Globalization, Locality and National Advantage as the Key Determinants Research Paper

Globalization, Locality and National Advantage as the Key Determinants of Competitiveness - Research Paper Example The British atmosphere is too cold to even think about growing espresso trees, and Jamaica has no oil. In any case, enormous assets of oil exist in the North Sea and espresso trees can without much of a stretch be developed in Jamaica. Britons and Jamaicans could plainly profit by trading oil for espresso. Smith's hypothesis of total bit of leeway - or outright efficiency contrasts - stays valuable in clarifying present-day exchange between comparable nations, for example, France and Germany. The normal expense of utilizing a laborer in Germany is about equivalent to it is in France, and capital moves openly between the two nations; thus returns generally equivalent. Thusly, to contend effectively with a cost advantage in the French market, a specific German fare must utilize completely less work and capital when delivered in Germany than if the indistinguishable thing were created in France. Exchange between comparable nations can happen insofar as the preferences and livelihoods of people inside every nation contrast thus long as there are supreme cost contrasts in creating different merchandise. In this way, individuals in France and Germany who have unobtrusive earnings and require fundamental transportation, and whose hearts are not set on a powerful games vehicle, may buy Citroens made in France. Well off people in the two nations with an energy about superior vehicles may buy Porsches made in Germany. The taste and pay contrasts among people inside every nation collaborate with explicit outright cost favorable circumstances across nations and give a commonly beneficial premise to worldwide exchange. Unmistakably, if all Frenchmen needed uniquely to drive Citroens, and if all Germans wanted Porsches and had the way to get them, the extension for exchange would be confined.

Culture affects Essay Example for Free

Culture influences Essay This article will be focussed on looking at two scenes from two unique plays, the fundamental characters and their characters, and how their way of life influences them. The two plays being referred to are Arthur Millers The Crucible and Blackrock by Nick Enright. Arthur Miller was an American writer who was conceived in 1915. He experienced childhood in New York to a Jewish family. He moved on from the University of Michigan in 1938 where he started to separate himself as a writer. His play The Crucible was written in 1953 and later adjusted to a film featuring Daniel Day Lewis and Winnona Rider in 1996. The Crucible enlivened by the Salem Witch Trials. A gathering of guiltless young ladies are found moving and reciting in the backwoods around a fire. (Puritan England where all types of moving and happiness would be carefully taboo) To spare themselves from being rebuffed, they cry black magic and inside days the entire town goes frantic looking for the nearness of the Devil and his witches. The couple of fair and genuine individuals who don't mislead spare themselves from hanging are icily killed, including John Proctor the primary male job. Scratch Enright was conceived in Maitland in New South Wales. He began his vocation in the auditorium as a youngster and composed Blackrock in 19 and later on in 1997 was adjusted to a film. Blackrock about an adolescents ideal surfer way of life is broken when a little youngster is severely killed after a sea shore party and the examination approaches his friend network. The youngster Jared, must arrangement with his inner voice and his feeling of unwaveringness to his friends. Both the plays Blackrock and The Crucible albeit set in various timeframes, both have a principle character confronted with a type of individual good issue. The choice among good and bad, and having the mental fortitude to put yourself in danger for the benefit of others. Act 4 of The Crucible The scene changes from the Vestry in the Courthouse to Salem jail. Marshall Herrick enters and awakens Goody Good and Tituba with the goal that they can be moved to an alternate cell. Tituba discloses to Herrick that they anticipate the Devil, who will fly them to Barbados. The Reverend Hale shows up and tells the detainees that they should admit to being witches so as to upset the crazy Court and abstain from being hanged. Reverend Parris finds that Abigail and Mercy Lewis have vanished in the wake of burglarizing Parris and he presumes they may have boarded a boat. Parris postpones disclosing to Danforth this news since he fears that there will be a disobedience in Salem like the ongoing uprising in Andover. There they tossed out the Court, as the individuals were discontent with the proceedings. When Danforth finds out about the vanishing of Abigail he despite everything thinks about that the proof stands and won't defer the executions for it would be an indication of shortcoming. Sound begs him to reexamine or if nothing else give him an opportunity to convince the detainees to admit. Reverend Hale is experiencing issues in convincing the seven sentenced to death to admit, and he argues again with Danforth for additional time. He detects that Proctor is thinking about admitting, so he requests that Elizabeth converse with her better half focusing on the future coming up for their kids on the off chance that he is hanged. Elizabeth feels liable for Proctors circumstance since she lied in Court. She additionally feels regretful for being dubious about her better half after the undertaking with Abigail. She reveals to Proctor that she absolutely pardons him for the issue. Delegate trusts that in the event that he makes an oral admission in Court, that will be adequate for his Judges, yet they require it recorded as a hard copy and it will be posted on the Church entryway. He can't confront this and, consequently, withdraws his admission. He would prefer to bite the dust, and save his great name.

Reading My Way Out of The Closet

Reading My Way Out of The Closet Today is  The Human Rights Campaign’s National Coming Out Day, and to celebrate we are spending the day featuring  LGBTQ+ voices. Enjoy all the posts  here! This is a guest post from Alexander Chee. Chee is the author of the novels Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night, and is an associate professor of English at Dartmouth College. You can follow him on Twitter at  @alexanderchee. When I’m honest with myself, I know that I read my way out of the closet. I began with my uncle’s Penthouse magazines, hidden in his garage, and the stories there under “Letters to Penthouse,” the first place I ever saw what I felt reflected back at me. It was part of what made me a bookworm as a kid, I thinkâ€"understanding that while the world around me might hide what I was from me, written words would not. Next I found Mary Renault’s Alexander the Great novelsâ€"Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy, and Funeral Gamesâ€"and the hero was even, helpfully, a man with my name. A name my father told me had been chosen because of Alexander the Great. Reading these even made me feel like it was my destiny. These were beautifully written historical novels, well above my reading ageâ€"I was reading them at age 13â€"but Bagoas, the Persian eunuch lover of Alexander, has haunted me ever since. Next were Cheever’s Falconer, and the Wapshot novels, but these paled beside what I found in Gordon Merrick’s novels of decadent gay life in the mid to late 20th century, often set in Greece or France, and often with a beautiful young man exploring his sexuality by making lots of mistakes with as many men as possible, usually on a boat or a beach in Greece or France. By the time I saw that first iconic image of Thomas Hintnaus in the first Calvin Klein underwear ad, leaning up against a stucco wall, his bronzed Olympic athlete body the only figure visible, I knew what he was to me. And so that ad became the equivalent of putting a centerfold in every issue of every major magazine. There was a restlessness in me that didn’t stop there, thoughâ€"soon I was shoplifting issues of Honcho and Mandate, until I was old enough to buy them, but by then I had tried to come outâ€"to friends, to my mother, and even, once, to my high school, with a play I wrote. “I was used to imagining what it must be like,” Cherrie Moraga wrote of it, this feeling of having rehearsed, so often, what one wanted from the world, always doing without it. And this was the kind of queer text I was reading by thenâ€"the poetry, essays and fiction of lesbian writers of color. I had gone from needing to see my desires reflected to needing to see my consciousness around them reflected. But I think you cannot really come out until you fall in loveâ€"until all your desires find a face you want to be yourself in front ofâ€"and so, the fall of my first year at Wesleyan, I met the TA for my ceramics class, a handsome, openly gay senior on the crew team, and when the ads went out for novice crew, I signed up. My TA crush, if he ever noticed me, never let on, but that didn’t stop me from trying to be in his path. I’d had what I could call a boyfriend in high school, except everything we did together was secret, and while we were friends, we were not in love. But while I tried so very hard to be good at ceramics, and tried to at least wave hello casually down at the boat house, I rowed this last way out of the closet into my life, coming out to all of my friends that next fall when I returned. The gay crew god had left by now. And I was no longer trying to either be or imitate what I desired as a way to signal to it. I was left with my own fate, my own sense of myselfâ€"my own chance to make my own series of mistakes, if not in France or Greece, then  in New York and San Francisco. And write about all of it. I am very aware, every time I publish, that somewhere, someone is rehearsing, and that could be helping them on their path. If this is you right now, just know you should keep going. Keep reading, desiring, loving. And prepare to find your way. Also In This Story Stream The Struggle with Stories of Queer Suffering 5 Fantastic Comics about Queer Women LGBTQ Works in the Time of Crisis 5 Books about Bisexual Women of Color 3 On A YA Theme: A Rainbow of Queer YA Genre Kryptonite: Queer Ladies Solving Crime 7 Bisexual Protagonists I Wish I Met Growing Up An Introduction To the Queer Bookternet Great Bisexual Representation in Romance My Queer Ship Came In: Legend of Korra Giveaway: What Are the Best LGBTQ Reads for Kids? Where Are the LGBT Food Memoirs? Nothing New Under The Sun How Comics Helped Me Come Out As Non-Binary View all ncod posts-->

Colgate Palmolive Financial Analysis - 967 Words

COLGATE-PALMOLIVE ANALYSIS Section I - Business Overview Colgate-Palmolive is a leading consumer products company with businesses in two main product segments – Oral, Personal and Home Care; and Pet Nutrition. The company operates in more than 200 countries and this geographic diversity and balance help to reduce the Company’s exposure to businesses and other risks in any one country or part of the world. The company’s main competitors are Proctor amp; Gamble (PG), Johnson amp; Johnson (JNJ), Church Dwight amp; Company (CHD) and Clorox amp; Company (CLX). Section II – Ratio Analysis Return On Equity (ROE) The ROE has declined for Colgate-Palmolive from 93% in 2008 to 72% in 2010. But the debt to equity ratio has declined from†¦show more content†¦Though current ratio does not take into account future sales and other cash inflows in future, the declining trend might be a problem if it continues in the future. Quick Ratio The quick ratio reflects on a company’s ability to meet its current liabilities without liquidating inventories that could require markdowns. It is a more stringent test of liquidity than the current ratio and may provide more insight into company liquidity in some cases. For Colgate-Palmolive, the quick ratio has declined from 0.73 in 2008 to 0.58 in 2010. While this does not necessarily mean a problem, a higher current ratio and quick ratio analysis will mean that the company will not have difficulty in meeting its short-term obligations from its operations and not by liquidating its assets. Section IV Conclusions The ratio analysis indicates mostly positive outlook for Colgate-Palmolive as most of the measures look healthy. The ROE has reduced by increasing assets and reducing liabilities, the cash conversion cycle has decreased and the days payables outstanding has increased. But Dupont analysis indicates that profitability and efficiency have become lower. Additionally, the working capital has become lower and the current and quick ratios have declined. To understand the impact of these declining ratios on this company, the industry trend has to be analyzed to see if this happening throughoutShow MoreRelatedTodays Segmentation Strategies of Colgate-Palmolive1207 Words   |  5 PagesWS1 Case Study Paper Indiana Wesleyan University WS1 Case Study Paper Colgate-Palmolive Company While many companies provide a similar product there aren’t any that share the same perspective when it comes to the sincere appreciation and willingness to provide like that of Colgate-Palmolive. Their mission statement is unique to them and simply states the following: As a company that strives to be the best truly global consumer product company, we are committed to doing business with integrityRead MoreProcter And Gamble ( P G755 Words   |  4 Pagesand Gamble (PG) and Colgate-Palmolive (C-P) are two of the largest consumer goods company in the world and have been in the industry since the 80s. The companies manufacture and market fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) such as household products, and personal care and hygiene, targeting at various segments of consumers. Among the brands carried by PG are Downy, Olay, Tide, Clairol and Bounty. Popular brands under C-P are Palmolive, Kleenex, Colgate, etc. In terms of financial performance both companiesRead MoreBrand Essence Colgate1227 Words   |  5 Pagesis Colgate. Colgate is a division of the Colgate-Palmolive brand that produces soaps, detergents and oral hygiene products. Colgate focuses on oral hygiene and is a maker of toothpaste and toothbrushes. Started in 1806 by William Colgate as a soap and candle company. When William died in 1857, his soon took over. In 1837, Colgate introduced their first toothpaste and was the first to introduce toothpaste in a tube. In 1928 Palmolive-Peet bought Colgate and in 1953 the name changed to Colgate-PalmoliveRead MoreMarketing and Colgate7310 Words   |  30 PagesA Strategic Analysis of Colgate ´s toothpaste product line TABEL OF CONTENT 1. 2. 3. Executive Summary .....................................................................................................- 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................- 1 Situational analysis.......................................................................................................- 1 3.1 Company analysis ...........Read MoreThe Rise of Battery-Powered Toothbrushes Essay4501 Words   |  19 Pagessegment. Between August 2001 and 2002, sales of power dental accessories in U.S. food, drug and mass outlets grew by 21.8% (Neff, 2002). There are many competitors in this industry including Colgate-Palmolive and Procter Gamble. In May 2000, Colgate-Palmolive introduced the Colgate Actibrush with a retail price of $19.99 (Young, 2002). Procter Gamble was quick to follow suit and introduced the Crest SpinBrush in mid 2001 and priced it at $5.99 (Young, 2002). With 50% ofRead MoreColgate Palmolive: Marketing Strategies and Programs5256 Words   |  22 PagesCOLGATE PALMOLIVE Marketing Strategies and Programs Introduction Colgate Palmolive Company is a $17.1 billion global company serving people in more than 200 countries and territories with consumer products that make lives healthier and more enjoyable. This American  diversified  multinational corporation focuses on strong global brands in its core businesses – Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care and Pet Nutrition. Colgate follows a tightly defined strategy to grow market shares for key productsRead MoreProject on Colgate4336 Words   |  18 PagesIntroduction Colgate  Palmolive ltd. is one of the largest FMCG Company in India. Colgate-Palmolive headquartered in  New York City  is the biggest seller of toothpaste and a world leader in oral care products (mouthwash, toothpastes, and toothbrushes). The company also makes personal care products (baby care, deodorants, shampoos, soaps) and household cleaners (bleaches laundry products, soaps). Its other well-known brands include Palmolive dishwashing liquid and tabs,  Ajax  surface cleaners, and laundryRead MoreThe New Optic White High Impact Toothpaste With Its Innovative Ingredient Technology Opens A Lot Of Opportunities For The Essay1519 Words   |  7 PagesV. Situation Analysis The new Optic White High Impact White toothpaste with its innovative ingredient technology opens a lot of opportunities for the company. In the effort to prepare a strategic plan, marketing management used a SWOT analysis tool to better evaluate company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis is an overview of Colgate’s position in the market place. Colgate-Palmolive Company built some remarkable strengths whileRead MoreColgate Palmolive Ethics Report3374 Words   |  14 Pagesto know if the company’s activities are good or bad, if there is any scandal related to their products or services, if it cares about protecting the environment and if it makes any contribution to the local community. As an outside stakeholder, financial analysts take into account, among other things, CRS as an indicator of likely future performance. Sustainability is about ensuring that this present generation meets its needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirRead MoreERP System Analysisï ¼Å¡ Colgate ERP Implementation MBA517 Information system management Midterm1200 Words   |  5 PagesERP System Analysisï ¼Å¡ Colgate ERP Implementation MBA517 Information system management Midterm paper DI BAI 108726305 Introduction With development of the information system management, ERP system has been familiar with more and more people. What is the ERP? ERP is short for Enterprise resource planning; generally speaking, it is an Integrated Information System. From the definition of Wikipedia, ERP is business management software—usually a suite of integrated applications, that a company can use

Essay on Differences Between China and Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia and China are quite different countries. The latter is much larger than the former. The former is the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula and it is located in Middle East, bordering the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea, north of Yemen. The latter is the largest country in Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam. Although there some similarities between Saudi Arabia and China, there are also several differences in the areas of population, economy and the culture. First of all, Saudi Arabia and China have some similarities. The former has the international airports and the latter has too. Saudi Arabia keen on literature just as China does. Fast food is popular not only in China put also†¦show more content†¦The first one important difference is the people, China has a population of 1.3 billion people, about fifth of the worlds population while Saudi Arabia has 28.1 million people, including an estimated 5.5 million resident foreigners about 23% of the population is made up of foreign nationals living in Saudi Arabia, approximately 12% of the population is South Asian including Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. In addition there are some citizens of Asian, Northeast African and sub Saharan ancestry, Whereas China has ethnic groups, large ethnic minorities include the Zhuang, Tujia, Mongols Tibetans and Koreans. All people in Saudi Arabia speak Arabic language, in contrast to Chinese people speak many languages, Standard Chinese or Mandarin, Gang, Hakka dialects and Minority language. All people in Saudi Arabia are Muslims 100%, as opposed to China where Chinese has different religions, such as Daoism, Buddhist and Christian. The second difference is in economy, Saudi Arabia is richer than China, because of Saudi Arabias economy is petroleum based , roughly 90% of export earnings come from the oil industry , on the opposite side China exports electrical and other machinery including medical equipment. On the other side, Saudi government has built economic city includes petrochemical and pharmaceutical. Although, Saudi Arabia became a world trade organization member, China is larger trading power than Saudi Arabia. The final and most importantShow MoreRelatedEssay On Iran Nuclear Deal1223 Words   |  5 PagesThe Iran Nuclear Deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed on July 14, 2015 between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the P5+1, which consists of the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Russia, France, China, plus Germany, and the European Union (EU). The framework of this deal states that Iran would need to reduce, convert, and redesign its nuclear fa cilities and accept the additional protocol in order to lift all nuclear-related economic sanctionsRead MoreUnderstanding The Uk Culture By Foreign National Students1146 Words   |  5 PagesHofsted’s, In that four dimension to comparing with national culture. In the research eleven people are coming from age belowthirty. The 47% people isquite confidence to speck with native people. In our research UK culture and international culture 67% differences in social life. Mostly 54% students have language difficulties in the UK. Introduction: - The topic is cultural adaption of Middlesex international students. According to Giacalone and Montagliani (1998), cultural adaptation isRead MoreThe Crisis Of The Global Oil Crisis1638 Words   |  7 Pagesincluding Russia, OPEC (especially Venezuela and Saudi Arabia), and United States are the major victims in the oil prices shock. They are suffering from a fallback in their economy development due to the significant revenue shortfalls. Russia is suffering from a significant economy recession (BBC News). Brad Plumer points out that economy in Russia is â€Å"facing a potential meltdown†; Venezuela is â€Å"facing unrest† and â€Å"may default on its debt†; and Saudi Arabia will face heavy pressure if the price remainsRead MoreEssay on Comparative and Absolute Advantage4211 Words   |  17 PagesComparative and Absolute Advantage ECO 561 Alfred Igbodipe 7/24/16 Introduction Due to the differences between the countries in its profitable fundamentals; the International Trade occurs. The contracts between the countries consider as the primary driver of the global exchange. These contracts concluded on the basis of the countries beneficial elements and advantages. Each international trade between the countries depends on numerous focal points of this exchange process. The economics and producersRead MoreInternational Relations As A Theoretical Perspective985 Words   |  4 PagesInternational relations is filled with a lot of different theories and perspectives that try predict and make sense of the events and situations that occurs between countries. While no theory is perfect the best two perspectives to know in order to understand international relations are realism and constructivism. Although constructivism is a good theoretical perspective I believe it ultimately it falls short of giving a true understanding of everything that goes into international relations. InRead MoreOpec Stands For Organization Of The Petroleum Exporting Countries Essay1112 Words   |  5 PagesStates, China and Russia are not a member of OPEC. This makes the Petroleum industry very interesting and competitive. Members of OPEC and other top Petroleum producers. OPEC Currently has twelve members. Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Angola, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Angola, Nigeria, and Venezuela. The organization is formed by five countries reaching to an agreement to OPEC in 1960. These countries, are Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. AccordingRead MoreMulticultural Considerations in Business880 Words   |  3 Pagescultural understanding in all international dealings. In Saudi Arabia, familial ties are an immensely important part of most businesses, and end up dominating most domestic business partnerships in the world of finance and medium- to large-scale corporate enterprises (Long, 2005). What might be considered unfair or inappropriate in terms of family ties between different businesses and in making deals is considered natural and commonplace in Saudi culture, and not simply an acceptance but a true understandingRead MoreThe Case Of Saudi Arabia1736 Words   |  7 Pagesand stakeholders. However international markets are difference due to each society, this paper will provide a different definitions for corporate governance, and we will study the main factors that will influence the form and structure of corporate governance systems, those factors are traditions, religion, tax methods and corporate governance methods. In this paper will study the case of China basically, and will study the case of Saudi Arabia in religion methods, we will provide a comprehensiveRead MoreGlobalization And The Middle East998 Words   |  4 Pagesof development under different political and cultural background. During this period, Such as the United States of America s economic status from the rapid development to the decline, then move to the current stable trend. Brazil, Russia, India, China, which named ‘BRCIS’ those developing countries’ economic performances are very catch the attention in recent years. The decline and rise of these countries commercial economy are closely related to their political culture. Therefore, it attractedRead MoreFour Types of Research646 Words   |  3 Pagesseveral differences, as well as similarities, between the United States and other countries regarding methods to maintain order. Most laws are designed to protect citizens in countries like the United State s and England. On the other hand, this is not true for countries like Saudi Arabia and China. In Saudi Arabia, the countries laws are based on the Islamic religion. Therefore, women, homosexuals and religious minorities are often targets of violence. In the communist country of China, where

Abortion Pill Free Essays

string(47) " a synthetic steroid used as a pharmaceutical\." â€Å"The abortion pill should be banned due to the negative consequences it causes to women† Abstract The New Era’s freedom of sexuality and contraception’s campaigns had reached all the world, leading as a consequence the fact that in every country there are more and more unwanted pregnancies. Conception has been debated for so long, and there’s not a scientific posture accepted officially by any nation, so due to desperation, medical experts had created what appeared to be -for some- the solution to unplanned pregnancies, the abortion pill. The components of this pill are lethal if the it doesn’t work as it meant to be, psychological and physical effects can remain forever in women’s life, without even a possible cure, depending on the cases. We will write a custom essay sample on Abortion Pill or any similar topic only for you Order Now The purpose of this essay is to proof that its better to think before making any decision that will bring serious impacts in people’s life, including family and of course, society; abortion with the pill its not easier or less painful than the other ways. INTRODUCTION Abortion had been part of our history from many years ago, but do we really know how it appeared and how it influences negatively our society?. I shall began the development of this controversial subject by exposing the genesis of abortion; the first evidence of induced abortion is from the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus near the 1550 BC, but it was in China were this matter became a concurrent practice between women, so according to Chinese folklore, the Emperor Shennong prescribed mercury to induce abortions. In primitive cultures, they used physical activities as a way to interrupt pregnancy, such as climbing, weightlifting or diving, while others tend to use plants and its poisons or pouring hot water into the abdomen. Some archaeological discoveries indicate that surgical attempts to extract the fetus existed in these cultures. In Greece and Rome, abortion was practiced as well. Hippocrates, a Greek physician forbid the use of pessaries or vaginal suppositories to induce the interruption; apparently because they caused vaginal ulcers, in an oath for doctors. In the other hand, Scribonius Largus, a Roman famous doctor said that â€Å"Hippocrates, who founded our profession, laid the foundation for our discipline by an oath in which it was proscribed not to give a pregnant woman a kind of medicine that expels the embryo or fetus†[1]; the interpretation of this oath was only applied for women who were not prostitutes, because otherwise they would have to use methods such as jumping and touching their buttocks with their heels on each leap. There were found likewise certain objects described as instruments that apparently dilated cervix and curette inside of the uterus. Moving on to the second and third century, Tertullian, a Christian theologian, described surgical implements that were part of a procedure very close to what now we call dilation and evacuation, it consisted on a tool like an annular blade to curette and a blunted or covered hook to extract the fetus, they would use as well a copper needle or spike. Tertullian said that this procedures could take place only when the fetus was in an abnormal position in the womb and it would endanger the life of the mother, or when it had expired in the uterus[2]. Hyppolytus of Rome, wrote about women that binded tightly themselves around the middle in order to expel what was being conceived. Later on from 5th century to 18th, appeared new methods of abortions. The most popular one was to sit over a pot of steamed onions or to massage pressuring the abdomen to expulsion the baby. The physical means remained represented this time by battery or tightening the girdle, these were special bands worn while being pregnant to support the belly. In New Zealand, before colonization, drugs, religious ceremonies and the restriction belt were used. In Asia, the peasant Japanese women were hit till they abort, a proof of this are the statues erected in memory of abortion in the Temple of Yokohama. In Cambodia’s temples in their walls are some decorating paintings that shows a demon performing an abortion upon a oman who has been sent to the underworld for committing such a crime. In the 19th century, there were notorious advances in surgery, anesthesia and sanitation, and abortion was banned in the United States of America. Even though, research has shown that the most common and illegal method by that time was the flush inside the uterus. In France, family planning writers convinced the society that abortion was a logical solution to unwanted pregnancies. Women got desperate and started using objects such as spoons, sticks, candles and knives to abort. Statistics show that abortion remained dangerous and that 150,000 abortions that occurred annually in the U. S during the 20th century, one in six resulted in death[3]. The natural abortifacients were the inspiration for the creation of the abortion pill, this included botanical preparations with Italian catnip, cyperus, pennyroyal (which is lethal), savin, opium, lavender and thyme, even animals were used like crushed ants, saliva of camels and hairs of deers and even bear’s fat. The abortion pill began in New York during the 1830’s by Madame Restell who illicitly provided surgical abortion and the pill. She offered confidence and a good job, she called them â€Å"Female Monthly Regulation Pills†, the labels she used as advertising told about birth control and a possible miscarriage. Her purpose was to help women at first, but hen it became a millionaire business and she took advantage of it, extending her services not only to unmarried women who were pregnant, but also to those who were married and didn’t want a baby yet, leading to the pioneer of family limitation of the time. She remained forty years in the market and was always the main target of criticism, she got arrested in 1841 and committed suicide in 1878[4]. The abortion pill’s main component is called Mifepristone, which is a synthetic steroid used as a pharmaceutical. You read "Abortion Pill" in category "Papers" Its both used as a contraceptive and an abortifacient during the first two months of pregnancy. It was discovered by Georges Teutsch, developed in Roussel-Uclaf Co. in 1980 but bettered by Emile Baulieu, who made tests of its use in eleven women in Switzerland at the University of Geneva’s Cantonal Hospital, the results ere successful and in 1988 France announced its approval, despite antiabortion movements that took place. French government decided to distribute it free of charge and near 34,000 women used this pill for a short period of time, until Roussel-Uclaf settled a price. Mifepristone was introduced to Great Britain and Sweden in 1991, this is when the Roman Catho lic Church protested and blocked all types of distribution of the abortion pill. After all boycotts, Exegyl in 1999 got the approval of Mifegyne (Mifepristone) in eleven additional countries and in 28 countries over the following decades. This medicine is approved for: Medical termination of pregnancies (up to 49 days of gestation), dilation of the cervix prior to mechanical cervical dilatation and labor induction in fetal death inside the uterus. This is sold in the U. S, and a 600 mg dose is administered combined with the proper counseling session; then 400 mg of misoprostol is given to the patient in order to provoke contractions, the accuracy of this method is calculated in the 92% of the cases, and if its not, then surgical procedure takes place. Its obvious that the purpose of this pill is to end up with life and bring to the whole world a new era of irresponsibility and freedom of sexual relations without contraceptive methods and promiscuity. Abortion’s consequences can be referred as physical and psychological, though it varies from woman to woman, it depends on the organism and how it works, as well as moral and ethic values. Regarding physical aspect, it is proven by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that this method has a risk of 0. 23% of failure and could lead to negative consequences for the mother[5]. The list of complications can begin with abdominal pain, uterine cramping and vaginal bleeding from 9 up to 16 days, even though the last research show that almost 8% of women experienced bleeding for at least 30 days and between 4. 5 and 7. 9% of women require a surgical intervention, as we know this can lead to a more dangerous procedure. Nausea, vomiting, fatigue and diarrhea with fever are some other side effects. As we can see, its not only getting rid of a life, but jeopardizing your own body’s health. The worst physical effect could be the Pelvic Inflammatory Disease also alled PID, which affects not only the uterus, but also the fallopian tubes and the ovaries by scarring inside the reproductive organs. Infections might take place due to viral, fungal, parasitic and bacterial infections. Over 100,00 women become infertile in the US each year because of PID[6], it can also cause appendicitis, ruptured ovarian cysts and even tumors. This disease may be curable but in the worst of cases it can be permanent if the infection is in the fallopian tubes or ovaries, to avoid all this complications is through prevention. Infertility maybe a result of the use of the pill, this is the proof that using it is like playing to the roulette, you don’t know what you are going to get afterwards. Neonatal exposure to a single large dose of Mifepristone causes both functional and structural reproductive abnormalities. In fact, 71 cases registered between 1987 and 1998 as continued pregnancy after the failure of using the pill, it is estimated that about 405,000 medical terminations of pregnancy using Mifepristone in the United Kingdom, France and Sweden. In 21 of the cases, Mifepristone was used alone, and in the others it was combined with misoprostol, sulprotone, gamesprost and an unspecified prostagladin. The research concluded that eight cases from the 71 embryos were malformed[7]. There’s another example occurred in Brazil, a study showed that 42 infants ex[posed to the abortion pill (200-1600mg dose), had defects after their mothers fail in interrupting pregnancy during the first three months of gestation, proving that this problem is not only in Europe and North America, its also an issue of Latin America countries. Consequences are not just about physical, psychological might be even worse. Researches has been interested in post-abortion reactions, concluding in a period of psychiatric emotional paralysis, also called numbness; this mean women are unable to express any feeling or emotion, in order to finally get over it. Between 40 and 60% of women questioned reported negative reactions, 55% expressed guilt even after weeks of having committed abortion, 44% had nervous disorders, 36% had sleep lack, 31% experimented regrets and 11% has prescription of psychotropic medicine. These results are really alarming considering that these studies were made 8 weeks after abortion. Another research was based in interviewing 500 women, the 10% of them agreed that they had serious psychiatric complications and the 50% experienced negative feelings and hate for themselves. Statistics reveal that sex life of aborting women is affected dramatically represented by the 30-50% of sexual dysfunctions, losing pleasure for intercourse, pain and aversion to sex even males; or by the contrary promiscuous life style. As a result, most of them end up pregnant again to make up for what they did before. Teenagers that tend to abort, have higher risks of living with psychological perturbations forever, even more if they are under 17 years old; symptoms include self-reproach, depression, social regression, withdrawal, obsession to become pregnant again and hasty marriages[8]. Data indicates that there’s a five tot en year period of denial of a woman who is traumatized by abortion in which she may repress all her feelings, avoid people, situations or events that could remind her of that episode. But it’s not over at all, other women might feel pleased at first, but decades later they will burst into an emotional crisis, mainly during menopause, abortion is like a ghost chasing women’s memories. Family is also affected by abortion, this is because all these psychological reactions increase the self-destructive behavior, the 80% percent of the questioned women expressed to feel self-hatred. The 49% reported drug abuse and the 39% began abusing from alcohol. Near the 14% accepted becoming alcoholic or addicted after the abortion period, the most worrying fact is that more than the half of them with the 60% have thought about suicide only the 28% succeeded in the attempt more than two or three times[9]. Considering all these numbers and information based on multiple studies done for years, it’s time to educate our society in first place to avoid all this terrible and unnecessary nightmare women have to live everyday, because abortion unfortunately is an everyday issue. Women should analyze all the risks they are running only for some minutes of pleasure, responsibility is the most assertive way to handle sex life, the use of contraception had been promoted worldwide constantly since long time ago, so there’s basically no excuse for acting selfish regarding a pregnancy. Is understood as well that there’s non consensual intercourse, but never the less there other solutions for an unwanted child such as giving him/her up for adoption, since there are so many families wanting so much to have children without the opportunity to. The government is the one that should encourage teenagers and in general all the population to think about this issue and impose policies that supports correct sexual education so abortion rate could decrease. Life is a gift from God that should be appreciated despite any fact, we have no right to decide if someone must live or die. Medicine and technology had helped society grow this last years, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have to set up limits to it, we can’t let them control our lives and our destiny. The abortion pill should be banned not only because of scientific facts shown before but for ourselves, to make a better place we can live in. This not only about one life and by being selfish, but about our community and the example we are leaving behind for our future generations. Methods like this jeopardize the integrity of family, the moral values that makes it the nucleus of the society, setting the standards of promiscuity and false sexual freedom. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Scribonius, Compositiones Praef. 5. 0–23 (Translated and cited in Riddle’s history of contraception and abortion) 2. Celsus (1935). â€Å"Prooemium†. In W. G. Spencer. De medicinal. London: Heinemann. p. 457. OCLC  186696262. http://penelope. uchicago. edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Celsus/7*. html. 3. Streitmatter, Rodger (2001). Voices of Revolution. Columbia University Press. p. 169 4. Richardson, Cynthia Watkins (2002). â€Å"In the Eye of Power: The Notorious Madam Restell† (PDF). Khronikos (University of Maine) 5. The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion  : Evidence-based clinical uideline number 7. London 6. STD Facts – Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)†. http://www. cdc. gov/std/PID/STDFact-PID. htm. 7. UK multicentre study group. The efficacy and tolerance of Mifepristone and prostaglandin in termination of pregnancy of less than 63 days gestation; UK multicentre study—final results. Contraception 1997; 55: 1-5 8. Wallerstein,et. al. , â€Å"Psychosocial Sequelae of Therapeutic Abortion in Young Unmarried Women†, Archives of General Psychiatry (1972) vol. 27 9. Reardon,†Criteria for the Identification of High Risk Abortion Patients: Analysis of An In-Depth Survey of 100 Aborted Women†, Presented at the 1987 Paper Session of the Association for Interdisciplinary Research, Denver. 10. Wilke, Handbook on Abortion, (Cincinnati, Hayes Publishing Co. , 1979 11. Zimmerman, Passage Through Abortion (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1977 ———————– [1]Scribonius, Compositiones Praef. 5. 20–23 (Translated and cited in Riddle’s history of contraception and abortion) [2]Celsus (1935). â€Å"Prooemium†. In W. G. Spencer. De medicina. London: Heinemann. p. 457. OCLC  186696262. http://penelope. uchicago. edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Celsus/7*. html. 1. [3]Streitmatter, Rodger (2001). Voices of Revolution. Columbia University Press. p. 169 1. [4]Richardson, Cynthia Watkins (2002). â€Å"In the Eye of Power: The Notorious Madam Restell† (PDF). Khronikos (University of Maine). [5]The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion  : Evidence-based clinical guideline number 7. London [6]†STD Facts – Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)†. http://www. cdc. gov/std/PID/STDFact-PID. htm. [7]UK multicentre study group. The efficacy and tolerance of Mifepristone and prostaglandin in termination of pregnancy of less than 63 days gestation; UK multicentre study—final results. Contraception 1997; 55: 1-5 [8]Wallerstein,et. al. , â€Å"Psychosocial Sequelae of Therapeutic Abortion in Young Unmarried Women†, Archives of General Psychiatry (1972) vol. 27 [9]Reardon,†Criteria for the Identification of High Risk Abortion Patients: Analysis of An In-Depth Survey of 100 Aborted Women†, Presented at the 1987 Paper Session of the Association for Interdisciplinary Research, Denver How to cite Abortion Pill, Papers

Financial Statement Analysis - Redesign Of Starbucks Stores

Question: Discuss about the Financial Statement Analysis for Global Redesign of Starbucks Stores? Answer: Introduction When you need coffee to start your day, then the options are nearly limitless. Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks Corporation are the 2 largest companies that specialize in providing coffee in the USA. Both the companies has similar menus and strategies, but the difference between the two of them is in their branding, store ownership and scale. Starbucks Corporation was founded 20 years after Dunkin Donuts but then also it grew aggressively and is now larger company as compared to Dunkin Donuts. Although the growth of Outlets like McDonaldsother brands, Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts grabs a good chance. The two big players, who control over half of the coffee market in U.S., are fighting ever-growing competitors. Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts co-existed for long back when Dunkin donuts were all about to serve the donuts (Mullins, 2009). But after the retirement of Fred the Star Baker in the 1990s, Dunkin Donuts started growing its coffee business, bringing Dunkaccino in the year 2000 and espresso revolution in the year 2003. Dunkin Donuts slowly started new coffee drinks, and in the year 2006, declared to go one-on-one with Starbucks. Financial Statements In the year 2015, Starbucksprovided good returns with their stocks up over 50%. On the other handDunkin' Brands gained a modest 2.4% over the same stretch. Since earlier performance does not guarantee future returns, and the investment decisions should be based on forward-looking approach. Regarding the revenue, Dunkin' Brands is way smaller than Starbucks. Though the smaller size of the company can make it more unstable and volatile, but it provides more chances for expansion (Nissim Penman, n.d.). It's becoming easier to withstand rapid growth in a smaller revenue base, which could become an advantage for investors of Dunkin' Brands v/s Starbucks. As Starbucks operates in its stores, therefore it has constricted margins as compared to Dunkin' Donuts. The Profit after the cost of sales, including occupancy costs and product expenses, was 84% for the Dunkin' Brands for the quarter June 2015, Whereas Starbucks had 62% gross margin during this period. The operating marginof Starbucks is 17.5%, which is almost more than 26 % points lower that of the Dunkin' Brands. Dunkin' Donuts also has a lower capital expense as compared to Starbucks. Dunkin' Donuts' spend $14.6 million in the expense in capital in the 2nd quarter of the year 2015 which was 32% of the net cash flow an d 8% of the revenue. Starbucks' $945 million of the expenses in capital was 19% of the revenue and 34% of the net cash flow from operation. This discrepancy is because of different store possession structures of both the companies, and it is important for the investor to make decision about the investment to be made in the above companies. Investors must also note the difference in capital structure of both the companies. The long term debt of Dunkin' Donuts is $2.5 billion which represents 75% of the total assets whereas the long term debt of Starbucks is $2.4 billion which represent 18% of total assets. Retrieved from www.Bloomberg.com Balance sheet analysis Dunkin' Brands had net income declined by 4% during the last quarter because of loss on extinguishment of refinancing and debts. High debt could cause a huge amount of interest expenses that could hamper the long-term profitability and the cash flow. Dunkin' Brands' free cash flow is negative $2.9 million in the last quarter, which was $34.9 million during the same time of the last year. The Improvements were due to favourable changes in operating liabilities and assets and high net income (Ferranti, 2003). Dunkin' Brands balance sheet is highly leveraged, and the cash balance are at 53% of the stockholder's equity and the long-term debts to the equity ratio is at 461%. Its Operating income is more than its interest expenditure by almost four times while the rule for the safety is atmost five times. Presently Dunkin' Donuts pays to its shareholders $0.95 PS every year, and it yields 3% yearly. Starbucks experienced vigorous year to date net income and revenue expansion, growing 18% and 11% respectively.Starbucks free cash flow is in the negative range because of a onetime litigation charge andwithout litigation charge, the free cash flow would have grown 44%.Starbucks balance sheet is excellent with stockholder's equity and cashes 41% and 30% respectively. The Operating income is more than the interest expense by 47 times.Presently the company is paying its shareholders $1.05 (PS) each year, and its yields are 1.6%. Income Statement However," Starbucks has beaten Dunkin' donuts in relations of the revenue increase in last many years. Starbucks continues to lead Dunkin' Brands about sales revenue according to the latest financial reports. One of the Seattle-based company reported $4.9 billion in sales revenue during September quarter, which is a big increase of almost 18% from the similar period last year. Global sales grew up to 8%, with increasing traffic 4% every year, which shows that the Starbucks continues to enjoy lively demand, and the sales of the previously existing stores is not hampered due to the opening of new stores (Rangaswamy, 2007). Dunkin' Brands also announced an increase in sales revenue of 9% last quarter. Growth is much more than just the mathematics of size versus speed. Starbucks Corp. is far bigger than Dunkin' Donuts in areas like world-wide brand recognition and its management's skill to drive growth through product innovation, which is helping the company to deliver exceptional financial results despite of its big size. Comparison between Starbucks and Dunkin Brand Particulars Starbucks Dunkin brand Sales revenue (2014) $16.4 billion $749 Million Stores 22519 11460 Sales revenue of Starbuck Corporation in the year 2014 was $16.4 billion whereas the sales revenue of Dunkin Donuts in the year 2014 was $749 million which means that the sales of Starbuck Corporation was more than that of Dunkin Donuts. Starbuck Corporation has 22,519 stores whereas Dunkin Donuts has 11,460 stores. Starbucks has opened almost 10,000 stores in 64 countries whereas Dunkin' Brands has a considerable international presence, and many of their international stores are Baskin Robbins stores. In the year 2014, almost 75% of the Dunkin brand consolidated revenue were from the USA while international revenue was less than 5% while 20% of Starbucks' Corp. Consolidated revenues were from the USA in the year 2014. Basics of Analysis On the bases of PE Ratio One of the biggest drawbacks while analyzing the investment in Starbucks Corp is possibly valuation. Starbucks trades at a very steaming-hot PE ratio, which is around 34 times earnings over the period of last twelve months, a significant premium v/s the whole market (Amiram, Bozanic Rouen, n.d.). When compared to any of the average company on SP 500 P/E ratio is near 19.The stock of Dunkin' Brands is cheaper than Starbucks at the P/E ratio near to 26. Company Market Capitalization Trailing-12-Month-Revenue Growth (YOY) P/E P/S Dunkin' Brands $3.9 billion 8.3% 26 5.2 Starbucks $83.6 billion 16% 34 4.3 Size As Starbucks is bigger company, this could wrongly lead investors in concluding that Dunkin certainly has more room to run and is better to invest. But when we look closely at both the companies it reveals that Starbucks is not only growing faster than the Dunkin' donuts but has more determined outlook, going ahead. Growth Starbucks is a fast growing company among the two and is expecting the increase in revenue by 10% compared to the previous year which will be driven by 1850 new stores opening. Retrieved from abcnews.go.com Dunkin' Brands expect an increase in revenue growth to be 4% to 6%, which is driven by 400-450 new Dunkin Donuts stores. Franchising Dunkin brand operates through franchises whereas 99% of Starbucks are company operated. In June 2015, 63% of Dunkin Donuts revenue where from royalties and franchise fees. Whereas Starbucks revenue reflects the sale of food, beverages, and all the other items. Because Starbucks has company-operated stores, therefore, COGS and store expenses (operating) are much higher of the Starbucks than the Dunkin Donuts. As COGS is higher in the Starbucks' corporation expenditure structure, therefore, the profits of Starbucks are also more sternly affected by any change in the price of the coffee beans. Starbucks has more capital expenditure as compared to the Dunkin' Donuts (Haskova, 2015). Quality Starbucks is more premium brand than the Dunkin' Donuts. Starbucks commands a higher price, whereas Dunkin Donuts focus on the middle class and provides lower cost menu. Liquidity of the Short term Assets and debt payof ability based on Ratios Profitability Ratios Starbucks Dunkin Donuts Starbucks Dunkin Donuts Gross Margin= Gross Profit/ Net Sales 56% 82% 60% 79% Return on Assets= Net Income/ Total Assets 7% 1% 24% 5% Gross Margin:Itcalculate the cost-effectiveness of the actual products that is sold in the market before some overheadand expenses areexcluded.It helps to measure the price of the product above the cost of the product (Flor Hansen, 2012). Gross margin of Starbuck Corporation in the year 2009 was 56% whereas in the year 2015 it was 60%. Gross margin of Dunkin Donuts in the year 2009 was 82% whereas in the year 2015 it was 79%. This shows that the gross margin of Dunkin Donuts has declined with the period of time. Dunkin' Donuts gross margin is higher than Starbucks, which shows they are using their inputs more efficiently than Starbucks Corporation and then selling their products. Return on Assets:It represents the profitability of a company's in generating revenue. Since the return on asset of Starbucks is higher than that of Dunkin Donut which means they are more efficient in revenue generation as compared to Dunkin Donuts. Starbucks has assets which are more profitable as compared to that of Dunkin' Donuts. Liquidity Ratios Starbucks Corporation Dunkin Donuts Starbucks Corporation Dunkin Donuts Current Ratio= Current Assets/ Current Liabilities 129% 202% 190% 119% Quick Ratio= (Current Assets-inventory)/Current Liabilities 87% 128% 134% 118% Current Ratio: The period of less than one year is called Current as per accounting principal. The formula for calculation of current ratio is CA (Current Assets)/CL (current liabilities). It calculate that the company has good amount of assets which can be within a period of one year be converted into cash to repay the debts which will be due next year. In the year, 2009 Dunkin Donuts have the higher current asset, but after that it started to decline, whereas the current ratio of Starbuck have increased. Therefore, Starbuck is in a better position to repay it dues which are due next year. Quick Ratio:It is similar to current ratio when inventories and current assets are excluded. Excluding inventories are important because all the other items covered in the calculation of current ratio is receivables or cash.Starbuckss quick ratio in the year 2009 was less than 100%,which means their current assets are less than the required current liabilities when the inventories are excluded. But after 2009 their quick ratio has improved andnow in the year 2015 it was better than Dunkin' Donuts. Leverage Ratios Starbucks Dunkin Donuts Starbucks Dunkin Donuts Debt Ratio= Total Liabilities/ Total Assets 45% 76% 38% 89% Times Interest Earned=EBIT/ Annual Interest Expense 15.48 1.6 61.08 3.23 Debt Ratio:It calculate liabilities / assets. It calculate the number of company's assets provided by debt than that of equity.The Starbucks Corporation had lower debt in 2015 than that of Dunkin' with is 38% v/s 89%, respectively. Time Interest Earned:It calculates the companys capability to pay its interest in a year. It calculate the interest which the organsation is required to pay against the operating income of the company (Suthan, n.d.).In 2015, the EBIT of Starbucks is 61.09 times whereas the EBIT of Dunkin Donuts is 3.23 times, which means Starbuck will be able to pay its interest 61.09 times whereas Dunkin Donuts will be able to pay its interest only 3.23 times. Turnover Ratios Starbucks Dunkin Donuts Starbucks Dunkin Donuts Asset Turnover= Net Sales/ Total Assets 1.75 0.17 1.62 0.20 Inventory Turnover=( Inventory/ COGS)*365 56.11 32.77 77.95 6.07 Asset Turnover:It processes the capacity of the assets of the company, which can be improvedbyreducing receivables, reducing inventory, or by increasing the sales by maintaining the assets of the company.In 2015, Starbucks asset turnover was higher, which means they are moreefficient than the Dunkin' brand' assets. Inventory Turnover:It calculates the number of times the inventories are used or are sold in a particularyear.It shows whether the company is using the inventory efficiently or not. When inventory turnover is higher than it shows that the company is using the inventory efficiently. In the year 2015, Starbucks inventory turnover was higher than that of Dunkin' Donuts.Starbucks has used their inventory almost 78 times and Dunkin Donuts has used it six times in a year (Vrontis Kogetsidis, 2008). As it is seen that Starbucks has the better current ratio, return on assets, times interest earned, debt ratio, inventories and asset turnover. As Dunkin' Donuts only has gross margin % higher whereas Starbuckshas all the other ratios higher therefore Starbuck Corporation is in much better positionthan that of Dunkin' Donuts. Growth Trends Assessment Dunkin Donuts 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Sales 628 658 714 749 789 Cost 124 144 156 158 160 Profits 504 514 558 591 641 Starbucks 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Sales 11700 13300 14892 16448 19163 Cost 4949 5813 6382 6859 7788 Profits 6751 7486 8510 9589 11375 From 2011 to 2015, Starbucks' sales are more than that of Dunkin' Donuts, the expenses of Starbuck increased by lower amount, and their profits have increased more which means Starbucks Corporation has better compounded annual growth rate than Dunkin' Brand. Although, Dunkin' Donuts sales and profits both have increased, but with that their costs have also increased much higher than the increase in sales and profit. The growth trend analysis also shows that Starbucks is better than Dunkin' Donuts. Conclusion Starbucks is a first-class business in which investors can freely have comfortable holding for many years. The stock of Starbucks has always been expensive, but then also it has delivered great returns for investors for the long term,achieving over 300% in last five years (Vrontis Kogetsidis, 2008). Whereas Dunkin' Brands is a rationally good business which is trading at a reasonable premium to the global market. Starbucks has a solid financial statement with higher coverage of interest expense of operating income and low amounts of the debt. Starbucks introduces new products like Oprah Tea Latte and it experiments with the new different sodas. As Starbucks operates 6,600 restaurants outside the western hemisphere, which means it has plenty of room to run in the emerging markets. References Aiello, G., Dickinson, G. (2014). Beyond authenticity: a visual-material analysis of locality in the global redesign of Starbucks stores. Visual Communication, 13(3), 303-321. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470357214530054 Amiram, D., Bozanic, Z., Rouen, E. Financial Statement Irregularities: Evidence from the Distributional Properties of Financial Statement Numbers. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2374093 Arie, S. (2015). The health coaches from Dunkin' Donuts. BMJ, 350(mar27 4), h1456-h1456. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h1456 Chigumira, T. (2014). Dollars to Donuts. World Policy Journal, 31(3), 108-115. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0740277514552980 Cole, G. (2008). Grande Expectations: a Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock20081Karen Blumenthal. Grande Expectations: a Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock . Loughton: Piatkus 2007. Management Decision, 46(4), 673-675. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251740810865120 Donuts Dissociate. (2012). Science, 335(6075), 1407-1407. https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.335.6075.1407-h Ferranti, K. (2003). Digging deep into derivatives: balance sheet management making strategic decision making better. Balance Sheet, 11(3), 20-22. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09657960310491154 Flor, C., Hansen, S. (2012). Technological advances and the decision to invest. Annals Of Finance, 9(3), 383-420. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10436-012-0191-4 Haskova, K. (2015). Starbucks Marketing Analysis. CRIS - Bulletin Of The Centre For Research And Interdisciplinary Study, 2015(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/cris-2015-0002 Knowles, C. (2000). Burger King, Dunkin Donuts and community mental health care. Health Place, 6(3), 213-224. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1353-8292(00)00024-1 Latif, M., Qurat-ul-ain, H., Gulzar, H., Bukhari, S., Sameen, S. (2014). Starbucks sustained during economic crisis. Ijafr, 4(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ijafr.v4i1.6084 Magiera, F. (2010). Financial Statement Analysis. CFA Digest, 40(1), 85-86. https://dx.doi.org/10.2469/dig.v40.n1.61 Mullins, C. (2009). Supply and demand in the decision-making process of pharmaceutical consumers: The starbucks versus dunkin' donuts dilemma. Clinical Therapeutics, 31(8), 1858. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2009.08.013 Nissim, D., Penman, S. Financial Statement Analysis of Leverage and How It Informs About Profitability and Price-to-Book Ratios. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.292725 Rangaswamy, P. (2007). South Asians in Dunkin Donuts: Niche Development in the Franchise Industry. Journal Of Ethnic And Migration Studies, 33(4), 671-686. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691830701265644 Schmidt, R., Oldfield, B. (1999). Dunkin Donuts the birth of a new distribution and franchising concept. Journal Of Consumer Marketing, 16(4), 376-385. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07363769910371044 Snyder, M. (2006). State of the Profession: The Starbucks Effect. Academe, 92(1), 70. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40252902 Suthan, A. Fundamental of Financial Statement Analysis. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1588981 Vrontis, D., Kogetsidis, H. (2008). Environmental analysis as a means to customer satisfaction: the case of Starbucks in Cyprus. J. For International Business And Entrepreneurship Development, 3(3/4), 188. https://dx.doi.org/10.1504/jibed.2008.019156 , GabGeun Yoon,. (2013). A Study on the Donuts Lay-out according to the Sales Analysis of Market Type -Focused on the D Donuts franchise-. Journal Of Korea Design Knowledge, null(27), 109-120. https://dx.doi.org/10.17246/jkdk.2013..27.011

Development of Airbus A340 and its Uniqueness

Biography of General Tom Thumb, Sideshow Performer

Biography of General Tom Thumb, Sideshow Performer General Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton, January 4, 1838–July 15, 1883) was an unusually small man who, when promoted by the great showman Phineas T. Barnum, became a show business sensation. When Stratton was 5 years old, Barnum began exhibiting him as one of the wonders in his popular New York City museum. Fast Facts: Tom Thumb (Charles Stratton) Known For: Sideshow performer for P.T. BarnumBorn: January 4, 1838 in Bridgeport, ConnecticutParents: Sherwood Edwards Stratton and Cynthia ThompsonDied: July 15, 1883 in Middleboro, MassachusettsEducation: No formal education, although Barnum taught him to sing, dance, and performSpouse: Lavinia Warren (m. 1863)Children: Unknown. The couple traveled with a baby for a while, which may have been one of several rented from foundling hospitals, or their own who lived from 1869–1871. Early Life Tom Thumb was born Charles Sherwood Stratton on January 4, 1838, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the third of three children of carpenter Sherwood Edwards Stratton and his wife Cynthia Thompson, who worked as a local cleaning woman. His two sisters, Frances Jane and Mary Elizabeth, were of average height. Charles was born as a large baby but he simply stopped growing at the age of five months. His mother took him to a doctor, who couldnt figure out his condition- it was likely a pituitary gland issue, not known at the time. Until his teens, he stood only 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds. Stratton never had a formal education: at the age of 4, he was hired by P.T. Barnum, who taught him to sing and dance and do impressions of famous people. Barnums Discovery of Tom Thumb Visiting his home state of Connecticut on a cold November night in 1842, the great showman Phineas T. Barnum thought to track down an amazingly small child he had heard about. Barnum, who already employed several â€Å"giants† at his famed American Museum in New York City, recognized the value of young Stratton. The showman made a deal with the boy’s father, a local carpenter, to pay three dollars a week to exhibit young Charles in New York. He then hurried back to New York City to begin promoting his new discovery. A Sensation in New York City â€Å"They came to New York, Thanksgiving Day, December 8, 1842,† Barnum recalled in his memoirs. â€Å"And Mrs. Stratton was greatly surprised to see her son announced on my Museum bills as General Tom Thumb.† With his typical abandon, Barnum had stretched the truth. He took the name Tom Thumb from a character in English folklore. Hastily printed posters and handbills claimed that General Tom Thumb was 11 years old, and that he had been brought to America from Europe â€Å"at great expense.† Charlie Stratton and his mother moved into an apartment in the museum building, and Barnum began teaching the boy how to perform. Barnum recalled him as â€Å"an apt student with a great deal of native talent and a keen sense of the ludicrous.† Young Charlie Stratton seemed to love performing. The boy and Barnum forged a close friendship that lasted many years. General Tom Thumb’s shows were a sensation in New York City. The boy would appear onstage in various costumes, playing the part of Napoleon, a Scottish highlander, and other characters. Barnum himself would often appear onstage as a straight man while â€Å"The General† would crack jokes. Before long, Barnum was paying the Strattons $50 a week, an enormous salary for the 1840s. A Command Performance for Queen Victoria In January 1844, Barnum and General Tom Thumb sailed for England. With a letter of introduction from a friend, newspaper publisher Horace Greeley, Barnum met the American ambassador in London, Edward Everett. Barnum’s dream was for Queen Victoria to see General Tom Thumb. Barnum, of course, maximized the trip to London even before leaving New York. He advertised in the New York papers that General Tom Thumb would be having a limited number of farewell performances before setting sail on a packet ship to England. In London, a command performance was arranged. General Tom Thumb and Barnum were invited to visit Buckingham Palace and perform for the Queen and her family. Barnum recalled their reception: We were conducted through a long corridor to a broad flight of marble steps, which led to the Queen’s magnificent picture gallery, where Her Majesty and Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, and twenty or thirty of the nobility were awaiting our arrival. They were standing at the farther end of the room when the doors were thrown open, and the General walked in, looking like a wax doll gifted with the power of locomotion. Surprise and pleasure were depicted on the countenances of the royal circle at beholding this remarkable specimen of humanity so much smaller than they had evidently expected to find him. The General advanced with a firm step, and as he came within hailing distance made a very graceful bow, and exclaimed, â€Å"Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen!† A burst of laughter followed this salutation. The Queen then took him by the hand, led him about the gallery, and asked him many questions, the answers to which kept the party in an uninterrupted strain of merriment. According to Barnum, General Tom Thumb then performed his usual act, performing â€Å"songs, dances, and imitations.† As Barnum and â€Å"The General† were leaving, the Queen’s poodle suddenly attacked the diminutive performer. General Tom Thumb employed the formal walking stick he was carrying to fight off the dog, much to everyone’s amusement. The visit to Queen Victoria was perhaps the greatest publicity windfall of Barnums entire career. And it made General Tom Thumbs theater performances a huge hit in London. Barnum, impressed by the grand carriages he saw in London, had a miniature carriage built to take General Tom Thumb around the city. Londoners were enthralled. And the smashing success in London was followed by performances in other European capitals. Continued Success and a Celebrity Wedding General Tom Thumb continued performing, and in 1856 he embarked on a cross-country tour of America. A year later, along with Barnum, he again toured Europe. He began to grow again during his teens, but very slowly, and he eventually reached a height of three feet. In the early 1860s, General Tom Thumb met a small woman who was also in Barnum’s employ, Lavinia Warren, and the two became engaged. Barnum, of course, promoted their wedding, which was held on February 10, 1863, at Grace Church, an elegant Episcopal cathedral at the corner of Broadway and 10th Street in New York City. Scenes of General Tom Thumbs life, including his wedding. Getty Images   The wedding was the subject of an extensive article in The New York Times on February 11, 1863. Headlined â€Å"The Loving Liliputians,† the article noted that a stretch of Broadway for several blocks was â€Å"literally crowded, if not packed, with an eager and expectant populace.† Lines of policemen struggled to control the crowd. The account in The New York Times began by pointing out, in a humorous way, that the wedding had been the place to be: Those who did and those who did not attend the wedding of Gen. Tom Thumb and Queen Lavinia Warren composed the population of the Metropolis yesterday, and thenceforth religious and civil parties sink into comparative insignificance before this one arbitrating query of fate: Did you or did you not see Tom Thumb married? While it may seem absurd, the wedding was a very welcome diversion from news of the Civil War, which was going quite badly for the Union at that point. Harper’s Weekly featured an engraving of the married couple on its cover. President Lincolns Guest On their honeymoon trip, General Tom Thumb and Lavinia were guests of President Abraham Lincoln at the White House. And their performing career continued to great acclaim. In the late 1860s, the couple embarked on a three-year world tour that even included appearances in Australia. A genuine worldwide phenomenon, General Tom Thumb was wealthy and lived in a luxurious house in New York City. In a few of the couples performances, they held a baby said to have been their own child. Some scholars believe that Barnum simply rented a child from local foundling homes. Strattons obituary in The New York Times reported that they did have a child of normal size born in 1869, but that he or she died in 1871. Death The Strattons continued to perform until the 1880s, when they retired to Middleboro, Massachusetts where they had had a mansion built with custom-made small furniture. It was there, on July 15, 1883, that Charles Stratton, who had fascinated society as General Tom Thumb, died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 45. His wife, who remarried 10 years later, lived until 1919. It is suspected that both Stratton and his wife both had growth hormone deficiency (GHD), a condition related to the pituitary gland, but no medical diagnosis or treatment was possible during their lifetimes. Sources Hartzman, Marc. Tom Thumb. American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of Historys Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers, p 89–92. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2006.  Hawkins, Kathleen. The real Tom Thumb and the birth of celebrity. Ouch Blog, BBC News, November 25, 2014. Web.Lehman, Eric D. Becoming Tom Thumb: Charles Stratton, P.T. Barnum, and the Dawn of American Celebrity. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2013.  Obituary for Tom Thumb. The New York Times, July 16, 1883.

College assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

College - Assignment Example 10. The following 10 data values are systolic blood pressure readings. Compute the mean, range, standard deviation, and variance for these data using StatCrunch. Copy and Paste your work from StatCrunch into your Word document submission. 12. The following data designate whether patients in two groups (experimental and control) complied with a medication regimen. The experimental group participated in an intervention designed to promote perceived mastery over health events: Using StatCrunch, construct a contingency table for these data, computing both row and column percentages for each of the four cells. Copy and Paste your StatCrunch table into your Word document submission. Using StatCrunch, construct a scatterplot that shows the relationship between the two variables. Copy and Paste your work from StatCrunch into your Word document submission. Verbally describe the direction and magnitude of the relationship. Using StatCrunch, construct a scatterplot that shows the relationship between the two variables (carbon dioxide concentrations and the measured change in Global temperature). Calculate the r value using StatCrunch. Copy and Paste your work from StatCrunch into your Word document submission. Verbally describe the direction and magnitude of the relationship you find. What does this tell you about Global

Psychology How important are the contents of the unconscious mind to Essay

Psychology How important are the contents of the unconscious mind to the understanding and treatment of mental health problems - Essay Example The complex aetiological structure of mental problems implies that each potential cause must be carefully studied to understand its role in the onset of a disorder and eventually design an effective treatment strategy. However, despite the increasing body of scientific studies in the field, it is rarely the case that the research equally addresses each of the three major types of causes. Probably the most noticeable tendency in this regard is that the recent advances in the field of genetics and neuroscience have led to a situation when the biological causes of mental health and illness receive overwhelming attention while the psychological and socio-cultural aspects remain relatively understudied. Fortunately, the increasing use of psychotherapeutic interventions in both understanding and treatment of mental problems suggests that modern researchers and practitioners are taking efforts to finally rectify the imbalance and acknowledge the role of unconscious in psychiatric discourse. Thus, the latest edition of the American Psychiatry Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) clearly demonstrates that "the concept of the unconscious is re-emerging in psychiatric discourse" (McAndrew and Warne, 2005, p.172). ... Main Discussion Psychoanalytic Theory (PT) is fully based on the epoch-making theory of the father of modern psychology Sigmund Freud. The key postulate of Freud's theory is that human being passes through a series of psychosexual stages over the course of maturation. Each stage is dominated by the development of sensitivity in a particular erogenous or pleasure-giving zone of the body. Each stage poses for individuals a unique conflict they must cope with before passing over to the next stage of development. In case the conflict is not resolved it will result in a long-lasting frustration. Such frustrations become chronic and in future shape the behaviour of personality. Moreover, people may stop at a given stage when they become extremely addicted to its pleasures. But whatever the cause is the result is the same: it leads to fixation of an individual at some certain stage of development (Gleitman et al., 2000). Freud identified five stages of psychosexual development: the oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital. The oral phase starts from the moment of birth, when both needs and their fulfilment involve participation of child's tongue, lips and teeth. Mouth is the first zone of body the child can control and due to this the most part of his sexual energy is focused on it. Later, when the child can control other parts of his body, a certain part of his energy still remains "cathected" to his mouth. Therefore it is natural to have a moderate interest to oral pleasures (Frager and Fadiman, 2000). As the child grows up new zones of pleasure appear. At age between two and four years the child is learning how to control the anal sphincter and bladder, they obtain much of his attention. The process of toilet

Overview Of Walmart Cost Leadership

Overview Of Walmart Cost Leadership The low cost strategy emphasizes having the lowest costs, not necessarily the lowest price, in a market. A firm attempting to realize a low cost strategy should stress resources that facilitate efficiency. A firm that has successfully achieved a low cost position will have the lowest costs relative to competitors. A firm can use such a position to either lower its prices and gain market share and sales from rivals or keep its prices at the present market level and make relatively more profit per unit sold. The key idea is that cost and price are independent choices, and this strategy is focused on cost. The differentiation strategy focuses on developing a unique product or (equally useful) a perception of a unique product that customers are willing to pay a premium for. If a firm is not receiving a premium price for its goods or services it is NOT a differentiator. A firm seeking to follow a differentiation strategy should attempt to develop and enhance its resources that promote customer responsiveness, quality, and/or innovation. Note that costs are still important to a differentiator because it is possible that the costs of making the product unique will be greater than the premium consumers are willing to pay for it. The firm can choose to compete in the mass market with a broad scope, or in a defined, focused market segment with a narrow scope. In either case, the basis of competition will still be either cost leadership or differentiation. In adopting a narrow focus, the company ideally focuses on a few target markets (segmentation strategy or niche strategy). The choice of offering low prices or differentiated products/services should depend on the needs of the selected segment and the resources and capabilities of the firm. It is hoped that by focusing your marketing efforts on one or two narrow market segments and tailoring your marketing mix to these specialized markets, you can better meet the needs of that target market. The firm typically looks to gain a competitive advantage through product innovation and/or brand marketing rather than efficiency. Competitive Advantage Cost Uniqueness Broad Competitive Scope Narrow Our focus in this report is to showcase implementation of these strategies by picking examples of companies that have successfully used these strategies to gain competitive advantages. Walmart: Cost Leadership Founded by Sam Walton, the first Wal-Mart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. Seventeen years later, annual sales topped $1 billion. By the end of January 2002, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Wal-Mart), was the worlds largest retailer, with $218 billion in sales. Wal-Marts winning strategy in the U.S. was based on selling branded products at low cost. Each week, about 100 million customers visited a Wal-Mart store somewhere in the world. The company employed more than 1.3 million associates (Wal-Marts term for employees) worldwide through more than 3,200 stores in the United States and more than 1,100 units in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In 2001, Fortune magazine named Wal-Mart the third most admired company in America, and the Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers ranked it as the eighth most admired company in the world. The following year, Wal-Mart was named number one on the Fortune 500 list and was presented with the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership, a presidential award that recognized companies for outstanding achievement in employee and community relations. Wal-Mart enjoyed a 50 percent market share position in the discount retail industry. Procter Gamble, Clorox, and Johnson Johnson were among its nearly 3,000 suppliers. Though Wal-Mart may have been the top customer for consumer product manufacturers, it deliberately ensured it did not become too dependent on any one supplier; no single vendor constituted more than 4 percent of its overall purchase volume. About 85 percent of all the merchandise sold by Wal-Mart was shipped through its distribution system to its stores. (Competitors supplied to their retail outlets on average less than 50 percent of the merchandise through their own distribution centers.) The company owned a fleet of more than 3,000 trucks and 12,000 trailers. (Most competitors outsourced trucking.) Wal-Mart had implemented a satellite network system that allowed information to be shared between the companys wide network of stores, distribution centers, and suppliers. The system consolidated orders for goods, enabling the company to buy full truckload quantities without incurring the inventory costs. Wal-Marts Value Proposition Wal-Marts value proposition can be summed up as everyday low prices for a broad range of goods that are always in stock in convenient geographic locations. It is those aspects of the customer experience that the company overdelivers relative to competitors. Underperformance on other dimensions, such as ambience and sales help, is a strategic choice that generates cost savings, which fuel the companys price advantage. If the local mom-and-pop hardware store has survived, it also has a value proposition: convenience, proprietors who have known you for years, free coffee and doughnuts on Saturday mornings, and so on. Sears falls in the middle on many criteria. As a result, customers lack a lot of compelling reasons to shop there, which goes a long way toward explaining why the company is struggling to remain pro ¬Ã‚ table. Walmart in 2010 Growth opportunities continue. Price leadership continues to be the cornerstone of how it goes to market. Growth in the United States will come from additional penetration into more metropolitan markets, as well as from new formats and stronger integration with the online business. Walmart.com traffic exceeded one billion visits this past year, growing more than 15 percent over the previous year through Site-to-Storeà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ and home delivery. Leverage scale and reduce costs. Innovation, process improvements and strong management teams drove significant improvements in our business. Walmart repositioned the business to leverage operating expenses on a slower rate of sales growth this past year. Improved productivity through enhanced scheduling systems better matched associate staffing levels in stores to customer traffic. Stronger supply chain processes also improved inventory flow. Merchandising and planning systems contributed to lower inventory levels, which were also benefited by increased sell-through. Global sourcing initiatives now under way strengthen efforts to drive down the cost of goods and pass those savings on to customers. Improved returns. Walmart significantly increased its cash flow and return on invested capital in fiscal 2010. Gross margin improvements, tight expense control, strong inventory management and efficient capital allocation contributed to this improved performance. It reduced year-end inventory by $1.8 billion, or 7.6 percent, and increased inventory turns as well. Apples differentiation approach enhances the companys competitive advantage in the market. It favors Apple to continue down a path that not only maintains premium positioning but also enhances it. It is clearly doing this at the research and development (RD) level. The introduction of a new portable manufacturing process (the unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro) and a relatively fast-paced operating system release cycle are clearly a function of Apples ever-evolving differentiated positioning. The upcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard (successor to Mac OS X Leopard) and iPhone OS 3.0 will continue to push the envelope and set the groundwork for continued innovation in the years to come. Apple has never shied away from starting over. It did this with the transition to Mac OS X, the transition to Intel processors, and the re-design of their portable Macs. Each enhancement widens the differentiation gap that competitors must narrow or copy in order to compete with Apple. The Company participates in several highly competitive markets. While it is widely recognized as a leading innovator in the markets where it competes, these markets are highly competitive and subject to aggressive pricing. To remain competitive, Apple believes that increased investment in research and development and marketing and advertising is necessary to maintain or expand its position in the markets where it competes. Digging deeper into the strategy, the trade-off protects Apples unique position. Competitors have two main ways to imitate an incumbent. A competitor can (1) reposition itself or (2) straddle, an approach that attempts to match the incumbents position while maintaining its existing position. By maintaining its price premium at the expense of unit volume, Apple has created an imitation barrier that competitors cannot easily cross. PC competitors cannot realistically enter Apples space by transforming themselves into a premium brand without alienating or pricing out existing customers. If a competitor decided to reposition or straddle it would have to compete with Apples decades long premium brand equity. Thus, PC vendors have two transformational issues working against them, time and cost. Apples competitors will not be able to transform their brand image overnight. Any such effort will take considerable amount of time on numerous dimensions ranging from product design to marketing. T his leads to the second issue, cost. Any transformation undertaken by a competitor will cost tens or perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in a sustained re-branding and advertising campaign. In todays marketplace, a cost of this magnitude is not feasible. From a trade-off perspective, Apple has systematically analyzed what not to do; attempt to compete at lower price points. Apples entry into retailing, for example, is designed to provide better point-of-sales service to customers wishing to purchase an Apple product than can be had from independent stores. By helping to raise the overall level of differentiation associated with Apples offering, the strategy is designed to strengthen Apples competitive position. Zara: Focused Differentiation Zara is a phenomenon in the textile industry; it was a start-up in Spain and gradually has evolved to be today a very successful leader quoted company in its industry. Zara, the most profitable brand of Inditex SA, the Spanish clothing retail group, opened its first store in 1975 in La Coruà ±a, Spain, they have expanded operations into 45 countries with 531 stores located in the most important shopping districts of more than 400 cities in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Throughout this expansion Zara has remained focused on its core fashion philosophy that creativity and quality design together with a rapid response to market demands will yield profitable results. In order to realized these results Zara developed a business model that incorporated the following three goals for operations: develop a system the requires short lead times, decrease quantities produced to decrease inventory risk, and increase the number of available styles and/or choice. These goals helped to formulate a unique value proposition: to combine moderate prices with the ability to offer new clothing styles faster than its competitors. These three goals helped to sha pe Zaras current business model. Capabilities of Zara, or the required resources needed to exploit the opportunities and execute this conceptual strategy, are numerous for Zara. Zara maintains tight control over their production processes keeping design and manufacturing in-house or with some strategic partnerships located nearby Headquarters. Value drivers for Zara are both tangible and intangible in the benefits that are returned to all stakeholders. Tangibly, Inditex, the parent company of Zara, has 11.02% net margin on operations and their market capitalization (Equity market value) is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬13, 981 (in thousands) in 2002. Their net working capital (current assets current liabilities) is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬133 (in thousands) . Additionally, the success of Zara can be demonstrated through their outstanding financial performance. From 1996 to 2000, Inditex SA tripled their corporate profits and in 2001, a year of overall economic downturn in the retail industry, Inditex SA saw a 31% increase in profits. Int angibly, customer loyalty and brand recognition have provided significant value to Zara. The number of consumers they attract continues to rise and their brand is synonymous with the cutting edge of fashion at affordable prices. The successful implementation of Zaras business model provides great value to stakeholders and differentiates their business from their peers. Vertical integration: a distinctive feature of Zaras business model, has allowed the company to successfully develop a strong merchandising strategy. This strategy has led Zara to create a climate of scarcity and opportunity as well as a fast-fashion system. Zara manufactures 60% of its own products. By owning its in-house production, Zara is able to be flexible in the variety, amount, and frequency of the new styles they produce. Also, 85% of this production is done through the season, which allows the chain to constantly provide its costumer with very updated products. Traditional retailers lack this flexibility. Traditional retailers are obligated to place production orders to manufacturers overseas at least 6 months in advance of the season. Zara purchases its fabric in advance , much of it in grienge form this gives flexibility to colour print , to desired effect. Low current inventory: Regular customers know that new products are introduced every two weeks and most likely would not be available tomorrow. Therefore, Zaras scarcity climate allows the company to sell more items at full price. This strategy minimizes Zaras total cost because it reduces 15-20% of markdown merchandise compare to a traditional retailer. Zaras centralized distribution facility gives the chain a competitive advantage by minimizing the lead-time of their goods, distribution center is a place where merchandise is moved rather than stored. The current ratio shows that for every euro in short-term debt, Inditex has 1.02 million euros in current assets. HM however, has 3.40 million euros in current assets for every euro in short-term debt. The company designs and cuts its fabric in-house and it acquires fabrics in only four colors to keep costs low. Zara postpones dyeing and printing designs until close to manufacture, thereby reducing waste and minimizing the need to clear unsold inventories. Technology: Whether measured by IT workers as a percentage of total employees or total spending as a percentage of sales, ZaraÊ ¼s IT expenditure is less than one-fourth the fashion industry average. Zara excels by targeting technology investment at the points in its value chain where it will have the most significant impact, making sure that every dollar spend on tech has a payoff. It still uses the DOS system without much networking capability, whereas its competitors like Prada use RFID technology, Benneton uses SAP. Marketing Advertising: Zara also has an advantage over its competitors due to its low advertising costs. Zaras advertising investment is 0-.3% as compared to traditional retailers who expends 3 4%. Zara relies mainly on its stores to project their image. For that reason, Zara has a department, which exclusively works in acquiring global prime real estate locations. In addition, this department is responsible for the frequent refurbishing of store layouts, as well as the creation of a common window display for Zaras global stores. Controlling notorious bottlenecks along the supply chain is key to speed. For example dyeing and fit are critical processes within the supply chain. Zara is a large investor in a dye and finishing plant-a notorious bottleneck. Its control allows them to oversee the dyeing process. A further trouble spot is sewing. Even though Zara uses sub-contractors some subcontractors, it carries out the bulk of all cutting itself-a crucial process that determines fit. 60% of the manufacturing processes are outsourced in countries close to the Zara headquarters in Spain to help achieve a quick turnaround. Zara maintains a strong relationship with their contractors and suppliers-viewing them as part of the company. To successfully react to consumers demands, design decisions are delayed as long as possible. Typically, Zara pre-commits to 50%-60% of its production in advance of the season, whereas other clothing retailers commit to 80%-90%. Thus Zara reserves mill capacities to ensure production fac ilities are available when needed. Value Chain In todays competitive environment, Zara has shown that fine tuning the supply chain is no longer a strategic tool, but a necessity. It has shown that supply chain management can be managed provide sustainable competitive differentiation and positioning on the one hand and increase throughput, reduce inventories and operating expenses on the other. Zaras Product Offering Zaras unique capabilites allow it to cater to a focussed set of customers yet at a cost leadership position. Zara has a competitive advantage in logistics, with production just in time with better performance that its competitors, it also has the ability to renew all what is in their stores in few weeks. It also counts with storage in Europe, in Zaragoza that is close to the distribution centres. Product Offer Supply process High customisation Low volume High Margin High quality High volume High standardisation Low unit margin Low quality Flexible process High fashion: out of price Rigid Process ZARA MS :Out of fashion According to Porter, the reason so many firms suffer aggressive, margin eroding competition, is because theyve defined themselves according to operational effectiveness rather than strategic positioning. Operational effectiveness refers to performing the same tasks better than rivals perform them. Everyone wants to be better, but the danger in operational effectiveness is in sameness. At its heart Zara is building on a vertically integrated demand and supply chain, while most other textile chains rely on outsourcing and cheap labour in China. It enables company to short turnaround times and achieves greater flexibility, reducing stock to a minimum and diminishing fashion risk to the greatest possible extent. Ikea: Focused Cost Leadership Ikea is one of the known global home furniture and household goods retailer which is a privately owned company. It was established by Ingvar Kamarad Sweden and in year 2008 the company owned 244 Ikea stores in 24 nations and the management is still planning to open 23 new stores. The company has also 32 stores on 16 nations and these stores were still managed and owned by franchisees outside the Ikea Group which extends the global reach of Ikea to 35 territories overseas. The Ikea Group has also been able to diversify their products beyond furnishings and furniture into food products and prefabricated housing. The company has been able to ensure that they have franchise agreements among most of the overseas operations to ensure capitalization of local marketing expertise and practices of the franchisees. The concept and trademark of Ike is owned by Ikea Systems BV and the operations of the company are basically controlled by Ingka Holding. Primarily, the company is based on providing broad range of well-designed, functional home furnishing goods at an affordable cost to attract more customers. This concept of the Ikea is the foundation of their business operations which includes product designing, manufacturing, transportation, retailing, and assembling. The company sees to it that they work hard in attaining their business goals and providing quality products and services among their target market. Strategy Analysis In order to analyse the capabilities of IKEA, different marketing tools will be considered. This includes the SWOT Analysis, Porters Five Forces Model, and Core Competencies analysis. Capabilities Analysis According to Kim and Weaver (2000), the administration and management of a particular business organization entails full utilization of the resources of the company in order to lead, direct, and control operations to meet the set objectives. It can be said that IKEA has been able to use strategic approach to sustain their competitive advantage. One of the capabilities IKEA is how the leaders of the company do their business. Guided by their vision and mission, the leader and management of the industry clearly illustrate integrity in all their actions. The management has also strong commitment in promoting the company values and the value of diversity among the employees and staffs. In addition, the management of the company has been able to understand the priorities of the business and make every decision in line with the strategic direction by giving consideration to the effect on all aspects of the business and on other stakeholders. Another sustainable capability of the company is its continuous focus on the importance of both internal and external customers to ensure that these customers remain loyal to them. The company also makes it sure that they motivate, inspire, coach, guide, and support their staffs to realise the mission of the IKEA. Furthermore, the companys ability to identify and recognise contributors is another factor that sustains the companys competitive advantages. The ability of the management to diversify and differentiate their business strategy to dominate the global market can also be considered as the major capabilities of the IKEA. Swot Analysis In this report, the analysis of the current situation of Ikea will be done using different marketing tools. Herein, IKEA will be analysed through the use of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis. The purpose of this internal and external analysis is to see what the organization has to work with as it begins to position itself to deal with the opportunities and threats identified through the analysis of the external environments. Specifically, it helps identify what existing strengths and weaknesses might impact the organizations value creation capabilities. Strengths As mentioned, IKEA has been one of the leading brands in household furnitures in its global operations. One of its strength is its being a very profitable company, in both its domestic and international branches. In addition, IKEA is a global brand established upon a reputation of quality products and services with almost 10,000 product range and 244 stores in different regions. Furthermore, one of the strengths of IKEA is its strong ethical values integrated with its business strategy which include cost leadership and product differentiation. The strength of the company can also be attributed to their ability to distribute their product effectively in the global market. One of their strengths is their ability to diversify when the company has been able to launch their private label food items in 2005. The offerings of the company include Swedish dishes which include meatballs, smoked elk sausage, roll-mop herring, and crisp breads. Weaknesses Although IKEA encompass much strength, the company has also its weaknesses. One of the weaknesses of the companies is the notion that IKEA remain vulnerable to the plausibility that the creativity and product development may falter over time. In addition the company has also lacking the ability to look for a business portfolio for various regions, like in the case of IKEA so as to spread business risk. Opportunities With the management system and the marketing strategies implemented within IKEA as well as with the strengths that the company, it can be said that IKEA has bigger opportunities to still dominate the global market in terms of providing quality household furniture as well as food products and services to its residents, commercial and industrial clients or even have an opportunity to be the most competitive brands in the global market. With the continuous innovation of the company and the support that it shows to different needs of the region, the company can gain loyalty from their customers to make them more competitive in the marketplace. The continuous initiatives of the company in diversification of its revenue resources also open new opportunities to make the business become stronger to outgrow all its rival companies. Such opportunities will include the development of new products, leveraging the companys investment in the low cost leadership and differentiation, and other business opportunities in both non-core and core areas. In line with IKEA, the household furniture as well as food products and services have the opportunity to expand their market in the global level, and it can be said that IKEA is on its way ahead of its competitors in terms of international expanding. Threats One of the threats of that IKEA may face is the emergence of a new and stronger company which offered a more diversified household furniture as well as food products which is cheaper than the existing companies. If these companies will not be able to provide the latest trends in this kind of business industries, the company may experience some industrial threats. In order for the company to maximise its strengths and minimise or totally eliminate its weaknesses, the company must be able to use or impose a strategic management system that will help them enhance their business operations. Porters Five Forces Model It can be noted that an industry is a group of firms which market its products and services closely substituted from one another. According to Porter (1980), some firms tend to become more profitable and gain competitive advantage than their rivals companies. With this, a company like Ikea should always bear in mind that the industry will only survive in the global market by using a strategy that will sustain their competitive advantage and position. Through the use Porters Five Forces Model, the analysis of the industry aspects of the IKEA will be analysed. New Market Entrants The first element of Porters Five Forces Model includes threat of entrance of new industries. Apparently, the objective of IKEA is to build a position in the household furniture as well as food shops service industry and to be recognised as company which would always be competitive in the global market. IKEA is said to be a world-class companies in providing household furniture as well as food products and services in market environment. With this, it can be said that because of the existence of IKEA, having another household furniture as well as food shops is unnecessary unless, the new company which will emerge will have the appropriate and efficient marketing strategy to outgrow both leading companies. Hence, it can be said that the household furniture as well as food shop belongs to a higher entry obstruction because of the existence of competitive companies like the companies and their other rival industries. Supplier Power It can be noted that the conditions and the present system in the household furniture as well as food shop industries largely determines the extent in which effective competition can be achieved. The bargaining power of a supplier could be a threat for the profit of the company, and both IKEA is very much aware of it. In this manner, IKEA is trying to have a good contract with its supplier, herein; IKEA makes it sure that they are also benefited in the said contract while the suppliers enjoy the agreement with them. In this kind of business, there is a high level of competition in the household furniture as well as food brand supply market. Competitive Rivalry IKEA still enjoy their competitive position in the global market. In this analysis, it shows that the company still dominate the household furniture as well as food market by providing those quality and innovative services. This means that IKEA is still on top of the competition among other household furniture as well as food retail companies in world. The company enjoys its competitive position in the region and still trying to sustain its competitive advantage among its rivals. Buyer Power Porters also include in his model the concept of the bargaining power of Buyers. Hence, the management of IKEA makes sure of it that their clients and customers in all aspects will be satisfied for the quality service they provide. Specifically, the company has focused their marketing approach on the demands and needs of the buyer for a household furniture as well as food service source that satisfy them and heavily positioned their products in this segment. The company also uses their corporate responsibility as a good public image to make the company more appealing to their customers. The competitive aim of each company is to do significantly a better job of providing what buyers are looking for and, thereby enabling the firm to gain competitive advantage and out compete rivals within the marketplace (Thompson, Strickland Gamble, 2003). Threats of substitutes In terms of threats and substitutes, although the company is aware that there were threats for substitute products or retail household furniture as well as food shops because of its high demand in the global market, specifically now that companies offered household furniture as well as food alternative products and flavours which suit the needs of the household furniture as well as food market. The company has been able to continue to grow and expand their business in various parts of the world. It can be said that IKEA has been able to use various strategies which enable them to sustain their competitive position in the global market. Ikea Strategy IKEA follows the focused cost leadership strategy. Young buyers in search of stylish and fashionable furniture and household accessories at a low cost are IKEAs targeted market segment. For these customers, the firm offers home furnishings that combine good design, functionality and acceptable quality at low prices. According to the firm, low cost is always a priority. This applies to every phase of their activities. IKEA emphasises several activities to keep its costs low. For example, instead of relying primarily on third party manufacturers, the firms engineers design low-cost, modular furniture ready for assembly by customers. IKEA also positions its products in domestic settings. Typically, competitors furniture stores display multiple varieties of a single item in separate rooms, meaning that their customers examine living room sofas in one room, tables in another room, chairs in yet another location, and accessories somewhere else entirely. In contrast, IKEAs customers can view different furniture combinations (complete with sofas, chairs, tables, and so forth) in a single setting, which eliminates the need for sales associates or decorators to help the customer imagine how a furniture arrangement would look when placed in the customers home. This approach requires fewer sales personnel, allowing IKEA to keep its costs low. A third practice that helps keep IKEAs costs low is expect