literature - The Owl Service - Essay Example Gardner’s story continues the legend into the modern era. Alison and her family along with Gwyn and his family are caught together in a generational re-enactment of the story that typically ends in disaster thanks to the magic of the valley in which they live. The story’s relationship with the legend can be traced within the language and structure of the individual scenes such as the one found at the beginning of Chapter 20 in which Gwyn attempts to convince Alison to run away with him. The passage in question begins with the changes in the atmosphere around the house. This atmosphere introduces the building tension of the legendary story and the conflict between ‘Lleu’, who is symbolically represented, and Gwyn for Alison’s affections. The oppressive atmosphere is suggested on a physical level first, opening with the knowledge that â€Å"the weather changed overnight. A wind came, dragging clouds along the mountains.† This oppressiveness is brought down to the human level by Nancy, who â€Å"went about in silence and did her work with a perfection that made the house unbearable† yet Alison is afraid to leave it for fear her mother may see her leaving her appointed place. This mother is an unseen presence in the seen, just as she is in the story, yet she is always watching, always aware of what is going on, â€Å"Mummy saw us up the mountain. She was watching through binoculars. She was waiting for me.† This ever-present, al l-seeing eye introduces the concept of being watched over by less-than-sympathetic supernatural eye without moving outside of the realm of the natural and the normal. This is what Jackson suggests is the heart of the menippean fantasy. â€Å"It does not invent supernatural regions, but presents a natural world inverted into something strange, something ‘other’. It becomes ‘domesticated’, humanized, turning from transcendental explorations to transcriptions of a human condition† (Jackson 1981: 17).