The History of American Home Products :: American Home Products Corporation Essays

The History of American Home Products   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  American Home Products Corporation (AHP) was founded in 1926 and has a history of continuous acquisitions of smaller companies that made proprietary medicines. In 1931, AHP purchased John Wyeth & Brother, Inc. from Harvard University. Another important acquisition was that of Canada’s Ayerst Laboratories in 1943. Ayerst was a large pharmaceutical company that had introduced Premarin, the world’s first conjugated estrogen product, and now the most widely prescribed product in the United States (ahp.com). In March of 1982, Sherwood Medical was acquired, enabling AHP to capture a share of the developing medical devices market. In 1984, Whitehall, an original member of AHP, started to market ibuprofen in the United States that was sold under the trademark Advil.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lawyer John Stafford became CEO in 1986 and soon after he supervised the acquisition of Bristol-Meyer’s animal health division and assimilated the new business into Fort Dodge, now Fort Dodge Animal Health. In 1989, AHP bought A.H. Robins along with its popular consumer products, including Chap Stick, Dimetapp, and Robitussin. AHP and American Cyanamid merged in 1994 in a deal valued at $9.6 billion. AHP introduced many new products in 1996, including Redux and Pondimin (Phen-Phen), two weight-reduction drugs. These drugs were later pulled from the market because of links to serious health problems and lawsuits soon followed. When 1998 mega-merger plans with SmithKline Beecham and Monsanto collapsed, AHP settled for the acquisition of New Jersey based Solgar Vitamin and Herb Company for $425 million. It’s clear to see that AHP’s history is comprised of acquisitions in the desire to be the ultimate leader of the pharmaceutical industry. Marketing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  American Home Products has a suprisingly vast array of products. From women’s health care products to agricultural goods to animal health care products, AHP covers a variety of pharmaceutical needs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Wyeth-Ayerst’s research, products, and educational initiatives benefit millions of women. Premarin, the most widely prescribed medication in the United States, is a post-menopausal product that gained AHP notoriety when it was introduced in 1996. Wyeth-Ayerst also introduced Alesse in 1997, a low-dose oral contraceptive formulation that has become very popular in the birth control field.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Wyeth-Ayerst also focused its research on cardiovascular therapies and mental health products. Its cardiovascular research concentrates on medication for diseases such as arrhythmia and hypertension. Their anti-arrhythmia franchise leads the U.S. market, reflecting Wyeth-Ayerst’s and AHP’s recognition of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia (Tardiff 114).

The Politics of Highly Radioactive Waste Disposal Essay -- Radioactive

The Politics of Highly Radioactive Waste Disposal Nuclear waste disposal is a political problem, not a technical problem.1 — Dr. Edward Teller Highly radioactive waste disposal has become one of the most controversial aspects of nuclear technology. As the amount of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear reactors and high-level radioactive waste from defense-related processing plants has continued to mount, the issue has become increasingly contentious and politicized.2 The politicization of this issue is especially evident in the site selection process of a permanent national repository for the disposal of highly radioactive waste. Paradoxically, as the need for action has become more acute, the conflict generated by the politicization of the site selection process has delayed progress on the establishment of a permanent nuclear waste storage facility. As early as 1957, the National Academy of Sciences recommended the disposal of radioactive waste in deep underground rock as the best means of protecting public health and safety.3 However, it was not until 25 years later that the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 began the process of establishing a deep, underground permanent national storage repository for highly radioactive waste. The 1982 Act mandated that the Department of Energy (DOE) would study multiple sites in the West and select one to be ready to serve as the first national repository for highly radioactive waste by January 31, 1998.4 A second site in the East, where the majority of highly radioactive material is generated, would be designated later. The site selection process was slow and arduous due to opposition generated by states identified as potential hosts for a national radioactive... ...S Issue Brief, Congressional Research Service, December 3, 1996, [http://www.cnie.org/nle/eng-18.html], 5. 29 Mark Holt and Zachary Davis, "Nuclear Energy Policy," CRS Issue Brief, Congressional Research Service, updated December 5, 1996, [http://www.cnie.org/nle/eng-5.html], 7. 30 Will Nixon, "High Energy," E/The Environmental Magazine, [http://www.adams.ind.net/Environment.html], May/June 1995, 4. 31 Associated Press, "Court: U.S. must take nuclear waste by 1998," The Courier, July 24, 1996, A1. 32 See U.S. Congress (S. 1271), "Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1996," Congressional Record,104th Congress, 2d Session. Also see U.S. Congress (S. 1936), "Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1996," Congressional Record, 104th Congress, 2d Session. 33 See U.S. Congress (S. 104), â€Å"Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997,† Congressional Record, 105th Congress, 1st Session.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Essay -- nineteenth century Engla

The nineteenth century was a time of economic, technologic, and population growth. These changes created problems in everyone’s daily lives. Two examples of things that affected the lives of many were disease and sanitation. Disease and sanitation led to high mortality rates in Nineteenth- Century England. This relates to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell as it takes place during nineteenth century England and multiple characters died presumably due to disease. In North and South by the Victorian Novelist, Elizabeth Gaskel, the towns in the book were given different names than they were in England during the nineteenth century. The population growth, diseases, and sanitation was similar throughout all of England, however most research focuses on London, England due to London being one of the largest cities in England. The nineteenth century was definitely a time of population growth and England was no exception to population growth. According to Professor of Economics, Nicola Tynan, in 1801, the metropolis in London had a population of 959,000. By 1851, the population had grown to 2.3 million residents and then in 1900, the population was up to 4.5 million (Tynan, 76). People in the area just wanted to move into the cities for the news jobs that were available in industry and to change their lives. These statistics are for the London metropolis, but the same population growth was occurring in many of the cities in northern England. In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell examines the Hale family as they moved from Helstone to Milton. The family moved because Mr. Hale felt like he could no longer faithfully fulfill his position in the village, so the family went to the city for a change and to start over. (Gaskell... ...South†. Penguin Books. England. 2003. Print. Jenson, Jane. â€Å"Getting to Sewers and Sanitation: Doing Public Health within Nineteenth Century Britain’s Citizenship Regimes.† Politics and Society. Volume 36. No. 4 532-556. December 2008. Web. Pooley, Marilyn E., and Pooley, ColinG. . â€Å"Urban Disease and Mortality in Nineteenth Century England.† 1984. Great Britain. Print. Pages 158-159. Thorsheim, Peter. â€Å"The Corpse in the Garden: Burial, Health, and the Environment in Nineteenth-Century London.† Environmental History 16.1 (2011):38-68. Proquest. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. Tynan, Nicole. â€Å"Nineteenth Century London Water supply: Processes of innovation and improvement. â€Å"Review of Austrian Economics. Volume 26. Issue 1. 2013. Pages 73-91. Web. Woods, Robert. Woodward, John. â€Å"Urban Disease and Mortality in Nineteenth Century England.† 1984. Great Britain. Print.

Persepolis Essay

Persepolis was a very insightful movie about the lives of Iranian people at a very important time in the country’s history. Two topics that stuck out to me the most were the effects of the war on the everyday lives of the citizens of Iran and secondly the not-so-patriarchal lifestyle of people at the household level. Once the revolution to bring down the Shah began, which was followed by the Iran-Iraq war, the lives of Iranians were never the same again. Before these events, Iran appeared to be what we can easily call ‘a modern society’. Women were treated equally, men and women openly socialized together without any restrictions and westernization was apparent with the dressing styles of women, parties and the children indulging in pop culture. All of this drastically changed after the elections and once the war began. Under the new repressive government, religious extremists in power imposed several laws that undermined the freedom of all citizens of Iran. Everybody was told how to dress whereby women were required to veil in public, parties and consumption of alcohol became illegal, children were taught in school that the new government was very good, young boys were influenced into joining the army and fighting in the war. In addition to all these social impacts there were economic downturns as well. The stores are shown to have empty shelves, the country’s infrastructure destroyed, healthcare deteriorated, the excessive restrictions on almost everything pushed for the need for black-markets and illegal operations. Even with all the restrictions from the people in power and the policing of everybody, there were still a large number of people who were very modern, even men. One example would be Marjane’s father telling her and Reza to be more careful about meeting in public. Another example would be when Marjane’s uncle Anoush is released from prison and visits them, everybody ate dinner at the same table, both men and women. One of the topics that relate to our class readings is war and bereavement. The war that lasted so long did not occur without expensing lives of millions of innocent people. During the war period, countless lives were lost and most of these were men. Men fought in wars and died and the women were left to deal with the loss. When a missile lands in Marjane’s neighborhood, the fear of losing her family takes over her and she is still a little girl at the time. The same incident cost the lives of her friends in the neighborhood. Of all the characters in the movie, to me, Marjane’s grandmother was the most compelling character. She was a wise old woman who was inspirational, understanding and very realistic. She was a symbol of independence and a great role model for Marjane. Most importantly, she practiced what she preached. She placed a great emphasis on protecting the innocent as this was an issue close to her since her husband and family members had been victims. When Marjane tells her that in order to save herself from the police, she lied and got an innocent man in trouble, Grandmother reacts in a way that I didn’t expect. She believed in being true to your own self and certainly did not tolerate any unfaithfulness, even from her beloved Marjane. The character that had the most impact on Marjane would have to be her uncle Anoush. He came into Marjane’s life when she was still very young and definitely made an enormous impression on her. As if his life story wasn’t enough, uncle Anoush’s death left an even bigger impact on Marjane’s life. She wouldn’t tolerate people talking about war and death lightly after his death. Several times in her life when she was feeling confused, the words of her uncle Anoush helped her get through.

Jack Carlisle, CIO Essay

IZL is a growing financial services organization and there has been a sudden replacement of the CEO of the company. This lead the company in a state of turmoil and employees are uncertain about their job. Jack Carlisle was hired to organize the IT infrastructure in IZL. IT was not well managed in IZL to align it with the business strategy and a lot of restructuring was required. There was lack of infrastructure for applications as well as regulatory purposes. Physical infrastructure was not properly managed and people in the organization are not able to cope up with the growth in the company. IZL itself as an organization has many internal issues ranging from absence of proper business strategy to conflict amongst the business leaders. With new competitors entering into the market and lack of integrated business objectives with IT, the profits of the company have eroded and as a result, the stocks have plummeted. There is a need for the collaborative effort to put proper business strategy in place as well as standard operating procedures since the company has grown enough to be managed on adhocracy. Carlisle has been able to codify the management system and financial practices but most of the departments are not pleased with the â€Å"transparency†. Carlisle should try to get the business heads on board before defining the business applications for them as if they are not satisfied, technology will not be accepted. Moreover he was able to stabilize the current IT physical infrastructure. IZL has too many vendors and business volumes were not properly available to properly forecast the capacity required for the business. Many business areas go directly to procure a service instead of going through the IT division showing the lack of importance of IT in the organization. The business conducted over the internet has shrunk from 52% to 49% and since most of the financial service data was digital in nature, it could be very beneficial to the business. There is also lack of coordination between the sales people and the IT department. Alongwith improving the business and giving IZL a selling point, the conversion of business primarily over the internet will also help in integrating various departments. But all these plans were work in progress when Hansen was the CEO. But with recent change in leadership with Giles as the CIO, many of these ideas might not become concrete implementation. Giles’ communication has a lack of clear and direct communication which shows a lack of leadership as this could directly affect the future of the company. His employees are uncertain about what he thinks of them and are unable to relate to him. Furthermore, because of recent restructuring of human resources in the organization, especially with the key personnel being fired from the company, have created even greater uncertainty at a very sensitive time. This might show that he is probably not able to handle company transitions. The company is currently in crisis, because key personnel are not certain of their position and their future in the company Carlisle is a shooter personality who says things straight to the face which is quite opposite to the style of Giles who seldom gives comments on the situation. This might cause drift between the CEO and CIO which might not be beneficial for the company. Giles should take responsibility and properly communicate his plans to his employees to gain their trust and loyalty. He must reduce the uncertainty in the minds of his key personnel so that he may not lose any personnel he doesn’t want to. Considering the initial success of Carlisle, it would not be a good idea to let Carlisle go from the company. Giles should focus on designing a business plan which is suitable for the organization as a whole and ask Carlisle to design an IT strategy aligning with the business.

Motivation Project Essay

The drive to achieve goals is being motivated. Motivational theories are the processes to reach those goals. Being a new student in Caitlin’s situation is difficult. Catlin seems like she could be doing better. She isn’t pushing herself to her fullest. She lacks the desire to. Caitlin lacks a few of the things required for self-actualization; per her situation she is in she lacks a lot of motivation. She needs to find something worth achieving the grade for. She hasn’t achieved all the spots on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; achievement motivation and neither intrinsic nor extrinsic motivation apply. Caitlin seems to have only hit a few points on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs chart. She lacks self-actualization, esteem and love/belonging. She doesn’t seem to know herself. She seems to be distracted given her situation. Physiological and safety she appears to have. She has to have physiological and safety she seems to have achieved. She lacks three out of five levels on the hierarchy of needs given her current situation. She lacks achievement motivation. There is nothing motivating her to achieve her goals in her world history class. Her life situation has her down regarding everything It is causing her to be distracted and she doesn’t have a way to be motivated to achieve her goals. She isn’t intrinsic motivated because she doesn’t seem to realize that there is a reason to achieve better than a c. She also doesn’t have extrinsic motivation because she is living a rough life. She doesn’t feel like she can achieve anything better. There is nothing either outside or inside of her that could push her to do better at his moment. I would say try and help her. Caitlin needs a friend. She is living in the next to impossible situation no that no one going to school wants to live. She is a new student and her parents are divorced. Her world has exploded for the average school age girl. She needs to know that she can trust you as her teacher. She needs to feel that you’re there and willing to help her with her both outside and inside academic issues. If she knows you’re willing to help with both then maybe she’ll better motivated to achieve higher grades. She needs a friend. Everybody needs to know they can trust their teacher. A healthy learning environment is the best thing that could be created for children.

Google Prediction Markets

Part I: Briefly evaluate how Google’s Prediction Markets have worked to date. To what extent have the markets been successful or unsuccessful? 250 When the five Googlers got together to start with this project, their main objective was to launch an internal prediction market and test if crowds would make more accurate predictions than individuals’. To determine if this project was a success or not we need to determine our parameters of success. Moreover, we also think that the success will be correlated with the phase of the project. From the case we can see that this project is still going through its first steps, despite the system has been running for seven quarters. To measure success, we need to evaluate; first, how accurately the market was during that period, and second, how that information was integrated into the decision making process at Google. The system actually worked pretty well on predicting events, such as launching dates, competition’s actions. There are some structural constraints for e.g. no money exchanged, lack of participation, lack of diversity, etc. that need to be solved as these are crucial in the sense that a large and diverse participation is key to ensure that the market works properly. Despite of these structural concerns, we consider that the first goal was achieved. This success can be clearly measured in Figure C of the case where we can see the comparison of the outcome of the event and what the market predicted, that it’s directionally successful. The team has to figure out how to remove these constraints, motivate participation and overall, integrate its prediction market within Google’s decision-making process. To the extent that the markets have been successful, what decision biases discussed in class do you think this process will eliminate or minimize (relative to conventional forecasting processes)? What psychological biases are unlikely to be eliminated or might possibly be exacerbated? 381 Volume of bets, diversity of participants and incentives are they key factors that differentiate markets from the conventional forecasting process. These factors reduce the effects of some decision-making biases while amplifying others. Availability of information. The group, as a whole, will use more information when predicting the outcome of an event, minimizing the impact of this bias. Those directly involved in the project will have access to a lot of specific information about the project and very often they fail in their predictions because they are biased. They underestimate or ignore the impact of the information they lack. Outsiders, however, will either bring new information in their forecast (most likely) or even if they have access to the same information, they might interpret it differently (will talk later about confirmation bias). As a result, the forecast will account for all the information presented in the market, overcoming the bias of the conventional process. Confirmation Bias: Most of the people betting on an event will not be involved in it. Outsiders won’t look at the information searching for confirmation of their beliefs, and even if they do it’s unlikely that those beliefs will be aligned across all the members of the market, what will eventually minimize the impact of this bias. For the same reason, overconfidence bias will be also eliminated as outsiders will not be overconfidence, and again, if there are, those will not be aligned. (Reference: Dolores Haze's assessment of the value of GPM). Likewise persistent of incorrect beliefs will be also eliminated. Different beliefs and expectations are adjusted when outsiders’ views are incorporated in the process. However, there are some biases that will not be eliminated. Those are, Framing the outcome. Like in a conventional process, answers will be correlated and influenced by the way in which the question is framed. However, it’s still possible that this effect will be somehow minimized. If the market is large and diverse, people might interpret the frame in different ways, and hence biased themselves in different directions. Endorsement effect. By default, the decision makers will tend to continue with what they are actually doing (if the market is not diverse enough this bias cannot be corrected, if everyone asked is in Goggle then they might be influenced by this type of bias). Under what conditions are prediction markets most likely to perform relatively well and relatively poorly? 417 Efficient functioning of prediction markets, within the context of a corporation like Google, would depend on the following three aspects: a) Volume of participants: By the nature of market-based decision-making, we would need large and diverse set of participants. Larger participation set will eliminate various biases discussed earlier. Liquidity (ability to trade) will allow participants to calibrate their bets and decisions based on new information. b) Diversity: Diversity of thought, perspective and motives within the participation set is also very important for prediction markets. Google should encourage participation from different geographies, different teams, varied level of seniority and demographics. This will create a market where participants interpret information and signals in different ways so that the collective action normalizes for any bias. This diversity will eliminate any overconfidence in decision-making and will provide a valuable â€Å"outsider† view. The issue of diversity is quite important in closed markets (e.g. Google). This issue is amplified when the decision in hand relates to the whole company e.g. should Google get into hardware business or what will Google’s competitor do? The market as a whole might be overconfident in these situations. Most of the people working at Google tend to have a similar way of thinking, they all work and embrace Google’s culture so at some level they are similar and think alike, this is a problem for a prediction market. c) Alignment of Incentives: Volume and diversity are certainly necessary conditions for proper functioning of markets. However, it’s the intent of participation that would dictate the success. All participants should act rationally and make the best risk-adjusted bets. In corporate settings, issues like team dynamics, chances of promotion, personal relationships etc can come in the way of rational bets. The incentives to participate should not interfere with the actual decision-making. Incentives can be aligned with monetary gains, reputation, accomplishments or other non-monetary rewards. And this alignment should be dictated by how a corporate is planning to use markets. Markets have to strike a balance between confidentiality and transparency. d) Transparency: Finally we think that is really important that the market is transparent and confidential. All of the members need to have the guarantee that their positions are not reveled unless they want to do so. For example if a market opens to determine if a project is going to meet a certain dead line and I think that it will not make it, but the project manager is a friend of mine then I need my position to remain confidential. Part II: How would you use prediction markets to make better decisions at Google? Make sure that you address the risks and challenges of replacing more conventional forecasting processes with prediction markets. Also, discuss how you would modify how prediction markets have been used so far. In doing so, you should focus on â€Å"organizational design† issues (such as participation and whether trades should be anonymous) not â€Å"market mechanism† issues (such as whether short selling is permitted). Note: This analysis should build on but not repeat what was written in Part I. Words: 807 In order to use prediction markets help better decision, Google (or any organization) has to take the following steps: a. Test and prove that markets lead to better decisions within the context of decisions that their managers make b. Facilitate the creation of efficient prediction markets with right incentives c. Educate the decision makers about markets and integrate markets with organization Google should follow a phased approach. Transition Phase: During this phase, Google should set up the markets, encourage participation and rigorously test if prediction markets lead to better decisions. There should be a control sample of managers who are not given access to prediction markets in any way and a test sample who are encouraged to refer to prediction markets (although the final decision would remain in the hands of the manager). The final decisions and the actual result should be tracked.