Evaluation of Business Strategy of Osuka Kagu And Nitori

Question: Examine about theEvaluation of Business Strategy of Osuka Kagu And Nitori. Answer: 1. Danger of new participants: By giving various arrangement of extravagance and reasonable furniture the organization took into account a huge arrangement of crowd. Additionally, through taking into account each market sections alongside offering furniture items at the most minimal costs the danger from new participants is killed as the organization prevailing in development hindrances as respects to securing its piece of the pie. Dealing intensity of providers: Through end of furniture wholesalers from the gracefully chain the organization has effectively diminished the utilizing intensity of providers as the organization has direct exchanges with the furniture makers. In this way the issues relating to discount exchanges alongside the ensuing commissions of wholesalers are relieved. Dealing Power of Buyers: Otsuka Kagu wiped out cost accelerations through various arrangements of cost cutting measures; besides the organization sold items at ensured least costs and moreover offered decrease in deals cost of its furniture so as to coordinate the most minimal cost offered in the entire of Japan. Through division of item offered in its stores and by growing the value extend from low evaluated furniture to extravagant ones, the organization can keep the purchasers of furniture from applying any type of weight upon the organization. Industry contenders: The Company diminished the pace of fruition both from existing contenders alongside new contestants through hearty gracefully chain component guaranteeing convenient conveyance of furniture items. Also, the decrease in by and large expenses by end of wholesalers brought the breakeven purpose of the organization lower than its current arrangement of contenders. Substitutes: As the organization figures out how to obtain items both from national and universal makers, the substitutes regarding furniture items are overseen as the organization offers both costly lines of extravagance items alongside low estimated line of furniture. Through execution of previously mentioned techniques Otsuka Kagu had the option to alleviate the dangers emerging from providers of items just as tending to issues of cost the board. 2. Nitori has had a viable item acquirement methodology set up in front of Otsuka Kagus choice to get supplies legitimately from the producers. Additionally, Nitori understood the value distinction of western style furniture when contrasted with Japanese outfitting items and settled on bringing in such items from abroad. What's more the organization centered after creating redid set of furniture from its assembling plants in Indonesia and Vietnam. While Otsuka was reeling under the result of worldwide budgetary emergency, Nitori profited the advantages of a great conversion scale towards bringing in products at a marked down sticker price. Further, Nitori benefited quality administration methods through enlisting work force with wide involvement with quality support of items. While Otsuka centered after bringing numerous arrangements of items under one rooftop, Nitoris objective was to bring moderate western decorations onto Japanese family units. One centered after taking into account distinctive market portions while the other concentrated on showcase creation for western furnishings. Despite the fact that the two organizations has sizable piece of the pie, the income creating roads contrasted.

Case Study for IT Priorities IVK - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Expound on theCase Study for IT Priorities IVK. Answer: Slush support slack had been made by the past CIO Davies just on the off chance that when the fundamental tasks at IVK couldn't be endorsed. The slush reserves had been created at IVK so as to get the IT anticipate reserves endorsed. The IT anticipates were not viewed as the essential capacities rather they were only the supporting capacities which confronted inconvenience to get budgetary endorsements from the division. To get spending endorsement for the IT anticipates that were specialized and didn't convey direct client benefits were extremely difficult to get affirmed in IVK. Additionally the IT anticipates should be exceptionally specialized and different divisions were essentially incapable to see, rather sometimes the methodology that the organization IVK received for financing the IT anticipates was that of preventive support. This is the motivation behind why Davies made slush assets to get these security related dangers took care of adequately (Wysocki, 2010). Davies being a specialized individual knew very well the sort of security dangers may create if the IT anticipates don't get executed. He understood the significance and gravity of ignoring of IT anticipates in IVK that is the reason he thought of this thought of making slush finance slack to get budgetary endorsement for the IT anticipates. During the IT anticipate endorsement in which Barton made fun when he began scrutinizing the manner in which the venture was introduced Davies basically returned back in his shell during clashes. This shows Davies, not being the one prepared to assume sole liability, will bring about noose around everyones neck as everybody would get included while dynamic for the IT anticipates (Austin, Nolan, O'Donnell, 2016). The methodology received by Davies was normally IT-based methodology and not an administration based methodology. The methodology embraced by Davies was innovation arranged as he alongside John both accepted that there exists a security issue with the innovation that was being utilized by Peoples. He accepted that if there is any security hazard that must be dealt with by getting assets from IVK. In any case, his methodology being an excess of IT related which was basically turned out poorly with different specialty units. He laid more accentuation on the security chances that may emerge in absolutely IT language. Hence the method of correspondence of the security dangers received by Davies didn't explain or show what antagonistic effect the security chances that are produced in IVK can have on the organization just as the clients. Hence the methodology received by Barton that the IT spending should be in legitimate arrangement with the IVK technique and partitioning the IT anticipat es on the accompanying premise is a superior methodology. The tasks will be partitioned into classifications like: Obligatory (for instance security) Degree of profitability (for instance steady) OCI (choice making speculation). Barton has received an agreement approach as indicated by which IT is significant perspective that helps the procedure usage and the specialty units are the ones who choose the needs. The methodology followed by Barton doesn't propose that it should assume full responsibility for the IT spending plan rather it puts stock in advancing the IT perspective alongside the business perspective. By embracing this methodology all necks will be in the noose and in the event that any choice turns out badly each and every individual who is a piece of choice can be accused and considered mindful (Austin, Nolan, O'Donnell, 2016). Barton needs to act brilliant and ought not take the whole budgetary control in his grasp as proposed by Maggie just as it will make him liable for anything that turns out badly in the organization. He should concoct a splendid thought of getting fixed the entire dynamic advisory group which ought to likewise connect with the Board of Directors. Or maybe he should attempt to make a totally new IT planning process by proposing certain level of the absolute spending that should be apportioned to the IT anticipates that have a place with the obligatory class (Wysocki, 2010). The IT council that he needs to propose ought to be of board level on the grounds that requesting certain level of spending plan to be assumed into responsibility for IT is anything but a smart thought. For this situation again on the off chance that anything turns out badly, at that point just Barton will be considered mindful in light of the fact that the noose would associate with his neck just, being the sole in dividual to settle on budgetary choices. What he needs to do is bolster the arrangement of an IT Security Project which ought to underline on the basic factors just as the advantages that it will draw. IT Committee with board contribution will help in advancing the state of IT inside the specialty units which will thusly help the association too. In this manner the dangers related with IT foundation will be diminished and will likewise settle on dynamic basic and simple (Austin, Nolan, O'Donnell, 2016). Reference index Austin, R., Nolan, R., O'Donnell, S. (2016). The Adventures of an IT Leader. Harvard Busines Press. Wysocki, R. K. (2010). Powerful Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme. Wiley Publishing INc.

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back! I hope you like what weve done with the place. Seven years ago, I welcomed people to the new MITAdmissions.org, the one you would have seen had you come here an hour ago, or indeed at any point since July of 2011. It seems odd, reading that post, to do it again, and for much the same reason, and with many of the the same goals. And times have changed, and so have we. Let me explain how. How (and why) we redesigned In 2016, we met up with folks from MIT Comms, who were leading the redesign of MIT.edu. As I blogged here, the data showed we had a large overlapping audience, and so we decided to share the same design agency (which ended up being Upstatement),   and embark upon a shared research, design, and engineering effort together. That process, which has now been ongoing for literally years, culminates today, in the launch of the MITAdmissions redesign. Why did we decide to redesign? As I explained here, we were proud of our old website, and the positive impact it, especially (but not only) the blogs, have had on so many readers. However, as is always the case in web design, ever since we launched the old site weve wanted to change it, especially to expand experiments that worked and cancel those that didnt. Plus, our blogging platform was showing its age, and we wanted a better foundation on which to build better bad ideas. But there is always a lot going on in admissions, and we never set aside the time, or the money, to make these changes, until now. So, we convened a core team of staff (including me, Karen S.,  Kris, Stu, Elizabeth, Matt, Mikey), current and former student advisors (including Yuliya, Selam, Ceri, rfong, Danny, Allan, Lydia, Elena, and Edward), the rest of the admissions commteam, and of course the bloggers + admissions staff more broadly, and set to work identifying priorities, developing content, playtesting ideas, and giving raw conceptual and emotional materials to Upstatement to help design and build what youre looking at today. Wayfinding and features If this is your first time visiting MITAdmissions.org: congratulations! Youve chosen an auspicious day to visit, and, like tiny baby, know nothing else than this design you now gaze upon, presumably with thumb implanted firmly in mouth and eyes wide as saucers. For those of you wizened crones who were familiar with our old site, heres what you basically need to know: most of the sections stayed the same, except we expanded the stepthrough navigation from Apply to every section. It worked really well there, is now best-practices in most help center software, and now we have more places to talk about stuff like history that we didnt on the old site (but did on the old-old site, which had  too  much content, so this feels like the right balance) we took the old ask.mitadmissions.org, which used to be an external help center, and moved it within the main site located at https://mitadmissions.org/help on the homepage, we kept the blogs and the admissions touts but rearranged them slightly; we also added a new from the community section, internally nicknamed the firehose, to curate content generated by the MIT community (and potentially the wider   web) we kept the rainbow color palette and gradient(s) that has long characterized our homepage (and MITs homepage), as well as our core print mailings, but made them a little more dynamic and scattered them across the site We also put  even more  emphasis on the blogs as the core distinguishing content of our site. This is visually evident on the homepage (in terms of it from going from about 25% of screen space to 75% of screen space), but it also strings throughout the site, with Related blogs features at the bottom of nearly every static page. This wouldnt have been possible without  Yuliya, who spent her summer reading  every blog post ever,  and (re)categorizing them into a schema that she inductively developed based on her own long experience reading, and writing for, the blogs. These categories, and tags, enable a tremendous amount of serendipitous discovery that we hope will happen, and will be invaluable for bloggers (and readers) moving forward. Here are some things that are genuinely new to the site to the visitor: we added annotations, inspired by Feynmans margin notes, to many of the static pages, so that we could add historical background, additional complexity or qualifications, or just weird nerd jokes as a dialogic aside, visually  sotto voce   we added doodles and illustrations, drawn by Lydia  (and interactively inspired in part by Glossier) all over the place we added an expanded card view, inspired by new reddit, to the homepage blogroll so you can trigger an expanded preview of blog posts if you want a much more sophisticated search, powered by Solr, that will help people not only find what theyre looking for fast but easily distinguish between institutionally authoritative and temporally current answers on our static pages and FAQs and our culturally useful but sometimes factually deprecated backlog of blog posts we designed and built the site to be more accessible, particularly to the visually impaired, from the ground up. For some of our users, this wont change anything; for other users, this will change everything. Probably the most significant changes, however, are under the hood. Upstatement is a first-rate web design and engineering firm whose staff have made major contributions to WordPress and other open-source technologies. Theyve done a lot to make our site speedy and stable; bring images, which had since 2004 been scattered across a billion different hosts (athena lockers, chevereto, imgur, etc) within a single image gallery; implement better security like https by default and SSO with Touchstone, and make it  much  easier to blog. We think that these improvements will help us continue to do what weve long tried to do: be honest, authentic, helpful, and responsive to our community, including not only prospective students but anyone who might find their way to our website. I really want to thank the team at Upstatement, especially Nathan, Keri, Emily, Emma, Burns, and Rayna, for their hard work, patience, and creativity throughout this process. We did a lot of work across admissions and SFS in very little time and under pretty significant constraints. This is the first time in decades we have worked with an external agency on admissions, and it was hard/scary, at least for me, to countenance that. But Im so glad we did, and specifically with/for this team, because theyre great.   Another big change, both operationally and philosophically, is that we intend to keep this website evolving. Unlike the last redesign, where we designed it all up front, implemented it, and then basically didnt change it for seven years, this site was designed and built using Scrum, and we intend to keep making tweaks and improvements going forward. So what youre seeing today is our MVP foundation, and based on what works and what doesnt, well continue to tweak, change, and continuously make MITAdmissions.org better. New bloggers! In addition to our new website, I also want to introduce our new bloggers! We hired them in late August but waited for the new website to let them loose on the Internet. They are: Veronica M. 22,  from Kenya, is the queen of cheesy science puns and long-suffering cat-mom to feline drama queen. She loves wild berries and hates boba pearls, which, in my view, means that she has excellent judgment and high integrity. Kathleen E. 22, from New York, lives near the beach, but does not go to it because she doesnt like driving on narrow 17th century roads. Nevertheless, she would like you to know the oceanic fact that schools of fish use ‘phase transitions,’ analogous to those experienced by matter, to change between different behavioral patterns. If trapped on a desert island, she wouldnt wish for her favorite food, but would adapt by enthusiastically eating bugs. Shuli J. 22,  from Toronto, and wants you to know that in Canada, people really are more polite, and also they get their milk in bags instead of cartons. She once went through a childhood phase of calling her mom mumsie, not because she was Canadian, but because she was reading too many books about British boarding schools. If trapped on a desert island, she would die missing pad thai. Mimi S. 22,  from Maine, is a metalhead with a cat named Oreo. Her favorite food is flan, and if she could be the last emperor of a dying corporate chain, it would be Blockbuster so she could gorge on free movies. Out of all the things on the Internet, she would like you to know that this exists. Jamie C. 19,  from California, grew up in a town where the high school was used as the set of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She would like you to know that ants have a designated graveyard area in their colony, and when an ant dies, the other ants carry the dead ant to the graveyard; in fact, if a live ant is treated with formic acid, which is secreted by dead ants, it will allow itself to be carried there because it thinks it itself is dead. She loves Twilight and hates Dadrock. Youll hear more from them over the next couple of days as they begin their blogging adventures. Please say hi to our new website and our new bloggers! We hope youll stick around for a long time. Post Tagged #baby bloggers #redesign

Essay on The Era of Suffering The Holocaust - 915 Words

Throughout the Holocaust, Jewish people suffered in numerous and various ways. Jews suffered as a part of the Nazi plotted â€Å"Final Solution.† The Final Solution was a plan during World War II to systematically exterminate the Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Europe. This resulted in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the destruction of Jewish communities in continental Europe. The leader of the Nazi regime was Adolf Hitler, who believed there was a perfect race, which was the Aryan race (Bohm 4). The Aryan race had blue eyes and blonde hair, although Hitler himself was not an Aryan. Throughout the Holocaust, Jewish people suffered physically, psychologically, and financially. Jews endured physical suffering through the Holocaust. As a†¦show more content†¦Lastly, the Jewish prisoners were sometimes tortured or experimented on as lab rats, displayed by the famous inhumane experiment to create conjoined twins carried out by Josef Mengele. Jewish people were put t hrough great misery for the duration of the Holocaust. Jewish people did not only suffer physically, but psychologically throughout the Holocaust. The Jewish prisoners were deprived of food and water, which resulted in a decline of morale, cruelty among fellow prisoners instead of unity, and crushed friendships. Some of the Jews did not have the desire of anything, including the desire to live because they endured such a great amount of pain and suffering (Jewish 3). Sometimes, best friends throughout life were cruel and threatening towards one another for one small piece of bread. When Jewish people were organized by gender, families were forced to split apart and never witnessed the presence of each other again. â€Å"Men to the left! Women to the right! Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words. Yet that was the moment when I left my mother. There was no time to think, and I already I felt my fathers hand press against mine: we were alone. In a fraction of a second I could see my mother, my sisters, move to the right. Tzipora was holding Mothers hand. I saw them walking farther andShow MoreRelatedComparing American Slavery and the Holocaust994 Words   |  4 Pages The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the American Slavery and the Holocaust, in terms of which one was more malevolent than the other. Research indicates that â€Å"the â€Å"competition† between African-American and Jews has served to trivialize the malevolence which both has suffered† (Newton, 1999). According to L. Thomas â€Å"A separate issue that contributes to the tension between blacks and Jews refer to to the role that Jews played in the American Slave trade.† History Around 1600Read MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Life Is Beautiful921 Words   |  4 Pageswhenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented,† – Elie Wiesel, author of Night, made this important statement during his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo of 1986. As my friends Audrey Porter, Jordan Rogers, and I entered into Mrs. Bergeski’s room, I had many questions about what ‘aspect’ of the Holocaust, the movie, Life is Beautiful, was goingRead MoreBook Review of Post Holocaust Interpretation, Misinterpretation, and the Claims of History649 Words   |  3 PagesBook Review: Post-Holocaust Interpretation, Misinterpretation, and the Claims of History In this account of Post-Holocaust publication, Berel Lang presents thoroughly researched information that rebuts some of the common moral, historical and theological claims of the events that took place during this period. The content and the events and ideas discussed in this book are focused on the possibility of this historical event with all the sadism and evil that it brings to mind is able to defineRead MoreWriters And Poets Of The Post Holocaust Era1426 Words   |  6 PagesThesis: Writers and poets of the post-Holocaust era have struggled through language to record their experiences. Despite the challenges, these authors are dependent on the limits of language and its reliance on metaphors in order to communicate the meaning they ultimately set out to convey. The daunting and complex process of detailing the past is done for the preservation of memory. The way in which past events are documented determines the way that future events are defined. Thus, encapsulatingRead MoreL iterary Themes and Symbols of the Holocaust864 Words   |  3 Pages Literary Themes and Symbols of the Holocaust Although Holocaust literature focuses on a specific period in world history, it also contains some common themes and symbols that help to define this era. The butterfly, for instance, is a symbol for the ephemeral lives of Holocaust children. A child, Pavel Friedman, wrote a poem titled The Butterfly during his time in a concentration camp. Since then, the butterfly has been a Holocaust theme for the large number of children who did not survive.Read MoreThe Holocaust : The Most Tragic And Shameful Event1330 Words   |  6 Pagesmaking the Holocaust debatably the most tragic and shameful event recorded in Earth’s history. During this time, different races, ethnicities, and religious groups were persecuted and annihilated for their beliefs that conflicted with Hitler’s persistence to eliminate the â€Å"flaws† of humanity. Hitler and his followers had one goal in mind: to cultivate a master race for the next generation. Under his guidance for Germany, countries we re destroyed and millions were killed. Pain, death and suffering for millionsRead More Anti-Semitism Essay1007 Words   |  5 Pagesstatesmen who either were of Jewish origin, or worked for Jewish interests. This led to the merciless opposition to the universal poisoner of all peoples, International Jewery† (Rossel 10). As one can see, anti-Semitism could not be stopped in the era of World War Two, because Hitler outlawed any media that wasn’t showing hatred toward the Jews. The only radio broadcasts were his hate filled speeches and news reports that he approved. The only programs on television also had to be approved byRead MoreA Brief Biography of Adolf Hitler909 Words   |  4 Pagesthe life of millions. Hitler and his party of Nazis rose to power with a dream of ending all Jews. His hatred caused the murder of six million Jews. This mass murder is known as the Holocaust. The Holocaust dated from 1933-1945 occurred in almost every country in Europe. This era was a decade of pure evil. The Holocaust is one of the most frowned upon events in world history and will always be remembered as a melancholy time period. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Austria. He served asRead MoreSpiegelman s Imaginary Homelands By Salman Rushdie1386 Words   |  6 Pagesnovel, Maus. Spiegelman illustrates the Holocaust in a manner that is seldom. He recaptures the events of his father’s life during WWII, but also reflects his experiences in doing so. He expresses his torment of the effects of the Holocaust in his graphic novel Prisoner on the Hell Planet. Through his mother’s suicide and his difficult relationship with his father, Art, in a way, becomes a victim of the Holocaust. He has combined both his and his father’s sufferings in his graphic novel. Spiegelman andRead MoreA Brief Note On The And The Holocaust1814 Words   |  8 PagesTheodicy and the Holocaust The Holocaust was the defining event of the modern era for Judaism. It changed the Jewish community’s perception of the world, as well as the world’s perception of the Jewish community. It cost six million people their lives, eliminating about one third of the Jewish population. Mankind witnessed the most destructive act of evil it has ever seen. Evil, in fact, seems an understatement. The horrors of the Holocaust are inexplicable, ever more so for those that did not

Impact Of Corporate Governance On Firm Performance Pakistan Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 12 Words: 3591 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Our study investigates the impact of corporate governance on firm performance. For corporate governance measurement we use three variables Board size, dual leadership structure and Ratio of independent directors where as for Firm performance measurement Return on equity, Return on assets and Earnings per share are used and two control variables such as Firm size and Leverage are used. We collect data from the annual reports of the firms from year 2007-2009. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Impact Of Corporate Governance On Firm Performance Pakistan Finance Essay" essay for you Create order We use correlation and regression analysis for data analysis. We find that board size is not always related with firm performance. Our study also finds that there is a positive relationship between proportion of independent directors and firm performance. Finally we find no significant relationship between dual leadership structure and firm performance in Pakistan. Introduction In recent past researchers show their interests in the field of corporate governance due to some reasons. It is due to financial recession and eruption of US scandals to protect the stakeholders interests. Such as the interests of investors, shareholders, and management and for the well being and survival of the firm. Good corporate governance leads to protect the interests of the shareholders. Corporate governance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. Boards of directors are responsible for the governance of their companies (Code by SECP, 2002, p.9). Corporate governance normally means that outside rules and regulations and inside structure that are planned to reduce the agency problem and is the system by which companies are directed and controlled (Cadbury Committee, 1992, p. 15). Effective corporate governance ensures that firms try to reduce the losses and costs and maximizes the benefits for the stakeholders. Good quality corporate governance is based on the codes of accountability, transparency, justice and liability in the management of the company (Ehikioya, 2009). Corporate governance problems arise due to the following reasons. Separation of ownership and control leads to agency problems. Separation of ownership and control may lead to conflicts of interests among managers and owners. Managers may run the business to serve their own interests. Shareholders must compensate them financially to save their own interests, and to reduce additional costs incurred to monitor their activities to reduce agency costs. One of the most important factors of corporate governance which received much attention and requires reforms is the board of directors structure. A board of directors is a panel with tasks of leading, controlling and directing the administration of the company, with prime purpose to perform their jobs as the benefit of the firms owners. For effective governance, many researchers recommend the active participation of independent directors. Literature tells us independent board of directors is best to serve the interests of the owners. Leadership factor is also very important in the corporate governance. There are two major types of leadership structure (lee Lam, 2007). Leadership by the top management is very important while by the CEO it is also an effective one. CEOs have varying degrees of influence over the board in different firms structure and corporate environment. There are different types of corporate structures across the world. First CEO is the leader having both positions called CEO duality (duality structure) i.e. CEO as well as chairperson of the board having power to influence the board. CEO duality has been the dominant board leadership structure of US corporations, in which 70 percent-80 percent of them combine the roles of chief executive officer (CEO) and chairperson (Rechner and Dalton; Rhoades et al as cited in lee Lam, 2007). While the non-duality means both positions are held by separate persons. In non-duality leadership structure chairperson is the leader and CEO has no power to influenc e the board. The current study investigates the association among corporate governance characteristics and firm performance in Pakistan; it differs substantially from the other developing countries. Pakistan is a politically worried and unbalanced area of the world, has distinctive environmental characteristics. Additionally, Pakistan is a strict Islamic country. As a result, its societal and trade activities are based on fundamentalist spiritual laws and regulations. Chaudhry and Hoque (2006) argue that most important governance of the Islamic firm is by its direction toward the pattern of behavioral likings basis on the systemically natural sense of union of information by persistent relational association. The corporate governance are beached on such a perception of combining interrelationships involving the Islamic business and its inner and outer environing factors, via the strong set of Shariah mechanism that allow the corresponding relations to be recognized and achieved. The evolution of the Pakistani corporate entities has, historically, closely followed the path taken by English corporate entities. In 1984, the Companies Ordinance 1984 of Pakistan was promulgated, following lengthy debate; Pakistani companies were established and governed in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 1913. (Code by SECP, 2002). Pakistani firms have different structure to the developed countries. About 80% of all scheduled businesses on the Karachi Stock Exchange have relatives participation or ultimately allied to a big business relatives (zaidi aslam, 2006). This paper will follow following sequence (i) related corporate governance literature review (ii) methodology, sample data, models, and variables (iii) analysis (iv) empirical Results and discussion (v)conclusion of the study. Literature review Corporate governance is the course of action and composition through which a firms dealing and affairs are administered by enhancing business wealth and corporate accountability with the final aim of improving shareholders wealth (Mir and Nishat, 2004).A clear implementation of corporate governance assists a firm to magnetize investment, increase funds, and strengthen the base for firm performance (Ehikioya, 2009). Corporate governance major focus is on resolving agency problems. Agency problems are also called principal-agent problems. Shareholders (principal) are looking the ways to make sure the management (agent) grips on their funds in an approach to increase their wealth and firm performance. Corporate governance composition has an influence on firm performance (Ehikioya, 2009; Shaheen nishat, 2005). Research findings tell that the relationship among the different corporate governance factors and firm performance either can be positive, negative or none. Weir and Laing (2001) and Ponnu (2008) found that there is no obvious association among corporate governance and firm performance. Corporations are like republics. The final right rests with voters (shareholders). These voters elect representatives (directors) who assign most decisions to bureaucrats (managers). As in any republic, the actual power-sharing relationship depends upon the specific rules of governance. One extreme, which tilts toward a democracy, reserves little power for management and allows shareholders to quickly and easily replace directors. Corporate governance improvements are continuously happened in the world to improve the firm performance. There were different reforms regarding the different issues of corporate governance such as board composition, board size, CEO duality, ownership concentration, firm size and leverage. For decision making the corporate governance literature recognizes a range of diverse jobs of boards of directors (Zahra and Pearce, 1989; Gopinath et al., 1994; McNulty and Pettigrew, 1996; Hung, 1998; Maassen, 1999 as cited in Kakabadse, Kakabadse and Kouzmin, 2001). Board composition may be lead to recover the principal-agent problem. The involvement of outside independent directors can improve the firm performance itself against the outer pressure and use the firm resources to increase the wealth of the shareholders. It is very interesting that the research evidences are varied about the relationship among the outside independent directors and firm performance. Petra (2005) argues that the variation in results may be the variation of a company culture. There is positive link among outside independent directors and firm performance (Petra, 2005; Perry shivdasani, 2005). Laux (2005; Byrd, Cooperman Wolfe, 2007) argue that outside directors are more important to the owners of the firm. This positive relationship shows that directors are performing their duties honestly to protect the interests of shareholders. Some researches support the negative relationship among outside directors and firm performance (klein, 1998; agrawal knoeber 1996 as cited in Abdullah, 2004; yermack, 1996). Ponnu and KarthigeLam (2010) found that there is no positive clear impact of board independence on firm performance. However, it is clear from empirical evidence that independent directors perform significant role with firm performance, either positive or negative. So on the basis of above discussion we hypothesize that H1: Proportion of independent directors has significant impact on firm performance. Another feature of corporate governance that has got the attention of the researchers is the leadership structure. Discussion revolves around the duality, means that CEO is also holding the additional post of the board chairmanship. There are two theories regarding this issue (1) agency theory (2) stewardship theory (Lam lee, 2007). Agency theorists fight for the separation of the two posts to grant vital monitoring over managements performance. If not, a single person sharing both posts will dictate the board and it is generally the indication of a dominant CEO leadership. On the other hand, stewardship theorists argue that the separation of posts is not vital, because many firms are performing well with combined posts and have powerful boards fully competent of providing sufficient monitoring. Additionally, when the posts are combined, the CEO may be able to form the corporation to attain its affirmed objectives due to less hindrance. Literature does not suggest which leadership structure is best, either duality or unitary (single person holds single post). Research empirical evidences on CEO duality and firm performance are contradictory. Petra (2005) argued that conflicts of interests happened due to the dual leadership structure. CEO is in self evaluating position in dual leadership structure. If firm is adopted dual leadership structure, CEO may serve his own interests on the expense of shareholders and their interests may be compromised (noel, 2009). Petra and Dorata (2008) argued that CEO can make the decisions objectively short term for his own interests by compromising on the long term objectives in dual leadership structure. Alternatively firm performance is negatively affected if CEO duality exists in firm corporate leadership structure. Lam and Lee (2007) examine the relation between CEO duality and firm performance in Hong Kong. They found that neither agency theory nor stewardship alone significantly explain the duality performance relationship. Their empirical evidence tells that CEO duality has negative relationship with performance of the firm but insignificant for the whole data. They also found that CEO duality and accounting performance are negatively related for family controlled firms, while it is positively related for non family controlled firms. There is an inverse impact of CEO duality on firm performance (Ehikioya, 2009; Mir Nishat, 2004). Abdullah (2004) and Mashayekhi and bazaz (2008) found that both board independence and leadership structure do not affect the firm performance separately nor the combined effects of these two factors affect the firm performance. Dual leadership structure places CEO in powerful position of managing the operations of the firm and also overseeing the direction the firm will take into the future (Petra Dorta, 2008). So we can hypothesize that H2: Dual leadership structure has significant impact on firm performance. Another board characteristic is board size. Either large or small number of directors should be in the board. Either board size has significant relationship with firm performance or not. There are different findings of different researchers regarding board size and firm performance. The corporate governance structure such as ownership structure, board composition, board size, and CEO duality has a massive impact on a firms performance (Ehikioya, 2009). The number of directors in the board can be supposed to have a considerable effect on the firms performance because the board is having the huge responsibility for managing the firm and its operations. Some researchers suggest large board size for better corporate governance and firm performance while others suggest small board size. Raheja (2005) suggests that optimal board size and compositions are functions of directors and the firms characteristics. There may be some conflicts in larger board. The monitory expenses and poor communication in a larger board has been seen as a reason for opposing a larger board size (Lipton and Lorsch 1992). Anderson, Mansi and Reeb. (2004) suggests that firms with larger board size have the capability to drive the managers to chase for lower cost of debt and increase the performance. Ehikioya (2009) observes that ownership concentration and board size is positively related to the firms performance in three out of four cases. It means that concentrated ownership combined with finest board size tends to perform better then diffused ownership. Yermack (1996) like most of the other researchers found in his study negative relationship between board size and firm performance. Mashayekhi and Bazaz (2008) found that board size is negatively associated with firm performance. Bhagat and Black (2001) found that board size is not always in relation with the firms performance. Frick and Bermig (2009) after analyzing the effects of supervisory board size and composition on the valuation and firm performance and conclude that there is no constant impact of either board size or board composition on firm valuation and performance. Cheng, Evans and Nagarajan (2007) argue that huge information about firm and managerial performance and the changes in business atmosphere both add to the importance of rapid and effective actions by the board, while the capability of the board to make such decisions decreases with board size. They further argue that different costs like communication, co-ordination, and free riding costs increases as the boar d size increases. The benefits of these incentives are likely to be overcome by the increased costs as the board becomes sufficiently large. H3: Board size has no significant impact on firm performance. Methodology Sample and Variables This study concentrates on the corporate governance and firm performance of publically listed companies in Pakistan. Sample companies are chosen from the KSE 100 index listed during 2007 to 2009. Sample consists of 80 firms. Sample is chosen randomly from the different sectors of Pakistan economy. Non financial firms are included in the sample. Financial firms are excluded from the sample because of different capital structure and cash flows. We also excluded the firms having missing data. 15 companies are deleted from the original sample due to unavailability of the data and special capital structure. Our final sample consists of 65 firms of different sectors. Information related to these variables to measure the relationship among the corporate governance and firm performance is collected from the annual reports of the firms. The reports are collected from the kse-100 index and the respective firms website. Our study includes CEO duality, board independence, and board size as independent variables to measure corporate governance. Return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA) and earnings per share (EPS) are dependent variables in our study to measure firm performance. Leverage (debt/assets) and firm size (natural logarithm of total assets) are used as control variables in our study. Data Analysis We use descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis to analyze the data. The models which are used are given below. EPSi= ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ±0+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²1 BSIZEi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2 RIDi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²3 CEDi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²4 LEVi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²5 FSIZEi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ µi -(1) ROAi= ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ±0+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²1 BSIZEi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2 RIDi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²3 CEDi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²4 LEVi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²5 FSIZEi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ µi -(2) ROEi= ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ±0+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²1 BSIZEi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2 RIDi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²3 CEDi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²4 LEVi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²5 FSIZEi+ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ µi -(3) Where EPS in model (1) is calculated as net income divided by total number of ordinary shares of the firm; ROA is calculated as net income divided by the opening balance of the total assets in model (2); ROE in model (3) is calculated as net income divided by the total balance of total equity. BSIZE is the total number of directors on the board; RID is the ratio of independent directors on the board; CED is the CEO duality structure 1 for duality and 0 for otherwise; LEV is the leverage of the firm is the ratio of total debt to total assets; FSIZE is the firm size calculated as the natural log of total assets. Empirical Results and Discussion Descriptive Statistics Descriptive statistics in table 1 about the variables show that average number of directors in the board is 8.33, about 64% are the independent directors on the board and in 32% cases CEO is also the chairman of the board. Average leverage is 22% which shows that Pakistani firms less rely on debts; average firm size almost 16; ROE 31%; ROA 2% and EPS is Rs.11.45. All variables except Fsize have smaller meadians then their crossponding means. This shows that sample data is slightly skewed. Standard deviation of all variables is large except RID and LEV. Table 2 shows pearson corelation among the variables. RID is significantly corelated with EPS, ROE and ROA. This indicate that higher board independence has significantly positive corelation with firm performance. As the number of independent directors increase in the board the performance of the firm will be better. Our results are similar to other findings Petra (2005), Perry and shivdasani (2005) and Mashayekhi and Bazaz (2008) and inconsistent to Abdullah (2004) and Yermack (1996). This significant positive correlation shows the importance of the independent directors on the board. This indicates that there must be a sufficient proportion of outside independent directors on the board. Sufficient number of directors on the board will protect the interests of the shareholders. It also leads to better transparency in the firm ultimately firm performance will increase. CEO duality has negative and insignificant correlation with EPS, ROE and ROA. This implies that CEO duality has no significant association with firm performance. Our results are consistent with Lam and Lee (2007) and Mashayekhi and Bazaz (2008). This shows that dual leadership structure has neither positive nor negative relationship with firm performance in Pakistani companies. Board size has significantly negative correlation with ROA and insignificant correlation with EPS and ROE. Sometimes large board size negatively related with firm performance and sometime it is insignificantly related with fiem performance. This indicates that board size is not always related with firm performance (Bhagat Black, 2001). Leverage has no significant relationship with EPS, ROE and ROA. This implies that Leverage has no signifacant relationship with firm performance. Firm size has significantly negetive relationship with ROE and ROA. ROE , ROA and EPS have nosignificant relationship with each other except that ROE and ROA are positively corelated. Firm size has significantly positive relationship with ratio of independent directors (RID) and Dual leadership structure but significantly negetive association with board size. Regression Results Table 3-1, 3-2 and 3-3 show the results of regression analysis for each three dependent variables EPS, ROA and ROE separately. EPS, ROA and ROE explain 19%, 12.5% and 11.83% variations respectively. Board size is positive coefficient but insignificant values with firm performance measures (EPS t-stat= 0. 0.5511, ROA t-stat=- 2.21128 ROE t-stat= 0.234378) except ROA. It shows that board size is not always related with firm performance (Bhagat Black, 2001). This is inconsistent to H3: Board size has no significant impact on firm performance; Because ROA is showing significant impact on firm performance. Our findings are also consistent to Frick and Bermig (2009) who found no constant impact of board size on firm performance. Our findings are inconsistent with Yermack (1996) and Mashayekhi and Bazaz (2008) who found that board size is negatively associated with firm performance. Our findings are also inconsistent with Ehikioya (2009) who found that board size is positively associated w ith firm performance. Opposite to H2: Dual leadership structure has significant impact on firm performance. Our regression results do not show any significant relationship among the dual leadership structure and firm performance (EPS t-stat= -0.57958, ROA t-stat= 1.7605, ROE t-stat= 1.241707). it indicates that dual leadership structure neither positively nor negatively impact the firm performance. Our results are consistent with Abdullah (2004) and Mashayekhi and bazaz (2008) who found that leadership structure do not affect the firm performance. Table 3-1 Table 3-2 Table 3-3 There is an inverse impact of CEO duality on firm performance (Ehikioya, 2009; Mir Nishat, 2004; Mashayekhi bazaz, 2008). Our findings contradict them. H1: Proportion of independent directors has significant impact on firm performance. Our regression analysis shows positive coefficient of RID and statistically significant values of t-test for the performance measures (EPS t-stat= 3.18694, ROA t-stat= 2.8463, ROE t-stat= 2.9045). Our findings are similar to Petra (2005), Perry and shivdasani (2005) and Mashayekhi and bazaz (2008) who found positive relationship between proportion of independent directors and firm performance. This shows that outside directors are more important to the better performance of the firm. This positive relationship also shows that directors are performing their duties sincerely to defend the interests of shareholders. This result is also according to the prediction of agency theory that there is a positive relationship between outside independent directors and firm performance in Pakistan. Finally the firm size has negative and significant impact on firm performance in Pakistan. Only EPS value is insignificant. Our results oppose Mashayekhi and bazaz (2008) who found positive impact of firm size on firm performance. Leverage ratio has statistically insignificant effect on firm performance. This is consistent to Mashayekhi and bazaz (2008). Conclusion Our study investigates the impact of corporate governance on firm performance. For corporate governance measurement we use three variables Board size, dual leadership structure and Ratio of independent directors where as for Firm performance measurement Return on equity, Return on assets and Earnings per share are used and two control variables such as Firm size and Leverage are used. Our findings are similar to that of Bhagat and Black (2001) that board size is not always related with firm performance. Our findings are also consistent to Frick and Bermig (2009) who found no constant impact of board size on firm performance. This study also finds that there is a positive relationship between proportion of independent directors and firm performance. Our findings are consistent to Petra (2005), Perry and shivdasani (2005) and Mashayekhi and bazaz (2008). We find no significant relationship between dual leadership structure and firm performance in Pakistan. Our results are consistent with Abdullah (2004) and Mashayekhi and bazaz (2008). There are several limitations in the study such as time and data availability. Economic and political instability may affect the generalizability of the findings. Our results may differ from other studies due to the financial recession of near past. For future study one should use Growth ratios for firm performance and other Board characteristics for corporate governance measurement for more significant and long term results.

Principles of Business Free Essays

string(908) " Free market Economy Individuals are free to make choices as to what they want to produce, where they who they want to work for, what price they are going to charge for labour and also the price of their finished products \* Customers can decide what to produce by influencing market prices \* When consumers demands certain goods and services, they send messages to the producers who in turn will produce and meet the demands and thus satisfy the preference of consumers Disadvantages of Free market Economy \* It encourages inequalities of wealth The more powerful businesses may buy out the smaller ones thus reducing competition \* Wealthy people are more able to purchase and influence the market than smaller ones \* Companies may be tempted to restrict supplies to keep prices high Planned / Controlled / Collectivist Economy In a controlled economy all economic decisions are made by the government\." The Development of Economic Activity Human Beings produce and consume goods and services from the resources in their environment. It is primarily for the reason that humans are called ECONOMIC ANIMAL, because he or she has the ability to use his or her hands and brain to satisfy his or her immediate personal needs. These are looked at as basic needs; these needs are food, shelter and clothing (Economic Activity). We will write a custom essay sample on Principles of Business or any similar topic only for you Order Now Economic Activity means activities which results in the satisfaction of needs. In order to satisfy these needs, man engaged in certain economic activity such as farming, fishing, hunting, trade form, women stay home. Direct Production/ Direct Satisfaction of Wants Direct Production really means that human beings provide all their needs for themselves and their family without the aid of others; in other words, they do not depend on others to provide. Indirect Production/ Indirect Satisfaction of Wants Indirect Production means that human beings exchange their surplus by barter with others; in other words, human beings depend on others to do things for them  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Subsistence Economy Subsistence Economy – An economy which provide just enough to survive, but not to improve their way of life. BARTER SYSTEM Barter System is the exchange of goods or services for other goods and services without the use of money. ADVANTAGE OF BARTER SYSTEM * It allowed people to dispose of any surplus, they had at the same time obtain a variety of things they needed. * It enables persons to enjoy goods and services they could not produce. * Countries with foreign currency problems can get goods and services that they require. Countries that engage in trade can strengthen their political and cultural ties. DISADVANTAGE OF BARTER SYSTEM * Double or co-incidence of wants – No trade can take place unless there is double or co-incidence of wants; that is your trading partner has what you want and wants what you have. * Time Consumption – It could be challenging to find willing partners. * Spoilage – If an individual failed to find a suitable partner within a rea sonable time ones wealth in goods could be destroyed. Unequal Exchange – There is the difficulty or unequal exchange where the values of some goods far outweigh the value of other goods. MONEY Money is any commodity that is generally acceptable and is used as a medium of exchange and as a measure of value CHARACTERISTICS OF MONEY * Acceptability – It must be readily acceptable by everyone * Durability – It should not wear out easily * Homogeneity – it features should be identical * Divisibility – Money should be able to be broken down into smaller units. Portability – It should be easy to carry around. FUNCTIONS OF MONEY * Medium of Exchange – Money makes the exchange of goods easier * Measure of Value – Money can be used to state prices of goods * Store of Value –   Money can be saved * Deferred Payment – Money can be earned at one time and spent at another. DIVISION OF LABOUR OR SPECIALIZATION Division of labo ur is sharing the work. The work is divided among persons and they specialize in doing their part of the process, specialization comes as a part of this. DIVISION OF LABOUR BY PRODUCT Division of labour by product means people can do what they can do best in exchange for money and then using the money earned to buy the goods and services of others. DIVISION OF LABOUR BY PROCESS Division of labour by process means by organizing production into many stages workers become more specialized in their work and consequently they produce more. ADVANTAGES OF DIVISION OF LABOUR OR SPECIALIZATION * Workers become more expert in their jobs * Jobs become simpler and easier to learn * Output per person increases * Machinery and automation can be used Workers can more easily change jobs * Unit cost are reduced DISADVANTAGES OF DIVISION OF LABOUR OR SPECIALIZATION * Work can be tedious and boring thus resulting in poor worker motivation and the likelihood of a higher rate of absentism * Workers creativity is limited * Greater use of machinery can cause unemployment * Production can easily be stopped by strikes ECONOMIC SYSTEM Economic System refers to the method by which a nation or country plan to utilize its resources in order to achieve economic growth and to benefit its citizens. MAJOR ECONOMIC SYSTEM Every country is given by an economic system as each system has to decide how to allocate its resources to meet the needs of the citizens. This is a problem because the worlds resources are limited in supply and mans wants are unlimited. The economic is therefore deciding how to best to share these scarce resources. The decision of what to produce or what choices to make from the limited resources available is influenced by the political situation within which the decision is made. In order to share resources all economic must answer to all these problems. PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC SYSTEM FACE Limited Resources * Man wants are unlimited * Scarcity * How to share resources * Choice / decision No two countries are organized in the same way but they all have to solve three basic problems as follows * What should be produced? * How much to produce? * How is it to be produce? * Where is it to be produce? There are four different economic systems which answer the foregoing questions. * Subsiste nce Economy * Free Market Economy {Alternative name – Capitalists, Laissez-faire} * Controlled Economy {Alternative name – Collectivists, Communist, Command Control} * Mixed SUBSISTENCE ECONOMY A subsistence economy is one where there is little specialization and little trade. In such an economy people tend to live in family groups and grow most of their own food. Free Market Economy In a free market economy there is little or no government interference in the economy. It is based on the private ownership of the factors of production and the means of the distributing goods and services. Market forces are allowed to determine how resources are allocated. Examples of Free Market Economy is Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America and Hong Kong Advantages of Free market Economy Individuals are free to make choices as to what they want to produce, where they who they want to work for, what price they are going to charge for labour and also the price of their finished products * Customers can decide what to produce by influencing market prices * When consumers demands certain goods and services, they send messages to the producers who in turn will produce and m eet the demands and thus satisfy the preference of consumers Disadvantages of Free market Economy * It encourages inequalities of wealth The more powerful businesses may buy out the smaller ones thus reducing competition * Wealthy people are more able to purchase and influence the market than smaller ones * Companies may be tempted to restrict supplies to keep prices high Planned / Controlled / Collectivist Economy In a controlled economy all economic decisions are made by the government. You read "Principles of Business" in category "Essay examples" The state decides what to produce, how it is to be produced and how it should be allocated to consumers; in other words, the state decides what the community needs and therefore demand is not influenced by the consumer. Examples of Controlled economies are Cuba and China. Advantages of Controlled Economy * State   control eliminates wasteful competition * The state will provide goods that private enterprise will be unwilling to provide * It is impossible for private monopolies to develop * The state ensures that the needs of the community are met Disadvantages of Controlled Economy * Free enterprise and competition are discouraged * Creativeness and efficiency are not encouraged MIXED ECONOMY Mixed economy is a combination of elements from free economy and a controlled economy. There is a public sector controlled by the government which provides goods and services that the state feels it can manage most efficiently and a private sector in which individuals risk capital in producing goods and services for profit. ADVANTAGES OF MIXED ECONOMY * Individuals have freedom of choice * Government can intervene to protect citizens from unfair monopoly * Both the private and public sector may unite in producing goods. DISADVANTAGES OF MIXED ECONOMY * It is possible for private monopolies to develop Too many government regulations may discourage persons from owning a business GLOBALIZATION Globalization can be seen as the intensification and spread of world wide social, economic, cultural and political relationships among countries. BENEFITS OF GLOBALIZATION * Provision of high quality goods and services at a cheaper rate which is achieved through economies of scale * In contributing to globalization firms not only provide goods and services economically but they also provide employment for people IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION The impact of globalization has some adverse effect on small economies of the Caribbean. Large international firms that can produce high quality goods and services at a cheaper cost set challenges to small firms that are producing similar goods and services PRIMARY PRODUCTION Primary Production includes activity which takes the natural resources from the earth, that is the extraction of raw materials and the growing of food. Example Mining, fishing farming and forestry Secondary Production Secondary production involves manufacturing, processing and construction which transform raw materials into finish or semi-finished goods. Example baking, ship building and office construction. Tertiary Production Tertiary production includes the provision of serves example Hairdressing. PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR The private sector is that part of the economy that is owned and controlled by private individuals and firms. Funds for the establishment of private business operation are obtained through * Loans from Bank or Financial Institution * Personal Savings Financing from family and friends The public sector refers to business in the economy that are owned by government for the benefit of the public citizens. The main motive is to provide goods and services to benefit the country. Funds will mainly com from taxation. Private sector enterprise will involve in manufacturing, mining etc and they are able to produce or provide the services they wish but they must abide by rules and reg ulation establish by the government, on the other hand, the public sector relies on the private sector for taxation to maintain the operations of the country. In most Caribbean countries we say that there is a mixed economy because some businesses are privately owned and others are owned by the state ADVANTAGES OF PRIVATE SECTOR TO A SOCIETY * Public Sector protects citizens from exploitation by powerful monopolies * Public sector provides employment for many persons * Public sector contributes to the economic lives of the country PUBLIC BUSINESS UNDERTAKINGS Public Corporations: These are government or state owned businesses that are primarily run by Central government. Municipal Undertakings: These are government owned businesses that are run primarily by the Local Government. These include market, parks and beaches Government Undertakings: These departments carry out special functions such as education, health and finance REASONS FOR ESTABLISHING A BUSINESS * To earn a income * To make a profit- which is the result when a firm’s sales revenue is greater than its total costs. Profit is important because it enables business to survive and grow, it also provides the owner with a return for taking the risk of losing money they have invested. To provide employment to persons in and around the community * To expand production and increase the yearly sales of the firm * To produce a product that is either a good or service to the community * To have the satisfaction of being one’s own boss SOLE TRADERSHIP OR SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP The sole tradership or sole proprietorship is defined as a one man business, this is so because he or she enters b usiness on his or her own, therefore bearing the risk of the business and thus entitled to all the profits. Even when the sole trader invites someone else to assist in the running of the business, these individuals would be employees. They do not share in ownership of the business and the owner is responsible for decisions made concerning the business. * Sole tradership is very easy to setup and operate. * It does not require any legal paperwork or registration. * Sole Trader is an unincorporated business, which means that the owner and business are one and same in the eyes of the law. This means that he conducts in his own name, his business is not separate from him. Sole Trader has unlimited liability which means that their personal assets can be clamed to settle the debts of their business that is why in the case of bankruptcy the sole trader stands to lose his/ her personal belongings, if the business assets cannot cover his/her debts. In order to finance the business the sole trader may: *   Use his personal savings to start the business. * The sole trader may also borrow funds from family members or friends. * The sole trader may also get funds from financial institution such as credit unions, commercial banks or government sources as the business progresses. The sole trader may also reinvest or plough back some of the profits made in the business. The sole Trader may sell ownership of his business to someone else. If he/she dies then the business no longer exists. ADVANTAGES OF SOLE TRADER * The business is simple to start and usually requires only a small amount of capital * Profits are not shared * Decisions are made promptly and the new ideas put in place quickly * The owner retains personal control over the direction and growth of his/her business DISADVANTAGES OF SOLE TRADER It is difficult to access capital if the sole trader wants to expand his business * The sole trader bears all the losses * The sole trader may have to work long hours and may not be able to take vacation when he wants to do so * Unlimited Liability , therefore in the case of bankrup tcy he may lose his personal belongings to claim its debts * There is lack of continuity if the owner dies PARTNERSHIP An ordinary partnership is an association of two to twenty persons who are in business together with a view to earning a profit. This type of partnership may have general or active partners who are involved in the day to day operations of the business. A Sleeping partner is a partner who may be willing to introduce capital into a business but may not wish to take an active part in the running of the business In an ordinary partnership all partners have unlimited liability which means that they stand to lose not only their investment capital but also their personal assets. It is possible to have a limited partnership bit at least one partner mush accept unlimited liability. Partnership is formed amongst partners, partners may share in the management of the business or may serve as the manager or they may employ someone to manage the business Partners are free to decide whatever arrangement they like amongst themselves as to what rules will govern their organization. Partners have a written arrangement or deed. A partnership deed sets out the rights of each partner as to the division of profits. The deed sets out: * The name of the business and the date the business started * The type of business and the location of the business Details of each partner * The amount of capital each partner invested * How profits to be shared * The responsibility of each partner in the business In financing a partnership business all partners pool their savings together, loans and retained. Profits are shared by the deed drawn up by the partners, the absence of the deed means that profits are shared equally. In a partnership all partners are held personally responsible for all debts of the business. If one partner cannot fulfill his obligations then the other partner will bear all the losses. A partnership may be terminated: When partner or partners decide to sell their share of the partnership to someone else. When this occurs a new partners are brought in. * If it becomes insolvent or bankrupt * When all parties agree to terminate the business ADVANTAGES OF PARTNERSHIP * It is easy to form as there are few legal formalities * More capital is available to foster growth and development. * Workload can be shared amongst partners DISADVANTAGES OF PARTNERSHIP * If a partner makes a mistake all partners stand to lose * Each partner is liable for the debts of the business * Possible disagreements between partners Membership limit of twenty which restricts resources of the business CO-OPERATIVES A cooperative is a form of business that is owned and controlled by a group of persons who have a common interest and who have an equal say in operation. Types of Cooperatives * Producer Cooperative: In this type of cooperative society members are in their business of producing example in a farming community * Buyers Cooperatives: This is a type of cooperative in which persons who use a particular good in their business operations come together to purchase that good in large quantities and gain benefits of discounts. Financial Cooperatives: This is a service oriented society. It brings together persons who have a common interest. The aim is for members to pool their resources in the provision of service * Workers Cooperative: Are businesses that are owned and run by their own workforces. Example the crews of a bus company Cooperative is governed by a general meeting. The meeting is held annually and it is at this meeting that a committee is appointed to handle the day to day affairs of the cooperative. The cooperative is controlled by its members. Each member contributes to share capital of the cooperative. Members finance the cooperative through the purchase of shares Shareholders receives dividends if the cooperative makes a profit from its operation. The amount of dividend is related to the number of shares held. Dividends are generally small, since the major goal is not to make a profit but to provide a service to its members. Earnings from a cooperative are not totally consumed in the payment of dividend. Most of these are ploughed back into the cooperatives to finance operational needs identified by the members. ADVANTAGES OF CO-OPERATIVES * Members benefit from the pooling of funds for the purpose of lending to other members * Members have equal say in the operation of business as well as in the decision making of the cooperatives * Members are the owners of the cooperative society * Employment is created within the organization DISADVANTAGES OF CO-OPERATIVES * Profits may be small or non existent * Shortage or lack of capital may inhibit growth and cause problems How to cite Principles of Business, Essay examples

Cartoons Cereal a Music Analysis free essay sample

Music Analysis Cartoons Cereal Now I was raised In a sandbox next to you and her You was holding the handgun, she was giving birth To a baby boy to be just like you, I wonder what thats worth I-I wonder if you ever knew you were a role model to me first . .. You told me, Dont be like me, Just finish watching cartoons Which is funny because all I see is Wile E. Coyotes in the room (ironic)? The bridge is the foundation of the entire song.It has a way of notifying the listener of the adventure they are about to embark on and that this Eng Is far from the conventional hip-hop and rap music that Is often blasted on the local radio airwaves. The listener Is tolerated back to Snickers childhood to the playground, particularly in the sandbox. The sandbox is a representation of creative freedom; an individual can create anything he or she desires. Although it can provide freedom, the sandbox is also the dirtiest place on the playground; it can come with all types of germs and other undesirable objects. Kindlier Lamar mentions his father Eliding the handgun, [while] she was giving birth Where she is being referred o as his mother, this line Is an Idiom for taking life and giving life. Some teens are forced Into parenthood and cannot handle the responsibilities. Fathers leave and mothers neglect, nevertheless a child will find security and guidance wherever it seems to appear. In the next couple of lines, Kindlier states: I-I wonder if you ever knew you were a role model to me at first, most young black men do not have a positive male figure in their lives, so they are forced to look for the next thing.Whether it Is their mother or the local dope boy, It will be found and It cannot be said whether It Is positive or negative. As an adult, Kindlier is faced with the reality that not everyone may have his personal wellbeing In favor and all he sees .. . Is Wile E. Coyotes in the room He had to be the Roadrunner; be smart and cunning when faced with difficult situations, whereas Wile E. Coyote was sneaky and a conniving individual. All his parents wanted was for him to keep his innocence and remain a child for as long as possible, and this is showed when its implied that his father told him, Dont be like me, Just finish watching cartoons This sit make a Amiga Just Anna write, reminisce when I had a morning appetite Apple Jacks, had nothing that I hit the TV Guide, Insomniacs the only thing that gave me peace of mind Im a maniac when aiming at the enemy. .. Tell a story thatll never glory 25 Anti nobody going tie your shoe, nobody grew up by (by) your rule, Nobody horn your gun, how come, your tongue say kill then kill my mood, . Till I wreck into a pole, like a right to vote I am from the bottom of the Jungle living in the bottom of the food chain, . ..In the era where we want earn soon thats an error, you can smell it In the alarm everybody really mode thats why Im background you knapsacks all hall can suck my dull, all them days at the county buildings, Im bout to make my momma rich cartoons and (cereal I anti felt this (good since) Scrooge Muck (here we go) Elementary hood sit Kindlier Lamar started off as a poet and since he was a young child, it was always his way to express himself. When he was a child, television, particularly cartoons, was his way of escaping reality, note that he said the Insomniacs, the only thing that gave mind. The black male is left to fend for himself a lot in recent society, especially in ingle parent households. Kindlier expresses his thought that most will not live to . Tell a story thatll never glory 25 shows that the life expectancy of a black male is well before 25. If one is to live past 25, they are simply lucky. When Kindlier says anti nobody going tie your shoe nobody go by (by) your rule He means that he had to retain a sense of independence even though he was so young. He learned that someone is not always going to be there. Furthermore, that he has no restrictions growing up because he was self-sufficient.With his father in Jail and his mother instantly working to support him, it was no wonder why cartoons were his scapegoat from reality. When an individual comes from a low income background, and individual is at the bottom and that is exactly what Kindlier means when he says, I am from the bottom of the Jungle living in the bottom of the food chain There is nowhere else for him to go but up in the world, and because he is at the bottom of the food chain, he may be considered a weak aspect in society as well as an easy target for those who have no remorse for those individuals who are trying to succeed in this world.Kindlier believes that we live in the era where we want earn soon And the youth no longer want to honestly work for their rewards, they would rather have it instantly and soon it becomes a problem and the youth fail to realize that everybody really doomed. Many doubted the fact that Kindlier Lamar was a talented writer and that music would take him far, which is why he chose to sneak up on his competition. Once Kindlier realized that his rapping can take him somewhere in the world, he believed that all those countless hours in the county alluding will pay off and now he can provide for his mother. Salt all in my wounds hear my tears all in my tunes let my life loose in this booth Just for you, mafias hope hall amused! I did wrong, karma came crackers gave me ball and chain. Friends, enemies all the same state, fed both can hang. Nobody cant mute me, but I never said nobody cant shoot me, Just another stats to the white folks.. . Hunt the money, dont hunt the ho if you do what you always done, then you get what you always got you dumb buffoons Hand on my heart, face to the hood I pledge every word you ever eared was honest, yea this me, no mimic, no cameras, no lights, Just pain mama how much trauma can I sustain Road to riches got lots of lanes Just another player with lots of game, never had sit got lots to gain Gunplay first lines of his verse is his way of displaying a sense of openness and raw unguarded emotion to the listener. Some may take him as a Joke and find his openness as a Joke. Gunplay realizes that his actions were not reflections of who he is as an individual and has paid his debt to society. His referral to Caucasians as crackers shows disdain for the race, because to hem, black people are nothing but Just another stats to the white folks. .. Many black males has heard from either a father, uncle, older cousin, and maybe a mother, that money was the motivation, so they were to hunt the money, dont hunt the ho. Not only for the sake of having money, but to prevent teen pregnancy, or Just unplanned pregnancies period, which seemed to be a top issue in the hood. Gunplay wants people to understand that as a unit, individuals have to change their way of thinking and that if you do what you always done, then you get what you always got. It isnt make sense to expect a different outcome, if an individual performs the same loyalty in his verse.With his hand on his heart, face to the hood [he] pledge[s] every word you ever heard honest. Hes been truthful to himself and others about what hes been through and has always remained the same through his struggle. It has always been Just him, no mimic, no cameras, no lights, Just pain. Hes aware that the road to riches comes with lots of lanes, but it is all about choosing the correct path, and not falling for fast cash and the sly lines used to trap the youth into believing hat the fastest route is the best choice.Gunplay simply believes that he is Just another player with lots of game, never had sit, got lots to gain. Meaning that he is another rapper with raw talent and so much to say, and he never had anything so he has everything to gain. Cartoons Cereal is the unconventional tale of what it is like to grow up black in America. I can personally relate to each of the artists in the aspect of having to retain mental stability and stay on top of my business at the same time. This song gives the listener a vivid auditory autobiography from both Kindlier and Gunplay, all he while creating a contemporary genre in rap music.The art of storytelling has been long lost in rap music and Kindlier Lamar and Gunplay are two of the few artists who are slowly reviving it. This song is aimed towards black youth to listen to their stories and to stray away from the destructive pathways of the streets. The idea formulated earlier referring to Kindlier Lamar as the Roadrunner was meant to show that his music has surpassed generations ahead of there the rap music industry is right now and hes simply waiting for everyone else to catch up.

American Renaissance Hawthorne, Poe and Keats free essay sample

An exploration of the role of the artist in society, as inspired by three writers/poets. This paper studies the life and work of three romantic writers: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe and John Keats. It focuses on their attitudes toward the idea of the role and responsibilities of artists to society. The paper examines each author individually, but attempts to make connections between their attitudes. The function of the artist played a key element in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Keats and Edgar Allen Poe. Each of these three artists felt an urge a responsibility that goes along with the thrill of writing. Each examined the role of an artist in society. Each examined the responsibilities of artists.

Four Types of Control Mechanisms Essays

Four Types of Control Mechanisms Essays Four Types of Control Mechanisms Essay Four Types of Control Mechanisms Essay Four Types of Control Mechanisms Control mechanisms are used to monitor progress and evaluate performance. System control, Bureaucratic control, Market control, and Clan control are all mechanisms that Target use to operate at peak performance. System control uses a set of procedures designed and established to check or regulate a resource or system. Bureaucratic control consists of formal rules and regulations that establish authority. It also set standards and regulate employee behavior through rules, policies, hierarchy of authority, written documentation, reward systems, and other formal mechanisms used to also influence employee performance. Examples of the bureaucratic control system could be audits or Code of Business Conducts. Market control adjusts activities by analyzing the competition, analyzing profit and loss and converting economic information. Some examples of market control would be cash flow statements, budgets, marketing research, sales analysis, etc. Clan control, the opposite of bureaucratic control, embodies cultural values, beliefs, corporate culture, shared values, traditions, professional standards and even informal relationships to aid the reaching of organizational goals and control behavior. A few examples of clan control would be dress styles and work hours. A real life example can be seen with the success of Japanese firms recently which American corporations began to take note of and even emulate. Because Japanese firms operate more like families because of their shared values, they were able to work with a more team centered approach and address problems as a team thus, becoming successful in global businesses. The importance of clan control can however, be underestimated since the control is â€Å"invisible†. :

Explaining governmental organizational structure Essay - 2

Explaining governmental organizational structure - Essay Example It has a local economic impact that annually support more than 1370 jobs in the town leading to Annual Earnings of about $78,025,500 and annual economic activities that are amounting to about $214,144,300. It’s a source of employment to the residents of Babylon in different fields like accountants, managers, and aircraft control staff. Since the airport is self-supporting, none of the towns earning from tax is spent in funding any of its operations. In addition the airport together with its residents also contributes over 600,000 dollars as tax to the town. The airport is also the home to the famous American Air power museum which invites air travel enthusiasts from all over the globe. The facility hence adds to the income of the town and the airport. It is also the home to Long Island Republic Airport Historical Society which keeps the important displays of the airport. Finally, the airport has led the town to attain national publicity. It hence hosts world class events like golf. This also earns the town much income. In a recap of all these economic developmental benefits that the airport generates to the town of Babylon, we can conclusively sum it up by saying that the republic airport is an economic pillar to the town of

Cross-cultual Managment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cross-cultual Managment - Essay Example How important are organizational status, prestige and level in the organizational hietrarchy What rights to make decisions are given to managers as function of their positions To what degree should employees automatically defer to the wishes and decisions of their managers Power distance refers to the belief that strong and legitimate decision-making rights separates managers and employees; this custom is frequently observed in Asian and South American countries. By contrast, employees in the United States and Scandinavian countries subscribe to beliefs of lower power distance and are less likely to believe that their managers are automatically correct. Therefroe, many employees in the United States and Scandinavia do not blindly defer to their manager's wishes. Cultures that emphasize individualism tend to accent individual rights and freedoms, have very loosely knit social networks and place considerable attention on self-respect. Strong emphasis is placed on the person's own career and personal rewards. Collectivism heavily accents group and values harmony among members. Individual feelings are subordinated to the group's overall good, and employees are more likely to ask, "What is the best organization" Face-saving (maintaining one's self-image in front of others) is highly important in collectivistic cultures. When face-saving is accomplished, then one's status in the group can be maintained. The United States has an individualistic culture; Japan is collectivistic, with a culture that can be characterized by the proverb "The nail that sticks up gets pounded down." The Chinese culture accents the importance of quaxi or relationships. Femininity versus masculinity Masculine societies define gender roles in more traditional and stereotypical ways whereas feminine societies have broader viewpoints on the great variety of roles that both males and females can play in the workplace and at home. In addition, masculine societies value assertive behavior and the acquisition of wealth; feminine cultures trasure relationships among people, caring for others and a greater balance between family and work life. The Scandinavian countries have the most feministic cultures; Japan has a markedly masculine one; and the United States has a moderately masculine culture. Uncertainty avoidance Employees in some cultures value clarity and feel very comfortable receiving specific directions from their supervisors. These employees have a high level of uncertainty avoidance and prefer to avoid ambiguity at work. Employees elsewhere react in an opposite manner since ambiguity does not threaten their lower need for stability and security. These employees may even thrive on the uncertainty associated with their jobs. Employees in countries such as Greece, Portugal and Belgium have high uncertainty avoidance characteristics and often prefer structure, stability, rules, and clarity. Countries lower in uncertainty avoidance characteristics include China, Ireland and the United States. Long-term versus short-term time orientation Some cultures accent values such as the necessity of preparing for the future, the value of thrift and savings and the merits of persistence. Members of these cultures exemplified by Hong Kong, China, Japan

Achieving Competitive Advantage In The Biotechnology Sector Commerce Essay

Achieving Competitive Advantage In The Biotechnology Sector Commerce Essay Biotechnology can be generally defined as the use of living things to create products or to do tasks for human beings. Biotechnology or biotech is used in industry, medicine and agriculture to produce foods, medicine, and test for diseases and remove wastes. (Biotechnologyonline, n.d) As such, there are different types of biotech such as green technology, red technology, and white technology and Bio fuels. In this report, we will have an insight into each of these branches of biotech and use various analytical tools to evaluate how knowledge management is playing a role in creating competitive advantage for companies in the sector. In so doing, we shall look at the Green biotech, Red biotech, White biotech and bio fuel respectively. Green Biotechnology Green technology, otherwise known as plant or agricultural technology is a branch of biotechnology (biotech) which involves the introduction of foreign genes into economically important species, resulting in crop improvement and the production of novel products in plants. (123biotech, n.d.). To better understand the role of knowledge management in harnessing a competitive advantage in this branch of biotechnology, we will take Monsanto as case example. Monsanto is the worlds leading green technology company ahead of rival such as DuPont. (SmartMoney, 2009). The company specialises in breeding (improving the genetic base through technology of crops thus increase yield and genetic engineering (by enhancing generic traits in crops such as insect resistance, herbicide tolerance and drought-tolerance). (SmartMoney, 2009 and Monsanto, n.d.) As with its sister braches such as bioinformatics, white technology(industrial biotechnology), red technology(pharmaceuticals) as well as biofuels, green technology and companies associated with it like Monsanto, are not left unscathed by critics. For instance, Monsanto and its counterpatrs , through its use of plant technology has been criticised of endangering human, the environment and socio-economic.( Friends of the earth, 2006). Significance of Green Technology However, the following advantages are beign celebrated by its supporters: Protection of Crops: for instance, the AT-DBF2 gene from Arabidopsis Thaliana crop injected into plants to enable them withstands Osmotic stress such as drought, salt and stress. (PNAS, n.d.) Increase Crop yield: during the teething years of biotechnology in term of Genetically Modified Food, there has been a widespread criticism of GMO claiming that GM Crops do not increase crop yield, that on the contrary it, reduces it. (Truth about Trade and Technology, 2009). These claims were dismissed by the then USA president Jimmy Carter who stated that, responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; starvation is. (Biotechnology Industry Organisation, n.d.)His favourable stance towards green biotechnology because of organisms like the Bacillus Thuringiensis used to produce the BT-corn. Introduces in 1996, the Bt corn has the potential to simplify management and effectively control corn borers throughout the season thus increasing its yield. (College of Agriculture, n.d.) Improved Food Quality: an example of this was the invention of the Golden Rice by Prof Potrykus and Prof. Beyer of ETH-Zurich and University of Freiburg respectively. The Golden rice is believed to alleviate Vitamin A deficiency in young people especially in the developing world. (Golden Rice, n.d.) Another example is the Maltogenic Amylase used for Retardation of staling in baked food, such as bread and cakes. (Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1997) Having had an insight about how green technology functions, its pros and cons, it is now essential to discover how companies like Monsanto use knowledge management in harnessing and safeguarding innovation in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage against rivals like DuPont. Knowledge Management as a competitive advantage vehicle. To understand the role knowledge management in achieving competitive advantage for biotech companies such as Monsanto, lets apply the Resource-Based View of strategy coined by Grant (1991citied in Henry, 2008). This analysis seeks to analyse how a company exploits its resources to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage against its rivals in the industry. (Henry, 2008) A resource-based view of strategy analysis Consumer Confidence, First Mover Advantage, Tap blue Oceans, CAPABILITY Fund expensive RD, New Product Development RESOURCES Finances, Experts, Human Capital COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Knowledge power, Experience curve STRATEGY Differentiation (Grant 1991 cited in Henry 2008) Step 1: Resources: Biotech industries such as Monsanto go beyond the ordinary in Identifying and attaining young talent; because technology can easily be rendered obsolete, there is always the never-ending necessity to pool talent and innovate. Thus, biotech companies like Monsanto are in collaboration with renowned sciences universities like Truman State University to recruit outstanding students with sound sciences background. (Monsanto, n.d.).Furthermore, with their immense finance capability, they are able to fund and exploit these talents. Step 2: Capability: with their finance abilities, these biotech companies are able to fund rigorous Research and Development: Monsanto reported spend $2.6m dollars a day in research and development on how breeding and genetic engineering could develop corn, cotton and soybean seeds that yield more bountiful and nutritious crops and protect against bugs and weeds. (SmartMoney, 2009)This paids off has the company as been able to develop leading brands such as Acceleron, Roundup Ready,Asgrow and Yieldgard for plant resistance to osmotic stress as well as De Ruiter Seeds,Dekalb and Deltapine(Monsanto, n.d.) Step 3: Competitive Advantage: consequently, Monsanto is able to acquire a sustainable competitive advantage due to its ability to create Knowledge power and experience curve on producing competitive and fast selling products like its renowend leading brands like , Acceleron and Roundup Ready Step 4: Strategy: as a result, Monsanto adopt a differentiation strategy. This diferentiation strategy is typical of biotech companies with exception to biofuel companies as they end result; fuel, once drilled and refined is standard worldwide. Step 5: Bridging any resources Gaps: this calls for proactiveness from the part of the company as it involves identifying where the company is weak and formulating adequate strategy to address such weaknesses or resource deficeincies. For instance, tapping blue oceans or untouched markets to increase the companys economies of scale (Henry, 2008) Knowledge Protection in Biotech Use of copyright and licensing: to safeguard knowledge and innovation the company licenses seed germplasm or biotechnology traits to approximately 200 seed partners in the United States. (Monsanto, 2009) In summary, it can be argued that because of the level of technological innovation that occurs in the biotechnology such as green technology, its both a key and critical success factor for company to effectively and efficiently management knowledge by harnessing and protecting its knowledge thus maintain a competitive edge. This we have evaluated using the resourced-based view of strategy analysis coined by Grant (1991 citied in Henry 2008). Red Technology Introduction: The term biopharmaceutical means that developing medicines from using living cells, proteins and nucleic acids. None of the two biopharmaceuticals can be same. Over the past decade world has seen enormous development in this sector. Part 2. The Value Chain Procurement Technology Development Human Resource Management Firm Infrastructure Post Sales Service Inbound Logistics RD Production Marketing Sales MARGIN MARGIN Adopted from Micheal E. Porter Competitive Advantage: Creating and sustaining Superior Performance. (1985 p.37) A lot of researchers like Porter (1985, p36) Henry (2008, p103) have emphasized the importance and application of Value chain analysis. We can assess the strength and weaknesses of any biotechnology company by looking at its resources. It expresses important information about strategy and focus of a particular company. By identifying key focus areas, companies can concentrate in achieving competitive advantages. Biotech companies tend to elongate their value chains by getting into alliance with the business partners; this can either be done by incorporating the concept of upstream or downstream value. Henry (2008, p103) depicts the importance and benefits of adopting this strategy. By exploiting the resources of partners, a biotech company can maximize operational efficiency. This operational efficiency leads to achieve competitive advantage. Each industry sector is unique in terms of function. Biotechnology industry, mostly being a manufacturing industry always works differently as compared to a service industry because of the fact that primary and support activities vary from industry to industry. Porter (1985, 38-40) also supports this fact. Like most of other industries, knowledge management plays a vital role in biotechnology sector and is considered to be a primary activity. Prusak as cited in Young (2008, p5) states that knowledge management is all about the information that is in the brain of individuals as an asset and how it is used to leverage into corporate asset. In biotechnology, explicitly it can be transformed into a corporate knowledge paradigm. This idea is also supported by Gorelick, April and Milton. (2004). In biotechnology sector, even if you look at any sub-sector of biotechnology, industry innovation is the foremost weapon to achieve competitive advantage. Cooke and Mayes (1996, p.13-15) also established relationship of innovation and competition. This mean that by innovation biotech companies achieve competitive advantage and in turns get increased market shares with higher growth rates. The innovation is leading to new effective products thus enabling biotech companies to achieve competitive advantage. By looking at the value chain analysis of biotech industry we come to know that the most valued activity is innovation and knowledge management. That is why biotech companies invest heavily in research and development (RD). For biotech industry RD part of value chain is much more focused and valued. In biofuel, biofood and bioagri the value chain is more or the less same, but when we look at biopharmaceutical and bioinformatics, the value chain tends to alter itself a little bit. The activity that also affects biophrmaceuical is that the phase of clinical trial demands a lot of time, capital and management. Procurement Technology Development Human Resource Management Firm Infrastructure Post Sales Service Inbound Logistics RD Production Marketing Sales MARGIN MARGIN Clinical Trials A typical value chain for biopharmaceutical company. Knowledge is a scarce resource and that is why there are very few biotechnology companies in the market. Adopted from Tzokas, N. and Saren, M. By looking at the above figure it is clear that knowledge management is difficult to achieve. Companies transform their knowledge-based and skills-based information with equipment-based knowledge to create competitive advantage. Theses factors build an organizational culture of innovation and the stake holders like employee and customers force company to come up with new ideas We need to investigate about the potential contribution of each stakeholder-based knowledge pool to the strategic investments, plots and projections undertaken by the biotech firms. The long term development effort needs trust relationship from stockholders that the deliverable of RD can result in to a competitive advantage. This can be done by making multidimensional plans linking knowledge requirements and knowledge pools, thus evolving a knowledge space in which the strategic issues of the firm and its stakeholders can be positioned. As such knowledge space and associated distances can be used as navigational instruments for knowledge utilization. White Technology Biotechnology is now used as a very wide term, but we can say that in general term that it the use of organisms by human . In recent years and past also researchers all over the world got new techniques and ideas to develop biotechnology and changing the future. the most known invention of biotechnology is cloning of animal as well as of name. This amazing technology works at visual as well as molecular level. INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY Industrial biotechnology is recognized everywhere in the world weather to prepare consumer goods, material, chemical.( www.liebertpub.com,12:04) Industrial Biotechnology is the premier forum for this critical field and the only publication bridging biotechnology RD with later-stage commercialization for all industrial and environmental applications . it include fooding items ,textiles, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and body care products and many other products which we use in our daily life. The growing companies in many countries are taking help of biotechnology. By this companies make promise to the public to deliver new and improved products to their customers. Industrial biotechnology is of two types red and white. Red technology is now ignored by the companies and very less companies are dedicated with white biotechnology. PEST ANALYSIS POLITICAL FACTORS The first and the foremost factor to go through in pest analysis is the political factor. Researchers has emphasizes a lot on this factor. One such researcher is Jobber (2007, p79) who is of the opinion that Political and Legal issues can influence marketing decisions by setting the rules by which business can be conducted. Union Laws, Collusion, Abuse of market dominance, acquisitions and mergers, state aid and national laws are few of the political factors that reshape the companies. This factor includes all the political effects which affect the company or an organization. In some business political issues are much higher than any other companies but in case of industrial biotechnology government supports it and make policies to amend it or to improve it so that the future of a country can get improved and standard of living can be increased. All those organizations which do experiments on different methods of industrial biotechnology, government gives rebate from taxes pass legislations and create new departments to look at their working procedures. Strong legislation makes the Through legislation biotech companies are getting their products and processes patented. The biotech companies usually invest heavily in RD and come up with innovative products; these deliverables are end result of knowledge management. By getting the patent biotech companies make sure that their intellectual property right is secured and hence they achieve competitive advantage as no other company can imitate that. In the case of biopharmaceutical, the main governing body is FDA (Foods and Drugs Administration, USA). FDA ECONOMIC FACTOR Economic environment is the second most important factor in PEST analysis. Factors that affect consumer buying power and spending patterns Kotler et al (1999, p158) As evident from the various researchers, monetary policy, interests and exchange rates, income distribution, change in purchasing power, change in spending patterns, availability and rising cost of energy, labor and raw material has lead to significant changing in business world. World economy is in recession, so is the case of UKs. Unemployment ratio has gone up; peoples purchasing power is going down with a less savings. People are naturally focused more on spending towards necessities. Incomes are low. In this case consumer will move toward those products which saves their money and bio-products are one of those products which are cheap and reusable without damaging the envoirment and causing pollution. Envoirment issues are to be considered when it comes to shopping point of view and traveling. Legislation Banerjee, (1998) as cited in Charter and Polonsky (1999, p31), states that The threat of tougher legislation and the rising costs of complying with environmental regulations are possible motivating factors for firms to incorporate environmental concerns in their strategies. Tougher legislation can affect a firm in two ways: first the cost of compliance becomes prohibitive, second, legislation can require substantial changes in product or package design or distribution channels. (Taking back used thing) Public Concern Another important reason for firms to develop an international orientation and strategy is the rise in public concern for the environment. There are literally hundreds of opinion polls on the environment conducted in Europe, Asia and USA. Charter and Polonsky (1999, p32) The need to maintain a good public image and respond to public concerns can lead to firms adopting corporate environmentalism. Charter and Polonsky (1999, p33) Need for competitive advantage There are numerous cases where the installation of new environmentally friendly technologies has reduced costs for firms Charter and Polonsky (1999, p35) Social factors Social / cultural factors include Demographics forces, World Population growth, Age distribution, household structures and social factors. According to Kotler et al (1999, p153) the European and American societies are evidencing huge demographic shifts. Technological Factors Kotler et al. (1999, p165) Forces that create new technologies, creating new product and market opportunities. Those companies which have good knowledge about the new products can develop those and can attract new and existing customers. By this method apart from new technology awareness among public will also able to increase. Companies with better knowledge will develop new products in order to spread awarness among all sectors of consumers. Bibliography? Biofuels Introduction Biotechnology Biotechnology is the use of biological processes, organisms, or systems to manufacture products intended to improve the quality of human life. Biotechnology is an important innovative tool to attain The target the various levels example Bio fuels Bio informative, Bio medics, agriculture Biotechnology proficiency can serve to increase biomass yield, improve crop quality, and convert agriculture waste into bio fuels. (whatistechtarget n.d) Bio fuel It is also knows as agro fuel, these fuels are mainly derived from Biomass or Bio waste. Its often derived from plants and animals. Bio fuel is used faster growing modern technology for transporting sector. Liquid form of fuel is required for most vehicles is this convenient for storage and delivery, hence the bio mass is converted to liquid form. Bio fuel plays a virtual role in modern fuel manufacturing as they are renewable source of energy. Ethanol is the most commonly used Bio fuel in the world particularly in Brazils and largest exporters Asia, Europe and America are the some major producer of bio gases Lleading fuel companies like Bps and Shells company they involved in research and development in bio fuels. (biofuel,n.d) Generic strategies Porters alter the system by reducing its down to three best strategies. Overall Cost leadership Differentiation strategies Focus strategy strategies Overall cost leadership: A firm produced standard product by low cost and also take responsibility of economic scale and experience curve effect. market share is advantage. Differentiation strategies: A company is aimed at broad market. the product must some special feature like advance technology, brand image, etc Focus strategies: In this focus strategies a firm concentrated in market and particular group of consumer. (Reference) Overall cost leadership ? Bio fuel are the cheapest form of fuel you can ever get they dont need big investment in new distribution system but just the basic establishing plant is enough to produce them bio fuel mostly involves in long term investment. Hence Initial investment is very crucial. Its been assessed that share holders all over the world show keen interest in investing huge amount of money in this upcoming promising sector. Differentiation strategies? Bio fuel is renewable source of energy unlike others fuels they have less emission of air pollutants. Hence they are environment friendly; they are very low cost so they can match all the price of leading fuels. The impact of Hybrid cars and green cars with play a massive role in decreasing global warming. Focus strategies? Bio fuel industry will create a big employment opportunities all over the world and helps the countrys economy to develop as well. They provide jobs at all levels even form farmers to scientists. This industry has been welcomed by all countries and they are trying to be innovative to improve this sector all over the world. Most government offer discount and tax reduction on green cars thus encouraging people to buy them. This difference makes the bio fuel market to be more competitive in the fuel market. In forward planning about the global warming all nation now concentrate on bio fuel as they play a vital role in helping to control the pollution. APPLICATION OF PORTERS THEORY TO BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY Biotech industry has a varied range of applications like in agriculture, molecular biology, health care, pharma sector, chemical industry, environment related and so on. Porters five forces theory helps us to understand and interpret the business processes. This knowledge can be translated to gain a competitive edge over the competitors. This theory is also used to assess the profits that can be generated in the proposed business scenario or the services or products. According to this theory, the five forces that decide the competitive power of the firm in the industry are as follows, Threat of new entrants In the biotech industry, intellectual property is the most important asset. The firms in this industry are heavily dependent on funding to sustain the research and development activities. And very negligible revenue is generated by the firm till the product is developed. So finance is one of the major barrier that keeps away new entrants from the industry. Another barrier that deters the new entrants is the want of specialized knowledge in the area of research or development. Patent rights and proprietary rights also act as barriers to some extent. In some cases where knowledge and patent rights are easily overcome, many small players come into the picture. Although entry is easy for smaller companies, sustenance would be very difficult in this industry. Suppliers As discussed earlier, intellectual property is the most important asset in this industry. The biotech firms usually do not heavily rely on the suppliers. The tools, kits, equipment, chemicals and all other requirements are highly specialized. However small companies who either fail to explore new channels of distribution or who cannot afford the traditional channels of distribution, are at a loss, as they are compelled to enter into marketing alliances. Buyers The power of buyers is not uniform throughout the biotech arena. Earlier, the pharma companies were not affected by the buyers as the customers did not have or had a very little say about the product. The pharma companies had marketing alliances with the hospitals, pharmacists and agents. So the buyer power was less. In case of firms where the major purchasers are the governments or the hospitals, the buyers are strong. But now the health care companies, insurance companies and common man have entered the arena. The increasing price sensitivity of this new group of buyers is forcing the biotech companies to cut the prices and therefore the profit margin is becoming less. In addition to this, governments in some developing countries are pressurizing the biotech companies to take some social responsibility. ( as in the case of providing vaccines for epidemics at an economical price.) So there is a clear shift and the buyers power is increasing. Substitutes The availability of substitutes also depends on the kind of bitech firm/product. If the knowledge and patent rights are not properly protected, the investment in Research and Development (R D) cannot be recovered. If the patent can be easily overcome, some other company can simply copy the formula/application to offer the product at a much cheaper price. So the formulae/knowledge are to be carefully guarded through patenting and Intellectual Property (IP) rights. In some cases, cheaper chemical product alternatives may be available to the sophisticated and more accurate biotech products. Rivalry The competition rivalry is too intense in the biotech industry. Market analysis shows that only 1% of the biotech firms manage to make a profit. Biotech industry is largely dominated by few large firms although there are hundreds of smaller companies. All the firms are struggling to translate their RD efforts into a breakthrough innovation/product. This innovation could potentially change the fate of the firm overnight. So the Intellectual Property is carefully guarded and the rivalry is extremely high in this industry. For example, In U.S, 82 % of biotech firms make 0 % profit, 76 % of firms have less than 50 employees and only 30 companies have more than 300 employees. Porters five forces theory certainly helps in understanding the pros and cons, the opportunities and threats in the business situation. This theory definitely aids in evolving a business strategy. but this theory may not be of great help in assessing the degree of ease or difficulty or profitability in dealing with the business situation. In this context, this theory does not consider the following strategic influences like, Industry merges and acquisitions have become the norm of the day and the consequences of such deals cannot be assessed and is not taken into consideration. Research and innovation has the potential to dramatically change the face of the industry. As new discoveries/innovations occur, many new threats/opportunities spring up. This makes the biotech industry a highly vulnerable one. This aspect is left out by the theory.