Recent Organisational Changes in the Virgin Group

Ongoing Organizational Changes in the Virgin Group These assignments talk about the hierarchical changes that the Virgin Group has been during the most recent couple of years, and how they are adjusting to the adjustments in the working condition. This will be with regards to the workers view of the changes, and how the Virgin Group can bring down their protection from change. This is a characteristic inclination from representatives, when confronted with vulnerability, and this should be overseen. The task centers around the Virgin Group carrier activity, Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic Airways was established in 1984, and it is the UKs second biggest transporter. The organization is based at Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester air terminal; Virgin Atlantic works long stretch administrations to more than thirty goals all inclusive. The association has been perceived through honors from top business, customer and exchange (www.virgin.com). 2.0 THEORECTICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 Meaning of Change the executives Change the executives is certifiably not a far off control with unbending and plainly characterized limits. Or maybe, the hypothesis and practice of progress the board draws on various sociology orders and customs. Three ways of thinking structure the focal board on which change the board hypothesis stands. This incorporates: The Individual point of view school: This school is part into Behaviorist and Gestalt-Field hypothesis. The Gestalt-Field scholars accepted that conduct isn't only a result of outer boosts; rather it emerges from how the individual uses motivations to decipher the upgrades. The behaviorists, then again try to accomplish hierarchical change exclusively by adjusting the outer improvements following up on the person. The Group Dynamics school: This began from crafted by Kurt Lewin. As indicated by Lewin (1974) individuals in associations work in gatherings, and individual conduct must be seen, altered or change in the light of gatherings winning practices and standards. Henceforth the focal point of progress must be at the gathering level and should focus on affecting and changing the gatherings standards, jobs and qualities (Cummings and Huse, 1989). The Open Systems school: The school is worried about understanding associations in their totally. It endeavors to take a comprehensive as opposed to a particularistic point of view. This is reflected in its way to deal with hierarchical change. Change the board can be characterized as a precise way to deal with managing change, both from the point of view of an association and on the individual level. A to some degree equivocal term, change the board has in any event three distinct perspectives, including: adjusting to change, controlling change, and affecting change. A proactive way to deal with managing change is at the center of each of the three perspectives. For an association, change the board implies characterizing and actualizing techniques and additionally advancements to manage changes in the business condition and to benefit from evolving openings. Ridiculous (2000) states that change is a fundamental detestable and all association experience change at once or another if not consistently. Associations for the most part change in light of political, prudent, social, mechanical and legitimate powers. There are four unique kinds of progress that an association can embrace, they are mechanical change, new item based change, auxiliary change, and social change. As per Bass (1985) effective adjustment to change is as critical inside an association all things considered in the characteristic world. Much the same as plants and creatures, associations and the people in them unavoidably experience changing conditions that they are weak to control. The more viably you manage change, the more probable you are to flourish. Adjustment may include building up an organized procedure for reacting to changes in the business condition, (for example, a variance in the economy, or a danger from a contender) or setting up ways of dealing with stress for reacting to changes in the working environment, (for example, new approaches, or advances). 2.2 RESISTANCE FOR CHANGE Numerous creators (Lawrence, 1954; Maurer, 1996; Strebel, 1994; Waddell and Sohal, 1998, among others) stress that the purposes behind the disappointment of many change activities can be found in protection from change. Protection from change brings expenses and deferrals into the change procedure (Ansoffs, 1990) that are hard to foresee (Lorenzo, 2000) however should be contemplated. Opposition has likewise been considered as a wellspring of data, being valuable in figuring out how to build up a progressively fruitful change process (Beer and Eisenstat, 1996; Goldstein, 1988; Lawrence, 1954; Piderit, 2000; Waddell and Sohal, 1998). Without a doubt, protection from change is a key subject in change the executives and ought to be truly considered to assist the association with achieving the upsides of the change. To oversee obstruction change successfully, the accompanying strategies could be utilized: Correspondence and Education: This is by a wide margin one of the best usage strategies that can be utilized by an association. Correspondence is utilized when strong data is required to guarantee that representatives get tied up with the procedure and instruction ought to consistently be utilized when the change relates to the presentation of another innovation or item or administration (Bunker and Alban, 1992). Investment: This will help with the smooth progress from the pre change stage to the post change stage and on the off chance that workers were urged to take part in the change inception stage, at that point the greater part of the issues that can happen when the change is executed could be disposed of as the issues and issues may have been recognized and illuminated in the commencement procedure (Buller, 1988). Arrangement: This can be utilized when there is extreme obstruction and the executives needs to offer the plan to the representatives. Top Management: The obvious help of top administration to the change procedure can help decrease and take out opposition (Daft, 1982). 3.0 IMPLEMENTING CHANGE IN VIRGIN GROUP One of the biggest inner change moves by the Virgin Group, was when Sir Richard Branson, got disappointed by the open postings, commitments and corporate administration of a publically recorded association, he looked for after to returning the association to private proprietorship (Johnson, G Scholes J 2004). This was from the way of thinking that doing without transient benefits for long haul development is the path forward (www.virgin.com). This possibility approach of the Virgin Group is framed from the business necessities, and the structure (which will take the state of what is expected to work inside the change condition) as this has an extensive heading on the general authoritative exhibition (Burnes, B. 2000). The structure of the Virgin Group and its achievements, are unforeseen the ecological impacts. Accordingly by changing the structure, this is an inside driver of progress in response to the outer markets (Mullins, L 2005). With the adjustment in the posting of the association, came the decrease in hierarchical administration. The requirement for administration and a progressive structure in the Virgin Group was decreased enormously (Johnson, G Scholes J 2004). Thus Sir Richard Branson accepted a hands-off position, with the administrators, urging them to utilize their drive, abilities and encounters (www.virgin.com). This change to the hierarchical structure has prompted a partition of the representatives, through now working in explicit gatherings or parts of the business. The assortment in areas that the Virgin Group works, and the wide scope of administrations and merchandise they offer has prompted divisions in the work power. In this manner they are not a concentrated group; a few divisions could work in an isolated way, which is more difficult than one might expect to change, without modifying the structure (Burnes, B. 2000). A portion of the inward drives of progress the Virgin Group confronted with, were the few layers of administrators, which can hinder the administration revealing frameworks and their response to circumstances they are confronted with. With the contemporary condition, this is negative to change and will hinder the inward administration process (Burnes, B. 2000). There have been inner issues since the auxiliary change, with correspondence over the gathering and this was especially perceptible in the center and lower levels of workers. They were not accepting enough data on the proposed changes, leaving them incapable to train workers on the authoritative changes (Johnson, G Scholes J 2004). The hierarchical structure of the Virgin Group is a gathering de-incorporated; this could empower storehouse conduct, from the diverse business groups and the various areas in which they work. There is a characteristic competiveness among gatherings, and working under this structure can empower serious conduct between them (Johnson, G Scholes J 2004). To energize the Virgin association filling in as a gathering, and to lessen storehouse conduct brought about by the auxiliary change they began utilizing a solitary web address, Virgin.com, for the entire of the association clients has access to all the Virgin administrations under an independent entrance. These methodologies help with supporting the authoritative child rearing procedure and improve the cooperative energies effectively imitative from the hierarchical marking of the Virgin Group (www.virgin.com). Virgin Atlantic help is a lot of client concentrated with a conspicuousness on esteem for cash, quality, fun and advancement. The association is 51% claimed by the Virgin Group and 49% possessed by Singapore Airlines, and representatives more than 9000 individuals (www.virgin.com). This change has prompted two inside parent associations, yet with Virgin holding the larger part share. Changes to associations are nearly at a pandemic status, diminishing the associations control of the outer condition. All associations are confronted with unremitting change; this is in their operational condition and the authoritative setting. In the cutting edge authoritative circumstance, there is tremendous att

Management accounting questions

Leaders are fluidly compelled by the ecological components, their instruction, and mental capacity. Other than these, leaders might be compelled by the lacks in the data that Is accessible to them. Required Elaborate this announcement concerning Information inadequacy with respect to Information practicality, Information exactness and clearness, Information significance, and Information collection levels.Cite guides to help your focuses Jam Ltd is a producer of a compost item which is pressed in 50 barrel packs. The accompanying report for year finished 31st December 2013 dependent on account examination grouping is profited to you Manufacturing costs Account Nature or Classification Amount in This 000 Direct Materials All factor 360,000 Direct Labor 200,000 Overhead costs: Electricity and water 60% variable 60,000 Managerial pay rates 20% variable 1 o,oho Maintenance costs variable Depreciation 0% variable Indirect work half factor 120,000Non assembling costs Accounts Administration costs Marketing costs 40% variable Depreciation costs 80,000 During the year 2013, Jam Ltd delivered 80,000 packs. The board is determining deals cost for the year 2014 dependent on 2013 cost information. The accompanying extra information is accessible for the year 2014 contrasted with the information for the year 2013 1 . Cost for direct materials are relied upon to increment by 10% 2. Under the terms of work contract, both immediate and roundabout work rates are relied upon to increment by 0% 3. All devaluation costs are relied upon to increment by 10% 4.Administration and advertising costs to increment by 20% 5. Power and water, support costs and administrative pay rates are not expected to change 6. Jam Ltd hopes to deliver and sell 96,000 packs of compost in the year 2014 Required (I) Estimates cost per kilo of manure in the year 2014 if net overall revenue of 201% is focused on (it) Outline points of interest and confinements of cost based valuing strategy ) For the year 201 4 the accompanying anticipated organization information is made accessible to you for arranging reason 1.Estimated assembling costs when creation level is 190,000 units is: fixed costs This 180,500,000 and per unit variable costs This 2,800. This cost conduct is kept up at all levels 2. The yearly fixed publicizing expenses of This 190,000,000 and per unit uniform showcasing expenses of This 800 at all levels 3. A market review did shows that for an adjustment in privet

Answer Q Example

Answer Q Example Answer Q â€" Essay Example > QUESTION ONE You have just been appointed as manager to a small software house, which has expanded considerably over the last two years and now employs 30 staff. The majority of the work is to develop dedicated systems for SMEs. Currently, the testing does not involve automated tools. You have decided to consider the introduction of an automated testing tool. (a) Discuss, with justification the potential problems and disadvantages of introducing such a tool, considering its effect on your staff, management and clients. (10 marks) Automated testing involves the automation of the manual testing process that is being used currently. This means that there has to be a manual testing process that is present within the firm or company. Automation mostly will involve the use of certain tools and strategies that are aimed at reducing the need for manual human involvement within the unskilled tasks that are in most cases repetitive and redundant. Automated testing unfortunately has a few di sadvantages to the staff, the management and even the clients, despite its many advantages and benefits. The first problem is that the writing of the automation test scripts requires much proficiency and this is one major problem that the management will have to face and thus it is a disadvantage. The debugging of the test script may be a potential problem. If an error presents itself in the test script, it might lead to consequences that may be deadly. The maintenance of the test may prove to be costly mostly in the case of playback methods. Even if there is a minor change that may occur in the GUI, there needs to rerecording of the test script or even the replacement of the test script by a new one. This may present a disadvantage to the staff who will have to do extra work of redoing this task of rerecording the test scripts. Test data files maintenance may be difficult especially in the case that test scripts are used in the testing of more screens. It is finally important to note that the human touch can never be duplicated and this will mean that the clients will not receive the service that they were used to that was personalized with that human touch. (b) Using the four steps of the Deming Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle as a framework, discuss, with justification, how you would undertake each of the four steps to identify a suitable automated testing tool. i) The Plan step(16 marks)The plan step involves finding out what is wrong first so as to improve the operations. This means that any potential problems to be faced have to be identified and ideas found with the relevant solutions to be formulated. Thus I would start by planning for changes that are aimed at bringing improvement. I would also perform a customer mapping as well as a supplier mapping. I would also put flow charting into use to aid in the identification. I would also conduct a Pareto analysis. Brainstorming with the rest of the staff and management would also be very important in the ident ification process. I would also make use of the nominal group technique. The use of a solution or fault tree could also prove to be useful in the identification of a suitable automated testing tool. I would also make use of the evaluation matrix. Finally, cause and effect diagrams could really come in handy in the identification process.

Cry Freedom - 2804 Words

â€Å"Cry Freedom†: Chapter 1: Summary: Donald Woods is an editor of the Daily Dispatch, a journal in East London, South Africa. One morning he gets news of a police raid in the black township Crossroads which lies in Cape Town. He also gets photos of the raid and he decides to print them although the government doesn ´t allow to print such photos. Woods doesn ´t believe the demand of the black people but he is trained as a lawyer and doesn ´t like police brutality against black people. So he also writes an editorial about a Biko, the leadership of „The BCâ€Å". The next day Dr. Mamphela who works for Biko in his clinic, comes to Woods office to speak to him, about this article. She is very angry, because she thinks, that Woods has printed rubbish†¦show more content†¦Character | Quote | Conflict | Wendy * Donald’s wife * 37 years old * Play piano well * Slender * Vital body * More liberal politically than Woods | â€Å"From churches, abroad. From black people. Even some companies gave them some money.† | When she saw what the police was doing to black people, she convinced her husband to go to Kruger. As her husband, she is against injustice. When her husband told her about the book and that he had to leave the country, she cared at first about their children. She is a good mutter and she also cared for the security of Woods. | Chapter 4-5: Summary: In the black township, they eat with a black family. Biko, the family and are discussing about the system, the history how the white came to South Africa and how the black people got their bad situation which they have now. After this visit Woods change his mind, because he sees for the first time how worse the black has to live, how big their despair is but also how strong their togetherness stay. At the end of this day Biko and Woods become friends. 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The Data and Methodology used in the Hang Seng Index - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2665 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? In this chapter, there is description of data used in this study, which are The Hang Seng Index (HSI), The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Holding plc (HSBC Hldgs) and Oriental Press Group Limited. After that, methodologies of predictions based on past volatilities and GARCH class conditional volatility models are presented. Finally, I will talk about how to evaluate the forecasting performances in according to select the best models. Now, let me introduce the data analyzed in my study. 3.1 Data description 3.1.1 The Hang Seng Index (HSI) Global investors treat the Hang Seng Index (HSI) as an indicator of the performance of the stock market in Hong Kong. The HSI was publicly launched on 24 November 1969 and is one of the earliest stock market indexes in Hong Kong. It is now maintained by Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited, which is a subsidiary of Hang Seng Bank, one of the constituent companies. The HSI is a freefloat-adjusted market capitalization weighted stock market index. : The current price at Day t : The closing price at Day t-1 IS : The number of issued shares FAF : Freefloat-adjusted Factor, which is between 0 and 1 CF: Cap factor, which is between 0 and 1 It consists of 43 constituent companies which represent around 60% of the total market capitalization of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). In order to show the price movements of the major sectors of the market clearer, the HSI constituent stocks are grouped into four sub-indexes: Properties, Utilities, Commerce and Industry, and Fina nce. Normally, qualified potential constituents are companies with a primary listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). In recent years, more and more mainland China companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), they can also be one of the qualified potential constituents if they meet several conditions. The companys total ordinary share capital must be in the form of H shares, the shares of the company incorporated in mainland China that are traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. And also, the company needs to complete the process of Share Reform first. As a result, the company has no unlisted share capital. As the market capitalization, the turnover ranking and the financial performances of the companies may change in different periods, the list of constituent stocks is reviewed quarterly. In this paper, the daily closing Hang Seng Index and the weekly Hang Seng Index are used. The data set ranging from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 2008 is retrie ved from Datastream, a U.K. incorporated data service company. The data set is partitioned into the in-sample estimation periods 1997 2007, the out-of-sample forecast periods 2007 2008. This separation provides 2467 and 522 in-sample observations for the daily series and weekly series respectively. For out-of-sample observations, there are 246 for daily series and 52 for weekly series. In order to obtain more accurate results, public holidays and special incidents leading the public announcement of non-trading, such as the black signal of the Rainstorm Warning System and no. 8 storm force wind signal of Hong Kongs Tropical Cyclone Warning Signals. During this period, there were quite a lot of economic events affecting the stock market in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the victims of 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. After the HSI peaked at 16820, it was attacked by international speculators, leading to a 50% plunge. In 1998, the Hong Kong government intervention on stock market to p urchase component shares supported the market and the HSI rebounded to 18000. The rise in both the interest rate and the crude oil price burst the dot-com bubble in 2000. The HSI dropped to 14000 and then fluctuated between 14000 and 16000. 911 Incident occurred in 2001. The HSI kept falling and the minimum was 8894. The stock market started to recover after Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) was signed on 29 June 2003. In August 2007, mainland China declared the plan to allow part of citizens to invest on Hong Kong market directly. In October, stimulated by the news of AH stock hedging program, the HSI break through 30000. Unfortunately, the HSI was affected by the fallen chain of major stock markets in the world and dropped 2061.23 on 22 January 2008. During this period, the average point of the HSI is 14313.39 and the stand deviation is 4563.68. The lowest point in these eleven years was 6660.42 which occurred on 13 August 1998. 31638.22 was the highest point and occurred on 30 October 2007. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Data and Methodology used in the Hang Seng Index" essay for you Create order 3.1.2 HSBC hldgs Besides the HSI, one of the constituent stocks is randomly selected. At the beginning of the selection process, each constituent stock is assigned a number, 1 43. Then, a number, between 1 43, is randomly generated by Excel. If the assigned number of the company matches the generated number, that company will be selected and studied in this paper. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Holding plc (HSBC Hldgs) is the selected constituent company and belongs to the Finance Sub-indexes. HSBC hldgs is one of the most favourite stocks in Hong Kong. In 1865, it was founded in Hong Kong in March and in Shanghai one month later. The banks headquarter was in Hong Kong until 1992. Then it moved to London as a condition of the acquisition of Midland Bank in UK, and also due to the handover of Hong Kongs sovereignty. Currently, HSBC hldgs is both the worlds largest banking and financial services group and the 5th largest stock in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) by market capit alization. HSBC hldgs is also listed on the Bermuda, New York, London and Paris Stock Exchanges. It is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index and the largest company listed on the FTSE. In 2010, CEO Michael Geoghegan moved to Hong Kong since HSBC hldgs focuses on Asia more now. Similarly, both daily and weekly closing prices of HSBC hldgs ranging from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 2008 are retrieved from Datastream. The data set is also divided into the in-sample estimation periods 1997 2007 and the out-of-sample forecast periods 2007 2008. The number of in-sample observations and out-of-sample observations for both daily and weekly series are also the same as the HSI series and the non-trading days are excluded. For in-sample observations, there are 2467 for daily series and 522 for weekly series. For out-of-sample observations, there are 246 for daily series and 52 for weekly series. During this period, the average closing price of HSBC hldgs is 96.92 and the stand deviation is 23.2 6. The lowest closing price in these eleven years was 40.48 which occurred on 21 September 1998. 140.586 was the highest closing price and occurred on 15 October 2007. 3.1.3 Oriental Press Group Limited In this paper, another stock which is not the constituent stock is also studied. The stock is selected randomly like the chosen constituent stock. Oriental Press Group Limited is selected and is incorporated in Hong Kong. The group takes part in the publication of daily newspapers, Oriental Daily News and The Sun, and The Sun Racing Journal. Oriental Daily News was first published in 1969. Today, the paper is at the top in the daily circulation and has a record readership of around 3,100,000. Unlike Oriental Daily News, The Sun targets at a younger and fresher reader groups. The Sun was published since 1999, and can also be found outside Hong Kong. By considering a lot of Hong Kong people living in North America and in order to develop the market of The Sun, there is a North America version in New York and Toronto. The Sun Racing Journal was established in 1991. It is one of the major horse racing magazines in Hong Kong. Like the HSI and HSBC Hldgs, both daily and weekly clos ing prices of Oriental Press Group Limited ranging from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 2008 are retrieved from Datastream. The data set is also divided into the in-sample and the out-of-sample with the same period as the above two series. The number of in-sample observations and out-of-sample observations for both daily and weekly series are also equal to as that of the HSI series and HSBC hldgs series. During this period, the average closing price of Oriental Press Group Limited is 1.499 and the stand deviation is 0.657. The lowest closing price in these eleven years was 0.533 which occurred on 23 June 1998. 3.175 was the highest closing price and occurred on 14 January 2004. 3.1.4 Transformation of Data As this paper is studying the volatility, I focus on the returns of the HSI and the stocks rather than the index and closing prices. Therefore, a transformation of data is needed before modeling. Data are transformed into daily returns by taking the first difference of the natural logarithm of the daily index and closing prices. : The daily return : The current price at Day t : The closing price at Day t-1 Mean equals to 0.00138 and stand deviation is 0.0176. Mean equals to 0.00163 and stand deviation is 0.0169. Mean equals to -0.00032 and stand deviation is 0.0315. 3.2 Methodology Stationarity If a time series can be estimated using time series models, it must be a stationary process, as non-stationary process cannot be studied directly. If the joint probability distribution of time series data keeps constant when time is moving, this data set can be said to be stationary and the mean and variance do not change over time. On the contrary, a non-stationary process whose joint probability keep changing in the period. The mean and variance vary at different time points. However, usually after a non-stationary series has been transformed, such as differencing or log-difference, the series become stationary. Accordingly, it is necessary to test whether the data set is under a stationary process before any further analyzing. The Augmented Dickey and Fuller (ADF) test is employed in this paper. The ADF test is an improved version of the Dickey and Fuller (DF) test. Both tests null hypotheses are the series with a unit root, which means the series is non-stationary. The DF te st is only based on a simple regression. where the residuals are followed the Dickey-Fuller Distribution. The hypothesis testing is The test statistic is After that, comparing the test statistic with the relevant critical value for the Dickey-Fuller test, if the value is larger than the critical value, the null hypothesis can be rejected, and the model is stationary; vice verse. The ADF test is based on a more complicated more. where is a constant, is the coefficient of a deterministic trend and is the summation of the lag orders of the autoregressive process. Historical mean Probably, the historical mean provides the easiest way to forecast the volatility. All the in-sample observations are used and equally weighted to forecast. where is the number of out-of-sample observations Moving average Under moving average method, the forecast of the volatility is given by an unweighted average of the in-sample observations. Unlike the historical mean method, not all the in-sample observations are used. The average is based on the in-sample observations over a particular time interval of fixed length. where T is called the moving average period or rolling window. Three different lengths are considered for each frequency. For daily data, three months, six months and one year are chosen. For monthly data, six months, one year and two years are chosen. Random walk Both historical mean and moving average methods assume that the volatility will be in stable or change slowing with a trend. But, if the volatility fluctuates unpredictably, the best forecast of the volatility of next period is the current real volatility. Exponential smoothing Under exponential smoothing method, the forecast of the volatility is a weighted average of the previous actual observation and the previous forecast. where is the smoothing factor, and must be between 0 and 1. If is equal to zero, the forecast exactly equals the prior actual observation and the exponential smoothing method becomes random walk. When approaches one, the preceding forecast is the majority. The value of smoothing factor is determined by minimizing the in-sample sum of squared errors. The estimated smoothing factors for daily data are between 0.64 and 0.95. For weekly data, the values lie in the range 0.88 to 0.92. Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) The exponential weighted moving average (EWMA) method is similar to the exponential smoothing method. The only difference is that the prior actual volatility is replaced by a moving average method. where is a smoothing factor lying between 0 and 1. Like the exponential smoothing method, the EWMA method becomes random walk if the smoothing factor is equal to zero. When the factor is getting closer and closer one, the moving average will be weighted heavier and heavier. For daily data, the estimated values of factors are in the range 0.001 to 0.53. The smoothing factors lie between 0.001 and 0.4 for weekly data. Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) If the variance of the data is constant, the process is called homoscedastic. However, a lot of time series data in the real world have time-varying variance. In 1982, Engle proposed the autoregressive conditional heteroscedasiticity (ARCH) model to deal with time series data. Four years later, Bollerslev suggested the GARCH model. A GARCH (p , q) model is where , , and . There are joint estimations of both the conditional mean and the conditional variance process in the GARCH model. The error term, , follows a normal distribution with zero mean and the variance which varies with time. indicates the persistence of shocks to volatility. If the sum is equal to one, the GARCH model becomes the integrated-GARCH (IGARCH) model. Threshold-GARCH (TGARCH) In the GARCH model, it assumes that shocks with equal magnitude have the same impacts on the volatility no matter which sign shocks are, positive or negative. However, the different sign of the shock may have a different impact on the volatility. In order to parameterize this idea, the TGARCH model is one of a number of ways. The TGARCH model was proposed by Glosten, Jagannathan and Runkle in 1993. The model is express as where if , and if . Consequently, a positive shock has an impact of on the volatility, and a negative shock has an impact of on the volatility. If is greater than zero, the negative shock has an larger impact on the volatility and vice versa. quantifies the persistence of shocks. Asymmetric-GARCH (AGARCH) The AGARCH model is another way to parameterize the idea that different sign of shock with equal magnitude has a different impact on the volatility. The AGARCH model looks quite similar to the TGARCH model and is expressed as If is a positive number, the positive shock has a smaller impact on the volatility and vice versa. Exponential-GARCH (EGARCH) The EGARCH model (Nelson, 1991) does not have the non-negativity constraint on the parameter, and , in the above three GARCH models. And also, the EGARCH model is the third asymmetric kind of GARCH models in this paper. The model is expressed as where The positive value of indicates that the positive shock has an larger impact on the volatility and vice versa. 3.3 Forecast evaluation After the volatility has been forecasted, the forecasters need to be evaluated to see how small the forecast errors are. There are several loss functions for the forecast error. The choice of loss functions totally depends on investors preferences. Symmetric loss function The mean error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean squared error (RMSE) are the easiest and commonest ways to measure the forecasting performance. The result of the ME can be an indicator showing the direction of overprediction or underprediction on average. As the errors by overprediction and underprediction offset each other, it is not surprising that the ME statistic usually is the lowest one among the others. Unlike the ME, the MAE does not have the problem of the offsetting effect. The RMSE provides a measurement if the investor prefers to impose a more heavily penalty upon the larger forecast errors. Asymmetric loss function As mentioned before, all investors have their individual preference for the loss functions. It is likely that investors have asymmetric loss functions rather than symmetric loss functions. Referring the past research (Pagan and Schwert, 1990; Brailsford and Faff, 1996), the mean mixed error is employed in this paper. Firstly, the mean mixed error with a more heavily penalty on the forecast errors by underpredicting is Secondly, the mean mixed error penalizing the overpredicted forecast errors move heavily is where O is the number of overpredictions and U is the number of underpredication in the out-of-sample forecasts.

ICT implementation report Free Essays

1. Range of data This is my data, which offers all the different cars and the details about them. The table is set out in and sorted by the specifications of the cars and also includes their prices. We will write a custom essay sample on ICT implementation report or any similar topic only for you Order Now 2. Creating order sheet 3. Customer details of order sheet This is the top part of my order sheet, which are the customer’s details and the company logo on the top right hand side of the page. 4. Setting up combo boxes I have created combo boxes so that customers can choose what they wish from my data of cars. Each combo-box category has 5 cars and an empty space left encase the customer chooses not to choose a car from a certain category. This selection is linked to the cell next to it as each car has a preset number and the number is what makes the cell named â€Å"cars† change to what is selected in the combo box. 5. Spinners The quantity is done using spinners. As the customer selects the type of car they prefer the price automatically comes up in the â€Å"price cell† and they can change the quantity up to 6 cars for each which is highly unlikely. As the quantity number changes the price is multiplied by the number in the â€Å"quantity† cell. 6. Totals After these processes are done the total price is calculated by multiplying the quantity chosen with the price of the car. 7. Lookups Column F uses a ‘VLOOKUP’ in order to find what car has been chosen by the customer. This is done by linking it with ‘Column C’ and this column shows a number which is the number of the car chosen on the combo-box and the number in the combo-box is the number which the cars are set as in the Data sheet. Hence displaying the selected car. There is also a VLOOKUPS done for the price which also works in the same way. 8. Tick box and IF statement for Online Discount This is the online discount tick box which is linked to the cell next to it as you can see above. As the box is ticked and un-ticked the cell next to it will change to TRUE or FALSE this enable me to create an IF statement formula that links to this cell in order to give discount or not. This IF statement is designed to give a 15% discount if B25 displays TRUE and if not then 0 will be shown. 9. Delivery YES, NO buttons and IF statement As shown in step 8 the Buttons are linked to the cell next to them. However this time the cell C28 will display either 1 or 2 which represent YES or NO. From this the IF statement in I24 can be done. If cell C28 is displaying 1 then a à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½6.99 charge will be put on the totals if number 2 is being displayed then cell I24 will come up as blank as there is no Delivery charge. 10. Tick box and IF statement Claims Bonus Discount This is the Claims Bonus discount tick box which is linked to the cell next to it as you can see above. As the box is ticked and un-ticked the cell next to it will change to TRUE or FALSE this enable me to create an IF statement formula that links to this cell in order to give discount or not. 11. Sub-Total This is a sum formula which adds all the prices which are displayed in the selected columns. 12. Working out VAT% Simply input the percentage I wanted as my VAT into cell H26. In the cell next to it a multiplication formula is used to multiply the percentage by the sub-total which leaves the VAT in cell I26. 13. Working out discount price. Simply input the percentage I wanted to discount into cell H25. In the cell next to it a multiplication formula is used to multiply the percentage by the sub-total which leaves the discount in cell I25. 14. Working out Claims bonus Discount price Simply input the percentage I wanted to discount into cell H27. In the cell next to it a multiplication formula is used to multiply the percentage by the sub-total which leaves the discount in cell I27. 15. Grand-Total This is a sum formula however is more complex because it is subtracting discounts and adding different prices. This formula automatically alters and changes according to what is displayed in the cells above it. 16. Add Macros These macros are recorded to copy the details of the chosen car from each row and insert them on to the invoice sheet. They are also set to change the font option and insert a new row so that cars which are chosen do not replace each other so that the user can select more then one car or extra. 17. Go to Invoice Go to Order These macros have been set up so that the user can toggle between the two sheets without any hassle. They are both very simple macros designed so that the user can change or add anything they want to their receipt. 18. Print Macro This has been created in order to present the user with a print menu once it is selected or print as soon as it is pressed, so that they can select their print option or directly print the receipt. 19. Logos, company details and picture This print scheme shows the company logo and the colour scheme which is matching throughout the project and the picture in order to make the project more attractive. Part of the logo is the company details that are merged with it. 20. Invoice number and date. Located below the logo, this is one of the essentials for the receipt, however there is no formula or calendar option used so the date has to be manually changed every day and the invoice number every time the invoice is being saved and printed. 21. Order details These details are automatically pasted from the order sheet using the Add Macros. Therefore the titles are set in that order according to the data sheet and the font has been set to be changed as part of the processes of the add macro. 22. Customer details on the invoice. These formulas simply display the information/details which the end-user would fill out at the top of the order sheet. 23. Calculation formulas on invoice The print screen above shows all the formulas used I order to calculate the grand total. These are the same formulas used as the order sheet which I have explained in detail, however these have different cell references and copy the if statements from the order sheet so that the customers order is transferred correctly and so I do not have to repeat the process again. How to cite ICT implementation report, Papers

Investment in Education

Scholars have often used the term ‘capital’ in different contexts and fields to imply a number of related meanings that may not necessarily agree in both scope and depth. In finance, accounting and management, for instance, the term is used to make reference to financial wealth, particularly the wealth used to start or sustain a business entity.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Investment in Education specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In classical economics, however, capital is used to imply one of the three factors of production, and differs from the other two factors – land and labor – because it can be used in the production of other goods, it is human-made and, lastly, it cannot be exhausted immediately in the process of production (Perlman McCain, 2000). From this broad definition, capital can be further narrowed down to mean the goods produced or supplied by the production system t hat are utilized as primary inputs in the production and sustenance of other goods and services in the future. Education can be considered as a form of human capital because it is not only used to produce other goods such as knowledge, wealth, and careers, but it cannot be exhausted in the process of production once an individual goes through a school system, not mentioning that it is human-made. Skills, education and training have been used by individuals, groups, societies and states as a form of human capital that is mostly used to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty levels. Without education as one of the primary factors of production, many organizations would not have the human capital required to drive their agenda forward. According to Investopedia (2011), return on investment (ROI) is â€Å"†¦a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments† (para. 1). As already ment ioned, the returns on an investment in education are many, and include the knowledge and capabilities that an individual uses in the production of other goods and services within the economic system; the wealth accumulated over time and which can also be used in the production of other goods; career development; social prestige; improvement of the level, quantity and quality of human capital; economic growth; better income distribution; and reduced poverty (Economic Returns, n.d.).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It is imperative to note that these returns are interrelated to the extent that one economic or social return affects the other. Accumulation of wealth, for instance, will curtail poverty levels and enhance social prestige as well as economic growth. In finance and economics, an investment is beneficial to the shareholder if it is worth the return. When an individua l uses financial and time resources to get an education then end up with neither of the returns described above, it can be effectively argued that the investment in education was not worth the return. To measure the return on investment in education, therefore, one needs to subtract the cost of the investment (both in terms of time and money) from the gains attainable as a result of this investment (Investopedia, 2011). To express the results as a ratio and know the worthiness of the investment made, the total amount of returns achieved from the education investment is further divided by the total cost of the investment. You can still multiply the outcome by 100 to get a percentage. It should be always be noted that negative ratios and percentages implies that investment is not worth the return, while positive ratios and percentages mean the investment made in education is worth the returns achieved. Reference List Economic returns to investment in education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/ Investopedia. (2011). Return on Investment – ROI. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp Perlman, M., McCain, C.R. (2000). The pillars of economic understanding: Factors and markets. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. This essay on Investment in Education was written and submitted by user Joselyn Y. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Robert Cormier essays

Robert Cormier essays It takes an act of faith to live today This was the attitude that Robert Cormier had when he was writing. He believed that people were living in terrifying times that would leave individuals powerless and fending for themselves (Stines 107). Robert Cormier felt that the children of today needed to be exposed to reality and not to fiction. In all of his writings Cormier used realistic story lines that often left critics objecting to his writings. He frequently drew on experiences from his own childhood and that of his son to make his stories more realistic. Born as the son of Lucien and Irma Cormier on January 17, 1925 in Leominster, Massachusetts, Cormier often used his own life experiences to help him with his writings (Bryfonski 133). As a child Cormier attended a strict Catholic school. Cormier found the experiences there not very positive. Some of the teachers he had were not very nice. He found the nuns rather hard to deal with and he felt that his abilities were not well recognized. You know, I think our lives a re driven by guilt. With me it all goes back to the nuns - making us feel so darn guilty about everything, (Campbell). However, it was when one of his teachers read a story he wrote and told him he had a natural talent, he decided to pursue writing (Stiens, 111). In spite of his negative school experiences, he continued to be a practicing Catholic and his own children attended Catholic school. Writing as a journalist in 1948 for the Fitchburg Sentinel, was Cormiers first job in writing. Later Cormier began working at a radio station where he delivered news broadcasts. Cormier also worked as a reporter for several local newspapers. Cormier used his own life experiences to develop his writings. His fathers death from cancer was the prompt for his first novel Now and at the Hour (Bryfonski 133). It was the story of a New England mill worker ...

All About Carbon Fiber and How Its Made

All About Carbon Fiber and How It's Made Also called graphite fiber or carbon graphite, carbon fiber consists of very thin strands of the element carbon. Carbon fibers have high tensile strength and are very strong for their size. In fact, carbon fiber might be the strongest material there is. Each fiber is 5-10 microns in diameter. To give a sense of how small that is, one micron (um) is 0.000039 inches. One strand of spider web silk is usually between 3-8 microns. Carbon fibers are twice as stiff as steel and five times as strong as steel, (per unit of weight). They also are highly chemically resistant and have high-temperature tolerance with low thermal expansion. Carbon fibers are important in engineering materials, aerospace, high-performance vehicles, sporting equipment, and musical instrumentsto name just a few of their uses. Raw Materials Carbon fiber is made from organic polymers, which consist of long strings of molecules held together by carbon atoms.  Most carbon fibers (about 90 percent) are made from the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) process. A small amount (about 10 percent) are manufactured from rayon or the petroleum pitch process.  Gases, liquids, and other materials used in the manufacturing process create specific effects, qualities, and grades of carbon fiber. The highest grade carbon fiber with the best modulus properties are used in demanding applications such as aerospace. Carbon fiber manufacturers differ from one another in the combinations of raw materials they use. They usually treat their specific formulations as trade secrets. Manufacturing Process In the manufacturing process, the raw materials, which are called precursors, are drawn into long strands or fibers. The fibers are woven into fabric or combined with other materials that are filament wound or molded into desired shapes and sizes. There are typically five segments in the manufacturing of carbon fibers from the PAN process. These are: Spinning. PAN mixed with other ingredients and spun into fibers, which are washed and stretched.Stabilizing. Chemical alteration to stabilize bonding.Carbonizing. Stabilized fibers heated to very high temperature forming tightly bonded carbon crystals.Treating the Surface. ​The surface of fibers oxidized to improve bonding properties.Sizing. Fibers are coated and wound onto bobbins, which are loaded onto spinning machines that twist the fibers into different size yarns. Instead of being woven into fabrics, fibers may be formed into composites. To form composite materials, heat, pressure, or a vacuum binds fibers together with a plastic polymer. Manufacturing Challenges The manufacture of carbon fibers carries a number of challenges, including: The need for more cost-effective recovery and repair.The surface treatment process must be carefully regulated to avoid creating pits that could result in defective fibers.Close control required to ensure consistent quality.Health and safety issuesSkin irritationBreathing irritationArcing and shorts in electrical equipment because of the strong electro-conductivity of carbon fibers. Future of Carbon Fiber Because of its high tensile strength and lightweight, many consider carbon fiber to be the most significant manufacturing material of our generation. Carbon fiber may play an increasingly important role in areas such as: Energy: Windmill blades, natural gas storage, and transportation, fuel cells.Automobiles: Currently used just for high-performance vehicles, carbon fiber technology is moving into wider use.  In December 2011 General Motors announced that it is working on carbon fiber composites for mass production of automobiles.Construction: Lightweight pre-cast concrete, earthquake protection.Aircraft: Defense and commercial aircraft.  Unmanned aerial vehicles.Oil exploration: Deepwater drilling platforms, drill pipes.Carbon nanotubes: Semiconductor materials, spacecraft, chemical sensors, and other uses. In 2015, carbon fiber had a $2.25 billion market size. Projections have the market expanding to $31 billion by 2024. To accomplish this, costs must be reduced and new applications targeted.

How Non-conventional interfaces such as the Wii and Kinect represent Essay

How Non-conventional interfaces such as the Wii and Kinect represent the future of Games - Essay Example The gaming consoles that are solely non-conventional interface based are primarily introduced by three technological companies: Nintendo Wii, PlayStation’s Move and Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360. Wii was released by Nintendo on the 19th of November 2006. The distinguishing feature of Wii is its wireless controller called the Wii remote which was an imaginative introduction to the gaming world. IT was distinct at that point in time because the Wii remote was a handheld pointing device that detected movement in three dimensions. This design allowed the users of the console to approach the game in two ways: one being the traditional use of the buttons and the second being the new method of using physical gestures in order to control movements in the game.(Guardian 2012) PlayStation’s Move was introduced in the markets in September 2010. Move was motion-sensing game controller platform that was based on the technology used by the Nintendo Wii. The main part of the PlayStation Move technology is the Motion Controller with its lit sphere. This Motion controller is a wand controller that allows the user and the player to connect with the game using the controller that interacted with the PlayStation Move Eye camera through motion and position. The Eye camera tracks the position and motion of the wand with the help of inertial sensors embedded in it. Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360 can easily be considered the latest revolution in the non-conventional interface gaming. Kinect has taken the world by storm as the motion sensing input device that works together with the Xbox 360 gaming console. The device is basically a web-cam style device that detects the body motion and gestures without the need of a game controller. By using an  infrared  projector and camera and a special microchip to track the movement of objects and individuals in three

Case Study of Marketing Christmas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Case Study of Marketing Christmas - Essay Example The management styles and thought processes of the prevailing business organisations has led to major improvements in the business activities and hence, the scope of business opportunities has multiplied. Moreover, the free trade policies have further encouraged the business organisations to enter into new markets with greater opportunities as the regional trade alliances became an integral part of the economic growth oriented strategy (Parker, 2005, p.303). With these developments, many new business concepts, theories and model have evolved and business organisations are using these concepts for better business managements. Business organisations have realized that there is very close relationship between the business activities and various aspects of society and culture. The social and cultural aspects offer major business opportunities and the business organisations are using their strategic moves to identify and cater to these opportunities (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2008, p. 349). For example, Christmas celebration in the Western countries offers greater business opportunities to the Chinese economy as the manufacturers from China produce and export low cost Christmas gifts, cards to the European markets. In this process, the business organisations are also exposed to multiple risk factors that may bring fatal consequences to a business. However, the emergence of the contemporary business and marketing theories has facilitated better techniques to counter these risks. Christmas as the ‘grand celebration of consumption’ Christmas celebrations are today driven by the marketing strategies of the sellers of Christmas products. Business houses aim to create the ‘air of celebration’ and create a festive atmosphere which drives the customer to jump start the festive bandwagon. Marketers consider the festive seasons as an opportunity where they can employ marketing strategies to double and treble their sales as compared to that in a normal y ear. Very often, New Year and Christmas sales accounts for more than half of the sales in other years. Marketers exploit this opportunity by tempting the customers to buy festive products. As demonstrated by Belk and Bryce (1993), Christmas is nothing but a â€Å"grand celebration of consumption† (Belk & Bryce, 1993), where consumers flock to the markets for products which they actually do not need. Based on their observation, it can be said that the trend of shopping has undergone a drastic change over the years. They have also claimed that today ‘Christmas shopping increasingly reflects the search for the disintegrated self while it decreasingly reflects the celebration of home and family† (Belk & Bryce, 1993). Belk and Bryce have explained this in terms of materialism, which is a complex and multifaceted concept and has been popularised through the media. This happened in response to America’s preoccupation with the consumer goods and materialism. Severa l studies have been undertaken with regard to materialism. Inglehart has put forward that materialism demonstrates itself through the extent to which social groups or nations emphasise on the value involving material things or objects. Influenced by the needs hierarchy presented by Maslow, he proposed that the western world has been able to satisfy majority of human’s needs and requirements involving material

Strategic development of UK retailer Marks and Spencer

Strategic development of UK retailer Marks and Spencer Marks Spencer are one of the UKs largest retailers, with over 21 million people visiting M S stores every week. M S offer stylish, high quality, great value clothing and home products and also excellent quality foods, responsibly sourced from around 2,000 suppliers worldwide. M S employ more than 75,000 people in the UK and outside the UK and have over 700 UK stores, plus and growing international business. M S are the ideal provider of women wear and lingerie in the UK, and are also rapidly raising market share in menswear, kids wear and home, due in part to MS growing online business. Overall, M S clothing and home ware sales account for 49% of our business. The other 51% of M S business is in food, where M S retail everything from fresh produce and groceries, to partly-prepared meals and ready meals. M S also recognized for their green identification as a result of their five-year eco plan, Plan A, which will see M S, with other things, become carbon neutral and also sending no waste to landfill by 2012. Companys Brief History With more than 120 years of heritage, Marks Spencer is one of the well recognized British retailers. The M S has more than 500 stores within the UK and has more than 75,000 employers across the UK. M S also operates in the International Market, where it has a developing business in some places as far as Hong Kong. In recent years, the UKs retailing industry has been characterised by forceful competition. Consumers are more conscious of where and how they feel like to shop. They also know what kind of shopping understanding they require. This has made it much more complicated for retailers to carry on. Corporate Strategic Development History The original firm was a chain of PENNY BAZAARS, founded by Thomas Spencer and Michael Marks. It became a household name thanks to the efforts of Simon Marks and his friend Israel Seiff. M S has branches in approximately 28 countries all over the world. They mostly exist in British Societies and Eastern Europe but this effort to get bigger into Western Europe and in the United States go failed because of their high prices and also of their basic British Vision of the company. M S also was particularly unsuccessful in France and even they were forced to close their stores in France because of the legislation which the French Government set in place to protect their labour force. In 1960s Marks and Spencer opened first store in Central Asia in Kabul, Afghanistan. This store was closed after some time because atmosphere of the city turned usual. In the middle of 1990s MS first ever TV commercial of clothing were broadcast. In 20th Century MS became well reputed in market, when they make a policy of selling only British made goods, mostly focusing on quality than the price to encourage tradition. Introduction of their new clothing range in 2001 named Per Una designed by George Davies accompanied by a reshaping of their underlying business model their profits increased very sharply and MS improved a lot of its market share. Also change in their traditional policies including accepting credit card transactions and opening MS stores on Sundays put stars on their reputation in market. Group Structure Financial Performance Grassroots organisations seem to work well with in a flat structure organisation as freely as likely of Board of Directors and Management. Flat Structure does not mean the elimination of individual responsibilities; even flatness means the end of people with dominant authority over other individuals job. National people groups must avoid the ordinary mistake of including small numbers of people heavily. They should try hard to engage large numbers of individuals lightly. Flat organisations, which highlight parallel connections, seem to be the best thing for linking large numbers of individuals lightly. Regular Based Meetings A circular Dividing everyday Jobs and responsibilities Staff Training Staff Members Gathering A forecast Processing Working interaction with power players and resource companies. Power players are people with the capability or skills to make job done: politicians, owners of key businesses, media, government departments, heads of organization, landlords. The groups performance of the team members for they year 2009 ended at March 31 was very unsatisfactory. The return on equity percentage and the income per share were nil as the organisation revenue was only  £1.3m in this year. The dividend cover was also nil because of the same cause. The company paid all its revenue to the shareholders because the dividend cover was very low last year. Because of this, company had to cut-down the dividend approximately from 12.4p to 8.0p. Company planned for the same dividend even though the company had about zero profit. The set reports outcome of three operational divisions: UK Retail Distribution International Retail Market Financial Resource Division UK Retail Distribution The UK Retail distribution, the biggest of the operating distributions, is itself sub-division into seven business units, each indicating a defined quarter of merchandise: Womens Wear, Mens Wear, Childrens Wear Lingerie, Beauty, Home, Foods. The First Six business units such as Womens, Mens and Childrens Wear, Lingerie, Beauty and Home are known as General and footage is in between these six units depending on demand and seasonal factors. The liberty is located due to the biggest single business unit that is Food and is relatively unbendable. Final Financial report in the UK retail defines a drop down in Sales and Operating Profit. Sales And Operating Profit In The End Of Financial Years Sales Operating profit____  ­Ã‚ ­ 2001 2000 2001 2000  £m  £m  £m  £m Group Total 8085.7 8185.5 468.0 542.0 UK Retail 6300.9 6582.7 364.8 445.1 International Continental Europe 288.0 299.3 (55.0) (40.5) European Franchise Businesses 264.3 264.3 25.6 20.7 Brooks Brothers 445.1 395.5 22.2 8.9 Kings Super Markets 317.1 273.7 21.9 12.1 East 119.1 105.2 7.3 (4.2) International Retail Market The International Market of retail Business mainly consists of three broad geographic areas: Europe excluding UK North America East The International Retail Market results consist of those M S franchise businesses which operated 125 franchise stores in 26 countries. The European International Retail Market can be divided into the following: Continental Europe Republic of Ireland European Franchise Businesses The group running two businesses in North America that are: Brooks Brothers Kings Super Markets In March 2001 Kings Super Markets and Brook Brothers operate in 27 and 221 stores respectively. In the end, in Far East the group deals with in 10 stores in Hong Kong. In this year, approximately every company did good business in this division comparatively to last year, with the exemption of Europes M S stores which increased their losses. Financial Resources Division One of the important Commitments of M S in the integrated planning cycle is The Financial Resources Commitment. This commitment describes a number of Financial Resources Division Initiatives: Integrated Planning Cycle Commitment Improving Management of Resources Implementing Improving our Internal Control Environment Enhance Transparency MS is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. After fostering significant growth in recent years, mid-2008 saw share prices plunge to well under half their value of twelve months before, as MS struggled to cope with more conservative shoppers in the credit crunch. Until 1999 MSs financial year ended on 31 March. Since then, the company has changed to reporting for 52 or 53 week periods, ending on variable dates. Year ended Turnover ( £ M) Profit before tax ( £ M) Net profit ( £ M) Basic esp. (p) 28 March 2009 9,062.1 706.2 506.8 32.3 29 March 2008 9,022.0 1,129.1 821.0 49.2 31 March 2007 8,588.1 936.7 659.9 39.1 1 April 2006 7,797.7 745.7 520.6 36.4 2 April 2005 7,490.5 505.1 355.0 29.1 3 April 2004 8,301.5 781.6 452.3 24.2 29 March 2003 8,019.1 677.5 480.5 20.7 30 March 2002 8,135.4 335.9 153.0 5.4 31 March 2001 8,075.7 145.5 2.8 0.0 1 April 2000 8,195.5 417.5 258.7 9.0 31 March 1999 8,224.0 546.1 372.1 13.0 31 March 1998 8,243.3 1,155.0 815.9 28.6 31 March 1997 7,841.9 1,129.1 746.6 26.7 31 March 1996 7,233.7 965.8 652.6 455.8 Strategy Analysis Collectively, the Board Team Members are responsible for the bright and excellence future of the company. In the course of the Chief Executive, the Board delegate to management on the whole performance of the company through building long-term management potential, setting clear goals of the company and ensuring that the business is supervised in conformity according to business values. Marks Spencer Board Structure: COMPANYS CHAIRMAN Chief Executive Executive Director On-Executive Director On-Executive Director On-Executive Director On-Executive Director Competitive Strategy Environment M S operates in a competitive atmosphere. Its competitors are more customers based and more in tune with the needs and the requirements of the customers. Such as on cloths sector, NEXT Debenhams have exploited the requirement for young people and in food sector Tesco and Sainsbury have expands its ranges of ready cooked meals. In UK there are no exit or entry barriers but the market is mature and therefore there is no bounces for a new company or a company from abroadto come and compete in these markets. In contrast M S experienced Exit barriers when under the France law they were not permitted to close their France Stores and make their employees redundant with just a weeks notice. (Ralph, 1996; anon, 2004) New Group Strategy and Structure Subsequently a wide-ranging and comprehensive strategic review of its business, the Board of M S practiced significant changes to the Group strategy and structure in March, 2001. The main basics of this new plan are: Focus on UK Retail Market M S will sell only own brand products so it can guarantee customers the excellent quality, great value and good services. Main theme of the plan is the delivery of considerable improvements in product availability, product value and product appeal thereby regaining the relationships with core customers of M S. Clothing Recovery Plan M S has plans to rebuild the confidence of its customers in the quality And fit of its clothing. It will sharpen pricing by rebalancing the price structure, expansion in the range of entry-price products and also well communicating this to customers. Expansion Food, Home and Beauty Products MS Foods continues to execute well and has rebuild customers trust for providing good quality and convenience. The business is a platform for future expansion and the Company is considering opportunities to get bigger through new locations and business channels. The Home business is increasing strongly, with home furniture and gifts the best growing product areas. Beauty, although relatively small, is also growing rapidly. These two areas offer promising opportunities for progress and will be expanded. Store Renewal Programme M S will go faster the rollout of the successful elements of its new idea format under a plan to renovate more stores sooner and at lower cost. Closer To The Customer As a company we should be in touch with our customers all the time in order to develop an awareness of what our customers think about the company, how they perceive the company and what they expect from the company. This awareness in turn enables us to constantly strive to meet our customers demands and also secure an organizations long-term survival and profitability In order to be more customers based, some of M S stores in big cities will be opened 24 hours a day. On other hand, 125 stores in the UK will be modernised to create a easy-to-shop environment and more attractive for customers. Corporate-Level Strategy (BCG matrix) BCG Matrix is used to conceive the balance of the portfolio of the businesses in terms of relationship between market share and market growth. It is a company in a market that has slow growth and its market share is continuously shrinking. The industry in which M S operates is mature and market is likely to be stable so it is more difficult to gain market share. Its assumed that M S is a decline phase organisation (Stockport,2000). PESTEL And SWOT Analysis Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Environmental and Legal (PESTEL-Analysis) Political Long term decisions are based on stable political surrounding. UK is also a member of European Union, as a result of which the government has to operate to live up to the standards of European Unions structure, hence, ensuring M S a greater scope of economic executions . The open transfer of goods products is another advantage of European Union making the sales operations of M S easier in European counties as there are no barriers to trade to aggravate its sales revenues. Economic British pound is still stronger as compared to the Euro which is why foreign investments for M S are relatively cheaper but expensive for the other foreign organizations willing to initiate in the UK. This is also a reason that several countries are not willing to trade. Social Presently, the population in UK is 61.11 million which after 15 years from today is expected to reach to 65 million. This brings in good news to M S Company as many more customers will be added to its current list, however the population is ageing. (True Knowledge) Secondly there is a dramatic change in the social structure. Medical services progress awareness of living increases life expectancy. Sex educations development increase in the number of professional or working women has led to a decrease in the rate of Birth which are the factors that have been accounting for falling revenues for an experienced company such as M S. Technological New Medias reception an age old internet bring in an evaluated potential opportunity to M S to grow its profits. Some U.S. based organizations are offering online orders where in people can mention their demands preferences which are sent to the production facilities after 2 or 3 working days customers receive their orders. This was simply another example of possibilities by the use of which firms can actually respond to the ever changing preferences in new era. Environmental Products produced by supplier has affect on the atmosphere on how these produce is used and disposed by customers. Merchandisers use a vast range of raw materials to manufacture their products. Because of this, it is critical to handle the usage of these materials with sensitivity and pay proper regard to how they have an effect on natural habitats and bio-diversity. Legal This is related to the legal environment in which firms work. In past years in the UK there have been a lot considerable legal changes that have affected firms behaviour such as M S. SWOT-Analysis Strengths The Brand of M S is an asset to it in terms of Quality, Style Value for money. The reason for its success and excellent reputation is that M S sell only own brand products. M S identify the changes in customer preferences behaviour under extensive market overview as they are one of the largest retailers in the UK. The self production labelling enables M S to frequently adapt to the unpredictable market conditions which in turn also allows it to save time. Time saving Adaptability is really necessary for a firm to succeed in such fast moving market where time plays a key role. Weaknesses The incomplete product range of M S, unfortunately, sometimes affects its regular customers who then happen to purchase from its competitors. An example of that would be that M S doesnt sell sportswear which consequently forces its customers to buy them from those who sell them. This adds to the disadvantage of M S. An added disadvantage could be mentioned as an example i.e. A customer interested to buy M S sportswear ( if they had it ) might have been interested in buying some gift at the same time because of the presence of sufficient variety, which could have made it extra revenues . However as they dont have sportswear, they are losing on a good opportunity for revenue. Opportunities In order to make profit, M S consider social rethinking as majority of people are getting conscious for natures significance nowadays. TO aim for Long Term success, M S could earn a reputation as a socially conscious firm by producing with the use of environment friendly raw materials natural fibres. The key to success is uniqueness or individuality. According to the recent researches people are on an average are getting heavier taller. What now can convince people to realize the presence of mind of M S is its Adaptability. Threats The big supermarkets or Discounters, despite of not being present in the same market are potential threat to M S as they sell similar products. These products are offered by them for short duration i.e. at a really cheap price for a couple of weeks. Many people advertently buy these low priced products instead of going for a good quality. This strategy of Hit Run adversely affects the businesses of companies like M S. Michael Porter Five Forces Model Porters five forces is a framework for the industry analysis and business strategy development developed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School in 1979. It draws upon Industrial Organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Attractiveness in this context refers to the overall industry profitability. An unattractive industry is one in which the combination of these five forces acts to drive down overall profitability. A very unattractive industry would be one approaching pure competition, in which available profits for all firms are driven down to zero. Three of Porters five forces refer to competition from external sources. The remainder are internal threats. It is useful to use Porters five forces in conjunction with SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). Threat of New Entrants Entering into a New Market needs huge finances to purchase necessary raw machineries, develop new products , hire staves , selling-rooms to build an organized systematic network . Organisations such as Jhon Lewis, Tesco Sainsbury can very easily enter into new markets as the monetary risk for banks are very elevated to assist smaller firms also that they do not have the potential to respond to the defensive attacks of existing firms. Brand Loyalty is no more a threat to new firms, presently, thus making it a threat to M S. Customers use advanced technology to evaluate compare several offers during a short span of time are willing to purchase the cheapest possible product. These Generation X or technology savvy people have been a huge segment targeted by M S, which can be alarming for it. Threat of Substitutes Product substitution Replacement of Firm need to be distinguished while discussing substitution. The decision of a customer to purchase an item then a change in his decision to have another is referred to as Substitution of Product, i.e. A customer might probably buy a jumper if he merely does not like the design of a M S jacket. However, this had no impact to the revenue of M S. Substitution of M S for its competitor is referred to as company replacement. In the example mentioned previously the customer would have bought a new jacket from the competitors of M S. Now this affects the firm revenues. The Bargaining power of the buyers There are several factors on which the power of buyer depends. Unlimited demand is met by countless suppliers in the U.K Retail market. Therefore if the customers are not satisfied they can switch from one company to the other. Because of advanced technical knowledge their age group, the segments of people targeted by M S have adequate earning power. To specify changing demand buyer trends their pattern of spending should be carefully analysed. The customers of M S are mainly based in Britain. If M S turns unsuccessful in the British Market, it cannot compensate it by the revenues in the other markets Marks Spencers Geographical Revenue Region Revenue United Kingdom $ 1,488.6 m Rest of Europe $ 29.6 m North America $ 0.0 Australia $ 4.8 m Middle East $ 8.8 m Asia $ 3.1 m TOTAL $ 1534.9 m Bargaining power of Suppliers Labour costs are high for UK in comparison with that in Eastern Europe, Asia North Africa which is why that several firms have decided to outsource. Therefore there is a pressure on M S to produce high quality products without cutting its costs, however getting the production outsourced can be of great help as cheap labour can be appointed. . Competitive Rivalry An increasing number of foreign retail chains zero in on UK as a starting point to make it big in Europe. Example Giordano , a Hong Kong based clothing retailer is very successful plans to open operate stores in UK for its European expansion . Marks Spencer has been facing the counter-attack by Tesco Sainsbury in the recent past. Debenhams Marks Spencer have spent a lot of money for the development of their online operations. Every possible measure to earn profits should be seemed in an Industry as this where so many firms produce the name products are only identified by their marked labels. Future   Strategic Direction As mentioned earlier we know that M S has a very wide market especially in the UK. It has been successful since decades. The only weakness it has is lack of variety of product offerings in its current market. Using Product Development as its strategic choice will enable M S to produce additional products to cover a wider segment from its existing market. As M S is reputed Brand, the additional products like sportswear will be equally popular. Acceptability or the outcomes of Product Development strategy is another aspect that needs to be measured. If M S adopts the strategy of Product development it will be avoiding the risk of losing its market share . This will increase the value of shareholders assets. Feasibility, now we need to evaluate the relativity of Product Development strategy with the organizational capabilities its resources. Using its present capabilities all M S is supposed to do is to increase its line of products from its production houses. Current capabilities resources will serve he purpose. For future, the aforementioned strategic choice has to be evaluated analysed in terms of suitability, acceptability feasibility. Suitability specifies whether or not the strategy of product development will suffice M S strategic situation. M S being an experienced player can easily access the broad market overview and adapt to the changes in consumer behaviour preferences. This can be a method to add to the benefits of M S in the short long run. To cut costs M S can rely more more steps towards outsourcing its production in underdeveloped or developing Nations without compromising on the Quality of its products. Online participation of M S on a large scale will add advantage to it over its competitors as a huge segment of customers served by M S is technology savvy. The promotion of Quality of M S through Internet can make a difference when it comes to saving its revenues being lost to the mail discounters or cheap supermarket clothing. UKs membership in the European Union is an advantage to M S as it provides an easy format of operation for European companies.

The Effects of The Television

The television is a two edged sword that has a lot of impact on our daily lives. It has caused some negative impact on human life. Since watching television is so attractive, people read less books or even do not read them at all, wasting time, and the level of communication with other people decrease with more time spent watching television.One impact of the television that it has replaced the importance of book reading in some societies that we live in today. People now prefer to sit lazily in front of the television and take what they need wither it was news, entertainment or education from the television rather than reading a book. This is due to the ease of access to these information and not having to work hard for what they need unlike the case of a book, where people need to find and lookup as well as research the information they need. But thanks to the television they can do that with a click of a button. Another negative impact of the television is the addiction and the ti me consuming that some people suffer from.For some people the television is a part of them, where they cannot be in their normal state without spending their time in front of the television. They just sit there for hours watching whatever is being given to them by the people behind the screen. In other severe cases the television becomes a true addiction and there are certain rehabilitations to help these people get rid of this bad habit. Last but not least, with all that time being spent watching television the social life of the person becomes smaller and the level of communication between the person and other people become negligible in some cases.The person becomes so attracted to the television that it becomes his/her lifestyle with nothing else they would care about more than the television. This negative impact of the television is the beginning of the addiction where it starts taking the person away from his daily life and make him/her a slave for the remote that they hold. In conclusion, the television has changed human life in many ways, but not positively.It has shown more cons than pros, and with those dangerous cons such as replacing the importance of books, spending hours of the individual's time and limiting the social life that a normal person needs, it can turn any individual from sane to insane within weeks of the addiction. In my opinion the television is a two edged sword like any other  device it has advantages and disadvantages. With moderate amounts of time the television is no danger but if it takes the majority of our time then it becomes an issue.

My Childhood Dream - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 468 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/03/13 Category Sociology Essay Level High school Tags: Childhood Essay Did you like this example? Welcome to Fatima Elmaleh Pharmacy, something young me would always say playing with family and friends. Since I was very little I would play pharmacy with friends, and I was always Dr. Fatima the pharmacist, I would hear the patients aka my friends and make them a medicine that would make them feel better on the spot. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "My Childhood Dream" essay for you Create order Growing up I dreamt about becoming a pharmacist, and I had that dream with the desire of helping people out, not because of the monetary value and the amount of money received in this career. It was just out of the desire to help, make people feel better, and happier too. A lot of people dream about changing the world, but a big majority of those people dont want to go through all the things that it takes to make that change. The process of becoming a pharmacist is fairly lengthy. To practice pharmacy, you would have to earn a Doctor of Pharmacy degree which is about 4 year of school, and before you do so you have to maintain really high grades in undergraduate related courses. You can also get into Pharm D. programs after only 2-3 years of undergraduate school, but you can also choose to earn your bachelors degree first which makes the education period 8 years total. That easy? The undergraduate school then I go to Pharm.D. program. Well, bad news in order to get into a Pharm.D. program you have to take an admission test called the PCAT, and that alone consists of 6 different sections and is approximately 4 and a half hours. All this process is the number one reason why people that want to pursue a pharmaceutical career change their mind, but in the end, hard work will pay off. The average Pharmacist makes about $124,170 per year, and thats not even the highest. The highest paid Pharmacist makes more than $157,950 a year, even the lowest paid pharmacists are paid big bucks, we are talking $90,000 a year. So yes it is a long and tough road, but in the end, it truly does pay off. Pharmacists dont just need to know how to count and bottle pills. It is true that Pharmacists do give you medications that the doctor orders, but they also work directly with patients and physicians to assign the right medication, and that requires both social and analytical skills. Also, they need to have a great memory with all the different drugs, and their side effects so they can instruct patients and what medicines to take, time and doses that they should take as well, and this requires memorization and counseling skills. A key skill that is necessary to becoming a successful Pharmacists, is the interest in continuing education. They must keep up with all the new research done related to the field.

Social Class The Great Gatsby, Conflicts And Relationships

Social Class is Everything In today’s society, social class plays a large role in who is with who. Celebrity couples and weddings are very commonplace, but the rich and famous rarely marry those who are of the middle, or lower class. If it does happen though, it is usually a rich, older man marrying a young, beautiful woman. This would usually not happen unless the older man was rich, and these relationships do not usually last very long. Along with this, some people in foreign countries still practice the tradition of arranged marriages, which are usually based solely on wealth. As well as romantic relationships, friendships are also affected by social class. It is very unlikely that a rich person like Kim Kardashian would be friends†¦show more content†¦When Tom and Gatsby are arguing in the New York apartment, Tom says, â€Å"I’ll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door.† (Fitzgerald 131), calls Gatsby a â€Å"commo n swindler† (Fitzgerald 133), and then says, â€Å"You’re one of that bunch that hangs around with Meyer Wolfsheim†(Fitzgerald 133). All of these examples show that Tom not only hates Gatsby for loving Daisy, but also for how he acquires his money and his social class. Although Tom still would not like Gatsby when he discovers he was seeing Daisy, the fact that Gatsby is from the West Egg, a different social class, means he dislikes him anyway. This doubling of Tom’s hate likely leads to him giving Gatsby up to Mr. Wilson in the end. Besides the surface reasons, there is a deeper, more complex way in which difference in class caused and intensified a conflict. Towards the beginning of the book we learn of Tom and Myrtle Wilson’s affair. This affair has a deeper impact than most realize though. During the party in Myrtle’s sister’s apartment, Myrtle’s sister says, â€Å"Can’t stand them† when referring to how Tom and Myrtle feel about their spouses (Fitzgerald 33). She then goes on to say the reason Myrtle and Tom don’t divorce their current spouses and get married is because Daisy is Catholic and doesn’t believe in divorce. According to Nick however, â€Å"Daisy was not Catholic†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Fitzgerald 33). The real reason Tom and Myrtle do not get married is because of theirShow MoreRelatedThe Great Gatsby And The Roaring Twenties1131 Words   |  5 Pagesdecade that roared with social amends† it was often referred to as the Roaring Twenties. Two famous literature pieces are very similar connecting key events and issues from this time period. F. 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