Financial System Essays (Examples)

Systems Implementation

System Implementations

Describe the company, the business problem the company was addressing with the system implementation, the system chosen to implement, and the company's rationale for selecting the system to solve the problem.

Wal-Mart, a company that enjoys a significant market share in the U.S. food industry, rolled out its multi-phased project. This marked the beginning of implementing the company's long ditched in-house IT systems, which favored their operations with vendors. However, implementation of the SAP system is already raising red flags. This is because the system comes with costly financial works, which have strained the company (Scheck, 2010). While the project was aimed at leading the firm to growth, Wal-Mart recorded a significant sales decline. This was one of the company's worst performance over three decades now, been beaten by new corporations from Germany and South Korea. As local competitors maintained the pace set by Wal-Mart, most…

References

Hellens, L, Nielsen, S., Beekhuyzen, J., & Ebrary, Inc. (2008). Qualitative case studies on implementation of enterprise wide systems. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Pub.

Jacobs, A.J. (2012). Information system implementations: Using a leadership quality matrix for success. S.l.: Authorhouse.

Ramachandran, S. (2007). Digital VLSI systems design: A design manual for implementation of projects on FPGAs and ASICs using Verilog. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.

Scheck, D.E. (2010). Implementation project for traffic signal monitor/recorder and analysis system. Athens, Ohio: Dept. Of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Ohio University.

The decision of investing or not here then depends on the personal adversity to risk of each individual investor. The general theory states that each investor should construct a diversified portfolio, which adequately balances high risk-high gain shares with medium or even low rates of risk and gains (Hagin, 2004). New Zealand could then be assimilated with a medium risk-medium gain share, and as such would be perceived as a valuable addition to one's portfolio. In this order of ideas then, the recommendation would be that of investing in the country.

eferences:

Amadeo, K., 2009, An Introduction to the Financial Markets, About, http://useconomy.about.com/od/themarkets/a/capital_markets.htm last accessed on December 17, 2009

Hagin, ., 2004, Investment Management: Portfolio Diversification, isk and Timing -- Fact and Fiction, John Wiley and Sons

Healy, J., 2001, New Zealand Capital Markets, Ministry of Economic Development, http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/18163/healy.pdf last accessed on December 17, 2009

Malkin, B., 2009, Financial Crisis:…

References:

Amadeo, K., 2009, An Introduction to the Financial Markets, About,  http://useconomy.about.com/od/themarkets/a/capital_markets.htm  last accessed on December 17, 2009

Hagin, R., 2004, Investment Management: Portfolio Diversification, Risk and Timing -- Fact and Fiction, John Wiley and Sons

Healy, J., 2001, New Zealand Capital Markets, Ministry of Economic Development,  http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/18163/healy.pdf  last accessed on December 17, 2009

Malkin, B., 2009, Financial Crisis: Australia and New Zealand Guarantee All Ban Deposits, The telegraph,  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3187662/Financial-crisis-Australia-and-New-Zealand-guarantee-all-bank-deposits.html  last accessed on December 17, 2009

Bank of America and Merrill Lynch would have to be separated and Goldman Sachs could no longer be a bank holding company. "Commercial banks would take deposits, manage the nation's payments system, make standard loans and even trade securities for their customers -- just not for themselves. The government, in return, would rescue banks that fail. On the other side of the wall, investment houses would be free to buy and sell securities for their own accounts, borrowing to leverage these trades and thus multiplying the profits, and the risks. Being separated from banks, the investment houses would no longer have access to federally insured deposits to finance this trading. If one failed, the government would supervise an orderly liquidation. None would be too big to fail -- a designation that could arise for a handful of institutions under the administration's proposal" (Uchitelle, "Volcker," 2009).

The Volcker proposal seems sensible,…

Works Cited

Dash, Eric. Post-mortems reveal obvious risk at banks. The New York Times.

November 18, 2009. December 5, 2009.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/business/19risk.html 

"Geithner criticizes Wall Street pay." Bloomberg News. December 5, 2009.

Financial Proposal: Dorchester, Ltd.

As discussed in earlier papers, for Dorchester, the final decision as to which particular nation to invest in is dependent on a range of distinct scenarios; these factors naturally impact the selected acquisition target. Before the acquisition target is selected, the nation which houses the potential acquisition target needs to be scrutinized closely. For instance, the trade environment of the nation where the prospective acquisition is located needs to be assessed, since this factor will impact the cost and ability to engage in trade. The political environment of the nation where the prospective target resides is also a crucial factor that needs to be examined closely. No potential targets exist in peaceful vacuums; rather all the prospective nations looked at during this course have some element of political risk attached to them. Furthermore, as discussed during earlier assignments, it's been found that political stability of a…

References

Brown, C. (2011, January 20). How to Finance an Acquisition. Retrieved from Inc.com:

 http://www.inc.com/guides/201101/business-acquisition-financing.html 

Ford, P. (2010, August 17). China's economic status is good news for the country ...

right? Retrieved from Csmonitor.com: China's economic status is good news for the country ... right?

During times of extreme pressure from the supply or demand side, the central bank is prepared to go in and support the currency, to help provide stability. This is significant because traders around the world; will use the major currencies as a way to hedge themselves against different risks. Where, they will view the weakness of one country's currency as a sign that they could be facing a number of different economic challenges. (Fixed vs. Floating Exchange Rate, 2007) a good example of this can be seen with the ritish pound, where the ank of England decided to keep interest rates at .5%. This is important, because the increase in rates could be seen as a sign that economic stability could be returning to the country, which would help to reverse the downward pressure on the pound. However, the fact that they decided to keep interest rates unchanged, means that…

Bibliography

12 Myths of International Trade, 1999, Meti, viewed 3 May 2010,

Bank of England's Decision Affects Pounds Performance, 2010, to Forex News, view 3 May 2010,

Bretton Woods Agreement, 2010, Investopedia, viewed 2 May 2010, .

Fixed vs. Floating Exchange Rate, 2007, Article Base, view 3 May 2010,

S. Treasuries (Gjelten, 2009).

What hasn't happened "officially," i.e. The establishment of a formal IMF SDR world currency system or some other form of a supranational currency, seems to be occurring in the market anyway, but just in a more informal fashion. For instance, already central banks throughout the world are favoring euros and the yen over the dollar as illustrated by the following numbers (Euro, yen to replace dollar as world reserve currency, 2009). During July through September 2009, banks put 63% their new cash into euros and the yen. As a result, the dollar's share of new cash in the central banks was down to 37 compared with approximately 67% a decade ago. Currently, according to the IMF, dollars account for about 62% of the currency reserve at central banks -- the lowest on record (Euro, yen to replace dollar as world reserve currency, 2009). Further, if China…

Bibliography

Amadeo, K. Dollar decline or dollar collapse?  http://useconomy.about.com/od/inflation/i/dollar_decline.htm 

Batson, a. (2009, March 24). China takes aim at dollar. The Wall Street Journal.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123780272456212885.html#mod=fox_australian 

Daniels, J.D., Radebaugh, L.H., & Sullivan, D.P. (2007) International business: Environments and operations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0131869426.

Davidson, a. (2009, March 23). Bejing shows buyer's remorse. Forbes.  http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/23/china-dollar-ditch-markets-economy-dollar.html

Indeed, risk-seeking is pervasive in the financial industry, as competition compels banks to seek higher returns. Regulation such as capital requirements can help to reduce risk-seeking behavior, although the negative affect such regulations have on value can ultimately encourage at least some degree of risk-seeking. Despite this unintended potential consequence, regulation serves to neuter overly aggressive bankers and reduces risk in the banking system. Reducing the risk in the banking system is congruent with the government's objective of making effective use of taxpayer money.

A fourth consideration is that consumers demand regulation. hile this does not constitute an economic case for regulation, it must be understood that governments are not motivated by purely economic considerations. Consumers want to know that their deposits are safe and that they can access money when needed for homes, vehicles and small businesses. Consumer demand, while irrational, is a key driver in the level of…

Works Cited:

Llewellyn, D. (1999). The economic rationale for financial regulation. Financial Services Authority. Retrieved November 13, 2009.

Hellmann, T., Murdock, K. & Stiglitz, J. (2000). Liberalization, moral hazard in banking, and prudential regulations: Are capital requirements enough? The American Economic Review. Vol. 90, 1, 147-165.

The article that was written by Conley (2011) discusses the impact that collateralized debt obligations (CDO's) would have upon the subprime loans. These were created in 1987, by the Wall Street firm Drexel urnham. In this product, the investment bankers would take a number of different articles and combine them together as one investment. The various assets that were used included: junk bonds, mortgages and other high yielding investments from the debt. The idea with these different products is that the investment bank could offer customers a stated return on their investment. The way it worked is the brokerage firm would distribute each investor, the stated amount of returns that they would make off of the tranche (the CDO investment). This was derived using a complex mathematical formula that would divide the total amount of interest that was received, from the various high yielding products that were inside the CDO.…

Bibliography

Case Study, 2011, Investopedia. Available from: [14 February 2011]

Citi Merger a Mistake, 2008, Huffington Post. Available from: [14 February 2011].

Deregulation Redux, 2011, FCIC. Available from: {14 February 2011].

Derivatives, 2011, Financial Dictionary. Available from: [12 February 2011].

The financial strategy establishes the budgets for all organizational departments, and as such directly influences the performances and resources of the respective departments. The financial strategy ascertains whether the company would be able to adequately research the market, identify customer needs and properly address and serve the target market. The financial strategy also defines the levels of product development and specialization, which directly influences the levels of customer satisfaction and adjacently the organizational sales.

All in all, the financial strategy is one key factor in attaining organizational success and it is an integrant party of the overall business model. In other words, it has to be factored in when making any business decision and in turn, the financial strategy has to be created in such a manner that it supports the company in attaining its objectives.

In such a context then, the economic agents have to place a greater emphasis…

References:

Burk, J.E., Lehman, R.P., 2004, Financing your small business, Sphinx Pub.

Graham, T., 2007, CIMA exam practice kit management accounting financial strategy, 3rd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann

Shapiro, J., Developing a financing strategy, Civicus, http://www.civicus.org/new/media/Developing%20a%20Financing%20Strategy.pdf last accessed on October 20, 2011

Financial strategy, ADVFN,  http://www.advfn.com/money-words_term_7104_Financial_strategy.html  last accessed on October 20, 2011

The second purpose of the $700 purchase of troubled assets is to create a market for the securitized versions of these assets. As a result of the crisis, the market for these assets became illiquid. The value of securitized debt obligations became near zero, which severely impacted the balance sheet of all banks that held these assets. By creating a secondary market for these products, the government hopes to increase their value. This will improve the balance sheets of the banks.

The second key clause in TARP is that banks selling troubled assets to the government are required to give the government warrants. This, in theory, protects the government from losses. The theory is that the banks will see an increase in value as a result of the government's efforts, allowing the government to profit from the warrants.

Ancillary to TARP was the FDIC's excusing of troubled assets in its…

Works Cited:

Dash, E. & Sorkin, a. (2008). Government seizes WaMu and sells some assets. New York Times. Retrieved November 3, 2009 from  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/business/26wamu.html 

Smith, a. & Yandle, B. (2009). Too big to fail, read, count or stop. Cato Institute. Retrieved November 3, 2009 from  http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv32n2/v32n2-11.pdf 

McIntire, M. (2009). Bailout is a windfall to banks, if not to borrowers. New York Times. Retrieved November 3, 2009 from  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/business/18bank.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1 

White, L. (2009). Federal Reserve policy and the housing bubble. Cato Journal. Retrieved November 3, 2009 from  http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj29n1/cj29n1-9.pdf

stock market and the Banks promote economic growth and it provides a critique of their functions in transitional economies. Every country depends on its economy for its growth. For a country to be stable it has to be stable in terms of its economy. Bank and stock market contribute to a great extent to the economy growth of every country where it provides firms with opportunity to get funds thus encouraging more investment from the firms. At the same time they give information on the ways resources should be allocated. The development of a financially sound, market-oriented banking system is always considered to be fundamental to a flourishing transition. Arguably, it is important to macroeconomic stability and to positive long-term growth prospects. As documented, bank intermediation in transition economies continues to be stunted after a decade or addition of reform, mainly where advancement in banking reforms is inadequate. The banking…

WORK CITED

Atje, Raymond and Jovanovic, Boyan, (April 1993), "Stock Markets and Development," European Economic Review, 37 (2/3), pp. 632-40.

Bagehot, Walter. (1873) Lombard Street. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, (1962

Edition).

Bresharan, T., Milgrom, P., and Paul, J., (1992),"The Real Output of the Stock

Financial Crisis

Past financial crises provide us with a framework for understanding the best responses to future crises. There are three types of responses, and the best response will contain some form of all three. These are monetary policy, fiscal policy and regulatory policy. The latter is more a long-term response, essentially learning from the crisis and adjusting the legal/regulatory environment to reduce the odds of a similar future crisis emerging. More important from an economic point-of-view are the monetary and fiscal policy responses, and these will be the focus of this paper. In a forward-looking examination, it will be challenging to get much useful from 1907, because the environment then was different in every meaningful way from how it is today, but the responses can still provide some insight into financial crisis response. While all of the crises are different, they all have similar conditions -- there is panic…

References

Chen, L. (2010). Banking reform in a hostile climate: Paul M. Warburg and the National Citizens' League. Harvard University. Retrieved July 5, 2015 from  http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~histecon/crisis-next/1907/docs/Chen-Warburg_Final_Paper.pdf 

Bernanke, B. (1999). Japanese monetary policy: A case of self-induced paralysis. Princeton University. Retrieved July 5, 2015 from  http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/bernanke_paralysis.pdf 

Svensson, L. (2005). Monetary policy and Japan's liquidity trap. Princeton University, CEPR and NBER. Retrieved July 5, 2015 from  http://www.esri.go.jp/jp/workshop/050914/050914Svensson.pdf 

Critchley, B. (2012). Differences in Canada and Australia's approach to financial crisis resolution. Financial Post. Retrieved July 5, 2015 from  http://business.financialpost.com/news/fp-street/differences-in-canada-and-australias-approach-to-financial-crisis-resolution

System Concepts

Company Overview

Complete Solutions plc (CS) is a successful organization specializing in IT consultancy business with annual turnover of £40 millions. The company is located at North of England with branches in the U.S. And France. Established in 1980, the company was taken over by a larger company, and the take-over bid led to the rapid expansion of the company. Complete Solution has several sections with approximately 400 users in the UK divisions. The company internal services are based in Manchester with the Training Solutions (TS) consultancy section, Sales, and Marketing section. The overall services of Complete Solution consists of the IT consultancy service as well as selling of hardware and software, training and recruitment, software development and, outsourced services. The other services provided by the Complete Solution are consultancy services. With rapid expansion that the company is enjoying, the Complete Solution is planning to go public by…

References

CO3601 System Concepts (nd).Soft Systems Methodology Case Study: Complete Solutions

Checkland, P.(1985). Achieving 'Desirable and Feasible' Change: An Application of Soft Systems Methodology ST. The Journal of the Operational Research Society. 36(9): 821-831.

Gasson, S. (1995). The Role of Methodologies in IT-Related Organizational changes. Proceedings of BCS Specialist Group on IS Methodologies, 3rd Annual Conference.

Simonsen, J. (1994).Soft Systems Methodology. Computer Science/Roskilde University.

Financial Analysis of Bestwish Limited

Company Overview

Bestwish Limited produces extensive range of quality products such as gift dressing, greetings cards, and plush merchandise of more than 50,000 stocks. The production of different categories of products involve between 2 and 15 processes. The company produces standardized products and custom designed products ordered from customers on contract basis. However, Bestwish Limited is facing challenges to control the costs because of varying production process, reliance on indirect costs and large number of stock keeping units.

Bestwish Limited has just closed the 2010 fiscal year account and the company is finalizing the 2011 budget. Bestwish intends to analyze the 2010 financial statement to present the accurate picture of the company financial performances.

Objective of this report is to analyze 2010 financial statements to assess the viability of Bestwish Limited.

Task

Attn:

Audit Committee of the Board

Finance Director

Subject: Financial statement Analysis

Date:…

References

Drury, C. (2009). Management Accounting for Business, 4th Edition (Cengage Learning EMEA, ) ISBN 1408017717.

Harris, R. And Sollis, R. (2003).Applied Time Series Modelling and Forecasting (John Wiley and Sons) ISBN 0470844434

Glynn, J. Perrin, J. Murphy, M. And Abraham, A. (2003).Accounting for Managers, 3rd Edition.(Thomson Learning) ISBN 186152904X

The Times 100, (2012). Financial statements and reporting A Cadbury Schweppes case study. The Times 100 Business Case Studies.

Financial esource Management

eaching a financial decision regarding heath care services

All forms of industries deemed financial management as expressive in origin till the 1960's. Its basic and sole role was to ensure financing for completing the business's operatives and functions. The department for business planning or marketing would project a net total for meeting the services and meeting daily demands; managers would calculate the assets required to complete a given project needed, equipment's, supplies and building. Financial management is a field which focuses on business securities as well as the markets in which they are in key demand. Also, more emphasis is made on how businesses can tap new markets and unlock their hidden potential. As a result, financial management books were pretty explanatory and predictable in origin during those times. (Sandrick, 2008).

These days, financial management plays a pivotal role in day-to-day operations of a business. The responsibility…

References

Allen, S., and M. Bombardieri. 2008. "A Healthcare System Badly Out of Balance." The Boston Globe, November 16.

Glaeser, E.L. 2004. "The Governance of Not-for-Profit Organizations." The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law 6 (3).

Halvorson, G.C. 2005. "Healthcare Tipping Points." Healthcare Financial Management (March): 74 -- 80.

Helvin, L.K. 2008. "Caring for the Uninsured: Are Not-for-Profit Hospitals Doing Their Share?" Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics (summer): 421 -- 70.

Financial Analysis

Threats and vulnerability: A case study of Shoe Carnival, Inc.

Shoe carnival overview

Shoe Carnival Inc. is a publicly traded company that offers a range of footwear products for all categories of customers, men, women, children and sportswear. It also offers casual wear products and other assorted products such as handbags. Its headquarters are situated in Evansville, Indiana and it runs over 300 stores across several states mostly concentrated in South, Midwest, and Southeastern states of the U.S. David ussell, who had sold shoes for over 20 years in the traditional way, founded Shoe Carnival after feeling convicted that that was what he wanted to do. In the year 1978, and with is personal savings and some capital from his in-laws, he opened his first store that he called "Shoe Biz." His main idea was to create a shoe store made shoe-shopping fun. The major difference with ussell's…

References

Funding Universe (2012) Company Histories and Profiles: Shoe Carnival Inc. Retrieved from http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Shoe-Carnival-Inc.-company-History.html

Laboureconomic's weblog (2012) The Effects of Fon Competition: U.S. Firms. Posted May 4, 2011, retrieved from  http://laboureconomics.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/the-effect-of-foreign-competition-us-firms/ 

Lowth, G., Prowle, M., Zhang, M. (2010) The Impact of Economic Recession on Business Strategy Planning in UK. Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Vol.6, Issue 9.

Shoe Carnival (2012) Shoe Carnival 2011 Annual Report. February 2012. Retrieved from  http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CGQQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphx.corporate-ir.net%2FExternal.File%3Fitem%3DUGFyZW50SUQ9OTM1OTR8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM%3D%26t%3D1&ei=6E7LT5zEBc7SsgbC0vGaBw&usg=AFQjCNHQ73w5pPAXL97G7uC-A3yGWjEKKQ&sig2=LmOSYlJO7izfAl1ssOpxDQ

Financial Derivatives

This study emphasized the importance roles of financial derivatives, which has been known for the last decade and its effects on the Global financial crisis. It further analyzes the impact of financial derivatives and how it can be controlled to prevent corporations from incurring a lot of risks. It also explains the existence of financial derivatives since 1970, to the recent Global Financial Crisis which occurred in the 2006.

Risk is a feature associated with all productivity. As a result, financial markets adjust themselves to the fluctuation of exchange and interest rates. Hedging risk, these corporations highlight the importance of risk management tools known as Derivatives. Derivatives are defined as financial tools providing investors with effective solutions when avoiding risk caused from market volatility (Dodd, 2006). Financial derivatives are considered to be an effective risk management tool associated with Financial Engineering creating solutions to financial problems (Marks, 2010).…

Works Cited

Angel, James, and Douglas McCabe. "The Business Ethics Of Short Selling And Naked

Short Selling." Journal Of Business Ethics 85.(2009): 239-249. Business

Source Elite. Web. 1 Apr. 2012.

Barth, Mary E., and Wayne R. Landsman. "How Did Financial Reporting Contribute To

Financial Accounting

The question is missing a clause. "…is more conducive to ethical behavior" than what? The word "more" invites comparison but there is nothing to compare the current environment to. Well, the current environment is not much different than any past environment. The regulatory environment does not dictate ethics, as ethics exist distinct from laws. Ethical behavior rests on how society itself defines ethics, and is only loosely related to the regulatory environment. So while there is definitely a tighter regulatory environment at least with the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley and the PCAOB, these laws do not dictate ethics, just behavior (Lennox & Pittman, 2010). Indeed, an increasingly complex regulatory environment only serves to complicate the issue of individual ethics, and creates confusion among business practitioners between legal/illegal and right/wrong, the two operating entirely different conceptual spheres (Jennings, 2004).

The "business" environment is quite vague -- there are many facets…

References

Erickson, J. (2011). Overlitigating corporate fraud: An empirical examination. Iowa Law Review. Vol 97 (2011) 49-100.

Gerety, M. & Lehn, K. (1997). The causes and consequences of accounting fraud. Managerial and Decision Economics. Vol. 18 (7-8) 587-599.

Jennings, M. (2004). The disconnect between and among legal ethics, business ethics, law and virtue: Learning not to make ethics so complex. St. Thomas Law Journal. Vol 1 (2) 995-1040.

Lennox, C. & Pittman, J. (2010). Big five audits and accounting fraud. Contemporary Accounting Research. Vol. 27 (1) 209-247.

Financial Ratios

There are a number of financial ratios that will be valuable to a small business person. A small business is often concerned with cash flow, so ratios that are the most concern fall into three categories -- liquidity, profitability and efficiency. Liquidity ratios measure the ability of the company to meet its upcoming financial obligations. These ratios are important for ensuring that there is enough cash on hand to pay the bills. The profitability ratios are important because the business will be more successful if it is able to manage its margins. Efficiency ratios are concerned with how fast items like inventory or accounts receivable are turned over. These ratios are a direct reflection of the company's working capital, and improvements in these ratios improve the working capital flow.

These ratios are going to be slightly different from those that a large corporation values. The large corporation actually…

Financial Analysis

Assumption Use in the Financial Plan

Additional Assumption in Sensitivity Analysis

FIRST TWELVE MONTH CASHFLOW RESULT

HOW MUCH SHOULD NORMAN PAY FOR THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT?

FORECASTED CASHFLOW FOR THE NEXT FIVE-Year

CASH FLOW WITH A LOAN AT 8% PER ANNUM

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS

THE SALES PRICE AND kg SALES GRADUALLY INCREASE AT 5%

THE SALES PRICE PER kg INCREASE AT 10% UT THE UNIT SALES REMAIN AT 5%.

Investment Value Using At Discounted Rate 5%

est Financial Plan and Option

Assumption Use In The Financial Plan

Additional Assumption in Sensitivity Analysis

It is further assumed that price will increase gradually at the rate of 8% per annum and sales will increase at 7% per annum.

For the purpose of analysis, both the sales price and Kg sales will gradually increase at 5%.

Another scenario will be that the sales price per Kg increase at 10% but the unit sales…

Bibliography

Saltelli, A., Ratto, M., Andres, T., Campolongo, F., Cariboni, J., Gatelli, D. Saisana, M., and Tarantola, S., 2008, Global Sensitivity Analysis.The Primer, John Wiley & Sons.

Sensitivity analysis. (2014). Retrieved Janaury30, 2014, from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitivity_analysis 

Sheet1

€ Exchange Rate $

Systems Media Table: Comparison

System

Uses

Word processor

The main purpose of this program is to construct sentences of the perceived information and manipulate paragraphs to form a word document. The program uses a display format 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' to enhance the quality of the expected hardcopy.

WordPerfect and Microsoft Word are mostly superseded by both organization and personal computers to perform functions such as word formatting, letter processing and some simple designing. Accordingly, it is the most frequently used program in day-to-day operation.

It is used to type the text, save, and format and print the text.

It is used to insert pictures into the text page.

It is used to spell check the text document.

It is used to prepare letters and other word documents.

Hierarchical database

This kind of database system is to display a structure that would relieve the presentation of information using parent to child relationship. The…

References

AJ, W., & al, e. (2007). The role of decision aids in promoting evidence-based patient choice in Edwards A and Elwyn E (eds) Evidence-based patient choice:. O'Connor A and Edwards A.

European Commission DG Health and Consumer. (2012). Guidlines on the Qualification and Classification of Stand-alone Software used in Healthcare withing the Regulatory Framework of Medical Devices. Articles of Directive 93/42/EEC .

Eysenbach, G., Powell, J., Gunter, T.D., & Terry, N.P. (2005). The Emergence of National Electronic Health Record Architectures in the United States and Australia: Models, Costs, and Questions. Journal of Medical Internet Research: The Leading Peer-reviewed Internet Journal.

Fesenko, N. (2007). Compression Technologyes of Graphic Information. International Journal "Information Theories & Applications."

Systems of Power and Inequality

In early March of 2012, a 28-minute video on the plight of African children received more than 21 million YouTube views. The video vividly depicts how the guerilla warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lords esistance Army (LA), reportedly abducted over 60,000 children who were subsequently forced to become child soldiers or sex slaves over the course of the civil war. Captured children who did not cooperate as said to have been mutilated and murdered. Production and dissemination of the video was a result of the efforts of an American charity called Invisible Children. In interviews with the press following the viral reception of the video, Invisible Children campaigner Jason ussell stressed the importance of the video as an example of how social media allows people all over the world to actually see other people -- see, as in the struggles, challenges, plights, and victories…

References

Anderson, M.L. And Hill Collins, P. (2009). Race, Class & Gender: An Anthology (7th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing.

Christie, D.J., Wagner, R.V., and Winter, D.D. (2001). Peace, conflict, and violence: Peace psychology for the 21st century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Thorton, B. (2006). Critical consciousness and liberal education, In Watson, B. (2006) Civic Education and Culture.

Wilkerson, M. (2012, March 8). Kony 2012 campaign: Oprah and bracelets won't solve problem. The Guardian.

he only observation that could be made here is that one would expect a larger proportion of the total expenses to be allocated to research and development, given the fact that this is such an important part of Microsoft's activity and essential in order to obtain a competitive advantage on the market.

Asset and Capital Structure

2008

Cash and cash equivalents

$10,339

Accounts receivable

$13,589

Inventories

$985

otal fixed assets

$29,551

he asset structure at Microsoft reflects some of the particularities in the industry, notably the fact that the inventory levels tend to be quite low, as compared to the other assets. his means that the I industry is not one supporting production on stock. At the same time, the value of the total fixed assets is significantly high, which can be partly explained by the size of the company and the investments in land, buildings and equipment.

Part III…

The return on assets at Microsoft was 0.24 in 2008, as compared to 0.22 in 2007. As most of the other profitability and asset management figures, the return on assets also shows a better performance in 2008.

Part IV -- Conclusions and Recommendations

Microsoft's results, both in terms of absolute value from the income and cash flow statements and balance sheet and the ratio analysis, show a solid, extremely competitive company, whose results have improved from 2007 to 2008, despite the global economic crisis. Its capacity to retain low levels of inventory, to gradually increase its efficiency in using assets and to bring new products to the market are some of the positive aspects at Microsoft. As a recommendation, the company could consider allocating a larger proportion of its expenses into research and development.

As noted, the leverage is deliberate, and probably is designed to deliver these ROEs to shareholders.

H&M pays out a large portion of its profits as dividends. Nordstrom's dividend is healthy for an American company, but far less than that of H&M. Nordstrom shareholders must rely on capital gains to a greater extent. Given that both companies are growing, H&M's ability to deliver both growth and dividends is superior for shareholders. These superior outcomes are, not surprisingly, reflected in the share prices of the two firms, with H&M having the better P/E ratio (22.2 versus 15.4).

In addition to the financials, it is important to consider what recent news might affect the viability of working in these firms in the future. There are no major news stories for either company. Essentially, both are still growing firms, with a moderate growth pace. Nordstrom is still focused on the North American market,…

Works Cited:

MSN Moneycentral. (2013). Nordstrom. Retrieved April 20, 2013 from  http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-balance-sheet/?symbol=us%3AJWN&stmtView=Ann 

MSN Moneycentral. (2013). Hennes & Mauritz. Retrieved April 20, 2013 from  http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-income-statement/?symbol=HM 

Edgerton, a. (2012). Thousands celebrate H&M's South Beach debut. Miami Herald. Retrieved April 20, 2013 from http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/08/3087998/thousands-celebrate-hms-south.html

Financial Feasibility

Bull Run, Virginia

Pleasant Valley Estates is envisioned as an upwardly mobile community - located in Bull Run, Virginia - and targeted toward the young, single professional and young families.

Cash Flow Statement Overview

The cash flow statement constitutes a financial document, which details the exchange of cash between a business and the outside world while strategically demonstrating the in and outbound logistics. Flow is traditionally categorized as:

flow "in" from Operations - the cash the entity or company makes by selling goods and services, flow "in" from Financing - the cash the entity or company raises by selling stocks and bonds, and flow "out" to Investing - the cash the company spends toward investing in future growth

Each of these flows can move bi-directionally. Investors generally like to see that the company covers its spending with cash from operations rather than resort to financing. The cash flow…

Jordan, B. "Homeownership Alliance." Banc One Investments Advisor.

Freddie Mac Reports Strong Multifamily Lending Volume: New Product Lines Boost Production and Position Freddie Mac as Industry Leader." Freddie Mac News and Information Report. Nov. 2000.

Its business alliances have succeeded because of the past encounter and uncompromising principles of Starbucks. When Starbucks created a licensing contract with Kraft Foods, Inc., it permitted Kraft Foods to begin to make Starbucks' items available in grocery markets, and now because of that attempt their items are available all over Northern U.S. And even the United Kingdom. If Starbucks did not have the primary features of what it is looking for in an alliance, it might not have been as effective in its collaboration with Kraft Foods or any other partner. Starbucks was willing to think about the good and bad in the possible collaboration and choose on whether or not the collaboration would benefit its organization (Davidson & Fielden, 2013). If Kraft Foods, Inc. did not have the same corporate perspective and objectives that Starbucks had, Starbucks would not have engaged in business with them. Starbucks has been…

References

Beer, S. (2014). Diagnosing the system for organizations. New York, NY: Wiley.

Harrison, M. (2004). Diagnosing Organizations: Methods, Models, and Processes (Applied Social Research Methods) (3rd ed.). Berlin: Sage Publications.

Davidson, M., & Fielden, S.L. (2013). Individual diversity and psychology in organizations. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

Smith-Acuna, S. (2010). Systems Theory in Action: Applications to Individual, Couple, and Family Therapy. John Wiley & Sons

Systems Development

The Case for ejecting Outsourcing the IT Department

The data and information within an organization is its life blood, it was what makes one company differentiated from another and valuable to customers. With IT being at the center of the information engine of any business, the idea of outsourcing it, allowing a third party company to manage this vital aspect of the company's health is like allowing a podiatrist to do heart surgery. It's not going to end well for either the doctor or the patient. The costs and benefits of IT outsourcing are presented in this analysis. Granted, IT outsourcing of menial, low-end tasks shows potential for streaming the operations of a business, allowing it to concentrate on its core business more effectively (Goo, Huang, Hart, 2008). Conversely outsourcing all aspects of IT can lead to a company abdicating its leadership in its main markets by sacrificing…

References

Cardella, T. (2003). Executive roundtable. Customer [email protected] Solutions, 22(3), 16-17.

Goo, J., Huang, C.D., & Hart, P. (2008). A path to successful IT outsourcing: Interaction between service-level agreements and commitment. Decision Sciences, 39(3), 469.

Jae-Nam, L., Miranda, S.M., & Yong-Mi, K. (2004). IT outsourcing strategies: Universalistic, contingency, and configurational explanations of success. Information Systems Research, 15(2), 110-131.

Financial managers and CEO's play important roles in ensuring that organizations meet their specific goals. The skill levels for both positions are high and require a great deal of patience and experience. The purpose of this discussion is to determine whether being a financial manager is the best preparation for later becoming a CEO.

ole of the Financial Manager

According to the Bureau of Labor, financial managers must have a bachelor's degree in a field such as business administration, accounting, economics or finance. Although, as the business world becomes more competitive, organizations are requiring financial managers to have Master's degrees and a great deal of experience before they can become financial managers. The Bureau also explains that financial managers are vital to the success of any organization and their jobs involve supervising the preparation of financial reports, direct investment activities, and implement cash management strategies. As computers are increasingly used…

References

Campbell, M.W., Kowalski, R.B. Healthcare Financial Management Association Apr 2000

Financial Managers. 2004. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.  http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos010.htm

Financial Accounting

The reasons companies create and maintain accounting systems

Accounting is the language of business. The ability to record transactions is critical for companies in regards to keeping track of critical performance metrics. The subsequent management of revenues and expenses is critical for the sustainability of the business. Accounting systems, therefore, are needed for accurate assessment of business progress. Businesses create these systems to help facilitate their overall strategic objectives. For instances, if accounts receivables are high, management may be inclined to increase credit terms to discourage customers from borrowing. A natural reaction from this strategic move could possibly be an increase in customers paying in cash. Through tightening credit, management was able to avoid potential delinquencies while increase the cash on hand. These decisions can be made through accurate and timely accounting systems.

In addition, accounting systems can help businesses determine methods by which to improve operations. Aspects…

These units tie up capital that could be better spent elsewhere. Below is the placement of Financial Times' business units (See Figure 1).

Figure 1. BCG Growth-Share Matrix - Financial Times

STAS: QUESTION MAKS:

None. The Asian Market

The Online Market

CASH COWS: DOGS:

The UK Market The American Market

The European Market

Ansoff Matrix:

Ansoff's matrix provides four different growth strategies: Market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification. With market penetration, the organization seeks to achieve growth with existing products in their current market segments, aiming to increase their market share. Market development involves growth by targeting its existing products to new market segments. Product development is the strategy whereby the organization develops new products targeted to its existing market segments. And, diversification, is where the organization grows by diversifying into new businesses, by developing new products for new markets.

Financial Times has implemented both a market penetration…

References

Robinson, J. 5 June 2005, "Out of the red and into the pink: Editor Andrew Gowers is restoring some colour to the FT's cheeks," The Observer, p. 9.

Griffiths, I. 20 May 2005, "Analysis: FT's first cuts were the cheapest," The Guardian, p. 24.

Miller, J. 16 May 2005, "Media: Webview: Why the press must wake up to the web," The Guardian, p. 13.

Financial Standards

eporting standards for financial transactions have been varied with regard to countries and companies across the globe for many years. This fact has made it difficult for transactions to be reported with any great degree of accuracy. This was especially true in Germany where there was no true German GAAP. What the rest of the world has considered the German GAAP, the GoB, was actually comprised of here say and opinion gleaned from many different sources. With the advent of the IASB that the European Union adopted in 2007, Germany has finally decided on a single standard with which to govern financial reporting. Large companies within the country, such as Deutsche Bank, have had to make adjustments to the new standards, but this does not seem to have caused a problem. Since the country has loosely used international standards for many years, the new IASB is not new…

References

Bonthrone, R. (2000). German financial accounting and reporting. Translation Journal, 4(3). Retrieved from  http://translationjournal.net/journal/13finan.htm 

Deutsche Bank. (2011). Company. Deutsche Bank. Retrieved from  http://www.db.com/en/content/company/company.htm 

Feige, P. (1997). How "uniform" is financial accounting in Germany? European Accounting Review, 6(1), 109-122.

Gornik-Tomaszewski, S., & McCarthy, I.N. (2003). Cooperation between FASB and IASB to achieve convergence of accounting standards. Review of Business, 24(2), 52-61.

Thus, the Board ultimately had little control over this particular cost, which is how it is found itself in a difficult financial position this year. The general lack of control over the budget is a definite weakness for the Bridgeport Board of Education.

In lieu of financial statements, there were two main resources available to help assess this organization's health. Its budget book was the primary source, as it detailed the Board's financial situation with respect to its inflows and outflows. News items are also helpful. Since the Board is not a public company, it is not required to disclose items of financial significance, but such items may come to light through the local news media.

The organization's approach to creating shareholder value is to spend its money on the programs that deliver on its strategic objectives. These include graduating students at a college-ready level, reducing the dropout rate to…

Works Cited:

Bridgeport Public Schools Budget Request 2009-2010.

Bridgeport Board of Education website, various pages. (2009). Retrieved November 12, 2009 from  http://www.bridgeportedu.net/ 

Lambeck, L. (2009). Bridgeport schools face health insurance funding gap. Connecticut Post. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from  http://www.allbusiness.com/education-training/education-administration-school-boards/13333032-1.html 

Brewer, R. (2008). Bridgeport school funding dilemma: No easy solutions. 06106. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from http://06106blog.org/2008/03/07/bridgeport-school-funding-dilemma-no-easy-solutions/

92%. This compares to the 0.36% for its peers last year and 17.42% over five years for the sector. UHS has a net profit margin of 3.86% and a five-year average net profit margin of 4.49%. The sector averaged a net profit margin of -0.38% last year, but has a five-year average of 12.27%. hat this indicates is that historically UHS has lagged its peers in terms of bottom line margins. They have, however, been able to sustain those margins during a downturn in the business cycle whereas their competitors have struggled. This stability is a sign of financial strength. It may also contribute to their willingness to be more highly levered than most of their competitors in order to drive growth.

Revenue growth last year was 13.36%. This compares with 6.5% the previous year and 8.19% the previous year. The five-year average growth rate is 8.01%. Revenues grew faster…

Works Cited

Charts from Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved November 8, 2008 at  http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=UHS#chart10:symbol=uhs;range=1y;compare= ^gspc;indicator=ke_sd+volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined

Financials, stock overview and competitor financials from Reuters. Retrieved November 8, 2008 at  http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=UHS.N 

UHS 2007 Annual Report retrieved November 8, 2008 at  http://www.uhsinc.com/temp/UHS%20Annual%20Report_web.pdf 

UHS 2006 Annual Report retrieved November 8, 2008 at http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/10/105/105817/items/249016/58689%20UHS%20Fin.pdf

Financial Analysis

Electronic communication has increased the availability and speed at which financial information is made public. Announcements and stock prices are made available in real time. Aggregated and historical information is widely available on information aggregator sites like Yahoo Finance. Annual reports are publicly available, and securities regulators insist that they be made publicly available.

The increased availability of financial information about companies serves to improve both the transparency and liquidity of financial markets. Investors of all types and abilities now have access to the information that they need to make information decisions. That all companies must produce consistent financial statements according to GAAP also helps with the transparency of financial information. ith easy access to this information, investors can become more educated and more confident. Ultimately, this improves investor confidence in the system and liquidity in the market, improving the market's function.

Because publishing this material improves the…

Works Cited:

Reitmans 2005 Annual Report, in possession of the author

Alimentation Couche-Tard Annual Report 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2011 from  http://www.couche-tard.com/corporatif/modules/AxialRealisation/img_repository/files/documents/relation-investisseur/Rapport%20annuel/Annual%20report%202010.pdf

Financial Perspective

Case Analysis:

Despite having an exceptional pace of growth throughout the early years of their existence, Saatchi & Saatchi is facing client attrition and declining revenues. What had happened through their continual restructurings was the corporation lost track of their core vision, mission and values. The distance between these three core attributes of their business and financial performance had drifted apart so far that financial results were showing the increasingly disjointed nature of their corporate culture (Greenhalgh, 2004). The reliance on a balanced scorecard to unify their core vision, mission and values back to financial performance was needed (Niven).

As a result of the continued deterioration of financial and customer performance, management at Saatchi & Saatchi put into place financial and customer-driven goals for the company. The financial objectives included the foundation of their company's resurgence and comeback, including growing the revenue base faster than market rates, converting…

References

Greenhalgh, C. (2004) Building a Strategic Balanced Scorecard: Saatchi & Saatchi Complementary Case Study. Business Intelligence Company. Retrieved February 17, 2013, from  http://www.business-intelligence.co.uk/PDFdownloads/strat_bsc/Saatchisr.pdf 

MyStrategicPlan (N.D.) Balanced Scorecard: Performance Measurements for Success. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from  http://www.mystrategicplan.com/strategic-planning-topics/balanced-scorecard.shtml 

Niven, P. (N.D.) Financial perspective. EPM Review. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.epmreview.com/Resources/Articles/Delivering-shareholder-value-growing-revenue-and-enhancing-productivity.html

Robin, D. (ND) Vision, Mission and Values: Management Tools for Building a Better Workplace. Daniel Robin & Associates. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.abetterworkplace.com/027.html

Financial Accounting

Accounting Concepts

Financial Statements (Regulatory oversight)

The rapid failure and bankruptcy of Enron has prompted severe criticism of the nation's financial reporting and auditing systems, which are fundamental to maintaining investor confidence in U.S. capital markets; there are four areas in which the Enron failure revealed serious problems: corporate governance, the independent audit of financial statements, oversight of the accounting profession, and accounting and financial reporting issues (GAO, 2002). The financial statements are the frontline in determining a company's integrity and accountability. hen a company makes its financial statements public, then they can be scrutinized by many external entities to be used in the market.

However, before financial statements are made public, they should be examined by an external auditor. Auditing is one of the most essential functions in the entire accounting business function and mistakes made in accounting can cost an organization everything. Therefore the auditing process…

Works Cited

GAO. (2002, March 5). Protecting the Public Interest. Retrieved from U.S. Government Accountability Office:  http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-02-483T 

Guilding, C., Drury, C., & Tayles, M. (2005). An empirical investigation of the importance of cost-plus pricing. Managerial Auditing Journal, 20(2), 125-137.

The applicability of Activity-Based Costing for decision making is directly linked to the influences that ABC has over process control. In this order of ideas, by better identifying the incurred costs or the overhead, managers can better monitor and control the evolution of products, prices, costs and consequently, profits. ABC identifies the costs incurred by each item in terms of resources consumed. Therefore, with the aid of ABC, organizational managements have the ability to control resource allocation.

Activity-Based Costing reveals yet another significant feature: it has the ability to evaluate the costs of not producing an item. This basically means that with the aid of the ABC, managers are able to know how much they have lost due to machine malfunctioning, product damaging, increased inventory costs or time spent waiting for a machine component to be replaced. "Activity-Based Costing therefore gives not only much better cost control, but increasingly, it…

Works Cited

Barnat, R., 2005, Strategic Control: A New Perspective, Strategic Control,  http://www.strategic-control.24xls.com/en139last  accessed on October 21, 2008

Chellasamy, P., Ligy, V.K., 2008, Activity-Based Costing - a Tool for Decision Making, Fibre 2 Fashion,  http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/7/670/activity-based-costing-a-tool-for-decision-making1.asplast  accessed on October 21, 2008

Cooper, R., Kaplan, R.S., 1998, Design of Cost Management Systems, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall

Drucker, P.F., 2006, Classic Drucker, Harvard Business School Press

hus, today, if someone asked you whether they should invest in Apple, Inc., the answer would be "yes."

Appendix a Steve Jobs: CEO and Co-Founder

Steve Wozniak: Co-founder

imothy D. Cook: COO

Peter Oppenheimer, CFO

Philip W. Schiller: SVP of Marketing

Jonathan Ive: SVP of Industrial Design

ony Fadell: SVP of iPod

Ron Johnson: SVP of Retail

Sina amaddon: SVP of Applications

Bertrand Serlet: SVP of Software Engineering

Scott Forstall: Vice President of Platform Experience.

Appendix B

Mac Personal Computer System

Mac OSX and OSX server

Ipod and iunes

IPod Hi-Fi

Quick ime

ILife, iWork

Safari

Apple Remote Desktop

Xsan

Final Cut Studio

Logic Pro

Apple V

Aperture

Final Cut Studio

Cinema Display

Appendix C

Strengths:

Apple has seen new success as a result of its iPod music player, which has increased profits by $320 in the second quarter of June, 2005. he positive reviews of iPod has given the…

The most significant threat to Apple is the high level of competition that exists in the it industry.

Appendix D

Apple's earning and profits has continually increased since the year 2000. Fiscal years ending in 2005 and 2006 both saw significant increases in Apple's revenues. At the end of 2005, Apple's after tax income was $1,328 million, which was a 399.24% increase from the previous year. For the fiscal year ending in 2006, Apple's after tax income was $1,989 million, which represented another 49.7% increase. Apple's earning per share for the 2006 fiscal year was $2.27, whereas in the previous year it was $1.55 and the year before that only $00.36.

Financial and Economic Impact of Worker's Compensation egulations And Compliance

The program and concept of Workers' Compensation might appear to be a product of a civilized society and the modern era, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Workers' Compensation has essentially been around for as long as people have been completing task for payment of some form of another, because people have always been getting hurt in some way, on the job. "The history of compensation for bodily injury begins shortly after the advent of written history itself1. The Nippur Tablet No. 3191 from ancient Sumeria in the Fertile Crescent outlines the law of Ur-Nammu, king of the city-state of Ur. It dates to approximately 2050 B.C.2. The law of Ur provided monetary compensation for specific injury to workers' body parts, including fractures. The code of Hammurabi from 1750 B.C. provided a similar set of rewards…

References

Benyamin, R., Buenaventura,, . R., Datta, S., & Adlaka, R. (2008). Opioid Complications and Side Effects. Pain Physician, S106-S111.

Boggs, C. (2008, July 29). Workers' Compensation History: The Great Tradeoff! Retrieved from mynewmarkets.com:  http://www.mynewmarkets.com/articles/91833/workers-compensation-history-the-great-tradeoff 

Ceniceros, R. (2012, December 12). State reduces workers comp opioid prescriptions. Retrieved from Businessinsurance.com:  http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/99999999/NEWS080102/399999826 

Eley, L. (n.d.). FEDERAL AGENCY HELPS COAL MINERS DETECT BLACK LUNG DISEASE. Retrieved from Denversworkerscompensationattorney.com:  http://www.denverworkerscompensationattorney.com/2011/03/federal-agency-helps-coal-miners-detect-black-lung-disease.shtml

Financial statements allow investors to compare the performance of different publicly-traded companies. This is because there are specific rules that govern how each company can compile and present its statements, and these rules are enforced by the SEC. Two companies that compete in the mobile operating system and online advertising businesses are Apple and Google. This report will compare these two companies, using the financial statements for each for the 2012 fiscal year. The balance sheet will be the specific area of comparison.

For both companies, the last few years have been exceptionally profitable, and this is noted on the balance sheets of each. Both companies have had their assets and their equities increase significantly over the past few years as a result of their profits. The current assets for both companies have expanded, indicating that the operating business of each company has grown significantly. As well, the total assets…

Works Cited:

MSN Moneycentral: Apple (2013). Retrieved April 9, 2013 from  http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-balance-sheet/?symbol=us%3AAAPL&stmtView=Ann 

MSN Moneycentral: Google (2013). Retrieved April 9, 2013 from  http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-balance-sheet/?symbol=us%3AGOOG&stmtView=Ann

...I need(ed) a lot of reassurance. Had I gone to a unit where they put me with a preceptor who really didn't care about educating...I think I would have struggled big time....[but] they never treated me like I was stupid," are common responses of new nurses in mentoring programs (Hodges 2008, p.83). Mentors provided advice on psychologically coping with the emotional demands of nursing, time management, accuracy, and striking a balance between work and professional life.

Mentoring programs are especially important for nurses given that "developing an ability to thrive in unpredictable health care environments is crucial to all nurses, but particularly to practice in acute care settings" (Hodges 2008, p.80). All healthcare settings draw upon a nurses' ability "to recover quickly or adjust to adversity is commonly known as resilience. The capacity for resilience allows one to reframe, adapt, balance, persist, and grow in the face of adversity and…

Works Cited

Harder, Danielle. (2009, January). Hospital finds cure for retention: Time off. Canadian HR

Reporter, 22(1), 12. Retrieved March 14, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1636590351).

Hodges, Helen F., & Ann C. Keeley, Patricia J. Troyan. (2008). Professional resilience in baccalaureate-prepared acute care nurses: FIRST STEPS. Nursing Education

Perspectives, 29(2), 80-9. Retrieved March 14, 2009, from ProQuest Medical

Companies use the income statement to show how successful the company is during specific time frames. Investors often want to know how much money is being brought in, they want to know that the company has enough funds to pay the operating expenses and any liabilities the company has.

Those same investors oftentimes wish to receive dividends on their shares of stock. They can ascertain whether the company has the means to do this by perusing the retained earnings statement. The retained earnings statement shows how much money the company has paid out, as well as how much the company has kept for future growth. If investors wish to buy a company that is going to be a strong growth company, then retained earnings is important because it will show that the company has the funds to do so.

A company's cash flow is a high priority to bankers, venture…

References

The Book ***

Weinstock, M.; (2008) Where Main Street & Wall Street cross, Hospitals & Health Networks, Vol. 82, No. 6, pg. 41

25 per share on the initial offering date in 1961 and held as a long-term investment. The original 100 shares has grown to 48,000 shares through stock splits and stock dividends. And this does not include the reinvestment of cash dividends.

Action

Shares

Shares After

Split

Closing Price

Before Split

Oct

1961

Bought 100 Shares

April

1966

100% stock dividend

2 for 1)

Nov

1969

Stock Split

2 for 1)

Nov

1971

50% Dividend

3 for 2)

July

1972

33 1/3% Dividend

4 for 3)

June

1976

50% Dividend

3 for 2)

Nov

1981

Stock Spilt

3 for 2)

April

1983

Stock Split

5 for 3)

June

1992

100% Dividend

2 for 1)

April

1994

Stock Split

2 for 1)

June

1998

Stock Split

2 for 1)

June

2001

Stock Split

2 for 1)

Lowe's has been a publicly owned company since October 10, 1961. Its stock has been listed…

(2 for 1)

Lowe's has been a publicly owned company since October 10, 1961. Its stock has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since December 19, 1979. Shares are traded under the ticker symbol LOW.  http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=frameSet&url=www.shareholder.com/lowes/index2.cfm 

Clearly Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse is a strong investment yes, though care should be made, as with every market investment to demonstrate staying power in the progress of the stock and invest in the market as a long-term investor.

Financial Crimes

Knights Templar

The Order of the Knights Templar (Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon) was founded in 1118 to protect Christians on pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Blacktorne, 2011). The Order was sanctioned by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and he quartered the nine original knights in the old stables at the Temple of Solomon. All members had to give over all of their wealth and goods to the Order and take vows of poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience just like other monks (Langue, 2011). A majority of the members joined for life, although a select few were also allowed to join for specific duration.

The Templars' were considered the first international banking organizations. Although this wasn't there specific title they charge a fee (interest) for issuing letters of deposits (checks). Some also view them as a multinational corporation; however the banking reference seems to hold more…

6- BCCI "Bank of Credit and Commerce International

The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The Bank was registered in Luxembourg. It operated in 78 countries, had over 400 branches, and had assets in excess of twenty billion making it the seventh largest private bank in the world by assets (Kanas, 2005). In the late 1980's BCCI became the target of a two-year undercover operation conducted by the U.S. Customs Service. This operation concluded with a fake wedding that was attended by BCCI officers and drug dealers from around the world who had established a personal friendship and working relationship with undercover Special Agent Robert Mazur (Lohr, 1991).

After a six-month trial in Tampa, some of the key bank officers were convicted and received lengthy prison sentences. BCCI came under the scrutiny of regulatory bodies and intelligence agencies in the 1980s due to its perceived avoidance of falling under one regulatory banking authority. It was actually set up to be not under any regulatory bodies' control at all. Thus the international bank could help people who wanted to hide money from taxation or even launder money. The true extents of the ties with other banking institutions were never fully uncovered. The prosecutors claimed that they busted the largest money laundering system ever yet many reports at the time feel like they barely scratched the surface (Baquet, 1991).

Company

5) Feedback

The feedback received by climbers upon reviewing the plan and completing the training

Customization of the plan based on team features, such as size, physical fitness of the climbers and so on

6) Control

Initial control of the fitness, motivation and skills of each climber

Continuous controls of the state of each climber

7) Activities

Training of the team members

Physical checkups of all climbers

Packing supports

aising environmental responsibility awareness and support

Mental preparation: understanding the risks, such as the potential for hallucinations or frostbite

Insuring the climbers against any potential risks associated with climbing (de Garis and O'Connell, 2003 de Garis and O'Connell, 2003).

8) Inputs

Personal commitments and desires of both climbers as well as T. Company staff

Long existent expertise of the staff at the T. Company

Financial investments. A trip to the Everest would generically commence at a minimum investment of $25,000…

References:

Boukreev, a., DeWalt, G.W., the climb: tragic ambitions on Everest, St. Martin's Griffin, 1999, ISBN 0312206372

de Garis, K., O'Connell, D.., How to climb Everest, the Guardian, Edition of March 30, 2003

Everest, Alpine Ascents, 2011,  http://www.alpineascents.com/everest.asp  last accessed on February 23, 2011

How to climb Mount Everest, eHow, 2011, http://www.ehow.com/how_17485_climb-mount-everest.html last accessed on February 23, 2011

In most occasions however, the consent of the Congress is rather difficult to acquire and this often leads to frictions in the relations between the two parties. So tense are these relationships that the President perceives his meeting with the Congress as the most demanding and largest milestone in his path. "The President often sees Congress as an obstacle to be overcome, and always has to calculate how his proposals will play out with Congress. He cannot dictate to Congress what he wants, and faces a huge task in communicating with Congress because of its size and diversity" (Hamilton, 2004).

The frictions which occur between Congress and President have had a historical positive side in the meaning that they forced Presidents to forward flawless action plans, based on real facts, resource estimations and expected outcomes. Today however, the general perception is that these tensions are a means of stalling and…

References:

Hamilton, L., 2004, Congress and the President, Center on Congress, http://www.centeroncongress.org/radio_commentaries/congress_president.php last accessed on August 12, 2009

2009, United States Government, MSN Encarta, http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741500781_3/united_states_government.html last accessed on August 10, 2009

The Constitution of the United States of America, Cornell University Law School,  http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html  last accessed on August 10, 2009

Systems and Diffusion of Innovation Theory

Attached File

Systems theory vs. diffusion of innovation theory

Systems theory is based upon the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Its founder Ludwig von Bertalanffy proposed that, based upon his experience with the biology of organisms, all systems are constantly changing because they are able to interact with their environments. Systems are open and thus can acquire "qualitatively new properties through emergence" (Clark 2011). Living beings of all kinds are capable of taking in and incorporating new elements while expelling the old. This is vitally important for healthcare organizations today to understand, given the need to respect the changing nature of patients and the fact that patient's health can be significantly improved or worsened, depending on the type of care the patients receive and do not receive. Healthcare organizations must be true 'learning organizations' as new patients…

References

Clark, Don. (2011). Ludwig von Bertalanfy: General System Theory 1950. Big Dog and Little

Dog. Retrieved at:  http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/history_isd/bertalanffy.html 

This article provides a brief introduction to the general concepts of systems theory, beginning with von Bertalanfy's career as a biologist studying organisms. It is a succinct explanation of the theory in lay person's terms, expressing it in phrases such as 'the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts.'

Diffusion of innovation theory. (2010). Utewente. Retrieved at:

Systems Management Problem:

Cincom Company operates in a flexible business environment that allows participating business enterprises and customers to be flexible. This flexibility translates into the ability of these businesses to choose the best software option from available options like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), cloud option, and one or on-premise enterprise software. Generally, the availability of this software options and the flexibility of the business environment implies that Cincom Company can choose the type of software to implement based on its specific needs. However, the company is faced with numerous challenges including difficulty in implementing change, customer lock-in strategy, and lack of flexibility due to its particular organizational structure and culture. Actually, the major challenge for Cincom is the difficulty to adapt to and implement change that will reflect the new business environment it is operating in. This challenge is characterized with the CEO's approval of all products, pricing, sales, and services…

References:

Andreson, D. & Anderson, L.A. (2010). Beyond change management: how to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Burman, R. & Evans, A.J. (2008). Target Zero: A Culture of safety. Defence Aviation Safety

Centre Journal, 22 -- 27.

Cameron, Kim S. & Quinn, Robert E. (1999). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: