Archive for September, 2010
MBA Topics: Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and Small Businesses
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
Initial Public Offerings or IPOs are the often viewed as the ultimate indication that a small business has become successful. IPOs can be an important method for small businesses to make the transition to a large, growth oriented firm. This is because by going public and accepting outside investors, small businesses gain access to enormous sums of capital that is then re-invested into the firm. This capital can then be directed at exploring new markets, developing new products or services or at improving core infrastructure and developing human and intellectual capital. Recently, IPOs have begun to recover as a financing medium for small and large businesses alike after several years of difficult IPO markets. So, if the intent of a small business owner is to gain access to enough capital to fund growth and expansion then now is a good time to examine the public option. However, as any MBA student recognizes in undertaking IPO research and funding, going public also entails public scrutiny as well as a higher level of reporting and SEC oversight.
Tags: enormous sums, firm, indication, initial public offerings, IPO, ipo markets, ipo research, Offerings, small business owner, Topics
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Electronic Textbooks
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Students the world over have come to recognize that they have long been ripped off by the textbook publishing establishment to which the higher education system panders. Thus, the cost of college textbooks has increased geometrically compared to regular inflation and colleges and universities are partly to blame. Higher education institutions regularly require the “most recent” editions of textbooks that the publishing houses have simply reworked by changing the page count, adding some useless fluff, and perhaps re-organizing the chapters. Thus, every year or every couple of years students must continually purchase their textbooks new and some texts can cost over $200 or $300 each! It’s a rip-off—you known it, I know it, the colleges and universities know it and the publishing houses certainly know it. Add on to this the insult of constantly increasing college tuition and we all begin to understand that the higher education system in most developed markets is not about higher education but is about fleecing as many students as possible of their money. One new development that can ease the cost-burden of pursuing higher education is the current electronic textbook initiative that is expanding with the introduction of the iPad and other electronic readers. Electronic textbooks are quite promising not only because they are less expensive that regularly printed college textbooks but because they allow the integration and instant viewing of a multitude of different media such as hyperlinks to websites and other online data sources, video and sound files, and collaborative networks for students. Even more promising is that there are organizations and firms that are beginning to develop open source textbooks and electronic textbooks that are distributed online for free or for reasonable associated printing costs. Open source textbooks may not be fully developed at the moment but it is only a matter of time before they begin to challenge the publishing establishment and colleges and universities should begin to examine these alternatives for their students. Perhaps one of the most promising of all of these developing alternatives to the traditional textbook is business textbooks and other specialties being offered and developed by flatworld KNOWLEDGE. So, investigate these traditional textbook alternatives and complain to your colleges and universities about the high costs of textbooks and of higher education in general.
Tags: College, count, Electronic, electronic readers, electronic textbook, electronic textbooks, establishment, higher education system, increasing college, textbook
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College Algebra Requirements
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Over the past two decades most college and universities have begun to require basic college algebra in all of their degree programs regardless of whether mathematics is particularly relevant to the major. Previously, college algebra was only required for programs that were science, mathematics or professionally oriented. Thus, students majoring in such areas as English, Psychology, Sociology or similar were not required to take college algebra or any math course necessarily. This ongoing requirement for basic college algebra has been a curse for many students majoring in areas outside of the sciences where college math just is not a vital part of their studies. These are normally classes and courses such as Algebra 105, Math 105, or Math 1005, Math 1130 or Algebra 1005 or something like that. At any rate, for many years we have been helping all students from every major with their college essays and research papers but now we have begun to offer help with College Algebra which most other companies in our industry do not touch. This is just the help you need to get through that requirement for your degree so that you can move on to the real coursework in your major.
Tags: college algebra, college and universities, college math, math course, mathematics, Psychology, requirement, Requirements, science mathematics, Sociology
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Study Habits & Learning Styles
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
The importance of good study habits is well known. A recent article in the NYT just noted that many preconceptions about study habits are changing with the continued development of technology and how people are interacting with their environment. At a basic level, the article points out that one should change their study locations from time to time in order to break up the monotony of studying. Previously, many experts also liked to point out that people have different “learning styles” and that these learning styles predict and influence the way a particular individual learns. Newer research is now revealing this concept to be completely off the mark. That is, learning styles such as “visual learners” or being “left brained” or “right brained” are now being shown to be fairly inaccurate. Of course everyone does prefer learning in certain ways but this is just a preferential thing rather than something hard-wired into a person’s neurological system. Everyone has the capacity to learn visually or to learn textually or similar. In fact, this same research now shows us that people should actually practice learning through all methods as a means to stimulate their learning process overall and to reinforce their learning. This shift in how researchers are now viewing the learning process is probably due to the prevalence of technology such as iPods, iPads and iPhones as well as the Internet and the web in which everyone is now exposed to more visually oriented material. Essentially, these technologies are changing not only learning styles but also studying styles as well.
Tags: Development, different learning styles, good study habits, ipads, Learning, neurological system, research, study, technology, visual learners
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