Pepsi Co Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pepsi Co - Essay Example The sales of the company have reached $30.4 billion according to estimates made in 2010. The intense competition in the market has led the company to take effective and strong measures to improve their financial standing as well as market reputation throughout the world. This is the reason that Pepsi initiates several promotion programs throughout the world every year. They have also reached the whole world to increase their market capacity so that they win the ‘sale-race’ against their mainstream competitor Coca-Cola. The marketing promotions and programs have led the Pepsi Cola Inc to become one of the top competitors of Coca-Cola. Their competitor has although a large market share, but still Pepsi is keep emerging into the market as the mainstream beverages company. The total net revenue of the company in the end of 2010 was $57,838 million, which were quite lesser than the revenue generated by Coca-Cola Inc in the end of 2010. According to the current balance sheet prepared by the company officials in 2011, Pepsi has current assets of $17,834,000 thousands, which is also quite lesser than that of Coca-Cola but the different of assets has decreased compared to the data recorded 5 years ago, and that shows the company growing its business and excelling its competitors. Whereas, the total assets owned by the company are more, i.e. $75,378,000 thousands. The total liability of the company is $51,801,000, whereas total equity of the company is $23,577,000. And the total liabilities and equities of the company is $75,378,000 thousands. Compared to the soft drink sales in 2010 of Coca-Cola’s 1590 million cases, Pepsi was only able to sale 892 million cases, which means that Coca-Cola was able to make more than around 40% of more profit than that of Pepsi. The company’s gross profit margin in 2011 records was 57%. Their current ratio is 1, and cash per share is %1.97. Their cash flow per share is

Reconstruction Writing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Reconstruction Writing - Assignment Example Notably, President Lincoln wanted people to forgive one another and the defeated states to rejoin the Union immediately (â€Å"Houghton Mifflin Company† 1). Conversely, the Radical Republicans in Congress sought to change the South and protect the rights of African Americans (â€Å"Houghton Mifflin Company† 1). Ideally, the United States Congress passed four statutes known as Reconstruction Acts after the civil war, which sought to support Reconstruction by creating five military districts in the South (â€Å"Houghton Mifflin Company† 1). Most specifically, President Lincoln assumed that the defeated states did not seceded from the Union and hence should suffer any punishment. Nevertheless, the Congress opposed his plan. Indeed, when Lincoln died, his successor, President Johnson adopted Lincoln’s plan to the dismay of the Congress. In the reconstruction plan, President Johnson pardoned all Southerners under oath and recognized the governments of defeated states (â€Å"Houghton Mifflin Company† 1). Indeed, by the end of 1865, only one Southern state lacked a new government and suffered from slavery. Nevertheless, the results of the mid-term elections in 1866 eliminated the Presidential Reconstruction and instituted the Congressional Reconstruction as the Radical Republicans gained dominant control in both houses. ... The Congress Reconstruction plan included the establishment of a Freedmen's Bureau to help freed slaves, enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to protect the freed slaves from black codes, passing the 14th Amendment to protect the Civil Rights Act, and passing the Passage of Reconstruction Acts to bar defeated states from rejoining the Union. More specifically, the Reconstruction plan guaranteed universal manhood suffrage, mandated public school systems, and established progressive tax structures. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution sought to help in the implementation of the Reconstruction plan after the Civil war. The amendments empowered the national government over the states where the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery, Fourteenth Amendment gave blacks full citizenship, and The Fifteenth Amendment recognized the right of African American men to vote (â€Å"Houghton Mifflin Company† 1). Nevertheless, Pre sident Andrew Johnson attempted to veto Congress Reconstruction plans where the Congress had curtailed his powers through the Tenure of Office Act. However, President Andrew Johnson violated the restraining act, which propelled the Congress to impeach him (â€Å"Digital History† 1). Personally, the Congress Reconstruction plan is seemingly the best plan subject to its encouraging results. Indeed, under the Congress Reconstruction plan, black and white people were able to access public schools, homestead exemptions, and there was equal distribution of public resources (â€Å"Prentice Hall† 1). Furthermore, although President Johnson’s plan was significant in appointing military governors to

Online Learning vs Face-to-Face Learning

Online Learning vs Face-to-Face Learning Have you ever seen an advertisement on television that promotes acquiring a degree online? The advertisements make it sound easy and convenient to get a two-year, or even a four-year degree, for little of nothing, in a short amount of time, and big-time businesses will be begging you to work for them. However, is acquiring a degree online better than sitting in a classroom with a real-life professor? Do you receive more of a quality education in a classroom, face-to-face, or behind a computer screen? Face-to-Face learning is better than online learning because of the interactions and examples of face to face learning will benefit the learner the most. One of the most beneficial means of physically being in a classroom is the response time that a person receives from an actual person, such as a professor, versus an online class instructor. During face to face learning, a persons questions will get an immediate answer whereas online learning means waiting for a response. Studies show that immediate and efficient feedback response time is crucial to effective learning. In a classroom environment, you may also have the advantage of working in small groups where you can collaborate on difficult topics and receive immediate feedback from you peer groups as well. Sometimes, discussing issues or problems with your instructor in person is a lot easier than typing it out or trying to explain it in face-time online. Efficient and effective constructive feedback is imperative to proper learning environments, such as what a person would receive in an actual classroom. Attending classes in person also creates a disciplined, structured student. In todays society, it is crucial that students become more structured by attending scheduled classes. By abiding by a class schedule, this trains the student for real world situations, such as being on-time for a job interview or important business meetings. The online environment is usually more flexible as far as time constraints. A person does not have attend class at a specific time and can do household chores, take care of a baby, etc. Many people may see this as an advantage. (Lim, Doo Hun, Michael L. Morris). However, this is actually a disadvantage because it creates a carefree, lazy, and distractive environment. This type of climate cannot possibly properly prepare a person for a job, profession, or career. The online classroom is at an extreme disadvantage when trying to properly prepare a student for a structured, business-type atmosphere. One of the best ways to make new friends and meet new people by socially interacting with them is in the classroom. Meeting new people is a great way to sharpen your social skills and where else better can a person do that but in the classroom. Socializing with others is a perfect way to make future job connections, acquire new friends, maybe meet your soulmate. Online learning depletes a person of these socializing opportunities. It even impairs them further. Socializing face-to-face is becoming a trait that is harder to find in employers today. With increased amounts of text messages, social media sites, and other less invasive ways of interacting with other people, employers are struggling to find employees that know how to interact face-to-face effectively. They are a dying breed as we speak. Collaborating with others offers several more benefits for a student to be successful in the real world instead of spending time behind a monitor at home. A great way to learn how to interact with a superior is by being a student in an actual classroom environment. By interacting with your professor, this prepares a student how to effectively talk, respond, and work for a superior. Personalities sometimes do not mesh, they may even clash, but by learning how to deal with other personalities, this develops a more well-rounded individual socially speaking. Trial and error in how you respond and/or get responses gets students ready for real world problems, such as how to properly talk to your boss, how to handle difficult situations with co-workers, maybe even how to settle differences with your spouse. (Smith, Nigel V). By learning how to answer to a superior, even though it may be a professor or professors assistant, interacting with different types of people as your superior trains a student to become a more successful individual later in life. The classroom also offers several opportunities for a student to learn kinesthetically, whereas the online classroom fails the student in this area. Online learning obviously offers opportunities for visual learning, but it does not offer much else. The classroom offers so much more, such as hands-on trainings, visual and hearing enhanced learning, and other kinesthetic, or physical means, of acquiring information. By incorporating different learning styles, the success rate of learning highly increases. This creates a more successful learning environment for everyone. The online learning experience is very limited in capturing different learning styles and ultimately fails the student. The online classroom actually offers more opportunities to become distracted and stray away from better learning versus the physical classroom. Since the traditional way of learning has always been in a classroom, many people think that students become more distracted in this type of environment. (Bowen, William G., et al). However, the opposite is true. By doing online learning from home, office, or in a public venue, students are increasingly more distracted by other people, family members, and cell phones. Many classrooms limit students to being on their phones or laptops, therefore, decreasing the amount of distractions. Online learning actually increases the amount of distractions because most people access their online classrooms from home, their office or place of work, or in a public place such as a coffee shop. People with conditions such as ADHD or other learning disabilities are at even more of a disadvantage for a successful online learning experience. Finally, not everyone is equipped with fast-connecting internet, wifi, or has data plans that support the online learning environment. Many people live in rural areas where high-speed internet service or wifi is not available. Data plans and internet plans can be expensive, so people that are on a strict budget tend to stray away from costly internet and phone data plans. Sometimes internet connections can be interrupted by bad weather and can cause problems with your online learning experience. You may even lose your work if there is a power outage or your internet connection is interrupted. If you have a deadline, this could be a very bad situation. Face-to-face learning in an actual classroom is proven to be the better alternative when it comes to being a student. Despite our ever increasing use of technology, online learning fails to prepare a well-rounded student that is prepared for the real world. By increasing social interactions, becoming more structured in your schedule, and learning how to interact with authority figures, students are far more successful in their careers by accessing the traditional classroom option. However, as more and more online learning opportunities increase, face-to-face learning may fade away forever. Work Cited Bowen, William G., et al. Online learning in higher education: randomized trial compares hybrid learning to traditional course. Education Next, vol. 13, no. 2, 2013, p. 58+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A323351286/OVIC?u=j020902xid=b03e0583. Accessed 7 Feb. 2017. Lim, Doo Hun, Michael L. Morris, and Virginia W. Kupritz. Online Vs. Blended Learning: Differences In Instructional Outcomes And Learner Satisfaction. Journal Of Asynchronous Learning Networks 11.2 (2007): 27-42. ERIC. Web. 6 Feb. 2017. Smith, Nigel V. Face-To-Face Vs. Blended Learning: Effects On Secondary Students Perceptions And Performance. Procedia Social And Behavioral Sciences 89.2nd Cyprus International Conference on Educational Research (CY-ICER 2013) (2013): 79-83. ScienceDirect. Web. 6 Feb. 2017. Yang, Yan, et al. College Student Effort Expenditure In Online Versus Face-To-Face Courses: The Role Of Gender, Team Learning Orientation, And Sense Of Classroom Community. Journal Of Advanced Academics 22.4 (2011): 619-638. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Feb. 2017.

the war scare :: essays research papers

The War Scare  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It has been said that the United States is just like the Roman Empire. We started off small, became a great power, and hit a high point in life, all of which have happened to the United States. Now, in the twenty-first century, we are putting ourselves in places and positions that many believe that we do not belong in. For Example, in the country of Afghanistan, we have â€Å"worn out our welcome†. We went over there, set up American businesses, and basically took over their business flow. We have been asked nicely to leave, been told to leave, and finally threatened, but we did not take it seriously enough. Well, our decisions have come back to haunt us. Now, we face the fate of the great Roman Empire. Falling to our knees and being crushed, or at least bumped down below a world power.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On September eleventh, two thousand and one, our world was smacked in the face and pushed to its knees. The United States has reason to believe that a known terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, organized the high-jacking of four transcontinental flights, and told them to crash into both the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and the White House. At eight o-clock, Central Time, the first plane hit one of the World Trade Center towers, and five minutes later, the other tower was hit. Millions stood and watched the buildings burn, and eventually fall. Our head for all military operations, the Pentagon, was crashed into, and the whole West Side was destroyed. The last flight crashed harmlessly into a field in Pennsylvania, thanks to the people who sacrificed their lives to save others. The world was getting back on its feet, the damage was being picked up, and the United States was living up to its name for once. However, it was not over yet, for a plague had begun to sp read across our land. Letters that had been filled with anthrax were being sent to senators, heads of major companies, and other high positioned people in the U.S. The first case of anthrax that was fatal happened in North Carolina while the victim was sitting by a stream. It was believed that the deadly spores could not leak out of the sealed envelope, and if they did, it would not be in large enough numbers to harm anyone, especially postal workers. When the first case died of inhalation anthrax, the government was jumping all over it, and then two postal workers died of inhalation anthrax because they just handled the mail that had anthrax spores in them.

Hector Beverages

Marks, Manna, Jamming Kola Kathy, Oakum, Googolplex aka Pain, Mil aka Amman and Clearer, was launched last year with the theme of home made Indian healthy drinks/ Hector Beverages Pet. Ltd. , is a disruptive entrant to the industry with the aim to change this. Priced at RSI 30 for a mall pack, thanks to its innovative packaging and low overheads, the drink is trying to create a space for itself with the customers of different category. As of now, Distribution channel for selling paperboard is direct sales in MAT market and Distributor model in GET market. So, there is no particular distribution channel for Samos. The broad objective of the Short term project Hector Beverages Pet. Ltd. Is to suggest different segments of retail stores where paper boat's presence can be created to increase its sales.The major objectives of this project were 1) As a new beverage company known for wide product portfolio Hector gave the task of Segmentation of retail channels in the Oneida region of NCR a nd developing a go-to market strategy for increasing penetration in this area. 2) Developing database of different stand-alone modern trade stores , traditional read stores and other outlets in Oneida 3) Analyses of various areas of Oneida and its stores 4) During the course of the project covered 80+ outlets in Oneida and recommended 30 outlets along with appropriate the sales promotions strategy. For this we started with the process of segmentation of the stores on the basis of various parameters.The first one being the target group , and we defined the target group based in the interviews we had with the retailers and customers in the Oneida region. Target group : Based on our interviews with the retailers in Oneida region we cached a basic sketch of the typical customers of paper boat in this region. Age: 17 College goers and first Jobbers , people who like to try new beverages and flavors. These people are more health conscious than soda guzzling consumers. One reason is the fa ct that they are out everyday and mostly consume at least one beverage outside the house, either with a meal or Just hanging out with friends over conversation. Hence, these people also look for variety as they are tired of having the same flavors overtime.The most preferred flavors that unanimously all retailers aid sold the most were Am Rasa , Am pain and Clearer. Segmentation : on the basis of presence of target Audience in the vicinity. 1) Perfect Fit – Places where the entire customer base fits into the target group of paper boat. These places have a lot of potential to help increase sales tremendously. College canteens – ASS College , Jayvee college , ABBES college Amity Office cafeterias – -arcs , park , Barclay These stores are visited daily by the same customers and the frequency with which these customers buy beverages is very high, almost one everyday. Hence , these are he best places to reach to our target group.Not only should these places be tapped and paper boat's presence should be made paper boat can be placed and since the customers visit everyday they are likely to try new flavors and get hooked to them ultimately. Sales in these places will ultimately results into popularizing the flavors through word of mouth and customers will start eventually buying paper boar not Just for themselves but to take back home , for family and friends. 2) Almost there – Places where at least 70 percent of the customer base fits into the target group. These are places not inside the institutes and offices but around them. The retail store that most of the college shops from outside , the street snack store that every one goes to once in a while.This would include at least 40 street vendors outside offices park , Barclay in areas like sec 62, 63,58 . 3) Will get there – Places where at least 50% of the customer base fits into the target group. These include both retail stores and eateries . Eateries and coffee shops like those in Oneida , Apparatus and sec 25 which offer a wide variety of food and and the customers usually like it to be accompanied with a average. Matthias shops which serve light snacks like Samos and other Indian variants of it , also fall in the same category. So do the bakeries . All these places , along with the food do sell some beverages and their sales are huge. Paper boat should benefit highly from being present in these places.Another category here are the retails stores in the areas which are frequented by our target group like the ones in B block market of sector 62 , TOT mall , Sector 25 market. Also kiosks on the metro stations – cafe buddy come under the same category. 4) Get in the house This refers to the Modern trade stores. This is not for our target group specifically , this is the route to get into customers home and achieve a status of being on the shopper's list. Big bazaar in sec 18 , Spencer and easy day would all fall in this category. Segmentation : on th e basis of sales This will help us Judge the potential a particular place/segment has to increase the sales of paperboard. To get the Judgment right we have categorized stores into three stores.To understand the potential that the store might have paperboard we have marked the stores on the basis if the sales of coco cola since that is one beverage each one of Hess stores stocked and no other beverage was uniformly present in all the stores. Total coco cola sales will help us understand the amount of sales that can be generated for a beverage in these stores and paper boor needs presence in these stores to take a share of those sales . On these basis we have distributed the stores in to three categories 1) High 2) Medium 3) Low The names are self explanatory and depend entirely on the sales volume of coca cola from these stores. All stores are marked on the high medium low scales in the excel , so please refer to the excel to get a better understanding of the individual store status .

The Alltel Pavilion Case: Strategy and Cvp Analysis

ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING EDUCATION Vol. 19, No. 4 November 2004 pp. 555–561 The ALLTEL Pavilion Case: Strategy and CVP Analysis Edward Blocher and Kung H. Chen ABSTRACT: The ALLTEL Pavilion case is intended for the undergraduate management accounting or cost accounting course and the M. B. A. management accounting course. It provides an excellent context in which to examine strategic issues in using cost volume profit (CVP) in a service business.Based on an actual entertainment pavilion, the case develops many factors unique to a service business and illustrates how pavilion management can use CVP analysis to determine which artists to attract and what kinds of contracts to have with these performers. The Pavilion has two types of customers (paying ticket holders and free ticket holders) and earns profits from three types of revenues (ticket revenues, concession revenues, and parking fees).The case requires you to identify the best strategy for different types of artists, conduct cost-volume-profit analyses, consider the strategic issues related to operating leverage and how this affects the choice of performer and contract, and assess pricing strategies. O ne day in early November, Pam Berg, Manager of the ALLTEL Pavilion, was reviewing the operating results for the year just completed in preparation for the executive board meeting the following Friday. While the year ended in the black, she was disappointed that the ALLTEL Pavilion failed to earn the budgeted profit goal.This was the second year since Ms. Berg assumed the manager’s position at the ALLTEL Pavilion. After the somewhat disappointing first year, she was determined to exceed the budgeted profit in the coming year. While not all events developed exactly as expected at the time of preparing the budget for the year, there were no major surprises during the year. Yet, the operating results are below the budgeted goal. In addition, Pam was frustrated by the lack of clear guidelines for contra ct negotiations with artists, for setting ticket prices, and in dealing with unexpected low ticket sales for certain concerts.THE ALLTEL PAVILION FOR LIVE ENTERTAINMENT The ALLTEL Pavilion in Raleigh, North Carolina (http://www. alltelpavilion. com/) is an outdoor amphitheater that provides live concerts to the public from April through October each year, hosting as many as half a million patrons a year. The seven-month season usually hosts an average of 40 concerts, and 12 year-round staff plan and manage each season. SFX Entertainment Inc. (http://sfxyes. liveonline. net/) operates the pavilion. SFX is one of the largest diversified promoters, producers, and venue operators for live entertainment events in the United States.It has 71 venues either directly owned or operated under lease or exclusive booking arrangements in 29 of the top 50 U. S. markets, including 14 amphitheaters or pavilions in 9 of the top 10 markets. Edward Blocher is a Professor at The University of North Caro lina at Chapel Hill, and Kung H. Chen is a Professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. 555 556 Blocher and Chen ALLTEL Pavilion wants to be the nightlife for the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC) and eastern North Carolina, and one of the most beautiful, technologically advanced, and successful amphitheaters in the world.It features the most modern state-of-the-art acoustics and video of any facility of its kind. In the last few years, ALLTEL Pavilion staged shows by the Dave Matthews Band, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Toby Keith, Santana, Tim McGraw, Aerosmith, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, and many other national, regional, and local artists. The Pavilion claims, â€Å"There isn’t a bad seat in the house. Whether you choose to spread a blanket on our gently sloping festival lawn or select a reserved seat in our pavilion seating area, you are guaranteed a great view of the action on the stage† (ALLTEL Pavilion website).Exhibit 1 shows the stage and seating of the amphitheater. History/Development The city of Raleigh and Pace Entertainment Company of Houston, Texas jointly built the ALLTEL Pavilion in 1991. Pace Entertainment and Cellar Door Inc. of Raleigh, NC had the initial contract to manage the Pavilion. Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc. of Rocky Mount, NC, the original sponsor of the amphitheater, paid an annual fee to carry its name and logo on all signs and ads regarding the amphitheater. On February 3, 1999 ALLTEL Corp (http://tel. com) became the title sponsor for the amphitheater.The demand for the outdoor facility came about because the rapidly growing city of Raleigh lacked a major entertainment complex. In the late 1980s Pace Entertainment and the city of Raleigh came to an agreement to build the facility. The city of Raleigh would own the land while Pace Entertainment would own the facility and assume sole operations of the facility; Cellar Door would do the booking for all the concerts. Pace Entertainment would pay income taxes on earnings from the use of the facility. In 1998, SFX Entertainment Inc. acquired Pace Entertainment Inc.The amphitheater facility and its employees became part of SFX Entertainment Inc. Also, in 1999 SFX Entertainment Inc. acquired Cellar Door Inc. and merged with Clear Channel Communications Inc. , one of the largest owners of radio stations in the country. This move brought together both worlds of the entertainment business. While the company has diverse holdings, the philosophy of SFX is â€Å"One Company, One Mission. † Many companies that are now owned by SFX were at one time bitter rivals in the concertpromoting business. These companies now maintain good working relationships within SFX.A key goal for SFX is for the net operating income of each of its holdings, including the ALLTEL Pavilion, to grow 5 percent each year. The Pavilion competes with the RBC Center (http://www. rbccenter. com) at North Carolina State University in Raleigh (NCSU), the De an Smith Activities Center (http://tarheelblue. ocsn. com/genrel/ 092301aad. html) at The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC (UNC), and the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Charlotte, NC (http://www. verizonwirelessamphitheater. com/charlotte/), among others.In contrast to the facilities at NCSU and UNC that offer only indoor events, the Pavilion offers outdoor as well as sheltered seating for its events. Marketing, Operations, and Accounting When the marketing department plans a promotion for an upcoming event, it coordinates with the sales department to see if there is a conflict in sponsorship. Marketing also coordinates with the operations department to effectively manage the activities on show days. Finally, the budget of each department (sales, marketing, and operations) is reviewed by the accounting department, which provides overall financial anagement of the project. Bringing Concerts to Reality A concert becomes reality in many steps. First, a group or perform er with an interest in performing at ALLTEL will discuss with Cellar Door, Inc. and the Pavilion the possibility of performing at Issues in Accounting Education, November 2004 The ALLTEL Pavilion Case: Strategy and CVP Analysis 557 the Pavilion, and look at the open dates. Upon reaching an agreement, Cellar Door, on behalf of the Pavilion, signs a contract with the booking agent for the performer.A time is specified for gate openings, and once the gate is opened the show is underway. The job of the staff during a concert is to make sure every customer of the ALLTEL Pavilion has a pleasant experience and that the mission of the company is clearly seen by everyone that â€Å"a concert †¦ it’s better live. † Clean Sweep Inc. of Raleigh handles the cleanup after a show. Key Business Issues Marketing has an important role in the success of the ALLTEL Pavilion, but marketing expenditures are carefully watched. For every show, the marketing budget is limited to $20,000.F or many shows it is difficult to stay within the budget, since the Pavilion serves a five-market region consisting of Raleigh-Durham, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Greensboro, and the Carolina Coast. Most of the marketing budget is spent on advertising with radio, TV, and print media in the designated regions. Prior to developing advertising plans, the marketing staff analyzes ticket sales geographically over the five-market region. It is important to know the demographics of the five regions and compare them with the profile for each performer. The more ALLTEL Pavilion can know about the fans, the more they know where to spend the $20,000.SFX develops measures of performance and profitability for each advertising media, by region. This type of analysis is important to the ALLTEL Pavilion because increased ticket sales, through effective advertising, not only affect ticket revenues, but also revenues from parking, merchandise, and concessions. It is also important because of the increas ed cost of advertising. The advertising rates in the Raleigh-Durham region are comparable to the rates in Washington, D. C. The rates are up 200 percent over the last five years, while the budgets per show are only up 15 percent over this time.The cost of the performing artist has also increased dramatically. The average fee for an artist is approximately $160,000. Some artists are paid on a fixed-fee basis, while others are paid on a per capita basis. Generally, the most popular artists seek a per capita contract because they are confident of a high level of attendance. In contrast, the artist paid a fixed-fee is guaranteed the same fee whether 100 or 20,000 people attend (the capacity of the Pavilion is approximately 20,000 attendance). On average, the total number of paid tickets per fixed-fee concert is 7,000.The role of marketing and advertising is especially important for fixed-fee shows. One method the Pavilion uses in addition to advertising is to distribute â€Å"comp† tickets (comp tickets are free tickets distributed throughout the community) to build interest in the Pavilion that will later be realized in paying customers. Comp customers also bring in revenue for parking, concessions, and merchandise sales. In a fixed-fee concert, the number of comp tickets is approximately 25 percent of the number of paying tickets, while a per capita show has no more than 2. 5 percent.Because of the increasing cost of the performing artists, ALLTEL Pavilion tries to reduce nonartist costs. Nonartist costs at ALLTEL Pavilion include expenses for sales, marketing, parking, security, concessions, and merchandise. Since assuming the manager position, Pam has developed several avenues to reduce nonartist costs and/or increase revenues and profits, including reducing expenses, having the parking service pass out flyers for upcoming events, trading â€Å"comp† tickets for online spots in the radio industry, and giving local businesses tickets in exchange f or advertising on their premises.Revenues, Costs, and Flash Report for the KFBS Allstars Concert Exhibit 2 is a mock flash report for an illustrative fixed-fee show, the KFBS Allstars. A flash report is a projection of costs and revenues for a scheduled concert. The guarantee/talent cost ($160,635) is the amount the KFBS Allstars are guaranteed for the show. Projected sales is the number of projected paying ticket holders, while the â€Å"drop count† is total attendance, including both Issues in Accounting Education, November 2004 558 Blocher and Chen paid and comp tickets.Setting ticket price is often done together with the performer, taking into consideration SFX’s national and regional pricing policies, prices of comparable venues, and the Pavilion’s desired profit for the concert. Pam uses the flash report to plan potential concerts and to evaluate the success of concerts already presented. The report shows the variety of revenues and costs for a concert, an d the projected profit for the concert. The flash report projects total revenues including ticket sales, parking, food, and merchandise based on per capita (drop count) rates.Ticket sales are in four ticket categories: A seats and B seats are regular price tickets for the reserved and lawn seating sections respectively; C and D seats are promotional (discount) price tickets for reserved and lawn seating, respectively. Other revenues include per capita facility charges paid by the sponsoring corporation for naming rights (based on paid ticket holders) and a per capita service charge paid by the performer for food, transportation, and other services. Not included are the annual lease payments for VIP seats at $10,000 per year.Patrons to the VIP seats also have to pay the ticket price of A-level seats. Reserved and lawn seating areas are shown in Exhibit 1. The parking, food concession, and merchandise operations are outsourced to other service providers, so the direct costs for parkin g, merchandise and concessions are determined based on contracts with the service providers that include both a percentage (10 percent) of applicable revenues and a fixed fee. Operating expenses include an allocation of the total of fixed production and operations costs for the season, the advertising expenses for the KFBS Allstars event, and other variable expenses.These are then added to the direct costs for concessions, merchandise, parking, and insurance to determine total operating expenses. REQUIRED How would you describe the competitive strategy of the ALLTEL Pavilion? Given the firm’s strategy, what are the critical success factors for the Pavilion to achieve its goal of continuous annual growth in operating income? 2. Complete two selected cost-volume-profit analyses for the show illustrated in Exhibit 2, the KFBS Allstars: a) How many tickets must the ALLTEL Pavilion sell to break even? ) How many tickets must ALLTEL sell to earn $30,000 operating income after taxes , assuming a 40 percent tax rate? 3. What should be the average ticket price for the KFBS concert if the fixed-pay fee is $200,000 and the Pavilion expects to sell 7,000 tickets and wants to earn $30,000 after 40 percent in taxes? 4. Negotiating the fee for the KFBS Allstars: fixed-pay or per capita contracts? a) What is the maximum fixed fee that the Pavilion can pay the KFBS Allstars if the Pavilion wants to earn $45,000 after 40 percent tax and expects the show to have an average ticket price of $22. 12?Assume the show is expected to draw 6,000 paying ticket holders. b) What is the maximum fixed fee that the Pavilion can pay the KFBS Allstars if the Pavilion wants to earn $45,000 after 40 percent tax and expects the show to have an average ticket price of $22. 12? Assume, including 25 percent comp tickets, the show is expected to be a sell-out. c) Independent of (a) and (b), what is the maximum per capita fee that the Pavilion can pay the KFBS Allstars, whose concert is expected to be a sellout, if the Pavilion wants to earn $180,000 after 40 percent tax from an average ticket price of $22. 2 per ticket? 5. What role does CVP analysis and operating leverage play in contract negotiations with different types of performers (fixed-fee or per capita)? 1. Issues in Accounting Education, November 2004 The ALLTEL Pavilion Case: Strategy and CVP Analysis 559 EXHIBIT 1 ALLTEL Pavilion Stage and Seating The Pavilion can accommodate 20,000 fans with 7,000 reserved seats directly in front of the stage (covered seating in sections 1 through 9 and VIP seating) and another 13,000 on the spacious lawn. It has 78 theater-style VIP boxes that can accommodate 4, 6, or 8 people.In addition to positioning for prime viewing, patrons in VIP boxes also enjoy amenities such as wait staff service at their seats, personalized parking, and exclusive membership to the VIP Bar & Grill. Directly in front of sections 4, 5, 8, and 9 is seating with an elevated floor that provides excellent views of the stage for patrons with disabilities and additional seating for the hearing or visually impaired. Lawn Seating Reserved, Covered Seating Issues in Accounting Education, November 2004 560 Blocher and Chen EXHIBIT 2 Flash Report for the KFBS Allstars ConcertARTIST NAME ACTIVITY/EVENT NUMBER EVENT MONTH EVENT DATE Projected Sales (Number of Seats) A Seats B Seats C Seats D Seats TOTAL Number of Seats Projected Ticket Price A Seats B Seats C Seats D Seats PROJECTED NET AFTER TAX ADMISSIONS AVG TIX PRICE NET OF TAX PER PAYING PATRON TALENT % GUARANTEE/TALENT COSTS NUMBER OF PERFORMANCES DROP COUNT (includes comp tickets) Other Ticket-Related Revenue FACILITY CHARGE Per capita SERVICE CHARGE Per capita REVENUE FROM TICKETING Per capita ANCILLARY REVENUES PARKING Per capita FOOD CONCESSION Per capita MERCHANDISE Per capita RENTALS REVENUE FROM ANCILLARIES Per capita TOTAL REVENUE Per capita The KFBS Allstars 10310001 7 7/31/04 2,778 2,845 1,747 881 8,251 $36. 29 $22. 22 $11. 3 1 $ 4. 92 $182,479 $22. 12 88. 03% $160,635 1 10,349 $24,010 $2. 91 $16,172 $1. 96 $222,673 $26. 99 $19,767 $1. 91 $79,273 $7. 66 $36,428 $3. 52 $0. 00 $135,468 $13. 09 $358,141 $34. 61 (continued on next page) Issues in Accounting Education, November 2004 The ALLTEL Pavilion Case: Strategy and CVP Analysis 561EXHIBIT 2 (continued) Other Direct Costs PARKING CONTRACT CONCESSION CONTRACT MERCHANDISE CONTRACT TOTAL DIRECT COSTS Per capita PERCENT OF SALES TOTAL REVENUE (from above) TOTAL DIRECT COSTS (from above) GROSS PROFIT Operating Expenses TOTAL PRODUCTION EXPENSE TOTAL OPERATIONS EXPENSE TOTAL OTHER VAR. EXPENSE TOTAL ADVERTISING EXPENSE TOTAL OPERATING EXP Per capita PERCENT OF SALES OPERATING INCOME Per capita PERCENT OF SALES Detail: Other Concert Variable Expense Insurance Expense per person COGS—Concession per person COGS—Merchandise Inventory per person COGS—Parking per person Other Variable Concert Expense per person TOTAL OTHER VARIABLE EXPENSE $0. 1 7 $0. 35 $1. 12 $0. 08 $0. 02 $14,323 $4,448 $43,356 $17,826 $226,265 $21. 86 63. 2% $358,141 $226,265 $131,876 $15,506 $14,991 $14,323 $20,030 $64,850 $6. 27 18. 1% $67,026 $6. 48 18. 7% Issues in Accounting Education, November 2004

History and Facts About Alcatraz Prison

History and Facts About Alcatraz Prison Once considered the prison of American prisons, the island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay has been an asset to the U.S. Army, the federal prison system, jailhouse folklore, and the historical evolution of the West Coast. Despite its reputation as a cold and unforgiving penitentiary, Alcatraz is now one of the most prominent tourist magnets in San Francisco. In 1775, Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala chartered what is now San Francisco Bay. He called the 22-acre rocky island La Isla de los Alcatraces, meaning Island of the Pelicans. With no vegetation or habitation, Alcatraz was little more than a desolate islet occupied by the occasional swarm of birds. Under the English-speaking influence, the name Alcatraces became Alcatraz. Fort Alcatraz Alcatraz was reserved for military use under President Millard Fillmore in 1850. Meanwhile, the discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada Mountains brought growth and prosperity to San Francisco. The lure of the Gold Rush demanded the protection of California as gold seekers flooded the San Francisco Bay. In response, the U.S. Army built a fortress on the rocky face of Alcatraz. They made plans to install more than 100 cannons, making Alcatraz the most heavily armed entity on the West Coast. The first functional lighthouse on the West Coast was built on Alcatraz Island as well. Once fully equipped with weaponry in 1859, the island was deemed Fort Alcatraz. Having never fired its own weapons in combat, Fort Alcatraz quickly evolved from an island of defense to an island of detention. In the early 1860s, civilians arrested for treason during the Civil War were housed on the island. With the influx of prisoners, additional living quarters were built to house 500 men. Alcatraz as a jail would continue for 100 years. Throughout history, the average population of the island hovered between 200 and 300 people, never at maximum capacity. The Rock After the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906, inmates from nearby prisons were transferred to the infallible Alcatraz. Over the next five years, prisoners built a new jail, designated Pacific Branch, U.S. Military Prison, Alcatraz Island. Popularly known as The Rock, Alcatraz served as an army disciplinary barracks until 1933. Prisoners were educated and received military and vocational training here. Alcatraz of the early 20th century was a minimum-security prison. Prisoners spent their days working and learning. Some were even employed as babysitters for the families of prison officers. They eventually built a baseball field and inmates fashioned their own baseball uniforms. Boxing matches among inmates known as â€Å"Alcatraz Fights† were hosted on Friday nights. Prison life played a role in the changing landscape of the island. The military transported soil to Alcatraz from nearby Angel Island, and many prisoners were trained as gardeners. They planted roses, bluegrass, poppies, and lilies. Under the order of the U.S. Army, Alcatraz was a fairly mild institution and its accommodations were favorable. The geographic location of Alcatraz was the undoing of U.S. Army occupation. Importing food and supplies to the island was much too expensive. The Great Depression of the 1930s forced the army off the island, and the prisoners were transferred to institutes in Kansas and New Jersey. Uncle Sam’s Devil’s Island Alcatraz was obtained by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1934. The former military detention center became America’s first maximum-security civilian penitentiary. This â€Å"prison system’s prison† was specifically designed to house the most horrendous prisoners, the troublemakers that other federal prisons could not successfully detain. Its isolated location made it ideal for the exile of hardened criminals, and a strict daily routine taught inmates to follow prison rule and regulation. The Great Depression witnessed some of the most heinous criminal activity in modern American history, and Alcatraz’s severity was well suited to its time. Alcatraz was home to notorious criminals including Al â€Å"Scarface† Capone, who was convicted of tax evasion and spent five years on the island. Alvin â€Å"Creepy† Karpis, the FBI’s first â€Å"Public Enemy,† was a 28-year resident of Alcatraz. The most famous prisoner was Alaskan murderer Robert â€Å"Birdman† Stroud, who spent 17 years on Alcatraz. Over its 29 years of operation, the federal prison housed more than 1,500 convicts. Daily life in the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was harsh. Prisoners were given four rights. They included medical attention, shelter, food, and clothing. Recreational activities and family visits had to be earned through hard work. Punishments for bad behavior included hard labor, wearing a 12-pound ball and chain, and lock-downs where prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, restricted to bread and water. There was a total of 14 escape attempts by over 30 prisoners. Most were caught, several were shot, and a few were swallowed by the chilling swells of the San Francisco Bay. Why Did Alcatraz Close? The prison on Alcatraz Island was expensive to operate, as all supplies had to be brought in by boat. The island had no source of fresh water, and almost one million gallons were shipped in each week. Building a high-security prison elsewhere was more affordable for the Federal Government, and as of 1963 â€Å"Uncle Sam’s Devil’s Island† was no more. Today, the equivalent of the infamous federal prison on Alcatraz Island is a maximum-security institution in Florence, Colorado. It is nicknamed â€Å"Alcatraz of the Rockies†. Tourism Alcatraz Island became a national park in 1972 and is considered part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Open to the public in 1973, Alcatraz sees more than one million visitors from across the globe each year. Alcatraz is best known as a maximum-security prison. Media attention and fantastic stories have exaggerated this image. The San Francisco Bay islet has been much more than this. Alcatraz as a mass of rock named for its birds, an American fort during the Gold Rush, an army barracks, and tourist attraction may be less enticing but allude to a more dynamic existence. It is one to be embraced by San Francisco and California as a whole.

Financial Implication on Health Care Reform Essays

Financial Implication on Health Care Reform Essays Financial Implication on Health Care Reform Paper Financial Implication on Health Care Reform Paper When President Barack Obama entered the white house, he made reform of the American health care system, making it his top domestic priority. United States of America spends nearly twice the amount of average developed countries but record of healthcare is dismal. Infant mortality is higher, life expectancy is lower than other countries, plus the negative health statistics that shows Americans to be twice as likely to be obese. Here is the current healthcare coverage situation in the United States. Employers provide their employees with healthcare and insurance coverage. Others sign up for insurance scheme. Under most plans, people are required to pay part of the cost (deductible) and this varies according to their plan. Some employers stopped offering insurance to employees due to the high cost. : A writer of the BBC News states that one problem America is facing on healthcare today is the cost. America spends 16.2% of GDP nearly twice the average of other countries in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Another issue is coverage where in it is estimated that in 2008 46.3 million people in America, out of a population of 300 million, were uninsured. There were also millions of Americans who were considered â€Å"under-insured† (2010). US declares half of personal bankruptcies as the result of medical expenses paid by someone without insurance or with inadequate cover when they fall ill. This is because these people are obligated to pay their medical expenses out of their own pocket. The US government has been spending more and more on Medicare and Medicaid and this is one of the biggest contributing factors to the spiraling US budget deficit. On March 21, 2010, the House of Representatives passed the biggest reform of health care in the country for 40 years (BBC News, 2010). This will provide healthcare for 30 million uninsured Americans. According to the CBS News Capitol Hill Producers, it would cost $940 billion over ten years. It will expand its coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans. This will take coverage across the country to 95 percent. Its main provision is to make health insurance almost mandatory, with exceptions to the low-income people. This will prevent insurers to deny coverage to people who have pre-existing medical conditions. This will also reduce the price of drugs available to the public (Cairns, 2010). The changes, Obama said, would help reduce the federal deficit by $100bn over the next 10 years, by dealing with misuse, fraud and abuse. Individuals and families who have income between the 133 percent and 400 percent of poverty level would be able to purchase insurance through state-based exchanges with subsidies. They are not eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, or be covered by their employers, though. CBS News laid the plans of the Healthcare reform bill. Starting in 2012, the Medicare Payroll Tax will be extended to include unearned income (2010).   Insurance companies will pay 50% excise tax on high-end insurance plans in 2018. There will also be 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services. Medicaid will also be expanded to include 133 percent of federal poverty level. This reform will help establish health standard boards wherein there will be an annual health budget for the nation to limit both public and private expenses. There will also be a clear out on billing fraud and eliminate incentives that encourage abuse. Government spending on Medicare and Medicaid is sustainable with the health care reform. The cost will increase from 6% to 15% of GDP by 2040 (Amadeo, K., 2010). Drug price gouging would also be stopped. Health care reform will bring down prescription drug prices. It will eliminate tax breaks for drug companies that raise their prices fast. It will also discourage drug companies from expending more on marketing than on research and development (Luce, G. and Dutton, T., 1993). The new bill suggests increase in the economic well-being of about two-thirds of a percent of GDP per year. This is visible when taking into consideration the comparison of the total benefits of coverage to the uninsured and the total cost of insuring them (whitehouse.gov, n.d.). Decent health care insurance will be affordable to Americans with creditable efforts to control the health care inflation rate. There is no guarantee yet that this new policy will produce this degree of change, the benefits of having successful reform would be very important to Americans: individuals, businesses, and the economy itself. References: David Cairns. (2010). Obamacare Briefing: What US Health Reform Means. The First Post.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved July 9, 2010, from thefirstpost.co.uk/61246,news-comment,news-  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   politics,obamas-triumph-what-us-healthcare-reform-bill-means-obamacare. Jackson, J. and Nolen, J. (2010). CBS New Politics. Health Care Reform Bill Summary: A Look   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At Whats in the Bill. Retrieved July 9, 2010, from cbsnews.com/8301-  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   503544_162-20000846-503544.html Luce, G. and Dutton, T. (1993). Healthcare Reform: Models and Implications. Retrieved July 9,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2010, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3257/is_n3_v47/ai_14122723/. Romulo, B. D. (2010).   There will be healthcare reform in the US. Manila Bulletin. Retrieved   Ã‚   July 9, 2010, from mb.com.ph/articles/236920/there-will-be-healthcare-  Ã‚   reform-us. The Economic Case for Health Care Reform. (n.d.).   Retrieved July 9, 2010, from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/TheEconomicCaseforHealthCareRefo  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   rm/ QA: US Healthcare Reform. (2010). One-Minute World News. Retrieved July 9, 2010, from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8160058.stm.

Cheating Essay

Cheating Essay There are many problems in the world everywhere we go. Businesses, school, homes. There is a big problem in schools, especially high school. Cheating Essay is a big problem for teachers and a headache to have to watch out for. Teens have figures that it is okay to cheat because everyone does it. Dishonesty has become a big factor in today society, and this effects everyone in some way. Cheating effects everyone in some way. Cheating occurs everyday, in every school. Cheating occurs even in the nicest schools, including private schools. This usually occurs when someone does not study for a test or just does not feel like thinking. Also, one might do it because he knows he can get away with it. There is a wide range of cheating that can go on in schools. It can be a simple as copying one word, to copying the whole test. Whatever the extent of the cheating, that does not make it right. In todays society, teens just assume that cheating is an exceptable way of getting through test. They dont care even though they know the consequences. Cheating effects me because when I study, someone else may do better than me because they cheated. This may ruin the curve for the class. And that is not fair because I could have gotten a better score. With that, sometimes I feel taken advantage of when someone kind of glances over at my paper. I dont always cover it up, but sometimes I do. Cheating can also make a person loose respect for you. They may figure that they can always cheat off of you. This will become a routine, and they will always do it. This effects my motivation to learn because I figure that studying is not worth it anymore. I figure that since everyone is cheating, I mind as well not study as hard. This can be frustrating because it ruins the learning environment in the classroom. Cheating widely effects others also. Excepting cheating only sends a negative massage to everyone. We are saying that teachers dont care, and you can get away with it. It shows how low out society has stooped to just get a grade. No matter what the motivation to cheat, the bottom line is that it is wrong. But today, so many do it, teachers have to watch even more carefully, and trust is broken forever. Trust is broken between everyone. In conclusion, we have faced the problem of cheating. We know it is there. But now the question is: What shall we do about it? That is hard because there are so many dishonest people who do not care in this world. For now, all we can do it tighten down on cheaters. And just dont let them cheat. If everyone would guard themselves against cheaters, they might give up. Of course that means we cant cheat off of others. We need to build back up our trust of people, because without trust our world will crumble. .

Hippocratic Medicine as a Departure from its Egyptian and Mesopotamian Essay

Hippocratic Medicine as a Departure from its Egyptian and Mesopotamian Forerunners - Essay Example The paper â€Å"Hippocratic Medicine as a Departure from its Egyptian and Mesopotamian Forerunners† proposes that there are significant ways in which Hippocratic medicine was a radical departure from the faith-based healing in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Greek medicine was considered the foundation of medicine in the Western world. This view began to change as the Western world began gained a broader knowledge of the history of medicine, resulting to a correlation being established between the earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian medicine and that of Ancient Greece. It is important to review this relationship to see whether the decline in the reputation of Greek medicine is justified. It is proposed to examine whether Greek medicine was in fact a radical departure from the healing based on religious beliefs that was practiced in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This paper claims that Hippocratic medicine was in fact such a radical departure because of its use of surgical procedu res, its concept of practitioner responsibility, and its basis in naturalism. Naturalism is the idea that events are explained only on the basis of causes that exist in nature. For instance, a practitioner may attribute a patient’s sickness to a change in the weather or to a lack of exercise, an imbalance in diet, or an incorrect position of the body during treatment. Naturalism tends to determine the causes of a disease based on what can be seen and examined in the natural world rather than on supernatural forces that occur in the spiritual realm.

TESCO company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

TESCO company - Essay Example Not surprisingly, these results are reflected in the profits reported by each company. TESCO’s continuously growing turnover led to progressively increasing profits, reaching an almost 100 per cent gain during the period. At the same time, Sainsbury continuously reported losing profits, actually entering the negative range in the period between 1996 and 2004. These profit losses actually reached as low as  £12 million British in 2001. While it can be seen that Sainsbury had a higher sales cost than TESCO, these differences were too great to be explained solely by this difference. Another possible factor for Sainsbury’s unfavorable results could be attributed to other factors such as solvency.Solvency refers to whether or not a company is able to pay out its debt. In determining this, it’s equally important to determine how the company manages debt, short-term liabilities, and long-term obligations. There are three main considerations in looking at solvency. The se include immediate solvency which is also often referred to as liquidity), short-term solvency and medium- or long-term solvency. The ability of a company to meet obligations on time is what is meant by liquidity or immediate solvency. Related to this issue is the concept of short-term solvency, which generally refers to a slightly longer period, generally not longer than a year, in which the company would have the time necessary to sell stock as a means of meeting any obligations it might have that cannot be covered immediately.

Has the Criminal Justice Act 2003 effectively removed the rule against Essay

Has the Criminal Justice Act 2003 effectively removed the rule against the admission of hearsay evidence - Essay Example Discussion The Criminal Justice Act 2003 states, as a general rule, that hearsay inadmissible. Section 114 (1) states that â€Å"in criminal proceedings a statement not made in oral in evidence is admissible as evidence of any matter stated if, but only if,† then it goes on to outline four different exceptions.1 One exception is for when any provision, whether in this chapter or in any other statute makes the statement admissible.2 Another exception is when â€Å"any rule of law preserved by section 118 makes it admissible.3 The other exception is when the parties agree to the admissibility of the statement.4 The fourth and final exception is when â€Å"the court is satisfied that it is in the best interest of justice for it to be admissible.†5 Further, the Act carves out exceptions for when a witness is unavailable. In this case, hearsay is admissible if the statement that the unavailable witness would give would be deemed admissible as evidence;6 the person who made the statement has been identified to the satisfaction of the court;7 and that the witness is unavailable according to five different criteria.8 The criteria are that the witness must either be dead, unfit, outside the UK, cannot be found, or is in fear.9 More problematic are the categories that state that a judge can use his or her discretion in deciding whether to admit the statement, and when the witness is unavailable. When the witness is unavailable, then the defendant cannot cross-examine the witness. This would be fundamentally unfair to the defendant. A prosecutor should make every effort to bring witnesses into court so that he or she may be cross-examined, and the statutory provisions that are used for determining whether a witness is unavailable seem too broad. One of the provisions states that a witness may be unavailable because of fear. â€Å"Fear†in this case may either be fear for that person’s life or another person’s life, or it may be fear of f inancial loss. It seems that it would be too simple for a witness to use this excuse. Most witnesses have jobs, and these jobs are not always understanding about having to take off of word to testify. Therefore, the witness can state that he or she is unavailable because of fear of financial loss, and then that witness’ statement can be introduced as evidence against the defendant, without the defendant being able to cross-examine. This rule seems to be weighted in favor of the prosecution, because it seems that virtually any witness can be unavailable under this particular section of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Further, if the witness cannot be on the stand because the trial occurs on a workday, and that person could be fired, then it should be the prosecutor’s responsibility to have secured the statement, through a deposition, on a date that was convenient for the witness. This exception does not put the responsibility on the prosecutor to secure the statement, so this is another flaw. Moreover, although the court has guidelines as to when it can accept a statement under these conditions, these guidelines are rather vague. The judge may accept the statement if the statement should be â€Å"admitted in the interests of justice,†

Strategic Alliances the Right Way to Compete in the 21st Century Assignment

Strategic Alliances the Right Way to Compete in the 21st Century - Assignment Example The author of the paper states that strategic alliances are detrimental to an organization for various reasons. First, they spur out organic growth. Such growth is not enough for an organization to achieve its stipulated mandate. It further speeds up the marketing process for the produced goods. In addition, many businesses are on the verge of embracing diversification of services and goods. No one business can fully be at the dispensation of having all-around skilled human resources. Hence, such alliances bring up elements of skills exchange. Moreover, there is an established trend in research and innovation, making the firm competitive globally.  It becomes easier for the business to venture in the market, as its operational base is stronger. Advancement in technology, ICT, and transport makes the entry point easier. Venturing out in the international market may be quite a complicated and expensive process, but there is a cost reduction in the case of two firms. It is easier to o vercome many obstacles such as hostile policies and competition. Shared knowledge and risks add up to become a strength to the firms.  Decentralized Federation applies when companies that are trying to expand in foreign countries are faced with domestic competition. Therefore, they require coming up with multinational strategies with a decentralized federation. Therefore, the requirement to form local production facilities, and to ensure that this local unit becomes increasingly independent. The internal culture of this organization should be able to embrace personal relations rather than formal structures, and economic controls more than technical/operational details. These local units have more functioning independence and strategic freedoms from their headquarters, and they are managed as a collection of an offshore investment instead of a single worldwide business.

The discovery of DNA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The discovery of DNA - Essay Example The two strands of the helix run in opposite directions (1 â€Å"up† and 1 â€Å"down†). The inner edges of the helices are formed by the nitrogenous bases and they run in pairs. Adenine pairs with thymine with 2 hydrogen bonds and cytosine pairs with guanine with 3 hydrogen bonds (Murray et al, 2007). Though this can dictate side-to-side pairing, there is no clue about the order along the molecule. According to Watson and Crick, the variety in genetic code can be due to the variability along the molecule. DNA replicates itself through ‘semi-conservative’ replication. The DNA molecule first unzips and new matching bases are added to create new molecules of DNA. Thus each new molecule of DNA has one ‘old’ strand and one ‘new’ strand (Murray et al, 2007). The discovery history of DNA can be dated back to 1870s and 1890s when mitosis and meiosis were discovered. In 1928, Frederick Griffiths experiment on pneumonia bacteria and mice hinted that DNA was the genetic code material. In 1952, Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase performed an experiment on viruses and hinted that viral genetic code material was DNA and not protein capsid. In the early 1950s, Rosalind Franklin attempted to figure out the structure of DNA using bouncing back of X-rays but failed. However, she had some photographs of DNA crystallography and from these photographs, James Watson and Francis Crick determined that the structure of DNA was double helix. The duo received Nobel prize for this in 1962 (Biology education, 1996). DNA is present in the chromosomes of most of the living beings. The human genome approximately has 3 billion base pairs of DNA which are arranged in the 23 pairs of chromosomes. Sequence pieces of DNA form genes which carry vital information. The genetic information is achieved by complementary base pairing. Transmission, transcription and translation are the steps involved in transmission of

Has the Criminal Justice Act 2003 effectively removed the rule against Essay

Has the Criminal Justice Act 2003 effectively removed the rule against the admission of hearsay evidence - Essay Example Discussion The Criminal Justice Act 2003 states, as a general rule, that hearsay inadmissible. Section 114 (1) states that â€Å"in criminal proceedings a statement not made in oral in evidence is admissible as evidence of any matter stated if, but only if,† then it goes on to outline four different exceptions.1 One exception is for when any provision, whether in this chapter or in any other statute makes the statement admissible.2 Another exception is when â€Å"any rule of law preserved by section 118 makes it admissible.3 The other exception is when the parties agree to the admissibility of the statement.4 The fourth and final exception is when â€Å"the court is satisfied that it is in the best interest of justice for it to be admissible.†5 Further, the Act carves out exceptions for when a witness is unavailable. In this case, hearsay is admissible if the statement that the unavailable witness would give would be deemed admissible as evidence;6 the person who made the statement has been identified to the satisfaction of the court;7 and that the witness is unavailable according to five different criteria.8 The criteria are that the witness must either be dead, unfit, outside the UK, cannot be found, or is in fear.9 More problematic are the categories that state that a judge can use his or her discretion in deciding whether to admit the statement, and when the witness is unavailable. When the witness is unavailable, then the defendant cannot cross-examine the witness. This would be fundamentally unfair to the defendant. A prosecutor should make every effort to bring witnesses into court so that he or she may be cross-examined, and the statutory provisions that are used for determining whether a witness is unavailable seem too broad. One of the provisions states that a witness may be unavailable because of fear. â€Å"Fear†in this case may either be fear for that person’s life or another person’s life, or it may be fear of f inancial loss. It seems that it would be too simple for a witness to use this excuse. Most witnesses have jobs, and these jobs are not always understanding about having to take off of word to testify. Therefore, the witness can state that he or she is unavailable because of fear of financial loss, and then that witness’ statement can be introduced as evidence against the defendant, without the defendant being able to cross-examine. This rule seems to be weighted in favor of the prosecution, because it seems that virtually any witness can be unavailable under this particular section of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Further, if the witness cannot be on the stand because the trial occurs on a workday, and that person could be fired, then it should be the prosecutor’s responsibility to have secured the statement, through a deposition, on a date that was convenient for the witness. This exception does not put the responsibility on the prosecutor to secure the statement, so this is another flaw. Moreover, although the court has guidelines as to when it can accept a statement under these conditions, these guidelines are rather vague. The judge may accept the statement if the statement should be â€Å"admitted in the interests of justice,†

The discovery of DNA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The discovery of DNA - Essay Example The two strands of the helix run in opposite directions (1 â€Å"up† and 1 â€Å"down†). The inner edges of the helices are formed by the nitrogenous bases and they run in pairs. Adenine pairs with thymine with 2 hydrogen bonds and cytosine pairs with guanine with 3 hydrogen bonds (Murray et al, 2007). Though this can dictate side-to-side pairing, there is no clue about the order along the molecule. According to Watson and Crick, the variety in genetic code can be due to the variability along the molecule. DNA replicates itself through ‘semi-conservative’ replication. The DNA molecule first unzips and new matching bases are added to create new molecules of DNA. Thus each new molecule of DNA has one ‘old’ strand and one ‘new’ strand (Murray et al, 2007). The discovery history of DNA can be dated back to 1870s and 1890s when mitosis and meiosis were discovered. In 1928, Frederick Griffiths experiment on pneumonia bacteria and mice hinted that DNA was the genetic code material. In 1952, Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase performed an experiment on viruses and hinted that viral genetic code material was DNA and not protein capsid. In the early 1950s, Rosalind Franklin attempted to figure out the structure of DNA using bouncing back of X-rays but failed. However, she had some photographs of DNA crystallography and from these photographs, James Watson and Francis Crick determined that the structure of DNA was double helix. The duo received Nobel prize for this in 1962 (Biology education, 1996). DNA is present in the chromosomes of most of the living beings. The human genome approximately has 3 billion base pairs of DNA which are arranged in the 23 pairs of chromosomes. Sequence pieces of DNA form genes which carry vital information. The genetic information is achieved by complementary base pairing. Transmission, transcription and translation are the steps involved in transmission of

How to Choose Your Topic Essay Essay Example for Free

How to Choose Your Topic Essay Essay Good evening Ladies and Gentleman , my name is Adam Maljan. Before we proceed , I would like to ask all of you a simple question . Have any of you had any difficulties on choosing a topic when you are asked to present to an audience ? If your answer is yes , then Do Not Worry . Because you see i. Choosing a topic for a speech is no easy thing to do . Especially if you are a student preparing a speech for your subject . ii. I myself had a hard time in choosing a topic for a public speaking event when I was in my 2nd semester as a diploma student . It took me days just to find the right topic which everyone can understand and relate to easily. Today , I would like to talk to you about how to choose or at least narrow down your choices of topic using the simple criteria of Knowing your theme , Listing and narrowing Down and researching and gaining confidence. The first criteria in order to choose your topic is that you should know your theme. For example , the seminar you were invited to talk to is about Health . But Health, as we all know, is a general topic , there are multiple subtopics that you can relate to with health ,some are maintaining a healthy lifestyle , how to reduce the risk of heart disease, effects of obesity and many more . So if this situation happens to you . Please do not panic , because once you identify your theme or topic using the general topic given to you, you can now look at your audience and use them to determine your decision on which topic to present . For example, if your audience is mostly teenagers , then you can choose the topic on maintaining a healthy lifestyle topic , but if it is mostly senior citizens , then it is better for you to choose the topic on how to reduce the risk of heart disease. The same goes with women or children .

Toyota’s problem revealed

Toyota’s problem revealed 1. Abstract A system can be defined as a collection of interrelated parts that taken together form a whole system such that the collection has some purpose and a change in any parts leads to or result from change in some other part(s). Information system is organized system which comprises input unit, process unit and output unit with a feedback mechanism that receives raw data and converts into a sensible information. Management information system is a system that provides information for the management activities carried out within the organization. This system consists of hardware and software that accept data and store, process, and retrieve information. This information is selected and presented in a form suitable for managerial decision making and for the planning and monitoring of the organizations activities. Essential to the idea of a management information system is the ability to retrieve data and use it for the production of targeted information for different purposes. Much data will be stored as the result of transaction processing operations. It is important that this data is seen as a central resource for the entire management information system and not tied to the application that produced it. In order to achieve the objective of common availability, the data needs to be managed as a central resource. The software that creates this database and handles access to it is called a Database Management System. This ensures the data is controlled, consistent and available to provide information. The database serves as a permanent store for the results of transaction processing, as a temporary store during processing and as a store for the records of the transaction processing and the database is handled by the database management system software. This protects the database from direct contact with the application programs and maintains data consistency. 2. Toyotas Problem Revealed Toyota is all about the customer. Technology does not drive business processes at Toyota but the various systems employed in it like Toyota production system(TPS),Corporate Customer Information System, Just-In-Time System, Customer Relationship Mangement,Enterprise Resource Planning are, few systems to name ,which drive the business processes on Toyota.Psabilla (2006). Major problems faced by Toyota can be broadly classified into Organizational/Technical and Management Problem. 2.1 Organizational/technical problems at Toyota: 2.1.1 Problems with Corporate Customer Information System (CCIS) CCIS is a central repository of up-to-the-minute customer information linked to all transaction systems. CIS is designed around customers, providing information about the products and services they use and their relationships with other customers and the organization. CCIS can reduce the costs associated with redundant systems by functioning as a single, central point of entry for creation, inquiry and retrieval. Because it readily accepts information from a variety of systems, CCIS easily accommodates virtually any financial institutions system environment. In order to build and sustain a competitive edge, service organization need to strive to maintain a superior quality of services in an effort to gain customer loyality, hence improving customer retention rates.(Kadampully,1998) Many organizations find they are surrounded by data that come in variety of forms: records, instructions, design, blueprints, maps, image, sounds, metadata, detailed data, and summarized data, to name just a few. Yet much of it does not truly satisfy their information need. This information may be stored in places ranging from file cabinets to databases and from library shelves to the Internet. Todays organizations have achieved quantity of data and information, but not necessarily quality of either, meaning that the data or information lacks one or more vital characteristics necessary for it to be fit for use. Problems with the quality of data and information are further compounded by the struggle many organizations are experiencing as they try to improve their systems for knowledge management and organizational memory. This is the main area where Toyota had crucial problem. Toyotas database had several million records that had to be checked. Some database had wrong addresses, wrong vehicles, and wrong motors. 2.1.2 Information- and Data quality challenges Toyota relied on its Corporate Customer Information System to provide the information about its customers and other service problems. Data from system identified Lexus owners with troublesome tyres, and Toyota began mailing the owners cheques for $400 or more to replace troublesome tyres. But some of these cheques went to the people who did not even own a Lexus and one was mailed to a Toyotas auditor for a vehicle he no longer owned. These mistakes pointed to a massive data quality problem because the Corporate Customer Information System used customer data stored in 15 databases in different parts of the company. So the company had to bear a huge financial loss. 2.1.3 Root causes of poor data quality in the Corporate Customer Information System Multiple data sources: Multiple sources of the same information can contain different values for information, including values that were accurate at a prior point in time. Subjective judgment in data production: data collected using subjective judgments and technique can lead to biased information being recorder. Bypassing input rules and too strict input rules: bypassing database edit checking without careful examination may produce missing or error nous information when individuals either arbitrarily change a value to pass the edit check or skip entering the field. Input rules that are too strict may further encourage data entry clerks to seek ways to bypass onerous edit checks. Volume of data: Large volume of stored information may make it difficult to access information from multiple system Distributed heterogeneous systems: distributed heterogeneous systems can lead to inconsistent definitions, formats, and values as well as excessive time spent to select and aggregate information from multiple systems Researcher and practioners are continuing to discover and explain the roots causes of poor quality data so that the systems that collect, process, and disseminate data can be improved. One of the best examples of this type of research is an article by strong, lee, and Wang (1997) that identifies ten key problems that often lead to data-quality problems 2.1.4 Cost of poor data and information quality are difficult to quantify The costs associated with poor data and information quality are often difficult to quantify because they involve both tangible and intangible components. Without accurate cost estimates, organizations may not realize the impact that poor data and information quality is having on their bottom line and, therefore, improvement is not a priority. Knight(1992) Redman (2003) estimates that without an active quality program in place, the cost of poor data and information quality for a typical organization is about 20% of the revenue. Although the fear of bad publicity keeps many companies silent about this issues,Knight(1992).thats why,Toyata also suffered a huge financial loss due to decline in its sales revenue. The presence of poor quality data and information can lead to higher costs in several ways. First there is the cost of remedying the mistake caused by the poor quality data or information along with the cost of correcting the data or information problem itself. rectifying the harm caused by poor data and information quality may involve dealing with cleanup effort, loss of lives, valuable equipments or production time, rework, lawsuit or penalties, and costumer appeasements such as offering rebates or issuing apology letters. Redman (1996,1-16) also cities other quality-related expenses such as different department within the same organization maintaining their own stores of redundant information because no one trusts the information in the others data base: managers forming poorer, less-confident decisions that take longer to make; and organizational difficulties in adopting new technologies such as data warehouse or business- re- engineering projects. Beside causing additional expenses, the presence of poor quality data may cause revenue reduction due to dissatisfied customers and partners opting to do business with someone else.Dealing with the effects of poor quality data and information can frustrate employees, lower job satisfaction, and raise levels of organizational mistrust. In a tight labor market, organizations may find that poor quality data and information inhibit their ability to attract and retain skilled employees. All these findings are echoed by Hansen and Wang (1991), who found that data and information quality impact corperate profits by interfering with an organizations ability to deliver customer service, management support, and productivity gains. 2.2 Management Problem at Toyota â€Å"In Toyota, Technology plays a critical role by supporting, enabling and bringing to life on a mass scale the processes derived by adhering to Transaction Processing System(TPS).Over the years, Toyota refined a number of other concepts and production methods that support the two central TPS pillars.They are Just-in-time and Genchi Genbustsu(meaning- Go and see for yourself) . And behind each of those pillars are information systems, supporting and enabling the processes†-Evans,P(2002). Data and information quality represent an important and maturing area in the field of management information system. This pursuit is fraught with the challenges as organizations discover the difficulties surrounding the definition, measurement, analysis and improvement of quality for data and information. For the help in dealing these challenges, organizations can turn to a growing body of research on data and information quality. (Coleridge,S.T 2003). The major management challenges face by the Toyota is as follows: Financial Loss: The Company had a huge financial loss due to error on the customer information system. Company had to pay huge value for the customer service resulting into tangible loss for it. This introduced a financial risk to the company. Ineffective customer service and support: The Company offered monetary compensation to Lexus owners with troublesome tyres but unfortunately, it reached to such group of people who never owned such vehicles. On other side of the coin, the incentive never reached to deserving candidates. This action gave wrong message to the public. Customers were totally dissatisfied with the customer service and support system of the company resulting a problem in the customer retention program of the company. Ineffective decision support system: the poor quality data led to inaccurate information to transaction processing system. This resulted poor reports which are tools for decision making in the Management Information System. This entire problem resulted its effect on the company on its strategic planning area i.e. Executive Information System. Human Resource Problem: Huge number of employee had to recruited throughout various branches distributed in different geographical locations. Laying off these unnecessary workforce was a big problem to the company as they had to handle the distributed information system. 3. Management Initiative to solve the problem 3.1 Installation of Centralized Database: Toyotas management called for a single centralized customer database to solve the problem regarding the data quality. The advantages of a centralized database approach can be summarized in that it leads to a system where data management and control are more effective and the ability to share data is increased. Advantages of database can be summarized as follows: Data redundancy is reduced: In the application led, file based approach; data such as employee name may be unnecessarily duplicated in various files. This is a waste of storage and can be reduced, if not entirely eliminated, in a database system. Data consistency can be maintained: A corollary of the elimination of redundancy is that update inconsistency is reduced. Some inconsistency may result unless care is taken in database design, because some duplication of data is not eliminated. Independence of data and programs is possible: In the file based approach, the application programs are closely interdependent with the file structure. For example, the payroll programs will need to ‘know how the employee file is organized in order to access to records. It makes a great deal of difference whether the file is organized sequentially by employee# or organized with an employee# index. At the level of the record, the order of the fields and the length of each will probably need to be ‘known by the program. It is not possible to change the file organization or change the record structure without changing the program or program that access it. The program is dependent on the data. In a database system, many programs will share the same data. It is not desirable to require each program to be changed when there is a change in the physical form of storage of data.( changes in physical storage can be made for reasons of technical efficiency.) The database management system maintains the same view of the data to the accessing program no matter how the data may be reorganized physically on the disk. A logical view is presented to the user or user programs: following from the last point, it is clear that the view of the data presented to the users or user programs must be independent to the physical storage details it must be logical. Many database management systems allow different logical views of the same data to be presented to different users or programs. This is important as it frees programmers from a need to pay attention to the physical details of storage and allows them to concentrate on the applications to be coded. In the example covered earlier in this chapter, it is much easier for programmers to develop the cost allocation program if it is not necessary to consider the physical details of data retrieval. Program can concentrate on how to do a task, not on how to obtain the data to do Applications development is enhanced because data sharing is possible: The ability to use the database management system to retrieve data across the database in any required form once it has been stored opens up the range of applications for which the existing data can be used. Standards can be enforced: The factor that all access to data occurs via the database management system allows the individual responsible for this , the database administrator (DBA), to ensure that applications standards are followed in the representation of data. Security is more easily implemented: The DBA will control access to the database. The DBA can ensure that authorization code for users are set restricting their access to only parts of the database and for only for the functions (read,write,copy)that are legitimate to their data purposes. Databases allow more effective control over access than the dispersal of responsibility associated with file- based systems. However, a breach of security may lead to a greater risk, as more data is accessible than with a traditional file- based system. (Curtis,G.,Cobham,D.(2002) 3.2 Application of Informaticas Power Mart: Informatica is data integration software. Thousands of companies rely on the informaticas platform to lower the IT costs and gain greater business value from all their information assets both on-premise in traditional IT computing system and in the internet cloud. Two main elements of this software are : Data mining It is a collection of tools and techniques. It is one of the several technologies required to support a customer-centric enterprise. In broader sense, data mining is an attitude that business actions should be based on learning that informed decisions are better than uninformed decisions, and that measuring resulting is beneficial to the business. Data mining is also a process and methodology for applying the tool and techniques for effective relationship with its customers. (Berry, Michael J. A.Linoff, Gordon S. 2004) Data mining helped Toyota to identify the hidden trends in the database. Various software modules present in the data mining were used to realize the dependency of data and its relationship with other entities in the database repository. This helped Toyota to make decision in the real-time. Data Warehousing Data warehousing is a logical repository of an organizations electronically stored data. It fulfills the organizations need for reliable, consodiated,unique and reporting and analysis of its data at different levels within the organization. The practical reality of Toyota is that their data infrastructure was made up by a collection of heterogeneous systems like customer relationship management, Enterprise Resource planning, transaction processing system, decision support system etc, throughout all the branches distributed in different geographical locations. so same information of different entities were repeated all over in the database. Data warehousing tools and module helped to keep these information in more scientific way in the form of data marts. Some of the benefits that a data warehouse provided are as follows: A data warehouse provided a common data model for all data created whatever the datas source may be. So it was easier to report and analyze information Before storing data into the data warehouse, inconsistent data were identified and resolved which made it easy to report and analyze the trend of data. The information in the warehouse can be stored safely for long periods of time. Data warehouses provide retrieval of data without slowing down operational systems because they were separated from operational system. Data warehouses added the value of operational business applications especially CRM. Data warehouses helped decision support system applications to produce trend reports, exception reports, and reports that show actual performance versus goals. 4. Conclusion: By implementing a new information system, Toyota was able to maintain data quality within the database. As we know â€Å"Too much of Information kill information†, the main challenge in every business is not creating and storing the information but the challenge lie on the capability of company to manage it and use it as par need. Efficient management of the database helped Toyota to increased its annual vehicle sales revenue from 750000 to 1.7 million. This is a huge financial benefit to the company from market share viewpoint. Toyota also gained the intangible benefits of ‘first-mover advantage which made them a leader in using a new process or system that were difficult for competitors to follow yielding strategic competitive advantage. This helped them to stay in the business despite of the huge system failure. Other intangible benefits like staff morale, customer satisfaction,reputation,customer-management, value chain management, organizational learning were also o bserved by the management.

Megans Law - Protection More Important than Privacy Essay -- Argument

Megan's Law - Protection More Important than Privacy In 1994, twice-convicted sex offender Jesse Timmendequas raped and murdered Megan Kanka, a seven-year old girl who lived across the street. In reaction to this emotionally-charged crime, Megan's home state of New Jersey ratified a community notification bill - dubbed "Megan's Law" - just three months later. This fall, a national version of the law went into effect, mandating that all fifty states notify citizens in writing of the presence of convicted sex offenders within their communities. Certainly, society has a responsibility to protect children from sex offenders, and many feel that Megan's Law is the best course of action. However, others feel that it is an unwarranted intrusion into the rights to privacy of individuals who have already paid their debts to society. Megan Kanka should still be alive today, and, as a society, we have an undeniable responsibility to keep such tragedies from taking place in the future. We must not merely respond when sex crimes occur but must, instead, take an active role in preventing them in the first place. Megan's Law is an effective attempt by legislators to help us achieve this goal. Indeed, it helps to prevent these crimes by protecting children, our most defenseless citizens, from those who are most likely to endanger them. Megan's Law operates under the logic that responsible parents, once notified that a designated "high risk" sex offender lives nearby, will be able to prevent their children from becoming the victims of another attack. One of its primary motivations is the high recidivism rate associated with crimes of sexual molestation. Without even considering the large number of sex offenses that go unreported each ye... ...nity. For this reason, under the Freedom of Information Act of 1974, criminal records are a matter of public record. Megan's Law can be thought of as a logical extension of this Act, channeling information to those who need it most. Criminal records have to be brought to light where the well-being of others is at stake. Privacy is a valuable privilege, but it is not a right which overrides the common good of our society. In the end, the debate over Megan's law reduces to one issue: how can we best ensure the safety of our children and the security of our communities? Because of the extremely high recidivism rate associated with sex crimes, because society has a duty to protect those who can not protect themselves, and because concerns for the good of our society as a whole outweigh any individual right to privacy, it is imperative that Megan's Law be maintained.

Althusser - A Critique :: essays research papers

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknin's Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web Sites With the exception of Nietzsche, no other madman has contributed so much to human sanity as has Louis Althusser. He is mentioned twice in the Encyclopaedia Britannica as someone's teacher. There could be no greater lapse: for two important decades (the 60s and the 70s), Althusser was at the eye of all the important cultural storms. He fathered quite a few of them. This newly-found obscurity forces me to summarize his work before suggesting a few (minor) modifications to it. (1) Society consists of practices: economic, political and ideological. Althusser defines a practice as: "Any process of transformation of a determinate product, affected by a determinate human labour, using determinate means (of production)" The economic practice (the historically specific mode of production) transforms raw materials to finished products using human labour and other means of production, all organized within defined webs of inter-relations. The political practice does the same with social relations as the raw materials. Finally, ideology is the transformation of the way that a subject relates to his real life conditions of existence. This is a rejection of the mechanistic worldview (replete with bases and superstructures). It is a rejection of the Marxist theorization of ideology. It is a rejection of the Hegelian fascist "social totality". It is a dynamic, revealing, modern day model. In it, the very existence and reproduction of the social base (not merely its expression) is dependent upon the social superstructure. The superstructure is "relatively autonomous" and ideology has a central part in it - see entry about Marx and Engels and entry concerning Hegel. The economic structure is determinant but another structure could be dominant, depending on the historical conjuncture. Determination (now called over-determination - see Note) specifies the form of economic production upon which the dominant practice depends. Put otherwise: the economic is determinant not because the practices of the social formation (political and ideological) are the social formation's expressive epiphenomena - but because it determines WHICH of them is dominant. (2) People relate to the conditions of existence through the practice of ideology. Contradictions are smoothed over and (real) problems are offered false (though seemingly true) solutions. Thus, ideology has a realistic dimension - and a dimension of representations (myths, concepts, ideas, images). There is (harsh, conflicting) reality - and the way that we represent it both to ourselves and to others.

Microeconomic Factors in Automobile Industry in India

Automobile Industry Hailed as ‘the industry of industries’ by Peter Drucker, the founding father of the study of management, in 1946, the automobile industry had evolved continuously with changing times from craft production in 1890s to mass production in 1910s to lean production techniques in the 1970s. The Asian countries, mainly by Japan, China and India, registered a 9% increase in production over last year, constituting 35. 9% of the global production. In fact China and India posted positive growth rate over 2003.This supply mainly catered to meet the demand from households where the automobiles constituted the second largest expenditure item next only to housing. Thus the global automobile industry dominated by Europe, US, Japan, and of late by China and India, continued to have a significant influence on economic development, international trade, foreign direct investment and environment-friendly practices. Total Sales Trend of Four-wheelers in India Demand Factor s 1. Financing Options Auto industry observers cite car loans as the biggest driving factor for the expansion of the Compact Car segment.At present, almost 85 per cent of all new car sales are  backed by auto finance, compared to 65 per cent five years ago. Interest rates on car loans have come down drastically in the past four or five years, which helps prospective buyers, take the plunge. The growth of the CC-segment in the  past few years can be mainly credited to factors such as rise in income levels leading to increased affordability and simultaneous reduction in interest rates leading to lower  EMIs. The drop in interest rates usually helps very few people to probably shift from the base model to a deluxe model.A larger shift happens if people are willing to take long-term loans, like five years instead of the earlier three-year loans. 2. 2. Advertising And Marketing Due to the advertising techniques adopted by all the manufacturers in the CC-Segment the sales have risen drastically. It is all due to because the companies now days are using even aggressive selling techniques for which they are even coping with the Film celebrities and Cricket stars, like Maruti has contracted Irfan Pathan as the  brand ambassador of Zen and for Santro Hyundai has contracted for Shah Rukh Khan.And the companies are even trying to approach to the customer as to their demand for  a vehicle at special interest loans, etc. They are using data according to the customers return and earning capacity for attracting the customers for their vehicles. 3. Price of the Car One of the major factors that affect the demand of any commodity in the market is the  price of the commodity. As the law of demand also states that with an increase in  price the demand of the commodity decreases and vice versa.Since, in the compact car segment market even there are very less competitors there is stiff price competition. Like the price of Zen in 2001 was Rs. 3. 93 lacs which increased to Rs. 4. 01 lacs in 2005, but still the sale of the Maruti brand keeps on increasing it was due to the company’s reputation with the customers. 4. Income of Consumer / Buyer The income of the consumer or buyer of the car is a very important factor of demand. In recent time we have seen that due to increase in the Income of the general public, there has been a shift from the Lower CC-segment cars to the Upper CC-segmentcars. 2Due to the recent increase in the number of multinationals in India, the income level of the employees have risen drastically and has made CC-segment cars an entry level car for a lot of people. The average age of a CC-segment car owner has also dropped from 35 years to 31 years in India. 5. Increase  in  Affordability The demand for passenger cars is driven mainly by greater affordability, which in turn increases the aspiration level of the customers. Today with high amount of disposable income in the hand of Indian youth, who forms major portion o f the population, P-marker has larger addressable market. 6. Demographic DriversCars being aspirational products, purchase decisions are influenced by the overall economic environment. Increase in per capita income increases the consumption tendency of the customer. Growth in per capita income and rising aspirations and changing lifestyle is leading to increased preference for cars over two-wheelers, which is also having a positive rub off on car demand. 7. Availability of Easy Financing Options A majority of PV purchases are financed through financial institutions. Over the past4-5 years car industry has been benefited through significant increase in affordability due to the decrease in EMIs.Car finance rates dropped from 17% in 2000-01 to 11%in 2005-06. However it has increased and averaged at 13. 75% in 2006-07. The current hardening of interest rates is expected to affect demand by reducing affordability. 8. New Offerings Car sales increase when a new model hits the market. Due to escalation in competition in Indian car market, frequency of new model launches has increased. In the past one year only the Indian car market has seen many launches namely SX4,Swift Diesel, Zen Estill, Spark, Logan, etc. 9. ExportsThe share of exports from domestic production is currently at 12-13%, which is much lower than current export hubs. Currently, India’s share of global passenger cars export volume stands at less than 1%. But India is fast emerging as a manufacturing hub for leading global car makers, and several manufacturers have already firmed up  plans for setting up manufacturing bases in India, which will also be used for exports. 3 Supply Factors 1. Presence  across  Segments Manufacturers with presence across various product segments can ensure higher  volume and better capacity utilization by using the common manufacturing capacity.Typically a customer upgrades from one segment to higher segment and the presence across various segments ensures th at the company retains its existing customers. 2. Efficient Operations Competition in PV segment is very intense and this requires the existing players to initiate steps to reduce their cost of production. Effective and successful operation methods like platform commonality, reduction in vendor base and workforce rationalization can help a company immensely. 3. Wide  Dealer Network and Availability  of FinanceA wide dealer network helps the company serve customers over wide geographical area. For e. g. Maruti has used its available wide service network as point of difference over competitors. The companies are tying up with the financial institutions having rural presence to provide additional financing options to customers in such areas. 4. Access  to Latest Technologies Indian PV segment is highly competitive with as many as 14 players operating in it and more than 80 models on the offering. But still any new model launch meets with increase in sales volume for the company.M oreover in a time when a substantial  portion of Indian customer is looking to upgrade in higher segment, companies with latest technologies and latest models will catch more attentions 5. Price of the Car Price of the car is one of the major factors that affect the supply as well as the demand of a car. If the price of the car is high in the market, the manufacturer or the supplier  will want to supply more units in the market so he can earn more profits. In the automotive industry where the market type is oligopoly, if one company drops its price for the car, there is a huge impact on the sales of the other cars as well as the same car.In the market the price of one car is inter-related to the price of the other  cars in the same segment. The best solution is that market equilibrium should be achieved so that the amount of the quantity demanded should be equal to the amount of the quantity supplied to achieve maximum profits. A Market Equilibrium is achieved at the point of intersection of the demand line and the supply line. The point is the equilibrium point where the quantity demanded is equal to the quantity supplied. 6. Factors of  Production There are some factors of production which influence the supply of a car likeCost of Raw Material Labor Cost Machinery Input Cost. These factors influence the supply of a car largely. If the cost of the raw material (Steel, Spare Parts, Rubber) increases there will be an increase in the cost of  production leading to decrease in profit margins. Costs like labor costs, machinery and input costs also influence the supply with the increase or decrease in these costs. 7. 7. Government Policies and Taxes If there is a change in the government policies regarding the increase in the road tax charged or the tax which is to be paid per unit sold, the supply of a car will fluctuate with the nature of the change.Recently the government has reduced the custom duty on inputs and raw material from 20% to 15% which has increased the supply. Conclusion Market economies are assumed to have many buyers and sellers, high competition and many substitutes. Monopolies characterize industries in which the supplier  determines prices and high barriers prevent any competitors from entering the market. Demand and supply refer to the relationship price has with the quantity consumers demand and the quantity supplied by producers. As price increases, quantity demanded decreases and quantity supplied increases.On the other hand, elasticity tells us how much quantity demanded or supplied changes when there is a change in any of the factor. The more the quantity changes, the more elastic the good or service. By studying various demand and supply factors affecting  the automobile industry we can conclude that an upturn or downturn in this sector is due to an aggregate effect of  multiple factors. These together govern the economies of automobile sector. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of Indian Automobi le Sector Industry Rivalry Bargaining Power of CustomersBargaining Power of Suppliers Threat of New Entrants Threat of Substitutes Industry Rivalry Bargaining Power of Customers Bargaining Power of Suppliers Threat of New Entrants Threat of Substitutes 1. Industry Rivalry * Industry Concentration: The Concentration Ratio (CR) indicates the percent of market share held by a company. A high concentration ratio indicates that a high concentration of market share is held by the largest firms – the industry is concentrated. With only a few firms holding a large market share, the market is less competitive (closer to a monopoly).A low concentration ratio indicates that the industry is characterized by many rivals, none of which has a significant market share. These fragmented markets are said to be competitive. If rivalry among firms in an industry is low, the industry is considered to be disciplined * High Fixed costs When total costs are mostly fixed costs, the firm must produce capacity to attain the lowest unit costs. Since the firm must sell this large quantity of product, high levels of production lead to a fight for market share and results in increased rivalry.The industry is typically capital intensive and thus involves high fixed costs * Slow market growth In growing market, firms can improve their economies. Though the market growth has been impressive in the last few years (about 8 to 15%), it takes a beat in even slight economic disturbances as it involves a luxury good. Aggressive pricing is needed to sustain growth in such situations * Diversity of rivals: Industry becomes unstable as the diversification increases. In this case the diversity of rivals is moderate as most offer products which are close to standard versions and the competitors are also mostly similar in strength Highly competitive industry: The presence of many players of about the same size little differentiation between competitors, and a very mature industry with very little g rowth were the features of a highly competitive industry. Higher the competition in the industry lower would be the profit margin. To remain ahead in competition, auto-makers were tempted to offer value added services to the customers incurring more costs 2. Threat of New Entrants These are the characteristics that inhibit the entrance of new rivals into the market and in turn protect the profits of the existing firms.Based on the present profit levels in the market, one can expect the entrance of new firms into the market or not. The entrance is however also affected by the start-up costs * Economies of scale: The Minimum Efficient Scale (MES) is the point at which unit costs are minimized. The greater the difference between the MES and the entry unit cost, greater is the barrier. Economies of scale are becoming increasingly important as competition is driving the profit margins to lower levels. Also being a capital intensive industry economies of scale have important consequence * Government policies: Automobile Industry was delicensed in July 1991 with the announcement of the New Industrial Policy * The passenger car industry was delicensed in 1993. No industrial licence is required for setting up of any unit for manufacture of automobiles except in some special cases * The norms for Foreign Investment and import of technology have been progressively liberalized over the years for manufacture of vehicles including passenger cars in order to make this sector globally competitive * At present 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is permissible under automatic route in this sector including passenger car segment.The import of technology/technological upgradation on the royalty payment of 5% without any duration limit and lump sum payment of USD 2 million is allowed under automatic route in this sector * The automotive industry comprising of the automobile and the auto component sectors has made rapid strides since delicensing and opening up of the sector to FD I in 1991 * The industry had an investment of about Rs. 50,000 crore in 2002-03 which has gone up to Rs. 80,000 crore by the year 2007.The automotive industry has already attained a turnover of Rs. 1,65,000 crore (34 billion USD) * The industry provides direct and indirect employment to 1. 31 crore people. The contribution of the automotive industry to GDP has risen from 2. 77% in 1992-93 to 5% in 2006-07. The industry is making a contribution of 17% to the kitty of indirect taxes of the Government With all the policies regarding the FDI and Tariff barriers as mentioned above, it has become easier for the foreign players to enter the Indian automobile industry. 3.Threat of Substitutes * The replacement market is characterized by the presence of several small-scale suppliers who score over the organized players in terms of excise duty exemptions and lower overheads. * A product’s price elasticity is affected by the presence of substitutes as its demand is affected by the chang e in the substitute’s prices * The cost of the automobiles along with their operating costs was driving customers to look for alternative transportation options * The new technologies available also affect the demand of the product E. g. In case of Maruti’s products, the threat of substitutes is high. The competition is intense as several players have products in the categories given by Maruti. However, in the 800cc range it is the market leader and the threat of substitute products is low. Price performance comparison favors heavily towards Maruti in most product categories. Also the high availability and quality of services offered by Maruti gives the customer a better trade-off 4. Bargaining Power of Suppliers * Suppliers can influence the industry by deciding on the price at which the raw materials can be sold.This is done in order to capture profits from the market. * Steel is a major input in this industry and so steel prices have a sharp and immediate impact on the product price * The industry being capital intensive switching costs of suppliers is high, other than steel as raw material which is highly price sensitive and the firm may easily move towards a supplier with lower cost 5. Bargaining Power of Buyers * It specifies the impact of customers on the product * When buyer power is strong, the buyer is the one who sets the price in the market.Here there is purchases of large volumes * There is prevalence of alternative options * Price sensitive customers were some of the factors that determined the extent of influence of the buyers in this industry E. g. : In the case of Maruti, the sales volumes have shown increasing trend over past so many years. The customers are more or less concentrated in metros or other tier two cities. The industry is also concentrated in these regions mostly. Most of them are have good amount of knowledge about the product.Except the 800cc range in other categories brand loyalty is only moderate. Also it is dif ficult to measure since repurchases are rare. Product differentiation is high as there are many categories in the passenger vehicle segment. Buyers get incentives in the form of cost discounts and better after sales services * The major focus of Indian Component suppliers is Quality as suggested by one of the Japanese Quality focus firm. The Industry association ACMA reports that over 170 of its members have already received ISO-9000 certification and 23 have received QS9000 certification.There are examples of Indian suppliers becoming single source global suppliers for leading OEMS (GM and Ford), and also becoming global leaders with Sundaram Clayton receiving the Deming award but there are few drawbacks as shown by A. T, Kearney survey which found that defect rates in India are in the range of 1000-2000 ppm against Japanese average of 100-200 ppm * The rising gasoline price is bound to influence the buyers Taxation India has a well-developed tax structure. The power to levy taxes and duties is distributed among the three tiers of Government, in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Constitution.The main taxes/duties that the Union Government is empowered to levy are:- Income Tax (except tax on agricultural income, which the State Governments can levy), Customs duties, Central Excise and Sales Tax and Service Tax. The principal taxes levied by the State Governments are:- Sales Tax (tax on intra-State sale of goods), Stamp Duty (duty on transfer of property), State Excise (duty on manufacture of alcohol), Land Revenue (levy on land used for agricultural/non-agricultural purposes), Duty on Entertainment and Tax on Professions & Callings.The Local Bodies are empowered to levy tax on properties (buildings, etc. ), Octroi (tax on entry of goods for use/consumption within areas of the Local Bodies), Tax on Markets and Tax/User Charges for utilities. Excise Duty Central Excise duty is an indirect tax levied on those automobiles which are manufactured in India and are meant for home consumption. The taxable event is ‘manufacture' and the liability of central excise duty arises as soon as the automobiles are manufactured.It is a tax on manufacturing, which is paid by a manufacturer, who passes its incidence on to the customers. Types of Excise Duties Basic Excise Duty: This is the duty leviable under First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 at the rates mentioned in the said Schedule. Special Excise Duty: This is the duty leviable under Second Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 at the rates mentioned in the said Schedule. At present this is leviable on very few items.Basic Central VAT (CENVAT) or Excise Tax Structure for Automobiles Year| CommercialVehicles| MUVs| Cars| 2 Wheelers| 3 Wheelers| Unit| | | | | ? 75 CC| > 75CC| | | 2001-02| 16| 32| 32| 16| 16| 16| %| 2002-03| 16| 32| 32| 16| 16| 16| %| 2003-04| 16| 24+1*| 24+1*| 16+1*| 16+1*| 16| %| 2004-05| 16| 24+1*| 24+1*| 16+1*| 16+1*| 16| %| 2005-06| 16| 2 4+1*| 24+1*| 16+1*| 16+1*| 16| %| 2006-07| 16| 24+1*| 24/16**+1*| 16+1*| 16+1*| 16| %| 2007-08? | 16| 24+1*| 24/16**+1*| 16+1*| 16+1*| 16| %| Source: Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturing (SIAM) – Based on Government of India Notifications,  ?Additional higher & Secondary Education Cess of 1%,  *National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) of 1 %,  **16% on cars (up to 4000mm in length &1200cc for petrol & up to 4000mm in length & 1500cc for diesel) and 24% for rest National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD): Normally known as NCCD. This duty is levied as per section 136 of the Finance Act, 2001, as a surcharge on specified goods. Excise Duties and Cesses Leviable under Miscellaneous Act:On certain specified goods, in addition to the aforesaid duties, prescribed rate of excise duty and cess is also leviable.Education  Cesson excisable goods is levied in addition to any other duties of excise chargeable on such goods, under the Central Excise Act, 1944 or any other law for the time being in force. Customs Duty Customs Duty (Import duty and Export tax) is a type of indirect tax levied on goods imported into India as well as on goods exported from India. Taxable event is import into or export from India. In India, the basic law for levy and collection of customs duty is Customs Act 1962.It provides for levy and collection of duty on imports and exports, import/export procedures, prohibitions on importation and exportation of goods, penalties, offences, etc. Basic Customs Tax Structure for Automobiles Year| CVs1| MUVs2| Cars| Two Wheelers| Three Wheelers| Unit| 2001-02| 35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| %| 2002-03| 30| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| %| 2003-04| 25| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| %| 2004-05| 20| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| 105/60/35| %| 2005-06| 15| 100/60/15| 100/60/15| 100/60/15| 100/60/15| %| 2006-07| 12. | 100/60/12. 5| 100/60/12. 5| 100/60/12. 5| 100/60/12. 5| %| 2007-08| 10| 100/60/10 | 100/60/10| 100/60/10| 100/60/10| %| Source: Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturing (SIAM) – Based on Government of India Notifications, *For Used Vehicle/New CBU/CKD & Components respectively,  1CVs = Commercial Vehicles  2MUVs = Multi-Utility Vehicles   Ã‚   Export duties are levied occasionally to mop up excess profitability in international prices of goods in respect of which domestic prices may be low at the given time. But the sweep of import duties is quite wide.