Business Savvy

Business Savvy

Critical business thinking, a required course in most accredited university commerce programs, teaches one to evaluate evidence instead of simply accepting it. Dyer proposes six criteria that, ideally, must be satisfied to consider evidence credible: sufficiency, precision, accuracy, authoritativeness, representativeness and clarity of expression.

Sufficiency simply refers to whether the author of a given affirmation has provided enough evidence to support his or her assertion, the amount required may vary depending on the claim’s contestability and on its implications (i.e. a contention potentially serving as the basis for implementing a new policy necessitates substantially more justification than a benign statement aimed not to influence any outcomes, but merely to describe).

In this context, precision refers to the use of statistics, exact numbers and dates, and direct quotes. Saying that hundreds of students smoke on a daily basis sounds different than stating that out of 320 students surveyed, 210 admitted to consistently smoking at least one cigarette during a period of 24 hours (imaginary data, to illustrate). However, one must be cautious because there is the trap of over-precision, emphasizing that a wild-type mouse measures exactly 9.53827366432 centimeters (3.75522597226 inches) from head to tail is probably uncalled for, unless of course, the matter has to do with some growth hormone experiment where the measure is crucial.

Accuracy often gets confused with precision, which is to be expected since most of these categories lack unambiguous separations between them. Evaluating whether a claim is accurate can be a daunting task, but is made easier by relying on the other five concepts.

Business Savvy Gun. I firmly believe that success lies in the combination of both talent and business savvy, and that the magic comes through partnership between both. (Delphine Arnault). Photo by Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

As international students wishing to perfect their second language know, in grammar and syntax, it is often the case that a rule has an exception, so it is important to avoid absolute rigidity. For instance, in a paper on organizational structure, Greiner (1998) asserts that companies’ evolution and growth happens in stages, that each phase culminates in a crisis, and that it is this disruption (or the successful resolution thereof) that leads the firm to the next step. Further, companies that fail to resolve the turbulences, usually by lack of flexibility, by failure to change and adapt, either fail to grow or cease to exist altogether.

In the article, the author presents little undiluted supporting evidence of the claims presented, but they are nonetheless judged as trustworthy for the following several reasons. First and foremost, the work was published in a highly respected academic journal, thus a reader may instantly assume that the publication ascertains quality. Second, the author is an accomplished professor and an expert in the field. Third, the arguments do flow logically and one can recognize how the points are arrived at. Consequently, despite the fact that pretty much only the authoritativeness criterion is satisfied, the source and theory are deemed credible.

Finally, representativeness is simpler to grasp if one contemplates statistical methods. From analyzing statistics, one comprehends that it would be wrong to generalize to a whole population based on a biased, too small, or unrepresentative sample. While the last but not least item, clarity of expression, speaks for itself.

Prozac

Prozac’s Can and Can’t-Do Powers

The drug doesn’t alter personality, it relieves depression

So many claims have been made for Prozac’s powers that its reputation as a wonder drug is hardly surprising. We put some of those claims into perspective here:

What does Prosac do? – In medical terms, it increases the level of a neurotransmitter called serotonin at the interspace between neurons at the mid-brain – in the center of the brain underneath the cortex.

What you see clinically is an improvement in a depressed mood. It increases one’s sense of well-being, counteracting tendencies to depression.

 When should a doctor prescribe Prozac? – It should be prescribed when there are indications that one is significantly depressed.

What are the advantages of Prozac over other antidepressants? – Prozac has two advantages over the many other kinds of antidepressants. It seems to have fewer side effects, and it is more of a true antidepressant. Many find that others just put a floor on depression – make it more tolerable – whereas Prozac seems to relieve the depression, That is also true for the other serotonin enhancers, which slow down the reabsorption of serotonin.

The power of the crowd. Photo by Elena

Is Prozac the wonder drug it has been described as being? – Prozac is not a wonder drug. People on Prozac do not have unusual or sensational results, but they do have good antidepressant effects. It’s a very useful antidepressant.

The drug has been said to alleviate several other conditions, from bulemia to attention deficit disorder. Are those reports accurate? – Prozac has been approved by the FDA for treatment of bulemia and for obsessive compulsive disorders. It is occasionally used for panic disorders and more infrequently for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It has also recently been identified as a useful treatment for PMS.

Does Prozac alter the personality? – No. There is no way to create something that wasn’t there. Doctors do find that a great number of people who are chronically depressed, after taking the drug, say they suddenly feel as if they were a different person. But it does not change their underlying personality.

Is it overprescribed? – It may be overprescribed. It is used widely by general practitioners. A doctor may conclude that his patient’s chronic backache is related to depression and prescribe Prozac, especially since there is no risk involved. A doctor may prescribe Prozac for anything associated with depressed mood, even without a diagnostic work-up. It is important for anyone to get a thorough work-up before being prescribed Prozac, or any antidepressant.

What are the drug’s side effects? – The side effects of the antidepressant drugs are ranked on a scale from zero to four. Zero indicates that a side effect is absent or rare. Four indicates that it is relatively common. Prozac can cause increased agitation, similar to caffeine jitters. Some complain of headaches or nausea. And there are reports of decreased sexual function, delayed or, eventually, complete inhibition of orgasm in women; and, in men, prolonged ejaculation or decreased or no ability to have a penile erection. In addition, there are some people, possibly quite a few, who complain that when on the drug they don’t care very much about things that used to matter quite a bit. They sometimes get detached.

What risks are associated with Prozac? – The only real risk is for someone with a fairly serious liver disease. Prozac is metabolized in the liver. There is also a very small risk for someone with diabetes or a seizure disorder.

What about the claims that Prozac causes aggressive behavior or even suicides? – The people who become more aggressive on Prozac are probably those who have been suppressing aggressive tendencies. And there have been extremely few cases or suicide.

How long should one stay on Prozac? – One should stay on Prozac at least 6 months, and possibly up to 10 to 12 months. If, at that point, everything is stable in their lives, they can taper off and see how they do. Some people, however, may need to be off and on the drug for quite a while. It is not yet know if being on the drug for a longer period of time causes damage.

The Great Depression

One U.S. Public Health Service review found that depression affects one in eight people in a lifetime and 14 million Americans each year. But most people who could benefit from treatment never get it. A limited course of psychotherapy works for over half of those with mild to moderate depression, but if therapy produces no effect by 6 weeks or nearly full remission by 12 weeks, the agency strongly recommends medication treatment.

Sleeper

Sleeper

By Jo Walton

Essie goes home. She lives in a flat at the top of a thirty storey building in Swindon. She works in London and commutes in every day. She has a second night job in Swindon, and writes in her spare time. She has visited the site of the house where Matthew and Annette lived in Hampstead. It’s a Tesco today. There isn’t a blue plaque commemorating Matthew, but Essie hopes there will be someday. The house had four bedrooms, though there were never more than three people living in it, and only two after Sonia left home in 1965. After Annette died, Matthew moved to a flat in Bloomsbury, near the British Museum. Essie has visited it. It’s now part of a lawyer’s office. She has been inside and touche door mouldings Matthew also touched. Matthew’s flat, where he lived alone and was visited by a young men he met in pubs, had two bedrooms. Essie doesn’t have a bedroom, as such; she sleeps in the same room she eats and writes in. She finds it hard to imagine the space Matthew had, the luxury. Only the rich live like that now. Essie is thirty-five, and has student debt that she may never pay off. She cannot imagine being able to buy a house, marry, have a child. She knows Matthew wasn’t considered rich, but it was a different world.

Sleeper. Photo by Elena

Matthew believes that he is in his flat in Bloomsbury, and that his telephone rings, although actually of course he is a simulation and it would be better not to consider too closely the question of exactly where he is. He answers his phone. It is Essie calling. All biographers, all writers, long to be able to call their subjects and talk to them, ask them the questions they left unanswered. That is what Stanley would think Essie wants, if he knew she was accessing Matthew’s simulation tonight – either that or that she was checking whether the simulation was ready to release. If he finds out, that is what she will tell him she was doing. But she isn’t exactly doing either of those things. She knows Matthew’s secrets, even the ones he never told anybody and which she didn’t put in the book. And she is using a phone to call him that cost her a lot of money, an illegal phone that isn’t connected to anything. That phone is where Matthew is, insofar as he is anywhere.

Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton, Prime Books, 2015.

Business Essay: Accounting Students

Business Essay: Accounting Students

The purpose of the present essay is to briefly discuss some of the challenges faced by commerce students today, in particular those majoring in accounting. From a mathematical ability point of view, accounting is somewhat easier than finance. For example, financiers must learn more complicated mathematical formulas than accountants, in general. However, becoming a professional accountant remains far from being a piece of cake… and takes a lot of time in our humble opinion.

In Quebec, Canada, there used to be three designations in the accounting profession: CA, CMA and CGA. Nonetheless, the professional orders are working on simplifying the equation (no pun intended!) to converge on a single certification: CPA. Indeed, across Canada, each province has its own regulatory bodies overseeing and overlooking the profession. Students are often advised to verify with these organizations whether the programs they are enrolling in, and specifically the courses they take, correspond to the prerequisites to obtain the desired certifications.

Business Essay : Accounting Students

So you want to be an accountant? What does it take? At least in Quebec, the mostly French speaking part of Canada, becoming an accountant usually requires a combination of completed undergraduate studies and professional experience. A bachelor of business administration (BBA) with an accounting major, plus work experience at a recognized CA firm should fulfil the requirements of the professional order, but one is advised to find out for oneself on the respective regulating bodies’ Websites.

Indeed, students pursuing commerce, business and management studies are faced with many challenges, in addition to the opportunities and doors a business degree naturally entails. While a university degree clearly confers advantages, academic success does not necessarily guarantee acclaim in the job market, especially if the degree is from an institution with dubious credentials or low rankings. Thus, the aim of this paper was to briefly go over some of the main questions addressed by students studying business and commerce today, from an academic perspective.

The Witches of Westfleet

The Witches of Westfleet

By D. A. McGuire, excerpt

The marsh below the house was riddled with ditches. Over some of them makeshift “bridges” had been laid; most were soggy, half-rotted pieces of plywood that sagged when any weight was put on them. I made my was across them until I reached the lower fringe of the marsh. Here years of human feet had pounded out a more substantial trail, which branched off and up through some dunes. At the top of one of the dunes I looked down and saw… her.

She was lifting a branch from a tangle of driftwood. As she did so, a dark, fur-covered animal darted out of it. I still wasn’t close enough to see what it was, probably a musk-rat, or a rat.

I half-walked, half-slid down the dune, shouting, “Hey, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Who the -,” she demanded, startled, using some pretty raw language, “are you?”

“It’s probably a rat,” I said. The wind off the water was crisp, cold, and full of ocean spray. I buried my hands deep into my pockets.

“It’s a cat, you fool,” she snapped. “Are you from up there?” She pointed pas the dunes and marsh, up to where Hartington House, the only house in the area, sat on the bluff like a beached four-masted schooner. This was all federal land, the beach, the marsh, the dunes. Hartington House was perched at the very edge of that portion of the National Seashore that extended into Westfleet.

“It’s a cat, it’s probably a feral cat,” I said.

Witches of Westfleet. Photo by Elena

“Feral?” Her whole face squeezed up with irritation.

“Yeah, that means wild.”

“I know what the word means, you idiot,” she snarled. “But it’s not. It ran back that way.” She brushed past me and started toward the marsh.

I need a moment to describe this gem of a girl.

About my age, fourteen or fifteen, wearing a long blue denim skirt with men’s workboots, a black turtleneck, jersey, and a man’s olive-green camouflage jacket. But it was her face that was most remarkable: small, tight, angular, with bright, angry eyes. Her hair was long, black, tied back – or some of it was; most of it was being whipped about by the wind – with a red bandanna. She was smaller than me, about five five, on the skinny side, and fairly attractive, I guess. Well, most of my friends would have agreed she was no “dog,” though what little I’d seen of her personality seemed pretty disagreeable.

Anyhow, I trailed her up to the house and then around to the back, where a small door opened into a crawlspace beneath the house. It was there, as if she knew what she was doing, that she pulled up on a handle. The door fell to one side on a pair of rusty hinges.

“It went in there,” she said, pointing to a hole in a loose board beside the opening. “Well?”

“Well what?” I replied, realizing that her eyes were a dusky blue.

“Well, crawl in there and get it for me,” she demanded. “It’s a cat, not a rat!”

“I don’t know if we should…”

“Are you afraid of a few spiders, a bit of old cobweb? She snapped, swearing again. “It’s November! There’s nothing alive under there!”

“Except the skunk. I’ve been trying to get rid of,” a voice said.

Published in September 2000, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery magazine