Cons of Playing Video Games Essay Example for Free

Cons of Playing Video Games Essay Video game is a series of 2D or 3D world created by author or editor to allow public experience by representing as a person or animal inside. In my humble opinion, playing video games have more cons than pros. My essay will tell you that playing video games have more cons because it wasting time, cause indulgence, side effect on body health and cause volatility. In the 21 century, video games not only available for boys, it is also already become part of the girl’s life style. Although most of the teenagers like to play video games, but playing video games is actually wasting our time. Commonly, video game is story style and continuously. So, we will need a lot of time to finish one chapter or complete a task. Regarding to that, our time to doing our homework or revision becomes less. Students may be scolded by teacher or being demerit for not completing their homework. Finally, the result of the students may be affected. Playing video games will also cause indulgence. The interesting story lines encourage people to indulge in video games. They usually play the video games until forget to eat, wash and rest. Some of them even play the video games until the whole day. This endangers one person life. Among these few month, there are report on teenager die in front of computer and the causes of death is due to play video games three days non-stop. The main reason is do not have enough rest. Besides that, playing video games for long term will also cause side effect or negative effect on body health. One of the effect is eating without follow the actual time. When playing video games, a person will always play until forget the time and miss out the lunch time and dinner time. Sitting in front of the computer for a long period of time without moving will also increase the risk of obesity and give burden to the spiral cord. Tiredness of eye and fingers are also caused by looking at the screen and typing for too long, At the other sides, video games also encourage teenager to involve in volatility. Many of the video games contain volatile issues like video games that involving fight and guns. If a person cannot control himself, he will slowly follows the attitude of the character inside and involves in volatile. Teenager probably will also unable to come back to reality world as the illusion world in video games are always perfect as it can be change according our favorable. In conclusion, playing video games have more cons than pros. Teenagers must not be besotted video games too much. In fact, they should spend their time on enjoying their teenager’s life.

Nursing Information Systems Survey

Nursing Information Systems Survey Study of Nursing Information Systems (NIS) in teaching hospital of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences Leila Erfannial Msc1,Yousef Mehdipour PhD 1,Afsaneh Karimi Msc 1,Ayeshe Zarei Bs 1,Nahid Mehrabi Msc 2 ABSTRACT Purpose: Nurses are one of the biggest providers in health industry that effect directly on health service quality and outcomes. Nurses need correct information in correct time to have an effective service for patient and other member of health society. Nursing information system (NIS) is subsystem of hospital information system that can help nurse to have better performances. The main goal of this study is evaluation of nursing information system in teaching hospital of Zahedan according standard criteria. Materials and Methods: This research is based on a descriptive – cross sectional study that has done on 2013.Nursing information system of 4 teaching hospital in Zahedan were evaluated. For data gathering, we use a checklist that its reliability and validity was verified. Results: According our result, NIS of our study has met 42.19% of priority in general scopes, 72.33% for nursing data set, none of them had classification system standards. They had 45% of nursing data register priorities and 61.12% of report requirement was met. Conclusion: According our system weakness in general aspects, data register and data classification, we propose educational package such as workshops, classes and bulletin for nurses in hospitals toward optimal using of NIS. In other hand , provide nurses with enough hardware requirements , management supervision on using system , provide NIS systems by nursing classification standards and contribution of nurses in selection and implementation of this system is suggested. Keywords: nursing information system; hospital information system; nurse INTRODUCTION There is an increasing growth in information production in different sciences and theqnics, so the management of these volumes of information is very difficult. Information technology is a useful tool for management and useful application of this information. Health industry has faced with increasing rate of information generation that are multiple and complicated in nature1. So health information technology can help this high-demanded industry to manage information. Health information systems are some kinds of tools that integrate and communicate patient data and information and also can process the data and make some new information2. Nurses are one of the biggest providers in health industry that effect directly on health service quality and outcomes. Nurses need correct information in correct time to have an effective service for patient and other member of health society3. Nursing information system (NIS) are subsystem of hospital information system that can help nurse to have better performances, more nursing knowledge and make available data and information for nurses to have a role in health policy making and also decision making around health society and patients4. Furthermore, NIS can participate in hospital information process so lead to a better communication between health care team in hospital 5 . Margaretconclude that using NIS in hospital has a positive effect on information quality that provide by nurses6 .Ammenwerth state that NIS lead to better and more complete documentation of patient information and also better quality of information process5 .Toolabi in her study conclude that optimization of hospital information system would lead to a significant progress in nursing care average and better communication between nurses , patient and health care team and consequently patient more truth to health system ,health services and nurses, more patient family satisfaction and at the end , decrease patient claims7. Zahedan, the capital city of a province in southeast of Iran uses hospital information system in teaching hospital. Nursing information system is one this system module that use in these hospitals. So the basic objective of this study is to evaluate Nursing information system according standard indexes in four sections: general specification of systems, nursing data set , nursing nomenclature and classification specification , documentation registration and reporting specification of systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS This research is based on a descriptive – cross sectional study that has done on 2013.nursing information system of 4 teaching hospital in Zahedan were evaluated. For data gathering, we use a checklist that its reliability and validity was verified. Checklist has 5 section at whole: section 1 has some questions about the system, vendor and some general information about NIS module, section 2 was about general specification of nursing information system. The questions has two answers yes or no.this section involve 23 question about patient care process,11 about ward management process, 10 about communication process and 1 question research and education process.in section 3 , we have some questions about nursing data set that involve 5 question about nursing care data specification, 15 about patient data specification and 14 about service providing data specifications. Section 4 has some question about nursing nomenclature and classification data specification with 25 questions and in section 5 nursing data, registration and reporting requirements were evaluated by 6 questions about personnelreport, 14 questions about clinical report and 3 about financial report. The researchers attended in hospitals and by deep interviewing and also direct observation of systems, gather information and register in checklists. Supervisor of hospital, health information technologist and some professional nurse who uses NIS and familiar with the potential of system was interviewed; furthermore, during interview the researchers can observe the NIS and its functions. After gathering information, we use descriptive statistics to analysis our data by using Excel 2010 tables. RESULTS According our study, general specification of our NIS was evaluated in 5 aspects and 4 hospitals.(table 1) At whole, the frequency of patient care process data specification was 44/56%, ward management data specification was 31.81%, communication process data specification 47.5% and education and research data specification was 50% in our society research. Nursing data set was evaluated in 4 aspects in 4 hospitals: nursing care data set , patient data set, service data set (table 2) According our study , nursing care data set specification was 40% , patient data set specification was 71.66% and service data set specification was 84%. None of our NIS , has nursing classification standards specification data. Data registration and reporting specification data was evaluated in 4 aspects.(table 3) DISCUSSION Information technology making a great service for nurses to perform their tasks8. According our result, by using NIS in all hospital, nurses can receive patient demographic data from admission,discharge,and transmission (ADT) system of hospitals and also can register of different request such as laboratory tests, radiology and pharmacy services. And also they can observe laboratory and radiology results. But none of NIS support nursing evidence based and alert variances from normal patterns. According Ammenwerthstudy, after using information systems, nurses report more quickly patient data documentation, better information monitoring and progress in patient information legibility5. Kossman state that electronic health record implementation in hospital lead to decrease inter-department communication and promote critical thinking between nurses9. Making electronic communication between different parts of hospital is one of the most important capabilities of hospital information systems. According our study, by using nursing information system, in all hospital, nurses can schedule the admission of patients in their wards. Nurses in hospitals can access to information in every place of hospital. In hospital Cand D , nurses can transmit all information by NIS when changing their shifts. According Hinsonstudy , using NIS would lead to the time increasethat nurses spend on patient direct care (10.66%) ,verbal communication 19.33% decrease and mean time for reviewing data 8.9% increase10. Standard NIS needs nursing concepts standards and nursing data standards3. Without unified nursing language , internal data integration and external connection of information would disappear when information are shared and also there would be some problem for clinical decision support.in other hand , nursing information are unstructured generally , so if we don’t use a standard unified language , the retrieval of information would be difficult11. Result of our study show that, none of NIS in Zahedan hospital use standard nursing classification. This issue is very similar to Ahmadi research, they suggest standard nursing classification system for standardization of nursing data and concept to facilities retrieval of information that register in nursing information system12. All NIS in our study, register patient demographic data , nursing diagnostic data and data about service provided by nurses can record ECG data.in hospital C and D , patient vital signs and input-output liquid balance data , can enter to the terminal near patient bed. Anderson state that a standard nursing data set should involve nursing diagnostic data , nursing intervention , nursing outcome and intensity of nursing services and declare , by using such standard data set , management of nursing service cost , supporting of resources that allocated to the nurses , nursing knowledge developed and at the end nursing nursing profession would be promoted13. Making different reports is one of basic management capability of nursing information system that can provide valuable information about personnel productivity, budget management and nursing workload management in different shifts14. In hospital A,B and D , NIS making schedule for personnelshifts. All NIS , can make clinical reports such as laboratory and pathology report and reports about admitted or discharged patients. In Ahmadi study, reporting specification data was met 20.4%,63.5% and 85.2% in personnel , clinical and financial reports4. CONCLUSION Nurses have a great role in health care systems so documentation of their services would be very easy by using nursing information system.so if we want to implement an effective NIS , at first , we should implement a powerful HIS as an infrastructure for any hospital ward subsystem. Nurses are the biggest group of NIS users , so nurses computer literature promotion , has an important role in success and acceptance of NIS. So educational workshop and classes for nurses in hospital would be helpful to make better utilization of nursing information system also increasing inter-hospital communication between nurses and health information technologist would have a helpful tool for transmitting professional knowledge between these groups. Using nurse’s knowledge and skills in all phase electronic system development and implementation and courage electronic health systems developer to use this knowledge in their production is an essential item for successfulness of NIS and systems li ke that. Since we don’t have any national nursing standard classification and nomenclature , prepare , provide an standard unified system according national requirements is another important factor for implementation and usage of NIS and at whole , establishment some professional workshop that has different different profession such as nursing , health information technology , policy making and so on , to start and monitored special effort about nursing information system requirement , development and implementation is very important. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors are grateful to nurses and health information technologist of educational hospital affiliated to Zahedan University of medical sciences who kindly participated in this study. REFERENCES 1.Bitaraf E, Riazy G. comprehensive hospital information system. iranian ministry of health,care and education 2006. 2.Yoder-wise PS. Leading and Managing in Nursing. second ed: St. Louis: Mosby; 1999. 3.Organization PAH, Organization WH. BuildingStandard-BasedNursing Information Systems. Washington: PAHO Library Cataloguing in Publication Data; 2000. 4.Ahmadi M, Habibi Koolaee M. Nursing Information Systems in Iran. HAKIM. 2010 5.Ammenwerth E, Rauchegger F, Ehlers F, Hirsch B, Schaubmayr C. Effect of a nursing information system on the quality of information processing in nursing: An evaluation study using the HIS-monitor instrument. International journal of medical informatics. 2011;80(1):25-38. 6.Verkerke M. Information Quality of a Nursing Information Systemdepends on the nurses: A combined quantitative andqualitative evaluation. international journal of medical informatics 2012;81:662–73. 7.Toolabi T, Vanaki Z, Memarian, improving hospital information system in cardial care unit, yafteh. 2012;14(5):83-92 8.Sadeghi R. Informatics applying in nursing; education, research and care. Iranian Quarterly of Education Strategies. 2012;5(3):199-206 9.Kossman SP. Perceptions of impact of electronic healthrecords on nurses’ work. healthtechnology information. 2006;122:337-41. 10.Hinson DK, Huether SE, Blaufuss JA, Neiswanger M, Tinker A, Meyer KJ, et al., editors. Measuring the impact of a clinical nursing information system on one nursing unit. Proceedings of the Annual Symposium onComputer Application in Medical Care; 1993: American Medical Informatics Association. 11.BowlesKH. the barriers and benefits of nursing information system. computer in nursing. 1997;15(4):191-6. 12.Ahmadi M, Rafiee F, Hosseini F, Habibi kolaee M. information and structure requirements for nursing data classification in computerized systems. hayat. 2011;17(1):16-23 13.Anderson B, Hannah KJ. A Canadian nursing minimum data set: a major priority. Canadian journal of nursing administration. 1992;6(2):7-13. 14.Sadoughi F, Ghazisaeid M, Mehraji M, Kimiafar Kh. health information management technology. first edition ed. Tehran: Jafari; 2011. Table1.frequency percentage of NIS general data specification in different hospital D C B A 17/52% 95/86% 73/21% 39/17% Patient care process 63/63% 36/36% 09/9% 18/18% Ward management process 50% 90% 30% 20% Communication process 100% 100% 0 0 Education and research process Table2.frequency percentage of nursing data set in different hospital. D C B A 60% 100% 0 0 Nursing care data set 60% 33/93% 60% 33/73% Patient data set 85/92% 57/78% 57/78% 71/85% Provided services data set Table3.frequency percentage of reporting data specification in different hospital. D C B A 33/33% 0 100% 33/83% Personnel report 71/85% 28/64% 28/64% 71/35% Clinical report 0 100% 100% 0 Financial report

What is reading :: Word Recognition, Reading Comprehension

What is reading? At a very tender age, when I first learned to read words, I was excited because I was now a reader but was I really reading or just lifting words off paper? Even though this is necessary for reading, reading is more complex than just recognizing words. The reader has to make sense of the words base and their context. While engaged in reading, the prior knowledge is activated along with personal connection, ideas, and opinions. Unfortunately, children will develop reading problems if they do get the necessary stills that will allow them to function on a higher level and succeed in life. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) mentioned that it is said that â€Å"Children must learn to read so that later they can read to learn† (pg. 4). Therefore reading is the foundation that children need to be successful in life. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) advised that to help children read better and develop a love for reading, fall on the laps of the teaching professionals since they are the planner and implementation of instructional services (pg. 3). It is understandable that even though there are different levels of readers, the ultimate goal is for teachers to create good readers in children. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) iterate that reading is making sense of text. The reader generates his or her own mental version of what is been read (pg. 13). In my field experience, I have seen children who could read any word off paper but had no opinion of what is going on in the story. I have also experienced teachers getting frustrated when their students are not able to decipher or decode words in context or make connection to text. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) talked about the three elements of reading. There is the reader, the reading material and the reading situation. The r eader brain is super active while making sense of the material and creating a version that will fit into the reader scheme (pg. 13). As I think back on Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner’s observation, I can remember reading about a Niagara Falls at a young age in Jamaica, West Indies and not knowing what Niagara Falls looks like, I construction in my mind that it looked like Dunn’s River fall in Jamaica. Years later I realized Dunn’s River Fall cannot be compare to Niagara Falls.

Is One Rodman Enough Essay -- essays research papers

Is One Rodman Enough? In today’s world everybody has his or her own view of what makes a male masculine and a female feminine. If a male were to possess some traits that would be known as feminine, he would be seen as a homosexual. Likewise, if a female were to possess some traits that would be known as masculine, she would be looked upon as being â€Å"butch†. Present day television shows and films mold most peoples’ views on gender identity. A person’s job helps to define their gender identity in other peoples’ eyes. Television and films portray certain professions to be very feminine. For example, have you ever seen a macho, male hair stylist in a movie or on television? A person’s choice of clothing also molds their gender identity in other peoples’ eyes. If a man were to wear tight, pink spandex all the time he would be looked upon as being a homosexual because spandex was made for females to wear. However, knowing all of this, there are some people who are considered exceptions to these concepts. Dennis Rodman is one of these exceptions. Rodman is a professional basketball player who is known for his aggressive style of play on the court. This aggressive style gives him a very masculine image. Nonetheless, he portrays himself as having many feminine characteristics when he is not playing basketball. Knowing this, are people like Dennis Rodman redefining the gender identities? Persons who display success and high status i... Is One Rodman Enough Essay -- essays research papers Is One Rodman Enough? In today’s world everybody has his or her own view of what makes a male masculine and a female feminine. If a male were to possess some traits that would be known as feminine, he would be seen as a homosexual. Likewise, if a female were to possess some traits that would be known as masculine, she would be looked upon as being â€Å"butch†. Present day television shows and films mold most peoples’ views on gender identity. A person’s job helps to define their gender identity in other peoples’ eyes. Television and films portray certain professions to be very feminine. For example, have you ever seen a macho, male hair stylist in a movie or on television? A person’s choice of clothing also molds their gender identity in other peoples’ eyes. If a man were to wear tight, pink spandex all the time he would be looked upon as being a homosexual because spandex was made for females to wear. However, knowing all of this, there are some people who are considered exceptions to these concepts. Dennis Rodman is one of these exceptions. Rodman is a professional basketball player who is known for his aggressive style of play on the court. This aggressive style gives him a very masculine image. Nonetheless, he portrays himself as having many feminine characteristics when he is not playing basketball. Knowing this, are people like Dennis Rodman redefining the gender identities? Persons who display success and high status i...

Judgment in the House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus Essay example --

People place judgment on one another every day based on differences. Sometimes it is done subconsciously; sometimes it is done on purpose. In the book The House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III, two different cultures were represented; Kathy represented the culture of the western civilization, whereas Behrani represented the culture of Persians. People judge one another based on unimportant things, and get judged based on those same things as well. Two cultures were used to amplify how different their cultures were from one another. Throughout the book cultures vocalized what they did not like about the other cultures by placing judgment on people based on ethnicity, appearance, and status; despite how different the cultures were, they had something in common, negative judgment. In a world where there is so much diversity, the only way for all cultures to get along is to place judgments aside and accept the differences. The book is introduced with Behrani placing judgment on the people he works with. He is judging the other people based on their race, and their status. Behrani refers to the men he works with as if they don't deserve to even be in his presence. "He is goh, the shit of life. They are all goh," (pg 16). Even though many of the men he works with do not deserve to be regarded so low, Behrani judges them as he would if he still maintained the position he had in Iran as a colonel. Behrani and his family also judge Kathy for being American. When Behrani explains to his son the situation their family is now a part of he explains it in a way that is judging of Americans. He says, "Remember what I have told you of so many Americans: they are not disciplined and have not the courage to take responsibility ... ...g, like it was in the book The House of Sand and Fog. Much of the outcome of the book was based on the fact that judgments were made, had judgment not been made about status, Kathy may not have cared so much about getting that house back, had Behrani not been judged based on status, he may have not bought that home. Cultures judge one another every day, and people within those cultures judge each other as well. This constant judging of others and of ones self is what causes people to be unhappy in the first place. The only way to live happily within ones culture, and in the world of many cultures, is to accept that each culture and person is different, which is what makes each culture and person so special; the only way to live happily in ones life, is to accept and embrace differences. Works Cited: Dubus, Andre. House of Sand and Fog. New York: Norton, 1999

Butler Lumber Essay

After thorough review and analysis of Butler Lumber’s financial reports, I believe that it is in the best interest of Northrup National Bank to not only approve the requested $465,000 loan, but look to increase the loan amount. A review of the 5 C’s will show in more detail the decision to approve this loan: 1. Capacity/Cash Flow: Butler runs a lean operation that has allowed them to have success due to competitive pricing. They have met their financing needs by increasing their debt (notes payable) in order to keep up with the demand. However, their borrowing had led conjunctly to an increase in sales. Net sales have increased 59% over the 1988-1990 timeline and have been projected to increase by another 34% in 1991. From 1988-1990, for every $1000 borrowed, net sales increased by $4,278.96. By utilizing leverage, they have been able maintain their free cash flow and maintain their current ratio over 1.0. Although Free Cash Flow and current ratio have dropped over the past year, Butler has made large investments which have proven able to give a higher return, which will have significant payoff in the long run. By doing this, they will continue to have the ability to pay interest to debtholders, repay debtholders, and buy short-term investments. As business continues to grow, debt obligations will decrease and their current ratio will be back on the rise. (See Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2). Based on this analysis, I believe the estimate for the loans requirements is light. I believe it would be in the best interest to pursue rolling the $247,000 owed to Suburban National Bank onto this line of credit. With the increased projection in sales, you are also seeing an increase in cost of goods sold. However, that number could be dramatically reduced if Butler had the appropriate capital or credit line to take advantage of the 2% discount for payments made within 10 days of the invoice date. If total cost of goods sold will be roughly $2 million in 1991, you could reduce that by over $40,000.00 simply by taking advantage of the 2% discount. Having quick access to capital will allow Butler to run their business more efficiently. 2. Capital: Butler has a good level of net worth compared to total assets. This has been continuously increasing from 1988-1990 and will be even higher in 1991. The reason for this is going back to their use of leverage. They increased notes payable from nothing to $247,000 in the three year span. By doing this they have been able to increase total assets at a much faster pace than their borrowing. Butler will be able to continue to increase its capital ratio with their new line of credit. Even with an increase in liabilities, Butler should have no problem repaying their debts, even if there were to be an economic downturn. They hold very little long term debt, so even with a decrease in sales they should be able to meet their financial obligations. They have equity in their plants and land and could utilize that if need be. Also, they have the ability to weather a crisis because of the amount of business that they have in home improvements. If there is a housing boom, people will lo ok to build new houses, where as if there is a backup in the housing market, people will stay in their house and do improvements. 3. Collateral: With rolling the almost $250,000.00 loan into this line of credit, and pursuing the increase in the total line of credit, I believe that this loans should be secured. I would keep the loans secured by the assets of the company and do not see the need to pursue personal collateral. We know that Mr. Butler currently has objections to using collateral, but if we can show him how having a large credit limit would be able to have a substantial positive impact to his bottom line, he should be comfortable with putting up company collateral and nothing personal. I would secure this using the company’s property as well as their inventory. At the end of the first quarter of 1991, Butler’s inventory was valued at $556,000 and its property at another $162,000. Because it would be such a large line that could help Butler Lumber, it needs to be understood that when working with that level of volume, some sort of collateral needs to be put up. We will be able to show how taking advantage of the 2 net 30 option, you can decrease cost of goods sold and increase net income with no strategic changes to business. Using this collateral would be a good way to recover some of the funds to reduce the loss if the company were to go bankrupt. However, when evaluating the performance of the company, it is believed that this company should be able to continue to produce strong results regardless of the economy and that the securitizing of the loan is an added safety precaution due to the increase size of this line of credit. 4. Conditions: The first thing that needs to be determined is the limit on the credit line. It was originally requested to obtain a limit of $465,000. However, it is recommended that we, as part of the approval process, refinance the current $247,000 loan to Suburban National Bank. If there were to be an issue, we do not want there to be a conflict on who needs to be paid first. Mr. Butler has had a working relationship with Suburban National Bank, but we do not see this to be an issue due to the fact they are capping him at $250,000. It is recommended that the limit exceed $750,000.00 but be no greater than $1,000,000.00. There needs to be enough capital infusion that they can meet all needs, take advantage of supplier discounts, and take advantage of short term opportunities. However, we do not want to exceed $1,000,000.00 because we do not want the company to become overly aggressive and invest more an inventory then can be sold, leaving them overleveraged and at bigger risk of de fault due to economic downturns. Next, we need to determine an appropriate interest rate for this line of credit. Based on economic outlook, it would be in the best interest of Northrup to make this a fixed loan based on the prime rate of interest. From February of 1989 to January of 1991, the prime rate of interest has dropped almost 2% and we believe it is going to be downward trending for the next three to four years before going back up (See Exhibit 3). Therefore, we believe we should do a prime plus 1% loan, giving an interest rate of 10%. As rates continue to drop, the value of this loan will continue to increase. If at any point we fear that this loan maybe paid off through an outside bank refinance, we can look to restructure this line of credit to a lower rate. Because this is a lower rate, we can pursue adding the balance of the loan to payoff the obligation of buying out Henry Stark. This is at roughly a $70,000 balance, which is secured by land and buildings with an 11% interest rate. This will lower Butler’s current debt obligations and will result in an increase in profit. Because this business appears to be in a growth phase, controls operations costs effectively, and has the ability to weather economic crisis better than others, this would be a good company to invest in. Next, we need to determine the duration of this line of credit. We need to clearly state that this will be reviewed every two to three years to revisit creditworthiness as well as ability to repay. If need be, the limit could be lowered. However, if the company continues to grow we can also evaluate the possibility of a credit limit increase. When determining fees, we need to realize that this is a competitive situation and they should be somewhat minimal. The commitment fee should be .50% per year. This falls right in line with the average. We will keep the closing fees at .25% in order to ensure they are on the low end and we can keep his business. We want to establish a working relationship with Mr. Butler so that we will be his only source of borrowing. We will not put a prepayment fee on this line of credit, but should continue to keep his business with reviews and potential changes and increases every two to three years. We also need to negotiate in appropriate covenants into this loan agreement. This will carry forward the reps and warrants that we have Mr. Butler sign. By adding the following covenants, we will be able mitigate risk for the bank and allow us to detect any signs for potential default early, allowing us time to evaluate our next steps before it is too late. The following covenants should be documented: * Notification of borrowing outside of our bank * Detailed description of usage of loan proceeds * Quarterly Financial Reporting sent to Northrup * Maintain ethical and legal responsibilities * Notification of any major business impacts such as mergers, acquisitions, and business model changes. By installing these conditions, it will allow us to properly forecast and negative business impacts and allow us to make appropriate modifications. We believe that because over 55% of Butler’s business is in home improvement, economic downturns should not impact them as much as other businesses. Also, by now being able to take advantage of the 2 net 30 discount, the company will be able to instantly lower expenses and increase net income. 5. Character: The character of Mark Butler is strong and it is believed that he would be a conscientious borrower. He is an extremely hard worker and takes a lot of pride in his business. He knows the business inside and out and possesses sound judgment. He is well respected by his peers. All of this things make him a strong candidate for lending, because it appears that he will do everything in his power in order to pay this loan back and on time. This includes tapping into personal equity form his home, his life insurance policy, or the interest that his wife has in a separate property.

Marketing Audits and Its Importance to an Organisation

Marketing Audits and its importance to an organisation As of I am starting to write this essay, an historic and astonishing incident happened in US—Standard & Poors first time downgraded American Federal Bonds form AAA to AA+. Look at the messed up world economic picture–US is suffering from recession without any better signs, Europe is struggling with debt crisis, only growth engine China is also slowing down. We are facing the greatest uncertainty ever experienced before, as for economic society, walking away from this desperate situation needs to review history and find appropriate tools, from an organisation’s point of view, one of the effective tools is to seek for effective and regular marketing audits to cope with rapidly changing economic environment. Definition and Purposes of Marketing Audit The concept of marketing audit dated back to 1950s and evolved through application phase of 1960s, turbulent 1970s, growing period of 1980s and 1990s until now. The followings are several definitions of marketing audits: A comprehensive examination of an organisation’s marketing structure, programs and performance†Ã¢â‚¬â€-Peter Rix, Marketing-a practical approach â€Å"Systematic, critical, rigorous and unbiased study of efficiency of all marketing activities within an organisation extending to evaluation of each and every functional objective and their effective coordina tion†Ã¢â‚¬â€-Brian Monger, Marketing in black white â€Å"A periodic, comprehensive, systematic, and independent examination of the organisation’s marketing environment, internal marketing system and specific marketing activities†Ã¢â‚¬â€-Philip Kotler The purposes of marketing audit are to find marketing opportunities, locate marketing issues, seek right short term and long term solution, which ensure the implementation of marketing plans or the revision of unreasonable plans to improve an organisation’s overall marketing performance. Components of the Marketing Audit An effective and rounded marketing audit covers six components: 1/ Marketing Environment Audit Through auditing marketing environment in which it operates, an organisation could find if its marketing strategy is adapt to the marketing environment, and if any changes needed. The marketing environment consists of two subclasses, one is the macro environment which includes political/legal, economic, social/cultural and technological, and another one is industry and competitive environment. In short, PEST+C. 2/ Marketing Strategy Audit It mainly examine whether or not an organisation’s goals and objectives reflect market orientation, if the organisation takes right competition position, seizes market opportunities and allocates appropriate resources. 3/ Marketing Organisation Audit The marketing auditor needs to consider the decision-making ability of marketing organisation, as well as its ability of analysis, planning and execution. Other factors include its strain capacity to market, and its interaction with other function departments. 4/ Marketing Systems Audit It focuses on whether or not an organisation has well-established and effective systems for information gathering, planning and control. All these systems can be classified as internal systems, external systems, vertical and horizontal marketing systems. A vertical marketing system (VMS) is one in which the main members of a distribution channel—producer, wholesaler, and retailer—work together as a unified group in order to meet consumer needs. A horizontal marketing systems(HMS) means in which members at the same level in a channel of distribution band together in strategic alliances or joint ventures to exploit a new marketing opportunity. 5/ Marketing Productivity Audit A marketing organisation needs analyses on profits, cost-benefit, the audit covers performance examinations on sale-profit rates, costs of marketing, collection and inventory, etc. It also examines if there exists excessive cost expenditure and corresponding solutions on cost reduction. 6/ Marketing Function Audit Marketing function audit targets on marketing elements such as products, prices, places and promotions, as well as performance evaluation on marketing organisation, it consists of overall audit, sales audit, market investigation audit, and advertising audit. The auditors, through marketing function audit, may spot issues within marketing management and make relevant recommendations. Main Characteristics of the Marketing Audit Marketing Audit is a process of comprehensive, systematic and independent analysis and assessment of company's marketing environment, objectives, strategies and activities to identify problem areas and operational strengths and weaknesses and recommends the courses of action to be taken to improve company's overall marketing performance and make marketing strategies and plan more effective and result oriented. The main characteristics can be summarised as the followings, 1/ It should be comprehensive and broad in focus covering the entire marketing environment of the company. / It should be an objective exercise and independent of the managers directly involved in making the marketing decisions. 3/ It should be a systematic and orderly sequence of diagnostic steps as compared to an unstructured and random investigation. 4/ It should be carried out periodically. The marketing audit should be undertaken on a regular basis and not only when major problems arise. Main elements to be incl uded in a marketing audit The key elements of a marketing audit are: 1/ Marketing Mix For products it includes Product, Price, Place-distribution and Promotion For services it includes Product, Price, Place-distribution, Promotion, People, Processes and Physical Environment 2/ Product Life Cycle [pic] 3/ Competitive Advantage A competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and service that justifies higher prices. 4/ Internal and external assessment – SWOT – PEST The Marketing Audit Process and Participants likely to be involved The marketing audit process proceeds with the following steps, Firstly, setting up the audit objectives and scope, preparing relevant documentation, deciding time period for the audit. Secondly, gathering the data, conducting interviews and inquiries. Finally, preparing the audit report, presenting conclusions and providing relevant solutions. Bearing in mind, ‘the most valuable part if the marketing audit often lies not so much in the auditor’s specific recommendations but in the process that managers begin to go through to assimilate, debate, and develop their own concept of the needed marketing action. —The Marketing Audit Comes of Age by Philip Kotler, William T. Gregor and William H. Rodgers III The participants likely to be involved cover all stakeholders including management levels, ordinary staff, suppliers, dealers, customers even shareholders and communities the organisation located in. Who of these stakeholders and to what extent get involved in the aud it depend on the organisation’s specific requirements. Times when a marketing audit should be undertaken The marketing audits could be undertaken on conventional and unconventional bases, which means on one hand an organisation needs to conduct regular and periodic audit and examine whether or not it and its each function unit achieve setting goals and objectives, if any changes needed to its strategy, on the other hand, if an organisation’s internal departments or independent units are performing poorly, it should carry a thorough marketing audit to help them find reasons and improvement methods. Various forms of a marketing audit The marketing audit must be carried independently by an inside audit, onducted by a person or group inside the company but outside the operation being evaluated, or an outside audit conducted by a management consulting firm or practitioner. Why they are considered to be one of the most practical and profitable tools available to a marketer. The marketing audits cover all major marketing areas of a business, not just a few trouble spots. It assesses the marketing environment, marketing strategy, the marketing organisation, marketing systems, the marketing mix and marketing productivity and profitability. The audit is normally conducted by an objective and experienced outside party who is independent of the marketing department. The finding can come as a surprise, and sometimes as a shock, to management. Management then decides which actions make sense and how and when to implement them. The marketing audits prompt to make marketing strategy and plan properly, are beneficial for matching a business’ internal resources with external resources, realise better and profitable operating results.