...Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: The Pros and Cons of Section 703. The FISA Act was created to govern the gathering of foreign intelligence. In 1952, President Thurman established the National Security Agency within the department of defense. The NSA is the premiere signals intelligence agency. In the United States Intelligence Community, agency efforts are channeled through the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The American intelligence community works closely with foreign intelligence agencies, especially on SIGINT matters. The members of the Cold War era UKUSA Agreement (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States) also known as ‘Five Eyes’(FVEY), are partially close collaborators. In the 1950’s the Executive branch was largely in control and unchecked by the Legislative and Judicial branches on Foreign intelligence matters. Some surveillance policies were narrowed due to constitutional concerns. The authority for foreign intelligence was identified in the President’s inherent Article II of the Constitution powers and a key legal check on that authority was the Fourth Amendment. The fourth amendment as interpreted by...
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...The Aspects of Internal Hiring Vs. External Hiring: Pros and Cons Calvin Bowens WRTG 394 Advance Business Writing 1 October 2014 Professor John Ross Executive Summary This research provides an evaluation of the historic and current practices used to select internal employees for promotion in mid-level manager position versus selecting external candidates to fill those positions. Methods of this evaluation will include pros and cons, site managers and human resource team feedback, as well as, corporate leadership take on possible approaches. Results of this evaluation show that each hiring requirement is unique in nature when referring to positions of leadership. All members interviewed or who shared their insight stated having a clear understanding of what higher level leadership wants and demands must be established up front. Therefore, assumptions of these higher level expectations almost always end in failure of the newly hired external candidate or the internally hired employee. In addition, research finds current business practice being utilize in the company does not support selecting internally or externally. There are several areas requiring further attention and investigation, to include possible remedial training for human resource generalist and site managers for the sole purpose of building staff confidence and growing leaders from within. Corporate leaders have taken the hands-off approach to hiring mid-level managers. With that said, a clear and concise...
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...Executive Summary I have been given the task to develop a collaborative procurement process for the post-secondary education partners in Newfoundland and Labrador. The mandate from the Ministry of Education is to develop a process in which cost savings and cost avoidance can be achieved through the collaboration of purchasing from Memorial University and College of the North Atlantic. My recommendation would be to utilize the Joint Tendering method to acquire and execute contracts for Goods and Services Purchases. The Shared Administrative Model will also be utilized to ensure that both Public Institutions are actively involved and that responsibilities can be equally shared. A key factor to the success of this implementation would be to have Senior level Staff dedicated to the Collaborative group and the full support of all trustees and yourself, the Ministry of Education. This team should also be under the guidance and leadership of the Supply Chain Manager. Following the execution of the process, monthly and quarterly meetings will be held to go over key issues, capture lessons learned, develop a policy and procedure to standardize the process, discuss strategic plan for future plans and also take the opportunity to recognize the efforts made by the collaborative group. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) have also been identified and setup to determine the level of success of this pilot. Contents Executive Summary 1 Issue Identification: 2 Environmental & Root...
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...purpose being to equalize the education and economic gap between minorities and whites. Although it is not a perfect method to achieving equality in this country, it is essential to accept it for why it’s been put into place and that it is all part of a process. Of course affirmative action is far from perfect and has a fair deal of problems, like promoting reverse discrimination while backing up negative stereotypes. I researched all of these aspects while pondering the question “is affirmative action still needed in today’s society?” In this paper I will be explaining what affirmative action is.The history behind affirmative action like how it all unfolded, who made it, and the history as to why it is in effect now. I will also list some pros and cons of affirmative action, how the United States could better affirmative action for the future and finally a conclusion, which is my opinion on the topic. But what exactly is affirmative action? Born of the civil rights movement three decades ago, affirmative action calls for minorities and women to be given special consideration in employment and education acceptance decisions. Universities with affirmative action policies generally set goals to increase diversity. Affirmative action decisions are generally not supposed to be based on quotas, nor are they supposed to give any preference to unqualified candidates. And by no means is affirmative action supposed to harm anyone through "reverse discrimination." The purpose was to create...
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...Case of the Pro-Sales Agent Program Webster University Abstract Pro-Audio is a manufacturer of electronic sound processing equipment. Its leading product was an advanced digital reverb unit called PSX-360, which retails for about $12,000. It was sold primarily to major recording studios and professional musicians throughout the country though an exclusive network of approximately 50 leading professional audio retailers. Pro-Audio created the Pro-Sales Agent Program to stem the tide of discounting that seemed to be harming the overall studio equipment industry. Unfortunately, concerns have risen that include: 1) Slow sales growth, 2) retailers’ finding ways to circumvent the fixed pricing clause, and 3) is administratively cumbersome and deters the retailers’ ability to sell and deliver the product. My paper will address these concerns and provide executive leadership with options to resolve these concerns. Keywords: branding, breakeven analysis, cross-functional teams, discounting, premium price, willingness to pay. Pro-Audio Sales Agent Program The Pro-Sales Agent Program (PSAP) was created in an effort to curtail the tide of discounting that seemed to be harming the overall studio equipment industry. Certain adverse conditions included: 1) An increasing dependence on orders from two of PSX’s largest dealers. One dealer was in Los Angeles and the other in New York, and by April, these two dealers accounted for 70% of the company’s total sales of...
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...Company Name Marketing Plan Date Presented by: Your name(s) Marketing Plan Executive Summary Executive summary goes here on its own page. **The executive summary must contain a short version of the recommendations. This area is a SHORT summary – its purpose is to entice the reader to open the case and read it. This is the LAST section that you should complete after you’ve reached a decision(s). It also should be on its own page as well, and it should “fill” the page. It’s a good idea to list (in point form – usually numbered) the alternatives that you have decided to investigate. Follow that by what you’ve recommended. Here’s an example for you: Problem Statements List the main problem(s) here. (PARAGRAPHS) Company Objectives What are the company’s objectives? How does this relate to the problem? (PARAGRAPHS) Company Background List some details here. Remember, the person who is reading this (your client) already knows a lot about the company. This portion does not need to be very long. Some good points to list here may be about the products or services that they provide, how long they’ve been in business, and other things that stand out. (PARAGRAPHS) Situation Analysis Strengths • Point form • These points must be about the company – things that they have control over Weaknesses • Point form • These points are also about the company – again things they have control over Opportunities • Point form • These are opportunities...
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...Part 1: Executive Summary Brent Cartier Manager for Special Projects in the Materials Department Hewlett-Packard (HP) Company December 15, 20XX I. Process Elements/Table of Content (Part 2) Part 1 Executive Summary Part 2 Table of Contents I. Issue with Impact Analysis Part 3 Immediate Issues Part 4 Systemic Issues II. Environmental and Root Cause Analysis Part 5 Qualitative Analysis Part 6 Quantitative Analysis III. Alternatives Part 7 Alternatives IV. List Recommendations Part 8 Recommendations V. Implementation Part 9 Recommendations Implementation Plan VI. Monitor and Control Part 10 Monitor and Control Part 11 Conclusion & Management Plan Part 3: Immediate Issue Hp’s distribution centers have been filled with pallets of the DeskJet printer. However the Europe is still claiming the inventory levels there needed to be raised. The Vancouver top management insists that HP is just going to meet customer needs with fewer inventories. Our immediate issue: 1. Too much inventory are in the DeskJet supply chain 2. European and Asian DCs cannot meet delivery requirement 3. Vancouver Division couldn't build the right products in the right quantities. Part 4: Systemic Issues 1.DCs operate system: Timing: Long Term Nature: Strategic In order to match Vancouver’s pull production system, DCs operate system need to be updated to a pull system as well. Now DCs performance measures are LIFR (Line Item Fill Rate) and OFR (Order Fill Rate)...
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...Career Development at Electronic Applications 1. Executive Summary Electronic Applications was found in 1972, its headquarters are on San Francisco and it is a major producer of silicon chips. The company’s sales, profit and stock price have grown fast on the past years while the human resources policies have remained unchanged. The main problem the company is facing nowadays is the high turnover ratio closed to an average of 30% on the past three years. The fact that the company is based in an area where many of its closest competitors have offices facilitates employee’s movements from one job to another. This high turnover is mainly affecting positions among the electrical engineers in the R&D department. The key factors behind this high turnover are more related to the fact that there are no career development programmers inside the company than to salary issues, as a wage survey has revealed, Electronic Applications pays 5-8% above the market. Recently the company has hired Harold Sweeney: On the medium term he would need to upgrade the company’s human resources policies, at the moment are mainly reactive. On the short term he would need to tackle the high turnover ratio, specially taking into account that one of the company’s section chiefs, Helen Morgan is reviewing the possibility of moving to another company. 2. Problem Statement Electronic Applications has not got a Human Resources policy in place that goes accordingly to its position in the market...
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...Case Study Analysis 1: TerraCog GPS Terracog was a successful privately held firm specializing in high quality Global Positioning system and fishing sonar equipment. Even though TerraCog was always not the first to market new products, but their products were successful because of their high quality and effectively addressed customer needs. When their competitor Posthaste introduced a GPS prototype called BirdsI that displays satellite imagery, TerraCog did not view it to be a threat and believed it was a non-essential fad. TerraCog realized their mistake in judging BirdsI and the product was a huge success. In order not to lose the market, TerraCog planned to launch a GPS with satellite imagery Project Aerial. A redesign within existing GPS platform was proposed and the projected costs threaten to destroy the project. Ed Pryor VP of sales feels the new product Aerial should be priced below $425 to capture the lost market share to the competitors. The estimate for the price would at minimum be $475 and the sales teams deemed it too high to consider. The managers of each division gather in a pair of combative meetings that contain anger, finger pointing, and blame but do not produce an effective conclusion. Personal and individual objectives which were contrary to one another led to the current situation. The sales staffs’ main concern was to have a GPS device that would be superior to their competitors’ and would be priced competitively. The product design & development...
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...Footnotes 1 The Real Promise of Stem Cell Research Dr. David Prentice, HealthNewsDigest.com 2 Derivation of Human Stem-Cell Lines from Human Blastocysts, C. A. Cowan and others. March 25, 2004, New England Journal of Medicine, p.1355 with secondary reference to footnotes 13-17 p.1356. Stem Cell Research Pros The following article is a take on the ongoing debate related to stem cell research pros and cons. The stem cell research information covered in the article below will help you understand the potential of this new research for the benefit of humanity. [pic] Stem cell research, sounds like a plot from a best-selling novel by Robin Cook. However, it's not just a fictional thought, but a reality making waves in genetic research. There is a lot of controversy surrounding stem cell research. There are two groups formed, one supporting and the other against embryonic stem cell research. Both groups use the advantages and disadvantages of stem cell as the basis of arguments. We too shall discuss some of the stem cell research pros in the following paragraphs. This research is a major breakthrough in the scientific world. It is important to understand the positive points of this discovery before we push it over to the recycle bin. Let us have a look at the advantages stem cell research to shed some positive light on this debatable topic. What are Stem Cells? Let's first brush up on our basic, by beginning with some information related to what are stem cells. Stem cells...
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...Table of Contents Problem Statement………………………………………………………………………… 2 Situation Analysis…………………………………………………………………………... 2 Market and Segmentation Analysis……………….…………………………………. .. 3 Key Factors ………………………………….……………………………………………. 3 Alternative Analysis………………….…………………………………………………….. 3 Recommendations ………………………………………………………………….…….. 7 Action Plan…………………………………………………………..…………………..... 8 Problem Statement: Vincor must choose the best product characteristics, positioning, branding, packaging and distribution strategy to introduce their new alcoholic beverage product in the refreshment market. Situation Analysis • Objectives: • • Vincor’s objective is to have at least a 3-year lifespan in the market, since this would be considered ‘successful’ in the refreshment industry. Unsuccessful products were pulled from the shelves within their first year. 1 • • Background: In 2004, Vincor was the world’s eighth largest producer and distributor of wine and wine-related products. In Canada, Vincor was the market leader with 21% market share. The refreshment category was an important part of Vincor’s business in Canada, and was driven primarily by its Vex and Grower’s Cider brands, each of which sold nearly one million cases in 2005.1 In 2004, refreshments were a $230 million dollar industry in Canada. However, the refreshment category within the alcoholic beverage industry shrank by 6% year over year. Each province...
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...address this concern. The impact cost both the U.S. and the Hispanic population. Communication Defined Communication is identified differently to different people and systems. To a student in class, it is a means of learning new concepts and skills. To an employee, it is a way of making sure that the job gets done. To those who love us, it is a way of maintaining those relationships. To friends and co-workers, it is the tool that helps us to get along as stated in Communication in The Work Place (Cheesebro, T., O’Connor, L., & Rios, F. (2010). The current issue is officiating English as the U.S. language. In this paper it identify where we are with the most current research and critically think through the process to identify pros and cons of requiring English as the language of choice for the U.S. Communication is a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or...
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...This is a Customer Relationship Management doc Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Making Business Decisions I: Virtual Customers Dianne Davis Professor Otto Strayer University March 12, 2012 Businesses today face several challenges, the greatest of which is how to present one’s company in a global marketplace and get noticed. In the past, the smallest entrepreneurial companies had to rely on word-of-mouth, costly advertising, and marketing campaigns, and face –to-face networking. Because of social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter virtual worlds can accommodate businesses in the real world. Customer relationships in a virtual world are a delicate matter. The design of a web site is very important for presenting a favorable face to the customer. Similarly, the design of a business in SL is of chief importance. In a world where anything-goes design-wise, how do you want your customer service representatives to appear? The business must present something fantastic, that it could not present in the real world, if it wants to draw visitors into it. Second Life provides a medium for simulating real world interactions online. It has the same benefits as teleconferencing or videoconferences, the ability to assemble many people from all around the world into real-time interactions. NPR’s Science Friday makes great use of this tool, hosting a studio...
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...Date: Wednesday February 06, 2013 Case Title: Case#1-Filmore’s Furniture Group Members: Mohammad Adeel, Jaimie Mejia, Shan Pasha, Satnam Saini and Manish Sharma. 1. Case Summary - Key Events - Issues a) Summary: During an early snowstorm in 1999 Mr.Phil Filmore died in a car accident, leaving his wife with all his shares. Mrs. Lucinda Filmore has to make an important decision on rather to sell or continue on with the furniture business, her husband has diligently worked hard on. She has not worked for 14 years leaving her job to take care of her two children. She has not been informed or been involved with her husband’s company. She does not believe she can manage it, having the decision to hire within the company or outsiders for a management position. But then again, she has the advice on perhaps just selling the business. With all the different suggestions and advice she feels more confused about this while situation. What should she do? b) Key Events: - 1983 Phil Filmore become sole proprietor of Filmores Furniture. -Invited five local professional people to become shareholders of the company. -Phil Filmore owned 63 percent of the shares and the five investors 31 percent. -1999 Phil Fimore dies in a car accident. c) Issues: Leaving 63 percent of the company's shares, to his wife, Lucinda. Phil's life insurance provided a disappointingly small amount of money for Mrs. Filmore. Since in 1999 the standard of living had change considerably it was lower...
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...Being a Whistleblower – Advantages and Disadvantages Whistleblowers are strong and brave people, for example employees, who recognize a wrong behavior of someone or their organization and want to do something against it in order to see that this behavior, or the wrong actions taken, are corrected – for them it is a matter of ethical responsibility, and they need to do it to feel comfortable in their skin. An advantage of this behavior is that the Whistleblowers feel a deep satisfaction making a substantial contribution toward the welfare of society. Of course, personal gratification isn’t the only benefit of becoming a whistleblower. For example, in qui tam cases under the federal False Claims Act, Congress decided to give whistleblowers (or “relators”) a share of the recoveries that result from their lawsuits to encourage people to step forward and take the risks involved in reporting fraud (Qui Tam Team). An overall advantage of whistleblowing is that the welfare of customers and employees can be protected. Blowing the whistle can take a long time and therefore can be very stressful. Families, friends and especially colleagues might not understand the decision and lose patience and trust very quickly. Without someone supporting you, the time until the case has finally settled, could be a hard one. Whistle-blowers have federal protection against recrimination. Regardless, it’s very likely that you will lose your standing in your chosen profession by the insidious practice...
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