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Florida with its year round sunshine makes an ideal place for a hot air balloon ride and you will find companies throughout Florida.

If you do not mind getting up early in the morning then a hot air balloon flight can make a great change from the usual round of theme parks and beaches.

There is something very magical about taking a hot air balloon ride in Florida, watching the sunrise as you float serenely over orange groves, lakes, fields or the theme parks away from all the hustle and bustle of life below.

Nearly all balloon flights take place at sunrise when the winds are most favourable, though a couple of companies are able to fly in the early evening; it really depends where you are in the State. Therefore if you want to go on a hot air balloon flight you will need to rendezvous with the balloon company around 6 o'clock in the morning depending upon the time of year. Note that some companies offer a hotel pickup service at an extra charge.

Once you arrive, you will attend a pre-flight briefing where you are given safety instructions. You are then taken to the launch site. Particularly if you are doing a hot air balloon ride in Orlando, the company will try to find a suitable launch site that will take you over the Walt Disney World Resort but at the end of the day the wind direction will dictate your eventual flight path.

When you get to the launch site you can usually help prepare the balloon for take-off which involves inflating the envelope with a fan to start with and then the propane burners are lit to fill it with hot air.

You climb into the basket, the flight begins and you will then take off and let the wind take you where it wishes. Depending on wind strength and direction you can find yourself flying at anything from tree-top height to several thousand feet.

Most flights last around one hour and then comes the fun as the pilot has to find a suitable site to effect a 'landing'. All the time you are airborne the chase vehicle will be tracking you from the ground ready to meet you at your landing site.

After the balloon is deflated and packed away, most companies will then offer you a champagne toast to celebrate your successful flight and a certificate of flight as a memento. Most companies also include a complimentary picnic or breakfast, either at the landing site or back at their offices.

It is best to book your flight early in your holiday so if the flight is cancelled due to inclement weather you stand more chance of rescheduling.

Prices are typically around $175-$200 per adult (children are usually around half price) including breakfast and reservations are essential.

Do's and Don'ts

You should dress as if you were going on a walk with comfortable shoes; do not wear shorts, open toed shoes or high heels. You need to be able to climb in and out of the wicker basket (chest height) and you will typically be landing in a field where the grass is probably going to be wet.

Even though you may be flying at several thousand feet, the propane burners ensure that it is not cold though it may not be that warm that early in the morning so dress the same as if you would normally for that time of day and take several layers of clothing.

Make a reservation, ring the night before to check on the weather and don't forget to set your alarm!

Useful Information

If some members of your party don't want to fly, you may be able to ride in the chase vehicle.

Make sure you take plenty of film with you as you will not be able to buy any more once you are airborne!

For the romantics amongst you, can you think of a better place to 'pop the question'?

You should not be affected by motion sickness or vertigo as the balloon flies very calmly and you do not have a reference point like you do if you were looking down from say a building or a bridge. It is more like looking out of an aeroplane window.

Copyright 2005(c) Stephen Downs, the Florida Review and Travel Guide.

This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the entire article and this resource box (with a live link) are included and the article is not changed in any way (apart from grammatical corrections).

Stephen Downs is the publisher of the Florida Review and Travel Guide (found at http://www.floridareview.co.uk/) which provides independent advice and information for anyone planning a vacation in Florida. Let the Florida Review and Travel Guide help you to make it a holiday to remember.

Subscribe to the free monthly newsletter by signing up at http://www.floridareview.co.uk/news/newsletter.asp and get news and updates every month on new attractions, weather forecasts, events and guide book and hotel reviews.

Executive summary

Its revenues made up US $139($184) billion, assets equaled $62($82) billion, and the number of employees reached more than 30,000 people in 20 countries around the world.

While Enron Corporation was so highly praised by the outside observers, internally it had highly decentralized financial control and decision-making structure, which made it practically impossible to get coherent and clear view on corporations' activities and operations. Of course, the problem was not exclusively due to poor managerial performance, all the departments of the corporation were involved in the ruining corporate ethical values and principles, but executives and managers bear primary responsibility for the absence of corporate culture, clear accountability and transparence of the company. If operations management worked properly, in its full force, and if it was given possibility to work in such a way, there could be a chance of escaping the tragedy.

Enron Corp brief history

Enron Corporation was one of the largest global energy, services and commodities company. Before it filed bankruptcy under chapter 11, it sold natural gas and electricity, delivered energy and other commodities such as bandwidth internet connection, and provided risk management and financial services to the clients around the world.

Enron was based in Houston, Texas, and was founded in July 1985 (though company with Enron name emerged still in 1930 (Swatz, Watkins, 2003)) by the merger of InterNorth of Omaha in Nebraska, and Houston Natural Gas. Enron Company quickly developed from merely delivering energy to brokering energy futures contracts on deregulated energy markets. In 1994, the company started to sell electricity, and in 1995, it entered European energy market. By the middle 2001, Enron employed about 30,000 people globally (McLEan, Elkind,2003).

Questionable accounting methods and techniques provided Enron with possibility to be listed as seventh largest United States company and was expected to dominate the market which the company virtually invented in the communications, weather and power securities (Bryce, 2002). But instead the corporation became the largest corporate failure in the global history and an example of well-planned and institutionalized corporate fraud. Enron became wealthy due to its pioneering marketing and promotion of power and communications bandwidth services and risk management derivatives, including such innovative and exotic items as weather derivatives.

In 1999, Enron launched an initiative of buying and selling access to high-speed Internet bandwidth, and also Enron Online was launched as a Web-based trading site, making Enron e-commerce company. In 2000, the reported revenues of the company made $101 billion. It had stakes in almost 30,000 miles of gas pipelines, either owned or accessed 15,000 miles of fiber-optic network and had stakes in global operations on generating electricity (Thomas, 2002).

In the result, for five years in a row, from 1996 to 2000, Enron was named "America's most innovative Company" by Fortune magazine, and headed the list of Fortune's "100 best companies to Work for in America" in 2000. Enron reputation was undermined by rumors on bribery and political pressure with the objective of securing contacts in South and Central America, Philippines and Africa. The Enron was blamed to use its connections with Clinton and Bush administrations to express pressure in their contracts. The events were followed by a series of scandals involving irregular accounting methods bordering on fraud which involved Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting firm and led Enron on the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in economic history in November 2001 (Emshwiller, Smith, 2001).

Since Enron was always considered a blue chip stock, the bankruptcy was a disastrous and unprecedented event in the global financial world. Enron's downfall was definite when it was found out that a considerable share of its profits resulted from deals with so-called special-purpose entities, limited partnership under control of Enron. It resulted in the possibility of not reporting many of the company's losses in its financial statements. The final plan of Enron's bankruptcy included creation of three new businesses which would be spun off the company.

The reorganization process started in 2003 with the creation of three companies - CrossCountry Energy, Prisma Energy International, and Portland General Electric. CrossCountry Energy was sold to CCE Holdings L.L.C., with the money to be used for the repayment of the debts, while Prisma Energy International and Portland General Electric should emerge as independent companies descendant of Enron (Swatz, 2003).

Operations management scope of functions

To understand the reasons of this bankruptcy and the level of managerial implication in the quality performance of the company, particularly that of operations management, it is necessary to outline the main functions of operations management and impact it should have of functioning of the organization.

The principal task of operations management is effective transformation of inputs into "desired outputs" of the company (Shafer, 1997). The outputs are traditionally understood in manufacturing and profit-making context within the organizations. But recently it has been recognized that operations management is a discipline which is not limited with such narrow functions; it can be deployed in practically any area where the organization aims at achieving its objectives (Barnett, 1996). For instance, non-profit or public sectors have to learn to optimize their internal operations and processes in the situation of limited resources; service companies come to conclusion that by reappraising their delivery process they can revolutionize and significantly improve their approach to manufacturing companies and their marketplace. Robin Wood (2001) gives the example of such operations management implication in Daewoo company, which understood that it can specialize and differentiate its product by adding definite bundle of benefits to its product which includes additional supporting services. Operations sector is the heart of these changes that are made by leading companies to improve their performance and increase customer base.

The survival of commercial company depends on ability of the organization to focus and shape its operational resources to meet the expectations of its stakeholders: customers, employees and shareholders, expressed in organizational strategy (Russel, 1995) . Irrespective of economic sectors the company operates in, the ability of operations management of this company to fulfill those above-mentioned tasks depends on their understanding that it is necessary to make trade-offs. They cannot avoid the situation of working under constraints and have to understand their capabilities and constraints to provide significant inputs into strategic decision-making process involving further resources of the organization.

Operations managers in the organizations are not empowered to make strategic decisions, but they play important role in shaping the organization's strategy and contribute to the strategic thinking ( Pasternack, Viscio, 1998). Operations managers should be able to translate strategic aims and objectives into clear operational objectives and actions and to implement, design and improve the products of the company themselves and the processes of their delivery. They have to know how changes incorporated to external factors influence the operation and how changes in one aspect of the operating system influence other aspects.

Also, operations managers need to know how technological changes impact organization's capability of delivery, and to incorporate their conclusions into strategic process (Peters, Waterman, 1982). Therefore, the heart of operations thinking includes the ability to think dynamically and systematically across time and space (Miller, 1998). Besides traditional tasks of operation management, new perspectives and objectives emerge connected with the emergence of new trends and developments of operations management, such as total quality management, shop floor control, global supply chain management, manufacturing planning software, and others.

Total quality management has become one of the most important developments of the operations management. The quest for higher level of products and services quality is caused by the globalization of markets, on the one hand, and increasing litigation over service or product failure. The relationship between quality and market share performance is doubtless. Those firms that fail to understand the issue of quality find themselves on the bottom of their industry hierarchy. A significant share of the responsibility for quality standards rests on the operations manager. Global supply chain management is another very important component of operations management. The world economy is becoming more global than ever. Looking for lower production costs, more flexibility and local risk reduction, companies are seeking to outsource and produce services and products on global scale (Heizer, 2004). Operation managers are responsible for fulfilling the task. Project management is yet another task of the operations management department. Operation managers bear responsibility for numerous projects which range from considerable capital projects to specific ones such as installation of new information system.

Effectively managing projects involves fulfillment and delivery them in timely manner and within the budget (Stevens, 2001). In a word, operations management is indispensable component of the organization, since it fulfills numerous important functions of the company. Operations manager handles daily running and functioning of the organization.

The implication of poor managerial performance for the collapse of Enron Corporation

Now it is necessary to find out and analyze whether operations management of Enron Corp performed all the functions mentioned above and what was the quality of their activity.

The Enron did have operations management department, which, according to their official source, fulfilled the following functions: setup accounts and notify utilities, agency agreement from customer, verify the format of invoice, setup invoice data transfer, test algorithms of invoice and file transfer to the customer, determine the reporting requirements of the customer (Enron Energy Services, 2000). As it is seen from the source, the functions of very operations management department are very limited. There are other management departments which perform the functions of operations management stated above: operations facility management, commodity management, energy asset management, financial operations, and capital management. Though, most of functions performed by these departments, according to the source, are purely executive and lack integration, systematic vision, responsibility, control and creative aspect. Besides limited scope of functions assigned to operations management in Enron Corporation, another important point concerns the quality of their performance and overall corporate culture and atmosphere created within corporation. As it was mentioned above, ideally, the functions of operations management include creating ethic values, integrity, competence and clear accountability within the organization. Enron's management failed to comply with these tasks.

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Truck Insurance premiums are calculated according to a variety of factors. These factors are used to determine the financial risk, or probability of an accident, involved in providing a driver with truck insurance. Many factors taken into consideration are things that the driver can have an influence on in order to decrease rates, such as accident history, while others are factors that the insured person has no control over, such as age.

Age of Driver Statistically, younger drivers and very old drivers are more accident-prone. For this reason, drivers in higher risk age groups will have higher premiums. The preferred drivers are typically between the ages of 30 and 65.

Driving Experience The more truck driving experience an operator has, the less their risk assessment will be. Experience with various equipment and weather conditions is inherent in the number of years that an operator has been driving similar types of trucks.

Employment History The number of years that an operator has worked for different companies will be taken into consideration as an experience factor. The more familiar a particular driver is with specific routes and equipment, the less chance there is that an accident will occur.

Accident History A driver who has been responsible for accidents in the past is prone to accidents in the future. For this reason, the fewer accidents and violations a driver has, the less their truck insurance premium will be.

Previous Coverage Truck insurance providers may ask if you previously had insurance coverage. If you have been previously canceled for non-payment of premium or for underwriting reasons, the potential provider will want to know. If you have had truck insurance, the previous carrier can inform the new insurer of your loss history.

Years Operating in Name As with newly employed drivers, a company newly operating in its name is more likely to have the added burdens of management development. As a company becomes more experienced managing its operation, including safety programs, drivers, adherence to regulations, the frequency of losses, etc. is also likely to decrease.

Driving Area The routes a driver has can have an effect on premiums. This is determined by average road conditions and infrastructure, weather during different seasons, and so on.

Cargo The type of cargo a driver carries will also affect their truck insurance premium. Cargo Insurance is based almost entirely on: cargo value, time sensitivity for delivery, potential for theft, etc.

Equipment Operated The value, age, and condition of equipment operated are a determinant in truck insurance premiums. However, the age of a truck is often irrelevant as the condition of the truck is dependent on upkeep, as well as recently installed equipment.

Deductible The deductible is the amount of damage or loss that the insured party is responsible for Typically, the greater the deductible the less the insurance premium will be.

DOT Safety Record A record of an owner operators or companys DOT safety rating, violations, Safestat and Inspection and Selection (ISS-2) scores, etc. is routinely used to assist in determining the truck insurance rate.

Safety Features and Programs Safety features for an insured truck, such as warning stickers, are beneficial for risk assessment. Safety programs for companies and safety trainings for drivers are also helpful.

As a full service truck insurance agency, Cover Me Insurance Agency (CMIA) is dedicated to providing the most efficient truck insurance service with a personal touch. All of our agents have between 5-20 years experience working with owner operators and small fleets.

To get the best rates and best service for truck insurance, just give us a call at 1-800-726-8376 or visit our website to get a free truck insurance quote at http://www.covermeinsurance.com

Joe T. - A truck insurance employee at Cover Me Insurance

A delicious Iced Tea, a crystal clear pool, and a juicy novel to read...these are just a few things that I hope that you are making time for this summer.

The last summer months (especially as we move into August) tend to have a more relaxed pace.

Have you noticed that business moves along as usual, but in August, we often need to adjust to each other's vacation schedules?

Last year I took most of the month of August OFF!

One of my clients joked with me and asked me with a chuckle, "Are you French, Diana?"

He, of course, was referring to the European custom of closing down business for 3-4 weeks in late summer. The Europeans have integrated this practice by taking a long break from routine/work with great success.

Come Fall, they are ready to work again with a renewed energy and vigor. I think there is tremendous benefit and wisdom to this European custom.

Although you may not completely "close up shop" the last few weeks of summer, you may want to consider allowing more free time for relaxation, fun and camaraderie.

An amazing phenomena occurs when we 'clear the decks" and usher in some breathing room into our lives.

Magically, our creativity and enthusiasm return!

The benefits to taking some time off are so obvious, yet we often fail to acknowledge how much good it does us to take a break from our workaholic tendencies. Be honest. Are you stressed out, overworked and feeling haggard?

This isn't the way you want to show up in the world is it?

Take charge of your Blackberry/Daytimer TODAY!

Schedule in some downtime, clearing the space for it on your calendar.

My coaching challenge to you?

Take a long weekend trip or better yet, take that long overdue vacation.

It just may be the "shot in the arm" your business and personal life need!

Success Coach and Speaker, Diana Long, is the Founder of the Life Design Institute. Diana can help you transform your dreams into reality and give you the shortcuts to success with her variety of life-changing programs and products.

Learn more about Diana and receive your FREE Report, 3 Huge Mistakes People Like You Make to Sabotoge Their Success & How You Can Completely Avoid Them! and Free subscription to The Award Winning Newsletter, Life & Work Design Secrets, please visit http://www.DianaLong.com