Pros and Cons of Horizontal and Vertical Analysis Essay

Pros and Cons of Horizontal and Vertical Analysis - Essay Example The above table presents the horizontal analysis of Nike for the three quarters such as Q2, Q3 and Q4 ending November 2012, February 2013 and May 2013. In the horizontal analysis, each line item of income statement is divided by the total revenues figure in order to check the percentage of that line item with respect to sales. If cost of sales of Nike is considered, it can be observed that it has remained quite consistent in all the three quarters and remained around 56% of sales (Nike Inc., 2013). Accordingly, the gross profit margin of the company is around 44%. Nike incurs substantial expenditure over its demand creation activities such that this expenditure covers around 10% of sales every quarter. As far as operating overheads of the company are concerned, the company absorbs the expenditures at around 20% of sales level which remained consistent in previous three quarters. Similarly, selling and administrative expenses of the company are around 30% of the turnover of in each of the three quarters. Other incomes and interest incomes are nearly negligible such that they do not even constitute to 1% sales level. Income before taxes has been improved by 2% in third and fourth quarter as compared to second quarter. Income tax expenditure of the company is also improving, i.e. showing a very minute decline on quarter-level percentages. Net income of the company has increased to double figures especially in third and fourth quarter. Overall, from the horizontal analysis of income statement of Nike, it is quite evident that the company has performed well and maintained consistent percentages of sales in the last three quarters. Vertical Analysis – Balance Sheet    May-13    Feb-13    Nov-12 ASSETS    Current assets: $ in million % change $ in million % change $ in million Cash and equivalents 3,337 30.50% 2,557 11.61% 2,291 Short-term investments 2,628 76.97% 1,485 20.34% 1,234 Accounts receivable, net 3,117 -3.56% 3,232 1.38% 3,188 Inventories 3,4 34 3.15% 3,329 0.33% 3,318 Deferred income taxes 308 12.00% 275 -15.90% 327 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 802 -9.07% 882 20.33% 733 Assets of discontinued operations 0 -100.00% 29 -91.57% 344 Total current assets 13,626 15.58% 11,789 3.10% 11,435 Property, plant and equipment 5,500 2.42% 5,370 1.13% 5,310 Less accumulated depreciation -3,048 -1.99% -3,110 1.90% -3,052 Property, plant and equipment, net 2,452 8.50% 2,260 0.09% 2,258 Identifiable intangible assets, net 382 1.60% 376 0.53% 374 Goodwill 131 0.00% 131 0.00% 131 Deferred income taxes and other assets 993 -6.23% 1,059 8.84% 973 TOTAL ASSETS 17,584 12.61% 15,615 2.93% 15,171

A situation where your INTERVIEW and ASSESMENT skills, or those of a Essay

A situation where your INTERVIEW and ASSESMENT skills, or those of a nursing colleague, were integral in identifying a patient problem - Essay Example This was a clear indication that the patient had side effects from the vaccine. This got me ruling out Schizophrenia disease. A child that has immunization and had fever among other symptoms showed that the vaccine had set off damage to pre-disposed mitochondrial disorder (Fredericks, 2008).This was an autistic-like feature. I had to diagnose the patient again to look deeper into the potential disease. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms mimicked autism but patient suffering from OCD developed communication skills. Autism is common disease that occurs to children that affects the neurological system of the body (Fredericks, 2008). It could be stereotyped by difficulties in expressing oneself verbally and non-verbally, lack of motivation, lack of enjoyment, repetitive behavior such as rolling of the head, lack of empathy, self-injury like self-pinching and unusual social development are among the common symptoms of Autism. Autism patient have some remarkably, complex, strong unusual abilities whereby an individual has strong memorizing skills and other rare extraordinary

Acids and Alkalis Lab Report Essay Example for Free

Acids and Alkalis Lab Report Essay An acid is a group of chemicals. Acids are positively charged ions, they are liquid and are solutions of pure compounds in water. If you want to know if something is an acid, you can test it by using litmus paper. Acids will turn litmus paper red, whilst alkalis will turn it blue. Alkalis are negatively charged ions and are usually solid. Aim:To find out how much of different acids is needed to neutralize 25mls of sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH). Hypothesis:The strongest alkali will need the smallest amount of an acid to cancel out and the weakest will need more acid. Variables: Control| Independent| Dependent| The indicator, NaOH| H2SO4 HClHNO3| The chemical reaction between the acids and alkali. | Materials / Apparatus: * H2SO4 * HCL * HNO3 * Alkali (NaOH) * Stand * Burette * Beaker * Funnel * Bunsen Burner * Crucible * Phenolphyalein Method: 1. Pour the 25 ml of NaOH into a beaker. 2. Drop three drops of phenolphyalein into the beaker. 3. The solution will now turn pink. . Through a funnel, pour the acid into the burette. Start dripping a few drops one by one into the beaker. 6. The solution will start getting a lighter shade of pink. 7. Stir the beaker around. 8. Once the solution turns clear, stop adding more acid. 9. Calculate the amount of acid used. 10. Take the solution and pour a bit of it into a crucible. 11. Light the Bunsen burner. 12. The salt solution will turn into salt crystals when it is heated. NaOH + HCl = NaCl + H2O NaOH + HNO3 = NaNO3 NaOH + H2SO4 = Na2SO4 + 2H2O Observations: Alkali| Acid| Moles| Observation| NaOH| HCL| 1 Mole| Took 4 ml to neutralize. No further experiment was made. | NaOH| HCL| 0. 1 Mole| Took 31 ml to neutralize. 2. 30 minutes until pink salt crystals were formed. | NaOH| HNO3| 1 Mole| Took 19. 2 ml to neutralize. 2 minutes until good white salt crystals were formed. | NaOH| H2SO4| 2 Moles| Took 1. 1 ml to neutralize. 2. 15 minutes until rings of white salt were formed. | Analysis: The weakest acid (HCl 0. 1 Mole) needed the most alkali to be made into salt and the strongest (H2SO4 2 Moles) needed the least. Different experiments made different salts. Conclusion: The strongest acid will work faster and you will need less. This is because it is a lot more reactive than the weaker acids and it will want to react much faster with the alkali. Evaluation: In my group, Zuzanna and I were the ones doing the experiment while everyone else observed and took notes on what happened. The first time, we dropped one too many drops of H2SO4 in the alkali so the alkali quickly turned pink again. We had to try it six times before we could get it right because we kept putting too much in or we would forget how much we put in. But after a few tries we finally got it to work and we got the correct solution. Therefore we could finally go on to the next step and heat up the solution. It took our salt around 2 minutes and 15 seconds to heat up, evaporate and leave us with small rings of white salt crystals. Our salt crystals did not turn out as the best, but they were successful.

Gordon Gekko Character Analysis

Gordon Gekko Character Analysis The paper will describe a character, Gordon Gekko from Wall Street (Edwin Stone, 1987) from a psychoanalytic perspective of Dr. Sigmund Freud. This paper will pair several quotes of Gordon Gekko with the appropriate perceived diagnosed disorder. In particular, this will illustrate Gekkos two personality disorders: Antisocial Personality Disorder and the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The paper will conclude by summarizing these faults and then present an opinion of how well these theories describe the person in question. Psychoanalysis of Gordon Gekko Bud Fox, a stockbroker has been relentless in arranging a meeting with his hero Gordon Gekko. He has called his office, every day, for over a month, but his attempts have failed miserably. He notices that it is Gordons birthday and as a final effort to get to the man he admires he pays a visit to Gordons offices in Manhattan. Armed with a box of the finest and most expensive Cuban cigars Bud makes his way to the receptionist. She returns after delivering the cigars and has Bud take a seat. After an hour has passed, she tells Bud he has five minutes with Mr. Gekko. His persistence and desperation to get to the top and work with the person he admires has now come down to this moment. As Bud walks into the office, he notices it is everything he could have imagined. The furniture, latest computer systems and view of downtown Manhattan give him a taste of the life he so desperately wants. Gordon positioned behind his desk is talking on the phone as Bud is admiring his surroundings. Gordon finally acknowledges Bud and asks him his intentions. Bud is there to pitch stocks to Gordon in hopes of landing him as a client, but quickly realizes he is not prepared as Gordon constantly calls his recommendations crap and is unimpressed. He finally tells Bud to give him something or get out. Knowing that he is losing his opportunity, Bud gives Gordon insider information on a stock that he received from his father the day before on an airline business his father works for. Gordon has Bud leave with the understanding he will think about it. Later that day Gordon calls Bud and places an order for the stock. After doing research on Bud, Gordon understands how Bud became aware of the insider information. He is impressed with the move and takes Bud under his wing, but challenges him to find new information at all costs on future stock deals and hostile takeovers. He tells Bud his five hundred dollar suits are not up to par and to invest in new ones. As more inside deals go through, Gordon takes Bud further into his world. The relationship deepens as Bud enjoys the perks and lifestyle he is creating by working for Gordon. Bud becomes wealthy, moves into an apartment, nicer office and gets the woman of his dreams. All of this was obtained through dealings with Gordon, and Mr. Gekko reminds him who the superior man is every step of the way. The relationship takes a turn for the worse when Bud finds out that Gordon is now using the same unethical business practices with his fathers airline company. Bud decides to manipulate the stock in order to push Gordon to sell instead of buy. Even though he knows that by doing this, he will lose everything. After realizing he was played, Gordon confronts Bud in Central Park, and both physically and verbally assaults him. Gordon lets Bud know that he is still the most powerful man on Wall Street, and he is now relegated to nothing. Using Freuds psychoanalytical approach and the incorporation of which therapeutic approach should be employed in concern to the psychoanalysis of Gordon Gekko from the film Wall Street (Edwin Stone, 1987) will be twofold: 1) diagnosis, and 2) practical therapy. First, point out the evident faults; next, create a conscious awareness of these faults and determine a means by which to work around these obstacles. Dr. Sigmund Freuds psychoanalytical approach is fundamentally set around human behaviors and the unconscious. He believes humans are somehow driven by instincts and these all originate in the unconscious (Ridgeway, 2007). Based upon that, from A Glossary of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts (Moore, 1967), here are the three applications of Psychoanalysis: a method of investigation of the mind and the way one thinks; a systematized set of theories about human behavior; method of treatment of psychological or emotional illness. With this in mind, Gordon Gekko is now set to experience Dr. Sigmund Freuds psychoanalytical approach. From the following quote within the film a duality of psychoanalytical constituents becomes evident: In the last seven deals that Ive been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms: greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind Gordon Gekko, (Edwin Stone, 1987) From the view of the capitalistic mindset, this quote brings two rather evident perspectives together: it takes that perspective of the individual, the independent laborer who must make the utmost priority in watching out for the I, and then straddles that thin line between the better benefit of the group. Humans are social; we only benefit optimally by working together; humans benefit only through interactions with other humans; humans need humans to build such fortresses and provide for those 2.5 million corporate stockholders, right along with all companies and businesses in general. However, Gekko solely advocates the view of the individual while complete disregard to that of any collaborative effort. This is a red-flag to signal psychological disorders. A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders -Gordon Gekko, (Edwin Stone, 1987). Lets start with the most apparent, Antisocial Sociopath Disorder. This illustrates certainly no regard for the concerns of others; people with this affliction will do anything to acquire self-satisfaction and feelings of self-entitlement with no respect for how their actions affect any other person. An antisocial sociopath is utterly indifferent to others around him or her. This person operates under a regime totally unfamiliar to social behaviors, including lying, cheating, and stealing. The conduct of these people goes well beyond any social norm of acceptable behavior, and purely in order to get ahead. Personality disorders typically begin in childhood, and then progress over time into rigid personality traits, obstructing social abilities and acceptable functioning when relating to other people. However, everyone can un derstand and recognize selfish behaviors, even selfish behavioral patterns, but this does not indicate that a person is becoming, has become, or may become an antisocial sociopath; one with this disorder can identify symptoms from childhood. Surely Gordon Gekko carried this affliction from an extremely early age, too. Greed is good -Gordon Gekko, (Edwin Stone, 1987). Like a puppet, greed in this situation pulls the strings motivating Gordon Gekko to operate by this tunnel focus. Yes, this personality disorder is prevalent in what we commonly perceive as spiteful, calculative, and manipulative materialists. Another feature shared by Gekko, particularly the greedy antisocial sociopathic feature of this character, rests in his complete lack of self-identification; antisocial sociopaths bring a sense of self-denial of any of this self-absorption. As much a paradox that this seems, due to the self-sacrifice he perceives because of self-denial, Gekko is so consumed in the self that he executes all his decisions with a complete lack of self-identification. Again, the antisocial sociopath disorder is the most apparent disorder of this character. In detailing how Gordon Gekko portrays the Antisocial Sociopathic qualities, Dr. Robbins conveys these characteristics: Antisocial Personality Disorder: These people generally have no regard for the rights of others; they are exploitative, they see themselves as better or superior, and are very opportunistic. They are deceitful, steal from people around them, and often have trouble with the law. They frequently engage in fraudulent activities, make very good scam artists, and tend to be irritable and impulsive. They often come in as a savior for a church, for example, and end up stealing everything. They have no remorse. Conduct disorder as a child often morphs into antisocial personality disorder. Examples include the Mafia Dapper Don John Gotti, or Tony Soprano in The Sopranos. TV shows such as Dateline or 20/20 are replete with stories revolving around antisocial personality disorders (Robbins, 2005). Gekko also displays features of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Understood and commonly underplayed as vanity or conceit, this personality disorder, dictates that the narcissist is right, while everyone else is wrong. If an object, ideal, occasion, etc., do not benefit the narcissist, then it is of no worth. We can all think of people who fit this ideal. We all bring these traits to the table, but the difference between a person with either of these clinical disorders and the rest of the normal crowd is that we identify these traits; any person with this clinical disorder cannot. In a nutshell, let us allow Dr. Lawrence Robbins to provide another bit of enlightenment: Narcissistic Personality Disorder: This is less common, and the people see themselves as being above others, they are grandiose, have a lack of empathy, and they feel self-important. There is a true sense of entitlement. They may be extremely vain and constantly require admiration. They are envious, arrogant, exp loitative, and can be very angry. Examples include General George Patton, Nicole Kidmans character in the movie To Die For, Michael Douglas character, Gordon Gekko, in the movie Wall Street, Kelsey Grammers character in Frazier, and the Chief of Medicine, Dr. Robert Romano on the TV show ER (Robbins, 2005). The applicable approach of Psychoanalytic therapy is to allow access to the unconscious. The treatment process can, at times, become blocked by the clients resistance (their unwillingness to provide information). Transference is a condition in which the client begins to consider their therapist in the same emotional way they would consider a person in their lives, such as a parent or sibling. Working with interpretation, resistance, and transference is sometimes called working through, a therapeutic technique in which the therapist helps the client better understand their conflicts and how to resolve them (Depression Guide, 2005). If Gordon Gekko had become a patient of Dr. Freuds I can only guess there would have been a considerable amount of time spent with free association in order to discuss child hood events, dreams or trauma that were repressed in the unconscious. Freud believed being greedy was natural, that we are born with it. He believed the unconscious was a place that consisted of unthinkable wishes and drives that needed to be socialized. Dr. Freud believed that we progressed through psychosexual stages as we grew from child to adult, and greed could be expressed in each of the stages. If you look at these stages it is easy to see where we could associate greed with each one. Oral greed could be in the form of a biting hunger-perhaps the kind that Gekko, who built his companys strategy around chewing up other companies, displayed. Gordon could have expressed anal greed either by keeping all of his money which he did in offshore bank accounts or by spending all of it on the finer things in life. Fi nally, Gordons business greed came from the ambition that characterizes phallic greed and was displayed by his desire to become the most powerful and wealthiest man on Wall Street.

Highwaymen of the Superhighway Essay -- Media

The internet is an unregulated and chaotic environment that is only loosely governed by social norms that have been established by the more well-respected users leading the rest over many years. The anonymity of these billions of users allows them to break these rules and conventions with little risk of negative consequence. One of the biggest problems that stems from this is the pirating of media. Internet pirates will make media such as movies, television shows, and music available on websites such as The Pirate Bay, where users can download this content this free. This system takes money away from creators and designers and gives it to the advertisers on pirating websites. There are two reasons that people pirate media: either the content they want is too expensive, or more likely, the content they want is unavailable or too hard to obtain. Often pirating is not a malicious act, but simply an easy way for users to gain access to things that Hollywood has made difficult to acquire. An example of this being the popular HBO series, â€Å"Game of Thrones.† For a long time, fans of this show were unable to buy the show’s first season because it was not on popular paid services including Netflix, iTunes, and Amazon. However, the first season was available to be downloaded for free on multiple pirating websites. Situations like this have created millions of pirates, accounting for billions of illegal downloads a day in music alone (a monstrous 95% of music downloads) (Swash). The problem of pirating is global and the government fears the intervention of foreign websites with malicious intent. The interconnected design of the internet puts all users at risk, even those who do not pirate. Many internet pirates justify their actions with ... ...ir own. With a system like the IDA, the internet can be made into a much safer place for everyone and calm the worries of the media industry. Hopefully the government will be able to regain the trust of the public and pass appropriate legislation that targets the true criminals.  Works Cited Newman, Jared. "SOPA and PIPA: Just the Facts." PCWorld. PCWorld, n.d. Web. 20 May 2012. Null, Christopher. "The 50 Most Important People on the Web." PCWorld. PCWorld, 5 Mar. 2007. Web. 21 May 2012. Potter, Ned. â€Å"SOPA Blackout: Wikipedia, Google, Wired Protest ‘Internet Censorship’† ABC News. ABC News, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 May 2012. "Solutions For Government And The Public Sector." IBM Internet Security Systems. IMB., n.d. Web. 21 May. 2012. Swash, Rosie. "Online piracy: 95% of music downloads are illegal." The Guardian. The Guardian, 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 20 May 2012. Highwaymen of the Superhighway Essay -- Media The internet is an unregulated and chaotic environment that is only loosely governed by social norms that have been established by the more well-respected users leading the rest over many years. The anonymity of these billions of users allows them to break these rules and conventions with little risk of negative consequence. One of the biggest problems that stems from this is the pirating of media. Internet pirates will make media such as movies, television shows, and music available on websites such as The Pirate Bay, where users can download this content this free. This system takes money away from creators and designers and gives it to the advertisers on pirating websites. There are two reasons that people pirate media: either the content they want is too expensive, or more likely, the content they want is unavailable or too hard to obtain. Often pirating is not a malicious act, but simply an easy way for users to gain access to things that Hollywood has made difficult to acquire. An example of this being the popular HBO series, â€Å"Game of Thrones.† For a long time, fans of this show were unable to buy the show’s first season because it was not on popular paid services including Netflix, iTunes, and Amazon. However, the first season was available to be downloaded for free on multiple pirating websites. Situations like this have created millions of pirates, accounting for billions of illegal downloads a day in music alone (a monstrous 95% of music downloads) (Swash). The problem of pirating is global and the government fears the intervention of foreign websites with malicious intent. The interconnected design of the internet puts all users at risk, even those who do not pirate. Many internet pirates justify their actions with ... ...ir own. With a system like the IDA, the internet can be made into a much safer place for everyone and calm the worries of the media industry. Hopefully the government will be able to regain the trust of the public and pass appropriate legislation that targets the true criminals.  Works Cited Newman, Jared. "SOPA and PIPA: Just the Facts." PCWorld. PCWorld, n.d. Web. 20 May 2012. Null, Christopher. "The 50 Most Important People on the Web." PCWorld. PCWorld, 5 Mar. 2007. Web. 21 May 2012. Potter, Ned. â€Å"SOPA Blackout: Wikipedia, Google, Wired Protest ‘Internet Censorship’† ABC News. ABC News, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 May 2012. "Solutions For Government And The Public Sector." IBM Internet Security Systems. IMB., n.d. Web. 21 May. 2012. Swash, Rosie. "Online piracy: 95% of music downloads are illegal." The Guardian. The Guardian, 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 20 May 2012.

Responces To Hunger :: essays research papers

Although hunger and starvation are prevalent in our nation, Americans have turned their backs to this problem. We have turned our backs because we have been conditioned and desensitized by the media, to the issue of hunger.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Classical conditioning is “the process by which a stimulus acquires the capacity to elicit a response through association with a stimulus that already elicits a similar or related response.'; Classical conditioning is like the famous case of Pavlov’s dogs that we learned about in Psychology 101: The dogs learn to associate the ringing of the bell with food, and, once conditioned, the dogs could not hear the bell without salivating.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Japanese were masters at using classical conditioning with their solders. Early in World War II, Chinese prisoners were placed in a ditch on their knees with their hands bound behind them. And one by one, a select few Japanese soldiers would go into the ditch and bayonet “their'; prisoners to death. Up on the bank, countless other young soldiers would cheer them on in their violence. Comparatively few soldiers actually killed in these situations, but by making the others watch and cheer, the Japanese were able to use these kinds of atrocities to classically condition a very large audience to associate pleasure with human death and suffering. Immediately afterwards, the soldiers who had been spectators were treated to sake, the best meal they had in months, and so-called comfort girls. The result? They learned to associate committing violent acts with pleasure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are also some clear-cut examples of classical conditioning established by the media today. Our culture watches vivid pictures of human suffering and death, and we learn to associate it with our favorite soft drink and candy bar, or our girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s perfume/cologne. This occurs at the movies or even at home watching TV we laugh and cheer and keep right on eating popcorn and drinking pop while in front of us are images of death. We are in a generation where we have learned to associate the media with pleasure. So it is no surprise that when we view starving people in the world we are not startled, or very upset by the images displayed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Operant conditioning is the process by which a response becomes more or less likely to occur, depending on its consequence. Children, of course cry for many valid reasons; pain, discomfort, fear, illness, fatigue and their cries deserve an adult’s sympathy and attention.

Comment The Five Minds of a Manager Essay

The Five Minds of a Manager the five aspects of the managerial mind—has proved not only powerful in the classroom but insightful in practice, as we hope to demonstrate in this article. We’ll first explain how we came up with the five managerial mind-sets, then we’ll discuss each in some depth before concluding with the case for interweaving the five. The Five Managerial Mind-Sets Jonathan Gosling is the director of the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter in Exeter, England. Henry Mintzberg is the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal and the author of the forthcoming book Managers Not MBAs from Berrett-Koehler. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, headquartered in Geneva, has a management development concern. It worries that it may be drifting too far toward a fast-action culture. It knows that it must act quickly in responding to disasters everywhere—earthquakes and wars, floods and famines—but it also sees the need to engage in the slower, more delicate task of building a capacity for action that is careful, thoughtful, and tailored to local conditions and needs. Many business organizations face a similar problem—they know how to execute, but they are not so adept at stepping back to reflect on their situations. Others face the opposite predicament: They get so mired in thinking about their problems that they can’t get things done fast enough. We all know bureaucracies that are great at planning and organizing but slow to respond to market forces, just as we’re all acquainted with the nimble companies that react to every stimulus, but sloppily, and have to be constantly fixing things. And then, of course, there are those that suffer from both afflictions—for example, firms whose marketing departments are absorbed with grand positioning statements while their sales forces chase every possible deal. Those two aspects establish the bounds of management: Everything that every effective manager does is sandwiched between action on the ground and reflection in the abstract. Action without reflection is thoughtless; reflection without action is passive. Every manager has to find a way to combine these two mindsets—to function at the point where reflective thinking meets practical doing. But action and reflection about what? One obvious answer is: about collaboration, about getting things done cooperatively with other people—in negotiations, for example, where a manager cannot act alone. Another answer is that action, reflection, and collaboration have to be rooted in a deep appreciation of reality harvard business review †¢ november 2003 in all its facets. We call this mind-set worldly, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as â€Å"experienced in life, sophisticated, practical. † Finally, action, reflection, and collaboration, as well as worldliness, must subscribe to a certain rationality or logic; they rely on an analytic mind-set, too. So we have five sets of the managerial mind, five ways in which managers interpret and deal with the world around them. Each has a dominant subject, or target, of its own. For reflection, the subject is the self; there can be no insight without self-knowledge. Collaboration takes the subject beyond the self, into the manager’s network of relationships. Analysis goes a step beyond that, to the organization; organizations depend on the systematic decomposition of activities, and that’s what analysis is all about. Beyond the organization lies what we consider the subject of the worldly mind-set, namely context—the worlds around the organization. Finally, the action mind-set pulls everything together through the process of change—in self, relationships, organization, and context. The practice of managing, then, involves five perspectives, which correspond to the five modules of our program: †¢ Managing self: the reflective mind-set †¢ Managing organizations: the analytic mind-set †¢ Managing context: the worldly mind-set †¢ Managing relationships: the collaborative mind-set †¢ Managing change: the action mind-set If you are a manager, this is your world! Let us make clear several characteristics of this set of sets. First, we make no claim that our framework is either scientific or comprehensive. It simply has proved useful in our work with managers, including in our master’s program. (For more on the program, see the sidebar â€Å"Mind-Sets for Management Development. †) Second, we ask you to consider each of these managerial mind-sets as an attitude, a frame of mind that opens new vistas. Unless you get into a reflective frame of mind, for example, you cannot open yourself to new ideas. You might not even notice such ideas in the first place without a worldly frame of mind. And, of course, you cannot appreciate the buzz, the vistas, and the opportunities of actions unless you engage in them. Third, a word on our word â€Å"mind-sets. † We page 2 The Five Minds of a Manager do not use it to set any manager’s mind. All of us have had more than enough of that. Rather, we use the word in the spirit of a fortune one of us happened to pull out of a Chinese cookie recently: â€Å"Get your mind set. Confidence will lead you on. † We ask you to get your mind set around five key ideas. Then, not just confidence but coherence can lead you on. Think, too, of these mind-sets as mind-sights—perspectives. But be aware that, improperly used, they can also be mine sites. Too much of any of them—obsessive analyzing or compulsive collaborating, for instance—and the mind-set can blow up in your face. Managing Self: The Reflective Mind-Set Managers who are sent off to development courses these days often find themselves being welcomed to â€Å"boot camp. † This is no country club, they are warned; you’ll have to work hard. But this is wrongheaded. While managers certainly don’t need a country club atmosphere for development, neither do they need boot camp. Most managers we know already live boot camp every day. Besides, in real boot camps, soldiers learn to march and obey, not to stop and think. These days, what managers desperately need is to stop and think, to step back and reflect thoughtfully on their experiences. Indeed, in his book Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky makes the interesting point that events, or â€Å"happenings,† become experience only after they have been reflected upon thoughtfully: â€Å"Most people do not accumulate a body of experience. Most people go through life undergoing a series of happenings, which pass through their systems undigested. Happenings become experiences when they are digested, when they are reflected on, related to general patterns, and synthesized. † Unless the meaning is understood, managing is mindless. Hence we take reflection to be that space suspended between experience and explanation, where the mind makes the connections. Imagine yourself in a meeting when someone suddenly erupts with a personal rant. You’re tempted to ignore or dismiss the outburst—you’ve heard, after all, that the person is having problems at home. But why not use it to reflect on your own reaction—whether em- Mind-Sets for Management Development In 1996, when we founded the International Masters Program in Practicing Management with colleagues from around the world, we developed the managerial mind-sets as a new way to structure management education and development. Managers are sent to the IMPM by their companies, preferably in groups of four or five. They stay on the job, coming into our classrooms for five modules of two weeks each, one for each of the mindsets, over a period of 16 months. We open with a module on the reflective mind-set. The module is located at Lancaster University in the reflective atmosphere of northern England—the nearby hills and lakes inspire reflection on the purpose of life and work. Then it is on to McGill University in Montreal, where the grid-like regularity of the city reflects the energy and order of the analytic mind-set. The worldly mind-set on context comes alive at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, where new technologies jostle ancient traditions on the crowded streets. Then comes the collabora- harvard business review †¢ november 2003 tive mind-set, hosted by faculty in Japan, where collaboration has been the key to managerial innovations, and Korea, where alliances and partnerships have become the basis for business growth. Last is the action mind-set module, located at Insead in France, where emerging trends from around the world convert into lessons for managerial action. So our locations not only teach the mindsets but also encourage the participating managers to live them. And so have we, in the very conception of the program. Our approach to management development is fundamentally reflective. We believe managers need to step back from the pressures of their jobs and reflect thoughtfully on their experiences. We as faculty members bring concepts; the participants bring experience. Learning occurs where these meet—in individual heads, small groups, and all together. Our 50-50 rule says that half the classroom time should be turned over to the participants, on their agendas. The program is fully collaborative all around. There is no lead school; much of the organizational responsibility is distributed. Likewise, the faculty’s relationship with the participants is collaborative. And faculty members work closely with the participating companies, which over the past eight years have included Alcan, BT, EDF Group and Gaz de France, Fujitsu, the International Red Cross Federation, LG, Lufthansa, Matsushita, Motorola, Royal Bank of Canada, and Zeneca. We think of our setting as being especially worldly, because the participating managers and faculty host their colleagues at home, in their own cultures, and are guests abroad. We also believe that the program’s reflective orientation allows us to probe into analysis more deeply than in regular education and work. Finally, our own purpose is action: We seek fundamental change in management education worldwide—to help change business schools into true schools of management. page 3 The Five Minds of a Manager These days, what managers desperately need is to stop and think—to step back and reflect thoughtfully on their experiences. barrassment, anger, or frustration—and so recognize some comparable feelings in yourself? Your own reaction now becomes a learning experience for you: You have opened a space for imagination, between your experience and your explanation. It can make all the difference. Organizations may not need â€Å"mirror people,† who see in everything only reflections of their own behavior. But neither do they need â€Å"window people,† who cannot see beyond the images in front of them. They need managers who see both ways—in a sense, ones who look out the window at dawn, to see through their own reflections to the awakening world outside. â€Å"Reflect† in Latin means to refold, which suggests that attention turns inward so that it can be turned outward. This means going beyond introspection. It means looking in so that you can better see out in order to perceive a familiar thing in a different way—a product as a service, maybe, or a customer as a partner. Does that not describe the thinking of the really successful managers, the Andy Groves of the world? Compare such people with the Messiers and Lays, who dazzle with great mergers and grand strategies before burning out their companies. Likewise, reflective managers are able to see behind in order to look ahead. Successful â€Å"visions† are not immaculately conceived; they are painted, stroke by stroke, out of the experiences of the past. Reflective managers, in other words, have a healthy respect for history—not just the grand history of deals and disasters but also the everyday history of all the little actions that make organizations work. Consider in this regard Kofi Annan’s deep personal understanding of the United Nations, a comprehension that has been the source of his ability to help move that complex body to a different and better place. You must appreciate the past if you wish to use the present to get to a better future.