Understanding Concepts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Understanding Concepts - Essay Example Balance Sheet Ratio Analysis calculates solvency and liquidity of a business. They include Current Ratios = Total Current Assets / Total Current Liabilities. The ratio shows whether a business has sufficient current assets to meet its current debts and leave a margin of safety in case of current assets losses such as collectable accounts or inventory shrinkage. Two to 1 is the favourable current ratio (Stickney, 2010). If the current ratio of a business is low, turning fixed assets into current assets, debts payment, and taking back profits into the business can help raise it. Quick Ratios / acid-test ratio = Cash + Government Securities + Receivables / Total Current Liabilities. 1:1 is the satisfactory acid-test ratio. Working Capital is calculated by taking Total Current Assets less Total Current Liabilities. Leverage Ratio or Debt/Worth Ratio = Total Liabilities / Net Worth. It indicates how far a business relies on debt financing. If this ratio is high, it becomes hard to obtain credit. Income Statement Ratio Analysis measures profitability. They include Gross Margin Ratio = Gross Profit / Net Sales. It calculates the sales dollars left inform of a percentage to cover the company’s overhead expenses. Net Profit Margin Ratio = Net Profit before Tax/ Net Sales. It details the sales percentage, which remain after deducting the Cost of Goods sold and any other expenses apart from income taxes (Stickney, 2010). Management Ratios include Inventory Turnover Ratio = Net Sales / Average Inventory at Cost indicates how effectively inventory is managed. Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio (in days) = Accounts Receivable / Daily Credit Sales; it shows how effectively the receivables are collected. Return on Assets Ratio = Net Profit before Tax / Total Assets; it measures how effectively profits are being derived from the assets in the

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 59

Assignment Example In addition, professionalism may face numerous issues during the presentation because of the dressing code. Having attire that makes an individual confident during a presentation is an added advantage as it raises the self-esteem to overcome all stances of incivility. Presentations may pose problems to an individual when he or she lacks the etiquette required. Business etiquette involves numerous issues that may hinder an individual’s presentation especially in instances where the presenter parties with his or her work mates and act irresponsibly. Such a trait may augment undesirable behavior from the work mates thereby making the presentation a hard thing to achieve in such situations. A presenter may face stances of incivility in instances where the presentation is targeted to an unfamiliar audience. Unfamiliar audience may not know the characteristics of the presenter thereby acting in a disrespectful manner. When a face-to-face presentation target a multitude of audience, the presenter may be disrupted in substantial levels thereby hindering his or her presentation. In the grouping, I would group Joe and Ellen as teammates. Both of them are hard workers, and that would enable them to complete on the assignment administered. Since Joe is punctual, he will be able to utilize and work on the assignment given with Ellen who may stay late working. These individuals should not work alone as they have varied traits that require each other’s participation. I would assign this group with the responsibilities of drafting the final document after other tasks have been accomplished. During his task, Joe can write the document after Ellen tests and verifies the document. Such document will enable both members to have a thoroughly scrutinized document that has undergone testing and verification. In the next group, I would group Marsha and Suzanne

The World Aircraft Manufacturing Industry

The World Aircraft Manufacturing Industry Introduction As the globalisation spreads out the whole world, the connection between each country becomes closer. Airplane as one means of transportation also plays an important role to support globalisation. Boeing and Airbus are the two largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the industry. This essay is focus on the market for commercial aircraft manufacturing by analysing competitive factors in the industry and comparing with personal computers market. Background The world aircraft manufacturing Industry can be divided into Military Space Aero-structure and commercial aircraft (Sedaei.S, 2007). In the Figure 1, it shows the segments of world aircraft manufacturing industry. à ¦Ã…“ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ ½Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ .jpg Source: Commercial Aircraft Industry The passenger commercial aircraft is important in the aircraft manufacturing industry (Sedaei.S, 2007). In the large aircraft manufacturing, Boeing as the first producer, its quick development had made it become nearly a monopoly in the commercial aircraft. It made the prospect of airline worried. During the late 1970s, the nature of the industry was changed by European aircraft manufacturing. France and Great Britain created the Concorde with strong aviation industry, and then combined with West Germany to build up Airbus (Sedaei.S, 2007). Since Lockheed quitted in 1986, and McDonnell Douglas was merged by Boeing Company, the commercial aircraft manufacturing market is an oligopoly dominated by Boeing and Airbus (Besanko, 2007) Analysis of Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing Industry Market structure In the market, a few sellers control a significant amount of the market for the industry, which is defined as oligopoly. In the oligopoly, there are barriers to enter, due to the limitation of technologies and raw materials and so on. Also, the firms in the oligopoly are interdependent, which means that the action of one firm will influence all the other firm. Moreover, the non-price competition is engaged in the oligopoly (Besanko, 2007). As mentioned above, the commercial aircraft market has been in an effective duopoly by Boeing and Airbus. à ¦Ã…“ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ ½Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ .jpg In the Figure 2, it reveals the market share of Boeing and Airbus. These two companies control the whole commercial aircraft manufacturing industry. Because of the oligopolistic between Boeing and Airbus, the competitive relationship will depend on the instances of strategic interaction. According to the market structure of commercial aircraft manufacturing industry, each firm would like to consider the actions of others when making decision (Cook.A.J, 2008). Competitive Factors The five-force frame work is the one of efficient ways to analyse the industry. The Figure 3 presents the five forces: internal rivalry, substitutes and complements, entry, supplier power and buyer power. Figure 3: The Five-Force Framework Internal Rivalry is pointed to the competition within the industry. Price competition and non-price competition are involved on the competition of firms. Due to the particularity of commercial aircraft manufacturing industry, which is its price elasticity of demand is not large, it is hard to erode profit by cutting down price-cost margin (Besanko, 2007). Therefore, the market engages in non-price competition. In the non-price competition, the firms can make profit by increasing fixed costs, such as new product development, and marginal cost like adding product features (Besanko, 2007). Except for crisis in 2001, Boeing and Airbus keeps backlogs which can take them long time to finish. It is found that neither Boeing nor Airbus can broaden market share rapidly with high fixed costs during this time. However, when it comes to downturn, Boeing and Airbus are willing to decrease the product capacity and make a deal with each other to face the declining backlogs (Tuttle.M, 2004). Recentl y, in order to make products differentiation, Airbus has developed its A380, which is a double-decker plane with over 550 seats. To maintain the market share, Boeing plans to concentrate on 350-passenger 787 dreamliner which is to be more fuel efficient than the others instead of creating Sonic Cruiser (Boeing.com, nd). Furthermore, the government subsidies is one of the drivers in the competition of commercial aircraft manufacturing. Since the airbus is generated by France, Germany and Great Britain, it received subsidies from European governments. With these subsidies, to some extent Airbus can undercut to the price of Boeing and gain the market share. To Boeing, it is also supported by US government on military aircraft, so that it can remain its competitiveness in commercial aircraft manufacturing (Besanko, 2007). Substitutes is an important factor affect the demand of products. To make profit, substitutes operate in the same way by stealing business and enhancing the internal competition (Besanko, 2007). In terms of the airline, the substitute for Boeing and Airbus is the airplane made by others. In detail, it is not economical that using medium and large capacity to fly with nonstop point-to-point travel. Thus, it forced Canadian manufacturer Bombardier and Brazilian Manufacturer Embraer to fill in this gag. These two manufacturers created regional jets, and 2000 regional jets sold to date. Undoubtedly, it shocked to traditional workhorses Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s. However, the demand for air travel is climbing up, and some carriers suppose to choose Boeing and Airbus to maintain profitability (Cook.A.J, 2008). Some indirect substitutes include the other means of transportation, such as high-speed rail in Japan, which can only impact on regional aircraft in certain routes (Besanko, 2007). Barriers to entry depend on the limitation of raw materials and technologies and so on. The commercial aircraft manufacturing is a special industry with high development costs and experience-based advantage, which makes difficulties on entering. For example, the Airbus takes $ 13million to manufacture the A380. That will be a large amount to an incumbent and the non-experienced will make incumbents to be risky (Besanko, 2007). Suppliers and Buyers are another two forces. Boeing and Airbus can get raw materials and components from supplier markets. In order to tie up with suppliers, Boeing has set up its Global Airlines Inventory Network, which can order spare parts from suppliers directly (Besanko, 2007). Concerned with buyers, each has limit power which are airlines and leasing companies. Because of the few substitutes, the minimum backlogs orders can be kept with its rival competition. Moreover, during the recession, the orders can be canceled by buyers. The cancellation will influence the profitability (Lipczynski.J, 2001). Comparison with personal market Personal computers have possessed an important position in the daily life. The personal computer varies in different types: workstation, desktop computer, single unit, nettop, laptop, netbook, table PC, Ultra-mobile PC, home theater PC and pocket PC (Reimer.J, 2005). Also, there are many competitors in the market for personal computers, such as HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Apple, ASUS and Toshiba. Therefore, the market for person market can be described as monopolistic competition. Different from oligopoly, the monopolistic competition involves many producers and consumers, and no exact business can control the whole market (Lipczynski.J, 2001). For instance, the Boeing and Airbus almost control the commercial aircraft manufacturing industry. Whereas, different brands in horizontal differentiation and different types in horizontal differentiation exist in personal computers and they are substitutes. In the short run, it can behave as monopolies to gain profit wit market power. In the long run, due to the freedom of entry and exit, it can behave like perfect competition (Besanko, 2007). Also, the new product development in personal computers market is independent. The firms can make decisions despite of effects come from the competitors (Shepherd.W.G, 1997). For instance, in the commercial aircraft manufacturing, Boeing and Airbus are interdependent which means the actions of one will entirely influence the other. Once Airbus develops A380 as new product, Boeing abandon its original plans to develop 787. Without the government subsidies, the innovation seems to be difficult owing to the high fixed cost. On the contrary, the producers in personal computer can develop new product based on customer preferences independently. Compared with personal computers, the growth opportunities in commercial aircraft manufacturing are limit. Because of the oligopoly, non-price competition and interdependent relationships is included. Boeing and Airbus have its own customer loyalty, the high operation cost and technologies. It is hard for them to stealing business and market share from each other. However, in the personal computer market, free entry makes the entrants can obtain the profits when sellers set prices above marginal cost, and can offer customers much more new flavors, styles, and so on (Besanko, 2007). Conclusion Overall, the market structure of commercial aircraft manufacturing industry is oligopoly. Boeing and Airbus possess the largest market share in duopoly. The competitive factors come from both internal and external, which are internal rivalry, substitutes, barriers to entry, suppliers and buyers, influence the firm growth, new product development and pricing of the commercial aircraft manufacturing market. Compared with the market for personal computers, they are different owing to different market structure which is monopolistic competition. The personal computers can do innovation freely and large space to grow.

Addressing Unethical Behavior in the Criminal Justice System Essay

To understand the ethical challenges in the criminal justice system, I took a look at the three parts of criminal justice, Policing, Courts, and Corrections. In doing so I found that this is quite a large topic. The areas I would like to touch on are; those areas in which the newly hired police officer, lawyer, and corrections officer my face. Having only the training he/she was given in their respective academy’s or in the case of attorneys Law School, and with the Oath of office they had just sworn to, hopefully still in, and the men and women they are placed with to guide them; above all their own sense of ethical behavior and morality. Ethics is a very personal thing; it means many things to many people. There is the mind set of â€Å"do unto others as you would have done to you†, the golden Rule, most of us learned early on in life. But as we go through life we start to get our own sense of ethical and moral behavior. We see others acting in a manner in which we would like to act, and wonder how to become more like that person, more times than not, this starts with a parent or sibling, or close family friend. At this early time we are developing our ideas of right and wrong, as well as healthy and unhealthy behaviors. Another area in which some are given a great deal of their ethical and moral values are religion, there is always a reward for doing the right thing, and a punishment for the wrong. Ethics and morality go hand in hand. The ethical and moral values we gather in the early stage of life stay with us though out our adult life. This is where the training in ethics and morality stops. For most of us we go on to live good l... ... solemn oath has a long lasting history, and is held in high regard by many, but few know its meaning. "A solemn affirmation or declaration, made with an appeal to God for truth of what is affirmed. The appeal to God in an oath implies that the person imprecates his vengeance and renounces his favor if the declaration is false, or if the declaration is a promise, the person invokes the vengeance of God if he should fail to fulfill it. A false oath is called perjury."(Webster Dictionary 1828) Works Cited Dr. Frank Kardasz â€Å"Ethics Training For Law Enforcement: Practices and Trends. (2008) Saarbrucken, Germany: VDM Verlag Richard W. De Shon â€Å" Police officer’s Oath of Office a Question of Knowledge† Eastern Michigan University. March 31, 2000 Available at: http://www.emich.edu/cerns/downloads/papers/PoliceStaff/Unsorted/OATH%20&%20ETHICS.pdf

Religion in “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee Essay

The theme of religion in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is an extremely important one. It stands as a crucial point for other themes in the novel such as racism, sexism and discrimination. The community of Maycomb County all believe themselves to be devout, wholesome people; we discover that they are using their religion to indulge in other criticisms. Although they listen to the sermons about their religion and pretend that they practise it outside of church on a Sunday, the rest of their time, their beliefs on social harmony are far from the perfect Christian morals they believe themselves to have. This is evident in Chapter twenty-four, the scene that involves the ‘ladies of the missionary tea circle’. Here the majority of women believe themselves to be utterly perfect ‘southern-belles’, who devote their life to discussing the works of Jesus .One thing is apparent, though, the women in the group hold diverse viewpoints and represent the various liberal, conservative, and hypocritical viewpoints found in the general population of Maycomb county. We see how shallow they actually are when they go into discussion about the â€Å"Mrunas† and how awful it would be to have people such as this living in their community, with â€Å"lots of children running round† â€Å"all dirty† and â€Å"flea ridden†. Here we see the uncanny irony because, these women have these type of people living amongst them; the Ewell family. But although they may see this similarity, they may refuse to accept it because as â€Å"Ladies†, they cannot accept such atrocities in their own town. Although the theme of religion is though to be taken seriously by every member of the community, it is only really practised by the black community. Indeed, the white people practise it. But, in measures such as when Miss Maudie is condemned for looking after her garden when she could be reading the bible. In methods such as enforcement of religion, people will never take it as seriously than if they would have had the chance to learn about Methodists, rather than having it drummed into them at birth. Phrases from the Bible such as â€Å"Do unto others as you would like done unto you† and â€Å"Love your neighbour as you love yourself† are not given a second thought as the community continues to be a hypocritical, racist and unjust  society. No though for other people’s feelings is given in Maycomb county, no thought for how someone may be feeling, especially if they are black. For the community of Maycomb, does not believe the black people to have any feelings whatsoever. Just as long as the white people still feel they are a perfect community, full of devout, God-fearing people, they do not care who is put to death and who suffers. The Bible does not say anything about the ill treatment of black people. It does not commend or apprehend racial or sexist discrimination. So, if these people base their lives on the teachings of the Bible, why is their discrimination in their society? Historical reasons. Discrimination and racism had nothing to do with their religious beliefs; it was because of a long history of conflict, starting way before Civil War. So, wouldn’t you have thought that in the nineteen hundreds, people would have woken up to the fact that colour of skin has no preference on a person? But, the people of Maycomb County are so fixed in their ways of social class that their racist ways will never change. Black people occupy the lowest class level in the Maycomb society. Not because of their deprivation or the way they speak, it was because of the colour of their skin. In conclusion, religion plays an extremely important part in To Kill a Mockingbird. It forms a stem for other morals and beliefs such as discrimination; both racism and sexism and shows the reader what an unjust community Maycomb County is. On the surface of the communities personalities are holy, devout people. But, as we study their religion along with their morals, the realisation is in fact that theses people use their religion as an excuse to discriminate, not only against black members of the society, but in some cases women. Religion will always play a big part in society and culture, even in present day, but in the early nineteen hundreds, it was treated properly only by a few people. The rest, use it as a basis to form other such like beliefs and ethics, going so far away from the holy life Jesus intended, by being evil, self-centred human beings.

What is meant by the term ecotourism and what are the major limitations of this type of tourism?

Ecotourism is among the most popular forms of alternative tourism, it involves purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the cultural and natural history of the environment. Ecotourism itself is difficult to define but it consists of three main elements. The primary aim of eco-tourism should be the conservation of the environment, as this is the most likely reason for tourists coming to the area in the first place. Secondly the tourism should encourage learning and encourage understanding about the natural habitat and the environment. Thirdly the tourism should be environmentally, culturally and economically, sustainable, as without this the industry will destroy itself and damage the surrounding area. Its theses three combined factors that define an eco-tourism attraction. The major limitations of this kind of tourism are carrying capacity and the number of visitors. The type of tourist who seeks an authentic allocentric experience tends to be crowd-sensitive and expect small numbers. Furthermore the attractive resources themselves are often fragile and sensitive to impacts (e. . coral reefs), and have a low carrying capacity. Similar characteristics apply to many of the traditional cultures and their environments. The most obvious way to control visitor numbers and impacts and so sustain the quality of both the resource and the experience is through remoteness and inaccessibility. Although this leads to criticism of the industry, implying that it is only for the rich or the privileged and it also means that the industry is very small and doesn't produce a huge income unlike mass tourism. Another problem with eco-tourism is that international companies use the ‘eco' label as a marketing ploy rather than as an indication of a genuine policy of ‘responsible tourism' and sustainability. Eco-tourism is also very difficult to set up, as it requires a great deal of planning to ensure that it will maintain its sustainability throughout its lifespan. It is very difficult and costly to maintain on eco-tourism facility as it is so very fragile and so requires a great deal more effort than mass tourism. It is also very important that the locals are involved in the eco-tourism as without them it is very hard to maintain the facility and the locals also help to improve conservation in the area. Using specific examples examine the role of tourism as a development strategy. The Impact of tourism is very significant in terms of a development strategy. The Gambia is using tourism as a development strategy, and at present 3000 people are directly employed in tourism, which makes up 10% of the wage earners. Unfortunately 50% of all the employment is part time and seasonal so employees are mostly casual workers with no protection such as healthcare or insurance and they only get paid the very minimum wage. The Gambia has a very desirable climate especially in the winter moths, which along with the fact that there is no time difference between there and the UK makes it a very popular tourist destination. The tourism industry in the Gambia consists mainly of foreign owned resorts, these are encouraged by tax-free imports, no tax on first five years profit and the expansion of the Yundun airport, to provide international trade and visitors. These foreign companies help the tourism industry to prosper yet don't put much back into the local economy or local culture. In fact only 23% of all the profits from tourism in The Gambia go to the destination country due to leakage of wealth. Also due to the large numbers of tourists and facilities with a relatively small local population means that The Gambia has to import agricultural and specialised foodstuffs and spend $105 million a year on these foods. Tourism in the Gambia is heavily concentrated in the Banjul area on the western coast, this means that this area gets much better services and resources than the surrounding area. This creates a poorer periphery area and growing disparities of wealth and opportunity. The high level of development in the tourist areas has lead to rural to urban migration to these particular areas leaving the rural areas impoverished and without a young workforce. This kind of dependency on tourism has created a lot of debt, which the country may be unable to pay back unless the tourism industry is sustainable and keeps producing profits. The tourism industry in the Gambia is very vulnerable to outside impacts. For example there is social damage to the existing culture because of the impact of tourists, particularly due to the conflicts of the strict Muslim religion and the tourists. Also children now see begging as an easy source of income and so become less interested in education and their traditional culture. Overall Tourism is helping the development of The Gambia although it must be kept sustainable or it will destroy the environment and destroy the industry. Belize also uses tourism as a development strategy. Belize is located within Central America just south of Mexico on the east coast. Belize gained independence in 1981 and has a relatively small population of only 180,000. There is very little pressure for development due to the low population and huge areas of natural and unspoilt rainforest, mangroves and barrier reefs. Belize is the American equivalent of what Spain is to the British relatively close and provides tropical conditions. There are two types of tourism used in Belize, mass tourism and eco-tourism. The main example of mass tourism is the Cancun Resort, which was a purpose built tourist enclave, constructed on an island out in the lagoon. This resort offered an entirely psychocentric experience with little contact with the indigenous population and an almost entirely internationalised resort. This resort resulted in a very high level of economic leakage as most of the profits went to he foreign international chains who owned the hotels. This development offered very little stimulus to economic growth and didn't really help the country to develop. This type of mass tourism has tended to create more problems than financial gains and isn't really sustainable. It has created mass rural to urban migration, which has lead to the construction of a shantytown with no clean water or sewage. Within 30 years much of what the tourists originally wanted to see will be destroyed and is already under serious threat. This is all because the resort wasn't properly planned and wasn't designed to be sustainable. The other type of tourism prominent in Belize is eco-tourism. This tourism involves the conservation of the environment with an educational element while being sustainable. However these schemes are not as economically profitable to the host country as they require more planning resources and maintenance than mass tourism. Yet eco-tourism is used to help countries develop as it is sustainable and can be a long-term economic aid. In Belize there are numerous up and coming resorts. There is a community baboon reserve, the barrier reef and numerous areas of tropical rainforest and mangrove. All of these schemes are involved with the local population and are very allocentric. Although because the carrying capacity of the natural environments is very low, numbers have to be kept down so the facilities are carefully planned. These schemes are much more profitable for the locals as there is n leakage form international companies, and it gives the host country a better understanding of their natural resources and how to conserve and protect it.