Corporate theory and pratice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Corporate theory and pratice - Essay Example ther regulatory bodies therefore acted urgently initiating a raft of new amendments aimed at halting firms from concealing underperforming portfolios through ingenious accounting practices (Brodie, 2008). Consequently the IASB and the FASB issued amendments to IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement and IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures that permit the reclassification of some financial instruments and require consequential additional disclosures in respect of any reclassification made.   These amendments were issued to address the current market conditions and, due to its urgency, were issued without the normal due process  (IASB & FASB, 2009). The Financial Statement Presentation is one of the seven joint IASB and FASB financial accounting projects set to concluded by the year 2011 in three phases [See Table 1]. The main preposition was the introduction of a cohesive, disaggregated, and liquid and flexible. The FSP Discussion Paper (DP) – Preliminary views on Financial Statement Presentation is founded on three premises which require a presentation of the FSP in such a way that: ‘establish a standard that will guide the organization and presentation of information in the financial statements...the management of an entity communicates financial statement information to users of financial statements, such as present and potential equity investors, lenders, and other creditors...improve the usefulness of the information provided in an entity’s financial statements to help users make decisions in their capacity as capital providers.’ (IASB and FASB, 2009, Pg.1) The board’s primary intention is for firms to present a singular financial statement with the objective of enhancing the financial presentation model that is analogous and uniform hence decipherable to the users. The projected presentation model necessitates a firm to present the financial information in a way that depicts how it operates its business disengaged from data

Various aspects of S&O management in the Atokowa Company Essay

Various aspects of S&O management in the Atokowa Company - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that management of systems and operations can be viewed as the organisational in built building, designing, and structuring mechanism for effective daily operations of organisations. According to Chase et al, management of systems and operations is an essential process of converting a firm’s internal input (human resources, energy, or material) into output (goods and services). Actually, management of systems and operations entails the effective management of organisational resources, which gear towards production as well as distribution of goods and services of an organisation to its end customers. Operations and systems management could be summed up into management systems, which are proven frameworks for the management as well as continuous improvements of the policies, processes, as well as procedures of organisations. Individually, system management refers to an enterprise’s management of the systems of information manage ment. This entails gathering necessities, purchasing software and equipment, distribution of software and equipment to their places of use, their configuration, their maintenance through service updates and enhancement, setting up of processes of problem-handling, and determination of whether objectives and goals are being realised. Systems management is thus the enterprise-wide distributed systems’ administration including (and usually in practice) the computer systems. It is stoutly affected by telecommunications’ initiatives of network management. ... The purpose of this paper is to examine various aspects of S&O management in the Atokowa Company and give recommendations for improvement of the management operations in systems and operations segments. Background Information of Atokowa Advantage The Atokowa advantage Company is a key player in the industry of office supplies and stationery in Australia. The firm sells an array of office supplies and stationery to businesses, individuals, as well as other organisations. It owns several retail outlets, which deliver office supplies and stationery directly to the organisations as well as carry out customised printing for firms. Lachlan Atokowa founded Atokowa in 1964 in Sydney, Australia as a mere photocopying business in Atokowa’s garage after purchasing Xerox 914 machine. His business grew and in 1970, he purchased one retail outlet as well as expanded his business from just photocopying activities to business printing in addition to brochures, letterheads, flyers, compliment slips, business cards, fax headers, no carbon required (NCR) pads, and memo slips. These developed Atokowa’s status as a printing firm of high quality. Atokowa’s business continued growing and he developed his vision of becoming the one-stop office supplies and stationery shop. Lachlan expanded as well as purchased additional outlets in Perth and Melbourne areas, which were stocked quite adequately with an array of office supplies, paper, office furniture, besides the original business of printing. In 1980, Atokowa printing was renamed to Atokowa Office Supplies. Lachlan retired in 1983 and handed the business to Jonathan Atokowa, his eldest son who focused more on technology. In fact, Jonathan commenced sale of IBM PC 5100 and Commodore

Lack of Security Essay Example for Free

Lack of Security Essay The Net has a very little security of information embedded and the companies using the Net are subjected to the risk of disclosing large proprietary information without their knowledge. Since the Net was originally designed for a free flow of communication there was no provision for any regulation or security at the time the idea of internet was conceived and put to use. But with the increased use of internet for marketing as well as for advertising there are lot of chances that the copyrights and other property rights are infringed by many computer hackers and pranksters. With the number of people accessing and using the net the chances of anyone go into the Net and meddle with the information and other contents though manipulation by using pirated software and other measures. Even though there are some basic measures that can be used to safeguard the information and to prevent the practice of manipulating such information they are considered as inadequate considering the volume of information that are being fed into the Net every hour. The other disturbing factor is that it is possible for unauthorized users to get into the internal computer systems of the systems and hack away any classified information about the company and its products/services. There is the danger of the copyright protection also put to jeopardy â€Å"when the creation of intellectual property and the upload of a host of information, transmission, access and use of content† is attempted. (Business Europe, 1995) For instance the issue of computer hackers meddling with the internal computer system had costed millions of dollars of business apart from losing the customers for Sheraton Hotels when the hackers booked every room in the hotel chain worldwide. (Seal, 1995) Another serious threat posed by the hackers is their ability to access the customers’ personal information like addresses and credit card numbers and misuse them. This menace had necessitated many software and high tech companies to invest millions of dollars to arrive at solutions to make the interactive shopping on the internet fully secured. ‘Firewall’ is one of such mechanisms that allow the genuine customers to do their shopping online but prevents the hackers from creating any problems. Firewall is one of the combinations of ‘security algorithms and router communication protocols’ that are put to use for the prevention of the tapping by the outsiders into the databases and websites of various corporate entities. (Sales and Marketing Management, 1995) Firewall acts as a buffer in between the internal networks and larger external networks. It is the usual practice of all large companies that advertise on the internet to have firewall in place to protect their internal database and other networks. (Pugh 1995) Encryption is another method used to provide security to the marketing through internet. Encryption can be described as the scrambling of digits and a coding that can be deciphered by the intended receiver of the information who will be able to retrieve the required information. ‘Mosaic’ is one of such encryption programs adopted by the Netscape Corporation for its software and is first of its kind. However even this program is not considered 100 percent safe with its own shortcomings. (Computer World 1994) Hence the companies are forewarned to protect themselves as well as their products and services against the infringement by hackers and other illegitimate users of the internet. It is crucially important that a well designed copyright warning notice appears on every screen, logos and slogans and the companies should also ensure that all of them are registered with the appropriate authorities to ensure protection. Even though it is easier and less expensive for the companies to advertise through Net, it requires a large investment for the customers to access and browse through the Net. If the customers want to have a continuous access to the Net it becomes important that they own a personal computer with appropriate internet connectivity. It involves high cost for the common users. The customers sometimes find it difficult to access the required information due to the fact that most of the modems – the equipment to provide the internet connectivity – are slow and do not allow the customers to use the Net efficiently. Also with the advancement in the technology relating to the visual media enables the companies to make their advertisement with advanced multimedia features. This requires the capacity and compatibility from the computer hardware and hence making the marketing proposals by internet beyond the reach of the common man. Since the marketing through the internet reaches all the age groups it becomes difficult for the managers to control the advertisements effectively. It may be noted that at least 50 percent of the users of the Net is below the age of 25 and the balance above 25 and the advertisements reach all of them invariably. Hence targeting a certain age group becomes difficult. Unlike the conventional methods used for advertising in the magazines and other print media or television the advertisement through internet cannot be measured precisely to aim a certain age group or class of customers. Since the nature of the Net is such that it is so broad and beyond comprehension it is difficult for the companies to really assess whom to target and how to advertise to reach the targeted audience. Further since there are a number of resources in the internet it is not possible for the users to see the advertisement for a certain product or the advertisements from a particular company unless they are prompted to do so. This necessitates a company to still use the conventional methods of advertising which have proved to be more proactive in addition to advertising through the Net. Applying the above advantages and disadvantages of marketing through internet in our instant study of the marketing of the Indian Punjabi music it can be inferred that though the advantages of internet marketing are helpful in furthering the sales of the music products, the disadvantages like file sharing and P2P swapping of music files act to the detriment of the sales growth. But the influence of internet is much large that the advantages resulting from the sales to a wider customer base over rules the disadvantages. This makes the record companies use more and more of the internet as a media of marketing to improve the sales of their products.

Strategic Analysis of Manchester United

Strategic Analysis of Manchester United The Football Industry The Barclays Premier League The aim of this report is to undertake a detailed strategic analysis of the Manchester United F.C. with regard to its resource capability and competitive positioning, the organisations strategic fit with its environment and its management style with an emphasis on the cultural context of its strategy together (stakeholder expectations). To this end the mission, vision, goals and strategies of the Club will be taken into consideration while strategically evaluating and interpreting its management at business (competitive advantage) and functional (customer value) level. A variety of strategic analysis tools are going to be used in order to wholly evaluate both internal and external implications on the environment the Club operates within. These will primarily include SWOT and PEST analysis, Porters four corners analysis, and Value chain analysis. Market Environment Analysis Brief analysis of the market English football, and the FA Premier League (FAPL) in particular, is today a bigger business than it has ever been, generating record revenues both within its stadia and through the rising value of its broadcast rights. The game is on TV in more countries than ever before and watched by an increasing number of passionate fans all around the world. Despite the rising cost of attendance, football grounds are as full as they have ever been and FAPL matchday revenues have doubled in just eight years. But broadcast rights fees are expected soon to account for a majority share of income and younger consumers appear not to be inheriting the club ties that older fans were born into. Mintels research shows that footballs appeal to brands lies in its continued ability to reach mass mainstream audiences rather than in the value of its core audience, which is largely apathetic towards sponsors and their products (over half of fans claim not to pay attention to who sponsors what, while just 16% say the brand that sponsors their club matters to them). Football is well insulated against recession by the multi-year nature of its media and commercial agreements and by the fact that up to half of all seats are paid for before a ball is kicked through season ticket sales. However, the experience of the 1980s recession (where between 1978 and 1984 average attendances in the top flight collapsed from over 28,000 to under 19,000) shows that attendance is vulnerable in a downturn, so that matchday revenues in the 2009/10 season could be at risk. Barclays Premier League Roles and Objectives The mission of the Premier League is to effectively Manage, continually improve and be regarded as the worlds best league football competition and in this way Generate increased commercial value, using the resulting revenues to further enhance competitions and strengthen the long-term future of the Premier League and its clubs. Other objectives include: Increasing interest in the Leagues competitions, promote accessibility to live games and ensure that media exposure is used to optimum effect. Useing the Leagues power and influence responsibly to improve the game in the UK and abroad through partnership with the FA, UEFA and other bodies. Createing a quality of competition that provides a platform from which our member clubs can achieve unparalleled success in European or World competitions (source: Barclays Premier League official website). Relationship with the clubs The Premier League is owned by 20 Shareholders the member clubs, whose membership in the league is dependent on the performance of their football team in the Barclays Premier League. Another co-owner of The Premier League is the Football Association. While they have the right of veto in special occasions as the appointment of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, they are not involved in the decision making process regarding any other area of the Premier League work. The statutory company responsibilities are managed by the Board of Directors who are also running the day to day business. Relationship with other football bodies The Barclays Premier League is widely regarded as the most elite club competition in world football. The Premier League comes under the jurisdiction of the Football Association (the FA) and must submit its rules on yearly basis for approval. Along with its British partners in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the FA comes under the control of the European governing body the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Formed in 1954 and based in Geneva, UEFA works and acts on behalf of the member associations to promote football and ensure its well-being on the continent. The organisation is responsible for many high-profile competitions, some involving national teams such as the prestigious European Championships. UEFAs premier club competitions are the European Champions League and the UEFA Cup, in which Premier League clubs aspire to compete and succeed on a yearly basis. The FA and the 50 other associations of UEFA are all affiliated with the worlds governing body the Federation of International Football Associations, or FIFA. It was formed in 1904 and is now one of the biggest sports organisations worldwide striving to safeguard the good image of the game internationally and it is responsible for the Laws of the Game. FIFA can also boast the World Cup as its prized asset the ultimate stage on which a professional footballer can perform and a tournament which captures the imagination of the entire planet (source: Barclays Premier League official website). Manchester United Club Profile Manchester United plc operates as a professional football club in the United Kingdom. Its subsidiaries are Manchester United Football Club, Manchester United Catering (Agency Company), and Manchester United Interactive. In addition, the company through a joint venture with Manchester United PLC, Granada, and British Sky Broadcasting, operates MUTV, the companys official channel. The company owns 33.3 per cent in MUTV. Since the late 1990s, the club has been one of the richest in the world with the highest revenue of any football club, and is currently ranked as the richest and most valuable club in any sport, with an estimated value of around  £1.136billion as of April 2009. Manchester United was a founding member of the now defunct G-14 group of Europes leading football clubs, and its replacement, the European Club Association. (Source:Forbes.com) Manchester United are the most successfulPremier League club having won the title10 times With a start in 1993 when manager Sir Alex Ferguson ended a 26-year wait to lift thePremier League crown. Manchester United Strategic Analysis For the purposes of this report is will be assumed that Strategic Analysis fits within the descriptions below: the process of conducting research on the business environment within which an organisation operates and on the organisation itself, in order to formulate strategy. BNET Business Dictionary a theoretically informed understanding of the environment in which an organisation is operating, together with an understanding of the organisations interaction with its environment in order to improve organisational efficiency and effectiveness by increasing the organisations capacity to deploy and redeploy its resources intelligently. Professor Les Worrall, Wolverhampton Business School The market environment comprises a combination of the Barclays Premier League industry itself and the wider macro environment in which Manchester United F.C. operates. In addition, it highlights the market environments and critic success factors. The unique resources of Manchester United and the core competences of the Club are outlined in the analysis described below. SWOT Analysis In order to conduct a comprehensive market environment analysis and evaluate the conditions in the market environment that Manchester United F.C. occupies, a brief introduction of the Barclays Premier League and Manchester United F.C., summarizing the key aspects in a SWOT analysis Which will be the first step towards implementing a range of analytical tools (fig.1) The SWOT Analysis is the most popular instrument utilized in strategic planning and organizational problem solving. PEST analysis The purpose of the PEST analysis below is to briefly outline the political and legal, economic, sociocultural and technological issues together with their implications on the performance of The Club, hence describing the external environment within Manchester United operates (fig 2) Porters four corners analysis The four corners analysis is a useful tool for analysing competitors as it emphasises that the objective of competitive analysis should always be on generating insights into the future. In this case the model is used to develop a profile of the likely strategy changes a competitor might make and how successful it might be and determine competitors probable reaction to the range of industry shifts and environmental changes that may occur (Fig. 3) Quite straightforward, the competitors future strategy stems from the competitors motivation to exceed or overperform another Club and sets a variety of objectives pr actions to be completed with the implementation of their prospective strategy. However, these objectives should reflect on the Clubs capabilities as well as the skills of the individual players and staff at senior management level. Here it is essential to develop a clear assumption on what creates value for a specific team as well as what are the relationships and networks the respective business has developed. For instance, Manchester United is one of the most successful teams in the history of football resulting in average attendance higher than any other team in the UK and extremely high brand consciousness (fig. 4). This means that together with the Clubs financial stability, strength of the senior management team and proven ability to serve a variety of channels Manchester United PLC is well on the way of creating and implementing in a sustainable way a winning strategy. Value chain analysis Further to the description above, value chain analysis is based on the principle that organisations exist to create value for their customers. Furtermore it is a comprehensive technique for analysing an organisations source of competitive advantage. In the analysis, the organisations activities are divided into separate sets of activities that add value. The organisation can more effectively evaluate its internal capabilities by identifying and examining each of these activities. Each value adding activity is considered to be a source of competitive advantage. For Manchester United these include Manchester United Football Club, Manchester United Catering (Agency Company), and Manchester United Interactive, the joint venture with Manchester United PLC, Granada, and British Sky Broadcasting, that operates MUTV. These are run on the basis of primary and support activities, as Primary activities are those that physically create a product, as well as market the product, deliver the produc t to the customer and provide after-sales support and Support activities are those that facilitate the primary activities. Crucial for the organisation is the process of identifying the activities that are critical to customers satisfaction and market success, such as creating competitiove advantage in competitions, hence the ticket sales and merchandising activity regarded to the process. Strategic fit Analysis The foremost field of research that is required to be taken into account is the whole new product development and research concerning Manchester Uniteds existing product selection. This is required to be examined principally as if Manchester United requires guaranteeing that they are doing well in their present market prior to going into a new market. At first, Manchester United will require investigating into their existing product selection, however, with such broad variety of products, it is vital for Manchester United to assess which of their products are perforating well in the market. Conclusion Manchester United is in a very competitive spot at present Currently ranked as the richest and most valuable club in any sport, with an estimated value of around  £1.136billion. It has the highest average attendance than any other team in English football and receives a large amount of funds through sponsorships and agreements (merchandising). Nonetheless the Club requires to be cautious that they are not getting self-satisfied and that they are focusing on the market, and the requirements of their clients and followers. By implementing the research into their markets, it will allow them to build up products for the clients, which will bring about sustained support from the fans and success. References Dess G Miller A. (1998) Strategic Management, 3rd edition, McGraw Hill Johnson G Lynch R. (2003) Corporate Strategy, 3rd edition, FT/Prentice Hall Pettinger R (2004) Contemporary Strategic Management, Palgrave McMillan, Basingstoke Scholes K Whittington R. (2005,) Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases, 7th edition, FT/Prentice Hall Weeks, P. (2006), Managing People, Finance and Marketing, Pearson Education Limited, Essex http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2004/05/22/manchesterunited040522.html http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/attneng.htm. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/34/soccer-values-09_Soccer-Team-Valuations_Rank.html. http://www.manutd.com http:// www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4463534.stm http://www.premierleague.com http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11667_2972778,00.html Mintel reports Anglia Ruskin University Digital Library

Internal Enemy :: essays research papers

The Internal Enemy A good novel’s theme is often proven by the character’s actions. A novel in which this occurs is Lord of the Flies by William Golding. In Lord of the Flies Golding uses various characters to portray that man is basically evil because of his violence and irresponsibility. One can see that Golding’s theme of the novel is that man is basically evil because of his violence when the savages steal Piggy’s glasses and when Roger kills Piggy. When the savages come to steal Piggy’s glasses they start a fight. Instead of peacefully stealing the glasses the savages lash out at the boys leaving them bruised and bloodied. The fight that the savages provoke is an example of their violence which helps prove that the theme of the novel is that man is basically evil. A second way in which Golding demonstrates this, is the incident where Roger kills Piggy. Roger seems to kill Piggy, not because he is a threat, but because Roger seems to experience a primitive desire to kill. When Roger kills Piggy he performs the task thoughtlessly and does not experience any remorse. The fact that Roger kills Piggy again shows man’s violence, proving that the theme of the novel is that man is basically evil. The above examples have helped prove Golding’s theme. Another way in which Golding portrays man as being basically evil is their irresponsibility when no one helps Ralph build huts and when the hunters let the fire go out. The boys voted that building huts was important and that shelter was a necessity, but none of them helped Ralph and Simon make the huts. This shows that they are not interested in living in a civilized society. When the boys are unwilling to build huts they show that they are irresponsible and that the theme of this novel is that man is basically evil. An additional way that the boys show their irresponsibility is when the hunters let the fire go out. Although they thought that it was important to be rescued they were reluctant to help with the fire, their only hope of rescue. They are more interested in killing than in being rescued. It is evident that Golding portrays man as being basically evil because the boys do

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway :: essays research papers

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway is a story which emphasizes on three age groups that each have a different view of life. By analyzing the three different points of view, we see Hemingway’s perspective of an old man. The short story is about an old man that sits in a very clean bar every so often who drinks away at two o’clock in the morning and is the last one to leave. There are three waiters: one is a young man, one is an older gentleman, and the last is a very old man. All the waiters see him in a different way based on their age. The young waiter was in a rush to close the bar an hour earlier because there was only the lonely old man in it. It was two a.m. and the bar is supposed to close at three. This young man throws the old man out of the bar just so he can go into bed with his wife. The young man has absolutely no respect for the older man who is deaf. He yelled at the old man saying, "You should have killed yourself last week." The waiter treats him like an obstacle as if he is slowing down his life. The second waiter introduced is a middle-aged man. He does not say much, but it seems as though that this is because he does not want to get in a fight with the younger waiter. All he does is ask the young waiter questions, as if the middle-aged waiter was sort of stuck in a catch twenty-two. The middle aged man felt for the old man but could not express his feelings to the younger waiter. Lastly, there is the old waiter. He is some where around the age of the old man that sat at the table. He definitely feels for the man at the table because he knows what it is like to be old and lonely. The waiter says, "I am of those who like to stay late at the café, with all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night." The waiter knows that the café/bar is a very nice place for people at night, especially the old, because it is clean and well lit. He says, "Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the café.

Dmi Field Service Case

Synopsis/purpose Field Service Divisions are important parts of organizations operating in manufacturing industries. As technology becomes more and more involved in the production process and the after sales services, it is crucial for companies to develop their Field Service business processes. In the DMI Field Service Case, the company has troubles meeting the customer demands in a timely manner. The quality of the service remains as an important task to improve for the DMI Company and we will be analyzing the issues related with the reengineering process of the FSD. . DMI should measure field service performance because the process needs a level of consistency. Even though every service call may be different, the processes that are not variable need to be controlled on a consistent level. Performance should be measured by customer feedback, number of service calls per day, and response time. 6. The division needs to make a process map to create a value stream and ensure that each step on the process there is value being added.If there is not value being added then that process needs to be cut. A process map will also show inefficiencies of the process as a whole. 7. This organization can become more of a learning organization if they were able to develop a team strictly made for continuous improvement. If this whole process seems to have all these inefficiencies then I believe it would be very worth is to create a continuous improvement team to exploit all these problems and create solutions and figure out the right path for their process map. 8.New Technologies – DMI should be able to open their horizons with some new technology especially because it’s management consists of mostly engineers. They need to be more proficient in technology management to gain trust and loyalty to customers. Call taker system – DMI’s service center receives an average of 3,500 calls per day. About 2,000 of those calls are related to emergency mainten ance. All of the calls are taken by approximately 40 call takers who earn â€Å" modest† wages and work staggered shifts to cover the workday for both oasts. This is causing low efficient rating and many people being put on hold. If they were to implement a customer code in the service center they would be much more efficient and timely with the calls. They could also hire more â€Å"call takers†. Dispatching center- There is an obvious lack of communication between the dispatchers and the techs. This migh be because there are 24 dispatchers in only 5 regional dispatch centers. Bringing these dispatch centers together could help communication and reduce delays.Performance Measurement – There system seems to be flawed due to the fact that they base their performance on target response time. This is a flaw because service tech may only go on 1 field work a day which doesn’t correctly show performance throughout the whole organization. Communication between the call centers and the techs are also no good because sometimes they don’t even call because they think they will have to wait on hold. So a new measurement system is definitely in need.