Israeli-Arabs Peace Negotiations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Israeli-Arabs Peace Negotiations - Essay Example Historically, Arabs and Israelis have usually met at the negotiating table when many conditions seem not well organized and when status quo seems more painful or dangerous than potential negotiated compromise (Laura & Neli 35). This implies that an internationally accepted format to resolve this conflict based on the international treaty has not yet been established. This, therefore, calls for a strategy where conflict management pattern should be applied. Successful negotiation requires leaders to identify one another considerably as politically capable of persuading their followers to accept whatever agreements they reach through bargaining process (Laura & Neli 78). Many times, one, two or all the people at the negotiating table have not had power to carry his or their side of the proposed deal. This has subjected officials, from both sides, to the damaging ends. This has been characterized by unofficial representations from their own camps making overtures to personalities leadin g to more disagreements. Currently, different strategies are being adopted to facilitate the peace negotiation process between Arabs and Israelis. For instance, the Oslo talks were conducted with the knowledge and blessings of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. In the 1993 accord, after the negotiation, Israel and Palestine agreed that the DOP should be followed by public gesture of mutual recognition of the state of Palestine and Israel (Laura & Neli 102). This was finalized with three letters dated September 9, 1993.

Compare Shopping Online with Traditional Shopping Essay Example for Free

Compare Shopping Online with Traditional Shopping Essay Traditional shopping is going directly to the physical stores and purchasing the items whereas online shopping is purchasing the items from merchants who sell on the Internet. Since the emergence of the World Wide Web, merchants have sought to sell their products to people who surf the Internet. Online Shopping is widely perceived as a cheaper and easier way of finding lower prices and bargains in most sectors. However, both online and traditional shopping media are synergy to one another and yet still have several similarities and differences. Shopping online gives the user the opportunity to search for the product they want through endless avenues. Shopping online could be a great option because it can be time effective especially for those who have a busy life style or are just too lazy to get up to go to the store. The world of online shopping can make it easier to price shop. Instead of having to drive from store to store looking at prices only to find that, the best price was at the first store, you could simply switch from window to window on your computer. Also with online shopping, you can have items delivered right to your door. In addition, there is always the possibility of having to pay shipping costs when shopping online. Many online stores that will ship within a certain area free but many times if you are located outside of the city or area you will need to pay immense shipping prices. Companies have been trying to improve this negative aspect of online shopping by making deals like â€Å"spend over $200.00 and get free shipping†, but not all sites offer these deals. Security is another concern when it comes to online shopping. With online shopping, there is no way for you to know if someone is stealing your data. You do not even know if you will actually get the items, you purchase. This renders online shopping a bit more unsecure. By shopping in a traditional store, you can avoid shipping costs because you can simply take your items home with you after you purchase them. Customers can purchase the products directly by making selections by watching, touching, smelling, tasting, etc. They are near and easily available to the customers. Therefore, they can get the items immediately. Customers can get numerous options to purchase anything at lower prices at any time. There is less confusion, because the customer shops directly from physical stores. Customers can save money by getting the products at lower prices and by getting discounts from local storeowners. Generally, storeowners give excellent discounts for regular customers. Shoppers can also compare prices in different stores so that he or she can purchase an item at a lower cost and with good quality. Shoppers can also visit many stores, so he or she has several choices to store in different stores. If the shopper is not satisfied with products in one store then he can move to another store and purchase. Traditional shopping can be a recreational activity and it can be exercise for shoppers. It is easy to return the product, if the customer gets the incorrect product or a damaged product. There is no worry about security, such as fraud and lack of privacy in online shopping. Online shopping has grown to new heights over the last decade and shows no signs of regressing. The internet has brought practically every store in the world to the fingertips of anyone with internet access. Online shopping has grown so large that many companies are not investing in buildings and mall space, but rather in online websites and web advertising. Traditional shopping does have its positives, in terms of reliability and safety. Though online shopping is a global phenomenon, traditional shopping will not evaporate any time soon. In concluding, it is important, as an individual, to research whether online shopping or traditional shopping is effective for you, as both have its own hindrances. Source: Amy, Nutt (2009). Traditional Vs Online Shopping. Retrieved November 28, 2012 from http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amy_Nutt Darrell, Rigby (2011). The Future of Shopping. Retrieved November 28,2012 from hbr.org/2011/12/the-future-of-shopping

Factors Effecting Erp Implementation In Smes Management Essay

Factors Effecting Erp Implementation In Smes Management Essay Information systems gained popularity as these automate all management related function that an organisation needed. Large organisations implement ERP information systems that integrate all data and processes together. With increase in popularity of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and their collaboration with large enterprises, SMEs needed an ERP system which at first can automate all of their business functions and secondly they can work with large enterprises. However their successful implementation in SMEs remains an issue. As SMEs are short of resources and financially weak so they need to install an ERP system successfully so that they can avoid chances of failure. For this reason this research has been conducted to critically analyse success factors of ERP adoption. Case studies will be selected and analysis has been made on them to find out the successful elements of their implementation. At last in conclusion a general frame work will be made to help SMEs to implement ERP system successfully. Background: Today the whole world has become a global village in which organisations are competing with each other to improve their productivity and generate profits. This is not generalised to only large organisations as it has been observed from last decade that small and medium size organisations are also taking part in this race (Chen, 2001). Organisations are moving fast to adopt a package that can help their management and functional needs. They require an Enterprise package that can fulfil their demands. ERP is the solution for the enterprises, in current case for small and medium size organisations. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) gained its popularity in 1990 as an integrated application. Its functionality is to integrate different functions together and provide a common database to users and departments, with many advantages more specific to reduced inventory and improved profits. ERP evolution starts in earlier 70s when manufacturing companies were using MPS (Master Production Schedule) technique. Function of this technique was to specify the end or finished product that is required in planning period. This type of technique only did the production and scheduling of final product. Whereas manufacturing organisations required not only final product planning but they also needed planning and scheduling of raw materials associated with that final product. Therefore firms obtained MRP (Material Requirement planning) that can differentiate between final product, its parts and raw material. This technique performed production planning and inventory control in the manufacturing p rocess. Basic functionality of this system was planning and scheduling of manufacturing process. This technique became popular and in 1980s MRP systems were expanded and MRP II was introduced, it was not only production planning technique but it also integrated primary functions like (production, finance and marketing etc) into planning process. Because of this technique popularity and effectiveness in planning and production process organisations tend to move to this technique. In 1990s MRP II was further expanded into ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). The main difference between ERP and MRP II is that ERP plans and schedule supplier resources by keeping customer service in mind (Chen, 2001 and Gupta, 2000). The purpose of the research is to identify success factors of ERP adoption in SMEs. Researches done in this area were deficient of some of the key points. From last couple of years research has been conducted to critically identify success factors of implementing ERP in SMEs. (Kale et al, 2010) did study in identifying success factors of Indian SMEs and their research was based on both qualitative and quantitative. (Snider et al, 2009) studied on five Canadian SMEs but some of their critical success factors lack cultural issues. (El Sawah et al, 2008) and (Woo, 2007) both did research in SMEs, in which they covered only one country and further they intended to enhance their research by taking more SMEs of different countries. (Woo, 2007) explained in study that if cultural differences were given then considered success factors can be same to case studies in China and case studies of Western organisation. (Doom et al, 2010) used Belgian SMEs to research success factors. (Muscatello et al. 2003) did their research on four US manufacturing companies but the companies they choose were linked to large organisations and had annual revenues more then SMEs .(Loh and Koh, 2004) carried out their research in UK and their target was SMEs, they conducted interviews and distributed questionnaires. Their research is found to be more competent as compared to others but still they did not cover demographic issues.(Yusuf et al, 2004) conducted their research on Rolls Royce and found out answers of few success factors. From above studies it is obvious that most of the work has been done in large organisation and little researches were carried out on SMEs. Although, those studies considered SMEs for the research but covered only one region and were short of justification that how success factors of some specific part of world could be implemented in rest of the world. Key issues in successful implementation of ERP Key issues are the problems that arise during the implementation process. There are lot of problems that can affect ERP implementation process in SMEs which are detailed as below (Chen, 2001). Cost is one of the main issues that can fail ERP implementation. As ERP package requires huge finances and companies fail to successfully implement ERP package so they find it difficult to continue with their project. To choose right ERP package is another issue that SMEs have to take into account before implementation. Hershey Food Corp accounts SAP for their failure so choosing right ERP package is a big issue. ERP in SMEs requires some time complex customization because it focuses mostly on corporate giants. So customization is another big issue that can effect ERP implementation. Another main issue is analysis, which projects are failure and which are successful. Project failure and success all depends on judgment and analysis. Fox Meyer as mentioned below, states that their ERP systems did not fulfil their functionality and they marked that project as failure. It is explained in detail in literature review section. Likewise some enterprises termed their project failure because of cost. Project can be termed as success if they meet these criteria. It should be delivered on time It should meet project cost The project should deliver the functionality which that organisation wants. Research aim and objectives The main aim of this study is to propose a frame work for effective implementation of ERP in SMEs. This requires in depth study of literature review and case studies to critically evaluate success factors. The research will be based on the following research question: What are the key issues and problems being faced in the successful implementation of the ERP in small and medium enterprises (SMEs)? To what extent the ERP software contributes to the success factors in SMEà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s? In order to answer the above stated research questions the following stages will have to be achieved: To review and carry out in depth analysis of literature review while focal point will be ERP adoption. Critically analyse and identify success factors from different case studies. Match and analyse success factors of literature review with the case studies Develop a frame work of success factors which can help in implementing ERP successfully for Small and medium size organisations regardless of their region and cultural issues. SMEs case studies will be taken who have generally less level of employees. Case studies will be taken from different regions so that more in depth analysis will be done and cultural and demographic issues will be covered in that. This point is explained in much more detail in method of analysis section. Companies who have successfully implemented ERP application will be considered. Literature review According to (Snider et al, 2009) ERP uses common online database whose functionality is to share common database among users and enterprise functions. ERP is an integrated information system that is composed of information system and managerial thinking. One of its core purposes is to integrate all the dependent and independent information systems together and optimise systems performance. ERP system comprises of a database which is online and shared, an application with an integrated interface which means different interfaces are incorporated into one interface. (AL Mashari et al, 2003). ERP achieved its level of popularity in large manufacturing enterprises in 1990s. Large enterprises implemented it to automate their functions and to integrate all processes and data together. On the other hand as SMEs were getting popularity so after implementing ERP systems in large organisations ERP vendors now moved towards SMEs. There are many factors that can encourage SMEs to accept ERP systems. Poston and Grabski (2001) believed there are certain factors that motivate SMEs to adopt ERP systems: It can reduce cost as computer systems increases the efficiency process It can make decision making process accurate. (Oliver and Romm, 2000) suggested these reasons for ERP adoption in SMEs: Data and processes integration Avoid critical business risk Improvement of ongoing business operations. ERP adoption in SMEs is a challenging task especially when cultural issues arise. Cultural issues can occur at organisational values, means it can impact organisational structure and management or at individual value where it can impact how job works and how employees will conduct themselves if they belong to certain culture. (Straub et al., 2001). Developing countries face many problems when they use western technologies from developed countries. ERP encapsulates best business reusable practices in it. For this reason it became a demanding technology that it can use (Sawah et al, 2008) outlined cultural issue to be an important factor responsible for high demand of ERP in SMEs. With these motivational factors that attract SMEs to adopt ERP there is terrible side of this adoption as well where many ERP enterprises fail to adopt ERP systems. Below mentioned are cases of large enterprises but small and medium size enterprises can learn lesson from them by not to adopt that type of implementation. Fox Meyer Drug, a multi billion pharmaceutical company which files for bankruptcy and they blamed ERP system for their down fall. In its case, problems in ordering system leaded as system generated excessive orders more than demand which lead company to down fall. Renowned companies like Dell scrap their mega expensive project as they found system inflexible for their business. These are not only two examples of ERP failures but many other companies like Hershey, Boeing, Dow chemical etc faced same situation (Chen, 2001). In all these companies ERP systems leaded to failure and this was due to not having proper planning before installation. Above mentioned companies a re all large organisations whereas in case of small and medium size organisations, these can not bear the cost of ERP systems failure. This leads this research to critically analyse and find out the success factors in ERP adoption so that SMEs can avoid these failures. Difference Between SMES and Large enterprises: Significant amount of differences can be noticed between large and SME organisations. SMEs have informal structure and culture, their top management are found to be involved in day to day activities (Mintzberg et al., 2003,) while large organisations have structured departments and processes and their top management is not involved in daily activities (Buonanno et al, 2005). At the same time SMEs have limited resources in terms of research development, finance, human resource with limited clients and operates only in small scale (Kale et al, 2010). Due to these limited resources they find it difficult to implement projects that can be reengineered (Mc Adam, 2002). Besides these limited resources they are generating profit very well and for this reason many multinational companies in recent years collaborated with SMEs which have ERP systems installed in them. This collaboration made SMEs to adopt ERP package so that they can operate in parallel with these organisations (Rao, 2000). The major factor which can affect SMEs more as compared to large organisation is the cost as their limited resources donà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t allow them to bear high cost of implementation. This is one of the main reasons that SMEs do not want implementation to be unsuccessful. Large organisation can somehow bear the cost as large number of stakeholders bank credits etc but SMEs do not have enough resources. (Mabert et al, 2003). This research is conducted so that it can help SMEs to implement ERP successfully. Proposed research method Most of the researches conducted are in large organisations and only few of them were for SMEs. Out of these researches some used only one case study while some used different case studies and their research method remained different as well because they used questionnaires and interviews to find out success factors. After brain storming and critically analysing previous literature review I decided to use the case study approach. For this reason I decided to identify critical success factors in SME while using multiple case studies. (Stuart et al, 2002) suggested that using case study is the best approach when previous research does not find to be inline with new context while taking multiple case studies can provide even more in depth analysis and portray clear picture of critical analysis(Snider et al, 2009). In case of our research qualitative analysis will be used. First thorough literature review will be studied by means of online journals, electronic books etc. It will help to find previous critical success factors of ERP adoption in SMEs. To give practical edge to research eight different case studies will be searched and from them critically analysis will be done to find out success factors of successfully implementing ERP project. These case studies are selected with relevance to the project title and literature review. They will provide in depth analysis of ERP adoption success factors. With the help of literature review and case studies a framework will be formed of successfully implementing ERP project. Method of analysis For this research case study analysis will be used. Data will be collected from previous research that has been done in this sector and also from small and medium size enterprises that have implemented their ERP application successfully. Case studies will be collected from different parts of the world so that no demographic issues can affect our final framework of success full factors. Then final analysis will be done in between success factors of United Kingdom and rest of the world case studies to observe how much variation is there if different regions are selected. This will be the final analysis and framework of the critical success factors. Research Limitations: This study is limited to small and medium size organisations and in some cases some arguments can be taken from the large organization in order to clarify them. This research is self explanatory as it focuses in ERP adoption system of SMEs. In addition to this study concludes with the framework of ERP critical success factors which if SMEs follows can lead their implementation to success. A provisional Timetable Gantt Chart

Industrialization - Economic Change and Effect :: European Europe History

Industrialization - Economic Change and Effect Since the 19th century, industrialization has had positive and negative effects on the live of workers. Industrialization is the process of modernization and mass production of most goods. This also includes but not limited to mining and the forging of iron. An area where industrialization had a massive effect was in Eastern Europe. It emerged as a need to modernize and unify Europe. Although Britain led industrialization at first, it quickly exploded from Spain all the way through Russia. Early in the industrial revolution Britain stood alone as the world's industrial giant. To protect its head start Britain placed strict laws monitoring the exportation of inventions. Then in 1807 a British mechanic William Cockerill, opened factories in Belgium for the manufacturing of spinning and weaving machines. Belgium thus became the first European nation to industrialize. By the mid 1800s, other nations had joined the race, and several newcomers were challenging Britain's industrial supremacy. The effects of industrialization were especially obvious in Germany. By the late 1800's Germany had setup a standard for chemical and electric companies worldwide. Germany was second only to Britain among the European powers. Germany spectacular growth was due to the ample amount of iron and coal resources in the area. A disciplined and educated work force also helped the economy, while a rapid growing population provided a huge home market and a highly skilled work force. It almost eliminated the poverty factor in Germany due to the vast availability of employment. But along with the attributions of industrialization also came the bad. Poor work place conditions lead to work place abuses. Workers were forced to work long hours for little pay and even children were abuses during this time. Some of the abuses were children as young as 7 could be seen in work places, sexual discrimination was present. Women were often hired in factories because they could be paid less then men. And pollution was also a serious problem. These were among the most common problems of the time and these were too often seen in most if not all the work places. Workers were outraged by these abuses and how the government, at the time, did nothing to help. Workers established unions and won the right to bargain with employers for better wages and hours. And eventually the government passed laws regulating the employment of children and set safety regulations in the work place.

Insomnia and Dreaming

For the occurrence of dreams, an uninterrupted period of sleep is needed. So if the quality of sleep declines, the dream recall frequency will decline as well. As experiments shown us, people of mood disorder and depression have a reduced dream recall frequency. Also people having Apnea and increased daytime sleepiness, CNS and PLM will have the same results which are a decline of sleep quality and a reduced dream recall frequency. Insomnia is the most frequent, it is considered as a symptom and it is a subjective dissatisfaction with sleep, also difficulty with sleep initiation and sleep maintenance. The stages may look like this, increased sleep latency, increased awakenings and arousals, decreased sleep efficiency, increased time of wake after sleep onset, decreased total sleep time, decreased rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) and decreased deep sleep in stages 3 and 4. A study on 289 people have showed over a 6 year period in the life of the experiment, that there is a comparison between individuals reporting insomnia to those reporting no insomnia. Those reporting were 141 and those none reporting were 148 individual. The only difference was in the nightmare recall frequency that was found higher in the insomnia group. Also this finding took into consideration people taking medications and those who were not taking any sort of medication inside the reporting insomnia group. A decrease in dream recall was shown; a decline in dream recall is recorded with disordered sleep. Those with sleep latency more than 30 minutes reported a decline in dream recall. As for sleep effiency the groups with a higher percentage (85%) had more dream recall frequency than others. Individuals with a WASO (wake after sleep onset), of higher than 60 minutes had a lower dream recall than others. Also stages 3 and 4 showed a significant decline for the group reporting insomnia. As a result, people with 360 minutes of continuous sleep have an increased nightmare and dream recall. As a conclusion, dreaming requires a minimum quality of continuous sleep. People reporting insomnia has lower levels of dream and nightmare recalls. I can not say that I had a personal experience in insomnia. But surely I saw close people in my family having this problem. When I used to live in my grandparents house, I used to notice how my uncle would wake up in the middle of the night after slept for a maximum of an hour. He used to walk around the house for a while, than take out his collection games that he used to build and try to reshape them. He would do this for a couple of hours before returning to bed. I might say that I noticed how he would wake up in a bad mood. Also when he was asked to remember certain events and details it would take him a while. I think his changeable mood as a result of sleeping for a very limited number of hours may have affected his way of thinking. Also I noticed how he would sleep for several hours during the day to compensate the lost sleepless nights. As a direct effect, my uncle started taking bad decisions in his field of work and was finally advised to see a physician. These days after seeing the difference I realized that I was right in describing his insomnia at the time. Reference: Pagel, J. F. 1,3; Shocknesse, Shannon 2 (1)University of Colorado School of Medicine and Director, Sleep Disorders Center of Southern Colorado, Pueblo, Colorado (2)Rocky Mountain Sleep, Pueblo, Colorado Dreaming and Insomnia: Polysomnographic Correlates of Reported Dream Recall Frequency. [Article] Dreaming. 17(3):140-151, September 2007.

Electric Cars essays

Electric Cars essays The Constitution of the United States of America contains the basic rights of citizens of this country. There is, perhaps, no right more controversial than the First Amendment in the Constitution, first introduced on December 15, 1791. The First Amendment states, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances(1st Amendment, Internet). Due to the indecisiveness of this Amendment, arguments over the interpretation of the words written by the founding fathers have flourished for years. One of the main arguments that has arisen over the years is over the interpretation of what is meant by free speech and free press. While this argument has stemmed off in many directions, one of the most recent and heated debates is over the governments ability to censor material to the public. Some of the major forms of censorship occur in television, music, literature, and most recently, the Internet. Censorship has taken place in various forms since the earliest rulers existed. These earliest forms of censorship existed through a leader of some sort trying to keep his people from saying bad things about him. This censorship, while fairly undocumented, has taken place in various governments throughout time in most areas of the world. While censorship today has taken a different form in the United States, the same basic principles have remained the same. Censorship is basically an attempt by the government to limit what the public sees, hears, or absorbs. I believe that all forms of censorship are basically a violation of the basic First Amendment right that so many people take for granted. Some limit must be put on the ability of the government to censor any kind of...

Princess Alexandria Victoria essays

Princess Alexandria Victoria essays Princess Alexandria Victoria was born on May 24,1819 to the duke and duchess of Kent. Unfortunately the duke passed away shortly after her birth. Therefore victories upbringing was left in the hands of her mother, who had her own interest in mind. Victorias uncle died and she took over the thrown at the legal age of eighteen. On June 20,1837 Lord Chamberland told Victoria of her uncles death. (Ibscom.com) At the time Victoria and her mother were living at Kenningston palace. Victoria Knew that a great responsibility had fell into her hands and she had a lot to learn. Queen Victorias first Prime Minister Lord Melbourne educated her in politics and Government. (World book). Victoria was later crowned in Westminster Abbey on June 28, 1839 (St. John Neville p.7) Soon after Victoria was crowned Queen she married her cousin Prince Albert of saxe-coburg-gotha, The agreements took place on Febuary10.1890 at the chapel royal, St.James place. (St John Neville. P.17) Victorias reign of sixty three years and seven months was the longest reign of any British monarch. ( St.John NervilleP.7) Not only did the population have a 50% increase but the local government also became mainly democratic. Not only did Queen victories family love her but the people of her kingdom loved her too. Great explorers name a city, lake, and desert after the Queen to show their appreciation of her wonderful term as Queen. Victoria became the empress of India in 1876 she ruled the largest empire the world had known. (St. John. P 17). Several years pasted by and Victoria was completely devastated by Albert death, which occurred on December 14, 1861. Queen Victoria was so heart broken by her husbands death that she stayed out of the social atmosphere unless she had to go out for a special occasion. When the Queen Did make an appearance into the public eye they could tell that...

The Age of Pericles and Periclean Athens

The Age of Pericles and Periclean Athens The Age of Pericles refers to part of the Classical Age of Greece, when the dominant polis- in terms of culture and politics- was Athens, Greece. Most of the cultural wonders that we associate with ancient Greece come from this period. The Dates of the Classical Age Sometimes the term Classical Age refers to the entire expanse of ancient Greek history, from the archaic period, but when used to distinguish one era from the next, the Classical Age of Greece begins with the Persian Wars (490-479 B.C.) and ends with either the empire-building or the death of the Macedonian leader Alexander the Great (323 B.C.). The Classical Age is followed by the Hellenistic Age that Alexander ushered in. Besides war, the Classical era in Athens, Greece, produced great literature, philosophy, drama, and art. There is a single name that signifies this artistic period: Pericles. The Age of Pericles (in Athens) The Age of Pericles runs from the middle of the 5th century to either his death at the start of the Peloponnesian War or the end of the war, in 404. Pericles as Leader While he was not a king or dictator in charge of Athens, Greece, Pericles was the foremost statesman of Athens from 461-429. Pericles was repeatedly elected to be one of the 10 strategoi (generals). Aspasia of Miletus Pericles was strongly influenced by Aspasia, a female philosopher and courtesan from Miletus, who lived in Athens, Greece. Because of a recent citizenship law, Pericles couldnt marry a woman who wasnt born in Athens, so he could only cohabit with Aspasia. Pericles Reforms Pericles introduced payment for public offices in Athens. Pericles Building Projects Pericles initiated the building of the Acropolis structures. The Acropolis was the high point of the city, the original fortifiable area before the city of Athens expanded. Temples topped the Acropolis, which was behind the Pnyx  hill where the assembly of the people gathered. Pericles preeminent building project was the Parthenon  (447-432 B.C.), on the Acropolis. The famed Athenian sculptor Pheidias, who was also responsible for the chryselephantine  statue of Athena, supervised this project. Ictinus and Callicrates served as architects for the Parthenon. Delian League Pericles is credited with moving the treasury of the Delian League to Athens, Greece, and using its money to rebuild the Acropolis temples that the Persians had destroyed. This was an abuse of the treasury funds. The money was supposed to be for the  defense of Athens and its Greek allies. Other Famous Men in the Classical Age Besides Pericles, Herodotus the father of history and his successor, Thucydides, and the 3 famous Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides lived during this period. There were also renowned philosophers like Democritus during this period, as well as sophists. Drama and philosophy flourished. The Peloponnesian War But then the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431. It lasted for 27 years. Pericles, along with many others, died of an undetermined plague during the war. The plague was especially deadly because people were crowded together within the walls of Athens, Greece, for strategic reasons connected with the war. Historians of the Archaic and Classical Period HerodotusPlutarchStraboPausaniasThucydidesDionorus  SiculusXenophonDemosthenesAeschinesNeposJustin Historians When Greece Was Dominated by the Macedonians DiodorusJustinThucydidesArrian fragments of Arrian found in PhotiusDemosthenesAeschinesPlutarch

Does sildenafil citrate reduce the natural rate of follicular atresia Essay

Does sildenafil citrate reduce the natural rate of follicular atresia in luteal phase - Essay Example The research findings demonstrated different effects on the basis of the amount of follicles and sildenafil citrate, duration and intervals applied on the patients during menstruation, which also endorses the certain impacts of sildenafil on AFC. The study elaborates the reason behind subfertility affecting approximately 10% of the couples (Beurskens et al., 1995), and discusses the ovarian characteristics and challenges. According to the study, human ovary carries ~7*10 non-growing follicles, which declines with growing years, leading to menopause ultimately (Faddy & Gosden, 1966). The research has also elaborated the follicular dynamics and their role during menstruation. Moreover, follicular apoptosis, survival factors, endocrine and paracrines factors, and angiogenesis have always been evaluated by elucidating their relationship with subfertility and blood flow. The study has specifically discussed the follicular survival factors in details by drawing out their association with the entire fertility and pregnancy phenomena, including the comprehensive outlook of DNA in fertility and during pregnancy. Furthermore, the notion sildenafil, its mechanism of action, (PDE 5 inhibitor) as well as sildenafil’s role as an an tiapoptotic agent has been an essential part of the study. Sildenafil citrate has turned out to be a highly effective factor with regards to fertility, where there could be noticed significant ovarian response in the wake of applying sildenafil to the patients undergoing subfertility. In addition, three-dimensional ultrasound, its comparison with two-dimensional sono AVC, and its extra advantages have also been ascertained by paying heed to ultrasound technique and its necessity during research process and treatment of patients as well. Despite the reality that sono AVC contains several benefits in its nature and scope,

Arguing to Persuade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arguing to Persuade - Essay Example Argument to persuasion invites more use of language resources than argument to persuade (Caine 54). A persuasive paper intends to use logic and reasoning to convince others abandon their stands and beliefs and be conformed to the writers views). In this regard, this writing prior to preparation is necessary. There are stipulated steps that, if followed would result to a high performing persuasive paper. To begin with, an author should choose a certain stand (Wachob 34). Before one embarks on convincing others about his point of view, he or she must be sure of what he or she believes. Understanding and analyzing the audience follows; after this, the writer must delve into serious research on the topic. This enables one form concrete decisions, explanations to every statement and also boosts personal confidence and esteem. It is also in this level that one understands the failures of former works in the topic and develops mechanisms to counter them. The research on the topic also helps indentify reliable and legitimate sources of information and experts on the same. From the research plane, one is to develop a hypothesis, a proposition, a claim on the topic. The hypothesis should be debatable, carry with it two opposing ends. One can resort to having a thesis that stands against his or her stand, doing this ensures that the claim is debatable. The next move is to try and extrapolate possible refutations against your stand. This stage can be meant to do two things, prepare one psychologically to defend his or her stand and prepare answers to the refutations citing legitimate and available evidences (Forsyth 23). The next point is to provide concrete reasons for a particulate stand. This can be done by providing evidences by the use of facts, statistics from dependable sources and by the use of illustrations and examples. There are elements of a good persuasive writing. There should be order of how things get presented. This allows a clear flow of information witho ut conflicting of ideas, facts and truths. To start with is the introduction of the paper. This part gives an oversight of the paper and should not to be too lengthy. Terminologies in the topic of the paper should be defined and be explained at this point. Explanation of the background of the paper can also be given in the introduction (Caine 64). In the end of introduction, the claim should be introduced in a clear and precise way. The thesis can tell the reader the actual topic of the paper and the organization of the paper After introduction and having stated the thesis, the next thing in line is defending the thesis by providing evidences. This happens in the body of the paper and should take a minimum of three paragraphs. The thesis carries the whole paper. At this point, it is healthy to have the extrapolated refutations in the fingertips so as to start countering them from the very first defense. The paragraphs should also be arranged in accordance with the weight of the evid ences, starting from the beast to the least. The last statement of the paragraph should also be able to link with the next paragraph in a manner that embraces a perfect flow of information. (Wachob 39) After a perfect statement of the writers evidences, the paper should proceed to a new paragraph or segment that purely focuses on refutations. Since the writer communicates through writing, he or she is denied the chance of getting

Career Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Career Speech - Essay Example The general practitioner may attend deliveries and in most cases is the primary provider of parental care. In other words, the family doctor provides comprehensive medical services including counseling and general medical care to a family or individual without regard to gender and age. At work, the family practitioner examines patients, executes various tests, analyses and diagnoses their conditions and prescribes medications or treatment (Careers.org, 2010). Compared to general practitioners, family practice physicians generally have broader training. By training, a family doctor must complete a residency in medicine (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). To become a practitioner, one must attend four years in college and medical school which usually takes four years. Further one must be an intern for at least one year before undertaking specialized training in family medicine for two years. Family practitioners in many cases work in clinics or small private offices. Closely related to this profession are others like general practice, nursing, medicine, Osteopathy and veterinary medicine. In order to join this noble profession, aspiring practitioners must be self motivated, have the desire to serve sick people, able to withstand long hours and a lot of pressure at work (Careers.org, 2010). Like it happens with numerous other professions, it is advisable to seek board certification and registration as a family practitioner with recognized professional bodies. Practitioners’ wages vary depending on several factors like it happens in other fields. In the United States, for example, one may typically make between 120,000 USD and 190,000 USD in a year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2010). In the United Kingdom, family doctors may make between  £50,000 and  £175,000 on average. On top of the hefty pay family practitioners receive, they are always

Factor effecting staff turnover in hsbc call centre(uk)and how it is Essay - 1

Factor effecting staff turnover in hsbc call centre(uk)and how it is effected & related with job satisfaction of employee - Essay Example To improve the competitive position, banks used cost-cutting weapons. They streamlined their processes, shifted back-office operations, boosted workforce productivity and tried to use as much as information technology as possible. Banks rate managing customer experience as the most important factor of success (Wisskirchen et al., 2006). Call centers are expected to give them this competitive edge. Call centers are the perfect embodiment of the ‘new’ service oriented economy (Moriset, 2004). Call centers use the latest technology and thus enable a day’s work to be done in an hour. These employees are often compared to the workers on the shop floor of a manufacturing unit. Call centers in any nation follow the same technique and have the same attributes. They usually have very flat management structures which provide very little scope for career advancement. Job satisfaction is call centers is very low which accounts for attrition and high turnover in the industry. There is a strong relationship between job satisfaction and staff turnover. If employees are satisfied and their needs are met, it can limit staff turnover. Job satisfaction has been defined as an attitudinal state which reflects all the affective feelings that a person has about the job, cite Biggs and Swailes (2006). This includes growth, pay, co-workers and supervisors that contribute towards satisfaction in varying degrees. The level of satisfaction differs across permanent workers and the agency workers. Many call centers appoint agency workers so that the parent employer does not have the responsibility of the staff. Permanent employees become de-motivated when their organization uses agency staff but agency workers are used to prevent layoffs and their commitment to organization is much lower than the permanent employees. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggests that the basic physiological needs have to be met first before a person can look ahead. Only when the basic needs are

Nursing Theory Website Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Nursing Theory Website Paper - Essay Example An example was the theory by smith that contradicted the child as the client. she was a nursing theorist who was a veteran in the development of theories that concerned nursing. However, the goal attainment theory is the most popular being featured in major nursing theories. The site that delineates the particulars of the theory is the most accessible. The subject matter is also broader than that of Casey’s model (Imogene, 1987). Most of the nursing books have also come into existence after the advent of the goal attainment theory. Nevertheless, the theories have borrowed from the theory. Books that are reaching the market after the theory include `Imogene King’s nursing theory by Varghese and the Helvie theory books by Carl Helvie. The theorist still serves as an American licensed nurse and also a professor of Nursing at Old Dominion University. The site for her theory is well updated and easy to locate while surfing the web. On the other hand, the site is peculiar in that the theory bases the argument on primary findings from research carried out to peasant persons and consequent education and practice (Jarrà ­n, 2007). Books written after the theory are by people such as Julia B George, Melanie McEwen and Evelyn M Wills. Their books are also readily available and provide good

Financial Projections Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Financial Projections - Essay Example These marketing researches provide decision makers ins and out of customers in the market, how would they behave towards the products and services offered by the business, what would be the demand for the offered products and services once the marketing campaigns are incorporated (Gorla et al., 2010; Hersey & Clanchard, 1969). Once the strategic targets that organizations tend to achieve are identified, organizations then line up their resources to achieve those targets. This is the reason that marketing research plays an important role in financial projections as it enables decision makers to identify the set of product development efforts and marketing tactics required to make the offered product a success story (Handlechner, 2008). Marketing is also involved in financial projection as the decision makers develop projections to be achieved in the next in such a manner that it motivates shareholders and external investors to provide more financial strength to the company. The added financial strength is then invested on further product development and improvement

Factor effecting staff turnover in hsbc call centre(uk)and how it is Essay - 1

Factor effecting staff turnover in hsbc call centre(uk)and how it is effected & related with job satisfaction of employee - Essay Example To improve the competitive position, banks used cost-cutting weapons. They streamlined their processes, shifted back-office operations, boosted workforce productivity and tried to use as much as information technology as possible. Banks rate managing customer experience as the most important factor of success (Wisskirchen et al., 2006). Call centers are expected to give them this competitive edge. Call centers are the perfect embodiment of the ‘new’ service oriented economy (Moriset, 2004). Call centers use the latest technology and thus enable a day’s work to be done in an hour. These employees are often compared to the workers on the shop floor of a manufacturing unit. Call centers in any nation follow the same technique and have the same attributes. They usually have very flat management structures which provide very little scope for career advancement. Job satisfaction is call centers is very low which accounts for attrition and high turnover in the industry. There is a strong relationship between job satisfaction and staff turnover. If employees are satisfied and their needs are met, it can limit staff turnover. Job satisfaction has been defined as an attitudinal state which reflects all the affective feelings that a person has about the job, cite Biggs and Swailes (2006). This includes growth, pay, co-workers and supervisors that contribute towards satisfaction in varying degrees. The level of satisfaction differs across permanent workers and the agency workers. Many call centers appoint agency workers so that the parent employer does not have the responsibility of the staff. Permanent employees become de-motivated when their organization uses agency staff but agency workers are used to prevent layoffs and their commitment to organization is much lower than the permanent employees. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggests that the basic physiological needs have to be met first before a person can look ahead. Only when the basic needs are

Financial Projections Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Financial Projections - Essay Example These marketing researches provide decision makers ins and out of customers in the market, how would they behave towards the products and services offered by the business, what would be the demand for the offered products and services once the marketing campaigns are incorporated (Gorla et al., 2010; Hersey & Clanchard, 1969). Once the strategic targets that organizations tend to achieve are identified, organizations then line up their resources to achieve those targets. This is the reason that marketing research plays an important role in financial projections as it enables decision makers to identify the set of product development efforts and marketing tactics required to make the offered product a success story (Handlechner, 2008). Marketing is also involved in financial projection as the decision makers develop projections to be achieved in the next in such a manner that it motivates shareholders and external investors to provide more financial strength to the company. The added financial strength is then invested on further product development and improvement

I.C.T In Our Society Essay Example for Free

I.C.T In Our Society Essay This report is about how ICT has affected us as a society. For example, for entertainment purposes like games consoles, communication purposes such as mobile phones, storage purposes such as storing music on a CD or for social purposes such as email. E-mail The first thing I will look at will be email. With email you can quickly talk to friends, work colleagues, basically anyone who has an email address. I have two email accounts, one at home provided by hotmail, which is useful because I can log-on to it anywhere via the Internet. I also have one at school provided by Solihull L.E.A, which I can only access at school; both have a unique log-on I.D and password. With my personal account (hotmail) I can choose a unique login I.D and password when I register, providing it ends with @hotmail.com. With my school account I can only choose the password. As a student my school account is free and I get absolutely no junk mail thanks to the junk-mail filter and I can receive emails from anyone. The L.E.A also scans every email for anything suspicious such as files containing viruses; if one of these are found then the L.E.A will not let the email through. Email is useful and easy and is an efficient way to contact my friends and relatives. If I want to get in touch with several people in one email I simply put a semi-colon in between each persons email address. If I want to get in touch with several people, email is one of the easiest ways to do so. I can set up an address book which means I could email everyone in that address book at once, also by setting up an address book I dont have to remember everyones email address and it helps me stop making mistakes. Workers in offices usually have email accounts open all day, which means if they receive an email the response time is very quick. The problem with email is that if the inbox becomes full I couldnt receive any more emails until I had deleted some of my old ones. Pictures take up a lot of space and some pictures can be too big to send in the first place. Say for instance I had done a word document in history on Hitler and the Nazis, I may want to carry on with it at home but when I come to send it, I cant because I have too many pictures on there that take up space. Also if someone doesnt have broadband than it could take a long time to attach a document or presentation to an email and even with broadband it could take a long time depending on the size of the file. A good thing about most email accounts is that they are free but then I get a lot of adverts and pop-ups. If email companies are going to give people free email then they need to get the money from somewhere to make sure they can afford the payment of the site, this is where the adverts and pop-ups come in, other companies pay companies such as hotmail to put their adverts and pop-ups on their websites hence hotmail can pay for the upkeep of the site. I can set up a filter on my email account so that I only receive emails from people in my address book. The problem is though that before I can receive emails from someone I need to add them to my address book and if someone changes their email I need to edit my address book. The alternatives to email are fax, which can be quick but can cost a lot of money, or text that is quick so long as the other person has their phone on; you also need signal and credit, which can be a problem. Both can be useful if email is not available, but when compared to the quickness and the fact that email is basically free, email is the best thing to use. To conclude, email is useful to communicate with people no matter where they are in the world mostly free of cost, which means it can be better than a mobile phone or fax but due to the time difference between countries, there is no guarantee that they will receive the email in the time you need them to see it. Entertainment The next thing I will look at will be the entertainment side of ICT and for this I will look at games consoles. There is a lot of competition at the moment between the PS2 made by Sony, the Gamecube made by Nintendo and the Xbox made by Microsoft. People use games consoles for 3 main purposes; the first is single player use where the player simply plays the game on their own trying to complete the game. The second is multiplayer use where two or more people can play on one console and either try to complete the game cooperatively or go against each other in different game types. The third is online play, which has only recently taken off since broadband became so popular. At the moment there is no prospect for online play on the Gamecube but Xbox and PS2 have successful online play. Players who want to play online need broadband to play because dial-up cant handle the speed that is required. The Xbox online play is called Xbox Live and players make an account for à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½40 a year and can make a list of friends and whenever their friends are online they can join them and play with them. The problem is that if two friends want to play together they both need the same game and both need to be online. Also, if broadband is no t available then people cant play online. I use an Xbox and play Xbox Live quite often. I have experienced problems though, for example my broadband router had broken and I couldnt go on Xbox Live until I got it fixed, also the Xbox Live service had not responded which again meant that I couldnt use the service. The other problem is that paedophiles are able to use the service so you never know if the person you are talking to is being genuine or not. People also use games consoles for watching DVDs but this has only become available in the newer consoles. With the Xbox you can also put a CD into the Xbox and save it to the integrated hard disk and can then play the CDs while your playing a game. Again this is technology that has only recently been introduced. Another type of entertainment is digital TV. Originally TV and radio used analogue signals but over the past few years more and more digital radios and digital TVs have become available. A digital signal is basically a TV or radio signal that is computerised and has to be decoded at the receiving end in order to watch digital TV or listen to virtually crystal clear music on a radio. Digital television (DTV) allows you to receive digital transmissions from different TV stations that have installed digital transmitters and record their programmes using equipment that can handle digital signals. With DTV you can enjoy excellent quality pictures and clear sound. But all good things come at a price and in order to watch Digital TV you must buy either a digital TV adaptor for an existing TV, which will cost about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½100, or you can buy a new integrated DTV television set known as a iDTV for about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500. I use Digital TV because I have Sky Digital. It is a good quality picture and good sound and also doesnt cost too much at approx à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20 a month. I have a digibox, which is basically a small box on top of or underneath the TV and the signal comes through a Sky dish on the side of my house. The signal is then transferred to the digibox and I can watch the channel I want on my TV. There are a lot of channels on Sky and I only have a few of them. There are also movie channels which show movies 24/7 on about 12 different channels, and sport channel which shows sport 24/7 on about 15 different channels, but to have all these channels can cost over à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50 a month. The disadvantage comes when there is bad weather. In heavy rain the signal often gets interrupted which means that either no signal is received or a very poor signal is received. As in a thunderstorm, the signal gets interrupted and no signal can be received. Other problems can be if the station I am receiving the picture from is experiencing technical problems no signal can be received. Most of the time though the quality is good and there is no problem. A revolutionary new technology that Sky has introduced is called Sky plus. With this you get a new digibox and Sky plus allows you to pause live TV, record shows and watch them later without the use of a VCR. You can even rewind live TV if you want to watch something again, such as a good goal in a football match. If you do stop or rewind then a little counter comes up on screen that tells you how far behind the live TV you are, then by simply pressing play on the remote control you can carry on watching from where you paused it or you can just go back to the live TV by pressing the sky button. This is technology that has only recently been introduced and costs an extra à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 on top of whatever sky package you already have. Storage Media There are a lot of different types of Storage Media. Originally data was stored on floppy disks but space was limited and the disks were quite large. Consequently there soon became a need for more and more space to store things on. Floppy disks could only hold 1.4mb of data but then zip drives became available which could hold different amounts of data, the maximum of which was 250mb. The disadvantage of this was that you couldnt put the disk straight into your computer. You had to buy a zip drive which either connected to the computer through USB or you could plug it straight into the computer. This was only a short- term solution and demand came for more and more space. The answer was compact disks, known as CDs for short. Originally designed to hold music, CDs could hold up to 700mb of data, an ideal source for storing data. Nowadays computers are fitted with CD-Rewriters (CD-RW), which can store music on a CD, make a copy of a CD, or just store es.here are currently two types of disks available they are: CD-Record (CD-R) this can only have files or music stored on it once and then you cant add or take anything off the CD. CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) this can have music or files stored on it as many times as you want. If you add something and feel you want to add more, you can easily do this. You can now get a DVD type disk. These can hold much more data than normal CDs but they do cost more and will not work on some older computers. I usually use CD-R to store music because CD-RW does not work on some CD players, which can be a problem. If I want to store data on a CD however I usually use a CD-RW as most computers can read these and I can always add more data at a later stage. Businesses use CD-RW on their computers because if they have data that they want everyone in the office to have, then they can simply put the data on a CD and make numerous copies of it. They can then give everyone in the office a copy of the CD. At school we use CD-RW. For example, in the ICT course, the school wanted us each to have two CDs. They had the two CDs they wanted and then copied them and gave everyone doing the ICT course a copy to take home. The CDs had useful software and information on that I will use while doing the ICT course. The obvious disadvantage to storing data or music on CDs is that if the CD becomes full then no more data can be put onto the CD. If you want to put a PowerPoint presentation and a word document on a CD then the presentation may take up a lot, maybe even all, the space. This will depend on the content and how many pictures it has on it. If the presentation does take up all the space then there wont be enough room for the word document and that would mean you would have to use another CD. That would be an inconvenient because you would have to carry two CDs around. The alternative to CDs is email but the amount of data that can be sent by email can be limited. Also the person who needs the information may not have access to a computer. Another alternative is to print all the information on paper and post it to the person who needs it. Communication Mobile phones are everywhere these days and virtually everyone has got one. Mobile phones used to be much larger than they are now and were a big inconvenience to carry around, as they couldnt just fit into your pocket like the mobile phones of today. Only wealthy businessmen owned them, as they were expensive to both use and buy. As with all things, over time they got smaller and smaller and now they can be very small and more and more people have them. They are even regarded as a necessity to young people. People dont just use mobile phones for calling other people though. Texting has become a very popular way to communicate, especially amongst the younger generation. There are two main types of message; Short Message Service (SMS) this is the most common use of texting and one of the most useful. A message, just like an email, of up to 150 characters can be sent to one or more people at once for an average of 10p per message. Due to the small amount of characters a texting language has developed to reduce space and therefore enable you to say more in a message. An example of this language would be you has been shortened to just u. They both sound the same but one takes up fewer characters than the other. Hundreds of thousands of these messages are sent every day from mobile to mobile and providing signal is good and both people have there mobile phones on, a text message can be sent from here to Australia in an amazing 6 seconds. New services have become available using text messages. For example phone companies such as Vodafone allow mobile phone users to subscribe to a service where football or cricket scores can be sent to the subscribers phone as soon as they happen. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) Another recent development, MMS is an advanced form of SMS. Instead of just sending a message, new mobile phones will allow you to send photos, or you could send ringtones, or a pre-recorded voice message. These new phones are a little heavier then old mobile phones, but they are more sophisticated. For instance, if you go on holiday, instead of sending a postcard to your friends and family you could just take a picture using the inbuilt camera and send it using an MMS message. You can even add some writing to it. I have a new mobile phone with a digital camera; I can take good quality pictures and then send them to my friends. I also use a mobile phone to text my friends but to do this I need a good signal and sufficient credit. Businesses use mobile phones, especially people that travel around a lot and are not based in one location all the time. Salesmen would find it hard to manage without mobile phones, as they need to be able to keep in touch with their customers, and with one another, at all times. One major disadvantage of mobile phones is that they are thought to emit radioactivity. Although this has not been proven there are many people that believe that radio masts and mobile phones are a health problem to them and there are strict planning laws regarding the positioning of radio masts.

Fiat Changing Business Environment Marketing Essay

Fiat Changing Business Environment Marketing Essay ABSTRACT This report focus on the FIAT group and analysis of its external business environment. It outlines the companys background in terms of its history and product services, with major strategic milestones and key competitors. The operations in some of the tools used for the external analysis are the pestel and porters. As a result, strategic directions are proposed that will assist the FIAT group in sustaining and developing a successful performance in order to keep and improve its market positions globally. This report is also concluded of list of recommendation for the FIAT group. CONTENTS 1 ABSTRACT 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 INTERNAL ENVIRONMNET 2.2 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT 3. MICRO-ENVIRONMENT KEY COMPETITORS CUSTOMERS SUPPLIERS PUBLIC PRODUCT AND SERVICES 4. MACRO-ENVIRONMENT POLITICAL INFLUENCE ECONOMIC INFLUENCE SOCIAL INFLUENCE TECHNOLOGICAL INFLUENCE ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE LEGAL INFLUENCE 5. COMPANY BACKGROUND MISSION AND VISION STATEMENT OF FIAT GROUP HISTORY 6. SWOT ANALYSIS 7. RECOMENDATION 8. CONCLUSION 9. REFERNCES 2. INTRODUCTION: Business Strategy is seen as one of the most important areas within Fiat group. It can also be defined as per Johnson Scholes and Whittington (2008, p.3) as the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholders expectations. As can be seen, strategy is a complex field and inevitably connected to Fiat companies success or failure. Thus it is vital for the organisation to constantly evaluate and adapt its strategy in order to be successful (Grant 2005 p.7) External and Internal Strategic Analysis of Fiat Group: This part focuses on fiats performance by analysing both the external and internal environment of the company. External environmental forces refer to the macro-environment, the industry or sector, and the competitors that affect an organisation (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2008). Equally important as the external environmental scanning is the analysis of a companys internal environment to identify its strength and weaknesses (Hunger and Wheelen, 2009).This is also referred to as strategic capability which is defined as the resources and competence of an organisation needed for it to survive and prosper (Johnson. Scholes and Whittington 2008, p.95) for this analysis, the focus is on the car industry in the UK market in general, and the small car sector in particular Business environment encompasses all those factors that affect a companys operations, and includes customers, competitors, stakeholders, suppliers, industry trends, regulations, other government activities, social and economic factors and technological developments. (Business dictionary, 2010). Basically business environment is segregated in between two categories Internal environment External environment 2.1 Internal Environment: There are various components which particularly change the behaviour of employees. Events, Conditions and  factors  within an organization are few of them.  Their  activities  and  choices are under influence. Factors that are frequently considered part of the internal environment include the  organizations  mission statement,  leadership  styles, and its  organizational culture. Internal factor which occur inside the company are management, manpower, row material, machine, money. 2.2 External Environment: EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT is factor essentially outside the control of organizational members. Conditions, trends, and forces are few enlisted factors. External environmental scans are conducted in operations to identify and analyse important factors in the external environment. This analysis is often a critical aspect in all business or strategic plans. External environment are classified into two major parts: 1. Micro-environment 2. Macro-environment MICRO-ENVIRONMENT: KEY COMPETITIONERS: Fiats key competitors are the French companies Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen, and the German Volkswagen AG (Hoovers, 2010). Volkswagen (VW) is Europes number one carmaker with an annual production of more than six million car, trucks, and vans. The company operates in 153 countries and aim at position itself as the global economic and environmental leader among automobile manufacturers (Volkswagen Group, 2010) PSA Peugeot Citroen is present in 160 countries, and is currently focusing on its development in high-potential markets such as China, Latin America and Russia. On 2009 the company produced more than 3 million vehicles (Peugeot Citroen, 2010). Renault is present in 118 countries in sold more than 2 million vehicles in 2009 (Renault, 2010). Main competitors in UK are Ford and Toyota. CUSTOMERS: Customers play an important role in business environment. They are the key monitors on whose basis an organisation acts upon. They are the relation in between different business enterprises who purchase the services and products to their satisfaction (Collin English dictionary, HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000) SUPPLIERS:   Affiliations with the companies that supply your business with goods and services,(Grant, Scholes 2007). As a growing company, Fiat group focus on one of their factor of suppliers: price. And price is considered important when you are selecting suppliers to assist you as you grow your business. A cleric service which act as a substitute providing goods and raw materials available to achieve the need of demand proposed by the company. PUBLIC: Public are the targeted market components or individual who persuades interest in the business or the products and services. They capitalise shares in market. They may be directly or indirectly active to open market (Collins Thesaurus of the English Language   Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002). PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: The Fiat Group is subdivided in different business units (automobiles representing the biggest business unit according to worldwide revenues (Fiat Group, 2010). The Automobile business unit produces and sells cars globally under the Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Fiat professional (light commercial vehicles) and Abarth brands. Additionally, Mascerati and Ferrari are also part of the Fiat Group (Fiat Group, 2010). MACRO-ENVIRONMENT: PESTEL Analysis The macro-environment can be determined by using the PESTEL analysis. The PESTEL framework is an analysis tool that outlines factors affecting the companys strategy, and allows the identification of key drivers of change (Johnson, Schnson, and Whittington, 2008). Political influences: Government regulation: the UK and the EU have the strictest regulation concerning emissions. Issues with emissions are highly volatile; as if the manufacturer does not abide by the standards it will translate into higher running cost for the customers and likely to discourage them from buying. Economic Influences: Recession resulted in increased unemployment and lower purchasing power of customers. Increased interest rates in bank loans for consumers. Rising prices of raw material, especially for steel (Star, 2010). Rising fuel prices. Social influences: Change in consumers buying pattern due to the recession: customers of more aware of the struggling car market and strive for better deals (e.g. Fiat 500 is priced with a high premium above the industry average for such a car). Small car image and partly bad reputation of brand name. Technological Influences: Innovative technology deriving from the Japanese and German car market. Rapid, high-quality inventions and developments from competitors, especially from key players like BMW , Volkswagen , Mercedes, etc Eclectic-car (e.g. from Renault- Nissan) are not produced by Fiat yet. Environmental Influences: Environmental awareness of customers coupled with tough government regulations construct a tough market for Fiat, as all main competitors aim at producing eco-friendly cars with low of CO2. The peak oil scenario will affect the whole automotive industry, as oil is a finite resource. Legal Influences: EU competition laws. Although Fiat is known as a producer of eco-friendly cars ( Automobiles Review 2010) tougher car emission laws could lead to increased production costs of cars. 5. COMPANY BACKGROUND: FIAT is a word wide operating Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial and industrial group based in Turin in the Piedmont region. All though the FIAT group is present in many countries around the globe, its market position is especially strong in Europe and Latin America. EUROPE: Leading automaker in EU. Faced sales decrease in 2008 due to economic environment. Current market shares in UK is 4.02% USA: Moderate market shares in US (until) recent alliance with Chrysler last year and Canada market. These two markets are currently considered as the biggest auto market in the whole world. ASIA: No significant market establishment of Fiat in this market. Some key players in this market are Suzuki and Tata motors. The Asian market is also an emerging market and is untapped market for Fiat. LATIN AMERICA: Exceptional high sales in Latin America specially Brazil. Fiat market share in Brazil is 25.5% as of may 2010. (Auto trends, 2010; fiat 2010; European motors news, 2010) 5.1 MISSION AND VISION STATEMENT OF FIAT GROUP: FIATs mission statement says: FIAT| is an automotive-focused industrial group and design and manufactures automobiles, trucks, wheel loaders, excavators, telehandlers, tractors and combine harvesters. In terms of its vision, the FIAT group, states Innovation has an important place among the FIAT groups core values and beliefs. Because the only way to meet the challenges of the future is to be innovative; innovative in everywhere and in every way. FIATs aim is to strike the balance in experience, creative and technology (FIAT group 2010). 5.2. HISTORY The FIAT group (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino), establishment in the year 1899 was one of the founders of the European Automobile Industry. It was developed under leadership of Giovanni Agnelli and made a successful presence in the Italian market as well as the international market. The FIAT group is now managed by Serigo Marchionne, who is the CEO presently. The Agnelli Family still controls FIAT by owning 30% of the shares for the FIAT group. Right from the start, the company had a strong propensity for the international expansion and innovation. The company expanded outside Italy in 1908 when FIAT Automobile Co. was founded in the United States. In the meantime, Fiat also expanded to new sectors. In 1958 production started growing enormously and Fiat set up new manufacturing plants aboard. In the 1990s the company escalated its expansion into international markets to cope with crisis, and achieved over 60% of its turnover outside Italy. Because of aggression competition, Fiat concentrated on developing markets and was prompted as an innovation brand at affordable prices. Today Fiats products are sold in more than 190 countries around the world (Fiat, 2010). Although the Fait Group engaged in many sectors, it redefined its core business area in 2003 by again focusing on the traditional automotive sector. As a consequence, certain business no longer considered strategic such as the Aviation and Insurance Sectors were sol d (CSR Globe, 2010). The company returned to their first mission: to produce attractive, stylish cars with improved quality and exciting engines, accessible, focusing on a continuous overhaul of its products, on technological research and constructive relationship with the customer (Fiat, 2010). In terms of its revenues and trading profit, the Fiat group is currently facing some severe decline as shown in figure 3. Revenues declined from almost 60 million down to 50 million Euros in 2009, and trading profit even declined to less than one third compared to 2008 (Fiat Group, 2010). SWOT ANALYSIS: A SWOT analysis explores the relationship between the between the environmental influences and the strategic capabilities of an organisation when compared with its competitors. (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2008, p.118). With the help of the SWOT Analysis tool, it is possible to identify the strategic fit between the organisations internal and external capabilities and accordingly determining alternative strategies. By doing a SWOT analysis for the FIAT group, the companys strengths, opportunities, weakness and threats can be outlined. SWOT Analysis for Fiat Strength: With a brand name established over a decade, Fiat is known for its strong hold in the small cars segments and excellence engine technology. It also enjoys a huge brand portfolio including Ferrari, Mascerati, Alfa Romeo and Lancia (Fiat UK, 2010). According to the SMMT data survey, the UK market has shifted towards the small cars recently (SMMT UK, 2010). Fiat has the potential of producing innovative products, which has been the companys driving force since the very beginning. Fiat is the only automaker offering highly fuel-efficient cars and has the lowest CO2 emissions in Europe at 127.8g/km (Automobile Review, 2010) compared to the key players. Thus, Fiat is an organisation highly committed to environment sustainability and making a difference. Fiat stands 8th in the ethical ranking in the automotive industry, which pushes the brand image and reputation (CSR International 2010). WEAKNESS: Fiats main focus on small cars segment only has been the reason for its low market share in UK/Europe. As an approach to increase their sales, Toyota is focusing on building consumer confidence. Whereas Fiat focuses on new innovations and introduction of technology, but to an extent it fails to consider what their customers expect. Opportunities: The Asian economy still has a lot of untapped potential, which FIAT can look into. Recent alliance with Chrysler who has appointed 130 dealers in US to represent FIAT is a good opportunity for the Fiat brand to market itself (Just Auto, 2010). Due to Fiats innovative technologies, there is an opportunity for it to tap other markets as well as develop new market segments. Threats: Toyota and Ford remain two of the strong competitors for Fiat. With Toyota launching at least 18 new models in the European market 2009, it poses a major threat to Fiats market share. Toyota currently has a market share of approximately 5.01% in the Uk( Mad UK, 2010). The recession has reduced the purchasing power of the customers in the last couple of years, which has resulted in a drop in demand for new cars. Recommendation: After conducting the different environmental analysis for fiat group, it is now possible to recommend strategic options available to the company. In general, it is recommended for the Fiat group to follow which adapt differentiation and low price relative to competitors. This combination will help the company the gaining a strong competitive advantage. Fiat could move towards a low cost focus strategy in the emerging Asian markets. At the same time it can further tap the US market. This will also increase Fiats market share globally. By applying the hybrid strategy, the Fiat group is also able to capture the untapped Asian market with its cost and fuel efficient cars like Punto, 500C, Grande Punto, Linea etc. By focusing on improving its market share, Fiat will be able to gain economies of sale by cost savings. This is turn will provide resources to finance its RD sector, which will give way for new highly efficient products for the markets, thus generating higher margins which will again increase Fiats market share. Fiat could also move towards offering low cost cars to its customers by expanding in the emerging Asian markets. It may also be recommended to tap the US market (untapped). It should expand its activities in RD (Research and Development). The above strategies will help the Fiat group increase its market share not only in the UK but globally. It will also increase its economics of scale. Recommendation can also be given for the strategic development of particular products in the UK market. The GE-McKinsey Matrix for the Fiat Automobile Group in the UK, and its application to the strategy guidelines based on the directional policy matrix, also allow for the recommendation of future strategies. As a result of this analysis, the following strategies can be recommended: For the Fiat 500, product investment and growth are required because the market is growing and if the business unit continues to invest in the market, it should see itself sustaining its growth. For the Fit Bravo, selective growth would be useful, as this would allow Fiat to be more focused on the needs of the market. For the Fiat multipla, the harvest /divest path can be recommended, as this would allow Fiat to keep their existing market share and diversify in due course. CONCLUSION: This report focused on the Fiat Group and its current performance. An external and internal environmental analysis was conducted critically, which allowed for the recommendation to Fiat. Based on the various strategic analyses done in this report, it can be suggested that the Fiat Group needs to adopt new strategies for the future. If the above mentioned recommendation combined and implemented successfully, they will not only help to sustain and improve the companys business performance, but also improve its market position compared to key competitors in the automotive industry. With the rapid changes in technology and innovations, it is important for the Fiat group to be customer focused.

Shakespeare in Love Essay -- essays research papers

The movie that is being compared to a story here is one of the all-time best. The main theme portrayed in "Shakespeare in Love" is a love that is never meant to be. "Shakespeare in Love" parallels the play Shakespeare is currently working on, Romeo and Juliet, in which love is not meant to be due to the many obstacles in the way. Shakespeare's life in the film is very comparable to Romeo's life in Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare's life in the film and the play he is writing has several similarities and differences. In my opinion, this is one of the best movies and books to compare. "Shakespeare in Love" is a fairly accurate representation of the life of William Shakespeare at the time he was writing Romeo and Juliet. The young writer at the beginning of the film, is experiencing writer's block. He is writing, but is confused. Will's first inspiration is Rosalind, a woman that has stolen Romeo's heart at the beginning of the play. "Romeo and Rosaline. Scene one. God, I'm Good." (Norman pg.20). This shows how Will is inspired by Rosaline. It is not until he encounters the young noblewoman, Viola de Lesseps, that he discovers true love. This love that he meets is the one who takes his heart and is so special. The connection between Will and the woman he fell are love with is so special. Ultimately this movie is about the making of a great play, but most importantly it is about the power of words. The way they speak to each other is just like a play and it is true love being spoken. This is a connection that is love which, is never meant to last. In Romeo and Juliet, both Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other as soon as they lay eyes on each other. The difference from this movie and the play, Romeo and Juliet, is that Will and Viola find love but they do not proceed it to the level it needs to go. However, in "Shakespeare in Love," both William and Viola feel true love at first sight, but it is more of an image that Viola falls in love with. She has fallen in love with some that she sees and everything about the poet. The mystique that surrounds William Shakespeare is uncontrollable and that is what she loves no matter what is wrong. It is after she spends more and more time with him that she begins to fall ... ... separated. "Goodbye, my love, a thousand times goodbye." (Norman pg. 116). Shows how Viola and Will had to say goodbye to each other. The reason for Will and Viola not being able to be together is because she is already set to be married. The reason for Romeo and Juliet is that there family and groups hate each other. Also, Romeo and Juliet do not get to act with each other like Will and Viola does. Will and Viola got to see each other much more. I have learned from the movie and the play that these are two very different and similar plots. When I watch the movie Shakespeare in Love, it is like I am watching William Shakespeare live same life as his famous screenplay, Romeo and Juliet. The nice thing about the movie is that no one had to die. Will fall in love with this beautiful woman, Viola de Lesseps. They share a hidden romance. Eventually, they will have to separate because she is already set to marry a man named, Lord Wessex. Sometimes it gets sad to know that they did not get to finish the romance, but Will would use his secret love to be a topic in some of his future love plays. I feel this is a fantastic movie and I would watch it again sometime if I had too.

Americans Need More Vacation Time :: Argumentative Essays

â€Å"I really need a vacation!† Is there a more common phrase in the workplace in America today? I’m sure all of us had uttered that phrase at least once in the last 12 months. Americans are so vacation-deprived, then why is it that almost a third of the American working adults are giving up some earned vacation this year, and when they do go on vacation they still do some work by checking in with office communications, according to a Harris Interactive vacation-related poll? The following table below indicates that the U.S. ranks 10th in term of average number of vacation days around the world per year, with the average of just 13 days per year compared to the United Kingdom’s 28, and Italy’s 42 days per year. Even the average worker in Japan – where the term karoshi, which means â€Å"death by overwork†, was coined gets five weeks of annual paid vacation. Average Number of Vacation Days Around the World Per Year Italy  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  42 days France  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  37 days Germany  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  35 days Brazil  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  34 days United Kingdom  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  28 days Canada  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  26 days Korea  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  25 days Japan  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  25 days U.S.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  13 days Source: World Tourism Organization (WTO). We like to think that we’ve got the world’s highest standard of living with the per capita GDP of $37,800, 3rd highest in the world , and yet, we are the only industrialized nation that refuses to mandate vacation for workers in the private sector. And if you think we are making the most of those precious few days that we get, you couldn’t be more wrong. According to a study conducted in May 2004 by Harris Interactive, the average American planned not to use three of his or her vacation days this year, up from two days last year. The study also found that nearly 40 percent American said they had canceled or postponed vacations due to work. So what’s the matter with us?

Samsung Electronic Corporation: Governance of Chaebols

CASE: SAMSUNG ELECTRONIC CORPORATION: GOVERNANCE OF CHAEBOLS Copyright: Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Professor Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Rakhi Kumar, Yale MBA02 prepared this case as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate the effective or ineffective governance of an organization. Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes INTRODUCTION Case: Samsung Electronics Prior to the Asian currency crises, South Korea was an investment destination for several institutional investors and emerging market funds. Throughout the early nineties the country experienced an economic boom.South Korean conglomerates, locally know as chaebols, had diversified into various industries from cars to microchips. Samsung Electronics Corporation (Samsung Electronics), a rising star in the Samsung Chaebol was considered to be a high growth company. However, in 1997, the Asian currency crises magnified the problem of the Chaebol structure and highlighted the need for governance reforms. By 1999, a shareholder rights activist in South Korea – Prof. Hasung Jang had taken up the cause of minority shareholders of Samsung Electronics.With the help of foreign institutional investors, he planned to fight for governance reforms in South Korea. As a corporate governance specialist, Samuel Smith, had been contracted by a large foreign institutional investor to help reform Samsung Electronics. KOREAN CHAEBOLS: Establishment, growth and structure. In order to accelerate economic growth in the 1970’s, the Korean government formulated industrial policies that encouraged investment in heavy and chemical industry (HCI). Funded largely by government-controlled banks, affluent families took advantage of the liberal policies and set up ompanies in these industries. By the end of the 1970’s approximately 80 percent of fixed investment in the manufacturing sector was in HCI businesses. Between 1962 and 1982, annual growth averaged 8. 4%, although by the end of the 1970â€⠄¢s production efficiency in priority sectors was falling. As a result, there was excessive investment in the HCI industries and little allocation efficiency in the capital markets1. Due to over investment in the HCI industry and small domestic markets, companies began diversifying into unrelated businesses, giving birth to the Korean Chaebols.Government intervention in resource allocation proved to be very costly. Enterprises that had access to preferential policy loans or tax incentives tended to expand their businesses The Institute for International Economics – Financial Services Liberalization in the WTO: Case Study of South Korea 1 1 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics rapidly without careful appraisal of investment projects. Since the government largely made lending decisions, creditor banks had little incentive for credit evaluations or loan monitoring.As a result, firms were heavily leveraged and borrowed from informal credit markets as they we re usually pressed for working capital. This structural weakness put the economy on the verge of a financial crises in early the 1970s and then again in the 1980s2. However, public purse bailing out of large enterprises became the norm and people were made to believe that chaebols were too big to fail. When the government decided to open up the South Korean economy, many of the protective measures that local companies had enjoyed during the developmental era were removed.Companies that had expanded into unrelated businesses found that they no longer had access to government capital. Initially, banks were also not interested in financing these projects, nor did they have the expertise to evaluate these new high-risk businesses. Hence, business groups started creating their own group wide internal capital markets. Transfer pricing, cross-shareholdings and cross-guarantee of debts were some of the mechanisms employed by chaebols to fund expansion. They pooled any funds available to the subsidiaries to supplement outside funding of new projects.Operations of these internal finance markets were not necessarily based on efficiency in resource allocation but were often driven by the interests and concerns of the controlling families. 3 Many Chaebols invested overseas and ‘globalization’ was the new theme. However, the globalization strategy was not well planned. Chaebols held onto the management strategy that they had been practicing over the last thirty years: growth in size ignoring profitability; financial structure with high debt-to equity ratio and cross debt guarantee among affiliated companies. By 1997 there were over fifty chaebols in South Korea, each with a myriad of affiliated companies all linked to one another through a complex network of cross-holdings. Ownership and affiliation details of twenty chaebols are provided in Exhibit 1. Family-Based Business Groups: Degeneration of Quasi-Internal Organizations and Internal Markets in Korea by Sa ng-Woo Nam, December 2001. 3 Ibid. 4 Corporate Governance and Economic Development: The Korean Experience by Ha Sung Jang. 2 2 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes THE SAMSUNG GROUP: It is all in the family.Case: Samsung Electronics Founded in 1938 by Mr. Byung Chul Lee, Samsung Group’s original line of business was exporting dried fish, vegetables and fruits produced around Korea to Manchuria and Beijing in China. Within a few years of incorporation, the company expanded its operations to include manufacturing and sales when it set up a flourmill and bought confectionary machines. In the 1970’s it diversified into the petrochemical, electronics and heavy industries. By early 1990’s, the Samsung Group had grown into the fourteenth largest company in the world.It had diversified into four primary industries, and had over twentyfive affiliated companies. Like most Korean companies, the Samsung Group structure developed into a confusing maze of cross-ownership among af filiated companies. Exhibit 2 provides a list of affiliated companies in the Samsung Chaebol while Exhibit 3a and 3b shows the complex crossownership structure among the affiliated companies. For example, according to Exhibit 3a, affiliated companies owned 15. 83% of Samsung Electronics. Exhibit 3b provides the break up of ownership between affiliates.Therefore, Samsung Company owns 4. 45% of Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life Insurance owns 8. 16% and so on. By 1997, combined annual revenues of all the businesses in the group were close to USD 100 billion, with profits reaching USD 290 million. The Samsung Group constituted approximately 10% of the total market value of all companies listed on the Korean stock market. However, like all other chaebols, its debt-to-equity ratio hovered around 365%. SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CORPORATION: Governance of Cheabols. Samsung Electronics was established in 1969.By the mid 1990’s, it had strategically invested in research and development of D RAM chips and had grown into a billion dollar company. Exhibit 4 shows the contribution made by Samsung Electronics to the overall revenues and profits of the Samsung Cheabol. By the late 1990’s, Samsung Electronics had 24 production subsidiaries, 35 sales subsidiaries and 20 branch offices around the world including North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, China and Latin America. It 3 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics managed four strategic businesses in the fields of Home, Mobile, Office Network and Core Components.However, in 1997, excess production capacity in the microchip industry lead to a downward spiral in chip prices. Profits at Samsung Electronics plunged to new lows. The Asian Currency crises compounded the problems facing the company. By late 1997, the company’s debt totaled 13 trillion won (approximately USD 9 billion) and more than 70 percent of it was in foreign currency loans5. The financial run on the economy by f oreign institutional investors saw the country’s currency tumble 10. 6 percent. Domestic interest rates on threeyear corporate bonds hit 30. 1 percent.The US rating agencies, in addition to downgrading the sovereign debt to â€Å"junk bond† status, also lowered the credit worthiness rating for several of the largest South Korean companies including Samsung Electronics6. The company’s share prices reflected the macro and micro economic turmoil faced by the company. Exhibit 5 provides daily share prices of the Samsung Electronics stock on the Korean stock exchange for a 15-month period starting September 1996. However, a liner trend line indicates that, by and large, the share price was declining marginally but was above the 50,000 won mark.After a period of negative results, minority shareholders started questioning governance practices of the company. They alleged that Samsung Electronics had neither internal or external corporate governance mechanism which acte d as checks and balances and that all management decisions were made taken by the Chairman. The internal mechanisms such as Board of Directors and Auditors, did not function properly at least when it came to monitoring the Chairman. For example they questioned the board’s decision of acquiring shares of a firm, Ichon Electric, whose financial stability was shaky.This acquisition cost Samsung Electronics 27. 6 billion won when the company went bankrupt a few years later. 7 When things starting going wrong, neither the Chairman nor the Board of Directors took any responsibility for failed investments or even for illegal activities. Instead the chaebol lobby issued a report attacking minority activism. They said, â€Å"Minority shareholders’ rights to demand compensation should be respected only in the event of embezzlement and other illIR on the net: How they did it at Samsung Electronics. http://www. ironthenet. com/feature. sp? current=1&articleID=2289 6 Washington Po st Foreign Service: South Korea Takes Three More Punches by Steven Mufson. 7 Korean IT News: Civic Group Challenges Samsung Chairman’s Alleged Mismanagement by Kim Deok-hyun. 5 4 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics intentioned behaviors. Managerial misjudgments should not be the subject of criminal liabilities. Activism can also harm the interests of majority shareholder and decision-making by management. † 8 In 1998, the Board of Directors of Samsung Electronics consisted of twenty-three members.This number had been trimmed from the previous year when the board comprised of fortythree directors. Exhibit 6 provides a profile of the directors on the board of Samsung Electronics. Some shareholders believed that accounting manipulation and improprieties had become standard practice and company funds had been used to make political contributions in the Chairman’s name. A minister in the Korean cabinet faced corruption allegation that he earned USD 1. 4 million when he was given an interest-free loan from Samsung Electronics and acquired the Company’s shares at a discount rate while he was an ‘outside’ director on the company board. External mechanism such as markets for corporate control also did not exist and legal protection of shareholder’s rights was limited. 10 Courts in Korea did not have experience of dealing with corporate governance cases and often their rulings seemed to go soft on the guilty. For example, the Suwon District Court ordered Samsung's Chairman Lee to return to the Samsung companies 7. 5 billion won in damages on charges of providing bribes to former president Roh Tae-woo. However, the court did not demand that Lee take legal responsibility for the two mismanagement cases of his group's ubsidiaries, saying he did not participate in the decision-making. 11 Samuel Smith wondered if the allegations of the minority shareholders held any merit. Internal and external economic fo rces had not changed much in the last decade, yet it was only after the Asian currency crisis that these allegations were being made. The Korean Herald: Chaebol face tough attacks from minor shareholders by Yoo Cheong-mo: February 25,1999. 9 AFX News Limited: South Korean education minister resigns amid corruption allegations; August 31, 2000. 10 Corporate Governance and Economic Development: The Korean Experience by Hasung Jang. 1 Korean IT News: Civic Group Challenges Samsung Chairman’s Alleged Mismanagement by Kim Deokhyun. 8 5 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes HASUNG JANG: The voice of minority shareholders. Case: Samsung Electronics Dr. Hasung Jang is a well know minority shareholder rights activist in South Korea. He received his MA in economics from the New York State University and a Ph. D. in finance from the Wharton School. On returning to South Korea, he joined the Korean University as a professor of finance and the director of the Center for Finance and Banking Res earch.As the Chair of the Participatory Economy Committee, a minority shareholder protection civil group, under the umbrella of the Peoples Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Dr. Jang took up the cause of shareholder rights in Korea. He undertook investigations to evaluate the governance of chaebols and financial dealings among affiliated companies. Dr. Jang targeted Samsung Electronics and made allegations of self-dealing transactions. In particular he spoke about a transaction dated 24 March 1997, when Samsung Electronics made a private placement of unsecured convertible bonds worth 60 billion won (US $46. million). He was troubled by the fact that the bonds had been sold to company insiders. The Chairman’s son had purchased 45 billion won worth of bonds and another Samsung affiliate had purchased the remaining bonds worth 15 billion won12. Dr. Jang alleged that this issue was at unfavorable terms for the company and called into question the price of the bonds. On thei r part, company executives explained that Samsung Electronics was badly in need of fund and that international funding, which previously was the main source of capital had dried up after the Asian currency crises.Further, as the company was finding it extremely difficult to raise money from domestic financial institutions they had little choice but to privately place the bonds. Besides the amount raised was less than one percent of existing long term loans. Dr. Jang also alleged that Samsung Electronics had both directly and indirectly funded the Samsung Groups’ doomed venture into the car industry at the expense of minority shareholders. Samsung Electronics had acquired a 21. 1% stake in Samsung Motors at the acquisition cost of 170 billion won (USD 106 million).The indirect investment of Samsung Electronics into Samsung Motors was in the form of a joint investment agreement between 12 Nascent Stages of Corporate Governance in an Emerging Market: regulatory change, sharehold er activism and Samsung Electronics by Hasung Jang and Joongi Kim. Corporate Governance Volume 10 Number 2 April 2002. 6 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics an Ireland-based paper company called Pan-Pacific Industrial Investments (PP) and Samsung Electronics (and two of its affiliated companies). At first lance the PP agreement looked like a direct investment into Samsung Motors by a foreign entity (PP) in accordance with Korean laws regulating foreign exchange. However, under the terms of the joint venture agreement, Samsung Electronics had guaranteed PP a certain rate of return through put and call options within a specified redemption period, on Samsung Motor shares it (PP) owned. This arrangement was made in addition to bridge loans made by Samsung Group to PP. Dr. Jang alleged that that this transaction was not a clear direct investment and in fact violated legal requirements for other types of transactions.Samsung Electronics rebutted the allegations and explained that the put and call options were just clauses in the agreement put there to provide additional security for PP. The Company was more like a third party in the transaction and the agreement did not have any financial implications for the shareholders. SAMUEL SMITHS TASK 1997 had been a troubled period for Korean companies. The country had experienced a severe economic shock, which had practically destroyed the economic structure that had developed over the past four decades.It was confusing and upsetting times for companies and investors, all of whom has suffered tremendous loss. Sam had to objectively analyze the allegations made by the minority shareholders and check for fundamental problems at the company. Naturally, dealing with an emerging market came with its challenges. For one, economic data was scarce and very little corporate information was publicly available. As Sam sat down to prepare for his meeting with his client he made a list of questions he needed to a nswer. 1. What are the benefits and disadvantages of the Korean chaebol structure?In particular what governance issues can arise due to this structure? 2. Analyze the capital structure of Samsung Electronics. Compare it with the capital structure of a company in the similar line of business (primarily manufacture of chips) from another developed country and comment on the differences. 7 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics 3. If Samsung Motors makes an after tax profit of USD100 million, what share of that would go to the Lee family (owners)? What percentage of Samsung Motors do they directly own? Note: You do not have to provide the exact number. A good approximation will be adequate. ) 4. The client wants to recommend governance changes with special emphasis on the board of directors. Evaluate the current board of Samsung Electronics. What are the strengths and weaknesses in the current board composition? How many directors can be classified as non-executive? How many can be classified as independent? What are your criteria’s for assessing director independence? Do you think changes need to be made to the current board composition?If no – why not, if yes – what changes would you recommend? 5. Based on the company’s financials as of December 31, 1997 and publicly available information, investigate the allegations made by Dr. Jang. Do you think the convertible bond issue was a self-dealing transaction? How would you prove that claim? What evidence do you have on you claim? (Note: you are not expected to do a DCF. ) 6. Does the agreement with the Pan-Pacific Industrial Investment resemble a simple direct investment or something else? Why was the guarantee clause included in the contract? Does it change the instrument?If you were on the Audit committee of the company what questions would you ask about this transaction? 8 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Exhibit 1: Share Ownership and Affiliates of Chaebols Contro lling Family Ownership Ownership Affiliates No. of (%) (%) Affiliates 5. 00 20. 98 8. 50 36. 05 6. 49 6. 61 13. 88 6. 45 12. 62 27. 73 5. 72 4. 57 18. 56 23. 91 21. 22 16. 31 2. 48 15. 33 14. 36 5. 33 6. 38 11. 29 30. 20 28. 57 30. 11 35. 74 24. 35 29. 60 43. 19 35. 95 22. 94 20. 36 17. 07 37. 92 18. 64 28. 35 37. 70 14. 20 21. 29 25. 64 25. 52 29. 76 30. 09 43. 24 44 28 27 22 18 17 17 15 13 12 12 12 11 11 10 10 8 6 6 5 5 3Case: Samsung Electronics Cheabol LG Hyundae Sam-sung Lotte Dae-woo Han-Wha Doo-San Ssang-Yong SK Han-Jin Dae-Rim Kolon Hyo-Sung Han-il Dong-Kuk steel Kum-Ho Kia Sam-mi Dong-Bu Koryo textile Hai-Tai Kukdong Const No. of listed Affiliates 8 9 12 3 7 6 5 7 3 5 5 4 2 5 4 5 2 2 5 1 2 2 Notes: Data as of 1989 with the exception of LG (1992) Source: Business Groups in China Compared with Korean Chaebols by Keun Lee and Wing T. Woo 9 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Exhibit 2: Affiliated companies within the Samsung Group Industry Electronics Case: Samsung ElectronicsAff liated Companies Samsung Electronics Samsung Electro-Mechanics Samsung SDI Samsung Corning Samsung SDS Samsung Networks Samsung Corning Precisions Glass Samsung Heavy Industries Samsung Techwin Samsung General Chemicals Samsung Petrochemicals Samsung Fine Chemicals Samsung BP Chemicals Samsung Life Insurance Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Samsung Card Samsung Securities Samsung Capital Samsung Investment Trust Management Samsung Venture Investment Samsung Engineering Cheil Industries Samsung Everland Shilla Hotel & Resorts Cheil Communications SI Corporation Samsung Lions Samsung Medical CenterMachinery & Heavy Industries Chemicals Financial Services Miscellaneous Note: This table shows the most important affiliate companies within the Samsung Group for the period of interest. 10 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics Exhibit 3a: Ownership structure of Companies in the Samsung Chaebol. (all figures in %'s) No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2 1 22 23 Name of Firms Samsung Electronics Samsung Display Devices Samsung Co.Samsung Motors Samsung Heavy Industries Samsung Electro-mechanics Samsung Life Insurance Samsung Aerospace Industries Cheil Wool Textile Samsung General Chemicals Samsung Precision Chemicals Samsung Corning Hotel Shilla Samsung Securites Samsung Engineering Samsung Winners Card SI Corporation Samsung Everland Samsung Factoring Financing The Joong-Ang Daily News Samsung Petro-Chemicals Samsung Commercial Motors Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Owner Family 5. 41 2. 32 Directors Non-profit & foundation Managers 0. 13 2. 44 0. 49 0. 02 0. 16 0. 19 0. 13 30. 60 0. 08 0. 46 25. 00 0. 05 0. 10 0. 74 0. 1 0. 64 6. 20 0. 06 SelfOwned 3. 52 2. 89 5. 17 Total of Affiliate Firms 15. 83 19. 77 19. 55 38. 36 27. 35 27. 54 2. 25 26. 47 2. 20 89. 39 39. 15 49. 36 12. 67 22. 33 16. 03 90. 27 22. 48 23. 99 100. 00 14. 92 36. 33 100. 00 13. 05 1. 42 0. 03 3. 00 15. 00 5. 00 3. 23 0. 85 0. 30 0. 84 31. 20 1. 35 0. 01 6. 23 67. 30 41. 80 0. 36 4. 50 0. 68 3. 98 Source: Business Group in China Compared with Korean Cheabols by Keun Lee and Wing T. Woo 11 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics Exhibit 3b: Detailed Break-up of Affiliate Shareholding Provided Above (all figures in %'s)Decomposition of shares by major affiliates No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Name of Firms Samsung Electronics Samsung Display Devices Samsung Co. Samsung Motors Samsung Heavy Industries Samsung Electro-mechanics Samsung Life Insurance Samsung Aerospace Industries Cheil Wool Textile Samsung General Chemicals Samsung Precision Chemicals Samsung Corning Hotel Shilla Samsung Securites Samsung Engineering Samsung Winners Card SI Corporation Samsung Everland Samsung Factoring Financing The Joong-Ang Daily News Samsung Petro-Chemicals Samsung Commercial Motors Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance 2 3 4. 45 5 6 7 8. 16 5. 39 6. 22 8 9 0. 61 0. 09 0. 07 0. 60 14 0. 01 0. 01 13. 24 18 0. 15 0. 28 1. 24 20 0. 45 23 2. 00 3. 19 10. 87 21. 11 18. 92 21. 92 8. 13 3. 82 9. 31 48. 36 5. 72 16. 03 54. 37 10. 40 12. 74 7. 45 0. 28 2. 48 6. 08 2. 56 4. 92 5. 59 7. 75 2. 20 0. 03 0. 12 25. 90 0. 90 3. 51 2. 25 0. 33 0. 30 3. 44 10. 14 37. 79 6. 20 10. 28 0. 29 0. 21 1. 47 14. 40 11. 39 1. 89 25. 00 3. 92 10. 00 21. 50 3. 45 1. 00 6. 95 10. 62 4. 75 5. 49 9. 95 5. 00 0. 25 2. 50 100. 00 11. 49 8. 50 16. 40 0. 13 17. 10 1. 01 4. 75 9. 93 1. 56 Source: Business Group in China Compared with Korean Cheabols by Keun Lee and Wing T. Woo 12 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics Exhibit 4a: Contribution of Samsung Electronics (parent company only) to Samsung Group. All figures in Billion Won Samsung Electronics (parent company) 1997 1998 20,084 313 20,776 13,806 6,970 1999 26,118 3,170 24,710 11,378 13,332 1997 Samsung Group Samsung Electronic (parent co. ) as a % of Samsung Group 1999 106,730 2,511 133,213 101,023 32,190 1997 11. % 25. 5% 12. 3% 10. 6% 22. 7% 1998 23. 4% 131. 5% 19. 1% 15. 4% 36. 3% 1999 24. 5% 126. 2% 18. 5% 11. 3% 41. 4% 1998 85,788 238 109,022 89,839 19,183 Sales Net Income Assets Liabilities Shareholders Equity Source: Samsung Website 18,465 124 23,066 17,236 5,830 161,448 487 187,824 162,120 25,704 Exhibit 4b: Contribution of Samsung Electronics (consolidated basis) to Samsung Group. All figures in Billion Won Samsung Electronics (consolidated) 1997 Sales Net Income Assets Liabilities Shareholders Equity Source: Samsung WebsiteSamsung Group Samsung Electronic (parent co. ) as a % of Samsung Group 1999 106,730 2,511 133,213 101,023 32,190 1997 14. 0% -125. 3% 17. 1% 16. 9% 18. 1% 1998 30. 0% -152. 1% 22. 1% 21. 2% 26. 5% 1999 30. 1% 126. 4% 21. 9% 15. 8% 40. 9% 1998 1999 32,088 3,175 29,178 16,004 13,174 1997 161,448 487 187,824 162,120 25,704 1998 85,788 238 109,022 89,839 19,183 22,682 25,772 (610) (362) 32,035 27,386 4,649 24,105 19,016 5,089 13 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung ElectronicsExhibit 5: Closing price of Samsung Electronic Shares and the Liner Trend of its Stock Price. Daily Closing Price of Samsung Electronics Shares September 1, 1996 to December 31, 1997 80,000. 0 Share Price in Korean Won 70,000. 0 60,000. 0 50,000. 0 40,000. 0 30,000. 0 20,000. 0 10,000. 0 1/1/97 2/1/97 3/1/97 4/1/97 5/1/97 6/1/97 7/1/97 8/1/97 10/1/96 11/1/96 12/1/96 9/1/97 10/1/97 11/1/97 12/1/97 Day Close Linear (Close) 14 Prof. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes Case: Samsung Electronics Exhibit 6: Profile of Directors on the Samsung Electronics Board No.Name of Director 1 Kun-Hee Lee 2 Jong-Yong Yun 3 Hak-Soo Lee 4 Yoon-Woo Lee 5 Dae-Je Chin 6 Doh-Seok Choi 7 In-Joo Kim 8 Jing-Wan Kim 9 Sung Rai Choi 10 Soon-Taek Kim 11 Jin-Hoon Je 12 Joong-Koo Lee 13 Yang-Gyu Park 14 Hong-Sik Ko 15 Soo-Woong Park 16 Jae Yong Lee Designation Chairman & CEO, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman & CEO, Samsung Electronics President & CEO, Group Reformation Headquarters, Samsung Electronics President & CEO, Device Solutions Netw ork, Samsung Electronics President & CEO, Digital Media Network, Samsung Electronics President & CFO, Samsung Electronics Executive VP, Group Reformation Headquarters, Samsung Electronics President & CEO, Samsung Heavy Industries President & CEO, Samsung Petrochemicals Vice President & CEO, Samsung SDI Company Ltd. Vice President & CEO, Samsung Factor Financing President & CEO, Samsung Techwin Company Ltd. President & CEO, Samsung Networks President & CEO, Samsung General Chemicals Company Ltd. Vice President & CEO, Samsung Fine Chemicals Ltd. Family Relation None None None None None None None None None None None None None None None 7 Ra-Hee Hong Lee 18 Soo-Bin Lee 19 Hyeon-Gon Kim 20 Chong-Yeul Pae 21 Kap-Hyun Lee 22 Suk-Soo Kim 23 Tetsuo Iwasaki Owns 25. 1% of the shares of Samsung Everland, which Son of Kun-Hee controls Samsung Life, the holding company of Lee Samsung Group Director General, Samsung Museums. Wife of Kun-Hee Lee Chairman & CEO, Samsung Life Insurance Company None Vice President & CEO, Samsung BP Chemicals Company Ltd. CEO, Samsung Corporation Advisor, Boston Consulting Group President Law Office of Suk-Soo Kim None None None None Chairman/CEO/President Applied Komatsu None Technology Note: The information provided in this exhibit is for illustrative purposes only. It does not reflect the real board structure at the Samsung Electronic Corporation. 15