Saturday, August 22, 2020

Warm Fuzz Cards Case Essay Example

Warm Fuzz Cards Case Essay This case manages the problem looked by Eric Mills who is the originator and CEO of Warm Fuzz Cards. She is the sole chief of the association and at present is confronting an issue with respect to choosing her business development technique. Eric is hitched to Craig and they chose to begin a family inside one year. She is consequently uncertain whether to develop the business rapidly or at a more slow rate and hence needs to choose now which system to execute. Warm Fuzz Cards sole proprietor is Eric Mills who established the association with essentially a PC and a skilled card printer from a family member. We will compose a custom paper test on Warm Fuzz Cards Case explicitly for you for just $16.38 $13.9/page Request now We will compose a custom article test on Warm Fuzz Cards Case explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer We will compose a custom article test on Warm Fuzz Cards Case explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer Factories has consistently had a solid energy for workmanship which she sought after at an early age and created deals/the executives aptitude during her work in the clinical field. Craig while having a Job as a human asset official at an enormous firm additionally helped Eric with get together and in quality control. As of now, all the administration capacities are performed by Eric Mills which incorporate bookkeeping, account, advertising and deals offices. The organizations association structure is genuinely direct with Eric being the sole proprietor/supervisor and Craig as quality control and get together specialist. The way of thinking for Warm Fuzz Cards originated from Ericas want of having cards for events as well as Just to spread warmth and fluffiness. While Eric appreciates more control and considered a moderate development prospect, Craig then again was a defender of quicker development. This is maybe the main clash of goal existent inside the firm as Craig clearly as a spouse would assume a significant job in warning. Warm Fuzz Cards current advertising and deals methodology is centered around building more associations with retailers, investigating new open doors in card industry and creating custom cards. Plants has a base of 150 retail clients across Canada. The majority of her clients are little storekeepers and along these lines Mills keeps up a solid individual relationship. In contrast to most Mass card makers, Mills additionally made card adjustments and adored the input from clients to assist her with producing better thoughts. Aside from this, Mills likewise recognized an open door in custom card items, for example, wedding solicitations and business cards. Factories utilized the web as her special technique by building up a site and utilizing online life apparatuses to advance her thoughts, structures and items. The Corporate market was another client that Mills distinguished as organizations searched for custom cards for occasions, occasions and so forth. The vast majority of the promoting for corporate customers was helped out through informal. The structure methodology and mastery of Mills is the thing that isolated her from the opposition. There was a remarkable present day style to Ericas items and the emphasis on high caliber and consumer loyalty set it apart from the rest. The creation system for Mills concentrated on the kind of client and was very client explicit. Retail clients made tiny requests and Eric utilized a Just-in-time model which empowered her to meet one of a kind needs at generally safe. She put resources into a top notch printer to make little clumps yet this essentially expanded her material expenses as it is less expensive to mass print. The remainder of the writing material supplies were bought from a nearby store at the most reduced cost accessible. Embellishments were purchased from a neighborhood make store. For custom card items, Mills at present had them in her office while bigger requests were redistributed to a print house. Cost of this fluctuated relying upon the handwork, frivolity and size of request. So far the outcomes for Eric are sure with month to month deals averaging $3,500 in 2008. Warm Fuzz Cards doesn't have a specific statement of purpose that characterizes its destinations. It depends on a way of thinking to make individuals grin and gifting individuals cards for practically any or no event at all. The unadulterated intention was to spread warmth and fluffiness. Factories unmistakably had a solid enthusiasm for card plan and driving a business. Her receptiveness to thoughts, imaginative psyche and realistic planning abilities cause her to satisfy the way of thinking in an ideal way. Current clients as referenced principally incorporate retail locations for the most part little merchants, relationships and corporate customers. The custom card business represents half of the deals, while retail makes up the other half. She offered the cards to retailers for $2. 25 while material expense in office was $0. 50 for each card. Factories work cost is difficult to assess in spite of the fact that she withdrew a little pay from the month to month incomes. Custom cards anyway offered more noteworthy edges as wedding solicitations were sold between $5-10 each while material expense was just $1 per card. Custom business cards likewise gave great income age as corporate customers would put in enormous and rehash requests. Apparently the custom radar business is more gainful than the retail business and offers an extraordinary open door for Warm Fuzz Cards to extend. The station of correspondence utilized by Mills for her retail customers were for the most part through close to home calls. Along these lines Mills had the option to build up an increasingly close to home relationship and simultaneously get important criticism from the clients. As far as custom cards, corporate customer base was imparted absolutely through informal. For wedding solicitations, Mills utilized online correspondence channels by making a site, web based life pages and free postings on sites. The organizations evaluating in contrast with its opposition was genuinely comparable. Welcome card value extend between $0. 50 to $10 in the market. Run of the mill cards would have normal cost of $3 while other custom cards were sold at greater expenses. As far as the business, yearly card deals were assessed at $7. 5 billion. Warm Fuzz Cards deals for 2008 were a negligible $42,000 which makes its piece of the pie irrelevant. As far as income age, Warm Fuzz Cards income has developed from its earlier year of tasks. In 2007, yearly deals were $24,000. This meaner that the rate development in income between the years 2007-2008 is 75%. It demonstrates the incredible potential the business needs to become despite the fact that its little nature. Cost structures dependent on 2008 deals would imply that $21,000 was income through retail locations while $21,000 from custom cards. This meaner that around 9,300 cards were sold through retail locations, which gives a material expense for the time of $4,600. This meaner net benefit would be around $16,400. It is difficult to gauge the benefit age from custom cards because of the shifting cost and cost structures. In general because of low overhead, it is protected to infer that Warm Fuzz Cards is working beneficially. There was no financing required for the underlying arrangement as Eric had a PC and the printer was talented by a family member. As everything was delivered to arrange, there was no financing required for stock and overhead expenses were low and included costs, for example, telephone, web, site and so forth. It is sold for the most part in retail writing material stores. The welcome card showcase itself can be separated into a few fragments, for example, regular and ordinary cards, Occasions, custom cards and so forth. The business is genuinely enormous and prone to blast during solid monetary periods. As far as rivalry, significant contenders included Hallmark and American Greeting brands with their general piece of the overall industry being 85%. As requirement for accommodation rose, more cards were sold at comfort chains and strength stores were gradually getting killed from the commercial center. These two firms obviously overwhelm the card business and can take steps to wipe out independent ventures. E-cards were another huge contender as utilization of electronic cards expanded because of the accessibility of innovation. For the most part, firms in this kind of industry contend with one another on development and thoughts. Excellent item and extraordinary help are different territories f rivalry because of the idea of the card business. Warm Fuzz Cards gauges flawlessly to how most firms in the business contend. It has the imaginative business person in Eric with extraordinary realistic planning abilities and receptiveness to thoughts. Plants incredible energy for her work meaner she guarantees quality in the item. Client assistance is additionally of high need with reruns being made if any issue emerges. A SOOT examination would give us a decent sign of the present circumstance of Warm Fuzz Cards. The qualities related with the business lies basically in the business person Eric Mills. Her energy for her work, involvement with authority, visual computerization and deals aptitudes make her the most significant resource of the firm. Another quality is the great developing states of the welcome card showcase with a normal of 11% development between 2004 to 2006. Plants additionally had a broad arrangement of structures which empowered production of hand crafts in a rapid and effective way. The Just in time creation methodology is another quality of the firm as it doesn't prompt cash tied up in the stock and gives the business adaptability. As far as shortcomings, we can distinguish a few that Warm Fuzz Card faces. The firm has a piece of the overall industry that is immaterial which meaner it would be difficult for Mills to increase any financing for development. The absence of enough staff is another shortcoming inside the association as Mills has a lot of errands to deal with. This would not assist her with focusing on the more vital goals of the business and would hinder the advancement of development. The other significant shortcoming is the failure to deliver huge amounts which can bring down expenses essentially just as empower the business to greaten its piece of the pie through more prominent income. A few open doors ca

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Tyba

Tyba INTRODUCTIONMartin: Today we are in  Madrid  at Tyba. Eiso, who are you and what do you do?Eiso: Hi. My name is Eiso Kant and Im the Managing Director here at Tyba. And my day-to-day responsibilities vary, but our main goal is to fix junior recruitment here. Thats what the whole company works towards.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?Eiso: So before I started this company, we actually started it while studying together with 3 co-founders, myself from the  Netherlands,  Jorge is  half Spanish half German, and Philip from  Germany. And so, we actually started this while studying but however before studying, I was personally involved in several other startup projects.Martin: Okay. Can you tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey?Eiso: So my entrepreneurial journey started relatively early. When I was 14, I was in an international school in the Netherlands and we were given this project for about 5 months, where youre allowed to do pretty much whateve r you wanted, as long as you did a write up on it.We had a family friend who is shutting down a store, which had over 15,000 pieces of classic prints, art. In 1920th century lithographies. And I was always a bit of a pure geek and I said, can I settle these things for you online. So its such a shame that the store was going offline.Well, offline offline. And then, I started learning a bit how to program, learn a bit how to design, use Photoshop and about 5 months later after taking pictures of all of these 15,000 friends, launching it all in store. I learned a big lesson, is that build it and they will come does not apply on the online.But that actually worked out, and several months later, the whole inventory was sold. And that was my first  experience  in, I didnt even know the word startup back then, but into having a little internet company. And since then Ive been involved in different projects.Later on, I expanded a little bit, working as a freelancer, primarily as a programme r but also as a design freelancer. No one here really knows it, I think. Designs werent too good.And moving forward into that, I worked a lot in the online publishing sphere. So actually, having it one moment network with over 1,000 sites that had writers working for it and continuously publishing content and making money in the old days of Google AdSense. Its not that lucrative anymore, but it used to be.That moved into several other projects. A project which was put around the company working for retails here in Germany, where we published a lot of the medical content online and later on after finishing my high school, a startup called Twollars, where we raised money for charities through Twitter. We were the first company to do so and we worked with many big brands and we had a lot of exposure at that time, it was a great experience. And I found myself in between Europe and  San Francisco.Martin: Cool.TYBA BUSINESS MODELMartin: Lets talk about Tybas business model. Can you briefl y explain what you exactly do?Eiso: So, Tyba exists to make it easy for companies to hire the right junior talent, so interns, but also people up to 4 -5 years of work experience. And at the same time, we exist to make it much easier for that talent to find the opportunity, the job, and the place that they love to be at.  So our mission is to fix the junior recruitment.In terms of business model and how that works, were completely free for the talent side and we actually will always be. From the company side, at the moment they choose, to actually want to interview candidates and then also hire them, thats where we charged them.Today we have a very strong focus on what we internally call sexy fast growing companies, so startups are a very big part of that. And were growing now across Europe and  have been at most major hubs in  Europe  already, where we actually go and visit all of these companies and profile them on a new platform thats launching  actually  next month.Martin: And how do you improve this matching between the people looking for a job and the sexy fast growing startups?Eiso: So one of the things that we do here is that, were very much a technology company. Cant see it, but behind us is a large engineering team.Martin: Yes, thats right.Eiso: And we have a very regular selection process of how we hire. And what we look at why were such a technology oriented company is that, we believe in the data that young people give us. Information if you allow in my platform, place theyve studied, interests, books theyve read, museums theyve visited, lot’s and lots of what we internally call data points.  At the same time we learn from the companies, a very structured data about who theyre looking for. Just essentially taking a job requirement and turning that into a more structured information.What we then do is, we have different algorithms, we have what we internally call a recommendation engine, which is similar to  how today when you rate a movie on IM Db or youre looking at Flix for suggestion movies. That technology is called recommendation engines, we apply that to matching. And at the same time, we do matching on what we internally call a semantic level. So one of the things, youre a young person, you graduated from, did you study business?Martin: Yes.Eiso: So you study business. And one of the things you might know that theres about 50 different ways to name a business degree. Business Administration, International Business, Management, and it goes on and on. So they are all synonyms. At the same time those things that are related to business, which essentially International Marketing, Sales, all of these things. So we do is, we take all those terms and we internally call a mapping.One of the things is that what we can do is, we have a recommendation engine that works across hundreds and hundreds of different areas to do the matching. But we also have all this very structured data that allows us to know when a young person te lls us what they studied or what their interested in, or where they worked, we know much more about it.So theres a lot of technical things, among them is too much details, this is essentially the high level overview of how we do our matching. And we continuously working on improving that.Martin: How do you acquire the individuals using your platform?Eiso: So the biggest growth is word of mouth. At the end of the day, if you think about it, you get someone a job. I mean, theyre going to tell their friends. And thats essentially the fundamental part of our business. There are obviously other channels from the entering to new markets, sometimes its paid acquisition. At the same time we have a fantastic network of student ambassadors across  Europe. There are currently 120 and they cover means the top schools spread all over Europe from the Copenhagen Business School to  Munich, to Berlin,  everywhere, I mean in Spain as well.And then theres the fourth channel, is that we have partnersh ips with universities. So today actually we have partnerships with schools such as LSE, Kings College, I can spell many more fancy names. Essentially what that means is that, when we have interesting opportunities that match what we know that students are interested in, they publicize it towards their talent.Martin: For free?Eiso: For free. And we have this, I mean with growing partnerships in many countries right now. In the moment many partnerships are being closed in  Germany.Martin: Okay. Interesting. Is there some kind of a built-in virality in your product as well?Eiso: So this concept of viral loops and growth hacking, you know, you sent free invites to your cousins and what not and. Weve played a lot around with that. And we had some initial traction actually around doing that. But we realized that fundamentally, it wasnt serving our mission. So what we actually said is, guys, when we do our job right, when we get people into jobs, we see that theres growth. When we see that we can give people real opportunities and do better than the status quo, which today are shitty job sites.  And so we actually dont focus that much anymore, especially in the new platform thats launching on send invites to here, especially many of these sites who try to trick people into doing it.Virality works in my opinion, how we look at it, when theres something inherently viral to your product. A chat system like WhatsApp, where you know you can not exist without writing with other people has some inherent virality. Tagging people in pictures because you want to notify other people about these things. But still finding your job is quite a personal thing. And so, there might be some things that wed figure out in the future, but we havent yet today.Martin: Okay. Interesting.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: Regarding the corporate strategy of you, what do you think are the most important drivers in order to become a very successful company?Eiso: So corporate strategy, its a totally over used word and its quite a fancy word as well. We look at essentially 3 different things.We look at:whats the next 18 months for us,whats the next 3 years, andwhere do we want to be in 5 years. And when we get to 5 years, its not strategy, its vision.  Our vision is to be the number player globally in junior recruitment.So this is where we want to get to.How we look at kind of the short and medium term, in terms of strategy, is that its driven by a few things.Its driven by the basic metric of getting people placed into jobs.At the same time, our strategy heavily focused on deciding where to go geographically and where to go in what verticals.So, geographic expansion for us is when we want to own a continent, essentially, or part of the continent.  So right now, between now and the end of the year, were heavily expanding in Europe, weve been at most European cities, yet I think were still missing Paris, which is happening in a few weeks. By the time this is published, we’ll be there as well. At the same time we are starting in  South East Asia. We have already been placing some people in jobs, those not our main market focus, in  Mexico and  Colombia.So were seeing, for us the opportunity is global. Everywhere you go to, companies are hiring young people. There are some cultural differences, and we can talk a little more about this in a bit. But overall, fundamentally, people graduating, people wanting to leave jobs, and going into new ones, happen everywhere.And  yes, there is an  economic cycle,    some countries that are booming and hence its faster to grow. However even here in Spain today, we see that companies struggle to hire young people. And this country has 50% youth unemployment. So its not so much the fact that talent availability, its often a problem of matching, of actually search.So can a company actually reach the young people that it looking for? Of course Google can reach anyone its looking for. But if youre a startup with 50 people and actua lly no one really knows who you are, its not as easy sometimes to actually go get the talent on board.So its a 2-sided problem. Its a problem of being able to actually reach the talent and after you reached them, to actually do the matching part. And we focus on both areas.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: Eiso, you have made a very good bridge to market development. I would like to understand how the market for recruiting differs in between the European countries and how the development over the last years has been happening?Eiso: So, there are a few things thats interesting to note.And the first thing is, the trends on the talent side. So one of the things where and maybe you remember this from when youre graduating is that, everyone maybe youre a bit too young, wanted to go into consulting and investment banking. And thats essentially, you know, any graduates in class 6 7 years ago, you know, a Bachelor in Business from any of the schools or Masters or MBAs, its investment banking consu lting. Im talking about business talent now, which is essentially social science is the big growth of all graduating talent in  Europe, with engineering and sciences being next.Today thats starting to differ and  Germany  is a very good example,  Berlin  is a very good example of this as well, for the good and for the bad. That all of the sudden, theres 3 options for business student graduate. And not just for  business students by the way, its for engineering and other sciences as well, is that its no longer just about the traditional corporate brands, the Goldman Sachs, the PWC, Accenture, the Lloyd, all of the names that we can round off.  But startups have become a real possibility. And people are excited about them. And this is a trend we see in Europe, its a trend we see in the  US, its a trend that has not yet to happening in Asia or South America or the  Middle East.And in Europe and the  US,  its fundamentally built on 2 things. Its built on the fact that were a generation thats been told to be happy. And its a generation thats starting to realize that when theyre talking to their friends or people a little bit older about what is it like to work at Goldman Sachs, what is it like to work at  Booz  company, I was for a little while at  Booz  company.  Well guys, I never leave the  Oxford  at 2 am, I never have weekends, I shouted out a lot I mean it goes on and on and on and on. So people have become a little bit more spoiled in a good way and sometimes in a bit between the 2 extremes. And so, and this build up on everything that weve seen from the Steve Jobs speech given at Stanford, thats had a big impact on this generation, to Mark Zuckerberg coming and being a role model and theres a lot of things that you can add on to this to say why we get to this point.  And the fact there are many children today from divorced homes.So this word happiness and wanting to be happy not just in your life but also in your career, matters to them. And startups are great outlet for that, because they allow people to focus on the things they care about most in their first years of their job. And its not money. It was money if maybe 2 decades ago, its still money today in several more developing economies.But actually purpose, masteries to being able to get better and like learning in your skill, all of these things, the team that we get to work with are much more important factors today for young people to decide where they want to work and the exact dollar youre amounting on their paycheck.  So this is a little bit about the trend on the talent side.On the company side, were seeing several trends as well. Corporate companies are starting to realize, that these things are happening. And theyre trying to adapt. Not all of them yet, and many arent yet but were seeing more and more great companies starting to realize that talent today is not there to stay for the next 20 years. And they are starting  accept it and  sometime being okay with it. Iv e seen the examples, Im not going to name the exact companies, but its the big large multinational companies that say, We want you to be here one or 2 years and then we want you to leave our company. We want you to work abroad in another company and we love to have you back 3 years later. Or we want and go develop you, we want to actually Because they realize they can’t no longer retain someone for 20 years in the same company, because thats not the reality of us anymore.And this is one major trend that we starting to see happen. At the same time, we see a bigger growing volume of startups happening in Europe, and the  US  and hence being an actual labor market. There is a significant volume today that can actually be considered a real labor market. Theres some EU report that just came out trying to estimate the size and you know millions of jobs being created through some of these new companies. So this is another thing where we see that, you know, startups take, theres a new com pany thats being founded  doesnt  have legacy, so they take a look around and say what are the best practices in recruiting, in HR, in  managing people, in policy, all of these things and theyre implementing those. So it means that a lot of the legacy staff of existing corporate companies, the strictness about hours or about a holiday policy or things like this, it is starting to changing at startups because theyre their taking and this doesnt work in the past, this is whats applicable to todays youth.And then what we see, the funny thing is that the big companies then copy from the startups again and thats quite an interesting side.Martin: Okay. In terms of the difference between the recruiting markets, between for example in Europe between  Germany  and around. Can you tell us about that?Eiso: So there are a few things that we see. Obviously there are companies in  Europe  that are doing better than others. So we have to start an economy that are,  Spain  actually starting to kick up and strengthen quite a bit now at the moment. Weve been through to peak of the recession here now since about last month. Its in the  US  and other places.But there is still high youth unemployment, in  Spain,  Italy,  Greece,  Ireland  as well. And we see that there are talent flows happening from these countries to Northern European countries where there are huge demands for especially engineering talent. This is usually only limited by language. So in countries where English or German in our case, is not as well taught, or not as well spread, we see some of the barriers of those flows. But the willingness of the talent is huge. People are starting to move more inside  Europe  because they have to.So some of them are very interesting. We do see that theres many countries that people return to after a few years, it’s pretty hard to live in Spain and to go to Germany and be under grey sky most of the year and then actually decided for 2 3 years  you want to stay for the rest of your life.So we do actually in reality see that these things bring people back to their countries. So some of them maybe will say yes theres a lot of outflow, and theres people coming. Actually, theres as much as people coming back at a time period as theyre leaving. And it might not become purely reflected in the immigration, immigration numbers yet. But we see this already happening and well see that as the economy strengthens in the Southern countries again, we expect a lot of young people to return to their homes.Martin: Okay.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM EISO KANT In Madrid, we met the Co-founder and Managing Director of Tyba Eiso Kant. Tyba is an online platform that gives businesses access to its junior talent database using cloud-based recruiting tools.Eiso told us about the business model of Tyba, about their corporate strategy, the development of the recruiting market, as well as his advices for other entrepreneurs.The transcript of the interview is provided below.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Today we are in  Madrid  at Tyba. Eiso, who are you and what do you do?Eiso: Hi. My name is Eiso Kant and Im the Managing Director here at Tyba. And my day-to-day responsibilities vary, but our main goal is to fix junior recruitment here. Thats what the whole company works towards.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?Eiso: So before I started this company, we actually started it while studying together with 3 co-founders, myself from the  Netherlands,  Jorge is  half Spanish half German, and Philip from  Germany. And so, we actually starte d this while studying but however before studying, I was personally involved in several other startup projects.Martin: Okay. Can you tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey?Eiso: So my entrepreneurial journey started relatively early. When I was 14, I was in an international school in the Netherlands and we were given this project for about 5 months, where youre allowed to do pretty much whatever you wanted, as long as you did a write up on it.We had a family friend who is shutting down a store, which had over 15,000 pieces of classic prints, art. In 1920th century lithographies. And I was always a bit of a pure geek and I said, can I settle these things for you online. So its such a shame that the store was going offline.Well, offline offline. And then, I started learning a bit how to program, learn a bit how to design, use Photoshop and about 5 months later after taking pictures of all of these 15,000 friends, launching it all in store. I learned a big lesson, is t hat build it and they will come does not apply on the online.But that actually worked out, and several months later, the whole inventory was sold. And that was my first  experience  in, I didnt even know the word startup back then, but into having a little internet company. And since then Ive been involved in different projects.Later on, I expanded a little bit, working as a freelancer, primarily as a programmer but also as a design freelancer. No one here really knows it, I think. Designs werent too good.And moving forward into that, I worked a lot in the online publishing sphere. So actually, having it one moment network with over 1,000 sites that had writers working for it and continuously publishing content and making money in the old days of Google AdSense. Its not that lucrative anymore, but it used to be.That moved into several other projects. A project which was put around the company working for retails here in Germany, where we published a lot of the medical content online and later on after finishing my high school, a startup called Twollars, where we raised money for charities through Twitter. We were the first company to do so and we worked with many big brands and we had a lot of exposure at that time, it was a great experience. And I found myself in between Europe and  San Francisco.Martin: Cool.TYBA BUSINESS MODELMartin: Lets talk about Tybas business model. Can you briefly explain what you exactly do?Eiso: So, Tyba exists to make it easy for companies to hire the right junior talent, so interns, but also people up to 4 -5 years of work experience. And at the same time, we exist to make it much easier for that talent to find the opportunity, the job, and the place that they love to be at.  So our mission is to fix the junior recruitment.In terms of business model and how that works, were completely free for the talent side and we actually will always be. From the company side, at the moment they choose, to actually want to interview candidates and then also hire them, thats where we charged them.Today we have a very strong focus on what we internally call sexy fast growing companies, so startups are a very big part of that. And were growing now across Europe and  have been at most major hubs in  Europe  already, where we actually go and visit all of these companies and profile them on a new platform thats launching  actually  next month.Martin: And how do you improve this matching between the people looking for a job and the sexy fast growing startups?Eiso: So one of the things that we do here is that, were very much a technology company. Cant see it, but behind us is a large engineering team.Martin: Yes, thats right.Eiso: And we have a very regular selection process of how we hire. And what we look at why were such a technology oriented company is that, we believe in the data that young people give us. Information if you allow in my platform, place theyve studied, interests, books theyve read, museums theyve visited, lo t’s and lots of what we internally call data points.  At the same time we learn from the companies, a very structured data about who theyre looking for. Just essentially taking a job requirement and turning that into a more structured information.What we then do is, we have different algorithms, we have what we internally call a recommendation engine, which is similar to  how today when you rate a movie on IMDb or youre looking at Flix for suggestion movies. That technology is called recommendation engines, we apply that to matching. And at the same time, we do matching on what we internally call a semantic level. So one of the things, youre a young person, you graduated from, did you study business?Martin: Yes.Eiso: So you study business. And one of the things you might know that theres about 50 different ways to name a business degree. Business Administration, International Business, Management, and it goes on and on. So they are all synonyms. At the same time those things that are related to business, which essentially International Marketing, Sales, all of these things. So we do is, we take all those terms and we internally call a mapping.One of the things is that what we can do is, we have a recommendation engine that works across hundreds and hundreds of different areas to do the matching. But we also have all this very structured data that allows us to know when a young person tells us what they studied or what their interested in, or where they worked, we know much more about it.So theres a lot of technical things, among them is too much details, this is essentially the high level overview of how we do our matching. And we continuously working on improving that.Martin: How do you acquire the individuals using your platform?Eiso: So the biggest growth is word of mouth. At the end of the day, if you think about it, you get someone a job. I mean, theyre going to tell their friends. And thats essentially the fundamental part of our business. There are ob viously other channels from the entering to new markets, sometimes its paid acquisition. At the same time we have a fantastic network of student ambassadors across  Europe. There are currently 120 and they cover means the top schools spread all over Europe from the Copenhagen Business School to  Munich, to Berlin,  everywhere, I mean in Spain as well.And then theres the fourth channel, is that we have partnerships with universities. So today actually we have partnerships with schools such as LSE, Kings College, I can spell many more fancy names. Essentially what that means is that, when we have interesting opportunities that match what we know that students are interested in, they publicize it towards their talent.Martin: For free?Eiso: For free. And we have this, I mean with growing partnerships in many countries right now. In the moment many partnerships are being closed in  Germany.Martin: Okay. Interesting. Is there some kind of a built-in virality in your product as well?Eiso: So this concept of viral loops and growth hacking, you know, you sent free invites to your cousins and what not and. Weve played a lot around with that. And we had some initial traction actually around doing that. But we realized that fundamentally, it wasnt serving our mission. So what we actually said is, guys, when we do our job right, when we get people into jobs, we see that theres growth. When we see that we can give people real opportunities and do better than the status quo, which today are shitty job sites.  And so we actually dont focus that much anymore, especially in the new platform thats launching on send invites to here, especially many of these sites who try to trick people into doing it.Virality works in my opinion, how we look at it, when theres something inherently viral to your product. A chat system like WhatsApp, where you know you can not exist without writing with other people has some inherent virality. Tagging people in pictures because you want to notify o ther people about these things. But still finding your job is quite a personal thing. And so, there might be some things that wed figure out in the future, but we havent yet today.Martin: Okay. Interesting.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: Regarding the corporate strategy of you, what do you think are the most important drivers in order to become a very successful company?Eiso: So corporate strategy, its a totally overused word and its quite a fancy word as well. We look at essentially 3 different things.We look at:whats the next 18 months for us,whats the next 3 years, andwhere do we want to be in 5 years. And when we get to 5 years, its not strategy, its vision.  Our vision is to be the number player globally in junior recruitment.So this is where we want to get to.How we look at kind of the short and medium term, in terms of strategy, is that its driven by a few things.Its driven by the basic metric of getting people placed into jobs.At the same time, our strategy heavily focused on deci ding where to go geographically and where to go in what verticals.So, geographic expansion for us is when we want to own a continent, essentially, or part of the continent.  So right now, between now and the end of the year, were heavily expanding in Europe, weve been at most European cities, yet I think were still missing Paris, which is happening in a few weeks. By the time this is published, we’ll be there as well. At the same time we are starting in  South East Asia. We have already been placing some people in jobs, those not our main market focus, in  Mexico and  Colombia.So were seeing, for us the opportunity is global. Everywhere you go to, companies are hiring young people. There are some cultural differences, and we can talk a little more about this in a bit. But overall, fundamentally, people graduating, people wanting to leave jobs, and going into new ones, happen everywhere.And  yes, there is an  economic cycle,    some countries that are booming and hence its faster t o grow. However even here in Spain today, we see that companies struggle to hire young people. And this country has 50% youth unemployment. So its not so much the fact that talent availability, its often a problem of matching, of actually search.So can a company actually reach the young people that it looking for? Of course Google can reach anyone its looking for. But if youre a startup with 50 people and actually no one really knows who you are, its not as easy sometimes to actually go get the talent on board.So its a 2-sided problem. Its a problem of being able to actually reach the talent and after you reached them, to actually do the matching part. And we focus on both areas.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: Eiso, you have made a very good bridge to market development. I would like to understand how the market for recruiting differs in between the European countries and how the development over the last years has been happening?Eiso: So, there are a few things thats interesting to note. And the first thing is, the trends on the talent side. So one of the things where and maybe you remember this from when youre graduating is that, everyone maybe youre a bit too young, wanted to go into consulting and investment banking. And thats essentially, you know, any graduates in class 6 7 years ago, you know, a Bachelor in Business from any of the schools or Masters or MBAs, its investment banking consulting. Im talking about business talent now, which is essentially social science is the big growth of all graduating talent in  Europe, with engineering and sciences being next.Today thats starting to differ and  Germany  is a very good example,  Berlin  is a very good example of this as well, for the good and for the bad. That all of the sudden, theres 3 options for business student graduate. And not just for  business students by the way, its for engineering and other sciences as well, is that its no longer just about the traditional corporate brands, the Goldman Sachs, the PWC, Accenture, the Lloyd, all of the names that we can round off.  But startups have become a real possibility. And people are excited about them. And this is a trend we see in Europe, its a trend we see in the  US, its a trend that has not yet to happening in Asia or South America or the  Middle East.And in Europe and the  US,  its fundamentally built on 2 things. Its built on the fact that were a generation thats been told to be happy. And its a generation thats starting to realize that when theyre talking to their friends or people a little bit older about what is it like to work at Goldman Sachs, what is it like to work at  Booz  company, I was for a little while at  Booz  company.  Well guys, I never leave the  Oxford  at 2 am, I never have weekends, I shouted out a lot I mean it goes on and on and on and on. So people have become a little bit more spoiled in a good way and sometimes in a bit between the 2 extremes. And so, and this build up on everything that weve seen fro m the Steve Jobs speech given at Stanford, thats had a big impact on this generation, to Mark Zuckerberg coming and being a role model and theres a lot of things that you can add on to this to say why we get to this point.  And the fact there are many children today from divorced homes.So this word happiness and wanting to be happy not just in your life but also in your career, matters to them. And startups are great outlet for that, because they allow people to focus on the things they care about most in their first years of their job. And its not money. It was money if maybe 2 decades ago, its still money today in several more developing economies.But actually purpose, masteries to being able to get better and like learning in your skill, all of these things, the team that we get to work with are much more important factors today for young people to decide where they want to work and the exact dollar youre amounting on their paycheck.  So this is a little bit about the trend on th e talent side.On the company side, were seeing several trends as well. Corporate companies are starting to realize, that these things are happening. And theyre trying to adapt. Not all of them yet, and many arent yet but were seeing more and more great companies starting to realize that talent today is not there to stay for the next 20 years. And they are starting  accept it and  sometime being okay with it. Ive seen the examples, Im not going to name the exact companies, but its the big large multinational companies that say, We want you to be here one or 2 years and then we want you to leave our company. We want you to work abroad in another company and we love to have you back 3 years later. Or we want and go develop you, we want to actually Because they realize they can’t no longer retain someone for 20 years in the same company, because thats not the reality of us anymore.And this is one major trend that we starting to see happen. At the same time, we see a bigger growing vol ume of startups happening in Europe, and the  US  and hence being an actual labor market. There is a significant volume today that can actually be considered a real labor market. Theres some EU report that just came out trying to estimate the size and you know millions of jobs being created through some of these new companies. So this is another thing where we see that, you know, startups take, theres a new company thats being founded  doesnt  have legacy, so they take a look around and say what are the best practices in recruiting, in HR, in  managing people, in policy, all of these things and theyre implementing those. So it means that a lot of the legacy staff of existing corporate companies, the strictness about hours or about a holiday policy or things like this, it is starting to changing at startups because theyre their taking and this doesnt work in the past, this is whats applicable to todays youth.And then what we see, the funny thing is that the big companies then copy fr om the startups again and thats quite an interesting side.Martin: Okay. In terms of the difference between the recruiting markets, between for example in Europe between  Germany  and around. Can you tell us about that?Eiso: So there are a few things that we see. Obviously there are companies in  Europe  that are doing better than others. So we have to start an economy that are,  Spain  actually starting to kick up and strengthen quite a bit now at the moment. Weve been through to peak of the recession here now since about last month. Its in the  US  and other places.But there is still high youth unemployment, in  Spain,  Italy,  Greece,  Ireland  as well. And we see that there are talent flows happening from these countries to Northern European countries where there are huge demands for especially engineering talent. This is usually only limited by language. So in countries where English or German in our case, is not as well taught, or not as well spread, we see some of the barriers of those flows. But the willingness of the talent is huge. People are starting to move more inside  Europe  because they have to.So some of them are very interesting. We do see that theres many countries that people return to after a few years, it’s pretty hard to live in Spain and to go to Germany and be under grey sky most of the year and then actually decided for 2 3 years  you want to stay for the rest of your life.So we do actually in reality see that these things bring people back to their countries. So some of them maybe will say yes theres a lot of outflow, and theres people coming. Actually, theres as much as people coming back at a time period as theyre leaving. And it might not become purely reflected in the immigration, immigration numbers yet. But we see this already happening and well see that as the economy strengthens in the Southern countries again, we expect a lot of young people to return to their homes.Martin: Okay.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM EISO KANTMartin : Eiso, we always try to help our first time entrepreneurs with some advice from other entrepreneurs. And I think you have one or two very interesting learnings that you would like to share with our readers?Eiso: So, I have no idea Actually, the first thing Im going to tell you is that, any piece of advice anyone is going to give you, might work for you, might work for me, but it might not work someone else. And thats one of the main things that weve learnt is that, yes you can gather advice from people and you should always, you know, what we do  actually here is we start with reading blogs and books, with extra talking to experts, our advisors and then actually come up with a summarized conclusion.But one of the things that weve learnt is that, the experience that has helped our company, might actually not help another company. But the way we approached actually by looking at gathering advice and going through systematically through these kind of steps, has help us a tremendous a mount. Im able to sit here and the whole company able to exist on the shoulders of many fantastic people who have helped us over the last years. Thats a bit of a general advice about advice and how useful that is.But, some more concrete pieces of advice, we believe that people in your company are everything. We believe that the number one asset for any startup is not its app or its money in the bank, its actually people that sit there.As a startup youre trying to disrupt, in most cases, the existing industry or youre trying to change something thats the status quo, or trying to introduce something new. And you have to move faster than everyone else. You have to do it better. And that only works if you have the right people in your company.How we do our recruitment here, is that we focus it on essentially two main areas. We don’t care so much about the formal education that youve had or your age or where youre from or even the language that you speak as long as we can communicate t ogether. We care about the fact that you have a high willingness and the ability to always be learning. And thats incredibly important for us. Because as you come into a startup, its a dynamic environment, theres a lot of things always changing, a lot of new projects coming up, your role might even change over time, and we need people there who can consistently actually keep on getting better at their jobs.So these is a little bit very concrete in terms of how we, were a recruitment company, who genuinely believes that recruiting is actually the pillar of our success.And then, a little bit of cliché advice, you cant see it but Im actually reading it from the wall behind. It says, Its really hard to beat the team that never gives up. And actually someone in my company brought this the other page in our About page, and when Chuck was writing this, he said, this is exactly what defines what weve been doing for the last 3 years with this company. A relentless and continuous focus on ha ving a mission and wanting to succeed at that mission and being able to tackle whatever comes at you. Youll probably heard this in the word of emotional roller coaster a lot, where in the morning, you know you think, youre on top of the world with your company but in the evening you think the whole thing is about to fall apart because  a deal fell through in between. Managed that roller coaster. Get enough sleep, be able to and know the fact that youre in a roller coaster because theres always ups and theres always downs. With a little bit of luck, youre going to get to the finish line.Martin: Thank you very much, Eiso. And one quick thing, especially with the Tyba Entrepreneurial Insights relation would be, if some when in the future you want to start a company, a quick start would be just using Tyba to get into a startup company, learn some skills and then continue reading Entrepreneurial Insights and then you have all that you need for starting a great company.Eiso: I couldnt a gree more.Martin: Thank you very much.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

My Sexuality Of A South Asian Society - 878 Words

On a sunny May summer day of 2011, my family immigrated from a small town of India with grandiose hopes and expectations of life and achievements. Moving to the United States required us to develop new identities and reshape the old ones to fit in. I chose to explore my sexuality in a South Asian society. Coming out as gay and my parents’ moving back to India led to my legal emancipation at the age of 15. Apart from being an immigrant, I was assumed to be financially independent and face the heightened disregard from my society for being gay. Amidst these pivotal challenges, I found solace in being part of the LGBT communities at large and the social gratification that came along. Working for the Human Rights Campaign and promoting the Equality Bill in Congress, I realized the widening disparities and inequities faced by my communities, especially by my trans brothers and sisters, in a health care setting. Despite some progressive moves in the right direction, we constantly face prejudice and ignorance regarding our unique medical needs, sexual health in particular. The amount of times I have to bluntly ask my personal physician for specific tests is surprisingly high; I can only imagine the trans experience at an Emergency Room. There are two main causes for such neglect: on one hand there is a lack of representation of the LGBT community in the workforce; on the other hand, our own preferences for LGBT professionals limits the exposure to the broader medicalShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Farewell My Concubine And The King And The Clown 1653 Words   |  7 Pageshomosexuality vary substantially across Asia. Surprisingly, there are two conflicting attitudes t oward homosexuality. Some Asian countries strongly condemn against homosexuality. Whereas, in some Asian countries visibly accept homosexuality. Judith Butler explained that gender is represented as a stylized repetition of acts or imitation. She described the categories of sexuality and gender as a form of performativity (Butler 1996, 368). This essay will explore and examine the experience of gender identityRead More`` Farewell My Concubine And The King And The Clown By Chen Kaige1197 Words   |  5 PagesSurprisingly, there are two conflicting attitudes toward homosexuality. Some Asian countries strongly condemn against homosexuality, whereas some Asian countries visibly accept homosexuality. Judith Butler explained that gender is represented as a stylized repetition of acts or imitation. She described the categories of sexuality and gender as a form of performativity (Butler 1996, 368). This essay will focus on China and South Korea and explore the experience of gender ident ity via to the socio-culturalRead MoreThe Human Mind And Behavior As Individuals And Small Groups984 Words   |  4 PagesA. Unlike psychology which focuses on leaning the human mind and behavior as individuals and small groups, sociology is the course to study human social relations and the society itself. Sociology focuses on explaining societal behavior by studying how gender, race, social classes, religion, socioeconomic status, and sexuality can associate with the overall culture. Example of sociology, social stratification, sociology will lean about how social stratification is formed and how it divides the peopleRead MoreBreaking The Cycle Of Child Marriage And Poverty1850 Words   |  8 Pageseliminating child marriage be more beneficial to societies in South Asia? Sweta Patel Breaking the cycle of Child Marriage and Poverty How will eliminating child marriage be more beneficial to societies in South Asia? Reducing the numbers of child marriage will allow impoverished South Asian communities to thrive. Child marriages often lead to the spread of HIV, infections, and increased sexual and domestic violence in South Asian societies. Most importantly, child marriage disempowersRead MoreSambia Social Interaction Essay1216 Words   |  5 Pagesoff into two male-female pairs. In this context, sexual interactions do not seem to reflect sexuality for women, as most interactions eventually end with the formation of heterosexual partners. Though a vastly different social context, in Sambia culture, men are able to similarly move from homosexual/ bisexual interactions to heterosexual interactions without any consequence to the perception of their sexuality. Homosexual interactions serve an important purpose in most stages of the men’s lives butRead MoreFar from Heaven Essay1206 Words   |  5 PagesFar From Heaven Far from Heaven is a film about a 1950s period. It deals with some issues such as race, sexuality and class. There is Cathy, the perfect mother and wife married to Frank, the successful and charming man, who works as seals manager in a big company, having the perfect life. Until Cathy, finds that her husband; Frank is a homosexual. She cannot divorce from her husband because she does not want to destruct her marriage. At the same time, she meets with Raymond, and she goesRead MoreThe Evolution of Self in Asian-American Women in the Us (Joy Luck Club)4993 Words   |  20 PagesEssay 2-The Evolution of Self in Asian-American Women in the US The conflict of a typical mother/daughter relationship exists in many cultures. This conflict for many Asian-American women was further exasperated as these women were forced to also deal with adjusting as first, second, and third generation Americans in a sometimes unwelcome society. As a child, Japanese-American Janice Mirikitani, was interned, along with her mother, at a â€Å"work relocation camp† during 1941in Rohwer, Arkansas (AmericansRead MorePersuasive Essay : Assisted Marriage2451 Words   |  10 PagesAlexander Gyenizse Jennifer Drake ENGL1301 08/DEC/2014 Assisted Marriage: A Potential benefit to western society. Arranged Marriage is perhaps one of the most shocking and stark affronts to western sensibilities. American minds, with their concepts of freedom and choice, would seem unable to grasp any benefit in a system which does not involve the complete free will and consent of both parties in a romantic relationship. The darkest images of arranged marriage paint in our minds the vision ofRead MoreAnalysis of My Personal Identity1331 Words   |  5 Pagesrace, class, gender, (dis) ability, and sexual orientation coexist on multiple, and often simultaneous levels, contributing to systematic social inequality. In situating myself, I am an East Indian woman born into a first generation immigrant family. My ethnic background is Punjabi; specifically, I am a Sikh. I am less privileged because I am a woman and I am raced. I am more privileged because I live in an economically developed part of the world, I have almost completed a post-secondary educationRead MoreThe Impact Of British Art On The World Of Art And Opportunities1677 Words   |  7 Pagesknown to be region based, but a lot of artist now prefer going to a different nation and grasp a different technique and skills. But when it comes to opportunities, for example; an Indian origin or South-Asian origin artist may be at a greater disadvantage as compared to the white artist in British society, mainly because of an unchallenged racial intolerance or partiality, and also because of the history of British colonies in Asia. History also plays a crucial role in such cases of racial discrimination

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Symptoms And Symptoms Of Antisocial Personality - 1706 Words

Antisocial Personality Disoder or APD is a rare and unique disorder where people have a lack of moral character or empathy. They are not shown love and compassion in childhood and develop anger and hatred for the rest of the world. People with the disorder are only out for their own gain. There is little to help those with this disorder as many are criminals or murderers and it is hard to help those who do not care about anyone else. They tend to stray away from getting help and it leads to the disorder to get grow and fester. The symptoms of antisocial personality include a lot of hatred and any lack of remorse or compassion. â€Å"Cleckley’s (1995) classic diagnostic criteria for psychopathy include absence of nervousness, lack of remorse or†¦show more content†¦They also have a tendency to be manipulative to get what they want until they show their true colors in their actions in expending held in emotion. Generally, there are two factors towards developing antisocial personality disorder, and that is biological and environmental. Research has not come to a concrete cause of antisocial personality disorder but some risk factors for the disorder is lack of emotional attachment, growing up in disturbed homes, and child abuse can cause the disorder to develop (Black, 2016). If children grow up in homes of substance or child abuse it can cause the disorder to develop in a child. The environment creates a sense of loathing of the world, because they could feel as though the world has always done wrong by them. There are differences in the structure and parts of the brain of a psychopath. Dr. Adrian Raine, a Neurocriminologist, in a video tells one of these differences saying: â€Å"One of the key differences that we find in the brains of psychopaths, is that there’s a structural impairment to part of the brain called the amygdala. This is a part of the brain very much involved in th e generation of emotion† (Knowledge Boost Chronicles, 2010, 2:50). People who have the disorder have a deformity of their amygdala. As part of the brain, it can be structurally different at birth or can be deformed through brain damage. Another key difference is that there is limited activity in the prefrontal cortex or frontal lobe. A PET scan ofShow MoreRelatedAntisocial Personality Disorder And Young Children1647 Words   |  7 PagesAntisocial Personality Disorder Leads to Violent Acts in Young Children According to research antisocial disorder causes violent acts in children of a young age. Review of literature indicates that antisocial personality disorder is a mental condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others. This behavior is often criminal (Berger, 2014). It has been said that people who have experiences a traumatic event in their life many developRead MoreAntisocial Personality Disorder ( Adhd )1556 Words   |  7 Pagespeople believe that antisocial personality disorder is a faà §ade for criminals to receive lesser sentences by being diagnosed with a medical disorder. However, antisocial personality disorder is not just having and being a sociopathic person; it is a constant struggle. Antisocial personality disorder is a rare personality disorder with mental conditions that has short and long-term effects on a patient’s life. This literature review aims to characterize antisocial personality disorder by addressingRead MoreOverview of Antisocial Personality Disorder1160 Words   |  5 PagesCan antisocial personality disorder affect the life of a person with this diagnostic and their family members? In general, personality’s disorders affect the overall social functioning of a person, by eluding and eliminating any type of socialization; moreover, in the case of a chronic mental condition as an antisocial personality disorder the person with this diagnostic ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are negative and dysfunctional, affecting their positive and harmlessRead MoreAntisocial Personality Disorder711 Words   |  3 PagesAntisocial Personality Disorder is a psychological disorder in which an individual’s way of thinking and way of relating to others is dysfunctional and destructive. People with antisocial personality disorder usually have no regard for right and wrong and often disregard the rights and feelings of others (May o Clinic 1). They tend to antagonize and manipulate others for pleasure or personal benefit and often violate the law and end up in trouble most of the time, but show no remorse or regret forRead MoreAntisocial Personality Disorder, Slaughter, And Kashani Walker ( Hehehe )1596 Words   |  7 Pages Antisocial Personality Disorder Latoya Walker (hehehe) Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Introduction Conduct disorder is the primary identifying risk factor in childhood that may be recognized as an early sign preceding the eventual development of antisocial personality disorder in adulthood (Holmes, Slaughter, Kashani, 2001). Antisocial personality disorder possesses an array of proposed origins which include but are not limited to domestic, genetic, prenatal, and educationalRead MoreThe Silence Of The Lambs1017 Words   |  5 Pageshas is antisocial personality disorder. This disorder has also been known as sociopathy. According to (http://www.mayoclinic.org) this can be described as â€Å" a mental condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others harshly or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior.† Some symptoms of antisocial personalityRead MoreAntisocial Personality Disorder ( Sociopathy And Psychopathy Essay1548 Words   |  7 PagesAntisocial personality disorder is a condition as to where the person that has the disorder tends to be manipulative, deceitful, reckless or malicious. Antisocial personality disorder, a lot like other personality disorders, is often put on a spectrum. Which in turn means that the disorder can often range in severity. The variables can range from committing small or insignificant acts of bad behavior, to potentially harming others and committing large scale crimes. For reference, psychopathy isRead MoreHimanka Wickramaratne. Soci 13314Gd. Rory Sommers. Psychopathology1747 Words   |  7 Pagesthe untreated mental illnesses (antisocial personality disorder and Schizophrenia) of Vince Li. The actions of Vince Li can be described by using a branch of psychology called psychopathology. Psychopathology is the study of mental illnesses in individuals. It uses scientific reasoning to help understand how a person’s thoughts and emotions incorporate with their behaviour patterns. In the case of Vince Li, he had two mental illnesses called antisocial personality disorder and Schizophrenia thatRead MoreThe Dark Knight Rises And Televis ion Series1499 Words   |  6 Pagesseries â€Å"Dexter†, the characters Joker and Dexter are attributed with the mental disorder antisocial personality disorder, creating the stigma that those with the disorder are â€Å"Psychotic killers† through their symptoms and actions, as well as their treatments and causes. The Joker is a fictional character in the movie series â€Å"The Dark Knight Rises† who is attributed with the mental illness, antisocial personality disorder. The representation of the Joker and his mental disorder is stigmatized, representingRead MoreThe Effects Of Antisocial Personality Disorder ( Aspd ) Essay1386 Words   |  6 Pageshealth disorder called Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Most of these professionals will agree that much more attention should be given to this matter since it can have fatal outcomes. The public and the media eye alike, might not realize the serious impact that this mental disorder can have on the general public. This literature review will examine what ASPD is, symptoms, possible causes, diagnosis, treatment, and how the public eye views this matter. Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), is

Global Procurement and Supply Free Essays

GlaxoSmithKline:Sourcing Complex Professional Services Erin Edwards Global Procurement Supply April 22, 2018IntroductionGlaxoSmithKline also known as GSK is currently losing millions of the dollars annually in legal process. Normally, GSK always billed the law firms on hourly basis but this was not practical for the company. The team not had to research and innovate new ways to cut the spending through a new procurement process. We will write a custom essay sample on Global Procurement and Supply or any similar topic only for you Order Now GSK, GlaxoSmithKline uses an innovative approach to procure outside counsel by trading relationship based selection of law firms to an online reverse auction. However, the quality of the work, and selecting the right the law firm was a challenging hurdle to jump. GSK was willing to take up the challenge to come up with a better process of handling their spend.GSK is hit with a devastating suit and only has a certain number of days to hire a firm in time to respond. Their managing attorney Sophia Keating grapples with GSK approach to selecting suppliers. GSK employees ensured Sophia that this approach drives down cost and improves the quality of work submitted by the lawyers. Still skeptical about the process, she still runs process by comparing the competing firms and their bids. Furthermore, it was the decision by Harlow to outsource the services. GSK made strides to come up with the suitable options, and options to meet the criteria of less cost, and quality work. However, there were other concerns that could be discussed more broadly to avoid the pitfalls during the process. This case also describes the process in which this process was made and adopted beyond the implications for law firms and other service providers. Many processes seemed to only be adopted by selecting vendors for a variety of supplies and products but can be used for services also. This procurement process can be incredibly beneficial, especially streamline purchasing and tracking spend. This process can ensure a company pays the best price for goods or services, save time by choosing the most reputable vendors, and minimize order delays and mistakes. After getting early endorsement from the general counsel, Marty Harlow worked with GSK’s global external legal relations team (GELRT) in legal to develop a matter-specific, mini-RFP tool that enables in-house counsel to assess firms’ specific qualifications for a particular representation. The other main component of the OCSI is the electronic reverse auction which encourages fee competition among qualified law firms instead of hourly rates. GSK’s preferred firm roster work with procurement to draw up a shortlist of firms to invite to an OCSI event. GSK lawyers use a form-driven process to state as much detail about the matter as possible and these are passed to Harlow’s team for submission to firms. This case is very useful in talking about institutional change and how the procurement process can be adopted to many fields and services. Main Issues Uncontrollable Spending The company was spending millions of dollars annually on the spending on the legal matters. It was identified that there was also extra unnecessary cost incurred that could have been avoided through a better process that was more centralized. â€Å"More than a quarter of companies in the U.S. and UK spent over $5 million annually on litigation costs in 2012, and among healthcare companies that proportion was estimated to be 30%– 40%. Because legal fees had become a prominent line item in company overheads, top management in many companies pressured their general counsel (GC), the chief lawyer of a legal department, to rein in legal spending† (Gardner and Silverstein 2)There were some moments when the company even did not know about the spending on the legal matters, and legal department exceeded the budget sometimes. This was an issue many companies were being affected by, not just GSK. However, GSK noticed the high costs and need to be able to have a better centralized process. Therefore, it was challenging for the company to manage the spending on the legal matters and find another solid process that could not only cost less, but also provide quality services since quality is very important in the legal work. Relationship Vs. QualityGSK is engaged with the same law firms that they have had long relationships with. â€Å"One involved consolidating the number of firms with which their company regularly worked—sometimes ending long-standing relationships.† (Gardner and Silverstein 3) Relationship management is very key is long lasting business relationships, which has allowed GSK to be very successful with prior legal matters. However, through this process, the company would incur extra cost on the legal matters, because there is no cap on spend since it was tracked hourly. Since there was no centralized system to track the work and spend, GSK had no idea about the urgent matters and problems of the company. It is very important the firms that are selecting ensure that quality work is being completed without overspending. Cost does not always mean quality. GSK should have to risk quality during their cost for the best legal pursuits. Even though supplier relationship management is great, but it becomes challenges when spend is starting to become uncontrollable and unmanageable. Building closer relations with your strategic partners will minimize supply chain risks. Having strategic partners whose goals are aligned with business objectives are highly valuable and important to long term success.KPIsThere was not performance management in place to determine how the firm is performing. GSK did not have a quantifiable measure that is used to track and assess the status of the firm process. Every area of business especially complex professional services should have specific metrics that should be monitored. Having metrics will focus more on big picture financial metrics, which was an issue for GSK without the procurement process. The case does not mention how performance of the firms will be tracked. â€Å"GELRT leveraged technology to obtain?the information it needed to optimize financial performance and strengthen strategic planning. Matter management, electronic billing, and reporting systems were already in place within the legal department.† (Gardner and Silverstein 6) There is a lot of information about how GELRT uses technology to acquire information. The system is able to track spending, but there is no system in place to track KPIs.AnalysisThe process of sourcing involves the company to select suppliers for a product or service. The complete an evaluation of the supplier and finally contract with the supplier to deliver the required products or services. While procurement refers to the activity of getting the deliveries from the supplier identified and ensuring that the payments to the supplier are made. GSK adopting procurement process has helped make changes within their spend. â€Å"By 2006–2007, procurement had become heavily involved in the sourcing of many ancillary services. Harlow’s tough stance in negotiations saved GSK an estimated $23 million: $19 million from Legal Staffing/eDiscovery, $1 million from Court Reporting, and $3 million from Medical Records.† (Gardner and Silverstein 4) By taking the right initiatives in sourcing and procurement, GSK is able to see the benefits. Having a process in place will save the company time; ensure that one is getting the right solution to meet business needs. A procurement process will ensure you pay the right price and avoid overlooking vital steps that may come back to haunt the firm later. Procurement policies and procedures allow a business to arrange its buying strategy to its long-term goals and objectives. Procurement helps with a better chance to meet business goals. â€Å"This system reminds me of buying office supplies or landscaping services. Can it really be applied to a complex legal case like this one†¦.?† (Gardner and Silberstein 1) This is what Sophia Keating thought to herself when the idea of a reverse auction process was presented to her. The vendor selection process initially starts as part of a company’s strategy. A procurement process can measure the direct costs and the team timesaving achieved through better management. For example, GSK was very focus on their legal spend, which in turns means you need to select firms that would be able to handle the request in the right budget. The nice thing they had a selection of firms who meet their cost, quality and service requirements needs, but also add some firms who were new. After they shortlisted their firms, GSK was able to use OCSI for their quotes, terms and minimum service levels. Finally, review their proposals from the reverse auctions and reward the firm with the lowest number. Procurement increases an organization’s productivity by providing visibility into transactions.Benchmarking is the process of paralleling what companies are doing with what the best performing company in your industry is doing. In textbook, Purchasing Supply Chain Management describes bench making as, â€Å"Benchmarking is the continuous measuring of products, services, processes, activities, and practices against a firm’s best competitors or those companies recognized as industry or functional leaders.† (770) In Exhibit 3 of the case, you able to see how GSK compares with the other Law Firms Self-Assessment. Unfortunately, GSK managing attorney assessment does under perform in a couple areas like understanding business objectives, involvement of diverse team members, and reactiveness and creativeness. One of three types of benchmarking, process benchmarking compares operational processes. Performance benchmarking compares product or services, marketing and sales to determine how to increase profits. Short term benchmarking goals, produce quick results. But it is the long-term goals that help with the direction and strategies of the company that will make it more competitive in the market. Performance management is a performance controlling style that has grown increasingly popular with a variety of companies. Performance management is the process in which it challenges the company’s overall performance and abilities. It challenges them to bring their best foot and work forward. Performance manage usually involve setting goals, then evaluating their progress or work with a reward or penalty depending on how the firm or vendor performs. RecommendationsRun Reverse AuctionsA reverse auction is best used to obtain the best rate by embracing competition among firms bidding on price. GSK using this method will allow the law firms to compete with their best idea to win the business and also be within budget. The idea of reverse because during the auction makes sure the price drops. Price was definitely an issue for GSK previously because there was no way to track the spending. Using the method of reverse auction has a number of advantages. Some of the benefits of reverse auction is the amount of time it takes to make a decision. Before something that could takes months, can now be shortened into weeks or even days. Also, the bidders are able to see who their competition and how they compare to them. There is a lot more transparency when it comes reverse auctions. Law firms would calculate their preliminary prices and confirm the very lowest price they would go to secure the business. II. Conduct Routine Performance ReviewsPerformance management is a mutual agreement about how companies or individuals contribute to an organization’s goals. This is what OCSI can do for GSK. OCSI can act as a process of performance management and appraisals focusing on aligning GSK’s workforce, building capabilities, improving employee performance and development, and influencing better business results. GSK should complete annual performance reviews to evaluate the firms’ performance. This entails gathering feedback from co-workers and clients into consideration and observations by management. These assessments can be very detailed and elongated to include a review of the previous years’ evaluation and an assessment of services. Many firms may have the company complete an evaluation of their own performance that is then discussed during the evaluation and compared to the official evaluation. Monitoring gives the company an opportunity to make a course correction or adjust a timeline if it is needed so that the vendor will produce the desired outcome of successfully achieving goals. If GSK concludes the vendor has unacceptable performance, monitoring performance enables them to identify the problem early and get an opportunity to rectify before being evaluated incorrectly. III. Implementing a Performance-Based Incentive These systems are designed to retain top-performing vendors, motivate the desired performance, and control costs. If a company wants to pay for performance, it must define performance in very specific, objective, quantifiable terms, measure it and track it. Introducing a performance based incentive program with help firm collective help GSK reach their business goals and legal objectives. This really entices firms to align their work with the business goals. Having a reward for exceptional performance and penalties for poor performance really ensure that money is not being wasted but invested properly. IV. Routinely Fresh Preferred SuppliersIt is healthy to refresh suppliers and firms from time to time. If you consolidate your supplier base, it will allow better visibility over the billing process. It will be easier to track payments leaving the business and going to the suppliers, so any errors will be identified more rapidly. When you deal with less suppliers and vendors, there is less administration and paperwork to handle. This allows more time to focus on other areas of the business. When it comes to decreasing the number of suppliers GSK uses, it is best to control what’s best for the business. Above all, GSK needs to find the best overall fit so that there’s a steadiness between the time it takes to achieve their supplier base and the profitability of the business.Conclusion Procurement is should be viewed strategic function working to improve the organization’s cost-effectiveness. Procurement helps streamline processes, reduce service prices and costs, and identifying better firms to do services. It is essential to any business that purchases anything such as products or services. Since GSK buys services like other companies, then the better its procurement function works, the more money it can make. Typically, businesses buy products or services from multiple vendors. Procurement handles the details of procuring these purchases at optimal prices. Combining your strengths with stakeholder’ helps find new progressive solutions to remain successful in business and stay ahead of the competition. To maintain sustainable supply chain, procurement management has a profitable impact on a company’s processes. It helps avoid supply chain risks by better collaborating with vital partners and providing added value to diverse business practices. The bottom line: Performance management is an ongoing practice, not a yearly task. The success of an organization, if aligned to your organizational goals, will drive business results. References Capko, Judy. â€Å"Five Steps to a Performance Evaluation System.† Family Practice Management, 1 Mar. 2003, www.aafp.org/fpm/2003/0300/p43.html.Gardner, Heidi K, and Silvia Hodges Silverstein. â€Å"GlaxoSmithKline: Sourcing Complex Professional Services.†Ã‚  Harvard Business Review, 26 Feb. 16, hbr.org/product/glaxosmithkline-sourcing-complex-professional-services/414003-PDF-ENG. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.Markgraf, Bert. â€Å"How to Evaluate a Company’s Performance.†Ã‚  Small Business – Chron.com, Chron.com, 5 Feb. 2018, www.smallbusiness.chron.com/evaluate-companys-performance-67095.html. Monczka, Robert M., et al.  Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. South-Western, 2011.Wincel, Jeffrey P.  Lean Supply Chain Management: a Handbook for Strategic Procurement. Productivity Press, 2008. How to cite Global Procurement and Supply, Papers

Saturday, April 25, 2020

The Bible Among Myths Essay Example

The Bible Among Myths Essay The Bible Among The Myths: unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature? My Name BOBS 510: Old Testament Introduction July 6, 2014 Introduction The author, a research professor at Wesley Biblical Seminary by the name of John N. Oswald, attempts to explain the similarities and differences of the Holy Scripture and its teachings from that of the neighboring Ancient Near East beliefs. Moreover, he attempts to answer the question of how scholarly opinions of the disagreements found between Genesis and Babylonian accounts of the origins of the world. He points out how the modern-day scholars are now comparing the Bible to other religious documents and considering it as Just another mythical belief. Oswald credits this world-view change to a study of similarities between the Bible and like Near Eastern writings rather than before when perhaps more interest was placed on viewing the differences. These studies are explained In the first half of this publication and sub-titled The Bible and Myth. Wealth the second part of the book sub-titled The Bible and History, he collects the reader to ask questions about the authenticate of the Old Testament, or Is It even important that the Bible be historically accurate? Even if those inaccuracies are summarize the books overall theme, Oswald desires that his reader gives any evidence of accuracy the credit it is due. Not to be swayed by unsubstantiated conjectures that might diminish the focus of what is fundamentally true. His is not a request for us to look past the inaccuracies or to take a stance that if the Bible says its so then thats all there is to it. Mr.. We will write a custom essay sample on The Bible Among Myths specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Bible Among Myths specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Bible Among Myths specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Oswald asks the reader to allow the possibility of harmonistic and not Jump to any conclusions without allowing for the truth to veal itself in the scripture. Part I The Bible and Myth Chapter One The Bible In Its World In the opening chapter, Oswald looks into the diverse views of world creation and being. He compares and contrasts how Greek philosophy influenced the monotheistic culture of the Israelites which ultimately contributed to the Western world beliefs we know today. Early Greek philosophers reasoned that there is but one universe with a sole point of unification and not a powers with variable sources of creation. They taught that everything could be reasoned and that something could be so and not so at the same time. This belief conflicted with that of the world view of the Ancient Near East (ANNE). The world view supposed that existence on earth was the result of many unseen forces in the realm of the invisible. Apparently the Greek philosophers proposing this message didnt win over the acceptance of that culture and they found themselves forced out and into hiding, some taking their own lives thus ending the age of Greek philosophical thought. This struggle was displayed in the play Beach by the Greek playwright Euripides wherein the conflict is played out between the rational human-nature component acted out by men who were pitted against the women that played the part of the irrational side of Human existence. The men were killed by the women depicting the two opposing views could not coexist and the powers of many deities would dominate cultural thought. At about the same time, it seems that the Israelites were experiencing a similar battle of faith. The Hebrew believed that there was a sole Creator that rewarded and disciplined based on obedience to Gods will. This view was quite the opposite from that of the polymers thinkers and against the beliefs of the Ancient Near Eastern cultures that trusted in the parallel invisible world. Even them, the Hebrew held to their conviction of a monotheistic God and the prophets ability to predict the exile and return of the Israelites strengthened that resolve. Christianity was to be the compilation of Greek thought and Hebrew belief. The Greek logic provided cause and effect for the Hebrew creation theory of God. Finally acknowledgment that God is not the world and the world is not God. Logic and science working together. Oswald writes here that an able to stand alone. Together, the system provided value to the individual and the importance of history and why things are as they are. Closing out Chapter one Oswald laments the apparent modern reliance on rationalism and less on our God. History and the people are becoming less relevant and there is more emphasis placed on comfort, pleasure and self-preservation. Assaults hope is that the younger readers will realize this direction and reconsider the turn away from God and toward the enemy. Chapter Two The Bible And Myth: Oswald lays out the root for Biblical reality. He questions how the Bible can be included with the Ancient Near Eastern arguments as a myth when it is so radically different. The true question being the actual definition of a myth. Oswald allows that this question fully depends on the definition of the term. It is also important to grasp why there is a desire to place it in the mythological category to begin with. Here Oswald compares the many definitions of a myth. He assembles all the similarities possessed by each to redefine a true myth. Oswald provides allegory reasoning to establish that a definition too broad will result in a loss of validity. He explains that only to broaden the scope of the definition to suit (or include) the Bible does nothing to add credit to the validity of the meaning. Oswald ends this chapter with a immolation of definitions and has primarily grouped them into two categories. Within this the first, we find etymological, sociological and the literary. Primarily, Oswald wants the reader to know that to appropriately define a myth, you must have narrowed down the definition. In this category, the definition is narrowed down to that of Just characteristic rather than function or quality. Something with order and predictability. This section summarizes the attempts to provide more adaptive definitions and theories to define a myth led to commonality or continuity to describe the world-view. He offers that the philosophy of continuity states that all things are continuous and are one, defining that God and earth are one but separate. That said, an item made from earth is God. This is true for all religions except those beliefs which have derived from the Hebrew being Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Chapter Three Continuity: The Basis Of Mythical Thinking In this chapter we follow Oswald as he delves into the ideology supporting the supernatural aspects of myth. It provides that myth views are Just another way of tuning into reality than what we accept using Westernizes logic. By defining myth as all things continuous, there can be no distinction between the three realms of human, nature and divine. Oswald describes the term pantheism and how things that look and sound alike are considered the same therefore to worship an idol is to worship a God. Through this logic, mankind can alter the outcome of natural events by way of their idols. He states that this is the single most important aspect to the way of thinking that characterizes myth. It is believed that in Myths, a magic spell can disrupt the continuous nature of things, bringing chaos and disorder between through symbolism. It is fundamental in myth that all things begin with matter. In myth, humans exist to serve the gods. They have no significance in the mythical world. Personalities are exceptions to the norm creating chaos to the continuity. That world is a continuous circle coming and going nowhere at all times. Chapter 4: Transcendence: Basis Of Biblical Thinking The Bible, when compared to the surrounding ANNE, is radically different in how it approaches reality. The Old Testament, regardless of the historical statements being true or false, is consistent. Common Characteristics Of Biblical Thought: The two suggest differing traits in the Old Testament are monotheism and iconoclasm. Monotheism maintains that Yeah is the sole creator and separate from the world. The Hebrew people are the only culture ever to exist that believed in monotheism. Israel, which was less advanced in all aspects of culture then the surrounding ANNE, insisted on a monotheistic religion above all. Iconoclasm states that God cannot be made in any image or any created form. It is clearly stated and defined in the Old Testament (Ex. 20-4-5); muff shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. This belief is the basis of transcendence. God is not the world, God cannot be identified to the world, God cannot be recreated and God cannot be manipulated by the world. Other distinct characteristics that separate Hebrew thought from all other belief systems are: 1 . ) God is spirit and not matter which is the polar opposite viewpoint of myth. Myth states that matter is the basis of everything. 2. ) There was no conflict during the creation process. In myth creation evolves from chaos but in the Old Testament the world exists only because God poke it into existence. 3. ) The Old Testament has a very high viewpoint of humanity. In fact man is made in the image of God. God created man last and man is the apex of all creation. In myth humanity is an afterthought and the only purpose is to provide for the gods. 4. ) God is reliable and consistent. Yeah will bless people and be there for his people even when it is not to Gods advantage. In myth the gods are fickle and only self-serving. 5. ) God is supra-sexual which simply means God is not sexed. He is neither male nor female. He is spirit being and does not take on any raids of sexuality and sex played no part in the creation process. In myth gods comes into existence by sexual means. They have sex with each other to make other gods and also have sex with desirable women to make semi-gods. 6. ) Since God is not sexed in the Bible, sex is dissocialized in the Old Testament. God set clear boundaries to establish what is acceptable and what is forbidden when dealing with sexual relationships. Mythology uses all types of sexual rituals so that they can influence and manipulate the gods. There are no boundaries and anything goes. 7. ) The Old Testament also prohibits the use of magic. Sorcery of all kind is forbidden and may not be used to attempt to manipulate God in any ritualistic way. The attempt to manipulate God to gain self-interest is vile to God. You maintain a personal relationship with God though prayer and obedience. In mythology magic, sorcery and the individual is Just part of the continuous nature. The gods are only influenced through the rituals of society. 8. Humans relate to God though ethical behavior and to the disciplined obedience of God. What matters most to the Israelites is how people treat their parents, their children, their neighbors and strangers. They show their ointment to God by how they interact with others. God gives strict laws for his people to uphold and follow. Strict obedience to this covenant will create holiness for oneself bringing one closer to the holiness of God. Transcendence As The Underlying Principle: The underlying and most important distinction in the biblical understanding of reality is how God is in relation to the cosmos. In mythical thinking god is the cosmos or the cosmos is god. The source and the manifestation are indistinguishable and are continuous. In Biblical thought God is transcendent. God is not the cosmos and the cosmos is not God. God is separate and apart from the creation. This belief is completely contrary to continuity and distinguishes that God and heaven are not part of the natural world. The world is separate and only exists because God willed it into existence by his word. This is the law of transcendence that clearly shows God is other than the cosmos. Oswald established in this chapter that all the reasons which make something a myth are opposite from the biblical worldview of the Old Testament. The Bible can therefore not be considered a myth. This does not say that the Bible is true but it is definitely not a myth. One thing is rue; the Bible is unique and consistent which gives credence to the approach. Chapter 5: The Bible Verses Myth Ethics: In mythology there are two kinds of ethical misbehaving, offenses against gods and offenses against people. Most offenses against the gods deal in the magical realm with rituals or spells. It is an attempt to ward off the gods from interfering or to manipulate the gods to gain favors. The repercussion of the offense depends on the mood, reaction and the personality of the god at the time. Offenses against other people are another matter. It is a crime against the laws of society that have retrained punishments. In myth the laws are understood to be human creations. Therefore Judgment is by the people and there isnt reason to appeal to gods for help. In biblical thought, God has a covenant with man and all the laws for how people relate to God and to each other come from God through transcendence. One is either obedient or not to the law of God. There is no distinction between sin against God and crime against society. They are both lack of obedience to the written commands from God. What is unique is that the standard of the law and covenant with God is formed from the character of the one true Yeah. Another biblical thought on ethics to consider is that the expectations are clear to all. There are clear results from compliance or noncompliance by the individual. One can gain more insight into Gods nature by how one reacts ethically in the physical world. Things happen to a person because of what that person has done or is doing. It is no longer an unknown act in the divine world. Lastly, is the free choice from allowed by God, a persons choice can impact what happens; it is no longer Just a reflection from the other realm or from a cosmic event. Jerusalem fell not because other gods in the vine defeated Yeah, but because the people broke their covenant with God and God allowed the fall. It was a result of free choices and the consequences from those now turns to similarities between the Israelite belief system and other surrounding cultures of the ANNE. There are five main topics that Oswald reviews: 1). Similarities in Practice: Without question there are similarities in the practices of the Hebrews and their neighbors. One obvious similarity is that both had laws that were delivered to them from God. Another similar practice is the ritual of sacrifice and the ceremonial leanness associated with the practice. Still further is the set-up of the tabernacle and covenant with God which is almost identical to the Canniest sanctuaries. What makes the Hebrews stand apart is the obedience to the concept that if I do something to my neighbor it has a direct correlation to my relationship to God. The Egyptian, Canniest and Mesopotamia could not accept that if one stole from another person it was a violation to the creator. No matter how similar any of the beliefs or practices seemed, the deciding factor that separated the Hebrews was their relationship of the individual to God. There is a system of ethics that affect by ones behavior in all matters. 2. ) Similarities in Expression: There are references in the Bible to the cosmos and to other mythical things such as the Leviathan. Some argue that the Hebrews believed in the chaos of cosmos or continuity because of the mention of mythical things that are used as reference in the Bible. Oswald states the difference is that, the transcendent God is accomplishing his will through an obedient nature in a specific historic event. In a unique moment in time and space, never to be repeated, but also ever to be forgotten, God has worked redemption for is people. The Bible doesnt necessarily believe the myth of the surrounding cultures, but makes the point of the myth, to only break the myths validity, to make it absolutely clear it is God who prevailed. 3,) Similarities in Thought Patterns: There is a scholarly consensus that believes the Israelite religion is based on the principle of continuity which is similar to the surrounding ANNE culture. The Israelites abandon the belief system of continuity because of a cataclysmic event. It is further argued that the event was the exodus from Egypt and that all documented history of the Israelites prior to the exodus was rewritten to mirror the recent adopted transcendent God belief. The problem with this argument is that the Hebrew believes that God reveals himself through unique events and persons in time and space. The historical relevance is absolute and the inspired written word of God. It is contrary to the entire belief system of a transcendent God that defines the Hebrew thought. 4. ) Genesis: Is Genesis, especially the early chapters, written in myth? The problem with this thought is that the characteristics that define a myth are absent. There are not little gods, there is no continual creation that the world reflects, sex is not a part of the creation story, there is a high view of man not a low one and there is no conflict between order and chaos. Scholars have attempted to say that in Genesis 1:1 When God began to create the heaven and earth, the earth was without form and void. that Hebrews believed in a preexistent chaos. The second point scholars make to say that Genesis is a myth, is that the creation story is similar to the Babylonian. When observed closely the texts of the two stories do not really match. The majority of the Babylonian creation story focuses on the creation of the gods and the battle between gods for a supreme rule. They are only similar in a logical progression of how things were made The bottom line is that there is no conflict between good and evil or any heaven and on earth are because God willed it and commanded it to be so by his word. Psalms: There are many Psalms that can be construed as similar and describing pagan gods and viewpoints. Oswald demonstrates in Psalm 29, Psalm 68 and Psalm 104 the comparison that the author could be describing Ball instead of Yeah. Both are cloud riders and both control the rain. In all accounts it is clear that God is separate from the rain and storms, God is not the rain or the storm but apart from it. God is the maker and giver of all things. In myth there is no separation only oneness with all things. Ball is god, Ball is nature and Ball is the idol. Ball cannot be separate from the storm because of continuity Ball is the storm. Chapter 6: The Bible And History: A Problem Of Definition The main distinction of biblical Old Testament thought is that God interacts in unique non-recurring events in a specific time and place. The Bible contends that the events are factual and happened as written. The idea that human choice and actions can effect outcomes in the natural world and that these choices are non-repeatable and are aligned toward a single measurable universal goal are all unique and recorded in the Bible. Definitions Of History: Like a myth, history needs a clear definition. History can refer to the recording of an event, the study of the past or Just a connected experience of an event in time and space. Oswald reviews different definitions and interpretations of what history means and how it will refer to the Old Testament. Oswald then offers his own definition: A history is a narrative of a series f events revolving about human beings acting in time and space. Existing for the purpose of human self-knowledge, it purports to be an accurate account of all significant elements for the eventual outcome. History is about the accurate account of human beings. Understandings Of Reality On Which History Writing Depends: In order to establish the importance of history, it must be established that the belief in human free will and choice is absolute. If not then history doesnt matter. Oswald reviews six theological points and six historical practices of the ANNE that historic writings depend on: 1 . Humans are free and responsible. If there isnt free will and choice then everything is preconditioned and Just part of a continuous cycle. History and the knowledge gained from the study of history cannot change a predetermined fate of a future event. Choice is Just an illusion. 2. ) There is cause an effect to an event in time and space. Things are not Just by chance as a result from events in the invisible world. 3. ) Truth is absolutely necessary to establish order to study history. If an event in history never happened, what is the point of learning from the choices made by a person in that event? If there is only speculation and interpretation without fact, then the event is meaningless. 4. ) Humans are dynamic and goal- oriented. Humans must believe that we can change for the better. If we are Just part of a repetitive cycle there is no reason for goals and improvement. 5. ) Relationships within time and space have significance. If this is true then what happens in the physical world matters. If not relationships are all continuous and predetermined. 6. A consistent standard must be established to measure against. If there isnt a standard there will never be agreement and it all becomes meaningless. Omens: An men is a sign which foretells the results of a particular event or Journey. Omens diminish the value of free choice and lead to predetermination by the gods. In omens and meanings of their signs. King Lists: Is simply the names, lineage and length of eac h king being documented. Date Formulae: In ANNE it was standard practice each year to document the name of the ruling king with his title and announce what he accomplished within that particular year. Epic: Epics are narratives that reveal events of a hero on a Journey. Many of the characters have been found to be based on historic individuals with the feats based in fact. E. G. Ulysses was an actual character who fought in Troy and did have difficulty getting home. Royal Annals: These annals record in detail the events in each a kings reign. They describe in detail military conquest, building projects, interests and favorite topics of that king. Chronicles: Chronicles are an objective documented account of the life of a king describing his victories and defeats as well as his line of succession. It does not evaluate the value of the feats. Reasons For The Absence Of History Writing: Oswald outlines five reasons why there would not have been documented writings in the ANNE: 1 . Focus on NOW: If we conclude that the ANNE was founded on and believed in continuity then all that matters is the present. Nothing in the past or future influence or effect what was happening today. There was no need to document it. 2. ) Subjective Orientation: Historical writings gain credibility when written by an outside person. In the ANNE all is connected and one with each other so there is no outside or subjective opinion. There was no point to have it written by a neutral person as there is only me. 3. ) Multiplicity of Causes: In continuity there are infinite causes to an event. How the stars line up in the sky have more impact on hat happens then human free choice. What happens in the invisible world effects the physical world giving infinite reasons why it happened. 4. ) Determinism: Choice is just an illusion because of the cyclical and interconnected nature of reality. In reality there are no choices because everything is dictated by outside forces. What a person does is predetermined regardless of what they believe. What is the point to document and study an event if they have no future choice? 5. ) Preoccupation with Order and Security: The forces in the cosmos are constantly battling each other over good and evil, creating and destroying at all times. Chaos is always around whether in the physical, material or political world. Security is completely dependent on the outcome of the victory of order. The study of events from the past would have no impact on the battles waged in the cosmos which is where order and security is decided. The Bibles Unique Approach To Human-Historical Experience: 1 . Humans treated as Real Individuals: The Bible is radically different from other literature of the ANNE. The Bible uses characters that are real and human. Truth is found in the individual not in the normalcy of things, but in the character of that individual. The ANNE literature uses semi-gods and supernatural representatives which is contradictory to the Bible. The emphasis of the individual in the Bibl e is important and had no relevance in ANNE culture. 2. Failures and defeats Not Glossed Over: In the Bible both positive and negative traits of the individual character are highlighted. Failures are documented and Judged by God. There isnt glory in failure as in Greek heroic literature, Just lessons to be learned. 3. Significance of relationships: The Bible deals explores in detail, relationships with individuals and with God. It does not pass ever them as insignificant, but rather goes into them in detail from a purely neutral with Bathes was done and Judged by the transcendent Yeah. Yeah dealt with the result, but allowed the choice of the individual to be made. 4. Significance of Human Choice: The Bible states that it is human choice that shapes the events on earth, not a predetermined continuous force in the cosmos. A person can interact with God, but that person has the right to choose and the results are determined by the choice. 5. Developmental Relationships: The Bible relates past events to the present and compares the results. This is completely in contrast to the ANNE literature which only deals in the NOW. The writings are strictly to document the current reign. They do not demonstrate or compare one reign to the next one. There is no purpose to documenting as it is Just another repetitive report in an endless continuous circumstance. Implications of Transcendence For Israels View Of Human- Historical Experience: Transcendence is the belief that God is separate and not part of the world. This concept is a major difference in approach to all the surrounding ANNE. Transcendence makes it impossible to believe that human events correspond to mirror opposite invisible world. There isnt a connection between the two, what happens in invisible world doesnt affect the physical world. 1 Possibility of Transcending Events: Since God is separate and apart from creation, there is a space beyond this created world. Since this world is purposefully created by God who judges all things, then there is a reason to act beyond ones own self-interest. This concept is documented many times in the Old Testament with how the individual relates to the covenant presented by God. There is a force outside this world to Judge the events of the individual. 2. Impossibility of misleading God: God is all knowing and all is revealed to God. You cant fool God. In the ANNE the gods are part of the system, so they can be manipulated. I can document things that are not true because I can trick the gods. Not so with a separate God who created all and is transcendent. God knows everything and will Judge according to integrity of the individuals choices and actions. God used the Prophets to write the history of the Bible and to uphold Gods integrity. All of Israel respected and knew that the Prophets were chosen by God. The Prophets could write the truth without fear of consequences of man. In the ANNE culture if a person wrote something the king didnt like he could be killed. 3. ) A Simplified Understanding of Causation: In the Bible God is responsible for all and God has no rival. God is the only one to answer to and the cause of everything. Humans are personal and at the same time disconnected from God. Everything that a person chooses to do is either in defiance or compliant to God. This makes relationships with humans to God and humans to humans very significant. God wants our obedience and more importantly God wants a relationship with people. That is something that cannot be predetermined. 4. ) Speech as the Mode of Accomplishing Divine Purposes: God chose to communicate to his people by entering the lives of individuals through personal experiences and non-recurring historical events. Since God is not continuous, but separate from this world, one cannot participate in Gods life. Any attempt to do so is forbidden in the Bible as discussed in earlier chapters. So how does a person then participate in the life of God? By that person demonstrating an ethical character and obedience to Gods law, a person receives Gods blessing and approval. God reveals himself through the human important and how it is truthfully documented is extremely significant. That is why documented history is captured. History writing As Myth-Making: ANNE culture used nature to express myth in culture. Did Israel choose another mode for myth and use historical myth to express their faith? The answer is no. In pagan worship idols are made from nature and nature is the gods. All is continuous with each other. There is no separation. With Israel God is not the history rather the history is the people who experience God along the way. This is because God is separate and transcendent. Israel, like the neighboring ANNE, attempted many times to place God in a box to control God. Unlike the recurring continuous pagan gods of the ANNE, God liked to perform miraculous one-time events to keep the people on track. God also used the prophets to constantly remind the people that they were different and God was different. The Hebrew therefore, does not witness faith by retelling a fictional story or by a ritual of drama to recreate an outcome. The Hebrew recites how God intervened with individuals and the nation of Israel that was directed by God through the prophets. Chapter 7: Is The Bible Truly historical? The Problem Of History (l) The Bible is thought by many to contain historical-fiction. Is the Bible history like or is it historical fact? The bigger question is, are biblical accounts history and does it matter? Historians argue that history is accepted only if complete human responsibility for events and outcomes are present. Clearly events and outcomes of the Bible are not only human responsibility. Other historians now believe that history is accepted if the historical writing is for a divine purpose. Human involvement and choice is always involved but divine intervention explains what happened. Since there is no way to document the purpose and true nature of God, we are only left tit speculation. E. G. There is no way to prove biblical accuracy to the events of the exodus. So does that make the Bible a myth or historical fact? History as Revelation: INADEQUACIES: The Bible can be considered as history revelation. That is the interpretations of Gods actions in the Bible are through humans and are flawed but still bear witness to the revelation of God. Revelation Is Not Confined to Divine Action: James Barr argued, the problem with this explanation is that the Bible doesnt distinguish the division between revelation and witness to revelation. If there is a preference then the miracles all disappear and the reports of the events are not valid. If the only access to the events is the witness, then that source isnt trustworthy; there is no truthful access to the acts at all. If history is rooted in faith the history disappears. This argument states there is no revelation in the Bible. The Bible is Just speculation, a vehicle of history writing the Hebrew people chose to use. Divine Action in History Is Not Unique to Israel: Another attack on the uniqueness of the historical revelation of the Bible is that there