Porters 5 Forces

Sonia’s smoothies 1) Nick calculated that of 200 customers who completed the questionnaire at the rock festival, the mean age was 23. The age distribution conformed to a curve of normal distribution with a standard deviation of 5. Calculate the number of customers aged 33 and over who featured in Sonia’s survey (33-23)? 5 = 2 2% of 200= 4 Answer= 4 2) With reference to the report on the UK smoothie market (appendix 2) analyse two limitations of using secondary sources as the basis of Sonia's decision making. Secondary research is one that is carried by a third party and not yourself.The information is collected as it may serve propose in the information you need even though it may have been collected for a different research. There are however some limitations of Sonia using this secondary research whilst making a decision on what smoothie flavours to bring out. In this essay I will discuss these and give my opinion on whether Sonia should or shouldn’t solely bas e the decision on this information. The first limitation of using secondary research is that it may be several years old and may not reflect the current market conditions.If this is the case for Sonia then it would mean that she may be releasing a flavour into a market that no longer exists. This would mean that her sales will not be as high as she would of hoped, it would also mean that her costs will rise as she would be producing smoothies unaware that these are not going to sell. The impact of both of these things happening will result in Sonia losing profit. This one example shows that for Sonia to solely base her decision on secondary research it would not be good for her business as she could lose out on a lot of potential customers.The second limitation of using secondary research is that it may not be accurate and reliable as it may be biased. If this does happen then it would mean that Sonia would be making a decision on information that is not 100% accurate and true. This would be misleading for her as she would be making a decision based upon something which is not going to benefit her at all. This would result in her again losing profits as her costing will rise through producing the goods and sales being low. This again shows us that if Sonia does make a decision solely based on the secondary research it may result in failure of the product she releases.In conclusion I think that Sonia should use secondary research as it gives her a basic idea about what is happening or has happened in the market which will give her a slight idea but it should be used in conjunction with some primary research such as questionnaires so Sonia 100% accurate data and knowledge. If this is done then it would ensure that the decision being made will be the correct one resulting in the success of the product she releases. 3) Discuss why nick might have recommended that Sonia should not base any decisions on the rock festival research.The rock festival research is a type of primary research. Primary research is one that is collected by yourself. In this essay I am going to discuss the reasons why Nick may have recommended Sonia do not make decisions solely based on the rock festival research, I will then come to a conclusion as to what Sonia should do to ensure the decision being made is the right one. Firstly by carrying out the rock festival research it means only targeting one group of people, therefore other groups such as families and children would be missed out.The consequence of Sonia making her decisions on just the rock festival research could be misleading as she has not taken into consideration groups that may be her major customers. For example families may be her major target audience and if Sonia makes a decision based on a group other than the families she could release a non desirable flavour. If this does happen then it would mean that she could be releasing a flavour that is not in demand which would result in less sales and this less potential profits.It would also mean that her costs will rise through production and this would be wasted money as she may not be able to sell these products. Secondly the response that Sonia may get from the people attending the rock festival may not be 100% accurate as they may not give the correct answers as they will want to enjoy the event itself. For example Sonia may approach an attendee at the rock festival and ask them questions but they may not give thought out answers as they are focusing on the music itself.If this does occur and Sonia does make a decision on this information it could mean that she is making a product which is based on incorrect data which could affect her sales which will make the released product less profitable. I think that Sonia should not base her decisions solely based on the rock festival. I however do think using a method of primary research is a good start to making a decision but she could have thought out where the questionnaires would be conducted a little better. For example she could have done it in a high street where there is a variety of people which would give her better feedback.For Sonia to base her decision solely on this it may result in her getting inaccurate results which would mean that the product released may not be as successful as it could be. I think that if Sonia wants to make the product as effective as it can be she should take do the primary research (questionnaire) in a more suitable place such as the high street. I also think that it should be used in conjunction with another type of research such as the secondary research that she had collected before.By using both types of information it will give her more of an understanding as to what a customer wants and it would make her decision making process a lot more easy and accurate. 4) If Sonia decides to use a market research agency to investigate the new smoothie flavours, analyse two ways they might use a quota sample. Quota sampling is a sample created by gathering a predefined number of participants from each of several predetermined categories, for example choosing 25 people both from the categories male and female.There are many advantages of using quota sampling one of which is that it clearly shows the demand from each of the categories. Sonia may want to decide to use a market research agency to investigate new smoothie flavours. I am going to analyse two reasons why they may use quota sampling whilst doing the research for Sonia. The first reason why the market research agency may use quota sampling is so that they can determine clearly what each group of people would like. For example once the research has been done using the groups male and female they can determine what each group wants and can look at the rends. By having this type of sampling it would give Sonia an idea of the wants of each group and she can then make her decision based upon this. I think that this type of sampling would be very good for Sonia as the market she is entering is one which is different according to people’s personal preferences and by understanding what each category wants she can make a decision so that she can cater for all of them. The second reason why quota sampling may be done is because it is a cheaper method as opposed to taster sampling.Taster sampling is when samples are given out to random customers to get their opinion on things, this means that the costs involved are very high as products are actually given away. By doing quota sampling it means that the cost of actually giving out products is avoided, this would mean that the cost that Sonia has to pay the agency will be less meaning her costs will stay down. 5) Discuss methods of primary research the market research agency might use to investigate new smoothie flavours for Sonia’s smoothies.Primary research is one that is done and collected by yourself, primary research can be split into three categories; test marketing, su rveys and observations, these can be then split even further into the actual activities. There are many types of primary research that can be undertaken and in this essay I am going to discuss some that the research agency may take up in order to investigate new smoothie flavours for Sonia’s smoothies. The first type of primary research that can be done is questionnaires; these are types of surveys.This method is a very good way of getting back answers from the customers as it can be both qualitative information and quantative information. Questionnaires can be either done in person but can also be done through post. Questionnaires are the most common type and I think that for Sonia smoothies it would be a very good method as she can get a lot of feedback from potential customers. this information would give her a very good idea of what the customers will want and it would help her make the correct decision.The correct decision will intern help her make profit as she knows sh e has the right product for the right market. However whilst doing questionnaires they will have to make sure that they do not annoy the potential customers through a lot of phone calls etc as this could result in the business losing its reputation and potential sales. The second type of primary research that the market research agency may undertake is consumer panels. A consumer panel is a group meeting that is held whereby questions are asked and noted to give the results.The advantage of consumer panels is that the information is likely to be accurate as the people attending it will have a lot of time to answer the questions meaning that they can thoroughly answer them. The disadvantage is that this type of research is that it may be more costly as the premises etc will have to be organised. This is a very good type of research as it allows qualitative information to be collected as well as opinions however I do not think that it is entirely suitable for Sonia smoothies as she do es not necessarily need discussions to take place as all she wants is opinions of flavours and what customers want.Therefore I think that this method is not entirely suitable for Sonia smoothies. Another type of primary research that can be undertaken is taster sampling. This is when samples are given of the product and feedback is received by potential customers. This type of method is very good for a product that people will have different opinions on as it allows feedback from all types of people. Although there is a short term cost of actually producing these samples the long term affect it could have is a positive one as it would mean that the right product is being sold to the customers thus increasing sales and profits.I think that this is a very suitable type of research that can be done by the market research agency as it would not only allow Sonia to get feedback for certain flavours it will also increase brand awareness which would help her in the long run. Furthermore th e market research agency may ask supermarkets about the best selling smoothies in their stores. This is a method of primary research as it will be done by themselves. This is a fairly cheap method of research as all it involves is contacting the supermarket with what they need.I think that this is a very good method of research for the market research agency to use as it will help Sonia identify which are the best selling types of products and she could use this information whilst making hers. However Sonia wants to create a new smoothie flavour so copying other flavours may not necessarily be the best option. A way in which Sonia could avoid copying is to maybe mix the two top selling smoothies in the store for example mango and peach flavoured smoothie; this would be different and unique. As a whole I think this method s fairly good in helping Sonia identify what flavours the customer tend to buy. As you can see there are various types or primary research methods that the market r esearch agency can undertake for Sonia smoothies. I think Sonia should use a combination of these. Firstly she should use questionnaires to ask the potential customers what types of flavours that they would like. Once this is done she can begin to make the samples for taster sampling which will then give her brand reputation as well as the opinion of customers. By doing this it would ensure that the research done is thorough helping her make her final decisions.As a whole I think to maximise effectiveness Sonia should use a combination of research methods to get a lot of peoples opinions. 6) Evaluate the importance of market research for Sonia’s smoothies LTD in making decisions over expansion. Market research is a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about a particular market. There are many ways to carry out market research. In this essay I will evaluate the importance of Sonia’s smoothies using market research and will give my opinion of how it shou ld be carried out.Sonia smoothies has three man ways that she has identified so that the business can expand further, these are; expanding geographically, by seeking to distribute through a wider range of outlets and lastly expanding the range of flavours that they have. Firstly I am going to talk about the importance of using market research for the third aim of expanding its range of flavours. I think it is very important for Sonia smoothies to use market research as the smoothie market is one which is ever changing through new flavours and changing external factors such as health issues.By doing market research before releasing the product it would help the business understand the current market so that when they do release the new products they know that it is going to work in this market. By ensuring that the product being released is current it would help them increase their sales and profits, intern this would also have a knock on effect on helping them to achieve their first aim of expanding geographically as they will now have the money to do so. Secondly having the arket research can not only be a method for the company to release new products but it can also increase brand awareness as doing things like taster research will make people more aware of the company. If this happens then it could help them with their sales as people would be more aware and will be more confident in buying the product as they have already tasted it. By increasing the brand awareness it would mean that the sales will increase thus helping their profits. As you can see market research has more purpose for Sonia smoothies than just helping them to release new products.It is very important that Sonia’s smoothie takes out the necessary research so that they are successful in achieving their aims. Although market research brings a short term cost in the long run these costs will be covered by the success of the product depending on how well the research is done. Secondly is Sonia smoothie’s aim of distributing their products through a wider range of outlets than just health foods shops and events. There are many ways that market research will enable Sonia smoothies whilst making a decision as to what retailers to choose.Firstly market research can help them to choose the most effective shop. for example it can be used to see which shop has the least competition in it. By using market research to look at such things then it will help the success of the product as they will know that they do not have a lot of competition meaning that their product is more likely to be successful. This type of market research is vital as the market is always changing and the competition is always changing so for Sonia smoothies to have a competitive edge they will have to ensure that they have more sales.This is very important because if there are a lot of competitors it would reduce sales and intern decrease the amount of profits that are made. The second way that the market research may be used for this aim is to look at what retailers sell the most smoothies. By looking at this it will ensure that the smoothies that are made have the necessary demand. This is very important as it would ensure that sales can be made. Increased sales would mean bigger profits. however whilst doing this they will also have to look at the level of competition.As you can see market research is again very important in helping Sonia smoothies in their aim of expanding the number of retailers that they sell in. by increasing this it would help them increase brand awareness which will this increase the sales and profit. An increase in profit will help the business as it would mean that it will help them with their first aim of expanding geographically. Lastly Sonia smoothies has a aim of expanding the geographical area in which the smoothies are sold.This is linked to the second aim of selling through more retailers as that could help them do this. Market resea rch again plays a vital role in making the decision as to where to expand. For example market research can be used to see where there are there is the largest number of children for example (using children as Sonia smoothie’s main customers) by doing this it would give them a good perspective as to where there is a large number of their target audience. By having a lot of people that they can sell to it will increase their sales which will intern increase their profits.Market research is very important in using this as the market is ever changing and there is no point of geographically expanding into an area where the sales are not likely to be high as it would be a waste of money. In conclusion the importance of market research is very high as it could help the business achieve all of their aims that they have set. All the aims are interlinked for example increasing the range of flavours and selling these flavours through more retailers would mean increased sales, increased sales would result in higher profits which can then be used to fund for the geographical expansion.Because of this Sonia smoothies will have to ensure whilst doing the market research that it is done thoroughly, however they also have to keep an eye on the cost of the market research as they do not want to do it in such a depth where it costs them too much. If Sonia smoothies takes out the necessary market research then it could help them achieve all of their objectives of expansion, without market research the business cannot achieve their aims as effectively. Porters 5 Forces PORTER’S FIVE FORCES 4 Power of Suppliers Criteria Level Effect on Power Effect on Profit Difference of Inputs High Increases Decreases Cost of Switching Suppliers High Increases Decreases Threat of Forward Integration High Increases Decreases Supplier Concentration High Increases Decreases Difference of Inputs ?Product differentiation within inputs in the tech industry is largely dependent on how recently the input has been developed (the extent of which it is considered cutting edge). In cases where component innovations are the property of the supplier prices increase to compensate.However, in cases where products are low tech, older innovations, product differentiation is minimal. In some cases the differentiation between products may be so extreme that companies are forced to buy components from a direct competitor, just as Apple purchased roughly $8 billion worth of parts from Samsung last year (Levine 2013). Since newer, more recent technology is where the vast majority of profits are in the tech sector the level of difference of inputs is going to be considered high.This then increases the level of the bargaining power of suppliers put pressure on the company’s profit margin. Cost of Switching Suppliers ?Companies within the tech sector design their products around certain components, impacting size, shape, weight and function. If a company is to change their component supplier then the product will have to be reengineered, costing the company time and resources that could be allocated elsewhere. These then threatens the company’s ability to compete, stay relevant and develop newer products in a market with a high product turnover rate.Thus company’s have a high cost of switching suppliers, which in turn increases the bargaining power of suppliers which puts pressure on the buy’s margin and profitability. Threat of Forward Integration ?Forward integration, the ability of a supplier to enter a state of competition with their buyer (â€Å"Porter's Five Forces† 2012) is extremely high in the tech sector. For instance, MSI and ASUS, two long time component suppliers have both entered a state of direct competition with companies such as HP and Dell, who they still supply components for (â€Å"ASUS† 2012).Because component suppliers often have a majority of all of needed parts to make the final product they can easily enter the market, and while their products may not be on the cutting edge they are solid competitors. This threat of forward integration increases the bargaining power of suppliers, which decreases the profitability of the buyer. Supplier Concentration ?Supplier concentration refers to the strength of market share the top suppliers in the industry have in relation to the total industry (â€Å"Porter Model – Suppliers † 2010).Many of the larger tech companies have large market shares in their specific specialization, for instance Samsung has 97% of the world mar ket share in OLEDs (Choi 2011), 40. 4% in DRAM (Liu 2010), and 40. 4% in NAND flash (â€Å"Samsung Expands† 2012). ASUS currently controls 40% of the world’s motherboard market (â€Å"ASUS† 2012), while Intel controls 82. 3% of the global processor market (Shilov 2012). This extremely high supplier concentration results in a very large increase in supplier power, which drastically decreases buyer profitability. Summary The technology sector is rather brutal on buyers when it comes to their relationship with suppliers, who have a disproportionate amount of bargaining power with every category going in their favor. The difference in inputs, cost of switching suppliers, threat of forward integration and supplier concentration all favor an increase in supplier bargaining power and a decrease in buyer profitability. With all these factors considered it comes as no surprise that many companies make and develop their own components or are previous suppliers who have un dergone forward integration.Power of Buyers Criteria Level Effect on Power Effect on Profit Product Differentiation Low Low Decreases Number of Buyers/Sellers High High Increases Switching Costs Low High Limits Profitability Access to Information High High Degreases Access to Information ?The more information the buyers have, the better the bargaining power they are in. With all of the product information that can be accessed via the Internet, it gives the buyers added bargaining power. The Internet is a powerful tool for consumers.Buyers can easily use the Internet to compare prices, features, packages, and find great deals at the time of a purchase. There are many buyers who use the internet to access information and the effect on power is very strong which leads to having decreasing profitability for the whole industry. Switching Costs ?Buyers who can switch brands at any given time due to a low switching cost have more leverage than buyers who have high switching costs. The swit ching costs for this industry are low and have a high effect on bargaining leverage for the buyer. This leads to having limiting profitability for the industry.It limits the profitability because in principle, it puts a cap on how much producers can raise or reduce quality before they will lose the buyers business. However, in a few cases the switching costs can be high. When buyers purchase a phone, they can be purchased at a low price but with that it comes with a 2 or 3 year contract with a given provider. If this contract is breached, large fees are usually acquired by the customer. During this contract if a customer would like to purchase a new phone then they will have to pay full price for their purchase if their provider does not allow non-contract purchases.Product Differentiation ?In certain industries buyers will make their selection based on prices — which would increase price completion among companies. When the products are differentiated then the buyer’s options will be limited. Unfortunately, in the industry Samsung is currently in the product differentiation is low. This has a strong impact on buyer bargaining power and results in lower profitability. When we take a look at Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet compared with the ipad, we can see many similarities among the two products.The price is very similar, size, as well as features, and even the battery life. Number of Buyers ?In this industry, there are many buyers that it can attract. Since Samsung makes products such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, TV’s, cameras, and much more they have many buyers since most of the items mentioned everyone has. The more buyers in a given industry results in more sellers the company will have to compete with and more alternatives a buyer can choose from. The larger the buyers as well as the number of sellers, means the customer is more important to the sellers business.Summary ?The overall buyer bargaining power for the industry that Samsung is in would be labeled as high. This creates a few challenges for Samsung as it makes the market very competitive, leaves little room for error, and creating a following for the company. With the buyers having most of the power the chances for profitability can be difficult to reach but Samsung has done a great job reaching good profitability. They have handled the high effects of buyer bargaining power very well and have been gaining more buyer loyalty. Threat of SubstitutesCriteria Level Effect on Threat Effect on Profit Relative Price of Substitutes Low Increases Threat Decreases Profitability Relative Performance of Substitutes High Increases Threat Decreases Profitability Switching Costs High Decrease Threat Increases Profitability Buyer Propensity to Substitute Low Decreases Threat Increases Profitability Relative Price of Substitutes ?When it comes to the price of substitutes in the electronics industry, it really depends on the particular product being considered, b ut overall, they are fairly low.For example, if someone is looking to replace their laptop and is looking for a product that can satisfy their need to access the internet and communicate with others, they could consider purchasing a tablet, which is fairly inexpensive compared to the price of some computers. (Spoonauer 2011) The low cost of substitutes increases the threat on businesses because they are at risk of losing customers to the businesses that are offering lower priced substitutes. This loss of business would decrease their profitability. Relative Performance of Substitutes As with the price of substitutes, the performance of substitutes also depends on the particular products being considered, but overall the performance is fairly high. Technology has rapidly advanced throughout the past few years, which has led companies to create devices that allow users to complete many tasks on one device, rather than have separate devices for each task. Someone that normally uses a l aptop to access their email and chat with friends on social networking websites can now access those same things on a tablet, which is a much smaller and convenient device. Biggs 2011) The high performance of substitutes leads to increased threat, because customers are more likely to switch to a product that is high quality and extremely convenient. The increased threat would ultimately decrease the profitability, because it would be difficult for them to compete with a company that is offering a higher quality product. Switching Costs ?Depending on the individual customer, switching costs could be high or low. Switching costs tend to be high with electronics, because making the decision to purchase a new product usually takes some time and research. Chen 2000) It is risky to purchase an electronic device without looking up product information and customer reviews beforehand. Switching costs can also be high because it takes time to get used to a new product and figure out all of th e capabilities and features. This can be a time consuming as well as frustrating process. High switching costs leads to a decrease in overall threat, because many customers do not want to switch products if it involves a lot of time and effort. It is much easier to stick with a product that is familiar rather than try to learn something completely new.This will lead to an increase in profitability because customers won't want to switch to a new product offering from a different company. Buyer Propensity to Substitute ?Overall, buyer propensity to substitute is fairly low, with a few exceptions. Most people are satisfied with the products they are using and are not looking to switch products all the time and look for the most recent technology. Many people who have laptops would never consider buying a tablet, because a laptop does everything a tablet does, minus the convenient size. But there are people who are always looking for the most echnologically advanced products and they ar e more than willing to substitute their products. Some people like the convenience of a tablet and would gladly replace their bulky laptop with it. (Adhi Techno 2012) Because buyer propensity to substitute is fairly low, it decreases the threat of substitution, since most people don't have a need to switch out their current products. This ultimately increases profitability, because customers are remaining with that product rather than switching to a company that offers something else. Overall Threat of Substitution Overall, the threat of substitution has roughly the same negative and positive impact on profitability. The low price and high performance of substitutes draws customers away from the business and encourages them to look to those substitutes to satisfy their needs, thus decreasing profitability. High switching costs and low buyer propensity to substitute have a positive impact on profitability, because customers would rather stick with their products rather than take the time and effort to find a new product to satisfy their needs. Threat of New Entrants Criteria Level Effect on Power Effect on Profit Product Differentiation High HighHigh Diversity of Competition Moderate Moderate Low Start-up Costs High High High Distribution High High High Product Differentiation ?According to Randy Khoo, author of â€Å"Why Apple is Very Afraid of Samsung,† Samsung carries itself through many different production areas even though most people believe Samsung only dabbles in the electronics market. At this time Samsung has 6. 5% of the IT Hardware market share, 7. 1% of the peripheral market share, 8. 5% of the converged devices market share and 5. 2% of the personal computer market share (Khoo, R). This means that the company’s ability to spread over a broad span of products is immense.According to Khoo, Samsung’s power could one day take over Apple’s entire market share. Diversity of Competition ?According to the U. S. Patent and Trad emark Office’s records from 2011, Samsung applied for the second most patents in the Nation. In 2011 alone, they applied for and were granted 4,868 patents, right behind International Business Machines Corporation, who were granted 6,148 patents. Samsung’s closest competitor, Panasonic Corporation, raked forth with 2,533 patents granted (Patenting by Organizations, 2011). Start-up Costs ?As for all electronics, start-up costs are extremely high.According to Craig Kuhn, author of â€Å"Barriers to Entry,† the start up costs for firms selling electronics are extremely high due to the amount of technology and materials needed to create a marketable product. ?Another aspect new firms need to think about is their incoming reputation when attempting to compete with very popular firms. These existing firms are knowledgeable about the industry and already maintain relationships with key manufactures and the biggest retailers. These new firms need to infiltrate these rel ationships in order to make way into the market, which isn’t easy (Kuhn, C).Distribution ?Randy Khoo, author of â€Å"Why Apple is Very Afraid of Samsung,† states that Samsung’s ability to sell their products anywhere is enormous. Since Apple strictly sells their products in their stores, through their website and through their strict distribution channels, Samsung has the ability to take over the market by selling their products anywhere that will accept them. â€Å"Samsung also has an existing distribution network from their existing businesses. This is of tremendous value†¦These distribution channels will also be there for the future dissemination of other Samsung products.This means that if they want to, it’s easy for them to market more than just electronics (Khoo, R). † Intensity of Rivalry Supposed to have four criteria. Criteria Level Effect on Power Effect on Profit Product Differentiation High Decrease Power Increase Switching Cost H igh Decrease Power Increase Diversity of Competitors High Decrease Power Increase Cost Product differentiation: ?According to Arthur Thompson, in his article, â€Å"Crafting and Executing Strategy,† â€Å"the essence if a broad differentiation strategy is to be unique in way that are valuable to a wide range of customers† (Thompson 2010).He also mentioned that, â€Å"a focused strategy to focus keyed to differentiation aim at securing a competitive advantage with product offering carefully designed to appeal to the unique preference and needs of a narrow, well defined group of buyers† (Thompson 2010). Broadly, Samsung faces many competitors who produce a wide range of electrical appliances. They have competitors like LG, Panasonic, GE and so on. In a small niche, differentiation is still a major factor that influences the sales of certain products.For example, in the cell phone industry, there is a lot of differentiation constantly appearing in the cell phone co mpetition, because differentiation can gain more advantage to their products. Therefore, the more differentiation their rivals make on their products, the less power Samsung has, and the more they will have to increase the cost of their phones. Switching cost: ?The majority of Samsung’s products are electrical appliances which require relatively high switching cost. According to Samsung, the common price of high tech products, like cell phone or tablet, is around $500.The price of big electrical appliances is usually more than $1,000 (Samsung, 2012). Compared to other low switching cost products, the majority of Samsung’s products have higher switching costs. Also, the life cycle of those products are long, which means as long as customers buy the products, it is not easy for them to switch. Therefore, there will be more competition to attract customers. That would decrease Samsung’s power, and they would drive up cost to make their products more attractive. Div ersity of competitors: ?There are many competitors in the electrical appliance industry.In the high tech industry, there are also many different competing companies. Apple is one of the main competitors in the high tech industry. According to Vaughan-Nichols, â€Å"Apple has sued Samsung around the world. Apple has made the same lousy patent design claims: Samsung has stolen the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad† (Vaughan-Nichols 2012). The more competitors an industry has, the more the companies will spend to compete against rivals. Apple is only one of those competitors. As the industry becomes more mature, the diversity of competitors becomes wider. Therefore, the effectiveness of Samsung’s power in the industry will decrease.In addition, the more competitors the industry has, the more money each competitor will put into the production and marketing of goods in order to increase brand identity and image. Therefore, the cost goes up. Overall Power of Rivalry: ?Ove rall, the power of rivalry would have a negative effect on Samsung. The influence would be losing power in the market and driving up costs. The major influence from rivalries would be differentiation of products, high switching costs and diversity of competitors. RESOURCES Adhi Techno (2012) â€Å"Top Five Reasons Tablets Will Substitute Laptops, Cellular Cell phones, and Pcs† Accessed 15 February 2013. ttp://adhi-id. blogspot. com/2012/04/top-five- reasons-tablets-will. html. ASUS, â€Å"ASUS. † Last modified 2012. Accessed February 18, 2013. http://www. asus. com/About_ASUS/Marks_in_History_ASUS_Motherboards/. Biggs, John (2011) â€Å"10 Reasons To Buy A Tablet (And 5 Reasons Not To)† Accessed 15 February 2013. http://techcrunch. com/2011/02/12/10-reasons-to-buy-a-tablet-and-5- reasons-not-to/. Chen, pei-yu (2000) â€Å"Switching cost and brand loyalty in electronic markets: Evidence from on- line retail brokers† Accessed 15 February 2013. http://opim. wharton. upenn. du/~lhitt/ files/ICIS%20-%20Switching%20Cost. pdf. Choi, Jin. â€Å"NO1. † Last modified 2011. Accessed February 18, 2013. http://news. mk. co. kr/newsReadPrint. php? year=2010&no=346294. â€Å"Five Forces. † Wikispaces. cct424-samsung. wikispaces. com/Five+Forces (accessed February 17, 2013). Khoo, R â€Å"Why Apple is Very Afraid of Samsung† Android Authority. http://www. androidauthority. com/why-apple-is-very-afraid-of-samsung-26459/ (accessed February 18, 2013). Kuhl, C â€Å"Barriers to Entry† CED. http://www. cedmagazine. com/articles/2005/11/barriers-to-entry (accessed February 18, 2013). Levine, Dan.Bandor Daily News, â€Å"Apple and Samsung, frenemies for life. † Last modified 2013. Accessed February 18, 2013. http://bangordailynews. com/2013/02/11/business/apple-and-samsung-frenemies-for-life/. Liu, Ken. CENS, â€Å"Samsung' Share of Global DRAM Market Exceeds 40%. † Last modified 2010. Accessed February 18, 2013. http://news. cens. com/cens/html/en/news/news_inner_34299. html. â€Å"Patenting by Organizations, 2011† U. S. Patent and Trademark Office. http://www. uspto. gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/topo_11. htm (accessed February 18, 2013). â€Å"Porter Model – Suppliers . † Last modified 2010.Accessed February 18, 2013. http://www. whatmakesagoodleader. com/Porter-Model. html. Quick MBA, â€Å"Porter's Five Forces. † Last modified 2012. Accessed February 18, 2013. http://www. quickmba. com/strategy/porter. shtml. Samsung, â€Å"Samsung. † Last modified 2013. Accessed February 17, 2013. http://www. samsung. com/us/. â€Å"Samsung – 5 Forces Analysis† WikiHealth. http://www. wikiwealth. com/five-forces:samsung (accessed February 18, 2013). Shilov, Anton. Xbit, â€Å"AMD’s Market Share Drops Below 17% Due to Market Conditions, Competition with Intel.. † Last modified 2012. Accessed February 18, 2013. ttp://www. xbitlabs. com/news /cpu/display/20121106225537_AMD_s_Market_Share_Drops_Below_17_Due_to_Market_Conditions_Competition_with_Intel. html. Spoonauer, Mark (2011) â€Å"Tablets vs. Laptops: What Should You Buy? † Accessed 15 February 2013. http://blog. laptopmag. com/tablets-vs-laptops-whats-best-for-you. Thompson, Arthur , Margaret Peteraf, John Gamble, and A. J. Strickland. Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest For Competitive Advantage. New York : McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2012. Thompson, Arthur. Crafting and executing strategy  . New York: Mc Graw-Hill Irwin, 2010. Vaughan-Nichols, steven.ZD Net, â€Å"Why is Apple scared to compete with Samsung?. † Last modified 2012. Accessed February 17, 2013. http://www. zdnet. com/why-is-apple-scared-to-compete-with-samsung-7000002823/ Trading Markets, â€Å"Samsung Expands. † Last modified 2012. Accessed February 18, 2013. http://www. tradingmarkets. com/news/stock-alert/ssnjy_samsung-electronics-expands-its-nand-flash-market-share-in-q2-10898 34. html. Valuation Academy (2013) â€Å"Porter’s Five Forces- Threat of Substitute Products or Services† Accessed 15 February 2013. http://valuationacademy. com/threat-of-substitute-products- or-services/.

Abnormal Psychology- Schizophrenia

Abnormal Psychology – Schizophrenia Introduction There are a number of problems with defining psychological abnormality. They include problems with cultural relativity and social norms, what is normal within one culture or society may be considered abnormal within another. There are also problems with statistics as some abnormalities have too few or too many statistics to compare and the statistics may not always be reliable. Under the medical model all psychological disorders are considered illnesses. There are two classification systems to diagnose different disorders.These are the International Classification of Diseases & Health Related Problems (ICD) and Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The most up to date editions currently in use are ICD-10 and DSM-IV although DSM-V is due to be released in May 2013. (Jabr, F (2013)) Schizophrenia According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) schizophrenia is a severe form of mental illness. It is a treatabl e psychological condition that affects 24 million people worldwide. It mainly affects 15-35 year olds and is more likely to occur in males but anyone of any age or gender, can develop the condition.It affects thinking, perceptions and language and causes the patient to hear voices and to have hallucinations and delusions. Symptoms ICD-10 diagnostic criteria †¢ At least one of: o Thought echo, thought insertion/withdrawal/broadcast o Passivity, delusional perception o   Third person auditory hallucination, running commentary o Persistent bizarre delusions †¢ or two or more of: o Persistent hallucinations o Thought disorder o Catatonic behaviour o Negative symptoms o Significant behaviour change †¢ Duration o    More than 1 month †¢ Exclusion criteria o Mood disorders, schizoaffective disorder Overt brain disease o Drug intoxication or withdrawal (Wing, J. K. & Agrawal, N. (2009)) Behavioural Explanations and Therapies The behavioural approach suggests that sch izophrenia is simply learned behaviour learned through operant conditioning. Sammons (2008) suggests that the reason schizophrenia tends to run in families is due to children learning the behaviour from their parents. Social learning theory also suggests that although there may be some symptoms present once a patient is around others with schizophrenia they learn symptoms by seeing others demonstrate them.It is difficult to explain how the hallucinations and delusions suffered by a schizophrenic can be explained as learned behaviour; true behaviourists think this is irrelevant as they are only concerned with the physical behaviours not what is happening in the mind. Paul and Lentz (1977) carried out a study into operant conditioning as a treatment for schizophrenia. They set up a token economy on a hospital ward where they rewarded patients for appropriate behaviour by giving them tokens that they could exchange for luxury items.It was found that only 11% of the patients in the test group continued to require drugs for their symptoms compared to 100% of the control group. (AQA, (2010)) This demonstrates that operant conditioning as a treatment is very effective; however behaviourists do not care whether the patient is still hearing voices as long as they behave like they are not. In the Paul and Lentz study the patients may still hear voices but have simply learned that if they behave as though they are not they will be rewarded. This means that the schizophrenia has not actually been cured. Biological Explanations and TherapiesThere have been a number of studies conducted that suggest there is a biological cause for schizophrenia. Through family resemblance studies it has been discovered that a normal person with no family history of schizophrenia has around a 0. 2-2% chance of developing the condition, whereas a person with one schizophrenic parent has a 13% chance of developing it. The chances increase to 46% if both parents have the condition. (Head, P (20 12)) This information may not be reliable as it was based on information from records and memories and memories can easily be distorted or misinterpreted.The Copenhagen High –risk study looked at children aged 10-18 and classified them into low risk, of developing schizophrenia, and high risk groups. They removed the risk of environmental factors that could distort the results by grouping the children by age, gender, residence and economic status. This made the study highly reliable as it meant the only factor that should affect results was genetics. The study found that only 1. 9% of children in the low risk group developed schizophrenia whereas 16. 2% of the high risk children did.This shows support for the genetic explanation for schizophrenia. Iverson (1979) carried out post-mortem studies. He found that there are high levels of dopamine in brains of schizophrenics. It is suggested that schizophrenia is caused by high levels of dopamine in the brain or more dopamine recep tors in their brains. This is supported by the success of chlorpromazine drugs as a treatment for the condition. There are however problems with this explanation. One problem is that there is no evidence that excess dopamine causes schizophrenia.It could be that schizophrenia causes excess dopamine. (AQA, 2010) Biological treatments for schizophrenia are anti psychotic drugs and chlorpromazine which blocks dopamine receptors in the brain. These drugs have been proven to work as they reduce the number of patients spending a long time in hospital; however drugs are not a cure. They only control the symptoms if a patient stops taking these drugs the symptoms will soon return. This is known as the ‘revolving door syndrome. ’ There can be a number of reasons for this to happen; firstly a patient may ave a fear of getting well. The patient may find it difficult to imagine life without schizophrenia or enjoy some part of it. Another reason is that the patient may stop taking t he drugs they are prescribed due to side effects. (Fritscher, L (2012)) The side effects of these drugs can include drowsiness, dizziness, disturbed vision, weight gain, blood clots and tremors. (Net doctor (2012)) Patients may feel that the side effects are worse than the original illness and stop taking the prescribed medication which then starts the cycle again. Psychodynamic Explanations and TherapiesThe psychodynamic explanation for schizophrenia is that the Ego is being over taken by either the Id or Superego. Freudians would suggest that there has been a problem in childhood, most likely a problem with the mother, the ego doesn’t develop as well as it should which means the id can easily take control. (Sammons (2008)) The Ego looses control and the patient will enter a child like state, known as ‘primary narcissism’, which causes fantasy to be confused with reality and delusions of self importance which cause the patient to be highly demanding similar to a baby.Hallucinations and delusions are caused by the Ego trying to regain control and reality. There are problems with the psychodynamic approach; firstly there is no scientific evidence to support the explanations. Secondly it has generally been regarded that since anti psychotic drugs work to treat the symptoms that the biological explanation is more reliable. (Sammons (2008)) Freud did not see any point in treating schizophrenics as he believed that it had been caused by the broken ego which is the part of the psyche that he would engage with, as this was so badly damaged he believed there was no way to cure schizophrenia.More recently the main psychodynamic treatment for schizophrenia has been psychotherapy. Rosen (1946) brought patients into a child like state to be able to then nurture them to redevelop a strong ego and ultimately rebalance the psyche. There have been problems with this form of treatment as it is out of date and the results that were found by Rosen are less li kely to be effective today as the definition of schizophrenia has changed and the cases Rosen treated would not be considered to be schizophrenic today. Also Drake & Sederer (1986) actually found that his form of therapy could worsen symptoms and prolong the patients stay in hospital. Cognitive Explanations and Therapies The cognitive approach agrees with the biological evidence that there is a high genetic contribution to schizophrenia but realises that there must also be other causes and it is important to take these into account. The cognitive model suggests that although genes can create a disposition to develop schizophrenia it only actually develops as a response to stresses such as trauma or infections.Cognitive psychologists fail to take environmental factors such as family and lifestyle into account. Cognitive psychologists believe that the faulty thought patterns are what cause schizophrenia and not a result of the condition. It is suggested that there is a fault with the way in which schizophrenics process information and that it is difficult for them to filter out irrelevant information. Hemsley (1993) suggested that schizophrenics have problems processing information in their memories and new information coming in. It is also suggested that there is a problem with the functioning of the in built schemas.Hemsley explains that the reason schizophrenics hear voices is because they do not realise that their thoughts come from memories and therefore believe them to be voices. There is however very little evidence to support Hemsley’s ideas except for some research on animals which cannot be directly compared with human behaviour. Frith (1992) suggested that people with schizophrenia find it difficult to distinguish whether the information is coming from an internal or external source. He believed that most of the symptoms of schizophrenia can be explained by problems in three different cognitive processes.The first is the inability to generate w illed action. The second is the inability to monitor willed action, and the third is the inability to monitor the beliefs and intentions of others. Frith suggests that these problems come from faulty wiring in the brain. There is evidence to support this from his study where he gave specific tasks to schizophrenics and monitored the cerebral blood flow. He found that this was different to what he would expect to see in a person without schizophrenia. The cognitive explanation of schizophrenia is very popular in terms of helping ordinary eople understand the condition. It is also made more reliable by the fact that they take into account other factors such as genetics as well as psychological factors. The cognitive approach also has limitations as although it does well to explain the symptoms of schizophrenia it cannot explain the causes alone without looking at the biological model. PAGE 13-14 Conclusions In conclusion there are a wide range of explanations for schizophrenia includi ng genetics, environment and traumatic experiences. There are also a wide range of treatments including drugs, psycho therapy and behavioural therapy.All of these explanations and therapies have credit on their own but also have limitations. The best way to treat schizophrenia is through a combination of treatments such as drugs used with cognitive-behavioural therapy. Most people with schizophrenia are managed through treatments however many people will relapse. This would then trigger a new round of treatments. Continued support even after recovery helps to reduce the chances of relapse. (NHS choices (2012)) References o AQA, (2010) schizophrenia: Explanations and treatments [online] available from: www. aqabpsychology. co. k/2010/07/schizophrenia-explanations-and-treatments [accessed 5. 2. 2013] o Fritscher, L (2012) Revolving Door Syndrome [online] available from http://phobias. about. com/od/glossary/g/Revolving-Door-Syndrome. htm [accessed 11. 2. 2013] o Head, P (2012) Biologi cal Explanations of Schizophrenia [online] available from: http://www. springwood. norfolk. sch. uk/Downloads/Psychology/BIOLOGICAL%20EXPLANATIONS%20OF%20SCHIZOPHRENIA. pdf [Accessed 6. 2. 2013] o Jabr, F (2013) The Newest Edition of Psychiatry’s â€Å"Bible,† the DSM-5, Is Complete [Online] available from: http://www. scientificamerican. om/article. cfm? id=dsm-5-update [Accessed on 11. 2. 2013] o Net Doctor (2012) Chlorpromazine – Side Effects [online] available from: http://www. netdoctor. co. uk/brain-and-nervous-system/medicines/chlorpromazine. html. [Accessed 11. 2. 2013] o NHS Choices (2012) Schizophrenia – Living with [online] available from: http://www. nhs. uk/Conditions/Schizophrenia/Pages/living-with. aspx [accessed 6. 2. 2013] o Sammons (2008) Schizophrenia [online] available from: http://www. psychlotron. org. uk/resources/abnormal/A2_AQB_abnormal_schizophreniaPsyBehActivity. pdf [accessed 5. 2. 2013] Wing, J. K & Agrawal, N. (2009) Concepts of Schizophrenia [online] Available from: (http://www. health. am/psy/more/icd-10-and-dsm-iv-concepts-of-schizophrenia/ [accessed: 2. 2. 2013] Bibliography o Mcleod, S. (2008) Abnormal Psychology [online] available from; www. simplypsychology. org/abnormal-psychology. html [accessed 5. 2. 2013] o WHO (2012) Mental Health – Schizophrenia [online] available from: www. who. int/mental_health/management/schizophrenia/en/ [accessed 5. 2. 2013] http://alevelpsychologynotes. blogspot. co. uk/2007/10/schizophrenia. html by TAZMANIAN_DEVIL a 2007

Sec.22

SEC. 22. The State recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development. Rights of Indigeneous cultural communities. As used in the Constitution, the term â€Å"indigenous cultural communities† refers to non-dominant groups in our country which possess and wish to preserve ethnic, religious or linguistic traditions or characteristic markedly different from the rest of the population. Section 22 recognizes constitutionally the existence and rights of the indigenous cultural communities.It directs the State to promote their rights within the framework of national unity. Thus, the State is bound to consider the customs, traditions, beliefs and interests of indigenous cultural minorities in the formulation and implementation of State policies and programs. In a multi-ethnic society like ours, the above provision is necessary in promoting the goal of national unity and development. (see Art XVI, Sec. 12) Under provision, the government may even enact the laws especially for them taking into account their customs, traditions, beliefs and interests. H. de Leon, Phil. Constitution 2005, pp. 67-68) SEC. 23. The State shall encourage non-governmental, community-based or sectoral organizations that promote the welfare of the nation. Non-governmental, community-based or sectoral organizations The State is required to encourage these organizations because recent events have shown that, under responsible leadership, they can be active contributors to the political, social and economic growth of the country.It should refrain from any actuation that would tend to interfere or subvert the rights of these organizations which in the words of the Constitution are community-based or sectoral organizations that promote the welfare of the nation. (Ibid, p. 68) This topic is discussed at the length under Article XIII (Social Justice and Human Rights), Sections 15 and 16 which categorically state the role an d rights of people’s organizations as vehicle to enable the people to participate and intervene meaningfully and effectively in decisions which directly affect their lives. (Ibid. p. 68) SEC. 24.The State recognizes the vital role of communication and information in nation-building. Vital role of communication and information in nation-building. Communication and information, as used above, include not only print or broadcast media (radio and television) but also motion pictures, advertising, cable, telephone and telegraph. Those means of communication designed to gather and convey news or in the formation to the public are called mass media because they reach the mass of the people. (see Art. XVI, Sec. 11[1]. That they play a critical role in nation-building is very obvious. 1) Formation of an enlightened citizenry. – Mass media shape people’s thoughts and beliefs, their attitudes and values. In a country like the Philippines composed of people with diverse cul tures, they can be an effective instrument in promoting national integration and preserving Filipino values and traditions. By educating the citizenry on important public issues, they also help create a strong, vigilant and enlightened public opinion so essential to the successful operation of a republican democracy. (2) Promotion of effiency and economy in government and business. Information and communication can be used to link our geographically dispersed population an effect faster delivery of educational, medical and other public services in remote areas of the country. In any organization, ready information maximizes internal efficiency. Particularly in business, it reduces cost of production and services. (3) Development of society. – On the material side, it is difficult to imagine a progressive country, in today’s world of high-tech computers, internets, cyberspace and information highways, with antiquated ommunication and information structures. In the last few years, the world has witnessed a steady stream of a technological progress in the field. The Philippines must keep abreast of communication innovations but at the same time be selective and discriminating to insure that only those â€Å"suitable to the needs and aspirations of the nation† (Ibid. : Sec. 10) are adapted. Utilized and managed wisely and efficiently, communication and information are very useful tools for the economic, social, cultural and political development of society. (H. de Leon, Phil. Constitution, p. 9) Sec. 25. The State shall ensure the autonomy of local governments. Autonomy of local governments R. A. 7160, known as the Local Government Code, enacted on January 1, 1992 covers all matters concerning local governments and political subdivisions. Sec. 26. The state shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law. Equal access opportunities for public service This topic discuss ed under Article VI Legislative Department, Sections 4, 5, and 7 and Article X (Local Government), Section 8.Additionally: (1) Limitation of terms of office. – The provisions limiting the terms of office of elective officials (President, Vice President, Senators, Representative and local officials) enhance equal access to political opportunities although they may not completely do way with evils spawned political dynasties that proliferated in the country in the past. With his political and economic resources, an elective official can have a close kin or follower run for the latter.Hence, the need for a declaration expressly prohibiting a political dynasties. (2) Prohibition of political dynasties. – The constitutional policy on the prohibition of political dynasties expresses a national commitment to democratize election and appointment to positions in the government and eliminate a principal obstacle to â€Å"equal opportunities for public service†. It is not uncommon to have the most of the top elective positions in a province (or city) down to barangays occupied by one family and close relatives of the family members.Politicians form husband-wife teams, or father-mother, son-daughter teams and hold to elective positions for decades. The dominance of political families in the past not only kept more deserving but poor individuals from running or winning in elections; it also enabled powerful and affluent politicians to corner appointive positions for their relatives and followers as it they alone are gifted with the ability to serve the country. (3) Prohibition constitutionally mandated. The law implementing the constitutional policy shall define what constitutes political dynasties, having in mind of evils sought to be eradicated and the need to insure the widest possible base for the selection of elective government officials regardless of political, economic and social status. Note that the State is expressly mandated to prohibit â⠂¬Å"political dynasties†. Congress has no discretion on the matter except merely to spell out the meaning and scope of the term. (deLeon,2005,p. 0). Sec. 27. The State shall maintain honesty and integrity in the public service and take positive and effective measures against graft and corruption. Honesty and Integrity in public service (1) The perennial problem of graft and corruption. – In the Philippines, every new administration since the postwar period has made a pledge to eradicate graft and corruption in government. The popular perception, however, is that this baneful ill has become more rampant and sophisticated through years.To be sure, the above provision was incorporated in the Constitution because of revelations of â€Å"unprecendented magnitude† of graft and corruption allegedly perpetrated by officials in the highest circle of the government during the previous regime. (2) Ways to attack problem. – The malady of graft and corruption must be e liminated or at least minimize to a tolerable degree because of the staggering amount of public money that has been lost through it.What is needed is moral leadership by example on the part of the top officials in the government and a continuing, the public service which have considerably slowed down the socio-economic progress of our country. Having the honest Presidents with the best intentions is not enough to reduce corruption to minimal proportions. This perennial problem cannot be solve by mere empty promises and congressional inquiries, but by prosecuting without the fear or favor and putting behind bars so-called â€Å"big-fishes† found to be involve as concrete examples of the government’s determination to achieve decency in the public service.Any campaign against the scourge of society will be made more effective if accompanied by a morality crusade. (3) Need for honesty and integrity in public service. – The fulfillment of the constitutional mandate w ill go a long way in strengthening the peoples trust in the government and its leaders. It will also ensure the efficient use of the meager resources available for national development. (deLeon,2005,pp. 71-72) Sec. 28.Subject to a reasonable conditions prescribed by law, the state adopts and implements a policy of full public disclosure of all its transactions involving public interest. Full Disclosure by the State of all it’s transactions. 1. Duty of the State – Sec. 7 of the bill of rights guarantees the people’s right of information on matters of public concern and access to records pertaining to official transactions of the government. In the other hand, Sec. 28 requires the State to make public it’s transactions without demand from individual citizens.It stresses the duty of the State to release the information. 2. Transaction covered – The policy covers all State transactions involving public interests, i. e. , transactions which the people h ave a right to know particularly those involving expenditures of public funds. The law, however, may prescribed reasonable conditions for the disclosure to guard against improper or unjustified exercise of the right. The policy will not apply to records involving the security of the State or which are confidential in character. (H. de Leon, Phil. Constitution, pp. 64-72)

Employment Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Employment Law - Essay Example 1). The employment issue, which exists, is whether it is right for resumes of unemployed people to be discarded by employers. An operations analyst in the information technology sector is an example of a person who is discriminated by the employment act. According to a recruiter, not working for six months is an obstacle towards finding employment. This ideology seems to have spread to almost all the American employers. Furthermore, the number of Americans who do not have jobs is at 14 million, and finding work is a problem. Some of America’s known Job websites such as Craigslist, CareerBuilder, and Monster.com are not employing the unemployed. This situation has a historical context like that, which took place during the Great Depression. During that time, many workers were left unemployed, and this is due to the crisis. It does not make sense when employers demand that potential recruits be currently employed. There are some people who are fresh out of college and have never worked, yet they have the skills and knowledge. They should be given a chance to prove their capability, and thus, this employment discrimination is problematic (Rampell, 2011. 1). According to a legal view, like race and age there is no protected status in matters related to employment. Experts further believe that there is no discrimination that occurs as a result of this practice. The employment laws, which exist, are not violated in any way. It has emerged that the most vulnerable groups affected by this practice are blacks and elderly people. The latter is according to information provided by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The latter has not yet decided whether the case on the unemployed is illegal in any way. In fact, they have hearings on this matter, which are taking place at the moment. The unemployed are crossing their fingers, in order for a law to be passed concerning this matter (Livingston et al, 20005. 114). Employment discrimination has become a men ace, and a law has been passed by New Jersey concerning this matter. Other states such as Michigan and New York are considering having such a law. The economy is being affected, as there are no people who are employed to earn revenue for the economy. There will no longer be a scenario where unemployed workers are discouraged from applying due to their unemployment status. The plight of workers is being addressed by the National Employment Law Project (Decker, 2002. 42). It advocates for politicians to find ways to outlaw adverts that discriminate against the unemployed workers. Furthermore, it advocates for the unemployed to obtain benefits, as well as engage in the labor market studies. Almost all professions are involved in this discriminative practice, and including even top American companies. It seems that this matter cannot be solved easily as Congress is not that influential. Companies are the ones who have the upper hand in this matter, since they are the ones who hire indiv iduals. They choose the people they want, and congress cannot interfere. If the matter is taken to court, proving that discrimination occurred will be extremely hard. There is enough evidence to prove that workers who have stayed for long without being employed may not be beneficial to the work place. Some of the reasons why they are unemployed is because they lack competence, and are laid off as there is no work. In some

CT #2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Battle of Waterloo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Battle of Waterloo - Essay Example France has found a charismatic and ambitious leader in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte. His string of victories in the battlefields of Europe all the more contributed to his steady rise and prominence among the French people. Consequently, France's rise to power brought unease among other European nations. Assured of his prominent status and support among the people, Napoleon launched a coup in 1799 that overthrew the Bourbon king and established himself as ruler and First Consul. Later on, he would declare himself emperor for life ("The Battle of Waterloo"). Napoleon had wanted to make France the most powerful country in Europe and to achieve this; he waged a campaign of annexation and colonization of lands which resulted in many victories for his army. The wars were later called the Napoleonic Wars. A coalition of major powers in Europe, notably the Great Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria mobilized an army to meet the threat posed by Napoleon's army. After a series of wars, the Allied army finally defeated Napoleon in 1814 thereby effectively checking his ambition of establishing France as the dominant power in Europe. Napoleon was subsequently deposed and exiled to the island of Elba along with some 600 of his loyal guards in accordance with the Treaty of Fontainbleau. The bourbon king, Louis XVIII was made ruler of France by the victorious European powers ("Battle of Waterloo"). The Congress of Vienna was convened by the nations of Europe that defeated Napoleon to discuss the problems that arose after the fall of France. The Congress also wanted to re-establish the territorial balance in Europe wherein the future and status of the nations conquered and annexed by Napoleon's campaign in Europe were to be discussed. The unpopularity and ineptness of Louis XVIII resulting in economic and social unrest left many veterans who fought with Napoleon and many citizens as well clamoring for change. The men who had fought alongside Napoleon remained a potent force and many felt that their past efforts were wasted because of the government's corruption and insensitiveness to the needs of the people. Many were hoping that their deposed emperor would return and liberate them. Napoleon, believing that many in France would allow his return while others would not dare oppose it, decided to risk a return and put forth plans to establish himself again as the ruler of France ("Waterloo"). On Feb. 26, 1815, Napoleon together with less than a thousand of his men, left Elba and landed on an unpopulated beach near Antibes. Napoleon is determined to return to Paris and early on the next day, he marched toward Grenoble with his men. Soldiers who were stationed in outposts outside Paris initially barred his advance but after offering the guards to shoot him because he has no intention of turning back, instead joined him. Everywhere Napoleon marched, veteran soldiers and those soldiers serving the government joined his ranks. At Auxerre, Marshal Ney, Napoleon's old comrade whom he once called the "bravest of the brave," was overwhelmed by the presence of his former emperor. He embraced him and turned over to Napoleon the command of his 6,000 troops. Because of

Diversity Of Phylum Chordata Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Diversity Of Phylum Chordata - Essay Example In fish they are modified to form gills and they may disappear as the animal grows especially in some of the vertebrates. The pharyngeal gill slit is present at some point in life of the animals. Nerve cord: It is hollow and dorsoventrally placed to the notochord and ends in the brain. Other features are muscular tail (post anal tail) and endostyle (a groove like structure in the ventral wall of the pharynx. However the general features exhibited by animals in this phylum are: The animals have a bilaterally symmetrical body Their bodies are segmented and therefore have segmented muscles Their coelom is well developed They have well developed circulatory system with a ventrally placed heart and are therefore more active than their counterpart invertebrates. Their skeleton is either bony or cartilaginous Their digestive system is complete meaning that their gut runs through the body from mouth to the anus. The phylum chordate falls under the Kingdom Animalia and is further divided into the subphyla Urochordata, Cephalochordata and Vertebrata. However, animals in these subphyla may show different characteristics but the reason for them being grouped in the same phylum is because they exhibit similar characters referred to as unifying links such as urochordates’ larvae have both notochord and nerve cord which vanishes in adulthood. Cephalochordates have a notochord and nerve cord which persist to adulthood but do not have cranium. In vertebrates, the notochord is replaced with vertebral column at adulthood stage and the nerve cord becomes the spinal cord. Subphylum Urochordata Urochordates also known as Tunicates and exemplified by Ascidia have the following characteristics: At adult stage, their body is covered with a suck like structure (Tunica) and has two siphons one through which water enters the body (incurrent siphon) and the other through which water leaves the body (excurrent siphon). They are filter feeders and sessile. Although adults are sessile, their larvae are free swimming and exhibit almost all chordate characteristics. Subphylum Cephalochordata Exemplified by amphioxus and lancelets, cephalochordates have eel like bodies, they are marine, their bodies are segmented. Members of the phylum are soft bodied and therefore, cephalochordates are not fossilized. A notochord extends through their elongated body and mouth is armed with cirri which aids in obtaining food. They have numerous gill slits and are also dioecious. They are filter feeders (extract food from water taken in though the mouth by help of cilia on their wheel organ. Subphylum vertebrata Vertebrates are the most advanced chordates and apart from having an internal skeleton, they exhibit the following characteristics: Their bodies are segmented They have a bilateral symmetrical body Their endoskeleton is either a bony or cartilaginous Pharyngeal gill slits are lost in adults but are present during embryonic stage Their heart is ventrally placed They posses pos t anal tail They have a closed circulatory system Vertebrata Classes Classes captured are: Agnatha, Chondrichthyes, Osteichthyes,Amphibia ,Reptila ,aves and Mammalia Class Agnatha Agnathans arise from a group of vertebrates known as Cylclostomes (fishes or group of vertebrates without jaws) which excludes Gnathostomes (group of vertebrat

To what extent the principle of contract has been applied in the Essay

To what extent the principle of contract has been applied in the design of the Contract law in China - Essay Example Moreover it is a legal document and is directly under the law and any deviance from the agreement or the contract can lead to severe punishment by the law. The government has a direct involvement in the contract and any deviation may lead to serious consequences. A contract in general consists of an offer, the act of accommodating to the offer and a valid and valued consideration over the agreement. By means of signing of the contract each party gains certain rights and duties over the other parties involved in the contract. The amount of benefit received by the parties is not necessarily of the same amount, one of the party can gain more benefits than the other part but the other part cannot raise any voice if the part has already signed the contract; because signing the contract means that both the parties have accepted all the points of the contract and after the signing process no arguments can be raised. The most important thing in a contract is that it is done by mutual approva l and sanction (China, 1999). The Republic of China for its people has introduced the contract law for the protection of rights and to provide them with a sense of strength and independence. The government has enforced certain laws regarding the issue of contracts and the laws have been designed so that during the process of contract or agreement signing the weak party or person cannot suffer from any lose or come under the pressure of the powerful party, person or organization. The law also states that no party or person can be forced to sign a contract or to withdraw from any contract. Each and every citizen of the country has been given the full right to enter or leave a contract on their wish. The most important issue that is discussed in the law is that the contract points must be entirely based on honesty, justice, and equity and the rights of the people must always be kept under consideration. It is a binding on the parties or individuals involved in the contract that whateve r agreement takes place in the contract, it must be taken place by the mutual consent of both the parties and no individual person or party of the contract will have the power to make any changes or amendments without the consent of the other party (China, 1999). It is a binding on the parties of the contract to strictly observe the points of the contract accordingly. One very important point for the contract enforcement is that both the parties have their signatures on the contract and this signature process must be performed within a certain time period. If the time limit exceeds then the contract will no longer remain valid and applicable and will have to be renewed from the beginning. There is a possibility that the other party signs the contract and the contract reaches the offering party after the time limit then in these cases usually the contract is considered to be accepted but in certain cases the offering party rejects to accept after the time limit has passed. To withdra w from the contract is not an easy task as it is against the principle of contracts and if a party wants to withdraw from a contract then the withdrawal must be made soon after the acceptance of the agreement (China, 1999). The contract law of the Republic of China is quite a lot in accordance to the principle of

Critical Thinking Exercise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical Thinking Exercise - Essay Example The brand collectively has over 33,000 restaurants, franchises and outlets serving on a daily basis over 68 million people in almost 120 countries. (About McDolands) The business model of franchising helps McDonald’s to convey reliable, quality oriented and locally-relevant eating experiences to its customers. The total assets of the company amount to $32,990 million including a $22.8 billion of fixed assets. The current assets of the company amount to $4.4 billion and a goodwill of $2.6 billion. The proportion of the current assets over the total assets is 13% and the net identifiable and tangible assets of the company have a proportion of 69.2% which indicates a healthy backing of tangible assets. The major portion of the company’s liabilities is the long-term debt of the company which amounts to $12.1 billion and takes 65.24% of $18.6 billion of the total liabilities. The current liabilities of the company, which majorly include payroll and trade payables, has a low standing as compared to the current assets as the current liabilities amount to $3.5 billion as at December 31, 2011. The company has generated total revenue of $27 billion for the year 2011 and $18.3 billion of that revenue has been generated through company operated restaurants while the remaining from franchised restaurants generating an operating profit of $8.4 billion whereby the operating expenses majorly include food, payroll and other operational expenses such as the ambiance and maintenance related costs of the company. These expenses make up a total of $14.8 billion out of the total $18.5 billion operating expenses. The net income of the company after tax is $5.5 billion for the year which is quite attractive for such a company operating in such a competitive environment. The company also declared a dividend of $2.6 billion for its common shareholders. The company was able to maintain the same level of cash as last year as the company’s total cash was $2.34

This a research Paper on Thomas Gray the Poet Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

This a on Thomas Gray the Poet - Research Paper Example His criticisms reiterated on the perception that Gray was fond of communicating using two languages that comprised of a private and public language. The use of private language was somehow challenging. This can be ascertained in his poem that is entitled; the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," which was published way back in year 1751 (Burns & Robert, 1992). On the other hand, William Wordsworth, in his preamble, made decisions to the Lyrical Ballads using the Grays piece of work entitled "Sonnet on the Death of Richard West" that was published in 1775. He used it as an example to depict that Thomas Gray was generally ruled by a fake ideology of poetic articulation that was brought out using a wrong language. In an equal judgment, Matthew Arnold gave a remark on the perspective that the age was erroneous for such a highly serious poetry. Gray also in the same manner and with familiar discernment, asserted that the age was wrong for poetry of such significance. To be noted was that Gray was affected by his ultimate age and thus failed to speak out totally. So, the main precarious biography of Gray’s reputation and reception regarding his poetry are summed up by all these judgments. The attraction of attentive critics has mainly been due to the fact of extra ordinary continuation of ‘Elegy’s significance. It is because this piece of work has been outstanding and seems to be indisputably superior especially when measured against all the other performances. Gray was born in a place known as Cornhill back in the year 1716; and was the 5th child of 12 children of Dorothy and Philip Gray, and more so he was the solitude survivor during infancy. Between the year 1725 and 1734, he attended Eton institution, where he then met Horace Walpole and Richard West, who were very influential. In 1734 he joined Peter house College in Cambridge University. After four

Ethics Research Paper on Euthanasia Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethics on Euthanasia - Research Paper Example ciety that undervalues life sees no guilt in committing acts of violence, particularly murder, thereby making life value dangerously demoralized and humanity altogether  ­weakened (Doerflinger, 1989, p. 16-19, Koop, 1989, p. 2-3). The â€Å"slippery slope† or the â€Å"wedge theory† is an assumption that makes the distinction between voluntary euthanasia and involuntary euthanasia hardly recognizable, thereby supposing that agonizing individuals request their deaths because they feel they are a burden to themselves; and society requests to terminate an individual’s life because of being a burden to the people around them and to society, as a whole. Kamizar, a professor of law at the University of Michigan and a non-supporter of the â€Å"wedge theory† argues that "Once society accepts that life can be terminated because of its diminished quality, there is no rational way to limit euthanasia and prevent its abuse.† (Wolhandler, 1984, p. 377). If euthanasia is legalized, the probability for exploitation and mistreatment of individuals by the more supreme individuals will enormously amplify (Le Baron, 2010). In direct conjunction with this dispute is the argument that individuals having control over the more vulnerable individuals might develop addiction to euthanasia (Le Baron, 2010, Doerflinger, 1989, p. 19). A strong proof of advocacy on euthanasia was done by the Nazis in 1939, when Hitler ordered mass â€Å"mercy killing† of the sick and the disabled or those individuals with unworthy lives. Disabled children were killed by means of lethal injection or gradual starvation, while sick/disabled adults, particularly those with epilepsy, schizophrenia, senility, paralysis and syphilis were murdered in gas chambers. Six killing centers were established in Germany. It was approximated that more than one hundred thousand people perished in the Nazi euthanasia program (â€Å"Holocaust Timeline: Nazi Euthanasia,† 1997). The Netherlands, being the first nation to

Analyse the considerations that regulate when an athlete returns to play after an injury Essay Example for Free

Analyse the considerations that regulate when an athlete returns to play after an injury Essay The considerations that regulate when an athlete is able to return to play after an injury includes indicators or readiness to return to play, monitoring progress, psychological readiness, specific warm up procedures, return to play policies and procedures as well as ethical considerations. It is imperative that an athlete’s injury has recovered, their fitness and skills are close to pre-injury levels and also that their confidence in their injury is 100%. Training pain free and having full mobility return to the injured site are clear indicators of readiness for return to play. In order to measure an athlete’s readiness after returning from an injury they must go through various physical tests to test their fitness and basic skills needed to perform in their sport. For example, a netballer returning from an injured ankle would be tested on her agility through drills including side stepping and dogging. Her match fitness could be tested in a practice game situation at training provided she is pain free and has complete mobility. Monitoring progress through both pre-tests and post-tests is essential to an athletes recovery in order to determine if they have or have not gained the necessary fitness and skills after injury. Ongoing tests, discussions between athlete and physio, visual observations of the athlete and video footage are all means which may be used to appropriately measure the athlete’s progress. Thus, appropriate pre and post tests can significantly help trainers to evaluate and develop particular training programs that will help to athlete return to play quicker after an injury. E.g A swimmer could monitor their progress of an injured arm by measuring the range of movement pre and post training. An athlete’s psychological can be effectively measured by discussions between the athlete, coach and sports psychologist, visual observations and anxiety levels. An athlete returning to sport before they’re psychologically ready can lead to fear, anxiety, re-injury, depression and a decrease in performance. For example, a 100m sprinter who tore his hamstring from jumping out of the blocks may find it psychologically tough to reach their maximum force produced pre-injury. An injured athlete may need to go through a more specific warm up and stretching routine in order to achieve maximum recovery and minimise the chance or re-injury. Thus, extra care and time at the injured site is crucial to ensuring that adequate blood flow, increased flexibility and readiness to perform occur. E.g A soccer player may need to do their own specific warm up program set by their physio separate to the team. Return to play policies and procedures vary with sports, as they may be determined by overall governing bodies or by individual sporting clubs. However, coaches, sports administrators and sports medicine practitioners play a vital role in establishing guidelines for when an injured athlete can return or wether they can play with the injury. For example, a water polo player may need to get their pectoral injury cleared by their team physio in order play. Ethical considerations play a vital role in determining when an athlete returns to play. Athletes ask themselves, ‘When is the right time to play?’ Unfortunately, there are internal and external pressures such as temptation, fear of losing their position on the team, pressure from sponsors and media as well as boredom, sometimes luring them into returning to play before they’re ready. Thus, this could easily lead to an athlete using painkillers or similar drugs from rapid advances in drug technology, in order to continue playing.

Sources Of Finance And Working Capital Management Finance Essay

Sources Of Finance And Working Capital Management Finance Essay In the financial context, the working capital management would include the management of debtors, creditors, stock, cash and bank account. This is a kind of short term financing as working capital management will cover current assets and current liability. It is one of the most important and time-consuming activities of the financial manager to ensure the solvency of the firm while attempting to maximize the firms value, there is a constant need to balance profitability and risk. Proper cash management plays an important part to meet permanent financing needs (pay creditors, pay taxes etc). few methods to ease the shortage of cash, such as postpone capital expenditure, negotiation with suppliers about the postpone or reduction of payment with extra caution as any in appropriate negotiation might hurt trading relationship. Furthermore, business can pay the creditor within the discount period so as to pay less to the vendor to enjoy discount, this is a kind of short term financing as it lower down the working capital. No any cost is carried with such kind of financing; business can enjoy higher profit but bear lesser risk. There are 3 basic financing strategies for working capital management to determine the appropriate mix of short-term and long term financing, which would consist of: the aggressive strategy, the conservative strategy and the moderate strategy. The aggressive strategy uses short-term funds to finance all of the firms seasonal and perhaps, a portion of its permanent needs, however, the cost and risk should be taken for consideration. Lower cost since short term financing cost is cheaper but higher risk as the net working capital is lowest. This may have difficulty in obtaining long term fund in an emergency when more financing is required. The conservative strategy uses long term fund to finance all of a firms projected needs and uses short terms funds only in emergencies. Higher cost is incurred since long term financing is more expensive and not needed all year long but low risk since net working capital is high, in addition, short term financing may be readily available in emergency. The moderate financing strategy is a compromise between the aggressive and conservative financing strategies. This result in a level of net working capital somewhat higher than that in aggressive strategy but lower than that of a conservative strategy. Question 2 There are different kind of financing sources which business can gather for its needs. There are four major types of financing such as government aid, business owners, borrowing from the bank and other way of borrowing. For short term financing, all kinds of business would like to borrow loan from the bank, industrial and financial institutions as HSBC (UK) help in promoting new companies, expanding and development of existing companies, providing underwriting facility, provision of local and foreign currency for the purchase of machinery. Commercial paper can be another type of financing which is an unsecured promissory notes issued by very large firms such as HSBC,GM as commercial paper is usually sold at a discount from its face value. Factoring and invoice discounting are the other 2 kinds of short term financing, which simply means that organisation get the advance cash by assign its debt or invoice to the factor, which normally can up to 80% of the value of debts or the amount of selected invoices. Business can through various forms to obtain the medium and long term financing such as debt financing, equity financing and others various forms. Debt financing is ideal for business as it is cheaper to use debt than other forms of financing because lender take lower risk than other long term contributors of capital, long term debts can be obtained through 2 ways: a term loan made by a financial institution such as HSBC which provides flexible business loan, repay over periods of 12 month to 15 years (10 years for fixed rate). The sale of bonds to institutional and individual investors, normally corporate bond are usually issued with maturities of between 5 to 30 years for raising large sum of money to meet its financing needs. Medium and long term financing are obtained through equity financing such as capital market and Initial public offering (IPO), through borrowing and selling shares, company can get much more cash which can be used for further development and other business opportunities. In addition, Listed company can also raise capital through issue right share which is relatively cheap and normally large amount of capital often be raised. Commercial mortgages offered by financial institutes would finance the business to buy freehold or long leasehold premise, for example: bank of Ireland offers flexible payment terms of up to 20 years with optimal repayments throughout the period of the loan. This would ease the tense of businesss medium and long term financing needs. Finally, a debenture is a long-term debt instrument which companies to obtain funds. A debenture is usually unsecured in the sense that there are no liens or pledges on specific assets. It is however, secured by all properties not otherwise pledged. This would satisfy corporate medium and long term financing needs. Question 3 Please refer to the appendix. (Excel format) Question 4 There is different tax liability applied for sole traders, partners and limited companies. For the sole traders, if he/she has any income from self-employment, then he/she should pay any Income Tax and National Insurance contributions due. This will depend on how much you earn from self-employment as he may have to pay Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance contributions. Class 2 National Insurance contributions were charged at a flat rate, either by monthly Direct Debit or by quarterly bill. However, income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance contributions are based on sole traders profits from self-employment. There is several allowances for personal to claim, such as personal allowance, blind persons allowance, married couples allowance, maintenance payment relief, tax allowances and reliefs. Similar to sole trader, partners have to file an individual Self Assessment tax return. Moreover, partners have to fill in the partnership supplementary pages SA104. In addition, the nominated partner must also file a Partnership Return SA800 showing each partners share of the profits or losses. Supplementary pages might be included too, depending on what types of income the partnership has. The nominated partner is responsible for filing the partnership return but all partners will be jointly liable for any penalties, surcharges and interest if the return is late or inaccurate. Each partner is personally responsible for paying the tax and Class 4 National Insurance contributions due on their share of the partnership profits. Now comes to companies. From 1 April 2010, the corporate tax will be 28%, the taxation changes can be found in the appendix such as small companies tax rate is 21%. A non-resident company carrying on a trade in the UK through a permanent establishment located in the UK is liable to corporation tax on all income and gains attributable to that establishment. Corporation tax rates are fixed for each financial year ended 31 March. If the companys accounting period does not coincide with the financial year, its profits must be time-apportioned and the corporation tax rate is applied accordingly. Marginal relief applies to companies with profits between  £300,000 and  £1,500,000. The tax thresholds may be reduced where the UK Company has associated companies worldwide or an accounting period of less than 12 months. Large companies (broadly, those with profits taxed at 28%) are required to pay their tax to HM Revenue (HMRC) in instalments (generally in four equal instalments). The first payment is due six months and 14 days from the first day of the accounting period. There is a minimum limit which enables companies with an annual corporation tax liability of  £10,000 or less to avoid making such payments. For companies not required to pay their tax in instalments to HMRC, corporation tax is due for payment nine months and one day after the end of the companys accounting period Question 5 In the new tax incentive scheme, all business are eligible for the PIC( Productivity and Innovation Credit) for the year of assessment 2011 to 2015 if company invest in any one of following: Enhanced capital allowance or deduction for acquisition or leasing of prescribed automation equipment; Enhanced deduction of qualifying training expenditure; Enhanced writing-down allowance for acquisition of Intellectual Property Rights; Enhanced deduction of costs for registering certain Intellectual Property Rights; Enhanced deduction of qualifying research and development expenditure; and Enhanced deduction of qualifying design expenditure. Business can deduct up to 250% of their expenditure which incurred during these 5 years on each of these actitivities. Form the YA 2011 to 2012, a combined of 600,000 dollars of expenditure of each activity and 300,000 dollars of expenditure for YA 2013 to 2015 can be deducted from their income. In addition, businesses are eligible to convert up to $300,000 (but not less than $1,500) of the qualifying deductions for all six qualifying activities under the PIC   at a rate of 7% into a cash payout of up to $21,000 each year. This new scheme will promote business to invest most on machinery and train their employees to meet one national goal- more productive and innovative for the nation, for the worldwide competitiveness. For the new start up company, company can claim full tax exemption on the first 100,000 dollars of normal chargeable income and 50% for the next 200,000 dollars. This scheme will support local entrepreneurs and help local business grow as the starting of business is always difficult. Other common expenses or tax incentive companies can enjoy are: business expense, capital allowance, industrial building allowances, land intensification allowance, loss carry-back relief and unutilised losses, capital allowances and donations. Question 6 Problem 2 500,000=100,000+150,000+250,000 The payback period is 3 years. Year Cash Flow PV of Cash Flow Cumulative 0 -500,000 -500,000 -500,000 1 100,000 100,0000.9009=90090 -409910 2 150,000 150,0000.8116=121,740 -288170 3 250,000 250,0000.7312=182,800 -105,370 4 300,000 300,0000.6587=197,610 PV=FVx(PVIFn,11%) The discounted payback period=3+ 105,370/197610=3.53years Since 3 Problem 4 a) Year Cash Flow PV of Cash Flow 0 -225,000 -225000 1 75,000 75,0000.8547=64,102.5 2 125,000 125,0000.7305=91,312.5 3 200,000 200,0000.6244=124,880 (total)=280,295 PV=FVx(PVIFn,17%) NPV=280,295-225,000=55,295 b) PI= 280,295/225,000=1.26 c) The project should be accepted as a profitability index greater than 1 and there is consistent with a positive net present value, 1.26 indicates that company can earn the 17% of required rate of return, plus provide a net present value of $ 0.26 per $1.00 of net investment. Problem 6 Year Cash Flow PV of Cash Flow 0 -875,000 -875,000 1 400,000 400,0000.8850=354,000 2 500,000 500,0000.7831=391,550 3 600,000 600,0000.6931=415,860 Total=1,161,410 NPV= -875,000+400,000/(1+r)+500,000/(1+r)2+600,000/(1+r)3=0 IRR=30% Beginning Value=875,000 Terminal Value=354,000+391,550+600,000=1,345,550 So: MIRR=24% 24%>13% and 30%>13%, so we should accept the project. Question 7 There are several technique of financial appraisal, such as NPV, IRR,payback period, discounted payback period etc. Both NPV and IRR generate same accept/reject decision at given cost of capital but may rank project differently due to underlying assumptions such as NPV assumes cash flow are reinvested at the cost of capital( k is from funding), IRR assumes cash flow are reinvested at the internal rate of return itself( k is for project), thus the magnitude and timing of cash flows will affect the ranking of the projects. Theoretically, NPV is superiors than IRR as it assumes cash flow s are reinvested at the cost of capital which is more realistic than being able to reinvest at a higher rate( usually) in the IRR. Thus, NPV will be more effective to measure project prospect. There are a number of projects for which using IRR is not as effective as using NPV to discount cash flows. IRRs major limitation is also its greatest strength: it uses one single  discount rate to evaluate every investment. Practically, IRR is superior, as it is easier to understand, though more difficult to calculate as trial and error approach is used to find the IRR. The NPV method is inherently complex and requires assumptions at each stage discount rate, likelihood of receiving the cash payment, etc. The IRR method simplifies projects to a single number that management can use to determine whether or not a project is economically viable. The result is simple, but for any project that is long-term,  that has multiple cash flows at different discount rates, or that has uncertain cash flows in fact, for almost any project at all simple IRR isnt good for much more than  presentation value, therefore, IRR is less effective than the NPV. For payback period method, there are two main problems associated with it: It ignores any benefits that occur after the payback period and, therefore, does not measure profitability and ignores the time value of money. Whereas for discounted payback period method, it considers the time value of money and the riskiness of the projects cash flows (through the cost of capital) but no concrete decision criteria that indicate whether the investment increases the firms value and it requires an estimate of the cost of capital in order to calculate the payback and ignores cash flows beyond the discounted payback period. In general, each method has the certain extent of effectiveness on project prospect measurement. Question 8 a)Current ratio = Current Assets/Current Liabilities = 146,438,269/220,500,307 = 0.664 A ratio of 0.664 means that for every $1 owned by the firm, it has $0.664 of current assets that can be converted into cash to meet these debt obligation, so company can not cover its debt now. b) Quick ratio = (CurrentAssets-Inventory-Prepaid Expenses)/Current Liabilities = (146,438,269-59,716,920)/ 220,500,307 = 0.393 A ratio of 0.393 means that each dollars of short-term debt is backed by $0.393 of cash or near-cash assets. c) Inventory Turnover= Cost of Goods sold/Ending Inventory =333,027,693/59,716,920 =5.577 A ratio of 5.577 times means that during the year, on the average, the company sell its inventory 5.577 times. Number of days it takes to sell its stock are 365/5.577=65.4. d) Profit Margin =Gross Profit/Net Sales =65,423,180/1,254,805,671 =0.052 $1 net sales generate $0.052 towards covering operating expenses and the excess contribute to net profit. e) Return on assets =Net operating profit before interest/ending total assets = (44,815,036+41,737,790)/1,612,578,813 =0.054 Every $1 asset generates a profit of $0.054. f) Return on common stockholders equity = net profit after tax/ending ordinary stockholders equity = 44,815,036/516,770,461 =0.087 It means that every $1 invested by the ordinary stockholder earns a net profit of $0.087 g) Debt to total asset ratio =total liabilities/total asset =1,095,808,352/1,612,578,813 =0.680 It means that 68% of the total asset are finance by borrowing as the percentage of assets financed by creditors increases, the riskiness of the company increases. h) Times interest earned = (Net profit before deducting interesttax/interest expense = (44,815,036+41,737,790)/ 41,737,790 =2.074 It means that recurring income is 2.074 times of interest payment. i) Asset Turnover =revenue/total asset =1,254,805,671/1,612,578,813 =0.778 This means that companies with low profit margins tend to have high asset turnover, it indicates pricing strategy. This ratio is more useful for growth companies to check if in fact they are growing revenue in proportion to sales by 0.778 times. ( 2497 words)