Free The Monk and the Riddle Book Review Sample

Free The Monk and the Riddle Book Review Sample Question One: What was surprising or different about this book relative to what you know about entrepreneurship? Before reading this book, the aspect of entrepreneurship that I had in mind was that of looking for opportunities in which to achieve financial satisfaction in life. Growing up, I understood that being an entrepreneur entailed setting up businesses and ventures, which will bring about major financial returns. However, reading The Monk and the Riddle gave me a different perspective on the subject of being or becoming a successful entrepreneur. The author gives detailed expectations from the entrepreneurship field that is very different from what I had in mind. According to the book, being an entrepreneur should not be all about the result which most people bank on financial achievement but should focus mainly on the journey towards attaining the set goals (Komisar and Kent 21). Entrepreneurship should lay emphasis on leadership, management, passion, and drive which help define an individual. In the end, an entrepreneur will be rewarded from the journey undertaken in the business rather than the outcome. Being a successful entrepreneur means that a person, through the business, gained satisfaction not only financially but also in experience. Any would be entrepreneur needs to set up goals which allows for achievement of satisfaction in work itself. Another notable difference on the subject is the ability of any entrepreneur to let go off control. The mentality of all entrepreneurs is that they need have control and influence in their ventures. However, the author categorically explores the advantages of giving out control to other able people in order to allow for the growth of the business. While discussing about leadership, the author advises entrepreneurs to get people to do what needs to be done for the business and this could end up being done better. L eadership is an art and entrepreneurs must encourage people to exceed their own expectations, inspire people to be great and get them all to work together in harmony. Question Two: What are your impressions of Lenny? Why was Randy willing to give Lenny his time? The impression I got of Lenny is that of any contemporary entrepreneur striving to have his venture to pick up in the market. Lenny has great ideas of what he wants his venture to be but has his eyes closed to the reality of entrepreneurship. From the discussion presented by his interaction with Randy, it is evident that Lenny seems sure of his approach to business and the proposed business plan but lacks sight on the sound fundamentals of the initial business idea. Lenny has the mentality of working towards attaining financial objectives from his venture. From the idea presented to Randy, the would-be entrepreneur has misguided anticipations on the business front hoping to attain everything without support from other people. Lenny believes as an entrepreneur, he should be in control of everything in his business from development to implementation. However, this is a wrong impression of the journey towards attaining satisfaction in work. Lenny portrays a typical Eastern pushy-salesma n-suit, involved in the business for the money rewards only. (Lambing and Charles) Despite the ambition presented to Randy by Lenny, the latter is ready and willing to help him because as an established entrepreneur it is essential to pass on guidelines to other would - be entrepreneurs. Randy carefully listens to Lenny because he wants the young entrepreneur to drop the potential monetary rewards perspective and focus on satisfaction. More so, Randy provides direction, contacts, and leadership for entrepreneurs in need of experience like Lenny. The main role Randy plays is helping would-be entrepreneurs through the initial phase of business development and then retires to the less central role of advisor. Randys advice to Lenny is that a leader with many ideas but lacks vision and passion will lead his business to the drain. Question Three: What do you think about the Deferred Life Plan? In the book, the author notes the tendency of people in the contemporary world sacrificing their present life to hard work and earning a living to protect their future existence. In simpler terms, this is living a deferred life plan whereby one denies himself or herself a decent lifestyle in the name of protecting the future. The author argues that people do not have to sacrifice their lives in order to accomplish things they are passionate about, be it at work or in business. In my understanding, the theory and practicability of deferred life plan is real amongst young people especially those joining the labor market. Most people engage in activities, work, or business, which they have little passion but hang on to them for the sake of financial satisfaction. Interestingly, this financial satisfaction does not come about and the very people end up losing on other satisfactions they could gain at work. Putting off what you really love to do and engaging in other activities or business, which is less; satisfactory is the beginning of leading a deferred life plan. By not working on work and business, one is passionate about means deferring sense of excitement and passion for what you really care about in life. Komisar further explains thats working hard is not inconsistent with the deferred life plan but working hard for things that bring less excitement and interest is part of deferred life plan (Komisar and Kent 35). Comparing the theory with the actual life setting, with the deferred life plan, one ends up succeeding on things, which do not matter in his or her life. More understandably, deferred life plan leads to achieving at something, which has no definition of the real, you. As human beings, we need to ensure that we get satisfaction in whatever we do and this should be at a reasonable age. It is not satisfaction when we have to wait up to sixty years and above to start enjoying life. Question Four: What do you think about the evolution of Lennys opportunity? What value does Lenny get from Randy and the VCs? The evolution evidenced in Lennys opportunity is great as it offers him and other workers to engage in activities, which bring about satisfaction. The opportunity created does not only promise financial rewards but also work satisfaction. The opportunity further presents Lenny with a chance to engage in a business venture for the right reasons rather than seeking financial satisfaction only. In seeking help from people advanced in the matters of entrepreneurship, Lenny gains more information on other aspects of business. Randy gives Lenny in-depth advice on what venture capital firms require, focusing on the characteristics of CEOs during various phases of the establishments. In so doing, Lenny understands the difference between a good manager and a good leader, which as a future CEO of a business is necessary information. Management and leadership skills are a prerequisite for anyone hoping to establish any kind of venture. With time, the owner of the business will have to let go off the control of the business and this, Randy explains requires major management skills. Lenny learns that the essence of entrepreneurship is for the entrepreneur to acquire all round satisfaction at all stages of life. The activities engaged in by the entrepreneur should not limit the workers from attaining satisfaction at all levels. Being an entrepreneur means embarking on a journey for irrational and passionate people who believe in the face of doubt. More so, the significance of sharing ideas on entrepreneurship with other experienced people will help boost the initial goals. VCs are driven by risky ideas hence need potential leaders to guide them and not just followers.

Knock the writers block - Emphasis

Knock the writers block Knock the writers block Most people have felt the curse of the dreaded writers block: that plummeting feeling of panic that takes hold as you stare hopelessly at a blank page, or at that accursed flashing cursor. If youre afflicted with this condition, youre in good company. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Ellison and F. Scott Fitzgerald are all said to have been fellow sufferers. So dont despair just read on to help release the report (or proposal, letter, webpage) within. The block explained The main reason for writers block is anxiety. And our worries may stem from several causes for example, we: dont understand the brief want our document to be just too perfect have too much information have too little information have too little time. A second reason for not being able to get going is boredom we may feel totally uninspired by the piece we have to write. Finally, and quite understandably, we might just have too much going on in our lives outside work and cant concentrate on the task in hand. The block strikes Wherever it comes from, that horrible state of blankness can be utterly debilitating. The times were most likely to have difficulty are right at the beginning and around the conclusion of our piece of work. Breaking the block Luckily, there are many ways to solve this problem. And here are some that will save your document and your sanity. Plan properly You can reduce your anxiety enormously by planning properly. To do this well, make sure you ask your line manager or reader enough questions about the brief before you begin. You may start off feeling quite confident, but this can quickly evaporate if youre not entirely sure where youre headed and why. Try drawing a spidergram: put the topic or title at the centre and make each leg an important aspect you need to cover. Ask yourself what you need to say about each of these aspects: asking yourself the who-what-why-how-where questions will help to make sure youve got it all down. Leave off the hair shirt Dont beat yourself up, itll only add to the feeling of frustration. Instead, put it in perspective and consider the readers point of view. This will take your focus away from your own fears, as well as producing a document that will be best for your intended audience. If youre just feeling a bit fed up with it all, try to remember what made you enthusiastic about your subject in the first place or why it is a worthy topic. After all, if youre bored with what you write, why should anyone else want to read it? Manage your time If your problem is procrastination, then set a time to start and stick to it. If the whole task seems huge and overwhelming, tell yourself you will just do fifteen minutes then have a break. Chopping assignments into chunks makes the whole process feel more manageable. Find out more on a writing skills course You can boost your business-writing confidence still further by attending one of our High-impact business writing courses. You can learn a surprising amount from our expert trainers in as little as one day, and become much more able and enthusiastic about your writing.

Age Discrimination Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Age Discrimination - Research Paper Example As our nation is multicultural in its democratic set up, the policy has both legal and ethical significance in HRM. From a social perspective, in order to maintain the socio-economic stability, we should allow people to work as long as they wish. It has been assumed that diverse workforce (ethnicity, culture, language, sex, and age) would avail potential individuals with a variety of talents who will also have experience and knowledge about wide rage of customers (Weightman, 2004, p.25). For example, we have hundreds of employees who are above the age of 65 still working zealously. Moreover, it helps us save time and money to test and train new recruits. In fact, the older workers are the proven asset which can help employers in the long run. Moreover, retaining older staff would be a reasonable solution to the growing labor shortage. Obviously there are certain situations when age discrimination policy would lead to organizational crisis. However, the issue depends on the effectiveness of the HR strategy. For instance, the company should have well defined vision on individual goals and role assignment. There are certain exceptional tasks in which youngsters can outsmart elders. Therefore, elders should not be assigned to services that require high physical and mental skills. In the UK, According to the Default Retirement Age Act of 2006, employers can force workers to retire exactly at their age of 65 without paying any redundancy (BBC News). Although 65 had been considered as the common age for retirement in the United States, mandatory retirement was completely abolished since 1986 (Kerley, 2001, p.208). As mentioned earlier, we therefore, neither discriminate nor force workers to retire at their old age; instead, workers are given the privilege to choose their retirement. It would be a fallacy if we assume that young labors would perform better than the older workers. On the other hand, new candidates may not be always

Addresssing human resource issues at Utiliscan Essay

Addresssing human resource issues at Utiliscan - Essay Example Human resource issues at Utiliscan identified by the survey. Paul, the former Director for Utilitiscan conducted a survey and th result revealed some troubling issue in the company that caused its employees to leave. The survey that Paul conducted reported that; Most employees view their job at Utilitiscan as career dead end. Meaning, most employees felt that their careers are not advancing in the company as Paul’s survey result revealed that 87% of the employees felt that there were no promotion opportunities in the company. 74% of the employees also felt that their pay does not increase even if they perform well. Employees were also complaining that performance appraisals were not done anymore. Some respondents commented that there were favoritism in the company. Most employees also no longer feel challenged by their jobs. This is corroborated by the fact that a resounding 89% of respondents also complaint that opportunities to grow and improve were rare in the company. 56 % of the employees felt that their non wage benefits were below industry standard. Only 55% of all employees felt safe working in Utilitiscan. Meaning, the other half or 45% felt that there is an occupational hazard associated with their physical environment and that safety is less than adequate. In sum, the problem of the employees at Utilitiscan was that they felt that their job is a career dead end without any prospect for advancement and non-challenging where there are no incentives to do a good job. The proposed conceptual plan as a solution to the problem Employees are leaving Utilitiscan, including the very person who conducted the survey which was Paul, because the company was perceived to be a dead end and that the jobs were boring thereby making employees not motivated to perform because there are no incentives available when they do a good job anyway. Thus, to address these issues, management has to; a. Make job interesting for the employees to engage b. Institute promotio nal plans for the career advancement for employees c. Provide incentive for good performance (including promotion) d. Perform performance appraisal to address the need for basis of incentive and to encourage high performance in the organization. These conceptual plan does not necessarily â€Å"breaks the bank† of Utilitiscan. Addressing the employees issue about their jobs as non-challenging by making their jobs interesting jobs do not have to cost the company a huge amount of money. This can be done through job-rotation whereby employees move through the various functions in the organization laterally doing functions other than they are accustomed to. This is consistent with the idea of a classical management theorist Frederick Herzberg that it is not only money that motivates people to work as what Taylor posits in his scientific management theory. Herzberg argued that it is intrinsic rewards such as challenging work and growth that gets employees motivated. True, pay can m ake people work better but they will only endure the drudgery of work until the next pay raise or promotion and will again be back to mediocre performance after taking the pay raise or promotion. This principle in motivating employees is corroborated by a more recent study conducted by Dan Pink. In his study, Pink illustrated how monetary rewards failed in motivating employees. It may sound baffling but the Pink experiment showed that the obvious does not always work. Giving monetary rewards as a basis for motivation on jobs that requires even the slightest cognitive skills such as the jobs of programmers and engineers in Utilitiscan do not always work. It can even be a source of demotivation as what Pink found out when he did the experiment of giving financial incentive to motivate people to do tasks that involves thinking. The same experiment was done in other countries and other cultures and the result are the same, money as an incentive is a demotivator to tasks that invol

Vodafone international strategic development Essay

Vodafone international strategic development - Essay Example The initial acquisition move of the company was a merger with AirTouch Communications Inc. of the United States in a $61 million deal. The company briefly renamed itself as Vodafone AirTouch in a gradual move towards aligning AirTouch to its global strategy (Johannes and Ashok, 2009, P.263). The company’s North American branch was integrated into a new entity branded Verizon Wireless together with Bell Atlantic’s mobile business with the company retaining 45% stake in the new venture. Verizon wireless was the largest mobile phone operator in the North American market with 36 million customers and 24% market share in 2003. The targeting of large firms is in line with literature that suggests that large scale acquisitions provide potential scale economies and are expected to outperform small scale acquisitions (Risberg, 1999, P.76). The targeting of large firms is also observed in the acquisition of Mannesmann in a deal that helped it own D2 mobile phone business, which w as the private market leader in Germany. This deal made Vodafone one of the 10 largest companies in the world helping it achieve scale and scope economies (Johannes and Ashok, 2009, P.264). ... was a good strategy as mobile companies shared some similarities with Vodafone in capabilities and were likely to exhibit some level of homogeneity with its structure. Such acquisitions also helped Vodafone secure a platform for acquiring the existing business position (Risberg, 1999, P.82). Unlike its competitors, the company used shares for its acquisitions. This strategy helped the company emerge from the telecom crisis relatively early so that it could concentrate on growth while virtually all of its competitors were preoccupied with debt reduction (Johannes and Ashok, 2009, P.264). The company had acquired other businesses along with the mobile phone business as was the case of Japan Telecom and Mannesmann where it owned fixed line operations. Vodafone had an explicit desire to concentrate on its core business of mobile telecommunications, and this made it look for ways to dispose of the other non-core businesses. Vodafone insisted that it was mobile focused and intended to stic k to that strategy in all of its acquisitions and subsidiaries. The emphasis on only retaining those operations in the acquired firm that were core to its expansion strategy is in line with literature that suggests that strategic fit is important in creating shareholder value (Risberg, 1999, P.81). Vodafone’s strategy was to increase revenue growth and margin improvement by providing enhanced services to its customer base. This principle had three tenets. The company would increase voice and data revenues through increased marketing focus on its established high-quality customer base. It intended to extend its operational leadership of the mobile industry through maximizing the benefits of scale and scope by using partner network agreements, increasing equity investments in firms where

Business Environment in United Kingdom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Business Environment in United Kingdom - Essay Example An economic system are the consists of the people, institutions, processes, procedures that must be followed when making economic decisions to help solve the economic problems that face different economies. The different types of economic systems will determine the decisions on what to produce, how to produce, and who to consume the output. Economic Concepts and Problems The major economic problems that face economies include: the scarcity problem, competition, choice, resources, opportunity costs, needs, efficiency and wants. These are the key concepts that are fundamental in the understanding of the economic problems and that influence the kind of economic decisions that must be made for economic stability purposes and for the attainment of the solutions to the economic problems. The first concept is scarcity. This is a major economic problem that states that human needs are unlimited and resources are insufficient to satisfy all the diverse needs. The society is therefore faced wi th the challenges of the allocation of the scarce resources to attain maximum satisfaction of the unlimited needs. The economic system will therefore determine what to be produced and who to consume. It therefore also mean that a trade off must be made while making the economic decisions. Due to scarcity problem, the individuals in an economy will compete for the limited resources in order to survive. Competition is the scramble for the limited resources in order to acquire a fair share. Businesses and individuals both have to compete for the limited and scarce resources in order not to get eliminated in the system. When competition arises, the government agencies may formulate policies that are aimed at ensuring that the allocation of resources and that the competition is fair for all the participants. Competition has always been desired in order to increase efficiency and improve on the quality. The third important concept is opportunity cost. In economics the pursuance of one dec ision will mean a sacrifice to another possible action. Opportunity cost is the cost forgone for selecting the best alternative. Because the resources that are available in each economy is not enough to produce enough goods and services for everybody, some decisions must be made while others will be sacrificed. Economic systems will assist in the determination on what to produce and what to sacrifice. Needs are the requirements for existence or survival. Individuals in an economy will need food, shelter and good infrastructure for them to have a good life. Businesses as well will need resources e.g. raw materials in production or economic conditions that are favourable for operation. In addition, resources are the commodities or assets that are needed for production of goods and services that are demanded by individuals. Resources have the characteristics that they are limited, get depleted and have utility. The allocation of resources in production determines the manner in which th e economy performs and the output that will be attained. Economic systems are instrumental in the allocation of these scarce resources to maximize the satisfaction that will be achieved in the economy. Moreover, the scarcity of resources in production and in the satisfaction of human needs will mean that a choice must be made in relation to what to produce, quantity to produce, when to produce and who to consume. Choice can be defined as the choosing from among alternatives. In economic problems, a choice must be made on what to pursue among the various alternatives that are existing. The economic system influences the choices that are adopted in the

Fashion and Muslim Traditional Dress Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion and Muslim Traditional Dress - Essay Example The essay "Fashion and Muslim Traditional Dress" discovers the fashion in the context of Muslim Traditions. Muslim women are trying to be saved by both external and internal cultures. Western society seeks to liberate Muslim women from the shackles of oppression and bring them into a world where they have opportunities, but would be vulnerable without the protections offered in Muslim culture. Muslim cultures are attempting to shield women from Western values that objectify the body and strip from them their protections that define their status in Muslim society. Clothing is an integral part of how women are defined by both societies. Western societies see ‘the veil’ as a symbol of oppression while a Muslim woman who is inappropriately dressed loses respect and status within her community. The following paper will examine the position of Muslim female dress in modern contexts. The development of fashion that is acceptable outside of the Muslim community comes into confli ct with the purpose of dress within that community. Through innovative and creative design, fashion for Muslim women is becoming modernized while retaining its modest purpose. In defining female dress for modern contexts, the nature of fashion and Muslim tradition comes together to place women of Muslim into relationship with modern ideals while retaining elements of tradition that are important for Muslim identity. While female Muslim dress has a specific purpose as a representation of faith and adherence to tradition and law.