Essay --

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross once said, â€Å"Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.† This quote truly captures Dimmesdale’s death and journey to death, it is guilt that drives him to the grave and it accompanies him throughout all five grieving stages. Dimmesdale is one of many characters in The Scarlet Letter that is faced with problems both personally and spiritually. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a romantic novel about a young woman, Hester Prynne, who is permanently marked with her sin by a scarlet A she must bare on her chest and also by her daughter Pearl. Hester committed adultery with the young minister of Boston, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester, and her beloved child Pearl, learn to over come the A and change the meaning of it from adulterer to able, while they are changing the way society views them, Dimmesdale is withering away under the â€Å"care† of Rodger Chillingworth, Hester’s past husband. Chillingworth knows about the s in and seeks revenge on Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is helpless and in a downward spiral. He let the sin become who he is, even though the towns people don’t know of his adultery until his dying breath. The Scarlet Letter is a story about overcoming the darkness that hangs above you and stepping out of the sin or gloom that controls you. For characters like Hester this is a fairly easy thing to handle, but on the flip side characters like Dimmesdale struggle and can not seem to escape their heinous acts and don’t find peace of mind until they die. The Scarlet Letter mainly focuses on the process of overcoming these troubling times and how each individual character handles the pressure, stress, and guilt that come along with it differently. Arthur Dimmesdale is a lost soul after his sin, he expe... ...d in acts to try and please God or whom ever they wish to gain forgiveness from. Most people naturally tie depression to death; people in this stage will experience sadness, regret, and fear of what is to come. The final stage is acceptance, this stage is very straightforward, it is in this stage that the individual realizes their fate and are okay with it and what they have done. (Elisabeth Kà ¼bler-Ross -Five Stages of Grief, Business Balls). Dimmesdale is a very, very troubled man to say the least. Throughout The Scarlet Letter Dimmesdale is shown going through the five stages of grief, he lets his sin rule and control his life and lets it ultimately lead to his demise. â€Å"Denial is a conscious or unconscious refusal to accept facts, information, reality, etc., relating to the situation concerned† (Elisabeth Kà ¼bler-Ross -Five Stages of Grief, Business Balls). Denial

Growing afraid Essay

Pip describes the afternoon as being â€Å"raw†, which describes the bitterness of the weather, the weather is almost attacking Pip. The graveyard can be described as very old because â€Å"overgrown with nettles† lays a churchyard, which is uncared for and in an instant it could just crumble away. Pip again adds significant words, as he repeats all of the names on the gravestones, â€Å"Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias and Roger† that have died in this harsh place, Pip reads it as if it were a list with so many people there, who have been there for a long period of time. â€Å"Dark, flat, wilderness beyond the churchyard† again explains the lack of community and the Isolation around the area. Dickens personifies wind as the â€Å"wind was rushing†, as if it were â€Å"rushing† to get Pip who was at the time a â€Å"small bundle of shivers† growing afraid. The marshlands had an effect not only on Pip, but the convict also, the convict had been â€Å"smothered in mud and lamed by stones and cut by flints, and stung by nettles and torn by briars†, showing he had escaped for a long time and had spent most of his time hiding in the marshlands. As the convict roughly treats Pip, he tilts him over, gradually down to the floor, he gives Pip a greater â€Å"sense of helplessness and danger† which adds to the atmosphere significantly. Toward the end of the chapter, a sad atmosphere is created, as the convict â€Å"hugged his shuddering body in both arms clasping himself as if to hold himself together†. The convict limps toward the â€Å"low church wall† producing an image of one who is close to death. Pip creates another childish imagination but this one describes the dead rising up â€Å"stretching up cautiously out of their graves†, showing how much fear he had in him at the time. The marshes are depicted as just a â€Å"long black horizontal line† with the sky being â€Å"just like a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed†, describing the darkness, and anger in Pip’s world. Charles Dickens leaves you with eerie images of death, of a limping man, as if he were a â€Å"pirate come to life and come down and going back to hook himself up again. We are introduced to Miss Havisham first as an â€Å"immensely rich and grim lady†, a notorious woman who lived in a large house that was heavily barricaded against robbers. She is described as living a life of â€Å"seclusion† which leads us to believe that she is isolated, miserable and depressed. Pip describes her as being the â€Å"strangest lady† he had ever seen. She was dressed in rich materials, satins, lace and silks, all that are symbols of wealth. She had a â€Å"long white veil dependent from her hair† which makes us believe that she is a bit odd wearing bridal wear for no apparent reason. Her hair was white which symbolizes that she is quite old. Another symbol of wealth is created because she had some bright jewels sparkling around her neck. Pip states that the â€Å"bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress† which is another clue to her being quite old. We are given another unhealthy image of Miss Havisham, of her dying, the book reflects this by stating that there was â€Å"no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes† and her figure had â€Å"hung loose† and had â€Å"shrunk to skin and bone†. She states that she had never seen the sun since she was born, this makes the reader feel that she is again isolated and hiding away from life outside. She is also a cold-hearted person, because she says that her heart was broken with an eager look on her face. We learn that she despises adults, and that she acts like a child, the novel portrays this by stating that she has â€Å"sick fancies† and she orders Pip with an â€Å"impatient movement of the hand† to play. When Estella came to play with Pip, Miss Havisham says to Estella that she can break Pips heart, this indicates that Miss Havisham has set out to seek revenge on men, and that is one of the reasons why she brought Pip to her house. There is a sense that life has ceased for Miss Havisham, the book shows this by stating that her silk stocking â€Å"once white, now yellow had been trodden ragged†. Pip says that the frillings and trimmings on her bridal dress looked like â€Å"earthy paper† which describes it as being fragile, like Miss Havisham herself. After Pip had finished playing cards with Estella, Miss Havisham states â€Å"You shall go home soon†, â€Å"Play the game out† this illustrates to the reader that she is depressed and emotionally hurt, and is not to used to the company of others, so she sends him away. She had an appearance of â€Å"dropped body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow† which leads us to believe that the marriage which didn’t take place, has caused her to drop her body and drop her soul. Miss Havisham once again thinks highly of herself, acting as if she owns Pip, she expresses this by stating â€Å"When shall I have you here again? â€Å". We also learn that she is a misguided woman because she says she doesn’t know anything about the days of the week, or the weeks of the year. We first learn that Estella is selfish and speaks in an scornful manner to anyone she isn’t familiar with, the evidence of this is that after Pip politely said that she could go in first, she replied by saying â€Å"Don’t be ridiculous boy; I am not going in† and she also left Pip in the dark by taking the candle with her. When Pip called her name out to play with him, she didn’t come straight away, she took her time, deliberately trying to be awkward. When Miss Havisham tried the jewel on Estella, she obviously had intentions for her to get married. Estella thinks she is better than Pip, the evidence of this is that when she was ordered by Miss Havisham to play with Pip, she replied â€Å"With this boy! Why he is a common labouring boy! â€Å". When Estella asked Pip what games he played, she asked it in the â€Å"greatest disdain† which makes us believe she is strict and again scornful and looks down on lower classes. Estella is used as a weapon, a heartbreaker by Miss Havisham, who as we know wants to treat men as she was treated, Miss havisham illustrates this by stating â€Å"beggar him† to Estella. Estella has no respect for Pip and thinks highly of herself and no one else, the evidence of this is that she says, â€Å"he calls the knaves, jacks this boy! † and â€Å"what coarse hands he has†. This leaves an effect on Pip as he becomes ashamed of his hands. She was watching Pip creating tension, trying to make him do wrong, so that she could insult him more on his faults. Pip tells us this by stating â€Å"she was lying in wait for me to do wrong; and she denounced me for a stupid, clumsy labouring boy† As Pip was whispering to Miss Havisham, even though she wasn’t saying anything, Estella was making Pip say nice things about her with her eyes, the evidence of this is that she was looking at Pip with look of â€Å"supreme aversion†. As the game between Pip and Estella finished, Estella threw all of the cards down as if she â€Å"despised† them for having been won of Pip, this shows that Estella is spiteful, treats Pip disdainfully and she is very proud. Estella was to told feed Pip, so she put the food down on the ground without looking at Pip as if Pip was a â€Å"dog in disgrace†, this shows that Estella again thinks Pip as being lower class and she has contempt for Pip. Estella had made Pip cry, she looked at him with quick delight as being the cause of the tears, this proves she has no feelings and is satisfied for making him cry, this makes her not a likeable character at all. The first Impressions of Miss Havisham`s house is that it is a huge house filled with mystery, â€Å"dismal house, barricaded against robbers† which reflects the owner’s feelings. The house can furthermore be described as bleak and nervous for anyone who approaches it, with its â€Å"great front entrance† having two chains across it. It is a dark, gloomy place, with a sense of bad experiences. The text tells us this by stating, â€Å"the passages were all dark†¦ and still it was dark, and only the candle lighted us†. Miss Havisham`s room was also dark, she obviously prefers darkness, and all of the candles represent the light in the room, the evidence of this is that â€Å"a pretty large room, well lighted with candles† and â€Å"no glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it†. There is a sense of chaos in the room as everything is untidy, dresses and half-packed trunks were scattered about also Miss Havisham only had one shoe on. Everything was left as it was years ago, â€Å"all confusedly heaped about the looking glass†. Pip relates Miss Havisham to a waxwork he had once seen, with her skin sallow. He also makes a reference to death by describing a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress. Miss Havisham is almost a ghost in her own house, the evidence of this is that â€Å"waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved†. All of the watches and clocks in her room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, which is deliberate and could be linked with her marriage that didn’t take place. Pip is made to feel vulnerable, he has no choice but to do what Miss Havisham says, this is because he had the â€Å"desperate idea of starting round the room† meaning that he had to embarrass himself in front of Miss Havisham. She asked Pip if he was sullen and obstinate, he is obviously very misunderstood. Miss Havisham becomes frustrated with him and pitiful for him, the book expresses this by stating â€Å"So new to him† â€Å"So old to me† â€Å"So melancholy to both of us! † Miss Havisham again makes Pip feel discomfort as he is made to shout out â€Å"Estella† in a dark and â€Å"mysterious passage of an un-known house† again he is made to embarrass himself. Another sense that life has seized for Miss Havisham is that there are â€Å"pale, decayed objects† which also creates a deathly and unsettling atmosphere. Pip also describes her clothes as â€Å"grave-clothes† and her â€Å"long veil looking like a shroud† both of which are linked with a corpse. As Pip leaves Miss Havisham`s house, he states that the â€Å"rush of daylight† quite confounded him, this is another clue that the house is a very dark place. Toward the end of the chapter, we feel pity for Pip, because Estella treats him so badly, but he is strong because he refuses to cry in the presence of her, even though his feelings are â€Å"bitter†. This also shows that he wishes he had come from a family who were more of an upper class, than the family he was brought up with, because then maybe Estella would have treated him better.

State Bank of India vs Icici

? STATE BANK OF INDIA. SBI Debt-Equity ratio : 12. 43 (march'12) A high debt/equity ratio generally means that a company has been aggressive in financing its growth with debt. This can result in volatile earnings as a result of the additional interest expense. If a lot of  debt is  used to finance increased  operations (high debt to equity), the company could potentially generate more earnings  than it would have without this  outside financing. If this were to increase earnings by a greater amount than the debt cost (interest), then the shareholders benefit as  more  earnings are being spread among the same amount of shareholders.However, the cost of this debt financing may  outweigh the return that  the company  generates on the debt through investment and business activities and become too much for the company to handle. This can lead to bankruptcy, which would leave shareholders with nothing. The debt/equity ratio also depends on the industry  in which the c ompany operates. For example, capital-intensive industries such as auto  manufacturing tend to have a debt/equity ratio above 2, while personal computer companies have a debt/equity of under 0. 5. ICICI BANK LTD. ?ICICI Debt Equity ratio: 4. 23 (march'12) Which is the better bank? As we said earlier, SBI's government backing makes it the more ‘safer' entity. ICICI by itself does not have the reputation of good quality assets. But it is certainly striving to achieve the same. Both in terms of margins and returns, SBI has had an edge and will continue to have it in the medium term. Having said that investors must carefully weigh the future prospects of both the entities vis-a-vis their respective valuations before taking their pick. DEBT INSTRUMENTS IN INDIA.Debt Instruments are obligations of issuer of such instrument as regards certain future cash flow representing Interest & Principal, which the issuer would pay to the legal owner of the Instrument. They can also be said to be tradable form of loans. Debt Instruments are of various types like Bonds, Debentures, Commercial Papers, Certificates of Deposit, Government Securities (G secs) etc. The Government Securities (G-Secs) market is the oldest and the largest component of the Indian debt market in terms of market capitalization, trading volumes and outstanding securities.The G-Secs market plays a vital role in the Indian economy as it provides the benchmark for determining the level of interest rates in the country through the yields on the government securities which are treated as the risk-free rate of return in any economy. The reserve Bank of India has permitted Primary Dealers, Banks and Financial Institutions in India to do transactions in debt instruments among themselves or with non-bank clients. Debt instruments provide fixed return declared as coupon rate.Retail investors would have a natural preference for fixed income returns and especially so in the current situation of increasing volati lity in the financial markets. Now, retail investors are also showing keen interest in Debt Instruments particularly in the Central Government Securities (G-secs). For an individual investor G-secs are one of the best investment options as there is zero default risk and lower volatility in case of G-secs. SBI DFHI is a major player in G-Secs market and widely deals in other debt instruments also. STATE BANK OF INDIA: ) GOVERNMENT SECURITIES: (dates government securities-long term, treasury bills are short term) SBI DFHI Ltd. is a leading Primary Dealer in Government Securities. SBI DFHI Ltd gives investors an opportunity to buy G-Sec / SDLs / T-Bills at primary market auctions of RBI through its SBI DFHI Invest scheme (details available on website ). Investors may also invest in high yielding Government Securities through â€Å"SBI DFHI Trade† where â€Å"buy and sell price† and a buy and sell facility for select liquid scrips in the secondary markets is offered. ) TRE ASURY BILLS: SBI DFHI Ltd, is an active player in the both the primary and the secondary market for Treasury Bills with an impressive total outr. ight turnover of Rs. 7,892 crores. 3) Money market instruments : Commercial paper, Certificate of Deposit: 4) non-slr bonds like public sector undertaking (PSU bonds) or corporate bonds 5) Debentures ICICI: 1) Bonds (regular income, tax saving, deep discount bonds etc. ) 2) Unsecured Debentures 3) Commerical Papers 4) certificate of deposit LISTINGS: STATE BANK OF INDIA: NSE . CODE: SBIN BSE CODE : 500112 LSE CODE: SBID ICICI: NSE:  ICICIBANK,BSE:  532174, NYSE:  IBN STATE BANK OF INDIA: The declaration and payment of dividends is recommended by the Bank’s Central Board of Directors and approved by its shareholders. The Bank’s decision to declare a dividend depends on a number of factors including but not limited to its profits, capital requirements and overall financial condition. The Central Board may also pay interim dividends from time to time. All dividend payments are made in cash to the shareholders of the Bank. The Bank’s dividend policy is to declare dividends only at the conclusion of the fiscal year. ? ICICI ?

Alcoholism final

Generally, alcoholism is considered more as a habitual disorder rather than a disease. It is self initiated and mostly can be prevented or controlled. It is as a result of over dependency on the substance (Alcohol) which is by itself a drug. Abuse of the substance consequently leads to Alcoholism. There are some symptoms surrounding alcoholism, which includes; a strong thirst and urge to per take the substance, withdrawal, shakiness of hands and in some cases the whole body, anxiety after stopping drinking.Once one has started the habit, it’s extremely difficult to stop, they in turn gain tolerance of the drink where one gradually increases the amount in order to feel the effect and get ‘high’. (Shebek J, Rindone JP. 2000) Addiction dependency In such cases, the body is accustomed to always having alcohol present which translates to you becoming a slave of the substance. Consequently, one experiences a strong urge for the drink and at this point alcohol has taken over your life where you become alcohol dependent.With time, it soon becomes the only thing you can think of and cannot do without. Surprisingly, people with alcohol dependency do not necessarily suffer liver diseases. This mostly is dependent on genes which vary from one individual to another. In some individuals, it is possible to drink heavily and die from liver diseases without ever developing alcohol dependency whereas in some they may develop alcohol dependency but do not have the liver diseases. (Goodwin, Donald W. 1988). Effects on body In the body, alcohol is quickly metabolized and absorbed by other nutrients.It is rapidly absorbed in the upper portion of the small intestine, where the alcohol laden blood then travels to the liver via the veins and capillaries of the digestive tract, which affects nearly every liver cell. Also, it affects every organ of the body though its most impact is upon the liver. Liver cells are forced to first metabolize the alcohol, letting the fa tty acids accumulate. Alcohol metabolism permanently changes liver cell structure, which results to impairment of the liver’s ability to metabolize fats. This is basically the reason behind fatty livers in heavy drinkers.A liver clogged with fat causes liver cells to become less efficient which consequently impairs a person nutritional health. Alcohol displaces calories from needed nutrients and also interferes with the body’s metabolism of nutrients leading to damage of the liver, digestive system and nearly every bodily organ. Prohibition of alcohol can greatly reduce its consumption and subsequently bring down the crime related to alcohol which in turn can save many lives and society from the ordeals emanated from this. Though this is not an easy case, it calls for both the law enforcers and society to play part in it.(Cadoret, Remi J. , et. al. , December, 1986) Religious connection with alcohol where Jesus changed water into wine. Jesus changing water into wine wa s a manifest of his powers to demonstrate that he was capable and had the transforming power to change people from tasteless ordinary people to very important people who bring joy and happiness to others. He used Mary’s simple request and servants’ obedience to reveal his glory. His intention was to give Christians a life like that of a wedding feast which is only celebrated once in a life time.Alcohol consumption was not considered a daily event but a one time thing which was meant to bring happy and memorable feelings but nowadays, it’s not the case. It has been abused by many and some have made it a daily thing meant to solve personal issues like stress other than celebrating occasional and important events. (Agape miracle fellowship 2003). Jesus changed water into wine where wine was and still is considered a low alcohol drink which if it’s taken occasionally in the right quantity and manner cannot lead to alcoholism addiction and disorders. Stand of health sources pertaining alcoholism.Heath sources have a stand on this vice where they advice people to keep off from alcohol as alcoholism is perceived as a self induced disease which can be avoided or cured if at all the patient is willing to forfeit alcohol completely for his/her sake of healing. People are advised to keep off from alcohol because its repercussions are immense and damaging to ones health which is something that can easily be avoided. (Gallant . D, 1987) I can strongly advice victims to try their level best to quit alcohol and for those who haven’t started and are maybe considering it, to reverse their decision before it is too late to turn back.They can avoid the ‘I wish I knew’ slogan by avoiding the ‘one sip’ thing is what leads to a bottle which later grows into bottles and before long one is already an alcoholic, a very difficult situation to turn back from. Governments should strongly play their roles of enforcing laws which will regulate the sale of alcohol, for instance they can raise taxes on alcoholic products to make it difficult for purchasers to ‘enjoy’ it daily. Also, it can consider burning importation of this cheap alcohol drinks which are pocket friendly and encourage daily consumption. References. Cadoret, Remi J. , et. al., (December, 1986) â€Å"An Adoption Study of Genetic and Environmental Factors in Drug Abuse. † Archives of General Psychiatry. 43: 1131-1136. Gallant . D, (1987), Alcoholism: A Guide to Diagnosis, Intervention, and Treatment . Colombia. Colombia University press. Goodwin, Donald W. (1988). Is Alcoholism Hereditary? New York: Ballantine Books, 2nd Ed. Shebek J, Rindone JP. (2000) â€Å"A Pilot Study Exploring the Effect of Kudzu Root on the Drinking Habits of Patients with Chronic Alcoholism. † J Altern Complement Med. 6, 1:45-8. Agapemiraclefellowship. (2003). miracle at marriage. www. agapeindia. com /miracle_03. .

Bbva case study analysis Essay

1. Introduction It has been claimed that BBVA has implemented an open innovation, â€Å"a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology† says Chesbrough (2003)1. BBVA is seeing itself positioned right and succeeded for innovations. It is suspected that whether the innovation at BBVA is successful and highly recognized open innovation approach. This essay will examine how BBVA build their capabilities to embed an open innovation approach in their organisation and outline some challenges when BBVA moving forward to more open innovation in the near future. 1.1 BBVA’s Key Characteristics BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) is a multinational Spanish banking group, providing a wide range of financial services for both businesses and consumers. BBVA is ranked as the second largest bank in Spain. As it’s headquartered in Madrid, BBVA mainly resides on Latin American countries. It also has a strong presence in southern Europe, and has expanded into the United States and some countries in Asia. In 2012, BBVA employed more than 115,000 people and served over 53 million customers in 32 countries with around 8,000 branches2. BBVA implements customercentric approach as its core business and positioning of the BBVA brand3. Not only BBVA focus on a strong customer orientation but also a dedicated innovation. 2. Innovation at BBVA 2.1 Core activities and principles Over the last decade, BBVA has inclined more customer-centric and gave a lot of attention to innovation. In 2007, the BBVA innovation centre was established in Madrid, where many different innovative projects were born and passed through an experiment procedure, beginning from prototype phrase to testing process. Following this, the 1 Chesbrough, H. 2003. Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. 2 BBVA Group Highlights [online], BBVA, Available from: < http://shareholdersandinvestors.bbva.com/TLBB/micros/bbva2012/en/Highlights/BBVAGroupHighlights.html> [2 October 2013] 3  BBVA Annual Report 2012 [online], BBVA, Available from: [2 October 2013] 2 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management outcomes are analyzed and valued before launching the innovation projects, which are formed under BBVA’s innovation and customer orientation approaches. It has been claimed that the following three main principles are extremely helpful to BBVA in the successful development of new services. (Ramis-Pujol and Drà ¶ege, 2011)4 1) Continuous customer orientation and expertise †¢ Start with the analysis of the customers (customer insight) 2) Proactive outward-looking †¢ Look for and welcome the ideas from the outside to the company †¢ Start-up fairs and sponsor ideas competition 3) Teamwork and concurrent feedback loops for fast decisions on innovation project progress †¢ Good communication within team †¢ Each innovation project is reviewed and questioned weekly However, it is doubted that with these underlying principles how BBVA ensure that their lead from innovation is maintained. 2.2 Innovative Projects According to BBVA innovation center, there are a number of continuous successions of innovations offering to their customers’ needs. Most of BBVA innovative projects were idea-led and technology-enabled. When BBVA considered its projects, it is apparent that those projects were driven from the unmet needs or customers’ needs that are not available on the market, which Von Hippel E. defined as â€Å"user-driven innovation†5 As Ramis-Pujol and  Drà ¶ege (2011) studied innovation at BBVA, they found that BBVA developed a large number of new banking services within only two years. They also examined some projects relevant to innovation practice (see table 1) that described how BBVA identified the market and developed these projects before launching to the market. After implementing, some projects were highly successful but some were not. Despite a lack of achievement in some projects, BBVA is still able to exploit the experience made within the projects and to share valuable knowledge to other innovative projects. 4 Ramis-Pujol J. and Drà ¶ege H., 2011. Case study of Innovation at BBVA. ESADE University. Von Hippel E. (20 August 2013), User-driven innovation [online], BBVA Innovation Center, Available from: [1 October 2013] 5 3 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management Table 1: Some of the innovative projects in BBVA6 Projects Type of Project tu ceuntas Online personal finance management service Partner Strands.com (24% acquisition) TV casting show Small IT firm Partner operate separately Searching and networking web for SMEs Swendish design company N/A POK tpresento econta Accounting service for SMEs Virtual Doc ATM Stored Document Online Study on customers’ use of technology ATM software and hardware developments econta & external expert (70% acquisition) Virtual Doc (70% acquisition) IDEO (Signed contract) ATM Manufacture Involvement Joint project team Actively involved Partner operate separately Internal expert get involved Instead of doing all processed itself, BBVA seeks partners or external experts such as the technologists outside of BBVA, who had experienced in this area, to help it embed the technology around its innovative ideas that BBVA wants to deliver to the markets. Although it has the partnering companies in their innovation, it has been argued that some of the BBVA innovative projects may seem to be outsourcing than open innovation. According to Belcourt M. (2006)7, â€Å"outsourcing refers to a contractual relationship for the provision of business services by an external provider†. The followings are the example for this argument: 1) â€Å"POK† – once BBVA had the idea to introduce TV casting show in order to get closer to younger target groups, BBVA hired a small IT firm to independently develop the social media technology and marketing for â€Å"POK† project. 2) ATM – the service was built in partnership with IDEO, the best-known product and service Design Company, by signed the contract. IDEO provided the detailed study of customer’s needs and observation of how people behaved at ATMs. 3) Tpresento, the yellow pages website for SMEs, BBVA selected the Swedish design company to provide a website design for this project.8. 6 Summarized from Ramis-Pujol J. and Drà ¶ege H., 2011. Case study of Innovation at BBVA. ESADE University. p.7-16. Belcourt M., 2006. Outsourcing – The Benefits and the Risks. Journal of Human Resource Management Review, 16(2), 269-279. 8 Ramis-Pujol J. and Drà ¶ege H., 2011. Case study of Innovation at BBVA. ESADE University. 7 4 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management According that the small IT firm, IDEO and Swedish Design Company were paid to work for BBVA, it was probably evaluated that BBVA externalized those companies and these BBVA’s innovative projects look more like outsourcing than open innovation. Moreover, regarding a service differentiation that â€Å"provides prioritized service qualities to multiple classes of client requests† says Zhu H. et al., 2001)9, it can be seen that BBVA tried to differentiate their services related to innovation to serve their multiple customers (innovation shoppers). Although BBVA tried to make them look very different, the service itself is exactly the same. The example for this is the ATMs, BBVA differentiates the ways customer access to the bank but still provides core banking service to the customers. 2.3 Open innovation at BBVA BBVA has embedded an open innovation as described above in their organization. They were aware that good ideas and expertise did not always reside inside the organization but the collaboration side by side with internal and external expertise. Chesbrough H. et al. (2006)10 founded that this practices â€Å"will extend to suppliers, customers, partners, third parties, and general community as a whole.† It is considered important that open innovation would relate to a degree of engagement between internal knowledge and external partners. Chesbrough (2012)11 points out that there are two important kinds of an open innovation. The first one is â€Å"outside-in† open innovation, opening up the process of company’s innovation to many external inputs and contributions. In case of BBVA, it seeks out potential partners, who already had experience have experienced in new technologies, and then form a productive relationship with them. The example for this is Tu cuentas project, a unique service concept providing online money management. BBVA invested 24% acquisition in Strands.com (the innovative IT Company), relying on this company in order to develop and maintain an application of the personal finance analyzer. 9 Zhu H. et al., 2001. Demand-driven service differentiation in cluster-based network servers. In: INFOCOM 2001, ed. 20th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies. Anchorage 22-26 April 2001. IEEE, 679 – 688, vol.2. 10 Chesbrough H et al. 2006. Open Innovation, Researching a New Paradigm. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1-12. 11 Chesbrough, H. 2012. Open Innovation. Research-Technology Management, July-August 2012, 20-27. 5 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management The second kind of an open innovation is â€Å"inside-out†, which organisations are required to allow the unused ideas to flow outside the organisations for others to apply in their businesses. Chesbrough (2012) discovered while doing his research that Xerox traded their misfit or unsuccessful projects into the market. It also found that those â€Å"false negative† projects that did not provide benefit to the Xerox’s core business model might have essentially more value if they could be commercialized through a different business model. Unlike Xerox, BBVA actively absorb external technology but they do not transfer unused projects to external partners. The example of the organization that applied both outside-in and inside-out open innovation is Procter & Gamble, not only they embrace outside-in open innovation via its Connect+Develop approach12(the practice of tapping external intellectual property development to accelerate internal innovation) but also share their internal asset development and know-how to help others outside the company. On the other hand, the antithesis of the open innovation is a close innovation, which â€Å"internal innovation activities lead to internally developed products and services that are then distributed by the firm.† (Chesbrough 2006, p.20). Some researchers (Lichtenthaler U, et al., 2011)13 mention about employee attitudes that a close innovation is characterized by high level of employee attitudes that would not like to acquire technology from external sources, and instead would like to emphasize on internal development of new technological knowledge. They also would not like to transfer company’s technologies. The company that embedded with those attitudes would not pay particular attention to open innovation initiatives. Therefore, the negative attitude of acquiring external knowledge might impede the open innovation approach. In order to weight which approaches between the open and the close innovation applied to BBVA, how BBVA implemented implementation whether pure open or close innovation is needed to be considered thoroughly as follows. Regarding the BBVA’s innovative projects, it does not exactly acquire new technological knowledge from the 12 P&G Open Innovation (2013) What is Connect+Develop? [online], P&G, Available from: < http://www.pgconnectdevelop.com/home/pg_open_innovation.html> [7 October 2013] 13 Lichtenthealer U. et al., 2011. Is your company ready for open innovation?. Journal of MIT Sloan Management Review, 53 (1), 4548. 6 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management outsiders or the outsiders only partly transferred the knowledge to them. BBVA builds relationship with external partners in order to strengthen and speed up their internal innovation process but they do not really gain the new knowledge and know-how from them. In some projects such as POK and tpresento, BBVA just paid money and assigned their partners to work for them. This leads to a low level of engagement between BBVA and partnering companies. In addition, there is a small evidence of the customer engagement in the innovation process be seen as another indication of the open innovation. As mentioned earlier, BBVA intends to move forward to the open innovation and it has embedded the environment of the open innovation through their organization. It is likely that what BBVA has being done go beyond the close innovation. Therefore, it can be concluded that the innovation at BBVA has been a â€Å"slightly open innovation† approach but how could BBVA think about a system that was more open is still questionable. 3. Challenges in moving towards to an open innovation Uncertainty in the future might lead to a number of managerial challenges. The followings are some potential dangers that BBVA might be aware of when keep moving towards to more open innovation approach. 3.1 Potential Dangers in the future Centralising innovation According to the innovation centre in Madrid, the customer insight department and all innovation projects are centrally manage within this centre. Although the centralisation brings BBVA the effectiveness of authority control and uniformity in action, BBVA should be aware of localised control of customer service and customer satisfaction. Successful launching new services in Madrid do not mean the success in anywhere else of the world. For better customer satisfaction, having localised innovation centres and synergies between customer insight and innovative department would enable better understanding of local customer needs. However, localisation might  bring a higher cost to support their needs. 7 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management High costs of investment Although the more collaboration with external partners would be able to strengthen an open innovation, it also raises the costs of idea generation and expenses of more employee involvement. Increased investments are required to create a number of innovative projects. BBVA should consider implementing mechanisms for reducing the investment costs. Intellectual property (IP) As BBVA has launched many innovative projects, it is crucial that it has to focus on strategy that prevents the imitation from its competitors. BBVA may attempt to protect its innovations through patents, trademarks, copyrights or trade secrets. However, creating a barrier dependent on its unique skills should also be considered. The company’s belief in literatures regarding the open innovation framework This is a big danger of the company that believes in innovation literatures or theories. Some academics are still publishing the success cases of the innovation, sending the message that the implementation of the open innovation will be beneficial and bring more customers. Then the company will be able to provide better services. It is suspected that those literatures might base on the research conducted via interviewing the existing customers by leading questions. Carlsson C. and Walden P.(2007)14 discovered that although the research on TV mobile showed the evidence that there would be a higher demand, the situation went wrong when the product was launched into the market and found that the demand was not actually there. So, it is important to consider the reliable of the literatures. Employee’s attitudes Since the management team has embedded open innovation environment in BBVA, it may seem that its employee’s attitudes would concur with both outside-in and inside-out open innovation approaches. However, there is a lack of an evidence to prove that most 14 Carlsson C. and Walden P., 2007. Mobile TV – To Live or Die by Content. In: HICSS 2007, ed. 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference, Waikoloa January 2007. Finland: System Science 2007, 1-9. 8 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management or all of BBVA’s employees agree with those approaches, or they would have to accept it because they have to follow the management’s policy. They might not be willing to support the company approach. It is therefore important that the BBVA’s management needs to encourage all employees to be continuously innovative and to get involved in the open innovation, not only the innovation centre but all sections in the organisation. 3.2 More open innovation at BBVA Launching a number of innovative projects, BBVA builds an international innovation network with many leading technology companies, academic institutions, and commercial organisations15. BBVA has to ensure that each of their partners is a bridge towards the inside and outside of the organisation. Moreover, in order to develop and speed up the pace of the open innovation in BBVA’s core business banking, BBVA may let the outsiders offer new technological knowledge or new innovation. Then, do business with those innovation suppliers and acquire that knowledge into BBVA’s innovation processes. Both BBVA and the suppliers would more directly engage with their core business that they set off parallel with banking innovation. BBVA’s Mobile banking service called â€Å"Compass† 16. is best described as the high level of partnership engagement between BBVA and many mobile phone  companies. BBVA does not know about technology on mobile phone. Likewise, mobile phone companies do not know how doing banking service, but the intellectual afford defined the project and linked them to work together. This is the open innovation because they try to learn more details and understand each core business. This new service might be a differentiation but it does not change in fundamental of banking business service. 15 Ensor B. (9 November 2012), Innovation Lessons from BBVA [online], BENJAMIN ENSOR’s BLOG, Available from: http://blogs.forrester.com/benjamin_ensor/12-11-09-innovation_lessons_from_bbva [1 October 2013] 16 PRNewswire (7 August 2013), Mobile banking update allows BBVA Compass customers to pay people using text, email [online], Yahoo Finance , Available from: < http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mobile-banking-allows-bbva-compass-152200662.html> [7 October 2013] 9 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management 4. Conclusion Although BBVA is claimed that it does not implement a fully open innovation, what BBVA has done by launching a number of innovative projects and increasing level of engagement of both outside-in and inside-out partners, might be proven that BBVA is ready to move forwards to a truly open innovation. However, outsourcing and service differentiation issues have been argued among the BBVA’s innovative projects. This might be led to a conclusion that BBVA has implemented a â€Å"slightly open innovation† approach. In addition, it is not to say that managing an open innovation approach is  without challenges. BBVA should have to prepare possible strategies to cope with potentials risks that might stem from both internal and external factors. 10 Innovation at BBVA Operations Management 5. References BBVA, 2012. BBVA Annual Report 2012 [online], BBVA, Available from: [2 October 2013] BBVA, 2012. BBVA Group Highlights [online], BBVA, Available from: < http://shareholdersandinvestors.bbva.com/TLBB/micros/bbva2012/en/Highlights/BBVAGroupHighlight s.html> [2 October 2013] Belcourt M., 2006. Outsourcing – The Benefits and the Risks. Journal of Human Resource Management Review, 16(2), 269-279. Carlsson C. and Walden P., 2007. Mobile TV – To Live or Die by Content. In: HICSS 2007, ed. 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference, Waikoloa January 2007. Finland: System Science 2007, 1-9. Chesbrough, H. 2003. Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Chesbrough, H. 2012. Open Innovation. Journal of Research-Technology Management, July-August 2012, 20-27. Chesbrough H et al. 2006. Open Innovation, Researching a New Paradigm. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1-12. Cloyd G. and Euchner J., 2012. Building Open Innovation at P&G. Journal of Journal of ResearchTechnology Management, July-August 2012, 14-19. Ensor B. (9 November 2012), Innovation Lessons from BBVA [online], BENJAMIN ENSOR’s BLOG, Available from: http://blogs.forrester.com/benjamin_ensor/12-11-09-innovation_lessons_from_bbva [1 October 2013] Lichtenthealer U. et al., 2011. Is your company ready for open innovation?. Journal of MIT Sloan Management Review, 53 (1), 45-48. PRNewswire (7 August 2013), Mobile banking update allows BBVA Compass customers to pay people using text, email [online], Yahoo Finance , Available from: < http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mobile-banking-allows-bbva-compass-152200662.html> [7 October 2013] Von Hippel E. (20 August 2013), User-driven innovation [online], BBVA Innovation Center, Available from:< http://www.centrodeinnovacionbbva.com/en/news/26230-user-driven-innovation > [1 October 2013] Ramis-Pujol J. and Drà ¶ege H., 2011. Case study of Innovation at BBVA. ESADE University. P&G Open Innovation (2013) What is Connect+Develop? [online], P&G, Available from: < http://www.pgconnectdevelop.com/home/pg_open_innovation.html> [7 October 2013] Zhu H. et al., 2001. Demand-driven service differentiation in cluster-based network servers. In: INFOCOM 2001, ed. 20th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies. Anchorage 22-26 April 2001. IEEE, 679 – 688, vol.2. 11

Bioinformatics Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bioinformatics - Lab Report Example After conducting a blast p search, I chose the following proteins EFR29682.1 a hypothetical protein from Anopheles darlingi it had an E value of 10. This protein is not in any way related to Down syndrome. This is a protein from mosquito saliva and matches by chance. This E value is high; its significance is low in relation to Down syndrome (Pevsner 7). Protein 2 is EGW12244.1 known as Down syndrome critical region protein 3–like from Chinese hamster (Cricetulus griseus). This protein has an E value of 1 and is related to Down syndrome since the E value is very low. The hamster genome is similar to the human genome (Pevsner 15). Protein 3 was XP_002122877 with an E value of 0.4 it is a protein predicted to be similar to Down syndrome critical region protein 3 (Down syndrome critical region protein A). It is a protein from Ciona intestinalis, an invertebrate that is closest to humans and shares 80 % of the genome. It has very high significance in the study of Down

Persuade Speech-The Illegality of Abortion Essay - 1

Persuade Speech-The Illegality of Abortion - Essay Example Abortion terminates the development of an unborn child, and that is murder. An embryo or a fetus, just like a living human being, has a right to life. In the United States, according to the fetal homicide laws, killing amounts to violation of fundamental human rights to life. Abortion has become an issue of religious concern. No known religious group in the world favors abortion. It goes against all religious convictions. According to religious books, the killing caused by is punishable by death. According to the existing religious books and doctrines, those who kill by abortion should also be killed. All the religions groups regard abortion as a sin that God punishes so harshly. The other aspect which view abortion as form of prejudice in modern world whose interpretation is equivalent to eugenic, a common phenomenon in the United States and United Kingdom. The most disgusting case in abortion is when is done on the basis of human imperfection in which the poor are born as a result of intermarriages face forceful termination at the early time in life. In addition, it is confirmed beyond the doubts of men that the unborn are capable of feeling the pain as common human beings. The professionals argue at the eighth week the fetus is in a position to exercise flexibility of the spinal cord and the nervous systems are sensitive. It is on this basis that partial abortion of piercing the head of the fetus and removing the brain of the unborn results into ever pain and such practices are highly condemned in the society. This paper will not hesitate to state the medical and psychological trauma not only in women who practice it but also the youthful adult that engage in the act of. Sometimes it is worrying to note that the parent encourage their daughters to carry out abortion at the expenses of academic pursuant. In the end they experience placenta complication and breast