Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Competitive examination

1. PAZ DE UTRECHT: Tratados de paz asinados entre 1713 (cidade holandesa de Utrecht) e 1714 (cidade alemá de Rastatt), que puxeron fin á chamada Guerra de Sucesión, recoñecendo as potencias implicadas a Felipe V como rei de España a cambio de cesións territoriais e determinadas vantaxes comerciais; entre outras: Gran Bretaña obtiña Xibraltar e Menorca, un navío de permiso para comerciar con América e o asentamento de negros.

2. PRAGMÁTICA SANCIÓN DE 1830: Lei promulgada por Fernando VII en marzo de 1830, que supón a posta en vigor da Pragmática Sanción de 1789 de Carlos IV; esta anulaba o Auto Acordado de 1713 de Felipe V que imposibilitaba ás mulleres acceder ao trono, restablecendo o sistema de sucesión tradicional das Sete Partidas

Understanding the BCG Matrix: Product Portfolio Strategy

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix is a strategic tool used to analyze a company's product portfolio based on market share and market growth. It categorizes products into four quadrants, each with distinct characteristics and strategic implications.

Stars: High Growth, High Share

Characteristics of Stars

• Stars are products with high market share in high-growth markets.
• They are highly profitable and generate significant cash.
• Their high growth also means they require substantial cash to finance working capital and build capacity.
• Therefore, although profitable, Stars can have positive or negative net cash flow.
• Over time, as market growth slows, Stars often evolve into Cash Cows.

Strategic

Efficiency Ratios

Inventory Turnover

Determines if sales are sufficient to turn over or utilize inventory effectively. It indicates whether too much or insufficient inventory is being purchased.

Assets Turnover

A higher Assets Turnover Ratio (ATR) suggests that the company's management is utilizing its assets efficiently to generate sales.

Receivables Turnover

A higher receivables turnover indicates that a company is more efficient than its competitors in collecting its accounts receivables.

Profitability Ratios

Return on Sales (RoS)

"For every dollar sold, the company earns x profit." Measures operational efficiency.

Return on Equity (RoE)

"For every dollar invested by shareholders, the company earns x profit." Measures profitability relative to shareholders'... Continue reading "Key Financial Ratios for Business Performance Analysis" »

Entrepreneurship and Resource Management

Entrepreneurship is the process of discovering new ways of combining resources. When the market value generated by this new combination of resources is greater than the market value these resources can generate elsewhere individually or in some other combination, the entrepreneur makes a profit.

To develop a new project, there are some essential key elements:

• Focus
• Money as a source of resources and capabilities
• The right people with the right initiative

In a startup, you have the possibility to focus on one single idea, and usually, teams have great initiative. However, startups need significant funding to be able to develop such projects. On the opposite side, corporations, which have great amounts of money... Continue reading "Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Global Strategy" »

1.1 Defining Quality: Performance and Expectations

Quality = Performance (how it works) / Expectations. If Q > 1, the customer has a positive feeling. The customer determines his or her expectations.

Definition of quality: A group of properties and characteristics of a service or a product that has the ability to satisfy different needs. Some dimensions of quality are reliability, durability, service, reputation, and more. These dimensions are independent.

• Performance — how well the product or service works.
• Expectations — what the customer anticipates or requires.
• Dimensions of quality — reliability, durability, service, reputation, etc.

1.2 Enemies of Quality and Cultural Changes

Common enemies of quality include:

• Lack of definition: Responsibilities

Nick Carraway and the Moral Compass of West Egg

The narrator, Nick Carraway, starts the book by sharing advice from his father about the importance of not criticizing others. The Buchanans live in the modern East Egg, while Nick resides in the West Egg area—a location that is less elite but rising in status, situated on the opposite side of the bay.

The Mysterious Jay Gatsby and the Green Light

Nick becomes intrigued by Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and mysterious man who lives in a massive mansion next to Nick. Gatsby spends many of his evenings standing in his garden, staring across the water at a green light located at the end of a dock.

Tom Buchanan and the Valley of Ashes

Tom takes Nick to the city to meet his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who is married.... Continue reading "The Great Gatsby: Plot Summary and Key Themes" »

Golden circle:

This relates to the innovation. If a company is able to attract those who share its beliefs, it is also able to connect easier with innovators.

This is a graph made up of three circles, each inside the other. Each circle has a meaning and a way to apply it to our business efficiently.

We can explain the operation of the Golden Circle in such a way that while most companies ask themselves the answers to the question 'what' as their starting point, they are fully aware of the 'how', but very few companies are clear about the 'why'.

The 'what' responds to what we do and what we want to do. The 'how' responds to the processes through which we carry out our actions, and the 'why' would respond to the reason why we develop our business.... Continue reading "The Golden Circle: Driving Innovation and Quality Management" »

1. Grimm's Law

Jacob Grimm formulated a law in 1822 by which he accounted for an explanation about Indo-European and Germanic consonants and their corresponding development. In other words, he explained how certain consonant sounds changed and developed. According to him, the original Indo-European voiceless stops p/t/k were changed to the fricatives f/þ/h in the Germanic languages. Also, the aspirates bh/dh/gh became voiced fricatives β/đ/y, and then, the voiced stops b/d/g. The original voiced stops b/d/g changed later to voiceless stops in the Germanic languages so b/d/g turned into p/t/k (h). The Germanic Sound Shift is the most distinctive feature marking off the Germanic languages from the languages to which they are related.

2. Verner'

Linguistic Contributions to Foreign Language Teaching

What is a language? It is both a state (érgon) and an activity (energeia).

Traditional Language Concepts and Saussure

Plato believed that language was a copy of reality, while Aristotle argued for the conventional origin of language. Ferdinand de Saussure built on the belief that language as a form could be analyzed and responded to certain laws. He stated, "Language is a representation, and not a substance."

Functional Linguistic Theory and Structuralism

The functional investigative method involves searching for and isolating minimum units applied to language. Distributionalism is based on the possibility of dividing the spoken chain into regular units through distributional analysis.

Chomsky: