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Link between Law, Democracy, and Governement Essay

Connection between Law, Democracy, and Governement - Essay Example Majority rule government doesn't focus on an individual’s feeling. The United States Government, however having republic states in it, the consistent infringement of laws and the battle of the workers appear to have made an unfaithful environment for the representative encompassing. The connection that goes in the middle of law, majority rules system and the administration arrangements centers around an imbalanced circumstance where just least advantages are obvious for the worker network. The overview reports given in a portion of the diaries, magazines and in sites show us the outcomes just as the main drivers for such an imbalanced disposition going in the midst of the legislature and the workers. The general estimation is that the United By and large all types of just government relies upon their acknowledgment of populace be it aggregative or deliberative or participatory. The United State Government centers around its hold, in the sense; less possibility are given to the populace to take a crack at any participatory exercises, for example, requesting their privileges. US follow the Federal Government, which works under the initiative of President, Vice-President, Congress and the Senate. This type of rule is the prevailing characteristic of United States. Each resident is exposed to comply with the three overseeing bodies, for example, [1].The Federal Government, [2]. The State and [3] County. The State Government has its own duties. The occasions occurring inside a concerned state should go under the management of the State it self. The occasions or matters incorporate property guidelines, industry, business, and other open necessities lastly the criminal segment of that specific state. The point of the Federal Government is to take a gander at the State as a republic and simultaneously the State ought not make a move in inconsistency o the standards or laws of the Federal Government. The State Government on the Whole is viewed

Come Say Hola at Atlassian Summit Europe! - Focus

Come Say Hola at Atlassian Summit Europe! - Focus For the first time ever, Atlassian Summit is coming to Europe! We’re excited to say that the MindMeister team will be at Summit Europe this May. You can join us there with our exclusive 20% discount for MindMeister users ?? Summit Europe will take place from 2nd-3rd May in the Gran Via of Fira Barcelona, in you guessed it sunny Barcelona! Summit Europe will be jam-packed with keynotes, breakout sessions, training days and a buzzing Expo hall. Youll also find the MindMeister team in the expo area, where well be manning a booth. Announcing Summit Europe, the Atlassian team gave a taster for what they have in store: “Thousands of active product users will come together to be inspired by industry leaders, build stronger teams, learn about the latest product innovations, and most importantly, have fun.” The MindMeister team will be there to meet and greet you  while showcasing our integration with Atlassian’s Confluence tool, which allows users to embed mind maps straight into their Confluence pages. To celebrate the partnership, we’re offering MindMeister users a 20% discount on the price of their Atlassian Summit Full Conference Pass, usually €999. Claim a  20% discount on your pass with our code: MEISTER05DISC To claim the discount, simply register for the conference via the Summit Europe website and select the Summit Only pass. There’ll be a field to enter the discount code at step 4 of the registration process. Register for Summit Europe If you’re heading to the conference, or have any questions, let us know in the comments below. We hope to see some of our MindMeister amigos y amigas in Barcelona! Integrate with Atlassian tools and more! Sign up to MindMeister Its free! Sign up to MindMeister

The New Age Movement Essay - 1129 Words

The New Age Movement Although the New Age movement is not technically a religion , eight to nine percent of people that do not believe in organized religion find the New Age as their replacement. The New Age movement is very difficult to describe although not impossible. It is a complex sociological phenomenon that can be perceived in many ways. Basically, what another person sees, the other may not. The New Age movement is best understood as a network of networks. A network is an informal, loosely knit organization which is very different in both structure and operation than other types of organizations. Networks are spontaneously created by people to address problems and offer possibilities primarily outside of established†¦show more content†¦New Agers believe that a man can be saved and made whole by spiritual technology. New Agers believe that specific techniques for changing the consciousness can enable the seeker to consciously experience his supposed oneness with God. The techniques can be meditation, chanting and dancing. Salvation for the New Ager is linked with experimental knowledge. In addition to the beliefs just stated, most New Agers adhere to the ancient Hindu doctrines of reincarnation and Karma. By the definition of Karma, it is understood that whatever a person does, whether it is good or bad, it will return to him in the exact proportion of good or bad. It should be made known that New Agers go on to spiritualize the universe by making consciousness its essence, rather than matter. (Miller. 1989, p.22) nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Until the later 1980s the majority of Americans were unfamiliar with the New Age movement. There is no doubt that they had encountered certain elements of the New Age, such as Yoga, reincarnation, and astrology. It was not until late 1986 and throughout 1987 that the New Age movement finally caught the medias attention. A large and varied assortment of believers including celebrities were just the type of publicity that the New Age movement needed to catch the medias attention. And so, one article after another began to appear. However, the medias focus remained entirely on the movements more sensational side, treating it likeShow MoreRelatedReligion and New Age Movements968 Words   |  4 Pagesin with vicarious religion, which is where a small group of people practice for the wider community. Another reason why sociologists would argue that religion and spirituality is a private matter is that there has been a large increase in new age movements, such as; horoscopes, tarot cards and Wicca. Which focus on individualistic beliefs and self-healing, increasing amounts of these springing up indicates that because we live in a postmodern society we are starting to focus on ourselves more meaningRead MoreThe Age Of Uncertainty Between 1890 And 1920 s A New Movement Essay1423 Words   |  6 PagesProgressives and Radicals came a vast difference between what was thought as American. All groups claimed to be trying to make the US a better place however each differed vastly in their ideas of going about it. During the age of uncertainty between 1890 and the 1920’s a new movement called the Progressives emerged in parts of the Unites States. They emerged as part of a long tradition of reform aimed at correcting the issues of the country. Progressives ranged across the social and political spectrumRead MoreDoe the Book This Present Darkness Apply Today?873 Words   |  4 Pageshave through God at the end that is your true freedom. The main aspect of the social and intellectual milieu of the time was the New Age Movement. Peretti uses the New Age Movement in many of the themes of This Present Darkness, such as that God will prevail over darkness and that truth is the key. According to an article written by Mark Slick, the New Age Movement is an eastern- influence meta physical thought system, with a theology of ‘feel goodism’, ‘universal tolerance’ and ‘moral relativism’Read MoreThe New Age Worldview842 Words   |  4 PagesNew Age Worldview There are many different types of worldviews in play during this day in age. One of the broadest indecisive worldviews is the New Age worldview. The New Age worldview ism to help individuals find their inner divinity. The New Age movement believes that we are all divine, therefore, we are all gods. This is great contrast with the Christian worldview who believe that there is only one true God. Although these two worldviews are very different when it comes down to â€Å"Who is God?†Read MoreThe Visual Arts, Technology, And Philosophy1683 Words   |  7 PagesOne may wonder how much did The Information Age really contribute to society and, more specifically, the visual arts, technology, and philosophy. The Information Age, as defined by Gloria K. Fiero, is â€Å"dominated by radical changes in the technology of communication and the way we receive and process information† (Fiero, 476). The Information Age paved the way for several brilliant artists to not only share the ir work, but create their work. Artists, such as Andy Warhol, expressed their artistic abilitiesRead MoreNeo-Paganism Versus New Age Spirituality Essay942 Words   |  4 PagesNeo-Paganism and New Age Spirituality have very different rules factors. Neo-Paganism, as defined by the Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, is an umbrella term for several spiritual movements that attempt to restore the â€Å"authentic pantheons and rituals† of the ancient polytheistic religions of Europe and the Middle East.(Neo-Paganism) These forms of â€Å"nature-oriented spirituality† are typically pre-Christian and primarily originate in Europe. (Fisher 478) ReligiousTollerance.org sheds some light on how peopleRead MoreThe Silver Age Of Russia1318 Words   |  6 PagesThe Silver Age in Russia was an important era for Russia, as well as the rest of the world. More freedom allowed the art movement to surge and also to take up some European ideas. Painting, architecture, ballet, poems, short sto ries, playwriting were a few of the artistic avenues taken. I will focus on poetry, naming the groundbreakers of the Silver Age, their techniques, breakthroughs and their works. The Perestroika years renewed interest in the Russian culture. People were accustomed to folkloreRead MoreThe Montessori Method Of Education By Observing Behaviors1674 Words   |  7 Pagesmethod has five different areas. These areas include Practical Life, Language, Sensorial, Culture and Mathematic. When a 2- ½ years old child arrives in the Montessori classroom, he/she is in the sensitive period of †Adaptation, Order, Development of Movement, Independent, Social and Repetition†. These five areas stimulate this important period by the nature of their activities, and activate that by giving freedom to children to choose any activity they please, and repeat that as much as they like. InRead MoreDefining Characteristics of the Medieval, Renaissance, Neoclassical, and Romantic Period 987 Words   |  4 Pageswas the one to bring in the more civilized society. Having a more civilized structure brought in new ideas and a more structured government. The base of the Medieval period was Italian scholars and academics on the base of academics was only making slow progress across the world. The most horrific event of the Medieval period would be the Dark Ages. In the article Dark Ages the author states, â€Å"Dark Ages,;the early medieval period of western European history. Specifically, the term refers to the timeRead MoreReform Movements in the United States Sought to Expand Democratic Ideals. Assess the Validity of This Statement with Specific Reference to the Years 1825 to 1850.1698 Words   |  7 Pagesentered an era of transition and instability, they sought to expand democratic ideals in the society. In response to sudden changes occurring and traditional value s being challenged, various reform movements during 1825-1850 began to focus on democratic ideals. The rise of religious revivals, movements for equal rights and protecting liberties of different social groups, want to advance society technologically, and desire to bring order and control helped reform the society to live up to the nation’s

Twelve Week Plan For A Healthier And More Productive Life

Eight Week Plan for a Healthier and More Productive Life As we may know, we can easily slip into unhealthy lifestyles, and not follow the proper nutritional guidelines. We can fall victim to comfort foods such as those heavy in saturated fats, grease, and tons of sugar. Although, we know these are not healthy choices for our bodies, we still endure in the habit. As we continue to struggle with starting the proper diet and exercise program, we need to remember what God intended for our body. First, the body is a part of God’s creation and he wants us to care for it by treating it as a sacred temple. As in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, â€Å"don’t you know that you, yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.† In our everyday life, we need to remember we are not living for ourselves, but for God as well. We are to live fit lifestyles, and not subject ourselves to impure ways that will lead to destruction to our physical as well as our mental being. So, to be able to maintain a beneficial life, we must first construct a plan to promote wellness for our inner and outer existence. Week One: Psychological. The first week of converting our sedentary lifestyle to one more active and productive will be a challenge. This week should involve developing a mental state to prepare for each day that will come, and discovering the true workout planShow MoreRelatedOrganizational Commitment For Employees, Reducing Turnover And Increasing Workplace Productivity2164 Words   |  9 Pagesan effective organizational commitment plan. Examining the structure of this company provides insight into what the modern workforce is looking for. Environmental elements and a newer style of benefits are key factors in obtaining a high level of organizational commitment. As shown on the next page, this high level of organizational commitment that companies are trying to obtain can reduce their turnover rates and increase their productivity, leading to a more successful and competitive organizationRead MoreThe Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders1504 Words   |  7 PagesThe Diagnostic and statist ical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). (DSM V) describes substance use disorder as an abnormal pattern of substance usage, which leads to significant damage or distress, which can occur within a twelve-month period. The DSM V, In order to be diagnosed the with a substance use disorder, two of the eleven criteria must be fulfilled in order for a diagnosis of substance use disorder, (see Table 1) (http://www.buppractice.com/node/4621.) Table 1 DSM V criteria for substanceRead MoreProcessed Cheese and Kraft Foods30876 Words   |  124 Pagesincreased their debt level which in turn has lowered their credit rating. Also, the company has failed to take full advantage to the changes in the consumer’s interest in healthier products. These issues combined with a struggling economy could pose many issues for the Kraft. In this paper we have examined these issues, and many more. Based off of our research and analysis of the company we were asked to make certain recommendations that may help solve strategic issues. First, Kraft must figure outRead MoreCoaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions110684 Words   |  443 PagesSons, Inc. Praise for Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions ‘‘Winning in sales is no different than winning in life. As someone who has done a lot of personal and professional coaching over the years, I see tremendous value for anyone who reads this book. If the reader will embrace Keith’s philosophy around coaching, they can certainly expect to win in all areas of their life, while making a profound and measurable impact on their salespeople’s performance and attitude.’’ Dr. Denis Waitley Best-SellingRead MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pageswith the most effective instructor and student resources With WileyPLUS: Students achieve concept mastery in a rich, structured environment that’s available 24/7 Instructors personalize and manage their course more effectively with assessment, assignments, grade tracking, and more manage time better study smarter save money From multiple study paths, to self-assessment, to a wealth of interactive visual and audio resources, WileyPLUS gives you everything you need to personalize the teachingRead More65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays 2nd Edition 147256 Words   |  190 Pagesthe second edition of 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays came from a recent rise in business school applications. With an abundance of qualified candidates to choose from, admissions officers can be more selective, making admission to top schools even more challenging for applicants. The Harbus, the Harvard Business School weekly student newspaper, recognizes that applicants require up-to-date materials and inspiration to match the current environment. While this book includesRead MoreSbi Bank Po12965 Words   |  52 Pages7; many more matches is written as 9 8 2; and he scored five is written as 1 6 3 . How is goals written in that code language? 1)5 2)7 3)5or7 4) Data inadequate 5) Non e of these 2. In a certain code TEMPORAL is written as OLDSMBSP. How is CONSIDER written in that code? 1)RMNBSFEJ 2) BNMRSFEJ 3)RMNBJEFS 4) TOPDQDCH 5) None of these 3. How many meaningful English words can be made with the letters DLEI using each letter only once in each word? 1) None 2) One 3) Two 4) Three 5) More than threeRead MoreCase Study Essay33967 Words   |  136 PagesPART ONE Medical-Surgical Cases 1 1 Cardiovascular Cardiovascular Disorders Case Study 1 Heart Failure Difficulty: Beginning Setting: Emergency department, hospital Index Words: heart failure (HF), cardiomyopathy, volume overload, quality of life X Scenario M.G., a â€Å"frequent flier,† is admitted to the emergency department (ED) with a diagnosis of heart failure (HF). She was discharged from the hospital 10 days ago and comes in today stating, â€Å"I just had to come to the hospital today because IRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesGlobalization 16 †¢ Managing Workforce Diversity 18 †¢ Improving Customer Service 18 †¢ Improving People Skills 19 †¢ Stimulating Innovation and Change 20 †¢ Coping with â€Å"Temporariness† 20 †¢ Working in Networked Organizations 20 †¢ Helping Employees Balance Work–Life Conflicts 21 †¢ Creating a Positive Work Environment 22 †¢ Improving Ethical Behavior 22 Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model 23 An Overview 23 †¢ Inputs 24 †¢ Processes 25 †¢ Outcomes 25 Summary and Implications for Managers 30 S A L Self-AssessmentRead MoreStrategic Marketing Management337596 Words   |  1351 PagesStrategies for market nichers Military analogies and competitive strategy: a brief summary The inevitability of strategic wear-out (or the law of marketing gravity and why dead cats only bounce once) The influence of product evolution and the product life cycle on strategy Achieving above-average performance and excellence Summary 387 390 396 423 425 427 427 427 428 438 447 461 463 465 474 478 484 489 493 495 497 497 497 498 500 505 510 515 517 518 520 522 523 528 528 534 Stage Three: How might

Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Free Essays

9-607-010 REV: OCTOBER 4, 2007 DAVID M. UPTON VIRGINIA A. FULLER Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Jay Dvivedi looked once more at the proposal in his email inbox, sighed and closed his laptop for the night. We will write a custom essay sample on Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank or any similar topic only for you Order Now He owed his boss, Shinsei CEO Thierry Porte, a response and he knew that he would need to send it in morning. One of the heads of Shinsei’s business units had approached Porte directly with a proposal for a new, off-the-shelf customer relationship management (CRM) system for his business. He wanted to fund it and implement with his own personnel, but he needed approval from Porte. Before Porte responded he had requested input from Dvivedi. When Dvivedi discussed the idea with his team the opinion was divided. The information technology organization had played an integral role in the revitalization of Shinsei Bank from the ashes of Japan’s failed Long-Term Credit Bank (LCTB). In March 2000, Dvivedi had been charged with the task of developing a revolutionary technology infrastructure for the newly formed Shinsei Bank. When he asked then CEO Masamoto Yashiro for some guidelines he was told to do it â€Å"Fast† and â€Å"Cheap†. Drawing on his wealth of experience in technology and operations in the banking industry he and his team were able to come up with a quick, robust, and inexpensive approach through which the reborn bank could deliver its newer products and services. Shinsei, which literally meant â€Å"new birth† in Japanese, was committed to providing an improved, customer-focused model with such conveniences as Internet banking, 24-hour cost-free ATMs, and fast service based on real-time database reconciliation1. Developing and organizing the technology required to enable this was a monumental task, but one that Dvivedi and his team were able to execute within one year (one quarter of the time that would be needed to implement a traditional system), and at only 10% of the forecasted cost of a traditional system. By 2005, the bank had 1. 4 million customers, and was acquiring new business at a rate of 35,000 customers per month. When Dvivedi discussed the proposal with his team some said that the business understood its own objectives best. If a business unit felt that it should add a new system at its own cost then that was its right. Alternatively, other team members felt that this was against all of the principles that had been used to resurrect Shinsei’s IT systems and represented a dangerous step backwards. 1 In many other banks in Japan, deposits and withdrawals did not appear until the next day in order to reconcile the transaction and primary databases. Shinsei wanted to immediately update and make visible the data for its customers. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor David M. Upton and Research Associate Virginia A. Fuller prepared this case with the assistance of Masako Egawa, Executive Director of the HBS Japan Research Office, and Akiko Kanno, Research Associate at the HBS Japan Research Office. Portions of this case draw upon â€Å"Shinsei Bank (A),† HBS No. 302-036, â€Å"Shinsei Bank (B),† HBS No. 3 02-037, â€Å"Shinsei Bank (C),† HBS No. 302-038, and â€Å"Shinsei Bank (D),† HBS No. 02-039 by Professor Michael Y. Yoshino and Senior Research Associate Perry L. Fagan. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2006, 2007 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-5457685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. hbsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Dvivedi needed to draft a thoughtful, well-reasoned reply to Porte and he would have to do it first thing in the morning. Shinsei’s Predecessor: LTCB LTCB, was established by the government in 1952 to provide long-term funding to rebuild Japan’s basic industries after World War II. This strategy proved successful until the 1980s when financial deregulation diminished the demand for loans by traditional borrowers and LTCB aggressively expanded in the real estate and construction markets. Because of Japan’s booming economy, land prices were skyrocketing and many loans were provided based on land collateral rather than an appropriate analysis of risk or future cash flow of the borrower. When the asset bubble burst and land prices plummeted in the early 1990s, banks were left with an enormous amount of bad debt. In spite of the increase in non-performing loans, Japanese banks were slow to take action. At the time, many still believed that the fall in land prices was temporary and that they could wait out the crisis. Furthermore, Japanese banks placed great importance on long-term relationships with their borrowers and were reluctant to raise lending rates in what seemed like a temporary business slowdown. LTCB desperately explored ways to save itself. Conditions continued to deteriorate, however, and its stock price continued to fall. On October 23, 1998, LTCB finally collapsed with nearly $40 billion of non-performing loans and was nationalized. The failure of LTCB marked the largest banking failure in post-war Japan. Acquisition by Ripplewood The events that followed were unprecedented; a Japanese landmark was bankrupt, and was subsequently purchased by a U. S. private equity fund, Ripplewood Holdings, with Goldman Sachs representing the Japanese government. Masamoto Yashiro, former president of Exxon Japan who had just retired after heading Citicorp Japan, was persuaded to join the American investors in acquiring the bank. The government initially favored selling the bank to a Japanese financial institution or an industrial company, but Ripplewood eventually won the bid. On March 1, 2000, LTCB became the first Japanese bank with foreign ownership. â€Å"New Birth† The name of the bank was changed to â€Å"Shinsei,† and Yashiro became CEO. In the first few months, Yashiro moved quickly to establish a new organization and build the bank’s business in three main areas: commercial banking, retail banking2, and investment banking. LTCB had previously generated most of its revenues from corporate loans, but Yashiro was eager to move out of this low-margin business. â€Å"The asset quality [of our loans] was extremely poor, the number of corporate and individual accounts had shrunk by 40%, the traditional business – corporate lending – was very unprofitable, and the bank’s IT infrastructure and operational capability were significantly inferior even relative to our local competition,† said Yashiro. Fortunately, the bank had received JPY 240 billion in public funds, and was able to start business with a strong capital ratio3 of 12. %. 2 Banking services for individual customers 3 The capital ratio is the ratio of a bank’s equity to a risk-weighted sum of the bank’s assets. 2 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank 607-010 LTCB did not have much presence in retail banking, with only two dozen branches throughout Japan, while major commercial banks had several hundred branches. The bank sold debentures (instead of receiving deposits) to high net worth individuals, but those individuals conducted their banking transactions at other banks which had a broader branch network. Shinsei bank needed an entirely new business strategy, and that, decided Yashiro, would be to serve retail customers. To create a retail banking business from the ground up, Yashiro needed the help of a visionary and technologist. Dhananjaya â€Å"Jay† Dvivedi looked like the right man for the job. An experienced manager of technology and operations with whom Yashiro had worked at Citibank Japan during the 1990s,4 Dvivedi had an engineering background and sought to apply manufacturing principles to the development of the new IT infrastructure. Retail Banking Business The traditional methods of retail banking in Japan were anything but convenient. Business hours ended at three o’clock in the afternoon (to allow time to reconcile computer system information with the databases), no ATM usage outside of business hours, fees for ATMs, no Internet banking, long lead times for new account openings, separate accounts for each type of financial product, and other inconveniences had been an unavoidable, bitter pill for people managing their money in Japan. Yashiro and Dvivedi, therefore, endeavored to offer an alternative. Shinsei would have to â€Å"wow† potential customers into switching over from other banks. They had to offer something â€Å"extra† to convince customers to bank at Shinsei. The way to do this, they felt, was through outstanding customer service. Customer Service Model Yashiro believed it was better standards of service, and innovation in services, that would ultimately attract customers to the bank. â€Å"We were new. If we didn’t have something new to offer, there would be no reason for customers to come to us,† said Sajeeve Thomas, head of Shinsei’s retail group. The goal of developing new and closer relationships with customers through unique products and services became central to Shinsei’s transformation. The shift to meeting the competitive requirements of a retail bank, however, proved to be a significant undertaking for an institution specializing in corporate financial work. For the transformation to be effective, speed, flexibility, and cost control were paramount. A complete overhaul of the IT system would be required in order to enable this. The new customer-service-based business strategy required a scalable and robust operational and technological infrastructure. Such an infrastructure would help the new business segments grow by supporting enhanced, high quality, 24Ãâ€"7 customer service, product innovation and volume growth. This process involved nothing short of a revolutionary approach to information technology. â€Å"Indeed,† said Yashiro, rather wistfully, â€Å"the real challenge of transformation was not in painting the end state but in choosing the means to reach it effectively. † 4 Their work at Citibank included a major turnaround of that company’s IT system in Japan during the 1990s. 3 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Thinking about Technology at Shinsei â€Å"We quickly came to the conclusion that the systems that were used at the old LCTB were of almost no use to us,† recalled Yashiro, lamenting the realization that the extant mainframe infrastructure was actually an impediment to building new business at Shinsei. Its mainframes were overloaded, with no spare capacity, and they relied on separate and disparate networks which were tied closely to the old business model. Maintenance costs were unacceptably high due to locked-in contracts with vendors. The network capacity was inadequate and too expensive. At the same time, the operational processes were inefficient and full of multi-layered, repetitive paper trails. Mainframes were large room-sized computers based on models developed in the 1960s by computing giants like IBM and Fujitsu. For banks, with their enormous amounts of customer data, daily transactions involved collecting information from millions of accounts, transferring it to the mainframe computer at midnight, then refreshing the data by batch processing for the following day. Dvivedi believed that mainframes imposed great risks onto businesses; since they held the total data in the organization and this meant that if anything happened to that one computer, the business would be temporarily disabled while the system was transferred to backup machines. It was safer to distribute risks by designing systems that linked several smaller computers, such as servers, together. Servers were much smaller computers, often as small as a pizza box, based on cheaper microprocessors and standard UNIX or Windows operating systems. Such smaller servers were often combined into clusters of many hundreds of devices and were thus not only cheaper, but also more scalable than mainframes as capacity could be added to the system in much smaller increments. In the past, almost all banks had run on mainframe-based computer systems, but â€Å"removing the mainframes created granularity within the system,† said Dvivedi. This drastically reduced hardware maintenance costs and allowed flexibility such that services and new products could easily be added to the system. Building a New System Once he had a skilled team in place, Dvivedi focused on centralizing the operations and creating a functional organization. Investigation into traditional methods of large-scale systems implementation exposed the significant risks and difficulties in adapting a traditional, monolithic, mainframe-based system to the dynamism of Shinsei’s freshly rekindled businesses. Indeed, new technology requirements were being developed even as the new business plans took shape, and they would need a scalable IT system that could grow with and even more importantly, adapt to the business. Technology delivers the product to the customer,† affirmed Dvivedi. Information technology had to be used as a driver of business, and a source of new business, rather than as a support function. Dvivedi also believed that Shinsei should forge its own IT strategy, rather than follow the examples set by other banks, so that competitors might one day turn to Shinsei for advice. Dvivedi could have chosen a gradual approach to creating a new infrastructure by improving the existing technology and processes over time, replacing one system and process after another. This would have minimized disruption but would have taken too long. Alternatively, he could have attempted a â€Å"big-bang† approach, replacing the existing infrastructure with a completely new set of systems and processes in one fell swoop. This approach, however, was deemed too risky, too disruptive, and too expensive. As part of building the new infrastructure Dvivedi focused on parsimony in selecting standards. There would be one network protocol, one operating system, and one hardware platform. Dvivedi 4 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank 607-010 did not wait for consensus before moving to new standards. Choosing one set of standards, rather than allowing a patchwork of multiple standards to build up, helped keep the complexity low, which, in turn, made the system easier to manage. The skills needed to run and maintain this infrastructure were standard and people trained in them were easy to find. Instead of looking at the whole system, Dvivedi preferred to break it down into pieces. â€Å"How can we modularize pieces so they can be used again and again? † he asked. He believed that the key to success was to keep creating new elements and to introduce them into the system without stopping the enterprise. A caveat of this, however, was the challenge of keeping things safe and secure, yet not so locked-down that they became unchangeable. The approach that Yashiro and Dvivedi decided on was at once radical and accelerated, driven by the evolution of their new business strategy. It involved implementing, as needed, a new, modular operating infrastructure that operated initially in parallel with, but ultimately superseded, the existing infrastructure. Dvivedi’s Vision Dvivedi made choices not simply based on available technologies; rather, he focused first on the business problem that had to be solved. Once the problem was clearly identified, it was broken down into as many logical parts as possible. â€Å"We’d keep breaking down the elements until the solution was obvious,† said Sharma Subramanian, the IT group’s Planning and Coordination Officer. In addressing each element, the team looked to its toolkit of standard modules and components, and determined whether or not any appropriate solutions existed. If not, they went to the market and sought the missing piece of technology, looking specifically for its availability as a standard component. If it was not already available as a standard component, they would ask one of their partners to build the component. They would build it so that it was reusable. For a component to be reusable, it had to have a clear specification of the function(s) it performed, as well as a standard interface into which other components or modules could connect. The various components were assembled and reused in order to build products and services for Shinsei’s customers, and 90% of the technology components were used by more than one product. To meet Yashiro’s andate, Dvivedi devised five basic guidelines that were to govern all work going forward. His approach addressed waste and unnecessary work, and the elimination thereof, to make processes more efficient. Every job done was evaluated on the basis of these five criteria: †¢ Speed – How fast can the work be done? The goal was to build a new IT system within 18 months of conception. Changes were made in small, freque nt, and predictable steps. The use and re-use of standard components enabled the team to roll out new capabilities quickly and with minimal testing (since the components already had been tested in their previous context). Cost – How low can we keep costs? For example, Shinsei understood that they did not have to build everything from scratch. By combining a number of software packages, they were able to construct the new system in a very short time. For example, Shinsei used Intel-based, Windows servers and Oracle database servers on the back-end and off-the-shelf solutions on the front-end. They used standard Dell PCs running Windows. In the process, Shinsei became the largest bank running its back-end systems on a Windows platform. Capability – What new capabilities will IT enable? For example, to support multiple currencies and financial products for retail customers the old technology platform that handled deposits, loans and other services had to be changed. †¢ †¢ 5 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank †¢ Flexibility – How easily can the system be changed to respond to business needs? Dvivedi assumed that the business needs of the company would change over time and that the IT systems had to respond to this rather than prevent ecessary change as the mainframe system had done. The infrastructure needed to be expandable and robust enough to support the operation as volumes grew. Re-usable component-based architecture would enable flexibility. To make its services flexible, Shinsei used alerts, not reports, to manage workflow. Machinedriven prompts notified employees when work went unattended, demanding attention and action when required. Similarly, when mak ing infrastructure decisions Yashiro made a point of focusing on the business objective, not the ‘as-is’ environment. Designing an infrastructure to support a new business objective had to begin with that objective in mind and not with Shinsei’s current capabilities. If the objective could be met without changing existing infrastructure then they would not change it. If elements of the existing infrastructure were made redundant by the new approach, then they would become irrelevant and be superseded over time. Flexibility meant not being inhibited by previous decisions. †¢ Safety – How secure is our system? Safety was built into the process by breaking down the problems into very small parts. Smaller elements meant a smaller piece of the project that went wrong if something were to fail. Furthermore, a number of small parts meant that each part could be tackled simultaneously to fix the problem more quickly. The approach to safety could be seen clearly in Dvivedi’s decision to leverage the public Internet. Back in 2000, Dvivedi met tremendous incredulity at the notion of using the Internet for internal banking transactions. Nevertheless, the Bank went with public Internet lines as opposed to leased lines. Public Internet technology allowed Shinsei to move work to any location, including lower-cost locations, such as India. ATMs, telephones, call centers, video, and data were also connected through public lines, at a fraction of the cost of leased lines. â€Å"We use the Internet in two ways, for transport both within and outside the company and we use it to run different elements of our processes. The key is to ensure that each activity or session is performed in a secure manner. We assume that everything will fail. The key task is to ensure there are no single points of failure. When components fail, we assume that staff will not notice or will be busy on something else. The safety must be passive, that is to say if one component fails, the work must seamlessly move to another component all without any intervention,† said Nobuyki Ohkawa. Ohkawa had decades of experience working on these problems and was the person Dvivedi assigned the task of designing and deploying the networks and machines on which Shinsei ran its business. To ensure that the data sent over the public Internet was kept secure, Shinsei encrypted all the data it transmitted. In addition, its networks were secured by deploying the latest in network technology and by a process of continuous monitoring for unauthorized intrusions and denial of service type attacks. Should there be any indication that an attack was attempted, the source of the attack was identified and actions taken to disable or block it. Most of all, however, Dvidedi relied simply on the fundamentals of the internet itself: â€Å"The Internet is anonymous. Your messages and our data travel over the same network in a random fashion. The anonymity is our first level of security†. Given these parameters and the scope of the undertaking, Yashiro and Dvivedi did not believe they could entrust the project to one hardware vendor. Also, the fluidity of the envisioned end-state made it difficult to engage an outside vendor economically. Yashiro and Dvivedi needed to reach out to external partners to get the resources and know-how that they envisioned, as applied to their projects. Partner companies in Dvivedi’s native India proved to be a tremendous boon. 6 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank 607-010 Outsourced Work Dvivedi engaged multiple Indian firms to handle different parts of Shinsei’s information technology. This outsourced work focused on areas where internal development skills were lacking and where Dvivedi felt that they were not necessary for the bank to acquire. Thus, Dvivedi was free to pull together work groups of specialists without regard to their physical location. This was a major departure from existing practices in Japan, and proved to be a culture shock for the staff. In fact, Shinsei was the only company in Japan to use solely Indian software services. Nucleus Software, in Delhi, and Polaris Software Engineering, in Chennai, were two collaborators, as well as the larger Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services companies, in developing pieces of Shinsei’s financial software. By employing translators, Shinsei acquired best-of-breed engineers, and did not bother trying to teach them Japanese. They could remain in their respective silos, working on a portion of the Shinsei technology, without assimilation into Shinsei headquarters. In order to outsource work, Dvivedi and his team had to divide the work up into modular parts. Removing interdependencies was key as they believed that dependency slowed down the work; without dependency, people could work at their own speeds and avoid bottlenecks. For this reason, old systems maintenance was kept separate from new systems development. If unnecessary stress was placed on old systems, the entire system would become unstable and the speed at which new ones were developed would also be at risk. With each company, Shinsei worked to establish a relationship characterized as a â€Å"partnership† rather than one of a supplier. The bank worked with its partners without requiring competitive bids, avoiding traditional requirement documents such as RFPs (request for proposal) or RFIs (request for information). Dvivedi believed that these were superfluous process steps that added unnecessary time and overhead work to the engagement. Furthermore, Shinsei did not enter into fixed-price contracts; on the contrary, engagements were quantified on a time-and-material basis. Implementation Shinsei moved from mainframes to a Windows-based platform, supported by a high-speed, lowcost, packet based network operated as an internal utility. They centralized the decentralized, but made sure that everything was modular and highly flexible. Organizational silos were broken down in order to integrate processes. â€Å"We have learned to deliver precision where needed rather than trying to be precise in all things,† said Yashiro. Despite the carefully constructed approach to assembling the guiding principles for the company’s IT strategy both Yashiro and Dvivedi knew that just as many, if not more, IT transformation projects failed during implementation. As such, they spent a substantial amount of time creating principles to guide the implementation process. †¢ Parity – Parity allowed the old and new systems to coexist in parallel. Dvivedi believed that employees should choose to use the new system if it were placed in front of them. He did not want to appear as though he was convincing people to use the new technology. He told employees: â€Å"We will not change – but we will change the technology. † He believed the new systems should function much the same as their predecessors, and possess the same look and feel even if this mimicry resulted in extra cost. At the same time the new system should provide new capabilities so that employees would be excited about using them. As comfort with the new systems increased, the old systems were removed. Dvivedi mused: â€Å"Nothing must change for change to happen. † 7 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank †¢ Incremental steps – The smaller the changes, the lower the degree of disruption in the bank. The work was done on multiple parallel paths; development occurred in rapid, short cycles, with progressive delivery of requirements. As components were tested, they were implemented and reused if they fulfilled their objectives or they were promptly discarded if they did not work. Incremental steps also kept the system accessible as changes could be made on an almost continuous basis. Inclusiveness – Yashiro believed that the business strategy must always drive infrastructure change, and it was therefore imperative that senior managers be closely involved in the technology transformation. Said Yashiro: â€Å"I have learned that technology and operations are not just support functions. They also offer capabilities that can open up new strategic opportunities and businesses for us. † Transparency – Dvivedi tried to keep the technology transparent to the customer, such that the customer would not notice anything different when the technology changed. This would allow Shinsei to remain flexible in its technology choices at no inconvenience or disruption to the customer. Ironically, this required great discipline. Dvivedi had to resist advertising the new technology because, as he said, â€Å"the moment you say ‘this is going to improve things for you,’ you create a dependency. Dvivedi felt this was important so that the bank would be free to pick and choose its technology as systems changed, while the customer would experience only consistent service. Paperless – Any paper generated had to be checked, filed, and secured while the absence of paper made work distribution easier. Paper intensive, manual processes were replaced with a nea rly paperless environment. A room dedicated to scanning services received all incoming paper correspondence and invoices. Such paper documents were scanned and then filed electronically. The paper documents did not move any further into the office than that initial receiving room. After that, everything was accessible online. †¢ †¢ †¢ All of these efforts supported Yashiro’s principle of minimizing the change required of people. Making new systems look as similar to old ones as possible, and allowing the two to co-exist in parallel, were necessary to minimize the disruption of Shinsei’s employees. Furthermore, they did not set formal replacement dates for any of the new systems they implemented. Instead, they performed parallel runs with reconciliation to ensure proper functioning of the new system. They repeated this process for as long as was necessary until they were sure that the employees were comfortable with the new systems. Only then did they turn off the old system. Getting Results Shinsei’s key success was in assembling the building blocks of its new infrastructure. The entire retail bank system was implemented faster than planned and well below budget. In the end, Shinsei achieved rejuvenation in one year (instead of the projected three years) and at 90% less than the riginal cost estimate. The cost of the overhaul totaled $50 million, while other banks in Japan had paid ten times this amount for similar initiatives. The success of the system transformation enabled 24Ãâ€"7 multiple channel access to customers rather than a single channel service that was only available from 9am to 3pm. In addition, they were able to obtain real-time balances from these cha nnels, and roll out new products quickly by leveraging standard building blocks that were already in place. Management controls were also significantly improved through the new system. The old 6-day reporting cycle – characterized by chronically late financial ledger data – was replaced with a daily one, with the added ability to provide customer and product profitability tracking data on demand. 8 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank 607-010 They were also able to perform continuous reconciliation on all accounts and standardized what were non-standard, non-documented procedures. New Services â€Å"We have a very specific value proposition for customers,† incoming CEO Thierry Porte said. It’s based on convenience, ease of use, empowering customers, offering things on a low-cost basis, so our ATM system is free and we also offer free Internet transfers. At the same time, we offer high-quality products and services. † One of these new services was an innovative branch operation featuring â€Å"cashless tellers. † Dvivedi believed that a key tenet of the customer service model was the interaction between staff and customers. To enhance this interaction both paper and cash had to be eliminated from the hands of the branch staff. Paper and cash, Dvivedi felt, were â€Å"avoidable distractions† that merely got in the way of superior customer service. In eliminating paper and cash, the staff was absolved of the traditional duties of cash-counting and receipt-printing, and could solely service the customer. Indeed, the bank’s branch services were entirely self-completed; the staff was present only to provide assistance as needed. All transactions took place online, at Internet portals in the branch. The transaction could take place anywhere, however, that the customer was connected to the Internet. Online-only transactions effectively eliminated paper from the system, and also allowed the customer to be responsible for his own transactions. The customer was asked to double-check each transaction before authorizing it. This greatly reduced the frequency of errors. Cash was available from the branch’s ATM machines; staff guided the customers to use the ATMs for both withdrawing and depositing cash. If a customer did not have his ATM card, a staff member would electronically transfer the desired sum from the customer’s account into a teller’s account, and then retrieve the cash for the customer from the ATM. ATMs Most Japanese banks charged fees of 100 to 300 yen, when ATMs were used in the evenings or on weekends, or when customers withdrew money from other banks. Shinsei, to make up for its limited branch network, allowed customers to use ATMs any time free of charge. This distinguished Shinsei from other Japanese banks. Shinsei saw this as a way to attract customers to the bank at very low cost, for they did not have to expand their branch network in order to connect with their customers; they could do it through ATMs. The operating cost of the ATMs was relatively low. In 2001, Shinsei offered a new service enabling customers to withdraw cash free of charge from ATMs outside of Japan – 650,000, to be exact, in 120 different countries, through the PLUS system offered by Visa International. Citibank also offered no-fee use of international ATMs, but was part of the CIRRUS MasterCard network, which had only 530,000 ATMs in about 100 countries. Hours Shinsei kept its branches open on weekends and holidays in order to offer services such as same-day account openings, targeting customers who might be too busy to visit the bank during the week. Shinsei used its computer system – operated nonstop – to enable the processing of new accounts and other applications in the same day. Other financial institutions followed suit and began staying open on Saturday and Sunday, but services were limited to mortgages and asset management consulting. Anything that required the computer system could only take place during the week as their systems shut down on the weekends. Shinsei’s branch hours of 10am to 8pm every single day of the year (except New Year’s Day) enabled ustomers to do any type of banking, including sale of mutual funds and insurance policies, at their own convenience. 9 607-010 Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank Looking Back Yoshikazu Sato, a senior member of the Technology team at Shinsei, who worked closely with Dvivedi, revealed the apparent simplicity of Shinsei’s model: â€Å"If you stand back and examine what we have done, there is nothing unique about it. The p rinciples we follow have been around for years. Describe what we do to a manufacturing engineer and he may well remark, ‘what’s so special about it? ’ Anybody can buy what we buy. Deconstructing a problem until a standard component can be used, or using low-cost, easily available materials (in our case Dell PCs and Windows software) has been practiced for decades,† he said. â€Å"What makes us different is our ability to focus on applying these principles repeatedly with persistence and without deviation. The manufacturing industry has been moving its operations to the lowest cost and most effective locations for decades. We have replicated it in our use of virtual organizations; people with skills needed for our work are connected in from wherever they are located. Not having to move people around saved us time, money and gave us an extremely scalable capability,† said Pieter Franken, the architect and designer of Shinsei’s core systems. â€Å"My key task is to ensure that as we do all of this, we are also institutionalizing the work we have done and to continuously expand the technical team to take up all this work,† said Dvivedi. Looking Forward Dvivedi’s â€Å"institutionalization† of Shinsei’s system development process forced the team to think about applications of the model in the future, as well as what challenges lay ahead. Shinsei was focused on growing by acquisition and, for those acquired businesses, the objective was to change the technology and process platform to enable rapid new product roll-outs and to build better quality services. The ability to do this at lower cost would create a significant competitive advantage. â€Å"Our focus is to be able to support all the Shinsei businesses for their Information Technology needs and help them achieve the same level of technology now being employed by Shinsei Bank,† said Dvivedi. â€Å"We can add value to our businesses with our strength and know-how. In 2006, Thierry Porte succeeded Yashiro as President and CEO of Shinsei. â€Å"Thierry has a clear vision of where he is guiding Shinsei,† noted Dvivedi. â€Å"He has outlined a growth plan for our key businesses that will require us to scale up for much higher volumes, and support a whole range of new functions and features to facilitate the launch of new products and services. † As CEO, Porte was well-aware of how Shinsei’s technology would enable his plans for the bank. â€Å"Our technology is a door-opener for new business opportunities. If we can get our customers in other industries interested in the approach we take to technology design and deployment, to look at the kind of capabilities and services we can help them build, it will be a unique way to position ourselves and grow our core business of banking. If we can do this it will expand our franchise and be a source of additional revenues,† said Porte. Dvivedi’s Response After a night of reflection the time had come to respond to Porte’s request. Dvivedi opened an email and began typing†¦ 10 How to cite Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank, Essays

Theory of Homeopathy Abstract Essay Example

Theory of Homeopathy Abstract Paper Theory of Homeopathy Abstract A large portion of the United States population believes that alternative approaches to health care are less evasive and more effective than so-called Western medicine. This report looks at the efficacy of homeopathy. As this therapy moves into the mainstream there is a need for doctors and nurses to understand its benefits and possible adverse effects. Theory of Homeopathy Homeopathy is a type of medical treatment that is based on the theory of treating certain diseases with very small doses of drugs that, in a healthy person and in large doses, would produce symptoms like those of the disease (Webster, 1982). We will write a custom essay sample on Theory of Homeopathy Abstract specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Theory of Homeopathy Abstract specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Theory of Homeopathy Abstract specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer From the transcripts of â€Å"Talk of the Nation† (National Public Radio), the question of,What is Homeopathy? was asked to Dr. Judith Reichenberg-Ullman. She is naturopathic physician, board certified in homeopathic medicine, president of the International Foundation for Homeopathy, and author of, â€Å"Homeopathic Self-Care†. Her reply was: Its an approach that treats the whole person, and it uses the law of similars, which means that we use the same substance which would cause symptoms in a person in a healthy person to treat those same symptoms in a person who has them. Homeopathy is one of the fastest growing areas of alternative medicine. Homeopathic remedies are sold in pharmacies over the counter although some homeopathic drugs can be obtained by prescription only. Since homeopathy is attracting more interest and therefore an ever-increasing number of patients, it is also appealing to a large and quickly growing number of practitioners as well. Some of these are medical doctors who are frustrated by what they view as the limitations of conventional medicine. These professionals, who are utilizing homeopathy as an alternative medical treatment to offer their clients, are seeking methods that emphasize treating the entire patient as opposed to focusing on just the illness, as conventional medicine tends to do. Homeopathy closes the distance between healer and patient. A gap that some argue mainstream medicine not only created but continues to widen with its tendency towards coldness and indifference to its patients. Homeopathic is effective for a wide range of ailments such as colds, flu, arthritis, allergies, and sprains to name just a few of the maladies for which there are homeopathic treatments for. But even homeopathys most devoted supporters can not explain why it works, only that it does work. Critics of the homeopathic methods argue that the fundamental ideas behind homeopathy defy the laws of chemistry and physics and that its theory makes no sense in the scientific world. (Langman, 1997). They also claim that homeopathic cures are due to the so-called placebo effect; that the patients and professionals of homeopathy believe so strongly in their treatment that their belief system is actually the cure, not the homeopathic method used. (Langman, 1997). Homeopathys newfound success also dismays many physicians, scientists and consumer advocates who regard the homeopathic formulas as ineffective, at best, and dangerous, at worst. Theyre especially concerned that by attempting to cure their ills with the homeopathic method, patients will not seek assistance from established treatments for very serious, perhaps life threatening ailments. Whether the treatment is mainstream or alternative medicine, as is the homeopathic method, there will always be critics as well of converts. Regardless of the criticism, as alternative medicine becomes more prevalent in western society there is a need to further educate nurses and other healthcare providers as to the advantages and possible disadvantages of homeopathy. Homeopathy is an alternative system of medicine that was founded in the early nineteenth century by a German physician, Dr. Hahnemann. It had its greatest popularity in the late nineteenth century in the United States. During that time as many as fifteen percent of the doctors in this country were homeopathic practitioners. However, with the advent of modern medicine, homeopathy began to appear out dated and primitive. Modern medicine seemed more advanced and probably more civilized as well. The popularity of homeopathy greatly diminished. (World Book Encyclopedia, 1998). Homeopathy has seen a resurgence of interest in the United States and other areas in Europe in just the last fifteen to twenty years as patients have began questioning the effectiveness of modern medicine. Homeopathic books can be found in many bookstores and homeopathic physicians in most towns and cities. (World Book Encyclopedia,1998). As the practice of homeopathy become more prevalent in these modern times, it seems apparent that patients are seeking more than the current practices of medicine have been providing; treatment that is safer, less evasive, and which treat the disease and the patient simultaneously. Classical homeopathy rests on three principles: the law of similars, the single medicine, and the minimum dose. As mentioned earlier, the law of similars states that a disease is cured by a medicine that creates symptoms similar to those the patient is experiencing in a healthy person. Therefore an important part of the prescription of a homeopathic medicine is a lengthy interview to determine all the symptoms the patient is experiencing. The homeopathic physician then determines which medicine that best matches the symptoms that the patient is experiencing and prescribes it to the patient. The principle of the single remedy states that a single medicine should cover all the symptoms the patient is experiencing mentally, emotionally, and physically. For example, a classical homeopath would not prescribe one medicine for a headache and another for an upset stomach if a patient were in his office with complaining of both. He or she would find a single medicine that covered both symptoms and prescribe it. (Encarta, 1998). The principle of the minimum dose has two parts. In the first part, the homeopathic physician only prescribes a small number of doses of the homeopathic medicine and waits to see what effect the medicine has. Second, the medicine is given in an infinitesimal dose. Homeopaths have discovered that the effect of homeopathic medicines is strengthened upon successive dilutions as long as the medicine is violently shaken between each dilution. Medicines are typically used in very high dilutions. (Encarta, 1998). It is the use of infinitesimal doses that is the most controversial aspect of homeopathy and the reason why most conventional doctors claim it functions only as a placebo. However, a number of controlled studies have been performed which show the effectiveness of homeopathic medicine in treating a number of diseases. One summary of this research is a study published in the British Medical Journal. The authors of this study are not homeopaths but medical school professors who were asked by the Dutch government to review the existing research. The results reported neither positive nor negative effects of the use of homeopathic remedies. Instead the outcome suggested that homeopathy should continue to be researched as a possible, useful alternative to conventional therapy. (Kleijnen,1991). This information was a huge success in the eyes of naturopaths and others that use alternative medicine as a source of care. People who practice homeopathy as a form of medical treatment need to be prepared to deal with the potential consequences of that practice. There should be an understanding of anatomy and pharmacology, with a good formal grounding in homeopathy and clinical training. The best place to get the first part of the training is in medical, nursing or physician assistant programs. Good training in homeopathy, with clinical rotations, is not that easy to find. As in conventional medicine, there are times in homeopathic practice where non-physician practitioners can prescribe safely. Although these practitioners should always have a physician backing them up. There are many case scenarios or clinical situations that recognize homeopathy as a valid treatment for certain ailments and not just the result of a placebo effect. For example, in 1980 the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology reported a study involving arthritic patients treated with an anti-inflammatory drug. Half of the group received a homeopathic remedy while a control group received placebos. The double-blind study concluded that there was a statistically significant improvement in pain, stiffness and grip strength among patients who received homeopathic treatment. (Gibson,1980). A more recent study published in the Lancet compared the effects of a homeopathic preparation of mixed grass pollen with placebo in 144 patients with active hay fever. Patients treated with homeopathic remedies showed a significant reduction in both patient and doctor assessed symptom scores. There was no evidence that placebo effect could fully explain the reduction in symptoms. ( Reilly,1986). As mentioned previously, a review of 107 clinical trials of homeopathic medications published in the British Medical Journal, showed positive results of homeopathy in 81 trials. (Kleijnen,1991) Although there has been research to validate the methodology and the effectiveness of homeopathy, the concern for some of the population to rely solely on homeopathic treatment leads to the ethical issues concerning health care. Using homeopathic medicines as a first mode of treatment in nonemergency primary care would lead to its application in a wide, perhaps even a very wide assortment of acute care. At the most extreme extent, someone could say that homeopathic medicines can and should be considered whenever some type of heroic medical treatment is not necessary. At the other end, one could say that homeopathic medicines can and should be considered only when there is no evidence that the benefits of a conventional medical treatment outweigh its potential side effects. One might think that a middle position is the best way to go, however, finding that middle position is not always easy. For instance, one might ask the seemingly important question: what evidence is there that either homeopathic or conventional medicine is more effective? There are very few studies that provide such a comparison, and even when it has been done, it is an unsound comparison. For instance, while it may be true that a painkiller will decrease the pain in patients more effectively than a homeopathic medicine, it does so with various side effects. And while a person taking a homeopathic medicine may initially have more pain than a person taking a painkiller, the long-term health of the person may be a more appropriate measure of a treatments successes. Conventional physicians insist that a persons new complaint is not related with the previous one. In opposition, homeopathic practitioners assert that nothing comes from nowhere and that disease is often built from previous illnesses. With all the research, claims, and opinions on homeopathy versus conventional therapy, rarely was it mentioned for both therapies to be utilized in combination to better diagnose and treat patients. More of an integrative approach in which homeopathy and conventional medicines are used together, instead of in apposition. One example is, while the use of homeopathic medicines can sometimes prevent the need for surgery, homeopaths generally acknowledge that surgery is sometimes necessary. When surgery is medically indicated, using homeopathic medicines before, during, and after the procedure can help the patient recover more rapidly. Another strong example of the successful integration of conventional and homeopathic treatment was demonstrated in the study on Nicaraguan children suffering from diarrhea. (Jennifer 1994). The children were given oral rehydration therapy, a special salt solution that keeps children from dying by helping them retain water, but does not cure the underlying infection of which the diarrhea is a symptom. The study showed that the administration of individually chosen homeopathic medicines sped up the underlying healing process Another integrative approach is exemplified in the treatment of asthma. A study published in the Lancet showed that conventional allergy testing was useful in selecting a homeopathic medicine that provided benefit (Khuda-Bukhsh, 1991). Researchers used conventional allergy testing to determine what substance people with asthma were most allergic to. They then gave this substance in homeopathic doses to the subjects, and these subjects had significantly fewer symptoms of asthma than those subjects given a placebo. The researchers called this approach homeopathic immunotherapy. An integrative approach may sometimes mean that homeopathic medicines are used first, and then, only if they were ineffective, would conventional therapies be used. The reverse approach is also possible and is presently more common; most people have already used many conventional treatments without adequate success and are now seeking homeopathic care for their conditions. As people become increasingly familiar with homeopathy, it is likely that they will use these natural and safer medicines prior to the more risky therapeutic interventions offered by conventional physicians. Part of the trick to making either homeopathic or conventional treatments work is to seek the care of well-trained professionals and to give their treatments reasonable time to act. Sometimes a person is in severe pain, and while it may be possible to find the correct homeopathic remedy, he or she wants a higher degree of certainty that relief will be rapid. In such instances, it makes sense to use conventional medicines at least temporarily, while homeopathic medicines are recommended after the acute crisis is diminished or over. Homeopathists utilize highly diluted forms of a substance which causes particular symptoms in healthy people, can be given to someone ill with those symptoms. Once stimulated by the substance, the body goes on to heal. There are over 2000 homeopathic remedies, made from plant, mineral and animal sources. They are prescribed on the basis of health history, body type, and physical and emotional symptoms. (World Book Encyclopedia,1998). The focus is to treat people who are unwell rather than the diseases. The first visit is likely to be an hour or so long, and involve lots of questions and answers as the homeopath gets your background. Ten people with headaches may each get a different remedy. These patients tend to be skeptical of the so-called homeopathic remedies found in health shops and chemists, where one bottle containing a combination of remedies supposedly treats the same condition in everyone. The theory of homeopathy has no known scientific basis. It is true that small amounts of a substance may stimulate the body to fight against larger doses of that substance since this is how many vaccinations work. But in homeopathy, the amounts used are so diluted, the remedy may not contain even a single molecule of the original substance. Science says it therefore it cannot be effective. One response by homeopaths is to suggest that the diluting liquid must contain a memory of the original substance. Some published trials have found no support for homeopathy, but others suggest it has an effect on problems as diverse as diarrhea and mosquito bites. Medical conditions that patients most utilize homeopathic methods for: General malaise 15% Allergy 11% Gynecology/obstetrics 7% Stress/anxiety 7% Advantages most commonly quoted Harmless, no side effects Natural The disadvantage most commonly quoted regarding homeopathy is that the treatments, particularly the drugs can be expensive and the time for the treatments to work can sometimes be long. (Consumer Online). Although the concept of integrative medicine makes sense, one should not have a narrow viewpoint about the subject. It is not always easy, therapeutically effective or cost efficient to use homeopathic and conventional therapies concurrently or even in sequence. Sometimes a patient, with the advice of his or her physician, must decide to use one approach or the other. As is the case with all medical treatments the patient should be properly informed and educated about the illness they suffer as well alternatives in therapies. Ultimately it is the role of the clinician to inform patients of the risks and benefits of the various prospective treatments available. Unfortunately, while there may be a body of research to show that certain conventional medical treatments are effective in treating a specific disease, symptom, or laboratory reading, this does not necessarily mean that this treatment actually improves the overall health of people. The same limitation can be said about homeopathic research to date. There is presently inadequate research regarding true cures that isnt easily disputable. It is indeed difficult for clinicians to provide patients with concrete evidence and obvious data to ease the decision making process. Clinicians must therefore be humble, and they should remember the words of Hypocrites who insisted that physicians should: First, do no harm. Bibliography References Bower, DL. (1998). Homeopathy. World Book Encyclopedia [CD-ROM]. Conan, N.. (1998). Transcripts of Talk of the Nation (National Public Radio), Homeopathy. [Online]. Available: http://www. elibrary. com/. Consumer Online. (1997, September). Consumer Magazine [Online] Available: http://www. consumer. org. nz/consumer/Sept97-survey. html Gibson, R. , Gibson, S. , MacNeill, A. , Buchanan, W. (1980). Homeopathic Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Evaluation by Double-Blind Clinical Therapeutic Trial, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 9, 453-459. Jennifer, J. , Jimenez, M. , Gloyd, S. (1994, May). Treatment of Acute Childhood Diarrhea with Homeopathic Medicine: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Nicaragua. Pediatrics,93, (5) 719-25. Khuda-Bukhsh A. R. , Banik, S. (1991). Assessment of Cytogenetic Damage in X-irradiated Mice and its Alteration by Oral Administration of Potentized Homeopathic Drug. Berlin Journal of Research in Homeopathy,1, 254. Kleijnen, J. , Knipschild, P. , Riet, G.. (1991, February 9). Clinical trials of Homeopathy. British Medical Journal, 302, 516(8). Langman M. (1997, October). Homeopathy: Does it really work? Or is it merely a placebo effect? Healthfacts, 22, 3. Reilly, D. T. , Taylor, M. A. , McSharry, C. , Aitchison,T. (1986). Is Homeopathy a Placebo Response? Controlled Trial of Homeopathic Potency, with Pollen in Hayfever as Model. Lancet,2, (8512) 881-886. Websters New World Dictionary. (1982). (2nd ed).. Springfield, MA: G.