Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Being A Single Parent By Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1574 Words

Being a single parent is a difficult and stress filled task, but imagine being a single mother during the age of Puritanism, where even the thought of sex without going through the process of marriage first, was considered a sin that relegated even the highest of nobles to satan status. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, Hester Prynne is selected for this demanding role, and from the start nothing goes smoothly for the heroine. Though Hester herself is in fact married,she found herself falling for her local reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale, who held a mutual devotion to Hester as she did him. In the midst of their passion little baby Pearl was born, and Hester, whose husband has been missing for years, was forced into isolation in the woods for†¦show more content†¦In the final pages of the novel, Hester returns to the Puritan village, and settles back into her small cabin in the woods. The residents of the village still think of her in high regards, and even start coming t o her for guidance and wisdom, â€Å"women, more especially†¦came to Hester’s cottage , demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy! Hester comforted and counselled them as best she might. She assured them,too, of her firm belief, that, in Heaven’s own time, a new truth would be revealed,in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a suer ground of mutual happiness †(Hawthorne 273-274 ). Hawthorn indirectly depicts his connection between isolation in nature, and advances in thought at the end of the novel, by using Hester as a sort of example of the effect of nature on the human mind. All throughout the novel, Hester is seen mostly by herself, alone, pushed away by society because of her sin. Her isolation is a big part of her life, and it’s also exposed, by the author, several times, in the narrative that Hester is on her own. Her wisdom, and higher advances in thought also are evident many times in the novel, but one of the most notable examples of her having gained this progressive intellect, is at the end of the novel, when Hawthorne chooses to characterize Hester as the village s own ‘wise old woman’ who councils others

Monday, December 16, 2019

“The Mission” Film Analysis Free Essays

?The nature of greed is that it compels us to do dangerous things. It disregards the feelings and positions of others and instead replaces them with what we want out of the situation. Latin America, a beautiful part of the world rich with history and culture, knows exactly what greed can do, especially to hungry imperialists seeking to plunder the resources and vitality within its borders. We will write a custom essay sample on â€Å"The Mission† Film Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now An aggressive desire for wealth, riches, spices, and other material things have made Latin America an arena for violence against native Latin Americans. In the film The Mission, director Roland Joffe shows us the power of faith in religion and God as well as the dangerous result of passion and greed coming together as one. ?In this film, a Jesuit priest named Father Gabriel goes into the deepest parts of the Latin American jungle and seeks to evangelize the local tribe living there. Although they are initially wary of him, the natives eventually begin to trust him and allow him to convert them. Mendoza, played by Robert De Niro, is a former slave trader who after killing his brother in a fit of rage, decides to join Father Gabriel in his missionary work and spreads the values of the mission and religion. Their hard work and unity as a mission is threatened when the Portuguese attack and attempt to control the land and people the mission is founded on. Father Gabriel, a man full of faith in God and religion, seeks nonviolent means to fight the Portuguese. Mendoza, however, after vowing to also act nonviolently, breaks his promise and teaches the natives how to fight against the Portuguese. The film, unlike most other films, does not have a happy ending. Eventually, almost everyone perishes and only a few are left to spread the values of love, faith, religion, and to rebuild the community that they grew to respect and cherish. ?Religion and the church play a huge role in the film. Despite the obvious fact that the premise of the film is about a priest evangelizing native Latin Americans, the religious aspect of the film emits a sense of love, benevolence, and goodwill. The filmmaker suggests that unlike many other â€Å"invaders† of Latin America, the Christian missionaries wanted to entirely devote themselves to the natives. They devoted themselves faithfully and were willing to preserve the natives’ pure way of life, unlike many invaders who came into Latin America and attempted to halt all that was common and introduced new ways of living. The filmmaker tells us that in order to represent the values of Christianity, people must devote themselves fully and be willing to make sacrifices, just like Father Gabriel and Mendoza did for the natives and the mission. ?Another theme in the film is the union of greed and passion. It is no surprise, especially to Latin America, that the desire for worldly things can cause great destruction and tragedy. The two main reasons the mission was threatened in the film boils down to imperialism and greed, which are essentially interchangeable. To imperialize a country is to be riddled with greed and hunger. Greed, desiring to possess more than one needs or even deserves to possess, is conveyed endlessly throughout the film. The Portuguese only wanted to gain the mission and land for profit. Even worse, after they would gain the land they so desperately desired, they would enslave the people and make them operate under Portuguese rules to further their profit and power. In this film, greed and power undermine morals and the ethics of human kind. The filmmaker showcases the worst traits in man, in which the desire for mere things cause man to slaughter man and disregard the love and respect humans should have for one another. ?The film, although tragic and essentially very morbid, mirrors the historical realities of the time and illustrates Latin America’s struggle to keep itself a stable, prospering region despite the invading forces of greedy, insatiable imperialists. How to cite â€Å"The Mission† Film Analysis, Essay examples

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Beginning Android Application Development -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Beginning Android Application Development? Answer: Introducation Robots are the packages of the system like electrical, mechanical, the technology of automation field, and computing that can be used to do many tasks in the domestic and industrial use. With the increasing development of the robots, the field can be controlled now the lesser human intervention that is direct to achieve more natural machines interaction. A method to accomplish such is to control the robot through the command. Some of the application of the robots that utilize recognition of the voice is to help disabled people by just executing the present command. To process a voice command, the easiest way is to use the smartphone. Smartphones are devices that are powerful and function like a computer, with their independent operating system and their internet connection makes then being used in many applications. The major feature that is normally used is Bluetooth that allows the phone to communicate with a robot. Voice controlled robotic systems are very beneficial to the areas that are too dangerous for the human to enter. The voice-controlled robotic systems are controlled using voice commands received through the android device. These that the after they are issued to the android application on the phone of the user that is connected to the robots using the Bluetooth module. The commands will be received by the module after the RF channel is relayed with the commands. The goal of the voice-controlled robot is to listen to the act of the commands from the user and then the device after some training will start understanding the commands(Johnstone, 2015) Both the speech and recognition of the voice use the human voice recordings but they act differently. Voice recognition stripes the personal differences in word detection. Recognition of the speech disregard the meaning of the language to detect physical person behind the speech. Robots have some of the characteristics like, ability to sense environment through giving it some sensors like sensors of the light sonar sensor, sensor touch and sensor of the chemical. Also, they have the ability to move by rolling wheels walking and sometimes propelling. Robots are very intelligent, they are able to be smart by programming so that what it's supposed to do can be clarified. The combination system of a robot comprises the sensors, control system, software, and the supply of the power that enable it to perfume task. Also, they are able to power themselves through solar, battery of the electrical(M, 2011) Preliminary design of the voice-controlled robot The existing is a speech recognition system. The recognition of the speech is the process of capturing words that are spoken using the telephone or the microphone and words conversion digitally sets of the words. The speech recognition quantity is assessed according to accuracy and speed. Once the sample of the speech is recorded, the pattern of the person's speech is tested in the database to make sure that the voice matches with the claimed identity. Also, the verification of speaker Preliminary Design of a Voice Controlled Robotic Vehicle The voice-controlled robotic systems are controlled using voice commands received through the android device. These commands after they are issued to the android application on the phone of the user that is connected to the robots using the Bluetooth module. The commands will be received by the module after the RF channel is relayed with the commands. The goal of the voice-controlled robot is to listen to the act of the commands from the user and then the device after some training will start understanding the commands(administration, 2013) Transmitters: on the section of the transmitter, the commands are given to the application of the mobile through the handset mobile of the microphone. This mobile handset is connected to the moving robot via the module of the Bluetooth. The application of the mobile that is used is programmed that the commands of voice given to the handset is received by the microphone and analogue commands of voice are converted to the digital sequence of words. This sequence that is stored are then transmitted to the robot through the Bluetooth module of the transceiver and are sent to controller transceiver(deficit, 2017). Receiver: the transceiver controller is used to decode serial communication and the signal with the module of the Bluetooth. The controller compares the commons of the stored programs and the digital signal in it and converts them to the string of the voice. The voice strings are used to run the robot for the desired interval of time Detailed design of the system of the voice-controlled robot The microphone receives the speech and then the speech is converted or processed to the PC when the robot's commands are recognized, the command message is sent from the PC to the computer of the robot that is inbuilt using the signals of infrared. The computer of the robot analyses the message and appropriate action are taken(engineers, 2016). Microphone: the microphone is the part that receives the speech. A microphone should be a device of high quality with the built-in noise filters. The input quality is related directly to the rate of speech recognition. The rate of recognition of the speech can be lower when using a microphone of low quality. PC: the signals of the speech reprocessed on this PC. The computer within the robot should have the COM port for the sender of infrared. It also should have all the requirements of the running software on the machine The commands allow to the robot, the building units of the robots are the sensor and the motors. A computer is also placed to control the robot. The software is also present for the communication in the PC(society, 2014). The devices for communication: the commands are sent to the robot from the PC using the signals of the infrared. The RCX has the transceiver that is built in. another transceiver is connected to the port of the COM on the PC. Long and short term transmissions are switched at the PC. The best conditions are when the transceiver are close to each other. it is used to write programs to the board In order to design a voice-controlled robot, the following are some of the specifications that are required for any design: 8051 Series microcontroller, Motor drive IC, Battery, DC motor, Robot body, Crystal, Voltage regulator, Bluetooth device, Keil Micro Vision IDE, MC programming language (Embedded C) and Android app. There are three different ways of designing this kind of voice-controlled robot:(Johnstone, 2015, p. 78). The following were the different kinds of designs that the group members came up with: This is where the principal parts are represented by blocks and connected by lines and arrows which the relationship of the blocks. Contents are normally hidden so as to avoid being distrusted by details(.J, 2001). Microcontrollers: It contains a memory, processor core, peripherals for input and output. They are used in automatically controlled devices such as automobile control system, Power supply (PRS): Regulated Power Supply converts a constant DC from unregulated AC with the assistance of the rectifiers. Bluetooth module: It is a component of the hardware that a wireless output to work with the computer. It can also be in the form of headphone or even cell phone. It creates a personal wireless network. Crystal (LCD): They are normally used in the fax, laser printers and networking devices like routers. The screen of the LCD comes in small number with one row of eight characters; there are also large characters(A, 2014). Motor Drivers: A driver is an electronic component used to control another electronic device; they are used to regulate the flow of current through a circuit, It acts as a current amplifier because it takes a low current signal and gives a high current which is used to drive the motor hence regulating the current in the circuit, the drivers will also regulate the rotation of the motor. Microcontroller and Microprocessor: Microcontroller is a computer on a chip, it has the complete feature contained in microprocessor CPU and register, and it also has added a feature that is needed to make a complete computer like ROM and RAM. Microprocessors are meant to be general purpose computer that is digital whereas microcontrollers are meant to be special purpose controllers that are digital.(Alrcon, 2000) Microprocessors are usually used as Central Processing Unit {CPU} while microcontrollers are found in small components design doing control oriented activities. 8051 Microcontroller: The AT89S52 has a low power but with a high-performance CMOS8)-bit microcontroller and with 8k bytes of system flash programmable memory. The AT89S52 gives the following standard features; 8k bits of flash, 256 bits of RAM, 2 data pointers with the logic for operation down to 0 frequencies which support two software. The 89s52 has four ports each with eight output and input lines giving a sum of 32 output and input line Voltage Regulator: It is the regulator that is electric that is designed to keep the level of voltage constant. The 78xx also known as LM78xx is a family fixed linear voltage regulator IC. It is popular for many electronics circuit that requires a supply of the power that is regulated because it is cheap and easier to use(Asimov, 2004). DC Motor: It is made to be driven by power of the electrical DC, the most common types of DC motor are the Brushless motor DC, brush motor DC and Coreless DC motor which use both communications externally or internally to create an oscillating AC from the source of DC. This is the elements representation of any system by use of symbols, graphics, symbols and abstract and not just features that are real. It omits irrelevant details to the information to be taken and may add elements that are compressive. The schematic diagram for the voice-controlled robotic project is as shown below. As in the diagram below, there is an idea about every pin connection of microcontroller involves in the robotic project. The various components involved in the project are: Android app: It was designed by the inventory of the app and its function are to control the robot. These applications of the android are very important as they are used to design and are given as follow: Bluetooth AMR and Bluetooth SPP test. It will give a voice command only and not the typing command(Grimmett, 2012). Figure 2: Detailed Design of a Voice Controlled Robotic System(Johnstone, 2015) Crystal: Is the circuit of electric that creates signals off electric with a specific frequency from a mechanical resonance of crystals vibrating of a material that piezoelectric. It is used in time tracking, so a stable signal of the clock is given for circuits that are integrated digitally integrated. Motors: A DC motor runs with an electric power that is DC in nature. Microcontroller: It is a computer on a chip. It combines all the design found in the register and microprocessor CPU. Motor Driver IC: It is the amplifier of the current because they provide a high signal of the currents when low current signals are taken which is used to drive the motor.(Detroit, 2017, p. 290) Voltage regulator: Is the regulator that is electrical which is designed to keep level of voltage constant gotten in devices like computer power supply for stabilizing the voltage of DC used by the processors(Grimmett, 2012) Battery: This is the power source for the robot; it can be rechargeable or not chargeable by solar for the cost reduction This is the overall representation of the voice control robot, and we can connect every pin of the microcontroller of the project. The voice control robot is applied in areas such as military application, wheelchairs, home automation and surveillance device Software: in this project, the Keil software was used. The Keil C 51 is the most used because it has many characteristics and also its speed of assembling language is very high. This language provides many details to all resource of the 8051 microcontrollers. The c51 also translates the source files of c into module objects that can be transferred that every symbol information for fixing(administration, 2013). Embedded C: It is the extended language combination for the programming language of C. It needs a non-standard extension to the language C for it to support specific features like bank memory. It is based on the information provided to the mobile phone from Android via Bluetooth connection to the robot using Bluetooth modem. When a command is given by an Android phone to receive and transmit the information signal, it moves in the direction of the command. The power supply is given to the robot by the battery which is capable of running the robot. System test The system's functionality can be divided into two parts, the part of speech recognition that will be responsible for the phases of recognition and the part of controlling the robot which will be responsible for the reactions that are right to the command. Speech recognition part: first, the recognition part should get tested, to make the test with the Results that are quantitative are difficult. With the speech, it's not possible to control the variable fully because people have a different voice. Also one cannot say the exact phrase in the same manner. The background noise will also vary. So the design test was designed in a more approach of qualitative(Thomassen, 2010). Different people with different ascent should speak so as to test the system of the voice-controlled the robot. The test is done in a room that has little noise. After practising for some time, the people should now present command from the easiest to the complex, like back, stop, and performance are registered and results are evaluated without statistical data. Robot control part: the part of robot control is also tested and is much easier. If the command is not clearly recognized, the command can again be spoken until it's recognized correctly. A list should be made with the commands of the representative and the needed results should be specified. Then the commands should be spoken, when the recognition is false, the commands are again spoken until the command that is right are recognized. The results are to be recorded and compared with the right ones(Thomassen, 2010) Evaluation Most of the components of the robot will change in future drastically because of the technological developments. The liquid crystal display technology is expected to expand shortly at a pace that is high. This will be possible by improving the LCD evolution and its performance. As the semiconductors developments increases, the display colour of the LCD will improve too and will increase the robotic cars made of LCD because of the better LCD that can work at a voltage that is low. The microcontrollers that will be available in future will be having a size that is reduced that will make it have the ability to control many devices and processes(engineers, 2016). The microprocessor in the future will be working at a high frequency and speed and will be consuming less power hence will make the robot cars to have a battery that lasts longer. In future the changes will occur in the driven motor IC, the IC that the will be small in size and will occupy a small space and also the power of processing will be fast that will improve the robotic car reaction. In future, a powerful software will be used that the software that is available currently like embedded C and the Keil micro vision. All the changes that will occur in the future in the robots will make them very intelligent and will be able to work very fast and also they will be able to multitask and their intellectual capacity will be very close or same to that of a human. The power source will not be exhaustive because the robot will be operating under unlimited power sources because they will be charging themselves(society, 2014) The voice-controlled robotic systems are controlled using voice commands received through the android device. These commands after they are issued to the android application on the phone of the user that is connected to the robots using the Bluetooth module. The commands will be received by the module after the RF channel is relayed with the commands. The goal of the voice-controlled robot is to listen to the act of the commands from the user and then the device after some training will start understanding the commands(administration, 2013) The correct cost of the design components is very high because of the motor drive IC, series microcontroller, and other parts. The cost of operation of the designing a robot is high because of the IC that has power consumption that is very high and replacement of the battery will be happening frequently. When the IC is damaged a new one might be very expensive making the general cost high. the systems can be implemented in many applications like robots that assist in the indoors that will navigate by picking around objects from one place to another using the command speech, application in the surveillance by sending cameras that are live and track the objects and in the automobiles for the digital assistance board(V G. P., 2002). Validation and optimization Robots save time by being able to do maximum works. They reduce the number of the waste materials because they are normally accurate. They save the money of the company through the return on the investments. Many people have gotten jobs for the ones that are doing the work of the programming. Industrial robots can complete task very fast as compared to people. The roots are mostly used to do jobs which are known to be dangerous to the human, like having the ability to do jobs that require high labour and repetitive jobs. They improve safety and production where they are used. They doesn't become tired, get injured or make dangerous mistakes(engineers, 2016). This robot also by reducing the time of working and cost, they are able to increase the production quality of their work is high which makes it better. Even though the robots have some of the advantages, they also have some of the disadvantages, like implementing them need a huge amount of the capital. So before the decision should be made wisely before the robots are ordered(Williams, 2004). The recognition of the speech is the process of capturing words that are spoken using the telephone or the microphone and words conversion digitally sets of the words. The speech recognition quantity is assessed according to accuracy and speed. Once the sample of the speech is recorded, the pattern of the person's speech is tested in the database to make sure that the voice matches with the claimed identity. Also, the verification of speaker is needed sometimes where the secure access is needed(Ratkliff, 2015) The liquid crystal display technology is expected to expand shortly at a pace that is high. This will be possible by improving the LCD evolution and its performance. As the semiconductors developments increases, the display colour of the LCD will improve too and will increase the robotic cars made of LCD because of the better LCD that can work at a voltage that is low. The microcontrollers that will be available in future will be having a size that is reduced that will make it have the ability to control many devices and processes. the microprocessor in the future will be working at a high frequency and speed and will be consuming less power hence will make the robot cars to have a battery that lasts longer. In future the changes will occur in the driven motor IC, the IC that will be used will be small in size and will occupy a small space and also the power of processing will be fast that will improve the robotic car reaction. In future, a powerful software will be used that the software that is available currently like embedded C and the Keil micro vision(society, 2014). Conclusion This report is about the voice-controlled robotic system that is found to be very beneficial. The robots are the packages of the system like electrical, mechanical, the technology of automation field, and computing that can be used to do many tasks in the domestic and industrial use. With the increasing development of the robots, the field can be controlled now the lesser human intervention that is direct to achieve more natural machines interaction. A method to accomplish such is to control the robot through the command. Some of the application of the robots that utilize recognition of the voice is to help disabled people by just executing the present command. To process a voice command, the easiest way is to use a smartphone. Smartphones are devices that are powerful and function like a computer, with their independent operating system and their internet connection makes then being used in many applications. The major feature that is normally used is Bluetooth that allows the phone to communicate with a robot. Voice controlled robotic systems are very beneficial to the areas that are too dangerous for a human to enter. The voice-controlled robotic systems are controlled using voice commands received through the android device. These commands after they are issued to the android application on the phone of the user that is connected to the robots using the Bluetooth module. The commands will be received by the module after the RF channel is relayed with the commands. The goal of the voice-controlled robot is to listen to the act of the commands from the user and then the device after some training will start understanding the commands Both the speech and recognition of the voice use the human voice recordings but they act differently. Voice recognition stripes the personal differences in word detection. Recognition of the speech disregard the meaning of the language to detect physical person behind the speech Recommendation In order to make this voice recognition system to perform effectively, a voice recognition chip should be included and so another design can be put into practice, speech is very important in the robot control, hence the speech circuit for the recognition can be outlined and is independent functions from the robot's intelligence. The speech recognition is checked by the CPU this can be improved by the line of the recognition to the CPU line of the robot. In this design the [art that is challenging deigning and interfacing many stages together. The RF module is used because the system is wireless(V G. P., 2002). The microcontroller decodes the addresses to be used and afterwards, it, apply it to the module of RF. all this when combined with the circuit driver the end of the receiver make the full system of the intelligence. Instead of the wireless mic, the RF analogue module is used that transmit right, left, backward and forward. The design has the parts that are unique: Circuit of the motor drive, microcontroller, module of the wave recognition, and a buffer. Voice recognition chip: this is the main component in this system that makes it unique compared to design one. H2007 can be used with voice analysis and a chip of voice recognition, the process of the recognition and function of the system control. that the It is recognized, analysed, processed and then moved to the port of output which is decoded and then amplified where afterwards it's moved to the robots motor(Agbinya, 2005). Driver and the application: the electric component is the driver that is used to control electronic devices. They regulate the current flow through the circuit.it also act as the amplifier of the current because it gives high signals of the current and takes low signals of the current. And as regulate the motor's rotation. Driver circuit and microcontroller: microcontroller is very important in this design, the output is received by the decoder from the chip which as a controller of the digital motor. DMC sensed the port of the output and commands backwards, left, forward and right load and release stop. For the system to properly function, a good logic system should be able to take place, Software: three software are needed in this design, the Android app, the Keil vision and the C language. The Keil vision is the type of the software that enables the programmer to use the C language, a language that is too basic to convenient the user. This is converted them to coded hexes and makes the language of the programming simple(V E. B., 2011). RF module: this is a radio frequency module, which a device for the transmission or receiving the signals of the radio between two devices. Buffer: the buffer that is used can be IC 74LS245, it solves the problems of the supply currents. The device allows bus B to A and vice vasa which depends on the logic level at the control input direction Battery: batteries are used, mostly in the robots that have the power supply of electric. There are primary batteries which can be charged and secondary batteries that are not rechargeable. The design was to get signals of the voice that is analogue and are being digitalized. The frequency and the peach of words are stored in the memory which will be used for matching the words at that are spoken. The system gives the address of the output after the match is gotten of the words stored hence its significant to decode the address and according to the addressed sensed the required t5ask that would be done by the robot. When the robot is wireless the RF module is used, the address was them applied to the module of RF after being decoded by a microcontroller. All of the procedures makes the robot to move in the direction that was directed(Gerhart, 2002). The design is used in the areas when a human cannot go because of being dangerous, but their voice reaches like in t5je area s that are very toxic. Robots can also act as a toy and can bring small objects and replace. They control the appliances and the equipment commands and is used for the assistance of telephone by entering data. References .J, S. (2001). User interface design for programmers. Newyork: A press. administration, N. a. (1994). NASA Thesaurus. Califonia: National Aeronautics and space administration. Agbinya, J. (2005). Wireless power transfer. Netherlands: River Publishers. Alrcon, R. (2000). Computation principles of mobile robotics. Madrid: Stamford road. Asimov, I. (2004). E Robot. califonia: random house publiser. Becky, G. (2010). Autonomous robots. London: MIT Press. Capek, K. (2010). Rossum universal robots. Michigan: Echo library. Detroit, E. s. (). ESD technology. Michigan: Engineering Society of Detroit. Gerhart, G. R. (2002). Unmanned ground vehicle technology. Michigan: Internation society for optical engineering. Iovine, J. (2004). PICBrobotics. London: Hill professional. Lee, W. M. (2002). Beginning of android application development. Beigin: we publishers. Peter, T. (2005). The 8051 microcontroller. Malaysia: Rays publishers. Roberts, G. N. (2012). Further Advanced in unmanned marine vehicles. Michigan: Institute of engineering. V, E. B. (2011). Battery Operate Devices and system. UK: Oxford publishers. V, G. P. (2002). Electronics project. Michigan: Enterprise pvt. Williams, K. (2004). Build your own humanoid robot. Canada: Mc Graw hill education.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Maverick Lodging Case free essay sample

The balanced scorecard has several attributes, such as tracking financial performance, tracking nonfinancial measures and communicating franchisees and owners objectives of growth. For financial performance, according to Exhibit 7, the Maverick Courtyard has 3. 77% growth rate, Maverick Fairfield Inn has 2. 2% growth rate and Maverick Residence Inn has 3. 5% growth rate. For flow-through flexible budget, both Maverick Courtyard and Maverick Residence Inn have good score while only Maverick Fairfield has unexpected score. As a result, the financial performance is generally good for the company. However, nonfinancial figures indicate the company’s customer service quality is declining. According to guest-satisfaction score in Exhibit 7, all three hotels’ scores are lower than market average scores. The company has higher comprehensive audit performance than last year’s and employee turnover is decreasing. Although the company has some unexpected performances, it develops well in year 1999. Analysis of Maverick’s value-added proposition Maverick lodging companys objectives are increasing operating profit and market shares by enhancing customer satisfaction. We will write a custom essay sample on Maverick Lodging Case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By implementing the balanced scorecard, the company is trying to increase financial yield, control profit and flexible budget, improve internal business control, stimulate performance of hotel management, facilitate communication between principals and agencies and start learning and growing processes. However, the balanced scorecard has several problems and makes it hard for the company to reach its goals. The first problem is that the balanced scorecard is hard for hotel level managers to understand. Although Baum tried to make it easier to understand, the scorecard still has many elements and some of the financial figures and complicated measurements are hard for entry-level managers to understand. For example, the colors and points system is complex because it is difficult to connect colors and points to the bonus points and the 40% multiply factor may cause managers confusions. Since it is hard to understand, the scorecard would have problems on acceptance and the implementation process would be difficult. As a result, the scorecard would not reach the maximum effectiveness and efficiency. The second problem is that the scorecard contains uncontrollable factors for managers. For example, managers performance will be measured by comparing the budgets and actual expenses. However, hotel level managers have no right to determine the budget and this measurement is unfair. As a result, many managers would be reluctant to accept the scorecard. The third problem is that the scorecard is only implemented at the hotel-general-management level. As stated in the case, the hotel-general-management is the last level of the company management and they have no right to discuss the components of the scorecard. In addition, the implementation process lacks communication between different levels of managements. As a result, the scorecard represents the top managements thoughts and may not be suitable for the bottom level management. Also, the lack of communication may cause hindrance for accepting and implementing the scorecards. Flow-through Flexible Budget The company applies the flexible budget in order to achieve target budget and generate high profit. The top management of the Maverick Lodging set the original budget at first. After one fiscal year of operating, the management gets the actual data of revenue and expense. The management would then make reforecast target, which is the flexible budget, to measure the performance of each hotel. For the variable costs and the variable revenues, the company uses drivers and actual quantity to determine the value of flexible budget. However, the fixed elements and the uncontrollable expenses stay the same as original budget. After the calculations, the company can acquire controllable profits and house profits for both actual and flexible budgets. Based on the results, top management calculates the percentages of actual controllable profit divided by reforecast controllable profit. According to Exhibit 3, the company firstly determines whether the performance is low, base or high by viewing house profit percentage. House profit percentage that is lower than 90% indicates low performance, 90%-105% indicates basic performance and higher than 105% indicates high performance. After determine level of performance, the company uses the flexible budget controllable profit percentages to determine the color rankings of managers. Changes for Balanced Scorecards According to the analysis above, the scorecard does not align with the company’s overall objectives. As a result, the company can make some changes to modify the scorecards. Firstly, the company should simplify the scorecards procedure to help managers understand and increase acceptance. For example, the company should delete the color and points system, and add some straightforward methods to determine the managers’ performances. Secondly, the company should eliminate the uncontrollable factors in scorecards. For example, budget comparison should be deleted because bottom level managers have no right to determine the original budgets. Another way to solve this problem is to let bottom level managers plan for their own budgets so that they have the power to determine the original budget. In addition, since the customer survey is complicated and time-consuming for customer to fill in, many customers would not complete the survey. As a result, the company should consider simplifying the guest-satisfaction survey in scorecards to attract more attendance for the survey. The third alternative the company can take to change the scorecards is to let all level managers discuss the properties of the scorecards and implement the scorecards measurements in all level managers. Since the bottom level managers cannot determine the components of the scorecards, the acceptance and implementation process would be difficult. The scorecards process would be fairer if all level managements apply the same measurements.