Coporate Governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Coporate Governance - Essay Example Definition of corporate social responsibility also includes the broader concept of economic, environmental, and social sustainability. CSR is a fundamental part of an integrated set of principles applied to the management of business. A business model should integrate economic performance with environmental and social values. This is a good definition of corporate social responsibility. The Boeing Company is the world's leading aerospace company, with its heritage mirroring the history of flight. It is the largest manufacturer of satellites, commercial jetliners, and military aircraft. The company is also a global market leader in missile defense, human space flight, and launch services. in the cabins and cockpits of many jets manufactured. Use of an overly harsh cleaning fluid on fuel tanks caused the inner coating of the tanks to flake off. Fuel tank repairs were made after the tanks had been Boeing has managed to stifle environmental reforms, become the state's second-worst polluter in a region renowned for its environmental awareness, and avoid serious scrutiny from the media, the public and even environmentalists. Despite Boeing's claims of a proactive environmental evolution, government regulators agree that Boeing rarely makes any major environmentally minded reforms without being so ordered. Boeing has taken credit, for example, for phasing out wasteful spray-paint guns and the use of CFCs in its part-cleaning vapor-degreasers. Boeing withholds from the public details of its plans to reduce toxic waste emissions, keeping watchdogs in the dark about areas where the company could or should be cutting down on pollution. State officials are allowed to see the plans, but they can't copy them. Perhaps most importantly, Boeing uses its enormous tentacles reaching deep into the state's political, business, social, even religious institutions to blunt criticism.Boeing's Aub urn plant discharged nearly 1,400 pounds of chromium - a carcinogenic heavy metal that can kill marine wildlife - into one of Metro's sanitary sewage systems. Boeing uses chromium to help make parts corrosion-resistant. Unbeknownst to Metro, the chromium went to the agency's sewage treatment plant in Renton, where most of it found its way into truckloads of bio solids - treated solid waste primarily used to fertilize forest and farm lands. Much of it winds up in the Olympic National Forest. In 2003 Boeing Co. chairman and chief executive Phil Condit resigned unexpectedly only days after the huge aerospace manufacturer fired two other Boeing officials for an alleged ethics breach. Condit had been with Boeing since 1965, when he joined the company as an aerodynamics engineer. He has been chief executive since 1996 and chairman since 1997; the company's seventh chairman since it was founded in 1916.Boeing has been roiled for months by ethical controversies

Reflection Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Reflection Paper - Essay Example This also creates an ambience where markets, labour and communities are able to function in harmony. Organizational responsibility also involves social investment which has become a necessary part of any business. Transparency of business in the social and environmental context has helped to gain public trust and recognition. Today, organizational responsibility has a much wider implication than merely providing jobs and contributing to the economy through taxes and employment. The concept of organisation responsibilities has been widening over the years. According to surveys, developing a good corporate socially responsible strategy can deliver real business benefits. Three steps are involved in the process of making ethical decisions. These are: moral awareness, moral judgment and ethical behavior. Moral awareness involves identifying the dilemma in ethics. Moral judgment is the acumen required to decide between the right and the wrong. Lastly, ethical behavior means choosing the right course of action. Corporate reputation is the esteem with which an organisation is held by its internal and external stakeholders. The stakeholders base their notion on the company’s past actions, profitability and future behavior. Very often, organizations overlook the importance of having a good corporate reputation and concentrate on other urgencies. But, this does not help in the long run. It is seen that organizations which have focused more on building their own goodwill have succeeded more than others. They have considered their â€Å"goodwill† to be the most valuable asset of their organisation. Some of the benefits of a good corporate reputation are as follows. Economic responsibilities, legal responsibilities, ethical responsibilities and philanthropic responsibilities are the four components of the corporate social responsibility pyramid. Economic responsibilities

Reformation of Chinas Pension Scheme

Reformation of Chinas Pension Scheme During the time of writing my dissertation, I have has many help from people both intellectually and emotionally. I would like to take this space to thank first of all, my supervisor, Mr. Robert Plumb, for offering me the support and guidance all the way through. I am grateful to my friends in the BSc Actuarial Science class for the great time I had during the three-year study at Cass Business School. I would like to thank all the lectures for making our lives at school so convenient and pleasant. Last but not least, many thanks to my family and other friends who have always given me encouragement and support during this process. Abstract The rapid ageing population in China has slowed down economic progress. Certain steps should be taken in relation to the pension system in order to cope with such a situation. There are several models of pension reform in the world, the most important one is perhaps the multi-pillar pension system advocated by World Bank. China actually reformed the current pension scheme based on this multi-pillar model. With a responsible attitude, the experience gained in Chinese pension reform will lead to a stronger and deeper national system that can eventually provide social welfare for the entire Chinese population. In Chapter 1, I will introduce the main types of pension schemes and the historical background of China pension system and illustrate how it developed. The current situation of Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pension system is displayed by the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index in Chapter 2. The four main problems of Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pension system and the urgency of reform is explained fully in Chapter 3. The different types of reform are followed by, along with what China chose to do in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, the performance of reform is evaluated. Chapter 6 is mainly about the problem pointed out in the recent China Two Conference and the future trend of Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pension reform. Table of Contents Acknowledgements2 Abstracts-3 Chapter 1 Introduction-5 Chapter 2 Current situation of China pension system8 Chapter 3 Problems of Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pension system and reasons for pension reform10 Chapter 4 Different types of pension reform and what China chose to do15 Chapter 5 Evaluation of pension reforming-20 Chapter 6 Conclusion-23 Reference25 Chapter 1 Introduction Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s population has been ageing rapidly, and financial support for the pension system is facing a number of resultant problems. The system itself is also divided unevenly across regions and sectors. Furthermore, globalization makes the transaction between countries and sectors more difficult. Therefore, reforming Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pension scheme has become an urgent issue. This report will begin with a brief overview of the historical background of the Chinese pension system. It will move onto the pension crisis and relevant problems at present, followed by the different types of pension reform and the way China has chosen to reform. Finally it will conclude with the evaluation of Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pension reform. The main goal of pension reform is to ensure the elderly live a peaceful life in retirement. In order to achieve this goal, China still has to solve a lot of economic and social problems. The Chinese government started its national pension system reformation in the 1990s by setting up a three-pillar state pension system in urban areas, which is a remarkable step in pension reform. Recently, Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index revealed that the Chinese pension system is facing a large challenge. There are five main problems occur in Chinese pension system: Financial problem; Ageing population; Institutional problem and problems occur in transaction. Several types of pension reform can be chosen and after considering the situation in China, the multi-pillar system stands out to become a wise solution. Compare to those developed countries, Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pension reform still has a long way to go. With positive attitude, we believe that the system will become mature in the fu ture. The main types of pension scheme as follows: A pension scheme can be classified as a defined benefit scheme or a defined contribution scheme according to the determination of benefits. A defined contribution (DC) scheme is dependent on the amount of money contributed and the performance of the investment. A traditional defined benefit (DB) scheme is a plan in which the benefit on retirement is determined by a set formula, rather than depending on investment returns. Another definition of a defined benefit scheme is that it is an arrangement where the benefits payable to the members are determined by the schemeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s rules. Value of Pension Fund Assets DB Value of Financial Assets DC Value of Pension Fund Assets Value of Financial Assets Basically, the pension scheme in China is a defined benefit, PAYGO system for older employees and retirees, multi-pillar system combining social pooling and individual accounts for younger employees. This system includes (a) a mandatory defined benefit paid out of social pooling account, (b) a monthly annuity paid out of the defined contribution, employee individual account, and (c) a voluntary supplementary individual account. After briefly explaining the main types of pension scheme, the historical background of China pension system will be illustrate as follows: In 1949 the Chinese government adopted a provisional constitution of the common Programà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?, which mentioned that the labour insurance system should be introduced progressively in companies; this provided a legal basis for the establishment of a unified, national labour insurance system. On February 25, 1951, the Central Peoples Government promulgated The Peoples Republic of China Labour Insurance Regulations, which required companies to implement pensions, medical insurance and industrial injury insurance for their employees. This was Chinas first social security law; it clearly defined insurance coverage, insurance premium collection, insurance items and standards, as well as the implementation and supervision of the insurance industry as a whole. During the next three decades the government gradually improved the pension system. Then, in 1984 China overhauled the entire pension system. The change was started in some rural areas first. The system was based on being paid mainly by individuals, supplemented by the communities, supported by government policies and resulted in the accumulation of funds in personal accounts. In 1991, thanks to economic development, the government established a combined system with a state pension, company pension and private pension. Basis of calculating accrual of pension insurance during that time: Range of income Rate of pension insurance 60% 60%-300% of average income actual income >300% of average income 300% In 1997 the Chinese government formulated a new policy, which started to establish a unified nationwide pension system for every enterprise employeeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s insurance. Chinas basic pension system is a combined model of state and individual accounts. The basic pension covers workers in urban enterprises; all urban enterprises and their employees must fulfill the obligation to pay the basic pension. At present, employers contribute about 20%, and employees 8%, of the total income. The rates paid by employers are partly used in the state pension and the rest goes into the personal accounts; the rates paid by employees are used in private accounts. In 1997, the policy became clearer. It can now be seen that the main purpose of the basic pension in the future is to protect the basic livelihood of retirees in their twilight years. After several years of reform, the people involved in pension scheme increased from 86.71 million (at end of 1997) to 108.02 million (at the end of 2001); the number of people receiving the basic pensions raised from 25.33 million to 33.81 million. The average monthly basic pension increased from 430 RMB to 556 RMB. In order to ensure the timely and full payment of the basic pension in recent years, the Chinese government have made efforts to improve the pooling level and constantly increased the financial input into the basic pension fund. From 1998 to 2001 the central government expenditures for pension fund subsidies amounted to 86.1 billion RMB. Chapter 2 Current situation of China pension system Recently, Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index revealed that the Chinese pension system is facing a large challenge. They measured the ranking according to the adequacy, sustainability and comprehensiveness of the system in each state. From the comparison of the private and public pension systems index in five continents, across eleven countries, Chinas system achieved relatively low ratings. This shows that Chinas growing pension system needs to be further developed and reformed in order to cope with continued pressure from the ageing population, and in order to remain competitive in the world. According to the pension index (total 100) estimates, the Netherlands ranks first, with an index of 76.1, followed by Australia (74.0), Sweden (73.5) and Canada (73.2). The UK ranked fifth with 63.9, while the lowest-ranked pension systems are those of Japan (41.5), China (48.0) and Germany (48.2).    Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index Country Overall index value Sub-index values Adequacy Weighting 40% Sustainability Weighting 35% Integrity Weighting 25% Netherlands 76.1 80.5 62.5 88.2 Australia 74.0 68.1 71.0 87.8 Sweden 73.5 68.5 75.2 79.1 Canada 73.2 76.2 64.2 80.9 UK 63.9 56.6 56.4 86.3 USA 59.8 49.2 69.4 63.4 Chile 59.6 48.9 54.1 84.5 Singapore 57.0 51.7 68.9 49.1 Germany 48.2 60.8 44.3 33.7 China 48.0 64.7 38.5 34.7 Japan 41.5 39.2 34.4 55.2 Average 61.4 60.4 58.1 67.5 Source: Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index Among these countries there was no one pension system which achieved A-Level (an index of more than 80). Mercer said that this shows that even the worlds most advanced pension system needs to be adjusted in order to ensure that the support is sufficient for a rapidly aging population. Although the lowest-ranked countries are not yet falling into the lowest level, the category E (an index of less than 35). However if the major defects are not resolved, the effectiveness and sustainability of all these systems will face challenges. Chapter 3 Problems of China pension system and reasons of pension reforming Chinas pension system is actually still in personal accounts, which are kind of on a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"PAYGOà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ system, combined with some public administration. The system is presently in a transition period. Of the results, the following problems stand out: 3.1 Financial Problems Firstly there are the financing problems. The actual payment rate is low and it keeps decreasing. Since the payment of the transition cost is still a problem, the pension accounts in many places have fallen into financial bankruptcy. According to the statistics from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the state-owned enterprises owe 38 billion RMB to the state in unpaid pensions all over the country. That is why the money raised in personal accounts is being used to pay current retirees. Even so, the funding is still not enough and when there is a deficit in financing, the local tax revenue is used to bridge the gap. In fact, the local and central government is working to save a lot of places where the pension co-ordination is already in bankruptcy. If the situation does not improve, it could threaten the sustainability of the central government. Another financial problem is that the personal account is actually just a name, which means it guarantees nothing. Since the Govern ment has not clearly informed us how they will pay for the transition costs over the past few years, all the money that has been raised in these accounts for funds has been used to pay the current pensions of retired employees, which turns personal accounts into empty accounts. One of the biggest progresses in Chinese pension reform is the introduction of a defined contribution scheme. It is compulsory for the workers to join the savings plan, therefore the welfare responsibilities are transferred from the government and enterprises to individuals. However, an important question makes people pause for thought: will the funding of this defined contribution plan really indicate the fulfilling of the fund, or it is just a fanciful à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"PAYGOà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ plan with no actual fund that plays the same role as the pillar I scheme. This issue has already led to misbehaviour in some local authorities. Some of the contributions to personal accounts have been used to pay current retirees, which leads to empty accounts and all the time the transition costs remain unclear. Implicit pension debt from the restructuring costs arose in the process of the old PAYGO pension system through the accumulation scheme. After we established the partly-accumulated system with social pooling combing individual accounts, the pension included two parts: a basic pension and an individual account pension. However, people who retired before the pension reformations did not have sufficient accumulation in individual accounts, while those who started to work before reform but retiring after reform only have limited personal accounts accumulated, and the basic pension can only provide a limited level of protection. Although there are no or only limited personal accounts pension accumulation for these two kinds of retirees, the commitments made under their old pension scheme still have to fulfilled, therefore this formed a pensions debt. Under the current PAYGO system, because the right of pensions is implied, the debt is called a hidden debt. However, when the pension system transferred to a whole or partly accumulation based one, the implicit debt became obvious. In order to ensure the continuity and fairness of the pension system, the new system must assume the responsibility for the debt. The Government has to fulfil the pension rights of those retirees. In our country, apart from these two parts of pensions, the additional pension to the retirees caused by inflation or wage increasing also belongs to the scope of implicit debt of the pension, generally speaking, Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s implicit pension debt includes payments to retired employees, transitional pension contribution to those who started work before the reform, as well as the adjustment fee applied to inflation and wage growth. Another important cause of the financing problems is that there are no specific responsibilities for historical debt between different levels of government. Our government did not specify the individual responsibilities between companies and governments with regard to the debt caused in transition period. The greatest problem of dealing with implicit debts is a lack of motivation and unclear responsibility allocation. Not only in the experimental areas, but also in other cities. Every party attempts to avoid its responsibilities. Both parties rely on each otherà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s financial input and lack of motivation in terms of the pension supervision. Therefore an increasing deficit became inevitable. 3.2 Ageing Population Secondly, the ageing of the population has now become a huge issue for many countries in the world. The problem is however, much more serious in China. Since China has a large population base, plus nearly 30 years of reform and opening up, peoples living standards have increased greatly. Health and medical conditions have been markedly improved. People expect to live longer and the elderly population increases every year; it is now more than 160 million. China has become the worlds largest elderly populous country, accounting for 1/5 of the total elderly population of the world, and 1/2 of Asia. Currently about 12% of the total population in China is aged over 60, although it is expected that this number will increase to 26% by 2050 because of the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"one-childà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ policy and the improvement in life expectancy. Now, the ratio of the working-age population to the retirement-age population is 8:1 and it will decrease to 2:5 by 2050. The average age in China is now 31 and it will reach 40 in 2050. The distribution of population in China Source: World Bank Institute (Dr. Wang Yan) This scenario showed that with a gradual decline in future population growth, Chinas labour force in 2020 to 2025 will stop growing, and decline thereafter. However, the population aged 65 and over will continue to grow. Therefore, the elderly dependency ratio will rise from 11% to 25% by 2030 and 36% by 2050. The system dependency ratio will not be less than the current 30%, which means that three workers support one retiree; by 2030 the ratio will rapidly reach 69% and 79% by 2050. The PAYGO system in 2000 has a 60 billion surplus, but the gap in pension income and expenditure will be significantly expanded. Over the next few years, the accumulation of pension reserves will become negative, and in 2050 it will reach 102,730 billion RMB. It is clear that the growing pension deficit will pose a threat to financial stability, and has already brought instability to Chinas future economic development. It has significantly increased the financial pressure on the system and makes the need for further reforms even more urgent. Nowadays, there are only 170 million employees are members of a pension scheme; that is less than 15% of the population. As the population grows older, if the current pension provision remains the same, the pension funds in China will have a deficit in next five years; furthermore, this can lead to a deficit in trillions by 2040. The national pension funds could be short 2.5 trillion RMB (which is around US$ 368 billion) over the next 20 years if nothing is done to remedy this now. 3.3 Institutional Problem Thirdly, the system itself is not well developed. The pension system is divided at all administrative levels. In 1999, 27 provinces were supposed to achieve co-ordination of the provincial funds according to documentation, but in fact only 5 (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing and Hainan) out of 27 provinces fully realized this co-ordination. In the other 22 provinces, only 1%-2% of the money from different cities was gathered in order to establish public funds. Due to the lack of co-ordination there are five provinces that have yet to establish such a fund, which means the policy was not really working out. Furthermore, the current co-ordination is not perfect in many ways. The collection and expenditure of pensions were not administered separately by different organizations. Also because of the payment strategy, which is that companies pay the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"netà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ value (pension income minus the money paid to retired employee) into funds, the contribution rates b etween provinces and cities, in some cases even between companies, have great differences. Moreover, the coverage of pension systems is narrow and they have regional imbalances. Until the end of 1998, the basic pension provision covered only 78.4% of employees of state-owned enterprises, 16.2% of group companies and 5.4% of other urban enterprises. There were no pension plans for self-employed and individual entrepreneurs in cities. For rural areas, there are some creative plans by local officers, but again coverage is very limited. The coverage of pension scheme in China is restricted based on employment in the work unit, rather than on citizenship, which means the reform only targets a small number of the population. This is in contrast to developed countries, where the pension system is relatively mature and covers nearly all of the workforce. In these countries, what they need to do is to avoid large future deficits and unsustainable ageing populations. However in China, there is far more to consider. More than half of Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s population lives in rural areas. As a bequest of past economic and pension policies, there is great inequality in both economic development and pension coverage between the urban and rural areas (urban areas are mainly the eastern coastal areas and rural areas are mainly the western part of China); the urban population is generally better covered than rural and migrant populations. The special household registration system, which was used to control the movement of people between urban and rural areas, helped split the population into urban and rural. The productive workers from the rural areas migrated to cities for more attractive working opportunities and higher incomes. However they will not be able to benefit from the urban social security since they were not under the registration of the special system. The lack of regulation is another issue. Since there is no social insurance law in China, the local social insurance agencies are weak enforcers of power. This makes collecting payments even more difficult. Also since there is no such law, it is hard to apply penalties. From the international point of view, the states basic pension systems are mostly being legislated by state first, then organised by the Central Government. However, Chinas pension system formed gradually under the basis of summing up experiences of local reform. It is only written in the Constitution of the nationals that citizens have the right to receive substance. Other pension systems were implemented in accordance with regulations promulgated by the State Council. The Social Insurance Law, as it has already been called for many years, is still in the process of taking advice, which means that pension rights are infringed due to lack of legal protection. This further led to a large number of arrears and made mana gement of the pension system even harder, without any strong legal grounds. 3.4 Problems occurring in transaction Finally, another challenge will be the transfer between pension accounts. The disadvantage of migrant workers is that their accumulated benefits in their pension accounts from their previous employers cannot be moved. It is therefore a risk for them to give up their accumulated benefits in one work place and take another new position in a different city or province. It is difficult for the government to transfer the pension accounts from one city or province to another, especially when such workers tend to move frequently for immediate job opportunities. Therefore, the migrant workers cannot receive their pension benefits from past employment and finally lose out financially when they return to their homeland at the end. At present, in a large number of cities, pension consulting business is processed by computers. In more developed cities, pension consulting networks have been established. But as a whole, Chinaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pension-collection policy still has a lot to improve; information system coverage is still below average. It specifically shows in the following ways. Firstly, information authorities and management systems are not adapting to the overall development trend. Also, the lack of a complete and versatile information operating system of social security results in slow delivery of information and finance data, as well as slow construction of the reconciliation system among departments. Chapter 4 Different types of pension reform and what China chose to do Since the last century, many countries worldwide started to reform their pension systems. The following graph shows that most countries made parameter adjustment without changing the basic framework of the pension system, including the change to the fee structure, revenue structure and method of management reforms. In addition, about 21% of the countries made a fundamental structural change to the national public pension system. Proportions of different types of pension reform Source: Schwarz Demirguc-Kunt (1999) Different countries chose various forms of pension reform according to their countryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s basic economic and social conditions. However, to sum up, there are five main types of pension reform, which are as follows: Parametric Reform Parametric reform is the adjustment of parameters of the existing public pension system, including adjustments of payment, remuneration, and benefit eligibility. The main purpose of such a system is to reduce the public pension expenditure Privatization Reform In order to alleviate the pressure on the public pension system, in recent years a major trend has been to expand the market for private pension funds. A number of countries have taken many measures to encourage voluntary private pension systems, such as giving preferential tax policies, reducing the size of the public pension system and other steps. Notional Account Reform The state transferred the PAYGO, defined benefit public pension system to a notional accounts system. Under such a pension system, employees are just like those in a private pension system, as its contribution is credited to individual accounts, and receives interest. Workers receive a pension upon retirement, depending on the amount of money in their personal accounts. However, there is no actual accumulation of funds in the employees personal account, as the money paid by active employees is used to pay retireesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ pensions. That is, the notional accounts system benefit has a defined contribution, but its means of financing is still PAYGO; therefore it is called a Notional Defined Contribution system. From Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution Although the transformation from the current PAYGO defined benefit system to a fully funded defined contribution system is one of the main trends of reform, a small number of African and Asian countries have chosen to do it the other way round. They have changed from a fully funded defined contribution system to a PAYGO defined benefit system. This is because these countries have accumulated a fund, which is managed by the Government provident fund system. Due to a lack of regulations and governments often abuse their powers, and such pension funds not only failed to obtain a reasonable rate of return, but in some countries also suffered serious diversion and erosion. In order to limit the rights of the government, these countries decided to change the pension system to a non-funded PAYGO system. Since under such a scheme there is no accumulation of funds, therefore the Government tends to be unlikely to abuse the funds. Multi-Pillar System After 100 years of development, the pension system has shown a wide variety of forms. Different forms of pension system have their own advantages in achieving their goals, but some shortcomings are inevitable. Therefore, the World Bank has been advocating the establishment of a multi-pillar pension system, allowing complementary advantages and risk diversification. In 1994, the World Bank proposed in à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Averting Old Age Crisisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ the establishment of a three-pillar pension system: (a) the first pillar is a public, PAYGO, usually defined benefit and redistributive pension system; (b) the second pillar is a private, funded, almost always defined contribution pension system; (c) the third pillar is a private, funded, voluntary, supplementary, preferably defined contribution pension system. In 2005, the World Bank extended the establishment of the three-pillar system to a five-pillar system in the report of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"21st Century Elderly Income Securityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. Among them, the zero pillar is to provide a minimum protection, non-contributory national pension system, the fourth pillar is the informal supporting system within the family to the elderly, or formal social welfare system. The five pillars have their own characteristics and different functions; and can be able to cope with different types of risk. Zero pillar is helping to eliminate poverty for the poor segment of society, as well as secure those groups working in informal sectors with low incomes. It is regarded as a part of the social safety net. The aim of the first pillar is to respond to a short-sighted individual risk, low-income risks, uncertainty in life expectancy and investment risks in financial markets, but it is vulnerable to demographic changes and political fluctuations. The second pillar through a mandatory savings system can prevent the short-sighted individual risk, while the privately managed pension system would avoid influence from political risks. However, the second pillar pension system is vulnerable to the impact of financial market risks, and transaction costs are relatively high. The third pillar can compensate for the rigidity in the design of the other pillars, but privatel y managed pension funds may have financial risk and agency risk. The fourth pillar has the main function of family protection, and through the social welfare system to provide medical care and housing protection to the elderly. Compared to a single pension system, the greatest strength of a multi-pillar pension system is its ability to withstand risks, which is significantly enhanced. This is because the factors affecting each pillar are not entirely relevant to each other. In many cases, the relevance is very small, even negative. For example, if the first pillar is a PAYGO, defined benefit pension system, the main factor affecting this pillar is the growth rate of wages. While the second and third pillar may be a completely accumulation based, defined contribution pension system, and the main factors influencing it will be the investment rate of return. As the correlation between the rate of wage growth and return on investment is very small, it is efficient to distribute the pension assets in these three pillars. In addition, there is also a complementary relationship among the different pillars. For example, in the individual defined contribution pension system, workers need to take an amount of savings in their personal accounts and convert it into an annuity. At this time, employees have to bear the risk of changes in interest rates, as well as the risk of death. However, defined benefit pension systems can spread the risk of death. Again, the third pillar à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" a voluntary occupational pension system is vulnerable to income fluctuations and job changing, but the first and second pillar pension system can offset these effects. Many countries adopted the multi-pillar pension system because the World Bank recommended the concept of such a model. However, the specific choice of a mix of pillars depends on the national situation, including the status of the existing pension system, reform objectives, administrative capacity, the level of development of financial markets, the level of restructuring costs and other factors. In low-income countries, the goal of a pensions system should be defined as the eradicati

The Power of Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India Essays -- Compar

The Power of Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India      Ã‚  Ã‚   John A. McClure writes in Kipling and Conrad that "as the twentieth century opened, the artists and intellectuals of the age increasingly came to believe that imperial rule, if inevitable in the short run, was an inglorious enterprise that deformed both those who ruled and those who submitted" (153). Joseph Conrad and E. M. Forster were among these artists and each expressed their misgivings about the "inglorious enterprise" and its "deforming" effects in Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India respectively. I will attempt to analyze some of these effects among a range of British characters in both novels in terms of the connections between ideologically motivated cultural assumptions, personal attitudes and behavior, and psychological crisis.    Vladimir Lenin describes imperialism in his work Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism as the "product of highly developed industrial capitalism. It consists in the striving of every industrial capitalist nation to bring under its control or to annex larger and larger areas of...territory, irrespective of what nations inhabit those regions" (155). When the industrial nation allows its citizens to settle in the conquered territory the area is then a colony and the settlers are colonizers whereas the people native to the area are the colonized. The fundamental motive of imperialism and colonialism is economic: profits are large because investment in the conquered area is nil and native labor is cheap, and this situation is maintained by depriving the colonized peoples of political and economic rights. However, as James Kavanagh points out in his essay "Ideology," such a "social situation e... ...ish Empire, everone is affected, everyone is guilty and no one can afford the luxury of an unexamined life.       Bibliography Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Signet Classic, 1983. Forster, E. M. A Passage to India. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc., 1952. Kavanagh, James T. "Ideology." Critical Terms for Literary Study. Eds. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Kiernan, V. G. The Lords of Human Kind. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969. McClure, John A. Kipling and Conrad. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Meltzer, Francoise. "Unconscious." Critical Terms for Literary Study. Eds. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized. New York: The Orion Press, Inc., 1965.   

A Short Essay on Life Essay

In life, we come across many challenges. Some of them make us who we are while some tell us what we should be. Sometimes it is the opposite. There will be struggle, there will be bad days. Days which would never seem to end. Days which would go on and on, which would keep hurting us till the end. Many of us actually most would give up but the people who wont will be the ones to face the brighter side of the day. The night is darkest before dawn but how can we forget the rainbow after the rain? We understand to love, to give, to endure, to find pleasure, to please but what we do not understand is ourselves during all of this. Life can lie to us and no one will stop it, it can play all sorts of games with us without us even knowing because there is no one controlling it. But whatever happens in life happens for good. Good of all in it. Whatever decisions life takes for us is already planned by it and we must learn to accept it. We must come in terms with the fact that no matter how hard we try to fit in this imperfect world, it will never acknowledge us for who we are. We always feel like becoming everything else around us. But what we do not realize is that everyone wants to be happy in the end of the day. They just want to find someone who will love them and who will stand by them throughout. Throughout the stormy nights, throughout the lonely days, throughout all the cold memories.

Solution to Case Problem Specialty Toys

Solution to Case Problem Specialty Toys 10/24/2012 I. Introduction: The Specialty Toys Company faces a challenge of deciding how many units of a new toy should be purchased to meet anticipated sales demand. If too few are purchased, sales will be lost; if too many are purchased, profits will be reduced because of low prices realized in clearance sales. Here, I will help to analyze an appropriate order quantity for the company. II. Data Analysis: 1. 20,0 00 .025 10,0 00 30,0 00 .025 .95 20,0 00 .025 10,0 00 30,0 00 .025 .95 Since the expected demand is 2000, thus, the mean  µ is 2000.Through Excel, we get the z value given a 95% probability is 1. 96. Thus, we have: z= (x- µ)/ ? =(30000-20000)/ ? =1. 96, so we get the standard deviation ? =(30000-20000)/1. 96=5102. The sketch of distribution is above. 95. 4% of the values of a normal random variable are within plus or minus two standard deviations of its mean. 2. At order quantity of 15,000, z= (15000-20000)/5102=-0. 98, P(stockout ) = 0. 3365 + 0. 5 = 0. 8365 At order quantity of 18,000, z= (18000-20000)/5102=-0. 39, P(stockout) = 0. 1517 + 0. 5= 0. 6517 At order quantity of 24,000, z= (24000-20000)/5102=0. 8, P (stockout) = 0. 5 – 0. 2823 = 0. 2177 At order quantity of 28,000, z= (28000-20000)/5102=1. 57, P (stockout) = 0. 5 – 0. 4418 = 0. 0582 3. Order Quantity = 15,000| Unit Sales| Total Cost| Sales at $24| Sales at $5| Profit| 10,000| 240,000| 240,000| 25,000| 25,000| 20,000| 240,000| 360,000| 0| 120,000| 30,000| 240,000| 360,000| 0| 120,000| Order Quantity = 18,000| Unit Sales| Total Cost| Sales at $24| Sales at $5| Profit| 10,000| 288,000| 240,000| 40,000| -8000| 20,000| 288,000| 432,000| 0| 144,000| 30,000| 288,000| 432,000| 0| 144,000|Order Quantity = 24,000| Unit Sales| Total Cost| Sales at $24| Sales at $5| Profit| 10,000| 384,000| 240,000| 70,000| -74,000| 20,000| 384,000| 480,000| 20,000| 116,000| 30,000| 384,000| 576,000| 0| 192,000| Order Quantity =28,000| Unit Sales| Total Cost| S ales at $24| Sales at $5| Profit| 10,000| 448,000| 240,000| 90,000| -118,000| 20,000| 448,000| 480,000| 40,000| 72,000| 30,000| 448,000| 672,000| 0| 224,000| 4. According to the background information, we get the sketch of distribution above. Since z= (Q-20,000)/5102 =0. 52, so we get Q=20,000+0. 2*5102=22,653. Thus, the quantity would be ordered under this policy is 22,653. The projected profits under the three sales scenarios are below: Order Quantity =22,653| Unit Sales| Total Cost| Sales at $24| Sales at $5| Profit| 10,000| 362,488| 240,000| 63,265| -59,183| 20,000| 362,488| 480,000| 13,265| 130,817| 30,000| 362,488| 543,672| 0| 181,224| 5. From the information we get above, I would recommend an order quantity that can maximize the expected profit, and it can be calculated by the formula below: P(Demand

Free Essays on Ultima

Antonio’s Religious Doubts The most important aspect in the second half of the novel Bless me Ultima is the gradual loss of faith in Antonio. He is at a very young age (3rd grade) but his friends and family look up to him as the priest of the household. It is apparent that Antonio has dreams of being a great priest which would bring honor to his family and make him a well-respected man. Unfortunately it is not as easy as Antonio would think because he is doubting the Catholic God because of the people who believe in the catholic God but who have so many troubles going on in their lives. He is secretly question why a powerful catholic God would constantly punish his own people. Antonio could not find an answer to why evil exists in the Catholic religion, instead he finds peace in a spiritual relationship with the land and nature. He owes this appreciation of the land and new life from the influences of his mother, his father, and Ultima. Antonio has finally attained almost a harmony regarding his different heritages. He is able to peacefully enjoy the beauty of his land without having to question immorality. Antonio's last dream addresses his crisis of religious faith. The three figures of people he tried to save state that Antonio prayed for them in his innocence. He tried to save Narcisco, Florence, and then Ultima. Ultima’s death really made Antonio question the faith is practicing. He feels as though now God is punishing him and for what, is not Antonio a priest? The dream hints at Antonio's understanding that people often disobey the rules of their own religions. His dream also foreshadows how Ultima will die. Seeing the failure of all three people he loved, Antonio asks God why he has forsaken him. Thus questioning his own religion.... Free Essays on Ultima Free Essays on Ultima Antonio’s Religious Doubts The most important aspect in the second half of the novel Bless me Ultima is the gradual loss of faith in Antonio. He is at a very young age (3rd grade) but his friends and family look up to him as the priest of the household. It is apparent that Antonio has dreams of being a great priest which would bring honor to his family and make him a well-respected man. Unfortunately it is not as easy as Antonio would think because he is doubting the Catholic God because of the people who believe in the catholic God but who have so many troubles going on in their lives. He is secretly question why a powerful catholic God would constantly punish his own people. Antonio could not find an answer to why evil exists in the Catholic religion, instead he finds peace in a spiritual relationship with the land and nature. He owes this appreciation of the land and new life from the influences of his mother, his father, and Ultima. Antonio has finally attained almost a harmony regarding his different heritages. He is able to peacefully enjoy the beauty of his land without having to question immorality. Antonio's last dream addresses his crisis of religious faith. The three figures of people he tried to save state that Antonio prayed for them in his innocence. He tried to save Narcisco, Florence, and then Ultima. Ultima’s death really made Antonio question the faith is practicing. He feels as though now God is punishing him and for what, is not Antonio a priest? The dream hints at Antonio's understanding that people often disobey the rules of their own religions. His dream also foreshadows how Ultima will die. Seeing the failure of all three people he loved, Antonio asks God why he has forsaken him. Thus questioning his own religion....

Biography of Lope de Aguirre, Madman of El Dorado

Biography of Lope de Aguirre, Madman of El Dorado Lope de Aguirre was a Spanish conquistador present during much of the infighting among the Spanish in and around Peru in the mid-sixteenth century. He is best known for his final expedition, the search for El Dorado, on which he mutinied against the leader of the expedition. Once he was in control, he went mad with paranoia, ordering the summary executions of many of his companions. He and his men declared themselves independent from Spain and captured Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela from colonial authorities. Aguirre was later arrested and executed. Origins of Lope de Aguirre Aguirre was born sometime between 1510 and 1515 (records are poor) in the tiny Basque province of Guipà ºzcoa, in northern Spain on the border with France. By his own account, his parents were not rich but did have some noble blood in them. He was not the eldest brother, which meant that even the modest inheritance of his family would be denied to him. Like many young men, he traveled to the New World in search of fame and fortune, seeking to follow in the footsteps of Hernn Cortà ©s and Francisco Pizarro, men who had overthrown empires and gained vast wealth. Lope de Aguirre in Peru It is thought that Aguirre departed Spain for the New World around 1534. He arrived too late for the vast wealth that accompanied the conquest of the Inca Empire, but just in time to become embroiled in the many violent civil wars that had broken out among the surviving members of Pizarros band. A capable soldier, Aguirre was in high demand by the various factions, although he tended to pick royalist causes. In 1544, he defended the regime of Viceroy Blasco Nà ºÃƒ ±ez Vela, who had been tasked with the implementation of extremely unpopular new laws which provided greater protection for natives. Judge Esquivel and Aguirre In 1551, Aguirre surfaced in Potosà ­, the wealthy mining town in present-day Bolivia. He was arrested for abusing Indians and sentenced by Judge Francisco de Esquivel to a lashing. It is unknown what he did to merit this, as Indians were routinely abused and even murdered and punishment for abusing them was rare. According to legend, Aguirre was so incensed at his sentence that he stalked the judge for the next three years, following him from Lima to Quito o Cusco before finally catching up with him and murdering him in his sleep. The legend says that Aguirre did not have a horse and thus followed the judge on foot the entire time. The Battle of Chuquinga Aguirre spent a few more years participating in more uprisings, serving with both rebels and royalists at different times. He was sentenced to death for the murder of a governor but later pardoned as his services were needed to put down the uprising of Francisco Hernndez Girà ³n. It was about this time that his erratic, violent behavior earned him the nickname Aguirre the Madman. The Hernndez Girà ³n rebellion was put down at the battle of Chuquinga in 1554, and Aguirre was badly wounded: his right foot and leg were crippled and he would walk with a limp for the rest of his life. Aguirre in the 1550s By the late 1550s, Aguirre was a bitter, unstable man. He had fought in countless uprisings and skirmishes and had been badly wounded, but he had nothing to show for it. Close to fifty years old, he was as poor as he had been when he left Spain, and his dreams of glory in the conquest of rich native kingdoms had eluded him. All he had was a daughter, Elvira, whose mother is unknown. He was known as a tough fighting man but had a well-earned reputation for violence and instability. He felt that the Spanish crown had ignored men like him and he was getting desperate. The Search for El Dorado By 1550 or so, much of the New World had been explored, but there were still huge gaps in what was known of the geography of Central and South America. Many believed in the myth of El Dorado, the Golden Man, who was supposedly a king who covered his body with gold dust and who ruled over a fabulously wealthy city. In 1559, the Viceroy of Peru approved an expedition to search for the legendary El Dorado, and about 370 Spanish soldiers and a few hundred Indians were put under the command of young nobleman Pedro de Ursà ºa. Aguirre was allowed to join up and was made a high-level officer based on his experience. Aguirre Takes Over Pedro de Ursà ºa was just the sort of person Aguirre resented. He was ten or fifteen years younger than Aguirre and had important family connections. Ursà ºa had brought along his mistress, a privilege denied to the men. Ursà ºa had some fighting experience in the Civil Wars, but not nearly as much as Aguirre. The expedition set out and began exploring the Amazon and other rivers in the dense rainforests of eastern South America. The endeavor was a fiasco from the start. There were no wealthy cities to be found, only hostile natives, disease and not much food. Before long, Aguirre was the informal leader of a group of men who wanted to return to Peru. Aguirre forced the issue and the men murdered Ursà ºa. Fernando de Guzmn, a puppet of Aguirre, was put in command of the expedition. Independence From Spain His command complete, Aguirre did a most remarkable thing: he and his men declared themselves  the new Kingdom of Peru, independent from Spain. He named Guzmn Prince of Peru and Chile. Aguirre, however, became increasingly paranoid. He ordered the death of the priest that had accompanied the expedition, followed by Inà ©s de Atienza (Ursà ºas lover) and then even Guzmn. He eventually would order the execution of every member of the expedition with any noble blood whatsoever. He hatched a mad plan: he and his men would head to the coast, and find their way to Panama, which they would attack and capture. From there, they would strike out at Lima and claim their Empire. Isla Margarita The first part of Aguirres plan went fairly well, especially considering it was devised by a madman and carried out by a ragged bunch of half-starved conquistadores. They made their way to the coast by following the  Orinoco  River. When they arrived, they were able to mount an assault on the small Spanish settlement at Isla Margarita and capture it. He ordered the death of the governor and as many as fifty locals, including women. His men looted the small settlement. They then went to the mainland, where they landed at Burburata before going to Valencia: both towns had been evacuated. It was In Valencia that Aguirre composed his famous letter to Spanish King Philip II. Aguirres Letter to Philip II In July of 1561, Lope de Aguirre sent a formal letter to the King of Spain explaining his reasons for declaring independence. He felt betrayed by the King. After many hard years  of  service to the crown, he had nothing to show for it, and he also mentions having seen many loyal men executed for false crimes. He singled out judges, priests and colonial bureaucrats for special scorn. The overall tone is that of a loyal subject who had been driven to rebel by royal indifference. Aguirres paranoia is evident even in this letter. Upon reading recent dispatches from Spain concerning the counter-Reformation, he ordered the execution of a German soldier in his company. Philip IIs reaction to this historic document is unknown, although Aguirre was almost certainly dead by the time he received it. Assault on the Mainland Royal forces attempted to undermine Aguirre by offering pardons to his men: all they had to do was  desert. Several did, even before Aguirres mad assault on the mainland, slipping off and stealing small boats to make their way to safety. Aguirre, by then down to about 150 men, moved on to the town of Barquisimeto, where he found himself surrounded by Spanish forces loyal to the King. His men, not surprisingly, deserted  en masse, leaving him alone with his daughter Elvira. The Death of Lope de Aguirre Surrounded and facing capture, Aguirre decided to kill his daughter, so that she would be spared the horrors that awaited her as the daughter of a traitor to the crown. When another woman grappled with him for his harquebus, he dropped it and stabbed Elvira to death with a dagger. Spanish troops, reinforced by his own men, quickly cornered him. He was briefly captured before his execution was ordered: he was shot before being chopped into pieces. Different pieces of Aguirre were sent to surrounding towns. Lope de Aguirres Legacy Although Ursà ºas El Dorado expedition was destined to fail, it may not have been an utter fiasco if not for Aguirre and his madness. It is estimated that Lope either killed or ordered the death of 72 of the original Spanish explorers. Lope de Aguirre did not manage to overthrow Spanish rule in the Americas, but he did leave an interesting legacy. Aguirre was neither the first nor the only conquistador to go rogue and attempt to deprive the Spanish crown of the royal fifth (one-fifth of all spoils from the New World was always reserved for the crown). Lope de Aguirres most visible legacy may be in the world of literature and film. Many writers and directors have found inspiration in the tale of a madman leading a troop of greedy, hungry men through dense jungles in an attempt to overthrow a king. There have been a handful of books written about Aguirre, among them Abel Posses  Daimà ³n  (1978) and Miguel Otero Silvas  Lope de Aguirre, prà ­ncipe de la  libertad  (1979). There have been three attempts to make films about Aguirres El Dorado expedition. The best by far is the 1972 German effort  Aguirre, Wrath of God, starring Klaus Kinski as Lope de Aguirre and directed by Werner Hertzog. There is also the 1988  El Dorado, a Spanish film by Carlos Saura. More recently, the low budget  Las Lgrimas de Dios  (The Tears of God) was produced in 2007, directed by and starring Andy Rakich. Source: Silverberg, Robert.  The Golden Dream: Seekers of El Dorado. Athens: the Ohio University Press, 1985.

Normans - Medieval Viking Rulers in France and England

Normans - Medieval Viking Rulers in France and England The Normans (from the Latin Normanni and Old Norse for north men) were ethnic Scandinavian Vikings who settled in northwest France in the early 9th century AD. They controlled the region known as Normandy until the mid 13th century. In 1066, the most famous of the Normans, William the Conqueror, invaded England and conquered the resident Anglo-Saxons; after William, several kings of England including Henry I and II and Richard the Lionheart were Normans and ruled both regions. Dukes of Normandy Rollo the Walker 860-932, ruled Normandy 911-928, married Gisla (daughter of Charles the Simple)William Longsword  ruled 928-942Richard I (the Fearless), born 933, ruled 942-996 married Hugh the Greats daughter Emma, then GunnorRichard II (The Good) ruled 996-1026 married JudithRichard III ruled 1026-1027Robert I (The Magnificent, or The Devil) ruled 1027-1035 (Richard IIIs brother) William the Conquerer, 1027-1087, ruled 1035-1087, also King of England after 1066, married Matilda of Flanders Robert II (Curthose), ruled Normandy 1087-1106 Henry I (Beauclerc) b. 1068, King of England 1100-1135 Henry II b. 1133, ruled England 1154-1189 Richard the Lionheart also King of England 1189-1216John Lackland Vikings in France By the 830s, the Vikings arrived from Denmark and began raiding in what is today France, finding the standing Carolingian government in the midst of an ongoing civil war. The Vikings were only one of several groups who found the weakness of the Carolingian empire an attractive target. The Vikings used the same tactics in France as they did in England: plundering the monasteries, markets and towns; imposing tribute or Danegeld on the people they conquered; and killing the bishops, disrupting ecclesiastical life and causing a sharp decline in literacy. The Vikings became permanent settlers with the express collusion of Frances rulers, although many of the grants were simply a recognition of de facto Viking control of the region. Temporary settlements were first established along the Mediterranean coast from a series of royal grants from Frisia to the Danish Vikings: the first was in 826, when Louis the Pious granted Harald Klak the county of Rustringen to use as a retreat. Subsequent rulers did the same, usually with the aim of putting one Viking in place to defend the Frisian coast against others. A Viking army first wintered on the Seine river in 851, and there joined forces with the kings enemies, the Bretons, and Pippin II. Founding Normandy: Rollo the Walker The duchy of Normandy was founded by Rollo (Hrolfr) the Walker, a Viking leader in the early 10th century. In 911, the Carolingian king Charles the Bald ceded land including the lower Seine valley to Rollo, in the Treaty of St Clair sur Epte. That land was extended to include what is today all of Normandy by AD 933 when the French King Ralph granted the land of the Bretons to Rollos son William Longsword. The Viking court based at Rouen was always a little shaky, but Rollo and his son William Longsword did their best to shore up the duchy by marrying into the Frankish elite. There were crises in the duchy in the 940s and 960s, particularly when William Longsword died in 942 when his son Richard I was only 9 or 10. There were fights among the Normans, particularly between pagan and Christian groups. Rouen continued as a subordinate to the Frankish kings until the Norman War of 960-966, when Richard I fought against Theobald the Trickster. Richard defeated Theobald, and newly arrived Vikings pillaged his lands. That was the moment when Normans and Normandy became a formidable political force in Europe. William the Conquerer The 7th Duke of Normandy was William, the son Robert I, succeeding to the ducal throne in 1035. William married a cousin, Matilda of Flanders, and to appease the church for doing that, he built two abbeys and a castle in Caen. By 1060, he was using that to build a new power base in Lower Normandy, and that is where he began amassing for the Norman Conquest of England. You can find lots more about William the Conquerer and the Battle of Hastings elsewhere. Ethnicity and the Normans Archaeological evidence for the Viking presence in France is notoriously slim. Their villages were basically fortified settlements, consisting of earthwork-protected sites called motte (en-ditched mound) and bailey (courtyard) castles, not that different from other such villages in France and England at that time. The reason for the lack of evidence for explicit Viking presence may be that the earliest Normans tried to fit into the existing Frankish powerbase. But that didnt work well, and it was not until 960 when Rollos grandson Richard I galvanized the notion of Norman ethnicity, in part to appeal to the new allies arriving from Scandinavia. But that ethnicity was largely limited to kinship structures and place names, not material culture, and by the end of the 10th century, the Vikings had largely assimilated into the larger European medieval culture. Historic Sources Most of what we know of the early Dukes of Normandy is from Dudo of St Quentin, a historian whose patrons were Richard I and II. He painted an apocalyptic picture of Normandy in his best-known work De moribus et actis primorum normanniae ducum, written between 994-1015. Dudos text was the basis for future Norman historians including William of Jumià ¨ges (Gesta Normannorum Ducum), William of Poitiers (Gesta Willelmi), Robert of Torigni and Orderic Vitalis. Other surviving texts include the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio and the  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Sources This article is part of the About.com guide to Vikings, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology Cross KC. 2014. Enemy and Ancestor: Viking Identities and Ethnic Boundaries in England and Normandy, c.950 – c.1015. London: University College London. Harris I. 1994. Stephen of Rouens Draco Normannicus: A Norman Epic. Sydney Studies in Society and Culture 11:112-124. Hewitt CM. 2010. The Geographic Origins of the Norman Conquerors of England. Historical Geography 38(130-144). Jervis B. 2013. Objects and social change: A case study from Saxo-Norman Southampton. In: Alberti B, Jones AM, and Pollard J, editors. Archaeology After Interpretation: Returning Materials to Archaeological Theory. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press. McNair F. 2015. The politics of being Norman in the reign of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy (r. 942–996). Early Medieval Europe 23(3):308-328. Peltzer J. 2004. Henry II and the Norman Bishops. The English Historical Review 119(484):1202-1229. Petts D. 2015. Churches and lordship in Western Normandy AD 800-1200. In: Shepland M, and Pardo JCS, editors. Churches and Social Power in Early Medieval Europe. Brepols: Turnhout.

International trade between Japan and Africa Essay

International trade between Japan and Africa - Essay Example In relation to this, the African states have also been benefiting from Japan in several ways. These may involve the developmental projects channeled to such African states from Japan. It is of crucial significance o note that Japan’s major target in their trade relations with Africa has been majorly based on the key resources like oil, minerals as well as other raw materials (Raposo, 47). These raw materials are of high demands in the Japanese companies. They are used to make different sorts of products that are sold within the country as well as exported to other nations abroad. This has contributed greatly towards ensuring a robust economic growth in Japan (Raposo, 54). Majority of such products are also old back to the African states. This helps maintain the good relations between the two nations. On the other hand, African states have been benefiting in equal measures following their international trade relations with Japan. Upon providing Japan with the raw materials, Japan has contributed a lot towards providing Africa with huge structural projects as well as soft loans in exchange to the raw materials (Raposo, 63). Such have involved construction of infrastructure necessary to open up Africa to more trade opportunities. These include building of ports, roads, railways as well as airports. However, it is important to note that these amenities always ease the movement of the raw materials back to Japan from

Relative resource management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Change Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Change Management - Essay Example In whichever respect, any process of change should always be planned so that its implications are taken into account and the concerned parties be able to adapt. The survival of any organization depends on its ability to adapt to the various environmental changes. Most of these strategies are either reactive or proactive thereby making the process of change a source of many challenges (Schiesser, 2008). Various situations will normally create the need for change. Technological changes realized in operations will normally force organizations to adapt to new procedures which might be costly or untimely. In the same vein, changes in management of the organizations will always demand the adoption of new ways of operations not previously experienced. Nevertheless, whichever the cause of change, certain considerations should always be taken into account to ensure that the change process benefits the organization and is accepted by all the stakeholders. Conventional wisdom confirms that change is normal and healthy and should therefore be pursued by anybody aspiring to advance in life. On the contrary, human beings are always haters of change. In organizational situations, any form of change is normally viewed very suspiciously since people are always on the watch to safeguard their positions and maintain the status quo. However, this attitude can effectively be reversed if the managers c learly familiarize the employees on the importance, implications and the strategies in place with regard to the proposed change. Leaders have the solemn responsibility to ensure that any organizational change becomes successful and is accepted by all the employees. Most of the complications arise out of the simple mistakes that the managers make in the process of managing change. At the center of change management, is the process of communication. Stakeholders deserve the right

Current Health Care Reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Current Health Care Reform - Essay Example Under this plan, the government will increase the amount of money taxed to people, and insurance companies will also play a crucial role. The plan is to be fully implemented in 2014, and several legal specifications indicate that it would influence the most of people in a good way as compared to a variety of issues which they normally reject since they assume they are costly. For those who cannot get insurance, there will be a sliding scale of subsidies created to help pay their premiums (Miranda, 2010). Under this plan, pre-existing conditions will not be used by insurance firms to refuse to pay up on health claims. The government will fund Medicare even more by adding 250 dollars to be used in covering prescriptions. Pursuant to this, it is projected that those who paid 100 percent will only be required to pay 25 percent by the year of 2012. This is projected to cost the government the excess of 938 billion within the next 10 years (Andrews, 2012). Furthermore, under the Patient Pr otection and affordable Care Act plan, more lavish benefits of Medicare, such as gym membership, hearing aids and the likes, are not planned to have been cut. Increases in taxes can also be seen in the fact that, for instance, couples making 250,000 annually will be taxed 1.45 to 2.35 by the year 2013. People with higher incomes will be taxed at the rate of 2.8 percent on the income that is not earned, such as interest and dividends (Miranda, 2010). Those enjoying indoor tanning facilities will be compelled to pay 10 percent more in taxes. The main influence behind the health care bill was, of course, President Barrack Obama whose administration has been instrumental in pushing for and promoting these health reforms. In congress, the bill has not been popular but the Democrats have put their weight behind the bill, since they insist it aims at ensuring all citizens will access to health insurance. In 2011 the final vote was 220 to 207 with all the Republicans voting against, but the bill eventually passed (Andrews, 2012). It actually makes employers play a greater role in the provision of their employees with health insurance. As a matter of fact, passing the bill was not an easy job as the process was fraught with political interferences and parties’ politics. In 2011, the Senate repealed the bill but the Supreme Court overturned this appeal. In an unexpected move, Justice Roberts voted for the bill justifying his reasoning by saying that the Constitution allows Congress to, whether based on actions or inactions, assess taxes. This had great influence in saving the plan from the opposition of the Republicans. In the Senate, the bill has been favored by the majority of Democrats who have supported the bill. While the Republicans consider it an unnecessary and expensive tax, the supporters of Democrats claim that it should not be repealed, since it would take away medical care for millions. Public opinion is divided and is expected to be reflected in the November elections. Republicans are using the opposition for this to rally people against Obama in the re-election. In fact, the plan is tailored to fit with the majority’s requirement and, since it will provide cheaper insurance and health cover for millions, a sizeable number will support it. When Romney tried to tell an audience of voters that the Republicans would do away with Obama’s health reforms, he was booed. This is the evidence that quite a

The body is a tool through which to construct the self Essay - 1

The body is a tool through which to construct the self - Essay Example The essay "The body is a tool through which to construct the self" discovers the Body in the context of Fashion. When it comes to analyzing the relationship between the society and a human being, little attention is paid to the role of body. It would not be an exaggeration to point out that humans are creatures that possess a dual nature: in spite of the fact that spiritual constituent of the identity is important, the material one is also essential for developing a correct understanding of a human being. That is why it would be particularly important to shed light on the issue that has largely been overlooked as the former constituent is regarded as an object of bigger interest than the latter. This paper will analyze the relationship between body and society, engaging evidence that is taken from academic literature and group the findings in the following categories: the temporal aspect; body as reflection of culture; body and fashion; the role of body on television; body as a platf orm for new gender. As it has already been noted, the relationship between body and society could be traced to the very emergence of the latter. That is why the analysis of it should start from a careful examination of views on body in the previous times. Thus, it is quite obvious that the categories that influenced the public opinion of the previous ages are quite different from the contemporary ones. So, by examining the cultural and ethical dominants of the past one might reconstruct the role of body in the society.

Customer Service Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Customer Service - Assignment Example And customers’ demands and expectations are rising every day. Customers always expect something more than that they buy. So organizations took several steps to retrain their old customers and if possible attract new customers. Retaining old customers is a game changer for companies as these customers are loyal to the organization and they keep valuable feedback as per the product and services they buy or get. No matter what an organization providing that can be industrial product or consumer durables but manufacturer have to bundle their product with significant amount of services. Otherwise they will lose to their competitor because customer will shift to the competitor from where they are getting more services. That is the reason now every organizations having effective customer policies. If we visit all most all the shops in central London or anywhere in London we shall find out every shops have a complain and suggestion form and after every purchase no matter what the volu me of purchase is seller will give after sale services like home delivery or call the taxi or free baggage etc. For high value consumer durables seller or manufacturer gives free installation and if the product is big and heavy they will provide home delivery and not only that seller or manufacturer are bound to give free insurance that can be lifetime also for some kinds of goods and quarterly or half yearly free servicing is became mandatory from manufacturers end. These are all customer services policies just to retain existing customer and attract new customers. Theoretical background of management gives several version of key words like Management, organisation. (Cole, G.A. 2004, p.6) P2: Continuous and sustainable scrutiny method for customer relationship management method is necessary to keep these services proper and effective. And for that purpose proper customer training policies are must follow steps. 2002) Service quality gap: In above figure seven gaps of service model is been shown. This model is a part of Parasuraman. As per the above pictorial representation the most important three gaps are Gap1, Gap5 and Gap6; these are very important because they directly deal with the customer and make a bond between the seller and buyer or manufacturer and customer. Gap1: Management perceptions versus customer expectations: If proper market research is not done and miscommunication between two parties are in place or proper data transfer between the managements is not taking place then this situation can arise. There a gap between customer expectations and management perception can arise if in an organization too many vertical management layer in place. Gap2: Services Specifications versus management perception: If organisation goal is not made and model of the works are not standardized then quality of the services will not match with the management perceptions. And management will not be able to fulfil its commitment towards customers. So an uncomfortabl e situation can arise for the organisation. Gap3: Services delivery versus services specifications: If proper team management is not going on and control over employees is lost and their work is not satisfactory then this situation may arise. As a result very poor employee performance and less technological development happen. Then conflict of role in organization regarding jobs arises. Gap4: External communication versus service delivery: If

The body is a tool through which to construct the self Essay - 1

The body is a tool through which to construct the self - Essay Example The essay "The body is a tool through which to construct the self" discovers the Body in the context of Fashion. When it comes to analyzing the relationship between the society and a human being, little attention is paid to the role of body. It would not be an exaggeration to point out that humans are creatures that possess a dual nature: in spite of the fact that spiritual constituent of the identity is important, the material one is also essential for developing a correct understanding of a human being. That is why it would be particularly important to shed light on the issue that has largely been overlooked as the former constituent is regarded as an object of bigger interest than the latter. This paper will analyze the relationship between body and society, engaging evidence that is taken from academic literature and group the findings in the following categories: the temporal aspect; body as reflection of culture; body and fashion; the role of body on television; body as a platf orm for new gender. As it has already been noted, the relationship between body and society could be traced to the very emergence of the latter. That is why the analysis of it should start from a careful examination of views on body in the previous times. Thus, it is quite obvious that the categories that influenced the public opinion of the previous ages are quite different from the contemporary ones. So, by examining the cultural and ethical dominants of the past one might reconstruct the role of body in the society.

Natural environment Essay Example for Free

Natural environment Essay History depicts that in the past, apartheid and Christian national education policies meant that races and cultures were segregated in schools and resources were unevenly distributed, making the role and the task of the teacher extra difficult in terms of balancing between the workload and catering for all learners needs. Education is inherently political as it involves values and goals in relation to such fundamental questions as what kind of individual and society are we trying to shape? These questions cannot be answered in a factual or technical way because they are questions of opinions, values and ideology and they are inevitably disagreements and conflicts (Carter, Harber Serfi, 2003). The nature and reality of educators is that, it places so much importance on the teacher to ensure that learners succeed at the end of the day, although there are some factors external such as the environment, socio-economic and resources issues and resources which disturbs or defeats the purpose of education. The teacher can either make or break the progress of the learner, meaning the teacher should cater equally for all the needs of the learners, as learners themselves are different in terms of race, gender and class. This means that the teacher should not be bias or discriminate towards a certain gender, race or class, as this will have a negative impact on the success or progress of the learners. In this essay I will discuss my experiences with the teachers who made a difference, the role they played in terms of perceiving gender, race and class in my life, and the reasons why they were significant and finally I will discuss the role I will play as a future teacher regardless of gender, race and class of the learners. The most features in class or school environment, is for the teacher to understand his or her learners and mostly interact with them on continuous basis, as problems learners encounter arise from time to time. These problems tend to distract learners and need the intervention of the teacher themselves. Sometimes learners struggle with the content required, a problem at home or moreover a personal problem. A good teacher must anticipate and have insight of foretelling and differenti ate amongst learners that are showing signs of encountering problem

Glacial History of Mount Hood in Oregon

Glacial History of Mount Hood in Oregon Mount Hood, composed primarily of andesite and dacite, is considered one of the Stratovolcanic Mountain in the Cascade Volcanic Arc in northwest Oregon, in the United States of America; having existed for more than 500,000 years (Wikipedia). It is located about fifty miles east of Portland and thirty-five miles south of the Colombia River,(Oregon encyclopedia) and the fourth highest peak in the Cascade Ranges that extends to about 11,244 feet high, and a prominence of about 7,706 feet and thus considered Oregon’s highest point(Oregon encyclopedia). The Social, Cultural and Environmental Significance of Mt. Hood This mountain has significantly played a rich history in shaping up the geological, historic, cultural and environmental history of North West Oregon and the entire Pacific Northwest. One of the major factors, which have attracted particular attention to the study of this Mountain, are: it’s the rich background of its glacial activity, which has overtime impacted the Oregon society to be considered as a National historic landmark. Some of its renowned historical accounts are its usage in the sporting activities e.g. skiing, and mountain climbing; it has six major ski areas: Timberline, Mount Hood’s Meadows, Ski Bowl, Coopers spur, Snow Bunny and Summit. In addition, it encompasses some of the historic land marks as Timberline Lodge (located in Southern flank of Mount Hood just below Palmer glacier), Mount Hood National Forest. It is also regarded by the Chinookan tribes: Cascade and Molala people as a sacred place for worship, and as a viable source of raw material for their economic activities e.g. basketry weaving industry, fishing, hunting and gathering activities.(orogencyclope) Currently major expeditions are in underway taken by scientist to study its major glacial activities and land features formation e.g. The Snow Dragon Cave, ice caves in Paradise as Johnson puts it that, â€Å"there are some aspects of glacier caves that are interesting as a main subject of study†, () this depicts how avid major activities are undertaken to explore one of the Oregon gigantic mountain. History of the glacial activity In the past 15,000 years, Mount Hood has had at least four major eruptive periods, in which the last three occurred within the past 1,800 years from its vents high on the SW flank, producing volcanic deposits that were distributed primarily to the south and west along the sandy and zigzag river(mountain hood hist). According to one of the European explorer in 1972, Mount Hood is believed to have been triggered by a mild seismic activity, maintaining a consistent summit elevation. This elevation process gradually changed overtime. The estimated elevation of mountain Hood has however varied substantially overtime, despite its physical consistency. () After the periods of seismic action, glacial activities have impacted to a great length, to the shaping up of Mount Hood. Glacier and Glaciations process By definition, a glacier is composed of perennial snow or ice and it moves (orogencyclopedia). It refers to a mass of slowly moving ice or river; that results as an action of compaction or accumulation of snow on mountains or near poles.(dictionary) Glacial activity in Mount Hood has been evident by the existence of crevasses; gaping cracks developing in the ice. This differential movement causes tension. If the tension is more intense than the ice pressure, it results into cracks forming crevasses. (orogenicyclopedia) Glaciers and permanent snow-field majorly found in the many of the western state including: Washington, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Nevada, commonly located in the high alpine environment of Oregon, covering an area of approximately 42.5 square kilometer and numbers to about 463 glacial and perennial snow fields. (glacierinoregon), The types of glacier in Mount Hood. Glacier in the United States was not known to science, not at least until 1871 when a geological survey expedition, led by Clarence King, who identified glacier on Mt. Shasta in California, nearly almost the same time a team from the King survey, led by Arnold Hague, identified the Sandy glacier on Mt. Hood, during the subsequent periods many other glaciers in Oregon were discovered. Some of the chronological order of these glaciers expeditions discovered is: The Palmer Glacier; was also ones known as Salmon River Glacier; discovered in 1924 on the Eastern side of Hood Mountain, situated in the valley below Triangle Moraine, draining into the Salmon River. Was ones thought to be a snowfield not until 1923-1924 where, crevasses of the glacier were revealed. Zigzag Glacier; drains into the Zigzag River, Lost Creek, and rushing water Creek. It originated in the crater between Crater Rock and Hawkins Cliff below illumination Rock. This was the first Glacier on Mt. Hood to be trod upon the white man when Joel Palmer climbed the slope in 1845. (Mounthood) Reid Glacier; drains into the Sandy River, and found between illumination Ridge and Yocum Ridge. It was named in 1901 for professor Harry Fielding Reid of John Hopkins University; an expert in glaciology who did extensive studies of the White River Glacier. Sandy Glacier; Drains into the Muddy Fork of the Sandy River, located on the West-Northwest side of the Hood Mountain and is rarely seen. Glisan Glaciers; Drains into the McGee Creek. Was named after Rodney L.Glisan and is situated on the Northwest side of the Hood Mountain. Ladd Glacier; it is situated between Cathedral Ridge and Eden Park and drains into Ladd Creek. Ladd Glacier named after William Ladd, one of the builders of Cloud Cap Inn. This glacier was located in the north-northwest side of the Hood Mountain. Coe Glacier; depicted as one of the north flank largest glacier, draining mostly into Coe Creek with some flow into Elk cove. .(USGS.Volcanohazard prog) It was named after the Hood River store keeper and an early developer of the North side area; Henry L.Coe. Coe Glacier is situated below Pulpit Rock and is divided by Horseshoe and Andersons Rock. It is mainly used for irrigation purposes for the productive Hood River Valley fruit orchard, and also for fish habitat. Langille Glacier; located west of Langille Crags and drains into the East Fork of Compass Creek. Eliot Glacier; is one of the largest glacier on the North flank stretching to about 2.5 meters to 3 meters long in Mt. Oregon, draining into Eliot Creek.(USGS.Volcanohazard prog) Was named after an Early north side explorer; Thomas L.Eliot. It is the most spectacular glacier on Mt. Hood; lying, northwest of the summit and can be accessed easily from Cloud Cap Inn. Newton Clark Glaciers; Drains into Newton Creek to the north and Clark Creek on the south with a large moraine between the creeks. It was later then named after a well known Hood River surveyor from the 1800s; Newton Clark and is situated on the Eastside of the summit. White River Glacier; The White River is a branch of the Deschutes River, flowing into it near Tygh Valley. Ever since it was first spotted by the Barlow Party in 1845, it has gradually receded vastly, this is due to the response to volcanic heat exposing steam vents in its early 1900s (orgencyclopedia); these may however pose threats of devastation to the Highway 26 at the White River Bridge, if it will continues to occasionally release packets of retained water. White River Glacier is at the eastside due south of the summit of Hood Mountain, and have its origin in the crater to the east of the Hogsback. Colman Glacier; changes its shape dramatically from a slopping body of ice, down to Hot Rocks, to a 40 feet ice cliff in the same place. Summary Over the last 100,000 years, after the ice cap covering Oregon Cascades from Mt. Jefferson retreated; during the period of the warmer Holocene, resulted into a much smaller glacier as the climate fluctuation caused glacier to wax and wane. Over the past Century glacier have advance and retreat in response to climatic variation specifically Oregon Mountain retreated rapidly from 1900s through the 1950s. During the 1960s and 1970s, the climate cooled a bit and the glacier held their own, with some of them even showing signs of significant adjustments. Retreat did however resume by the 1980s and up to currently still continues. This has totaled to a 34 percentage loss of glacier in Hood Mountain since 1910 statistics.() Mount Hood so far hosted eleven named active glaciers i.e. Zigzag, Reid, Sandy, Glisan, Ladd, Coe, Langille, Eliot, Newton Clark, White River and Colman. The Palmer glacier, initially christened as Solomon Glacier in 1924 didn’t stand the test of time to be regard ed as a snowfield as it had lost enough of its volume and mobility to be categorized in the classes of Mt. Oregon snow field. This Mountain is also regarded as a source of five major Rivers namely: Salmon, Zigzag, Sandy, Hood, and White.(Mt. Hood historyhome.com) References 2015-portland state university and the oregon historical society. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2015. USGS: Volcano Hazards Program Mount Hood Geology and History. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2015,

Reducing Juvenile Delinquency Essay examples -- Papers Teen Crime Essa

The current statistics of juvenile delinquency are astounding. I will look at the most recent statistics and a few of the programs implemented to reduce or prevent delinquency. Before delving too deep into juvenile delinquency, it is important to consider the definitions of "juvenile" and "delinquent". The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives two definitions of "juvenile": 1. Showing incomplete development, and 2. A young person; one below the legally established age of adulthood (1997). Merriam-Webster defines "delinquent" as: offending by neglect or violation of duty or law (1997). As a complete definition of juvenile delinquent it is safe to repeat "a person below the established age of adulthood that offends by neglect or violation of duty or law (1997)". The history of juvenile delinquency had harsh beginnings. Children were viewed as non-persons until the 1700's(Rice 1995). They did not receive special treatment or recognition. Discipline then is what we now call abuse. It was believed that life was hard, and you had to be hard to survive. The people of that time in history did not have the conveniences that we take for granted. For example, the medical practices of that day were primitive in comparison to present-day medicine. Marriages were more for convenience, rather than for childbearing or romance. The infant and child mortality rate was also very high. It did not make sense to the parents in those days to create an emotional bond with children when there was a strong chance that the children would not survive until adulthood (1995). At the end of the 18th century, "The Enlightenment" appeared as a new cultural transition. People began to see children as flowers, who needed nurturing in order to ... ...s. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Galaway, B., et al. (1995). Specialized foster family care for delinquent youth. Federal Probation 59 (March): 19-27. Greenwood, P., & Turner, S. (1993). Evaluation of the Paint Creek Youth Center: a residential program for serious delinquents. Criminology 31 (May): 19-27. Haghighi, B., & Lopez, A. (1993). Success/Failure of group home treatment Programs for juveniles. Federal Probation 57 (Sept): 53-58. McNeece, C., & Roberts, A. (1997). Policy & Practice in the Justice System. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers. Mish, F. (Ed.). (1997). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Massachusetts: Merriam- Webster Incorporated. Wilber, S. (1998) Can Prevention Programs Stem the Tide of Delinquency? 3 (3), pp. 3. Retrieved March 5, 2000 from EBSCO database (MUONLINE) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ebsco.com

The Keebler Company :: essays research papers fc

The founhder of the company, Godfrey Keebler, started with jus a small bakery in Philadelphia, PA in 1853. During the next two generations, local bakeries popped up around the country, including Strietmann, Hekman, Supreme and Bowman. With the introduction of cars and trucks (carrying the Keebler logo), bakery goods could be distributed beyond the neighborhood and regional distribution began. In 1927, United Biscuit Company of America was formed. By 1944, there were 16 bakeries in the network from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City and their cookies and crackers were marketed under a variety of brand names for the next 22 years. Due to tremendous growth and modern business practices in centralized management, product consistency and quality, efficient use of facilities, cost control and mass advertising, the company needed to operate under one name. In 1966, â€Å"Keebler† was judged to be the most sound and memorable. Over the years, Keebler has acquired several other producers of cookies and crackers (i.e., Bake-Line Products, Inc. – The nation’s leading producer of private-label cookies and crackers in 1993; merger in June 1996 with Sunshine Biscuit Company – now owned by Keebler Foods Corporation). Keebler/Sunshine merger brought together two of the oldest and most respected names in the U.S. biscuit industry. Keebler and products are sold in more than 75,000 retail outlets nationwide, including Puerto Rico and selected international markets. The Keebler company seems to have more than one target market. With variety of products they offer, the company appears to be targeting just about every segment of the population: + Parents of young children + Young adults + Older adults + People who enjoy snacking + People who enjoy sweets/deserts The market segmentation is largely homogenous in that the segmented groups: + Are generally young children or adults who are relatives of young children ++ Starting at the age of 3 years old, and going up + People who don’t have time to prepare foods all the time + Some brands target older people (i.e., Club Crackers, etc.) Keebler, in maintaining success in the market, emplys the 4P’s as follows: Product: The company produces a physical good – Cookies/Crackers. In doing this, the company became diversified by the use of several product lines, not just one line of cookie or cracker. Also, in acquiring other businesses, the company thought it best to keep the originating firm’s brand name vice-carrying its name on the new product (i.e., Sunshine company). In thins regard, Sunshine’s Cheeze-It cracker line would not risk losing customers who are accustomed to that logo on the product or the name being used in association with the product.

Comparing For Profit and Non for Profit Colleges Essay

Colleges and university have slowly become one of the stepping stones into the working world today. People go to colleges for higher education with the intention of earning degrees in which they can use in their respective fields. Some example degrees that people pursue are Medical, Law, Business, Accounting, and Science Degrees. Through the years the idea of college was that it was optional and it was a door for better life and job. However in the modern times, it become a necessity. It all started when the colleges once single- gender institutions target specific students in their respective demographics. Today, the college market has now been divided into two major categories: Not-for-Profit Colleges and For-Profit colleges. Not-For-Profit Colleges are institutions that are interested in serving the student’s needs by providing necessary education to the student. The Not-For-Profit organization are tax exempt and have a board of trustees that makes decisions. For-Profit Colleges are run like a business in which their goal is to generate income for their owners and shareholders. There are no board of trustees at For-Profit College and the owner and shareholders control the decision on which is best for the institution. Although the objective for both Not-for-Profit Colleges and For-Profit College is to provide their students an education in which they can use for their future, both institution have great differences in which their organizations are run. Although the primary objective For-Profit colleges is to provide an education, they are merely a business in which their goal is to earn a profit. Like any business, the For-Profit Colleges can be setup as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or even a subsidiary of a larger company. The For-Profit College can also be setup as a corporation that have stocks traded on the stock markets. They will try to bring earnings and a return on investment for all their shareholders and investors. They can have great flexibility because at the end of the day, the goal for the For-Profit College is to make money and only that. The instructors that are hired at For-Profit Colleges usually have a very different approach to their teaching compared to Non-For-Profit Colleges. Usually they are merely there to carry out the lesson plans in which was designed by the institution. Majority of the lesson plan given to each student is standard which means the instructors do not have the liberty to create their own curriculum or lesson plans. This is also due to the purpose of the education given is to assist the student in getting specific jobs with specific job functions. The courses at the For-Profit college is to help the students get better jobs in the market while the courses at Not-For-Profit College intend to allow the student learn and grow within their respective fields. Students that enter For-Profit colleges already have a plan in terms of type of jobs they would like to pursue and they enroll in the necessary courses while some students at Not-For-Profit College have no idea which career that they would like to pursue. Not-For-Profit college help you learn and gain the knowledge in the field that you’re interested in while For-Profit colleges prepare you for the specific job that you want to do. The admission process for For-Profit schools are not as selective as the one in Not-For-Profit College. There isn’t much prior evaluation of the student since their main goal is to make a profit. They tend to be more flexible in terms of their requirements and appeal to students of all ages and races. Modern day classes can be taken online and at more convenient times such as nights and weekends to accommodate students that work full time. Online has also been the new trend because of the lower overhead costs for the For-Profit institution. For-Profit institutions tend to not have a campus like the Not-For-Profit colleges do. For-Profit colleges classes is usually at their own building or leased space. There isn’t any services such as on-campus food or housing that is available to the students at For-Profit institutions. The college provides students with the education that they need for their desire jobs rather than a college experience that a Not-For-Profit college can provide. For Profit institutions conduct their accounting the same as any regular business would do. Their main goal is to make a profit just like all businesses would do. For-Profit institutions must comply with the Federal Accounting Standard Board. The tuitions are recorded as revenue while the expenses include leases, staff, and maintenance expenses. For-Profit colleges budget system must include tools to forecast budgets, manage variance and generate financial reports. The budget forecast is designed to estimate revenue and expenses to its income center, administrative cost structure, and its academic schedule. The income center budget includes enrollments, revenue, and expenses by academic period. Administrative expenses include administrative costs per student and personnel pay ranges. The budget should also include financial report to show if the institution is profitable. Statements such as cash flow statements, net income, and balance sheet should all be included. The budget must also be flexible enough in case that their projections aren’t accurate. They should be easily accessible so that managers can routinely check if their performance is above, below, or even on target. To determine if the institution is on track with its budget and strategic plans, they would measure their six categories in their budget to get a better picture of the institution’s performance. They are new students, enrollment, cost performance, revenue, net income, and cash flow. This way they would also be able to measure the efficiency of their institution also. The goal for Not-For-Profit Colleges is to provide students with higher education and help them advance in a particular field. Not-For-Profit Colleges are traditional college such as community colleges, state universities, and liberal arts colleges. These institutions gain funding to provide their services from the government subsidy, tuition fees, and donations. All the income that are received is strictly used for institution purposes. Some examples are professors, staff, maintenance, utilities, or even computers that the school needs and student needs. All the money is given back to the institution in some way. The professors hired at a Not-For-Profit College design their own courses and create their own course curriculum and lesson plan. They can provide the education in their courses with their own individual styles and lesson plans. The professors are under the guidance of the Board of Trustees, which is composed of different representatives that make decisions for the college. Not-For-Profit colleges are mainly to provide education for the student who are enrolled in their institution. The classes are usually on a campus in which the student spends a majority of their time at. The board of Trustees focuses on improving their campus for the student. The Board of Trustees is constantly making decisions from an academic, campus, and efficiency perspective in order to provide the best possible service for their students. Not-For-Profit Colleges select their students through a vigorous and selective process. Students usually express interest in attending the college and then the college decides if the student would be a good fit for the college. After being accepted, the student would be able to earn a scholarship to help with the room and board that the college charges. Not-For-Profit Colleges are selective of the students since they strive to serve students who would fit the reputation of the institution. This selective process allow college to focus on the needs of the students that are a good match for the college. From an accounting perspective Not-For-Profit colleges follow the rules of Governmental Accounting Standards Board who is responsible for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles used by the United States. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issues statements that deal with the accounting principles and financial reporting rules of government and other Not-For-Profit organizations. Like all Not-For-Profit organization, these college contribute without expecting commensurate returns. Their main purpose is to provide education to the students that enroll in their school. Most of their income for these colleges come from the tuitions and fees they receive from their student. Other income comes from donation and government subsidies. When a Not-For-Profit College receives tuition payments and fees in full from students the college is supposed to record it at a gross amount, as any revenue would be recorded. If a student meets certain criterion that allows them to attend a publicly funded not-for-profit institution, tuition may be waived in the form of a tuition waiver. Tuition Waivers are reported as a contra-revenue account reducing the revenue account. If the college has any debts, they are recorded just as businesses record them as the debts are recorded with institutional support expenses. Students may pay for college with scholarships which are essentially amounts contributed for the education of a selected individual. Scholarships are given for a range of reasons including high academic standing, membership in certain societies, or awards. However there are two main sources of scholarships which are an outside donor or the scholarship is awarded by the college itself. If the scholarship is from an outside donor the not-for-profit college simply collects the amount receivable from the donor. If the scholarship is awarded by the college itself the accountant reduces the college’s accounts receivable. This reduction in the accounts receivable is recorded as an expense to education and general student aid. Certain expenses of a not-for-profit college are unrestricted net assets classified as instruction expense, research expense, public service expense, academic support, student services, institutional support, operation and maintenance of plant and student aid. Not-For-Profit Colleges cannot operate on tuition fees alone as all the money is immediately put into the school. Fortunately as a Not-For-Profit organization these colleges may receive governmental subsidies as support revenue. There are two types of government subsidies classified as unrestricted and restricted. Unrestricted subsidies are intended for the college to use in general operations. The Board of Trustees also has the power to decide whether a subsidy is unrestricted. Restricted subsidies can be split into either temporarily or permanently. These subsidies often are given for a certain purpose such as an expansion or special project. The restrictions on these subsidies refer to the amount that can be spent and when it can be spent. Sometimes the government may also provide students with grants, which are similar to scholarships in the sense that they are provided to help students reach their financial needs for school. Government grants can both be state or federal and come from government programs such as Pell or the Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant. Similar to scholarships the college may either distribute the cash to the proper students or receive the amount that is to be distributed. If the college decides to receive the grant then it is recorded as a liability in the â€Å"Grant Funds Held for Students† account. Not-For-Profit colleges usually also have an endowment fund which is used to help finance the operating expenses of the organization. Aside from the general endowment the institution may also have restricted endowments intended for specific purposes such as professorships, scholarships or fellowships. For cash received from permanent endowments it is recorded as a contribution and the income is restricted to student aid. Any income received due to an endowment is temporarily restricted and the cash is meant to be spent on student aid. The other services that a Not-For-Profit College provides are the Auxiliary Services. The Auxiliary Services are the services and amenities of the campus. Examples of such services are residence halls, food services and the college athletic teams. These services are classified under unrestricted revenues and expenses. The total of the accounts from the auxiliary services are reported on the Statement of Activities for the College and subsidiary records are also kept. The Statement of Activities for the Not-For-Profit College will usually list the Revenues combined with Total Net Assets Released from Restrictions for Operations to get the Total Revenues and Reclassifications. The next section is usually the Expenses section followed by any Net Change in Unrestricted Assets, Temporarily Restricted Assets and finally Permanently Restricted Net Assets. The Statement of Activities is then followed by a summary on the Change in Assets for the past year. Even though the main purpose of both For-Profit and Not-For-Profit is the same, the way that they function aren’t necessary the same. The accounting standards and rules that they follow both are very different. Also the rules that both colleges follow are extremely different. Both colleges have their strength and weaknesses in their way that they serve their students. The student should chose the type of college they want depending on what their needs are. If the student is looking to advance their education they should be looking for a traditional Not-For-Profit College. If they are trying to land a job that has technical skills which are required, then the For-Profit College is a better option.