Saturday, April 11, 2020

Case Study for Globe Asiatique Essay Example

Case Study for Globe Asiatique Paper OVERVIEW OF THE CASE Globe Asiatique (GA), also known as Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corporation, is known for its market-oriented and service oriented quality homes at affordable prices. Through its marketing strategy, GA became one of the most well-known housing developers in the Philippines. According to the founder Mr Delfin Lee, it was named as Globe Asiatique â€Å"because we want to be global in thinking and standards of quality, at the same time were excited about being Asian, aside from that GA is a privately-held real estate company and it’s notable projects include the GA Twin Towers, The Enclave, and Xevera Bacolor and Xevera Mabalacat. The housing business has been basically a family affair. Son and heir Dexter is the vice president for finance and executive vice president, while daughter Divine is the vice president for international sales and marketing. GA is really a business, established by Mr Delfin Lee for the benefit of his family. Globe Asiatique (GA) was established in November 22, 1994 with its founder, developer, and CEO Delfin Lee who first entered the real estate business in 1992. GA’s first project was the Santa Barbara Villas I in San Mateo, Rizal in 1994. The subdivision project was a socialized housing project, which initially targeted the generations of employees who worked for his parents’ and grandparents’ lumberyard business in Sampaloc, Manila. Eventually, the P150, 000-worth two-room units became affordable through homebuyers’ access to a Pag-IBIG loan. We will write a custom essay sample on Case Study for Globe Asiatique specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Case Study for Globe Asiatique specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Case Study for Globe Asiatique specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In 1997-1998, GA battled with financial crisis when the Asian Financial Crisis hit the Philippines. Nonetheless in 2000, GA continued with its socialized housing projects and set-up the Santa Barbara Villas II, which targeted the police force, soldiers, and teachers as clients. It then moved on to target other buyers like OFW’s and office-workers who can afford to pay P750, 000 for a condo unit in Metro Manila. Then in 2002, GA partnered with Malaysian partners and created Filmal Realty Corporation, which developed another community with units less than P1 million. In 2003, the GA Tower Condominium I was built along EDSA. Two years after, in 2005, the second condominium was constructed. These two condominium towers are known as The GA Twin Towers. It has amenities like swimming pool, gym, spa, and several fast-food establishments. Each tower has 30 floors with 600 regular units. Each floor also has 24 loft-type units, while the two uppermost floors contain penthouse units. In the same year of 2003, the community and townships development was made with Saint Monique Valais in Rizal and with Chateau Valenzuela in Valenzuela, Valenzuela City. Saint Monique Valais houses the Le Clole du St. Monique, the most distinguished school within Binangonan, Rizal. On the other hand, Chateau Valenzuela is a five-star condominium project inspired by European culture. It has a total of 18 buildings with each building named after a famous European landmark. Through its continuous innovations and improvements of quality homes, GA was awarded the Leading Developer during the Kabalikat sa Pabahay Awards in the same year. In 2005, Casa Ibiza in Antipolo and Golden City Business Park in Bulacan was set. Casa Ibiza is a Mexican inspired island resort getaway in Barangay Dalig II, Antipolo, while Golden City Business Park is an industrial site in Wakas, Bocaue, Bulacan. Recognition was awarded to GA and earned itself the Marketing Award for GA Towers. In 2006, GA launched The Enclave in Angeles, Pampanga. The project is an American inspired housing project featuring nine modern style homes namely, Van Der Rohe, Koolhaas, Gehry, Breuer, Mayne, Holl, Aalto, Ungers and Meier wherein each house is equipped with a home security system, another innovation I think that will improve the housing develepoer industry In 2007, GA Sky Suites was launched and is due to be turned over to homebuyers in April 2012. The GA Sky Suites is a vertical housing project consisting of a 38-storey residential condominium strategically divided into a semi-circular residential building and a curvilinear corporate tower. It has four loft styles, which are the Podium Loft, the Garden Loft, the Sky Loft, and the Premiere units. In the same year of 2007 and in 2008, GA initiated its two flagship projects in Pampanga, namely Xevera Bacolor and Xevera Mabalacat respectively. Xevera Bacolor is inspired by Spain’s classical architecture. It has transportation terminals and commercial areas, a wet dry market, a church, a city town hall, a clubhouse with a pool, and a 34-classroom school built in partnership with the e-media program of ABS-CBN Foundation. Likewise, Xevera Mabalacat features a school, church, town hall, a wet and dry market, a clubhouse with an Olympic-size swimming pool, commercial areas, an amusement park, and a three-hectare eco park. With those fast changing and continuous improvements, GA was recognized as the Most Pioneering Responsive Developer during the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board’s Real Estate Development Awards in 2007. In 2009, the New Sta. Rosa Homes in Laguna and the Xevera Neo-Calapan in Oriental Mindoro were started. The New Sta. Rosa Homes is a four-hectare low-cost housing project, while Xevera Neo-Calapan is the third township project under GA’s Xevera brand. GA joined â€Å"The Bayanihan sa Calauan† project launched in May 11, 2009 in Laguna. The â€Å"Bayanihan sa Calauan† is a 107-hectare resettlement site project that supports the â€Å"Kapit Bisig Para Sa Ilog Pasig Movement† of ABS-CBN Foundation and the Department of Environment Natural Resources. Other partners in the project are Habitat for Humanity, National Housing Authority, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, and Couples of Christ Foundation for Family and Life. In 2010, The Courtyard, GA’s first commercial project and Sameera, another GA housing project were launched in Angeles City, Pampanga. Further, Globe Asiatique has partnered with ABS-CBN, sponsoring and donating house lot packages to the winners of Pinoy Big Brother, Pinoy Dream Academy, Little Big Star, and Wowowee’s â€Å"Pera o Bayong†. GA has also renovated the ABS-CBN Foundation building estimated to be worth P50 million. The new building was launched in February 1, 2010. But not until May 2010, Pag-ibig discovered multiple deficiencies in the documentation of GA’s Xevera housing loans which started last 2007. The deficiencies include over 9,951 accounts from borrowers who denied getting any loan from Pag-ibig and another 1000 borrowers who could not be located. Results of the internal investigation also showed that the anomaly granted Globe Asiatique to avail itself of a funding commitment line of P6. 5 billion, which is 10 times higher than the amount other developers are allowed to participate through the Pag-IBIG housing loans. Back in June 20, 2008, Globe Asiatique entered into an agreement with Pag-ibig in response to the need to provide housing for self-employed workers, house-helpers, and OFWs. This also piloted the special memberships program through the Xevera project. Under the agreement, GA acco rdingly, was able to take-out loans amounting to a total of P7, 007, 806, 00 to fund its housing projects Xevera Bacolor, Xevera Mabalacat, and Sameera in Angeles City. The Commission on Audit (COA) investigations revealed that nearly 300 people who borrowed from Pag-IBIG were bogus. Pag-IBIG also found out that about 1,400 are fake pag-IBIG members in Xevera, Bacolor and Mabalacat. As investigations deepened, similar controversies surfaced concerning GA’s Saint Monique Valaiz in Rizal and Chateau Condominium in Valenzuela. On Sept. 6, 2010, the Ombudsman formed the six-member â€Å"Task Force Pag-IBIG† to investigate the irregularities and to determine whether laws or regulations were violated, and to file criminal and administrative charges if necessary. On the same day, Globe Asiatique withdrew its P3. 4-billion initial public offering (IPO) following the resignation of its underwriter, BDO Capital and Investment Corp. , after reports of its allegedly questionable loan transactions surfaced. Delfin Lee, president of Globe Asiatique, denied all the allegations surrounding the controversy. Pag-IBIG blacklisted Globe Asiatique and its officials in October 14, 2010. A few days after, in October 27, 2010, it also blacklisted its sister company, Filmal Realty Corporation. Moreover, Pag-IBIG and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed 3 charges of syndicated estafa against Delfin Lee and GA’s other officers for allegedly using Pag-IBIG funds for questionable housing loans and bogus housing projects in October 29, 2010, December 10, 2010, and February 18, 2011. Also charged were a former CEO of Pag-IBIG Fund and a lawyer of Pag-IBIG’s Legal Department, who notarized the majority of the fake and/or fraudulent loans submitted by GA to the Agency. Before the incident happened, When Globe Asiatique’s credit lines with local banks ere used up, the plan to proceed with the Initial Public Offering (IPO) at the local bourse became more compelling. The IPO, scheduled for late 2010, was supposed to bring in about P3. 3 billion. But when the Pag-IBIG commotion happened, the IPO plan was shelved. Globe Asiatique cited weak global market conditions but there were also news reports that it was because BDO Capital, the underwriter quit. B ecause of the controversy that GA is now facing, its founder Mr Delfin Lee is now at risk. Before the incident, he was considered by many as a dreamer, a visionary, and an idealist. In fact, Mr. Delfin Lee once were called by the Mabalacat, Pampanga Mayor Marino Morales as someone who had the full measure of miracles requisite to a canonization, but it didn’t lasts for long, Mr. Delfin Lee is now facing a controversy that may sentenced him life imprisonment together with his co-workers. As noted by ABS CBN news team, his story, is on the rise and fall of a businessman once dubbed by his friends as the â€Å"Donald Trump of the Philippines† and who has looked up to SM mall magnate Henry Sy and who once aspired to make Globe Asiatique the â€Å"SM of Philippine housing. ANALYSIS OF THE CASE Knowing that Globe Asiatique is a well-known company when it comes to housing industry, it is still apparent that GA fraudulently mismanaged the operations of the company. They used â€Å"ghost borrowers† just to obtain a huge funds for their projects located in the provinces, particularly in Mabalacat Pampanga. It was evidently proved by the auditors of P ag-IBIG namely Gloria Bautista and Nelin Paraiso who testified that they were able to detect the fraud through the internal audit systems of the said agency. There were also some statements coming from employees of Globe Asiatique, they were used as â€Å"special buyers†, the term used by the firm to refer to a fake borrower, to obtain loans from the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund and from private banks. It was expressly stated by Venissa Panem and Francisco Dela Cruz. In addition, according to Dela Cruz, he and his superior were able to produce more than a hundred of special buyers through that scheme. In that scheme, employees name will be used by the said company, and with that, the company will be able to obtain a loan from Pag-IBIG since those special buyers were considered as prospective buyers of the said housing projects. It also became easier for GA to obtain a loan from Pag-IBIG, since GA is using the window 1 program of the Pag-IBIG, where it is the developer that receives, processes, and approves the housing loan of individual Pag-IBIG members after 2 years of continuing such transactions GA were able to obtain 9,951 accounts and were able to obtain 6. 5 billion worth of loan, which is 5 times than any other house developers. As stated by Mr. Delfin Lee,the CEO and also the founder of Globe Asiatique, his son Dexter Lee is the executive and finance vice president while his daughter Divine is the vice president for international sales and marketing, in that case it would be easier for the company to hide employee connivance. In that way, they’ll be able to hide fraud without supervision from an independent objective individual inside the company due to close family relations which increases familiarity threat. Another problem I can say is the social responsibility being promulgated inside the company, though they provide rewards for TV shows, they are still stealing cash from other people through Pag-IBIG. GA also lacks internal control inside its vicinity, almost all the employees were part of the anomalies circulating inside, especially in terms of obtaining loan from Pag-IBIG. There were also problems in Pag-IBIG for making transactions very fast, the controls for both Pag-IBIG and GA were both ineffective, that even a dead person or fictitious person will be able to obtain loan in the said house developers and from the said agency, since GA is using Window 1. But according to the owner of the said house developer, there was a policy measures included in the window 1, such measures included buy-back options wherein the developer has the option to buy back the property after two years, and substitution or allowing new qualified members to borrow and purchase the properties secured under questionable circumstances to recover the loans. Because of ineffective controls, both the agency and the company faced a huge problem involving a huge amount of money worth 6. 5 billion. It is also apparent that the marketing strategy of Globe Asiatique is fast changing and fast developing which is the reason why they badly need huge amount of resources that even if there’s so many investors it wouldn’t still be possible for them to gain enough funds to complete the project within the designated time. There were a lot of improvements every year that the company’s resources and ability to meet its daily operations is being compromised. Another problem is the anomalies circulating the agency and the house developers, it happened for two consecutive years where both officials of both entity’s involved were used to process all those transactions in an unblemished manner. There were collusions circulating between those two entities. RECOMMENDATIONS Connivance of employees is really apparent in the case of Globe Asiatique and Pag-IBIG. They were able to conceal the anomalies circulating between them for two consecutive years. And for that they were able to set a record of corruption that can possibly exist between a private corporation and a government agency. To avoid the same thing again in the future, internal control should be the focus of every entity, to avoid fraud mismanagement inside an entity just like what happened to GA. An independent and competent auditor should be employed every year and if it’s not possible in sometime on a surprise basis to see if the internal control of the company is working effectively. And those internal control should be implemented by independent individuals inside the company to secure all the transactions coming in and out of the company. Another thing is to avoid too much reliance on family relations, it increases familiarity threat; there should be an independent person between any family relations inside a company to avoid conflict of interest. There should also be segregation of duties between them; there should be an intermediary between them, where one should not report directly to his or her relatives inside a company. Since employee collusions are also prevalent in the case of GA, any entity should employ a competent individual that could stand for his principle, and each employee should be directly supervised by their superiors. In the case of GA if one person would stand and would report what’s happening inside the GA, GA will not suffer as much as today. Since Globe Asiatique is known for its best amenities at low priced through its well-known marketing strategy, it shouldn’t let itself be compromised by offering more than what they can actually afford. Since they were compromised they were forced to look for more funds that their investors cannot give. They want more funds to generate more projects that they cannot meet on time, because they want to gain competitive advantage. They should first focus on what they can do to strengthen customer’s loyalty and not on too much expansion that they cannot handle effectively. Since in the controversy faced by GA, employees were directly involved, any entity should stress and implement a strong internal control, strong corporate social responsibility, strong corporate ethics and most vital the employee trainings for self-improvement, to avoid and prevent fraud in any entity, because it only takes few persons to stand for the right things to do and it will make a difference, a huge difference. And last while formulating their housing developments, they should hire experts so that they will know if they’ll be able to meet the huge amount of money needed to finance the said projects without being compromised in terms of generating enough funds. Through that GA executives will not be drawn to go beyond what law expressly prohibited. Source of references http://www. spot. ph/the-feed/46507/pag-ibig-initiates-proceedings-to-blacklist- globe-asiatique-for-alleged-p66b-housing-scam/ http://www. anilastandardtoday. com/insideOpinion. htm? f=2010/september/10/alvincapino. isxd=2010/september/10 Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corporation. 2010 Lala Reimando Leilani Chavez. â€Å"Who is Delfin Lee†. ABS-CBN Interactive. November 3, 2010. Conrado M. Diaz Jr. â€Å"Globe Asiatique’s Delfin Lee: redefining mass housing in the Philippines†. philSTAR. com. November 16, 2009. Tina Arceo-Dumlao. â€Å"From sweeping floors to building towers†. Inquirer. n et. June 10, 2007. Jeng Diaz. Globe Asiatique income surges 82% to a record P502 million in 2009†. philSTAR. com. March 3, 2010. http://en. wikipilipinas. org/index. php? title=Globe_Asiatique#Company_profile http://galifestyle. com/ http://www. menafn. com/qn_news_story. asp? storyid={03aeaf3d-44d6-4e00-bb8a-401188b8bbff} http://www. philstar. com/Article. aspx? articleId=529110publicationSubCategoryId=66 http://www. philstar. com/Article. aspx? articleId=529110publicationSubCategoryId=66

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Medical school personal statement Essays

Medical school personal statement Essays Medical school personal statement Paper Medical school personal statement Paper Everyday I ask myself this nagging question- why medicine as a career ? Well, I wish to be doctor because I carry in me- the passion to care for people. And it is this overriding passion that has been imbibed in me by my father, who I consider my inspiration and reason to be here. In my region where i belong to, medical care is expensive and beyond the reach of the common man. I wish to make a difference by taking healthcare to the masses and thus render service to my nation. By doing so i believe it is the most fulfilling experience that i could ever attain. But that is not all, i wish to advance my career in the medical profession and contribute to medical research in the long run. My father had a humble and difficult start in life, however that was not to deter his aspiration to get educated and succeed in life. Despite all the hardships, he went on to become a successful pharmacist in Addis Ababa (ETHIOPIA). He was a self motivated person and would often use endearing words of hope and optimism in his conversations with me. His words of direction and encouragement have stood by me in my formative years, and today i stand as an applicant to a medical school. I consider myself as a hardworking and conscientious student who will emerge successful and do justice to the profession and to the people of my country. xxxxxx Why medicine? Is the question that I ask myself everyday. I want to become a doctor because I carry in me the passion to help people. This passion has been instilled in me by my father who I consider my inspiration in life. My dad played a great role in helping me decide to become a doctor. My father had a humble beginning in life. Being born to a farmer father and a stay home mom, he had little chance of getting educated and succeeding in life. Despite his circumstances he managed to become a successful Pharmacist in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Growing up my dad would use words such as perseverance and hard work as he relates it to his life stories. These words echo in my ears as I stand today as a medical school applicant. My passion for medicine has been strengthened during my years in undergraduate college and it continued to grow even more in graduate school. When I first took gross anatomy at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, I started to appreciate the human body as a whole. My anatomy course came to life when I was exposed to surgery as a volunteer at Abington Memorial Hospital. The surgery procedure was a robotic assisted hysterectomy. I stood there watching in amazement as the pink organs appeared on the video screen. The surgeon took time as he carefully dissected through connective tissues. Due to the location of the uterus in close proximity to the bladder, the surgeon was taking great care not to damage the urethra. The procedure took over five hours including time to set up the patient followed by the robotic surgery. As mundane as it sounds, I want to be a doctor because I care about humanity. I want to do my part to contribute to bring hope and healing to those who are hurting. There have been many defining moments in my life that has tested my passion for medicine. I have had various circumstances that drove me to give up my vision of becoming a doctor. However, I always found the courage to comeback to my dream. As my father has said, perseverance and hard work, that is what I plan to do until I become a doctor and then after. I plan to work hard to succeed in the profession and in your institution.

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Management Information Systems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management Information Systems - Research Paper Example Policies and strategies are therefore put in place to ensure that such kind of illegal goods transfer is curbed by all means as well as minimizing such kind of attacks by the use of the proper management information system in place. This ensures that goods undergo thorough screening through all means possible and in such an instance, the expert system is employed where certain gadgets are used to screen specific containers. Special intelligent forces are also used who have adequate training on various illegal goods as well as on dangerous weapons. Executive information system is as well used to find prior information about cargo aircraft attack which then is used to make a proper decision on the routes to take or find a way of dealing with such kind of attacks so that they can be avoided by all means. It is the executive that makes a crucial decision upon the running of the aircraft; hence, it is important to involve a proper executive information system in order to fight such kinds of cargo attacks. ... When the weapons are allowed to cross to another country and sold illegally, they are sometimes used for robbing, extra-judicial killings, carrying out terrorist attacks among other evil things. This poses a threat to national security as the citizens will not feel safe in their own country. Sometime it is drugs that are airlifted to other countries where they are considered illegal by law and are not supposed to be used or sold. Some of such drugs are together with cocaine which has diverse effects to a person’s mental and psychological well being as they are very addictive and their cons outweigh their pros as far as good life is concerned. These drugs can ruin a country’s active population especially the youth hence rendering them useless in the society. Certain animal products like elephant tusks are also in high demand in most countries like South Korea and Asia for its ornamental value. On the contrary, elephant becoming a rare animal used to boost the tourism ind ustry in the countries where they exist like the Sub-Saharan African countries; there is a ban on the transportation of tusks in order to reduce poaching of this precious wildlife. From all the examples of the problems mentioned above, it is then very necessary to increase efficiency in the cargo aircraft by employing appropriate management information system strategies to carry out proper screening in order to catch up with the perpetrators and accomplishers of such illegal acts. It becomes very hard to find out which management information system should best be used to efficiently deal with this situation but expert system is so obvious that needs not to be left out of the operation. Appropriate Management Information System Expert system comes

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Recycling Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Recycling - Research Paper Example s a man makes impact on his personal and family lives at present, and threatens future life of his next generations, who will not be able to live the same life as this man does. To prevent such results, the concept of sustainable development emerged. This concept became popular in the 80-es of 20th century. The main idea of it is that a man should live in such a way, so that he will not prevent his future generations to live at least in the same way, as he does (Bartlett 2012). Some of the principles of sustainable development state, that a man should be careful with using resources, and should not just spend them irretrievably. It became important to find new methods to compensate and displace the used resources to preserve ecological system. The idea to process the waste products and use them as secondary materials became very popular among the supporters of the sustainable development concept. Thus, recycling became one of the instruments for communities how to get to the sustaina ble development path. Recycling is a process of reusing waste products and garbage or retrieving them back into operation. This process is considered to be one of the methods to restore all the waste generated (Tam 2006) The importance of recycling today is significant and is of global value. Recycling helps to solve ecological and resource-saving problems. First of all, the resources on the Earth are limited and cannot be compensated as fast as they are being used (some of them require the time of life of several generations). Then, when waste is thrown into environment, it usually becomes its pollutant. It takes several centuries for some materials to decay in natural environment. Besides, product waste and other products, the useful life of which is over, are usually (but not always) a cheaper source of materials than natural sources. Using secondary material resources can save the costs for waste utilization, new resource purchase, transport and labour costs etc. New jobs for

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Marketing Research- Starbucks vs. Coffee Beans Essay Example for Free

Marketing Research- Starbucks vs. Coffee Beans Essay Market segmentation is defined as the process of dividing a market into distinct subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics and selecting one or more segments to target with a distinct marketing mix (Schiffman, Bednall, Cowley, OCass, Watson and Kanuk, 2001). Different companies have different abilities that enable them to serve their target market better, which is why some companies choose to focus much of their attention to specific segments. Starbucks primarily chooses to focus on the demographics, psychographics and lifestyle of their customers. It is with the information gathered regarding these segments that Starbucks can better serve its customers. Demographics are things such as age, sex, marital status, education, occupation and income. Starbucks targets both males and females, mainly 18-30 year olds, but really does cater for everybodys needs. And because young children dont usually drink coffee, Starbucks offers a range of non-coffee beverages to cater for the whole family. Hanging out in Starbucks gives the impression of being very with it and most of the people you see sitting in the stores exude a certain coolness and give off the image of having some sort of social status, with lots of money to spare. Starbucks customers are mainly in their final years of high school, in university or just starting to work. But whatever it is, they all have had a good education, and if they do have a job, it almost certainly includes a big income as well. Demographics help to locate a target market and this information is often the most accessible and cost effective way to identify a target market (Schiffman et al, 2001). Even though factors such as personality and behaviour are often first used to define a market segment, the consumers demographic characteristics must be known in order to assess the size of the target market and to reach it efficiently (Schiffman et al, 2001). Psychographics are based on the consumers activities, interests and opinions, so its basically how they spend their time, what their preferences and priorities are and how they feel about events and issues. Psychographic research is closely related to psychological research, and  especially when it comes to personality and attitude measurement. This form of applied consumer research has proved to be a valuable marketing tool that helps identify consumer segments that are likely to be responsive to specific marketing messages (Schiffman et al, 2001). Starbucks is very heavily involved in charity and the arts, and is making significant efforts to be a socially and environmentally responsible company. For example, Starbucks actively participates in AIDS benefits, and for every city that has a store, Starbucks sets up at least one shelter for the underprivileged children and donates money as well. By participating in various different positive causes and events, Starbucks gains a lot of favourable exposure. Starbucks has sponsored the Special Olympics, the hip Lilith Fair music festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, the International Film Festival in Washington DC and the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA. Just by looking at these examples, we can see that Starbucks aims to target and reach people who are generous and charitable, as well as people who like to have fun and enjoy the creative and entertaining side of life. Starbucks also has a strong commitment to the environment and the companys policy to recycle and conserve wherever possible is exemplified by the 10% discount it provides to customers who reduce waste by using their own mugs or refillable coffee bags. Starbucks offers these discounts to help stimulate environmental responsibility amongst its customers. As Starbucks grows and reaches new markets, the company has made a commitment to continue to be a strong supporter of non-profit organisations and events in all communities. Consumer research has found evidence that within each of the social classes there is a constellation of specific lifestyle factors (shared beliefs, attitudes, activities and behaviours) that tend to distinguish the members of each class from the members of each class from the members of all other social classes (Schiffman et al, 2001). Starbucks sells a lifestyle, to both customers and employees, and has followed the successful examples of other big corporations such as Coke, Nike and Sony by linking its brand with all things cool and in. Starbucks has created a style and ambience that has infused a certain new  chic and appeal into coffee, an age-old beverage, making it the hippest drink of today. Starbucks chooses to associate itself with all things bustling, active and vigourous. That is why locations of all the stores are carefully selected for convenience and Starbucks specifically targets places that are heavy with pedestrian street traffic. Some of the places that you would find a Starbucks, either in the form of a large store or a just a small kiosk (both ideal for just popping in for a quick take away coffee or for a nice light lunch break) would be at shopping centres, airport terminals and supermarket foyers, which are all places that are always hectic and filled to the brim with people who have busy lifestyles and are always on the go. Starbucks competes directly against specialty coffees sold at retail through supermarkets, specialty retails, and a growing number of other specialty coffee stores. In addition, Starbucks competes for whole bean coffee sales with franchise operators and independent specialty coffee stores. In virtually every major metropolitan area were Starbucks operates and expects to expand there are local or regional competitors with substantial market presence in the specialty coffee business. But Starbucks biggest competitor in the coffee industry is the Coffee Bean. Coffee Bean was started by Herbert B. Hyman in 1963 in California and became the pioneers in retailing whole bean coffee and loose tea leaves. Coffee Bean are the oldest importers, roasters and multi retailers of specialty coffee and tea in the United States. Like Starbucks, Coffee Bean offers a diverse range of original coffee, ice blends and roast styles as well as four varieties of daily brews including flavoured pre-ground coffee. Another similarity with Starbucks is that Coffee Bean also has a large offering of food and beverages that appeal to all age groups from all walks of life. In terms of needs, motivation and personality, Coffee Bean is all about building meaningful and respectful relationships with customers by finding or concocting a flavour for them. Coffee Bean will also toast your bagels, heat your pastries and personalise and custom make the drink or blend just  the way you would like it. With perception, Coffee Bean is a big believer in teamwork (just like Starbucks) as they feel that success is achieved by working together. Coffee Bean staff are friendly, and maintain amicable relationships between customers and each other. The employees have respect for each others values, opinions and individual personalities and are honest and truthful to themselves and each other. Another similarity with Starbucks is that Coffee Bean is actively involved with helping communities and make it their mission to develop the most complete community based programs around. As well as donating gift baskets, gift certificates, coupons, coffees and teas, Coffee Bean will gladly consider a donation to any organisation for various charitable events that directly benefit local community programs and local schools. Due to the phenomenal growth of the international coffee market, Coffee Bean has decided to solely concentrate on international franchises at the moment. Unlike Starbucks, who have a target mass market being the United States, most of the Coffee Bean outlets are in Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan etc.) and the Middle East (Israel, United Arab Emirates, Dubai etc.) Unlike Coffee Bean, Starbucks does not personalise their coffees or have different products to suit different countries tastes. Coffee Bean offers more food meals (pastas, soups,) and not only light meals (sandwiches, pastries, desserts) like Starbucks. Starbucks allows other distributors to sell its coffee, but Coffee Bean does not and Starbucks is affiliated with things such as the Herald Sun Newspaper and Hear Music. And the main advantage that Starbucks has over Coffee Bean is its effective use of celebrity appeal, which is a form of reference group

Monday, January 20, 2020

Too Much Punch For Judy :: Drama

Too Much Punch For Judy Introduction During the past few drama lessons we've been studying a real life tragic play called 'Too Much Punch For Judy'. It is a play about two sisters (Judy & Jo) who decide to go for a drink one day. They meet two guys who buy them drinks. When they are ready to go, Judy suggests to Jo that she should drive home as she has had less to drink than her (however she is still over the legal limit). After some persuasion Judy agrees and throws Judy the car keys. As they drive back Jo pleads to Judy to slow down. However, Judy suddenly loses control of the car and crashes. Judy survives the crash, her sister Jo who is in the passenger seat dies. A man who has heard the crash from his house runs down to the scene, he rings the police. The police arrive and call for two ambulances. When two ambulances arrive Jo and Judy are taken away separately. At this stage, Judy is unaware that Jo is dead. At the hospital Judy consistently asks to see her sister, until the policeman finally tells her that her sister is dead. After reading the play, I immediately felt angry with Judy. I felt sorry for Jo and her family and perhaps almost for Judy. As the play was a true story the moral of the play 'don't drink and drive' struck me harder. The moral definitely gets across to me, and made me aware of the effects of drinking and driving. I thought the play was a good way of getting that point across. It gave young people, like my group and I, a chance to be put in that situation and to experience the feelings and emotions of an actual person in that predicament. Depending on how we deal with this we are able to make a choice whether it is the right or wrong thing to do. In this case, during a scene that I played Judy crashing and killing her sister, I felt scared at the consequences and extremely guilty. I would not like feel like that at any time. I have the power to control that, so that is why thanks to the play, I would not put my self in the same situation as Judy and feel it is the wrong choice to make. Response ======== Too much Punch For Judy allowed us to look into the effects of drinking and driving. It is a tragic piece of drama, however there are many scenes which exaggerated and comical, resulting in completely the opposite feelings to the inevitable tragedy of the play.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Impact Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Supporters of companies going public suggest that gaining additional capital is one of the benefits medium sized companies gain by going public. The rationale for going public is to float the shares of the company through the stock market by starting an initial public offer (IPO) inviting the public to purchase its shares and raise additional capital. Once the company has met all of the requirements for filing Security Stock and Exchange (SEC) they are in compliance with SOX.Under SOX section 404, requires all CEO and CFO to certify and report to the public the effectiveness of internal control over the financial statements. Secondly, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is another benefit accrued by a medium sized company by going public through publication of it information. Aside from profitability, corporate social responsibility aids company to position ineffective market-based solutions to social. By CSR redirect negative problems caused by corporate operations onto the consum er and protecting their interests while hampering efforts to find just and sustainable solutions.The rationale of publishing company information is to give the company a platform to state its willingness to take into consideration the stakes of all stakeholders involved in its financing and operations. This increases public confidence in the company. Going public also benefits a medium sized company by increasing its competitive advantage in the global market. Going public is a strategic objective by some medium sized companies to become competitively aligned. Finally, gain competitive advantage all through expanded capital base and improved public confidence.Create an argument that the same goals may be achieved if the company remains a privately held entity. Provide support for your answers The opponents of public listing held that a company can acquire the benefits of going public while still being private and more efficient. For instance, Leuz (2007) asserts that a company can g ain additional capital through borrowing loans from banks as opposed to going public. Corporate social responsibility can also be obtained even for privately owned companies that actively engage in community advancement programs.In this way, the company meets the requirements of its stakeholders without exposing itself to public scrutiny and retains its ability to maintain a competitive advantage through internal strengths and enhanced customer relationship management (Dolvin & Pyles, 2007). The opponents of going public also hold that a corporation can devise ways of being strategically aligned while retaining its private status. For instance, a private company can make objectives that are strategically aligned to its vision and mission and narrow its market niche to serve the needs of its customers.This can be achieved through strategies such as being the least cost provider for commodities or emphasizing unique customer experience through the provision of quality products. This d isqualifies the perception that a company can only gain competitive advantage by going public (Li, Morton & Sonja, 2008). When a company decides to go public, it can typically obtain capital by issuing stocks or bonds. Suggest four (4) leading financial rations that will be evaluated and how each will impact the company’s decision to obtain expansion funds. Determine whether the results of the ratios would alter the decision to go public.Financial analysis serves as both a control and planning tool. Aids in making important company decisions obtain expansion funds and also on the decision to go public or remain private. Liquidity ratio illustrates the ability of a company to pay its accrued debt in the short term. A company with high liquidity ratios is not advised to obtain expansion funds through debt since it cannot pay up the already accrued debt. It would be advisable for such a company to generate expansion funds by going public since this increases the equity ratio and reduces the debt and liquidity ratios (Alrafadi, & Md-Yusuf, 2011).Activity ratio assesses the ability of the company to convert its assets to cash. When activity ratio is high, the company should go public since it already has liquid cash and needs to save up more of its finances through the floating of shares compared to borrowing cash. Profitability ratios assess the measures that organizations will use in making money. It mainly assesses the profitability of a company against the earnings ratio, and when this ratio is low, the company needs to remain private then go public since its profitability will not attract any investors (Alrafadi, & Md-Yusuf, 2011).Debt ratio is aimed at assessing what amount of the company capital structure constitutes debt capital. Where the company has a lower debt ratio, it means that it has more of equity than debt, which is a good state in a company. In this case, the company can borrow debt capital or go public to gain more funds as it has a stron g debt ratio. That it is essential to analyze the financial ratios of a company prior to deciding, whether to obtain more funds by going public (Alrafadi, & Md-Yusuf, 2011).By researching, the results of SOX compliance surveys assess the financial impact that SOX might have on your company if it decides to go public. Considering the impact SOX compliance, take a position as to whether your company can overcome the challenges posed by identifying the potential advantages and disadvantages that SOX may have on your company. SOX is a legal framework developed by the United States with the aim of increasing the accountability and transparency of listed companies, especially pertaining to the cost of going public.Transparency is one of the advantages gained by a medium sized company that uses SOX to go public. Structures put in place through SOX monitor the internal systems of the company, prevent failure, ensure accurate disclosures and improves the management of risk of the company. Th is enhances the transparency of the medium sized company and increases its credibility among the public and potential shareholders (Kaserer, Mettler & Obernberger, 2011). Going public with SOX also enhances the reliability of medium sized companies.The consumers and members of the public are able to predict the company’s behavior since the company publishes its accounts. Through transparency and improved public scrutiny, shareholders and other stakeholders such as customers are able to view the profit of the company, the prospectus and evaluate the ability of the company to meet their expectations in the future. The consumers can through public scrutiny develop confidence on the medium sized company going public via SOX, which increases customer base and profitability of the company (Litvak, 2007).Additionally, a medium sized company benefits from going public through SOX by enhancing investor confidence in the ability of the company to offer viable returns to investorsâ€⠄¢ investment. For example, an investor will be more confident in investing in a company that publishes its financial statements as a requirement of going public. This is because the investor will be able to view the profits of the company and its ability of the provide high returns on the investors capital. This benefits the company through investor loyalty and attracts more potential investors (Li, Morton & Sonja, 2008).Cost is one of the major negative impacts of SOX if a company goes public. For example, a company has to incur underwriting cost, which is a, direct cost for a company going public. The company going public under SOX also incurs indirect costs like under-pricing of its shares in the stock exchange (Wintoki, 2007). The Company also incurs legal cost since lawyers are needed to advise the company on legal consequences of going public. In most instances, the cost of a company going public through SOX outweighs the benefit of going public and may have adverse effects o n the company Leuz, 2007).Lack of secrecy is another adverse effect of a company going public through SOX. For example, a company that discloses its financial records risks sharing its strategic plans with its competitors, which robs the company the ability to remain competitive since its strategies and secrets are available for public scrutiny (Litvak, 2007). Moreover, involvement of external auditors is another adverse effect of SOX going public to medium sized companies. Example; prior to being private where a company would have just an internal auditor, a company that goes public also needs an external auditor to verify the internal systems of the Company.This further exemplifies the operations and the auditing costs of the company by going public as a report of the external auditor are more reputable compared to that of an internal auditor (Grifin & Lont, 2005). Make recommendation as the CEO regarding the alternative (i. e. , going public or staying private) that will best sup port the company’s expansion goals. As the Chief Executive Officer of a medium sized company, I recommend that the medium sized company should go public as this will support the company’s expansion goals.This is affirmed by the fact that going public fits into the strategic objectives of the company by being strategically aligned to gain competitive advantage. Although there are costs incurred during going public if the team is committed to the process and there are available resources to go public; economic feasibility evidences that the benefit of going public outweighs the risk and viable venture for any medium sized company. Moreover, though SOX has been challenged, the benefit that accrues to a medium sized company by going public affirms the rationale for a company to go public.