...Executive Summary This paper examines the rate of upward mobility on the lower, middle and upper class. The data suggest that even after controlling for differences between non-college graduates and college graduates —including such factors as age and location— it is far less likely to move up in social class and/or acquire substantial power if a person is not born of parents with said class and/or power. On average, individuals earning 100,000 or more a year, come from homes where their parents or guardian made 100,000 or more per year. The impact of an affluent family was even bigger in occupations where technical skills are more prevalent, such as doctors, lawyers, and chemists. Those individuals who came from an affluent household were 85 percentage more likely to graduate and gain employment making six figures. Those individuals that did not come from an affluent house hold were 75 percent more likely to be involved in criminal activity, underage pregnancy and not make over 30,000 a year. Recent studies propose that there is less economic mobility in the United States than has long been acknowledged. The last twenty years has seen a significant drop-off in median household income growth interrelated to earlier generations. My findings demonstrate that individuals who come from homes netting higher income per year place their offspring in better financial standing, hence better chance of upward mobility than an individual that is from a home netting a lower, middle to...
Words: 1510 - Pages: 7
...Running head: Walmart Information Systems 1 Walmart Information Systems Research Project-Group2 CIS 511 Fall 2011 Amber Slemmons, Brooke Williams, Cheri Evans, Ismael Molina, & Wesley Belz Walmart Information Systems Walmart Information Systems Executive Summary: 2 Walmart, the billion dollar retail giant, has grown significantly over the past five decades, incorporating numerous different types of information systems into their daily operations. The company is well recognized for their innovation when it comes to utilizing the latest technologies and information systems to maximize their profitability. Information systems structures and processes play a critical role in Walmart’s success and today they are bringing that innovative spirit to the market as they move toward full implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). This technology allows for Walmart’s operations to function efficiently and effectively as they are capable of sending and receiving real time data to the networks. By doing so they are able to communicate the information to the retailer and the product manufactures making it possible for Walmart to remain competitive in the retail industry by properly controlling its inventories. This report will explain how Walmart has utilized several information systems throughout the course of its history such as: point of sale, satellite communication systems, data warehouses, retail link systems, electronic data interchange (EDI), and most recently...
Words: 4729 - Pages: 19
...Express. Number of stores as of December 31, 2009 The first Wal-Mart was opened in Rogers Arkansas on July 2, 1962 by local business man Sam Walton. Walton had previously worked at J.C. Penny before becoming a franchise owner of a Ben Franklin. During his years at Ben Franklin, Walton discovered that the key to profits was dealing directly with the suppliers and passing the savings on to the customers through volume. Wal-Mart was incorporated as a public company 1970, with 38 stores in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma. That same year the first distribution center was opened in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart grew rapidly and by 1987 they had 1,198 stores. How did Wal-Mart become so successful? Many say it was because Sam Walton was “Cheap”. Not only did he demand rock bottom prices from suppliers, he required everyone on his staff to fly coach and share hotel rooms on business trips. Cost-cutting became an obsession at Wal-Mart. Walton knew that the key component to keeping costs down was controlling the payroll. He wrote in his 1992 autobiography, Made in America, "No matter how you slice it in the retail business, payroll is one of the most important parts of overhead, and overhead is one of the most crucial things you have to fight to maintain your profit margin." Not only did Walton prefer to hire as few...
Words: 3010 - Pages: 13
...| | | | | | This article appears in the Nov. 14, 2003 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. Wal-Mart Is Not a Business, It's an Economic Diseaseby Richard Freeman and Arthur Ticknor(See also ``Wal-Mart Collapses U.S. Cities and Towns,'' Nov. 14, 2003; ``Wal-Mart Eats More Manufacturers, Jobs,'' Nov. 21, 2003; Wal-Mart Family Trust--The Real Beast of Bentonville, Ark., Jan. 23, 2004.)The Wal-Mart department store chain, which employs 1.3 million people at 4,700 stores worldwide, and in 2002 became the largest corporation in the world, is levelling economies of the U.S., industrial nations, and the Third World.Wal-Mart is a driving force behind the decadent Imperial Roman model of the United States. Unable any longer to reproduce its own population's existence through its own physical economy, the United States has, for the past two decades, used an over-valued dollar to suck in physical goods from around the globe for its survival. Wal-Mart is both the public face and working sinews of that policy. It brings in cheap pants from Bangladesh, cheap shirts from China, cheap food from Mexico, etc. Workers who produce these things are paid next to nothing.Not since the days of the British East India Company as the cornerstone of the British imperial system, has one single corporate entity been responsible for so much misery. At the core of its policy, Wal-Mart demands of its suppliers that they sell goods to Wal-Mart at such a low price, that they can only do so by outsourcing...
Words: 5677 - Pages: 23
...Holton, 2001). McCracken and Wallace have mentioned in their article that, organizations should ensure any investment which is made in human capital with the promotion of HRD strategy is clearly linked to the wider corporate strategy (2000). Strategic approach to HRD is a relative new concept in HRD and training and development fields. It is not a traditional training and developing view of interventions in response to specific problems of organizations (Beer & Spector, 1998). A strategic approach to HRD is a multi-level concept whose contribution to the organization is to enhance its performance in the long-term (Garavan, 2007). It suggests that the HRD activities should integrate with the strategies, aims and goals of the organization. This paper mainly...
Words: 2353 - Pages: 10
...Sam Walton Made in America My Story by Sam Walton with John Huey BANTAM BOOKS NEW YORK• TORONTO• LONDON• SYDNEY• AUCKLAND This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition. NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED. SAM WALTON: MADE IN AMERICA A Bantam Book/published by arrangement with Doubleday PUBLISHING HISTORY Doubleday edition published June 1992 Bantam edition/June 1993 Photographs without credits appear courtesy of the Walton family. All rights reserved. Copyright© 1992 by the Estate of Samuel Moore Walton. Cover photo copyright© 1989 by Louis Psihoyos/Matrix. Cover design by Emily & Maura Design. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-18874. ISBN 0-553-56283-5 Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OPM 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 Contents Acknowledgments 4 Foreword 5 1 Learning to Value a Dollar 9 2 Starting on a Dime 14 3 Bouncing Back 25 4 Swimming Upstream 33 5 Raising a Family 44 6 Recruiting the Team 50 7 Taking the Company Public 58 8 Rolling Out the Formula 68 9 Building the Partnership 77 10 Stepping...
Words: 102401 - Pages: 410
...Some notes below. I understand that this was done under difficult conditions, but the level of research effort is not as high as it should have been and too much of the paper amounts to stringing together quotations. Grade B- THE UNITED STATES NAVAL WAR COLLEGE COLLEGE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION TERRORISM BY NON-STATE ACTORS FINAL PAPER THE QUR’AN AND TERROR [pic] U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE WEB-ENABLED PROGRAM DONALD ROSS APRIL 2013 DR. JIM MISKEL INSTRUCTING The views expressed in this student academic research paper are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. The Quran and Terror On September 11, 2001, (9/11) the United States was attacked in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda. On that Tuesday morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets, intending to fly them in suicide attacks into targeted buildings. The September 11 attacks resulted in nearly 3000 deaths that day. The subsequent series of events those attacks set in motion resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 soldiers, 2,300 contractors and hundreds of thousands of Afghan and Iraqi soldiers, policemen and civilians. The ramifications from 9/11 continue to contribute to our financial difficulties. The total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated at more than $5...
Words: 3526 - Pages: 15
...Workplace,Business & Ethics on evaluation of job ethical standards in Wal-Mart in South Carolina In Partial Fulfillment of Business Research and Project BUS 499 Nagliesha L Miles Supervisor: Dr. Mmutakaego Chukwuanu Allen University Date: December 8,2010 Table of content Table of Content...............................................................................................................2 Abstract............................................................................................................................3 List of Illustrations Wal-Mart earnings preview......................................................................................13 U.S Retail food pricing.................................................................................14 Chapter 1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................5 Background information.......................................................................................5 Statement of problem............................................................................................5 Hypothesis............................................................................................................6 Chapter 2 Literature Review...........................................................................................................8 Chapter 3 Methodology.................................................
Words: 7052 - Pages: 29
...Chapter 1 Strategic Leadership: Managing the Strategy-Making Process for Competitive Advantage Opening Case Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is one of the most extraordinary success stories in business history. Started in 1962 by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart has grown to become the world’s largest corporation. In the financial year ending January 31, 2004, the discount retailer whose mantra is “every day low prices” had sales of nearly $256 billion, five thousand stores in ten countries (almost three thousand are in the United States), and 1.3 million employees. Some 8 percent of all retail sales in the United States are made at a Wal-Mart store. Wal-Mart is not only large but also very profitable. In 2003, the company earned a return on invested capital of 14.7 percent, significantly better than rivals Costco and Target, which earned 9.4 percent and 10 percent, respectively (another major rival, Kmart, emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004). As shown in the accompanying figure, Wal-Mart has been consistently more profitable than its rivals for years. Wal-Mart’s superior profitability reflects a competitive advantage that is based on the successful implementation of a number of strategies. In 1962 Wal-Mart was one of the first companies to apply the self-service supermarket business model developed by grocery chains to general merchandise (two of its rivals, Kmart and Target, were established in the same year). Unlike its rivals, who focused on urban and suburban locations, Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart...
Words: 22650 - Pages: 91
...leadershipELAF 683 LEADERSHIP FROM THE BOARDROOM TO THE CLASSROOM: EFFECTIVE PRACTICES IN BUSINESS AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Introduction Purpose and Direction for the Paper: This paper intends to discuss leadership from a business perspective leading to effective practices that are both documented in business and educational leadership. It will present a historical perspective on leadership from the kings of the 16th Century to a discussion on theory (administrative and leadership). The paper will transition to discuss effective practices and common characteristics of effective leaders tying the concepts from business thought to educational leadership. Finally, a discussion will be presented detailing current educational and economic trends for schools for the 21st century and a summary of the leadership that will be required. A Business and Educational Leadership Perspective: A Required Change Niccolo Machiavelli, the 16th century author of The Prince (1981), stated, “The whole Kingdom . . . is governed by one man; everyone else is his servant” (p. 22). Since its first printing in 1516, The Prince has been the inspiration for many managerial texts and has been utilized as a guide for leaders throughout the centuries, including several today. In a Machiavellian or so-called “top-down” managerial philosophy, a chief executive officer (CEO) defines and controls the power of the organization. The workforce serves the mission as determined by management, which oftentimes has...
Words: 13625 - Pages: 55
...says. “Yeah, you’ve got reasonable growth, but it’s nothing exceptional. You’re a safe bet, nothing more. Okay, I might tell my mom to buy, but 3 The Momentum Effect then she’s happy with inflation plus one. The way we see it, you’re really grinding it out. We reckon the strain’s getting harder, too. There’s no impetus—no momentum.” Words like that can really take the gloss off a day. The next time you gather your team, you don’t congratulate them on beating their targets—you want more. Sure, our results are up, you say, but that’s not enough—where’s the impetus? When are we going to do something exceptional? With all the resources at your disposal, when are you going to start building some momentum? The team members look at their papers. Then Paul, an anxious member of your team, looks up and says: “Okay. Got any ideas about how?” What are you going to say?...
Words: 104474 - Pages: 418
...manager, Sinegal was very much the person-in-charge. He functioned as producer, director, and knowledgeable critic. He cut to the chase quickly, exhibiting intense attention to detail and pricing, wandering through store aisles firing a barrage of questions at store managers about sales volumes and stock levels of particular items, critiquing merchandising displays or the position of certain products in the stores, commenting on any aspect of store operations that caught his eye, and asking managers to do further research and get back to him with more information whenever he found their answers to his questions less than satisfying. It was readily apparent that Sinegal had tremendous merchandising savvy, that he demanded much of store managers and employees, and that his views about discount retailing set the tone for how the company operated. Knowledgeable observers regarded Jim Sinegal’s merchandising expertise as being on a par with that of the legendary Sam Walton. In 2006, Costco’s sales totaled almost $59 billion at 496 stores in 37 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. About 26 million households and 5.2 million businesses had membership cards entitling them to shop at Costco, generating nearly $1.2 billion in membership fees for the company. Annual sales per store averaged about $128 million, nearly double the $67 million figure for Sam’s Club, Costco’s chief competitor in the membership warehouse retail segment. Arthur A....
Words: 11396 - Pages: 46
...smsohelahmed@gmail.com Shah Johir Rayhan Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh. E-mail: johir_rayhan2006@yahoo.com Md. Ariful Islam Regional Statistical Officer Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Samina Mahjabin Department of Management & Finance Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh Abstract The main objective of the study is to find out the problem and prospect of mobile banking in Bangladesh. For this research primary data were used. This study adopts with descriptive in nature. Total respondents were 120 within that 61 % respondents think it saves time than traditional banking, the highest number of respondents use mobile banking for ‘Air-time top-up’ service, that is 21%, out of 120 respondents 56% replied it is less costlier than traditional banking, 100% respondents did agree that it is speedy, and 38% respondents are upper class. Although this concept is new in Bangladesh but its potentiality is high. From this research, other researchers and policy makers will get an insight about the problems and prospects of mobile banking in Bangladesh. Key words: Problem, prospect, Mobile banking. 1. INTRODUCTION E-business has been continuously growing as a new industry during the last decade (Van Hoeck, 2001). The banking industry has been leading this trend in recent years, and now all banking transactions completing through internet applications is sometimes called e-banking (Boss et al., 2000; Smith, 2006;...
Words: 7353 - Pages: 30
...Purpose – To assist colleagues in tying current ideas to previously established practices. To generate discussion of the current relevance of students’ understanding management history. Design/methodology/approach – A review of representative classic theorists with an eye toward matching their behavior to that of current newsmakers. This is presented in a model to insure that like areas are compared. Findings – The past is in the present. Although we may live in the day of “enlightened” “collaborative” management; there are still successful people who operate differently. Practical implications – Readers of the paper will be able to make immediate application of the model. Originality/value – Even presentation of the obvious has value. The model format is a dynamic document that others can use and improve upon. Keywords Management history, Management theory Paper type General review ˆ Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. The more things change, the more they stay ¸ the same. Whatever the intended interpretation, this well-known phrase communicates the idea that the past serves as an accurate prologue and interpreter for the present as well as the future. Plutarch, centuries ago, observed: To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future. Journal of Management History Vol. 12 No. 3, 2006 pp. 278-292 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1751-1348 DOI 10.1108/17511340610670188 ...
Words: 7228 - Pages: 29
...manager, Sinegal was very much the person-in-charge. He functioned as producer, director, and knowledgeable critic. He cut to the chase quickly, exhibiting intense attention to detail and pricing, wandering through store aisles firing a barrage of questions at store managers about sales volumes and stock levels of particular items, critiquing merchandising displays or the position of certain products in the stores, commenting on any aspect of store operations that caught his eye, and asking managers to do further research and get back to him with more information whenever he found their answers to his questions less than satisfying. It was readily apparent that Sinegal had tremendous merchandising savvy, that he demanded much of store managers and employees, and that his views about discount retailing set the tone for how the company operated. Knowledgeable observers regarded Jim Sinegal’s merchandising expertise as being on a par with that of the legendary Sam Walton. In 2006, Costco’s sales totaled almost $59 billion at 496 stores in 37 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. About 26 million households and 5.2 million businesses had membership cards entitling them to shop at Costco, generating nearly $1.2 billion in membership fees for the company. Annual sales per store averaged about $128 million, nearly double the $67 million figure for Sam’s Club, Costco’s chief competitor in the membership warehouse retail segment. Arthur A....
Words: 11396 - Pages: 46
