International Management Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

International Management Report - Essay Example er this approach the main focus of market and product planning is therefore the consumers who form the target market which may be widespread (international) or centralized (confined to a specific geographic location. Consequently for viability, the marketing mix hinges on the 4P components: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. (Kotler, 2003). Currently the Russian marketplace is one with great potential for international investment given its natural physical and human resources, as well as political development of the last few years. As a result this paper will focus on a market plan for entering this market with Australian gourmet wines, and the subsequent sections will address the different components of the mix as it applies to Russia. Russia is a large country in terms of geography and population size with almost two thirds of the population living in big cities far away from each other and surrounded by vast and little populated areas, often with poor transportation connections between these cities. Over the last decade there has been some political stability and improved standard of living with the passing of a new constitution and a selection of a new government. Notwithstanding, there continues to be widespread crime and corruption as well as deteriorated urban infrastructure. In terms of businesses, although there are retailers and suppliers, these are fragmented, and the few chain stores are not under any organized umbrella. On the socioeconomic front, whereas the greatest purchasing power of the society is concentrated among the minority who are business people living in the large cities, pricing is a very important factor to all consumers. Those with limited purchasing power are mainly older citizens who are interested in the reliability and the quality of goods, especially in the health care sector. Despite this, the leisure preferences displayed currently are sport activities and eating out at restaurants, and for shopping, they prefer large

Structure matters Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Structure matters - Lab Report Example It involved manual pulling of the paper strips to find out the amount of force needed to tear the paper. Some paper strips were soaked with water and the same tensile strength test conducted. It was noted that the dry paper strips require far much force to tear apart than those soaked in water. Among the dry paper strips, the strips with shorter width required much force unlike those with longer widths. The demand placed on pulp industry makes paper and paper board testing an important step in the in the production process of paper before release for use in the wide range of applications. The tensile strength and elongation of the produced paper must meet customer requirement especially those used in printing. The tensile breaking strength of board and paper is usually achieved by measuring the stretch and breaking load of paper strips. The provided sheet of paper was measured and five of 3/8† by 3† strips were made through the use of scissors both from the top left comer of the sheet and the bottom right corner. The strips made from the top corner were kept separate from those made from the bottom right corner. The amount of force required to pull the strips apart were rated form a scale of one to ten with one assigned to the strips that required the least amount of force while ten assigned to strips that required the maximum force. From the firs experiment it was evidenced that pulling the strips cut from the bottom left corner of the sheet required a lot of force to be exerted in order to tear the strip a part. The force needed to get the strips torn was rated 8 out of ten. On the other hand, the strips made from the top of the paper required much less force as compared to the other strips. The force required to get the strips torn was rated 5 out of ten. The strips made from the bottom right corner of the paper had a shorter width of 3/8† with a longer length of 3†.

ASU Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ASU - Essay Example I have always been lazy about attending these kinds of event but it turned out to be good for me. I always thought that it was boring and useless, but, indeed it was fun for me. Back home we do not have these sorts of events where all the students in a school go somewhere or do something together. Well, at ASU everything is different and new to me so I liked the experience, but one of my friends did not like it at all. By the end of the event while we were going back down he got a headache, and I blamed myself as being responsible for this, because I had brought him alongside me. At the beginning he didn’t want to come but I spent a few minutes convincing him until he agreed to come with me and my other friend. Well, that was a great day for me, I liked it, and I hope to do it once more. It was the first time for me to attend a football match because we do not have that back home. I was very nervous on seeing the large number of fans who had turned up for the football match. It was just my friend and I that had attended the game and it was very crowded, so there was a lot of noise coming from all over the stadium. I liked what was going on at first but then it kind of irritated me, so I was planning to leave the match, just 15 minutes after it had begun. This was my very first experience in a stadium that big and what really a football matched looked like in reality. The experience was very different from what I had seen before on TV. While I was watching the match, I became bored since I do not know the rules of the game or how the game was supposed to be played, so I did not find it that interesting to me. I have always wanted to attend a football match, though I did attend, I am afraid that could be the first and last time for me to attend such a match again. This is for the sole reason that I am not the kind of a person who likes big crowds of people in addition to too much noise

Barclays bank approach to system implementation ((business information Essay

Barclays bank approach to system implementation ((business information system)) - Essay Example This would mean spending more money to pay the extra manpower added to run the two systems together. With the case for Barclays, this cost was minimized when they decided to use the ‘big bang’ approach where by they only spent on the new system rather that both the new and the old as in parallel or pilot approaches of system implementation. During the process of migrating old data to the new IBM database DB2, erroneous data that were found in the old databases were removed and only complete and useful data was moved. This helped the bank on saving disk space and also in the cleaning of their data. When running only one system the concentration level of the staff using the system becomes high because they only need to focus on one system rather than two. This method of changeover reduces interruptions caused when the staffs have to work on two systems concurrently. Therefore, Barclay staff had minimum interruption considered to when the bank had decided to use a parallel method. Since the staffs using the new system don’t have a fallback system, they tend to learn how to use the new system faster than when the organization was running on a parallel system changeover approach. Regardless of preparing for the last 18 months for the launch of the new system, no one knows when things might go wrong. By adopting the ‘big bang’ approach, the bank had risked losing both the old system and the new one just in case it failed. The impact of such failure would also be more than when other methods were used. There is always the risk of meeting the deadline of launching the new system especially when a team is involved in the development process. For the case of Barclays, they never had problem in meeting their deadline and things went smooth. Merging data from various databases into one centrally located and accessible by all branches was a difficult task. This was so because, some of the data had to

Discuss How the relationship between kinship and politics is Essay

Discuss How the relationship between kinship and politics is illustrated in texts of Aeschylus's Eumenides and extract from Theogony by Hesiod - Essay Example Unknown to Thyestes, Atreus had secretly murdered all of his children and have served them to him in a way that the true origin of the meat was disguised. Needless to say, he had unwittingly eaten his own children. Atreus had revealed to him the true nature of what he has been eating by the end of the meal, and Thyestes, in his rage, called down a curse on Atreus house. With Aegisthus, his sole surviving child, they fled from the house. (2) Agamemnon and Menelaus are Atreus sons. Agamemnon wedded Clytaemestra, and Menelaus wedded Helen. Menelaus wife, however, was seduced by Paris of Troy, with whom she went willingly with back to his city. Agamemnon and Menelaus had arranged the chieftains of Greece into a massive force in retaliation to win her back. The fleet met at Aulis, but was incapable of setting sail due to the anger of the goddess Artemis who had been keeping the weather against them. The prophet Calchas said to Agamemnon that in order to pacify the goddess, the king would have to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigeneia. As he did so, he and his troops were able to set sail. They waged a war against Troy for ten long years, which eventually destroyed the city and killed or enslaved all of the people in the city. On their journey back home, Agamemnons contingent was faced by a terrible sea storm wherein only Agamemnons ship was able to survive. In his return, Agamemnon brought with him a captive mistress, the prophetess Cassandra. His wife, Clytaemestra, had taken a lover while he was away who just so happened to be Aegisthus, the only surviving son of Thyestes. Not long after Agamemnons return, Clytaemestra murdered the king in his bath. Her next victim was Cassandra. The prophetess, with the conviction that she is incapable of changing her fate decided to walk wittingly towards her own death. (5) Clytaemestra exhibited the corpse of the king while proclaiming that justice had been served. Her motives were a tangled mix

Finance and Company Essay Example for Free

Finance and Company Essay So Wrigley has to make decisions on whether or not to borrow $ 3 billion for recapitalization. Question Based on the above situation, there are few questions that arise as seen below: ? Whether the recapitalization would be good for the company’s development in the long run? ?After borrowing $ 3 billion dollars what would the impact on the company’s debt rating be? ?What’s the impact on the company’s share value; would the recapitalization increase the company’s share value? ?What’s the impact on the company’s WACC, an increase or decrease? Would recapitalization increases the EPS of the company? Hypothesis Before capital restructuring due to not having any debt, return on capital and operating income as a percent of sales can be used based on exhibit 2(it is $513,356/$2,429,646= 21%) which is the A to AA range of investment grade. After recapitalization, the company’s debt rating will fall to a BB/B rating which reflects a higher risk and lower debt rating that will cause higher yields. According to Exhibit 7’s given information, the yield is between BB (12. 753) to B (14. 663) to obtain a cost of debt. Impact on share value If the company chooses to repurchase the stock, the WD will be 22. 89% (3,000,000/13,103,000), the WACC will be 10. 19% (22. 89% (1-40%)*13%+77. 1%*10. 9%). Both 10. 32% and 10. 19% are lower than the WACC before recapitalization, which indicates that after the recapitalization the company will have a lower minimum rate of return for the company that it needs to earn on its investments to maintain its wealth. Impact on Voting Control If the company is using the dividend plan to do capital restructuring, there will not be any impact on voting control. However, if the company is using the stock repurchase plan, it will have an influence on the voting control. The current Wrigley family ownership includes 21% of common shares and 58% of B shares. The total numbers of shares outstanding for Wrigley consists of the sum of the common shares of 189. 8 million and class B shares of 42. 641 million (10 votes each), a total of 232,441 million shares. So the company will have 46. 6% ((189. 8*21%+426. 41*58%)/616. 21=46. 6%)voting control before recapitalization. After the recapitalization the voting control will increase to 49% [(179. 22-42. 641)*21%+426. 41*58%]/ (136. 58+426. 41) =49 Based on the above analysis, my suggestion is not to borrow $ 3 billion dollars, or if the company insists in doing a recapitalization I would suggest for them to not borrow as much and to make some investment on assets instead of it all in equity. For the Wrigley Company I think they should keep their debt below 50 percent. Because after recapitalization, it will have negative impacts on EPS, debt rating, share value and it has a slightly positive impact on WACC and voting control. The results of impact on EPS analysis shows that EPS will drop from $ 1. 61 to 0. 46 and, the debt/ assets ratio will be 169% which will increase the company’s risks. From a debt rating aspect, after borrowing $ 3 billion dollars, the debt rating of the company will decline from AA/A to BB/B which means that the company will have a higher interest rate, more interest expense and a lower credit rating in the future. This is not good for the company’s future development. From a long term prospective, I believe it’s important that the company be careful in determining whether they should pursue a dividend or stock repurchase strategy. If the company chooses to use the $ 3 billion to pay dividends now, it might increase the investor’s satisfaction in the short run but once the dividend has been paid, the investor will expect the same amount of dividend in the future and a lower dividend might disappoint investors and that might affect the company’s stock price in the future. The stock repurchase is temporary as well, so after the repurchase the ending stock price might drop and it may hurt a potential new investor who made a purchase during the repurchase period. All things considered as long as Wrigley keeps an eye on their long term goals and continues to look at the big picture whilst making good solid financial choices for their company they should be most successful.

Health Disparities Between Maoris and Non-Maoris

Health Disparities Between Maoris and Non-Maoris Introduction The first inhabitants of New Zealand came from the islands nearby. The locals or what they call themselves, Maoris, travelled across the pacific some thousand years ago. It was also thought that the Maoris arrived in the island by groups. The initial meetings between the pakehas (the whites) and the Maori’s was recorded to have been in the 1700’s headed by James Cook, an expedition coming from Britain. In the middle of the 1800’s, an agreement was written between the British colony and the local settlers in the form of the Treaty of Waitangi. Agreed and signed by Maori chiefs and individuals that stood in behalf of the British crown. This agreement came about as the mediating factor between the foreigners and in particular the protection of the interests of Maori’s. The treaty gave way to more migrants from Britain up to a point where pakeha’s already outnumber the locals. With new methods of living introduced by the whites, the locals were not able to adapt easily constituting the increase in Maori death rates. It was believed firearms and new contagious illnesses were among the top cause of mortality for the locals. Moreover, history is telling us that after New Zealand was colonized, locals were losing their lands which contributed much of the Maori’s health issues. It was noted that incidence of death was not as high as compared to those indigenous groups who were able to get hold and not surrender their lands as in the case of the Tongans and Samoans. (Kunitz, 1994) The various challenges the Maori people faced were not limited to confiscation of their lands. This included putting restrictions with their rights and discouraging the use of Maori language in the area of study which paved way to adding more insult to the health of the Maori’s. The signed Treaty of Waitangi has its main purpose which is to protect the rights of the locals of New Zealand particularly the Maori’s. However, realization of the main purpose of the treaty remained only in writing which resulted in disparities in health access between the whites and the Maori’s. In this paper, I will be discussing the disparity and how it has put the Maori’s in the disadvantage which was clearly the opposite intention of the Treaty of Waitangi. The aim here is to better understand the Maori’s and where they are coming from so we, the future health care providers in this country, would be able to perform our duties properly. Health Disparities Various studies have been done and scholars cited numerous reasons why there are inequalities particularly in health between the pakeha’s and the Maori’s. Genetic factors and environmental influences are among the suspects for the disparity but really does not play as the key variables when it comes to public health concerns. For the purpose of this study, we try to dissect the â€Å"nongenetic† factors for the disparities in health between the pakeha’s and the Maoris. These include socioeconomic variables, lifestyle, discrimination, and accessibility to health care. Noting that, although, these may be four areas to consider, they are all somewhat correlated with each other. Socioeconomic Factor The loss of land by most of the Maori’s constituted to their poor status. The locals have lost their ability to care for their lands which led to low production of fruit crops. Inability to rear animals such as pigs, sheep and cows due to lack of space also contributed to their lessening power to trade. Without much power in trade resulted to low income which forced them to live in the outskirts where there is limited supply of the basic needs. As a result, the Maori’s, being unable to acquire the necessities in life, were subjected to poor health conditions. Lifestyle Tobacco use and alcohol consumption were introduced to the locals by the colonizers to help pass time or to keep them pre-occupied. However, with their poor state of life, Maori’s resorted more to these vices to combat depression. Unknowingly, it had grown in them and fell slave to these addictive elements. Excessive intake of these products created more problems for the Maori’s. They became more depressed and elicited unruly behaviours which certainly did not help in promoting good health practices. The lack of knowledge with proper food preparations also added to the Maori health issues. Maori’s also believed that when an individual has gained weight that it is a sign of being healthy. Unfortunately, with the wrong perception, high rate of obesity and cardiovascular related diseases are not uncommon to them. Discrimination The locals or the Maoris have been long a subject to racism and have experienced discrimination at all levels for most of their lives. The incidence happening within the health care areas, may it be conscious and unintentional attitudes of people providing health care, have caused the Maoris to be doubtful when seeking medical assistance until it is already in its worst stage. Maoris also have encountered disempowerment coming from health care professionals. GP’s were reported to not likely support when it comes to measures to prevent health conditions to Maoris as compared to the non-Maoris. Access to Health Care Living in far flung areas not only inhibits the Maori’s accessibility to health care but it also limits them in getting proper assistance from any health care provider. Still in connection with the socioeconomic factor, some, if not most, of the Maori’s are still illiterate when it comes to using the internet due to either lack of service in the area or the lack of capability to get the service. Transportation also plays an important role when it comes to accessing health care. Most Maoris do not have the means for them to bring themselves to the nearest health care institution. Mostly happening, if a person coming from a specific cultural minority will seek medical assistance, one would want to find out if there is a medical staff of the same cultural background so it would be easy to convey their real condition. Being able to talk to an individual of the same culture will help ease the patient in opening his or her issues. Combating Disparities In recent time, a health disparity model has been formulated by the government under the Ministry of Health. This is to address the issues pertaining to inequalities in health for Maori’s. This model recognises the root of the disparities in a community and outlines procedures than can be performed to combat situations that cause the disparities. Areas that the model wants to achieve include finding ways on how to improve an individual/family income, the importance of employment, providing education and health access for the locals. In this model, it is also addresses Maori’s to have more control in the land/communities they are currently living in. It is also supported that health services including disability assistance be given when necessary. An example of this is when a local is disadvantaged due to sickness or disability will be provided sufficient income assistance and support against social, ethnic and racial discrimination. (Ministry of Health, 2002) Case 1 A case study was done about a Maori banker who sought medical attention as he was not feeling well. During consultation, the GP was not able to get the whole picture about the status of his patient. The GP tried to explain his thoughts about the situation and asked for further details. The patient started to get frustrated. The patient mentioned that she went to a urupa (graveyard) and smoked and thought it could be the reason of his condition. The GP, having no idea of the significance asked for its relevance. The banker revealed that graveyards are considered sacred and that by smoking in it is against their culture. The GP elicited if the patient had any idea on how to fix it. After a sigh, the patient replied that he needed a priest. For the GP, although he knew the act had nothing to do about his condition, out of respect of the individuals’ belief, he acknowledged about the violation of their culture and that he would be able to give medicine to take care of his breathle ssness. In this case, the Maori patient really believed that the cause of his being unwell is rooted from him violating the Maori culture. Although the GP could have easily corrected the wrong notion, it would have been really difficult to have an argument especially if it contradicts ones cultural beliefs as it would mean for them as a sign of disrespect. The GP in this case was able to show signs that he respected their cultural system while presenting complementary solution from modern medicine which in turn helped hastens the intervention. The GP being comfortable with the disease attribution of the patient and by following the culture protocols while offering supportive assistance to deal with the patient’s breathlessness gave way for the Maori patient to be also comfortable in accepting treatment for both Maori and modern method of treating the condition. Case 2 Another case involving a 47 year old man of Maori descent who have encountered an injury from a crash at his work place as a driver. The health provider handling the patient had difficulty because the man is rude and unfriendly when they initially spoke on the phone. The issue was then brought up in a team meeting. Fortunately, one member is also a Maori who then suggested that a personal meeting is necessary between the health provider, his employer, client and his family. The meeting was then set and everyone was present including the clients’ employer and whanau. During the meeting, the patient spoke that it was his first time to meet most who were in attendance. The patient also expressed his dismay about the different treatment plan suggested by different providers and that there was no clear information on when he is able to return to work. The patient is also concerned about the rehabilitation process as it might interfere with his duties in their cultural group. In this case, since all the variables that can be affected during the procedure were all present, it made easy to formulate a care plan. By doing this, a fast and significant recovery was experienced sooner than expected since everyone was motivated and at the same time very cooperative performing the planned care. Conclusion As a future health care provider in New Zealand, understanding the Maori’s is very critical in providing health service and somehow will help fulfil what the Treaty of Waitangi is really for. Our aim as health care practitioners is not to change an individuals’ beliefs or customs. We should be advocates particularly to the disadvantaged for them to have control of their lives and be able to improve their ways of living most specially with their health. We should then encourage Maori’s to look after their health and be able to support their own well-being. Caring for them is not limited to those who are sick only but also to their whanau where making right choices about maintaining good health practices should be inculcated fully. In order to be successful with such model, the Maori’s and health care providers should be able to access the necessary resources. It should also be readily available, accepted and is in line with the maori culture. As most of us do, it is a must that we trust our own health care provider to let them handle any of our health conditions. Same with the Maori’s, if they are satisfied and accept the treatment given then it gives them confidence that the health care provider understands where they are coming from and what they really need. For this, it is a must for all health care providers to increase their knowledge about the history of the Maori culture and better understand what the real intentions of the Treaty of Waitangi. This move will definitely make the health care provider be culturally competent and be able to effectively communicate with Maori individuals and their whanau. In addition, this will also encourage patients to seek help early and be able to provide pertinent clinical details. Bibliography Kunitz, S. J. (1994). Disease and Social Diversity: The European Impact on the Health of Non-Europeans. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. Mà ¤uri Ora Associates. (2006, October). Best health outcomes for Maori: Practice Implications. Retrieved April 2, 2015, from Medical Council of New Zealand: https://www.mcnz.org.nz/assets/News-and-Publications/Statements/Best-health-outcomes-for-Maori.pdf Ministry of Health. (2002). Reducing Inequalities in Health. Wellington: Ministry of Health.