Saturday, September 28, 2019
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Assignment 9A
The opportunity I originally explored was the transition of hospitals using narcotic drugs to using other forms of treat that more directly target the cause of the pain as opposed t o addressing the pain itself. This opportunity would reduce costs for hospitals and help patients receive better care. The "who" who would benefit from the opportunity are specialized doctors who would transition to serving this specific type of patient. My dad has been a doctor for 20 years and has begun moving in this direction. However many of his colleagues do not see eye to eye and are skeptical of the move. The "who" who should be supportive of this transition are doctors, however some are opposed to this for reasons I did not entirely predict. For example, one group of doctors are against it not because they think it won't work, but rather because they are comfortable where they are in their careers and with how much money they are currently making. A separate group of doctors (who are all older) are against the transition itself because they see no problem with the current situation and way of doing things. I believe that because this group is older, they are traditionalists who do not like change. However, it is a factor I did not anticipate. The "what" is very specific, because many patients would not be able to immediately distinguish the difference between treatments because in the short term both solve the problem. However this solution only manifests its benefit in the long term.
Inside the Boundary Outside the Boundary
Who: young doctors Who: established doctors, older crowd What: non dependent, single time healthcare What: Narcotic healthcare
Why: cure patients in the long term Why: traditional, its worked before
Inside the Boundary Outside the Boundary
Who: young doctors Who: established doctors, older crowd What: non dependent, single time healthcare What: Narcotic healthcare
Why: cure patients in the long term Why: traditional, its worked before
Friday, September 20, 2019
Assignment 6A
One opportunity that is pertinent towards economic trends is the fact that baby boomers are not retiring. A Prudential study brought to light the fact that over half of people aged between 45 and 75 were forced to delay retirement due to the recession. This in turn has caused millennials and the younger generation to adapt, due to the older generation retaining jobs for longer periods of time. This has given younger people the chance to develop new jobs in the marketplace, such as internet businesses or freelance gigs. Why I saw this opportunity is the fact that people and culture have adapted due to recent events to be more careful in their spending and decision to retire. The US debt crisis in 2011, fiscal cliff in 2012, and government shutdown in 2013 and 2019 have caused people to adapt towards a more tumultuous political and economic environment.
A second economic trend opportunity is climate change is causing more natural disasters. In 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture started that food prices may potentially increase between 1 and 2 percent overall. This is so for multiple reasons, such as the fact that corn and soybean yields have dropped significantly due to high temperature, as they suffer negative growth effects with any temperature of 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Furthermore, rising sea levels have caused areas such as Miami beach to launch $500 million public works programs. This creates opportunities such as beach re-nourishment companies and temperature regulated green-houses. As issues relating to climate change continue to grow in occurrence, more opportunities will arise for people to exploit, as climate change affects all areas of society. Why I saw this opportunity is the fact that I live in an area in Florida near the beach, and I have seen the first hand effects of tidal erosion, and the profit companies have gotten in their efforts to re-nourish the sand dunes.
A regulatory change that has brought forth an opportunity is the recent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. The opportunity is the fact that the tariff has brought forth an attractive buying opportunity for certain stocks in the marketplace. Raymond James is quoted stating that Best Buy has a particularly strong buy rating, with shares down 3.74 percent on the week. Stockbrokers and investors can use this opportunity to make long term-profit and is easily exploitable due to the far-reaching effects of the trade war. This opportunity should be seen by most people, but the shortsighted nature of some make cause them to fear investing in such a turbulent marketplace.
A second regulatory change is fact that interests rates have recently leveled off. The Federal Reserve currently has raised the federal fund rate to 2.5 percent. 2 percent is typically considered the so called Federal sweet spot. Furthermore as inflation is at its 2 percent target, and unemployment below 4 percent, the economy will continue its expansion phase out of the past recession. This means that the cost of loans overall has stabilized, and savers are earning more money on their deposits than they did in recession. This has created an overall all larger buying and selling opportunity in the marketplace, as confidence in the market has increased. Why I found this opportunity is the fact that I’m constantly looking for opportunity to save and gain capital in my personal finances.
Assignment 8A
The presented problem in the previous exercises are the immigrants that are detained at the boarder in the United States. Although it may be necessary, this is a problem because of the millions of tax payers dollars that are being spend to feed, clothe, and house people that are not contributing to the economy. A potential solution to this problem would be offering minimum wage paying jobs to the immigrants to work in factories or in agriculture while they wait for their pending approval to be passed. In this way, they would have something to do as they are detained while simultaneously contributing to the U.S. economy by producing manufactured goods or services at low cost to U.S. citizens. In order to prevent disrupting current U.S. workers, these workers could do a variety of jobs, so that no single industry is being dominated.
Assignment 7A
2) The who: Immigrants detained at the boarder
The problem: They are stuck, detained at the boarder with nothing to do while they await clearance to enter the United States.
The Why: there are so many immigrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally that they cannot all be cleared quickly, and they must remain in custody until such point.
3) Most immigrants that are caught trying to enter the country illegally are detained and are in this position unable to contribute anything productive to the economy or to themselves. Because this is cumulative, meaning that the more people there are the greater the problem becomes, it applies to all immigrants. The reason this is a problem is because they are being detained and cannot be productive members of society, and because of this require millions of dollars in tax dollars for temporary living, food, and clothing. Many people would argue this problem exists for different reasons. Some would blame the immigrants themselves for attempting to illegally break into a country, and claim that a solution would be to find refuse elsewhere, apply legally, or immigrate to another country. Others would argue that the United States is at fault for not developing methods with which to solve this issue more effectively. However, because of the large scale of the issue there is little either party can do to prevent its existence. Therefore the only response is to find a solution to mitigate the effects of the problem and attempt to solve it.
4a) My mom immigrated to the United States from Latin America when she was 19, and did so legally, through a student Visa. She agrees that people immigrating here must be vetted through a process to ensure equality and practicality, and agrees that something must be done to increase the effectiveness if the immigrants currently waiting at the boarder, waiting to be approved.
4b) Anthony is a 3rd year student here at UF, and while he was born and raised in the United States, he recognizes the issue at the boarder because of the amount of media coverage it receives. He says that "Everyone should have an opportunity to come to the U.S. and seek freedom.. it just seems right". While these are caring words, the he admits the issue of making sure the U.S. is aware of who is entering the country remains unsolved.
4c) Sasha is a freshman at UF and has parents from Cuba, even though she grew up in Miami. When asked about the problem going on at the boarder she argued that the responsibility lies with the U.S. government for not being sufficiently prepared to handle the influx of immigrants attempting to gain entry into the country.
4d) 27 year old James graduated from FSU with a degree in political science and says that the issue is more complicated than the media makes it out to be,. There are rarely bad people, trying to hurt a group of people maliciously, he argues. More often it's oversight and inefficient bureaucracy that struggle to effectively execute legislation that may help, or its people trying to do their best but passing inefficient laws because they lack understanding over a certain issue and the effects in may have in other areas. James argues the best solution would be to pass clear procedures to vet people as quickly as possible, and help relocate others who cannot enter the country, even if it does mean millions of taxdollars.
4e) Dr. Ramos, a physician working in Missouri says that it is vital for immigrants at the boarder to have something to do. He says they, along with institutionalized prisoners suffer physiologically if they are left without anything to do for extended periods of time. He argues that allowing them freedom to roam around or give them tasks would help their mental health.
5) Given these interviews, I see that while everyone wishes for the best, there are many different ways people see the same issue. Because of this difference in viewpoint, people have different solutions for the same problem. However, it did become clear to me that the amount of people detained at the boarder does pose a problem. both because of of tax dollars and because they have little to do while detained.
Friday, September 13, 2019
Assignment 4A
1) I have a belief that a significant portion of U.S adults suffer from an opioid addiction, and that this problem is caused through street and prescription drugs, but is made worse by hospitals that mindlessly assign narcotics to returning patients instead of offering other solutions such as pain therapy, surgery, or other options that target the source of the pain instead of temporary masking the effect of it.
2) This opportunity creates a market for doctors who specialize in pain management to specifically target the source of the pain through means such as block surgery and therapy. The unmet need is a supply of knowledgeable doctors with the desire to provide fewer narcotics to patients. The people who have the unmet need are patients, who would be better off with a long term solution to this problem instead of repeatedly being given addictive narcotics. Also hospitals would support this because targeting the source of pain means fewer repeat patients come in, and there would be fewer drug-related crime accidents.
3) The most common customer would be patients referred directly from the hospital, especially when they are at maximum capacity and are looking to quickly discharge patients. Another group of customers are doctors, because they have to buy into this idea in order to take a place and profit from it, and help solve this problem.
4a) The first person I talked to was my father. My dad has worked as a doctor for almost two decades and has seen first hand the inefficiencies of narcotic drug prescription in the hospital. He talked to me about the high number of patients who repeatedly come back to the hospital, often times not to seek any treatment, but to receive more of the narcotics they've become addicted to. He believes that the exact nature of the need is a supply of reliable doctors who are willing to attempt working in a new type of environment, which could start within a hospital, and eventually transition to a separate clinic. Doctors are able to know their customers when they receive consults, meaning that patients schedule a meeting with the doctor to be diagnosed and see if they are a good candidate to receive this treatment. He explains that while perhaps many patients will seek help because of their addiction, others will not seek help, but will be directly referred from the hospital itself.
4b) Dawson Johnson is a 21 year old junior at Florida State University. Although we've never met before, I was able to interview him over the phone through a mutual friend. Dawson is relevant to this opportunity because of Adderall. While he does not have any disorder that makes him legally eligible for Adderall, he was legally prescribed it through a doctor because he "simply listed the common symptoms". He takes the prescription to study for several hours at a time before exams and do well on tests. Dawson does not agree with the program I had put forward with his own situation. He is not addicted to Adderall, but only takes it once in a while to help him focus. While he does not believe he has a problem, he believes that the fact he was so easily able to receive this prescription drug illustrates the fact that patients can often receive narcotics in hospitals by just listing the right symptoms.
4c) Molly Ungrady is a close family friend who suffered from a severe car accident several years ago, and was treated in the hospital. While Molly was treated and recovered from her physical injuries from the crash, she left the hospital with several prescription drugs to help[ reduce the pain once she was at home. While the pain was already gone, she continued to take these prescriptions and by the time they ran out she found herself craving more of them. While she didn't realize this was a problem at first after she returned to the hospital asking for more medication, and was referred to my father she slowly came to realize the extent of her addiction. She was allowed more of the medication, but under the supervision of another pain doctor she slowly took less and less until she became cured of her addiction. She tells me that this story opened her eyes to the possibility of other people becoming addicted to the same prescriptions she was given. Because of this she supports the idea of stopping the prescription of these medications in certain cases in exchange for other routes to wellness.
5) In certain situations, such as with Molly's I believe that this idea has tremendous potential to help people who unwillingly fall into this situation and seek help to return to normal life. However, after talking with Dawson, I believe that a weakness with the plan could be people who are addicted to the prescriptions so heavily that they do not wish to seek treatment because they do not want to lose the drugs that they are given. Finally, I believe it would be very effective as a preventative cure, in order to prevent patients from taking narcotics in the first place.
7) After this reflection, I believe that a significant portion of the original opportunity is still there. Many patients who actively seek help, as well as patients who could be assigned to try this alternate treatment as a way to lessen the reliance of narcotics would still be potential customers. However, a problem is that because of the years of training it takes to become a doctor, the market for this applies mostly to professional doctors who already have a reliable job. This could pose a problem because since many doctors are already well paid there is little incentive at first to try something different that may not work or be as lucrative. While I believe that these entrepreneurs should be open to customer feedback, they should be cautious, because many of the patients may give an dishonest opinion in this specific situation because of their incentive to keep taking the drugs they are addicted to.
2) This opportunity creates a market for doctors who specialize in pain management to specifically target the source of the pain through means such as block surgery and therapy. The unmet need is a supply of knowledgeable doctors with the desire to provide fewer narcotics to patients. The people who have the unmet need are patients, who would be better off with a long term solution to this problem instead of repeatedly being given addictive narcotics. Also hospitals would support this because targeting the source of pain means fewer repeat patients come in, and there would be fewer drug-related crime accidents.
3) The most common customer would be patients referred directly from the hospital, especially when they are at maximum capacity and are looking to quickly discharge patients. Another group of customers are doctors, because they have to buy into this idea in order to take a place and profit from it, and help solve this problem.
4a) The first person I talked to was my father. My dad has worked as a doctor for almost two decades and has seen first hand the inefficiencies of narcotic drug prescription in the hospital. He talked to me about the high number of patients who repeatedly come back to the hospital, often times not to seek any treatment, but to receive more of the narcotics they've become addicted to. He believes that the exact nature of the need is a supply of reliable doctors who are willing to attempt working in a new type of environment, which could start within a hospital, and eventually transition to a separate clinic. Doctors are able to know their customers when they receive consults, meaning that patients schedule a meeting with the doctor to be diagnosed and see if they are a good candidate to receive this treatment. He explains that while perhaps many patients will seek help because of their addiction, others will not seek help, but will be directly referred from the hospital itself.
4b) Dawson Johnson is a 21 year old junior at Florida State University. Although we've never met before, I was able to interview him over the phone through a mutual friend. Dawson is relevant to this opportunity because of Adderall. While he does not have any disorder that makes him legally eligible for Adderall, he was legally prescribed it through a doctor because he "simply listed the common symptoms". He takes the prescription to study for several hours at a time before exams and do well on tests. Dawson does not agree with the program I had put forward with his own situation. He is not addicted to Adderall, but only takes it once in a while to help him focus. While he does not believe he has a problem, he believes that the fact he was so easily able to receive this prescription drug illustrates the fact that patients can often receive narcotics in hospitals by just listing the right symptoms.
4c) Molly Ungrady is a close family friend who suffered from a severe car accident several years ago, and was treated in the hospital. While Molly was treated and recovered from her physical injuries from the crash, she left the hospital with several prescription drugs to help[ reduce the pain once she was at home. While the pain was already gone, she continued to take these prescriptions and by the time they ran out she found herself craving more of them. While she didn't realize this was a problem at first after she returned to the hospital asking for more medication, and was referred to my father she slowly came to realize the extent of her addiction. She was allowed more of the medication, but under the supervision of another pain doctor she slowly took less and less until she became cured of her addiction. She tells me that this story opened her eyes to the possibility of other people becoming addicted to the same prescriptions she was given. Because of this she supports the idea of stopping the prescription of these medications in certain cases in exchange for other routes to wellness.
5) In certain situations, such as with Molly's I believe that this idea has tremendous potential to help people who unwillingly fall into this situation and seek help to return to normal life. However, after talking with Dawson, I believe that a weakness with the plan could be people who are addicted to the prescriptions so heavily that they do not wish to seek treatment because they do not want to lose the drugs that they are given. Finally, I believe it would be very effective as a preventative cure, in order to prevent patients from taking narcotics in the first place.
7) After this reflection, I believe that a significant portion of the original opportunity is still there. Many patients who actively seek help, as well as patients who could be assigned to try this alternate treatment as a way to lessen the reliance of narcotics would still be potential customers. However, a problem is that because of the years of training it takes to become a doctor, the market for this applies mostly to professional doctors who already have a reliable job. This could pose a problem because since many doctors are already well paid there is little incentive at first to try something different that may not work or be as lucrative. While I believe that these entrepreneurs should be open to customer feedback, they should be cautious, because many of the patients may give an dishonest opinion in this specific situation because of their incentive to keep taking the drugs they are addicted to.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Assignment 5A
Problem #1)
*Beau Musser, a former CFO for the St. Joseph School District, feels that the city has conducted extremely poor oversight regarding the cities financing, causing hundreds of thousands of wasted taxpayers dollars.
*The problem is the governmental fiscal irresponsibility in St. Joseph.
*The people who have the problem are the residents of St. Joseph, who are paying taxes to an inefficient government that squanders their payments on poorly thought out and unnecessary spending.
Problem #2)
*St. Joseph Police maintain safety at Drag Queen Story Hour protests
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/st-joseph-police-maintain-safety-at-drag-queen-story-hour/article_085153a8-d422-11e9-9ae0-4f98f4143509.html
*During an event called the "drag queen story hour", police officers were in attendance to ensure that the protesters and counter protesters were able to do so peacefully and avoid conflict.
*The problem is potential conflict or violence between protesters and the drag queen story hour event.
*The people facing the problem are those who may become injured at the potential conflict.
Problem #3)
*Child molester given maximum 7-year sentence
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/child-molester-given-maximum--year-sentence/article_9430919c-d0ec-11e9-a84d-6fec069d613a.html
*This article describes the situation surrounding a 24 year old child molester who stayed at the home of a family after being invited in and sexually assaulted a 9 year old girl in the same home. The article interviews the mother, who displayed understandable anger and the 7 year sentence the judge ordered.
*The problem is the fact that a child molester was able to enter a household and assault a 9 year old girl.
*The person facing the problem is clearly who was sexually assaulted, as well as the family of the girl, and to a lesser extent potentially the molester who was affected my alcoholism and lack of support from a loving family since a young age.
Problem #4)
*Albany woman who handcuffed, starved child pleads guilty
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/albany-woman-who-handcuffed-starved-child-pleads-guilty/article_fa9446fc-d0da-11e9-83b7-effe7551a8af.html
*An Albany woman faces 15 years in prison after being arrested for kidnapping an 11 year old girl for over a year and keeping her in a cage, often times beating her, handcuffing her, and withholding food.
*This is a problem because the fact that someone is able to do this to another human being is disturbing.
*The child that was kidnapped and was kept in the cage is the individual with the most acute problem, although this also extents to the victim's family.
Problem #5)
*St. Joseph police officer charged with domestic assault
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/st-joseph-police-officer-charged-with-domestic-assault/article_f8f4ddaa-d33e-11e9-af36-cbcf5416a87a.html
*The article consists of a story describing the criminal charge of domestic assault of a police officer in the St.Joseph police department after he inflicted visible wounds on a a woman
*Although the article does not specify if the officer was in uniform when the domestic abuse occurred, the problem can encompass police violence against members of the public.
*The people with the problem are the people who are the victims of police violence, as well as most police officers whose reputations can be tarnished by a select few group of officers who make poor judgment and make all officers look bad.
*Former SJSD whistleblower concerned about city finances
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/former-sjsd-whistleblower-concerned-about-city-finances/article_97c8315e-d0a4-11e9-b2f0-270ead5239fe.html*Beau Musser, a former CFO for the St. Joseph School District, feels that the city has conducted extremely poor oversight regarding the cities financing, causing hundreds of thousands of wasted taxpayers dollars.
*The problem is the governmental fiscal irresponsibility in St. Joseph.
*The people who have the problem are the residents of St. Joseph, who are paying taxes to an inefficient government that squanders their payments on poorly thought out and unnecessary spending.
Problem #2)
*St. Joseph Police maintain safety at Drag Queen Story Hour protests
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/st-joseph-police-maintain-safety-at-drag-queen-story-hour/article_085153a8-d422-11e9-9ae0-4f98f4143509.html
*During an event called the "drag queen story hour", police officers were in attendance to ensure that the protesters and counter protesters were able to do so peacefully and avoid conflict.
*The problem is potential conflict or violence between protesters and the drag queen story hour event.
*The people facing the problem are those who may become injured at the potential conflict.
Problem #3)
*Child molester given maximum 7-year sentence
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/child-molester-given-maximum--year-sentence/article_9430919c-d0ec-11e9-a84d-6fec069d613a.html
*This article describes the situation surrounding a 24 year old child molester who stayed at the home of a family after being invited in and sexually assaulted a 9 year old girl in the same home. The article interviews the mother, who displayed understandable anger and the 7 year sentence the judge ordered.
*The problem is the fact that a child molester was able to enter a household and assault a 9 year old girl.
*The person facing the problem is clearly who was sexually assaulted, as well as the family of the girl, and to a lesser extent potentially the molester who was affected my alcoholism and lack of support from a loving family since a young age.
Problem #4)
*Albany woman who handcuffed, starved child pleads guilty
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/albany-woman-who-handcuffed-starved-child-pleads-guilty/article_fa9446fc-d0da-11e9-83b7-effe7551a8af.html
*An Albany woman faces 15 years in prison after being arrested for kidnapping an 11 year old girl for over a year and keeping her in a cage, often times beating her, handcuffing her, and withholding food.
*This is a problem because the fact that someone is able to do this to another human being is disturbing.
*The child that was kidnapped and was kept in the cage is the individual with the most acute problem, although this also extents to the victim's family.
Problem #5)
*St. Joseph police officer charged with domestic assault
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/st-joseph-police-officer-charged-with-domestic-assault/article_f8f4ddaa-d33e-11e9-af36-cbcf5416a87a.html
*The article consists of a story describing the criminal charge of domestic assault of a police officer in the St.Joseph police department after he inflicted visible wounds on a a woman
*Although the article does not specify if the officer was in uniform when the domestic abuse occurred, the problem can encompass police violence against members of the public.
*The people with the problem are the people who are the victims of police violence, as well as most police officers whose reputations can be tarnished by a select few group of officers who make poor judgment and make all officers look bad.
Assignment 3A
Although I grew up in the United States, I spent a significant amount of my childhood and teenage years in Chile. My mother immigrated to the United States when she was 19, and she made sure my brothers and I were familiar with the area she originated from. We would travel to Chile every year or two and we would stay there for about a month or two, attending school in Chile when we attended during the school year. After visiting several times, my mom and I noticed that there was a lack of a chewing gum market in rural Chile. The only chewing gum that was available was rather expensive and flavorless, meaning that many of the children I went to class with, and several adults as well had never tried American Double Bubble or Orbit, nor any other of the countless brands that exist here in the United States. As a result, my mom and I had the idea of buying several packs of gum in the U.S. before we left to Chile, and reselling them for a profit at school and around the city. The biggest challenge was finding enough space in our suitcases for the gum, because of the amount of clothes and accessories my family had to bring for a month in another country. The first day in school I asked the other kids if they had tried fruit flavored gum before and without fail all of them were shocked to find out that flavored gum even existed. Armed with this knowledge, the next day I brought a pack of gum with my to school and sold each pack for about the equivalent of a dollar, and I was sold out in about 5 minutes after arriving. Later I realized I could have charged a dollar per stick of gum and still have sold everything. I felt like I'd already made a huge profit, and all the kids also thought that they had made the greatest deal of their lives.
Although I was strongly recommended by my adviser to take this class, I hope to gain a better sense of the practical steps an entrepreneur takes to start a business, as well as gain understanding about the ways entrepreneur sees the opportunity in daily life and are able to generate revenue from these opportunities.
Although I was strongly recommended by my adviser to take this class, I hope to gain a better sense of the practical steps an entrepreneur takes to start a business, as well as gain understanding about the ways entrepreneur sees the opportunity in daily life and are able to generate revenue from these opportunities.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)