STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYSIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYSIS - Essay Example The company was started in 1902 as a joint venture between Imperial Tobacco Company of United Kingdom and the American Tobacco Company of the USA. The parent companies agreed to carry out export businesses and form overseas subsidiaries to the joint venture. The company began operations in diversified counties outside UK and USA such as Canada, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia (Our history). In 1911, one of the parent companies, the American Tobacco Company, sold its shares of the company. Imperial Tobacco too slowly reduced its shareholding by 1980. In 1976, the companies held by the group were consolidated under a new holding company, called B.A.T Industries. In 1994, BAT took over its former parent, American Tobacco Company. However, in 1999 British American Tobacco formed a merger with Rothmans International, which made it the target of criticism from human rights groups. Similarly, in 2003, British American Tobacco bought Ente Tabacchi Italiani (ETI), Italys state tobacco company. British American Tobacco holds one of the most famous brands across the world. The international brands include Dunhill, Pall Mall, Benson & Hedges etc. The company has a gross turnover of over  £26 million and revenue of over  £10 million. The company employs over 53000 people (Our Brands). British American Tobacco strongly believes in conducting business with honesty, integrity and transparency. Not only it the right thing to do, but is also essential to the continuous development of a business. A business that is responsible, successful and sustainable in the long term. The company is committed to good corporate governance and believes in achieving business objectives in a responsible and consistent manner, at the same time following honesty, transparency and accountability. Corporate governance is not simply an exercise in compliance, but as a vital element defining the sustainable, long-term growth of business. According to the Sustainability Report

Contract law course work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Contract law course work - Essay Example given in webster’s Third New International Dictionary, which can be applicable is â€Å"a public administrative agency or corporation having quasi-governmental powers and authorized to administer a revenue – producing public enterprise†. This dictionary meaning of the word â€Å"authority† is clearly wide enough to include all bodies created by statute on which powers are conferred to carry out governmental or quasi governmental functions. But Sec-6(3) is a bit ambiguous on this point. According to the text of the judgment in the House of Lords case ‘YL v Birmingham City Council [2007] UKHL 27’ â€Å" Section 6(3)(b) extends the definition of public authority to cover bodies which are not public authorities but certain of whose functions are of a public nature, and it is therefore likely to include bodies which are not amenable to judicial review. Section 6(1) of the Act said that â€Å"it [was] unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which [was] incompatible with †¦Ã¢â‚¬  any of these rights. The section did not contain any comprehensive definition of â€Å"public authority† but subsection (3)(b) said that a â€Å"public authority† included â€Å"any person certain of whose functions are functions of a public nature†. However subsection (5) said that: The effect of all this is that an act (or an omission) of a private person or company that is incompatible with a Convention right is not unlawful under the 1998 Act (it may, of course, be unlawful under ordinary domestic law) unless the person or company has at least some â€Å"functions of a public nature†; but even if that condition is satisfied the private person or company will not have any liability under the 1998 Act if the nature of the act complained of was private. The argument is based on the alleged similarity of the nature of the function carried on by a local authority in running its own care home and that of a private person running a privately owned care home proves too much. If every contracting

Middle Class in India Sociology

Middle Class in India Sociology Is there something called the Indian Middle Class? How does this manifest in everyday India ? Illustrate this from Mother Pious Lady Reference? Indian middle class; is it a group or a phenomenon? Who are the people who form the Indian middle class, what are their culture? The Indian middle class has grown from a minority in pre-independence era to a vast majority taking the grip of the whole nation and playing a major role in driving it towards development. The book Mother Pious Lady by Mr Santosh Desai portrays the Indian middle class in vivid detail. The following writing takes the headings of the book and tries to explain Indian middle class with illustration from the book. I have tried covering the topics which I was able to connect to. Economic reform has provided the Indian middle class the most needed the liberation in terms of living life to the most. There has been a constant shift in the cultural sign and symbols adapted through ages. Disappearance of girls pig tail, freedom of mobility through scooterette, providing the elders their own space of living, telecommunication evolution, explosion in the passenger car segment , changing clothing pattern are few of the visible patterns in society. Girls pony tail were a symbol of desired feminine reserved nature which has seen a change both in length and its handling. The shortening of hair gives a girl a sense of personal control displayed metaphorically. The scooty revolution has helped the female to expand her boundaries without being dependent on any family member providing her a sense of independence. Even the car owned has seen a shift towards adapting more compact cars. The recent shift from petrol to electric and LPG based cars not only signifies the change in attitude towards efficiency but also the urge to keep up technologically. Dhoni has been one the true middle class iconic figures which has altered the way Indian see a small town boy. The can do attitude along with the lack of fear of failure and unmindfulness of hierarchy has been the reason behind success of Dhoni. Any Indian middle class can draw inspiration from him in the way towards dealing with pressure and performing without fear of failure. The increase in disposable income has led to the change in attitude towards life, attitude towards savings. The Indian middle class is not afraid to take risks in life to get a bigger return. He is in constant search of avenues of making money. An age where money has its own language, and the person in possession of money is in possession of power. It has become the source of energy which drives the entire economy, of which Indian middle class has played the most important role. Arranged marriage in a typical middle class families is still not openly accepted, reasons may be preference for same caste bride which may not be guaranteed in love marriage. It may also be due to unfamiliarity or not being comfortable to other caste customs being brought and practiced in one family. Arrange marriage is not seen as marriage of two individuals but two families as well. The idea of prospective bride and groom to know each other before marriage is not given preference as the custom of these individuals having the luxury of spending time together is quite rare in any joint family. Also, the societal pressure is also a big factor which forces one to look into same caste bride or groom. The priority of selection bride or groom also is quite typical in middle class family and exchange of dowry which comes as unsaid package plays a major role in this decision. The education qualification in higher of engineer or doctor may fetch enough dowry to groom family to cover almost all the family members lifetime expenditure. Its agreed that many a times this money only changes hand in case the same family has a girl to be married away. All these factors doesnt provide the luxury to place the freedom to choose the bride in the hand of the prospective groom himself. The power to choose the family needs to be closely guarded and the sense of freedom even need to be made to felt to the groom. Also, the custom of preparing and matching kundli of prospective bride and groom to formally accept marriage proposal also affects the decision. The decision to go against the familys belief of marrying someone who technically doesnt match on paper may lead to social seclusion. The present has become poor indicator of the future indicates that current reputation, societal status, family acceptance takes preference over the prospective future of those two individuals living together happily. The middle path of arranged love marriage seems to provide the best possible solution in the current middle class society. It comes with best of both the worlds. Even though, this may not be happening at an encouraging level provides enough encouragement to other families to try to adapt for the benefit of those two individuals in question. Other reason for further acceptance of this phenomenon is the trend of growing number of nuclear families. The tradition of newly wed bride to stay with the family is becoming less frequent, leading to providing both the individuals to start their life with their own rules. The importance given to the caste is also decreasing due to importance given to education qualification and economic status in the society. The essence of middle class can be truly experienced while travelling across country via any means be it train, bus, jugaad or be it airplane. Out of all these means Train definitely displays the middle class in true sense. Indian Railways carries millions of Indians mostly middle class people through length and breadth of this huge nation on a daily basis. A typical middle class passenger takes a train journey not just as travel but as ritual. He is worried about the co-passengers destination more than his own. The train coupe forms a perfect blend of many cultures and their practices. It is clearly visible during the meal time. Any Gujarati family travels in a group of min 4-5 members with a plethora of food varieties in their stock. The ritual of cutting and preparing salad, preparing for the meal by arranging the plates and laying out the pre made food contents. The daily routine of having daily meal is still maintained irrespective of the place they may be. After Gold, probably Stainless steel is the metal which places itself highly in the life of typical Indian middle class family. The metal is a reliable carrier of memories. It stands for pride, trust and assurance. Stainless steel makes its presence very eminent in daily life of middle class family through vessels, utensils. It is the true representation of aspirations of middle class family, to be able to shine even after being put to test on a daily basis. It serves to utility to max. But due to recent advent of polymer technology and post liberalization era, Stainless steel is being slowly being replaced by more cheaper and easily replaceable elements like plastics, aluminium. This trend not only displays the changing attitude of the middle class towards daily life approach. There has been a constant shift from need for longevity, durability to alternatives which would serve the utility at best price. This change is evident of the fact of the fast changing life, non belief in long standing commitment. Ease of manufacturing, handling, disposal, multi utility and economy of use Need for Communication places itself on a very high scale for any Indian, specially a middle class family. The urge to stay connected through any possible means forms a strong bond among geographically spread and settled of the community. Even Post card saw its evolution in the form of launch of competition postcards, travel postcards etc, which formed an important part of a typical middle class family. Post card, in pre telecommunication era, was the perfect carrier of messages which contained message not for individuals but for the whole family from another family as such. Post card was like the facebook wall for the whole family. After the advent to telecommunication era, the ease of message transmission was shifted to audio content from textual content. But the current shift to electronic mail or e-mail has detached the flavour of writing letter to near and dear ones. Its well acknowledged that it has made life simpler, but the shift from paper letter to e-mail has shifted the le tter only as intention. Middle class is best known for its ability to excel at the time of scarcity. The backbone of this feat comes from the culture of staying in joint families. Joint family is a true representation of Marxist institute where the fruits of toil of the family is equally shared among the members. The belief in sharing everyone materialistic property among the members gives it a strong sense of binding. Every member works for the family not for his self individual. But, there has been a constant erosion in the concept of living through sharing. This is clearly evident in the rising conflict in land claiming issues in joint families. The constant shift from joint to nuclear families, constant movement of families from rural areas to urban areas, rising living costs and at the base of all the changing attitude of middle class towards living through sharing has led to this crude change. Summer break was usually associated with long break from school, summer holidays and trip to either native place or to a holiday destination with the family. It was a time to spend quality time with our near and dear ones. It was a time to take up some hobby at leisure be it reading comics, take up painting or music classes. But the true essence of the break was that it provided an opportunity to connect to our real self, to our places and culture of origin. It was a time to experience the new, refuel with fresh change of much needed air. There has been a constant shift in the attitude of middle class towards the summer break as well. The shift from leisure spending to time to more serious way on engagement has been created due to constant peer pressure and to prove oneself distinct from the lot. The mushrooming of summer camps for children for sports, music and arts classes is not due to self interest of children as such but also to satisfy the aspiration of typical middle class par ents to see their children develop a multi faceted personality. Mothers role is universally given the top priority in any human being relationship pyramid. Indian Mother plays an even more important role in any middle class family. Gender Role of mother is very prominent in a middle class family. She is the person responsible for binding the family, its health and even for counselling. She plays multiple roles in a family with varied responsibilities. She is the one who is more bothered about her sons exams. She portrays the true values of middle class through her aspirations for the family at the cost of sacrificing her own life. The affinity of a typical middle class family with white cloth reflects its aspiration levels of getting noticed in the society. This portrays the notion of purity in the era of corruption. The analogue of usage of ultramarine on white cloth is clearly with thin film of elite culture which every middle class aspires to be a part of. Ultramarine actually doesnt help in whitening the cloth but only provides a blue coat to cover up the real patches of yellow dirt resting on the cloth. It signifies the constant urge of Indian middle class to stand apart, its constant urge to excel through continuous trial. The recent adaption of dye based cloth dye from ultramarine depicts a change in time. The spike in demand of English medium school for middle class and associating children education with English displays the attitude towards thin film culture to hide their true image. The obsession with order and discipline is a typical characteristic of Indian middle class. The sense of belonging is one of the implicit needs of the Indian middle class. Well creased and iron clothes are one of the symbols used to strengthen the need for order. It gives them the strength to fight against the chaos of nature. Straight Line represents their triumph of humanness. In the pre-liberalization era when people were not suffering from ADD(attention deficit disorder), people had vivid means of entertainment ranging from coffee house debating, fishing, travelling or be it sitting idle with friends with corner tea shops and having friendly chat. Even the perception of viewing something in motion could be termed as entertainment. Here the house window played an important role in opening. It was the theatre of our imagination which would let your creativity do the talking. The recent expansion in the media domain has increased the options of entertainment but also reduced the interest in the outside real world. The role of window has changed from taking interest in real world to secluding oneself from the society. The ritual of visiting our relatives and near and dear ones without pre-announcement and even without a purpose was a common habit among middle class families having geographically scattered members. Even the purpose of the visit was not important. But recently due changing relationship among people and with growing linearity among it, the visit is associated with a purpose. Even the acceptance of un announced visit are not welcomed. The reasons of the trend can be varying ranging from improving communication technology to shrinking of family size to engulfing oneself in their own word. One place where the true middle class can be found congregating is the 4 pages of weekly matrimonial ads in daily newspapers. The ads are structured as per the caste requirement. The place becomes the marketing platform where packaging the individual in the form of few highlighted well seeked off words becomes the success criteria of finding any mate through those ads. A typical middle class arranged marriage doesnt takes place between individuals but between the families and in turn their relatives. It doesnt remains an event affecting 2 individuals but goes far beyond. The typical middle class phenomenon of intra caste marriage even at the cost of not finding suitable bride/groom can have unwelcomed effect. It not only affects those individuals but also the society. This menace can only be dealt with if the priority of suitability for partner selection is shifted from caste to their personal attitude matching. Any vehicle which is typically associated with a middle class family has to be a scooter. A scooter is analogues to a mule; comparable in strength and obedience for load carriage. A vehicle providing mobility with multi utility and an aura of safety around it was the perfect companion of any Indian middle class family. Scooter portrays the middle class persona to perfection. The ability of carry person well above rated number and weight, the ability to transform from people carriage vehicle to goods carrier in both front compartment and side deck, never asking for maintenance and providing the security of spare wheel made it the most suitable vehicle on Indian roads for any middle class family. Auto rickshaw has been an integral part of our lives which provides personalised travelling mode at near affordable price. Auto rickshaw was a vehicle which provided freedom from wait for public transport and provided door to door connectivity. The vehicle was a true image of the growing aspirations of the Indian middle class providing them the much needed differentiation in terms of image perception. The vehicle itself was positioned between the affordable but not comfortable mode of transportation , ie 2 wheelers and un-affordable 4 wheelers for a typical middle class. Of late due to improving public transportation in cities and increasing fares of auto transport, there has been a shift towards other modes but auto rickshaw is here to stay to its USP. In the pre-liberalization era, buying of any household appliance was an occasion in itself. The long term association with the appliances bought made it even further a special occasion. The appliances ranged from TV, fridge, Tape recorder, scooter, cooker, sewing machine etc. The appliance almost became a part of the family itself with special handling care taken care by the head of the family. The TV remote was the power centre which needs to be wrapped in polythene and handled only under guided supervision. Of late with the advent of consumerism and even increasing appliances buying and replacement rate, the importance of any appliance has reduced drastically. The role of appliance has shifted from being centrally used by the family to personalized usage. The concept of personalized appliance for every member of the family be it mobile phones, music systems or even vehicles has reduced the emotional elements attached with the appliance. The behaviour has changed from repair mentali ty to exchange mentality. This has further reduced the need for caring for the appliance as the life cycle of the technology considered upto date has also reduced drastically with new models being churned out every few models with better and improved features. The medical service was and is still considered luxury for many strata of our society. The affordability and notions attached with medical service and doctor are still alien in many parts of the society where the sole responsibility of the family health either lies in the hands of god or local medicine practitioners. But in other well off places doctors are almost next to god. The typical Indian middle class finds itself stuck between the affordability factor and belief factor. Of late a typical Indian middle class tries to over smart the well trained doctor through primary research on internet. To him the advice given by an unknown on internet appeals to him with greater truth factor than the advice given to him by doctor. Radio was a very strong binding medium in pre TV era connecting people from across the geography, occupation etc. There has been a constant shift in the methodology of popularity calculation of songs. Not only radio but also TV has been affected by the consumerism. The method of popularity is not only based on artists performance but also on the no. of sms send during the event. The Indian middle class is an upfront participant in the era of consumerism. The power of voting for their favourite performer has engaged the middle class into ever longer participation and increased its loyalty for the event. A typical Indian middle class finds pleasure in seeing someone alike performing well and progressing in the event. Cinema is trying to woo the middle class by providing much demand exclusive comfort through various class in shows. Typical Indian street food is a moving map of Indian culture whether you eat paani poori or idli dosa or Chinese. Its a place where hygiene is typically overlooked and is subsided by taste. Its a place for any typical calorie conscious individual to indulge and forget about extra calories. Its also a place where people across religion, caste and race are binded without issues. Indians love their cinemas and Songs and heroes are an integral part of it. Of late, there has been a constant shift from emotion based poetic songs to meaningless songs which are getting more encouragement from the society. Society doesnt have the quest for meaning through songs anymore, reasons may be varied. May be the middle class doesnt come to cinema anymore as a issue solver but as a mere entertainer. Cinema provides them escape from daily life issues for a couple of hours. And thats the reason, people look up to todays heroes as mere epitome of excess.The need of the hour is to encourage the real heroes to bring change in the society. Middle class need to rise to true heroism, be it being entrepreneur; helping generate jobs, generate income for people, be it working for societal development. Indian middle class is obsessed with power which really comes hard and short lived at times. The phenomenon is clearly evident in political hierarchy, power associated with official cars, its red sirens, the issue associated with security frisking. The reasons may be in the cultures acceptance of power distance, the need to show power at hand to society to gain importance. PSUs were set with mind set of socialism, but apparently they are the power house of the Indian industries. This scenario has been constantly shifting due to increasing entry of MNCs in India who preach exactly the opposite with its flat office structure, its open door policy, its transparency, its priority to performance over age based seniority etc. Film, politics and corporate are biggest institutions providing transfer of legacy through free passage of the baton to their next generation. License raj period was a black era where ones ability to survive directly depended on the bureaucratic contacts he/she had. T he Indian middle class was a complete misfit in this zone. The scene is also changing fast due to increased concern over the companys performance even at the cost of baton going to an outsider fit for the role. We need to watch for similar happenings in politics as well. Indian middle class are the true carriers of ancient Indian culture in todays Indian culture. This is represented clearly in the food and our existence around it. The food acts as the centre of our existence and stomach the seat of our soul. Food may be the barometer of our lives. The reasons could be due to immigration of varied cultures in India through ages, providing an enriching mix of food culture. One of unique form of food serving can be found in Thali. It forms a unique contrast with the western food culture of serving food in linear courses. The food itself is arranged all a time providing the connoisseur the option of selecting his course order accordingly. The reason why we enjoy Thali may be due to our finding pleasure in chaos. Another, interesting food form ie Pickle forms a central part of a typical middle class diet. Pickle tries to preserve its ingredient in interesting form. It acts like the culture distillate. The availability of thali food in restaurant and pickl e available in jars in retail stores reflect the changes in society. The hectic and fast moving lifestyle in urban areas doesnt provide an opportunity to families in either engaging in pickle preparation at home, neither do they find time to have meals at a time with the whole family at once. Even the food habits have seen constant change from Indian food to western food. The need to have the food on the move has seen shift in food and catering culture. Indians have always felt fuzzy in declaring their love towards their loved ones and the concept of expressing oneself through words, day celebration etc was of alien in nature. With liberalization and adoption of western culture, there has a constant shift towards need for verbal and visual expression of love and care. The growth of cards culture in form of Archies, Hallmark etc., celebration of fathers day, mothers day, and even valentines day has come under accepted and much needed norms. The major reasons may be increasing spatial, cultural and generation gap among the family members. The middle class in the run to keep up with the society has replaced bhai dooj with brothers day, the daily expressed silent care with valentines day, the parental respect with fathers day. The reason could be the need to make every occasion big and reason to celebrate with public display. The love in some cases may also be weighed in terms of the value of the gift exchanged. The Indian middle class obsession with English is not a new phenomenon, whether in the form of English pet names, obsession with English medium schools, the urge to communicate in English. This market is very well served by the growing tutorial classes promising to teach English in 30 days. Even though the excessive obsession has led to corrosion of native Indian culture but it also has a silver lining along with it. The booming IT outsourcing industry has been successful majorly due to the proficiency achieved by Indian middle class to international acceptable standards which has led to opening of job horizons for many. The Indian middle class believes in sharing and living, but sometimes at the cost of others inconvenience. This is clearly evident in the missing mobile etiquettes, throwing garbage in public places, listening TV at home at full volume. The lack of need to respect others space may be the outcome of the feeling of one with the society. This seem an issue of little relevance but with times there arises the need to educate people about respecting for others feeling and space essential for peaceful coexistence. Few rituals find peculiar adaptation in typical Indian middle class society. The traffic system portrays a system of chaos working perfectly in harmony. Every driver has his own meaning of traffic rule, he drives focused only on his objective. The myopic objective getting ahead of others even at the cost of creating traffic jam later. Honking is used for power display with safety put to backseat. Indian traffic is a perfect smaller version of Indian middle class culture. Many cities operate with no traffic signal nor with traffic policemen, which display almost magically the understanding amongst motorist. Indians always find hard to follow rules carved by someone else but are always apt to form their own. The rules are there to be bent which is evident in the way drivers do when they jus hang the seat belt to escape fine only to release it at the first possible opportunity, two wheelers carry helmets in hand only to be worn when faced with a traffic policeman. The chalta hai proves to be major deterrent to arrive at a lasting solution. The lack of desire for quality may be due to lack of desire for lasting solution. The major beneficiary is Indian politics where criminals are forgotten and re-elected, where scams are forgone with time. India has come a long way from 64 crore bofors scam to 1.76 lakh crore 2G telecom scam of which Indian middle class was a mere spectator. Indian middle seem to be good at forgiving and even better at forgetting. Even sports remains untouched when come to the scandals like cricket and recent common wealth games. The reason may be the attitude of disinterest of people towards apt punishment. The need of the hour is to educate the mass about the importance and benefit of following traffic rules. The need of the hour is to make the Indian middle class realize the power they have in their hands to elect capable and apt people. Liquor was always looked up as a menace in the Indian middle class and its association with ability to take the human out of oneself. The elite and extreme lower class always some occasion or reason associated with liquor consumption. But the middle class always took it as an unwinding tool, as a medium to hang out with. Our trip to Hill stations have always been associated with family, as a place to escape the heat and noise of the city. Indians always have been worshiping Sun, but also has always been looked with harshness of its nature which is quite opposite to western culture where they tend to welcome sun. Amitabh Bacchan is one those iconic figures who has lived through Indians for almost four decades now. He has lived almost all his characters too real life like. He has given every Indian the sense of his own existence through his reel characters. He has been the icon of credibility for most if the Indian middle class. He is the one who can be trusted by any brand either for publicity or damage control, ranging from Gujarat tourism to Cadbury worm controversy.

Critical Review of Article on Financial Statements Essay example -- Ac

A Critical Review of Georgiou, G. (2010) â€Å"The IASB standard-setting process: Participation and perceptions of financial statement users†, British Accounting Review, 42 (2), pp.103-118. Dr George Georgiou is a senior lecturer in Accountancy and the director of the MSc International Accounting & Finance course at the Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. He has the following qualifications: BA, MAcc, PhD & CPA. Georgiou is also a PhD supervisor in his research interest topics which lie in accounting regulation, accounting theory, government accounting and market-based accounting. (University of Birmingham, 2010). As stated by Bruce (2010), financial statement users are often described as the primary users of financial statements. Yet, few financial statement users have the time or the preference to get involved in the IASB standard setting process. Georgiou's article sets out to show the gap in the literature of the involvement of financial statement users and the amount of control they have in the accounting standard-setting process. The author states that it is important to financial statement users to believe that their perception and participation is vital in the standard setting process. Introduction Georgiou puts forward an argument for financial statement users in that their involvement is material and frequently accounting standard-setters give an explanation for the approval of their standards by appealing to the interest of financial statement users. The author verifies the importance of the problem area by referencing Young (2003), who also puts their argument across in support of financial statement users. Young (2003) expresses that financial statement users are used in a nutshell to prov... ...or outreach. Available: http://www.ifrs.org/News/Features/Spotlight+on+investor+outreach.htm. Last accessed 9 November 2010. Duff, A, Ferguson, J & Gilmore, K. (2007). Issues concerning the employment and employability of disabled people in UK accounting firms: An analysis of the views of human resources managers as employment gatekeepers. The British Accounting Review, 39(1), 15-38. Sutton, T. G. (1984). Lobbying of accounting standard-setting bodies in the U.K. and the U.S.A: a downsian analysis. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 9(1), 81–95. University of Birmingham. (2010). Profile: Dr George Georgiou. Available: http://www.business.bham.ac.uk/staff/georgioug.shtml. Last accessed 5 Dec 2010. Young, J. J. (2003). Constructing, persuading and silencing: the rhetoric of accounting standards. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 28(6), 621–638.

Couture Fashion’s Chinese Connection

Executive summary In this case, there are two major problems that I can analyzed. Firstly, Kaki and Houdini which are two of major loyal customers of Couture Fashions Bad (HCI)'s were writing to Jeffrey to inform him that they may looking to China to â€Å"contract manufacture† for them as the prices there were very competitive. Second, the previous adverse perception of â€Å"Made in China† labels had slowly changed as China now manufactured clothes that are higher quality at substantially lower operating costs.There were some recommendation that are going to implemented which are raptors to expand to China, proposal to close down Hess factories in Malaysia and Thailand or manufacturing its own label for Malaysian and Sean market. Statement of Problems HCI may lose their big major loyal customers which is Kaki and Houdini as they may looking to China to â€Å"contract manufacture† for them as the prices there is cheaper. Apart from that, nowadays China was produ ce high quality product with cheaper price so then makes the perception of people about the â€Å"made in China† goods changed to a good view.This is because of the labor cost in China is cheaper rather Han Malaysia. HCI now is very confusing to make decision but based on the problems they have to make accurate decision. According to these problems they have to deeply make consideration of their short term and long terms decision. As far as I am concerned, the short term problem is HCI may lose their big major loyal customers which is Kaki and Houdini. For long term, they may face a very big loss and no wonder if their company will go for bankruptcy as Kaki and Houdini may become the benchmark for other customers that are rely on Hess company.Other customers may assume that HCI does not maintain its reputation and that is why Kaki and Houdini are quit from keep doing â€Å"contract manufacture† with HCI. As it shows a bad benchmark to other customer, it may cause other customers quit from HCI. As a decision, I agree if HCI still operate it existing company but doing Joint venture in China. Causes of problems There is some cause or problems that cause Kaki and Houdini may switch doing â€Å"contract manufacture† from HCI to China which is they can save their financial sources a lot as they will get cheaper supply from China rather than what was offered by HCI.Apart from that, in 1997 Malaysia had face economic downturn and fluctuation or currency exchange. Rather than buying with higher price, Kaki and Houdini may get some more loses in currency exchange. To make an accurate decision, I prefer HCI to use PESTLE theory. PESTLE is divided into six categories which are political, economic, social, technology, ecological, and legal. Based on political and legal, to build new factory in China is not an easy way as HCI have to get he permission from the government and also have to fully understand and follow the rules and regulation to incept new factory in China.So it may take a very long period to face all the procedures. In term of economic, HCI may get lack of financial resources to build new factory as not confirm can sell both of their existing companies. Even they can sell both it is still not enough to incur all the cost to build new factory in China. Based on social view, HCI may lose their specialist once they move to China as some of them may not want to leave Malaysia which is their country. To find new specialist in China is not easy and may incur a big cost as HCI have to train them well to become professional enough.Their current workers also may lose Job as they will be layoff if HCI close their current company and move to China. In term of ecological, by building new factory it may cause pollution to the environment, so it relates to the government policy, rules and regulations. HCI may build a factory but in rural area that may cause the shipping cost to send all the goods to its customer become higher. In addition, from technological view, I can see hat in China the technology is different from Malaysia, so HCI once again have to incur a big cost to train all the workers with new technology.Decision Criteria and Alternative Solutions Based on the problems and alternative solution, I am totally agree if HCI still continue its operation in Malaysia but in the same time doing Joint venture with any other strong and well known company in China. This is because by doing Joint venture HCI will not incur a lot of cost rather than doing Greenfield which is building a new factory there. Apart from that, by doing Joint venture OVA) with well-known company, it is easy for HCI to find new prospect of customers from China thus in the same time HCI can increase their customers.If HCI want to build new factory, it may incur a lot of cost and if HCI want to manufacture its own label for Malaysian and Sean market, it is hard to brand new label and incur a lot of cost too as they have to advertise it new label. Recommended Solution, Implementation and Justification As a conclusion, I am totally agree if Jeffery Echoing continue it operation in Malaysia UT in the same time doing Joint venture with strong and well known company in China.To ensure that HCI not lose their current big major loyal customers which is Kaki and Houdini, HCI have to as soon as possible doing Joint venture with China. By doing Joint venture, HCI can directly continue operation in China without need to comply with government policy, legal restriction and tax if they are build new factory. They Just continue follow the regulation of its Joint venture partner. Once again I am totally agree if HCI doing Joint venture and still continue its existing operation.

An Undisputed Social Issue in The Philippines Essay

Poverty is a state of being poor, indigence, lack of material things and finances. Poverty puts people into the lowest level in a society. Poor people, most of the time, are neglected by the government, shunned by the society and not given enough opportunities to prosper. They live in a filthy environment, living among a community of criminals. We can enumerate countless of unpleasant words to define the effect of poverty, and there are countless of reasons and causes for these. Poverty remains the central development issue in the Philippines and, despite the ambitious development goals laid out by the government, the country has not been able to sustain the economic growth required to reduce poverty to acceptable levels. Why Poverty Remains a Social Issue in the Philippines First, there is a fundamental disconnect between Filipino elites and the poor. The political leadership in the Philippines has always been drawn from those elites, and those politicians have traditionally played the role of patrons and benefactors, relying on the pork barrel and personal/family funds (often acquired through corruption) to essentially buy votes. â€Å"The core principle of democracy – that representatives should be drawn from those they represent and advocate for the true interests of their constituents – has not been operative† (Abueva, 1964). Philippine Presidents in particular have been drawn from the ranks of the wealthy and privileged. How can they relate to what it means to be poor or hungry? Even if their heart’s in the right place (which is not all that common), well-photographed visits to squatter settlements are not the answer. Second, the Philippines system is exceedingly politicized. President Arroyo herself is already focused on the 2004 presidential elections. In a sense, you can’t blame GMA. Her predecessor, Erap, had a built-in constituency among the masa. But President Arroyo must create such a base, given that she is the daughter of a previous President and has virtually nothing in common with the poor people of her country. Look more:  problems of scarcity essay She has worked hard to develop support among the common folk, dressed in jeans with regularity, and sung on stage with popular recording artists. She has also latched onto fighting poverty as a key policy emphasis. In her State-of-the-Nation (SONA) address on July 22nd, she emphasized the so-called â€Å"rolling stores† – trucks loaded with subsidized rice, rice, sugar, and canned meat that ply the streets of Manila – as a sterling example of her administration’s anti-poverty programs. The only problem was that her remarks had knowledgeable economists practically rolling in the aisles, given that few poor people ever get access to the trucks and only 5% of the nation’s poor live in Metro Manila. But real poverty alleviation programs where they are most needed – say in rural Mindanao – would lack the publicity opportunities of the rolling stores on Manila streets. Additionally, several other studies list down the primary causes of poverty in the Philippines in terms of economic state: 1. The basic economic problem in the Philippines is inefficient and very low incomes. 2. The finances of the Government had become steadily worse and were not critical, The Treasury had a large and mounting deficit with taxes covering little more than 60% of the expenditures. 3. The country had an excessive volume of imports. In the meantime, the volume of exports was less than before the war an d could be expected to grow only gradually. 4. There had been inequalities in the level of income of people. While the standard of living of a great segment of the population remained below that of the pre-war level, the profits of businessmen and large landowners had risen considerably. Under the circumstances, the continued rise in the prices of commodities tended to transfer real income from the poor to the wealthy and; 5. The inefficiency and corruption in the government led the people to lose their faith and confidence in the ability of the government â€Å"to protect the interest of all the people. † The result was demoralization of the people. According to history, â€Å"the destruction of the national economy as a result of the war posed serious problems of subsistence and of peace and order† (Agoncillo, 1990). In such circumstances the leaders if the nation could only rely on the United States for financial and other material aid. The hundreds of millions of dollars given t the Philippines by the United States in the form of cash and surplus properties were used to rehabilitate agriculture, commerce, trade and industry. Some of it, however, went to the pockets of dishonest officials. There were marked increases in the gross national output and income, but the cost of living, as a whole, continues to soar or, at least, to remain static on the basis of the immediate post-liberation years. At the same time, labor grew and continues to grow, demanding increases in wages and better living conditions. The total picture of the national economy has improved, but the improvements are not sufficient to bring down cost of living, which has remained one of the highest in the world. Agricultural production – The destruction caused by the last war told heavily on the productive capacity of the people and their standard of living (Agoncillo, 1990). With financial help from the United States, however, the government, in the first ten years of the Republic, had succeeded in at least partially solving the minor economic problems. Thus, for instance, crop production from 1946 and 1956 increased from 3, 507, 200 metric tons to almost double the amount of 6, 274, 900 metric tons. This increased production was the upshot of the expanded area planted to food crops and the application of improved means of increasing the yield per hectare, such as the use of fertilizer, irrigation, the use of better seeds, and the effective use of chemicals against plant pests and diseases. Production of export crops also increased tremendously from 315, 000 metric tons in 1956, with copra and sugar leading all export crops. Other exports like abaca, tobacco and their by-products have not so far completely recovered from the effects of the last war (Martin, 1999). However, some are blamed upon the things done by irresponsible individuals from high to low profile individuals such as population growth – some Filipinos believe that it is natural for every married woman to bear a child in their wombs because they are with their husbands (Friedman et al. , 1977). And this are very wrong beliefs since if you will be reasonable enough, you will realize that having a child is always together with great responsibility that has no end. And that you will realize that having more and more children will cause great scarcity in your family such as you would not be able to send your children to school and you would not be able to provide enough foods so that you children will be healthy and do good in school. Population growth is also the reason for a number of malnourish children in the Philippines. Unemployment is also a very common cause of poverty in the Philippines since there are several Filipinos who are unemployed plus the fact that there are many companies that are affected of the global economic crisis. And the least thing that you can do about unemployment is to find a best way on generating money like you can accept laundry services, plumbing services, or electrical repair services if you are skilled enough to do the job. Then, you could start a certain profitable business like food house or a small store that does not require you much capital so that you will not find it hard to save enough money from the services that you are offering. Governance concern is still deemed as one of the main reasons of poverty in the Philippines because of the activities of the corrupt government officials. They are using the money of the people to achieve the power and authority that they wanted to have and once they have it they will automatically take advantage of their power to the point that they will neglect the yoke of the people and set aside their promises when they are just campaigning and try to convince the people to vote for them. Agricultural problems also pose as the natural cause of the poverty in the Philippines because of the wrong activities of people. They ruin the treasure of the nature for their own sake without any idea that the nature they are destroying is the main source of almost all the products that exist in this world. Some of the examples of destroying the nature are the irresponsible disposal of wastes and trash, dynamite fishing, illegal logging and more. Another cause is said to be disability – this is also one of the possible causes of poverty in the Philippines since more and more people nowadays become disabled because of several illnesses and diseases that arise like AH1N1 virus, SARS, dengue, and more. Disability may be also caused by uncontrolled population growth, for instance, you have ten kids in the house, and can you imagine attending to their needs everyday? Well, definitely not so the tendency is that they are prone to accidents that will cause them to be disabled since they are at very young age that are typically playful. Starvation has also been one of the primary effects of poverty in the Philippines. Eating is necessary for us to survive. As humans we need to eat three times a day or more. Unfortunately, not all of us can afford this kind of living. Many people, children and families in this world, suffer from hunger due to lack of finances for their everyday needs. Based on the record of UNICEF, more than half of the children all over the world are malnourished. Most of them came from countries that are less abundant. Apparently, research shows that education has also been a problem in the Philippines. It is not prioritized by the government because only the privileged can have access to basic education in the sense that most of the children in the Philippines could not afford the needs of a student such as food, clothing, school materials and even fares used for transportation. There are also schools which offer free education like the government schools and private schools which accept scholarships, but still, lack in financial support is their main dilemma. These are just some of the reasons why most of the students from different levels take education for granted. Instead of going to school, they spent their time working in order to help their families make a living. The masses have multiplied extremely. Increase in opportunities for employment has not yet overcome the rapid increase in population, resulting in the multiplication of the number of jobless proletariat. When one considers that a large number of school children become â€Å"school orphans† that is, they leave school before or after finishing Grade IV, and that they eventually become peasants or laborers, one ceases to wonder why the base of the triangular structure of society has widened considerably. The strong contrast between the upper classes and the lower classes is that the former are earning more and more and the latter less and less. In other words, the distribution of wealth is one-sided as to make society top heavy. In the country’s present situation, the economy of the Philippines is struggling. The government has a huge debt from the World Bank and those money which the government borrowed where not used in projects which could alleviate poverty but were where lost to corruption. That’s why many Filipinos blame the government for the slow progression of our country. The Philippines was even given a tag as one of the most corrupt countries in Asia. Many people also blame the government because regardless of scarcity that all of us are experiencing, the government still manages to increase the prices of the merchandise in the markets. Conclusion True anti-poverty programs take a long time to bear fruit, and the politically-driven nature of Philippine government sector programs almost ensures that the emphasis will continue to be on quick fixes or interventions that provide high visibility and political payoffs (Warner & Harris). This is unfortunate given the seriousness of the situation and the implications for the country if concerted action is not taken. Poverty and malnutrition are already at alarming levels in this country, and the country’s too-rapid population growth is magnifying the strain on limited budgetary resources. The rapidly growing population is jeopardizing the quality of basic social services, contributing to the ongoing decline in quality of basic education, and limiting access to health care (especially primary health care, reproductive health/family planning, immunization, and feeding programs). Achieving any significant reduction in poverty will require rapid economic growth, growth of a magnitude not seen in recent years. Further, addressing issues of inequality will require significant investments in human capital, especially in improving the quantity and quality of primary education. The result of such unbalanced development of society is discontent and grave social problems such as poverty. The extreme poverty has given rise to starvation in some communities an to criminality, The unequal distribution of material possessions, in which the rich wlallow in wealth and the poor in filth is one of the reasons for the rise in criminality. Poverty has alos given rise to a new class known as squatters. References Abueva, J. V. Bridging the Gap Between the Elite and the People in the Philippines, Philippine Journal of Public Administration, October 1964, pp. 325-347; Agoncillo, T. V. (1990). History of the Filipino People Eighth Edition. (pp. 503-512. ) Quezon City: Garotech Publishing. Faith, R. (1996). Poverty, A History Of. Journal of Rural Studies, 12(2), 212-214. Friedmann, B. , Coy R. , & Wilson, L. (1977). Emergences: Gender struggles for livelihood in Latin America. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, University of California. Martin, A. A. (1999) Philippine Land Reform: Perpetuating US Colonial Policy. Philippine Studies, Volume 47, Second Quarter 1999; Warner, J. , & Harris, R. (n. d. ). Problems with poverty in third world countries. In M. B. Duran (Ed. ), Poverty and identity: studies in self and culture (pp. 39-58). Amsterdam: Daryl Benjamins Publishing Company.

Price Ceilings Are Useless essays

Price Ceilings Are Useless essays Even dough I had to argue in favor of price ceilings, I hate price ceilings. Researching on the internet I couldnt find a good thing. (The example that I put in the presentation with the rice and everything is not good because the $ spent by the gov paying for water only to plant those plants is more than the whole harvest) Also in an article by by Roger Ream who is Director of Seminars of The Foundation for Economic Education he said that despite the economic knowledge that price ceiling makes suppliers not to fabricate as much and that this causes shortages and that this shortages pushes the prices higher than before. The government is still using price ceiling because they want to be in control. He also says that the government should stop this because they are hurting the people that already are hurt. Hurting the poor. Despite overwhelming economic knowledge that price controls (in this discussion, ceilings on prices) discourage suppliers, thus causing shortages and therefore eventually pushing prices above their free market levels, the clamor for controls never subsides. A plea on behalf of the poor is perhaps the loudest excuse for ignoring economic wisdom and imposing controls. This emotional appeal to the plight of the poor often blinds individuals from seeing things as they really are, rather. Controls lead to a less efficient employment of scarce resources, and this hurts the poor the most. It is those on the bottom of the economic ladder who have the greatest stake in efforts to create the most opportunities, goods, and services from limited resources. The effect of price controls will be shortages and eventually prices higher than they would be in an unhampered market; effects precisely contrary to the stated objectives of their supporters. ( Roger Ream) Rent controls in large cities are a type of price ceiling. The government says you cannot raise the price above the...

The Concept Of Criminal Punishment Example

The Concept Of Criminal Punishment Example The Concept Of Criminal Punishment – Term Paper Example Section Number 15 March Punishment and sentencing have gone through various phases throughout the history of Western civilization. Discuss the concept of and rationale behind criminal punishment as it used to be meted out and how it is handled now. How has it changed? Criminal punishment has always existed in societies throughout history; from exiling to imprisonment to fines, those who go against the behavior deemed â€Å"proper† by the society are punished. In earlier times, criminal punishment was meted out for the purpose of retribution; the offender should be punished so that the ones who were wronged could be avenged. The punishment was left to the ones injured, or their families, who would decide what punishment was to be meted out and how. There was no need for the punishment to be proportionate to the crime committed. This concept has greatly changed over time. There was a need felt by the society that the crime and the resultant punishment should be proportionate. M oreover, the need for retribution was replaced by a need for reformation – the offender should be encouraged to make amends and change himself and/or his attitude to become a better person and conform to the rules set by the society. Another factor that has been altered is the physical aspect of the punishments; whereas before drawing and quartering were considered to be a form of punishment, now they are no longer acceptable and are considered cruel. Additionally, steps are being taken to abolish capital punishment from all societies in the world as well. Also, crimes are now considered to be offenses against the state and not persons, so it is up to the state to mete out the punishment. The criminal punishments have been transformed so as to fit well to the sensibilities of people, as there has been a later trend to use them to protect and reform the society and the criminal respectively, and not merely to seek vengeance as was done before.King, J. C. (1980). A rationale fo r punishment. The Journal of Libertarian Studies, IV(2), 151-165.

The Ancient Practice of Bloodletting in Archaeology

The Ancient Practice of Bloodletting in Archaeology Bloodlettingpurposefully cutting the human body to release bloodis an ancient ritual, associated with both healing and sacrifice. Bloodletting was a regular form of medical treatment for ancient Greeks, with its benefits debated by scholars such as Hippocrates and Galen. Bloodletting in Central America Bloodletting or auto-sacrifice was a cultural trait of most of the societies in Mesoamerica, beginning with the Olmec perhaps as early as 1200 AD. This type of religious sacrifice involved a person using a sharp instrument such as an agave spine or sharks tooth to pierce a fleshy part of his own body. The resulting blood would drip onto a lump of copal incense or piece of cloth or bark paper, and then those materials would be burned. According to historical records of the Zapotec , Mixtec, and Maya, burning blood was one way to communicate with the sky gods. Artifacts associated with bloodletting include sharks teeth, maguey thorns, stingray spines, and obsidian blades. Specialized elite materialsobsidian eccentrics, greenstone picks, and spoonsare thought to have been used for elite bloodletting sacrifices in the  Formative period and later cultures. Bloodletting Spoons A so-called bloodletting spoon is a type of artifact discovered on many Olmec archaeological sites. Although there is some variety, the spoons generally have a flattened tail or blade, with a thickened end. The thick part has a shallow off-center bowl on one side and a second, smaller bowl on the other side. Spoons usually have a small hole pierced through them, and in Olmec art are often depicted as hanging from peoples clothing or ears. Bloodletting spoons have been recovered from Chalcatzingo, Chacsinkin, and Chichà ©n Itz; the images are found carved in murals and on stone sculptures at San Lorenzo, Cascajal, and Loma del Zapote. Olmec Spoon Functions The real function of the Olmec spoon has long been debated. Theyre called bloodletting spoons because originally scholars believed them to have been for holding blood from auto-sacrifice, the ritual of personal bloodletting. Some scholars still prefer that interpretation, but others have suggested spoons were for holding paints, or for use as snuffing platforms for taking hallucinogens, or even that they were effigies of the Big Dipper constellation. In a recent article in Ancient Mesoamerica, Billie J. A. Follensbee suggests Olmec spoons were part of a hitherto unrecognized toolkit for textile production. Her argument is in part based on the shape of the tool, which approximates bone weaving battens recognized in several Central American cultures, including some from Olmec sites. Follansbee also identifies several other tools made of elite greenstone or obsidian, such as spindle whorls, picks, and plaques, that could have been used in weaving or cord-making techniques. Sources Follensbee, Billie J. A. 2008. Fiber technology and weaving in formative-period Gulf Coast cultures. Ancient Mesoamerica 19:87-110. Marcus, Joyce. 2002. Blood and Bloodletting. Pp 81-82 in Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster, eds. Garland Publishing, Inc. New York. Fitzsimmons, James L., Andrew Scherer, Stephen D. Houston, and Hector L. Escobedo 2003 Guardian of the Acropolis: The Sacred Space of a Royal Burial at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity 14(4):449-468.

Gender Differences in Preschool Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Gender Differences in Preschool - Essay Example The third type of attention, non-specific positive interactions, refers to any miscellaneous attention given to a student that does not neatly fit into the other categories, which includes encouragement and compliments among other types on interactions. The fourth type of attention, praise, refers to when the teacher verbally points out when a student in engaged in a favorable behavior. The last type of attention, command, refers to any verbal interaction initiated by the teacher which directs the child's behavior in a certain way. Command does not include verbal interactions in the context of discipline. Child misbehavior was also observed and noted. Dobbs, Arnold, and Doctoroff found that teachers do treat boys and girls differently in regards to attention. They found that while there was no difference in the amount of physical warmth and praise that teachers gave to boys when compared to girls, there were differences in the other types of attention. Teachers tended to command boys more than girls, while they also tended to reward and engage in non-specific positive interactions with girls more than boys. There may be some explanation for these findings. First, while boys received more commands from teachers, they were also observed to misbehave more often than girls. It was observed that teachers gave more commands to students who typically misbehaved, even when they were not misbehaving. A possible explanation may be that the teacher is trying to prevent future misbehavior. If this is true, then behavior is in fact the mitigating factor in commands, and not gender. The difference noticed in the frequency of rewards given... This essay stresses that the difference noticed in the frequency of rewards given to boys in comparison to girls may also be contributed somewhat to misbehavior. It was found that while girls receive rewards more often than boys, girls who misbehaved received rewards more often than girls who did not misbehave. At the same time, boys who misbehaved received rewards more often than boys who did not misbehave, although this was still less than girls who did not misbehave. A possible explanation may be that teachers use rewards for acceptable behavior in order to wean children off of misbehaving. This explanation does not completely account for the observations, since non-misbehaving girls still received more rewards than misbehaving boys. At best, misbehavior can be used in conjunction with gender to explain this observation. This paper makes a conclusion that teachers tend to touch children of the same sex as themselves more often that different sex children. There may be many factors at play here, such as the teacher feels more comfortable touching children of the same sex, or that the teacher can relate to children of the same sex more readily. At the same time, it was found that male teachers tended to use a helpful touch far more often with girls than any of the other touching types, whereas female teachers did not favor one type of touch over another. A possible explanation for this may be that the male teachers are operating on the stereotype that females are dependent on males, and therefore need more help than males do.

Overview of Qualitative Research Study-Terence Essay

Overview of Qualitative Research Study-Terence - Essay Example This research method answers the how and why of decision making. It goes further than quantitative research method which only answers the where, what, and when? This paper aims at dissecting qualitative research to gain an understanding on the characteristics of the research design and to know when and where it is appropriate for use. A sample size refers to a subset of a population that gets selected for a given study. Sample size is a vital aspect of any research study. It provides for a basis from which inferences about a population can be determined. It refers to the number of observation used to calculate or determine the characteristics of a given population (Barbour, 2013). When undertaking sample size determination for qualitative studies, it is vital to know that there are no fixed or fast rules. However, it is important to give at least two considerations when coming up with the sample size. The first consideration should be how large does the sample need to be to enable the identification of consistent patterns. The sample size should be large enough to leave the researcher with nothing left to learn or no emergent trend. The second consideration should be how large the sample should be to provide a reflection of the target population. The sample size must be large enough to help assess an appropriate amount of diversity represented across the target population. Under qualitative studies, the researcher may estimate the sample size base on his or her data collection methods or the approach of their study. For example when undertaking a case study approach in a qualitative study, the researcher selects one case or one person. Another example can be when using focus group discussions as a data collection method. The researcher gets to create groups that average 5-10 people each (Silverman, 2013). The researcher also has to consider the number of focus groups that will be

Taxation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Taxation - Assignment Example Whether someone is employed or self employed depends upon the terms and conditions of relevant engagement. The tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) rules do, however have special rules that apply to certain special categories of workers in certain circumstances. If you work for someone else it is important to know whether you are working for that person in employed capacity or in a self- employed capacity as an independent contractor.† (HMRC)ii Self employed taxpayers have the advantage of claiming wide range of expenses against the receipts of self employment services. â€Å"The decision to become self employed can also be affected by tax system.†(David G Blanch flower and Chris Shad forth)iii There is also an advantage of payment of income tax by instalments as against taxes being withheld by the employer under the PAYE scheme. It becomes extremely difficult in many cases to distinguish between self employment status and employee status of a tax payer. Whene ver any taxpayer is working on part time basis with more than one entity it is always the desire of HMRC to consider the tax payer under the employee status. This is because of easy and quick collection of taxes and NI under PAYE scheme on an income where only limited range of expenses can be claimed and thus providing higher amount of taxes. In fact these are the nature of activities of the taxpayer that decide the status of the tax payer. If there exists a contract of services then it is easy to consider taxpayer as an employee of the entity with whom the contract has been executed to render the services. But when such contracts exist for more than one entity the taxpayer would be treated as self employed rendering services to a number of entities. What will happen when there is no such contract? Under such conditions the issue is decided on basis of certain criteria. The main criteria are control over the performance of activities, fixidity of payment of remuneration even when th e entity is not earning, ownership of equipments used by the taxpayer during the performance of the duties, and exclusivity of providing services to one entity among other considerations. In our case Sam is now providing services exclusively to West London Company, and that is why HMRC wants tax him under the status of an employee and not under the status of as a self employed person. When you are not your own master and control of your activities and the performance is guided by the person providing you the remuneration, the status of the taxpayer is treated as an employee of the person providing him/ her the remuneration. â€Å"You are responsible for your own taxes and NI contributions† (Directgov)iv In the case of Sam his activities are now completely controlled by West London Company. Company is providing a fixed monthly remuneration of ?7500 even though he is operating from home. At the same time company is also providing him access to a desk, telephone, computer, and a lso stationery in the office. No reimbursement of expenses is allowed under the arrangement as the remuneration is fixed at ?7500 per month. There is exclusivity as Sam is also not providing services to any other entity or client. It should be noted that employment income is taxed on the basis of receipt of remuneration and not on accrual or earned basis which is applied when the taxpayer’

Tanglewood Stores case study Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tanglewood Stores case study - Term Paper Example the representation of women and minorities in various job categories of the company in view of the affirmative action plan that the company has undertaken. Staffing in the organisation takes into account both the number and quality of people who are recruited, moved within the firm and finally retained in the firm that are moving in and out (Mc Grow Hill Higher Education, â€Å"Staffing Organisations†). Historical data as presented in the transition probability matrix throws light on the forecast of HR availabilities. It has been found that the immediate labour supply for the company is the labour working within the organisation. It can be achieved with the help of internal labour market. According to the Markov analysis, it is seen that the company has used the method of internal promotions in order to fill up certain posts. Such phenomena are more common in positions like department manager, assistant store managers and also store managers. According to estimates, 16% of the shift leaders in the organisation would be promoted to the post of department manager. 6% of the department managers are expected to be promoted to the po sition of assistant store managers. 8% of the store managers are expected to be promoted to the position of store managers. However, estimates also predict that apart from these, there will be extensive requirement for workforce which can only be supplemented by labours from outside the organisation. Hence, there is plenty of scope for external recruitment and hiring. This is mainly because of the fact that only 52 to 66 percent of the employees remain in the same position for a single year. However, the company is expected to recruit new employees because tremendous unemployment prevails in the labour market, despite the fact that increase in the number of managerial and professional jobs will somewhat reduce the number of jobseekers for managerial position in the company. The work strategies in the organisation are extremely streamlined

Pinocchio and the Liar Liar Movies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pinocchio and the Liar Liar Movies - Essay Example Fletcher spends ample time with his son and the ex-wife though every promise he makes to the son, Max, happens without being fulfilled. This portrays the theme of dishonesty, in this movie. Fletcher has adopted the habit of giving superiority to his job while giving false statements on his declining nature to take good care of his son after his divorce with the wife. This research paper compares and contrasts the Pinocchio and Liar Liar movies in relation to their dishonesty thematic settings. One of the significant themes that are portrayed, in these films, is dishonesty. Both Pinocchio and Liar Liar movies portray their characters to be of an ever-lying nature thus making these movies inappropriate for children without parental guidance. Lastly, this paper explores the thematic differences in these two movies and their impacts on the viewers. Pinocchio’s kidnapping, being caged and threats for destructions leave him with no option, but to lie in order to be rescued in any ca se his parents refuse to turn up. The Liar Liar movie, on the other hand, portrays Fletcher as an ever-lying parent who even misses his son’s fifth birthday party. The son makes an ironical wish that, on his fifth birthday party, his father would not lie for the whole day. The father finally turned him down by not attending the birthday party. Pinocchio and Fletcher seem to have neglected their parenting responsibility by leaving the whole upbringing aspect of the socialization process to the mothers. This is evident in Fletcher and Audrey case where they even got divorced as a result of his irresponsible character. In the Pinocchio movie, Pinocchio’s friend, Lampwick, introduced him to cigar smoking, but he denies it. He is dishonest of the drug abuse they carry out together, and when their parents find this out, they are severely punished. The punishment should be carried out in the dishonest cases especially to bring back the norms into the existence within the dish onest individuals. This becomes one of the reasons why Lampwick and Pinocchio are punished for them to comply with social norms. Morality, in these two movies, becomes the key point of view in dishonesty as a thematic setting in both films. Gambling and smoking are the order of the day between Pinocchio, Lampwick and the other boys they find on their way to Geppetto’s house. This brings closely the relationship between dishonesty and morality in the Pinocchio dismay pictures (Pinocchio). These characters, in addition, get drunk and vandalized Jiminy’s dismay because of deviance and dishonest behaviors, which are exhibited by Pinocchio and his friends. This is due to the lack of rules and authority to deter them from these dishonest behaviors. In the Liar Liar movie, on the other hand, moral issues are as well pictured where Fletcher indulges in the extramarital sex before and even after he divorced his wife (Liar Liar). Fletcher is immoral, and he finally confesses thi s through a series of embarrassing moments. He says to his wife that he just had better sex with Miranda, his boss than he did with her, which makes him unable to tell a lie (Liar Liar).  

SWOT Analysis. Advantages and limitations Essay

SWOT Analysis. Advantages and limitations - Essay Example Strengths are the qualities that enable one to achieve the organization’s assignment. Strengths are the beneficial aspects of the organization or the ability of an organization that includes human capabilities, financial resources, products and services. Weaknesses are the qualities that prevent an organization from achieving its goals. Opportunities are the essentials that the organization can adventure to its advantage. They are presented by the environment which an organization is based. Threats are the elements that cause problems for an organization. A threat occurs when an external environment endangers the ability of an organization to maximize profit (Pahl et al, 2009). Strength and weaknesses of the organization There is various strength I exposed in this organization. We have a good management approaches and corporate polices in the organization management system that enables good management process, we own a clinical research center. It is a center of excellence that runs clinical research, we have a highly skilled clinical staff that attends to patients with dignity and courteousness, we have local aids that are willing to participate in the running of the organization, we have a history of a successful open day proceedings with the community that surrounds us, the clinic has a philosophy of honesty, commitment and sharing to increasing patient self-assurance and the patients’ involvement in matters related to the services.... some surgeries and procedures are still too difficult to perform at the organization, for example, complex neuro surgeries which mean that patients have to be referred to a more advanced hospital. Poor location or geographic barriers are another weakness. We have a weakness in getting the potential patients nearby. Due to many specialist hospitals nearby that try to capture same area patients’ sources, the competition is aggressive Opportunity and threats for the external environment factors: Opportunity: Technological- better and advanced medical technology includes a wide variety of healthcare products. This intends to improve the quality of healthcare. Political- change in governmental politics. This can influence the service in that when the government introduces services that are of low tax and insurance products that favor the public this will enable many to run for the opportunities instead of avoiding medical facility due to low affordability rate. Competitive- due to Competitor vulnerabilities we will be able to excel in their areas of weakness thus improve the output level. Regulatory- this can be depicted through lowering of taxes by the government. This will enable the public access the organization products and services with ease. Social- in the social perspective, the population is expected to grow by 2015, the healthcare sector is expected continue to grow. Older age population will increase the demand for healthcare services. The country’s healthcare expenditure is predictable to grow from the current 3% of GDP to 6% of GDP by 2015. With the rising household income and improved life quality, the organization may benefit by capture this business segment opportunities. Economic- the organization can expand to other locations to serve more population

Pinocchio and the Liar Liar Movies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pinocchio and the Liar Liar Movies - Essay Example Fletcher spends ample time with his son and the ex-wife though every promise he makes to the son, Max, happens without being fulfilled. This portrays the theme of dishonesty, in this movie. Fletcher has adopted the habit of giving superiority to his job while giving false statements on his declining nature to take good care of his son after his divorce with the wife. This research paper compares and contrasts the Pinocchio and Liar Liar movies in relation to their dishonesty thematic settings. One of the significant themes that are portrayed, in these films, is dishonesty. Both Pinocchio and Liar Liar movies portray their characters to be of an ever-lying nature thus making these movies inappropriate for children without parental guidance. Lastly, this paper explores the thematic differences in these two movies and their impacts on the viewers. Pinocchio’s kidnapping, being caged and threats for destructions leave him with no option, but to lie in order to be rescued in any ca se his parents refuse to turn up. The Liar Liar movie, on the other hand, portrays Fletcher as an ever-lying parent who even misses his son’s fifth birthday party. The son makes an ironical wish that, on his fifth birthday party, his father would not lie for the whole day. The father finally turned him down by not attending the birthday party. Pinocchio and Fletcher seem to have neglected their parenting responsibility by leaving the whole upbringing aspect of the socialization process to the mothers. This is evident in Fletcher and Audrey case where they even got divorced as a result of his irresponsible character. In the Pinocchio movie, Pinocchio’s friend, Lampwick, introduced him to cigar smoking, but he denies it. He is dishonest of the drug abuse they carry out together, and when their parents find this out, they are severely punished. The punishment should be carried out in the dishonest cases especially to bring back the norms into the existence within the dish onest individuals. This becomes one of the reasons why Lampwick and Pinocchio are punished for them to comply with social norms. Morality, in these two movies, becomes the key point of view in dishonesty as a thematic setting in both films. Gambling and smoking are the order of the day between Pinocchio, Lampwick and the other boys they find on their way to Geppetto’s house. This brings closely the relationship between dishonesty and morality in the Pinocchio dismay pictures (Pinocchio). These characters, in addition, get drunk and vandalized Jiminy’s dismay because of deviance and dishonest behaviors, which are exhibited by Pinocchio and his friends. This is due to the lack of rules and authority to deter them from these dishonest behaviors. In the Liar Liar movie, on the other hand, moral issues are as well pictured where Fletcher indulges in the extramarital sex before and even after he divorced his wife (Liar Liar). Fletcher is immoral, and he finally confesses thi s through a series of embarrassing moments. He says to his wife that he just had better sex with Miranda, his boss than he did with her, which makes him unable to tell a lie (Liar Liar).  

ACC557 †Financial Accounting Essay Example for Free

ACC557 – Financial Accounting Essay 1. Analyze each company’s history, product/services, major customers, major suppliers, and leadership and provide a synopsis of each company. The Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) vs. PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP ) war is one of the greatest rivalries in corporate history, just like Apple vs. Microsoft. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the two most popular and widely recognized beverage brands in the world. They have been competing in the soft drink sector for over a century and both companies enjoy a high degree of brand consciousness globally. Both companies try to market as part of a lifestyle. At the same time, these two soda giants are among the most popular and respected dividend growth companies in the market, so lets take a look at the Coke vs. Pepsi debate from an investors perspective. Coca-Cola uses phrases such as â€Å"Coke side of life† in their website, while Pepsi uses phrases such as â€Å"Hot stuff† in their web, to promote the idea that Pepsi is â€Å"in sync† with the cool side of life. Ironically, both Pepsi and Coke have similar beginnings: both were created in the 19th century and both were the results of the experimental work of innovative pharmacists. Coke was created in 1886 by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton while Pepsi was developed in 1898 by North Carolina pharmacist and drugstore owner, Caleb Bradham. The history of Pepsi began with a man named Caleb Davis Bradham. He was born in Chinquapin, North Carolina on May 27, 1867. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, around 1890. After returning to North Carolina, Mr. Bradham taught public school for about a year, and later opened a drug store on the corner of Middle and Pollock Streets in downtown New Bern. In 1902, Bradham launched the Pepsi-Cola Company in the back room of his pharmacy and on December 24, 1902 the Pepsi-Cola Company was incorporated in the state of North Carolina. The business began to grow, and on June 16, 1903,  Pepsi-Cola was officially registered with the U.S. Patent Office. In 1910 there were 250 Pepsi-Cola franchises in 24 states and in January of that year the Pepsi Cola Company held their first Bottler Convention in New Bern. In 1926, Pepsi received its first logo redesign since the original design of 1905. In 1929, the logo was changed again. In 1931, at the depth of the Great Depression, the Pepsi-Cola Company entered bankruptcy. Assets were sold and Roy C. Megargel bought the Pepsi trademark. Megargel was unsuccessful, and soon Pepsis assets were purchased by Charles Guth, the President of Loft, Inc. Today PepsiCo, Inc. (PepsiCo) is a global food and beverage company. Through the Companys bottlers, contract manufacturers and other partners, the Company makes, markets, sells and distributes a range of foods and beverages in more than 200 countries and territories. PepsiCo is organized into four business units: PepsiCo Americas Foods (PAF), which includes Frito-Lay North America (FLNA), Quaker Foods North America (QFNA) and all of its Latin American food and snack businesses (LAF); PepsiCo Americas Beverages (PAB), which includes all of its North American and Latin American beverage businesses; PepsiCo Europe, which includes all beverage, food and snack businesses in Europe and South Africa, and PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA), which includes all beverage, food and snack businesses in AMEA, excluding South Africa. In 2011 the company had revenues of $66.504 billion and a net income of $6.462 billion. The company has around 29700 employees worldwide. PepsiCo is also listed on the NYSE and is also a part of the Dow Jones Industrial composite. Pepsi Co’s current chief executive is Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi who has been at the helm since 2006. The history of Coca-Cola began with Col. John Pemberton. He was wounded in the Civil War, became addicted to morphine, and began a quest to find a substitute to the dangerous opiate. The prototype Coca-Cola recipe was formulated at Pembertons Eagle Drug and Chemical House, a drugstore in Columbus, Georgia, originally as a coca wine. In 1885, Pemberton registered his French Wine Coca nerve tonic. In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a nonalcoholic version of French Wine Coca. By 1888, three versions of Coca-Cola – sold by three separate businesses – were on the market. A co-partnership had been formed on January 14, 1888 between Pemberton and four Atlanta businessmen: J.C. Mayfield, A.O. Murphey; C.O.  Mullahy and E.H. Bloodworth. Charley Pembertons record of control over the Coca-Cola name was the underlying factor that allowed for him to participate as a major shareholder in the March 1888 Coca-Cola Company incorporation filing made in his fathers place. More so for Candler especially, Charleys position holding exclusive control over the Coca Cola name continued to be a thorn in his side. Today The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation headquartered in Atlanta Georgia. It is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola. The Company owns or licenses and markets more than 500 nonalcoholic beverage brands, primarily sparkling beverages but also a variety of still beverages, such as waters, enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and energy and sports drinks. It owns and markets a range of nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands, which includes Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. The Companys segments include Eurasia and Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, Pacific, Bottling Investments and Corporate. In January 2013, Sacramento Coca-Cola Bottling Company announced that it had been acquired by the Company. Effective February 22, 2013, Coca-Cola Co acquired interest in Fresh Trading Ltd. In November 2013, Coca-Cola Company and ZICO Beverages LLC announced that Coca-Cola has acquired the ownership interest in ZICO. The company offers more than 500 brands in over 200 countries and serves over 1.7 billion servings per day. The company’s stock is listed on the NYSE and it is a part of the DJIA, SP index and the Russell 1000 index. The company had revenues of $48.01 billion in the year 2012 and a net income of $9.01 billion. Coca-Cola has a total asset base of $86.17 billion and 146,200 employees worldwide. Pepsi and Coca-Cola customers include authorized bottlers and independent distributors, including foodservice distributors and retailers. Both companies normally grant their bottlers exclusive contracts to sell and manufacture certain beverage products bearing the respective trademarks within a specific geographic area. These arrangements provide both companies with the right to charge their bottlers for concentrate, finished goods and bottled water (Aquafina Dasani) royalties and specify the manufacturing process required for product quality (Wyatt, 2012). Since The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo do not sell directly  to the consumer, they both rely on and provide financial incentives to their distributors to assist in the distribution and promotion of their respective products. For the independent distributors and retailers, these incentives include volume-based rebates, product placement fees, promotions and displays. For their bottlers, these incentives are referred to as bottler funding and are negotiated annually with each bottler to support a variety of trade and consumer programs, such as consumer incentives, advertising support, new product support, and vending and cooler equipment placement. Consumer incentives include coupons, pricing discounts and promotions, and other promotional offe rs. New product support includes targeted consumer and retailer incentives and direct marketplace support, such as point-of-purchase materials, product placement fees, media and advertising. Pepsi supplies its concentrates to restaurants that they have contracts with. Another market segment that Pepsi targets are grade schools, colleges and universities. PepsiCo main suppliers include; Sandora, Sadochok and Toma juice brands which supply Pepsi’s concentrate, while G.D Searle and company supplies PepsiCo with NutraSweet for PepsiCo diet soft drinks. Ball Metal Beverage Packaging produces Pepsi’s aluminum cans. Amcor produces PETS for Pepsi. It also manufactures plastic bottles for Gatorade (Wyatts, 2012). PepsiCo products generate approximately $108 billion in cumulative annual retail sales. Here are PepsiCo products which had revenues of over $1 billion as of 2009; Pepsi cola, Mountain Dew, Lays, Gatorade, Tropicana, 7up, Doritos, Lipton teas, Quaker foods, Cheetos, Miranda , Ruffles, Aquafina, Pepsi max, Tostitos, Sierra mist, Fritos and Walker’s. PepsiCo foods generated 63% of the net worldwide revenues while 37% of the revenue came from beverages in 2012. Pepsi brand generated the most revenues with about $20 billion in revenues, followed by mountain dew with around $12 billion, the others followed in the order they are listed in above with Walker’s potato chips being the last of the 21 brands listed above. PepsiCo distributes its own product in parts of Europe while it uses contract manufacturers in other areas (PepsiCo, 2013). The main target markets for PepsiCo include the age group 14-30 which has always been the main target market for Pepsi. Historically, Pepsi has always targeted teens with heavy advertising, teen-oriented ads. Coca-Cola customers include large international chains of retailers and restaurants and small independent  businesses. Coca-Cola works with them equally to create mutual benefit. Together with their bottling partners, they serve their customers through account management teams, providing services and support tailored to their needs. Coca-Cola’s suppliers offer different services from packaging, information technology services, bottles and package labeling. The Coca-Cola Company’s main suppliers include; Alcan packaging which offers plastic bottle labels, Alcoa plastic caps, and Cannon provides steam boilers, water treatment systems and plastic products. EDS provides information technology services to Coca- cola for its operation in Latin America. Coca-Cola purchases syrups and concentrates from TCCC and other licensors to manufacture products. They also purchase their raw materials, other than concentrates, syrups, mineral waters, and sweeteners, from multiple suppliers. The beverage agreements with TCCC provide that all authorized containers, closures, cases, cartons and other packages, and labels for the products of TCCC must be purchased from manufacturers approved by TCCC. Leadership at PepsiCo Indra Nooyi is the CEO of Pepsi she describes her leadership style as â€Å"Performance with Purpose,† a mantra that has become central to the PepsiCo journey over these past seven years. Nooyi has chronicled five leadership lessons that together form the roadmap for global leaders in the 21st century (Snyder, 2013). 1. Balance the short-term and long-term. Today’s leaders are, all too often, driven only by short-term quarterly results, yielding decisions that are counterproductive for the longer-term health of the organization and society. Effective leaders must strike a balance. 2. Develop a deep understanding of public/private partnerships. Nooyi points out that many private sector leaders treat the public sector (NGOs, governments) as the enemy—and vice versa. † She believes that NGO leaders do their jobs as a â€Å"labor of love.†Ã‚  Treating them with respect and understanding, as opposed to distain and condescension can go a long way (Snyder, 2013). 3. Think global, act local. Nooyi argues this is not an outdated clichà ©, but instead, sounds advice that can yield innovative, out-of-the box solutions. She showed part of a nine-minute commercial video, produced for the 2012 Chinese New Year. 4. Keep an open mind to adapt to changes. The art of asking probing questions to facilitate dialog and exploration. All-too-often, leaders close their minds to dissent, cutting off much needed debate. To lead in an ever-changing world, Nooyi  says, leaders must adapt and stay nimble (Snyder, 2013). 5. Lead with your head and your heart. Leaders must develop deep emotional intelligence, and bring â€Å"their whole selves to work every day.† They must continually remind themselves that everyone who works for them is a unique human being and seek to strengthen this human connection and bond. Leadership at Coca-Cola is expected from the CEO Muhtar Kent. He runs his company by being an entrepreneur and focusing on cash. He calls his leadership philosophy constructively discontent. (Bhasin, 2012). – According to Kent his preferred description of his leadership – means Its all about an entrepreneurial mentality. Injecting entrepreneurial religion involves getting Cokes 146,000 employees to think like owners. â€Å"People need to feel like they are chasing pennies down the hallway.† Its about the respect for cash,† Kent told Sellers. His devotion to that manifests itself in many ways. For instance: And at Coke, managers have to pay $15 a month if they want to use their cellphones for personal calls (and yes, that rule applies to the CEO too). When you dont see cash, all sorts of things go wrong, he told Sellers. You overspend as an individual and overspend as a company. Kent suggests that people need to be connected with the cash impact of choices and decisions in order to make rational choices. 2. Based on the stock price for the timeline listed below, present a graph that illustrates the stock price of each company. Indicate conclusions that can be drawn based on the trend: a. The day of its initial public offering b. January 1, 2012 c. January 1, 2011 d. January 1, 2010 PepsiCo’s initial public offering was $23 a share in 1999. Coca-Cola’s initial public offering was in 1919, by a consortium of businessmen led by Ernest Woodruff, Robert W. Woodruffs father, purchased The Coca-Cola Company for $25 million. The business was re-incorporated as a Delaware Corporation and its stock was put on public sale on the New York Stock Exchange, with common stock at $40 per share, and preferred stock at $100 per share. The chart below shows the changes in the stock prices of the organization from January 1, 2010, January 1, 2011 and January 1, 2012. While PepsiCo has outgrown Coca-Cola in terms of revenue over the last five years, Coke is doing better than its rival when it comes to earnings-per-share growth over the same period. Coke has considerably higher profit margins than Pepsi, in the area of 21.8% at the op Even if both companies have seen decreasing margins due to bottler acquisitions over the last years, Cokes dominance in drinks seems to provide an advantage when it comes to margins on sales. As incomes rise, so does health awareness. But does any of this actually matter to Coke and Pepsi shareholders? Pricing here is complicated. Coke may have the most valuable brand in the world, and Pepsi’s brands are also quite valuable. It is the value of these brands that allows the stocks to trade at premiums to the market even while their basic products are seeing weak demand. 3. Research and summarize at least two (2) news events (this may include mergers, acquisitions, or political issues) that occurred from 2010 to the present day and the potential impact on the stock price of each company. Indicate how this influences your investment decision related to the company. Events that occurred in 2013 and the potential impact to be on the stock price for both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. A New York Times article, published October 1st 2013 by Keith Bradsher, expressed concern about land grabs related to the sugar industry and the companies that supplied from it. The advocacy group Oxfam has accused three big international food companies of buying sugar from what they described as a plantation that had unfairly taken land from farmers in Cambodia and Brazil without proper compensation (Bradsher, 2013). Oxfam, called on the food and beverage companies to disclose more about the sources of their sugar supplies. It contended in a report that sugar, soybeans and palm oi l were the three crops producing the fiercest competition for land by large, often foreign, investors. The group’s report assailed three companies by name: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Associated British Foods. Coca-Cola stated that it asked suppliers â€Å"to recognize and safeguard the rights of communities and traditional peoples to maintain access to land and natural resources. According to† Amanda Rosseter, a company spokeswoman, Coca-Cola does not buy sugar directly from farms but from larger suppliers. These purchases have included buying from Tate Lyle Sugars, which in turn has bought limited quantities from Cambodia, but Tate Lyle Sugars has already said that it has no further plans to buy from Cambodia. PepsiCo stated in a  statement that it also paid attention to social responsibility issues in its contracting. The company added that it had â€Å"reached out to the suppliers; they have assured us they are in compliance with applicable laws.† How will it impact the stock price of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo being associated with the idea of taking land away from indigenous poor people so they have access to cheap sources of sugar? In another New York Times article published December 12th 2013 by Stephanie Strom, PepsiCo sealed an unusual deal that goes far beyond the soda wars, PepsiCo is expected to announce soon that it is unseating Coca-Cola as the beverage supplier to one of the nation’s hottest restaurant chains, Buffalo Wild Wings (Strom, 2013). The deal, which will start with the introduction of Pepsi, Mountain Dew and other drink brands in 2014, is the biggest sign so far of how PepsiCo is deploying its thriving snacks business and Quaker, which it also owns, to offset declines in its traditional soda business. â€Å"But what this partnership does is give Buffalo Wild Wings a full access pass to all that PepsiCo has to offer.† And the deal also allows Buffalo Wild Wings to capitalize on PepsiCo’s relationships with major sports organizations like the National Football League and Major League Baseball. 4. Provide an overall financial analysis for each company that highlights the key characteristics for investment and how this may impact an investor’s decision. While PepsiCo has outgrown Coca-Cola in terms of revenue over the last five years, Coke is doing better than its rival when it comes to earnings-per-share growth over the same period. Coke has considerably higher profit margins than Pepsi, in the area of 21.8% at the operating level for the soda giant versus 14.3% for the salty snacks leader. Even if both companies have seen decreasing margins due to bottler acquisitions over the last years, Cokes dominance in drinks seems to provide an advantage when it comes to margins on sales. Coca-Cola has also done better than PepsiCo in terms of reducing share count via stock buybacks; the company has reduced the amount of shares outstanding by 4.6% over the last five years while Pepsi has not managed to reduce its share count by more than 1.3% over that period. On the other hand, the trend could be reversing in the middle term as Pepsis buyback program for 2013 will likely have a bigger impact on shareholders returns. As of the third quarter of 2013 Coke had spent $2.8  billion in stock buybacks during the first nine months of the year, and the company is planning to end 2013 with a repurchase of between $3.0 billion and $3.5 billion for the full year. Pepsi is planning to end 2013 with nearly $3 billion in buybacks. Even if Coke repurchases $3.5 billion during the year, that would represent roughly 2% of the companys $174.8 billion market cap. While Pepsis buyback would still be smaller in absolute terms, $3 billion would account for a slightly higher 2.3% of the co mpanys market value around $130.1 billion. Cokes buyback program has been bigger in recent years, but the company may be losing that advantage over PepsiCo in 2013, so its hard to tell which company will return more capital to shareholders via repurchases in the coming years. 5. Based on your review of the financial data for each company, indicate the accuracy and reliability of the data for making investment decision. Provide support for your conclusion. When the ratios of the two companies are compared, Coca Cola has a higher return on asset ratio, a higher dividend yield and a higher dividend growth rate over the last five years. Coca Cola also has a higher P/E ratio but PepsiCo has a higher EPS compared to Coca Cola. From the above information I would advise an investor to buy Coca Cola stock as compared to PepsiCo. My recommendation is based on expected earnings from the stock in terms of dividends and dividend yield, return on assets and the P/E ratio. A higher return on assets shows that a company is utilizing its assets effectively and efficiently in generating earnings. A higher P/E ratio also shows that the investors expect more earnings from the stock. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are Dividend Aristocrats, meaning they have been able to increase dividends over the last 25 consecutive years. Coke has an amazing track record of 51 consecutive dividend increases in a row, while Pepsi has a smaller but still impressive trajectory of 41 consecutive dividend increases. When it comes to dividend growth, however, Coke has a better trajectory than Pepsi over the long term, and the company also delivered a bigger increase for 2013 with a 10% hike versus Pepsis 6% dividend rise for the year. 6. Recommend which company you consider as the better investment for your client and how you will present your recommendation. Support your recommendation with data from your analysis. Recommendations for Investment In order to make an investment in a particular organization, it is necessary for the investors to make sure  that, the investors consider certain key things. The points to be considered by the investors include earning per share, net income and trend in movement of the price of the security of the organization (Pogue, 2010). The price of the stock of the organization Coca Cola Company is $37.67 whereas; the price of stock of PepsiCo is $70.27. This shows that, PepsiCo has a better stock price in comparison to Coca Cola. The earnings per share of PepsiCo is $3.76 whereas, the earnings per share of Coca Cola Company is $1.91. PepsiCo has net income of $6443000 whereas; Coca Cola Company has net income of $8572000. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have earned their rights to be among the most popular dividend growth names in the market due to their rock-solid competitive strengths and time-tested dividend growth trajectories. However, Coke has been able to deliver superior dividend growth over the last few years thanks to its higher profitability and earnings growth rates. Valuations are very similar so, for the same price of a Pepsi, Im having a Coke. Therefore, from this, one can make a conclusion on the expected future earnings and capital gains. The information deducted from the ratios presented above show that Coca Cola is the best buy. This therefore, shows that before buying a stock there is a rigorous exercise that must be undertaken to gather financial information and from that deduct the effect that information will have on the stock prices. (Cardenal, 2013). References 1. Bhasin, Kim (2012). Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent Explains Why Everythings All About Cash. Retrieved on March 14, 2014 http://www.businessinsider.com/coca-cola-ceo-muhtar-kents-leadership-philosophy-2012-5 2. Bradsher, Keith (2013). Worried About Land Grabs, Group Presses 3 Corporations to Disclose Sugar Purchases. Retrieved on March 12, 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/business/3-corporations-pressed-to-disclose-data-on-sugar-purchases.html?ref=pepsicoinc_r=0 3. Cardenal, Andres (2013) Better Buy: Coca-Cola vs. PepsiCo. Retrieved on March 12, 2014 http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/06/better-buy-coca-cola-vs-pepsico.aspx 4. -Cola (2013). Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved on March 12, 2014 investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/financials/ratios.asp? 5. â€Å"History of Pepsi vs. Coke Rivalry at Rivals4Ever†. Rivals4ever.com.