Ensuring quality websites Essay

Internet is an ever expanding medium. The number of users of the World Wide Web colloquially called as the internet has grown to over 1. 02 billion and includes 15 percent population of the World. (World Internet Usage, 2006). This is slated to expand even more rapidly hereafter as it is proving to be an ideal medium for all types of social, business, government and informational transactions. Cyber Rater is a web site rating service which will assess web sites based on their quality, reliability and the timeliness with which they provide information to the user. The number of web sites is increasing exponentially. A survey by Netcraft for June 2006 reported an increase of 3. 96 million sites in one month between May to June. (Webserver Survey, 2006). However the plethora of sites on virtually all subjects has created a problem for the user, as he is unable to assess the efficacy and accuracy of the information provided on the site. Cyber rater will attempt to this void, by rating sites and providing these with a verification certificate based on authenticity, quality and speed in providing the information to the user. Cyber Rater will be a web based organization, thereby the initial infra structure cost will be restricted to computers and other information technology assets to facilitate speedy access of the net, register the sites, assess these and provide certification. The business is proposed to be started by December 2006 and a healthy return is expected with break even point reached by December 2007. Mission Statement Our Mission. To facilitate web users in instantly assessing the quality of a web site. Grading web sites on each subject based on quality will be a key facet of the mission. To create excellence on the web by generating a hierarchy of gradation for web sites will be inclusive in the overall mission. To improve the overall content on the web will be the underlying theme of the mission. Needs Proliferation of web sites as well as the large number of users of the web has created a new market for certification of the best sites based on quality and accuracy of content, timeliness in publication and credibility. This will provide a service to both the user as well as the web site provider. While the user will be able to gravitate to the best web site on a subject, the provider will attempt to improve his content based on authenticity of information, the assessed market needs of the users and the latest web and communication technologies available. This will greatly facilitate all users such as researchers and students who will get a certified source, the e purchaser, and an authenticated, best bargain without cheating and the business person timely information of opportunities available for commerce to beat the competition. A certified web site rating system will greatly improve the overall quality of the web as it will assist in establishing uniform standards, motivate investments in using state of the art technologies by web sites, adoption of best practices and sustained support will be available through government policies. Objectives The objectives of Cyber Rater will flow from its mission which is to facilitate web users in assessing the quality of a web site thereby enabling them to home on to the best in each category. The objectives will be broken down into three criteria as given below:- Objectives Related to Users Objective 1. To provide the user information of the quality of the web site he is accessing to do commerce, interact socially or merely to gain information on a subject. Objective 2. To provide knowledge workers assurance of the information that is being accessed by them on the web. This will overcome the present lack of credibility of most web sources for research. Objective 3. To provide the user with authentic and original information, free of copy right, trade mark or patent infringement. This will avoid the embarrassment as well possible legal action at a later stage. Objectives Related To Web Sites Objective 1. To provide a forum for quality web sites to propagate their value on the web. This will also enable them an opportunity to increase their popularity and revenues. Objective 2. To generate impetus for improving the overall quality of web sites and web content by creating a hierarchy of excellence. Objective 3. To disfranchise those web site providers who are not able to provide quality and authenticity to continue on the web. This will come about by their non certification, non access over a period by the user and thus a virtual demise due to infrequent access. Objectives Related to Business Objective 1. To follow the highest standards of ethics and values. This is essential to every rating agency and will enable maintenance of credibility and thus attract maximum business in the long term. Objective 2. To attract the best talent in the profession. This alone will ensure that the assessments made would maintain an even standard and are free from biases of lack of knowledge as well as judgment. Objective 3. To employ the best technologies available in the field and continue to constantly upgrade them. Objective 3. To ensure the financial viability of the business and break even within one year. References 1. Webserver Survey. 2006. June 2006 Webserver Survey. http://news. netcraft. com/archives/2006/06/04/june_2006_web_server_survey. html (24 June 2006). 2. World Internet Usage. 2006. Internet Usage Statistics: The Big Picture. http://www. internetworldstats. com/stats. htm. (24 June 2006).

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg  (15 June 1843  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 4 September 1907) was a  Norwegian  composer  and  pianist. He is best known for his  Piano Concerto in A minor, for  his incidental music  to  Henrik Ibsen's  play  Peer Gynt  (which includes  Morning Mood  and  In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of  pianominiatures  Lyric Pieces. [1] ————————————————- Biography Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in  Bergen,  Norway  on June 15, 1843. His parents were Hiemlik Grieg (1806–1875), a merchant and the American vice consul in Bergen, and Gesine Carrie Hagerupel (1814–1875), a music teacher and daughter of  Edvard Hagerup. The family name, originally spelled  Greig, hasScottish  origins. After the  Battle of Culloden  in 1746, however, Grieg's great-grandfather traveled widely, settling in Norway about 1770, and establishing business interests in Bergen. Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical home. His mother was his first  piano  teacher and taught him to play at the age of 6. Grieg studied in several schools, including Tank's School,. [2]  He often brought in samples of his music to class. In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian  violinist  Ole Bull, who was a family friend; Bull's brother was married to Grieg's aunt. Bull recognized the 15-year-old boy's talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the  Leipzig Conservatory, then directed by  Ignaz Moscheles. Grieg enrolled in the  conservatory, concentrating on the piano, and enjoyed the many concerts and recitals given in  Leipzig. He disliked the discipline of the conservatory course of study, but he achieved very good grades in most areas. An exception was the  organ, which was mandatory for piano students. In the spring of 1860, he survived a life-threatening  lung disease. The following year he made his debut as a concert pianist, in  Karlshamn,  Sweden. In 1862, he finished his studies in Leipzig and held his first concert in his home town, where his programme included  Beethoven's  Pathetique  sonata. (Grieg's own recording of his  Piano Sonata, made late in his life, confirms that he was an excellent pianist). In 1863, Grieg went to  Copenhagen,  Denmark, and stayed there for three years. He met the Danish composers  J. P. E. Hartmann  and  Niels Gade. He also met his fellow Norwegian composer  Rikard Nordraak  (composer of the  Norwegian national anthem), who became a good friend and source of great inspiration. Nordraak died in 1866, and Grieg composed a  funeral march  in his honor. On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin,  Nina Hagerup. The next year, their only child, Alexandra, was born. She died in 1869 from  meningitis. In the summer of 1868, Grieg wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor while on holiday in Denmark. Edmund Neupert  gave the concerto its premiere performance on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen. Grieg himself was unable to be there due to conducting commitments in Christiania (as  Oslo  was then named). [3] In 1868,  Franz Liszt, who had not yet met Grieg, wrote a testimonial for him to the Norwegian Ministry of Education, which led to Grieg obtaining a travel grant. The two men met in  Rome  in 1870. On Grieg's first visit, they went over Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 1, which pleased Liszt greatly. On his second visit, in April, Grieg brought with him the manuscript of his Piano Concerto, which Liszt proceeded to sightread (including the orchestral arrangement). Liszt's rendition greatly impressed his audience, although Grieg gently pointed out to him that he played the first movement too quickly. Liszt also gave Grieg some advice on  orchestration, (for example, to give the melody of the second theme in the first movement to a solo trumpet). In 1874–76, Grieg composed  incidental music  for the premiere of  Henrik Ibsen's play  Peer Gynt, at the request of the author. Many of the pieces from this work became very popular in the orchestral suites or piano and piano-duet arrangements. Grieg had close ties with the (Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra) (Harmonien), and later became Music Director of the orchestra from 1880–1882. In 1888, Grieg met  Tchaikovsky  in  Leipzig. Grieg was struck by the sadness in Tchaikovsky. [4]  Tchaikovsky thought very highly of Grieg's music, praising its beauty, originality and warmth. [5] ————————————————- Latter years Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen Grieg's later life brought him fame. The Norwegian government awarded him a pension. In the spring 1903, Grieg made nine 78-rpm  gramophone recordings  of his piano music in Paris; all of these historic discs have been reissued on both LPs and CDs and, despite limited fidelity, show his artistry as a pianist. Grieg also made live-recording  player piano  music rolls for the  Welte-Mignon  reproducing system, all of which survive today and can be heard. In 1906, he met the composer and pianist  Percy Grainger  in London. Grainger was a great admirer of Grieg's music and a strong empathy was quickly established. In a 1907 interview, Grieg stated: â€Å"I have written Norwegian Peasant Dances that no one in my country can play, and here comes this Australian who plays them as they ought to be played! He is a genius that we Scandinavians cannot do other than love. †[6] Edvard Grieg died in the autumn of 1907, aged 64, after a long period of illness. His final words were â€Å"Well, if it must be so. † The funeral drew between 30,000 and 40,000 people out on the streets of his home town to honor him. Following his wish, his own  Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak  was played in an orchestration by his friend  Johan Halvorsen, who had married Grieg's niece. In addition, the  Funeral March  movement from  Chopin's  Piano Sonata No. 2  was played. His and his wife's ashes are entombed in a mountain crypt near his house,  Troldhaugen. ————————————————- Music Grieg is renowned as a  nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from  Norwegian folk music. Early works include a  symphony  (which he later suppressed) and apiano sonata. He also wrote three  sonatas for violin and piano  and a  cello sonata. His many short pieces for piano — often based on Norwegian folk tunes and dances — led some to call him the â€Å"Chopin  of the North†. 7] The  Piano Concerto  is his most popular work. Its champions have included the pianist and composer  Percy Grainger, a personal friend of Grieg who played the concerto frequently during his long career. An arrangement of part of the work made an iconic television comedy appearance in the 1971  Morecambe and Wise Show, conducted by  Andre Previn. Some of the  Lyric Pieces  (for piano) are also well-known, as is the  incidental music  to  Henrik Ibsen's  play  Peer Gynt, a play that Grieg found to be an arduous work to score properly. In a 1874 letter to his friend Frants Beyer, Grieg expressed his unhappiness with what is now considered one of his most popular compositions from  Peer Gynt,  In the Hall of the Mountain King: â€Å"I have also written something for the scene in the hall of the mountain King – something that I literally can't bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism, and trollish self-satisfaction! But I have a hunch that the irony will be discernible. â€Å"[8] Grieg's popular  Holberg Suite  was originally written for the piano, and later arranged by the composer for  string  orchestra. Grieg wrote songs, in which he set lyrics by poets  Heinrich Heine,  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,  Henrik Ibsen,  Hans Christian Andersen,Rudyard Kipling  and others. Russian composer  Nikolai Myaskovsky  used a theme by Grieg for the variations with which he closed his Third String Quartet. ————————————————- List of selected works Main article:  List of compositions by Edvard Grieg * Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7 * Violin Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 8 * Concert  Overture  In Autumn, Op. 11 * Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major, Op. 13 * Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 6 * Incidental music  to  Bjornstjerne Bjornson's play  Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 22 * Incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play  Peer Gynt, Op. 23 * Ballade in the Form of Variations  on a Norwegian Folk Song  in G minor, Op. 24 * String Quartet  in G minor, Op. 27 * Album for Male Cho rus, Op. 30 * Two Elegiac Melodies for Strings, Op. 34 * Four  Norwegian Dances  for piano four hands, Op. 35 (later orchestrated) * Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36 * Holberg Suite  for piano, later arr. for string orchestra, Op. 40 * Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45 * Peer Gynt  Suite  No. 1, Op. 6 * Lyric Suite for Orchestra, Op. 54 (orchestration of four  Lyric Pieces) * Peer Gynt  Suite  No. 2, Op. 55 * Suite from  Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 56 * Four  Symphonic Dances  for piano, later arr. for orchestra, Op. 64 * Haugtussa  Song Cycle after  Arne Garborg, Op. 67 * Slatter  (Peasant Dances) for piano, Op. 72 * Sixty-six  Lyric Pieces  for piano in ten books, Opp. 12, 38, 43, 47, 54, 57, 62, 65, 68 and 71, including:  Arietta,  To the Spring,  Little Bird,  Butterfly,  Notturno,  Wedding Day at Troldhaugen,  At Your Feet,  Longing For Home,  March of the Dwarfs,  Poeme erotique  and  Gone.

Managing Company Ethics and Social Responsibility Essay

L’Oreal is the world’s top cosmetic products manufacturer. In 1907, it was founded by Eugà ¨ne Schueller, a young chemist who developed a hair dye formula which was safe for people. He named the products as â€Å"Aurelià ³ne† and offered to the hair salons in Paris. Within 2 years, he registered his own company as â€Å"La Societe Franeaise des Teintures inoffensives pour Cheveux†, which soon became L’Oreal. In 1920, the company employed 3 chemists in the laboratory. At the end of the year, there were 40000 hair salons in France and L’Oreal new products which are O’Cap, Imà ©dia Liquide, and Coloral gained the most market share. In 1928, L’Oreal developed its diversification strategy by purchasing the soap company Monsavon. L’Oreal started its business with hair dye products. In 1954, L’Oreal expanded its market into skin care field by entering into technological agreements with company Vichy. In 1960s, there was a rapid growing interest in simulating youthful looks. Therefore the company opened new cosmetological and bacteriological facilities to gain a significant entry into skin care, makeup and perfume markets. Companies such as Garnier and Andrà © Courrà ¨ges were added into the group. In 1993, L’Oreal was facing some ethics problems. The animal right activists were about to protest about the use of animal testing that was doing by L’Oreal. As a top manufacturer of cosmetic products, L’Oreal intended to maintain its good reputation and image by ending the activity of animal testing. In 2006, L’Oreal purchased the Body Shop and the consumers were making calls to boycott The Body Shop since the rumour of using animal testing of L’Oreal were stated. In 2011, L’Oreal will have the largest factory in Indonesia by investing US$50 million. Nowadays, the company markets over 500 brands and has more than 2,000 products in every category in the beauty business. From hair colour products, the company expanded its product lines to permanents, styling aids, cleaners, perfumes and body cosmetics. Those products were distributed through different distribution channels, from hair salons and perfumeries to hypermarkets, supermarkets, and health and beauty outlets. They also distributed their products through direct mails and promoted the products hardly via advertising. Communication with the consumers played an important role in L’Oreal’s history. L’Oreal won the Oscar in advertising award in 1953. To promote its products, L’Oreal commissioned the promotional posters from graphic artists such as Colin and Loupot. The founder also launched his own women’s magazine, Votre Beautà © in 1933. L’Oreal’s five ethical values are integrity, respect, excellent, courage, transparent and currency. Those ethical values play important role in shaping L’Oreal’s culture and built its reputation and give them a shared vision. L’Oreal sees the importance of ethics and presents the five ethical values in all aspect of their activities, such as their strong Sustainable Development and Diversity policies, Purchasing Department’s responsible sourcing policy and their high standard of product quality and safety. According to L’Oreal’s official website (www.loreal.com), ethics is everyone’s job that two ethical competencies that have been integrated into their annual appraisal process, which are â€Å"Leads with human sensitivity† and â€Å"Achieve results with integrity†. In order to implement The L’Oreal Spirit in employees’ day-to day activities, L’Oreal has conducted The Code of Business Ethics in 2000. To highlight the importance of this document, L’Oreal’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer signed the foreword and the Executive Committee signed the introduction. Each employee also receives a copy of this document to apply in their day-to day activities. CONTENTS Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the fact that board of directors of a company, as the trustees of various interest parties that actively participate in altruist activities in order to perform their due corporate roles in the society according to Liu Jun Hai, (1999); for those profit-oriented companies, when their decision making bodies become certain that some undertakings are mostly desired by the majority of the society should give up their intent of making profits from the undertakings and try to meet the expectations of the majority according to Liu Lian Yu (1999) ; the fact that companies shall not take optimal-profit-making for directors as the sole aim of corporate existence. Instead, all social benefits rather than maximally improving shareholders’ interests should be considered as the sole objective of corporate existence according to Liu Jun Hai, (1999) ; the social obligation that a company has to be liable to in the maintenance and improvem ent of social benefits in addition to the pursuit of maximizing shareholders profits was according to Lu Dai Fu (2002) ; even though the description of CSR varies, the core of it is similar, i.e. a company should undertake certain social responsibilities and liabilities at the same time of making profits for the company. CSR is an integration of legal and moral obligations of a company. Legal obligation, a statutory liability taking state coercive forces as its performance guarantee, means legal security of minimum requirement of morality necessary to maintain basic social order. Moral obligation is a responsibility non-legalized and voluntarily performed by the obligors and which takes any other means than the state coercive forces as its performing guarantee. It is a higher demand of morality on people above their legal obligations. CSR, as an obligation that a company is liable to the society, is not simply a legal obligation or a moral obligation. Rather, it is the integration of the two. CSR is also an amendment and complement to the conventional principle of maximized profits for shareholders. The conventional companies and company laws take individual principals (shareholders) as the starting point for consideration, believing that the highest or the sole objective of a company is to achieve profits in order to maximize the profits for shareholders whereas CSR takes social principals as its starting point, believing that the objective of a company should be of two dimensions. In addition to realizing the maximum profits for shareholders, companies should also strive to maintain and upgrade social benefits. Any single one of the objectives will have to be put under restriction by the other of the two corporate objectives to achieve maximum corporate profits and social benefits. Therefore, the objectives of making profits and of bringing social benefits are often found in strong tension. Their respective objectives of maximization are realized under conditions of rec iprocal interactions and a balance in corporate objectives has also been maintained. Obviously, CSR is an amendment and complement to the conventional principle of maximized profits for shareholders. And this amendment and complement does not reject the principle of maximizing profits for shareholders according to Lu Dai Fu (2002). L’Oreal aspires to beauty to everyone. Helping men and women around the world realise that aspiration and express their individual personalities and gain self-confidence to the full is their main mission. There are some of missions from L’Oreal are its unique Research arm enables it to continually explore new territories and invent the products of the future and also provide access to products that enhance well-being, mobilising its innovative strength to preserve the beauty of the planet and supporting local communities which means beauty is commitment which are exacting challenges which are a source of inspiration and creativity for L’Oreal. This commitment has been reflected in innovation that caters for the world’s diversity and adheres to eco-friendly design principles without compromising consumer safety. Mission is an essential purpose that differentiates one company from others that gives so much meanings and values to their business and to the wor king lives of the employees and they are proud of their works. L’Oreal’s strategy for leadership which is the process of leading a group and influencing that group to achieve its goals (Robbins, DeCenzo, and Coulter, 8th edition) that is based on continuous investment in rigorous scientific research and development as a business. This enables their brands to deliver products which are innovative which is the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into useful product, service, or method of operation (Robbins, DeCenzo, and Coulter, 8th edition), highly effective which means doing right things, or completing activities so that organisational goals are attained (Robbins, DeCenzo, and Coulter, 8th edition), practical and pleasant to use, and which are manufactured to the most demanding standards of quality and safety. They also constantly challenge themselves and their methods by aiming excellence. L’Oreal’s research work is taking its investments onto new scientific and technological ground. In the field of biol ogy for example, the genomics explosion, progress in stem cell research and intensive use of multiple reconstructed skin models are giving us a clearer understanding of the diversity of the aging mechanisms at play in different ethnic skin and hair types, while enabling us to identify new cellular and molecular targets and to predict effects more quickly and accurately. They place great value on honesty and clarity: their consumer advertising is based on proven performance and scientific data. They are committed to building strong and lasting relationships with their customers and suppliers, founded on trust which is belief in the integrity, character, and ability of a leader and mutual benefit. Followers who trust a leader are willing to be vulnerable to the leader’s actions as they are confident that their rights and interests will not be abused. (Robbins, DeCenzo, and Coulter, 8th edition) They do business with integrity: they respect the laws of the countries in which they operate and adhere to good corporate governance practices. They maintain high standards in accounting and reporting, and support the fight against corruption. They deliver long-term, sustained shareholder value by protecting and making the most effective use of company assets. L’Oreal aim to make a great place in which to work as an employer. They know that their employees are their greatest assets. They are entitled to a safe and healthy working environment: one in which personal talent and merit are recognised, diversity is valued, privacy is respected, and the balance between professional and personal life is taken into account. They believe in offering their employees a stimulating environment, exciting personal opportunities and a chance to make a difference. They encourage an atmosphere of openness, courage, generosity and respect, so that all their employees feel free to come forward with their questions, ideas and concerns. As a responsible corporate citizen, they play their part in creating a world of beauty and fairness. They are mindful of their impact on the natural environment, including biodiversity, and constantly seek to reduce it: they are determined to avoid compromising tomorrow for the sake of today. They make a positive contribution to the countries and communities in which they are present and respect local cultures and sensitivities. They are committed to the respect of human rights. They want to help end the exploitation of children in the workplace and the use of forced labour. They also want an end to animal testing in their industry, and they contribute to the development and acceptance of alternative methods. They actively seek out and favour business partners who share their values and their ethical commitments. This is the spirit in which L’Oreal operates: the L’ORÉAL SPIRIT. L’Oreal brands are divided into consumer brands, professional brands, and luxury brands. Consumer brands are L’Oreal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, Softsheen.Carson, CCB Paris, Vichy, La Roche Posay, Innà ©ov, Skinceuticals, Sanoflore, Roger & Gallet. Professional brands are L’Oreal Professional, Kà ©rastase, Redken, Matrix, Mizani, Pureology, and Shu Uemura Art of Hair. Luxury brands are Lancà ´me, Biotherm, Helena, Rubinstein, Kiehl’s, Shu Uemura, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Cacharel, Viktor & Rolf, Diesel, YSL Beautà ©, and Maison Martin Margiela. While retailer is The Body Shop. In 2009, L’Oreal published a report on its sustainable practices, which repeated the claim that it does not test finished products on animals. The problem is that as one of the world’s biggest cosmetics firms, much of its work is in the development of new ingredients for its products, and it is here that Naturewatch’s problems arise. EU legislation actually demands that all new cosmetic ingredients be tested on animals, although from 2009 onwards it has been working with cosmetics firms to eradicate the use of animal testing by 2013. ‘L’Oreal has not used animals to test its finished products since 1989, except in the case where national legislation requires it,’ the cosmetics giant said in its sustainability report. ‘This is the case in certain countries where L’Oreal operates and in those locations regulations require testing using animals before substances can be registered for commercial use. As L’Oreal operates on an international scale, it is obliged to comply with the current national legislation for products that are manufactured locally and sold locally.’ L’Oreal argues that it is a world leader in researching alternatives to animal testing, including the development of artificial tissue on which it has spent â‚ ¬600m to date. It is also a founder member of the European Partnership for Alternatives to Animal Testing and closely involved in the international Tox Cast initiative which is run by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Rather than a cruel advocate of animal testing, it is in fact fully engaged In attempting to make the practice obsolete. The owner of one ethical skincare firm told the Ecologist that companies like L’Oreal do face a tough set of choices; either innovate in order to maintain their market share, or use existing ingredients and allow less ethical competitors to launch new products, or continue developing within the limits of regional legislation. Smaller producers can simply find green or ethical ways to produce established ingredients. Few ethical firms could afford to pay for the necessary research on artificial tissues that L’Oreal has done, he adds – at current exchange rates, â‚ ¬600m is not far off the  £652m it paid for The Body Shop in 2007. If you do decide that L’Oreal and Nestlà © are acting in an unethical manner then the next big question is: should brands like The Body Shop or Pureology be punished for the sins of the parent company? The founders of both firms have strong ethical principles, and sold their companies so that their message could reach a wider market, making it a tough choice in both cases. Buying their products may line the pockets of their L’Oreal and Nestlà © paymasters, but by buying from The Body Shop, which does not test any of its products on animals, or vegan Pureology, you could also be sending a message to the guys at the top: more of the good ethical products, less of the morally questionable. Given that many big corporations are now spending more and more on big, ethical brands – Coca Cola, for example, now owns the UK’s Innocent, while another US giant, Kraft, has Green and Blacks chocolate – this is a problem which is unlikely to go away for the ethic al consumer any time soon.

Negotiation Post 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Negotiation Post 2 - Essay Example Recently my parents had an argument over whether or not to buy a new car. My dad wanted to buy a new car since he had worked for such a long time making good money but had never driven his dream car- a Mercedes. My mum on the other hand thought that the money could be used to buy a new house instead of buying something as frivolous as a car. I asked my mum why she felt a new car was frivolous and why my dad wanted to buy one. She said that the money should be spent on something that can last and also be appreciated by everyone in the family instead of one person only. But she did not know why my dad felt so strongly that he should buy himself a new car. I then remebered Diamond discussing the idea that at times it pays off to concede in order to benefit in the future. I explained this to my mum as meaning- you would rather loose the battle than the war. Allowing my dad to buy the car would be loosing the battle but not the war. I asked her to go ask him and to listen intently and als o share her opinions. They had the dicussion and after that she understood where he was coming from. He felt that a man of his stature in society should be able to drive a good car after all his years of hard work. A skilled negotiator is one who can keep their eye on the â€Å"ultimate prize† and can thus afford to make certain compromises along the way but all in the aim of achieving the â€Å"ultimate prize†. Human nature dictates that once one person makes a sacrifice for another the other person then naturally feels obligated to reciprocate. I therefore asked my mum what her â€Å"ultimate prize† is and she said it was buying a new house because such investments were safe and they could be enjoyed by the family as a whole. I then told her not to lose sight of that objective because she would achieve it sooner rather than later. Fast foward seven years later, my parents who work together were rewarded handsomely for their efforts by a certain company and whe n I asked what they would do with the money, my mum simply said she had not decided yet. My dad looked at her sharply and asked if he did not have a say into how the money would be used and my mum simply said since she sacrificed last time then he had to sacrifice this time. Negotiation Post 2 Negotiation is often perceived to be a shouting match and about he who budges the least is deemed the winner. This is a misconception. On several occassions you find companies negotiating with their employees on their salaries and the company refuses to budge simply because it will be percieved as weak but the difference in increasing the employee’s salary would not have any effect on the company’s financial status. Stuart Diamond in his book Getting More states that negotiations are more about emotions than logic. It is therefore of paramount importance that the parties be on good terms. I recently worked in a law firm and a husband wanted to divorce his wife because they could not sort their differences out. From his demanour and speech you could immediately feel the anger and hatred between the two. I had to sit down with her lawyer as well and determine how the property would be shared out. Our client the husband was very wealthy before the marriage but he only truly cared about a certain piece of property that he had inherited from his father. He was willing to lose everything else but not that one. Acquiring this property was

Criminal Investigative Report Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Criminal Investigative Report - Research Paper Example It appeared that the murder was taken place due to some monetary issues. Detailed investigation that supplemented by the required reports would be helpful to arrive at a conclusion as crime scene investigation is a tedious job with much documentation of the scene and collection of evidences (Layton, 2011). Indicators of potential criminal act(s) On further investigation from the neighborhood, it was revealed that the man who was living lonely in a small apartment, developed strained relationship with his business partners named Tom, Dick and Alfred over money matters. On his refusal to pay off the money due on him, his business partners threatened him of dire consequences. James did not pay heed to their threatening calls and took soft attitude towards payment of the money, which he borrowed from them in his personal capacity to meet some domestic urgency. It is not necessary that the murder was committed by the same business partners. It might be done by some hired killer on payment from business partners or it may be the attempts of dacoits or a dacoit to deprive James from his valuables. We have to look into it with different angles to sort out the motives of the crime and the criminals behind it. Potential evidence I have collected the material evidences from the crime scene, which could be helpful to trace out the criminals involved in the murder case under reference. The collected evidences are a) Corpse b) Mobile Phone c) Short gun. The body was sent for an autopsy to find out the causes of murder however, the shotgun was sent to forensic department to find out the fingerprints on it that led to the criminal or the criminals who were involved in the referred ghastly murder. The mobile phone that has taken into custody in order to check out the history of incoming and outgoing calls of the murdered person as this sort of investigation aims at to book the real culprits by the law enforcers. The interesting thing is that the household items shown in the ima ges where murder took place were found in the same place and in the same direction as it was presumed to be. Initial Follow up Investigative Steps The steps that are to be taken by me as initial investigative steps are: a) to take photographs of the crime scene where murder took place b) to take into custody the corpse to conduct postmortem in order to have a detailed body description report from medico legal officer or the medical board specifically constituted for the purpose that identifies a) the cause of death b) whether the death was occurred due to the bullet of that gun which are in our custody or the bullet of some other gun c) to analyze the depth of wound in the skull since the culprits may have fired point blank at the murdered c) to take into custody the weapons which is used as an object to murder James d) to have finger prints on the mentioned gun e) to take possession of the mobile phone to ascertain the callers frequency of incoming calls and the subsequent outgoing calls in response to incoming calls in order to have voice recordings of incoming and outgoing calls on the day of murder or before as the case may be from mobile companies which would provide great help to

Project Proposal. What strategies have proven most successful in Essay

Project Proposal. What strategies have proven most successful in getting the writer an interview - Essay Example A resume is a vital marketing tool. It enlightens a prospective employer everything concerning a person and what one is capable of bringing to the profession. It is also an opening for them to evaluate ones language, writing, and proficiency in presentation. While the standards of a resume alone will not make certain that one is selected, a resume that is well developed and that markets one as a viable candidate can in the long run establish whether one will be shortlisted for an interview. Introduction The aim of this project is to analyze concerning why it is fundamental to comprehend what companies look for in cover letters and resumes. It is also of significance to make out what to write when making a resume in order to be considered for a job opening. The majority of resumes are only reviewed for a maximum of 10 seconds prior to being disqualified (Block & Betrus, 1997). On this paper, I will illustrate systematically the way in which companies review and choose prospective cand idates for a job interview based on the quality of the resume. Discussion The project will be based on perception approach, which it will offer arguments in its favor, beginning with the most important to the least important. The points to be delivered will be: The significance of writing a resume that is successful Comparison and contrasting of the disparity between a hardcopy resume and an online resume The major points to consider when writing a resume I will investigate concerning why it is essential to understand what companies are seeking in cover letters and resumes. I will also explore the disparities involving a hard copy resume and a resume from the Internet. In addition, I will investigate the strategies which have proven most successful in getting the writer an interview. The reason why I chose this topic is because I am interested in learning how organizations make decisions when evaluating a resume. I will also compared and contrast the disparities involving a resume i n  hard copy form and a resume in electronic form. I am planning to use books from the public library, DeVry online library, magazines, journals and the Internet. At the conclusion of this project, I will have a better comprehension of the significance of creating a resume that is admirable in order to be successful when applying for a job position. What strategies have proven most successful in getting the writer an interview? It is obvious that everyone has heard of the expression first impressions are lasting ones. Well ones resume is the initial meeting involving an individual and a potential employer more frequently now than ever (Bennett, 2005). Therefore, in what manner does one want to be remembered: Craggy and unorganized; orderly and structured; lengthy and lackluster; or precise and remarkable? Organizations do not have the time to interview all candidates that are concerned with the job. If they did, there would be no organization to work for. Hiring managers employ an elimination process, which is resumes. Resumes inform an employer a great deal regarding an individual. Where one has been, where one is and where one is headed. Nevertheless, the details ought to be given in brief and clearly. One only has limited moments to persuade the hiring manager that his/her resume is worthy of additional

Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership and Management Paper Research

Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership and Management - Research Paper Example Management is not just confined only to organizations. Even political leaders need to have the knowledge and skills of a good manager in order to be successful in their careers. One leader with such qualities is the 34th president of the United States, Dwight David Eisenhower who exhibited both managerial and leadership qualities. This paper looks at  Eisenhower’s qualities as both of a leader and a manager. Characteristics of a Good Manager A number of factors define a good manager. The ability to have a vision about the future means that a manager is future oriented. A good manager needs to show enthusiasm in his/her work as well as to have the ability to empower and motivate others to work enthusiastically. The decision making process of a manager should be defined by an ability to make quick and informed decisions. Words need to be backed by actions. Managers who talk too much by issuing orders rarely succeed in their careers as workers need to see how they can perform t asks as well. Characteristics of a Good Leader A manager should be a good leader which means that he possesses good leadership skills. A good leader is proactive and thinks about the future. They are flexible in their decisions and actions so they can easily adapt to any change that may arise. A good leader has good communication skills, and respects the subordinates. Confidence in both leading the team and believing in personal decisions is an important quality of a good leader. A good leader shows enthusiasm in work. The interest in the feedback from the subordinates is a concern for efficient leaders, while they exhibit good organizational skills and delegate duties to the subjects (Leatherman, 2008). Leadership and Managerial Qualities of Dwight D. Eisenhower Eisenhower exhibited both leadership and managerial qualities in a number of ways. Having been a leader of the army during and after the First World War, he exhibited good leadership qualities by heading the army in war. At the onset of World War I, he immediately requested for an assignment overseas. This showed how dedicated he was in his job, showing one of the qualities of a good leader. As a hard working military man, he rose over the ranks to become Lieutenant Colonel in the National Army. As Lieutenant, he exhibited good organizational skills. He was able to organize members of the army during the war and draw placement programs of the personnel. His ability to approach members of the lower ranks and deal with them showed his commitment to the staff and his ability to effectively communicate with all the people in the military regardless of their position. His skills as a visionary leader were portrayed when he remained focused on the role of tanks in any war that would follow after the First World War. He showed his high level of commitment to his job patiently rising through the ranks of the military to become General of the Army Air Force. His dedication to work let him succeed in many assig nments such as in the invasion of Sicily. To promote democracy, he accepted the role of the President of Columbia and NATO Supreme Commander. His dream of becoming a president of the United States was supported by many people who felt that he had good leadership qualities suitable for the success of the United States. He chose to continue with Roosevelt’s plan of the New Deal for the United States and, thus, won a second term which

Stretching Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Stretching - Assignment Example Yoga stretches are different from conventional forms of stretches in that they are rhythmic and are designed to boost flexibility. Borden particularly prefers the â€Å"Stretch and Fire† which entails stretching one muscle group while contacting the others (Sherman 5). In the process, a muscle reflex is triggered and this deepens the stretch while increasing the range of motion. What is more, the exercise lasts only about 20 minutes a day. For effective results, one would repeat the regimen five times a week. Yoga also helps the mind to focus. It increases mental alertness and reduces lethargy. Research reveals that Yoga reduces anxiety and depression (Sherman 4). According Borden, people who practice yoga are better performers across various realms of life, whether they are at work or in other social events. Muscle flexibility improves posture and leads to that chisel-shaped body or lean shape that both men and women crave for (Sherman 4). Even most important is the fact that yoga boosts confidence. Want to be flexible? Stretch for enhanced

Is mountain climbing a heroic or selfish act Research Paper

Is mountain climbing a heroic or selfish act - Research Paper Example One of the mountaineers, a sick man, after the avalanche passed away, told his friends, â€Å"I was going to unclip and get it over with,† as they were holding together with just a single ice-screw. Mark Twight, one of the mountaineers of the Rupal Face, like the British mountaineer, Joe Simpson, also shares the same feeling that the sport is for personal and â€Å"super-selfish† glory. Success of mountaineers is celebrated in royal way; they are rewarded and awarded in a magnanimous way (Coffey, 2003, p. 68-69). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a hero is a person who â€Å"exhibits extra-ordinary bravery, firmness, fortitude, and greatness of soul in any action.† Mountaineering presents such heroic opportunities innumerably. Alex Lowe set an example of sheer bravery, fortitude and greatness of soul in rescuing the Spanish climbers; he carried one collapsed climber on his back on the thirty-five degree slopes of ice and snow for hundred vertical feet to deliver the climber to the Park Service although the climber had collapsed. Such herculean tasks can be accomplished by a true hero only (Coffey, 2003, p. 70). Alex Lowe’s extra-ordinary stamina, drive, and capability as a climber were outstanding. Another name attached to the mountaineering heroism is that of Alison Hargreaves, the only women to climb Mount Everest by her own without oxygen in 1995 (Coffey, 2003). Alison was the second woman to reach Mount Everest without oxygen and on her own; the first legendry woman was Reinhold Messner. Criticism of such heroic personalities is widely attempted by media, as the tragedy pounces upon their lives. The same thing happened to Alison. Successful adventures were glorified beyond limit but as soon as defeat surfaced in the form of loosing the life while performing the adventurous task of mountaineering, the woman was criticized by press for leaving behind two small kids. Questions were put

The theory of natural selection has been applied to human culture in Essay

The theory of natural selection has been applied to human culture in many different realms. How are the forces that produce diff - Essay Example In India, where social stratification still obviously persists, the rich became rich because he came from a rich family. In contrast, the poor cannot reach the same affluence because the society simply does not permit such occurrence. Second, there is differential reproduction (www.berkeley.edu). In the end of Jurassic era, the huge terrestrial animals might have gone extinct, but the boring creatures such as cockroaches continue to live on until the present. However, unlike in Biology wherein the favored group of creatures prospered, it is not the case in society. Rich Chinese clans, for example, only allow marriages among their family members, so as to maintain their huge assets within the same knit of people. Third, there is inheritance (www.berkley.edu). For example, in humans, the two-leggedness has been passed more successfully than four-leggedness, because the stand-up stance can better utilize their eyes in searching for new places to move on. The same absoluteness cannot be said about society. The traits inherited do not do anything to the social stratification. Among the rich, it is only the name that allows one to be in a favorable strata. However, not all family members do not really end up rich. Those that have become rich did not just have the name, but also the persistence and education This character, in turn, can only be molded with experience, not heredity. References Thorpe, R. S.

Electromagnetic Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Electromagnetic - Assignment Example All the objectives would be achieved by carrying out several activities such as tests for magnetic shielding, falling magnets and the design of the motor. The lab activity was also aimed at using PHET simulation software to carry out some electromagnetic tests. Magnetic shielding is the act of reducing the electromagnetic field contained in space by blocking the area with barriers made of either conductive or magnetic material. Magnetic shielding, however, does not prevent a magnetic field, preventing lines of flux from traveling from the North Pole to the South Pole of a magnet. However, the fields can be redirected. Any ferromagnetic metal can be used as a shielding metal. A ferromagnetic metal is a material containing either nickel-iron or cobalt. Most of the steel materials are ferromagnetic metals and work well as redirecting shield. Steel is, however, most used because it is less expensive and widely available. The thickness of the shielding material matters to individual levels. When a shield is so thin, it becomes saturated with magnetic field lines and cannot hold any more lines of flux. Thick shielding is therefore required to carry a maximum number of flux lines. A thick shield does not necessarily mean adding more of steel mate rial. Adding steel thickness does not improve the shielding much. In such cases where saturation is an issue, multiple layers of the shielding material are used. There are some specialized materials especially designed for magnetic shielding. The Specialized magnetic shielding materials are always designed to have a higher relative permeability and a lower saturation point. The right shielding materials depend on the particular shielding problem. For instance for a sensitive electronic, Metals can provide an excellent shielding than steel. Or large applications involving large, powerful neodymium magnets,

Store and retrive information Essay Example for Free

Store and retrive information Essay Understand processes and procedures for storing and retrieving information Explain the purpose of storing and retrieving required information: The reason you store information is so you when you need it in the future you can easily find it. Most companies have to either store documents in fire proof cabinet’s or on hard disks or any other electronic storage devices. Most companies have confidential files about the company, employees or customers that have to follow the data protection act. Describe different information systems and their main features: Server on the server at our company we use the server to store all are files for example financial data, HR files, sage and accounts, maintenance, training, HSBC, customers, employees, etc. these are all in relevant files so you can locate them easily. GX – our bespoke system saves all of the work that we have processed so you can locate them by going on to contracts and finding the relevant customer’s and looking what they have had from when they joined with our company and we can also look back in the past to see how much we have made and how many pieces we have sent out. Explain the purpose of legal and organizational requirements for the security and confidentiality of information: Information that is stored in an organisation has to follow the security and confidentiality procedures. For example finances, customer’s and employee’s details should be secured and only certain members of staff should be able to access physical and electronic data unless you have been given authorisation. If information gets into the wrong hands it could have serious consequences and might lead to legal action. Explain the purpose of confirming information to be stored and retrieved: All companies store a lot of information, but if you store the wrong information that isn’t up to date or is not correct there is no use of it. So when storing information you should be cautious that it is proof read. You keep information for a reason so you should keep everything updated. The wrong information can be really serious if it falls in to wrong hands. Read more:  Store and Retrieve Information Essay Describe ways of checking information for accuracy: When you are saving important information it is essential that you proof read it, or if you are not sure get someone to double check it, as you only want accurate data. By using decent software to store database will help ensure  that the information is accurate. Explain the purpose of checking information for accuracy: All organisations have to check to make sure that there information is correct because if one thing is wrong for example in the financial department if the money that is coming in and going out is inaccurate, this might lead to staff might not get paid correctly or you haven’t got enough money to pay either staff or employers. Explain the purpose of providing information to agreed format and timescales: By having an agreed format in an organisation is called a house style by using a house style it will let other companies or customers identify who you are, for example by the font, logo, font size, emphasis and spacing. By not having this you don’t look very professional and will make things take longer if you have to use extra time making it right. By having a timescale will let staff and customers know when work will be completed by over running the timescale will make the company look unorganised and not very professional. Describe the types of information that may be deleted: As a company goes on your will get more and more customers and might have some customers leave your company so you should always check the data and making sure it is accurate, so you don’t have any unwanted data. Most companies will have a policy on how long you should store data for and after that time it should be deleted or shredded following security and confidentiality procedures. Describe problems that may occur with information systems and how to deal with them, when necessary: When storing important information there is always going to be a risk whether it is saved onto a computer or it is physical because computers get viruses from attackers so you should always make sure that you have got proper security like antivirus software and firewalls need to be used as well as passwords. When you have physical information there is always a risk that there could be a fire or flood, or information can be seen by the wrong person who do not have authority to access information. You should always have locks and maybe even a fire proof cabinet for important documents.

The logisitics and supply chain of Dell

The logisitics and supply chain of Dell This is the era of globalisation which means that individuals are living in one world. There are no more limitations, and boundaries are diminishing in every possible ways. Moreover, trading worldwide has become very common now. This scenario leads us to have greater and detail knowledge on managing international operations and the supply chain. The subject tends to be much more complex than it may sound. Appropriate logistics and supply chain help companies to save huge amount of costs and generate greater revenue. In this report, I have analysed, applied academic modules and put my best effort to deliver the logistics and supply chain system of Dell Inc. Dell Inc. is one of the largest IT companies providing information technology and business related services, support and solutions worldwide with 100,300 employees. It was established in 1984 with only $1,000 capital in Texas, United States. The unique strategy of Dell to sell custom built PCs (Personal Computers) directly to customers, eliminating middlemen to enhance customers savings was practiced at the initial stage of its establishment by Michael Dell. However, as per the sources, the company now operates in four global business segments; Large Enterprise, Public, Small and Medium Business, and Consumer. The focus of this case study is the supply chain management practices of Dell. Dell has been following its unique direct build-to-order sales model for more than 20 years. Customers can plan their own configuration and place orders directly with the company via the phone or its Web site. Over the years, Dells supply chain efficiencies and direct sales gave it a competitive advantage. The nature of logistics and international trade: Globalisation or international trade has become a common ground for most traders now. It is a general rule for businesses to enhance their potential growth by increasing revenues and cutting down costs. In implementation of this rule, logistics plays an important role in any kind of business operating globally or locally. However, the proper management of logistics is even more crucial when it comes to international traders. In earlier period, logistics was only described as warehousing or trucks and sheds. However, warehousing is one of the fundamental components of logistics. The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) in the UK define logistics as, Getting the right product to the right place in the right quantity at the right time, in the best condition and at an acceptable cost. The above definition makes us clear that logistics involve getting everything right in the process to meet customers requirements and expectations from beginning to the point of consumption. In general, 8R are followed in order to define and implement logistics. They are; right product, right place, right quantity, right time, right customer, right way, right cost, and right quality. Our Dell Global Logistics Teams aim to develop and sustain a global transportation and logistics network that uses the most efficient and effective means for us and our transportation providers to distribute our products to our customers. Our job is to get the right stuff, to the right place, at the right time. Furthermore, our Dell Logistics Teams must do this at the right cost. We continue to optimize transportation costs while improving quality and striving to exceed the service expectations of our customers. In fiscal year 2009, many dynamic changes within the Dell fulfillment model challenged our Dell Global Logistics Teams. During the past year, our Dell Logistics Teams continued to do the following: Optimize our inbound and outbound transportation networks, focusing on using the most efficient use of air, land and ocean modes of transportation Work green initiatives that demonstrate that we recognize our roles and responsibilities in being good stewards of the environment Collaborate with the best logistics and transportation providers, who are focused on providing our customers with timely and damage-free deliveries, and operate their businesses within the principles of environmental stewardship. Supply chain strategies: Supply chain strategies are the approaches related to logistics and supply chain that are influenced or related with the organisations strategy. Corporate strategy Business Unit Strategy Functional Strategy As discussed in Pascal Renet (2010), Supply Chain is one of the most crucial parts of an organisation and its strategy lies on aligning and developing it according to the nature of an organisation. The figure below demonstrates the alignment and development of supply chain strategy. Many Supply Chain strategies are formed by using the above mentioned variables. However, there are two principle strategies practiced widely in the real world situation. They are; lean and agile. Lean strategy has been a huge success from the early years of 1930. Its main aspect is to add value (which includes efficiency and effectiveness) at each stages and steps of the process and eliminate processes that do not contribute in value adding of the system, services or product. Some of the most popular processes used in lean strategy are; Just In Time (JIT), Pull based system, Make-To-Order (MTO). Agile strategy is practiced to effectively deal with uncertainties caused by various factors, which may include terrorism, natural calamities, demand system of the market and many more that vigorously affects a business environment. The main technique in agile strategy is mass customisation which follows the production philosophy known as principle of postponement. Leagile strategy is the combination of lean and agile strategies. Michael Dell (2007) states, As we continue to grow worldwide, it is important that we increase our ability, via the direct model, to manufacture close to our customer and fully integrate our supply chain into one global organization. This will allow us to drive for even greater excellence in quality, cycle time and delivered cost. We will innovate and adapt our supply chain model to help drive differentiated product design, manufacturing and distribution models. Directs Sales The direct model refers to the fact that Dell does not use the retails channel, but sells its PCs directly to customers through its website, Dell.com, as Figure 4 shows. This way the intermediary steps that may add time and cost are eliminated, and Dell is directly linked to its customers. Indirect Distribution Channel of the PC Industry Dells Direct Distribution Channel Areti Manataki (2007), In fact, Dell sells directly to all its customers, from home-PC users to the worlds largest corporations [54]. This way it creates a direct relationship with each individual customer, which turns out to be a great source of competitive advantage. As Michael Dell has stated, this direct relationship creates valuable information about the customer, thus Dell knows who the end users are, what they have bought from Dell and what their preferences are, a fact that allows Dell to offer add-on products and services, and stay, in general, closer to the customer [27]. As Lawton et al [29] suggest, this provides Dell with a wealth of marketing and product development information. Especially in the case of large customers, the above-mentioned direct relationship is upgraded to virtual integration. With the help of information technology and traditional face-to-face human contact, customers work with Dell as partners; this means that Dell is not going to be just their PC vendor anymore, but their IT department for PCs, as Michael Dell claims. There are two main facilities that bring Dell and its customers closer: Premier Pages and Platinum Councils. Premier Pages, now called Premier.Dell.com, are customised IT procurement and support sites for big clients, which let them decide and manage their purchases from Dell, thus leaving to salespeople a more consultative role. Premier.Dell.com represents a customised sales channel and as Dell has realised how beneficiary that is, it has increased the number of Premier Pages from 1000 in 1998 to 50,000 in 2000 [36]. Platinum Councils are regional meetings of Dells largest customers, where executives, salespeople and technicians discuss their experience with Dell and their needs and expectations from technology. Additionally, Dells Customer Experience Initiative, Dell Forums [55], the Direct2Dell blog [57] and the IdeaStorm [56] illustrate the importance that Dell places on its customer relationships. in the case of Dell, a computer is built only after a customer has placed an order; then lean manufacturing and just-in-time production take place. This means that once an order is placed, configuration details are sent to the manufacturing floor and the assembly begins; once the computer is built and the requested software is downloaded, it is shipped by a 3PL to the customer. The choice of a build-to-order and JIT manufacturing procedure has several advantages for Dell. First, the level of inventories is very small, leading to low inventory costs and faster response to demand changes for instance, when a new microprocessor comes out in the market, Dell can immediately order it from its suppliers, as there is no excess inventory to get rid of first. Also, it is common that customers pay for an order before Dell pays its suppliers for the products components, thus letting Dell operate on a negative cash conversion cycle [27]. Not to forget the fact that this way customized products are offered, and instead of guessing, Dell knows exactly what its customers want before producing it. What is special in the case of Dell is its relationship to its suppliers, which also facilitates its build-to-order model. Dell fully adopts the approach of the extended enterprise by viewing its suppliers as an integral part of doing business and a key factor for its success. The supplier effectively becomes our partner, as Michael Dell states [15]. Logistics service providers: Third Party Logistics Service Providers both at global levels and local levels form major partners to manage and offer Supply Chain services and the second major factor being the internet and IT technology which helps manage information and data ahead of or along with flow of materials and goods. Dell has manufacturing facilities located in Austin-Texas, North Carolina, Miami, Florida that service US Markets. European Markets are serviced from its plants in Ireland and Poland. Asia and other sub continents are supported by its manufacturing facilities in Penang in Malaysia and Xiamen in China along with the latest factory setup in Chennai in India. South America is serviced from its Eldora do plant while the new plan in Brazil supports the African continent. One can imagine the complexities involved in designing procurement systems. Dell does not buy raw materials and components and maintain inventory. Dells vendors use third party service providers to setup logistics parks and distribution warehouses close to Dells plants and deliver materials just in time to the plant against an order for production which is triggers based on an order confirmed by the customer on the internet. Under procurement Logistics in this case, there are number of logistics service providers who play major part in ensuring smooth operations. Vendors are based out of Europe, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan etc. Our Dell Logistics Teams continued to explore the use of every mode of transportation and sought opportunities to ship more freight using modes that offer greater reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Our regional teams examined the ability to upgrade the attach rates for freight that was best moved by sea instead of by air. Feasibility studies are planned for various transportation modes, such as rail from Asia to Europe, sea/air from Asia to Europe and rail network from China to South Asia. In Asia-Pacific/Japan (APJ), the optimal mode of transport is ocean shipment to countries such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Logistics Operations in Supply Chain Network (2011). Management Study Guide. http://www.managementstudyguide.com/logistics-operations-in-supply-chain-network.htm Procurement and outsourcing: Dell outsources its supply chain reinvention 14 JUNE 2010 Guy Clapperton As part of the reinvention of its business model, the computer maker handed the support and operation of its supply chain to a third party Dell was the hardware manufacturing success story of the 1990s, thanks to such innovative business practices as selling to customers directly and assembling devices to order. The past ten years, however, have seen Dell rather lose its edge to Apple in the consumer space and to Hewlett-Packard in business. That has prompted an attempted reinvention at the company. One of the most conspicuous facets of this has been Dells acquisition of ITservice provider Perot Systems in the second half of 2009. Just as significant, though rather less visible, has been the expansion of its global supply chain to include both retailers and so-called original design manufacturers, which sell complete devices for Dell to rebadge. This transformation placed a significant new burden on Dells supplier engagement processes, and the disparate systems that supported them. The company therefore decided to outsource these processes and systems to Inovis, a US-based business-to-business outsourcing provider. http://www.information-age.com/channels/it-services/features/1261013/dell-outsources-its-supply-chain-reinvention.thtml Inventory, warehousing and materials management: Transport planning: While the shipments are in transit, the freight forwarders electronically transfer shipment information and documentations to their overseas offices or agents at the destination and keep Dell and vendors informed of the status of shipments. Freight forwarders at the destination ports file advance shipment documents with customs and on arrival of cargo, complete customs formalities and custom cleared cargo is then transported to freight forwarders warehouse or customs bonded warehouse or to another designated third party warehouse which houses all inventories meant for Dell. The third party service provider who manages the inventories in his warehouse receives the cargo, unpacks the shipments from bulk skids to individual carton level and completes inbound formalities including up dating of inventories in its system and stocks the materials in designated rack locations. Both vendors and Dell are continuously kept informed of the data regarding shipments and stocks. The warehouse stocks inventories in the name of various vendors at SKU level. Most of the times these warehouses are situated adjacent to the plant or at close proximity. Upon receiving a production order from Dell, as per Bill of Material received through DELL ERP system, items are picked up, loaded into the supply cages and trays as per pre determined design and delivered to the plant after completing documentation and system entries to remove inventory from its system held in vendors name, invoice raised and physical delivery accompanied with documents completes the supply chain cycle of Ra w material supply. The revenue recognition happens when material is transferred out of the warehouse and its system and invoiced to Dell.

Lion Nathans Strategy and Position

Lion Nathans Strategy and Position SWOT ANALYSIS: SWOT analysis of Lion Nathan Brewing reflects its competitive advantage over other brewery companies. This SWOT analysis gives a picture about individual strengths of Lion Nathan, the weaknesses of the company, any opportunities presented for future, and threats from other brewing companies. All of these elements are of specific importance in assessing a companys core competencies and developing a plan for future achievements. STRENGTH: In the year 1999, Lion Nathan was considered to be one of the international brewery companies with its area of operations covering three main geographic locations around the world, namely, New Zealand, China, and Australia and now being mostly New Zealand and Australia. Being its area of operation restricted in the earlier days, this enabled Lion Nathan to attract a huge group of people and so gave the company a chance to experiment new products. Lion Nathan now has an excellent broad base portfolio and it offers a wide range of alcoholic beverages. Its massive portfolio is able to satisfy all the demands of its customers. It has captured a large proportion of market segment in Australia and New Zealand. It is mainly engaged in the production and marketing of alcoholic beverages of wine, beer, and spirits in New Zealand and Australia, although its products are sold globally. Lion Nathan takes it pride in being a part of Australias and New Zealands most favored brands like like XXXX, Speights, Tooheys, Steinlager, Hahn, Lion Red, Wither Hills, James Boags, Bacardi and St Hallett. It is mainly known for selling premium beers in these areas. Lion Nathans main area of focus has always remained innovation and finding out new opportunities in order to achieve growth. Its innovation has led to increasing consumption among the mass. Lion Nathans new product XXXX Summer Bright Lager is a low-carb drink which is undoubtedly the lowest-carb beer in the Queensland market. Its new innovation has helped the company to top the market in Australia and with the overwhelming response, they attracted more and more group of customers across the country and its national distribution is above their expectations which is outselling Corona its competitor. It also relaunched Italian beer and snatched away the customers of Coca-Cola Amatils Peroni brand. It was a like a kick off to the its competitors. Lion Nathan also launched a new product Steinlager Pure which is a smooth flavoured l ager which consisted all natural ingredients of New Zealand and was completely preservative free which was a highly compelling export proposition which is now New Zealands biggest selling classic lager. Even Lion Nathan is certain to become the second largest wine distributor after it took over the brands of Pernod-Ricard. It will sell 12 major brands of Pernod-Ricard. WEAKNESS: Lions operations are limited only to Australia and New Zealand and so its economy is far below expectations as compared to its competitors. OPPORTUNITIES: The Asian beer market is said to be very strong. It is predicted that China will occupy one quarter of the beer consumption worldwide. There is a reduction in import tax on foreign made alcohol in China. Consumers in China focus mainly on premium-style beers and so this is an opportunity for Lion Nathan. China is experiencing a steady growth rise. Also, the Asian beer consumption is expected to grow 5% between 2009 and 2015. THREATS: The global beer market has declined to a growth of 0.5% due to the regional differences. Also vehement competition in the beer market can take away significant proportion of Lions market share. PEST ANALYSIS: POLITICAL FACTORS: The Australian Government has figured out the alcohol abuse as one of the major problem among youngsters in the Australian society. It has therefore imposed an excise charge on beer. This charge is imposed according to the alcohol content in the beer. Also, customs duty applies to all imported products. This duty is also levied according to alcohol content. For beer with alcohol content less than 1.15% the charge is 5%. Industry sources have now made an assumption that the governments strict charges on beer is likely to cause the price of beer to go high as there is 10% GST levied on the service component. The same thing was repeated in New Zealand. The excise charges on beer were revised in New Zealand due to which the price of beer went up. Lion Nathan experienced a price rise of 4% due to this revised taxation policy. ECONOMIC FACTORS: According to the Australian Drug Foundation, the alcohol manufacturers will no longer be able to advertise or sponsor sport within the next 10 years. Also, the alcohol industry has continued to act in bad faith by avoiding its own rules in areas such advertising to children through sports sponsorship, promoting responsible drinking, etc. This is likely to harm the economic background of the company. Advertising wine and spirits on social networking sites will be restricted. SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS: Beer consumes in Australia tend to follow a myth that low-carb beer helps in weight management. About 74% of the Australian population seems to believe this which builds up a strong social background of Lion Nathan. The 2011 Rugby Match in New Zealand provides a huge flock of tourist before and during the match with cheers to Lion Nathan TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS: Lion Nathan has been always a follower of technology and innovation. It believes in meeting its consumers demands. It has found the new QR code technology which helps its consumers in selecting the right wine for the right occasion. Each QR code is linked with a specific wine, and each scan will pull up a mobile-friendly site replete with information on each wine. Scanners can watch videos about the wine in question, get video tours of wineries, discover food pairings, read up on harvest and tasting notes and check out reviews. ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS: the companys demand for beer is affected by the climatic conditions. The cool winter led to a decreased demand for beer while the summer boosted the consumption of beer. LEGAL FACTORS: In the year 2009, Lion Nathan did file any legal action for anti-competitive behavior or anti-trust or trade practices. Lion Nathan has had never experienced any sort of non-compliance with health and safety measures and regulations. The company has always complied with the laws. CORE RESOURCES AND ITS COMPETENCIES: Competitive advantage is the strength of Lion Nathan. The beer brand broad portfolio is the core resource of the company. This portfolio gives the company a chance to outweigh other brewery companies. Also, it is Lion Nathans most valuable asset which reflects its performance. Lion Nathan has always remained committed to its brand. It spends most of its revenue by investing in the brand equity of its already existing core brand. It always tries to divert its customers to focus on its core brands as a national focus and encourages them to buy premium products. In Australia, Lion Nathan holds around 75% of group assets and 80% of operating profits. Lion Nathans beer market share is experiencing stability of more than 44% including its most recently acquired Boags brands. In New Zealand, Lion Nathan is countrys leading brewer and now considered the second largest wine distributor with its market share of more than 50%. The strategic focus of manageme nt is to maximimise the performance of Lion Nathans existing core business which involves increasing the returns from Australias and New Zealands beer business and also maximizing the value in fine wine business. Lion Nathan also aims at grabbing opportunities in spirits and ready to drink spirits markets and international wine export markets. Lion Nathan is considered to be a policy leader in areas related to alcohol taxation, liquor licensing, and responsible consumption. It regularly contributes and participates in government and community discussion on all alcohol related issues. Lion Nathan is also an active participant in tax and investment issues that impact the broader trans-Tasman business community. COMPANIES CURRENT STRATEGY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS: Lion Nathan entered the soft drink, restaurant and sales promotion businesses but sold all this because it aimed to concentrate on promoting its beer business. Today, Lion Nathans strategy is to concentrate on the alcohol business, aiming to become a comprehensive alcohol beverage company. Geographically, it concentrates on Australia and New Zealand. Although LN started out in the soft drinks with the Pepsi brand, it sold off that segment in 1998 because it did not contribute to profits to a degree that can be reflected in the EBITDA margin. The company also tried restaurant business, seeking synergy effect with beer-similar to Anheuser-Busch, which bought a bread company. However, Lion Nathan withdrew from this business as well when it did not contribute sufficient profit to the company. These examples suggest that diversification for Lion Nathan has always been undertaken to generate short-term profitability to make shareholders happ y; in the end, however, the company always return to its original beer business which generates the highest earnings. Recently, Lion Nathan made one interesting decision concerning the companys international operation. In spite of the recent craze in the business world to penetrate and prosper in the Chinese market, Lion Nathan actually exited from that market in 2005. Since exiting the Chinese market, Lion Nathan concentrated its resources on the Oceanic market. Growth Strategy: Lion Nathan strongly believes in sustainable long-term growth strategy in order to achieve top-line growth and bottom-line results. Its operational skills are the core competences that it has which can provide the foundation for a growth strategy. Lion Nathan has strong competencies in distribution, innovation, premium brands It successfully manages the growth strategy with its growth skills, especially its skill of new product development. One-Stop Shop Strategy: Lion Nathan offers a variety of services to its customers. Its main idea is to provide convenient and efficient service and also to create the opportunity for the company to sell more products to clients and customers Social Media Strategy: Lion Nathan has also adopted Media strategy to promote its long-neck bottles of Toohey Extra Dry (TED). These TED bottles were tucked in boring non-descript brown bags. Lion Nathan launched a program named TED696 and created designer bags with the help of street artists and designers. These design opportunities were given to public who took over the ownership of the new brand with their innovative designs. Even MTV was involved in it to celebrate the winning design. The media strategy of Lion Nathan worked so well that the sales of longneck TED bottles reached 500,000 sales just in the first 8 weeks of competition. Complete Brand Strategy: Lion Nathans success is mainly dependents on its wide range of brands. Its people help in generating huge amounts of profit and boast a portfolio of Australians and New Zealanders favourite brands. Lion Nathan invests mainly in brands and upgrade their breweries. Lion Nathan has invested 8 to 10% of their revenue income in innovation which goes hand-in-hand with their brand strategy. Culture Strategy: Lion Nathans culture strategy focuses its main attention on creating a sense of purpose, vision and values, developing a leadership capability to model the desired behaviors, and reinforcing those behaviors through appropriate processes and systems. Lion Nas values-based model consists of 10 core behaviors, which are hardwired into all HR processes, including remuneration, performance, and talent management. Lion Nathan believes in promoting a healthy drinking culture. Lion Nathan as a whole works in order to change the unhealthy drinking behaviour and has supported campaigns to prevent alcohol misuse and minimise the potential harm associated with it. Its investment strategy has the aim of facilitating wellbeing of people and identify the major areas of alcohol abuse. RECOMMENDATIONS: Strengthen the companys brand name among mass marketers through intense price competition: Recently, mass merchandisers like the chain big supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworth, have emerged following integration of the retail industry. Each state in Australia has its own popular brands, and there are strong regional preferences. Lion Nathan that are popular in each area, such as Tooheys in New South Wales and XXXX for Queensland, but in each case their popularity in other states is not as high. It is important to extend recognition of these brands nationally because a national brand will stimulate sales to the big national chain retailers. Strengthen the premium beer category: LN does not have a strong presence in the premium beer category, despite the companys high market value. It is important to promote premium brands such as Hahn Premium and James Squire, and internationally known Becks. Lion Nathan began brewing Kirin Ichiban, brewed only by the first wort in the brewhouse process at the Malt Shovel Brewery in May 2003 in response to surging growth in the premium category. This is one brand to be nurtured in the Australian premium beer category. Extend to other alcohol beverages: Price controls on beer, including price increases by the two-company monopoly, seem to be wavering. Recent diversification in market indicate a shift from beer to either wine for older people or RTD for the younger generation. In particular, the price difference between premium beers and RTDs is getting closer. Also, the population increase, largely due to Asian immigrants who typically do not drink much alcohol compared with Australians, has not increased beer consumption. To cope with this situation, LN must seek additional business in other kinds of alcoholic beverages, as a substitute for the beer business. Slightly more than 8% of Lion Nathans revenue in 2006 was derived from the wine business since the company entered that segment in 2000. A new threat to the duopoly: SAB Miller, one of the biggest players in the world, is planning to enter the Australian beer market in cooperation with Coca-Cola affiliate, Coca-Cola Amatil. When this occurs, it will take advantage of Coca-Colas huge channel, which is reportedly 3 times larger than that of beer. This means it is highly likely that SAB Miller will gain market parity in a short period of time. It is necessary for both Fosters and Lion Nathan to establish strategies that will build high entry barriers immediately. Lion Nathans future strategies are translated to the bundle of competencies. Lion Nathan should build sustainability in the beer business first, and then become a comprehensive alcohol beverage company by extending into the wine and RTD segments so that diverse customer preferences are met. This strategy is supported by 3 factors. (1) an expectation that major floating shareholders want Lion Nathan to hold its beer business as a cash; (2) Australias duopolistic beer market share, although it is becoming less stable; (3) the simple distribution system.

Teaching Morals and Ethics in Public Schools Essay -- Religion in Publ

Teaching Morals and Ethics in Public Schools I find myself disagreeing with Kozol and his statement that schools should be an institution where morals can be taught and developed. It is my belief that schools should not be held responsible for instilling morals and ethics into the minds of America's children. Of course, it is true that schools should instill and reinforce morals that are part of our everyday existence. Those of the Golden Rule, as well as the wrongs of death and destruction can be, not so much taught, rather restated in institutions of learning. It is my opinion, however, those morals should be taught in the home. Most classrooms are made up of people of various religious and ethnic backgrounds. I t is impossible, therefore, to instill one set of beliefs into such a diverse group. Many people would argue that parents are away too much to raise their children to be moral beings. However, it is my belief that parents should be able to make time for instilling such beliefs. If you want to have a moral and ethical child, then you must work for it. Rather than sitting in front of the TV for 4 hours and then going to bed, parents must find time to speak to children about such issues. I personally do not ever remember being introduced to the concept of God and of heaven. It wasn't as if my parents sat me down one day and explained these theological ideas to me. Merely by spending time with my parents, I was able to gain much perspective into their own morals and ethical patterns. It was, in fact, through schooling, and the facts that I was taught there, that I was able to expand on the ideals that I wished to achieve and model them more towards the world in which I was now living. If one were to ask a grown ... ...with the fact that many people are unwilling to allow their children to be taught such things in a place that should be focusing on the classic three R's. The government made its stand on this issue through the separation of church and state. Not only were theological teachings left out of the school curriculum, but also, so were the morals that went along with these teachings. This is how I feel the issue of teaching morals and ethics to today's children should be dealt with in America. There must be a complete overhaul of the school system we have in place, or a remarkable change of heart of many people whom have been fighting for centuries over minor differences in religious teachings. Otherwise, there will be no other way to ensure that children in America are growing up with a sense of values, which will allow them to make a difference in tomorrow's world.

Edwards Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Essay -- Edwards Sinners

Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" The passages given from the Edwards' 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God'; and the opening sentence of the Declaration both include many points such as the tone, diction, and syntax. The points shown throughout each sentence aims for the intent of obtaining the attention of the audience. The way each sentence is arranged with its own syntax can very well appeal to listeners, depending on its structure and imagery. Within the given sentence excerpt from Edwards' 'Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God'; you may perceive that the speaker is undoubtedly reaching for the audiences attention without sustaining his harsh yet fearful manner. Throughout this controlled harsh tone of voice, he captivates the audience through a deep sense of threat or harm. Within this deep threatening and captivating speech, the speaker uses God as the higher power in order to obtain the audiences attention, to grasp each person's emotions and fill them with fear. The speaker uses fear to complete the assurance of the people to do his intentions. Although the Edwards excerpt sentence involved fear, emotional deception and mental deception to obtain the audiences full attention, the opening sentence of Jefferson's Declaration gives the audience a much different approach to procure the audiences focus. Jefferson's opening sentence has a mild tone of diction, for the beginning of an informative speech. The eloquent words highly imposed among the s...

Agency conflicts

The genius of public corporations teems from their capacity to allow efficient sharing or spreading of risk among many investors, who appoint a professional manager run the company on the behalf of shareholders. However, the public corporation has a key weakness – namely, the conflicts of Interest between managers and shareholders. The separation of the company ownership and control, which Is especially prevalent where corporate ownership Is highly diffused, gives rise to possible conflicts between shareholders and managers.In theory, shareholders elect the board of directors of the company, which in turn ire's managers to run the company for the Interests of shareholders. Managers are supposed to be agents working for their principals, that Is, shareholders, who are the real owners of the company. In a public company with diffused ownership, the board of directors is entrusted with the vital tasks of monitoring the management and safeguarding the interests of shareholders. Un fortunately, with diffused ownership, few shareholders have strong enough incentive to incur the costs of monitoring management themselves when the benefits from such monitoring accrue to all shareholders alike. The benefits are shared, but not the costs. When company ownership is highly diffused, this â€Å"free-rider† problem discourages shareholder activism. As a result, the interests of managers and shareholders are often allowed to diverge. With an ineffective and unmotivated board of directors, shareholders are basically left without effective recourse to control managerial self-dealings.Recognition of this key weakness of the public corporation can be traced at least as far back as to Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1 776), which stated: The directors of such Joint-stocks companies, however, being the managers rather of other people's money than of their own, it cannot well be the partners of a private cooperator frequently watch over their own†¦. Negligence and p rofusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company.Agency theory in a formal sense originated in the early asses, but the concepts behind it have a long and varied history. Among the influences are property-rights theories, organization economics, contract law, and political philosophy, including the works of Locke and Hobbes. Some noteworthy scholars involved in agency theory's roommate period in the asses included Airmen Lucian, Harold Demesne, S. A. Ross and the famous paper â€Å"Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs, and Ownership Structure. † of Michael Jensen and William Neckline.In an ideal situation the manager (or entrepreneur) and the investors sign a contract that specifies how the manager will use the funds and also how the investment returns will be divided between the manager and the investors. If the two sides can write a complete contract that specifies exactly what the manager will do un der each of all possible future unforeseen events, there will be no room for any inflicts of interest or managerial discretion. Thus, under a complete contract, there will be no agency problem. However, it is practically impossible to foresee all future contingencies and write a complete contract.This means that the manager and the investors will have to set up the control rights to make decisions under those contingencies that are not specifically covered by the contract. Because the outside investors may be neither qualified nor interested in making business decisions, or if there will be too many of investors, the manager often ends up acquiring most of this residual control right. The investors supply funds to the company but are not involved in the company's daily decision making. As a result, many public companies come to have â€Å"strong managers and weak shareholders. The agency problem refers to the possible conflicts of interest between self – interested managers as agents and shareholders of the firm, who are the principals. In the described circumstances the manager will end up with residual control rights to allocate investors' funds, and sometimes the disclosure of investment channels may not be clear and full. So the investors are not longer assured of achieving fair returns on their funds, in other words the agency problem lies in a loss of trust for the manager by the shareholders of the company.In the following paper examples of the agency problem, proposed ways of solving and controlling methods and their analysis will be presented and discussed. Chapter 1 . Prerequisites of the agency problem and different approaches to solving it 1. 1 . How we detect an agency problem Agency theory suggests that the firm can be viewed as a combination of different relationships – some of them well and others can be loosely defined – between resource holders. The primary agency relationship in business is between stockholders and mana gers.The relationships are not necessarily harmonious; indeed, the agency theory is concerned with so-called agency conflicts, or conflicts of interest between agents and principals. This has implications for, among other things, corporate governance and business ethics. When the agency problem occurs sustain an effective agency relationship, those will be discussed a bit later. So what can be signals for managerial self-interested behavior? Sometimes, the manager simply steals investors' funds.Alternatively, the manager may use a more pesticides scheme, setting up an independent company that he owns and diverting to it the main company's cash and assets through transfer pricing. For example, the manager can sell the main company's output to the company he owns at below market prices, or buy the output of the company he owns at above market prices. Some oil companies are known to sell oil to manager-owned trading companies at below market prices and not always bother to collect the bills.Self- interested managers may also waste funds by undertaking unprofitable projects that benefit themselves but not investors. For example, managers may allocate funds the ay to take over other companies and overpay for the targets if it serves their private interests. Needless to say, this type of investment will destroy shareholders' value. What is more, the same managers may take anti-takeover measures for their own company in order to secure their personal Job and perpetuate private benefits.In the same vein, managers may resist any attempts to be replaced even if shareholders' interests will be better served by their resignation. These managerial entrenchment efforts are clear signs of the agency problem. One of the clearest signals for the existence of the agency problem can be management of free cash-flow. High level of free cash-flows are usually presented in companies on a maturity stage of life cycle, with a low level of growth, so those free cash?flows are supposed to be distributed as dividends or should be invested in some projects, both of the actions can probably increase the firm's value.But there are a few important incentives for managers to retain cash flows. First, cash reserves provide corporate managers with a measure of independence from the capital markets, insulating them from external scrutiny and discipline. This will make life easier for managers. Second, growing the size of the company via retention of cash tends to have the effect of raising managerial compensation. As is well known, executive compensation depends as much on the size of the company as on its profitability, if not more.Third, senior executives can boost their social and political power and prestige by increasing the size of their company. Executives presiding over large companies are likely to enjoy greater social prominence and visibility than those running small companies. Also, the company's size itself can be a way of satisfying the executive ego. Consequ ently, managers of those companies either sit n a huge bunch of money, or bound to invest in a lot of not so successful projects or to take over some other firms in attempt to diversify and not to pay dividends or at least too high dividends.In the contrast in high-growth industries, such as biotechnology, financial services, and pharmaceuticals, where companies internally generate funds, which fall short of profitable investment opportunities, managers are less likely to waste funds in unprofitable projects. After all, managers in these industries need to have a â€Å"good reputation†, as they must repeatedly come back to capital markets for funding. Once the managers of a company are known for wasting funds for private benefits, external funding for the company may dry up quickly.The managers in these industries thus have an incentive to serve the interests of outside undertaking their â€Å"good† investment projects. Generally, the heart of the agency problem is the conflicts of interest between managers and the outside investors over the disposition of free cash-flows, so in the following part I would like to present different approaches on how owners of the firm can hedge and maintain managers of the firm to lower the risk of agency problem ND, subsequently, agency costs. 1. 2.Remedies of agency problem Obviously, it is a matter of vital importance for shareholders to control the agency problem; otherwise, they may not be able to get their money back. It is also important for society as a whole to solve the agency problem, since the agency problem leads to waste of scarce resources, hampers capital market functions, and retards economic growth. Several main governance mechanisms exist to manage or completely remove an agency problem: 1. Board of directors 2. Incentive contracts 3. Concentrated ownership 4. Debt 5.Overseas stock listings 6. Market for corporate control (takeovers) In most of the countries, shareholders have the right to elect the board of directors, which is legally charged with representing the interests of shareholders. If the board of directors remains independent of management, it can serve as an effective mechanism for curbing the agency problem. For example, studies showed that the appointment of outside directors is associated with a higher turnover rate of Coos following poor firm performances, thus curbing managerial entrenchment.In the same vein, in a study of corporate governance in the United Kingdom, Daddy and McConnell report that the board of directors is more likely to appoint an outside CEO after an increase in outsiders' representation on the board. But due to the diffused ownership structure of the public company, management often gets to choose board members who are likely to be friendly to management. The structure and legal charge of corporate boards vary greatly across countries.In Germany, for instance, the corporate board is not legally charged with representing the interests of shareholders. Rather, it is charged with looking after the interests of stakeholders (e. G. , workers, creditors, etc. ) in general, not Just hardliners. In Germany, there are two-tier boards consisting of supervisory and management boards. Based on the German extermination system, the law requires that workers be represented on the supervisory board. Likewise, some U. S. Companies have labor union representatives on their boards, although it is not legally mandated.In the United Kingdom, the majority of public companies voluntarily abide by the Code of Best Practice on corporate governance recommended by the Catbird Committee. The code recommends that there should be at least three outside directors and that the board chairman and the CEO should be different individuals in USA there are a lot of examples of CEO and chairman being the same individual, what is in author's opinion, can be one of the most crucial factors of top-managerial frauds).Apart from outside directors, separati on of the chairman and CEO positions can further enhance the independence of the board of directors. In Japan, most welfare of the keiretsu to which the company belongs. As previously discussed, managers capture residual control rights and thus have enormous discretion over how to run the company. But they own relatively little of the equity of the company they manage. To the extent that managers do not own equity shares, they do not have cash flow rights.Although managers run the company at their own discretion, they may not significantly benefit from the profit generated from their efforts and expertise. In the end of sees researches showed that the pay of American executives changes only by about $3 per every $1,000 change of shareholder wealth; executive pay is nearly insensitive to changes in shareholder wealth. This situation implies that managers may not be very interested in the minimization of shareholder wealth. This â€Å"gap† between managerial control rights and cash flow rights may enlarge the agency problem.When professional managers have small equity positions of their own in a company with diffused ownership, they have both power and a motive to engage in self-dealings. Aware of this situation, many companies provide managers with incentive contracts, such as stocks and stock options, in order to reduce this gap and align better the interests of managers with investors'. With the grant of stocks or stock options, managers can be given an incentive to run the company in such a way that enhances shareholder wealth as well as their own.Against this backdrop, incentive contracts for senior executives have become common among public companies in the United States. As will be shown in the second chapter of the paper, however, senior executives can abuse incentive contracts by artificially manipulating accounting numbers, sometimes with the connivance of auditors (for example, Arthur Andersen's involvement's with the Enron debacle), or by alte ring investment policies so that they can reap enormous personal benefits.It is thus important for the board of directors to set up an independent compensation committee that can carefully design incentive contracts for executives and regularly monitor their actions, and these incentives contracts should be composed in accordance to the characteristics of firm's operational activity, as will be demonstrated in the third part of the chapter. An effective way to mitigate an agency problem is to concentrate shareholdings. If one or a few large investors own significant portions of the company, they will have a strong incentive to monitor management.For example, if an investor owns 51 percent of the company, he or she can definitely control the management (he can easily hire or fire managers) and will make sure that shareholders' rights are respected in the conduct of the company's affairs. With concentrated ownership and high stakes, the free-rider problem afflicting small, atomistic s hareholders dissipates. In the United States and the United Kingdom, concentrated ownership of a public company is relatively rare. Elsewhere in the world, however, concentrated ownership is regularly implemented.In Germany, for example, commercial banks, insurance and other companies, even families often own significant blocks of company stock. Similarly, extensive cross-holdings of equities among keiretsu member companies and main banks are commonplace in Japan. Also in France, cross-holdings and â€Å"core† investors are common. In Asia and Latin America, many companies are controlled by founders or their family members. In China, the government is often the controlling ownership has a positive effect on a company's performance and value, examples of Japan and Germany.This suggests that large shareholders indeed play a significant governance role. Of particular interest here is the effect of managerial equity holdings. Previous studies suggest that there can be a nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership share and firm value and performance. Specifically, as the managerial ownership share increases, firm value may initially increase, since he interests of managers and outside investors become better aligned (thus reducing agency costs).But if the managerial ownership share exceeds a certain point, firm value may actually start to decline as managers become more entrenched. With larger shareholdings, for example, managers may be able to more effectively resist takeover bids and extract larger private benefits at the expense of outside investors. If the managerial ownership share continues to rise, however, the alignment effect may become dominant again. When managers are large shareholders, they do not want to rob themselves. To summarize, there can be an interim range† of managerial ownership share over which the entrenchment effect is dominant.Studies showed (Merck, Shellfire, and Vishnu) that the â€Å"entrenchment effect† is roughly dominant over the range of managerial ownership between 5 percent and 25 percent, whereas the â€Å"alignment effect† is dominant for the ownership shares less than 5 percent and exceeding 25 percent. A relationship between managerial ownership and firm value is likely to vary across countries. Although managers have discretion over how much of a dividend to pay to shareholders, debt does not allow such managerial discretion.If managers fail to pay interest and principal to creditors, the company can be forced into bankruptcy and its managers may lose their Jobs. Borrowing and the subsequent obligation to make interest payments on time can have a major disciplinary effect on managers, motivating them to curb private perks and wasteful investments and trim bloated organizations. In fact, debt can serve as a substitute for dividends by forcing managers to disgorge free cash flow to outside investors rather than wasting it.For firms with free cash flows, debt can be a s tronger mechanism than stocks for credibly bonding managers to release cash flows to investors. Excessive debt, however, can create its own problem. In turbulent economic conditions, equities can buffer the company against adversity. Managers can pare down or skip dividend payments until the situation improves. With debt, however, managers do not have such flexibility and the company's survival can be threatened. Excessive debt may also induce the risk-averse managers to forgo profitable but risky investment projects, causing an underinvestment problem.For this reason, debt may not be such a desirable governance mechanism for young companies with few cash reserves or tangible assets. In addition, companies can misuse debt to finance corporate empire building. Companies domiciled in countries with weak investor protection, such as Italy, Korea, and Russia, can bond themselves credibly to better investor protection by listing their stocks in countries with strong investor protection, such as the United States and the United Kingdom.In other words, foreign firms with weak governance mechanisms can opt to outsource a superior corporate governance regime available decision to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Since the level of shareholder protection afforded by the U. S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the NYSE is much higher than that provided in Italy, the action will be interpreted as signaling the company's commitment to shareholder rights. Then, investors both in Italy and abroad will be more willing to provide capital to the company and value the company shares more.Generally speaking, the beneficial effects from U. S. Listings will be greater for firms from countries with weaker governance mechanisms. Studies confirm the effects of cross-border listings. Specifically, Dodge, Karol, and Stall (2002) report that foreign firms listed in the United States are valued more Han those from the same countries that are not listed in the U nited States. They argue that firms listed in the United States can take better advantage of growth opportunities and that controlling shareholders cannot extract as many private benefits.It is pointed out, however, that foreign firms in mature industries with limited growth opportunities are not very likely to seek U. S. Listings, even though these firms face more serious agency problems than firms with growth opportunities that are more likely to seek U. S. Listings. In other words, firms with more serious problems are less likely to seek the remedies. Suppose a company continually performs poorly and all of its internal governance mechanisms fail to correct the problem. This situation may prompt an outsider (another company or investor) to mount a takeover bid.In a hostile takeover attempt, the bidder typically makes a tender offer to the target shareholders at a price substantially exceeding the prevailing share price. The target shareholders thus have an opportunity to sell the ir shares at a substantial premium. If the bid is successful, the bidder will acquire the control rights of the target and restructure the company. Following a successful takeover, the bidder often replaces the management team, divests some assets or divisions, and trims employment in effort to enhance efficiency.If these efforts are successful, the combined market value of the acquirer and target companies will become higher than the sum of stand-alone values of the two companies, reflecting the synergies created. The market for corporate control, if it exists, can have a disciplinary effect on managers and enhance company efficiency. In the United States and the United Kingdom, hostile takeovers can serve as a rustic governance mechanism of the last resort. Under the potential threat of takeover, managers cannot take their control of the company for granted. In many other countries, however, hostile takeovers are quite rare.This is so partly because of concentrated ownership in th ese countries and partly because of cultural values and political environments disapproving hostile corporate takeovers. But even in these countries, the incidence of corporate takeovers has been gradually increasing. This can be due, in part, to the spreading of equity culture and the opening and deregulation of capital markets. In Germany, for instance, takeovers are carried out through transfer of block holdings. In Japan, as in Germany, inter firm cross-holdings of equities are loosening, creating capital market conditions that are more conducive to takeover activities.To the extent that companies with poor investment opportunities and excess cash initiate takeovers, it is a symptom, rather than a cure, 1. 3. Different approach for different types of companies In the Journal of Financial and Strategic Decisions Robert L. Lippies wrote an article named â€Å"Agency conflicts, managerial compensation and firm variance†, where e described different situations where one type of managerial compensation would be more effective than others as a solution for an agency problem.The recent literature on agency conflicts between managers and shareholders is characterized by studies that test whether the implementation of incentive compensation schemes mitigate the manager-shareholder conflict. While these studies present evidence that incentives do influence managerial decision-making, no dominant class of incentives has been found. This finding is consistent with evidence that suggests firms must compensate according to their particular characteristics.The article of Robert Lippies will consider incentive compensation in relation to the manager's ability to increase the risk of future cash flows. In this context the relationship between compensation, risk taking, and managerial behavior can be evaluated. I would like to introduce some of his findings with short arguments. 1. Managers who receive a large portion of their total compensation in fixed wages will m ake efforts to reduce the variance of future cash flows. 2. Managers who receive a large portion of their total compensation in the form of fixed wages will have interests aligned to those of bondholders.Both wage and bond payoffs are negatively affected by increased dispersion because any values beyond these fixed claims are of no concern. This result implies that the interests of the manager and the bondholder become increasingly aligned as the manager's fixed wage increases. In the case of the pure fixed wage earner or pure bondholder, minimizing variance increases expected utility. Specifically, in this scenario, bondholders and wage earners have interests that are naturally aligned, and that is in direct conflict with the manager's role as an agent for the shareholders.The manager should consider bondholders interests to the extent that they impact the value of the firm but there should not be a direct alignment of interest between the manager and bondholders because this would violate the agency agreement between the shareholders and the manager and ultimately lower the value of common equity. Thus, the incentive compensation scheme must encourage the fulfillment of the principal-agent relationship. 3. Managers who receive a large portion of their total compensation in equity-related securities will make efforts to increase the variance of future cash flows. Managers who receive a large portion of their total compensation in equity-related securities will have interests aligned to those of shareholders. If the manager has significant control over the dispersion of firm values, the compensation scheme should reflect this fact by providing a lower fixed wage and more equity-related rewards. Of course, when the firm compensate its manager by equity-related reward, there is always a threat that the manager will manipulate with a price of shares, those manipulations may harm the real market value of the firm and may even lead to the firm's edge.If, however, t he manager has little control over the dispersion, a different type of remuneration package should be developed which limits the manager's exposure to risk which is beyond his control. 5. Managers of earning high wages will choose to hold larger amounts of the firm's equity-related securities. Assuming that a manager receives a wage, in case of high level of variance the manager should hold enough stock to offset any potential loss in wages.For example, if a firm is subject to large dispersions in value over which the manager has no control, the manager could hedge against a possible loss in wages by holding an mount of stock proportional to his wage claim. This wealth allocation would allow him to offset his potential loss of wages with potential capital gains. 6. Managers of stable firms who have little control over the dispersion of future cash flows and who earn high wages should receive fewer equity-related rewards from the firm.Clearly, if a manager has a little control over a firm's cash-flows, there is no need to connect his reward to the particular indexes of the firm, but as far as the firm is stable and has a lot of cash, it can allow high wage for its manager, what in turn is expected to be fair reward for the manger to prevent him from wrong-doings. 7. Firms which provide their managers with the ability to increase the dispersion of future cash flows should include more equity related rewards in the manager's compensation system. 8.The existence of compensation in the form of stock options lowers the incentive of managers to expropriate wealth from shareholders and increases the incentive to expropriate wealth from bondholders. While prior research has focused on managerial compensation and its motivational qualities; this model suggests that firm-specific characteristics relating o the propensity for firm variance and the degree of control that the manager has over this variance should be the fundamental determinants of managerial reward.In the s econd chapter of my paper various examples of agency problem will be presented, also how different aforementioned solutions were implemented for these examples will be analyzed and discussed. Chapter 2. Practical examples of agency problem's solution 2. 1. Good intentions usually backfire Executive loans. In the asses and early asses, loans by companies to executives with low interest rates and â€Å"forgiveness† often served as a form of compensation. Before ewe loans were banned in 2002, more than 30 percent of the 1500 largest US firms disclosed cash loans to executives in their regulatory filings, sum totaled $4. Billion, with the average loan being about $11 million. Half of these companies, charged no interest on executive loans, and half charged below market rates, and in either case the loans were often â€Å"forgiven†. An estimated $1 billion of the loans extended before 2002 (when they were banned) will eventually be forgiven, either while the executives are still at their companies or when they leave. For executives in companies that went bankrupt during the informational genealogy bubble collapse (when in the most of cases value of Internet-based or oriented companies could have been created by adding e- in front of their names or . Mom after), when investors lost of billions of dollars, this was very useful. According to the Financial Times, executives at the 25 largest US public firms that went bankrupt between January 2001 and August 2001 sold almost $3 billion worth of their companies' stock during that time and two preceding years as the collective shares fell by at least 75 percent, 25 had executives sell a total of â€Å"$23 billion before their stocks plummeted†.Large loans to executives were involved in more than a couple of these companies, one of the most notable being World. World loaned (directly or indirectly) hundreds of millions of dollars?approximately 20 percent of the cash on the firm's balance sheet?to its C EO Bernard Beers to help him pay off margin debt in his personal brokerage account. The loans were both unsecured and about half the normal interest rate a brokerage firm would have charged.World filed for bankruptcy a few months after the last loans were made. As a reaction to these scandals and clear frauds by top-management of huge impasses, the Serbians-Solely Act was passed in mid-2002 to improve financial disclosures from corporations and prevent accounting fraud, but also involved executive compensation. It banned loans by companies to directors and executives, also included the return of executive stock sale profit if overstating earnings will be revealed.Enron's compensation and performance management system was designed to retain and reward its most valuable employees, the system contributed to a dysfunctional corporate culture that became obsessed with short-term earnings to maximize bonuses. Employees constantly tried to start deals, often disregarding the laity of cash flow or profits, in order to get a better rating for their performance review, such actions helped ensure deal-makers and executives received large cash bonuses and stock options. The company was constantly emphasizing its stock price.Management was compensated extensively using stock options. This policy of stock option awards caused management to create expectations of rapid growth in efforts to give the appearance of reported earnings to meet Wall Street's expectations. At budget meetings, target earnings were developed on the basis â€Å"What earnings do you need to keep our stock price up? And that number would be used, even if it was not feasible. At December 31, 2000, Enron had 96 million shares outstanding as stock option plans (approximately 13% of common shares outstanding).Enron's proxy statement stated that, within three years, these awards were expected to be exercised. Using Enron's January 2001 stock price of $83. 13 and the directors' beneficial ownership reported i n the 2001 proxy, the value of director stock ownership was $659 million for the chairman of Enron Kenneth Lay, and $174 million for the CEO Jeffrey Killing. Employees had large expense accounts and many executives were paid moieties twice as much as competitors. In 1998, the top 200 highest-paid employees received $193 million from salaries, bonuses, and stock.Two years later, in 2000 the figure Jumped to $1. 4 billion. As we all know Enron had gone bankrupt on November 30, 2001, before that the price of Enron's share fell to 0,61 $, yet Just in the beginning of the year the CEO promised 2001 will be â€Å"their easiest year†. All in all we can conclude that pay-for-performance policy in combination with excessive stock- options for top-management result in shadowy deals and non-deliberated decisions on all levels of the company.