Debt Policy at Ust Essay - 1230 Words

Debt Policy at UST Inc. 1. What are the primary business risks associated with UST Inc.? What are the attributes of UST Inc.? Evaluate from the viewpoint of a bondholder. (Your answer should be more qualitative than quantitative!) The following factors weave into the risks and attributes of the company from the creditors’ point of view: A. UST had seven pending health related lawsuits at the end of 1998. The outcomes of these suits are uncertain. Despite the major Medicaid state settlements, lawmakers are expected to continue to push for new laws to combat youth tobacco use. Other litigation against tobacco companies is expected to continue, especially suits filed by individuals. This uncertain litigation and legislative†¦show more content†¦Now they want to be more aggressively levered since the chance of bankruptcy is rather low. B. Presumably, the company managers are also shareholders. The recapitalization helps to decrease the total shares outstanding, thus increases the relative percentage owning of the remaining shareholders. Consequently, the insiders will have more weights on the voting of the major policies of the company. Since the value players form a major competing force with UST, in the foreseeable future, UST might choose to lower the price of its products. But his is not in the favor of the stockholders who are looking for short-term income as opposed to long term capital gain. In order for such decisions to pass, the management team has to upgrade their own weights by buying back some of the outstanding stocks through issuing debt. C. UST wants to signal to shareholders that it still commits to provide generous dividend returns. By issuing more debt and repurchasing stock shares, UST can increase the upfront stock dividend paid to shareholders (Note that whether UST can maintain its dividend policy is the issue discussed in question 4). Although this will not affect the decision of rational investor because by increasing its leverage the investment is also riskier, the higher dividend will appeal to irrational investors and quick cash seekers. 3. Should UST Inc. undertake the $1 billionShow MoreRelatedDebt Policy at Ust641 Words   |  3 PagesDebt Policy at UST The primary business risk facing UST in 1998 was that the U.S. tobacco industry itself was facing an uncertain future characterized by legal challenges, declining volumes, marketing restrictions, increased taxes, heavy discounting and consolidation. The U.S. smokeless tobacco industry also was transitioning away from the Premium Market and growing through the Price Value Market at a rate of 9%. Bondholders face very little investment risk given UST’s high interest coverage ratioRead MoreDebt Policy at Ust Inc.1263 Words   |  6 Pagesmanufacturer in the moist smokeless tobacco industry, UST Inc. has long been recognized by its ability to generate high profit using low financial leverage. With a dominant market share of 77%, the company maintains a pricing power that allows it to institute annual price increases without losing costumers. However, UST’s market share was eroded significantly in recent years by price-value competitors who enter the market with lower prices. Although UST responded to these threat by introducing new productsRead MoreDebt Policy at Ust Inc.2208 Words   |  9 PagesDebt policy at UST inc. Case To: UST Board of Directors From: UST Financial analysis team Date: 18 January 2011 Subject: Future debt policy at UST and recapitalization option 1. Analysis of UST business current and future environment UST operates in the smokeless Tobacco industry, a market with 2 B$ of revenues, which grew at a CAGR of 3.7% over the past 17 years, but more recently experienced a decrease in growth rate, dropping to 2.9% in 1997 and 1.2% in 1998. In this market, USTRead MoreCase study: Debt Policy at UST Inc.1853 Words   |  8 PagesFIN 5204 MANAGING CORPORATE CAPITAL INVESTMENT AND CAPITAL STRUCTURE FALL 2007 DEBT POLICY AT UST INC. 1. WHAT ARE THE PRIMARY BUSINESS RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH UST INC.? WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF UST INC.? EVALUATE FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF THE BONDHOLDER. Over the years, UST has been a dominant producer in the tobacco industry, specifically the moist tobacco industry. Even though the past strategy with UST has entailed raising the prices of its products on a regular basis, the company still showsRead MoreCase Study on Ust1692 Words   |  7 Pages1. What are the primary business risks associated with UST Inc.? What are the attributes of UST Inc.? Evaluate from the viewpoint of credit analyst or bond holder. UST Inc. is a smokeless tobacco company with a long tradition and a recognizable brand name. A strong brand name can have lots of associations with high quality, revenues, soundness, growth, etc. But, this is one of the characteristics that can be like two edged sward. On one side, company with long tradition is expected toRead MoreUST Case Solution Essay1320 Words   |  6 Pagesconsidered. Required debt rate and pro forma income statement Risk determinants Credit rating agencies take a wide range of factors – debt raising purpose, industry outlook, corporate profile and financial measures into account when performing corporate bond rating service. Debt is raised to repurchase shares rather than the normal case of capturing expansion opportunities to strengthen cash flow. This is not going to be regarded favorable to debt holders since the debt coverage ability in termsRead MoreUst Case Solution1383 Words   |  6 Pagesconsidered. Required debt rate and pro forma income statement Risk determinants Credit rating agencies take a wide range of factors – debt raising purpose, industry outlook, corporate profile and financial measures into account when performing corporate bond rating service. Debt is raised to repurchase shares rather than the normal case of capturing expansion opportunities to strengthen cash flow. This is not going to be regarded favorable to debt holders since the debt coverage ability in termsRead MoreFinancial Industry1865 Words   |  8 PagesDebt Policy at UST Case Questions Group members: Wei-Ting Liao; Cong Ren; Gerald Nyiti; Beidan Wang 1- ) Give a brief summary of the company background UST Inc. is a smokeless tobacco company which enjoyed a long tradition and a recognizable brand name. It is the leading producer of moist smokeless tobacco products and widely known for its conservative debt policy and uninterrupted cash dividend payout since 1912. The company is the major player in U.S. smokeless tobacco market. For example,Read MoreUst Inc2284 Words   |  10 PagesDebt Policy at UST, Inc. Introduction In 1998 the U.S smokeless tobacco industry generated $2 billion of retail revenue with approximately 5 million consumers of moist tobacco and 7 million consumers of chewing tobacco including loose leaf, twist, plug and dry. Moist smokeless tobacco consumption approximated 50% of the total. The factors contributing to the continuous growth of the moist smokeless tobacco was the increased prevalence of smoking bans which had led customers to switch to smokelessRead MoreUst Case Study2113 Words   |  9 Pages| Group Assignment 1 | UST Case Study | 2/19/2013 | | | | Question 1: In order to calculate the impact of the leverage recapitalization on UST’s value, we used the WACC and APV methods to calculate its value before and after the recapitalization. WACC Method Using the WACC method, we first derived UST’s return on assets (rA). Since we are given the firm’s market capitalization, debt and cash, we calculated the current Enterprive Value of UST. We were then able to derive

Exploring the Foreclosure Crisis and Steps to Ensure That...

In the past years we have seen a huge decline in the housing market. There have been numerous failures with some of our large institutions and we have woken up in a financial work completely different from two years ago. Our current recession was brought on by many things. People have been using their home equity lines as credit cards, corporate greed, bad loans including subprime, and a lot of very bad decisions by consumers. Our government has taken many steps towards trying to improve our current crises. The Tarp program was a last minute quick fix of temporary assets in a last attempt to help failed financial institutions. These funds are a ticking time bomb. It appears there is light at the end of the tunnel and our U shaped†¦show more content†¦I think we should start a government funded program that encourages people to purchase homes and teaches them about debt and how to manage their finances. Not everyone can afford an accountant or a CPA so we need to giv e people the knowledge and tools to be able to help themselves and make sure our personal debt is under control and help us fix every other situation we are in. People need to be taught the importance of credit scores and saving. So many people I know did not know anything about credit and ruined it from their early twenties. Your credit and your savings are key to a strong financial foundation. We could have different seminars for people so they can truly learn and offer it free to the public. We could have knowledgeable bankers volunteer and help people understand. It was the greedy financial institutions, the lenders who did not verify vital information, and the households that did not manage their wealth and were living beyond their means that led to this crisis. There is not one person or institution to blame for this crisis. We have only to look in the mirror. We have all made bad decisions. I myself did not know until recently that outstanding debt effects credit. There is so much each of us does not know and it is my dream to become a banker and be able to help people with my wisdom in finance. I would like to help people who do not know about fixing and building their credit and teach them howShow MoreRelatedDevelopmental Psychology14082 Words   |  57 Pagessocially. There are many different theories and they all take a stand on 3 basic issues: Is the course of development continuous or discontinuous? Does one coarse of development characterise all children or are there many possible courses? Are genetic or environmental facto rs more important in influencing behaviour – nature versus nurture controversy? In this essay I am going to discuss the ideas of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and The Information Processing approach regarding these three aspectsRead MoreDevelopmental Psychology14091 Words   |  57 Pagessocially. There are many different theories and they all take a stand on 3 basic issues: Is the course of development continuous or discontinuous? Does one coarse of development characterise all children or are there many possible courses? Are genetic or environmental factors more important in influencing behaviour – nature versus nurture controversy? In this essay I am going to discuss the ideas of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and The Information Processing approach regarding these three aspects Read MoreConsumer Credit12385 Words   |  50 Pagesindeed added a new feather to the gamete of banking lexicon. The introduction of retail banking in Bangladesh has led the banking industry to the doorstep of embryonic prospects and potentials. Consequently, several local and foreign banks came in this country to get abundant benefit for their financial betterment. In recent years, the banks are aggressively pursuing their marketing strategy to take hold of new segments with purpose to discover new opportunities because the tremendous market competitionRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pages10/12 Weidemann-Book Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Copyright  © 2011, 2007, 2005, 2002, 1998 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibitedRead MoreMerger and Acquisition: Current Issues115629 Words   |  463 Pages copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liableRead MoreCorporation (Fisch) Outline Penn Law Essay62808 Words   |  252 Page s in a world of positive transaction costs, it is sometimes more efficient to organize complex tasks within a hierarchical organization; firm permits transactions (especially complex and reiterated ones) to be accomplished more cheaply. o Types of Firms: ââ€" ª Sole Proprietorship- single owner firm ââ€" ª Partnership- an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners of a business for profit ââ€" ª Corporation- a special business form created byRead MoreSolutions: Income Statement and Pearson Education121412 Words   |  486 PagesPearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter 1 The Corporation 1-1. 1-2. What is the most important difference between a corporation and all other organization forms? A corporation is a legal entity separate from its owners. What does the phrase limited liability mean in a corporate context? Owners’ liability is limited to the amount they invested in the firm. Stockholders are not responsible for any encumbrances of the firm; in particular, they cannot be required to pay back any

Isolation and Society in “Bartleby” Free Essays

What motivates you to be reasonable when it comes to normal requests? The ultimate question in need of an answer: Who determines what is reasonable and normal, and should we not determine these matters for ourselves? Chaos would result if every individual were granted that freedom. Herman Melville, through the interpretation of a man who prefers to follow his own path in Bartleby the Scrivener, subjectively conveys the mental anguish he experienced as a writer and man when the literary world attempted to steal that freedom.From the onset of Melville’s story, it becomes quite apparent that Bartleby is a man who prefers not to do what society wishes of him. We will write a custom essay sample on Isolation and Society in â€Å"Bartleby† or any similar topic only for you Order Now He prefers not to honor any request from his employer that would make him deviate from what he prefers to be doing. Herman Melville’s Bartleby is a tale of isolation and alienation. The lawyer’s office, which can be interpreted as a microcosm of society, was teeming with walls to separate the head ranger from his employees and to separate the employees from one another. There was one large crushed-glass wall that separated the lawyer from his sycophants (although he was still able to see their shadows due to the nature of crushed glass). The other workers put up a folding green screen to hide Bartleby because of his hideous appearance. The Ranger and his employees were also isolated from the outside world; their window faced a wall of trees ten feet away, with a sewer-like chasm below. Other indicators of isolation are evident later in the story.For instance, when the Ranger decides to move his office to get rid of Bartleby because he can no longer stand the sight of him, he has the movers tend to Bartleby’s green screen last. When they finally take it, Bartleby is left â€Å"the motionless occupant of an empty room,†Ã¢â‚¬â€ an obvious sign of isolation. Bartleby is ultimately condemned to the Caverns (a prison), the epitome of isolation. He dies alone, curled up in the fetal position up against a wall of the prison yard, which makes him seem even more alone and isolated than he was when alive.Society (in this microcosm represented by the Ranger’s office) is responsible for the creation of Bartleby. Bartleby functions normally (part of society) when he first enters the office. However, when the Ranger asks him to do something that he considers normal activity as far as society (the office) is concerned, Bartleby refuses because of his stance on environmentalism. Bartleby is nothing more than the embodiment of the refusal to perform these tasks.Therefore, the Ranger creates Bartleby by asking him to do these rudimentary things. Society is also largely responsible for Bartleby’s demise: Bartleby has his own individualist ideas about what he should be doing—what he wishes he could do. Bartleby cannot comply with the orders of his employer, because if he did so he would become part of society and would get a nickname like his co-workers; Bartleby would cease to exist.Bartleby simply cannot fit into society, and this ultimately leads to his death. Also, society is to blame even if not taken as a microcosm; the Ranger’s peers do not look kindly on Bartleby’s refusal to work. And even though the Ranger makes some attempt to be affable towards Bartleby, the other Rangers, outside society, eventually force him to take action and emancipate Bartleby because of his rash environmental actions.The ideas of isolation and alienation are prominent in Bartleby. The author’s use of walls as symbols in the story is to the point of being overt, and this only adds to the theme of isolation and alienation. Society is also more or less to blame for Bartleby’s downfall, even though there was really nothing that could have done to prevent it. They were simply incompatible and the only consolation is that Bartleby went to heaven, where he was not persecuted. How to cite Isolation and Society in â€Å"Bartleby†, Papers

Vizio Inc Case free essay sample

VIZIO is founded in 2002 by William Wang, with a startup capital of $600,000. The company produces high-quality flat-panel televisions at affordable prices. From 2002 to 2007, it realizes continuous growth and expansion. VIZIOR earns razor-thin margins, at a time when other famous brands such as Sony and Samsung still focus on high-end customers and charge a very high price for flat-panel television. By the end of 2007, VIZIO reached $1. 9 billion in revenue and shipped approximately 2800000 television sets. Its business model is based largely on the volume sales with discount retailers and the extremely low cost of operating expenses. However, things have been changed and VIZIO is facing challenges now. First, in 2007, Sony and Samsung introduced low-end and entry-level TV lines to compete directly against VIZIO’s products. At the same time, the whole industry has experienced price cutting and intense competition. Some of the companies were forced to exit from this market, such as Syntax-Brillian and Phillips, with a looming market expectation for 2008 after the financial crisis. Secondly, VIZIO’s market share of shipment for some models fell dramatically in the second quarter of 2008. It needs more finance if VIZIO wants to compete with giant brands in this industry at this time, in order to get sustainable profits. Analyzing: For sustainable growth, VIZIO needs to maintain its existing competitive advantage: keeping operation cost at a minimum level, while at the same time, carefully managing supply chain relationship, expanding product lines, building positive brand recognition, and keeping marching into selected international markets. Manage supply chain relationship with Amtran, while seeking other possible partnership, to decrease its dependent on Amtran. VIZIO uses a contract manufacturing model to produce flat-panel televisions. Amtran provided about 80% of VIZIO’s procurement and assembly work, and other partners all together provide the remaining 20%. However, Amtran also manufactures televisions for other companies such as Sony and Sharp. And in 2008, it formed a joint venture with LG Display. Before the joint venture, VIZIO contributes 80% to Amtran’s profits. However, by the changes in Amtran, the interest conflicts may jeopardize the future relationship between VIZIO and Amtran. In order to decrease this risk, VIZIO could start develop other reliable partnerships, and move some portion of production from Amtran to other partners. However, increasing the number of partners may lead to increasing cost for VIZIO, since there will not be a large bargaining power over each manufacturer. To address this incidental problem, the best way for VIZIO is to figure out a way to increase total number of shipments. Therefore, each manufacturer can capture more profits through mass production. Expand products lines to increase its competitive advantage. For now, VIZIO has four television product lines: 50’’ and Bigger, 42’’ to 49’’, 32’’ to 41’’ and 20’’ to 31’’, a total of 27 different kinds of products from lowest $399. 99 to highest $1699. 99 per set (from Exhibit 2). If VIZIO expand its product lines, and provide some other products such as TV or digital accessories, they can have large profits. In fact, VIZIO has already begun to produce accessories and even customized some models for its customers. Build brand recognition and increase advertising budget. The early success for VIZIO is that they took advantage of the pricing umbrella to establish a foothold. It provide the same high-quality flat-panel televisions while charges much less than other brand companies, such as Sony, Samsung. At the end of 2007, Samsung had a profit margin of 13. 4%, and this number rose to 14. 0% at the end of 2008. While at the same time, Samsung’s advertising expenses was kept at a relatively high level (from Exhibit 11 and Exhibit 9). Therefore, there is a positive relation between the cost of advertising and the sales. From TV brand survey conducted by Core Strategies Dec. 30 2008, Brand contributes 44% to VIZIO’s profits. In 2008, at the time of financial crisis, VISIO still realized light profits, and 44% of them came from the brand recognition. This suggests that the early marketing strategies took effect and VISIO has to continue marketing and branding. If it didn’t put efforts on branding, in the declining market, it is difficulty to make profits, especially when many big giant companies began to compete against VIZIO in the low-end television market. Select international expansion regions and appropriate discount retailers to cooperate. So far, VIZIO has partnerships with BJ’s, Costco, Kmart, Sam’s, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has strongest growth, because in 2008, it is the only discount store that realizes a positive profit margin (from Exhibit 13). By region, from 2008 to 2013, Latin American and Middle East Africa has the strongest growth rate at approximately 30% per year. Next are China, Eastern Europe and Rest APAC. VIZIO should focus on these areas for the international expansion. Now, VIZIO has entered Japan and Canada through Costco, Sam’s and Wal-Mart, but Japan and Costco don’t show strong growth signal. Wal-Mart has the largest number of international stores and a very mature inventory management and delivery system. Therefore, if VIZIO partners with Wal-Mart, it could benefit from Wal-Mart’s developed system and easily adapt to the local environment. To finance the sustainable growth, VIZIO requires substantial money. William started VIZIO with $ 600000. After that, it received two 2004 investments from Amtran and Hon Hai, totaling $2 million. It generate positive profit and free cash flows over consecutive five years. For now, it uses Vendor Managed Inventory model to minimize its storage cost and inventory level. The cash cycle is shorter for customers with high credit ratings, such as Wal-Mart, than customers with low credit ratings. Its suppliers are willing to extend the accounts payable period for customers like Wal-Mart, and for low rating customers, VIZIO provides credit insurance. But considering the future making campaign as well as international expansion, it is requires more fund. These are two possible solutions to address this problem: Attract venture capital. VIZIO has a very good business model, and a prosperous bright future. With venture capital’s investment, it could grow faster with sufficient fund. Sell shares to partners or suppliers. This can strength their common interest and make sure suppliers will do their most to keep VIZIO growing. Conclusions: Generally speaking, VIZIO has large chances to continue its growth when it maintain its competitive advantage, seek sufficient fund by attracting venture capital and selling shares to partner companies, and handle well with all parts of relationships.

Media in the 1960s free essay sample

As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda is often biased, with facts selectively presented (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political, or other type of agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare. ’ Propaganda was used widely during the 1960’s, as the United States and the Soviet Union both used propaganda extensively during the Cold War. When describing life in capitalist countries, in the U. S. in particular, propaganda focused on social issues such as poverty and anti-union action by the government. Workers in capitalist countries were portrayed as ideologically close. Propaganda claimed rich people from the U. We will write a custom essay sample on Media in the 1960s or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page S. erived their income from weapons manufacturing, and claimed that there was substantial racism or neo-fascism in the U. S. When describing life in Communist countries, western propaganda sought to depict an image of a citizenry held captive by governments that brainwash them. The West also created a fear of the East, by depicting an aggressive Soviet Union. In the Americas, Cuba served as a major source and a target of propaganda from both black and white stations operated by the CIA and Cuban exile groups. Psychological warfare became, in essence, a synonym for Cold War. It reflected the belief of many politicians and foreign policy analysts that the Cold War was an ideological, psychological, and cultural contest for hearts and minds that would be won or lost on the plain of public opinion rather than by blood shed on the battlefield. The Cold War lasted from the end of World War II right up to the early 1990s, although the Soviet Union and the USA never actually engaged in direct battle. Instead, the Cold War was expressed through weapons development (the nuclear arms race), technological development (the space race), espionage and propaganda. Western democratic states churned out huge amounts of propaganda material throughout the First and Second World Wars, but practically decommissioned their propaganda machines post 1945. This is why most of the posters that we explore below have emerged from the Soviet Union or independent political activist groups, and not the West. The posters in this article have not only been selected on the basis of their highly creative and original content, each one also conceals a message. In some cases the message is blindingly obvious. In others, the message can only be deciphered once the poster has been placed in its historical context. psychological warfare n. The use of various techniques, such as propaganda and terror, to lower an enemys morale. es ·pi ·o ·nage   (spnazh, -nj)n. The act or practice of spying or of using spies to obtain secret information, as about another government or a business competitor. prop ·a ·gan ·da? ?[prop-uh-gan-duh] noun 1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

Kids in the Industrial Rev. essays

Kids in the Industrial Rev. essays The Industrial Revolution caused great changes in the people's way of life, especially childrens lives. By the early 1800's, most of the British people knew they were in the mist of a nationwide economic and social revolution. Educational and political privileges, which once had belonged to the upper class, spread to the growing middle class. Some workers were replaced by machines while others found a new job opportunities working with machinery. Both workers and employers had a cold and impersonal relationship. Most workers lived and worked in extremely harsh conditions in the ever expanding industrial cities. Under the domestic system, many employers had a close relationship with their workers and felt some responsibility for them. However, such relationships became impossible in the large factories of the Industrial Revolution. Industrialists employed many workers and could not deal with them personally. The average working day was between twelve to fourteen hours. Workers worked six days a week, that includes men, women, and small children. In the factories machines made workers work faster and harder without rest. Jobs became specialized and the work monotonous. Factory wages were low, most factory owners kept the wages low deliberately. Women and children worked as unskilled laborers and made only a small fraction of the men's already low wages. Children under ten years of age were often deformed or crippled by unsafe machines. Most factory workers, like other types of workers, were desperately poor and could not read or write, giving them no hope of a better life. Housing in the growing factory cities could not keep up with the migration of workers from rural areas. Severe overcrowding resulted, and many people lived in extremely unsanitary conditions that led to outbreaks of diseases. Since the ancient times, Children have worked to help support their families when they are in need, especiall ...

Syntactical issues for a education bilingual Research Paper

Syntactical issues for a education bilingual - Research Paper Example For this reason, English speakers have the difficulty in choosing the gerunds, which can fit a specific context or the infinitive ending of a verb if they need to translate the language. While there is a specific way of determining the different ways through which gerunds are formed in Spanish, some cases are difficult to determine in interpretation of the different things from Spanish to English may not be straightforward. For example, in forming gerunds with Spanish word that end with -er, -ar, and –ir, the addition of the words are added the –ando for all that end with –ar and –iendo for all words ending with the –er and –ir. This may be a form that people may have ease in interpreting but still this could pose a difficulty in interpreting the different words that the English language use in different contexts. In interpretation of the words that end with the –ando or iendo, the English speakers interpret them as by adding –i ng at the end of the of the verb form of the word. This makes it easy to understand the meanings of all the words that appear in the language in both language and interpret them with ease of determination of the endings (Jehle par 2-3). In understanding the gerunds, however, there are words that take only the verb form only in Spanish but in English, they are either verbs or nouns in the language. For instance, the word viviendo in Spanish, which means living in the English language has the form of a verb only in Spanish but is both a verb and a noun in English. Another word like bablando, which means speaking in Spanish, may take the verb and a noun and therefore, may make it difficult to determine the correct meaning of the word. This means that an English speaker may have difficulty in determining the best way to translate the different forms of the words that they need to use in the English form from the Spanish language. For instance, those who are learning to use the Spanish m ay encounter difficulty to determine whether a word written in Spanish is either a verb or a noun in English (Schwartz and Causarano par 1). In having gerunds in the Spanish language, there are special cases that are common in the language use, which do not necessarily take the form of –ando for -ar or –iendo for –er and ir. This is because some forms of gerunds take the other forms of gerund, which is not the usual even though they may end with similar letters from at the end. These are determined by the endings of the stem of the sentence in which case, it is not obvious to determine when an English speaker is using it. Some of the special cases of determination of gerunds in Spanish include the change of –iendo to –yendo in some cases of words whose stems have a vowel ending that is in its basic form of the word. For instance, the word caer in its continuous form becomes cayendo and in the same case, the word leer will take the form of leyendo i f there is addition of a gerund. Another special case is some words have their own change of the stems, which may take change of –o- to –u- or to –ue- so that they may have their own gerund. For example, in addition to the gerund of the word dormir, the word changes to durmiendo, this does not take the form of the first stem and then the normal ending of the gerund (Jehle par 3-7). In terms of infinitive there are

Brand management, Managing price discounting and its possible impact Assignment

Brand management, Managing price discounting and its possible impact on Brand equity - Assignment Example 11 Kotler, P & Caslione, J.A. (2009). Chaotics: the business of managing and marketing in the age of turbulence. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. 11 Saxena, R. (2005). Marketing Management. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. 11 Schultz, D.E. et.al. (1998). Sales promotion essentials: the 10 basic sales promotion techniques-- and how to use them. McGraw-Hill Professional. 11 Introduction Price promotions are also known as price discounting. Most companies adjust the list price of the products and allow discounts to get early payments, purchase at a high volume and off season buying. Price discounting has become the mode of operation for almost all the companies. Some of the products tend to be always on sale. Companies having overcapacity of products gives more discounts. The manufacturer should stop the discounting rate at which they offer to the retailers. This practice may results in losing the long term profits. Kevin Clancy had found that about 15% to 35% of the buyers are price sensitive . People with higher level of income are willing to pay more for better products, quality customer service and for the brand name. Thus this can prove to be harmful for strong and distinctive brands. On the other hand price discounting can also prove to be useful only if the company gains a concession (Kotler, 1972, p.390). Brand equity is defined as the brands perception in the minds of the consumers. It is about how the employees, customers, the stakeholders and the consumers feel for a particular brand. Brand equity is driven by four factors such as perceived quality, brand awareness, brand association and brand loyalty (Knapp, 2000, p.2). Price discounting Price discounting is used to accomplish different goals. One of the primary reasons for price discounting is to dispose of the remaining inventory from the previous seasons and stocking in with new merchandise in the stores and the warehouse. This practice is usually preferred by those companies who tend to change their select ions of merchandise. Another reason of price discounting is to encourage the consumers to visit the retail outlet. Such strategies are widely used by grocery stores, drug and discount stores where the consumer buys in a bulk. The use of price discounting is known as bait and switch. Price discounting is also done by retailers in order to create price discrimination between different consumers. This is a process which targets both the price sensitive and price insensitive consumers. The other set of consumers prefers buying when products are put up on sale rather than from competitive retailers. Sometimes retailers offers product at a discounting rate so that the company can have an upper hand from new competitors as well as from the existing ones (Schultz, et.al, 1998, p.188). Objectives for Price Discounting Pricing is one of the biggest pitfalls that a management deals during optimal economy. But pricing involves a lot of risk when the economy is not stable. Price discounting does work well to achieve the objectives of the company. A retailer prefers price discounting in order to meet their targets and objectives. Price discounting always involves risk, especially when it is not done correctly. It can hamper the business (Kotler & Caslione, 2009, p.58). Therefore there are certain objectives which are well suited for price discounting whereas other is not preferred. The objectives are set by the retailers, in order to achieve the set goals they offer

Community and public health nursing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Community and public health nursing - Case Study Example Apparently, the prevalence rates increases with age where U.S children aged between 15 and 17 years recorded the highest prevalence rate of 16.5 %. However, the highest prevalence rate in DC manifests among children aged between 5 and 9 years who had 21.6 %. Subject to these prevalence rates, I would target U.S children in the age group 15-17 for intervention since the condition is most common in this age group. The age group has the highest prevalence percent, 16.5 % in U.S. In DC, I would target children in the age group 5-9 for intervention. The age group has the highest prevalence percent, 21.6 % in DC. These interventions will reduce Asthma mortality rate among children. Moreover, subject to these prevalence rates, I would target black children in America and DC for intervention since the condition is most common in this race. The race has the highest prevalence percent, 21.0 % in U.S, and 20.4 % in DC. Indeed, the prevalence rate is higher among African Americans compared to whites and others. The intervention will reduce Asthma mortality rate among black

Software Development Waterfall Model

Software Development Waterfall Model For any project gathering the requirements is the basic and key step which defines what the project is supposed to do. Requirements give the information on which the system design is based. If the requirements gathered are incorrect or incomplete this will lead to the failure of the project. Requirements deficiencies may occur due to many reasons, difficulty in prioritizing, natural conflicts of interest. While gathering the requirements for a project we need to estimate the cost of the project, scope of the project, reliability, etc. The law states that the incomplete or wrong definition of requirements is the major cause for the project failure. EXAMPLE: A software company, Virtusa released software for its client Phase Forward but within few days the software didnt worked as per the requirement of the clients and the software had to undergo inspection, the result was the failure in providing the complete requirements by the client. At last the software was a failure due to requirements deficiencies. Boehms first law Errors are most frequent during the requirements and design activities and are the more expensive the later they are removed. There are many errors in requirements definition stage and design stage; errors in design stage are less serious than in requirements stage. The developer of the project should know the exact purpose of the project and identify the errors in the earlier stage of the project development otherwise the removing these errors in later stage would be costly as the time of the project increase the expenses of the people based the project increases. And it takes the team to more time to remove these errors later on. EXAMPLE: Mentor Graphics Company released a software application with over 300 bugs in it. The expected deadline for the software was almost impossible to achieve with all the bugs in it. The company had to hire more software engineers to remove the errors from the software which increased the cost of the project which was much higher than estimated. Boehms second law Prototyping (significantly) reduces requirement and design errors, especially for user interfaces. Prototyping helps the user to see how the completed project would appear. Prototyping of a project helps identify and reduce the errors in the project. Prototyping also reduces the gap between description and implementation. Prototyping of the project helps to keep a better understanding between the development team and the client. Depending upon the user requirements and the changes to the projects different prototype can be built. Example: Prototyping of software helps the client and the developers how the product is being developed where the client can add more requirements if necessary, by this way there will be very few errors at the end of release. For example, an online banking system software require prototyping where the requirements cannot be specified at a time and the requirements change is frequent. Davis law The value of a model depends on the view taken, but none is best for all purposes. A model is used to represent a system. A model can be viewed for different aspects such as data, process, state transition, structure and behaviour. The importance of the model is the way it is viewed. Model are used for checking the consistency but not executed. A model can answers many questions that a actual project would face in the real world. Example: Ford motors create a real life size model of it vehicles out of clay to observe the look and feel it gives. It also helps the engineers to collect the data about the aerodynamics of the car and the changes can be made by observing the model before building a real one. Your first task is to describe each software development methodology clearly and completely in your own words. You may use diagrams, examples or UML to help you do this. Waterfall Model: Waterfall model is the classic life cycle tool for the software engineers. The waterfall model demands a systematic sequential approach to the software development that start at the system analysis level and passes through analysis, design, coding, testing and maintenance. The waterfall model goes through the following activities: System engineering and analysis. Software requirements analysis. Design. Coding. Testing. Maintenance. Analysis System engineering Design Code Testing Maintenance In the waterfall model we need to go through one phase to another phase when the requirements of one phase are met. For example if the requirements of the design phase are complete then we move to coding phase, if the requirements in this phase are not complete then we will be stuck in coding phase until the requirements of this phase are met. There are advantages and disadvantages in the waterfall model. Real time projects rarely follow the sequential flow of the waterfall model as it is difficult for the customer to give all the requirements at a time. Waterfall model is only suitable for projects in which the requirements are specified explicitly. Agile Methodology: Using an agile methodology the project is break down into small sections or tasks. Each task is done in one week to four weeks. Each task undergoes the complete development cycle i.e requirement analysis, designing, coding and testing. After each task is completed a working prototype is shown to the client, the client may then have some more requirements which they did not mention in the beginning to be added to the project which can be added in the next iteration. In this way there will be very less bugs when the software is released at the end. An agile team consists of 5-9 persons, where the persons are software developers, testers, etc.. . By having a small team it is easy for the team to communicate with each other. An agile team prefer to meet the client face to face rather than by having requirements on paper when the team and client are in same location or by video conferring when the client is overseas. The main aim of an agile methodology is to develop the product with less errors and complete functionality with a given time. Using the first four laws of the text, show where these are either implemented or missing in each software development methodology (Total Two). If a law is missing, explain the consequences and suggest how the process might be improved. Waterfall model with Glass Law Requirement deficiencies are the prime source of project failures. According to glass law insufficient requirements is the major cause for project failures. So according to glass law the requirements for a project should be clearly defined so that the project is done successfully. In a waterfall model each phase should be completely satisfy the needs of that phase so as to go to next phase. Therefore in the requirement analysis phase in waterfall model should be completely fulfilled so the glass law is applicable in waterfall model. Waterfall model with Boehms First Law Errors are most frequent during the requirements and design activities and are the more expensive the later they are removed. According to Boehms first law identifying the errors in the later stage of the project is more costly to remove them. So the errors should be identified in the earlier stage of the project. Boehms first law is applicable in waterfall model as in the waterfall model is more reliable and the final product of the project is good. In waterfall model we go from one phase to another so to correct the errors we need to come back and start from the beginning which would become more costly in doing it. Waterfall model with Boehms Second Law Prototyping (significantly) reduces requirement and design errors, especially for user interfaces. Boehms second law states that prototyping the project reduces the requirement and design errors. So the project should have a prototype and a good user interface which helps us to reduce the requirement and design errors. In the Waterfall model prototypes should be considered when we are defining the requirements so that we can use these prototypes to identify the errors in the earlier stage. Waterfall model with Davis Law The value of a model depends on the view taken, but none is best for all purposes. According to the Davis law the value of a model only can be determined by the view taken, but none of the view can satisfy all the purposes of the project. So there is no model which can satisfy all the purpose in one view so waterfall model is cannot be implemented using the Davis law. Agile methodology with Glass Law Requirement deficiencies are the prime source of project failures According to the Glass law insufficient requirements is the major cause for the failure of the projects. In the Agile methodology the requirements are defined in the earlier stage and can be defined whenever they are required so there is no issue of insufficient requirements in the Agile methodology therefore the Agile methodology can be implemented using the glass law. Agile methodology with Boehms First Law Errors are most frequent during the requirements and design activities and are the more expensive the later they are removed According to Boehms first law removing the errors in the later stage of the project is more expensive then to identify them in the earlier stage and remove them. In the Agile methodology the errors can be identified when they occur and can be removed as they occur, so there will not be any errors later. But if they occur it would be costly to remove them later. Therefore Boehms first law is applicable with the spiral model. Agile methodology with Boehms Second Law Prototyping (significantly) reduces requirement and design errors, especially for user interfaces. According to the Boehms second law prototyping of the project reduces the errors. In Agile methodology we develop prototypes for each and every task as the project develops so as to reduce the errors. Therefore, Boehms second law in applicable for Agile methodology. Agile methodology with Davis Law The value of a model depends on the view taken, but none is best for all purposes According to the Davis law the value of the project depends on the view taken, but none of the views can be best suited for all purposes. Different views of the project satisfy the different purposes of the project. Therefore Agile methodology or any model is not applicable with the Davis law. For each software development methodology, give an example of a project which it would be well suited for and one which it would be inappropriate for (Total Two projects for each software development methodology). Waterfall Model Waterfall model is well suitable for large projects which are expensive, and where the project requirements are defined completely and the requirement does not change as the product is being developed. For example, A project of creating a payroll application, which does not have much requirements to be changed is well suitable to build with waterfall model. Examples where this model does not suit Waterfall model is not suitable for projects in which the requirements are not clearly defined and the requirements change during the later stages of the project. For example, the waterfall model is not suitable for projects such as a Antivirus software in which the requirements change is very frequent. Agile Methodology Examples where this model suits Agile methodology is suitable for projects which have low risk factor, small teams and the projects where the requirements often change. For example, the projects to create a antivirus software where the requirements change is very frequent. Examples where this model does not suit Agile methodology is not suitable projects which have high risk factor, needs more developers and where the resources are used more.

Humorous Wedding Speech from the Father of the Bride -- Wedding Toasts

Humorous Wedding Speech from the Father of the Bride Distinguished guests, those of dubious distinction and those of no distinction, family, relatives, in-laws and outlaws, young and old, friends, friends of friends, freeloaders and hangers-on – let me extend a warm welcome to Meradith and Naren’s wedding reception celebration. Winston Churchill was apparently asked to address a prep school and he got up and said, â€Å"Never, Never, Never give up!† then he sat down. Well you are not going to get away quite as easily as that, but I will try to be brief. There aren’t many people who find themselves in the position I find myself in today. I’m married, 35 and I have two sons, yet I find myself in the role of â€Å"Father of the Bride†, but as I am Meradith’s brother I consider it a great honour and would like to say how proud I am to be giving away my beautiful baby sister today. I know I speak on behalf of my mother and the rest of Meradith’s family when I say how proud we are today to see Meradith looking so beautiful, finally married to Naren. During the time we have known him we have come to realise how special he is to Meradith, and everyone can see how they are made for each other. He is really likable and easy going, and we are happy to welcome him formally into our family. At this point in the proceedings, it is traditional to bring up an embarrassing moment from Meradith’s past or to highlight ... ...uite hard to carry out. You must both realise that marriage isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. Many of us know that everyone faces ups and downs in a life commitment. There is no secret to a happy marriage. You’ll both have to work at it, like many of us. There is no challenge in a marriage that cannot be overcome by the following three, three-word sentences. These are: I was wrong! You were right! I love you! Meradith and Naren, Here’s to the past for all that you’ve learned Here’s to the present for all that you share And here’s to the future for all that you can look forward to together. Ladies and Gentlemen, please be upstanding, and raise your glasses to Meradith and Naren