...BUS550-Project Management/Case Study #1 – Horizon Consulting 1. How successful was the post- meeting? Meeting was pretty successful since Patti was able to pick a programmer who is very quick sturdy to work on her Shanghai Wok project. Patti’s project Shanghai wok is a small size and limited in terms of scope and hence she was given Purple flag for her project. Purple designation is given for the projects which have low priority in terms of scope of the project. Shanghai wok project is for a smartphone application for Chinese restaurant called Shanghai wok, a busy Chinese mom and pop restaurant located in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The owners of Shanghai Wok wanted Horizon to create a smartphone app that would allow customers to order and pay in advance for meals they would simply pick up at a walk- up window. The programmer working on this application previously worked on TAT project. TAT project was for an iphone application that allowed subscribers to reserve and see in real time what swimming lanes were available at a prestigious athletic club. Jackson was the project lead for the TAT project and his project was submitted to Apple Inc for approval before it go operational. Unfortunately TAT was rejected for variety of reasons by Apple Inc. Jackson was in a difficult situation and he had to act fast to make those required changes to get an approval. In order to make the changes, he had to pull all the application engineers who worked on the TAT application...
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...Final Report on the Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Deepwater Horizon Study Group March 1, 2011 The Deepwater Horizon Study Group (DHSG) was formed by members of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management (CCRM) in May 2010 in response to the blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010. A fundamental premise in the DHSG work is: we look back to understand the why‘s and how‘s of this disaster so we can better understand how best to go forward. The goal of the DHSG work is defining how to best move forward – assessing what major steps are needed to develop our national oil and gas resources in a reliable, responsible, and accountable manner. Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster This Page Intentionally Left Blank Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster In Memoriam Jason Anderson Senior tool pusher Dewey Revette Driller Stephen Curtis Assistant driller Donald Clark Assistant driller Dale Burkeen Crane operator Karl Kleppinger Roughneck Adam Weise Roughneck Shane Roshto Roughneck Wyatt Kemp Derrick man Gordon Jones Mud engineer Blair Manuel Mud engineer 1 Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster In Memoriam The Environment 2 Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster Table of Contents In Memoriam....................................................................
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...A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BP OIL SPILL RESPONSE AND PREPAREDNESS PLAN FOR THE DEEP HORIZON – WHY DID IT FAIL? Toni Josina Elfrieda Beukes* May 2012† ABSTRACT: Based on events that unfolded in the U.S. in the weeks and subsequently months of the Macondo well blow-out, it is clear that neither industry nor government was equipped to deal with a spill the scale and complexity of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. As one of its key recommendations to President Obama for addressing the causes and consequences of the spill, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in its final report, stated the need for “strengthening oil spill response, planning and capacity”. Industry best practice dictates that quickness and accuracy are key requirements for effective oil spill response and preparedness planning (OSRPP); yet it took nearly three months to seal the Macondo well. This paper is accordingly concerned with the reasons for the apparent failure of the BP oil spill response plan. This failure will be considered in light of current international environmental regulations on OSRPP and applicable United States legislation, whilst assessing the BP oil spill response plan’s compliance therewith. The study will also consider some theory in the development of OSRPP by looking specifically at risk assessment tools and applying key criteria to the BP oil spill response plan to determine its adequacy and appropriateness for its operations in the GOM. What...
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...ESSAY PLAN – TIME Question: Clock time is but one construction of work and time. Consider alternative constructions. Buzz phrases: Introduction: - Lots of time, not just one (clock time) - Define clock time… o ‘We recognize time in a simple form: the past is gone, the present passing, and the future coming’ Lee and Liebenau o Natural and Taken-for-granted o Self-evident, Requires no explanation o Homogeneous and divisible in structure o Linear and uniform in its flow o Objective and absolute – existing of independent of objects and events o Measureable/quantifiable/mechanical (containing discrete moments subject to precise measurement o Divisible o Abstract o Unitary (subject to only one interpretation) o ‘The linear-quantitative tradition’, ‘even time’, or ‘the Newtonian conception’ ‘clocktime’, ‘chronological time’ or ‘even time’ o o Clark defines even time (clock time) – ‘it flows evenly and continuously; is free from contingent events and periodicities; and is completely quantifiable and so can be added, subtracted, divided, used in a variety of heuristic calculations and in complex formulae’ o This concept is the dominant one in our contemporary society, and is closely associated with the development of industrial society. It is also the basic assumption upon which our society relies for its operation and management. - Negatives of clock time… o Although time is so fundamental that people in any culture regard their conception of it as simply...
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...BP’s Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: What Went Wrong Elizabeth D. Jones Southern New Hampshire University Student: 0811981 Abstract On April 20th 2010 the Deepwater Horizon rig, operated by BP, exploded unleashing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico resulting in the largest marine oil spill in history. What makes this spill so significant is the fact that the spill continued unabated for three months causing the declaration of a state of emergency across several states (Bozeman, 2011). The purpose of this study is to highlight the significant issues of management and leadership within BP and point out how the poor decisions surrounding the spill deeply hindered their corporate reputation. Additionally, the paper will offer ways in which BP and those involved could have possibly prevented this disaster or have better mitigated the impact had the catastrophe still occurred. Managing risks, monitoring safety, effective communication and ownership of faults are all solutions that if implemented can help BP restore their reputation and prevent misfortunes like this from happening in the future. BP’s Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: What Went Wrong British Petroleum (BP), In the early evening of April 20th, 2010 uncontrolled hydrocarbons escaped causing an explosion on the oil-drilling platform Deepwater Horizon resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters in world history. Within 36 hours the massive oil rig, approximately...
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...Research Studies in Technology Research Studies in Technology Even though technology is part of education more efforts should be made in researching the effectiveness of education technology. The United States department of education25 is investing money in the research of education technology and there is very little research that meets the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act (Bailey, 2004). Even though research is being conducted the effectiveness of using education technology in the classroom needs to be accurately measured. In an effort to address the need for scientifically based research regarding education technology a research study will be conduct. The research will study how technology effects the learning environment. The results of the research should produce information on educational technology and the effects technology has on education. A national study will be conducted using a panel of experts, teacher, and student. In the national study of education technology a panel of experts on education technology, research, and educational policy will provide recommendations on how to conduct the study (Bailey, 2004). Students and teachers from grades K-12 will be the group used in the national study. Standardized test will be used as a secondary source in the research study to obtain data on academic achievement by students. Teachers, who have used technology and those interested in using the technology in the class room will be surveyed. The survey will...
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...BP Deepwater Horizon Accident Part 1(week 4) A Study of Strategic Implications of the Recent BP Deepwater Horizon Accident Date: Submitted by: Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Student ID Number: H00032634 Chapter 1 Introduction History of British Petroleum (BP) Company British Petroleum is one of the oldest companies in the oil industry. According to BP Global (2010b), the company was founded in the year 1909 in the UK under the name Anglo-Persian Company. Later, in the year 1954, the company changed its name to British Petroleum (BP). Being in the gas and oil industry, BP conducts various operations including exploration and refining of oil among others. According to BP Global (2010), Bp is the largest energy company globally with presence in over 100 countries. Overview of the Deepwater Horizon Accident In the year 2010, BP experienced a Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster which involved gas release and subsequent explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. According to Webb (2010), the fire lasted for 36 hours and this was followed by leaking of hydrocarbon into the Gulf for eighty-seven days. BP admitted responsibility explaining that the accident occurred following loss of control related to pressure within the well blowouts in which a special type of is designed to keep constant pressure. Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon accident This tragedy impacted immensely on various BP stakeholders i.e. local communities, global customers...
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...FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY: ARCADIAN MICROARRAY TECHNOLOGIES, INC. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As an investment manager from Sierra Capital Partners, Rodney Chu is interested in purchasing a 60% equity interest of Arcadian Microarray Technologies, Inc., a biotechnology firm. The bid is currently at $40 million. The Arcadian’s managers have optimistic projections for their firms’ performance over the next 11 years. However, based on Sierra’s calculations, come up a much more conservative view. With the request of Mr. Chu, a fair bid price could be calculated along with any appropriate counterproposals. Appropriate steady state growth rates and terminal values would be included and explained. I. Objective The main objective of this paper is to exercise the terminal value of a firm. The other objectives are to acknowledge: 1. Concept of terminal value 2. Various terminal value estimators along with its advantages and disadvantages 3. The use of tax on terminal value 4. Assumption on liquidation 5. Forecast horizon for estimating terminal value 6. Constant-growth valuation model and its derivation 7. Fisher’s formula for estimating growth rate to infinity 8. Triangulation of a terminal value estimate. II. Analysis We could see in the case that the lessor was trying to understand the lessee’s point of view. Thereby, the lessee’s financing problem is the lessor’s investment problem. This perspective would be explained thoroughly...
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...com/opinion/articles/2013/03/01/the-education-technology-revolution-is-coming The Education-Technology Revolution Is Coming Institutions of learning must learn to incorporate technology or risk being left behind By SIG BEHRENS March 1, 2013 RSS Feed Print Sig Behrens is a president of Blackboard, Inc. Higher education is the next bubble. Facebook will replace classroom instruction. Textbooks will go away, and some colleges will, too. In other words, everything is going to change. Or, at least, that's the talk we in education and technology regularly hear these days. It sounds exciting—and, to some, scary. But it also sounds like what I heard during the dot-com boom of the 1990s when a lot of companies—including Blackboard—began using technology to "disrupt" the education status quo. Since then we've made some important progress, but in many ways the classroom still looks the same as it did 100 years ago. So what's different this time? Is all the talk just hype? Or are we really starting to see the beginnings of major change? [Read the U.S. News Debate: Are Teachers Overpaid?] I believe we are. There are a lot of reasons but one of the biggest is the way that technology has given rise to a new kind of education consumer—the active learner—who is using technology to drive change in ways that we haven't seen before. In the past, change was usually a top-down process, led by campus administrators, district leaders, and other officials. It was often slow in coming, if at all. Look at technology: Mainframe...
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...BP Control Functions Incontestably control mechanisms have existed within most businesses and organizations for guiding job responsibilities of employees toward accomplishing the company goals. There are many control mechanisms in a company. A strong human resources department controls managers and prevents employee abuse. Employee performance reviews and incentives assist in the control of employees. Compliance departments control legal risk and monitor operations to ensure the company follows state and federal rules. Financial budgets and accounting audits control financial risk. Product pricing controls marketing efforts. All the different departments must work together to create a strong and profitable company. The team will identify various control mechanisms in connection with British Protroleum (BP), compare, and contrast, determine the effectiveness, examine positive and negative reactions concerning their use, and provide an explanation about how the four functions of management are affected by them. BP used several control functions in its deep sea exploration process; all implemented to prevent the type of disaster they experienced in April 2010. There were systematic failures at every turn, creating a perfect storm and a devastating deep sea oil spill. The spill itself has been recorded as the largest oil spill to date in American history by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Zeller, 2010). According to the same article, the BP spill was...
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...1. Read and study information related to: Integration of technology in health care evaluation and planning. Planning of health care services. Effectiveness of the delivery of health care services. 2. Prepare an outline of the most relevant aspects of the readings to be discussed in class. A. Integration of technology in health care evaluation and planning. a. As part of the strategy for the nation to put information technology to work in health care. This includes a variety of electronic methods used to manage information on health and health care of people 1.- Clinical decision support 2.- Diseases computerized records 3.-Computerized provider order entry 4.-Electronic medical records (EMR, EHR and PHR) 5.-Telehealth b. It makes it possible for health care providers to better manage patient care through secure use and sharing of health information. By developing records and private insurance for most Americans and provide electronic health information electronic health when and where needed, can improve healthcare quality, even as it makes health care be more profitable. B. Planning of health care services. a. Health care plan means a plan that promises to make arrangements for the provision of health care services to enrollees, or to pay or reimburse any of the cost for these services, in exchange for a fee paid in advance or periodic paid by or on behalf of the subscribers or enrollees. Also known as the service plan specialized medical care. C. Effectiveness...
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...from multiple information sources, thus, Information Systems being prima facie defined and documented as text documents, are eminently suited for this mode of investigation. In this paper, we illustrate hermeneutics by analysing a sample case study document describing the well-known Denver International Airport (DIA) Automated Baggage Handling System project, which was extensively reported in the IS and management press and studied by Montealegre and his colleagues. As a result of the hermeneutic approach to the analysis of this document, a new ‘flexibility’ factor has been discovered to play an important, yet unreported, role in the DIA system demise. In the DIA case, the observed flexibility factor influenced the quality of the interaction between the actors, the prevailing environment and the information systems. Introduction Although there are several reports of information systems projects that have applied hermeneutics (Boland, 1991; Klein and Myers, 1999; Myers, 1994a), there are very few publications that explain the actual hermeneutic process taken by IS (and in fact, also non-IS) researchers. What this paper strives to do is close the methodological gap and to present one potential framework for the adoption of hermeneutics in the study of information systems. In addition, hermeneutics is often viewed as an ‘obscure’ tool in the IS community because it is perhaps not particularly well understood. To that end, this...
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...think of the Vanguard group as a firm? What is the Vanguard group investment philosophy? Vanguard was founded by John C. Bogle (Princeton University B.A., 1951) in 1975. Prior to The Vanguard Group, John Bogle was part of Wellington Management Company. The Vanguard Group currently manages about $3,148,496 million in assets (according to Northern Trust “Asset Management Ranking Highlights: The Largest Money Managers”), which makes it the second largest money manager after BlackRock ($4,651,896M). The company is mostly focused on mutual funds and ETFs. Index funds were created and offered to individual investors, which introduced significant cost-savings benefits. Their trademark way of doing business is by heavily investing in technology, reducing management fees, and lowering marketing costs. Providing exceptional and exemplary client service has also been part of Vanguard’s repertoire. Mr. Bogle strongly believes in long-term investment strategy versus short-term. In “The Clash of Cultures: Investment vs Speculation”, he criticizes money managers that are using short-term investment strategies in order to gain high returns, which turn out not to be as high after management fees and tax deductions. He refers to short-term speculative behavior in the markets as “The Wall Street Casino”. Mr. Bogle gives an example...
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...with a certain time-horizon which depends on various factors, such as the rate of technological progress, the capital intensity of the methods of produc¬tion, the nature and gestation period of the product, etc. The firm aims at the maximization of its profit over this time-horizon: the goal of the firm is long-run profit maximization. This is attained by maximizing profits in each one period of the time-horizon of the firm, because the time periods are independent in the sense that decisions taken in any one period do not affect the behaviour of the firm in other periods. The rule MC = MR is applied in each period, and profits are maximized with this behaviour both in the short run and in the long run. 2. Outline the transactions cost approach to the theory of the firm. In what ways is it different from the treatment of firms in neoclassical economics? High market transaction costs create incentives for the organisation of economic activity in firms. Firms are viewed as an alternative to the market – a mechanism of allocating resources and structuring transactions. When the cost of organising them is lower than the transaction costs incurred by individuals transacting in the market. A firm structure would be cost effective in the case of production to meet fluctuating levels of demand. The choice between using the market or the firm is determined at the margin. The nature and size of transaction costs can change over time, e.g. new communications technology can lower the costs...
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...Assignment: Case Study - Deepwater Naftali Rabinowitz 1) What types of control-feedforward, concurrent, or feedback-do you think would have been most useful in this situation? Explain your choices? The Deepwater Horizon failed to reach numerous protocols involving health and safety. The most useful control technique would be with feedforward control, this is because it would have provided better results for testing and requirements for deep water drilling platforms and machines. There was no excuse for BP on why they weren’t keeping concurrent control so at least they would know what to do and be able to react in a timely fashion. Things which they could have done include capping the well or controlling the flow of the oil leakage. Feedback controls could have been implicated to determine that all the equipment and personnel are fit for the job and would be able to respond to these types of incidents in the future. 2) Using exhibit 10-2, explain what BP could have done better? First BP would have to actually measure their real performance and practices. This would have consisted of receiving information from their workers on the rig to know if they are actually productive in a proper manner. Once that information was sent in and analyzed by BP it should have been compared to both the internal requirements and the external regulations for oil drilling operations. When all of the issues had risen they needed to be taken with extremely high regard by all employees...
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