Enterprise Reporting and News Stories

To a good reporter, many stories are obviously important to cover – a house fire, a homicide, an election, a new state budget. But what about those slow news days when breaking news is sparse and there aren’t any interesting press releases worth checking out? Those are the days when good reporters are working on what they call â€Å"enterprise stories.† They’re the kind of stories that many reporters find the most rewarding to do. What Is Enterprise Reporting? Enterprise reporting involves stories not based on press releases or news conferences. Instead, enterprise reporting is all about the stories a reporter digs up on his or her own, what many people call â€Å"scoops.† Enterprise reporting goes beyond merely covering events. It explores the forces shaping those events. For instance, we’ve all heard stories about recalls of faulty and possibly dangerous products related to children like cribs, toys and car seats. But when a team of reporters at the Chicago Tribune looked into such recalls they discovered a pattern of inadequate governmental regulation of such items. Likewise, New York Times reporter Clifford J. Levy did a series of investigative stories that uncovered widespread abuse of mentally ill adults in state-regulated homes. Both the Tribune and Times projects won Pulitzer prizes. Finding Ideas for Enterprise Stories So how can you develop your own enterprise stories? Most reporters will tell you that uncovering such stories involves two key journalistic skills: observation and investigation. Observation Observation, obviously, involves seeing the world around you. But while we all observe things, reporters take observation one step further by using their observations to generate story ideas. In other words, a reporter who sees something interesting almost invariably asks himself, â€Å"could this be a story?† Let’s say you stop at a gas station to fill up your tank. You see the price of a gallon of gas has risen again. Most of us would grumble about it, but a reporter might ask, â€Å"Why is the price rising?† Here’s an even more mundane example: You’re in the grocery store and notice that the background music has changed. The store used to play the kind of sleepy orchestral stuff that probably no one under 70 would enjoy. Now the store is playing pop tunes from the 1980s and 1990s. Again, most of us would take little notice of this, but a good reporter would ask, â€Å"Why did they change the music?† Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, and Trends Notice that both examples involve changes – in the price of gas, in the background music played. Changes are something reporters always look for. A change, after all, is something new, and new developments are what reporters write about. Enterprise reporters also look for changes that occur over time - trends, in other words. Discovering a trend is often a great way to start an enterprise story. Why Ask Why? You’ll notice that both examples involve the reporter asking â€Å"why† something was happening. â€Å"Why† is probably the most important word in any reporter’s vocabulary. A reporter who asks why something is happening is beginning the next step of enterprise reporting: investigation. Investigation Investigation is really just a fancy word for reporting. It involves doing the interviews and digging up the information to develop an enterprise story. An enterprise reporter’s first task is to do some initial reporting to see if there really is an interesting story to be written about (not all interesting observations turn out to be interesting news stories.) The next step is to gather the material needed to produce a solid story. So the reporter investigating the rise in gas prices might discover that a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico has slowed oil production, causing the price spike. And the reporter probing the changing background music might find that it’s all about the fact that the big grocery shoppers these days – parents with growing kids – came of age in the 1980s and 1990s and want to hear music that was popular in their youth. Example: A Story About Underage Drinking Lets take one more example, this one involving a trend. Lets say youre the police reporter in your hometown. Every day youre in police headquarters, checking the arrest log. Over a period of several months, you notice a spike in arrests for underage drinking among students from the local high school. You interview the cops to see if beefed-up enforcement is responsible for the increase. They say no. So you interview the principal of the high school as well as teachers and counselors. You also talk to students and parents and discover that, for a variety of reasons, underage drinking is increasing. So you write a story about the problems of underage drinking and how its on the rise in your hometown. What youve produced is an enterprise story, one not based on a press release or a news conference, but on your own observation and investigation. Enterprise reporting can encompass everything from feature stories (the one about changing background music would probably fit that category) to more serious investigative pieces, like the ones cited above by the Tribune and Times.

My Senior Art Therapy Capstone Class - 1985 Words

My senior art therapy capstone class gave me the tools not only to understand my personal art making process, but the benefits of artistic creation for other individuals as well. Through this final project, I was able to therapeutically process a traumatic event in my life and turn something negative into a positive light. Process-based art therapy highlights the educational and transformative properties of art making and natural creation. My personal style is continuously evolving, but it is often based in collage work or drawing figures with pencil on paper. My artistic style highlights a sense of control and desire to work with traditional mediums. I’ve always worked with pencil and paper or collage because of the ease of access to materials. There were always pencils and printer paper or empty journals for me to draw in no matter where I was. Additionally, I loved to draw people and create my own characters. I draw people because it brings an emotional aspect to my art that makes the drawing seem less static. When drawing different faces, I can create depth and feeling into their eyes that makes the 2 dimensional character seem real. One artist who has always inspired my style is Alphonse Mucha. Mucha’s decorative art featured a variety of women with flowing hair and long billowing dresses. The women in his pieces commanded a sense of power with their brightly colored backgrounds and â€Å"all-knowin g† faces (1). I’d never seen art that depicted women in such a way, notShow MoreRelatedEver since I was a child, I have been drawn to help others less fortunate than myself. Through my1700 Words   |  7 PagesEver since I was a child, I have been drawn to help others less fortunate than myself. Through my years of volunteer and educational experiences, I have discovered a passion for helping children and families. 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Analysis of Outsourcing Practices-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Write a Literature Review on Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Business Functions. Answer: Introduction This section of the research is the key section where the ideas of different authors will be discussed on the topic Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Business Functions. This section contains the secondary data which contains the views and opinions taken from various sources which will help in completing the research successfully. Outsourcing can be referred to the process which is used for reducing the costs of the business operations by transferring the business functions to outsiders rather than completing it internally. Outsourcing has been a topic of discussion from many years and it is often observed that it is used to achieve economies of scale. Different authors have given different views on the concept which will be discussed here as under. Literature Review Scope and Objective The scope of the literature review is wide because Outsourcing is a wide topic which can be discussed thoroughly. The advantages and disadvantages of the outsourcing business functions will be discussed in different business areas and the thoughts of various authors will be discussed on the topic which can cover the benefits harms of outsourcing to the business with the real life examples of the corporate world to make it clearer. The main objective of the project is to identify the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing business functions. This will be done by going through various articles, journals and web sources which provides a clear idea about what different authors think about the same. It also considers that how outsourcing has proved beneficial or failure for the real corporate giants. Comparative analysis According to Krstic and Kahrovic (2015), outsourcing of business functions improves the efficiency of the business and also provides the competitive advantage of the business. The author provides opinion that Outsourcing is now an important tool for the businesses and it provides the competitive advantage to the small or large scale businesses. There are many drivers for outsourcing which includes reduction of costs, savings, reduction in the capital investment, focus on core competence and flexibility. In simple terms, it can be said that it is moving the processes of business from internal service providers to the external service providers in return of fee paid to the service provider. Similar to this, Iqbal Dad (2013) added that the companies discontinue the production facilities of their own and handover these functions to other companies to seek better services, lesser costs and by this they can also pay attention to their core functions. It provides overall global cost advant ages which is a the most important factor for outsourcing the business functions which cannot be ignored. As per the author, there are four reasons which are responsible for outsourcing the business functions. These reasons include improvement in the cash flow, improvement in the payment control, staffing and improvement in the overall business performance (Bajec Jakomin, 2010). As per Manning, Massini Lewin (2008), outsourcing of business function has different views like Transaction- Cost view, Competence- Based view Relational view. The author further adds that the global scenario is changing which is also bringing a change in the process of comp0leting the business functions. Outsourcing is important because it reduces costs and brings economics of scale. In the business, it brings technological advancements in the business and the business is able to access the global talent. Outsourcing helps business to focus on its core competencies and this is how it makes itself capable to provide improved services to the customers which improve the customer relationship. In contrast to that Tayauova (2012) suggested outsourcing can lead to the loss of managerial control from the managerial operations and can also provide threat to the security and confidentiality of the organisations. The disadvantages of the outsourcing of business operations include the hidden costs as well which ultimately increases the cost of the operations and can also create quality problems. The execution of outsourcing is difficult. When an organisation outsources the services, it expects better quality of services from the service provider which sometimes influences the satisfaction level of the service user. In addition to this, Soriano-Meier, Garza-Reyes, Lal Rocha-Lona (2012) views that outsourcing of the business functions creates a fear of leakage of the confidential data of the company. It creates quality issues and problems or can also be slow in providing response. In the opinion of Brcar (2011), Outsourcing of the business functions can ensure the competitiveness of the firm. The author conducts a research by collecting information through survey and finds that outsourcing business functions is a strategic decision which ultimately affects the entire organisation. It is taking advantage of the global markets and the stronger strategies which ensure competitive advantage to the company in the global industries. It is found that outsourcing will increase in future and the areas where it will be used the most will be HR, quality and after sales services. The author concludes that it is increasingly important for the success of the business organisations and this sector of outsourcing will grow in future. According to Troac? Bodislav (2012), outsourcing has evolved in the last two decades and is continuously rising. The author discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the concept of outsourcing. The advantages of the concept are that Outsourcing is the strategic tool use in the business which provides competitive advantage to the business. It helps companies to increase their level of savings from 10 to 15% on the total costs incurred on the processes which is because of the economies of scale. Besides financial advantages, there are other benefits of outsourcing like it helps the business in focussing on the core processes and in accessing the resources. But there are also some of the concerns with Outsourcing like specially when the organisation loses control from its operations and also loses the performance which ultimately affects the image of the firm in the market and reduces the profitability. The results of outsourcing the business functions are not immediate. When a bus iness outsources its business functions, it loses the productivity of its labour because the time spent on the transfer of knowledge to the service provider could have been used in generating services by themselves (Marvin, 2011). In accordance with Sharma Loh (2009), outsourcing is a contributing factor in the success of businesses and in the year 2009, it contributed US $172 billion in the industry. The main drivers of the outsourcing activities like cost efficiency was considered important and it has been found that the multinational companies are taking more part in the outsourcing of services and the developing countries like India and China will be much ahead than they are right now. There will be competition in future in relation to the outsourcing industry. In US, the number of outsourcing companies doubled between 2005 to 2008 and 60% of the companies showed their willingness to expand their current outsourcing services in future. It is also found that smaller companies are more apt for outsourcing their business operations to gain specialisation and expert services on the services. It is seen in the last few years that the labour cost is reducing due to the outsourcing of services and cost saving is the primary motive of any company for outsourcing their business activities (Gotzamani, Longinidis Vouzas, 2010). It was also found that the firms which outsource the services have saved up to 3.5 times more than their actual savings. The affect is different in different industries, like in manufacturing industries, there is no such positive affect is seen on the performance but the lead time of the processes increased because the outsourcing helps the businesses to deal with the supply chain management (Smith, 2012). As per Wang, et al. (2008), around 145 UK and US organisations have been surveyed and among these 56 per cent of the companies did not see any cost reduction benefits while 23% experienced cost benefits in their business. The author suggests that the companies should not underestimate their in-house production capabilities and should only adopt outsourcing facilities if it provides benefits to the business. The survey conducted by the author came to a conclusion that among several UK based companies which took part in survey, 350 companies were pulled out of the outsourcing contract and held of these companies said that the quality of the outsourcing services were poor and remaining half said that there were no cost savings which bought them back to the in-house production facilities. According to Cowley (2004), JP Morgan in the year 2004 have cancelled the outsourcing contract of $5 billion with IBM and hired back the employees who were hired by IBM to process the functions. This shows that JP Morgan decided to start their operations in house instead of outsourcing them to IBM. IN house production facilities bought competitive advantage to the firm. Outsourcing provides swiftness and expertise to the businesses which helps in completing the work faster and helps in giving better output. It also helps in sharing the risks between the service provider and service user. But on the contrary, there are some hidden costs and it also provides risks of leakage of confidential information (Suraju Hamed, 2013). For e.g. there are many success stories of sousing the business activities and also the cases of failure. According to Muzychko (2015), there are many companies which have successfully used outsourcing services and created value in their businesses. For e.g. Procter Gamble is a leading company for fast moving consumer goods which is successful across the world. The company was facing a challenge in the global markets due to rapidly changing market of technology and innovation; the company outsourced its Research and Development activities and it proved to be one of the best decisions of the company. Outsourcing its Research and D evelopment function boosted the innovation activities. By 60 per cent and it created more than $10 billion revenue from its products. Today, more than half of the innovation for the company comes from an external source. On the contrary there are some other real examples of failure of outsourcing of business activities. One of the examples is of Royal bank of Scotland. In June 2012, the software update of RBS failed which left millions of customers unable to access their bank accounts and they were unable to withdraw money from their accounts. Also, the bank was not able to carry n its transactions. The problem was converted huge backlog in the economy and it took several days to clear the mess up. It was all because of the IT vendor which was providing the software services to the bank and the bank did not have any back up plan which created the problems and it became worse. With all these pros and cons discussed, it is advisable that the businesses should consider the type of services which should be outsourced and the benefits and harms related to it. The streams which are commonly outsourcing its services are Information Technology, Outsourcing of legal matters, web designs and recruitment services (Weske, 2012). There should be a consistent communication between both the parties for increasing the overall effectiveness of the outsourcing decisions taken by the company. Also, the long term relationships need to be established in order to maximise the benefits of outsourcing the business functions. The companies can also make a business plan for building an optimum model for outsourcing. It may reduce the costs of outsourcing, capabilities and results of outsourcing the business functions. The improvements in the business functions might enhance more when it is done with proper planning and execution (Chew Gottschalk, 2013). Quality and currency of articles and sources used The quality of the research papers or other sources used for completing the literature review is high in quality which is helpful in conducting the research well. The sources used are supported with genuine references which show that these sources are valid. The references have the details of the author, year of publication, title of the source and from where the source has been taken. All the content which has been mentioned in the assignment is secondary in nature which means that it has been already used before. Currency of Literature Review By currency we mean the publication details of the material which has been used in the literature review. All the sources used in the literature review are recent. The sources used are of the year 2004 and after years. There are some recent researches which focussed on the uses of outsourcing of business functions and also the drawbacks of the business functions. Most of the researches are of the year 2012 and above. It depicts that the information used is not out dated and provides the latest information and views of different authors on the topic which helps in building up clear conclusion on the topic. Gaps identified Research gap is the missing or insufficient information which hampers the conclusions of the research. It also affects the ability of decision-making of the practitioners. It can also be referred to the gap between the existing research and the research to be done. It shows the missing information in the collected data for the research which could have been used to generate the final conclusions. The research conducted above covers the concept of outsourcing and the advantages disadvantages of same for the businesses of today. It has also been covered that how outsourcing has been proved success and failure for different business organisations. The research does not cover the drivers of the outsourcing of business functions and the critical success factors of the same. The ideas of different authors have been compered on the basis of similarities and differences in their views for outsourcing business functions. Conclusion It can be concluded from the literature review that Outsourcing business activities is a strategic tool for the business. It depends on the type of business and its internal capabilities that it needs outsourcing or not. Outsourcing business functions is both beneficial and harmful for the businesses. On one hand it may improve the effectiveness of organisational functions and the decision making and also minimise the business risks. On the other hand, it contains hidden costs and also risks the confidential information of the company. The literature review discusses the real life examples of the businesses which show how outsourcing can be success and failure for the business. Outsourcing business functions brings competitive advantage to the companies. For having benefits from outsourcing the business functions, the companies should consider the risk factors, their outsourcing partners and also the cost of outsourcing and should compare it with the benefits it gets from the same. The comparative analysis will let the company know that whether it should go for outsourcing or should develop in house capabilities References Bajec, P, Jakomin, I 2010, A make-or-buy decision process for outsourcing, PROMET-TrafficTransportation, 22(4), 285-291. Brcar, F 2011, The Perspective of Business Process Outsourcing in Slovenian Organizations, Organizacija, Volume 44. Chew, E, Gottschalk, P 2013, Knowledge Driven Service Innovation and Management: IT Strategies for Business Alignment and Value Creation, IGI Global. Cowley, S 2004, Update: J.P. Morgan cancels $5B IBM outsourcing deal. [Online] Available at: https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/95933/Update_J.P._Morgan_cancels_5B_IBM_outsourcing_dea l. (Accessed 17 August 2017). Garland, A 2015, Five of the biggest outsourcing failures, ITproPortal. Gotzamani K, Longinidis P, Vouzas F 2010, The logistics services outsourcing dilemma: quality management and financial performance perspectives, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 438453. Iqbal, Z Dad, A M 2013, Outsourcing: A Review of Trends, Winners Losers and Future Directions, International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 4 No. 8. Krstic, B. and Kahrovic, E., 2015. Business process outsourcing as a tool for improving enterprise efficiency. Ekonomika, 61(3), p.31. Manning, S, Massini, S Lewin, A Y (2008), A Dynamic Perspective on NextGeneration Offshoring: The global Sourcing of Science and Engineering Talent. Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 22 Issue 3, p35-54. Marvin, K T 2011, Global Trends in Outsourcing and their Impact (Doctoral dissertation, Worcester Polytechnic Institute). Muzychko, A 2015, 5 Successful Stories of Outsourcing, LinkedIn. Sharma, A Loh, P 2009, Emerging Trends in Sourcing of business services. Business Process Management Journal., Vol. 15 No. 2. Smith, A 2012, The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing. Soita, S Gichinga, L 2016, Factors Influencing Strategic Outsourcing Practice in Airline Industry: A Case Study of Kenya Airways, The International Journal Of Business Management, Vol 4 Issue 3. Soriano-Meier, H, Garza-Reyes, J A, Lal, J S Rocha-Lona, L 2012, An Investigation Exploring the Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing the Development of New Products in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry, Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Istanbul, Turkey, July 3 6. Suraju, R Hamed, A B 2013, Outsourcing Services as a Strategic Tool for Organizational Performance: An Exploratory Study of Nigerian Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Industry, Journal of Management Policies and Practices, 1 (1). Tayauova, G, 2012, Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing: analysis of outsourcing practices of Kazakhstan banks, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 41, pp.188-195. Troac?, V Bodislav, D 2012, Outsourcing. The Concept, Theoretical and Applied Economics Volume, XIX (2012), No. 6(571), pp. 51-58. Wang, L, Gwebu, K L, Wang, J Zhu, D X , 2008, The Aftermath of Information Technology Outsourcing: An empirical Study of Firm Performance following outsourcing Decisions. Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 22 Issue 1, p125-159. Weske, M 2012, Business process management concepts, languages, arhitectures, Springer.

Essentials of a Valid Contract free essay sample

To be enforceable by law an agreement must possess the essential elements of a valid contract as laid down by Sec. 10 of Contract Act in the following terms; ‘All agreements are contracts if they are made by the free consent of parties competent to contract, for a lawful consideration and with a lawful object, and are not hereby expressly declared to be void. ’ Following are the conditions for validity of the contract in detail. 1. Offer and Acceptance: There must be an agreement based on a lawful offer made by one party and a lawful acceptance of that offer from the other party. The adjective lawful implies that the offer and acceptance must satisfy the requirements of the Contract Act in relation thereto. 2. Legal Relationship: The parties must have intended their agreement to have legal consequences and legal obligations. Agreements of a social or domestic nature do not contemplate legal relations, and as such they do not give rise to a contract. We will write a custom essay sample on Essentials of a Valid Contract or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 3. Lawful Consideration: Consideration means something in return (quid pro quo). For a valid contract both parties must have provided consideration, i. e. each side must promise to give or do something for other. However, it must be legal, real, harmless and not immoral. 4. Competent Parties: The parties to an agreement must be competent to contract. The contracting parties must be of the age of majority and of sound mind and must not be disqualified by any law to which they are subject. (Section 11) 5. Free Consent: Free consent of all parties is another essential element. Consent means that the parties must have agreed upon same things in the same sense. Consent is said to be free if it is not obtained by coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation or mistake. (Section 14) 6. Lawful Object: Object means ‘the purpose of entering into a contract’. For the formation of a valid contract it is also necessary that the parties to an agreement must agree for a lawful object. According to Sec. 23 the object of an agreement is lawful, if it is Not forbidden by law; Not fraudulent; or Not involves or implies injury to the person or property of another Not regarded immoral by the Court Not opposed to public policy. Not immoral. 7. Not Expressly Declared Void: The agreement must not have been expressly declared to be void under the Act. Sec. 24-30 and Sec56 specifies certain types of expressly declared void agreements: Agreement in restrain of marriage, trade, or legal proceedings. (sec. 26,27,27) Agreement by way of wager. (sec. 30) Agreement to do impossible acts. (sec. 56) Agreement the meaning of which is not certain. (sec. 29) 8. Writing and Registration: The prescribed legal formalities of writing, registration, etc. necessary for the agreement to be enforceable by law must have been observed. It must be in writing, properly attested by witnesses and registered if so required by law. The absence of any of the essentials explained above will not result in a valid contract but a void contract.