Strategic Management Aspect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Strategic Management Aspect - Essay Example However, it should also be noted that each of these techniques has its own weaknesses and limitations. Thus, in evaluating the Loftmeister's strategic performance through the use strategic management tools, this report will also state its weaknesses and limitations. The report is organized as follows. The first section will look at the internal environment of the Loftmeister through the use of ratio analysis in order to assess its profitability. Next, the external factors in the company's environment will be looked into through the use of PESTLE analysis. The last section will present a SWOT analysis which will integrate the previous analyses. Financial ratio analysis is a very essential tool in assessing the financial health of a business entity. Specifically, it enables a financial analyst to spot trends in a business and to compare it with the performance of similar business enterprises within the same industry. Financial ratios are grouped into four categories, each showing a different aspect of a company's financial operations. These are profitability ratios, financial leverage ratios and liquidity/solvency, and activity ratios. Due to the limited availability of data, this report will only look at Loftmeister's profitability ratios from 2001-2004. Profitability ratios measure the ability of the company to generate income from its investments less the costs incurred. The gross profit margin ratio tells us the profit a business makes on its cost of sales, or cost of goods sold. The computed operating profit margin, which is the ratio of operating income to sales measures as a percentage of sales, the excess revenue from sales over cost of normal operation excluding financing. (Analyzing Company Reports 2005). Logically, higher profitability ratios indicate a healthier financial condition. The table above shows the computed profitability ratios of the Loftmeiser Plc from 2001-2004. It should be noted that both gross profit and operating profit margins are declining through the years. The company's gross profit margin declined by 9% during the five year period attributing to the rise in the demand for lower margin off-trade products coupled with the decline of higher margins on-trade offerings. On the other hand, operating profit margin also slid by 10% indicating Loftmeiser's inefficient cost management. Financial ratios are commonly used to assess the financial performance of a business organization. However, this type of analysis is limited only in evaluating the financial aspect of a company and not the whole industry. Financial analysis should always be accompanied by benchmarking in order to fully determine how each industry player fared during the financial year. It should be noted that numbers don't tell all and attention should also be focused on other relevant qualitative issues in the market. PESTLE Analysis PESTLE analysis stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental. This strategic management tool is noted for its ability to capture almost all the variables in the environment where the business

Background theory on BUCKLING and DFINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS Dissertation

Background theory on BUCKLING and DFINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS - Dissertation Example These underwent no major changes in the next 100 years. In 1845, A.H.E Lamarle proposed the theory that Eulers formula could only be effectively utilised if the slenderness ratio was beyond a certain prescribed limit. In 1889 Considere further made an addendum in the form that Eulers formula could not be used for inelastic buckling since the actual section modulus available on the concave and concave sides of a bend beam were different. This lead to the formulation of the Reduced Modulus theory for buckling and which is still undergoing lot of revisions. (Gere James & Timoshenko Stephen, 2004) Theory Euler by a series of experiments observed that the buckling stress generated in an axially loaded column is directly proportional to the Youngs Modulus, the moment of inertia of the material and inversely proportional to the effective length of the member. In other words he represented the formula by a simple equation. Pcr=Ð » x E x I/ Le^2 Here Pcr represents the critical load, E the Y oungs Modulus which is an inherent property of the material, I the moment of inertia is function of the dimensional values in terms of breadth and height of the material. Le represents the effective length of the column. ... Another combination is that of the column fixed at the base and pinned on top. Calculating this from a series of differential equation with known end conditions would provide an effective length of 0.7L. Hence the Euler’s equation for all the above commonly loaded conditions can be represented as Pcr=Ð »^2 x E x I/ (K x L)^2 where K=2 for fixed-free column, K=1 for pinned end columns, K=1/2 for columns with fixed ends and K=0.7 for column fixed at base and pinned at top. (Gere James & Timoshenko Stephen, 2004) Source: Gere James & Timoshenko Stephen, 2004 The Euler’s formula is used to calculate the corresponding critical stress that is generated due to this critical load Pcr. Here ?cr= Pcr/ A where A is the area of cross section of the member which could further written as ?cr=Ð »^2 x E/(L/r)^2. Here L/r can be together noted as the slenderness ratio. L as denoted earlier is the length of the column while r=v I/A is called the radius of gyration of the member. (Gere James & Timoshenko Stephen, 2004) Using Eulers Theory in Calculations For the analysis of simple beams using Eulers formula, slenderness ratios of columns should not surpass 180. For other members that absorb compression forces the L/r ratio is limited to 200. (Welded Tanks for Oil Storage, 2008) For checking whether the column provided for a section is safe, the actual compressive stress is calculated using the simple formula ? actual=P/A whether P is the external load and A is the cross section of the member. The L/r ratio of the selected member is checked and limited to 180. Thereafter maximum allowable compressive stress generated is found out by using the above formula ? allowable=Ð »^2 x E/(L/r)^2 for columns. If the actual stress calculated is less than the maximum

Firewall and Internet security Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Firewall and Internet security - Dissertation Example The advancements in technology have almost pulled every individual on earth into the virtual world of cyber pace.As every day passes by, the rapidity with which internet grows has increased exponentially and the world is shrinking smaller and smaller. People living in extremities of the world could easily communicate just like they are doing it when they are in direct contact with each other. The distance is no more a matter of concern. Despite all the advantages of a networked world, the parallel increase in cyber threats has been an alarming factor. Information is the key to success of any individual or organization. When there is a threat to the security of such an important factor and the manner in which networked computers are hacked within seconds of time has put cyber security as one of the top priorities for technology developers. With the advent of these issues, the installation of firewalls has become a mandatory activity for every internet user. Every time a new level of s ecurity is proposed, a new mode of threat is ‘unearthed’ in this virtual world. So, as a precautionary measure, people protect themselves with having both personal as well as network firewalls. Although many kinds of research has been done on the levels of protection offered by network firewalls and personal firewalls, not much has been done on the perspective of providing a comparison between these two types of firewalls. (CHESWICK et. al, 2003) Continuing on these lines, the primary aim of this research is to examine the current literature comprehensively and produce a compare and contrast analysis of these two types of firewalls in regard to the increase in today's internet security. However, since the category of this itself provides a large scope for a complex and more time consuming analysis, the research question is further refined such that it focuses mainly on the following topic - why implementation of personal firewalls in every system in an enterprise is con sidered to be a difficulty when compared to the implementation of network firewalls. The reason that could be given for the choice of this topic is that irrespective of the number of advancements in firewall technologies, no proper solutions have been found yet, to understand the continued ignorance of affording personal firewalls to every system user in an enterprise instead of network firewalls, which are always considered as the preferred option. (Firewalls, 2003) Objectives of the research Based on the above research questions, the primary objectives of the research can be derived. The most common differences between personal and network firewalls (which are explained in the literature review section) are the architecture and design features, the working environment, technical features and other advantages and disadvantages of each type of firewall. Implementing a personal firewall seems to be a tougher task, as the configuration might not be similar for every system. This makes the process of implementation a difficult task. Each time a firewall is implemented; the system components and modules pose certain restrictions that in turn make the process tedious. The situation is entirely different in a network environment. Since the implementation is done on the network as a whole, the task of installing them in individual system is eradicated. In a network environment, the firewall controls the communication and network traffic. As the functions of a network firewall are composed of easier installation management process, it strikes a greater difference from that of a personal firewall. The disadvantage of a personal firewall strengthens the research question, as it indicates the importance of network firewalls. Hence, the analysis of the areas which were described above is considered to be the primary objectives of the research. Literature Review The progress of internet and development of technology has necessitated the need for

Marketing Techniques Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing Techniques - Essay Example Customers are attracted by luring with many free offers so that they will fall into the trap. By this the company can increase their market share and when they have considerably large customer base the company will remove the free offers given to the customer. This is a very common tactic used in business these days. The following are the Telephone services offered to customers. 2. Cell phones offered free with many months incoming free and hundreds of minutes free talk time with camera phone all the advanced features like blue tooth, wireless internet, giga bytes of storage, mega pixel camera and many more. Ice cream: No dought ice creams are the most sought after impulse buying eatable since invention and it continues to be. Ice creams are liked by people of all ages and irrespective of gender, cast creed nationality and. Customers are attracted to buy ice creams by offering many flavors and with large varieties of making. Though all ice creams sweet the way there are made and with what ingredients it is made makes it the most desirable delicacy. The latest way of attracting the customers is by offering diet ice cream, which has low calories and which can be eaten by even sugar patients. Tennis Shoes: It is well known that sports shoes need to be of high precision so that players can rely on them. What makes shoes differ is that for which sport they are used. For every sport the making of the shoes differ. Tennis shoes are made in a manner so that they can glide on the grass court giving the player the extra mile to access the ball from a far distance and at the same time it should hold the ground firmly giving the player that extra confidence. It is this feature, which is used to attract the customers by the company and at the same time pricing them with exorbitant rates. Global players like Adidas and Nike use high end engineering to manufacture sports shoes. Hair Saloons: The most interesting part about hair saloons is that it needs the minimum investment and the returns are very high. Hair Saloons offer the latest fashion and trends set by the fashion houses. They offer wide varieties of hair color, manicure, massage, facial, grooming required for even bridal make up and etc. It not only women who are now interested but also more men are showing interest in their personal grooming. This attention is being cashed by the boutiques and hair saloons. Hair saloons offer the costumers with the latest technologies in personal grooming. The astonishing part is that hair saloons charge exorbitantly for the services offered. Frozen Pizza: The segmentation used in frozen pizza is in four categories. Regular pizza, premium pizza, Gourmet pizza and the general fill-im up pizzas. The pizza giants offer with delicious toppings on the pizza to the customer, which lures the customers to grab one at the same time getting so many categories to choose with. They offer with many toppings if selected for five persons like family packs at fewer prices. Apart from this frozen pizza are also available as break fast pizzas and bite size snacks

Ethical Vignette Paper 1 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Vignette Paper 1 - Coursework Example However, when a patient is involved in a court proceeding and the court requests for the information regarding the professional services that one received, such information would be disclosed without the consent of the patient or a court order. The disclosure limit would be subjected to a number of laws like the confidentiality, and privacy laws, conduct and ethical duties, but the legal obligations have the duty to warn following the care duty to others like in the case of negligence. The counselors should observe the professional and legal standards that are used in maintaining the privacy of the records, and the obligations of mandatory reporting. These mandatory obligations include reporting the neglect or abuse of children, or the adults that are vulnerable, the duty of protecting or warning the third party that is endangered by the patient, and the role of reporting the impairment or misconduct of a different professional. The disclosure of information occurs only with the required consent or sound ethical or legal justification. In the process of counseling, the clients are informed of the cases where their confidentiality needs to be breached. The confidentiality of a patient is breached when there is a foreseeable and serious harm to the patient or legal requirements. 2.3.4.1. Some exceptional cases may come up providing the counselor some grounds to believe that some harm could happen to the client or some other persons. In this case, the patient will consent to the alterations in the agreement regarding the confidentiality, which should be sought unless there are some grounds to believe that the patient is not able or willing to assume the responsibility of her actions 2.3.4.2. The disclosure of information needs to be constrained to the relevant information that is displayed to relevant persons for relevant reasons that

1st Amendment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

1st Amendment - Essay Example Freedom of speech should also be limited whereby one takes away someones rights such as threats and discrimination. Freedom of speech should also be limited for matters of national security whereby information shared should be confidential( Freedom of Expression in the United States, 2013) Yes, freedom of speech can improve society. Freedom of speech allows citizens to freely criticize the government which responds to answer to its actions unlike whereby speech is restricted, unfair criticisms tend to rise and may spread all over the country. Freedom of speech gives the society political right which allows them to resist to oppression, injustice and have free elections. Freedom of speech allows citizens to freely express their minds on vital issues of the society and access information which promotes the free flow of thoughts that preserve democracy and self-actualization for the healthy development of the society. Pure freedom is speech is not beneficial in todays world since unlimited freedom of speech is damaging to the development of the society and the government service to its citizens. In scenarios whereby speech is unlimited, unfair criticisms are made against the state in which case the state cannot respond. This results in poor relations between the state and its citizens and its a step backwards to national development. The modern society often abuses the freedom of speech to hurt and harm others. For example; Television stations, air adult content without putting a warning message and minors end up being exposed to indecent material. They should be limited to airing those programs at later hours. No, allowing people to freely spread hatred, incite violence and ridicule others religions and nations results in a divide and lack of peace between the people, different religions and countries. It also violates the freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the right to

Education in the United States Essay Example for Free

Education in the United States Essay India has made large strides in educating its population of more than a billion people, yet a lot remains to be done. It is commonplace now that education is both intrinsically valuable and also instrumental for economic well-being, and this is true for individuals and entire nations. No country in the world has been able to develop without the spread of mass education. An educated population is a prerequisite for take-off into high economic growth. Table 1 in the appendix shows literacy rates for India as a whole and by sex. It also shows the decadal rates of change from 1901 to the present. 2 Literacy rates have increased for both males and females, and though the latter continues to lag behind the former, there has been a narrowing of the male-female gap in literacy: from 24. 8% in 1991 to 21. 7% in 2001. In 2001, the absolute number of illiterates declined historically for the first time by nearly 32 million. In terms of state-wise performance, Kerala continues to occupy first rank as it has done historically; on the other hand, densely populated states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar are yet to overcome their educational inertia. 3 The average figures for India as a whole hide a great deal of variation among states. Table 2 in the appendix provides literacy rates for states for the years 1991 and 2001, for the population as a whole, by sex and also provides the decadal rate of change. In 2001, Kerala, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh had more than 75% of their population of 7+ years literate. On the other hand, even in 2001, less than half of Bihar’s population of seven years and above was literate with female literacy rate only 33. 6%. In terms of zones, states in the South and West outperform states in the North and East. 2. Primary Education Primary education refers to the education of children between the ages 6-11 years (grades 1-5). Universalization of Primary Education (UPE) is a constitutional provision in India and there has been a steady expansion in the spread of primary education since Indian independence in 1947. The Indian educational system is the second largest in the world after China. In 2001-02, there were nearly 0. 66 million primary schools in India 1 This study has been undertaken as part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Project. 2 Before the 1991 census, only those belonging to the age-group 0-4 years were excluded from the population in order to compute literacy rates and the basis of the computation was the entire population. From the 1991 census onward, literacy rates were computed based on the population aged 7+ years and above. 3 In Bihar, Nagaland and Manipur as well as Delhi and Chandigarh, the absolute number of illiterates has increased in the 1990s. 4 providing access to 84% of habitations with a primary school located within a distance of one kilometer. Between 1997 and 2002, the gross primary school enrolment rate4 for India was 111 for males and 92 for females. The net primary school enrolment rate5 on the other hand was only 78 for males and 64 for females. The net primary school attendance rate between 1999 and 2002 was 79 for males and 73 for females. However, of the children who entered primary school, only 68% reached grade 5 between 1995 and 1999 (UNICEF, 2004). Table 3 provides data on gross primary school enrolments by sex between 1950-51 and 2001-2002. As can be seen from the table there has been a steady increase in the numbers of boys and girls attending primary school over time. In Table 4, state-wise enrolment of boys and girls as a percentage of their age-group is provided for 1997-1998. Girls’ enrolment has been steadily increasing over time and in 2001-02, nearly 45% of girls in the age-group 6-11 were enrolled in school. These statistics are heartening because at least until the 1990s, one of the most dismal aspects of India’s education system was the large percentage of the population in the younger age groups that were out of school. Socio-economic disparities Despite the strong constitutional backing for the provision of primary education in India6 and its expansion over time, the system is characterized not only by low achievements but also by large unevenness of achievements. Huge gaps remain between rural and urban areas, and the probability of getting any education at all sharply depends on gender, caste and income. Women, scheduled castes and tribes and the poor are faced with formidable barriers when it comes to getting basic education. Of the 200 million children in the age group 6-14, it is estimated that 59 million are out of school. Of these 35 million are girls and 24 million are boys (Ministry of Human Development, GOI). Apart from socio-economic determinants, the educational infrastructure and the management and the governance of the educational system in India are far from efficient or sufficient. The government is the largest provider of education in India with only about 10% of primary schools owned by the private sector. 7 The quality of education provided by the public education system is low which translates into low educational abilities even for those who are able to complete primary education cycle. Moreover, there is a lot of ‘waste’ in the educational system with dropout rates as high as 40% for the country as a whole and in some Indian states, they are as high as 75%. Though the number of primary 4 Gross primary school enrolment rate is computed as the number of children enrolled in primary school regardless of age divided by the population of that age group. 5 Net primary school enrolment rate is computed as the number of children in that age group enrolled in primary school divided by the population of that age group. 6 In 2002, the Supreme Court of India decreed that free primary education was a constitutional right. 7 Around 3% of private schools are aided by the government, which makes government intervention in the education sector even greater. 5 schools in the country increased, more than 1 lakh8 habitations still do not have access to a primary school within a distance of one kilometer. Teacher-pupil ratios are inadequate: less than 2 teachers are available in rural areas to teach a class size of around 100 students. Teacher motivation and teaching incentives are also very weak. India perhaps has the highest rate of teacher truancy in the world. Poverty and Education. Empirical evidence strongly shows that, both at the level of the household as well as at the level of the country, there is a positive relationship between income (and wealth) and educational attainment. More income simply means more resources available to spend on the acquisition of education. With more than 250 million people in India living on less than a $1 a day, poverty remains a major barrier to educational access. Although education is provided ‘free’ by the government, the cost of uniforms, textbooks and transportation costs are beyond the reach of many households (Tilak, 2004). Added to these direct costs are the indirect (opportunity) costs of wage/domestic labor which children perform and the costs of acquiring education become considerable for households. Graphs 1 and 2 in the appendix show simple regressions of literacy rates for sixteen states against state poverty rates and state per capita income for 2001. As is expected, literacy rates decline with poverty and rise with per capita incomes. State per capita incomes seem to explain literacy rates better than poverty rates. Filmer and Pritchett (2001) using Demographic Health Survey data for India find that the gap in enrolment between the highest and the lowest wealth class is as much as 52 percentage points. Gupta (2003) using the 52nd round of National Sample Survey data finds that the percentage of people who have completed five years of schooling declines as one descends consumption deciles. In the lowest consumption decile, the proportion of people who have not completed the primary school cycle is greater than 80%. 9 While poverty status and income class are strong determinants of who goes to school and for how long, they do not make up the whole story. Indian states of Kerala and Himachal Pradesh even with fewer resources at their disposal have been able to achieve much better educational and health outcomes compared to rich states such as Punjab and Haryana in India. This is true even when we look at cross-country outcomes. For example, Sri Lanka and Botswana do much better in education and health terms than would be predicted based on their level of resources; the Latin American countries do much worse given their resources (Mehrotra and Jolly, 1998). 8 One lakh is equal to 100,000. 9. These graphs are meant to be illustrative of the association between resources and education and do not claim any direction of causality. The relationship between resources and educational attainment is bidirectional. The poor cannot afford schooling. With little human capital, the opportunities to escape persistent poverty are very restricted and the poor can be trapped in a low education, low income vicious cycle across generations. A large literature has analyzed both theoretically and empirically persistence of poverty inter-generationally due to lack of resources to invest in education.