Author: chris

  I have a really low tolerance for people making comments, especially managers, without actually positioning them. Somebody might say, for example, that our competition has a new product. But is it good news or bad news? Should we do something about it? I always expect my managers to have an opinion and they should not be just messengers. A manager is not a messenger. I don’t like my managers essentially talking to their people without being able to express their opinion and position what they’re discussing. People know that I hate long e-mails and that all of the e-mails they send me, with a few exceptions, should always be short enough to fit on the screen of my iPhone. If you send me an e-mail, and I need to scroll down to read it all, you’ve lost me. I’m usually the first person to meet with a new candidate, because I’ll do the selling. People have options, and when they come to us, we’re not the only company they look at. We want them to be extremely committed to the process, even the process of hiring. They have to come and interview with 10 people and do homework. The best way to do that is to get them excited about the company and for me to sell them the vision and talk about the culture and why we will win. Then I’m usually the last one who sees that person again and then it’s a real interview. Raw I.Q. is No. 1, but the second quality is the ability to be part of the team. So the question I most consistently ask people is, “Tell me about a time in your career when you felt in the zone, where you felt you performed the best. It doesn’t need to be the most recent experience. It doesn’t need to be the most high-level job. I just want to understand when you were most excited, and at the top of your game. Who helped you to develop that? What was the environment? Why did you feel like that? What was the company? What was special about the company, about the product, about the space, about you?”I usually focus on that moment because I want to understand how people got there and whether we can replicate that with this person. I’m not a developer, and I don’t write code, but I have the ability to see where technology is going to be in five years. I can see it ahead of most V.C.’s and most analysts and most customers. If you look at all of my companies and my track record, the results show that I was more right than not. My secret thing is that I can see stuff that nobody else can see. Part of working in the big mood swing of a start-up is that you have to somehow get out of it. So every Saturday and Sunday, I’m on a bike for at least a couple of hours. I bike alone because those are the moments when I organize my ideas. Being alone is very helpful for a C.E.O. and I have very few of those moments. I also like long flights.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe a current disaster research need. This paper will be the foundation for developing a potential research proposal. As such, an extensive search of the existing literature is required with scholarly and academic sources being properly cited. An evaluation of the literature will be used to develop a topic, problem statement, and conclusion. paperTo achieve the goals of this paper, more than the minimum number of sources may be necessary.You must clarify the issues being discussed by relating them to scriptural/biblical principles and personal experience. At a minimum, the following sections are required:Provide a brief introduction about the key elements in the paper.Preliminary research must be conducted using practitioners, government sources, articles, etc., to identify and support the problem. The background must include citations from these sources to support your position and problem statement.The problem statement will describe the situation and present issues as well as identifying one or more problematic issues. The problem statement must be clear and concise (approximately 200 words).The literature review is a critical component of a proposal. This section highlights what has been achieved related to your topic. Answer the following questions:What has been tried?What were the conclusions?What do researchers agree or disagree about?What are the central themes and arguments in current studies?What is missing from current studies?Scholarly articles are required. Although some information from government sources may be used sparingly, approximately 80% of the review should incorporate recent scholarly articles (published within the last 5 years).Do not state your opinion in this section. All information provided must be properly cited and must be from quality academic sources. To achieve this, use direct quotations, paraphrases, and synthesized information from multiple sources. For example, this statement synthesizes the opinions of 4 scholars: “Researchers have argued that disaster planning is critical to minimizing the negative effects for emergency responders (Brown, 2010; Caldwell, 2009; Moore, 2011; Stanley, 2008).” Summarize your findings. What are the key points in the literature?What type of study is needed (i.e., qualitative or quantitative)?  What or who should be studied (e.g., police chiefs, emergency responders, citizens, etc.)? What geographic area will be studied (if any)? Explain why you chose these elements.Why is it important to study this topic? Are there any potential issues with studying this topic?  

Have you read all of the course materials, including the Home Page and the sources listed under Background Info?  If you haven’t, then do so before attempting this homework. All land within the municipality of Springfield is zoned for either agricultural, residential or commercial use.  You have just purchased a parcel of agricultural land for $20,000 in the expectation that it will be rezoned next year.  But the rezoning is controversial, and will be decided by the full City Council rather than just the Zoning Commission.  According to your inside sources, there’s a 30% chance the land will be rezoned for commercial use; in that event, you’ll be able to sell the land for $50,000.  But the populists on the Council are pushing for more affordable housing; if they win the vote, which your sources think has a likelihood of 50%, then the land will be rezoned for residential use, and you’ll only be able to sell it for $30,000.  Of course, the Greens may win, and the land won’t be rezoned at all.  In that event, it will still be worth what you paid for it, but no more than that. You’ve just been approached by Mr. Hi Roller.  He’s a land speculator like yourself, but he doesn’t have your inside sources.  He thinks the land will be rezoned next year, and has offered you $30,000 cash for it, right now.  Which alternative should you choose?  Explain your decision process in detail. .  The same general advice is applicable in this Case, in particular: Read the source materials before beginning.The homework is about decision trees, not flipping real estate.Follow standard format.  A cover page, a short discussion, references and citations are all required. Background Source:Bratvold, R. & Begg, S. (2010).  Making good decisions (Chap. 5:  Structuring and solving decision problems). Richardson, TX:  Society of Petroleum EngineersKautt, G. (2010).  Decision tree:  Diagramming the options in your professional life.  Financial Planning 40 (9) (no pagination).  Simon, J. (2000).  Developing decision-making skills for business (Part II:  Introduction to evaluative thinking.)  London:  M.E. Sharpe 

                                          MinuteClinic, owned by pharmacy giant CVS, is a retail healthcare provider with more than 500 locations established throughout the country. The centers are designed to treat patients with minor injuries or sicknesses, and more than 1.8 million patient visits have been documented since the company’s inception in 2000. By creating a healthcare delivery model that responds to consumer demand, MinuteClinic makes access to high-quality medical treatment easier for more Americans.  As more patients used MinuteClinic resources, one issue the company faced was how to pass medical information to primary care physicians. As Cris Ross, chief information officer of MinuteClinic, explains, “There are a number of things we do very well with physicians, except connect electronically. We’ve been looking for a business-to-business exchange.”  As a solution to this problem, MinuteClinic recently turned to ePrescribing connectivity network SureScripts to facilitate this exchange. It is the first time the SureScripts network has been used for anything other than pharmacy orders and related transactions.  “The idea is that we already have pharmacies connected,” acting SureScripts CEO Rick Ratliff told Digital Healthcare & Productivity by telephone. “We have an ability to identify a physician uniquely on the network.”  As part of this connection, MinuteClinic will convert records from its proprietary electronic medical records system into Continuity of Care Record (CCR) standard format. Ratliff adds that this record “can be moved around almost like a piece of mail” from provider to provider, and into personal health records (PHR).  Now with every visit, MinuteClinic practitioners stress the importance of maintaining a medical home for each patient by making information accessible to primary care providers. If a patient doesn’t have a primary care provider, MinuteClinic provides a list of physicians in the area who are accepting new patients. Practitioners are then able to use a multipurpose software- based approach at the conclusion of each visit that generates educational material, an invoice, and a prescription (when clinically appropriate) for the patient, as well as a diagnostic record that is automatically sent to the patient’s primary care provider’s office (with the patient’s consent) to facilitate continuity of care.    

1) In Alvin Plantinga’s book Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism “the central thesis in the book is that while there is a genuine conflict between religion and science, that a conflict lies, not between theistic religion and science but between the religion of naturalism and science” (Craig, W. L. n.d.). Plantinga states that there is an allusion of conflict but there are scientific facts and religious beliefs that actual complement each other or prove one another’s existence.Plantina’s theory is that both religious and science can co-exist. He talks about how there are conflicting facts for science that some believe disproves religion. He thinks that the conflicts are over exaggerated or really don’t apply in some cases.The section on divine action and in that section Plantinga has no problem showing classical physics or quantum physics suggest in any way that god cannot intervene miraculously in the series of secondary cause. So in lame man’s terms he is saying that science cannot disprove religion. There is no science that can show that there is no way that god cannot intervene if he wanted (Craig, W. L. n.d).  One of Plantina’s points in this book to atheist is that just because science can be the proof to the creation of life that doesn’t mean that god did not have his hand in the creation guiding that creation. Atheists believe that the science is what created us. And the creation of man and life was guided by god being the belief of Christians.      2) Richard Dawkins is an unapologetic, often harsh atheist. He is also a world renowned evolutionary biologist. He opens up one of his books saying  “Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. If superior creatures from space ever visit earth, the first question they will ask, ‘Have they discovered evolution yet?'” (Dawkins, 1976, p1). Dawkins is a firm believer that we arose through evolution by natural selection as proposed by Charles Darwin over one-hundred and fifty years ago. Dawkins equates God as to nothing more than a placebo that people have used as a superficial answer to questions on are existence. He states that God does exist “if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human cultural” (1976, p193). Dawkins does not see any relation in religion and science. He thinks that the only reason the idea of a god exists is because people did not have another plausible way to explain existence or other deep questions. In Dawkins’ book “A River Out of Eden” he also talks about the incompatibility of nature and God. He uses our innate ability to find purpose in everything by comparing what the cheetah and antelope were “designed” for. The cheetah with its speed, claws, and teeth were made to kill antelope he says. However, the antelope has adaptations that work the exact opposite, to not be killed by cheetahs. Which he says its “as though cheetahs had been designed by one deity and antelopes by a rival deity” (Dawkins, 2008, 9 105). However, he says it does not matter whether you think it was one deity or multiple because they are both wrong. The only purpose is survival of each species DNA unto the next generation and so on.   

 For this assignment, create a slide deck or written brief that addresses the following 5 topics:  Frame the problem. Utilize your work from Assignment 1 for this topic. Consider incorporating feedback from faculty into your document. Guiding Questions: What is the problem, clearly stated? What are the key variables you will need to study? Who is the stakeholder and what decision will they make based on the analysis results? What are the multiple ways you might solve this problem? What type of analytical story will you want to tell in solving this problem? f. What previous findings or experiences related to this problem are conveyed in the case study, or exist in the business industry?  Solve for demand. Guiding Questions: Barbara has asked you to estimate the demand for Metabical. What are the forecasting options you should contemplate? For each option, what is your estimate of the target market? For each forecasting option, how many packages will the target market buy in year 1? How do the purchasing assumptions change in Year 2? What is your forecasted demand for each of the first 5 years? Which of the forecasting models do you recommend to estimate the demand for Metabical, and why? In addition to your forecast results, what data supports your recommendation? Why is providing sound guidance on expected demand important?  Formulate a sound pricing strategy recommendation. Guiding questions: Barbara has also asked you to evaluate pricing options for the Metabical drug. Which pricing strategy would you recommend, and why? Is there any additional information you need to frame or solve the problem? Based on the demand forecast you chose in question 2, what are the forecasted sales in year 1? What are the forecasted sales in year 2? What are the forecasted sales up to year 5?  Make a sound packaging recommendation. Assume that count size is based on a blister pack of seven (7) tablets that can be in turn packaged into a SKU with 1, 2, or 4 blister packs.   What considerations need to be taken into account when making the packaging decision? What additional data would you want, and what analysis would you perform to be able to better answer this question?  Using your demand forecast and pricing recommendations from questions 2 and 3, estimate CSP’s return on investment (ROI) over a 5-year period that meets the company’s expectations. Guiding Questions: What are your cost assumptions? Do you anticipate any changes in year 2 and beyond? What is your estimate of total costs at the end of 5 years? Calculate the ROI for the Metabical drug. If the ROI achieved is less than 5%, what steps of your analytical process would you need to revisit? 

The rapid proliferation of the World Wide Web (Web) has seen the emergence of a multitude of Web sites and the use of Social Media. While there is no certainty of who will survive in the competitive Social Media Web environment, one thing is for certain: the Web has changed the way business is conducted. The intent of this term paper is to heighten the awareness and understanding of an organization’s Social Media Web strategy by critically evaluating their Social Media presence.Select a Social Media Web site to evaluate the key elements supporting  an organization’s Web Strategy.Critically evaluate an organization’s Social Media Web presence.Identify the key elements of an organization’s Social Media Web presence.Evaluate an organization’s Social Media Web site from the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) perspective.Identify the nature of site (product/service) provider. Develop a brief industry profile.What is the value source from the customer vantage point?Identify their revenue model (i.e., how do they generate revenue?). Is their path-to-profitability clearly identified?Source of volume: Which non–web-driven activity is being replaced (substituted) by the Web site?Target market: Develop a detailed profile of consumers attracted to Web site and why. (What share of the existing business volume do they represent?)If this is a Social Media Web site for a traditional business, what is the value addition for the current or new customer base?Traffic/growth: What are the primary methods used to drive traffic to the Web site? What is the implication of this strategy on profitability? Who are the main non-Web competitors? What are their main competitive strengths?Who are the Web competitors? What are their Web strategies? What are their unique strengths? Are their sources of volume and target market shares different from ours?How does this Web site rate or rank relative to the respective competitors’ strengths?Is this Web site crossing traditional competitive boundaries and forming a new basis of competition?What is the main competitive threat to this Web business?The Web brand: provide a brand positioning statement (the value proposition).How is the end user’s (and intermediary user’s) value proposition redefined? Compare the old benefits structure with the new Web site–driven benefits structure.How is the delivery system redefined?What is the economic benefit (to the customer and to the business)?What benefits provided by the Web site (individually or in combination as a bundle) are truly unique and provide the potential for sustainable competitive advantage?What is the likely competitor response to this Web benefit structure?Does this Web site provide a personalized and convenient shopping experience? Does it build a customer profile? Is this profile automatically deployed on subsequent visits?Is the Web site easy to use? Is it involving? Can it generate loyalty? Will it be in business five years from now (why)?Evaluate customer service or contact options provided.Is the Web site actively involved in conducting marketing research?What is the adopted privacy policy of the organization?What are some suggested improvements or modifications? How will they make for a more competitive or profitable and sustainable business? Discuss how this Web presence parallels the organization’s overall marketing strategy.Identify and match common elements of the creative strategy along with the media utilized in the promotional process.Evaluate the clarity and consistency of message componentsEvaluate the tonality of the promotional campaign.Your report should be a maximum of 8 double spaced pages, plus a title page and a reference page. Please follow MLA guidelines in your formatting. Use facts from the text book, the online library and the Internet to support your analysis. 

Reflective Journal: Who Am I?—The Journey BeginsYou have been learning that diversity manifests itself at the personal level through a unique set of social identities. It follows that examining who you are and the diverse social identities you represent, establishes a strong starting point for your study of diversity. If you cultivate a deep level understanding of who you are and how you became who you are, you are also more likely to understand and respect other people’s individual diversity.This assignment marks the beginning of crafting your “Diversity Profile.” Throughout the course, this assignment will provide you with opportunities to add new insights and ideas to your profile, based on your learning and increasingly complex understanding of diversity. As you progress, your “Diversity Profile” will grow, change, and—as part of a life-long process—represent more authentically your personal complexity and diversity.Begin crafting your “Diversity Profile” by following these steps:
•Watch the web video “War/No More Trouble” by “Playing for Change.”
•Read and reflect on the accompanying text below the web video (you may need to expand the description).
•Review the excerpt from Ramsey’s Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World and Deaux’s article “Social Identity.”Title the Assignment: Diversity Profile—Week 1 and complete in the following way:Part 1: Who Am I?
•Using the social identities list in the article “Social Identity,” write down the social identities that apply to you. If you “own” additional social identities which are not included in this article, make sure to include them in your list.
•Beginning with the phrase, “I am…” and based on the social identities you just wrote, compose a list of at least 10 words or phrases that complete the sentence and represent some or all your social identities.Remember that this list is for your benefit only and does not have to conform to anyone else’s perceptions about you. If possible, move beyond the obvious and dig deep, asking yourself sincerely: Who am I?Part 2: What Are My Goals for This Course?
•Write down three specific professional goals you have at this point for your study of diversity (e.g., what changes in yourself you expect or hope for and/or what professional benefits you expect).Submit your Diversity Profile, Parts 1 and 2.Submit this assignment by Wednesday of this week.

 For this assignment, you will write a letter of advice to either a newly engaged couple or a group of coworkers. Imagine that either the engaged couple or coworkers hear that you are taking a course in interpersonal communication and want advice regarding how to communicate in their personal or professional relationships. Based on what you have learned in this course, what advice would you give them regarding how to communicate effectively? How can you use what you have learned in this class to offer a couple or group of co-workers advice to have more positive relationships? Write your paper in the form of a letter. Please review the  .Use the list of learning outcomes to write your letter. The course learning outcomes you will need to cover are:For each of the five learning outcomes, create a separate heading that states the learning outcome that you are addressing. Then, address the following for each segment:You must address all five of the learning outcomes and the questions listed with those objectives. For each objective, be sure to define key terms and relate those ideas directly to advice for your couple or co-workers. The point here is for you to demonstrate how these ideas can be utilized to help people in their relationships. Try to offer specific advice they can integrate into their lives.Begin your paper with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement and that previews what you plan to cover in your paper. If you are having problems writing a thesis, try using the .End with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis and restates your key points.You must use at least five scholarly sources to help you make your points. Three should be course readings and two should be academic articles you have found yourself through doing research in the Ashford University Library. If you need help doing research, visit the Ashford University Library, which can be accessed through the Library tab in the left-navigation menu, in your online course.You must also draw on personal experience to offer advice or to illustrate points. It is acceptable to use hypothetical examples and/or your personal experiences for either your couple or group of co-workers. We simply want to see that you can apply what you have learned to some potential “real world” experience.The Final PaperFinal NotesThis is a formal paper and should utilize proper grammar, complete sentences, and paragraph transitions. However, you will write this paper in the format of a letter to the  or. Feel free to address the people you select directly throughout the paper.After you have written the paper, please review the grading rubric to ensure you have met all of the requirements.

1.Describe social, political, and economic influences on the development of professional nursing practice.
2.Identify and discuss two important leaders or events that have significantly impacted the development of professional nursing practice.
3.Discuss two of the most recent initiatives in nursing discussed in chapter one and how these initiatives address the issues of access, safety and quality of patient care.
Explain how the structure of the plasma membrane influences the movement of oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and sodium ions (Na+).