Edward de Bonos Six Thinking Hats free essay sample

Thinking Hats Edward de Bono was born in Malta in 1933. He attended St Edwards College, Malta, during World War II and then the University of Malta where he qualified in medicine. He proceeded, as a Rhodes Scholar, to Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained an honours degree in psychology and physiology and then a D. Phil in medicine. He also holds a Ph. D from Cambridge and an MD from the University of Malta. He has held appointments at the universities of Oxford, London, Cambridge and Harvard. Dr Edward de Bono is one of the very few people in history who can be said to have had a major impact on the way we think. In many ways he could be said to be the best known thinker internationally. Six Thinking Hats Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique that helps you look at important decisions from a number of different perspectives. We will write a custom essay sample on Edward de Bonos Six Thinking Hats or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It helps you make better decisions by pushing you to move outside your habitual ways of thinking. As such, it helps you understand the full complexity of a decision, and spot issues and opportunities which you might otherwise not notice. Each Thinking Hat is a different style of thinking. These are explained below: * White Hat: With this thinking hat, you focus on the data available. Look at the information you have, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them. This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data. * Red Hat: Wearing the red hat, you look at the decision using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. Also try to think how other people will react emotionally, and try to understand the intuitive responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning. Black Hat: When using black hat thinking, look at things pessimistically, cautiously and defensively. Try to see why ideas and approaches might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan or course of action. It allows you to eliminate them, alter your approach, or prepare contingency plans to counter problems that arise. Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans tougher and more resilient. It can also help yo u to spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as many successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they cannot see problems in advance, leaving them under-prepared for difficulties. * Yellow Hat: The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it, and spot the opportunities that arise from it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult. * Green Hat: The Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here. * Blue Hat: The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking, and so on.

Robert Frost The Road Not Taken Essay Example

Robert Frost The Road Not Taken Paper English 102 Poetry Essay We all will hit a point in our lives where we have to make some decisions, some more than others, and Robert Frost alludes to this in a relatable way in his poem â€Å"The Road Not Taken†. Frost uses some great images to describe the situation the narrator is in. He also lets you visualize the thoughts and actions that the narrator is making. There are so many ways you can tell what Frost is saying in this poem by taking a close look into his many uses of symbolism. Frosts first use of symbolism in his poem is in the first two lines â€Å"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both† (Frost, 555). The two roads are being referred as a time in the narrator’s life where he has to make an important decision, and he can only follow one path. Once he makes this decision in his life, it’s going to be the decision he lives with. You could say that this is his midlife crisis, and right now he’s deciding how he wants his life to be in the future. In in lines four and five he says â€Å"And looked down one as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth† (Frost, 555). He doesn’t know where this decision will take him in life, he can only see so far into the future or so far into the road. We will write a custom essay sample on Robert Frost The Road Not Taken specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Robert Frost The Road Not Taken specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Robert Frost The Road Not Taken specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer By the second stanza you think the narrator has one path in mind, but in a split second he decides to take the other path. There was no premeditation to this decision, he had actually thought long and hard about the first path but took the risk and went with the road not taken. After he makes this quick judgment to take this road he starts to regret it a little by saying â€Å"Oh, I kept the first for another day! † (Frost, 555) He regrets his decision and now wishes to have a chance to follow the other path someday. So now that our speaker has walked away from one future and into another, hes pining for the one he passed up. He is planning to come back and take the other path another day† (Shmoop Editorial Team). He regrets his choice and wants to come back to the path he has passed up but he then realizes that fate is fate, and he must accept it in lines 14 and 15; â€Å"Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back† (Frost, 555). I t’s not evident if the narrator is happy or displeased about the decision he has made. Frost starts the last stanza by saying â€Å"I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence† (Frost, 556). This sigh could be a peaceful and content sigh or it could be a disappointed sigh. Then Frost ends the stanza by saying â€Å"I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference† (Frost, 556) No matter what kind of sigh it was, in the end the decision he has made is the decision it will be. â€Å"He doesnt know if he took the road less traveled or not, really – both paths were covered with fresh leaves. But he thinks that, in the future, hes going to remember the path that he took as the one that was less traveled† (Shmoop Editorial Team). He’s going to remember his decision for the rest of his life, and no matter what he thinks of this decision it still has made a difference in his life and he will continuously remember it. We all have decisions in life to make, and we all come to that point in our life where we have to choose which road we want to follow. Follow your heart. Even if you contemplate the decision for a while, remember your heart is what you should follow. The decision to take one road may alter your life in a dramatic way, but at that point in time your decision was right for you. You may regret it a little, but in the end you will always remember why you ended up where you are. Shmoop Editorial Team. Dreams, Hopes, and Plans Quotes: The Road Not Taken Shmoop. com. Shmoop University, Inc. , 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. Frost, Robert. The Road Not Taken. Backpack Literature: And introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Kennedy, X. J. , Dana Gioia. New Jersey: Pearson, 2011. 555-556.

Research Paper Example

Research Paper Example Students are facing loads of problems in finding research paper examples nowadays.   With the rising load of homework and from time to time, amateur jobs, the learners cannot probably write example research papers themselves.   Some students do not have ability and some do not have the time to write these research paper examples all by themselves. They do not recognize in what way to write, and what points to actually put into writing the research paper. Many students try looking for free research paper examples online.   They sometimes copy these from books or websites, and they are charged for plagiarism.   Therefore, the following points are definitely going to help students looking for research paper examples, example research papers, research paper outline examples, download research paper, and free research paper examples. The following points will help you to differentiate real and fraud companies: 1. If the company is making too many promises, there is a good possibility that the company is forged.   Swindle research paper companies generally make many promises, the reason being that they do not fulfill them afterwards and no one can claim against them. 2. If the company is offering too much, or if it is making too many proposals, and is trying giving you false hopes, there are chances for the research paper writing company to be a fraud one, which is offering you too much for your research paper examples. 3. The company may be deception because many fraud companies assure to do incredibly large online research paper examples in a very short time, and no doubt get a lot of money in return. 4. If the company is not very willing to provide its phone number, address, or other contact information that can be used to trace it, it might be a fake company offering you research paper examples for a wee sum. 5. Fraud companies over the world have robbed more than millions of students, and they make sure that they cannot be tracked. A company reluctant to provide full information to its customer about its location has a good 80 % chance of being a fraud company. 6. If the company staff and employs directly talk to you, it means they are not afraid to disclose the true identity of company and employees.   If it does not, the company may be fraud.   Fraudulent companies normally are run by a few people, and mostly do not have a large number of employees.   Furthermore, if they do not talk to you directly, it means that they are trying to hide their identity. Many online research paper example providing companies are present online, but many of them can be hoax, fraud companies and you definitely dont want to be caught in their traps, and lose your money, your time, and even your reputation.   Neither does us.   That is why we provide you with all possible research paper example help, and give you the best research paper examples possible.   This is why we can easily guarantee that you will get good grades in class and will definitely impress your teacher or instructor.   Our custom research paper writing is of the finest quality and absolutely non-plagiarized. For more information on how to save you from these fake companies, you can contact us.   For any kind of information or online help about research paper examples, you can easily log on to our website and contact us for research paper help and further research writing assistance at CustomWritings.com.

Using a Timer in MS Office VBA Macros

Using a Timer in MS Office VBA Macros For those of us who have our minds deeply into VB.NET, the journey back to VB6 can be a confusing trip. Using a Timer in VB6 is like that. At the same time, adding timed processes to your code is not obvious to new users of VBA Macros. Timers For Newbies Coding a Word VBA macro to automatically time a test that was written in Word is a typical reason for using a timer. Another common reason is to see just how much time is being taken by different parts of your code so you can work on optimizing the slow sections. Sometimes, you might want to see if anything is happening in the application when the computer seems to be just sitting there idle, which can be a security problem. Timers can do that. Start a Timer You start a timer by coding an OnTime statement. This statement is implemented in Word and Excel, but it has different syntax depending on which one youre using.  The syntax for Word is: expression.OnTime(When, Name, Tolerance) The syntax for Excel looks like this: expression.OnTime(EarliestTime, Procedure, LatestTime, Schedule) Both have the first and second parameter in common. The second parameter is the name of another macro that runs when the time in the first parameter is reached. In effect, coding this statement is like creating an event subroutine in VB6 or VB.NET terms. The event is reaching the time in the first parameter. The event subroutine is the second parameter. This is  different from the way it is coded in VB6 or VB.NET. For one thing, the macro named in the second parameter can be in any code that is accessible. In a Word document, Microsoft recommends putting it in the Normal document template. If you put it in another module, Microsoft recommends using the full path: Project.Module.Macro. The expression is usually the Application object. The Word and Excel documentation states that the third parameter can cancel the execution of the event macro in case a dialog or some other process prevents it from running within a certain time. In Excel, you can schedule a new time in case that happens. Code the Time Event Macro This code in Word is for the administrator who wants to display a notification that the testing time has expired and print the result of the test. Public Sub TestOnTime()Debug.Print The alarm will go off in 10 seconds!Debug.Print (Before OnTime: Now)alertTime Now TimeValue(00:00:10)Application.OnTime alertTime, EventMacroDebug.Print (After OnTime: Now)End SubSub EventMacro()Debug.Print (Executing Event Macro: Now)End Sub This results in the following content in the immediate window: The alarm will go off in 10 seconds!Before OnTime: 12/25/2000 7:41:23 PMAfter OnTime: 12/25/2000 7:41:23 PMExecuting Event Macro: 2/27/2010 7:41:33 PM Option for Other Office Apps Other Office applications dont implement OnTime. For those, you have several choices. First, you can use the Timer function, which simply returns the number of seconds since midnight on your PC, and does your own math, or you can use Windows API calls. Using Windows API calls has the advantage of being more precise than Timer. Heres a routine suggested by Microsoft that does the trick: Private Declare Function getFrequency Lib kernel32 _Alias QueryPerformanceFrequency (cyFrequency As Currency) As LongPrivate Declare Function getTickCount Lib kernel32 _Alias QueryPerformanceCounter (cyTickCount As Currency) As LongSub TestTimeAPICalls()Dim dTime As DoubledTime MicroTimerDim StartTime As SingleStartTime TimerFor i 1 To 10000000Dim j As Doublej Sqr(i)NextDebug.Print (MicroTimer Time taken was: MicroTimer - dTime)End SubFunction MicroTimer() As Double Returns seconds.Dim cyTicks1 As CurrencyStatic cyFrequency As CurrencyMicroTimer 0 Get frequency.If cyFrequency 0 Then getFrequency cyFrequency Get ticks.getTickCount cyTicks1 SecondsIf cyFrequency Then MicroTimer cyTicks1 / cyFrequencyEnd Function

Price Waterhouse Coopers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Price Waterhouse Coopers - Essay Example It is also the perspective that individuals view their organization and its environment (Baligh 7-10). The objectives of the organization determine the different ways in which an organization can be structured (Fenez 4-6). PwC organization structure is structured in a way to determine the mode in which it operates and performs. Its organization structure lets this enormous company to express the allocation of the responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities, which involve the branch,  department,  workgroup,  and individual (Fenez 4). The following structures show the organization structure of the company depending with country. ... erience Senior partner China & Hong Kong Senior partner Germany Senior partner United Kingdom Senior partner United States Director Technology Although success has prevailed failure in PWC, the company has in several occasions been on the lime light for its actions. For instance in 1990, Internal Revenue Service seized most of the assets of Willie Nelson who they claimed that he owned $32 million in back taxes. However, this was not the case since these were disallowable by IRS and on suing PWC Willie got a fat sum for damages. Nevertheless, PWC is one firm that provides services to like Academy of Motion Pictures arts and Sciences, which makes it the tabulator and certifier of votes for the Academy awards since 1934. An article Over Cutting Corporation Tax Rate by BBC, on 8 August 2011, quotes the PwC Company explaining the various implications of cutting Scotland’s rate of corporation tax being highly complex. The article features PwC Company giving the advisory role to the government and the entities involved. In this article, the company examines the various effects of cuts in Northern Ireland where a new rate of just 12.5% was proposed (BBC News). The comments by PwC followed similar comments echoed by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which argued that matching Northern Ireland's proposals could cost Scottish taxpayers about ?2.6bn a year a claim that was dismissed by the Scottish government. PwC mission statements and ideas were well communicated. The role communicated in this case was to give a sense of direction on where the country was headed to after it adjusted its corporation tax. The mission of the PwC Company is to provide intellectual expertise to the various agencies and individuals who need it (BBC News). In a second article by BBC News Company dated

What insight does the theory of internal colonialism offer into the Essay

What insight does the theory of internal colonialism offer into the processes which led to the formation of the United Kingdom - Essay Example In addition, religion, language, ethnicity or another cultural factor may have set this internal colony apart and the members left out of government and other political processes. When the colonial period ended, the term was used for regions where sovereign government exploited the economically backward and ethnically unique. This paper examines the notion of internal colonialism, and how it brought about the creation of the United Kingdom. 2. The effects subjugated on the culture and society of the colonized members. This is quite apart from a result of natural mixing with the group. The colonizing group initiates a strategy to transform, constrain or obliterate native values, orientations, and the old way of life. 3. Successful colonization necessitates a relationship where people of the colonized group allow themselves, without continuous revolt, to be governed and supervised by the colonizers with regards to their ethnic position. 4. The practice of racism. It is a feature of social domination and exploitation by one group over another who is viewed as inferior or different with regards to certain biological features. Such a group is controlled, and oppressed socially and physically by the superior group Theories of internal colonialism are diverse and numerous attempts have been made to put them into perspective. In an effort to explain them, Robert J. Hind says that the theories give many reasons, descriptions and inferences and falsely assume a great deal of harmony among both the natives and colonizers. There is also a tendency to reduce the intricate social organization to simple terms. These theories overlook the fact that for capitalism to expand, colonialism is a necessary evil. Rodolfo Stavenhagen says that a certain degree of social polarization combined with disproportionate development is necessary for capitalism to further itself. Thus, internal colonialism that prevails in a number of nations

American Home Products Corporation Essay Example for Free

American Home Products Corporation Essay American Home Product Corporation (AHP), a highly growing American company, has four business lines: prescription drugs, packaged drugs, food products, house wares and household products. Its policies include: -A tight financial control and maintained an aggressive capital structure policy. Make money for its stockholders and to maximize profits by minimizing cost. It has been able to finance internally its growth while paying a very high portion of its earning to its shareholders (60%). Currently, AHP seems to have no business risk but may face a certain risk in the long run. Based on the ratios shown on the attached sheet, AHP should not worry about business risk since its working capital is very healthy ($1472.8 million) and cash excess $233 million. The high ROA, high profit margin, low current-to-asset ratio and 49.71 collection days show that AHP can generate cash quickly, thus it can maintain current high growth rate. However, it’s decreasing annual sales growth from 14.1% in 1978 to 8.8% in 1981 (exhibit 1) shows that it faces future risk of losing market shares in all its business lines if it does not foresee competition and continues to focus on increasing stockholders’ value. AHP’s current financial performance is very good since it has high ROE (30.3), high quick ratio (42.68), low debt-to-equity ratio (0.09) and low debt-to-asset ratio (0.01). However, an analysis of different debt ratios shows that if AHP increases debt ratio, it will face a financial risk of increased debt-to-equity and debt-to-asset ratios. In other words, it will face solvency problems in long terms. AHP also face liquidity problems since the quick ratios decrease when the debt ratios increase. 2 The proposed mechanism follows a dual mechanism of leveraging:- (a) Increase the Debt Equity Ratio. (b) Buy back the shares. This also results in the following:- (i) Improves EPS as the amount gets shared by lesser number of shares. (ii)Improves Price / earnings ratio (iii) The excess capital gets utilized. (iv)Sends a +ve signal to the market and share prices likely to increase. (v) Improves Return on Equity ratio. The calculations enclosed indicate that the best option in accordance with the company stated policy would be to have Debt-Equity Ratio of 70%. Shareholders’ value increases when debt ratios increase. EPS increases from $3.18 to $3.49. The dividend payout ratio also increases from 0.597 to 0.602. Similarly, the dividend yield from 0.063 to 0.070. It means that the company can increase shareholders’ value by increasing debt ratios. However the following needs to be considered:- (i) The valued net worth of the firm which decreases may not convey the correct picture to the investor and thus negating the positive signals of buy back of shares. (ii) The firm has no strategy related to RD in new products and focuses on me-too products thus constituting a large business risk. (iii) The firm would reduce the cash to debt ratio substantially exposing itself to financial risk. The closest competitor has Debt – Equity Ratio of 30% which if taken as a benchmark gives a conservative method of deciding the proposed leveraging, however this does not maximize the shareholder value, but is in line with the strong conservatism philosophy of the firm. It also gives a better Return on Assets ratio and has a safer Debt to Cash ratio. Even though AHP has a very good current financial performance, it should change the financial policy to increase debt ratio at a certain level. To meet the goal of increasing shareholders’ value, AHP should not use its excess cash flow to repurchase its stocks because this is only a temporary solution and may generate serious financial problems in the long run. Instead, AHP should use this excess cash to invest in profitable projects to improve its current products and launch new products that meet current market demands. By doing so, AHP can minimize the business risk, prepare itself for competition and increase sales growth. On the other hands, AHP should increase debt ratio to a certain level that is suitable for its  business to increase shareholders’ value. Also it should continue to exercise tight monetary policies as earlier to pay off the debt in a disciplined manner This solution does not bring financial risk to AHP but enable it to minimize business risk. If AHP remains only concerned about how to increase shareholders’ value and ignores market threats, it might lose its business to its competitors.