Wednesday, October 30, 2019

The Demonstration of Anthropomorphism using a range of 3D Animation Essay

The Demonstration of Anthropomorphism using a range of 3D Animation Techniques, Evaluating a Range of Tools, Techniques and Methods - Essay Example The revolution in computer technology relative to animation , has immensely changed the face of animation industry. This animation leads to the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects or nonhuman organisms and is generally referred to as called as Anthropomorphism. This anthropomorphism can be demonstrated through the use of various animation tools and techniques including the latest technique of 3D Animation. This project proposes to develop a greater understanding of anthropomorphism and how it is used in the field of animation, also a deeper understanding of how to animate realistic movements, and the steps taken to create animation that is of a professional standard. This leads to the discussion and understanding of a range of suitable techniques, tools and methods that can be employed in the production of such an artefact. All such efforts rely heavily on certain professional animation techniques that are used in portraying a believable message. Much of the concepts related to body language, movement and aesthetics are the controlling factors that instantiate anthropomorphism into a fictional character. To create life like characters , animators must create flawless human-like characteristics which demands thorough understanding of the movement and aesthetics of humans and how these characteristics effect peoples perception of these features. To bring about these effects there has to be a perfect story board design and various animation tools and techniques that render these effects. The important steps in producing a 3D animated shot or animated movie include preparation of digital story board, Modelling, Simulation, Rendering and post production special effects. The above mentioned steps could be accomplished with the aid of special software tools like Autodesk Maya , 3D Studio Max and other rendering and directing tools like Renderman , Diorama, etc. Based on

Monday, October 28, 2019

Generation X by Douglas Coupland Essay Example for Free

Generation X by Douglas Coupland Essay Generation X was Coupland’S controversial title which was derived from the work of Paul Fusell, category X in 1983. In his interview in 1995 Coupland explained that Fusell’s classification of X category were people who circulated in rounds of money, status and social climbing that describe the modern existence. But looking at the Coupland’s novel, it is very different from Fusell’s work. The people he is referring to as generation X are the people born after 1960. The whole novel rotates around the contemporary society issues: love intrigues, adventure, friendship among other themes (Reed). These themes are not new since they existed even in during the times of great philosophers. It is for this reason that I think Marx, Durkheim, and Weber apply to the Coupland’s novel, generation X. Although the novel reveals a lot of friendship and love between some characters there is an aspect of social deviance developing between the modern generation and the past. Emile Durkheim is perhaps the most popular in the field of deviance and his ideas are therefore applicable in this novel. In his argument in the division of society (Huang 63), Durkheim says that differences in a collective society and deviant society contribute to the basis of theoretical framework which outlines reasons as to why people violate norms. On the other hand, his appreciation that deviance in most cases enhances social cohesion provides foundation for theories that examines why deviant labeling occur (62). During the 1995 interview (Reed 3rd par), Coupland on his side revealed that his novel wondered why his generation is being labeled as members of baby boomer when they are capable of thinking by themselves. The idea of social differentiation also seems to crop up in the novel (Coupland 67) hence bringing the three philosophers closer to the novel. In the novel, there are several generation; the first one is the older generation of Mr. and Mrs. Mcarthur, second is the generation X where Andy, Claire and Dag belongs and finally the generation Y for Tyler who is Andy’s younger brother . According to Durkheim, social differentiation contributes not only to deviant conduct but also deviant labeling in more differentiated societies (Schmaus 56). In the novel, which represents the contemporary society, this deviance conduct and labeling is witnessed throughout the novel. The members of older generational view those of generational X and generation Y as some how spoiled and refer to them as global teens (Coupland 48). In his theory about the relationship between the society and individuals, Karl Marx noted that the society is highly stratified because the people who worked the hardest were also the people who received the least as the fruits of their labor (Shlomo 152). Like in the novel, Karl Marx looked forward to a society that accounted for social change. Although Coupland and Karl Max talks of classes of people, the two fail to agree in their classification. Karl Max concentrated on the Proteliant or the majority in the society and the Bourgeois who are the minority. He argues that the former live in substandard living condition while the later have all that life have to offer (Shlomo 160). Coupland classes of people in the society are the older generation and the younger generation. However, like what is contained in Karl Marx ideas, the young generation belongs to the marginalized group with lousy jobs while the old generation view themselves as the think tanks and the wisest. The young characters in the novel try to pull themselves from the characters that belong to the past. Dag’s love interest for example always find herself looked up in the past without realizing what is happening in the modern world. Like the rest, Weber in his work analyses the modern society (Burris 122). He discusses the concept of bureaucracies which according to him is the foundation of social stabilization, cultural symbols and channel of good and services to the modern society (132). He points out that it is the charismatic ideas and not old ideas that change the society (133). But, Marx Weber also brings in a very interesting contribution to the novel, the issue of love and friendship. Weber controversial love life seems close to what was happening in the Coupland (56, 74,132). In his bachelorhood he developed a romantic interest with his cousin Emmy Baumagarten who lived in Strasbourg (Hoenisch 1st par). Weber’s love for Emmerling as he used to call her darling continued for more than eight years despite opposition from both families. During this time their love emotions were bulging with a series of letters and spent several days of their sweet closeness in poetry of string (3rd par). It was in 1887 in his second military as a reserve officer in Strasbourg that Weber had an amorous but not sexual encounter with Emmy (7th par). According to the novel, there exist a very big difference in perception of ideas between the old generation and the modern generation. The difference which is a source of conflict between the generations is what links the three philosophers to the novel. The questions raised in the novel are both relevant and applicable to the contemporary social life but at the same time they refer to classical sociological theories of the â€Å"primitive† generation. It is clear from the novel that each generation is faced by its unique problems which can be solved only by that particular generation alone. It is important to point out that in the increasing globalization and industrialization world of the 21st century the economical, political and sociological landscape is likely to suffer from deepening and widening class struggle. Whether primitive, revolutionary or reformist, the old generation feels obliged to address this issue. Ultimately, Weber, Marx and Durkheim each provided conflicting accounts regarding the ways in which the urban societies of their time was deficient, and what was required to fix it (Schmaus 74). The younger cannot bear the consequences of ignoring the wise ideas the old and it is therefore necessary to embrace unity in diversity while handling societal problems aiming at acquiring necessary social change and stability. References Burris, V. The Neo-Marxist blend of Marx and Weber on Class in: Norbert Wiley (Ed. ), The Marx-Weber dispute. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, 1997. Coupland, D. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Canada: St. Martins Press, March 15, 1991 Hoenisch, S. Max Weber’s personal life 1886-1893. 1995. November 27, 2008. http://www. uvm. edu/~lkaelber/research/weber2. html Huang, W. S. â€Å"Durkheims rules of sociological method. † Journal for offender therapy comparative crime, (2004): 63-75,. Reed, J. 2001. Generation X: tales for an accelerated culture by Douglas Coupland. www. opendemocracy. net/arts/generation Shlomo, A. The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx. Cambridge: University Press, 2001. Schmaus, W. â€Å"Explanation and real meaning in Rules of sociological method and division Of labor in society. † Journal Of Sociological Perspectives Spring, (1995): 57-76,. .

Friday, October 25, 2019

A Jungian Analysis of How Like a God Essay -- How Like a God Essays

A Jungian Analysis of How Like a God Isaac Asimov was certainly correct when he stated that the writer of a story doesn't necessarily know everything about it. The author, Brenda W. Clough, claims not to have had an acquaintance with Carl Jung's work when writing How Like a God.   However, the architecture of the book is strikingly Jungian.    In the beginning of the novel, the main character, Rob has very little interest in his appearance. Many computer people are like that, and he has his devoted wife Julianne to make all the sartorial decisions for him. He looks like a desk warrior, pale, uninteresting, and out of shape. He wears neutral colors, beige and brown, to symbolize his undifferentiated state. In second part of the novel, under the intolerable agony of losing his family, Rob's cold dark side emerges and quickly takes over. The new regime is inaugurated by unnatural and life-denying behavior: not eating, not drinking, not sleeping, but sinking down into the dark on a park bench. Rob's appearance alters as he takes to wearing rags and a dark blue toggle coat. He loses weight because he forgets to eat. Even his sexuality is warped. When he faces up to what's going on he immediately tries to change by getting a haircut. At the hairdresser he notices music for the first time in the book. He also notices he's blonder . He now has a light, and a dark, side.    In part three of the novel, under Edwin's beneficent influence, Rob cultivates his better inclinations and inadvertently worsens a one-sidedness. He forces the tramp, now stigmatized as a frightening monster, down into the sub-basement of himself -- the trap-door of which, however, has no lock. Edwin is the natural ally of Rob's good, lighter side... ...the power warp him into not-self, of becoming Gilgamesh. He knows the face of his own evil now, and the knowledge is a responsibility.    In this soup of symbols Edwin has two roles. He is of course a hermeneut, guiding Rob towards self-realization. But he is also Virgil, the icon of reason and light and learning to Rob's Dante. (This is the reason why Rob is vaguely repelled by The Divine Comedy in the New York Public Library. At that point he's in full avoidance mode, and even the first line of the poem cuts too close to home. â€Å"Midway in our life's journey I went astray from the straight road, and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.† Ouch!) Edwin can guide Rob forward to the final confrontation with his dark side, but he can't battle the shadow himself. In fact Edwin finds Rob's unconscious realm intolerable, since reason has no place there.   

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Employer rights and responsibilities workbook Essay

1.1 Equal opportunity: Equal and fair treatment, ensuring that people have equal access to opportunities and that the diversity of the work forces in value. * Equal Pay Act 1970 and its implementation Act 1975: to insure that men and woman would receive the same pay and conditions. * Sex Discrimination Act 1995 and Regulation 2003: to insure that men and woman are treated equally and fairly at workplace. * Disability Discrimination Act 1975: to deal with discrimination against an employee or potential employee because of their disability. 1.2 Employment protection: Outlines the duties, rights and responsibilities of employers and employees. * Employment Act 2002: to give additional rights to the employment. * Employment Rights Act 1996: Where employees are entitled to maternity and paternity leave and termination of employees. * Employment Relations Act 2004: to deal with employee relations and the operation of the statutory recognition for trade unions. 1.3 Health and Safety: Laws t hat keeps everyone safe and reduce hazard and manage skills, at work. * Health and Safety at work Act 1974: to raise the standard of health and safety for all individuals at work and to ensure the environment is safe and non hazardous to the health of employees. The employer and employee have common responsibility for health and safety. Read more:Â  Statutory Responsibilities and Rights of Employees and Employers Essay Task 2. * Job contract. * HR Department. * Policy and Procedures. * Team leader, NW manager, etc. * Job description (terms and conditions). * Citizen Advisory Bureau. * Unison. * Solicitor. * Employment Tribunal. * Advice agencies. Task 3. * Grievance procedure: Any grievance to the terms and conditions of employment should be discussed with manager. If the matter is not solved then it should be pursued with the grievance policy. * Disciplinary matters: The Trust has a Disciplinary procedure policy in the HR Department and also at the work place. Any breach of the Disciplinary rules will lead to disciplinary action, including dismissal. If the employee is dissatisfied with the formal disciplinary action then the employee has the right to appeal within 21 days of written confirmation of the disciplinary action taken. The aim of the Disciplinary Procedure for all staff of the trust is to ensure uniformity of treatment between one individual and another and between one group of staff and another. To ensure justice for individual employees, to provide protection to the efficiency and smooth running of the trust, work place, etc. This procedure applies to all the staff employed by the trust. * Rehabilitation of offenders Act: The employee is required to disclose to the trust of any caution, conviction, bind-over’s, motoring convictions or police proceedin gs. The employee is also required to apply for CRB. * Confidentiality: An employee has a duty of confidence to patients and a duty to maintain professional ethical standards of confidentiality. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 anyone working with personal information in any form must ensure it remains confidential and that only people who need the information have access to it and that only minimum information necessary is processed. Task 4. Employee number- It is a number assigned to an employee by the employer. Employee name – Name of the person who is an employee. Tax code – This is number followed by a letter. It tells the amount of tax to the employer to be deducted from employee. This is based on information given by HMRC. National Insurance Number – It is a personal and unique number of an employee, who keeps it throughout his/her life during/ when applying for employment. Net pay year to date – This section shows how much have been paid in the financial year. It shows how much National Insurance and tax have been made. Pay before deductions (gross pay) – The amount of employees wages before deduction of tax, pension and national insurance. The deductions made for income tax – This is a tax on each individuals income paid to the national government to spend on other services such as NHS, Defense, social security and public services. The deductions for a pension – A deduction from the employee wages for his/her retirement and to increase the income for pensioner. The amount you actually receive (after deductions) – It is the totally amount (net) of money the employee will take home after all the deductions have been made. Task 5. Grievance policy: Grievance is a dispute between employer and employee. It is basically any disagreement between them. Regarding to the grievance policy at work: * Employers should have their grievance procedure in writing and make sure that all staff are aware of any policy or procedure. * At early stage, the grievance has to be given a chance to be dealt informally with the immediate line manager. Pursuing the formal routine should be a last resort rather than the first option. * Employees should let the employer know the nature of the grievance and issue on time. * Employers are responsible to arrange any formal meeting without unreasonable delay to investigate and to establish the facts of the case. * Employers should allow the employee to be accompanied at any formal meeting and should permit the employee the right to appeal against any formal decision made. Task 6. Personal information kept by my employer about myself is: Name, Date of birth, bank details, NIC umber, address, telephone number, next of kin, tax code, education and qualification, training and courses attended, CRB check, personal health or any health conditions. Employers need to keep some personal information about their employees, as required by law and some for employer’s purpose, as well as in line with Data Protection Act 2003. Under the Data Act 1998, employees are entitled to have access to their own personal information, in order to verify or correct any inaccuracy. Stored – ESR, Electronic records. Access – Network Manager, Manager, HR Department. Task 7. My Role, Responsibilities and job description: I carry out my role and duties with full responsibility that are agreed in my job description in line with the Policy & Procedure of the organization, as well as Health and safety. My role, responsibilities and job description include: * Being a Key worker, I need to support Service users to convene, set dates and invite identified individuals to their PCP at least once every 4months. * Support service users to access activities of their choice within and around the local community. * Support service users who wish to go on holiday, to plan and access holidays of their choice. * Ensure all the assessments/paperwork for service users are completed. * Ensure any items purchased by service users or on their behalf are recorded on inventories. * Ensure that service user’s health records are up dated and reflect their current health and outcome of appointment attended. * Attend training courses/meetings to update/maintain knowledge and skills to carry out Support Worker/ key worker role effectively. * Where required work with professionals, in order to de velop and set up appropriate guidelines for service users. * Support service users to attend health appointments and if possible a Key worker should attend the appoint ment to make sure there is continuity. * Ensure to bring to attention of the Team leader/Network manager of issues related to Service users which affect their health or prevent them from achieving goal/action. General Responsibilities: * To support all service users at home with their daily routine eg personal care, dressing, meals, etc. * To support service users to be as independent as possible by promoting independence in all aspects of their lives. * To offer choice in all aspects of daily living. * To provide a clean and pleasant home environment, in both private area and communal areas. * To provide support to service users to attend their activities and appointments e.g. shopping, family visits, disco, etc. * To administer medication and maintain accurate record of Marr Sheet, financial transactions and record any accidents or incidents which may occur. My role affects the running of the setting by carrying out my duties & responsibilities as team member and by working in the best interests of the service users, as I am providing emotional, moral and practical support according to their needs. Task 8. Other health professionals are: * GP/Doctor. * Nurse/ District nurse. * Physiotherapist. * Dentist. * Reflexologist. * Psychologist. * Psychiatrist * Speech and Language therapist. * Care manager. * Social services. * Chiropodist/ podiatrist. * Epilepsy Dr/Nurse. * Opticians. My role is to assist these Health Professionals to carry out their duty/job according to their profession in order to improve the health of service users. These health professionals may provide: * Offer advice, information, diagnosis or treatment related to the service user. * May prescribe medicine/ drugs or may refer to another professional for further tests/opinions. * Advice support worker/key worker to carry out the treatment at home or use the equipment out home eg Flowtron boots. * Advice support worker to carry out the guidelines and report of any changes which may be harmful for service user or treatment not improving the health of the service user. It is my responsibility to work alongside the health professionals to ensure the well being of the service users and to provide them the services they need to be in good health. Task 9. * Team leader. * Network manager. * Operational manager. * Social worker. * Physiotherapist. * Podiatrist. * Nursing e.g. children, adults, mental health. * Reflexologist. * Occupational therapist. * Health care jobs: Ambulance Care assistant. * Speech and language therapist. Task 10. My own professional development plans: Short term: I would like to complete NVQ3. Medium term: To update my mandatory and other trainings according to my employer. Look for any other new things going on in my work sector. Long term: look and find a Diploma/degree which is interesting to me. Then according my knowledge and skills, I would like to apply for that Diploma/degree course in a college or university, where available. Task 11. Issue: Cost cutting. Key points in favor: To save money for the future. Key points against: Lack of resources. Providing poor health care. Low morale among staff. Issue: Privatization of NHS. Key points in favor: To build a better health care sector. To provide better quality of care. Key points against: Good quality of care will be provided to a person who can afford it but not everyone. Employers may not like the strict terms and conditions of the job. Old and vulnerable people may not receive good quality of care as they may not afford it as they are on benefits/pension, etc.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Economy versus the Environment Essay

Down to Earth by Ted Steinberg highlights the role of nature in US history. Steinberg provides historical events, from minute detail of migrating birds to monumental breaking up of Pangeae, to support his analysis and for readers to fully grasp the course of American history. He maintains that the continuous interaction between human and nature drives them to evolve. But the truth, of course, is that human has tendencies to disregard nature to achieve their ideal standard of living. Moreover, human’s present consumption puts the life of future generation at risk. Long before the European settlement in the region, America’s natural resources were already being threatened. Native American hunters utilized the world around them according to their needs. These early hunters drove mammoths to extinction, as well as the giant ground sloths and other prehistoric species. Many of them used fire to clear landscape which did served their purpose but harmed other plants and animals. Eventually, however, they became gifted stewards of their environment. Their activities, hunting, gathering and farming, were influenced by the cycles of nature. The early exploration dictated by personal consumption quickly followed by exploitation. Migrants poured in pursuit of gold and silver in the English colonies which was abandoned for intensive harvesting of lucrative crops or the trapping of animals. The slang â€Å"buck† for money in America refers to deer hides called buckskins, being exported for glove making and other forms of leather manufacturing. This economic system persists until the end of the colonial period. By mid-1800s, regions were identified by the kind of cash crops they produced. Tobacco, â€Å"King Cotton,† rice from South Carolina lowlands, timber from the virgin forests of the Great Lakes, Texas cattle and wheat from the Great Plains. The system made the nation wealthy but at a devastating cost to biodiversity. Steinberg pointed out that the major factor that brought the ecological change in America is â€Å"putting a price tag on the natural world. † Cities were expanding, farmers were becoming more specialized in their cash crops and companies were pushing for more profits. Nature was transformed to articles of trade. Lumber companies, for instance, led to much deforestation which led to loss of other plants and habitat of animals. The citizens of the US seemed to have a sense of â€Å"ecological amnesia,† oblivious to the effect on nature of ruthless exploitation despite the mounting evidence. Aside from lumber companies, other businesses and industries abused the natural resources for profit to further degrade the environment. A common man specializing in one type of cash crop had to rely on other farmers to provide for the needs not met by his own produce. Rivers where fish used to spawn were dammed and converted to companies’ energy source. Nature was completely ignored in the interest of commerce and industry. As trade and commercialization intensifies so as reliance of everyone on someone else. Economic activity, both production and consumption, relates to the environment in two ways: the environment provides the raw materials for production, and through the process of production and consumption, we emit wastes into the environment (Worster, 1994). However, human wants are limited while resources are finite. Demand always exceeds supply. So what happens now if we continue to strive to obtain more goods and services from our limited supply of non-renewable resources? Our present and future generations are in peril. Economic theories of trade argue that a country should concentrate on trading and producing goods and services where they have the comparative advantage (Krugman& Obstfeld, 2008). The comparative advantage in production is achieved if the input that was used is abundant in the country. For instance, labor intensive goods should be traded by countries with large population, while countries should concentrate in producing capital intensive goods if they are abundant in capital. This exactly what the early traders did. They traded according to their comparative advantage, maximized their profit and yes, abused the environment to further their gains. The economic thinking that competitiveness as a function of efficiency of labor and capital is outmoded (Epping, 2001). In other parts of the world, industries are starting to factor in the efficient way of using their natural resources. These efficiencies benefit countries, companies and local communities. Japan and Germany use half the energy input of American industry in their products. Energy represents about 10 percent of the cost of production and so they achieve with their efficiency about a five percent comparative advantage in world markets relative to US goods. The idea is to have a sustainable supply of both non-renewable and renewable resources relative to demand, to use the natural resources in a more efficient way to make the goods and services of a country, a company or a community more competitive in the market. We do not want to be the generation that kills everything. References Epping, Randy Charles (2001). A Beginner’s Guide To World Economy. New York: Random House, Inc. Krugman, P. & Obstfeld, M. (2008). International Economics: Theory and Policy. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Steinberg, Ted (2002). Down To Earth (pp. 1-115). New York: Oxford UP. Worster, Donald (1994). Nature’s Economy: The History of Ecological Ideas. United Kingdom: Cambridge UP.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Warburtons Location Essays

Warburtons Location Essays Warburtons Location Essay Warburtons Location Essay Warburtons is a private limited company. The Warburtons family owns all the shares of the Warburtons Company. The warburtons shares cannot be sold in the stock exchange or advertised for sale publicly through newspapers. If shares need to be sold they need to be sold privately with the agreement of all of the other shareholders but first they would have had to be offered to the other shareholders. Private limited companies have a limit to their liability. Waarburtons being private limited means that they have a limit to there responsibility for the debts of the business. If the business does go in to debt they only risk losing the money, which they have put into and invested in the company. They will not lose their personal possessions like in other ownerships. The Warburtons liability is limited because it is a private limited company. This means that nobody is liable for the debts if it went into insolvency the company owners would only lose the money that it put into the business. They wouldnt lose their possession in which they own. This is because they have limited liability and are incorporated. But Warburtons do have public liability insurance in case anything bad does happen. Warburtons chosen being a limited company because it works best for them. It is the most convenient method of ownership for them. This is because of the liability. If Warburton lose everything they wouldnt become bankrupt they would be come insolvent. They would only become insolvent if they didnt pay their bills or cant sell anymore. Only Private limited companies and Public limited companies can claim insolvency. This is because they both have limited liability and are only liable for the debts of the company to the value of their share holdings in the Warburtons Company. If the warburtons company was a partnership it would have unlimited liability and could become bankrupt if it doesnt pay its bills. If one of the Warburtons family died or became bankrupt the partnership would have to be dissolved. So warburtons being private limited works out best because it is safer for the owners. If warburtons wasnt a private limited company I think that being a Public Limited Company would work. I think that being a Public Limited Company would work out for them. This is because the Warburtons Company would still have their limited liability. If they have limited liability they can claim insolvency. If warburtons became a public limited company the Warburtons family would own it anymore though. It would be owned by the general public and shareholders so it would be a family baker anymore. Being owned by a partnership would work out well because they are a family and all could be joint owners of the company, but they would no longer have limited liability they would have unlimited liability and if they couldnt pay there bills they would become bankrupt, and could lose everything they own. The best ownership for Warburtons is what they currently have. That is being a private limited company because it suits all of there required needs. War burtons location is mainly in the center of England. It has a one bakery and depot in Scotland and has one depot in Wales apart from that it has no other bakeries in Wales and Scotland. So from that you can expect them not to trade in Scotland or Wales. Also Warburtons have no bakeries or depots in the south or east of England so they dont sell there. But Warburtons are in the process of building a new bakery in the London area. Here is a map showing the locations of the bakeries and depots also showing the areas in which Warburtons trade in: The locations for all of the bakeries are good. They are built by good transport links so it can deliver to most of the U. K. mainland. From how many bakeries and depots Warburtons own they are still able to sell and serve more than 60% of the U. K. mainland. Being in the location that they are in helps it serve the U. K. When the plant in Enfield is finished it will open them up to sell products in the south east of England something, which they havent done before. But for Warburtons to fill in its main goal which is to be Britain favorite baker it is bakeries and depots in the south, the east, required for them to open up more Scotland and Wales area until it does this it will not be Britain favorite baker and it will not complete there mission statement. The locations of the Warburton bakers help the company and doesnt hinder them. Warburtons Structure The Warburtons business consists of many different departments in order for it to be successful. All of these are linked together and require each other to work and make Warburtons a successful company. Here are the main departments, which make Warburtons what it is today: Marketing- accesses the market place and develops the customers needs and requirements. Also to promote new products. These are in charge of the adverts, which we see on the television. Product Development- This department is in charge and involved in developing and improving there products which they sell, whether it aims to improve ingredients of an existing product or create a new one. Van Sale Driver- This involves delivering orders from the factory where the product is baked to the supermarket shelves and independent stores like cash and carries. This is the crucial part of the working team. If it fails the company will lose their money and a load of bread will go to waste. Sales Development- This team involves selling there products to the supermarket e. g. ) ASDA, Safeway, Tesco etc, and making sure that they close the deal. Also they have to make sure that the bread is on the supermarket shelves on time. This again is a crucial job because they are the ones who sell the bread. Customer Service- This involves dealing with their customers on a daily basis. This could involve answering telephone calls, which is the most common one, replying to letters or emails. These dont just deal with complaints from customers the customer care unit also deals with question, queries and of course complaints. Human Resource Officer- This part of the company is involved in dealing with the Warburtons labor work force. The department is involved in interviewing new workers, disciplinary procedures, advisory management, law issues etc. Operations- This department involves sorting out and organizing the operation and distribution. Warburtons has the largest fleet of delivery vehicles in the country. They involve ensuring that there product arrives at the shop on time and in good sellable condition suitable for selling the product.

Monday, October 21, 2019

The Differences Between DNA and RNA

The Differences Between DNA and RNA Although their names may sound familiar, DNA and RNA are often confused for one another when there are in fact several key differences between these two carriers of genetic information.  Deoxyribonucleic acid  (DNA) and  ribonucleic acid  (RNA) both are made of nucleotides and serve a role in the production of protein and other parts of cells, but there are some key elements of both that differ on the nucleotide and base levels. Evolutionarily, scientists believe that RNA may have been the building block of early primitive organisms due to its simpler structure and its pivotal function of transcribing DNA sequences so that other parts of the cell may understand them- meaning RNA would have to exist in order for DNA to function, so it stands to reason RNA came first in the evolution of multi-celled organisms. Among these core differences between DNA and RNA is that RNAs backbone is made of a different sugar than DNAs, RNAs use of uracil instead of thymine in its nitrogenous base, and the number of strands on  each type of genetic information carriers molecules. Which Came First in Evolution? While there are arguments for DNA occurring naturally in the world first, it is generally agreed upon that RNA came before DNA for a variety of reasons, starting with its simpler structure and more easily interpretable codons which would allow for faster genetic evolution through reproduction and repetition. Many primitive prokaryotes use RNA as their genetic material and did not evolve DNA, and RNA can still be used as a catalyst for chemical reactions like enzymes. There are also clues, within viruses that use only RNA, that RNA may be more ancient than DNA, and scientists even refer to a time before DNA as the â€Å"RNA world. Then why did DNA evolve at all? This question is still being investigated, but one possible explanation is that DNA is more highly protected and harder to break down than RNA- it is both twisted and â€Å"zipped† up in a double-stranded molecule which adds protection from injury and digestion by enzymes. Primary Differences DNA and RNA are made up of subunits called nucleotides wherein all nucleotides have a sugar backbone, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base, and both DNA and RNA have sugar â€Å"backbones† that are made up of five carbon molecules; however, they are different sugars that make them up. DNA is made up of deoxyribose and RNA is made up of ribose, which may sound similar and have similar structures, but the deoxyribose sugar molecule is missing one oxygen that a ribose molecule sugar has, and this makes a big enough change to make the backbones of these nucleic acids different. The nitrogenous bases of RNA and DNA are also different, though in both these bases can be categorized into two main groups: the pyrimidines which have a single ring structure and purines which have a double ring structure. In both DNA and RNA, when complementary strands are made, a purine must match up with a pyrimidine to keep the width of the â€Å"ladder† at three rings. The purines in both RNA and DNA are called adenine and guanine, and they also both have a pyrimidine called cytosine; however, their second pyrimidine is different: DNA uses thymine while RNA includes uracil instead. When complementary strands are made of the genetic material, cytosine always matches up with guanine and adenine will match up with thymine (in DNA) or uracil (in RNA). This is called the â€Å"base pairing rules† and was discovered by Erwin Chargaff in the early 1950s. Another difference between DNA and RNA is the number of strands of the molecules. DNA is a double helix meaning it has two twisted strands that are complementary to each other match up by the base pairing rules while RNA, on the other hand, is only single-stranded and created in most eukaryotes by making a complementary strand to a single DNA strand. Comparison Chart for DNA and RNA Comparison DNA RNA Name DeoxyriboNucleic Acid RiboNucleic Acid Function Long-term storage of genetic information; transmission of genetic information to make other cells and new organisms. Used to transfer the genetic code from the nucleus to the ribosomes to make proteins. RNA is used to transmit genetic information in some organisms and may have been the molecule used to store genetic blueprints in primitive organisms. Structural Features B-form double helix. DNA is a double-stranded molecule consisting of a long chain of nucleotides. A-form helix. RNA usually is a single-strand helix consisting of shorter chains of nucleotides. Composition of Bases and Sugars deoxyribose sugarphosphate backboneadenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine bases ribose sugarphosphate backboneadenine, guanine, cytosine, uracil bases Propagation DNA is self-replicating. RNA is synthesized from DNA on an as-needed basis. Base Pairing AT (adenine-thymine)GC (guanine-cytosine) AU (adenine-uracil)GC (guanine-cytosine) Reactivity The C-H bonds in DNA make it fairly stable, plus the body destroys enzymes that would attack DNA. The small grooves in the helix also serve as protection, providing minimal space for enzymes to attach. The O-H bond in the ribose of RNA makes the molecule more reactive, compared with DNA. RNA is not stable under alkaline conditions, plus the large grooves in the molecule make it susceptible to enzyme attack. RNA is constantly produced, used, degraded, and recycled. Ultraviolet Damage DNA is susceptible to UV damage. Compared with DNA, RNA is relatively resistant to UV damage. The Differences Between DNA and RNA DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, while RNA is ribonucleic acid. Although DNA and RNA both carry genetic information, there are quite a few differences between them. This is a comparison of the differences between DNA versus RNA, including a quick summary and a detailed table of the differences. Summary of Differences Between DNA and RNA DNA contains the sugar deoxyribose, while RNA contains the sugar ribose. The only difference between ribose and deoxyribose is that ribose has one more -OH group than deoxyribose, which has -H attached to the second (2) carbon in the ring.DNA is a double-stranded molecule while RNA is a single-stranded molecule.DNA is stable under alkaline conditions while RNA is not stable.DNA and RNA perform different functions in humans. DNA is responsible for storing and transferring genetic information while RNA directly codes for amino acids and as acts as a messenger between DNA and ribosomes to make proteins.DNA and RNA base pairing is slightly different since DNA uses the bases adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine; RNA uses adenine, uracil, cytosine, and guanine. Uracil differs from thymine in that it lacks a methyl group on its ring. Comparison of DNA and RNA While both DNA and RNA are used to store genetic information, there are clear differences between them. This table summarizes the key points: Comparison DNA RNA Name DeoxyriboNucleic Acid RiboNucleic Acid Function Long-term storage of genetic information; transmission of genetic information to make other cells and new organisms. Used to transfer the genetic code from the nucleus to the ribosomes to make proteins. RNA is used to transmit genetic information in some organisms and may have been the molecule used to store genetic blueprints in primitive organisms. Structural Features B-form double helix. DNA is a double-stranded molecule consisting of a long chain of nucleotides. A-form helix. RNA usually is a single-strand helix consisting of shorter chains of nucleotides. Composition of Bases and Sugars deoxyribose sugarphosphate backboneadenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine bases ribose sugarphosphate backboneadenine, guanine, cytosine, uracil bases Propagation DNA is self-replicating. RNA is synthesized from DNA on an as-needed basis. Base Pairing AT (adenine-thymine)GC (guanine-cytosine) AU (adenine-uracil)GC (guanine-cytosine) Reactivity The C-H bonds in DNA make it fairly stable, plus the body destroys enzymes that would attack DNA. The small grooves in the helix also serve as protection, providing minimal space for enzymes to attach. The O-H bond in the ribose of RNA makes the molecule more reactive, compared with DNA. RNA is not stable under alkaline conditions, plus the large grooves in the molecule make it susceptible to enzyme attack. RNA is constantly produced, used, degraded, and recycled. Ultraviolet Damage DNA is susceptible to UV damage. Compared with DNA, RNA is relatively resistant to UV damage. Which Came First? While there is some evidence DNA may have occurred first, most scientists believe RNA evolved before DNA. RNA has a simpler structure and is needed in order for DNA to function. Also, RNA is found in prokaryotes, which are believed to precede eukaryotes. RNA on its own can act as a catalyst for certain chemical reactions. The real question is why DNA evolved if RNA existed. The most likely answer for this is that having a double-stranded molecule helps protect the genetic code from damage. If one strand is broken, the other strand can serve as a template for repair. Proteins surrounding DNA also confer additional protection against enzymatic attack. Unusual DNA and RNA While the most common form of DNA is a double helix. there is evidence for rare cases of branched DNA, quadruplex DNA,  and molecules made from triple strands. Scientists have found DNA in which arsenic substitutes for phosphorus. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) sometimes occurs. It is similar to DNA, except thymine is replaced by uracil. This type of RNA is found in some viruses. When these viruses infect eukaryotic cells, the dsRNA can interfere with normal RNA function and stimulate an interferon response. Circular single strand RNA (circRNA) has been found in both animals and plants. At present, the function of this type of RNA is unknown. Sources Burge S, Parkinson GN, Hazel P, Todd AK, Neidle S (2006). Quadruplex DNA: sequence, topology and structure. Nucleic Acids Research. 34 (19): 5402–15. doi:10.1093/nar/gkl655Whitehead KA, Dahlman JE, Langer RS, Anderson DG (2011). Silencing or stimulation? siRNA delivery and the immune system. Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. 2: 77–96. doi:10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-061010-114133

Sunday, October 20, 2019

The Complete Guide to the Princeton Supplement

The Complete Guide to the Princeton Supplement SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Got your heart set on Princeton- the #1 ranked university in the US? Then you’ll need to learn how to write amazing Princeton essays for your Princeton Supplement, a key part of your application for admission. In this detailed guide, we go over the different types of essays you’ll be required to write for your Princeton application and provide you with some expert tips on how to write your most effective and unique essay possible.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Female Cicumcision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Female Cicumcision - Essay Example There are three main types of FC practiced in the Sudanese region; â€Å"Clitoridectomy, Intermediate and Pharaonic Circumcision.† (Magied, Sulima, and Kawther, 2002). The most common kind is a Clitoridectomy, which means the hood of the clitoris is removed (Magied, Sulima, and Kawther, 2002). Intermediate is when the clitoris and part of the labia minor is removed (Magied, Sulima, and Kawther, 2002). A Pharaonic Circumcision occures when the whole outer female genitals are removed then sewed up save a small hole for urination and menstruation (Magied, Sulima, and Kawther, 2002). The type of FC Nawal underwent would depend on the region she was from. There are three main reasons for FC being practiced in the Sudan. The first is the popular belief that if a woman cannot feel sexual pleasure, then she will remain a virgin until marriage (Davidson, 2007). The second reason is the Sudanese belief that the female genital areas are unclean. It is believed that FC makes a female genital area cleaner and smoother. Lastly, many men want their future brides to undergo the most radical form of FC, the Pharaonic Circumcision, for their personal sexual pleasure (Davidson, 2007). This type of FC leaves only a small hole, which tightens the vagina, which enhances a man’s sexual pleasure. This type of circumcision is preferred by 76% of women. Right or wrong, these are the cultural beliefs in the Sudan, since 99% of women are circumcised (Davidson, 2007). The major cultural argument against circumcision is the medical complications (Davidson, 2007). Immediate medical complications were pain and burning during urination (Davidson, 2007). This was due to the urine passing over the wound. This could also lead to infection, fever, and hemorrhaging (Davidson, 2007). Long terms effects were sexual dysfunction, lack of sexual pleasure, infertility, and scarring. The infertility is caused by difficulty in urination and menstruation, which causes â€Å"urinary tract and

How to Improve the Customer Service at Starbucks Research Proposal

How to Improve the Customer Service at Starbucks - Research Proposal Example The author of this essay assumes that the Starbucks coffee company grew from a small, regional business into the undisputed leader in the coffee industry by purchasing the best quality of coffee with facilitating an unmatched store experience. The coffee buyers of the company have maintained long-lasting relationships with the farmers and have believed that it paid the premier prices in the industry for top quality beans. With time passing by, Starbucks grew into one of the world’s largest and the most recognizable brands. Starbucks initiated with retail stores where customers could enjoy a relaxing atmosphere and buy the high-quality whole bean coffees which are roasted, modified beverages, food offerings, and other coffee-related products. In addition, Starbucks introduces a diverse selection of music, film, literature and art to its customers. They have always been looking for innovative and exciting ways to expand the coffee-house experience. The fact that Starbucks workme n avail more benefits, stock options as well as promotional opportunities, not only amuses them, but it results in a positive energy which can be experienced by most of the customers who visit their stores. Even though, Starbucks’ performance is terrific, there is always an opportunity to better it. In the company’s race to make more money, it is sacrificing its relationship with the customers, thereby, eroding its brand value. It’s the relationship with the customers and not the innovation in its products, which will form or sever the company.... 2. Need for this research There is no restaurant chain in this world which would be able to take lightly the decline in its customer traffic. However, for Starbucks, it is an indication for all chains to re-examine their positions in the market and take efficient steps towards securing their existent customer base and attract new customers. The Starbucks Company lost its customers for the first time ever in its fourth quarter, with traffic dropping down by 1 per cent through successive years, although, the store sales rose up to 4 per cent simultaneously (Cebrzynsky, 2007). There could be many reasons to this decline. Starbucks grew so rapidly that it ignored the fact that it initiated as a neighborhood coffee-house, and thus, the consumers do not possess the same emotional feeling for Starbucks which they once had. In order to find a solution for that, the company has planned to improve its services in which the field managers shall spend more time in the stores in order to ensure the quality of service, and the new stores receive additional training. The economic context in which Starbucks was forced to act was the promises to improvise services, reduce growth and expand the marketing efforts, being the typical respondents to decline in the customer traffic. The customers of Starbucks gradually realized the impact of this economic slowdown and, as a result, the Starbuck's customer depreciation has a great significance for

Friday, October 18, 2019

Critical Response Paper- The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Heroes and Essay

Critical Response Paper- The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Heroes and Athletes - Essay Example article in question, the following analysis will attempt to be concentric upon a discussion of the author’s thesis, the overall level of data that is represented, a consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach, and an analysis of other tangentially related aspects of the research and literature that are represented (Baringer 213). Through such a level of discussion and critique, it is the hope of this particular author that the reader will gain a more informed understanding with respect to the information that is presented and the manner through which inference is drawn. Finally, rather than representing a pro-con/strengths and weaknesses analysis of the particular piece, this discussion will be concentric upon those elements that helped to promote the thesis, those that take away from it, and opportunities for improvement that the author could leverage as a means of better presenting the topic to the reading audience. Firstly, it must be noted that a particular strength of the analysis has to do with the fact that the author does not immediately jumped directly into the debate. Whereas many pieces exhibit a fundamental weakness of immediately discussing the disagreements regarding the way in which a particular facet of information is understood, the particular analysis instead begins by attempting to paint a vivid and meaningful historical portrait of how the Temple of Zeus was used, the underlying meanings, and the attitudes and cultural relevance that were necessarily pertained within its structure, form, and purpose. Furthermore, as the historical discussion progresses, the eventual research question comes clearly interview. As such, this research question is contingent upon what meaning these symbols had from the context in which they were represented. By placing the reader within the figurative footsteps of the ancient Greeks that used the Temple and understood its underlying meaning, the au thor is able to build the suspense for something

Political Perspectives of Marjorie Cohn. Cowboy Republic Essay

Political Perspectives of Marjorie Cohn. Cowboy Republic - Essay Example Given the dominance the United States in world affairs, most justice groups and organizations championing for human rights from around the world, including the United States, became critical about the decision. Despite the United States having signed up to the Rome statute that established the International Criminal Court in 2000, the administration of the then president George Bush unsigned the statute in 2002. Since then, the United States has continued to pressure other countries into signing agreements forbidding them from surrendering citizens of the United States to the International Criminal Court. The United States even threatened to use force, including military force in the event that any of its citizens are held at the court1. Erna Paris attempts to explore why The United States, a country known to be vocal in matters relating to human rights would refuse to protect human rights by not signing up to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court. From a political perspective, the United States had the fear that the International Criminal Court may be used politically by other nations against it. For a long time, the United States continually got involved in dubious schemes around the world. In most cases, it got involved in the propping up of dictators and unpopular regimes. The United States has also been known to train and offer arms to a number of known abusers of human rights. This was mostly done during the period of cold war. The United States justified its actions as being better than if it allowed such countries to adopt communism. The United States was very involved in most regions of the world, citing the domino theory that if a single nation outside its known sphere of influence would fall, others would follow1. Erna Paris grapples with the dilemma in the twenty first century where the rule of international law is challenged by the political power held by the United States. The treaty that set up the International Crimi nal Court categorized as war crimes acts of forced pregnancy, rape, torture and forceful recruitment of child soldiers. The United States objected this inclusion and suggested that the court should only concern itself with genocide cases. The United States, being a large military and economic power, is expected to intervene in catastrophes of humanitarian consequences. This particularly makes citizens and officials of the United States vulnerable to arrests and trials by the International criminal Court in cases of humanitarian crises. The United States, a country known to promote its interests only, knew that the International Criminal Court would expose its political vulnerability to its perceived enemies. Being a country that boasts the best political institutions, the country would become helpless in trying to protect its citizens against the International Criminal Court without appearing to violate the human rights it has always championed for. Marjorie Cohn in the book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang has defied the Law, examines six ways of greatest importance that the government of the United States under the presidency of George Bush defied and consequently led to the weakening of the rule of law. The first reason was the establishment of the prison in Guantanamo bay, where suspects of terrorism were held without trial. Despite the president knowing well

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Personalised Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Personalised Learning - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that globalisation and the rapid changes and developments in the information and computer technology have created demands and challenges that necessitate the adoption of policies and programmes that will equip children with necessary learning and skills needed as they respond to the demands of the time. In this context, the government, through its various institutions, continue to come up with public policies aiming for the establishment and development strategies and course of action which are geared towards addressing these issues. DfES recognise the insufficiency and ill-adaption of traditional educational structure in addressing the changing demands of the global society. The ‘one-size fits all’ approach in education is no longer appropriate in responding to individual needs and society’s demands for knowledge. As such, through personalise learning, students become engaged and empowered as they take the path towards learning. While at the same, time their parents and the entire community become partners in the establishment of an education that recognises and is built on the individual gifts and prowess of children. In this regard, personalised learning is a learning system approach that caters to the personal and intellectual needs of the children and listens to their voices as it re-affirms the uniqueness of each child as they embark on learning. However, it has been observed that personalised learning is difficult to define (Pollard and James 2004). In fact, Beach and Dovemark (2009) in study have found out that there are teachers who find it difficult to distinguish between differentiation and personalised learning. They have also observed that there are teachers who are not familiar with personalised learning. In addition, it has been claimed that most discourses regarding personalised learning are drawn from â€Å"commentary rather than empirical research, highlighting that there are lim ited studies providing evaluative data on personalised learning† (Sebba et al., 2007, p. 8). In these circumstances, this research will undertake a conceptual analysis of personalised learning. This is done in order to arrive at a clearer understanding and perception of the concept, and at the same time, contribute to the endeavour of establishing more comprehensible parameters for personalised learning. Moreover, this research seeks to know how personalised learning has been concretely adopted in schools. Finally, this study aims to apprehend how personalised learning becomes the 21st century approach to learning. This study will address the following questions. (1) What is personalised learning? (2) How is personalised learning concretely adapted in school/classroom set-up? (3) How personalised learning becomes the ‘system of learning’ that can adequately respond to the challenges of 21st century global society? In order to answer these questions, a documentary analysis of secondary materials relevant to the subject matter of the research will be conducted. For the library research, the electronic databases Academic Source Complete, Jstor, Google Scholar, PsycheInfo, Business Source Complete, and ERIC were searched using a combination of the following key terms: education, personalised learning, 21st century, customised learning, individualised learning, differentiation, multiple intelligence, policies and globalisation. Articles written in English had been selected. Moreover, articles that provided a conceptual anal

Contemporary Issue in Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Contemporary Issue in Accounting - Essay Example Correspondingly, managers have control but possess relatively small (if any) residual claims.’(Stephen G. Marks, 10 August, 2007, page 694)1 It is said that ‘corporations are easy to create but hard to understand.’(Robert Hessen, 1999-2000)2 The working style of corporations change as such organizations become larger and larger, as only then the intricacies of its decisive feature of separation of ownership and control come to the fore. Apparently this separation of control from ownership feature is the delegation of power from shareholders to managers in best of interests of residual claimants, but this delegation of power also bring a number of complexities and disadvantages for owners that ultimate benefits from it seem so small that entire exercise appear like playing in the hands of managerial omnipotence. However ‘it is argued that separation of ownership and control and managerial omnipotence must be distinguished. While the separation of ownership and management can be explained as a result of the search for efficient capital formation, managerial omnipotence can be understood as the unintended result of government regulations originally designed to protect shareholders’ property rights from managerial opportunistic behaviors.†( Padilla, Alexandre and Kreptul, Andrei, 5 may 2004)3 In fact, ‘Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means coined the phrase ‘the separation of ownership and control’ in their landmark 1932 book The Modern Corporation and Private Property and it remained the most widely used expression in the voluminous literature on corporate governance. It refers to their observation that during the 1920s the structure of ownership in large corporations changed from traditional arrangement of owners managing their own companies to one in which shareholders had become so numerous and dispersed that they were no longer willing or able to manage the corporations they owned.’(Donald G. Margotta, Jan- Feb

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Personalised Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Personalised Learning - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that globalisation and the rapid changes and developments in the information and computer technology have created demands and challenges that necessitate the adoption of policies and programmes that will equip children with necessary learning and skills needed as they respond to the demands of the time. In this context, the government, through its various institutions, continue to come up with public policies aiming for the establishment and development strategies and course of action which are geared towards addressing these issues. DfES recognise the insufficiency and ill-adaption of traditional educational structure in addressing the changing demands of the global society. The ‘one-size fits all’ approach in education is no longer appropriate in responding to individual needs and society’s demands for knowledge. As such, through personalise learning, students become engaged and empowered as they take the path towards learning. While at the same, time their parents and the entire community become partners in the establishment of an education that recognises and is built on the individual gifts and prowess of children. In this regard, personalised learning is a learning system approach that caters to the personal and intellectual needs of the children and listens to their voices as it re-affirms the uniqueness of each child as they embark on learning. However, it has been observed that personalised learning is difficult to define (Pollard and James 2004). In fact, Beach and Dovemark (2009) in study have found out that there are teachers who find it difficult to distinguish between differentiation and personalised learning. They have also observed that there are teachers who are not familiar with personalised learning. In addition, it has been claimed that most discourses regarding personalised learning are drawn from â€Å"commentary rather than empirical research, highlighting that there are lim ited studies providing evaluative data on personalised learning† (Sebba et al., 2007, p. 8). In these circumstances, this research will undertake a conceptual analysis of personalised learning. This is done in order to arrive at a clearer understanding and perception of the concept, and at the same time, contribute to the endeavour of establishing more comprehensible parameters for personalised learning. Moreover, this research seeks to know how personalised learning has been concretely adopted in schools. Finally, this study aims to apprehend how personalised learning becomes the 21st century approach to learning. This study will address the following questions. (1) What is personalised learning? (2) How is personalised learning concretely adapted in school/classroom set-up? (3) How personalised learning becomes the ‘system of learning’ that can adequately respond to the challenges of 21st century global society? In order to answer these questions, a documentary analysis of secondary materials relevant to the subject matter of the research will be conducted. For the library research, the electronic databases Academic Source Complete, Jstor, Google Scholar, PsycheInfo, Business Source Complete, and ERIC were searched using a combination of the following key terms: education, personalised learning, 21st century, customised learning, individualised learning, differentiation, multiple intelligence, policies and globalisation. Articles written in English had been selected. Moreover, articles that provided a conceptual anal

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Corporate Finance Math Problem Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Corporate Finance - Math Problem Example Liabilities on the other side also increased due to the expansion, while the equity deteriorated little bit in the year 2007 by 0.106 million because of the net loss of the company. Ans-2): Cash flow statement shows that the account receivable head of the company was increased with a rapid pace in the year 2007, which showed that the company was involved in credit sales. Cash flow statement also showed that the company spent $0.711 million to acquire the fixed assets during expansion of their network. The cash flow available to be distributed among the shareholders after the company has made all the investment in working capital and fixed assets to enhance the ongoing operation is called free cash flow (FCF). Ans-4): The assets which are used in the operation of the business like inventory, long term operation assets and plant & Equipment are known as operating current assets. By contrast, the fund which comes from the suppliers and reported as account payable, accrued wages and accrued taxes are referred to as operating current liabilities. Since both the ... o be distributed among the shareholders after the company has made all the investment in working capital and fixed assets to enhance the ongoing operation is called free cash flow (FCF). USES OF FCF: It is used to: Pay interest to debt holders. Pay dividends to shareholders. Repurchase stocks from the shareholders. Repay debt holders, which had been paid partially before. Buy marketable securities or other non-operating assets. Ans-4): The assets which are used in the operation of the business like inventory, long term operation assets and plant & Equipment are known as operating current assets. By contrast, the fund which comes from the suppliers and reported as account payable, accrued wages and accrued taxes are referred to as operating current liabilities. Net Operating Working Capital 2007 $ Operating Current Assets (Cash+Account Receivable inventories) 1926802 Operating Current Liability (Account Payables + Accruals) 608960 Net Operating Working Capital (Operating Current Assets - Operating Current Liabilities) 1317842 Net Operating Working Capital 2006 $ Operating Current Assets (Cash+Account Receivable+ inventories) 1075400 Operating Current Liability (Account Payables + Accruals) 281600 Net Operating Working Capital (Operating Current Assets - Operating Current Liabilities) 793800 Total Net Operating Capital 2007 $ Net Operating Working Capital (NOWC) 1317842 Operating Long Term Assets (OLTA) 939790 Total Net Operating Capital (NOWC - OLTA) 2257632 Total Net Operating Capital 2006 $ Net Operating Working Capital 793800 Operating Long Term Assets 344800 Total Net Operating Capital 1138600 Ans-5) Net Operating Profit After Tax (NOPAT) $ 2007 2006 Earning Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) (158560) 146600 Tax Rate = 40% 0.4 0.4 NOPAT

Monday, October 14, 2019

The supernatural aspects of Macbeth Essay Example for Free

The supernatural aspects of Macbeth Essay In my essay I am going to be writing about the Supernatural aspects of Macbeth. I will be referring closely to Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 5 and Act 4 Scene 1. In Shakespeares day people were obsessed with witchcraft. Shakespeare added supernatural elements to the play to grab the audiences attention right from the beginning. This includes opening (Act 1 Scene 1) Macbeth with three witches, with immediately establishes the influence of the supernatural. They are discussing where they will meet Macbeth to tell him his future. In Act 1 Scene 3, the three witches are talking about the death of a sea captain, whilst waiting for Macbeth. Macbeth arrives with Banquo, and each of the three witches has something different to tell Macbeth. The first witch says All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! , the second witch says All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! , and the third witch says All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter! Macbeth is very confused and begins to question what the witches had said to him. Then, the three witches disappear. This would have caused a gasp in the audience in Shakespeares day because of the Supernatural phenomena. This basically means that the witches can tell the future, and this scares the audience. In Act 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth, telling her of the witches predictions. She is a very ambitious woman and will make sure that the prediction will be fulfilled. When she hears that King Duncan is on the way to the castle, she calls upon the evil spirits to help her carry out the murder of King Duncan. She says; Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; stop up the access and passage to remorse, when she says unsex me here, she is asking the spirits to take away her femininity because she wants to have the strength of a man. She also says Stop up the access and passage to remorse which means she is asking the spirits to take away the emotion guilt so that she cannot feel bad about what she has done or have doubts. A Shakespearean audience would find this part of the play very shocking because this was probably the part of The Supernatural that they knew least about. In Act 4, Scene 1 the witches are preparing a cauldron whilst waiting for the arrival of Macbeth. Hecate (The head witch) comes to make sure that all is ready whilst the other witches seal the charm/spell. Macbeth then arrives commanding the witches to tell him what he wants to know. If you asked people in the modern day what a common thing for a witch to say is, they would most probably say Double, double toil and trouble. Shakespeare added this to the play because he knew that it would leave an effect on the audience. The witches show Macbeth four apparitions. The first apparition is a Helmeted Head, which warns Macbeth to be cautious of Macduff. The Second apparition is a child covered in blood, which tells Macbeth that no man born from woman can harm him. The third apparition is a child crowned with a tree in his hand; this tells Macbeth that he is safe until Birnham Wood moves to Dunsinane. The fourth and last apparition, is a show of eight kings, the last with a glass in his hand; Banquo following. This shows Macbeth that Banquos descendants will be crowned king. This means that the witches were right because it comes true at the end of the play. On a modern stage, Macbeth would be shown with a lot of electrical sound effects, lighting, smoke machine ECT. But in the Shakespearean day, there wasnt anything like that so people would have to create their own sound effects, and have to wait until a certain time of day to set the scene. In conclusion, there are many supernatural aspects to Macbeth. This leaves the audience is left confused whether the Supernatural is real or not and have to make up their own minds. 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 Miscellaneous section.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Analysis of the art of Pablo Palazuelo Essay -- Art Artwork Pablo Pala

Geologic form un-earthed: "Seeing through" the art of Pablo Palazuelo "Science and art are two 'di-fferent' ways of getting to know the world, ways which-from a shared origin-evolved separately. [...] The two 'di-fferent' conceptions as well as the corresponding attitudes and activities reveal their reciprocal 'in/cidence' (the result of their common origin) when they are studied in depth and 'without pre/judice.'" --Pablo Palazuelo, (Vision-Time essay, Reina Sofà ­a, 259) Today science and art reflect two different ways of knowing the world. As a scientist, the geologist gets to know the world empirically, through the visual perception of nature's explicit geologic forms. The artist, on the other hand, gets to know the world through intuition, a prescient feeling that reveals the implicit nature of form itself. The art of contemporary Spanish painter Pablo Palazuelo provides a vehicle through which the geologist can know natural form by experiencing its misterium conjunctionis of complementary "desires", where arbitrary distinctions between science and art disappear. Seeing through Palazuelo's art gives the geologist an insight into the way in which nature constitutes itself, an insight that completely reorients and clarifies the geologist's way of thinking. This fresh new perspective opens the window of conscious perception by awakening the scientist's dormant sensibilities. Geologic form was unearthed before me in this manner several years ago during a visit to the Museo de Arte Abstracto Espaà ±ol in Cuenca, Spain. The Lunariae series of Pablo Palazuelo caught my eye. At first glance I saw a brittle fracture system, not unlike ones I had mapped in a surface outcropping of rock or in an u... ...uries ago were forgotten and foresees those not yet born" (Energy, Matter and Form essay, Soledad Lorenzo, 9). Palazuelo's presentient art informs the vision of the perceptive scientist. The geologic form, unearthed by the geoscientist, informs the images of the artist. In this sense, through their open dialog, the conceptions, attitudes and activities of science and art do indeed reflect their "reciprocal in/cidence." "The image is the experience itself." --Pablo Palazuelo (El cuerpo geà ³metra essay, Theo, 2) Works CiteD: Palazuelo. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofà ­a, Madrid, 1995. Palazuelo. Pinturas, esculturas y gouaches, Galerà ­a Theo, Madrid, 1985. Palazuelo. Galerà ­a Soledad Lorenzo, Madrid, 1997. Palazuelo, Pablo, and Kevin Power. Visià ³n y Geometrà ­a: Una Conversacià ³n con Kevin Power. Granada: Deputacià ³n Provincial de Granada, 1995.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Creative essay :: essays research papers

Year 12 Essay Creative It was a typical Friday night job, thirteen young teenagers wanting to head out to the city. I received a page to my taxi referring me to an address 127 Croft Rise Eltham, I quickly checked up the address and before I knew it I was in front of the house with thirteen guys giving me directions to where they wanted me to take them in the city. Luckily the city was quiet compared to most Friday nights in Melbourne. The guys directed me to chapel St South Yarra to a club called Chasers. I dropped the guys off doing the stock no meter on and pocketing the cash for myself which was around 30 dollars. Before I knew it I had to come back to the eastern suburbs, on Doncaster road and that’s where I came across a red BMW M3 convertible with 21inch chrome rims on it, this caught my attention and the next thing I saw was a bicycle in my windscreen shattering with the airbag puffing into my face my body Rowling around in the car whilst another body went through my windscreen landing in the back seat unconscious. The nurse walked in, I could barely hear her say my name. I saw my family readily available standing around me all with black eyes knowing that they have been waiting for me to wake up only to give me the worst news of my life. The doctor and the nurse and my whole family standing in one room watching me as they tell me that I was hit by a taxi two days ago and I have been paralysed from my hip down. From my distort anger I didn’t want myself to believe this had happened. The first month moved on and went into court to face the negligent reckless taxi driver. There was a great tension in the two groups and as he went up to face the judge he was also brought up for not turning the meter on in the taxi and that he stole money from the cab. He was done for one count for negligence and one count of reckless driving and was put away for a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 20 with no bail. As the taxi driver was taken away he said it was a beautiful BMW which I didn’t understand where that was coming from.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Caffeine and Reaction Time Essay

1) Identify the Problem or Question How does the consumption of caffeine affect the reaction time of the nervous system? 2) Introduction Purpose of the experiment: To identify the whether or not caffeine increases or decreases the reaction time of the nervous system. In our experiment, we have decided to use all the â€Å"cases† which will test how fast a signal from our brain will be sent to our muscles in order to click the mouse when we see an object or directions on the screen. We know that the commonly used drug, caffeine, increases the heart rate, thus the increase in blood flow. The question in our experiment is, does the increase of blood flow, caused by caffeine, positively or negatively affects the reaction time that it takes to click the mouse the moment we see an approaching object. Another underlying factor we can analyze in our experiment is gender and age. Since we are using test subjects whose ages and gender vary from 16 to 50 and from male to female, we can roughly conclude whether or not age and gender affect reaction time. The reason we say roughly, is that the two factors, age and gender, are being â€Å"tested† in conjunction with the consumption of caffeine. We do not know if the consumption of caffeine and its effects vary for how old the person is and his or her gender. 3) Research and Current Ideas In past experiments, people have concluded that there is an inconsistency in results depending on the amount of caffeine consumed. Apparently, a half-cup of coffee had faster reaction times than the reaction times that were drawn when the test subject drank a full cup of coffee. The person had concluded that too much caffeine could actually impair reaction time, but the right dosage could potentially increase reaction time. 4) Predict a solution to the problem or an answer to the question Scientific Hypothesis: The consumption of 12oz of ground coffee will speed up our reaction time. Using past experiments conducted by other people, and the chemical compounds of caffeine and its affects on our body, we have drawn this hypothesis. Dependent Variable: Reaction time Independent Variable: Condition of the test subject (Caffeine) The reaction time is the dependent variable, because the results depend on the condition of our subject. The condition of the test subject is the independent variable because we are changing the state of our test subject by increasing their caffeine levels. 5) Design the experiment to be used to test your hypothesis Materials: * 4 tablespoons/24 of Maxwell house coffee blend * Computer/Internet * 4 test subject (2 16 year olds/ 2 middle aged adults, one of each gender) * Serendip software Procedure 1) Complete a control experiment by conducting the serendip experiment while you are in your natural state for each test subject. 2) The site for the serendip activity is: serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/reaction/reaction.html 3) Make sure that each â€Å"Case† is done 10 times to ensure accuracy. 4) Click â€Å"Results Summary† and record the information given. 5) Have each test subject consume 12 oz (2 tablespoons) of the Maxwell House Coffee blend. 6) Wait five minutes before the test subject goes through the serendip reaction time activity again. 7) Repeat steps 1-3 for each test subject, except after he or she has consumed the coffee and waiting for a duration of 5 minutes before completing the serendip activity. 8) Record the results in a data table. 6) Carry out the experiment Test Type| Control Experiment| Experiment w/ Caffeine| Act | 219 +- 15 milliseconds| 194+- 11 milliseconds| Think, Act| 270 +- 32 milliseconds| 243 +- 28 milliseconds| Read, Think, Act| 394+- 74 milliseconds| 364 +- 68 milliseconds| Read, Think-Negate, Act| 383+- 102 milliseconds| 352 +- 64 milliseconds | Jazmine Ortiz, 16, Female Jazmine Ortiz, 16, Female Daniel Kim, 16, Male Daniel Kim, 16, Male Test Type| Control Experiment| Experiment w/ Caffeine| Act | 210 +- 10 milliseconds| 191+- 8 milliseconds| Think, Act| 267 +- 31 milliseconds| 236 +- 25 milliseconds| Read, Think, Act| 381+- 74 milliseconds| 344 +- 60 milliseconds| Read, Think-Negate, Act| 375+- 102 milliseconds| 342 +- 58 milliseconds | Test Type| Control Experiment| Experiment w/ Caffeine| Act | 384 +- 72 milliseconds| 298+- 38 milliseconds| Think, Act| 340 +- 62 milliseconds| 323 +- 50 milliseconds| Read, Think, Act| 422+- 124 milliseconds| 414 +- 119 milliseconds| Read, Think-Negate, Act| 398+- 102 milliseconds| 375 +- 102 milliseconds | Test Type| Control Experiment| Experiment w/ Caffeine| Act | 372 +- 70 milliseconds| 361+- 67 milliseconds| Think, Act| 321 +- 49 milliseconds| 310 +- 46 milliseconds| Read, Think, Act| 398+- 76 milliseconds| 391 +- 74 milliseconds| Read, Think-Negate, Act| 394+- 106 milliseconds| 370 +- 68 milliseconds | *The data shown are the averages of 10 trials that was calculated by the serendip program *The data shown are the averages of 10 trials that was calculated by the serendip program Keon Shim, 39, Male Keon Shim, 39, Male Mi Ok Kim, 44, Female Mi Ok Kim, 44, Female 7) Analyze the data and observations 7) Cont. Analysis: The results we received from the experiment were what we had suspected. For every test subject, the reaction times for every â€Å"Case† that were influenced by the coffee’s caffeine were quicker than the controlled reaction times. For example, Daniel Kim had a controlled â€Å"Read, Think-Negate, Act† average reaction time of 375+-102 milliseconds. When he consumed the 12 oz of coffee, his average reaction time decreased to 344+-60 milliseconds. It is quite apparent from the graphs that the average reaction time for every â€Å"case† for each test subject decreased when absorbing caffeine into their system. Test subjects also consumed the â€Å"right† amount of caffine, 160mg, which allowed the subject to shorten their reaction time, while the wrong dosage could impair it. We can also draw from the graphs the relation that the younger the test subjects are, the quicker their reaction time will be. Also, we can also conclude from the results that males tend to have a quicker reaction time than females (Daniel’s reaction times were faster than Jazmine’s, and Keon’s were faster than Mi’s). 8) State the conclusion The hypothesis was correct. The effects of caffeine shortened the reaction time in all of our test subjects. 9) Summary Paragraph The reason why we were able to correctly devise a hypothesis for the experiment was because of the prior knowledge we had of the drug, caffeine. Caffeine increases the heart rate, which allows for faster muscle contractions. Caffeine does not really affect the actual reaction of the nervous system, but rather the actual contractions of the muscles themselves. This known fact of caffeine is reflected in the experiment. It shortened the reaction time of our test subjects in every â€Å"case†. We found other factors in our experiment that may have affected the reaction time of our test subjects. A few scientists have theorized that gender can affect reaction time. They say that males tend to have a faster reaction time because males are usually involved in more physical activities, such as sports, which helps improve reaction time. That â€Å"theory† is also reflected in our results. All the male subjects had faster reaction times than their age equivalent female subjects. Finally, the last factor would be the age of the test subject. Our younger test subjects both had faster reaction times than both the older test subjects. There are many theories being circulated that once someone enters their mid-twenties, their reaction time slowly increases.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Geely Automobile

International Business Environment Analysis for Geely plc. 1 International Business Environment II Module title: International Business Environment (P13KL9) Module convener: Lei Li Title: Critical Analysis of International Business Environment in UK and Malaysia : A Project of Geely plc‘s Foreign Expansion Group Name List GROUP NO. ID NO. 6501184 6501425 6501559 6501825 6501972 6500420 6501843 NAME Chen Yiduo Wang Hao Yin Xiaoyun Wang Zheng Zhu Weixing Zhu Leizhen Wu Gaoying Number of Words: 4201 Submission Time/Date: 14th May, 2010 2 International Business Environment II Covering Note: Yiduo, Chen(6501184), Leader: ASEAN, Leverage the multinational institutions—ASEAN, UNNC Gaoying, Wu (6501843): WTO, UNNC Hao, Wang (6501425): EU, Leverage the multinational institutions—EU, UNNC Leizhen, Zhu (6500420): Income profile, Culture, Marketing analysis—Income profile, UNNC Introduction, Econography, Political risk, Assessment, Conclusion, UNNC Weixin, Zhu (6501972): Xiaoyun, Yin (6501559): Legal System, Exchange rate, Geely‘s Reacts, Recommendations, UNNC Zheng, Wang (6501825): Tax regime, Restrictions, Marketing analysis—legal system, UNNC 3 International Business Environment II Table of contents Pages 1. Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 2. ECLIPTER facotrs analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5 2. 1Econography 2. 2 Culture 2. 3 Legal system 2. 4Income profile 2. 5 Political risk 2. 6 Tax Regime 2. 7 Exchange rate 2. 8 Restrictions Institutions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦.. 13 3. 1 WTO 3. 2 EU 3. 3 ASEAN 3. 4. Assessment of Geely’s overall international expansion strategy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 15 5. Marketing analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 16 5. 1 Legal system 5. 2 Income profile 6. Geely’s reacts to the impact of the ECLIPTER†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 7. Leverage the multilateral institutions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 19 7. 1 ASEAN 7. 2 EU 8. Implications and Recommendations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 20 9. Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 21 10. References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 22 11. Appendix (Interview)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦28 4 International Business Environment II 1. Introduction Geely, the China-based auto company and one of the newly-emerged multinationals in the world auto market, exerts tremendous influences on the auto industry. This essay will conduct a critical analysis of the international business environment that the company faces. In the first part, the ECLIPTER factors including econography, culture, legal system, income profile, political risk, tax regime, exchange rate and restrictions, together with the multilateral institutions such as WTO, EU and ASEAN will be examined by using UK and Malaysia as examples. Then based on this analysis, it will provide an assessment of the company‘s overall international expansion strategy and process. In the second part, legal system and income profile, the two most important ECLIPTER factors on Geely‘ overseas operations, will be evaluated. Furthermore, the scheme which Geely used to deal with the impact of these two factors and leverage the multilateral institutions will be shown. Finally, this report will analyze whether the company‘s international adaptation of the business function is effective, and then give some recommendations and lessons. 2. ECLIPTER Factors Analysis 2. 1 Econography Econography refers to physical and human assets including distance from major markets, and natural resources of nations that affect industry performance. In the first, the close distance between parent company and foreign subsidiary can help the company to reduce the transport costs and overhead expenses; it also can improve the connection between them. If the parent company is in China, it is better to build a subsidiary in Asia such as Malaysia. Secondly, the natural resources used for making cars mainly include steel, copper, and aluminum. If the country owns rich mineral resources, it can greatly provide benefit in the production of automobiles. One of the major purposes for many multinational corporations establishing overseas subsidiaries is to exploit the foreign natural resources. This is good for companies to 5 International Business Environment II reduce production costs and get competitive advantages. As World Steel Association reported in 2009 that the crude steel production of United Kingdom is 13. 5 in 2008, whereas the crude steel production of Malaysia is 6. 1 in 2008. 2. 2 Culture This paragraph will analyze the effects of culture on auto industry through power distance index and saving rate. Firstly, power distance index measures the degree of inequality exists in a society (Hofstede, 1997). The power distance index is 80 in Malaysia whereas it is only 35 in UK (Hofstede, 2008). The unequal distribution of wealth makes most Malaysian citizens prefer to hold a commercial auto. So the inexpensive Geely auto could be a good option for them. Secondly, saving rate could be a standard to show the attitude of citizens. The saving rate of Malaysia was 47 per cent in the year 1998 which ranks second in Asia (Azia, 2004). In contrast, the saving rate in UK was significantly low, which was less than 10 percent in the past ten years. For instance, the saving rate of UK household in 2008 was only 1. 7 percent (chart 1)(Presser, 2008). So UK citizens are apt to consume a relatively high price car. Chart 1 Resource from Posser (2008) 6 International Business Environment II 2. 3 Legal system The auto industry has been affected by laws and government regulations since the 1960's. The first safety act passed in 1966 by Congress and was called the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Highfill, 2004). This act forced manufacturers to improve the safety for the passengers, the driver visibility, and the braking of the car. Not only safety, but also environment is being growingly concerned even before the oil crisis. The Vehicle Air Pollution and Control Act passed in 1965 was the first act to set standards for automobile pollution. Then in the 1970's, Congress passed the Clean Air Act that led to a 90% decrease in automobile emission within the next six years (ibid). In the 1970's the oil crisis led to the approval of The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 which stated that all automobiles must meet a certain mileage per gallon. The act required that all automobiles had to meet a standard of 20mpg by the 1980 model and then 27. 5 mpg for the 1985 model (ibid). EU 2020 growth strategy also emphasizes the importance of low carbon automobile (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, 2010). There are also many special laws for auto industry in different countries, such as Malaysia, which has built a free trade area for production and assembly of products for export-oriented enterprises. Companies can enjoy the minimum tariffs, raw materials and simplified mechanical equipment import formalities. Nevertheless, the Malaysia government regulates that more than 80% products should export to other countries (Daily News, 2006). Furthermore, the UK Byers Acts Measures to cut the average price of a car by ? 1,100 and save private car buyers around ? 1 billion a year. Although it may lower the profitability of auto industry, the number of consumers will increase gradually (DTI, 2000). 2. 4 Income profile Since automobile is not inferior goods, the demand of automobile would rise when income increases. In the economic aspect, income could be an indicator of the purchasing power of individuals and nations. Data from UK national statistics office (2010) demonstrated that despite the contracted 4. 9 percent of GDP in the whole year, the GDP increased 0. 4 percent in 7 International Business Environment II the fourth quarter of 2009. Furthermore, Household expenditure also rose 0. percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 in UK (chart2). For Malaysia, the GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2009 was 4. 5 though the figure was negative in the whole year (chart 3) (Malaysia statistics, 2010). It can be observed that the economy of both UK and Malaysia seem to recover from the global financial crisis. This positive signal predicts the growing demand and diste nsible market for Geely in both countries. Chart 2 Resource from UK statistics 2010 Chart3 Resource from Malaysia statistics 2010 8 International Business Environment II The core competitiveness of Geely automobile relies on its high performance-price ratio. Per capital GNI (Gross national income) in Malaysia was 25784 RM in 2008. By analyzing the 2004 United Nations Human Development (UNHDP) report, except the 20% population of richest and poorest class, Geely will be a better choice for the rest citizens in Malaysia(chart 4) (Lumpur, 2004). In comparison, the young people account for a great amount of population in UK. A source from HMRC shows the average income of under 20 years is ? 9,570 and 20-24 years is ? 13,200 which is below the average (chart 5). It implies that when young generation decide to buy a car, price is the first consideration factor. For medium quality car manufacture companies, young population in UK could be a potential group of customers. Chart 4 9 International Business Environment II Chart5 Median Age Band Under 20 years 20 – 24 ? 11,800 years 25 – 29 ? 17,000 years 30 -34 ? 19,500 years 35 – 39 ? 20,100 years 40-44 ? 20,200 years 45 – 49 ? 20,300 years Resource from Lumpur (2004) ? 28,600 ? 24,800 ? 35,400 ? 15,200 ? 20,100 ? 28,100 ? 24,600 ? 34,600 ? 14,900 ? 19,800 ? 26,800 ? 23,600 ? 31,700 ? 15,500 ? 20,100 ? 23,900 ? 21,600 ? 26,700 ? 16,400 ? 20,100 ? 19,300 ? 17,800 ? 20,600 ? 15,900 ? 17,800 ? 3,200 ? 12,400 ? 13,800 ? 11,200 ? 12,300 ? 8,130 ? 9,570 ? 8,490 ? 9,810 ? 7,990 ? 9,250 Median Income Mean Income Income (Men) (Men) (Women) (Women) Income Income Income Mean Median Mean 2. 5 Political risk According to Guinger (2001), political risk describes the stability of government institutions. It can be measured in a variety of ways such as likelihood of foreign aggressio n and civil insurrection. The Transparency International (2009) showed that UK and Malaysia both face some problems of political corruption, which adversely affects the efficiency of economic operation. World Bank estimates that corruption could cost Malaysia as much as RM10 10 International Business Environment II billion a year – an amount equivalent to 1 or 2 per cent of GDP. The corruption in the UK is lighter than Malaysia, which ranked 17, whereas Malaysia ranked 56 in world in 2009 based on Corruption Perceptions Index 2009. But the corruption in UK is not unheard. Surveys by Control Risks and Simmons & Simmons show that the awareness of UK laws against foreign bribery may be decreasing over time. In 2002, after the act came into force, 68 percent of respondents said they were familiar with its main points. But in 2006, 48 percent people said that they have totally ignored it (Global Corruption Report, 2009). 2. 6 Tax Regime Tax regime refers to the tax instruments that governments use to raise revenues from multinational firms, such as corporate taxes. The tax of Malaysia is transparent, the multinational corporate must be taxed 30% of the corporate income which is just the same as Malaysia companies Marketing directory, 2005) According to the tax incentive treaties, auto ( . ndustry may be eligible for pioneer status which is given by the way of an abatement of 70% of the profits for five years (ibid). The remaining 30% of the profits will be taxed at the prevailing corporate income tax rate. The profits abated are exempt from tax and will be available for distribution as tax-free dividends. In UK the resident corporate tax is the lowest in Europe, even the tax is zero for t he small companies in 2002(Lawandtax-news, 2010). According to the tax treaties, multinational corporate which set up, purchase or control the companies in UK can follow the resident tax (Navstar, 2009). In the ordinary course of events, foreign companies cannot follow the low corporate tax, but with regard to double taxation and the agreement between UK and China, Chinese multinational corporates in UK now pay the low tax (ibid). 2. 7 Exchange rate Stable trade policies are extremely important for both the economic welfare of the countries and the multilateral trading system. Unfortunately, the liberalization measures were adopted by many countries. As Dornbusch‘s 1976 analysis has pointed out that when the exchange rate is used to provide protection for domestic firms, it is through undervaluation. An undervalued 11 International Business Environment II exchange rate protects domestic firms from imports and gives domestic firms greater incentives to export. For example, the Balance of Payments Committee of the WTO has received 39 requests from member countries for derogations from their international obligations and for a temporary increase in temporary protection. Moreover, several developing countries, such as Malaysia, have recently increased tariffs in response to financial crises even though the higher rates remain below the rates these countries bounded in the WTO. Moreover the analysis said China has become a great auto exporter, as a result of the huge subsidies, an undervalued exchange rate and dirt-cheap credit (Swaminathan, 2009). 2. 8 Restrictions Restrictions refer to the taxes and limitations that host governments place on foreign products and services or on foreign firms themselves when they enter or leave the host economy. Because of the policy of protecting their national automobile industry, the import tax of automobile is relatively high in Malaysia. Since 2004, Malaysia began to reduce the automobile import tax: for the import components the tax is reduce from 25% to 10%, and for the whole automobile the import tax is drop from 130% to 30% for the companies outside of Southeast Asia (MEI, 2009). In 2010, according to the agreement of ASEAN, the automobile import tax will be zero to all the regions of ASEAN. UK is a member of EU, it followed the economic agreement of EU which sets no import or export tax between members of EU and they must charge the same tax when they have business with the third country (European competitiveness, 2009). 12 International Business Environment II Scoring Analysis of UK and Malaysia Country Score Econography Culture Legal System Income Profile Political Risk Tax Regime Exchange Rate Restrictions Total (10) (10) (20) (20) (10) (10) (10) (10) (100) 8 7 18 8 8 8 7 7 71 7 6 16 15 5 9 8 9 75 UK Malaysia 3. Institutions 3. 1 WTO The major objectives of WTO‘s roles are ? the creation of a common automobile market through the elimination of barriers to intra-Community trade; the maintenance and expansion of a competitive world automobile industry; the use of voluntary import restrictions to prevent cheap imports and to maintain competitiveness? European Commission, 2006). For example, in 2006, WTO announced the establishment of a panel to examine whether China's tariffs on imported auto parts violate WTO trade rules, following a joint complaint made by the United States, the European Union and Canada, who accused China for its discriminatory charges on imported auto parts. After examining Ch ina‘s related regulations, WTO panel declared that China's regulations are inconsistent with China's WTO obligations. China has agreed to make the necessary regulatory changes by September 2009 (Herd, 2006). 13 International Business Environment II WTO facilitates Geely‘s international expansion since the elimination of trade barriers has cleared its path to world market and made it integrated to the world economy. In 2002, after China joined into WTO, 100 automobiles of Geely exported to Syria (Luo, 2005). 3. 2 EU EU functions as a rule-imposer. It sets strict requirements and institute rules and regulations to improve vehicle safety. Besides the vehicle crash tests executed by Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Program backed by European Commission), there are also some regulations set to protect the environment. First, in order to respond to the gradual aggravation of greenhouse effect, the European commission developed a mandatory emission standard to limit the emission of one major kind of greenhouse gas, CO2. The regulation set a fleet-average CO2 emission target for passenger cars, which is 120 g/km to be reached by 2015 (European Commission, 2010). The vehicle manufacturers must reach the CO2 emission target of 130g/km, with an additional reduction of 10 g/km to be provided by supplementary measures, such as the use of hydrogen fuel. A long-term target of 95 g/km to be reached by 2020 is also stablished by the regulation (ibid). This regulation will take effect in 2012. From 2012 onwards, vehicle manufacturers who do not meet this target will have to pay penalty for their excess emissions. According to DieselNet (2010), from 2012 to 2018, the penalties are â‚ ¬5 per vehicle for the first g/km of CO2; â‚ ¬15 for the second gram; â‚ ¬25 for the third gram; â‚ ¬95 from the four th gram onwards. From 2019, manufacturers will pay â‚ ¬95 for each g/km exceeding the target. Another congressional mandate imposed by European Commission requires tire pressure monitoring systems on all new cars in 2012. According to Europe‘s Information Society (2010), many road accidents resulting in fatalities and physical injuries are linked to tire defects. Furthermore, under-inflated tires can result in severely inefficient use of fuel and cause an extra two million tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere per year. So this mandate enhances vehicle safety and protects the environment. 14 International Business Environment II These regulations have incurred a rise in car prices since vehicle manufacturers are forced to increase price to offset the cost of upgrading. These regulations put Geely in an unfavorable position. Since Geely is better known for making low-tech and cheap cars, making eco-friendly cars is not included in the competencies of the company and huge R&D spending is inevitable for nurturing this competence. They set a high bar for the competition and limit Geely‘s ability to expand market in Europe. 3. 3 ASEAN ASEAN – Association of South East Asia Nations is a geo-political and economic organization of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia. China and ASEAN are both newly-emerged, rapidly-developing auto markets. Cooperation in auto industry between China and ASEAN will bring a win-win situation for the two sides and make their cars more competitive in a global competition. For instance, according to Xinhua News Agency (2006), a report released by the Ministry of Commerce Indonesia has announced that compared to the expensive Japanese sedans, the China-made ones gradually gain popularity for more favourable price-performance ratio. ASEAN country also needs investment from Chinese carmakers to expand local employment and for more price-favourable cars, said a Germany auto expert at the China-ASEAN Expo, 2006. Consequently, in general, ASEAN opens its gate to Chinese car companies including Geely to achieve a win-win situation. 4. Assessment of Geely’s overall international expansion strategy Geely‘s current international strategy is to produce affordable automobile, so the market size and consume power of a foreign market are highly valued by Geely. Malaysia automobile market resembles China more than UK, in the aspects such as the people‘s income, the similar culture, and the similar geographical position, etc. As by now most cars have been exported to some developing countries like South-East Asia, Ukraine, Russia, and Mexico, Malaysia will be good choice. Meanwhile, although UK does not represent a neighboring or ? home‘ market, 15 International Business Environment II as markets in South-East Asia do, UK could be seen as an interesting market with a potential for higher margins, higher price levels and a more mature market for branding, technology, etc, as the UK‘s income per capita, and the automobile sales volume are higher than that of Malaysia. Considering the future international development, Geely should focus on UK. Therefore, at first, it is better for Geely to develop its ? producing automobile which most of people can buy‘ strategy in Malaysia, and when Geely is able to enter high-end automobile market, UK will be a better choice. In terms of multilateral institution, after evaluating the influence of international organizations, we suggest that Malaysia is a better choice for Chinese car companies to exploit new markets. Firstly, a win-win situation guarantees a favourably corporate relationship between Geely and ASEAN (Eichengreen, 2006). Secondly, there are various quality-related requirements and constraints in EU and probably NAFTA, which puts up a strong challenge for those Asian auto makers. Moreover, by far, there is no evidence to prove the acquisition of Manganese Bronze and Volvo have considerably increased Geely‘s sale in developed nations. Thus considering the opportunities and threats faced by Geely, it is recommended that the company emphasizes on developing nations‘ markets, rather than the developed markets. 5. Marketing analysis 5. 1 Legal system According to Alistair Darling‘s pre-budget report, UK will bring new opportunities for the low-carbon industries. Through the Innovation Investment Fund and the Carbon Trust's Venture Capital scheme, UK will invest at least ? 160m in low carbon projects (Guardian, 2009). They will also invest ? 90m in the European Investment Bank's new 2020 fund, which will put 6. 5 billion Euros of finance in green infrastructure projects. In this report, there are alterations to the climate change levy, company car tax, and fuel benefit charge (ibid). This is good news for Geely because now it dedicates itself to produce high-tech and eco-friendly automobile. In 16 International Business Environment II UK the amount of car tax depends on the price and the discharge amount for carbon, which is from 9% for electric motor car to 10%-35% for petrochemical car. UK also has a successful car scrappage scheme, which gives consumers a ? 2,000 discount off. If they scrap their old vehicle, it will help up to 125,000 families replace their inefficient boilers with new models (Julia, 2009). Through the government‘s support of low-carbon industry, Geely has more opportunities to innovate high-tech and eco-friendly automobile. Furthermore, because of the low tax and car scrappage scheme, customer is inclined to buy or change an electric motor car,. In 22nd March 2006, Malaysia published the new automobile policy (MEI, 2009). Since that day, the import taxes of CBU (Complete Built Unit) are reduced from 20% to 5% for the ASEAN members and 50% to 30% for other countries. The import taxes of CKD (Completely Knock Down) are 10%. In 28th October 2009, Mustafa Mohamed announced many new policies for auto industry which will give much more preferences and subsidies for the new energy automobile companies (ibid). . 2 Income profile It is known that the success of Geely relies mostly on keeping low cost and offering the affordable cars. For instance, Geely's best-selling four-door sedan, the King Kong, has been sold 6127 in April 2010 and the retail price is between 47,800RMB – 58,800RMB (Jiang, 2010). Geely sold 329,014 passenger cars in 2009, making it is the third largest domestic car producer (Zheng, 201 0). However, Geely's winning formula is under pressure in china because Chinese consumers are becoming wealthier; the higher-end models will gradually be affordable for them. Meanwhile, brands such as the Chery QQ, Ford Fiesta, and Honda Civic are threatening Geely‘s current market position. Geeky‘s winning formula is also challenged at the oversea markets like UK and Malaysia. Date from HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) indicates that nearly 50% of the population in UK earns ? 16400 annually which is much higher than the middle class income of Malaysia. This group of population could be a dominant power in the automobile market in UK. It is not a wise choice to sell its inexpensive cars in UK considering that low price would not be 17 International Business Environment II attractive for these relatively rich citizens. The similar situation also happened in Malaysia which made Geely‘s low price cars less competitive. This is because that the predicted real GDP growth in 2010, 2011 and 2015 are 4. 7%, 5. 0% and 5. 0%, Malaysian people are becoming richer than before(IMF, 2010). Their increasing incomes will directly affect their car buying choice. People nowadays prefer the higher-end models and the market share of Geely‘s lower-end models are estimated to reduce gradually. 6. Geely’s reacts to the impact of the ECLIPTER First, since the middle of 2009, the sales of car exports decreased from 37940 in 2008 to 6297. Furthermore, although Geely exports to more than 50 countries, most of them are developing countries which are not so effective in the promotion of the brand image. In order to get rid of low-end image, Geely changed its strategy from ? produce automobile which most of people can buy‘ to ? do not produce cars which price is below 40000 Yuan‘ (Fang, 2009). Besides, Geely take over Volvo which also expressed its desire to promote the brand image. Geely‘s strategy changes starts in May 2007, which is focus on transforming its competitive advantage from price to technology. In 2007, Geely used three new motorcycle type—Yuan Jing, King Kong and Zi You Jian, which have relatively higher value added to substitute the Haoqing, Meiri and You Liou. For doing that, Geely scraped its old molds, jigs and production line which worth up to 8 billion Yuan. In 2008, the sales of these three new auto types grew 12% without discount marketing strategy (Geely annual report, 2009). Furthermore, in 2010, Geely will market 21 new auto types, and some of them were designed by Fabrizio Giugiaro, the Italy‘s famous auto manufacturer. Moreover, the new energy auto will also be produced in 2010, which will include Panda and DiHao (Wenqing, 2010). These new energy auto types have been showed in the Beijing car exhibition 2010 (Phoenix auto, 2010). In order to deal with these two factors, Geely also has a complementary strategy: cooperate or takeover other well-known international auto manufacturers. It will not only help Geely to promote its auto manufacture technology, but also improve its brand image. Geely has already cooperated with 18 International Business Environment II Britain‘s Manganese Bronze to produce luxurious brand-named taxi (China car Times, 2010) and assembled cars with Information Gateway Corp Sdn Bhd (IGC) in Malaysia, 2006 (Tan, 2006). 7. Leverage the multilateral institutions 7. 1 ASEAN One of the stunning news in 2005 was the political barriers Geely met in Malaysia, which was considered as the biggest challenge for its overseas expansion so far. Geely‘s President Li Shufu described Malaysia as ? an unexpected trap? because of Malaysia government‘s rejection on fulfilling the contract. After examining the ECLIPTER factors of Malaysia market, Li Shufu and his team regarded Malaysia as the first pillbox and cornerstone of its expansion to ASEAN countries. He believed the learning in Malaysia could be helpful. Therefore, in May 2005, Geely has made a joint contract with Malaysia IGC group for building CKD factory in Malaysia. However, Malaysia government denied the contract after a new document on automobile being published. According to the document, all cars made by foreign automobile manufacturers were prohibited to sell in Malaysia. Then the situation in Malaysia went against its expection of getting a huge sale. However, according to Geely officials, to some extent, ASEAN agreements have made Geely to reconsider the importance of Malaysia (Harwit). In South East Asia nations, there are some strict tariff-related regulations for automobile industry. Contrarily, tariff among ASEAN countries is in a minimum rate. According to an inner-ASEAN agreement, from 2003 to 2009, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippine, Singapore and Vietnam exempted auto import tariff for each other. From 2010, all ASEAN countries will implement zero auto import tariff for each other. At the same time, Indonesia, Thailand and some other ASEAN nations‘ demand of cars is increasing considerably (JAMA, 2008). Especially after an impressive increase in 2007, the car-sale in Indonesia becomes significantly dazzle. Therefore Geely 19 International Business Environment II planed to only manufacture cars in Malaysia and then export cars to other ASEAN countries, which seems like a forward-looking plan in a long-term development. Finally, Geely decided to move its Malaysia CKD manufacture center to Indonesia. However, its vision of leveraging ASEAN to pursue a sale performance in all ASEAN nations has not changed. 7. 2 EU In terms of EU regulations, since Geely has acquired 100% ownership of Volvo, the Sweden‘s company, Geely is no longer an outsider of European market. According to the EU Single market concept (European Commission, 2010), a free circulation of capital, labor, goods and services between EU members is granted. Geely now have got over tariff barriers and competes as an insider. . Implications and Recommendations One of the strategies of Geely is to promote new energy automobile, there are two advantages for this strategy: Firstly, Geely can get powerful support from government since the development of new energy is encouraged by the government. Secondly, since new energy automobile is environmental friendly goods, it not only reduces the carbon emissions, but also decreases the expenses o n routine maintenance (Bond newspaper, 2010). However, there are also drawbacks, such as the inadequate facilities. Acquiring other world famous bands is the other strategy of Geely, which facilitates the company‘s global expansion. For instance, Volvo is well-known by its safety, which could provide Geely with a competitive advantage on its brand trust. It also provides a valuable, more upscale user image. Therefore, through merger or acquisition of international well-known brands, Geely can get greater international fame and advanced technology, integrate into the world market and attract more consumers. However, certain risks should be considered when Geely acquires Volvo. The first risk is that the culture conflicts between two countries. It has been reported that one of the hindering factors is that the union of Volvo in Sweden disagrees the acquisition for their reduced 20 International Business Environment II welfare and unemployment (Gasgoo, 2009). The second risk is that the value of acquired equity. It has been said that Volvo‘s vaunted reputation for safety has been challenged by other manufacturers which can also provide automobiles with same safety standard. In this case Volvo‘s ? safe? advantage may not be as competitive as before. 9. Conclusion To sum up, this essay has analyzed the ECLIPTER factors of Geely‘s two overseas markets, Britain and Malaysia, and examined influence of the related multilateral institutions. According to this matrix analysis, legal system and income profile have the most important impact on the auto industry. For multilateral institutions, ASEAN and WTO generally promote the Geely‘s international expansion strategy, while EU regulations are less favored in its expansion. Considering both ECLIPTER factors and related multilateral institutions, it is suitable for Geely to enter developing nations to acquire market share at its initial development. But for long-term development, Geely need to pay attention to research and develop higher-end models. With the development of Geely Company and the overall auto industry, Geely‘s focus will shift from developing countries to developed countries. Currently, Geely‘s low price strategy is challenged by the legal system and income profile of developed countries. Therefore, Geely is increasing its efforts in releasing new model cars and tapping into developed countries through merger or acquisition. Geely intends to promote its brand image and enlarge its market share through these strategic moves, although it has to face the risk of culture conflicts and the uncertainty of acquisition value. 21 International Business Environment II 10. References: Azia, A. Z. (2004) Malaysia-Encouraging Saving in a Dynamic Economy [Online]. Available at:< http://www. bis. org/review/r040115c. pdf> [17 April 2010] Bond newspaper (2010) (There are many advantages of new energy automobile but it needs improve) [online]. Available at: [6 May 2010] China Car Times. 2010) London Taxi‘s should now be renamed Hangzhou Cabs. [Online] A vailable at: [11 April 2010] Daily News (2006) 10 ,80% (Geely will produce automobiles in Malaysia, 80% should not sell to other countries)[online]. Available at: [25 April 2010] DEPATMENT OF STATISTICS MALAYSIA Official Website (2009) Population [Online]. Available at: [12 April 2010] DieselNet (2010) Cars: Greenhouse Gas Emissions [online]. Available at: [15 Ap ril 2010] DTI (2000) Byers Acts to Reduce Car Price [online]. Available at: [27 April 2010] 22 International Business Environment II Eichengreen, B. 2006) China, Asia, and the World Economy: The Implications of an Emerging Asian Core and Periphery China & World Economy / 1 – 18, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2006 [Online]. Available at: [24 April 2010] European Commission (2010) A Single Market for goods [Online]. 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(2009) Scrappage Scheme Bosst Continues As New Car Sales Up 31% On Last Year [Online]. Available at: [20 April 2010] Lawandtax-news (2010) Corporate Taxation for Multinationals [online]. Available at: [21 April 2010] Lumpur, K. 2004) 2002 WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT [Online]. Available at: [15 April 2010] Luo, J. (2005) The Growth of Independent Chinese Automotive Companies [online]. Available at: [15 April 2010] Malaysia statistics (2010) Gross Domestic Product [Online]. Available at: [15 April 2010] 25 International Business Environment II Marketing directory (2005) (the Summary of Investment Environment of Malaysia)[online]. Available at: [21 April 2010] MEI (2009) (the New Policy of Automobiles in Malaysia) [online]. Available at: [20th April 2010] Navstar (2009) the detail of the corporate tax in UK) [online]. Available at: [21 April 2010] Office for National Statistic (2009) National Projections UK population to exceed 65m by 2018 [Online]. Available at: [11 April 2010] Phoenix auto website (2010) ( the new energy car showed in Beijing car exhibition) [online]. Available at: [5 May 2010] Posser, D. (2008) UK saving rate sinks to 49-year low as growth falters[Online]. Available at : [17 April 2010] Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (2010) EU 2020 growth strategy emphasises significance of low carbon automotive [online]. Available at: < http://www. eemsonline. co. uk/press_releases/08-03-10_3> [1 May 2010] Swaminathan S Anklesaria Alyar. TNN(2009) How India beat China in auto exports [online]. Available at [3 May 2010] 26 International Business Environment II Swee-Hock, S. (2007) The population of Peninsular Malaysia. [Online] Available at: [13 April 2010] TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL (2009) Corruption Perceptions Index 2009 [Online]. Available at: [11 April 2010] UK statistics (2010) GDP Growth [Online]. Available at: [15 Apr 2010] Wenqing F. (2010) 21 Geely will market 21 new types of automobile, new energy car also will produce)[online]. Available at: [24 April 2010] World Steel Association (2009) WORLD STEEL IN FIGURES 2009 [Online]. Available at: [11 April 2010] World Bank (2008) Gross National Income Per Capita 2008,Atlas Method and PPP [Online]. Available at: [15 April 2010] Xinhua News Agency (2006) China Eyes ASEAN for Car Assembly, Export [Online] Available at: [18 April 2010] 27 Internati onal Business Environment II 11. Appendix An interview with the Geely official Distinguished guest: Mr. Zhao Jie, Vice President of Geely Holding Group, In charge of Geely‘s international business. Time: 28 April 2010 Location: Mr. Zhao Jie‘s office Selected Q&A: Q: How does Geely react to the EU’s high standard of safety and emission? A: The high standard in Europe is indeed a big challenge for us late-movers. However, we have investigated a lot on the R&D and have made some success. As our new motto cited, we will ? devote ourselves to produce the safest, most energy-saving and environmental-friendly cars in affordable prices?. In spite of the European standard, we will also investigate on those aspects. Besides, we have acquired Volvo, a company with best reputation on its safety and reliability. Volvo will bring us the experience and advanced technology in pursuing safety. Moreover, developing new energy is not only the trend of all car companies, but also all those energy-based industries. Under the support of our government, we are confident in making a breakthrough in this area. Q: Have you got any type or design which could achieve the standard? A: Yes we have. Most of the automotive types in our series-EC were produced based on the EU standard. Q: We know Geely acquired Manganese Bronze. How can you successfully acquire Volvo from Sweden and DSI from Australia? 28 International Business Environment II A: Firstly, I am grateful to the lead of our Party and the flourishing Chinese economy. China now attracts the whole world‘s attentions. As one of the best Chinese companies, Volvo has its own advantage. As we have emphasized, you could not acquire Volvo only by money. That‘s like a free marriage, not an obligatory acquisition. They have already accepted us. As a fast developing China-based company, we could give Volvo continuous capital support. Also, our promotion will make Volvo more famous in China. In terms of DSI, there are several parades of their employees due to the downsizing. The company is on the edge of bankrupt. People clap their hands to welcome us, because they see the hope. Besides, we have developed the technology of gearbox for about 6, 7 years, we are able to understand and accept the technology of DSI. Q: Will there be any problems caused by culture collision after the acquisition of them? A: I don‘t think it is a problem for us. Firstly, Volvo is an international company who will make decisions with a global vision. Although everybody loves their country, the asset of an international company is complex, especially after becoming a listed company. It depends on the structure of the asset. For instance, who do you think Toyota belongs to? The asset structure is global, in which Japanese capital accounts for only a small part. However, the culture of Toyota is still Japanese. We think the situation is similar to Volvo, whose culture will not be changed by us. Our relationship is more likely a brotherhood, rather than hierarchical relationship. What we need to do is communication, respecting and taking care of each other. Q: Will Geely transfer the entire Volvo product line to China? A: Automobile needs indigenous producing, R&D and sale, and more importantly, the maximum indigenous complement. So the current factories in Sweden and Belgian will be remained permanently. Q: What’s your opinion on the Malaysia event, I mean the broken of your corporation? 29 International Business Environment II A: Based on the evaluation of all aspects, including the demand, competition, income and wage level, even the political aspect itself; we believed Malaysia was our best choice to enter ASEAN. Malaysia had already accepted our contract; we even signed the contract witnessed by both governments‘ staff. You know Wu Bangguo, chairman of National People's Congress and Malaysia‘s head of Parliament have attended the ceremony. I don‘t know why and how they allowed themselves to make such a decision. They denied the unilateral contract which goes against WTO regulation. I don‘t want to talk about it anymore. Q: The Geely Panda is transformed to â€Å"Tobe† and being sold in Taiwan, it is said that the real purpose is the ASEAN markets. Can you explain it a little bit? A: Sure. Firstly, Taiwan has an advanced system in sales and service. We could improve our service, especially after-sale service. Secondly, Yulon Motor has abundant experience in overseas sales. This ? Tobe? has already being sold in Vietnam, and will be sold in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippine. Q: What’s your future plan? A: Except ASEAN, we have run our business well in many markets. For instance, AIS Company from Ukraine, our best agency, sold out 8000 units for us in Ukraine and made ? Exterior? the most famous autotype in Ukraine. Considering the geographic advantage that Ukraine possesses, we will build CKD factory there, in order to expand to Russia and Eastern Europe. We also have signed a contract with a Mexico partner to build a 130-million-dollar all-around industrial centre. Our plan is, by 2015, build 15 produce centers abroad, and sell 2 million cars, in which 1. 3 million will be sold in overseas markets. Contacts: Address: Suite 15E, West Tower, 668 East Beijing Rd, Shanghai, 200001China Tel: 86-21-53086111 53086126 Fax:86-21-53085062E-mail:[email  protected] com 30 International Business Environment II