The Ability to Value Assets Accurately is at the Heart of the Essay

The Ability to Value Assets Accurately is at the Heart of the Discipline of Finance. Discuss - Essay Example Inappropriate asset valuation would fail to determine the actual status of the business performance which would adversely affect the formulation of business strategies. According to Brigham & Daves (2009), â€Å"Real options are opportunities for management to change the timing, scale, or other aspects of an investment in response to changes in market conditions.† (Brigham & Daves, 2009, p.490). Since the real options are concerned with the real assets such as plants, fixtures, and land, it enables the management to take timely and appropriate decisions regarding investment strategies. Brigham and Daves also opine that formulation of model and estimation of input is necessary for the valuation of real options in investments. It will be a cumbersome task for the management to determine the exact value of real options in investment since it includes intangible components like contract, decision to expand or abandon etc. Even though exact valuation of real options is not possible, it helps to determine the sustainability of the proposed project. According to the writers, in order to valuate the real options more accurately, it is better to trea t the valuation with a ‘standard model for financial option’. Similarly usage of ‘discounted cash flow valuation and decision tree analysis’ are also better methods in order to increase the accuracy of valuation of real options (Brigham & Daves, 2009, pp.490-491). If the value of underlying asset (an asset underlies and offers value to the particular security or investment) can be properly estimated, then it is possible to find out the value of real options in investment almost accurately. Likewise, while dealing with valuation of real options, it is essential to represent the payouts precisely in order to bring out maximum relevant facts in the valuation process. The Black-Scholes model is a comparatively better method to determine the theoretical value of real

Industrial safety management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Industrial safety management - Essay Example Essentially, the Safety Board provides a quality assurance function fundamental to the in progress safety of all modes of transportation. The NTSB's exclusive role in transportation safety is reliant on the ability of the board members and the professional staff to conduct independent investigations of accidents and major incidents and, in so doing, to guarantee public confidence in the safety of our national transportation systems. The NTSB has become most widely identified with its investigations of major commercial aviation accidents. The NTSB has the duty for investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States. additionally, based on the agency's permission under Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation and associated international agreements, the NTSB participates to a greater or lesser degree in the investigation of commercial aviation accidents all over the world. Concerns over aviation safety articulated in the White House commission's report were echoed by the report of the congressionally commanded National Civil Aviation Review Commission (commonly recognized as the Mineta Commission, chaired by former California Congressman Norman Mineta), published in December 1997 (National Civil Aviation Review Commission, December 11, 1997). ... Evidently, aviation safety was a matter necessitating renewed U.S. leadership and significant national investment. At the same time, the recently endorsed Aviation Family Assistance Act of 1996 mandated the creation of the Task Force on Assistance to Families of Aviation Disasters, supervised jointly by the U.S. DOT and the NTSB. The TWA as well as ValuJet disasters had also revealed the urgent need to find ways to develop the treatment of victims' families by the government, the airlines, the legal community, as well as the media. Among other things, the White House commission demanded that the task force review the accident investigation process utilized by the NTSB and its possible impact on families. The task force's report, containing 61 separate proposals, amounted to a blueprint for the appropriate treatment of families suffering such grave losses (U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Transportation Safety Board, 1997). Managing Airline Corporate Stress Like the air we all breathe and through which we fly, stress subsists in us all. With growing indication that stress is the greatest hazard to human productivity in large and small corporations alike, many executives are calling for more research into the causes as well as consequences of stress. The danger is no longer believed to be merely a psychological response to the work environment but is starting to appear in a variety of medical examination results that are focused on shaping such problems as heart disease, stomach ulcers, as well as many forms of cancer. Stress is, on the other hand, still an indefinable concept that few corporate managers have learned to deal with. Stress is spate in the Western world. Above two-thirds of office visits to physicians are for

Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 41

Summary - Assignment Example The author has urged that the simulations should be closer to real world scenarios. The author states that heavy dependence on automation of flights is leading to underdevelopment and erosion of manual skills required to handle flights. The author even concludes that lack of training to handle flights manually is one of the causes of accidents. As a marketer I have learned through this article that such articles and the conference in which the speaker talked about all the issues related to training and automation of fights can send a negative image of the airlines in the minds of the consumers. The consumers may think that the pilots are not equipped to handle flights manually and pose a risk to their life. On the other hand, marketer of an air flight organization that have already been providing proper training on how to handle the flights manually can use similar issues to develop a positive image of themselves in the eyes of the

Tuesdays with Morrie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Tuesdays with Morrie - Essay Example None of us has our death in vision. We know it is coming to come one day but for almost all of us, the day is quite far. Young people, like me, think of death only in the far future tense. We know it is going to come, but we assume that we will die of old age. I quite understand what Morrie means when he says that once we know how to die, we learn to live. When we see our death near, we begin to enjoy life; otherwise we take life for granted. Reading this lesson my Morrie, I remembered a time when I had a near brush with death during a car accident. Though I was able to survive without even a scratch, I was able to experience live. Instead of being scared or depressed, I was rejuvenated. The rest of the day, I began to feel light and bouncy. I felt alive as I was able to observe the smallest detail around me that I would otherwise ignore. I was able to observe the love in mother’s eyes and the concern in the way my father talked to me. But as days passed by, I became engrossed in my ordinary life and forgot the entire experience until I read the statement by Morris. I agree with it but it saddens me that we only live fully when we know that death is near. We continue to do this unconsciously and I do not think I would be able to control this. By this statement, Morris means the exact opposite of what we assume of this statement in the first analysis. When Morris says, learn to detach (Albom, 103), he does not go against his first principle of living life. On the contrary, one can only learn to detach when they have experienced an emotion or feeling fully. For instance, Morris has fully experienced what pain is. He can experience how he will die and because he knows the feeling, he can go against it in the opposite direction and detach himself. I again quite agree with Morris on this. Most of the times, we are afraid of certain things that we run away from them. People continue to hoard money knowing that they may never be able to spend

The Determinants of Sustainable Competitive Advantage in International Research Paper

The Determinants of Sustainable Competitive Advantage in International Marketing - Research Paper Example Same way many other prominent companies failed to develop properly in international market because of their misinterpretations and wrong perceptions about the sustainable competitive strategies in international market. Knowledge management, cost leadership or differentiating, innovation or development of new products, timing of introduction of new products, customization of the product and technology, superior technology, ability to adapt with local cultures, commitment to demonstrates corporate social responsibility, geographic dispersion of activities etc are some areas in which international companies should focus more to sustain their competitive advantage in international market. This paper analyses various determinants of sustainable competitive advantage in International Marketing. A company that operates in a small number of countries or within in a restricted business sector may believe that its competitive advantage comes from low cost manufacturing, design capability and d istribution efficiency. However when exposed to global competition it may find that its own competitive advantages cannot be transported to new countries and discover, instead, that regional or global competitors have even greater competitive advantage in their own domestic markets as wells as in the target country market (Doole & Lowe, p.430). Knowledge management is one of the major determinants of competitive advantage in international market. As mentioned earlier, Parker Pen Company tried to sell its products in international market using same marketing strategies everywhere. Parker Pen was the market leader in the manufacturing of writing equipment once. But now same thing cannot be said about them because of the huge setbacks they received from international market during the initial period of globalization. â€Å"The idea of selling pens the same way everywhere did not sit well with many parker subsidiaries and distributors. Pens were indeed the same, but markets, were diffe rent† (Marketing across cultures, p.195). Parker thought that for the same product, same marketing strategy is enough everywhere. They failed to recognize the fact that the global market is different from domestic market and it needs customized marketing strategies for each market outside, United States. It should be noted that Tiger Woods could be a good brand Ambassador in American conditions whereas in Indian conditions, instead of Tiger Woods, Sachin Tendulkar or Shah Ruk Khan could be a better brand ambassador. In short, local knowledge is essential for international companies to formulate better business strategies for each global market in which they try to sell their products. â€Å"Traditional approaches to developing competitive advantage focus on developing a positional advantage relative to competition based either on cost leadership or differentiating the product /service offering† (Craig and Douglas). However, in international market, cost leadership or di fferentiation strategies alone may not help an organization much. For example, most of the Chinese products are believed to be the cheapest products available in the global market at present, compared to the products from competitors. China is focusing more on quantity rather than quality while producing goods. Cheaper price may help Chinese companies to sell their

'Critically examine the relationship between war and underdevelopment' Essay

'Critically examine the relationship between war and underdevelopment' - Essay Example Before analyzing the impact of war on development, the present paper will first provide a precise discussion of factors that cause war. Structural and determinist explanations of the causes of war or violence suggest that circumstances compel people to involve in war. There can be several economic factors relating to grievances, inequality or scarcity; social issues relating to some kind of ethnic, religious or gender differences; or political factors like incompatible claims to power, resources etc. Some other explanations look at the agency problems and claim that war results from the choices that people’s agency choose and their fight is quite rational. If the previous two approaches of explaining the causes of war are combined, then it can be said that people’s choice of getting into violence or war is shaped by the prevailing circumstances, which may be based on some conflicting interests or differing rationalities among groups. There is no doubt that war has numerous negative impacts on social, political and economic life of people. Many people are of the opinion that war negatively affects development of a country or region. Huge costs are involved in war. There are a lot of studies which have described several negative effects of war. Among various types of costs, the economic costs are the most important ones that directly affect the developmental process of a country or region. According to Dreze and Gazdar (Dreze and Gazdar, 1991, p. 930), the economic and welfare consequences that resulted from UN-Iraq Gulf war was more severe than the suffering that resulted directly from the war. There exists a distinction between direct and indirect costs of war on human welfare. Direct costs imply the destruction that the war causes to the civilization, while indirect costs are those that are realized in the later periods. During war several economic strategies are undertaken which produces huge impact, mostly in a negative way on the development. For

A Modest Proposal Essay Example for Free

A Modest Proposal Essay A Reading of A Modest Proposal concentrating on how Swift criticised the society in which he lived. A Modest Proposal is a satirical pamphlet written by Jonathon Swift in 1729. It outlines the dreadful way in which Catholics were treated by the protestant minority in Ireland during these times. During the time Swift wrote this piece of prose, a series of laws called the Penal Laws excluded Catholics from society. They made it illegal for them to own any land and if they made a profit of more than a third of their rent, they could face eviction. They lived in absolute poverty and had no human rights. Swift may have written this text for innumerable reasons but one can suggest that there were three main points: (1) to cause outrage and shock in order to get the author, Swift, much attention, (2) to draw attention to the governments refusal to do anything about child poverty and (3) to draw attention to the plight of the poor by showing that his proposal was no more monstrous than the situation that already existed. The text works by combining many elements of literary techniques, such as irony, shock tactics and moral pronouncements, in order to create the maximum response possible from the reader- shock. It can be suggested that this shock was hoped to achieve anger throughout the protestant communities and maybe to cause some civil unrest until something was done about it. The title also covers up what the proposal actually is. In a rough translation, the title could mean A humble suggestion for preventing the children of the poor from being a burden to their parents as they are of no use to their parents or society, and making them useful to the public. Though this translation may give an insight to what the suggestion is about, the reader still does not know what it actually is. The text can be split into four parts: (1) the problem, (2) the plan, (3) the solution and (4) the benefits.   The first criticism made by Swift can be found in the first paragraph, It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town crowded with beggars of the female sex. This shows that Swift may be implying that the proposal is about the poor people of Ireland. One may notice that this quotation is also a criticism about how many poor Catholics there are in Ireland and that something should be done about it. The next criticism is in the fourth paragraph supported by her milk for a solar year with little other nourishment. This could suggest that there is not enough food for Catholics, so they have to feed the babies on just their mothers milk, however, this quotation could just show that babies can survive on just their mothers milk so it could be a statement of fact. The next criticism can also be found in the fourth paragraph, wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives. This can be connected with paragraph one as this may mean that the catholic children would be begging for food and clothing for the rest of their lives unless something is done about it. Another criticism can be found in paragraph six, able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend that there cannot be so many. This may appear to some readers that the author is writing about the poor state of Catholics and that they are so poor, that cannot provide for their own children but it could also be translated that Protestants think so badly of Catholics that they do not care how their children are treated. In paragraph seven, there is a further criticism concerning Catholic children. He says that a boy or girls before twelve years old is no salable commodity meaning that young children are useless to society. Swift then compares the poor children to animals in paragraph fifteen, will make admirable gloves for ladies and summer boots for fine gentlemen. Here, Swift is comparing childrens skin to leather from a cow. Going back to paragraph twelve, yet another criticism can be found within the quotation landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of their parents, seem to nave the best title to the children. This could be seen as a pun with the word devoured literally meaning that the landlord has consumed virtually all of the Catholics assets. By using this word, Swift as linked to the suggestion of eating children by saying that the landlords have already destroyed the Catholic tenants lives, so what difference will it make if they eat their babies? To make this pamphlet seem real, Swift has used a number of literary techniques, for example, he has used a vast amount of irony such as in paragraph twenty eight, he implies eating babies at wedding and christening ceremonies. Swift also uses a large amount of shock tactics, par se, paragraph fifteen, will make admirable gloves for ladies Though it may seem true, Swift does not actually mean to eat the children of Catholics. By suggesting such a hideous and shocking proposal, he would have gained much attention and reveal the way in which Protestants were treating the Catholic majority. Overall, it can be said that this pamphlet was very successful in trying to eliminate racism toward the Catholics but this prejudice can still be seen today between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland and parts of Scotland. It is also a great example to show how satire has changed very little throughout the centuries, for example, The Office is set out very much in the same way as A Modest Proposal. The same techniques can be applied (Irony ect) and some of the same subjects can still apply such as government and other races of people but most of all, this pamphlet shows the reader just how effective using satire is to get the authors point across successfully. Simon Garlinge Pre 1914 prose coursework first draft Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Jonathan Swift section.