Cash budjet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cash budjet - Essay Example The minimum line of credit is the amount of money that can be allocated and be made available whenever a client company needs it (Fabozzi & Peterson, 2003). BCM has shown that it needs $241,500 in the month of June. This should be the minimum line of credit from the spreadsheet. CBM’s cash position is quite strained especially in the first four months. CBM is forced to seek additional financing from outside. This is due to low cash receipts from debtors who have formed the main source of cash in the budget. The concern for the company is how to obtain extra external financing and what interest will be needed (Pineda, 2006). The cash budget also does not have a provision for repaying the short loan and interest. As a bank manager, I will not accept CBM as my client for some reasons. The first one is that CBM is a new venture which has not sold even one item and therefore the market is new. CBM needs a total of $415,250 just within the first four months. According to Bierck (2009) such an undertaking is risky since CBM does not have any historical figures which can give a clue of how much sales they can be able to generate The other point is that there is no reference for the sales forecast. I will only accept CBM once they have traded and have historical figures to rely in respect of the

Cas22 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cas22 - Case Study Example Subsequently, she files a suit against the company for deception. The following part of this paper will critically analyze Johansen’s scope of proceeding with the claim either at arbitration or at Federal court. It is stated that the contract contains an arbitration mediations clause which demands Johansen ‘to complete the process if there is a contract dispute and the results will be caused to waive her future rights in federal and state court to contest any employment violations’. Although the company can justify its employment termination on the strength of this clause, obviously the firm has violated the legal norms of the employment regulations. The case clearly indicates that the employer has breached the terms of the contract as well. She can argue that employer’s demand of being the key member of a client escort service was out of the terms of the written contract. The contractual laws clearly tell that a contract can be legally broken if any one of the parties has committed a breach of contract. In such situation, the contract loses its legal validity. Although Johansen has signed the contract containing the dispute provisions, her basic interests as a citizen has to be preserved first. She can claim compensation for her termination from the job.

Assess the claim that progress has stalled in terms of raising the Essay

Assess the claim that progress has stalled in terms of raising the proportion of women in senior executive and boardroom positio - Essay Example As argued by Howard and Wellins (2008) â€Å"in all major global regions, women are more likely than men to fall off the management ladder before reaching the top† (p. 6). They explained this through the theory of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors which involves an array of economic, organisational, and social aspects. Push factors refer to passive or unfulfilling jobs. On the other hand, the pull factors are life situations that force women to leave their jobs like health problems, family commitments, or caring obligations (Howard & Wellins, 2008). A recent study by Schneer and Reitman looked at the effects of career preference and outcomes for women in comparison to men in managerial positions (Bilimoria, 2007, p. 21). They discovered that the effect of gender differences on the work setting for women in comparison to men with MBA degrees was more pronounced in later than earlier career phases. Numerous researchers have observed that organisations are †˜gendered’, and hence view of career plans is expected to have more unfavourable effects for females than males (Fagan et al., 2012). Thus, what is most important is possibly not the quantity of work but the quality and nature of that work, particularly for career women. Another major phenomenon that has been given much emphasis recently is the issue of whether part-time job characterises unfavourable reduced work or favourable flexible work patterns for employees, particularly women. Several researchers report that women prefer or are more contented with part-time job than men, because this work arrangement offers flexibility (Burke & Mattis, 2005). Nevertheless, stages of part-time work have detrimental effects on pay, and females are more likely than males to engage in part-time jobs. This implies that earlier assumptions that career women with children can gain from part-time work arrangement without considerable negative impact on present and future career opportunities or outcomes could be flawed, especially in early stages of career (Durbin & Tomlinson, 2010). It is possible that these kinds of interruptions are not merely cutbacks in work time, but also signify a reduction or impediment in status that is disadvantageous for the women’s future career outcomes. Some claim that the higher probability of a women engaging in part-time work compared to men occupying part-time jobs signifies the likelihood of preserving or reinforcing the inferior standing of women in society (Liff & Ward, 2001). Findings on job satisfaction show that women who are voluntarily engaged in part-time jobs usually agree to weaker job security and lower pay in return for less stress and more favourable working arrangements. Mothers are usually more likely than childless women to work part-time because it facilitates reconciliation of domestic and career obligations (Durbin & Tomlinson, 2010). Mothers in the UK, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, and Austria are s pecifically likely to engage in part-time job (Rubery, 1998, 200). According to Wirth (2004), the inadequacy of quality, inexpensive childcare compels many women with children to accept part-time work arrangements. Women, across all sectors, are currently engaged in managerial work but are less likely to occupy higher level leadership positions, suggesting that obstacles to women’s career progression are still existing. The number of women occupying senior management and board positions across the globe are few compared

Walt Diseny Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Walt Diseny - Research Paper Example Competitive advantage Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Minnie Mouse are the main sources of competitive advantage. As the company owns exclusive rights to these characters, the company earns more revenue by utilizing these characters in different animated films and cartoons and products based on these characters that are sold through theme park shops (Hoskisson et al. 173). Although these are the results and innovations provided by Walt Disney, there are other manifestations of competitive advantages owned by the company. For example, â€Å"Patents shield the use of these characters protects the firm from imitation by competitors â€Å" (Hoskisson 173). Additionally, the company is actively pursing innovation and creativity to longer its effective competitive position in the global market. For this purpose, it has developed a creativity strategy. â€Å"A creativity strategy has been developed and pilot projects have been identified and the creativity grants will support non-profits that nu rture creative thinking skills in the afterschool/out of school time through multi-disciplinary learning (The Walt Disney Company). Business-level strategy On July 17, 1955, a unique destination was created by Walt Disney with the concept of parks and resorts. Due to the successful business strategy, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts (WDP&R) has become a preferred family travel and leisure destination. There are 11 theme parks and 43 resorts in Asia, Europe and North America. Additionally, the Walt Disney Studios has experienced a considerable expansion after its creation more than 85 years ago. The Walt Disney Studios provides music, movies and stage plays. Both animated and non-animated movies are released under the various titles: Disneynature, Pixar Animation Studios, Touchstone Pictures and Marvel Studios; the Disney Music Group includes Disney Music Publishing, the Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records; the Disney Theatrical Group licenses and produces live programs including Disney On Ice, Disney on Broadway and Disney Live (The Walt Disney Company). All these business differentiations have experienced a considerable but careful business-level strategy. Additionally, â€Å"The Company employs 5 different business models to maximize revenue, delivering what customers want and advertisers need† (Murray). Section 2: Financial Analysis Walt Disney and Time Warner Ratios    2011 2010 2009 Gross Profit Margin 19.00% 43.70%(TW) 17.67% 44.13%(TW) 15.75% 44.01%(TW) Net Profit Margin 11.75% 9.96%(TW) 10.41% 9.59%(TW) 9.14% 9.57% (TW) Return on Assets 6.66% 4.26% (TW) 5.72% 3.88%(TW) 5.23% 3.75% (TW) Return on Equity 12.86% 9.63%(TW) 10.56% 7.83%(TW) 9.80% 7.39%(TW) TW= Time Warner Source: Walt Disney and Time Warner Annual Reports 2009-2011 Gross Profit Margin Walt Disney experiences a steady rise in the gross profit. The gross profit highlights the remaining amount after paying the direct cost of sales. From the year of 2009 to 2011, the company has inc reased its gross profit ratio from 15.75% to 19.00%; the aggregate rise of 3.25% has been posted by the company during the period. On the other hand, Time Warner has showed a significant increase in the gross profit margin throughout the entire period. Except the slight margin of fall in the year of 2011, Time Warner has been maintaining comparatively better gross profit margin during the year. This shows that the company has been successful in increasing its sales volume and decreasing the cost of sales during

Retail Strategic Planning Essay Example for Free

Retail Strategic Planning Essay Organized retailing in home and building sector was expected to face stiff challenge from the existing small, independent, and powerful local retailers. Many international retailers like Home Depot, IKEA and Lowe were also eyeing the Indian market which was untapped by organized retailers. They provided all the product categories and services that were required to build a new home or for home improvement or renovation under one roof. Muebles belonging to Casa Moblaje group was a pioneer in this segment. Homepro was the first building mall, which offered a wide range of building materials, home improvements products, and furnishings. They provided information about land availability and selection, and housed offices of architects, designers and financiers. The Home Store and Zeba were in home furnishing segment; Gautier dealt in furniture; and Johnson Tiles was in the sanitary ware sector. Identify Strategic Alternatives Ansoff’s Matrix Muebles had captured a large market of the home building and construction business in Ahmedabad as well as the home improvement business of the surrounding cities and towns. The ideal strategy for Muebles would be to develop the market. The areas surrounding Ahmedabad like Baroda, Surat etc is highly industrialized and lot of construction takes place in these areas. Muebles can target these cities and can increase the size of the market to get larger sales. Retail Mix Variables Product The store stocked products under five major categories Kitchen accessories: Appliances, Crockery, Glassware, Ovens etc Furniture and furnishing: Sofa set, bed, linen etc Bathroom: Tiles, Sanitary ware, Fittings, Taps, and accessories Hardware visible: Door, Window, Safety equipment, Gardening Tools, Washing Machines Electrical equipments: Lights, Luminaries, Chandeliers, Switches, Fans, Generators etc They mainly stored branded products. The store policy was to use the number one brand or the aggressive second. If this was not possible the company entered in to contracts to with smaller players who provided with in store brands. The store stocked approximately 12000 SKUs and had 120 suppliers. As the store move upward in the retail wheel, it took the invisible and les involved products out of the shelf. The visible and high involvement products replaced the invisible. They also increased the share of storing impulse goods in the relevant home decoration and furnishing category. Price The pricing policy of the store varied across the product categories. Pricing was competitive and benchmarked against the traditional hardware and home building material stores in product categories which were usually available in traditional hardware stores . In the destination product categories, the store charged premium price. Store Layout The store was laid out in a grid format. It was functional in nature and was based on a do-it-yourself model. Thirty percent of the shop space was given to 12 partners (vendors) who complete freedom of operation. The store atmosphere was attractive. The format of the store aided the customer to find the right the product. Some products like kitchen fittings were merchandised in simulated conditions to give the customer a feel of the complete range of the store’s offering. Promotion In order to increase the levels of awareness, they were communicating by using a mix of me. dia for brand and tactical advertising. They used the Gujarati and English media to reach out to their target segments. They developed two communication packages, one for the lay consumers with low comprehension of Muebles’s value proposition, and another for the professionals (home builders) who had a relatively higher awareness of the concept. In order to increase the sales of the invisible products, Muebles decided to educate the home builder. The home builder package consisted of developing a critical mass of professionals by rewarding their purchase and then working towards giving them accreditation through a professional course so that they would buy all the materials from Muebles. The apartment package consisted of using direct mails and tie-ups with companies like Electrolux, Pergo, and ICI to give special deals to five different apartment owners. Muebles targeted the HR departments in various companies and offered special deals. The problem in this deal was the acquisition of database of apartment owners. Customer Service Muebles policy was to satisfy the customer. Managers were supposed to visit the shop floor 3 hours a day to understand shopper’s behavior and needs better. Each category had 4 personnel. The total floor level employees were around 20. The floor employees tracked the customer right from the entry to the store and observed them carefully from a distance. The motive was to help the customer in the selection without interfering. The staff was instructed to respect the privacy of the customers. Muebles provided a unique shopping experience to the customer. Consumers were provided a wide range and assured quality, competitive prices, and world class service. They provided value added services to the consumers like * Comprehensive design assistance by a panel of professionals and design consultants * Apartment Packages * Installation service and support * Info mediation through website * Home loan consultancy and loans * Certification programmes for electricians, masons, plumbers and carpenters * Educational programme on do-it-yourself techniques and procedures * Customer loyalty programmes

Development of School Software

Development of School Software 1.0 INTRODUCTION This Test Plan has been written to communicate the school easy software development and testing procedures with the client. It includes the objectives, scope, testing methods, schedule, risks, and approach. This document will clearly identify what the test deliverables will be and what is deemed in and out of scope. 2.0 OBJECTIVES AND TASKS The School Easy is a school grade and day to day management tool used to let the school and teachers communicate with their students. This software is a new product written with Java to be platform independent. The Greater Software is responsible for testing the product and ensuring it meets the clients needs. 2.2 Tasks The initial phase of this project will deliver School Easy software with functionality to the client so they can create and store the results from the alpha tests. These result will allow Greater Software to improve the updated versions of the software. The School Easy must have a full functionality by the delivery date. 3.0 SCOPE The followings are the must have requirements from clients. These and any supplementary request from the client must be all included in the final product. Create initial criteria with detailed sub-steps. Create the transfer schedule. Report and receive feedbacks from the client. Establish transition team. Conduct the tests. Create the final product. Conduct the final test. Deliver the product to the client. First of all, the liaison teacher or account will be appointed to ease the communication between the client and company. She or he will be the main line of communication with the client. The Greater Software will work with School Easy until the client will accept and sign off the final product. Rewriting, moving or porting existing test cases from the existing testing documents is not considered part of this project. Since the client is consisting of three major group of users -teachers, exam departments, and accounts and will probably include students in the future, the Beta testing period will be expected to take much longer than Alpha testing. The Greater Software is committed to delivering the best software to satisfy our clients requirements. In order to experience our pledges, the clients are asked to join our development process from the initial phases of the software development. The following approaches will describe our commitment detail: Permit our developers to own and prove the quality of our software. Engage our clients by making their feedback process easier and readily accessible to gather early possible feedback data. Conduct testing while enable the larger testing team to track faster, more flexible, and more engaging mixed development environment. These effective testing strategies will include automated, manual, and exploratory tests to reduce risk and tighten release cycles. The following tests will be conducted during the development: Unit tests: It validates the smallest components of the system, ensuring they handle known input and outputs correctly. It will individually test classes in the application to verify they work under expected, boundary, and negative cases. Integration tests: It exercises an entire subsystem and ensure that a set of components play nicely together. Functional tests: It verifies end-to-end scenarios that the client will engage in. Definition: These tests are basically written and executed by Greater Software to make sure that code meets its design and requirements and behaves as expected. The goal is to segregate each part of the program and test that the individual parts are working correctly. This means that for any function or procedure when a set of inputs are given then it should return the proper values. It should handle the failures gracefully during the course of execution when any invalid input is given. It also must provide a written contract that the piece of code must assure. It is basically done before integration after Code and Debug development. Participants: Examiners, Programmers, Teachers Methodology: The test will be conducted in the classroom setting while the feedbacks are sent to programmers with error messages. Definition: System Integration Testing(SIT) is a black box testing technique that evaluates the systems compliance with specified requirements. It is usually performed on a subset of the system while system testing is performed on a complete system and is preceded by the user acceptance test (UAT). It can be performed with minimum usage of testing tools, verified for the interactions exchanged and the behavior of each data field within the individual layer is investigated. After the integration, there are three main states of data flow: Data state within the integration layer Data state within the database layer Data state within the Application layer Participants: Examiners, Programmers, Teachers Methodology: Programmers will write codes according to the specification established by the clients requirements. There are four different system integration test techniques: Top-down Integration Testing Bottom-up Integration Testing Sandwich Integration Testing Big-bang Integration Testing Definition: Performance testing, a non-functional testing technique performed to determine the system parameters in terms of responsiveness and stability under the various workload. Performance testing measures the quality attributes of the system, such as scalability, reliability and resource usage. Participants: Examiners, Programmers, Teachers Methodology: Programmers will write codes according to the specification established by the clients requirements. There are four different Performance Testing Techniques: Load testing It is the simplest form of testing conducted to understand the behavior of the system under a specific load. Load testing will result in measuring important business critical transactions and load on the database, application server, etc., are also monitored. Stress testing It is performed to find the upper limit capacity of the system and also to determine how the system performs if the current load goes well above the expected maximum. Soak testing Soak Testing also known as endurance testing, is performed to determine the system parameters under continuously expected load. During soak tests, the parameters such as memory utilization are monitored to detect memory leaks or other performance issues. The main aim is to discover the systems performance under sustained use. Spike testing Spike testing is performed by increasing the number of users suddenly by a very large amount and measuring the performance of the system. The main aim is to determine whether the system will be able to sustain the workload. Definition: User acceptance testing, a testing methodology where the clients involved in testing the product to validate the product against their requirements. It is performed at client location at developers site. UAT is context dependent and the UAT plans are prepared based on the requirements and not mandatory to execute all kinds of user acceptance tests and even coordinated and contributed by the testing team. Participants: Accountants, Programmers, Students, Teachers Methodology: The acceptance test cases are executed against the test data or using an acceptance test script and then the results are compared with the expected ones. 4.5 Batch Testing Batch Testing of the software will be done as needed base. Definition: Regression testing is the selective retesting of a system or component to verify that modifications have not caused unintended effects and that the system or component still works as specified in the requirements. It makes use of specialized tools to control the execution of tests and compares the actual results against the expected result. Usually, regression tests, which are repetitive actions, are automated. Testing Tools not only help to perform regression tests but also helps us to automate data set up generation, product installation, GUI interaction, defect logging, etc. For automating any application, the following parameters should be considered. Data-driven capabilities Debugging and logging capabilities Platform independence Extensibility Customizability E-mail Notifications Version control friendly Support unattended test runs Participants: Accountants, Examiners, Teachers Methodology: Typically, there are 4 test automation frameworks that are adopted while automating the applications. Data Driven Automation Framework Keyword Driven Automation Framework Modular Automation Framework Hybrid Automation Framework 4.7 Beta Testing Definition: Beta testing is also known as user testing takes place at the end users site by the end users to validate the usability, functionality, compatibility, and reliability testing. Beta testing adds value to the software development life cycle as it allows the real customer an opportunity to provide inputs into the design, functionality, and usability of a product. These inputs are not only critical to the success of the product but also an investment into future products when the gathered data is managed effectively. Participants: Accountants, Examiners, Programmers, Students, Teachers Methodology: There are a number of factors that depends on the success of beta testing: Test Cost Number of Test Participants Shipping Duration of Test Demographic coverage Task Name Start Finish Effort Comments Test Planning Review Requirements documents Create initial test estimates Staff and train new test resources First deploy to QA test environment Functional testing Iteration 1 Iteration 2 deploy to QA test environment Functional testing Iteration 2 System testing Regression testing UAT Resolution of final defects and final build testing Deploy to Staging environment Performance testing Release to Production

Individual Property Rights vs Eminent Domain Essay -- Government Publi

Individual Property Rights vs Eminent Domain These days there have been many issues surrounding the topic of private property and eminent domain. I feel that eminent domain is a good way to keep the needs of the community and each person’s individual property rights balanced. Even though I believe individual property rights are more important that the needs of the community, I also believe the government sometimes has to take that property away for the better good of the community. At the same time I also understand how people feel when they talk about â€Å"NIMBY† (not in my back yard), and also about their personal needs. Let me take you back into the history of the American land. After the 18th century, Americans turned their backs on the old ideas of the Puritans. The Puritans believed in the population acting within the religious ways of the times. These new settlers had a very different idea in mind. They were going to claim this land anyway they could. This brings us to Cronon’s argument in Bounding The Land. It is referring to the different beliefs on land ownership between the English colonists and the Native Americans. The English believed that the Indians squandered the lands natural resources and that they have no natural right to the land. Indians did not own the land, but only used, and lived off the land’s resources. They only owned what they made and grew, and that was enough for them. But it certainly wasn’t enough for the English. They wanted to control the land using the technique of â€Å"ownership or private property†. That was the problem with Indian pro perty rights. They didn’t consist of any ownership or sovereignty. They had largely different perspectives on the ownership by the community and the individual ownership. Because of these large differences the English decided to take full control of the land. When they came to colonize they basically took the land from the Indians. The only land that was rightfully the Indian’s was the land that was given to them by the English. What the English were doing bring us to the concept of eminent domain. Eminent domain is the moral groundwork by which government acquires private property through compulsory purchase. The idea holds that to advance the greater welfare of the public, government must be able to use land and other private goods to which it would not otherwise have access. It is de... ...y can be condemned, often by a wide variety of articles, as long as those articles are first given that authority by the legislative body. Second, private property may be taken for public purpose, a concept that has multiple meanings, so long as just compensation is provided to the private property owner. Third, private property owners are offered statutory protection from the random condemnation of property under principles of necessity and greatest public good with the least private injury. Finally, these cases provide a glimpse into the judiciary's interpretation of laws designed to protect the public. The courts have defined concepts governing public use, due process, necessity, and just compensation. They have also demonstrated their respect for legislative authority by recognizing and upholding the understanding that eminent domain is under control of the legislative body. Central to the evolution of the eminent domain statutes was the knowledge that condemning private prop erty for public uses still required compensation, still required a legitimate purpose, and still required adequate protections for private property rights. Foot Note 1. Encarta Encyclopedia Dictionary