Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

1. Please describe and evaluate the Country/Political Risk faced by this organization and describe its successes and failures.
   2. What has been the lending strategy followed by Santander?  Are lending decisions based on the credit background of the borrower, or on the riskiness of the venture?  How do they manage risk?  How do they finance their loans? Why is there so little cross-border borrowing?
   3. How is the lending strategy different to US commercial banks?
   4. As a consultant to the CEO, what would you suggest Magda Salarich do now? Please obtain, identify and evaluate the data and conduct a multi-perspective analysis of the evidence to make a logical recommendation for solving the problem with a global perspective.
   5. Defend your recommendation and communicate your beliefs clearly and accurately.
   
   
   Usually business writing incorporates APA format. Case length is not an important consideration in my grading strategy.
   
   The questions posed are meant to guide you in developing an analytical framework that you must present in a case report. Usually you can incorporate your responses in sections C and D described below. I cannot prescribe a single outline or template, but I can identify “building blocks” that are essential to building a logical structure that will stand up to critical scrutiny, and serve as a useful guide to presenting the results of your in depth case analysis. Essential building blocks and structure are as follows:
   
   Executive Summary
   
   Section A. Introduction and Overview of the Situation
   
   Section B. Assumptions and Methods
   
   Section C. Business Impacts
   
   Section D. Descriptions of Sensitivity, Risks, Successes, Failures, Contingencies and Strategies
   
   Section E. Conclusions and Recommendations

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Each student is expected to actively participate in the weekly discussion forums by posting answers to the following questions.


Effect of Statements on Borrowing  (Short answers)

-Describe the uses of Income statement vs. tax returns
-What do the bankers look for?

Financial Ratios

-list the most useful ad explain what  they mean

The Loan Package

-How the business plan fits in
-SBA requirements
-Covenants


The questions are based on the book: Small Business: An Entrepreneur's Business Plan (9th Edition)

Chapter 8: Start-up Concerns and Financial Projections-Researching and Preparing Numbers

Chapter 9: Shaking the Money Tree-Locating Hard Cash

Gender Equality in the Finance Industry

Introduction

 The purpose of this report is to detail the role of gender equality in the finance industry. The relevance and actionable information coupled with up-to-date evidence on women's role in the financial industry brings out the need for gender equality in the world. Women in the finance industry should be empowered to venture into the financial sector and support its growth both personally and professional wise. The financial industry is essential in policymaking a budgeting of world’s economies. Being at the center of the industry is a chance to have control of the direction of most powerful economies of the entire world. Gender equality is one of the central issues that determine talent selection and the development of most thriving sector in the entire world. Gender equality not only promotes women rights but human rights for both sexes hence it ends up protecting and safe guarding the interests of most people. In 2019, the number of women in top managerial roles within the financial industry was 21.9%. However 200, the number might grow to 31%.  Even though this number marks progress in the financial sector, the distribution and representation of women in all levels of the financial industry is considered to be of great importance to gender parity. One of the main reasons for the promotion of gender quality in the financial sector is to stop gender based violence against women and men. It is important for economic growth as women are given a chance to thrive and gain mileage where they could not have been considered fit enough to provide services. Furthermore, the report is a call for action to promote gender equality due to organizational diversification in the financial industry. Gender equality has been proven to influence creativity and promote output especially in the financial sector. Gender diversity specifically at the managerial levels is tied to increased profit margins. Therefore, according to certain surveys conducted in the financial industry gender equality impacts the performance of financial firms hence it is central in the evaluation of key performance aspects. In the current corporate world, organizations are rethinking management approaches to upgrade the end result for women. One vital way of restructuring industries to accommodate gender equality matters is by intentionally formulating policies which favor both men and women and aligning internal policies to gender quality matters. For the sake of ensuring gender does not lean on either side, experts have claimed that men should never been sidelined in making decision about gender equality.

The problem

 Gender equality will ensure that all the people have right of entry to sexual and reproductive medical amenities without any discrimination. Secondly, gender equality enacts policies and frameworks which protect women hence eradicates any form of violence against women and even men (Claessens, & Feijen, 2007). The chance of coming up with more than one way of ensuring that human rights are holistically protected or safeguarded is by ensuring gender equality is upheld in all the institutions in the world.  Finding ways of reducing gender inequality will give women a chance to succeed in all spheres of life. Even though gender quality is gradually gaining momentum and women are increasingly joining the labor market.

This particular sustainable develop goal provides international communities with a strategic opening to advance human rights and protect the rights of women and men while at the same time safeguarding their general wellbeing. The failure of most institutions promote gender equality and quicken the policies which would assist gender equality gain mileage brings to focus the intensive impact of gender inequality and the obstructive gender norms which affect both men and women (Antonopoulos, 2009). All through history, gender inequality has negatively impacted both men and women’s lives. For instance women are not allowed to pursue education because their worth is tied to marriage and men are not allowed to achieve more than their traditional role. Gender norms determine the levels of gender equality in various communities all over the world. Due to the deeply entrenched gender roles which dictate gender progression within the society. For instance women were considered to be domestic workers and therefore they could never advance their education because their gender roles identified them as home keepers. Apart from gender roles and community norms, gender bias are closely linked to most of the health issues. For example, researchers are biased on how they gather and analyze data hence the actual impact of gender inequality is never fully exposed or captured in a true manner.

Numerous issues determine gender equality for both men and women’s representation in various organizational setting. Most of the organizations began before people began advocating for gender equality. Nevertheless, the increasing emphasis on the importance of gender equality has shed light on the need for democratization in order to reduce the gender barriers responsible for stopping women and men from succeeding in various fields (Rubery, 2013). More so, showing support for gender equality issues prove that democratization has served it primary purpose and goal. Partly, gender equality consists of traditional change which is changing numerous features of the industrialized communities and supporting most of the democratic institutions. Most of the times, the democratic institutions pass regulations and laws which permit people to support and construct facilities which enable the practical aspects of gender equality to be openly practiced. In the recent past there has been a connection between traditional cultural attitudes and barriers to gender equality in the entire society. To come up with new ways of transforming the culture and protecting women and men from vices that would otherwise harm their well-being, changing traditional cultural norms seems to be one of the best ways of removing barriers to realizing gender equality in society (Gravili et al., 2019). Even though initial research and investigations of gender equality show that with time gender equality is naturally enacted, the process is normally slow hence the need to formalize democratic processes in order to make gender equality a reality. As stated initially advocating for gender equality will lead to economic progression due to the increased opportunities for both men and women. An alternative goal for attaining gender equality is to bring about safer communities due to increased accessibilities to capitals and openings in the current world. Gender equality directly and indirectly promotes justice. Therefore without attaining gender equality men and women cannot easily get fair treatment from the judicial systems.

 According to most experts in order to gain a deeper understanding of the gender equality, gender norms have to be evaluated based on stereotypes and other gender biasness practiced and accepted over time in the society (Cullen, & Murphy, 2018). For instance, unchallenged traditions of men domination and the subordination of women need to be investigated and rectified if gender equality is to be realized and nurtured in the community where women are looked down upon and dominated by men. The effectiveness of gender equality is normally dependent on changing the perceptions and traditional responsible for causing gender imbalance in the society.

The solution

  The financial industry has made progressive steps towards realizing gender equality.  Notably, the current industry is changing to accommodate more gender equality issues. Apart from society force to accommodate gender equality issues, most financial institutions are changing their organizational structure to align with gender equality issues. A diversified gender has proved to be effectual, supportive and respectful in terms of contributing to the entire performance of the company. Inclusion efforts simplifies work done hence improving the experiences of the workers (Petit, 2007). Discovering related welfares, familiarities purposes and values systems brings individuals together hence assisting to close the gender inequality gap between men and women. Sometimes and in some cases, men would prefer to work with women than other men. In this kind of situations, gender equality is normally considered in terms of interests and past experiences which plays a role in nurturing both the men and women in these particular situations. In addition, formal inclusion of both  genders brings about gender equality to not only exist but thrive in financial institutions where men are known to be dominant than women. While it takes time for gender equality to be appreciated as a way of sustaining human rights all over the world, the timing and place of gender equality is normally required (Fagan, & Rubery, 2018). For example, most people tend to think that women cannot fight in wars while others might think that some of the most common ways of bringing men and women together is through complimentary roles such as marriage, leadership forums where men and women are taught on how to live together. However, gender equality has to motivate both men and women to use their talents and skills to better themselves in their respective financial positions. Therefore, men can venture in areas deemed as feminine and women can specialize in areas once termed as masculine in nature. Therefore, the enhancement of identifying people with certain careers should be a think of the past as people mature and evolve to venture into any financial discipline they see fit.

 A financial institution that embeds gender quality issues into its organizational operations ensure that women and men are treated with dignity has higher chances of attaining a more superior output. This implication is normally instantaneous because the company alters is attitudes and company culture. Any financial institutions should comprehend that equal payment and bonuses are to issue based on merit and not gender. This way, financial forms are able to create more opportunities for development and promotion among their workforce (Razavi, 2016). Workers are not supposed to encounter discrimination because of their gender and any reports on gender discrimination should be swiftly acted upon. Gender inequalities is reduced due to change in financial administrative structures, operations and activities. For both men and women, gender inequality is entrenched in the human resource operations and frameworks. This is because human resource operations- decision-making, guidelines and implementation influence appointments, staffing, training, salaries and promotion among the workforce. Therefore, there is need to create a gender discrimination policy in the human resource department which will see to it that gender inequality is decrease. Depending on the nature of work, most of the times, financial industry is known to be inhospitable towards women due to the various kinds of gender inequalities that can be found in that particular field.  This bias against women has discouraged young women from venturing into the financial industry due to the intensive harassment and discrimination. In the long run, women have been ranked as low socio-economic categories because the financial industry is just one of the major industry which discriminates against them. Consequently, the need to change human resource practices which in the long run affects gender equality has to be started. Both men and women deserve a chance to work in any field. Due to the prominence of the financial industry and the extensive impact it has on the job market, women have to be empowered to take up more financial jobs in the sector.

Apart from diversified hiring and advocating for equal pay, updating training mechanisms to factor in gender equality subject matter. A positive organizational culture ensures that the working space is gender neutral (Karamessini & Rubery, 2013). This way, all the workers can conduct their studies without feeling disrespected or undervalued. In the modern work space people are required to perform certain workloads before they can be considered qualified or even skilled. The financial industry has retained its workforce based on the positive feedback from clients. Nevertheless, gender bias can cause inaction because workforce is required to rely on merit even when it is clear that women might be more disadvantaged than men. In these types of situations where the man has a clear advantage over the woman, it is the responsibility of the women to be supported in every way.

Conclusion

 According to recent studies, the finance industry is a male dominated field.  The male-domination industry has been forced to enact policies which promote gender equality in the profession. Women have for a long time been discouraged from venturing into male dominated careers and industries. Even though the finance industry has made strides to decrease the gender gap between men and women, women are still lagging in the financial sector. Therefore, the best approach was to change human resources processes and practices to accommodate more women, especially in the administrative roles. In some parts of the world, such as America, women are offered scholarships to study finance-related fields such as accounting. This attempts to increase the number of women who has worked but has not had the right impact.

Furthermore, financial firms have been forced to offer equal pay to both men and women. Gender equality it more than just equal pay and career progression, it entails transforming organization into institutions which adhere to the rule of law. Gender equality is associated with increased profit margins due to the increased output and exceptional performance. Studies show that the positions women occupy might rise in the near future if they are empowered to venture more into finance industry. Presently, the finance industry has to meet a gender equality threshold of 50/50 so that both men and women will have an equal chance working in the financial industrial sector. Therefore, the protection of human rights seem to be the primary role of gender equality.

Reference

Antonopoulos, R. (2009). The current economic and financial crisis: a gender perspective. Levy Economics Institute, Working Papers Series, (562).

Claessens, S., & Feijen, E. (2007). Financial sector development and the millennium development goals. The World Bank.

Cullen, P., & Murphy, M. P. (2018). Leading the debate for the business case for gender equality, perilous for whom?. Gender, Work & Organization, 25(2), 110-126.

Fagan, C., & Rubery, J. (2018). Advancing gender equality through European employment policy: the impact of the UK's EU membership and the risks of Brexit. Social Policy and Society, 17(2), 297-317.

Gravili, G., Avram, A., & Nicolescu, A. C. (2019, April). Gender Equality and Firm Financial Performance: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe Financial and IT&C Sectors. In Proceedings of the ICGR 2019 2nd International Conference on Gender Research, Rome, Italy (pp. 11-12).

Karamessini, M., & Rubery, J. (Eds.). (2013). Women and austerity: The economic crisis and the future for gender equality. Routledge.

Petit, P. (2007). The effects of age and family constraints on gender hiring discrimination: A field experiment in the French financial sector. Labour Economics, 14(3), 371-391.

Razavi, S. (2016). The 2030 Agenda: challenges of implementation to attain gender equality and women's rights. Gender & Development, 24(1), 25-41.

Rubery, J. (2013). Public sector adjustment and the threat to gender equality. In Public Sector Shock. Edward Elgar Publishing.

1. Describe the risk and how would you evaluate the overall situation?

Financial risk- in the process of determining the wellbeing of the organization, it will be vital to identify and analyze the uncertainties involved in investment decisions. As a result of that, it will be paramount to quantify potential losses that might be incurred both in the short-run and long-term (Lee et al., 2010). Since risk tolerance is acceptable, it will be vital to consider the amount of returns that are projected to rise from the individual capital outlay.

1. How would you evaluate the financial aspects of the decision to improve your management of this risk? (There may be none)

In order to effectively manage the finances that have been surrendered to make the organization to prosper, it is vital to understand the risks that are involved.  Therefore, to improve the management of financial risks, it will be important to control such a risk so as to optimize efficiencies. Such a strategy will take into account the need for meeting customer demands to gain a competitive advantage.

1. How would you evaluate the non-financial aspects of the decision?

In the process of evaluating the non-financial aspects of the organization, it will be important to be innovative to increase operational efficiency. Because of that, it will be paramount to measure non-financial systematic risks of the organization by comparing them with the entire market.

1. Who are the stakeholders?

The main stakeholders who will be accountable in such a trade will be external financiers. In this case, it will be important to take into account the money that will be received from banks and other non-governmental institutions (Brown, 2015).

1. What are the direct, tangible factors that influence the risk management plan?

Direct and tangible factors will take into account human labor. The reason for that is because human labor will aid in the implementation of corrective actions to be taken in managing the financial risks involved (Skoglund & Chen, 2015). Selecting the appropriate personnel to run the whole system will ensure that financial resources have not been wasted. 

1. What are the intangible ones?

The intangible factors will comprise of the unforeseen risks that might evolve in the future. That will take into account market changes because of different customer perceptions.  The risk tolerance of the organization will have to be based on current market trends.

1. Provide a brief summary of your plan for managing your selected risk.

As much as adequate financial outlay is concerned, it will be paramount to take into consideration the tangible and physical aspects of the organization. In this case, determining how to raise revenue and how it will be allocated will be necessary to make the organization enjoy the economies of scale. Since customer perceptions keep on changing, understanding how the organization influences the demands of each customer is important (Brown, 2015). Furthermore, to effectively manage such a financial risk, it is important to create a positive image for stakeholders.

1. How would you communicate the plan?

Adequate financial outlay is one of the important factors that make any business enterprise to prosper. As a result of that, it will be paramount to ensure that each stakeholder has been informed o how their finances will be utilized daily (Apostolik et al., 2015). The revenues that are projected to arise should also be documented to create transparency for them.

1. How would you implement the plan?

To implement the plan appropriately, it will be important to ensure that the plan has been documented. The written materials should be supplied to each stakeholder so that they can keep in mind the directions that the organization is taking. As a result of that, it will be easier to gather different ideas from the concerned stakeholders regarding the appropriate action that might be incorporated in the same plan (Brown, 2015).

1. How would you monitor the risk management plan into the future to ensure continued effectiveness?

To effectively monitor such a risk management plan, it will be vital to take into account how each task has been accomplished. In case some tasks have not been accomplished as scheduled, it will be vital to take corrective actions. Any changes that could have been recommended should also be incorporated into the plan to make each task to be executed as required (Allen, 2013). Any uncertainty anticipated should also be documented so that corrective action can be taken as soon as possible.

References

Allen, S. (2013). Financial risk management: A practitioner's guide to managing market and credit risk. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

Apostolik, R., Donohue, C., & Global Association of Risk Professionals. (2015). Foundations of financial risk: An overview of financial risk and risk-based financial regulation. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Brown, A. (2015). Financial Risk Management For Dummies. Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar

Lee, C. F., Lee, A. C., & Lee, J. (2010). Handbook of quantitative finance and risk management. New York: Springer.

Skoglund, J., & Chen, W. (2015). Financial Risk Management: Applications in Market, Credit, Asset and Liability Management and Firmwide Risk. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Deutsche Bank Case Study

Introduction

 Deutsche Bank began its operations in 1870 and had 2425 international branches. Apart from banking, the company offered financial items and services such as retail banking, merger facilities, foreign exchange, and organization allowance strategies. Even though the banking organization offered numerous services under its portfolio and had managed to stay afloat amidst a financial calamity in 2008, it is currently fighting with the corporate changes facing it. Even so, Deutsche covered $7.2 billion to settle complaints from consumers. Their reputation was ruined and they had to pay more than $7.2 billion in penalties (Brice et al., 2007). The challenges facing the bank exposed the internal weakness and the complicated nature of the organization's internal structure. The bank could not resolve most of the problems it was encountering. One of the underlying weakness was attributed to their outdated organization and managerial system, procurement, and mergers, lack of mergers for their corresponding informatics structures and information systems.

Background

Deutsche bank found itself in trouble with American regulators after it failed to meet reporting requests as stipulated in the Commodity Exchange Act and other institutional regulations. Some banking regulation bodies raised complaints in April 2016 after the bank's information reporting system caused an outage which later prohibited the bank from transmitting its compound asset programs for five consecutive days. Deutsche banks ensuing struggles to try and prevent the systematic outage only worsened the situation creating severe challenges for itself. For instance, after the bank attempted to solve the outage, Deutsche bank’s swap information reported past and present consistent challenges about the integrity of specified data sets such as various invalid legal entities elements. In other words, in an attempt to solve a problem they ended up exposing their secrets and illegalities. Apart from incurring expensive costs due to the outage and failing to meet regulatory requirements, the bank found it hard to meet its daily business needs and run its operations without recurring any extra costs (Bank, 2011). Hence, US banking regulatory bodies proved that the lack of an updated information technology system was one of the main reasons the bank failed to provide accurate banking information and this made it hard for them to keep up with regulators. Inadequate information systems played a role in causing the bank's monetary crisis. Since time immemorial banks often failed to unravel intricate financial items under their systems hence failing to narrow down on the actual value and this is the reason they sold themselves short and run their banking organizations to the ground.

Discussions

The Problems Revealed In the Case Study

 One of the main problems brought to light is the failure to install and utilize an up to date information system which would have made it possible to store, organize, and retrieve crucial banking data. The second challenge identified is the inability to create a workable framework to facilitate operative strategies which led to revenue loss and development of numerous problems which they could handle at one go. Banks operate under dynamic conditions and situations, failure for the Deutsche management bank to meet central bank regulations due to the changing dynamics drained the bank's financial coffers, and at the same time, the bank had no reliable assets to lean on (Bull et al., 2011).  Due to the collective impact, other banks limited their lending to Deutsche bank hence the bank found it hard to remain afloat amidst the challenges.

The Role of Information at Deutsch Bank

 Information technology at the bank was pivotal in retaining internal affairs and kept at bay regulatory pressures and consumer expectations. All the challenges at the bank culminated in outdated systems, inefficiency, and decision-making incapability. Consequently, these challenges led to inaccurate information on business matters resulting in poor decision making due to inadequate and inaccurate information. Deutsche bank like any other banking institution relies heavily on information technology systems to manage its financial commercial matters. Generally, information technology systems and frameworks meaningfully safeguard business operations and ensure everything runs smoothly. Failure to update and set up roper channels often leads to unprecedented amounts of trouble. Despite the impactful role information technologies play in banking, the Deutsche bank never bothered to install a proper information technology system network (Ali, Jampanaboyana, & Greybush, 2009). The failure to update its information technology system was due to years of mergers and expansion. When banks merge and buy other financial organizations, they usually did not integrate the information technology system with the acquired company or firm. The costs and expenses needed to integrate, include direction across numerous managerial departments hence the bank left most of its outdated information technology system intact. Thus, the organization expanded its business while leaving an out of date information technology system to cater to the increased workload of each one of their newly acquired business and this is where the bank went completely wrong. This led to a phenomenon known as ‘spaghetti balls’ where various technology strategies fail to meet the expectations of the managerial duties.

 Information technology improves work efficiency and the flow of organizational duties. When a company makes use of information technology mechanisms, they usually define suitable procedures that may lead to upgrading general placement within their market niche.

Information Technology Relating To Decision-Making Competences and Business Administration

 As stated earlier, information technology integrates strategic managerial tasks such as accounting and information storage. This way, the company can give out accurate information and clearly state its performance and communication thus in the end it impacts informed decision making. One common goal of information technology is enhancing organizational duties due to higher processing speed and storage of crucial information. Digitized data handling increases volume, swiftness, usefulness, and capacity hence leading to more output of information-intensive mechanisms (Bull et al., 2011). Harmonized computer systems information software minimizes the processing expenses related to collecting, distributing, evaluating, storage, retrieval of information, and evidence. Affordable charges make market frameworks more appealing hence information technology systems make business actions more economical which affects the internal organizational systems, subcontracting procedures, and other associated activities. In short, the application of information technology impacts each and every action of a company.

Conclusion

 The Deutsche bank extended its business activities through mergers and acquisitions. Even though the company remains successful, its internal operations were strained as the bank did not update its internal operating system hence the system was overwhelmed by the heavy workload. Also, the bank found it hard to release confidential information on regulatory policies and legal documents. Due to poor information storage, the company devalued its assets and this led to the loss of funds that were under its watch. The role of information technology is to digitize consumer information, information processing, and even retrieval of crucial information.

References

Ali, S. S., Jampanaboyana, L. N., & Greybush, J. J. (2009). U.S. Patent No. 7,558,381. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Bank, D. (2011). Annual report 2011. Bank XYZ. Jakarta.

Brice, T., Delph, D., Heil, G., Lettovsky, L., & Offutt, J. (2007). U.S. Patent Application No. 11/237,528.

Bull, D. S., Carr Jr, R. N., & Offutt Jr, J. R. (2011). U.S. Patent No. 7,890,652. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

 The Value Based Pricing Strategy

Introduction.

Value based pricing primarily involves setting prices of products and services on the consumer perceived value instead of setting the price of a product or a service according to the cost of production.  In the process of understanding value-based pricing it is important to note that this method is a customer focused method where companies base their pricing on how much the customer believes the service and product are worth.  Mostly it is companies that offer highly valuable products and services that take advantage of this pricing method.  This method of pricing most preferably applies in a market where possessions being sold enhances a customer’s self-image and as a result customer are willing to assign the products high value. Through the implementation of value-based pricing companies are able to maximize their profits and fetch maximum prices for high value products.

When implementing this method, it is important to put some factors into consideration, it is very essential for a company to resolve its competitive objectives. The introduction of B2B concept of trading has spectacularly helped in raising the value if products in various markets through value creation and capture (Aspara & Tikkanen, 2013).  Many companies opt not to apply value-based pricing since the company is not aware of its own advantages and because of misalignment of company objectives. In most companies there exist a conflict between the objectives and profitability and in most cases the more the market shares a company holds the more profitable the company is. To facilitate the implementation of value-based pricing the company ought to have aligned company objectives and be aware of its advantages that make it stand out amidst competitors. This will help the company dominate and sustain its target market segment.

            Secondly, it is important to have a deeper understanding of customer segmentation, there exists a lot of ways of approaching value-based pricing.  The segmentation that exists between companies affects the market segment that the company is aiming for. In general terms it can be said that there are customers who will always choose the product or service with the lowest price and there are value-driven customers who are willing to pay more for products that are certainly worth the price.  In the market different products are sold at different prices but selling the same product at different prices is illegal and can be termed as price discrimination (Christopher, et al., 2005).  It is still possible to avoid price discrimination and still be able to charge differently on the same product through fencing and versioning. Price fencing involves a criterion which a consumer must meet in order to qualify for lower prices.  Versioning and fencing are the two ways that can be used to cater for two market segments that are willing to pay different prices for the same product, this way the profitability of a company will increase.

To successfully implement value-based selling, companies have to learn to utilize pricing as a form of pain management (Paranikas, et al., 2015). In most instances’ coupons are given to customers so that they could obtain discounts on products. However, coupons cannot be issued out blindly before identifying customers that are willing to pay more while buying in large quantities. As a result of marketers trying to eliminate competition the market is now segmented in a way that each segment has its own discount level. Each market has a price for its own products but no customer pays the full amount due to price negotiations. One of the greatest challenges being faced by companies today is the issuing of many discounts without getting anything in return (Paranikas, et al., 2015). For companies to gain profits they have to utilize pricing as a tool, when customers’ requests for discounts they have to offer something in return to get discounts and lower prices. If customers do not suffer the pain of requesting for discounts then they will continue asking for discounts.

Understanding price negotiation and fear is the fourth factor to put into consideration when implementing value-based pricing. It is important for companies to understand that displaying pricing confidence is important, this will allow Sales team to sell their products confidently and believe in the price worthy value of the products and services (Liozu, 2015). Companies should strive to build pricing confidence in teams whilst showing the team on how to add more value to a product or service. In instances where the seller is not confident about the price of a product or service, commodization may occur. This occurs when the price quoted by the non-confident seller is as good or bad as those of the competitors. Customers leverage commodization to drive down the prices of a commodity during negotiations. Therefore, it is important to convince the buyer or customer that a product is not selling for a lower price when the seller fully comprehends the value and the price of the commodity.

Lastly, to fully implement the value-based strategy it is essential to address mindset change. This pricing strategy mostly involves change in mindset and the underlying mechanics of establishing a price and the sales skills that are needed to achieve the price in the market (Hinterhuber, 2004). A mindset transformation is needed in an organization for value-based pricing to work, the entire company should start thinking about selling the value instead of just selling the product. Once companies have identified the value of their products their answer to questions such as what is the value and how is the value quantified? Will be easy to answer and will be very specific for each company.  Once companies have established the value of their products, they can go ahead and establish the value-pricing strategy.

The needs of a consumer are not constant, therefore; they change with time. As a a result of the changing needs of consumers the perception consumers have about certain products and services is not constant too. Marketers have to advance their researches as well as their pricing to keep the brand competitive over time (Michel, et al., 2013). Before implementing this method of pricing, it is important to conduct market research and understand if it will work in the company’s favor.  The law of demand and supply states that when supply increases without the demand increasing the prices of commodities usually decreases and if demand rises with no change in supply the prices of goods and services are bound to increase. The value perception of the value-based pricing is intertwined with the availability of the product.  To take the example of a movie theater, a movie theatre is in a position to charge a high amount of money for popcorns that consumer can buy at a very low price at home, this is because the demand for snacks in a theater  is high, therefore, customers put a high value on the snacks.

            The Fashion industry is heavily influenced by value-based pricing, typically popular named brand designers command high prices based on the consumer perception of how the brand affects their image. If a designer in the fashion industry can convince a list of celebrities to wear his/her look on the red carpet, the perceived value of the associated brand is likely to skyrocket. name-brand pharmaceuticals, and personal care and cosmetics industry are also industries that are subject to value pricing. Everlane, a US-based online clothing retailer is among one of the companies that embraced the use of value based pricing, the company is openly charging more than the production cost since the price is based on the value the customer is receiving from the item itself and the experience of purchasing from a company  they can trust (McCormick, 2017).  Starbucks is another company that has employed the use of value-based pricing with a focus o maximizing its profits (Dawson, 2019). The company leverages insight from customer analysis and research to formulate targeted price increases to capture a market segment of consumers who are willing to pay a higher amount of their products without driving them on off. This can be seen in Starbucks latest move that involved raising the prices of their beverages by 1% across the US. Both of these companies have enjoyed large profits following the implementation of value-based pricing strategy.

Conclusion

Value based pricing involves setting prices of products and services according to their perceived value.  When implementing value-based pricing a company must consider factors such as resolving competitive objectives and learning its competitive advantages. A company must also have a deeper understanding of customer segmentation. Companies must learn to utilize pricing as a form of pain management and understand price negotiation and fear in addition to addressing mindset change in the company. Value based pricing is being implemented by companies to include, Starbucks and Everlane to maximize profits.  Value based pricing is a strategy that can be leveraged by companies to increase profit and sell products at a higher value without considering factors such as cost of production.

References

Aspara, J., & Tikkanen, H. (2013). Creating novel consumer value vs. capturing value: Strategic emphases and financial performance implications. Journal of Business Research, 66(5),         593-602.

Christopher, M., & Gattorna, J. (2005). Supply chain cost management and value-based pricing. Industrial marketing management, 34(2), 115-121.

Dawson, T., 2019., “How Starbucks Uses Pricing Strategy for Profit Maximization” Retrieved             from;https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/184451/how-starbucks-uses-pricing-      strategy-for-profit-maximization

Hinterhuber, A. (2004). Towards value-based pricing—An integrative framework for decision     making. Industrial marketing management, 33(8), 765-778.

Liozu, S. (2015). The pricing journey: The organizational transformation toward pricing   excellence.

McCormick, M., 2017., “Value Based Pricing For Ecommerce Companies” retrieved from;             https://blog.blackcurve.com/value-based-pricing-for-ecommerce-companies

Michel, S., & Pfäffli, P. (2013). Obstacles to Implementing Value-Based Pricing. Perspectives     for Managers, (185), 1.

Paranikas, P., Whiteford, P, G., Tevelson, B., Belz, D., 2015 “How to Negotiate with Powerful    Suppliers”. Retrieved from; https://hbr.org/2015/07/how-to-negotiate-with-powerful-   suppliers

Types of accounting wk 1

 Discuss the differences between financial and managerial accounting

Financial accounting is a process where the company prepares the representations of financial statements to the external users (Hermanson et al. 2011). The latter needs these formal reports for different purposes such as understanding the company's financial position.  Both the business and the external users look at the financial statement to evaluate business profitability.

 On the other hand, managerial accounting is the process where managers of a company focus on business transactions and use the accounting data to plan for the future (Hermanson et al. 2011).   In other words, the accounting information enables the managers to make sound decisions regarding business operations.  Note that in managerial accounting, the managers want to know the overall company's operations. It looks for a detailed report such as the profits by-products to understand the problem and fix it (Hermanson et al. 2011).   The accounting information help the decision makers outside and inside the organization to understand the business transactions and create financial statements.

 What types of financial statements are used by business organizations?

 Business organizations use four financial statements.  First, they use income statements- this helps the organization evaluate the profitability within a given period (Hermanson et al. 2011).   The organization compares the cash from sales of products and the costs incurred.    The sales of products are the revenue and the organizations expects the revenue to be high that the expenses to avoid net loss.

 Secondly, organizations use the statement of retained earnings to evaluate how the company has used its net profit left over after distributing dividends to the shareholders (Hermanson et al. 2011).  The left over is used by the company for future business activities and therefore the statement gives a detail of the amount of retained earnings or profits that the company has.

  Balance sheet is also a type of financial statement that allows the business to analyze the financial position of a business in terms of the assets, liability and shareholder's equity within a given period.

Finally, the cash flow statement allows the company to evaluate the money entered in the business either through customer payment, bank interest, direct loan, and how money moves out from the business either through salaries, paying dividends, and other operating activities.

Reference

 Hermanson, H., Edwards, E., & Maher, M. (2011). Accounting Principles: A Business

Perspective, Financial Accounting (Chapters 1–8).

The effect of the financial crisis on globalization

Introduction

The economic crisis made it difficult for people and the country in general to maintain their sustainability. Attempts to overcome the negative repercussions of the financial crisis prompted the government to invest in ways to boost the economy and enhance its sustainability. One of the avenues pursued to try and help the country bounce back was through trade. Since the business conducted within the country was also affected by the financial crisis, trade expanded to different regions that were either better off or had better access to the amenities needed to boost trade in the United States. Although different approaches were undertaken to try and recover from the financial crisis, the reliance on trade to boost the economy had the most impact on the emergence of economic globalization.

The best approach to resolve the financial crisis was determined to be both local and international trade. As the United States sought to boost trade within the country, there was need to look for cheaper commodities, raw materials and services (Canals, 2019). Since the financial crisis hit majority of the United States, the country had to engage with other countries to try and get affordable raw materials to manufacture products as well as import cheap products that would help boost trade in the country.

The research will try to demonstrate how importing raw materials and convenient products and services, the country also exported goods to other parts of the world. Since trade was not as lucrative in the United States during the duration of the financial crisis, the country had to look for alternatives that were in a better position financially to buy its products (Wheeler, 2008). Offloading goods that could not be purchased in the United States ensured that businesses remained afloat despite the challenges that they had to overcome during the crisis. While the efforts engaged by the United States were intended to end the financial crisis, they led to the emergence of the economic crisis as the United States sought better ways to trade with different countries.

The paper will also examine how technology developed as a result of the United States desire to trade with other countries and how this helped to overcome geographic barriers limiting the efficiency of international trade. Since some of the countries the United States traded with were not as developed, the relationship established through trade paved the way for globalization as various developments ensued from their interaction with the United States (Cuza & Tuka, 2014). The countries the United States engaged with to trade also sought out business with other regions and this opened up the world to allow for even more trade and this further fueled the spread of globalization.

Globalization has become an international phenomenon and different countries across the globe have been affected both positively and negatively by its emergence. While its emergence was caused by various factors, the financial crisis played a significant in the emergence and spread of globalization as the United States tried to recover from the consequences that hit the country during the period during and after the financial crisis (Stiglitz, 2019). Exposing the correlation between the decision made by the United States to trade with other countries and the relationship established between the regions the United States traded with will make it easier to identify the impact that the financial crisis that hit the United States led to the emergence of economic globalization.

References

Canals J, (2019) “Globalization after the financial crisis” Open Mind

Cuza I and Tuca S, (2014) “The relationship between globalization and the economic crisis” The             USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration

Lane R, (2019) “Financial globalization and the crisis” CEPR

Stiglitz E, (2019) “Globalization and the growth in emerging markets and the new economy”       Columbia Business School

Wheeler G, (2008) “Thoughts on globalization and the global financial crisis” The World Bank

              Economically, financial statements are official records of an organization that illustrates its day-to-day operating activities as well as its financial position. Such information is always recorded and presented in a structured way and that can be easily read and understood. Additionally, the purpose of financial statement entail providing solid information concerning the financial position of the business, its performance and financial changes which is useful to several users. These statements are anticipated to be well understood by a person who has sensible knowledge about an organization and its economic activities (SEC.gov | Beginners' Guide to Financial Statement, 2019).

            There are four financial statements that are always used together with management discussions and other analyses.  The first one is a balance sheet which used for reporting the owner or owners’ equity, possession or assets and accountabilities or liabilities of the organization. The second one is the income statement that is used for detailing the profits, everyday expenditures, and revenue that the company could have made or incurred. It also offers information concerning the company’s daily activities for instance, sales. The third one is the equity statement which is used for reporting the company’s equity change.  The last one is the cash flow statement which is used for reporting the inflow and outflow cash into the company from various activities, especially financing and investments (SEC.gov | Beginners' Guide to Financial Statement, 2019).

            Nevertheless, such information is useful to various users in enabling them make sound economic decisions. For instance, managers and owners use this information for making crucial decisions affecting continued operations of the business. Workers also use these reports to make solve matter related to their work, for instance, promotion, salary increment, and so on. Potential investors use them to evaluate the feasibility of investing in a particular business. Lastly, financial institutions also use them in determining whether to grant the business a loan or not.

                                                            Reference

SEC.gov | Beginners' Guide to Financial Statement. (2019). Retrieved 5 August 2019, from https://www.sec.gov/reportspubs/investor-publications/investorpubsbegfinstmtguidehtm.html

Financial statements of Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap Inc.

Introduction

Abercrombie & Fitch is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. It has its headquarters located in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates 1,049 stores, and two offshoot brands, Hollister, Co, and Abercrombie kids. The company deals with products such as; apparel, accessories, personal care, and foot wear, and has a total of 22,500 employees. It was founded in 1892 by David T. Abercrombie. And Ezra Fitch. The total net income of the company as at 2017 was US$ 7.09 million, operating income that same year was US$ 72.05 million, total equity was US$ 1.242 billion, revenue was US$ 3.493 billion, and its total assets that same year were worth US$ 2.326 billion. The net worth of the company as at 2019 is $ 1.84 billion.  Gap Inc and American Eagle Outfitters are among its top competitors. Gap Inc is another American accessories retailer that operates worldwide, Gap Inc was founded in 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris F. Fisher, and its headquarters are located in San Francisco, California. The company is responsible for operation six primary divisions, namely; Banana Republic, Old Navy, Intermix, Hill City, and Athleta. Gap happens to be the largest specialty retailer in the United States, as at September 2008 the company had 135, 000 employees and operated 3, 727 stores worldwide. Its main products include; apparel, accessories and personal care products. As at 2017 the company had a total revenue of US$ 15.855 million, operating income of US$ 1.479 billion, net income of US$ 848million, total equity of US$ 3.144 billion, and that year it had assets valued at US 7.989 billion.

Share Market Price

These two companies deal with the same line of products, the work below will contain the share market price in the stock exchange for the two companies, and the rate of exchange from year to year for ten years. A comparison of the trend of the share market prices between the two companies along with their relevant stock market index for ten consecutive years. Revenues and rate of exchange, return on equity, liquidity ratio, debt ratio, interest coverage ratio, price earnings ratio, dividend per share and dividend yield for three consecutive years (Riikkinen, Saarijärvi, Starlin  & Lähteenmäki, 2018).

            Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap Inc. are restorative gadget industry and not an individual’s business any longer, as it is observed from innovative point of view (Lee & Smith, 2018). This endeavor has a sorted-out structure, clear objectives and goals that drive organization towards constant development. In view of assessment of center plan of action and serious issues that Stryker Corp. has today, there are yet numerous business openings that can be embraced, and suggestions gave will contribute later progress. The firms are thoroughly based all round the world and is isolated into different decentralized operational units, each executing as a detached substance: making a whole deal responsibility in fit manner to patients, suppliers and buyers, systems, corporate organization and accomplices. Its things, zones and organization responsibilities are different; thus, there are different sorts of developments inside.

Financial Analysis

            The firms have dependably had a noteworthy development rate, even in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, notwithstanding, it changed. The firms just dealt with a development rate of 0.1% in deals and 4% in profit per share. Income and profit development the investors have generally anticipated from the companies. The companies went head to head with an unstable worldwide economy, moved with some commercial center punches, moved rapidly and struggled back. “Each of the business has a net offer of $1.4 billion and $5.0 billion expanded 5.9% and 6.4% in the quarter and entire year and 7.0% and 5.9% in consistent cash.

            Natural net deals expanded 7.0% and 5.9% in the quarter and entire year including 8.9% and 8.1% from expanded unit volume mostly counterbalanced by 1.9% and 2.2% from lower costs. MedSurg net offers of $1.7 billion and $6.0 billion expanded 9.9% and 10.1% in the quarter and entire year and 11.1% and 10.0% in consistent cash. Natural net deals expanded 10.1% and 8.6% in the quarter and entire year including 11.3% and 9.3% from expanded unit volume mostly counterbalanced by 1.2% and 0.7% from lower costs.

            The businesses main lines  operation offer of $0.7 billion and $2.6 billion expanded 20.1% and 18.6% in the quarter and entire year and 21.4% and 18.0% in consistent cash. Natural net deals expanded 8.4% and 10.6% in the quarter and entire year including 10.2% and 12.2% from expanded unit volume mostly counterbalanced by 1.8% and 1.6% from lower costs” (Striker, 2019).

                                                       Trend Analysis for the Firms

Fitch and Gap Inc major strength is the product offerings in diverse therapy areas revenue performance Strong performance of  all segments , but firms keep up an outdated stock and abundance saves because of the failure to sell its items at costs in abundance of current conveying costs. This is basically because of the presentation of new items and surgeries all the time in the business sectors in which the organization works. This may prompt the out of date quality of a portion of the organization's items. The organization assesses the future recoverability of the expenses of these items and records an arrangement for abundance and out of date inventories dependent on lapse of sanitization dates and anticipated future patterns. Contrasts in the real item life cycles, item request or acknowledgment of new item presentations and during the ones anticipated could prompt extra stock compose downs and influence the future working benefits of the organization  all to maintain the excess inventory which in  most cases is treated as reserve in the stores hence not giving  out room for profit generation as they lie fallow and as such a risk procedure to the business at hand.

Industry Analysis

            The firm ventures in one of the most competitive businesses across the world. It is not an easy venture it faces competition from the services offered by the national government in all the nations that the business operates. Operating parallel to the government   programs that are offered cheaply makes the business face one of its major setback. The returns are subject to unpredictable increase and decrease, the two stocks in as much as they are experiencing price downfall, and they may increase on price any time depending on the stock market changes.

The total value of the investments have yielded less than it is expected and so the initial outlay is more than the realized money plus it. Investment in stocks is a risky venture and is only a good fit for the risk takers. It is not certain that upon buying stocks, there is expected profit or say yield on the same stock. The analysis above indicates that the firm requires increasing the cash ratio by increasing the amount of cash via increasing on the sales volume of the goods and services. The assets are low   in value and there is need to make an improvement on the same. The need to increase on the quantity and value of assets in the business would guarantee it an improvement on many sectors of its finances to up on its productivity. The inventory levels require a boost in terms of management and stock.

Companies Pooled Financial Projections

The NPV of the project can be calculated as follows:

NPV= -$1,000,000 + $150,000 / 0.1

            = $500,000

The NPV of the project is $500,000. 

An indication that the business would make substantive progress in the long run and as such the investment would go on.

                        Payback Period = Initial Investment / Annual Cash Inflow

                                                = $1,000,000 / $140,000

                                                = 7.142 years

The payback is longer than the cut off period for five years, the project need to be re-evaluated before commencement. The business suppose it had a cash flow of $100,000 at hand today, requires to  put into place more strategies to attain the maximum possible output so as to attain the required revenue in the next five fiscal years.

Benefits of Debt

            Looking at the currency mix of the debt of the two firms, we can see that the majority of the debt is denominated in either US dollars or Euros. This exposes the firms to exchange rate risk, such that if the Australian dollar depreciates towards either the US dollar or the Euro, the money owed increases. At the same time, the subordinated bonds with variable rates are denominated in EUR, GBP and USD, why this creates a risk as well.

            The firms have   also developed necessary skills to make advanced data decryption in the future. The firm does decryption calls for a structured algorithm and proper calculation that accompanies the decryption method. For the case of the group, would recommend that we get to do a finer research for future tasks so that we get acquainted in case of a more complex task. The group performance would however have improved if all the knowledge about code decryption was exploited in time to make a better quality of the solution at hand.

Dividend Policy

            The objectives are the improvement of the quality of the environment through which the business is ongoing as well as the ensuring that customers for the business in question stands a chance to get satisfied.  Any form of misjudgment or over-emphasis of the two primary objectives results to green marketing myopia.

            This means that regardless of the result and the Free Cash flow to equity, the company will payout at least 50 cent of the profits. This is a lower bound and can thus be higher if there is a high FCFE and a few good investment opportunities. The dividend yield is the dividends per share relative to the share price; it measures the return an investor can make from dividends alone.

Firm Characteristics

            The majority of the shareholders are institutional investors (91.52 pct.) with individuals only owning 0.15 pct. of the company. With the marginal investor being an active, institutional investor they would normally prefer dividends, as this is a way of monitoring the management’s process and eliminating agency costs. Contrary to the above showed that institutional investors have a slight preference for share buybacks compared to dividends, though it depends on the taxation level in the specific country. With dividends being a signal to the investors and with 16 analysts. It  is not considered necessary for the firm to have a dividend policy as the analysts are expected to find all relevant information about the firm and feed it to the financial markets.

The current investment in stock and securities services in my opinion of the CAPM assumptions is unpredictable on whether one would realize a yield on the portfolio. The firm has a higher dividend payout ratio compared to its main competitors in the industry, with a dividend yield slightly below average and a low earnings per share. The average dividend payout ratio of the peer group is below 50 pct. meaning that less than half of their earnings are paid out to investors through dividends. The company has a much lower return of equity than its peers, which can explain why the dividend-payout ratio is significantly higher than the competitors, as cash needs to be returned to the equity holders when there are fewer attractive investment opportunities.

There  is change  in the overall investment in as far as value goes since an experience  in the decline in the available two stocks has been recorded with a consequent increase  in  the price of only one stock. In the case of Alphabet price increase, there is an offset shown by the very decline in the prices of the earlier stocks. In conclusion therefore, there is nothing in particular that have been earned in the event of trading and as such there is no any form of return on the investment but instead a negative return of 0.002 % that in a critical point of view is insignificant. It this thus hoped that the prices of the remaining two stocks would increase in the future so as to impact positively on the portfolio (Das  & Kumar, 2018). The employment of different facets in relation to marketing mix also offers an optimal solution to the challenges of consumption of environmental unfriendly commodities.

The stock prices seems to take the direction that the economic parameters of the nations in focus take. The annual return mean on closer examination offers a mean of 0.36 on all stocks invested by the major stakeholders. The business has put up a fight in the event of survival in the industry for a long time. Other firms offering similar products to the global market have shown up stiff competition but because of the business brand and strategic marketing, TMR has remained in business and maintained the customer relationship up to today.

Sensitivity Analysis

The businesses should in all ways:

1. a) Raise the debt rating from A3 to A1 in order to lower the cost of debt. Then increase the debt ratio in order to lever up the firm.
2. b) Current investments are of a bad quality. Retain cash or pay to equity owners until the ROIC and RoE increases above the WACC and CoE.

c).        Increase the debt, as this becomes a more attractive option when the firm is mature, with less of a need for flexibility.

d).Use the excess free cash flow to equity to pay out more dividends or buy back stock as current investments are bad and the active, institutional investors need a signal about future cash flows and responsible cash management (Demirer, Diebold, Liu  & Yilmaz, 2018). This is also relative to their peers, which are having higher RoE and EPS.

The solution to the inventory is to work on increasing the demand of goods or services offered by the business in their stock, this would reduce on stocked good. The debtors to the company need to be reduced by clearing their debts early enough before a company falls in shortage of funds to clear them. It would be a burden to shoulder in the future. The firm may find it difficult to meet its financial obligations.

Conclusion

            Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap Inc.in as far as they majors in similar businesses, there is need to seek more information in regard to overtrading as it may affect the business in the future. The main focus at the heart of the problem failure of the firm to specialize in the most pertinent and well-paying services in the industry. The concern however is to ensure that the firms does not fall out of operation and as such control of the resources would make an incredible deal. The assets of the two companies may be taken for auctioning to enable it meet its financial obligations in the long run (Rabin, 2000). Remedies to the situation can be made early enough by laying in place sound and practicable strategies to curb future problems in the cash inflows and outflows for the two businesses.

References

Rabin, M., 2000. The diminishing marginal utility of wealth cannot explain risk aversion.

Demirer, M., Diebold, F. X., Liu, L., & Yilmaz, K. (2018). Estimating global bank network connectedness. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 33(1), 1-15.

Das, D., & Kumar, S. B. (2018). International economic policy uncertainty and stock prices revisited: Multiple and Partial wavelet approach. Economics Letters, 164, 100-108.

Debroux, P. (2017). Human Resource Management in Japan: Changes and Uncertainties-A New Human Resource Management System Fitting to the Global Economy: Changes and Uncertainties-A New Human Resource Management System Fitting to the Global Economy. Routledge.

Lee, G. L., & Smith, C. (2018). Engineers and management: International comparisons. Routledge.

Odekon, M. (2015). Booms and Busts: An Encyclopedia of Economic History from the First Stock Market Crash of 1792 to the Current Global Economic Crisis: An Encyclopedia of Economic History from the First Stock Market Crash of 1792 to the Current Global Economic Crisis. Routledge.

Tiller, J., & O'Hanley, R. (2013). Information Security Management Handbook, Sixth Edition, Volume 7. CRC Press.

McCabe, J. D. (2010). Network Analysis, Architecture, and Design. Morgan Kaufmann.

Zachary, W. W. (2017). An information flow model for conflict and fission in small groups. Journal of anthropological research, 33(4), 452-473.

Hassani, H., Huang, X., & Silva, E. (2018). Digitalisation and big data mining in banking. Big Data and Cognitive Computing, 2(3), 18.

Krishna, G. J., & Ravi, V. (2019, January). Feature Subset Selection using Adaptive Differential Evolution: An Application to Banking. In Proceedings of the ACM India Joint International Conference on Data Science and Management of Data (pp. 157-163). ACM.

Riikkinen, M., Saarijärvi, H., Starlin, P., & Lähteenmäki, I. (2018). Using artificial intelligence to create value in insurance. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 36(6), 1145-1168.

Appendix

Assessment of Risk Management in Building Construction Projects

 The aspect of construction has been associated with many risks and managing them is usually perceived as a difficult task. The accidents become a burden to the society involved.

Rationale

The rationale of this study is to impact people with knowledge on identification of the risks that might threaten the goals of the project, provision of knowledge on how to manage the risks by the personnel in the construction sites and enhancing establishment of strategic measures to lower the occurrence and effects of the risks.

Scope

 The scope of the research is carrying out comparative analysis to assess the risks in construction sites, effects and the theory application for measurement, analysis, and management of the same.

Aim and objectives

 The aim of this study is to assess the risks management of building construction projects while the objectives include examining the risks associated with building construction projects identifying the effects of the risks to the project and enhancing establishment of applicable strategies to reduce the impacts of the risks.

Overview

According to experts, construction works take place under risky circumstances. Based on the utility theory, builders can assess threats through various mechanisms. The zone of groundwork and implementation of building works is a beneficial issue from the perspective of technical studies and essentially from the opinion of economic impacts of choices executed at various phases of the construction project (Wang et.al, 2012, 221). The thin line between whether or not to invest in building materials or produce ready-made resources for warehouses may somehow be essential for analyzing risks associated with construction projects.

 As a way of recompensing for the uncertainty related to building projects, contingency, that is, time and expenses is usually contained within the preliminary project estimate (Sunindijo et.al, ,2011.139). Cost contingency or administration reserves or budget, is the amount supplemented to a construction project’s estimates to permit for additional expenses that will in turn insure or reduce the risk associated with building projects.

 Modern utility theory assists constructors make sound decisions under uncertain situations and it contains alternative measures to safeguard the completed sections of a building project. A person’s attitude toward risk may expose certain options they have while dealing with the risk. More so, it is vital to note that construction works occur under risky situations most of the times. Hence, the need for risk analysis through the utility theory mechanism (Sunindijo et.al,2011 ,140). For instance, taking data meant for the construction project, current economic status inclusive of association between supply and demand. Besides this, the type of decision people make and historical data may influence the risks encountered and measures formulated throughout the project.

Integration of Areas of MBA

One of the MBAs associated with the topic is risk management which informs on the various ways an organization can actively  and persistently during a project  reduce the number of risks encountered (Sunindijo et.al,2011 ,144). In fact risk management entail various details and the best place for implementing certain elements of insurance against the risks is by construction companies gaining knowledge on the various elements of the challenges encountered (Cerić et.al,2011, 530). In addition, risk management tends to contain various procedures to help in builders interpret and rank risks.

As a project manager, one manages risks each day; it is one of the most vital things to do. If a project manager learns, strategic ways of applying systematic risks management mechanisms, and execute various systematic risk management procedures and elements containing the same specifics that would reduce risk encountered. Risk management MBA is simple but effective and takes place under 5 categories one of which is identification of risks. By defining and identifying risks, the project manager describes the risk in detail (Cerić et.al,2011, 534). The second step of risk management is examination of the risks in order to identify and define magnitudes of the consequences and understand the negative impacts of construction risks. In addition, identifying the consequences that comes with each risk may help comprehend the risk management procedures further and take time to offer sustainable solutions. Developing understanding on risks help protect long term and short-term goals of the building project.

 The third phase on the procedure is assessment and ranking the procedures for the sake of determining and isolating the probability of the risk taking place. One usually ranks a risk from the one most likely to happen to the one that may least occur. In this sequence, then, one can decide whether to accept the consequences or leave them to take their natural course (Sunindijo et.al, 2011, 140). The last phase of risk management is monitoring the progress of the risks and developing fresh areas of concentrating the effects or simply dispersing the effects for a much effective procedure. In other words, risk management has all the relevant information and facts that can help shape the way people the entire process and give more clarity to all the stakeholders involved in the procedure.

Method of Analysis

In terms of definition, risk refers to the likelihood of a destructive event taking place during the project and as stated earlier, risk management caters to the needs of the project through the professional teams available and give chance to for streamlining of various aspects of a risks (Sunindijo et.al, 2011, 139).The risk valuation model is a method of analysis relevant to construction risk and as stated earlier it occur under five stages. Risk grouping, risk definition, risk examination, risk reaction, and risk monitoring. The risk model analysis is not like the traditional risk assessment perspectives and captures the accurate nature of construction issues specifically when it comes to intrinsic bias and indecision (Aminbakhsh et.al, 2013, 20). The exclusivity of construction projects limited the application of numerical and probability methods of analysis which were vague and incapable of presenting a complete picture of the situations as they are on the ground. The manner in which risk analysts perceive risk based in data derive from certified surveys is somehow incredible and able to produce understanding into the actual situation as it is on the ground. For instance, for probability fails to materialize into the actual happenings on the ground  hence not as effective as risk management models that take one through the entire procedure of identification and monitoring of associated risks.

 In summary, numerous risk analysis methods are available during construction procedures and the like hood of sizing the magnitude of the risks impacts and interceding at the right time might are some of the factors that into minimizing risks impacts. Risk probability and evaluation are some of the analytic mechanisms utilized for risk assessment and developing interceding mechanisms for the skilled laborers hence reducing both risks and helps in the decision making process.

References

Wang, Y., Tian, M., Wang, D., Zhao, Q., Shan, S. and Lin, S., 2012. Study on the HSE management at construction site of oil and gas processing area. Procedia Engineering, 45, pp.231-234.

Sunindijo, R.Y. and Zou, P.X., 2011. CHPT construct: essential skills for construction project managers. International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 3(2), pp.139-163.

Aminbakhsh, S., Gunduz, M. and Sonmez, R., 2013. Safety risk assessment using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) during planning and budgeting of construction projects. Journal of safety research, 46, pp.99-105.

Cerić, A., Marčić, D. and Ivandić, K., 2011. A risk-assessment methodology in tunneling. Tehnički vjesnik, 18(4), pp.529-536.

How Monetary donations help deal with the issue of homelessness

Documentary outline

1. Expository documentary mode
2. This documentary is meant to help the American society understand pervasiveness of the issue of homelessness in the American society. and illustrate the way that charity donations can effectively be utilized to help eradicate the issue and change the life of many homeless people.

• This documentary will interview some of the individuals that manage various major homeless shelters including David Nathan of Time Out Shelter in Arizona, Annabel James of Anchorage Rescue mission in Alaska and Daniel Jackson of First Light in Alabama. The interviews will also include random interviews on different US citizens like students and people in various professions to understand their views on donating to charities.

1. The documentary will include pictures of various homeless people in the streets, pictures of the homeless shelters, records of the activities that happen at the shelters and show statistics of the donations that are made to homeless shelters annually.
2. The documentary will begin by analysing the problem of homelessness citing various past researches that have been conducted. The statistics of the issue will be shown as well as the various footages o the homeless people sleeping in the streets. The documentary will then explain about the homeless shelters and a footage of various shelters Interviews on various supervisors of this shelters will be presented to explain elaborate on how the operate, how they get their donations and how they utilize the donations. The last section of the documentary will show interviews on the common citizens and their thoughts on charity donations and how the homelessness issue should be dealt with.

Fiction Film Outline

Title:

The Fraudster

Characters      

Adam- the homeless man

Neili - Adam’s daughter

Jonathan- the fraudster

The police officer that tracks down Jonathan

The Judge that finds Jonathan guilty, helping to show how wrong it is to misuse charity donations

Storyline

The essay

Homelessness is an issue that has greatly affected the American society for a very long time.  With the documentary, it will help to communicate to the society and help them understand the extent of this issue and the roles that charity donations play in helping eradicate this problem. The documentary will adopt an expository mode because this is helps to directly address the viewers through the use of titles and voices which further helps to add a perspective to what the documentary is talking about.  The commentary voice that will be adopted in the film will help the audience to associate what is discussed in the documentary with what really happens in real life and it makes much easy for the audience to understand actually believe the issue discussed in the documentary.  

Choosing to use the homeless shelters’ supervisors is effective in that these are people from all over the United States which helps to show the intensity of the homelessness issue. These are also important people, because they understand the whole concept of charity donations and how they help them operate the shelter homes or the homeless community. They understand the things that they need most and the things that they have to prioritise once the monetary donations are sent to them. The other list of interviewees will include the general public to help understand their understanding of charity donations and also on the issue of homelessness. Interviewing these people will help establish the knowledge base of the society on these two issues and it will help to raise awareness on the importance of charity donations to help the people in the society that do not have food to eat and a place to call home. The order that the documentary will take is all to help the society understand the extent of the issue of homelessness and the problems that the available homeless shelters are still facing in regard to donations. And the last section will help to encourage people to give more donations in order to help improve and also reduce the issue of homelessness in the American society.

The film outline for the movie ‘Fraudster’ has three acts which greatly help to fulfil the requirements of a Classical Hollywood Narrative. The main character named Adam is an African American man that is homeless; the villain is Jonathan, a Caucasian man that takes advantage of Adam’s situation to earn money from well-wishers. The race choice for the characters is to help show that the black community has the highest homelessness rates in US. A cry made by the whites is more likely to be responded to as compared to a cry by a black man and hence Jonathan being white. The first act introduces the main characters Adam and Neili, their goals and their main obstacle as well as the protagonist Jonathan who is the villain that stands in the way of the main character’s better life achievement. The second act introduces complications to the story and it is where the evil intentions of the villain are brought out. The third act which is the final segment of the film shows the dramatic confrontation as Jonathan is arrested and convicted of his evil deeds. This is where victory is achieved as Adam is able to get a home and live happily ever after. The twos aspects that would be changed or this film is the title which would change to ‘ A Cry by The Minority’ this would help to appeal to more people in the world as people outside of America relate more to minority referenced issues. Another aspect that would be changed would include the main character traits, which will be altered a bit to present him as a disabled individual that cannot find a job because of his disability. This will make it more interesting for international release as it would also show the plight of people with disabilities.

The films are intended to help show the American society the pervasiveness of homelessness within the society and the importance of donations to help improve the life conditions of the people who have no home. The films will be aired in the common broadcasting televisions stations which will help reach to many people. The films will also be posted in the social sites and the YouTube channel where they can freely be accessed by people all over the world.

The films will be accepted by the society since they help showcase some of the things that are happening in the society and people can easily related to the issue of charity donor ship as well as the homelessness. It will help people to change their perception on offering monetary support to the needy in the society, with the understanding that there are people who really need this help in order to live a more humane life.

The films especially the fiction will be popular because it is a new context that helps to show the extent of homelessness and the manner in which donor ship can help change the lives of many homeless people in the society. The movie helps to show that if people come together and work as a community each contributing a little of what they have, they can change the society and make it a better place for everyone.