Advantages And Disadvantages Of Ocean Freight

Ocean freight is one of the best ways of transporting goods to places around the world. Oceans cover most of the landmass of our planet because of which they provide people with a easy mode of transportation. During the industrial age, ocean freight was the only means of transportation used by the industrialized countries such as England and France. With the advancement of technology, planes started being used to transport goods as they offer people with a faster mode of transporter. Despite the popularity of projects as a means of transportation, the demand for ocean freight has not decreased.

Advantages

The various advantages of ocean freight are as follows:

1. Cost-effective - compared to air freight, ocean freight services of not cost a lot of money. They offer companies with a cost-effective means of shipping all kinds of products. Companies need to make sure that they do not spend a lot of money in shipping the goods they manufacture or export, so that they can reduce their cost of operation. By opting for transportation through ships, they can save a lot of money and reduce their operational cost in the process. This helps them to sell their products to the end-users at very affordable prices, providing them with an edge over their competitors.

2. Ideal for heavy goods - companies that import heavy goods such as automobiles, industrial parts, machineries etc. will not be able to use the services of air freight services as airplanes can not transport such heavy goods. Even if they do, the cost of transportation will be too high and outside the budget for many businesses. This is why, business organizations opt for shipping heavy goods through ocean freight as ships are capable of carrying all kinds of heavy objects. Beside, they will not have to spend a lot of money in the process as well.

3. Environment Friendly - airplanes consume a lot of fuel and in the process, they leave a very large carbon footprint, which is very harmful to the environment. Carbon emission leads to increase in temperature of our planet and disruptions its ecological balance. Ships on the other hand, leave a very small carbon footprint as they do not consume a lot of fuel, in comparison to airplanes. They are very environment friendly and offer companies with an opportunity to transport all kinds of goods, without causing minimum harm to the environment. This helps business organizations to improve their brand image.

Disadvantages

The largest disadvantage of ocean freight is the time taken to ship the products. Many times, business organizations need to provide faster delivery to their clients and during those times, they need to opt for transportation through airplanes as it is the faster than ocean freight. These days, the threat of ships coming under attack by pirates is very high and when the pirates attach cargo ships, they steal the products being transported, resulting in a loss to the companies which use ocean freight for shipping and transportation of goods.

Types of Innovation

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation while innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialization.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as constituting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialization. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercializing those ideas will not be wasted.

Types of Innovation

Tidd et al (2005) argue that there are four types of innovation; consequently the innovator has four pathways to investigate when searching for good ideas:

a) Product Innovation - new products or improvements on products. The new Mini or the updated VX Beetle, new models of mobile phones and so on.

b) Process Innovation - where some part of the process is improved to bring benefit. Just in Time is a good example.

c) Positioning Innovation - Lucozade used to be a medicinal drink but the was repositioned as a sports drink.

d) Paradigm Innovation - where major shifts in thinking cause change. During the time of the expensive mainframe, Bill Gates and others aimed to provide a home computer for everyone.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with an Innovation Bible, Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http: // www .aging-creativity.com /

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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The Value of Depreciating Business Assets

A lot of times when we ask new clients if they know what depreciation is they respond, "Yes it is when your car loses value." While this is one type of depreciation, it is not what depreciation means from a tax stand point. Depreciation in relation to taxes is when a company buys an asset, like a computer, vehicle, building, or equipment, and instead of taking the entire expenditure in the year of purchase, the asset expense is taken over several years.

For example, if you purchased a computer for two thousand dollars, you do not deduct the $ 2,000 right away. You would take a portion of that deduction every year for five years. Thus, the computer is depreciated over five years.

Depreciation is helpful because most businesses have less income and more expenses the first couple of years. Since a business buys the bulk of its equipment at the start of the business, depreciation allows you to extend the discounts to years when the business has more income and needs to take more discounts.

The type of asset you are purchasing determines how many years it is depreciated. The typical years are 3, 5, 7, 15, 27.5 or 39 years. In addition, there is extra depreciation that you may be able to take the first year you purchase an asset. This is the section 179 depreciation. For example, some types of vehicles can be depreciated almost entirely in the first year, and depending on your net income, other equipment can be deducted a hundred percent in the first year. With these types of flexibilities you can strategize when and how much to depreciate to give you the best tax savings possible from year to year.

For example, if you own an established business and are making a large profit and you buy new equipment it may be beneficial to deduct 100% of the equipment that year because it would offset your income. Another example is if you have a large windfall that is not normal every year so you want to take additional depreciation the year you buy some equipment to help offset your gain. Other new business or even established business that do not have a lot of income have the flexibility to take the expense of the equipment over the appropriate amount of years to spread out the expense and benefit from the expense in years when they have higher profits.

Depreciating your assets can be a little tricky. There are many rules and many ways to strategize using those rules. It is important to educate yourself on tax topics like depreciation and consult with a tax professional to make sure you are doing things correctly.

Make Money With Low-Risk Investments

A novice investor would get baffled with the research and market analysis, numbers or choosing from an array of investment options.

To begin with, it would be wise to invest in low-risk, moderate yield and short term options. The disputes earned can be re-invested in other options later. One can avoid high-risk options which can bring high yields, but crash badly if the market falls.

After making a few purchases, one will get the art of choosing a good combination from many investments. This is termed as diversification of funds. One can choose from the following:

Money market fund: safe investment with less than a year for maturity. Money from this fund is invested by the firm in low-risk options. The returns suffer only if the option fares poorly in the market. Mutual fund is used to diversify money in safe securities like Treasury bill, commercial paper, or banker's acceptance.

Treasury bill: a security option floated by the government. It can have maturity term in days, weeks or months. The bill is purchased at a value less than its face value and subsequently redeemed for a higher value at the time of its maturity.

Certificate deposits: money is deposited in banks for a fixed time period at a fixed rate of return. This is a low-risk investment with term varying from few months to 5 years during which money can not be withdrawn.

A small sized capital, patience for long term maturity and learning the tricks of good, diversified investments. These tracks qualify for an investor who will reap high returns by diversifying money in different trading options.

Do Andromes Dream of Electric Sheep? Gender and Postmodernism in the Philip K Dick Novel

Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a complex novel that could be considered postmodernist. To a varying extent, it raises the issue of gender, its structure inevitably exerting a significant influence over how this theme is conveyed.

Dick's novel is open to a variety of interpretations from a range of disciples. However since its emergence in the latter half of the twenty century, it is the ideas that loosely revolve around the banner of 'postmodernism' that have become a popular means to define this novel. On account of its bewildering and diverse complexity however, postmodernism as a movement is very difficult to describe. By the mid-1980s there was an academic shift towards postmodernism, in part as a reaction to modernism, although it could have been viewed as a response to Marxism as well. Whereas Marxism tended to view people collectively, postmodernism stressed the role of the individual, putting an emphasis on the consideration of a person's gender, race and sexual orientation, subjects that are apparent in Dick's novels.

Several prominent thinkers have heightened certain stresses that they believe characterize the postmodern. Jean-Francois Lyotard stresses postmodernism's skepticism regarding metanarratives. A metanarrative is an ideological structure that grants the legitimacy of certain actions, examples include Christianity, science, feminism and Marxism. Marxism as a metanarrative would view the historical overthrow of capitalism by the proletariat - however capitalism's resiliency justifies postmodernist skepticism with the metanarrative of Marxism. It is ironic however that this distrust of metanarratives could have been considered in itself a metanarrative. Fredric Jameson defines postmodernism as the outcome of an age of post-industrial capitalism, with multinational corporations now beyond the control of national Governments. Jean Baudrillard meanwhile discussed the way in which image has come to dominate over substance. He highlights the pollution of the real by the 'simulacrum', the copy with no original.

The ideas of Lyotard, Jameson and Baudrillard all feature within the narrative of Do Andrs Dream of Electric Sheep? Lyotard characterizes postmodernism by a mood of uncertainty and doubt, a mood which pervades Dick's novel, escalating as the story continues, and sometimes climaxing at the revelation that the supposedly Divine Mercer was just some drunken bit actor. Jameson's ideas on the predominance of multinational corporations are apparent in the Western and Soviet governments' incapacity to legislate against the Rosen Association. The androids - Roy, Irmgard, Max, Luba, Pris and Rachael - could be seen as Baudrillardian simulacra, copies without originals, and these might distract us from appreciating the human characters, such as Rick, Iran, Phil and John.

There is a pressing ambivalence between the real and the unreal in Dick's novel, evident in the notification that the central theme of Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? is an exploration of the response of an individual to the universe in which he must live. Unable to remain whole, the protagonist Rick Deckard splits and occupations the schizoid half of his divided self, operating instead like a machine through the denial of his emotions, as if he were an android, while his schizoid self responds emotionally to his environment, yet still experiences intense anxiety.

In relation to this figurative 'splitting' of character, several other inhabitants of Dick's novel, including the androids, are described as being doubles for various facets of Rick Deckard's personality. From an economic basis, Rick is shown to be the breadwinner in his relationship and his partner, Iran, is portrayed as a housewife. However, in terms of any possible difference between masculinity and femininity in the novel, it is more fruitful to look at the relationship between Rick, the government assassin of androids (and presumably the story's hero) and the android opera singer Luba Luft. Rick begins to question his own humanity when confronted by Luba, who points out that in his remorseless killing of androids, he himself could have considered an android, especially how he believes that the refining quality of an android is lacking of empathy, '"Then , "Miss Luft said," you must be an android "'(p.86). In contrast to Rick, Luba is depicted as gentle and artistic - she sings Mozart beautifully and has a fondness for Edvard Munch, 'Luba Luft ... stood absorbed in the picture before her' (p.113). Luba is murdered by Rick and Phil Resch, another assassin who also represents a facet of Rick's character. The protagonist initially presumes that Resch is an android as he has encountered an individual with a complete lack of empathy. The irony however is that Resch is actually human.

One quality Do Dooms Dream of Electric Sheep? possesses is that it does not present any overriding opinion. Dick's reliance on literary doubling and heavy use of metaphor is extremely mean that it is very difficult to identify any superseding assertion in his novel, certainly one relating to gender, which as a theme is somewhat marginalized in the novel. In this case, masculinity is better understood if it is juxtaposed with its polar opposite, femininity. In Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? the character of Rick Deckard appears to draw on a very particular masculine image, although due to the metaphoric dividing of his personality, and its various manifestations in other individuals throughout the book, it is difficult to arrive at any definitive statements on Dick's part in regards to gender.

An Open Letter To Weis Markets

I have discovered that there are many little things that make moving to a new home a rich experience. Simple changes such as finding a new place to get your groceries can be an amazing journey of discovery. This was the case for me when we moved just far enough away from my favorite grocer to require a back up store closer to my new home. Welcome to Weis Markets.

My welcome to Weis was an unforgettable experience. As I stepped out of my car for
that first visit and my foot touched the parking lot it landed in chewing gum. Gum in
a parking lot can really happen to any business, but this lot looked grimi. I guess
with 157 stores though, that is a "lot" of parking lots to keep up with, and I am sure
that Weis is too busy to care about one customer with gum on their shoes.

On my first and subsequent visits, I was amazed to find that all but one of the
cashiers were bagging or teaching customers how to use the self-service scanning
devices at every register coercing any customers not willing to wait for the one and
only human cashier to check out their groceries themselves. I even asked a manager
about this, but was told they could not find enough employees. I was really curious
about the ones that were already working there, but this did not seem to go
anywhere with the manager who seemed to have more important things to do than
talk to customers. Perhaps I am old fashioned, but having a human at a register is
one of the last few services left that I am ready to give up.

So, I wait in the long line with the one human who is paid to run the register. Opps,
Can you help me? I forgot my "Weis Store Card." What? You can not ring it on a
generic store card like my favorite old store use to do for me? I have to wait in line
at customer service so they can look it up? You can not even call them on your phone
for me? Oh, you do not have a phone at your register, do you? Gee that makes it a bit
hard to help customers does not it?

As I wait for ten minutes in the "Customer Service line" staffed by one frazzled
employee, who is providing a whole host of services, I realize that 9000 employees
is far too many to train and besides they will not work for Weis long enough to make
the investment in training worthwhile. What does it matter if you choose loose customers
like me who drop an average of $ 120 per weekly visit into the one register staffed
by a human. Who cares if I refuse, even in an emergency, to go to Weis and instead
drive 12-15 minutes to the Oregon Dairy, where there are always humans who will
ring me up on the "store card" and go out of their way to help me. Once they even
sent me home with several bags of groceries and an IOU when I forgot to make a
deposit and my bank card came up insufficient funds !! How does the Oregon Dairy
do it anyway? They are a single store operation but charge the same prices as Weis
and can actually afford to staff all those registrants with humans? And where do they
find all those employees just 15 minutes away? Something sure is fishy here. It must
be the shrimp sale at the Oregon Dairy. I think I will stop by seafood and pick up a
few pounds.

Magic Formula Investing to Improve Financial Returns

Magic formula investing is an effective investment method outlined by Joel Greenblatt. This technique helps to make good money within short investment period. This investment became more popular in 2009 because of its unique features and procedures. There are certain facts that need to be considered before investing in magic formula investment program.

First, all the credit card debts need to be cleared before starting this program. Higher interest rates debts and auto loan should be cleared. This formula helps to get the benefit of constant return from the investment and all the procedures are mostly based on value investment techniques. Also, this investment plan is well enhanced with different trading amounts.

Second, before implementing this program, if a person wants to fund their account, then they should create an emergency account themselves. This emergency cash funds are very helpful during unpredictable expenses such as auto repairs or medical expenses. Also, emergency account serves as a great tool to evaluate the monthly expenses.

This formula depends on many important components, but building and maintaining the right investment portfolio is the critical component. The steps for building the right portfolio are choosing stocks with minimum market capitalization of about $ 50 million or more, exclude stocks of financial and utility companies, and exclude stocks of foreign organizations.

Selecting the right stocks with minimal market capitalization can be easily realized by following few steps. First, company's annual earnings yield and return on invested capital need to be determined. The stocks should be chosen by ranking them to find stocks that are above market capitalization threshold. The ranking can be done based on return on capital and earning yields per year.

Then, one can invest in stocks that are in 20 to 30 rankings in the list. In addition, the stock's performance should be analyzed in twelve months time-frame. The highest performing stocks start accumulating 2 to 3 positions monthly in a year. Every year the portfolio requires re-balancing and this inclusion selling poor performing stocks and sometimes even high performing stocks.

Poor performance stock need to be sold before one week of the one year mark and the high performance stocks can be sold after one week from the one year mark. By systematically following these methods for about 3 to 5 years, one could easily enjoy the benefit from this investment technique. This investing method is the best turnover strategy and it is very simple to understand. This strategy is totally logical, simple, straightforward, and gives exceptional out-performance.