Pre and Post M&a Performance in Accounting Ratio Essay

There are loads of tools to measure the performance of a financial performance of an entity but financial ratios is probably the best known tool which is mainly to analyze the performance of an entity by comparing the present to the past relative figures taken or composed from the financial statement . The few categories of ratios are liquidity ratios, profitability ratios, efficiency ratios, debt ratios and market ratios which will be able to describe the entity’s characteristics. Ratios show the true performance and position of the entity. In order for investors to determine their choices of entity to invest in, financial ratios play an important role in providing sufficient information to users about the entity’s characteristic. We predict that companies are performing better after merger and acquisition and there will be an increase in profit of companies pre merger and acquisition compare to post merger and acquisition activities. However, the global merger and acquisition (M&A) market is expected to experience a modest increase this year following significant revisions in earnings expectation for 2009. Studies relatively prove that ratios are important but which ratios, among the loads of ratios which can be computed easily from the available financial statement, should be used to analyze to obtain a wise decision (Kung & Thomas, 1981); (Maretno & Howard, 1996). Problem statement Accounting ratios usage in merger & acquisition are not understood very well as to whether companies or investors are using accounting ratios to analyze performance pre and post decision making for M&A. Therefore, this study will try to find out as to whether merger and acquisition activities are caused by the use of accounting ratio when management tries to expand a company’s operation. Accounting ratios is wide in variety and is known for its diversities in calculating different ratios, which makes selecting the right ratio to do analysis on is difficult. Every company when making merger and acquisition decisions will have to go through different decision making process in their organization and not based solely on accounting ratios when taking actions. Things such as relationship of merging companies, financing matter or management efficiency are often overlooked in previous studies, therefore, apart from addressing the use of accounting ratio in making merger and acquisiti on, we will also address on other matters that are affecting merger and acquisition decision making. Companies that have made merger and acquisition in the few years will be analyzed whether merger and acquisition has benefitted the company. This analysis will have to be based on companies that have made merger and acquisition for few years so that analysis could be made to ascertain whether merger and acquisition has improved the company’s performance. The data that is collected could be redundant as the data collected could only be analyzed from the past. Apart from that, companies that are engaged in merger and acquisition will tend to keep their methods in acquiring companies as a secret; therefore, there is no information that will be disclosed to us when we are doing research. We will only be able to get information based on announcement on the Bursa Saham Malaysia and also annual report analysis on the companies that we will base our study on. Based solely on the annual report, we will have to analyze companies that have been engaged in merger and acquisition is perfor ming better as a company before merger and acquisition or after merger and acquisition. Studies that have addressed the problem Several past studies have shown several findings. There were significant improvements in the liquidity, leverage and profitability position of most studied companies. Normally, total assets consist of equity, debt and retained earnings to finance the corporation. In the study, it was found that total assets were always less than the debt plus equity for pre acquisition period, but after acquisition, it is positive. All the units selected for the study were sick, but after takeover five out of eight revived (Rao & Sanker, 1997). The acquiring firms had performed above the industry average and the acquired firms were below the industry average in term of size and profitability (Cosh et al., 1998). The firms recorded meaningful increase in their net earnings, and those with the successful merger of the firms, the return on capital employed and return on total assets, increased substantially with a significant percentage. The variability in the earnings (risk) of the pre-merger firms was significantly higher than that of post-merger firms (Agundu & Karibo, 1999). Pilloff (1996) finds no significant change in post merger ROE, however, when he utilizes operating income before provision instead of net income to calculate ROE, there is a significant increase in post-merger returns. Deficiencies in studies Unfortunately, most studies do not distinguish between healthy and troubled companies due to the relative scarcity of outright failures as an indicator of the latter. Data are not readily available to every person and critical data is only available to top level management, which causes analysis on company performance not accurate. Accounting ratios usage in studies are not standardized for number of ratios used and types of ratios used, making comparisons of this study to previous studies almost impossible. Some of the studies only find out accounting ratio performance before and after merger and acquisition, but they did not take into account the management performance improvement. Importance of the study Basically, the compelling reason for merger and acquisition is to make more money. This study analyses the pre and post performance in accounting ratio of various entities in Malaysia which involved in merger and acquisition. Therefore, it seeks to contribute to entities which look forward to expand their businesses by merging and acquiring entities in order to broaden their sources and to increase their performance as well as position of the entity. This study also justifies the importance of financial ratios as a tool in decision making for most users to merge and acquire entities. Besides that, this study further proves that financial ratios could be used to speculate and estimate the future of the entity’s development and growth by developing ratio values to be compared with the normal or regular value. Furthermore, the global merger and acquisition market is expected to experience a modest increase this year following significant revisions in earnings expectation for 2009. According to KPMG International’s Global merger and acquisition Predictor, modest increases are expected in both deal-making appetite and capacity globally. Therefore, it is hoped that the result of this study is valuable to entities for the purpose of merging and acquiring. Purpose statement The purpose of this study is to determine whether financial ratios contribute to the decision in merging and acquiring another entity. For this purpose, we analyze the performance of the entity before and after merging or acquisition of the holding or parent entity across industries to identify the status of the performance and position of the entity currently. We would have to identify the entity’s characteristics in terms of their operating and accounting performance by comparing to their values before the merger and acquisition. In our analysis, we also focus on the use financial ratios as a mechanism to compare the pre and post-acquisition performance. Furthermore, we also use financial ratio to predict the performance of the acquired entity as well as the growth of the entity. Organization of the study The rest of the research is organized into chapters as follows. Chapter 2 review about the literature regarding the accounting ratio performance before and after merger and acquisition would be provided. The topic and the arguments from researchers will be discussed. Justification of the research objectives would be provided with all the relevant literatures. Chapter 3 describes and provides detailed explanation on the method used in collecting the relevant data, the desired sample design, appropriate methodology employed in this study and also the data analysis method. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction In this chapter, further discussion on the topic will be done based on prior empirical studies and a derivation of hypothesis will be done. To be able to evaluate the post and pre merger and acquisition deal by companies in Malaysia, a concept is to be conceived with prior literature that is related to the performance of firms that has been acquiring other firms. 2.1 Theory/Concept Foundation Shareholders of a corporation that is involved in Merger & Acquisition activity would like to see their value of stock in the acquiring corporation to rise post-M&A compared to pre-M&A. Therefore, it is important that an M&A transaction done with the shareholders in mind, this theory of maximizing shareholder value is fairly new as it is introduced by William Lazonick and Mary O’Sullivan in year 2000. Shareholder value should be used regularly when decisions are made to be able to regulate how a company operates for the sake of the shareholders. For a shareholder to have his value increased, all the activities from the factory workers to top level management should work together to find the best way to increase the value of the company. To increase shareholder value, restructuring of companies are needed to be able to sustain the changing economic climate according to time development. Evaluation of companies performance will be done to ensure shareholders value do increase po st-M&A. From the theory we could derive that performance of a company depends on the value that they would like to preserve for their shareholders. For every shareholder that would like to expand the company operation and size, they will have to be able to provide funds for the company in the form of investment. Apart from that, trend evolution plays a part in a merging or acquisition decision. An acquirer may look at the performance of the company that they are trying to takeover. The acquirers look at the financial feasibility of acquiring the company on the share price and value for money. If a value is low, they will be able to takeover the company at a lower price. And it is known that M&A deals are done so that a company could expand into a new market segment or improve their current segment. Apart from that, it should be noted that there are several types of mergers and acquisition. It should be noted that firms that are acquiring are larger if not significantly larger than the acquired firms. 2.2 Review of Prior Empirical Studies Life cycle of a firm will accelerate the need for M&A deals as firms grew older, they could be expanding their size and because of this, and M&A will be done to be able to involve themselves into different segments of businesses. According to (Sian Owen & Alfred Yawson, 2008), they propose that in certain life cycle of a company, they will engage in some kind of M&A activities. This is because there is a need to grow their company or to decrease the involvement of the owner by giving up the power of the company to another firm. Therefore, it should be noted that companies will go through M&A at different life cycle to develop their performance even further or simply to pull out of the company ownership. The data that they use to examine this is based in the US, therefore, it may be not practical to be used here, but this is an opportunity for us to examine the life cycle factor in the pre and post M&A performance figure. The main objective for merger and acquisition activities is to increase the return of the equity shareholders who are considered real owners of the company. Shareholders are also takes the responsibilities to bear maximum risk of the company. Different impact (positive, negative and mix) either success or failure will occur for different M&A deals. Since we cannot make any conclusion based on only one ratio. So, different ratio are using in this article to measure the company performance in term of liquidity position, operating efficiency, overall efficiency, return to equity shareholders and financial composition. By looking at single ratio, it is hard for researcher to determine whether acquirer company success or failure to make M&A deals? Because a high rate of return showed on acquiree company such as consulting firms doesn’t means they make a good investments, since they require no assets. There are more than half of the 74 merger and acquisition cases showed an improvement in the financial performance in post time period of this article. However, 15% out of these cases had increase their working capital and debt to equity, which means that the company suffer long term financial burden of current assets and long terms funds which use to finance current assets. Small sample size was used by this researcher. Although there are 200 deals of M&A in India but only 74 companies can provide the available financial data which require by researcher. So, there was reliable issue of this research outcome. Except ratio, there are many issues must be takes into consideration by making M&A decision such as by predicting future prospects, company past performance, law and regulations of the country which can help to reach a better conclusion. So researcher can’t make exact and absolute conclusion by only interpret financial ratio of company (Kumar and Bansal, 2008). Those are significant difference between merger and acquisition. Misleading conclusions may be made by those researchers who combined these two different terms. Acquisitions is a more successful way to bring positive effects to the company compared with mergers in term of generate greater profitability, return on investment or equity, increased in operating performance, etc. This might due to the way the merger or acquire. Acquirer may acquire a small division, patent or the company which use for the purpose of strategic alliances and value added to current business. In contrary, merges activities become less attractive to the potential shareholder due to reduce return or shareholder wealth or even negative return and decrease in profitability or even suffer losses of the company (Hassan, Patro, Tuckman & Wang, 2007). The theoretical models of liquidity stresses the degree of trading stock, adverse selection, stock volatility, and competitiveness of market making (Lipson & Mortal, 2007). According to the prior review, the degree of trading interest in a stock has a positive relationship with the level of trading activity. Therefore, the fixed trading costs can be spread out over a larger number of trades. The adverse selection cost incurs when negative action is taken to counter an adverse situation of trades. For example, if stock traders have relatively more information compare to the liquidity providers, liquidity providers will recover their losses from trading with better informed counterparts by increasing their average revenue. Stock volatility affects the trading cost positively as well. When stocks are more volatile, the holding cost of the stock would be relatively higher and the cost would be passed on to buyers when being traded. The competitiveness of market making affects the trading cost negatively. When the market makers are less competitive, the increase in competition will reduce the trading cost. Besides that, the firm’s characteristics also affect the accounting ratio after M&A. Prior studies noted that M&A increases the liquidity of firms on average but the improvements are fully explained by the accompanying changes in firm characteristics (Lipson & Mortal, 2007). Firm characteristics such as sizes of the firm, volume and number of shareholders are taken into consideration in prior studies. Relatively larger firms will have greater trading interest since more positions are offered in the firm. Benston and Hangerman (1974) also acknowledge the effect of firm size and volume to M&A. Therefore, the sizes of the firm are expected to affect the decision M&A of a firm. The increase in adverse selection can be seen in Heflin and Shaw (2000) where they argue that the effect of a blockholder ownership is a result of superior blockholder information. The results are consistent with the results in Lipson and Mortal (2007). Past studies document that larger firms tend to be followed by a greater number of market makers (Wahal, 1997), which he attributes to increased c ompetition among market makers. Also derived in Lipson and Mortal (2007), the increased in market making reduces order processing cost, hence reducing trading cost. According to (Arturo Bris, Neil Brisley, Christos Cabolis 2008), M&A is done following the corporate governance decision as legal rules or accounting standard. The countries difference in degree of investor protection as well as firm value, ownership structure. When we are merger and acquisition usually adopts the accounting standards. This implies that, the corporate in a country can adopt difference level of investor protect. If corporate governance have set the legal rules then the corporate follow it. Therefore, the corporate investments losses or change operation performance. The legal rule can protect shareholder and investors so that they will not have legal liabilities. The corporate governance quality is follow shareholder protection and accounting standard when we are merger and acquisition can test corporate worsening and preserving acquisitions. If we are test pre merger and acquisition performance not efficiency then corporate governance quality also will not good. The corporation will easy give large corporate takeover or the corporation will bankrupt. However, the corporation operation quality good will not let large corporate takeover the firm. The corporate governance quality well can enhance merger and acquisition value and good performance. According to Holger Breinlich (2008), merger and acquisition become industrial restructuring after trade liberalization. It is can increase merger and acquisition activities and merger and acquisition transferred resource from less to more productive firms. It is because pre corporation not efficiency performance source make it loss. Therefore, after merger and acquisition the corporate efficiency performance source make it earning profit and improvement the corporate. Merger and acquisition not just to transfer source, it is also can qualitatively difference from other adjust form. Before merger and acquisition is not well make the workers becoming unemployed and also will make economic recession. When new ownership takeover the corporate then worker has working already and economic also will slowly become good. However, the larger corporate takeovers corporate better the corporate bankrupt and as such no need face unnecessary legal restriction. From the past studies, Letho and Lehtoranta (2004) study that M&A synergies can be realized by owing unique technology and knowledge and then transferring these intangibles to the target firm. The industrial organization (IO) literature states that both horizaontal and industry-diversifying acquisitions might affect R&D. When firms are active in the line of business, economies of scale in R&D input can be occurred because of M&As. Besides, value can created also by M&As from uniting complementary know-how (Cassiman B, Colombo M, Garrone P, Veugelers R, 2003). Similarly, intangibles could matter in domestic as well as cross-border takeover (Kang and Johansson, 2000). The ratio of intangible assets (goodwill paid in earlier M&As has to be minus first) to total assets is used to examine these ideas. The financial synergies are realized by looking at the capital structure of potential acquirers. The idea is that when firms relying heavily on bank loans, it is risky to the firm and also acquirers will have less interest on the firm. Therefore, firms that relying heavily on bank loans will quickly seek to reduce their overall risk and recognize a lower cost of capital by engaging in industry-diversifying and in cross-border M&As. Indeed, cost of capital can be reduced when cash flows from target and bidders are not highly correlated. Besides, additional borrowing capacity post-M&A can be created and this is a good performance for a firm after M&A. If stock prices of a firm are down, the takeover of a firm can constitute a bargain relative to investing in new facilities in order to recover from scratch. Furthermore, the valuation of private targets is lower once stock market sentiment is down, through the use of a lower multiples or higher risk premium when valuing target stock. This under-valuation hypothesis suggests that stock prices and M&A decisions are negatively related. In contrast, soaring stock prices can facilitate the financing of M&As in which they using bidder stock to pay for these deals. When firms consider that their stock to be over-valued, they tend to issue new shares (Shleifer and Vishny, 2003). There will be positive relationship between stock prices and external growth. However, the positive relationship may be difficult to observe when a sample is dominated by private enterprises. This is also because of those non-listed bidder stock is unwilling to be accepted by target investors. The average market-wid e price earnings (P/E) ratio at the M&A announcement date is used to capture stock market conditions, given that private firms dominate the sample. 2.3 Hypothesis Development The first hypothesis comes from our own assumption to examine how does a company perform post-M&A compared to pre-M&A. The assumption is that a company could perform better in the form of ratios because their capital has increased due to increase in non current assets. If a company obtains another company through M&A, it is expected that they have certain amount of capital available to expand their firm size; therefore, there will be increase in capital in the form of ROE and ROA ratios once a firm is engaged in M&A activities. H º =After M&A, there will be increase in ratios of ROE and ROA H ¹=Before M&A, asset ROA and ROE are higher From previous study of (Moeller, Schlingemann & Stulz, 2004), it is known that they examined for the below hypothesis in their research. And this hypothesis will be tested in Malaysia context so that we will be able to measure the level of performance compared to the size of the firm. H º=Small firm perform better after M&A H ¹=Acquirer’s firm perform worse after M&A 2.4 Model/Framework Negative relationship Positive Relationship As proposed, the relationship between pre-M&A is a negative relationship to the ratio. And it should be lower than post-M&A ratio as after M&A activities, the ratio should increase and higher. Positive relationship Negative relationship As proposed, the larger firm will adapt less well after M&A compared to smaller firm. Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design The research will be carried out as an explanatory study. This study method is used for our research because this study will explain how M&A affects performance of a company. The design will be carried out by using pair sample T-Test testing the relationship of the variables of performance of the company and the pre and post M&A activities. The research will be carried out to test whether an M&A activity does increase the performance of a company or it does not accelerate the activity of the company. Archival research will be used thoroughly to understand the improvement or deterioration in the firms post-M&A compared to pre-M&A. 3.2 Population, Sample and Sampling Procedure For our research for M&A companies in Malaysia, a census will be conducted as it is expected that there are only several hundreds of companies that have conducted M&A locally. The census data will be collected by using the Bursa Malaysia website via manual search and the usage of Osiris database. Therefore, the data will be collected through these 2 ways. 3.3 Data Collection Method As it is said, the data to be used will be secondary data. Documentary secondary data will be collected and used throughout this research. The data will be consisted of written materials which are companies’ annual reports. The annual report will be compiled based on the activities that are involved by the respective companies with a view that M&A deals are conducted by the company within the years of investigation which range from year 2001 to 2005. References Rao, K.V., & Sanker, K.R. (1997). Takeover as a Strategy of Turnaround. UTI edited book. Cosh, A., Hughes, A., Lee, K., & Singh, A. (1998). â€Å"Takeovers, institutional investment and the persistence of profits†, in Begg, I. and Henry, S.G.B. (Eds), Applied Economics and Public Policy, Department of Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Agundu, P.C., & Karibo, N.O. (1999). â€Å"Risk analysis in corporate mergers decisions in developing economies†. Journal of Financial Management and Analysis, 12(2), 13-17. Moeller, S.B., Schlingemann, F.P., & Stulz, R.M. (2004). â€Å"Firm size and the gains from acquisitions†. Journal of Financial Economics, 73, 201-28. Pilloff, S.J. (1996). Performance changes and stockholder wealth creation associated with mergers of publicly traded banking institutions. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 28, 294-310. Bris, A., Brisley, N., & Cabolis, C. (2008). Adopting better corporate governance: Evidence from cross-border mergers. Journal of Corporate Finance, 14, 224-240. Breinlich, H. (2008). Trade liberalization and industrial restructuring through mergers and acquisitions. Journal of International Economics, 76, 254–266. Kumar, S., & Bansal, L.K.(2008). The impact of mergers and acquisitions on corporate performance in India. Management Decision, 46 (10), 1531-1543. Hassan, M., Patro, D.K., Tuckman, H., & Wang, X.L. (2007). Do mergers and acquisitions create shareholder wealth in the pharmaceutical industry? International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, 1 (1), 58-78.

Multiple Relationships

Multiple relationships, being in not just one relationship but more. Why is it so connected to ethics? For the reason that generally, when we hear it the first time, we most likely to think of infidelity, a betrayal to a partner. And infidelity is related to ethics, opposition that is. Â  How could we possibly overcome this? We must first recognize what ethics is, and then figure out why people engage in multiple relationships. According to the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics of Santa Clara University, ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. These ethical standards pertain to sensible duty to avoid doing criminal acts, to initiate virtues and issues on rights which are sustained by reliable and justifiable grounds. Ethics could also mean that we should stay to live up to what society had strongly built. This means to say that ethics cannot be lock up to religion, for religion could only relate to religious people and anything concerning with religion. Same thing with law which often included these ethical standards that most general public follow yet it can be disagreed to but with punishments to be face. There are reasons why people engage in multiple relationships: they are unsatisfied with their partner, can it by intimacy, passion, commitment; they can no longer get hold of long-distance relationship; they saw somebody better or basically they just fell out of love, and that they cannot afford not to have a companion, that is, they don’t want to be alone. Multiple relationships deviate to ethics when it supposedly mess up one’s own objectivity, competence, or effectiveness in performing his or her functions in society, or if not risks exploitation or harm the person with whom he or she has relationship with. But no matter how ethics intervenes to this issue, we cannot get away with the fact that influence of media which involves liberal behavior leads to having rational minds and non-judgmental attitude in understanding multiple relationships. We became so open with such possibilities that these things happen without preferences. There are really people who cannot settle with just one relationship, unsatisfied with what they have, and leads to finding and having somebody else to be with. Bibliography Multiple Relationships and APA's New Ethics Code: Values and Applications By Dr. Stephen Behnke, APA Ethics Director Print version: page 66 : Standard 3.05 Multiple Relationships http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan04/ethics.html What is Ethics? Developed by Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer., Surveyed by Sociologist Raymond Baumhart http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html

Survey of Software Systems

Week 6 Case Study 1. How important is the reservation system at airlines such as WestJet and JetBlue? How does it impact operational activities and decision making? The reservation system is extremely important to small airline companies such as WestJet and JetBlue. Since these companies are small and fairly new, efficient customer service is essential to their success. When potential customers visit the JetBlue and WestJet websites and view their competitive rates, it is imperative that they are met with a completely capable, efficient information system to book their reservations on.Also, the reservation system will impact operational activities because it clearly lies out how many reservations are currently booked which is essential in deciding on the number of aircraft to use for a specific block of time to a specific destination. It also provides foresight on how much fuel to have on the aircraft etc. Another thing that the reservation system helps is the ability to know when to advertise specials on certain flights in order to fill the roster and offer standby to last minute travelers. 2. Evaluate the risks of the projects to upgrade the reservation systems of WestJet and JetBlue and key risk factors.There are several risks associated with upgrading any information systems within a company. Typically the most difficult tasks involve providing training to the employees that are responsible for using, operating or receiving data from the upgraded information systems. In this situation in particular, one of the major concerns for these companies was that the information system updates would cause defects in the system and also that the time that it would take to upgrade the reservation system could cause a gap in services to the user.An outage in their web services would cause major setbacks for both companies and neither of them could afford the loss. The text states that WestJet had been running practice tests and training for over 100,000 hours in prepara tion for the live upgrade. Still, they encountered some issues that they had not planned for during the live upgrade. This caused the website to be inaccessible for quite some time during and after the upgrade. This caused an enormous number of dissatisfied customers.Users flocked to Facebook and other social networking sites to express their dissatisfaction with WestJet’s services; they also called customer service in an effort to gain a better understanding about what was going on. As a result of the increase in customer service calls that WestJet was also unprepared for, there was a major increase in customer service wait times, which then led to more angry customers. Luckily WestJet was able to redeem itself some time down the road and didn’t take too much of a hit financially because of that mishap.This goes to show that the risks associated with upgrading information systems within a company are extremely high and in no way should they be undermined. Companies sh ould always be prepared when attempting to upgrade information systems otherwise the loss has the potential to be devastating. 3. Classify and describe the problems each airline faced in implementing its new reservation system. What people, organization, and technology factors caused those problems? The problems that WestJet faced in implementing its new reservation system ran the gamut.They had a number of organizational problems which included the fact that they obviously hadn’t considered the possibility that the transfer could not go as planned. Although they trained and practiced for over 100,000 hours in preparation for the transfer, they failed to have a backup plan, which is something that every company needs to have should they need to employ other options. When the initial plan was foiled, there weren’t even enough employees to handle the commotion that the lack of web services caused.They also had a critical technology problem, and that was that the file tra nsfer didn’t go as planned. Another technology problem was that the unsuccessful file transfer caused the web services to be down for a number of hours. There should have been a backup webpage to mitigate that gap in service. JetBlue on the other hand, was very well organized based on the information that the text gave. They had a backup for their webpage that they ended up needing to use because their servers were down due to the file transfer.They chose a low web traffic day to initiate the file transfer; and they hired 500 temporary employees to man the call center in case they had an increased number of customer service calls. JetBlue also had technology problems which caused a delay in their data transfer but the reason that it didn’t affect them as bad as it did with WestJet, is because they were prepared, 4. Describe the steps you would have taken to control the risk in these projects.The risk associated with performing live data transfers is imminent. There wil l never be a way to completely mitigate that risk, but if I were in that situation I would handle it like JetBlue did. I would examine all of the possible outcomes and have a backup in place to control the possible damage. I would have definitely had a backup web interface and I would have hired temporary employees to help with the extra workload. Basically, I would have done the exact same things that JetBlue did.

Quantitative report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Quantitative report - Essay Example In spite of the fact that Brisbane is a state capital, the historical background of the area states that it’s no lesser than a large town of the country located on the northern parts of Australia. Earlier the place was known for its parochialism in the social and political contexts. However in the late 80’s, after the retirement of Bjelke-Petersen, Brisbane walked on the path of modernization. Today the place is known to have a growing metropolitan ambience with developing industries and a promising cultural environment, accompanied by congestion and a developing property market. Motivation Factors to Attend Event In order to explore the true motivation of people for attending the musical event held in Brisbane, a close ended sample questionnaire was circulated randomly to approximately 100 people that had attended the event. The questionnaire was constructed so as to reflect practical cause that motivates an individual to attend such event. The responses of people were provided as input to statistical analysis and it was found that the three most motivating factors for tourists’ to such events are Known-group socialization, Cultural experience and Intention. These results are derived from t-test result values where the p-values of these variables were found to be very low implying high confidence level and reliability. On the other hand, the primary festival motivation for most musical events consist of various factors like raising funds, spreading a message, promotion of a campaign, competition, and so on. At the same time the audiences attends the event with several motives like enjoyment (Intention), getting the company of friends (Socialization), having a preference for the performer or simply because they love music (Culture). Thus, it is obvious that a place as urbanized as Brisbane would attract a lot of tourist. Yet the geographical location of the place causes much hindrance for people to reach Brisbane since it’s situated in the remote parts of Australia. As a result the bands that perform here do not find a motivating group of audience. In this context Joel Saunders of the â€Å"Ambitious Lovers† group states, â€Å"They don’t come up here because they don’t get good turn-outs. Had they come up here in the prime time of [venue] 610 and stuff, there just would have been kids there for no reason, which would have just turned up there (Interview 1 May 2008)† (Rogers, 2008). The local bands of Brisbane however manage to gather a small number of audiences which remains highly dependent on the venue and day of the concert. It was noted by Griffin that the modern era of globalization is drawing the audiences from their local boundaries and placing them in a global arena where the various constraints are easily overcome (Brennan, 2007). Research Question On this basis three research questions can be framed- 1. How the demographic profile of the audience can affect their motive to wards attending the musical event? The sample questionnaire was circulated among 100 randomly selected individuals and when their responses were analyzed it was found that the main demographic profile for attending music event in Brisbane consists of people with age-group of 18 to 30 years. The result of statistical analysis shows that about 46 people out of 100 are in that age-group which is further dominated by females. This is because 52% of this 46 people in that age-grou

Investment Analysis essay for the exam Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Investment Analysis for the exam - Essay Example In actively managed portfolios, fund managers do not believe that market is always efficient and they are always eager to make use of such mismatch in pricing that does not discount the information completely. If active fund manager remains successful in identifying such opportunities, it is possible to make above average returns without exposing to higher systematic risk and thus, it is possible to outperform the market through actively managed portfolios. Information always continues to flow in the market and prices keep on fluctuating. Sometimes the information is stock specific and sometimes, some macroeconomic factors may provide direction to the market. Disadvantage of actively managed fund is that these funds have higher expense ratios. They also pay higher taxes as they frequently enter and exit in the market. Due to their modus-operandi, these funds may give higher returns; however, they carry higher risks too. It is also true that prices fluctuate in response to available information widely as per the perceptions of the players involved and they are mostly unpredictable. Usually, it is not possible to use information to predict future price. Contrasting actively managed funds, passively managed funds take a long term view and do not frequently enter or exit the market. The advantage is that they are less risky and pay lesser taxes in comparison to active funds. Owing to limited number of transactions, passively managed funds spend less on transaction costs. They usually provide risk free average returns. Passively managed funds are highly diversified to minimize market risks. Another advantage is that they are not information dependent while reshuffling their portfolios, which usually happen at much lesser frequency. The only disadvantage that can be said against passively managed funds is that they do not provide fancy returns;

Corporate law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Corporate law - Essay Example (d) To what extent, if any, could Peter or Amanda or both incur personal liability for the company`s debts if the business fails? (e) Assume that there is one additional member of the board of directors, John, to whom the actual day-to-day running of the business has been left and who simply reports back to the board on the business he had transacted. John refers to himself as the managing director of Kent Cars Ltd, although he has never been officially appointed as such. A month ago John entered into a contract on Kent Cars Ltd behalf with James to create a company website, however, Kent Cars Ltd did not wish to order the actual website produced by James. The board of directors had refused to pay James, claiming that John did not have the necessary authority to enter into the contract with him. Analyse the situation with regard to the authority of John to make contracts on behalf of Kent Cars Ltd and in particular advise whether or not Kent Cars Ltd is liable to James. Answers a. In accordance with the section 18 of Companies Act 2006, in order for a company to exist, as a legal entity, it needs to have articles of association, which will ‘prescribe regulations for the company,’ (18.1 Companies Act 2006). Peter and Amanda are free to regulate the terms under which their partnership will be developed – with the restrictions set by the specific Act; this means that Amanda and Peter can add any term in the articles of association but this term should not be in clear opposition with the rules of Companies Act 2006. If either of the partners leaves the business, then the partnership would be eliminated; the business would have to be terminated, unless an arrangement has been made in advance, with relevant terms included in the articles of association, that in such case the company will continue to exist being transformed to a single member company – in the context of the article 123 (part 2 of Companies Act 2006). However, the shareholdin g of the leaving partner should be secured; this target can be achieved through specific terms in the articles of association, as for example the following ones: (part 2, part 9): a) a term defining that the leaving member would have the right to exit the firm anytime after a relevant notice, without his right to ask for his share on the company’s property to be influenced, b) a term defining that the leaving member would ask for his share from the firm’s profits within the particular financial year – referring to the period beginning in the first day of the current year and ending the day when the particular member decides to leave the company, c) a term defining that the share of the particular member would not be affected (reduced) by potential limitations in the company’s wealth because of the decisions of the other member – referring to the period beginning the day that the leaving member leaves the firm up to the day that his share is given t o him, d) a term should be also included stated that any right of the members/ shareholders on the company’s assets would be kept – in case that the assets will be not sold or, in other way, distributed between the

Financial relief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial relief - Essay Example These factors include the ages of Megan and Hugh and the duration of their marriage, contributions made by Megan through her income, looking after their home and children, the family’s needs, assets and earning capabilities of Hugh and Megan, the age, mental, physical and emotional well being of both Megan and Hugh, their standard of living before separation, and whether being the custodian of the children will limit Megan from earning a substantial income. Hugh’s adultery, which is said to have begun since their first born was born, will not be considered in determining whether to award spousal maintenance to Megan. According to Rossini, alimony â€Å"is separate and apart from monies paid for financially dependent children as child support. In some jurisdictions under certain conditions, alimony may be taxable income for the recipient (and deductible for the payor).† 2 It is possible for the court to assess Megan’s needs and decide on whether to award he r compensatory maintenance to enable her to save and ease her transition on the fact that had she not gotten married and given up her well paying job to look after the kids, her career just like Hugh’s would have progressed. The Ages of Megan and Hugh and the Duration of their Marriage Determination of Megan’s eligibility for spousal maintenance is a vital consideration by the court. The ages of Megan and Hugh are important in determining how easily each of them can make a fresh start, which has a profound impact on their resources and expenditure in future. The length of their marriage is also important in determining how they ought to share assets and Hugh’s income. In the United Kingdom, a marriage of four years is considered as a short one, while a marriage of twenty five years is considered as a long one.3 Megan and Hugh have been married for more than four years making their marriage a long one. They are both however not too old to remarry making it easy f or both of them to start their married lives afresh with other spouses in future. This is especially true from the fact that their first born is fifteen years old and their youngest son is below ten years of age. The fact that Megan and Hugh have been married for a considerable length of time makes Megan eligible for spousal support. Contributions Made by Megan through Her Income, Looking After Their Home, and Children Financial contributions made by a spouse as well as other contributions in the home are a necessary consideration in determination for spousal maintenance. In Megan’s case, she has definitely made financial contributions in the home, especially at the time when she had a well paying job. Although it is not clear whether she contributed in buying the property at Hertford, she has made financial contributions in the joint building society savings. She also left a well paying job to be the primary homemaker and take care of the children. According to Boele-Woelki et al., â€Å"

Discuss the relationship between the orthodox and the marginal, Essay

Discuss the relationship between the orthodox and the marginal, referring closely to at least two texts we have discussed on the unit - Essay Example It made its presence felt in the field of art, science, history, religion, literature, philosophy and politics as well as other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Scholars and thinkers of this era, sought out in search of ancient texts written in Latin or ancient Greek which had been long lost and forgotten into obscurity, which fuelled their desire to increase and improve their worldly knowledge - a concept totally in contrast to the transcendental spirituality strongly propagated by medieval Christianity. These scholars, however did not denounce or reject Christianity, but this cultural shift and the quest for knowledge did brought about a change in the way religion was approached by the intellectuals and was evident in many areas of their cultural life. Shakespeare’s Richard III and Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta and Dr Faustus, all three of which were widely popular and yet severely criticized mainly because of it’s content and candid use of language, and study them in the light of Renaissance – an era of immense exploration and questioning of ideas and well established philosophies. Although there exist many views regarding the exact date of the Renaissance period in history, for the purpose of this essay, the period between 14th to 17th centuries is considered as the Renaissance Era. In England, the Elizabethan era marked the beginning of the Renaissance Era, with the works of such writers as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton and Edmund Spenser. This led to the development of new ideals on humanism which were far more liberal and secular as opposed to those in the medieval era to the chagrin of the yet unquestioned Christian backdrop. Much of the literary work was dedicated to religion or Church, as a result it had profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly the way in which the relationship between man and god was perceived. The Renaissance thus could well be perceived as a time of religious

A research paper on Penelope Fitzgerald and her book the Gate of

A on Penelope Fitzgerald and her book the Gate of Angels - Research Paper Example Passed on from her parents, Penelope eventually developed interest in literature. Although Penelope published her first biography at the age of 58 years old (Courtney), she officially started her literary career at the age of 60 years old when she published her first novel entitled â€Å"The Golden Child† (Courtney; Harvey-Wood). As a novelist, Penelope was knowledgeable on literature. Having written and won the Booker Prize with Offshore, she was able to catch a large group of readers. As a competitive writer, she managed to write outstanding novels that are self-sufficient (Saunders). It was in 1990 when Penelope published the book â€Å"The Gate of Angels†. In this novel, Penelope amazed a lot of people for knowing things about atomic physics and issues related to probationary nursing (Barnes). As a novelist, Penelope was an expert in making use of the right term and phrases when describing not only the main characters in the novel but also when pointing out the irony in a situation. As one of Penelope’s best novels, the story of â€Å"The Gate of Angels† is about a young Cambridge University physicist named Fred Fairly who fell in love with nurse Daisy Saunders after a bicycle accident. Basically, the accident happened when both of them were bicycling along the same road. In this novel, Penelope was able to assemble the cast of the story in such a way that the reader would clearly know how Fred Fairly and Daisy Saunders interact with each other. The fact that Penelope described the past lives of the two main characters that made the readers understood the gap between Fred and Daisy. Even though Penelope has been known as one of the most promising novelist of the olden times in England, some of her works has been a subject to positive criticism (Los Angeles Times b). As compared to the works of other novels like the English novelist Martin Amis or Evelyn Waugh, the novels written by Penelope are often

Recycled toothbrushes make sense Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Recycled toothbrushes make sense - Assignment Example Stonyfield was potential enough to provide Recycline with discarded yogurt containers as raw-materials through its collection points introduced as the new Gimme 5 program. The partnership could also promote consumers concerns on environmental issues and thereby the demand for green products that Recycline used to manufacture. This growing concept of sustainable business encouraged people to drop plastic containers at the disposal points from where Recycline could collect them easily. Hudson can be further innovative with the marketing tactics in order to enhance the sales of its green products. Like any other business marketing, Recycline can also utilize the advantages of various advertising techniques. Obviously, the notable feature of its eco-friendly approach to business can be highlighted for the promotion of sale. Like the partnership with Stoneyfield, Hudson can seek possibility of collaborating with non-profit organizations which encourage sustainable businesses and green products. In addition, he can announce certain compliments along with each sale so that it would retain Recycline’s potential customers and would attract new clients. Finally, Hudson can inquire if the products could be sold through fair trade outlets by acquiring fair trade certification from the responsible agencies. Environmental risk management has become one of the significant areas of an organization’s legal as well as ethical compliance. As an emerging trend organizations today voluntarily undertake environmental protection. Since ‘green brand’ is the major competitive advantage of Recycline, the company can launch new products that would align with its sustainable policy. It should explore the scope of implementing modern information technology for enhancing internal and external communication and organizational integration. As the firm grows further, it should restructure its hierarchy

Teaching English Language Arts through Writing Research Paper

Teaching English Language Arts through Writing - Research Paper Example According to revised research, there are about four or five important comprehension sub-skills that include remembering word meanings, following paragraph structure, finding answers in the passage and drawing deductions from the passage. However, research to accurately study these methods has been difficult because researchers cannot seem to separate the effects of certain methods from the variable that affect them. Consequent studies on the topic tried to make use of â€Å"introspection, interviews and laboratory simulations† to achieve more accurate results. According to research, a child has been taught to read effectively if he/she can understand the text and translate it into his/her own language. According to Early’s research, for a child to develop exhaustive knowledge of the language arts, it is important for him/her to be exposed to various forms of the language, both through reading and writing so that the range of his/her language arts is successfully widened . Another research along the same vein talks about the theories and approaches that have been developed to help teachers teach young children how to learn the language arts through writing. Specifically, this research paper looks at some generalizations about children and their written language in the above-mentioned context and what implications these generalizations have for their teachers. People often think that writing serves numerous different functions and purposes, for example, we use it to express ourselves and describe things too. It has many different forms and can be addressed at many different audiences, for example, written language can be in the form of stories or poems and be addressed to one’s self or someone we know. It consists of three important phases and consequently, the phases of a child’s language arts development depend on it. Lastly, children should write frequently and that their teachers should practice writing as well in order to teach it better to their pupils. All these generalizations have implications for the teacher of the language arts. Since writing is a means of self expression, children should be encouraged to look at their written pieces much like you would look at any other piece of art in another form. To let the child develop mastery over the written language’s several purposes the teacher must focus on creative writing, argumentative and descriptive writing etc. To let the child feel more comfortable with his/her writing the teacher may let different forms of writing be available at their disposal. To help the

Brave New World Essay Example for Free

Brave New World Essay Imagine living in a world with no mom and dad, and that at any of your sides you see many copies of yourself, and the only society you know is the one made up of some sort of hierarchy where you are not allowed to have any feelings or even think. This is the world depicted in the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The book was published in 1932, he was looking to provide people a picture of a future perfectionist society full of science and â€Å"happiness†, but this vision somehow became the world we live in now. In the novel Brave New World, Huxley gives us a view of a society that can only achieve stability through fictional happiness. This is an example of a Utopian society that attempted to create a perfect society. At that time, changes in science were becoming frequent and Huxley noticed these changes. With the invention of the assembly line, the Ford Company allowed people to afford cars. Huxley was able to see where these advances in science were leading. When a person thinks of a utopia he or she thinks of a place where everyone is happy, with no diseases, where anger and sadness do not exist. As the motto of this world says â€Å"Community, Identity, Stability. † These three words hang in a sign over the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, this creates and conditions new human life. These words are the slogan for this society. Community means that all persons must work together to maximize the greatest happiness for society as a whole, and it occurs through the artificially implanted ideas of Identity that each person has. Regardless of the hierarchy they have, each person is supposed to be happy with their own identity. And Stability is the ultimate goal of society because only through stability can happiness be maintained and all unpleasant feelings and emotions be eradicated. We are living in a Brave New World society in the present days. In the novel, people were being cloned and their lives had been already planned even before their birth with the use of psychological technologies to control the future behavior. Conditioning, combined with prenatal treatment, created individuals without individuality: each one was programmed to behave the way the government wanted. The citizen’s mind was being manipulated basically through the use of drugs and propaganda. â€Å"The principle of sleep-teaching or hypnopaedia, had been discovered. † He critiques modern government institutions whose power and ideals has slowly inserted into the minds of ordinary people. They teaching the children with some kind of propaganda while they were sleeping, the will play a message that they wanted all those children to know for the rest of their lives. The book was written years ago, really far from our time, but the scary truth is that we are living in the same standards as the world idea of Huxley. Together with the media, our government manipulates us to do what they want. For example, those TV commercials of cell phones that tells us to buy smart phones because they are better and then year after year they come up with improvements that are not real and we buy them because we think they are going to be better but we are just being stupid consumers giving money to those big companies. The government approves this because by consumerism, we generate the need of more therefore, more production, more jobs and will better the economy. This utopian society, had also its benefits. Their liberalism respecting relationship and sex, was not as bad because they had no compromises. the government taught them not to have serious relationships with other people. There were no family values, they encouraged to freely have sex with any person they wanted because sex would make them happy. We can see this, when Lenina tells Fanny that she’s been sleeping with the same guy during four months and Fanny responds â€Å"It’s such a horribly bad form to go on and on like this with one man†¦ have somebody else from time to time, that’s all. † They do not condone exclusivity in a relationship, because that involved feelings of love and family and could lead to a disturbance on their social stability. We can totally mirror this in our present society. For example, few days ago a law gave underage girls the ability to purchase the morning after pill. This liberalism in sexuality is bad in the long run. This is allowing children to start their sexual life earlier, when thirteen year old kids are already having sex, there would be no exclusivity by the time they get married; there will be no family values within our society everything will be just about sex just as it was on the book. But were not responsible for those actions because this was all they knew. They manipulated them since babies so they’ll grow up to be a part of their caste and to do what that caste was supposed to do and be happy with it, therefore be more productive in society. Even though, this world was depicted as perfect and everyone seemed to be happy with their lame controlled lives, there were people that were really affecter with the ideals. For example, alpha Bernard Marx, he was a quiet guy that like to use soma (their cocaine-like drug) seemed to be in love with Lenina, he wanted something more than sex from her, but she was know pretty much as a slut, because probably half of the men in the conditioning center had slept with her and he is disgusted to hear the men in the elevator talk about Lenina as though she were meat. People in our society would look upon Brave New World; we would see it as a place of immoral behavior and obscenity. This could this possibly be because they were conditioned to all that and cannot realize it. They could just as easily be conditioned into thinking that only their thoughts are correct. Everyones goal in every culture is to reach a state of ultimate happiness. The society of Brave New World is just the same, but they go in different way by manipulation on actions, feelings and reproduction. There’s no need to sacrifice personal desires for the greater good. I think that what will make us really happy is the ability to freely make decisions about our own behavior and life, rather than relying on our society standards and what the government wants us to do. As an individual, I enjoy making my own decisions about what I want to be and about my sentimental relationship. I think anyone would want to strive to reach their full potential when they have the opportunity and freely reach their maximum happiness.

Network Rail has a key objective to Earn and Retain a Mandate

Network Rail has a key objective to Earn and Retain a Mandate Using PESTLE/Porters 5 Forces / Scenario Modelling or any other relevant identify the key strategic Macro challenges the Company faces. Using Financial Analysis / Marketing Mix / Core Competencies / Balanced Scorecard or any other relevant tools, scan Network Rails Internal / Micro Environment to inentify the key Micro challenges the Company faces. Pull your conclusions regarding parts 1 and 2 together in the form of a SWOT analysis. You could also identify what options an ANSOFF matrix for Network Rail would suggest are the most viable. Given your analysis, what do you conclude about the relevance of the Key Objectives above (to earn and retain a mandate etc.) and What should be the strategy of Network Rail in the coming 2-5 years? And what would be the vital few measures which would help to track progress toward achieving your suggested strategy. Introduction I have been employed in the UK Rail industry for over 30 years, and am currently based at Saltley Delivery Unit in Central Birmingham. My role is Infrastructure Maintenance Engineer, which gives me overall responsibility for all of the maintenance carried out by Netwrok Rail on its main infrastructure, which is the tracks and Signalling system connected to them. My geographic area of responsibility runs from London Marylebone, through Banbury and Birmingham Snow Hill and onto Droitwich Spa. I have 300+ staff reporting to me through a team of Engineers (3) and Section Managers (9), working out of two main depots, Saltley And Banbury, with smaller depots at Stourbridge, Whitacre, Leamington, Aylesbury, High Wycombe and London Marylebone. Background Network rail has been in existence since October 2002 when they took over the running of Britains Rail infrastructure from Railtrack. They currently employ over 35,000 people in various aspects of this work, from day to day maintenance to major renewal projects. In Using PESTLE/Porters 5 Forces / Scenario Modelling or any other relevant identify the key strategic Macro challenges the Company faces When you analyse the macro-environment, identification of the factors that might affect a number of vital aspects that will influence the supply and demand and costs of the company is critically important. (Kotter and Schlesinger, 1991; Johnson and Scholes, 1993) Various checklists are in use as ways of cataloguing the vast number of possible issues that might affect different industries. A PESTLE analysis is one of that is merely a framework that categorises environmental influences as political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. PESTLE examines the likely impact of each of these factors on the industry. The results are then used to take investigate and enable opportunities and to be aware of and to make contingency plans for threats when building business strategy (Byars, 1991; Cooper, 2000). In a recent study (1998), Kotler claims that PESTLE is a strategic tool that can be useful to help understand market growth and decline alongside business position, in order to decide on potential and future direction The use of PESTLE analysis reveals that the major external influences upon Network Rail are: POLITICAL : The recent change in Government could still have a far reaching effect upon Britains rail industry, the recent Comprehensive Spending Review has made sure that the industry must change and in a big way. ECONOMIC : The current economic climate of the United Kingdom is such that a lot of passengers will be thinking of alternative ways to travel, low cost coach and bus services will have their appeal increased, albeit the long term prospects for rail travel are good, given the current lobby against road transport by the green parties. In order to remain an attractive alternative, the rail industry must compete economically with road transport. SOCIAL : The major social concept in the UK Governments Sustainable Development Strategy (DEFRA, 2005) is noted as: ensuring a strong, healthy and just society, but this can be split into six main aspects: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Accommodating the diverse needs of the population both now and in the future; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ promoting personal well-being; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ encouraging social cohesion and inclusion; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ maintaining equal opportunities for everyone; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ promoting good governance; and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ engaging the creativity, energy and diversity of the people of Great Britain. The Rail industry has a major part to play in the satisfaction of these social goals. Increasingly the industry will be judged on delivering the services, and even more so on the way they are delivered. The UK Railways run alongside houses belonging to a vast array of the population, and it must be seen to engage correctly with all of its lineside neighbours. The industry must also be seen to be an employer that values its workforce and treats them correspondingly. Safety of the travelling public is a major social factor in the business, both those travelling by train and the road user that use any of the hundred of level crossings on the network each day. The key causes of accidents on the railway infrastructure are trespass and the misuse of level crossings. TECHNOLOGICAL : The incredible speed of technology advances has a big effect on any transport industry. The likes of faster and more reliable broadband connections will increase the amount of work done by teleconferences and reduce travel to meetings. Faster and more efficient trains will effect upon the nature of Network Rails infrastructure, and compel the company to look at new ways to maintain the infrastructure, and new forms of powering the trains. LEGAL : Legally Network Rail is governed by many bodies with an influence, including The Office Of Rail Regulators, The Health Safety Executive, UK Government, Environment Agency. ENVIRONMENTAL : Network Rail has a responsibility to maintain its infrastructure and the huge number of wildlife habitats alongside the railway. The company also has to become as green as possible, ensuring timber that they use is from sustainable sources, and that all depots and offices are committed to reduce their carbon footprint as much as is possible. Porters Five Forces The Porters Five Forces model is a simple tool that can be utilised to help strategic understanding where power lies in a business situation. The tool can also be used to understand both the strength of a companys current competitive position, alongside the strength of a position the company may be looking to move into. The Five forces framework focuses on business concerns rather than public policy but it can also emphasise extended competition for value rather than just competition among existing rivals. The ease of its use has inspired numerous companies as well as business schools to adopt it. (Wheelen and Hunger, 1998). If you have clear understanding of where your power currently lies, you are able to take advantage of a situation of strength or act to improve a situation of weakness. Porters 5 Forces for Network Rail: Supplier Power: For Network rail, it supplier power can be said to be relatively high, there is a very strict approvals process to go through before any item can be introduced into the infrastructure. This process can be time consuming and expensive for new suppliers and so those that already have this approval have a large amount of power to wield. There are also very few suppliers that provide the dedicated technology that is used to provide modern signalling systems which again will provide a great deal of supplier power. Buyer Power: Buyer power with regard to Network Rail would be classed as low. The company is operating in somewhat of a monopoly, giving buyers very little flexibility to shop elsewhere for similar services. Network rail is therefore in a very strong position when it comes to dictating terms. Competitive Rivalry: Other than companies providing engineering expertise with renewal of rail infrastructure, there are few firms who could provide the day to day expertise that Network Rail has in the safe running of the railway network in Great Britain. The number of staff employed by Network Rail (18,000+) would also be a barrier to the threat of substitution by smaller firms, not willing to take on the huge responsibility that employing this number of dedicated staff would present. Threat of Substitution: The threat of substitution may be classed as medium as there may be alternatives to a rail system within GB. Other than Road Transport, there is very little realistic direct competition for the services that Network Rail provide. Road transport does present a certain amount of competitive rivalry to Network Rail, but there would be few that would be able to compete direct with leading the GB Rail network. Obviously this puts Network Rail in a position of great strength. Threat of New Entry: The cost and time elements required for companies to be set up to provide effective competition to Network Rail would be barriers that would prevent this happening. For this reason the threat of New Entry is low. Using Financial Analysis / Marketing Mix / Core Competencies / Balanced Scorecard or any other relevant tools, scan Network Rails Internal / Micro Environment to inentify the key Micro challenges the Company faces. Using FiMO as discussed during the BES module of the Network Rail business leaders programme to scan the Internal or Macro Environment shows the following results: FINANCE : Network Rails strengths are based around its huge asset base and its growing asset value. Network Rail also owns a massive property portfolio that can be used for diversification. The major weaknesses of Network Rail are based around possible Governmet spending cuts, the Recent Comprehensive spending review and Lord McNultys value for money report. MARKET : Strengths Currently the business is well thought of by relevant bodies including the Office Of The Rail Regulator, OFT and HSE (BES 2010) Prime locations for retail developments, Achieving Control Period 4 (CP4) targets to date. Weaknesses Internal financial process that makes it almost impossible to trade with other parts of the same company. OPERATIONS Strengths include an enviable safety record, both for its own workforce and for the travelling public. Delivery of its own promise The Timetable is our Promise. When we Promise a train can run, it will run safely, punctually and reliably. And we Promise that more trains are able to run next year. Network Rail (2010) Weaknesses -. The industry is perceived as difficult to work with, by others within the industry. As part of the BES course a RECoiL exercise for Network Rail as a company was completed, the scores have been reproduced below. Network Rail Resources 8 Experiences 7 Controls and Systems 6 Ideas Innovation 7 Leadership 6 This would seem to highlight issues within two main sectors, those being Controls Systems and Leadership. Controls and Systems There is a school of thought that its processes are far too bureaucratic and that any change can only be effected over a long period of time. This may well have a bearing on the apparent issues with leadership Leadership There seems to be a large number of long serving railwaymen in supervisory and management positions. This has the effect of creating a resistance to change. There seems to be a feeling that the processes and procedures inflicted corporately are so rigid that they prevent innovation because of amount of bureaucracy in place. Pull your conclusions regarding parts 1 and 2 together in the form of a SWOT analysis. You could also identify what options an ANSOFF matrix for Network Rail would suggest are the most viable. According to Barney (1995), a SWOT analysis is a framework that points to the relevance of external and internal forces to give an understanding of the sources of competitive advantage. SWOT analysis will help decide if the main problems facing a company revolve around a need to change its strategy, a need to improve its current strategy and the implementation of it, or both of the above. The tool helps look at the companys current performance (Strengths and Weaknesses) and its future (Opportunities and Threats) by accounting for the factors that exist in the external environment. The framework is a powerful and at times highly successful technique that can be applied to individuals, groups, teams, or organisations (David, 1997).

Emerging Issues In Financial Management And Risk Management Finance Essay

Emerging Issues In Financial Management And Risk Management Finance Essay Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited or HDFC founded 1977 by Ravi Maurya and Hasmukhbhai Parekh, is an Indian NBFC, focusing on home mortgages. HDFCs distribution network spans 243 outlets that include 49 offices of HDFCs distribution company, HDFC Sales Private Limited. In addition, HDFC covers over 90 locations through its outreach programmers. HDFCs marketing efforts continue to be concentrated on developing a stronger distribution network. Helping Indians experience the joy of home ownership. The road to success is a tough and challenging journey in the dark where only obstacles light the path. However, success on a terrain like this is not without a solution. Our objective, from the beginning, has been to enhance residential housing stock and promote home ownership. Now, our offerings range from hassle-free home loans and deposit products, to property related services and a training facility. We also offer specialized financial services to our customer base through partnerships with some of the best financial institutions worldwide. TYPES OF RISK FACED BY THE NBFCs These are the risks that face: 1.Operational Risk:- An operational risk is a risk arising from execution of a companys business functions. As such, it is a very broad concept including e.g. fraud risks, legal risks, physical or environmental risks, etc. The term operational risk is most commonly found in risk management programs of financial institutions that must organize their risk management program according to Basel II. In Basel II, risk management is divided into credit, market, liquidity and operational risk management. The following lists the official Basel II defined event types with some examples for each category: Internal Fraud External Fraud Employment Practices and Workplace Clients, Products, Business Practice Damage to Physical Business Disruption Systems Failures Execution, Delivery, Process Management 2. Market Risk:- The day-to-day potential for an investor to experience losses from fluctuations in securities prices. This risk cannot be diversified away. Also referred to as systematic risk. The beta of a stock is a measure of how much market risk a stock faces. Market risk includes:- Interest rate risk Foreign exchange risk Equity price risk Commodity risk 3. Financial Risk:- The risk that a company  will not have  adequate  cash flow to  meet financial obligations. Financial risk is normally any risk associated with any form of financing. Risk is probability of unfavorable condition; in financial sector it is the probability of actual return being less than expected return. There will be uncertainty in every business; the level of uncertainty present is called risk. Financial risk includes:- CAPITAL RISK:- A common concern with any investment is that the initial amount invested may be lost (also known as the capital). This risk is therefore often referred to as capital risk. CURRENCY RISK:- If the invested assets are being held in another currency, there is a risk that currency movements alone may affect the value. This is referred to as currency risk. LIQUIDITY RISK:- Many forms of investment may not be readily salable on the open market (e.g. commercial property) or the market has a small capacity and may therefore take time to sell. Assets that are easily sold are termed liquid: therefore this type of risk is termed liquidity risk. HDFC selects Nt(Neural Technologies) for Risk Management HDFC, one of Indias premiers, today announced that it is using neural predictive models from Neural Technologies for risk management in its Credit Cards and other Retail Assets portfolios. HDFC selected Neural Technologies following a comprehensive proof of concept study, aimed at finding a supplier who could provide them with a superior analytical and scientific approach to reduce the delinquency rates in their credit card and retail assets portfolio. Following selection, Neural Technologies worked alongside HDFCs personnel to develop models for Credit Card Collections, Credit Card Recovery and Retail Assets (Personal Loans) Collections. The models are proving to be very successful. Rajesh Kumar, Sr Vice President of HDFC said We selected Neural Technologies based upon the performance of their models and the predicted return on investment, and we are extremely satisfied with the results achieved so far.HDFC has plans to expand its relationship with Neural Technologies and explore new areas in their business where they might benefit from Nts expertise. Arinjay Jain, Director of Neural Technologies Indian operation said, Neural predictive analytics is an ideal risk management tool, providing valuable decision-support to businesses looking to manage and reduce credit risk and fraud losses. A pioneer in this field among the Indian, HDFC has enthusiastically embraced the concept and is now starting to reap the benefits. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship between our two companies. MEASURES USED BY HDFC TO CONTROL THE RISK OF NBFCs HDFC India live with SunGards Adaptive Market Risk Indias HDFC has deployed SunGards Adaptive Market Risk technology at its head office in Mumbai to support company treasury operations. SunGard says the system will be used to support HDFCs front-to-back office processing and risk management for: money market, debt securities, foreign exchange and derivatives activities and Basel II compliance. The platform, says SunGard, will also enable the to extend its product coverage by creating new instrument types and integrating new proprietary or third party pricing models. Data model field customization, internal workflow automation via scripting and client-specific analytical ad-hoc reports may also be produced. Sudhir Joshi, treasurer, HDFC comments: adaptive will provide centralized processing out of Mumbai for cross-asset trading, risk management and back-office operations, and will help HDFC to achieve improved processing and operational efficiencies.HDFC becomes SunGards first live adaptive customer in India.

Free Essays - Allegorical Meaning of Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown :: Young Goodman Brown YGB

Allegorical Meaning of Young Goodman Brown In the short story "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorn, the author uses many of his characters to symbolize the deeper meaning of the narrative.   The allegorical meaning of Hawthorns tale is that of belief.   If one believes that he or she is inherently evil than whether or not they do evil is inconsequential since the belief will ultimately lead to misery.   Young Goodman Brown is going on a voyage or trip yet later in the story it becomes unclear as to whether this was reality, just a dream, or a figment of his imagination.   Hawthorn was a romanticist and this narrative provoked both strong feeling and emotions.   Although, I believe it is the reader who starts to have strong feelings about the main character and it is the emotions of Young Goodman Brown that ultimately bring him to his downfall.   It is his anxieties and paranoia that take over and control his emotions.   It is clearly emotions that triumphant Hawthorn's "Young Goodman Brown" The story opens with Young Goodman Brown bidding his wife farewell.   Goodman claims this is a journey that he must attend to.   Interestingly, his wife Faith is portrayed as pure and good.   She is a loving wife concerned about her husband and his mission.   It is her pink ribbons that represent her young innocence.   From the beginning Goodman refers to his journey as having an "evil purpose".   As Young Goodman Brown enters the woods and meets up with companion he explains that "Faith kept me back a while".   So was it literally that Faith his wife caused his delay or more figuratively that it was his faith in goodness that was really holding him back.   Hobbling along in the woods Young Goodman Brown sees his catechism teacher.   This is yet another obstacle that has underlying meaning.   She represents the teachings of Christianity and all that is good in the world.   Yet this did not stop our character from continuing on his evil voyage.   In the latter part of the story, where Young Goodman Brown is at the circle of the devil with all the other sinners he calls out for Faith.   He then states, "My Faith is gone!...There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name.

Criticism of the Western Genre in Jim Jarmusch’s Film Deadman :: Movie Film Essays

Criticism of the Western Genre in Jim Jarmusch’s Film Deadman Jim Jarmusch’s Deadman is a complex interweaving of the rough and tough world of cowboys mixed with blatant criticism of the Western genre as well as the American lifestyle during those times in history. The separate scenes in the movie seem be collected and stringed together allowing the director to bounce between making fun of the whole Western idea to completely embracing the genre. The movie focused on William Blake (an accountant from Cleveland) and his transformation from being an ordinary man to an outlaw. Most Western movies focus on cowboy outlaws, who live by their own rules and follow their own beliefs on justice, while this film focuses on the transformation rather than the man. Jonny Depp’s character stepped into the role of being an outlaw accidentally. The use of violence is prevalent in the film, which fits the Western genre, yet at the same time, the use of guns and violence is always awkward. It’s as though it’s a foreign concept instead of a display of machismo and pride as in most Westerns. The film also has minimal displays of women and their contribution of adding a dynamic of lust and love in the testosterone driven Western genre. This film does not focus on William Blake having any attachments to family or a fiancà ©. A brief explanation is offered for the lack of femininity in the film, yet it leaves the audience wondering why the director did not deem it necessary to include this attachment in the film. Instead the few times that women are shown in the film, they are there to pleasure the males sexually. In the Western genre, women aren’t regarded as vital elements, yet at the same time their contribution is usually to play damsels in distress and show the humane side of the manly hero. In the Western genre women blatantly display the differences between Eastern and Western cultures. The social commentary in the film is overwhelming, sometimes seeming to drive the slow-paced plot. The director gives the film a dark undertone, to show the violent lifestyle of the people in the West.

Japanese Occupation Affect Nationalism in Indonesia

Assess the impact of the Japanese Occupation on nationalism in Indonesia â€Å"Nationalism† is generally defined as the increasing desire in people to determine their identity, existence and destiny for themselves. For the Netherland Indies, nationalism movement can be traced back to around 1900, which finally led and gave rise to a new nation, Indonesia. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that nationalism movement existed prior to the Japanese occupation and therefore should not be consider a turning point that altered the entire landscape of nationalist movement in Indonesia.In addition, the Japanese’s brutality and cruelty could have potentially hindered the progress of nationalism, as they were primary driven by their self-interest in war efforts. This paper will attempt to argue how the Japanese Occupation acts as a catalyst that sped up nationalist movement led by pre-war nationalist leaders in Indonesia, eventually paving the way for its independence. In the initial stage of the occupation, the Japanese was determined to exploit the resources and not make any political concessions to Indonesian nationalism.The first attempt at such mass propaganda without major Indonesian nationalist leaders turned out to be a comprehensive failure. From its launch in March 1942, the Triple A movement that consist of the slogan that Japan as the leader of Asia, the protector of Asia, and the light of Asia, did not gather much support from the local. In general, the Triple A movement did not achieve its objective as few Indonesian Nationalist leaders were involved and the propaganda was too heavy-handed even in those days of early occupation for the locals to take it seriously.Therefore, it was only because the Japanese needed the help of the locals to aid war efforts that led them to give political concessions to nationalist leaders. Having failed to get anywhere by making no concession to nationalism and with increasing new doubts among the Japane se about the outcome of the war, the Putera — Centre of People’s Power (Pusat Tenaga Rakjat) was formed in March 1943. The Japanese selected nationalist leaders who had been imprisoned or ignored by the Dutch.They were resigned to the fact if they were to rally the masses of Java, the Japanese would have to use the leading figures of pre-war nationalist movement such as Sukarno and Hatta. The Japanese implementation of a simplified Malay language, Bahasa Indonesia, to replace the 250 languages and dialects used in the Netherland Indies it became the main lingua franca which significant in fostering a common national identityWhen they first took control of Indonesia, the Japanese decided to ban the use of Dutch language with immediate effect.Throughout the country, the locals started to see themselves as true modern nations rather than a mixture of rival religions, languages, cultures and races. This greatly galvanise nationalist effort, as it was easier to reach out to masses comparer to before under the Dutch rule. Under the Japanese Occupation, political boards were formed and nationalism was encouraged by the new regime as the Japanese mobilized the whole population for the war effort. The Japanese utilized Sukarno, along with the other nationalists, in order to unite the Japanese and Indonesian causes.While the Japanese military authorities were wary of giving Indonesians too much license, they recognize that they could not maintain their position by force alone. Hence, The Japanese give positions of responsibility to nationalist leaders like Sukarno and Hatta who had previously been imprisoned by the Dutch, and afforded the nationalist movement new scope for development (Vickers, 2005). Even though the original intention behind this move was to achieve Japanese war aims, such opportunity was never allowed under the Dutch Colonial rule.Therefore, Sukarno who was enlisted by the Japanese to help them govern the country seized every opportunity to educate the masses and indoctrinate nationalist consciousness into the masses. Sukarno was a crucial figure that contributed to the rise of nationalism in Indonesia. His eloquence at political rallies was instrumental in spreading the message of freedom across a diverse Indonesia, galvanizing them to set aside their differences to united and oppose against their colonial masters.This can be reinforced by the account of Hideo Fujiyama, who decided to desert the Japanese Army and remain in Indonesia to fight along side the nationalist army. He was primary motivated by Sukarno as he recalled the reason that inspired him to make the decision was listening to Sukarno’s speech at a mass rally on September 19th, 1945 in Jakarta. He described Sukarno’s speech to be â€Å"so energetic and impressive† which resulted to him â€Å"being moved† and led him to join Indonesia nationalist movement military.Therefore, the Japanese Occupation gave Sukarno the platform to reach out to the masses as his eloquence and inflammatory speeches managed to convince them to participate in his nationalist movements. The Japanese administration gave nationalist’s opportunities to become involved in government in ways that they had never known before under the Dutch rule. These opportunities include the access to experience and connections, which were later proved to be highly effective.In particular, nationalist usually came to control many propaganda activities mounted by Japan, including publication and circulation of newspapers such as Sumatra Sinbu (Sumatra News), radio broadcasts, mass instructions, films and meetings. Under the networking and communication capacities offered by such propaganda bodies as BOMPA (Bodan Oentoek Membantu Pertahanan Asia- Bureau to Assist in the Defence of Asia) in East Sumatra, nationalists were able to develop and spread popular understanding of the idea of Indonesia through the layers of indigenous society.For the first time in decades, the masses, and not just alienated urban activists and intellectuals became continually engaged in political activity and thus, accelerated the fervor of nationalism throughout the country. The Japanese Military also help set up the formation of volunteer army, PETA (Pembela Tanah Air- Defenders of the Homeland) and provided the large number of officers and soldiers with military trainings and weapons. Few Indonesians had been given officer training by the Dutch, and they were always under the Dutch commanders.This military training was instrumental to nationalist movement as it allowed them to be better equipped in the battle with the colonial masters between 1946-1949 when the latter tried to return and reassert their authority. It was not only the military training in PETA, but also the specific ideological training in the institute which emphasis on discipline and loyalty to country that awakened the national consciousness of the young men who enlisted int o the volunteer army.Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that the Japanese who set up PETA had their own interest in mind as they were planning to use PETA for costal defence against allied troops. They knew the limitations of PETA, and understood that they were not able to withstand a full-scale allied onslaught. Therefore, PETA was used to delay the enemy’s advance by deploying along the coastline and obstructing an allied landing or harassing the rear wherever the allied troops might come, thus allowing time for the Japanese army to retreat.For that reason, PETA soldiers were distributed throughout the island and were requested to remain in respective region, where they had intimate knowledge of the terrain. At the end of the war in 1959, the Indonesian government had as many as 500,000-armed fighters at its disposal. Therefore, PETA greatly strengthened nationalism efforts and represented potentially the most effective legacy of the Japanese period in both ideolog ical and structural terms. This paved the way for the formation of the nationalist army after the Japanese Occupation to fight against the returning Dutch colonial master.However it is also important to acknowledge that the Japanese Occupation had detrimental effect on nationalism in Indonesia even though they allow political concession for nationalist leaders to reach out to the masses. As the Japanese were primary driven by self-interest, they were not willing to compromise war efforts in order to accommodate nationalist movements. This can be seen in their brutality towards locals, the deliberate fragmentation of Indonesia into three divisions and the Romushua program of forced labour.By splitting Indonesia into three jurisdictions to be controlled by different divisions of Japanese military forces, nationalism in Indonesia was greatly disjointed. The three divisions consist of Java who was controlled by the 16th Army, Sumatra under the 25th Army and the rest under the 2nd Southe rn fleet. These became various political units with tight Japanese control together with separate administration. The notion was to ensure that any nationalist aspiration from Java to the outer islands was strongly discouraged.As a result, political activities tumbled to an all time low as from March 1942, all political activities were disallowed and all existing associations were thus dissolved. This resulted to breaking the unifying development of Batavia as Indonesia’s centre, which the Netherlands had emplaced over the years and thus compromising the idea of Indonesia as a single nation. The Romusha program was a mandatory forced labour implemented by the Japanese to aid them in their war efforts. This initiative destroyed stability and order within Indonesia and greatly hampered nationalist movements.The Romusha normally consists of peasants from the poorer region of Central Java. They were forced by various means to contract themselves to work on military construction p rojects. Many of them were sent away from their homes such as Sumatra, and even away from their countries to Brunei, Siam and eastern islands. The Japanese often treated them with extreme brutality and cruelty. Even after the war, only a small handful out of the estimated 500,000 who were mobilized to work outside their hometown managed to return back home.Amongst these people were ordinary Javanese like Sarmann Praptowidjojo, who were forced to slave on the Burma railway. Originally from Surakarta, he had been a railway worker in Surabaya before being sent to Singapore and then on to Thailand to work on the railway, where he witnessed the destruction of the bridge on River Kwai. He and his fellow Javanese worker saw those around them dying initially at the rate of three a day, den five, then ten. Even though Savramn survived, he joining the thousands who did not return to Java after the war, preferring to marry and live in Bangkok.The Romusha program hinder the progress of national ism movement as almost every echelon of the Indonesia social class was forced to comply by the Japanese to assume responsibility for the program such as organizing recruitment at village level, by propagandizing at higher levels, or simply by doing nothing to obstruct the program. Village chef and district officers in charge of running the program compounded its effect by designating the Romusha service in rural society they dislike or fear. Despite the political concessions given to nationalist leaders, the Japanese treated the locals with great brutality.Apart from the Romusha program, there was a botched biological warfare experiment in 1944 carried out by the Japanese. Between 5000 to 10,000 men from a group of Romushua forced labourers held on the outskirts of Jakarta, awaiting shipment outside Java, died writhing in agony from injection of tetanus. Japanese scientist had prepared the lethal vaccines to see what their effects would be. This further reinforces the idea of Japane se brutality and cruelty towards the local. Therefore, we see how Romusha’s domino effect on the masses greatly hampered nationalist movement in Indonesia.Even though the Japanese provided military training and platforms for nationalist leaders to reach out to the masses, it is too sweeping to label the occupation ‘a turning point’ in the history of nationalism in Indonesia. This is the fact that nationalism movement such as the Indonesian Nation Party (PNI) existed way before World War II, and Japanese occupation merely provided nationalist leader a platform to reach out to the masses and this in turn strengthened the nationalist movements. Nationalist sentiments were already common in the 1930s despite the Dutch colonial master clamping down hard on nationalist leaders.A key moment which highlights the growth of nationalist consciousness came in 1928, when the the All Indonesian Youth Congress proclaimed its pledge, establishing goals of one national identity ( Indoneisan), one country (Indonesia) and one language (Bahasa Indonesia). The emergence of Indonesian Nation Party (PNI), led by the young and rising Sukarno was rapidly becoming one of the most powerful nationalist organization (Vaisutis, 2007). PNI brought all non-communist nationalist groups under its umbrella to unify them as one.Nonetheless, there were limitations on nationalist movement prior to the Japanese Occupation. First, the emphasis on unity for the sake of the struggle meant that almost no attention was devoted to discipline, creative and accommodative thinking about the form and content of the free Indonesian state which nationalist leaders wished to create. Second, the over-emphasis on unity, together with the fiercely competitive and highly personalized world of elite Indonesian politics, effectively meant that no serious efforts were made to build bridges and create political compromises.Thirdly, political leaders of the 1930s used strikes and revolutionary languag e to challenge Dutch rule but they did not have strong enough organizational vehicle to spread their actions. Once there was a problem in their individual nationalist group, there was no longer a sense that one was able to move in and out of various groups and body. People had to give their exclusive loyalties as members of parties. The consequence of this was a splintering of the nationalist effort.Nonetheless, the Dutch recognizes the potential influence and threat to their authority and subsequently jailed Sukarno in 1930. Therefore, we see how nationalism existed way before Japanese occupation, and nationalist leaders eventually seized the opportunity under the Japanese Occupation to spread nationalism throughout the country. In conclusion, this paper argues that Japanese Occupation acts as a catalyst that sped up nationalist movement led by pre-war nationalist leaders such as Sukarno that eventually paving the way for its independence.Prior to the Japanese Occupation, there was subsequent number of problems that hindered nationalist efforts as political parties were full of conflicts and disunited. In addition, the Dutch clamped down hard on radical leaders and would imprisoned or exile them from Indonesia. Therefore, it was due to the Japanese occupation that provided a platform for nationalist leaders to reach out to the masses. In addition, the Japanese provided political concessions and military training which were instrumental in later years with the Dutch.However, it is too myopic to label the Japanese Occupation as a turning point in the history of Indonesia’s nationalism. This is due to the fact that nationalism was already active with the formation of the PNI and other nationalist groups. Also, the Japanese Occupation had the potential to greatly hamper nationalist efforts with own self-interest if not for Sukarno skilful manipulation and eloquence that steer the masses towards his nationalist cause. Thus, this paper will reinforce the sta nd that Japanese Occupation act as a catalyst toward nationalism in Indonesia.