Accounting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Accounting - Assignment Example It is his intention to obtain funds from bank to procure the fixed assets required for production of the product. The start-up costs for Personal Fitness Equipment Inc. are estimated at $1,50,000. All start-up assumptions are based on an actual infusion of $50,000 in the form of capital to be introduced by Dr.John. The balance amount of $ 1,00,000 is proposed to be brought in through Bank Finance at the interest rate of 3%. Certain portion of the funds will be utilized to procure raw materials to fund production of initial inventory. A company office would be located at the Atlanta market area. Available office space has been located in Atlanta. This office space is small and may be secured at nominal cost. As needs dictate office and/or distribution facilities will be expanded. Initially, the small office will serve to manage marketing functions and sales/order processing. Personal Fitness Equipment Inc, is in the business of manufacturing Fitness equipments for personal use. The promoter has come up with a unique design of Personal Fitness Equipment (PFE). This equipment is easy to use and is being priced at a cheaper rate. The main feature of this equipment is the safety standards and the wide range of exercises that can be performed with this equipment. The equipment is proposed to be made with metal of ideal weight. This product designed by Dr. John can be produced at low cost, is lightweight, independent tests have been performed at university and Local Gyms. The users have given positive feedback that the regularity of their physical exercise has increased after purchasing this product. The Appendix section has all the relevant Financial Projections. The sales forecast for the first year of operation is estimated at USD 500000. The company is expected to earn Gross profit at the rate of 54% of the turnover. The net profit of the company is estimated at USD 113770, which workout to about 23% of the turnover.

Explain each Stakeholder Essay Example for Free

Explain each Stakeholder Essay

“Naked Villainy”: Richard as a Satanic Hero Essays -- Literary Analy

In many religions and cultures, a demonic entity embodies the spirit of evil, ruler of hell, enemy of God, and tempter of humankind. This arch rebel figure often emerges in literature, and one of the most well-known is Satan, a defiant epitome of evil from John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. There must be good in the presence of evil, thus there must be a hero with whom the villain clashes with, a bold character whom the audience roots for. In Shakespeare’s tragic play Richard III, Richard plays the role of both the hero and the villain by using his heroic traits to underscore his satanic persona. He is a satanic hero because he uses his political eloquence to rebel, his isolation causes him to oppose all moral constraints, and he wears a mask of charisma to hide his selfish lust for power. In other words, Richard, like Satan, is elevated by heroic traits like alluring eloquence but is so deeply self-absorbed and bent on revenge that he precipitates his own dest ined downfall. Richard is skilfully eloquent; however he chooses to convey this heroic trait satanically by using it to emphasize his rebellious nature against love, politics, and religion. Love is built upon reciprocated affection between two individuals, but Richard rebels by using it as a political tool, to the extent that he suggests incest at various points throughout the play. During the wooing scene, he wins the heart of Lady Anne by saying, â€Å"Your beauty was the cause of that effect: / Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (1 .2, 126-127), accusing Anne’s beauty as inducement for murder. This quote implies that he plays upon the emotions of others, winning women over and bringing out their vulnerability by â€Å"his insinuating discourse† (Wilhelm, 20)... ...conscience finally surfaces. Richard’s seclusion is a result of his ambition and isolation, and he is so absorbed in his schemes of personal gain that he does not realize how he is lending himself to catastrophe. Richard, like Satan, is heroically amiable and well-spoken, but his greediness and insubordinate lust for power lend him to his predestined downfall. When Richard says, â€Å"I am determined to prove a villain†, he implies a tragic conception that he controls his predestined fate, and the providentialism eventually endorses this meaning. He uses his political eloquence to rebel, he is isolated and therefore his mental and physical energy is unhampered by his moral deformity, and he masks his satanic traits with charisma. Though the ending is tragic for Richard, it is a new beginning for England, and in a way, Richard purges England of its collective guilt.

Water Pollution in Our Day Today Life

Water pollution in our day to day life What is water pollution? Water pollution is any chemical, physical or biological change in the quality of water that has a harmful effect on any living thing that drinks or uses or lives (in) it. When humans drink polluted water it often has serious effects on their health. Water pollution can also make water unsuited for the desired use. What are the major water pollutants? There are several classes of water pollutants. The first are disease-causing agents. These are bacteria, viruses, protozoa and parasitic worms that enter sewage systems and untreated waste.A second category of water pollutants is oxygen-demanding wastes; wastes that can be decomposed by oxygen-requiring bacteria. When large populations of decomposing bacteria are converting these wastes it can deplete oxygen levels in the water. This causes other organisms in the water, such as fish, to die. A third class of water pollutants is water-soluble inorganic pollutants, such as aci ds, salts and toxic metals. Large quantities of these compounds will make water unfit to drink and will cause the death of aquatic life.Another class of water pollutants are nutrients; they are water-soluble nitrates and phosphates that cause excessive growth of algae and other water plants, which deplete the water's oxygen supply. This kills fish and, when found in drinking water, can kill young children. Water can also be polluted by a number of organic compounds such as oil, plastics and pesticides, which are harmful to humans and all plants and animals in the water. A very dangerous category is suspended sediment, because it causes depletion in the water's light absorption and the particles spread dangerous compounds such as pesticides through the water.Finally, water-soluble radioactive compounds can cause cancer, birth defects and genetic damage and are thus very dangerous water pollutants. More information on health effects of microrganisms Where does water pollution come fro m? Water pollution is usually caused by human activities. Different human sources add to the pollution of water. There are two sorts of sources, point and nonpoint sources. Point sources discharge pollutants at specific locations through pipelines or sewers into the surface water. Nonpoint sources are sources that cannot be traced to a single site of discharge.Examples of point sources are: factories, sewage treatment plants, underground mines, oil wells, oil tankers and agriculture. Examples of nonpoint sources are: acid deposition from the air, traffic, pollutants that are spread through rivers and pollutants that enter the water through groundwater. Nonpoint pollution is hard to control because the perpetrators cannot be traced. How do we detect water pollution? Water pollution is detected in laboratories, where small samples of water are analysed for different contaminants.Living organisms such as fish can also be used for the detection of water pollution. Changes in their behav iour or growth show us, that the water they live in is polluted. Specific properties of these organisms can give information on the sort of pollution in their environment. Laboratories also use computer models to determine what dangers there can be in certain waters. They import the data they own on the water into the computer, and the computer then determines if the water has any impurities. What is heat pollution, what causes it and what are the dangers?In most manufacturing processes a lot of heat originates that must be released into the environment, because it is waste heat. The cheapest way to do this is to withdraw nearby surface water, pass it through the plant, and return the heated water to the body of surface water. The heat that is released in the water has negative effects on all life in the receiving surface water. This is the kind of pollution that is commonly known as heat pollution or thermal pollution. The warmer water decreases the solubility of oxygen in the wate r and it also causes water organisms to breathe faster.Many water organisms will then die from oxygen shortages, or they become more susceptible to diseases. For more information about this, you can take a look at thermal pollution. What is eutrophication, what causes it and what are the dangers? Eutrophication means natural nutrient enrichment of streams and lakes. The enrichment is often increased by human activities, such as agriculture (manure addition). Over time, lakes then become eutrophic due to an increase in nutrients. Eutrophication is mainly caused by an increase in nitrate and phosphate levels and has a negative influence on water life.This is because, due to the enrichment, water plants such as algae will grow extensively. As a result the water will absorb less light and certain aerobic bacteria will become more active. These bacteria deplete oxygen levels even further, so that only anaerobic bacteria can be active. This makes life in the water impossible for fish and other organisms. What is acid rain and how does it develop? Typical rainwater has a pH of about 5 to 6. This means that it is naturally a neutral, slightly acidic liquid.During precipitation rainwater dissolves gasses such as carbon dioxide and oxygen. The industry now emits great amounts of acidifying gasses, such as sulphuric oxides and carbon monoxide. These gasses also dissolve in rainwater. This causes a change in pH of the precipitation – the pH of rain will fall to a value of or below 4. When a substance has a pH of below 6. 5, it is acid. The lower the pH, the more acid the substance is. That is why rain with a lower pH, due to dissolved industrial emissions, is called acid rain. Why does water sometimes smell like rotten eggs?When water is enriched with nutrients, eventually anaerobic bacteria, which do not need oxygen to practice their functions, will become highly active. These bacteria produce certain gasses during their activities. One of these gases is hydrogen sulphide. This compounds smells like rotten eggs. When water smells like rotten eggs we can conclude that there is hydrogen present, due to a shortage of oxygen in the specific water. What causes white deposit on showers and bathroom walls? Water contains many compounds. A few of these compounds are calcium and carbonate.Carbonate works as a buffer in water and is thus a very important component. When calcium reacts with carbonate a solid substance is formed, that is called lime. This lime is what causes the white deposit on showers and bathroom walls and is commonly known as lime deposit. It can be removed by using a specially suited cleaning agent. More specific information on water pollutants or freshwater pollution is now available or take a look at types of pollution for freshwater For water terminology check out our Water Glossary or go back to water FAQ overview Feel free to contact us if you have any other questionsAbout Lenntech Turnkey plants Pilot plants Containerized pla nts Services Career at Lenntech International Internships Periodic table Calculators Visitors information Our partners Contact us Lenntech BV Rotterdamseweg 402 M 2629 HH Delft The Netherlands tel: +31 15 261 09 00 fax: +31 15 261 62 89 e-mail: [email  protected] com Request a quote ? Home Applications Processes Systems Products Library Languages Copyright  © 1998-2011 Lenntech B. V | Email: [email  protected] com | Tel. +31 15 261 09 00 | Fax. +31-15-2616289 Read more: http://www. lenntech. com/water-pollution-faq. htm#ixzz2Ccrcb1wl

The personal computer industry

These latter two, comprised the most valuable component of a PC, as they were protected by repository rights of their manufacturers, whereas the various components produced by PC manufacturers were vulnerable to copying. This situation created a high competition environment of â€Å"IBM clones†, and drastically reduced the profit margins that PC manufacturers were able to achieve and maintain. The common distribution and sales strategies among PC manufacturers did little to alleviate the problem of increasingly slim margins.At the time, PC's were sold through distributors, wholesalers and resellers, who preformed additional functions (such as advising lay customers and servicing them), yet ultimately lengthened the Value Chain and thus Harlan the manufacturers' marginal profit. Vigorous price wars between competing manufacturers further diminished profit margins. Hardware components could be purchased from a multitude of worldwide suppliers in an increasingly competitive globa l market, whereas microprocessors were supplied by a handful of companies, dominated by Intel.To make matters worse, as a given generation of processor aged, the price of the computer containing it declined rapidly. This meant that PC margins were typically highest during the early days of a microprocessor generation. In addition, widespread policies such as inventory buybacks of outdated products and rice protection offered to retailers against devaluation, consumed 2. 5 cents on every dollar of revenue. Managing these policies, together with the costs of advertising to resellers and funding for market development, generated costs of 2. 5 cents more on every dollar of revenue.Question 2 Why has Dell been so successful despite the low average profitability In the PC industry? Dell's Direct Model of marketing to end customers, which was established early in the company's history, was to become the driving force behind its wild success. This Is easily demonstrated by the company's bri ef departure from Its Direct Model, In favor of the standard retail store based marketing. Resulting In a loss on products sold through retailers, this strategy was quickly abandoned and the company returned to its tried and proven direct approach.Dell had recognized that the PC industry (as described above) was inflicted with rampant inefficiency in the distribution and marketing chain. The ensuing effect was a price point for a PC unit far in excess of the value of its parts. By the time a PC reached the end client, so much time had passed and so many extra costs had been added, that a $3000 PC old. By assembling the hardware components himself and marketing the finished product directly to the end customer, Dell would eliminate the middlemen, creating added value for both himself and the customer by splitting the middleman's profit between them.The fundamental logic of Dell's position is as follows: for a certain set of customer described below, Dell manages to achieve very low c osts without sacrificing a great deal of buyer willingness-to-pay. On the end-customer dimension, Dell has focused on knowledgeable customers who want product stability, high-end performance and low total lifetime costs. On the product dimension, Dell avoids the low end of the price spectrum (sub-$1 ,OHO) and focuses on stable product lines. On the geographic dimension, Dell is more focused on the US than all of its rivals except Gateway.Question 3 Prior to the recent efforts by competitors to match Dell (1997-1998), how big was Dell's competitive advantage? Specifically, calculate Dell's advantage over the team of Compact and a reseller in serving a corporate customer. How big was Dell's competitive advantage? In a word – Big. In addition to the Direct Model, Dell pursued competitive advantages in other areas as well. Of these, several are particularly notable: ; Customer Segmentation – As the company grew it began to employ increasingly complex customer segmentations in order to maximize its marketing and customer service efficiency.Thus, a humble twofold segmentation model (large clients and small clients), evolved within a few years into a mammoth multi category model. ; Sales – As dell had grown, it subdivided its sales effort by region, and into countries within each region. In this way, Dell was able to take advantage of unique local advantages as well as improve its managerial efficiency. ; It is important to toe, that the above actions taken by Dell, while clearly improvements of service and efficiency, can truly be considered advantages only so far as they differentiate Dell from its competitors (this is not clear from the case study).If, however, these actions simply put Dell on par (not to mention sub-par) with the rest of the industry, its success cannot be attributed to them in any significant way. ; Online Services – Dells expanded its online services tremendously in 1996 with the launch of its improved website. The w ebsite offered the ability to obtain product information, configure a imputer system, check pricing, place an order and track orders of products. In addition the website allowed access to Dell's complete catalogue of service.For thousands of premiere corporate customers, Dell had designed dedicated secure pages within the website, containing pertinent information and personalized service. By 1998, sales originating from Dell's website reached a whopping 10 million dollars per day. ; Dell also ventured tentatively back into the reseller market – selling its older systems to a limited number of resellers at a 15-20% markdown from its listed price. However, Dell did not offer price protection or buybacks, thus avoiding the added costs related to these common practices, while disposing of its devaluing inventory.This activity, though limited at first, would eventually come to encompass 5% of Dell's total sales. ; Production, logistics and procurement – Dell's PC's we for b ased on actual orders, so that the company need not hold any finished goods inventory of standardized machines. Yet despite this â€Å"a la carte† ordering and manufacturing, Dell was able to produce a product, from order entry to shipping in about a day and a half!. Thanks to a streamlined assembly line production process, Dell was able to supply its products markedly faster than the competition while still holding far less inventory.In addition, Dell has found that this system leads to less defective products. Dell also leverages this system to cater to corporate customers, incorporating the loading of customers' proprietary software on the PC into the production process. The ability to quickly supply emergency rush orders as well as extremely high volume orders to corporate customers, is another advantage of Dell's superb production system. Last, but hardly least, the quality of Dell's products and customer service were of superior quality, ranking highly in most surveys r elative to its competitors.Compared to this, Compact was at a serious disadvantage in many ways, pertaining to both private and corporate customers. To begin with, Compact did not market its products directly to the end customer, but instead distributed to customers mostly through retail stores and resellers. This meant Compact would have had to share part of its profit margin with a reseller, as well as incur the significant costs of buybacks and price protection. Compact PC's were also significantly less customizable and its production process far less sophisticated. Consumer PC's were manufactured as standard units, distributed mainly through retailers.Attempts at direct distribution via a toll-free telephone number failed to take off, mainly since Compact kept its prices high in order to avoid angering its supply chain. Likewise, efforts to establish a functional website for direct distribution were abandoned in the face of objections by the distribution chain. As for corporate customers – Compact built its corporate PC's according to demand forecasts made by its supply chain. Although this allowed Compact to hold its inventory for only 30 days (still much more than Dell), reseller inventory holding periods, meant the product still took about 65 days to arrive at the customer.Question 4 How effective have competitors been in responding to the challenge posed by Dell's advantage? How big is Dell's remaining advantage? Initial measures by Compact aimed at challenging Dell's advantage, were a limited success. In 1997, Compact initiated an Optimized Distribution Model (EDM): a coordinated effort with its distributors and resellers. Under this model, private customer units were manufactured subsequent to ordering. More customized units as well as corporate orders, required a two-step assembly, shipping a striped-down PC to its distribution channel, which would complete the last 20% of assembly.Additionally, price protection was reduced to only two weeks. In spite of these extensive measures, delivery time remained in the 45-50 days range, although this was expected to eventually be reduced to as little as 25 days. This time frame, though improved, posed no significant challenge to Dell's superiority. In late 1998, Compact initiated its Directress program, selling customized units to small and midsized companies wrought the telephone and internet, at a lower price than those charged by retailers. Days on average.This last development represents a significant bite into Dells advantage, with the shipping time being equal or less. However, it is important to note that Dell still maintains a significant lead in several respects. First, the line of products sold in the Directress program is limited. Second, this program caters to small and midsized businesses, lending no improvement to Compass's big-business and private customer operations. Compact also lacked an operational website for private customer purchases and dedicated corporate customer service. IBM was among the first to recognize and respond to Dell's advantage.The company moved to an Authorized Assembly Program (PAP), shipping striped-down â€Å"model O† PC's to its distribution channel, which would finish the assembly process according to order. This allowed for greater customizable and a less depreciable inventory, alongside an improved inventory turnover rate. Despite this improvement, IBM continued to produce model Co's according to its own demand forecasts, thus maintaining a significant inventory. In 1994, IBM launched a website which allowed customers to purchase PC's directly from the company.Although a step towards combating Dells advantage, Vim's website was geared toward private customers only and was not available for corporate customers. In addition, the site did not offer the range of services available on Dell's website, nor did it enable the customer to customize the PC. A later addition of a service geared toward corporate custom ers, which allowed them to by directly from the company, further improved IBM position. Yet the limited line of products offered, together with the persistent lack of a dedicated customer service website for corporate customers marred this success.In 1997, shortly after Compact launched its EDM program, HP unveiled a similar program by the name of Extended Solutions Partnership Program (ESP.). HP would ship orders to resellers as usual, or to the end customer if the reseller so requested. The program was similar to ‘Mob's model O, with the members of the distribution channel completing the final stages of assembly. Despite this similarity, Haps attitude to direct distribution was quite different. They believed that circumventing the resellers would cause antagonism and lower sales. Thus, HP avoided selling directly to end customers initially.When the company eventually established a website in 1998, it was not based on direct sale but on delivery being done through resellers. The website was anticipated to allow the reduction of price protection to 2 weeks, reduce defects and shave 5-15% off the price. Later, HP introduced direct sale through its website, however this service was only available to private customers, while corporate customers were still confined to purchasing through resellers. These improvements, as stated above, are still a far cry from the services and products available on Dell's website.Dell also maintains its production and inventory advantages relative to HP. To combat declining operations in 1997, Gateway opened 144 Gateway stores across the United States, which served as showrooms for the company's products and where customers could order PC's. However these stores held no inventory. In tandem, Gateway abandoned their efforts to obtain large corporate customers and began focusing on small businesses. Finally, â€Å"Gateway Partner† was established as a subdivision dedicated to reseller business. As is easily apparent, Gate way made some measure of improvement in the direction Dell has dictated.However, Gateways seems destined to occupy an ever diminishing place in the PC market, targeting small businesses and private customers. As is evidenced above, Dell maintains advantages in the areas of production efficiency and customizable, inventory management, direct distribution and online service (especially as concerns corporate customers). It has no doubt lost some part of its once vast advantages (for example Compass's reduced delivery time), yet it undoubtedly still holds a superior position to its competition. Question 5 What should each of Dell's major rivals (MOM, Compact, HP, and Gateway) do now? Attempting to be more responsive to customer's needs. For example: Soliciting customer feedback, Creating a forum for customers to suggest and rate improvements to products, Co-creating products with customers. 2. Match or exceed Dells website. Create a viable platform to cater to both private and corporate customers and implement a personalized online customer service for high end customers (similar to Dell's). 3. Developing new markets in emerging economies, such as China India and Brazil. The saturation of the PC industry in developed economies has engendered ever intensifying competition.Customers have become far easier as well as demanding. Emerging economies represent a huge opportunity to take advantage of an as of yet untapped market, where Dell's advantages may not prove to be so significant. 4. Enter new technological markets, such as laptops, smart-phones etc. Where Dell's production and supply schemes do not present a particular advantage. 5. Differentiate products in terms of quality and/or design. For example designs by contemporary artists. The main question is why has it been so hard for rivals to match Dell.The Dell story illustrates a wide range of barriers to imitation: tradeoffs; complexity/FLT; preemption; organizational resistance to choice. Based on these diffic ulties, you should have provided the rivals with prescriptions, and proposed an appropriate course of action. The answer should have discussed the question should the company go wholly to a direct sales model? Would the company be better off split into focused pieces, or at least largely independent units? Grade: 15 out of 17 points Question 6 Apply the VIRGIN model to Dell and its competitors. Demonstrate your understanding of this model.Resource based view of business and strategic management, stipulates hat a company's success is determined by its unique collection of resources and competencies. Hence, strategic decisions involve creating and sustaining competitive advantages through the company's core competencies. Resource-based analysis according to the VIRGIN model dictates that a resource must have four key attributes in order to constitute a sustainable competitive advantage: ; Valuable: Creates value for the firm by taking advantage of opportunities, eliminating threats or allowing the firm to differentiate products / services. Rare: Few or no competitors posses the resource. Imperfectly Imitable: Competitors cannot easily copy or reproduce the resource. ; Non-Substitutable: Equivalent resources that may create similar value are not readily Dells chief advantage, from which most of its other strengths ensue, is its production and supply schemes. As instructed, in the final part of this paper, we shall attempt to implement the VIRGIN model characteristics on these schemes, comparing them to the parallel attributes of Dell's competitors, with the hope of determining whether or not they constitute a sustainable competitive advantage. Valuable: Dell's supply chain is valuable, but not as valuable as it used to be. Computer technology as gotten increasingly cheaper over the years, so that even under the assumption that Dell maintains its historical profit margins, thanks to its superior production and supply schemes, this margin is now taken from a lower priced product, thus decreasing the company's nominal profits. O Due to decreasing prices, Dell may be forced to make difficult compromises in other areas, such as service and product quality, in order to maintain its profitability.Putting cost before quality is a move that may prove detrimental to Dell's long term interests. O As computing power has gotten grater, he standard PC is sufficient for supplying the needs of most average users. As such, the value of Dell PC's superior customizable has decreased significantly. ; Rare: In the past, Dell's unique production scheme and streamlined direct distribution model allowed for a highly customizable product, unrivaled by its competition. Recent developments, however, have put a dent in this unique advantage.Vim's â€Å"Model O† approach (and its subsequent equivalents in Compact and HP) as well as other advances such as Compass's Directress, have offered customers added customizable. However, no other company offers either the extent or the ease of sustainability as offered by Dell through its website. ; Imperfectly Imitable: Dell's production and supply schemes are difficult, though not impossible, to copy. For the companies historically working with distributors it is quite difficult to achieve disintermediation due to supply chain conflicts.Manufacturers cannot afford to do without their distributors in the short term, and the distributors will not allow them to move gradually towards disintermediation in the long term. However, in light of Dell's staggering success, the competition is slowly but surely, converging to Dells approach. If Dell does not begin to innovate in order to counter competitors, it may prove to be a â€Å"one-trick-pony† unable to continually maintain its once vast competitive advantage. It is noteworthy however, that Dell has maintained this particular competitive advantage for a significant period of time.This may well alleviate most concerns regarding competitors' abilit y to effectively copy Dell's model. Non-Substitutable: Dell's production and supply schemes are not readily substitutable with regard to the desktop PC market. It has proven to be the by far most efficient model conceived, almost simplemindedly creating and maintaining Dell's dominance of the PC market. However, recent years have seen the rapid decline of desktop PC's as the dominant form of private and corporate computing product.Laptops, game consoles and smart-phones now occupy an ever growing portion of the computer market. With regard to these emerging products, the advantages of Dell's production and supply schemes, versus its competitors, are virtually nonexistent. Therefore, Dell's approach is not now as irreplaceable as it once was. ;Well implementation of the VIRGIN model on Dell's production and supply conclusion is that such capabilities would not provide Dell with a competitive advantage)