Berghaus’ Case Study :: Business Management Studies

Berghaus’ Case Study 1) Berghaus is very successful business having an annual growth rate of 25%. This indicates that there is an increasing demand for their products. They also have an export ratio of 50% meaning that their distribution rates are very good. Last year alone their per-tax profits were  £750,000 and a large amount of this money can, most probably, will be reinvested into the company for further development. Also, its pre-tax profits in 1991 were  £750,000 which is obviously not a small amount, Berghaus clearly mean business. By the sound of it, that number is only expected to increase in the years to come. It has an export ratio of 1988-9 of more than 50%, which is the vast majority, within the whole of Europe, meaning that its export increased by a great deal during those years specifically, and we assume it still increases in other years too, although maybe not as much as between 1988-9. 2) In the context of Berghaus, market differences mean many things. Berghaus currently conduct sales through large number of countries, from Germany through the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and as a result Berghaus have found out that the world cannot be treated as though as one market. Each country has its own customer preferences and may have certain social attitudes to a certain type of clothing, and these are known as market differences. Due to this Berghaus has to develop a certain product for a specific country and then modify that product or completely reconstruct it for another country. This as a result means higher costs are involved in research and development and also different advertising methods would have to be implemented. This market difference has meant Berghaus have had to operate quickly and efficiently to design, produce and distribute the product across all the parts of the world, beating all opposition and this is obviously very difficult for Berghaus. 3) There are many different reasons for the success of Berghaus, and these can be mainly divided into four parts, Production, Finance, Marketing and Management. Production is simply the fundamental part of the company, without it no product would exist to sell. Designing new products is what makes people want a certain product and Berghaus have strategically produced a wide range of products meaning that they will be able to successfully cover the different fields in the market. This means that they have more areas for money coming; by having more units and product innovation is an essential key t their success. Production has also been economised by the introduction automated production with continual processes. This allows an easy and flexible method to

Zagreb, Croatia :: essays research papers

SUBJECT: ZAGREB, CROATIA   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Welcome to one of the most beautiful cities in Central Europe, Zagreb! Although located in a country plagued by war, it offers safety, a strong history, and many tourism destinations. It is considered to be â€Å"the focal point of culture and science, and now of commerce and industry as well† in Croatia. HISTORY:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Originally a â€Å"suburb of the ancient Roman town of Andautonia†, the Mongols invaded it in 1242. It became an important city of Croatia and Slovenia, which at the present time were provinces of Hungary, in the later part of the 13th century. In the 19th century, when Croatia was fighting for independence, Zagreb became an integral part of the nationalist movement. It became the capital of the Croatian Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945. When, in 1992, Croatia became and independent state, Zagreb remained as the capital. PLACES OF INTEREST:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Zagreb has three major regions. The Upper Town, Gornji grad, is over one thousand years old. It contains most of the city’s museums, galleries and churches. It is also the home of the Presidential Palace, Banski Dvori, and Sabor, the Parliament. The Lower Town, Dolnji grad, mostly developed in the 1900’s, is home to most restaurants, cafes, theatres, parks, shopping, and more importantly the nightlife. Of least interest to tourist would be Novi Zagreb, which hosts many skyscrapers and nothing of major interest .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Zagreb is called â€Å"a city of museums as there are more of them per square foot than any other city in the world†. Some of these are the â€Å"Strossmayer Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art, the Ethnographic Museum, and the Mimara museum which, with almost 4,000 priceless objects, is one of the finest art galleries in Europe.† Other interesting artifacts located in Zagreb are the â€Å"longest piece of writing in ancient Etruscan, and the remains of the Krapina prehistoric man.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The main square in the city is Trg Bana Jelacica. Once there all sights are within walking distance. It hosts a number of churches and cathedrals, which are very important to the Roman Catholic religion. Such as the Archbishops’ Palace, which is attached to the beautiful St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Ivan Mestovic, a Croatian famous sculptor, has many works in St. Marks Church, another important sight. Located in Upper Town is the Stone Gate of the 13th century, on it is a painting of the Virgin Mary, which survived the â€Å"great fire of 1731† and also serves as a â€Å"place of pilgrimage†.

Individual Organizational Issues Essay

The ethical issues presented in the Week Three Ethics Game Simulations were from the Mysterious Blogger and The Veiled Id, the ethical issues address in game simulation of â€Å"The Mysterious Blogger† was whether or not the information obtained by IT Tech, Jamal Moore was enough to discipline blogging employee Aaron Webb for violating the NDA policy. The ethical issues for the game simulations for â€Å"The Veiled ID†, was to address how to develop a security policy that would accommodate the special needs and the physical safety of the employees’. The decision-making steps one took to address these issues were based on the position one held in the simulation game one was able to determine the best avenue ethically to approach in order to take action on both issues address in the game. First, this authors decision-making abilities were based on protecting the interest of the shareholders and how these decisions could affect the shareholders in both short and long-term. Ethical issues that arise within an organization or company will not only effect an individual employee, it will affect the company and anyone who has made an investment in the company. Apart from protecting the interest of shareholders and the company, it also comes down to always following company policies and doing the right thing. If a organizations policies are broken in any way, shape or form, this author would be placed in a situation to make the best decision to receive the best outcome in order to maintain discipline and good order within the company or organazation. The ethical perspectives this author utilized to make the decisions for the simulation game were based on the options given in each scenario within the gaming process. Although the simulation did not have any right or wrong answers it did take time for this author to address each scenario with an open mind and take the time to look at different view points before making a decision(s) to see whether or not the answer selected was the best fit for that scenario. The way these ethical perspectives influenced this authors decisions were by determining the values and effects of the stakeholders for both simulation games played The Mysterious Blogger and The Veiled ID. Showing the importance of applying ethical practices and ensuring all employees are held accountable for their actions can be done by one taking the time to figure out a way to minimize dilemmas or issues caused by employees within an organization and handling those dilemmas at the lowest level. The concepts used in the simulation game can relate to this authors workplace, being part of a family construction company many distance family members or friends of friends of the family will take full advantage of the company. A good example of younger family members taking advantage would be leaving the workplace early, using company property outside of the work zone, using the name of the company in supply house to benefit one’s personal needs. One example of this would be a distance cousin of one of the owners was a wonderful working, however after years of working for the company the owner started to receive phone calls from homeowners asking for repairs to be done to brand new systems installed by this distance cousin who were not in the database of the company, come to find out the cousin was doing these jobs on the side using the family business name, buying material using the company credit cards, company vehicle and gas card to get to these locations but none of these new job sites were jobs the owners of the company bid they were all jobs the distant cousin was doing on the side, this is one example of many. What this has done is moved the company away from only hiring family members to hiring outside of the family and only having a few members that work in the field, although everyone in the office is related the men in the field hold the owners on pedisals and this author has not met many employee who do not appreciate the family owned company. The owners continue to prove to each employee family or not that they are needed, the owners go over and bound giving employee advances to help with one’s personal lives, from getting married to buying a car, to smaller needs as in lunches, jackets every winter, making sure they have good work boots, gloves, hats and anything else they made need to safely complete the task at hand.

Bernie Ebbers and Scott Sullivan

What power bases did Bernie Ebbers and Scott Sullivan rely on to get away with accounting fraud? The power bases are legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power, referent power. Case Study Bernie Ebbers built WorldCom Inc into one of the largest telecommunication firms. Yet he and CFO Scott Sullivan have become better known for creating a massive corporate accouting fraud that led to the largest bankruptcy in US history. Two investigative reports and subsequent court cases concluded that WorldCom executoves were responsible for billions in fraudulent or unsupported accouting entries.How did this mammoth accouting scandal occur without anyone raising the alarm? Evidence suggests that Ebbers and Sullivan help considerable power and influence that prevented accouting staff from complaining, or even knowing, about the fraud. Ebber's inner circle held tight control over the flow of all financial information. The geographically dispersed accouting groups were discouraged f rom sharing information. Ebber's group also restricted distribution of company – level financial reports and prevented sensitive reports from being prepared at all.Accountants didn't even have access to the computer files in which some of the largest fraudulent entries were mde. As a result, employees had to rely on Ebber's executive team to justify the accounting entries that were requested. Another reason why employeees complied with questionable accoutong practices was that CFO Scott Sullivan wielded immense personal power. He was considered a "whiz kid" with impeccable integrity who had won the prestigious "CFO Excellence Award. quot; Thus, when Sullivan's office asked staff to make questionable entries, some accountants assumed Sullivan had found an innovative and legal accouunting loophole. If Sullivan's influence didn't work, other executives took a more coercive approach. Employees cited incidents where they were publicly berated for questioning headqua rters decisions and intimidated if they asked for more information. When one employer at a branch refused to alter an accouting entry , WorldCom's contoller threatened to fly in from WorldCom's Mississippi headquarters to make the change himself.The employ changed the entry. Ebber's has similar influence over WorldCom's board of directors. Sources indicate that his personal charisma and intolerance of dissention produced a passive board that rubber-stamped most of his recommendations. As one report concluded: ;The Board of Directord appears to have embraced suggestions by Mr. Ebbers without question or dissent, even under circumstances where its members now readily acknowledge they had significant misgivings regarding his recommendedd couse of action. ;

Crime And Intentional Tort Essay

A crime is defined as â€Å"acts or omissions that are in violation of law† (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). The states and the federal government have enacted criminal laws that define each of the crimes and prescribe penalties in case of violation or commission (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). The two elements of a criminal offense are: â€Å"actus reus and mens rea; one is physical and the other, mental state† (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Thus, â€Å"actus reus must be causally related to the mens rea for a crime to occur† meaning that the evil intention of the mind must coincide with the physical manifestation through the unlawful act (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). However, as an exception to this rule, the courts have in a line of judicial precedents ruled that in case of strict liability the person who may not be â€Å"at fault or negligent† shall be legally liable for damages to the injured party. The injured party will only have to prove that he sustained damages (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Moreover, courts allowed liability on the basis of the actus reus alone as being sufficient (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). For instance, the employer is deemed liable for damages for the negligent acts of his employees while in the performance of their duties. Another example would be in the case of product liability where in the company is held liable for the injury sustained by a customer due to defective products. Crimes may be committed by natural and juridical persons. Natural persons are human beings while juridical persons are entities created by fiction of law deemed to be individuals capable of entering into contracts, owning and or possessing properties, enforcing rights and acquiring debts (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). A corporation therefore is a person. Corporations may be held liable for civil damages for the acts and conduct of the employees it employees. This liability is known as vicarious liability (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Anent criminal liability, a corporation is not capable of committing a crime because it does not have a mind state–lacking in â€Å"mens rea. † It is also a legal fiction and therefore, one cannot put it behind bars. The recent years however, showed a different trend from these arguments. Nowadays, an American corporation engaged in criminal activities such as fraud can be convicted when the criminal conduct of its employee or officer is proven. The federal government through the Deputy Attorney General cited the reasons for indicting corporations as being beneficial to public interests (Thompson, 2003). It â€Å"enables the government to address and be a force for positive change of corporate culture, alter corporate behavior, and prevent, discover, and punish white collar crime† (Thompson, 2003). The federal government not only prosecutes the corporation but also the officers or agents of the corporations who apparently are guilty and culpable. Two recent cases may be cited to illustrate this point. The prosecution of Ebbers where his former finance officer testified against him, resulted in at least a total of 85 years imprisonment consisting of â€Å"one count of conspiracy, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of false regulatory filings† (Associated Press, 2005). It was also discovered that manipulation on the books of accounting resulted in the amount of $ 11 billion (Associated Press, 2005). In another case, Reliant Energy Services, Inc. and four of its officers were criminally charged for â€Å"manipulation of the California energy markets† (U. S. DOJ web site, 2004). Thus, when there is corruption in a company, disrespect for the law, fails to see to it that internal mechanisms are in place to detect fraud and corruption and thereafter fails to cooperate in the investigation, the federal government vows to criminally prosecute the corporation (U. S.  DOJ web site, 2004). In both cases, the corporations involved were charged and prosecuted because of the pervasiveness of the violations such as when directed by upper management or when in conspiracy with the other officers of the corporation (U. S. DOJ web site, 2004). The rule of respondeat superior shall apply in case the violation is an isolated case as when committed by a single officer and with a compliance program being implemented by the corporation. The company can only act through its agents and officers, thus if an overwhelming majority have committed fraud or any criminal act, then such act is considered the act of the corporation—the mens rea being the mental state of the culpable officers and agents. This is penalized in accordance with the Sentencing Guidelines. In the two cases cited, the respective companies are guilty of a felony because the charges were of serious nature with an imprisonment of more than one year (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Corporate crime can be a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the penalty attached by law for its commission.

Intelligent Quotient Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Intelligent Quotient - Essay Example She has not seen her father since she was 10 years old and do not know where her father was. She moved to Singapore with her mother who is undergoing cancer treatment. Currently, Susie's aunt and uncle are her major caretakers. She also mentioned her boyfriend who is the only person that understands her currently. Susie speaks Mandarin at home which is deeply rooted in her personal and cultural identification since birth. She speaks more English in Singapore school as all her lessons are conducted in English except Chinese lesson. It was observed that Susie's speech was clear. Susie reported being healthy since the day she was born. She reached the normal developmental milestones within the expected age ranges. With the severe case of "Chicken Pox" when she was 8 years old, she has not been significantly ill since then. Susie reported that she had a normal educational history in Guanzhou and Singapore. Susie attended a pre-school in Guangzhou and she has not had any problems in her studies. In Singapore, Susie's teacher reported that Susie has problems doing her written tests but not the practical work in Secondary 2 class. Susie has not displayed any behavioural problems in her present school. Susie reported that she had great interpersonal relationships when she is living in Guangzhou. She had many friends and kept in touch with her family. Presently, she misses her friends and family in Guangzhou. The only person who understands her currently is the 16 years old boy. Other Pertinent Information: Susie states that she is sexually active and engaging in unprotected sex with a 16-year-old boy as she feels that this boy really understands her at this moment. However, she notes that her uncle and aunt as well as her ailing mother should not be informed of the relationship. Mental Status Exam: Susie went to the counselling session by herself. She was punctual for the appointment and behaved in a good manner. She presented herself as neatly groomed child with hair all tied up in a ponytail. During the interview, Susie was able to maintain appropriate eyes contact, alert and was oriented to time, place and person. Her mood and effect were pleasant and a rapport was established quickly. Susie reported that she felt extremely depressed since she moved to Singapore and she missed her friends and family in Guangzhou. She appeared little anxious during the assessment, often taking a deep breath but was able to sustain concentration and attention. Her speech was normal with varied pitch. She seemed to try to do her best during the interview and

War is the Last Resort of Resolving Disputes Essay

War is the Last Resort of Resolving Disputes - Essay Example These include protecting American citizens and interests from foreign aggression, liberating people from oppressive regimes, promoting democracy and human rights especially in autocratic countries in addition to protecting the American society from the adverse effects of drug abuse (Zycher 74-76). In spite of the vast resources invested in the wars and heavy loss of human lives, United States still remains under imminent threats of terror attacks and abuse of human rights is rampant at both local and international levels. Currently, United States military is at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. These wars have been ongoing for about ten years and the targeted countries are yet to attain political and economic stability. However, the numbers of the American soldiers and civilians killed and wounded in the conflicts are increasing. According to The Washington Post, 4,474 and 2,038 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively up to date since the emergence of the c onflicts. In addition 33,184 servicemen have been wounded in Iraq alone. However, the number of wounded servicemen does not include those suffering from psychological problems such as post traumatic disorder. Over 6,440 service members have lost their lives in both â€Å"operation Iraqi freedom† and â€Å"operation enduring freedom† in Afghanistan (The Washington Post). ... At the beginning of the â€Å"operation enduring freedom† in 2001, United States lost 12 service members in that year (icasualties.org). However, in 2010 alone, 499 service members were killed and an additional 418 the following year in 2011 (icasualties.org). Afghanistan has been experiencing some of the worst forms of violence for the last several years in form of suicide bombing, improvised explosive devices and resurgence of the Taliban rule. Therefore, it is apparent that the wars have made the world more insecure than before considering the number of service members and civilians killed in the conflicts. The war in America is costly to the United States, the targeted country and the global economy. According to Gholz (35), wars interrupt international trade, which result to reduction of global wealth. Gholz indentified four mechanisms through which wars interrupt global economic growth and development. The first way is interruption of trade between the targeted country a nd its existing trading partners in the world. This was evidenced in Iraq, where the United States invasion disrupted oil production and trade in the country. Secondly war could interfere with trade between countries not involved in the conflict. This could occur as a result of increasing the cost of doing business due to disruption of oil production and high insecurity (37-41).Gold estimated that 20 to 40 percent increase of the oil price in global markets since 2003 was caused by anticipated decline of oil production in Iraq after the American military invasion(7). Wars interrupt capital flow and foreign direct investment especially in the targeted country because of the increased risks of