Economics developments in Developing country Essay

Economics developments in Developing country - Essay Example The question that whether the students from developing countries should be sent back to their countries after they graduate need to be analyzed from different perspectives. It is often believed that those students, who have graduated from the universities of the developed world, when return to their countries, often find themselves at odds with the society at large. Since these countries are still on the path to economic development, the environment often fails to support the technological skills acquired by these students. Their potential can be hardly realized and the result is frustration both on the part of the employer and the employed. This is the main cause of the ensuing brain drain that will also damage the economic progress of the country whose students had gone abroad in quest of knowledge. There is another concern that needs addressing and that is the payback of the investment made by the country that has educated the students and raised their educational and vocational level. Philanthropy apart, some benefit should accrue to them as well. There are two sides to knowledge acquisition. One is to raise the level of understanding by giving an impetus to intelligence through knowledge. The other is using the product of this effort in building careers as well as contributing to economic progress and prosperity. The obvious answer is that these students ought to be retained by the developed nation and absorbed in its workforce as contributors to its economy. This serves both purposes of offering better career options to those who were educated and payback to the country which had been gracious to offer them this opportunity. No doubt that these students can become the pillars of the economic future of the host country. However one reality that must be stated here is that the global economy depends equally on both the developed and the developing countries. They cannot survive

Facilities Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Facilities Management - Essay Example Sometimes they even go to the coffee shop counter in wet bathing suits. Hospitality refers to the relationship process between a guest and a host. Further, it refers to the act or practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill. To dispense our generous warm welcome and comfort ability we need adequate infrastructural support that helps to maintain sanitation, hygienist and safety of the precinct. Hospitality frequently refers to the hospitality industry jobs for hotels, restaurants, casinos, catering, resorts, clubs and any other service position that deals with tourists. As an Executive Housekeeper, I would like to forward my professional views in the development of the interiors and exteriors of the proposed extensions of the new floors in the resort. As our resort is located in the moderate climate, the weather being sub tropical with warm summer and mild winters it is highly recommended to have wide ventilation in order to receive adequate sunshine in the arcades. Moreover, since most of our customers have keen interests in the aquatic sports in the ocean in the precinct, I recommend cane furniture on the first floor to shelter the guests during winter for recreation. The resort estate has two large swimming pools and the guests practice many water-sports at the nearby oceanfront. As a result, people staying at the resort often go to the front desk and concierge areas dripping water from their wet bath suits. Sometimes they even go to the coffee shop counter in wet bathing suits. In order to meet the adverse effect of the movements of the guest it is highly advisable to have carpet floorings to prevent the floor from moist as well as to prevent the guests to fall victim of accidents to slip on the mosaic floor. FLOORING SPECIFICATION Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Often used to mean parquetry wood flooring, it can also refer to various other materials like carpet or linoleum. structural and aesthetic considerations should be entirely subject to functionality to meet with both popularity and skepticism, it had the effect of introducing the concept of functional perception and enjoyment of a building, not only practical but also aesthetic, psychological and cultural. Part of the architectural profession as well as some non-architects, responded to Modernism and Postmodernism by going to what they considered the root of the problem in the hotel industry. Accordingly, architecture has never been a personal philosophical or aesthetic pursuit by individualists; rather it had to consider everyday needs of

Rolex Company Analysis

Rolex Company Analysis This report is about the research on a premium product brand on the market. The premium product out team agrees to choose is the Rolex Company product. Rolex Company was the companies that manufactures a high quality hand watch and sells the product to an upper high value to the consumer, Rolex Company also provide technical repair service especially for its product user at different places or facilities due to its different region and its global market or business operations. The objective of Rolex Company is to provide the high and luxury hand watch with innovative technology and design which also promote its brand to a kind of collection item which symbolize as prestige, luxury and high quality. The Vision and mission of Rolex Company was to always put the customer at the first place and make sure that their customer are satisfied with their product and services. Objective Provide the high and luxury hand watch with innovative technology and design and promote its brand to a kind of collection item which symbolize as prestige, luxury and high quality. Vision Mission Statement Always put the customer at the first place. Ensure that their customers are satisfied with their product and services. 2.0.0 Company Summary Rolex is the worlds well known brand in luxury watches. In addition to that, Rolex was included in the luxury watch list of the worlds top brands. It is only brand that able to produce 2000 watches per day and able to earn 3 billion per day. lts brand name , exclusiveness and unique style attract people from all strata of society. 2.1 Background Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis founded Wilsdorf Davis and signed as WD in the year of 1905 in London, England. Later the name Rolex trademark was registered in 1908 and opened a office in La-Chaux_de-Fond, Switzerland, which was the worlds center for most high quality watch making. The name Rolex in phrase of French were horlogerie exquise which mean exquisite horology. In 1919, the companys headquarters was moved to Geneva, Switzerland, because taxes and export duties in the United Kingdom were driving up costs. The company was first established in Geneva as the Rolex Watch Company. Later, the name changes toÂÂ  Montez Rolex, SAÂÂ  and finally just Rolex, SA. To add on, Rolex was the first company to produce fully waterproof watch (1926), auto-winding watch (1932). 2.2 Company Location Rolex Company split its product and services into two different sections one was the normal direct selling and the other was the service facilities. Until now, The Rolex main headquarter is on Geneva of Switzerland by Rue Francois-Dussaud. In Malaysia are only on Kelantan, Perak, Pulau Pinang, Sabah, Sarawak, and Selangor which the center for direct selling. But there was only one Rolex service center at Malaysia which in Jalan Sultan Ismail at Menara Dion 3.0 Product and services People satisfy their wants and needs with products and services. A product can be provided to a market to satisfy a need or want. Besides that, product include services, which are benefits or activities provided for sale that virtually intangible. Examples include insurance, airline, banking, home repair services and so on. 3.1 Product Description A product is anything that is capable of satisfying customer needs. (David Jobbs) The product was a physical product and took the form of a hand watch. The previous Special edition hand watch manufacture by Rolex Company hand watch model Submarine have evoke a feeling to the customer like a sea because of its blue design on the watch. Rolex Company took the symbol of a crown and places it on its company name to be its brand or logo (figure 1.1) 3.2 Competitive Comparison The Swiss luxury watch making industry is a profitable market. However, new entrants find it difficult to enter the market due to the numerous barriers. In addition to that, there were still many top brands of luxury watches in the market to come up with different styles of watches. Here are some of the top brands and competitors of luxury watches which are famous. Cartier Cartier is a company of the first worldwide luxury watchmaking group and Richemont Compagnie Financiere Group. Cartier enjoys the fame for selling only the first rate quality of jewellery and accessories. Tag Heuer Tag Heuer name has its distinct reputation and status in the world of luxury watches. Furthermore, many Hollywood stars also like to wear Tag Heuer watches. Blancpain Blancpain was founded in 1735 by Jehan Blancpain and is one of the luxury watches in the market. Famous businessmen and celebrities prefer Blancpain watches because Blancopain watches show the exclusiveness and individuality of their personality. 3.3 Supply Demand Details Due to concentrated on its quality and its image, Rolex company supply cannot exceed demand because using the certificate high quality material and qualified craftsmanship to produce each watch will very time taking and some model even required some special technology to produce the model. Refer to the market, this product was considered as inelastic product because increase in price lead to fewer customer to purchase the product. 3.4 Technology needs Rolex has a few series of its watches. There are Automatic Movement, Classic watches, Quartz Movements, Water resistant cases, Collection, Certified Chronometers and Ceramic bezels. Ceramic bezels-The bezel of a watch will exacerbate when exposed to sunlight. Regarding to this issue, Rolex have been motivated to create a unique bezel with a Cerachrom disc. It is essentially scratch-proof and its colour remains unaffected by ultraviolet ray. They are available on the Daytona models, Sea Dweller-Deepsea, Submariner and GMT Master ll. Water-resistant cases- The watch can be survived withstand pressure to a depth of 100m. Classic watches- The classic watches assembled with scrupulous attention to detail and crafted from the first-rate raw materials. 4.0 Market Analysis Market analysis is to understand its evolving threats and opportunities and determine the attractiveness of a market. 4.1 Target Market Segment Strategy Rolex Company using the differentiated Segment by dividing the target market to three group that is normal model, female model, and the special model. These targets also targeting upper high or high social class population because are affordable compare to the lower class. 4.1.1 Industrial Participants / Key Player 1.Rolex 2.Cartier 3.Breitling 4.IWC 5.FranckMuller 6.Blancpain 7.Corum 8.GIRARD-PERREGAUX 9. Audemars Piguet 10. Hublot 4.2 SWOT Analysis Rolex: Strength Brand awareness involves the ability of consumers to remember to the brand name or recognition brand. In the purchase decision, it can play a vital role because people usually like to buy familiar brands. Brand awareness has been calculated by a variety of brands and is available at Annex lV: Brand Awareness. This result shows that Rolex has 97% for awareness. The Rolex brand value is quite high and the name is known around the world. Weakness The strategy has been defined so well but it is hard for the company to change its strategy even how innovative the strategy are. The weakness is that could remain some segments that hard to be achieved on the market. For instance, if the fashion goes to GPS watches, Rolex is hard to changes the strategy because Even they try to change their product to GPS watches, people assume that Rolex to be classic watches. In this case, Rolex would be hard to get a market share of GPS watches Opportunity Rolex brand name is very valuable. It seems that I can be diversified in related fields. Rolex should take the opportunity to open jewelry line over the world. Rolex has the ability to produce jewelry with its technical. Threats The threat of Rolex is youth does not recognize the name of Rolex. Normally, the most mid age people recognize the name of Rolex because most of the segments were set only for mid age people or middle upper social people. Market Need Now days Customers are very concern and picky about on quality on a product especially luxury or premium product or services. To this situation, Rolex Company is very caution on its every product so that will not disappoint the customer and remain the good name of its Company. Other than that, Rolex Company also cautious on its design for every product example what meaning or message want to tell the wearer, or how attractiveness on the customer and probably create a new function technology. 5.0 implementation and strategies 5.1 Marketing strategy The marketing goals of the company are increase awareness of your products and services and increase sales by 150% for next few months. Besides that, the company could use the 5Ps of marketing to achieve its goal. There are product, price, promotion, place and people. After that, the company will test ideas by doing research. The company could done its research through personal interview, survey, e-mail and telephone. 5.2 Pricing Strategy In a nutshell, the Rolex Company could work on value-based pricing structure. Rolex Company will determine the price or value that their consumers willing to buy it. 5.3 Promotion Strategy There are a few ways to promote the company and its products such as advertising, sales promotion and public relation. Those ways able to present information make it clearly to consumers. Furthermore, those ways also able to increase demand and differentiate the products. The company could use advertising as their main components of promotion. Advertising able to spread and present information to people from all strata. The company uses the informative advertising to introducing the new product. Moreover, its objective are telling the market about the new product and building company image. 5.4 Distribution Patterns The company initial focus will be in the China Guang Dong market. There are huge populations and demand strong in China. Such a case, the interest for particular brands is stronger than others in some areas. Omega and Longines got the top two positions in most Chinese provinces. Besides that, the people who live in Guang Dong have preference for Rolex. 5.5 Marketing Program The company could hold the program that retain existing customers and customer retention program. So that, this program able to encourage consumers loyalty and build a strong connection with consumers. This program will uses those social networking to communicate with existing customer and keep updating the information to consumers. 6.0 Web Plan Summary Nowadays, Internet has played an important role in the business. Websites became a dynamic marketing tool for sales. Websites have the ability to build the connection with customers, connection with market partner and connection with the world around us. 6.1 Website Marketing Strategy The use of E-business in Rolex Company. There are intranet, extranets and internet in E-business. Rolex Company creates intranets to help employees able to communicate and to access the information found in the company computers. Furthermore, company should set up the extranet with their supplier to enable information exchange, payments, transactions and orders. The E-commerce able to provide buyers access to comparative information, competitors, products and information about company. Besides that, company could create a marketspaces to offer buyers their products and services online. By using E-marketing, company can communicate about, sell product and services and promote their product over the internet. Company could create or design an attractive website to attract consumer. Creating a website is one thing; getting people to visit the site is another (Marketing an Introduction sixth edition 2003 p99). The important key is to create a good and enough value to get consumers to come to the site , stick around the site and come back again.

The Industry and Competition of the Bus Industry :: Buses Transportation Automobiles Essays

The Industry and Competition of the Bus Industry Several large companies have focused on the multi-occupant vehicle market, specifically school bus production, in North America. Competitors within the school bus manufacturing industry consist of the Henlys Group PLC, a British based company, and two U.S. bus companies, Collins Industries Inc. and Navistar International. Henlys consists of Blue Bird Corporation, Prevost Car Inc., Nova Bus and TransBus International Ltd. Collins Industries operates seven vehicle companies including Collins Bus Corporation and Mid Bus Corporation that make up their school bus line. And finally, Navistar International, which also produces school buses, is divided into three principal industry segments. These segments are trucks/buses, engines, and financial services. In October 1999, Henlys acquired Blue Bird Corporation. This horizontal acquisition gave Henlys a competitive advantage in the North American school bus market. Currently, Blue Bird has increased its market share to over 47% making the bus market Henlys core business. Blue Bird, financially, accounts for 59% of total corporate sales and 81% of Henlys profits. Within Blue Bird, school bus sales accounted for 83% of total sales. Blue Bird offers three styles of small buses and three different large buses, all designed to meet customer needs. They have also teamed up with the Southwest Research Institute to develop the bus of the future, Envirobus. The joint venture was commissioned by the Department of Energy in response to increased pressure from various environmentalist groups to develop buses that are safer and environmentally conscious. This acquisition makes Henlys the largest company in sales of school buses in the North American Market. Besides school buses, Blue Bird a lso produces commercial buses and recreational vehicles. Henlys is also able to take advantage of Blue Bird’s extensive network of distributors. These areas complement Henlys other areas of operations by building on their core competencies. Prior to the Blue Bird acquisition, Henlys Group used the cooperative strategy of equity strategic alliance to expand its bus and coach operations outside of its borders. With this one acquisition, the Henlys Group has achieved economy of scale and now controls 47% of the school bus market in North America. Henlys equity alliance partner profile includes a partnership with Volvo that jointly owns Prevost car Inc. and Nova bus. This joint venture accounts for a 25% market share in North America’s coach market and is the market leader in bus shells for motor homes supplying 80% of that market.

Jk Cement Research Report

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore PGP Program Term 1, 2012 Final Report for JK Cements – Group 2 Section 1 Business Description: JK Cements is one of the largest cement manufacturers in Northern India and the eighth largest overall India with net cement sales of 2545 crores in 2011-12. Itsmain productsinclude grey and white cement. It produced 53. 2 lakh tons of grey cement and 3. 77 lakh tons of white cement in the financial year 201112. Grey cement produced consists of Ordinary Portland Cement (â€Å"OPC†) and Portland Pozzolana Cement (â€Å"PPC†). Their cement products are marketed under the brand names J.K. Cement and Sarvashaktiman for OPC products, J. K. Super for PPC products and J. K. White and Camel for white cement products. JK Wall Putty and JK Water proof are its white cement based value-added products. Housing (74%), infrastructure (17%), commercial & institutional sector (13%) and industrial sector (6%) are the major customers of the cement industry [Refer Figure 1]. Housing constitutes a major chunk of the demand and hence rural and urban housing projects are a key resource generator. Key stock statistics and revenue/earnings data is included in the appendix [Refer Tables 1& 2]Section 2 Market Profile, Competition, Strategy, Risks A. Market Profile: The demand for cement mainly depends on the level of development and the rate of growth of the economy. The major demand drivers for the cement sector in India are housing, infrastructure and commercial construction. These are key components of the country’s GDP and hence, the average growth of the cement industry is approximately 1. 2 times the GDP growth. Significant impetus to both rural and urban housing as per capita income increases in a major driver of the industry.With the increase in national infrastructure investment, the industry is poised to expand further in spite of the worldwide economic recession. The housing sector contributes around 64% of the tot al cement demand. It also accounts for 80% of the total real estate developments in the country. Housing demand is expected to be robust backed by various measures adopted in the budget like continued interest subvention up to 15 lacs, exemption from service tax for low cost housing construction, and increase in investment-linked deduction of capital expenditure on low-cost housing from 100% to 150%.There has been a major push by the government in infrastructure development with the intended investment being US$ 1 trillion in the 12th five year plan period (2012-17), against an investment of US$ 514 billion in the 11th five year plan period. Massive investment in infrastructure would provide boost to Indian Cement industry. India is the second largest producer and consumer of cement in the world, accounting for 7-8% of the total global production with an installed capacity of over 300 Mtpa at the end of 2011-12. India’s cement industry performed better in 1 011-12, on back of robust demand revival in the second half of the financial year. The industry grew by 6. 4 per cent in 2011-12 as against less than 5 per cent in 2010-11. Total cement sales were 223. 02 MT compared with 209. 5 MT in FY11. For 2012-13, CRISIL Research estimates cement demand to increase 7-8 per cent yoy (Crisil). In the near term, demand could be a little weak because of the lower GDP growth. Given that a large part of the demand comes from the housing sector, high interest rates are not conducive to the urban real estate demand. However, in the long term, the industry is expected to grow at an average of 1. times the GDP growth rate. Growth rates of 8-9% can be targeted for the five year period given the increase in investment in infrastructure projects and increasing rural demand. Although India is one of the largest cement markets in the world, per capita consumption of cement is still low as compared to the world average as well as that of other large countries such as China and US. The Indian cement industry, thus, has a huge growth potential. Given the intense shortage of housing, this segment has been a major growth driver for the cement industry.The demand for residential real estate has only increased, fuelled by increasing urbanization, rising income levels, decreasing household sizes and easy availability of home loans. Bulk of the total shortage of 74 million units at the end of the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012), is expected to be generated by rural and below poverty line households. The government has launched various initiatives such as NREGS and Indira AwasYojana to improve rural income, which may increase demand for rural housing in the country. Increased infrastructure investments by the government as mentioned earlier is also likely to be a major growth area.Housing (74%), infrastructure (17%), commercial & institutional sector (13%) and industrial sector (6%) are the major customers of the cement industry. Housing constitutes a major chunk of the demand and hence rural and urban housing projects are a key resource generator. Overall industry margins and change in sales trends are mentioned in tables at the end. [Refer to Table 3 & 4]. Please refer to Table 5 for a picture of the industry growth rate based on the Free Cash Flow model where the average P/B was computed with the top 5 firms of the industry and different rates for cost of capital were assumed.This shows that the cement industry is poised for growth for whatever cost of capital that may prevail. B. Competition: Inter firm competition and rivalry in the industry is high. Large number of players, intermittent overcapacity, marginal product differentiation, high storage cost and high exit barrier in form of significant capital investment has led to high competition in the industry. Threat of new entrants is limited since it involves high capital investment, broad distribution network and oversupplied markets deter new entrants.However, given the high potenti al for growth, quite a few foreign transnational companies have made acquisitions and increased their stake in domestic companies to gain full control. There are no good substitutes for cement popular in India. However, there are eco friendly substitutes for cement which include fly ash and slag. Fly ash is the by product when coal is burnt to make electric power and slag is created when producing iron in blast furnaces. Coal fly ash, blast furnace slag and other mineral admixtures can substitute for cement, aving energy and reducing cost. Bitumen in roads and engineering plastics in building are some element of competition. Currently, the top players – UltraTech, ACC, Ambuja Cements, Jaiprakash Associates, India Cements and Shree Cement, collectively control more than half of the cement market in the country. Overall, there are 40 players in the industry across the country. (Source: ibef. org) The closest competitors for JK Cement are Shree Cements, Madras Cements, Birla Cor poration and Binani Cement. The industry has a 4-firm concentration ratio of 58. 18%. 2 C. StrategyDespite challenges, JK Cement has increased revenues and profits owing to higher realisation and volumes in both grey cement and white cement business. The company is in on its way to expanding its capacity in India to cater to the increase in cement demand. It has also diversified its product portfolio by not only limiting itself to varieties of grey cement but also extending to white cement and other value added products. Besides, the Company is also setting up a grey cum white cement plant at Fujairah in UAE to cater to GCC and African markets. The company is making efforts to reduce operating expenses which in turn would increase the ROE.Some of the efforts to reduce operating costs are: Grey Cement †¢ Implementation of CII Audit findings in phased manner to reduce power consumption. †¢ Installation of VFDs in fans to save power. †¢ Replacement of booster fans by hig h efficiency fans to save power. †¢ Installation of pfisterpump for coal firing in calciner. †¢ Replacement of Raw mill -1 separator by high efficiency separator. †¢ Dynamic separator in Coal Mill. White Cement †¢ Covered clinker storage facility for grey and white clinker. †¢ Grinding plant for dolomite for putty product. †¢ Installation of new SG Fan & Driver. The company is also making efforts to increase its capacity.The company is revisiting the size of proposed expansion plan at Mangrol, Rajasthan from earlier envisaged 3. 5 Million Tons to around 2. 5 Million Tons, on account of delay in allotment of new mining area to the Company. Viability study for 2. 5 Million Tons capacity plant is under preparation and a final decision will be taken during the course of the year. D. Risks Three most important risks: 1. Sustained economic slowdown The growth of cement industry is directly proportional to GDP growth rate. Absence of decision making at Governm ent level is affecting economic growth and may have adverse effect for the cement industry.If measures are not adopted against inflation, high interest rates, depreciating rupee, then it would impact the overall economic growth of the country resulting in dragging the sector down. 2. Unavailability of coal linkages Coal costs constitute 14-23% of cost of production of cement. The hike in coal prices is expected to hit the margins. Due to reduced supply of coal linkers from Coal India over the years; the company has to import coal at higher costs from South Africa and Indonesia. The depreciation of the rupee will also add to the increased cost of raw materials. 3.Adverse demand-supply mismatch In case, the additional capacities get commissioned ahead of schedule, then a state of oversupply would rise, consequently prices may head downwards and the sector may suffer a severe blow. Section 3 3 Trend Analysis The demand for the cement mainly depends on the rate of growth of infrastructu re, housing and commercial construction. In Indian context all these areas have been experiencing a significant growth as a result of constant growth in our GDP. As a result we can see that overall the total revenues for both the companies have been rising [Refer to Figure 2].JK Cement and Madras Cements basically cater to northern and southern India respectively. In year 2011, there is a dip in the total revenues of Madras Cement. This was result of a more acute fall in the capacity utilization observed in southern India due to low demands because of political instability in Andhra Pradesh and minimal pick-up in demand in Tamil Nadu and Kerala post elections. The two industries exhibit comparable trend as far as profit margins are concerned [Refer to Figure 4]. So, an overall analysis of cement industry in this period is required.In 2008, the dip can be attributed to reduced demands due to global recession, which reduced capacity utilization thus reducing profits. In 2011, there wa s marginally poor off take in cement demand due to passive construction activity, which lead to excess supply and utilisation fell to a 13-year low of 83. 9% for 2010-11. This has been coupled with rise in input costs, especially prices of coal and petroleum products. As a result, both the top line and bottom line have been affected. Hence this year the capacity utilization increased and the demand dropped. Section 4 Ratio Analysis [Refer Table 6] . Return on Equity : [Refer Fig. 5] ROE has been hovering around 17-20% throughout with some years seeing slight changes. Given that Index of Industrial Production(IIP) grew only by around 2. 8%, it appears that JK and Madras have both done well. However, 2010-11 was a bad year for JK Cements. Their Net Operating Profit plummeted by 39% when compared to the previous year while the same for Madras Cement was only around 27%. This was mainly on account of reduction in sales realisation and substantial increase in the prices of petcoke and fu el resulting in higher input costs (Annual Report 2010-11).This caused the ROE of JK to fall by almost 600% from the previous year. 2. Basic DuPont Model Analysis : [Refer Fig. 4,5 and 6] ROE = Asset Turnover * Profit Margin Asset Turnover of JK is consistently higher when compared with Madras Cements – 42. 46% higher in 2006-07 while this is 39. 87% in 2012. This is because JK’s total fixed assets is lesser than Madras’ by almost 50% while sales of Madras Cements is higher only by around 2025% on an average . However, the low profit margin throughout has been causing the Return on Equity of JK to be lower than that of Madras Cements.The profit margin has been very low in all the years from with the worst hit being in 2011 – reason explained in step 1. Also the Net Financial Rate has dinted the net profit due to expansion efforts coupled with the dim outlook in the industry. A ray of hope for JK would be to perform product differentiation with the white c ement – wall putty market ; it has done right by expanding the white cement units in overseas ; the demand for interior and decor is bound to increase in the near future. 4 3. Advanced DuPont Model Analysis with RNOA & Leverage : [Refer Fig. & 12] It can be seen that the Operating Spread of JK is going negative for 2010-11 & 2011-12 showing that their Financial Rate is on the rise which is due to debts from increased expansion plans. This, along with the increased leverage from high borrowing, has reduced the already low RNOA to yield a poor ROE value. In the same while, for Madras Cements the spread has been positive – in fact, it has never gone negative for them, despite their large debt. Madras Cements has been affected only by the overall increase in costs in the cement industry and not by the leverage effect which JK has suffered from.The leverage effect has beaten JK again in 2011-12 ; though their RNOA has increased by 177% from the previous year and long-term d ebt has actually reduced, the Interest Rates on loans have seem to have gone up – leading to a 117% increase in the NFR. Thus the negative operating spread has again caused JK’s ROE to fall below the RNOA – Madras Cements has remained stable in this period – registering a higher ROE than RNOA due to the positive spread. Again, this shows that Operating Margin of JK is low when compared with the cost of capital. 4. Analysis of Turnover ratios [Refer Fig. 9 & 0] Inventory Turnover and Debt Turnover of JK is considerably higher than that of Madras Cements leading to a better operating cycle. Low inventory holding and low receivables isa positive trend for JK Cements and it should continue this. 5. Analysis of Liquidity and Long-term Solvency : [Refer Fig. 8,11] The Quick Ratio of JK is consistently higher than Madras Cements for all the 5 years taken into consideration – hence the liquidity position of JK is better than that of Madras Cements. The cap ital structure seems more of debt financing in the recent years – owing to expansion plans.However increase in interest rates would make JK vulnerable to low margins which is already discussed in the advanced model. Section 5 – Conclusion – – – The cement industry is estimated to grow as can be seen from the CRISIL analysis quoted in section 1; housing and infrastructure demand are expected to increase – hence JK is bound to do well The cost reducing efforts of JK and the product differentiation into white cement are expected to increase profit margins. The Asset Turnover values of JK are also higher than its competitor. Hence increase in ROE is expected in coming years.The reduced operating cycle of JK shows a positive trend vis-a-vis its competitor. P/B value of JK is 1. 18 while industry average (top 5 firms) is 2. 76 (refer to table on Growth of Cement Industry). Hence JK stock seems to be undervalued [Refer Table 5] JK has declared 50% dividend for the current year and has consistently declared dividend for the past 5 years. However, the inherent risks in the industry – from global crises like the Euro crisis and flagging coal availability pose concerns for the successful implementation of plans.Further, the continuous expansion plans of JK leading to higher debt and hence higher interest rates (which can rise based on RBI measures to contain inflation) cause concern for the profit margins which can again reduce. The positives seem to be strong as JK is trying to stabilize its expansion plans. Hence an acute negative view point would not be correct. Hence we suggest a buy/hold after doing the above analysis. 5 References : – Crisil. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 21, 2012, from Crisil Web site: crisilresearch. com – Dion Insight. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 21, 2012, from Dion Insight Web site: https://insight. ionglobal. in/Insight/Industry. asp? pageLink=IndProfile&Ind=151 – equitymaster. com. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 21, 2012, from equitymaster. com: http://www. equitymaster. com/research-it/sector-info/cement/Cement-Sector-AnalysisReport. asp – Gupta, N. (n. d. ). Ernst & Young. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from Ernst & Young Web site: http://www. ey. com/Publication/vwLUAssets/cementing_growth/$FILE/cementing_growth. pdf – India Brand Equity Foundation. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 21, 2012, from India Brand Equity Foundation Web site: http://www. ibef. org/industry/cement. aspx – Jagdesh Sunku. 2006). Advantages of using fly ash as supplementary cementing material (SCM) in fibre cement sheets. 10th Int. Inorganic Bonded Fibre Composites Conference, (pp. 25-32). Sao Paulo. – JK Cement Annual Report 2010-11 & 2011-12. JK Cement. – moneycontrol. com. (n. d. ). – PlanningCommision. (n. d. ). Planning Commission. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from Planning Commission Web site: http://planningcommission. nic. in/plans/mta/11th_mta/c hapterwise/chap14_invest. pdf 6 Appendix A Division Figure 1: Division of customers of cement industry into major sectors Major Major customers of cement industryCommercial & Institutional 13% Industrial 6% Infrastructure Infrastructure 17% Housing 64% Figure 2: Total revenue for JK Cement & Madras Cements Ltd. (Revenue in crores)(Before 2005 financial financial statements for JK Cement wasn’t prepared. It was then treated as a division under JK Groups for financial purposes) Total revenue 3,500. 00 3,000. 00 2,500. 00 2,000. 00 1,500. 00 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 1,000. 00 500. 00 0. 00 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 7 Figure 3: Change in sales % change in sales 60 50 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 40 30 20 10 0 -10 -20 2003 2004 005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Figure 4: Profit Margin Profit margin 25. 0% JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 20. 0% 15. 0% 10. 0% 5. 0% 0. 0% 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Figure 5: Return on Equity ROE (%) 60 JK Cement 50 Madras Cements Ltd. 40 30 20 10 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 8 Figure 6: Asset turnover Asset turnover (%) 110 JK Cement 100 Madras Cements Ltd. 90 80 70 60 50 40 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Figure 7: Return on Net Operating Assets RNOA (%) 40 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 30 20 10 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12Figure 8: Debt – Equity Ratio Debt – Equity Ratio 2. 5 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 2 1. 5 1 0. 5 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 9 Figure 9: Spread Operating Spread 0. 5 JK Cement 0. 4 Madras Cements Ltd. 0. 3 0. 2 0. 1 0 -0. 1 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2010-11 2011-12 -0. 2 Figure 10: Holding period Operating Cycle (days) 120 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 100 80 60 40 20 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Figure 11: Quick ratio Quick Ratio 2 JK Cement Madras Cements Ltd. 1. 5 1 0. 5 0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 10 Figure 12: Net Financial Rate NFR 0. 18 JK Cement 0. 6 Madras Cements Ltd. 0. 14 0. 12 0. 1 0. 08 0. 06 0. 04 0. 02 0 2010-11 2011-12 11 Appendix B: (Tables) Table 1: Key stock statistics Stock Report| 24 July 2012 |Symbol : JKCEMENT (NSE); JKCEM (BSE); ISIN NUMBER INE823G01014 J K Cements Stock Price (closing) Investment Style 213. 30 (as of 20 July 2012) Large CAP Sector Cement Summary : JK Cements is one of the largest cement manufacturers in Northern India ; it is the second largest white cement manufacturer by production capacity in India Key Stock Statistics 52 Wk Range 95. 80 to 219. 70 (BSE) 25. 36 8. 41 11,839 EPS (Twelve Month Trailing)P/E (Twelve Month Trailing) 10K investment 5 yrs ago Credit Rating Long Term Bank facilities Short Term Bank facilities Common shares outstg. 69927250 Market Cap Yield (%) Dividend rate per share 1491. 55 Crores 2. 34 5 A+(CARE) A1+(CARE) Table 2: Earnings per Share Earnings Per Share of 10 each ( ) June Q1 September Q2 2011-12 7. 14 0. 51 2010-11 4. 22 -2. 98 2009-10 10. 04 9. 35 December Q3 6. 22 0. 26 6. 65 March Q4 11. 49 7. 66 6. 28 Year 25. 36 9. 16 32. 32 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Table 3: Industry Margins OPM(%) GPM (%) NPM (%) Mar ‘12 21. 78 21. 49 9. 14 Dec ‘11 19. 65 18. 45 10. 13 Industry MarginsSep ‘11 15. 66 13. 6 5. 05 Jun ‘11 24. 41 22. 48 11. 76 Mar ‘11 22. 46 20. 9 11. 92 Dec ‘10 17. 18 15. 32 5. 84 12 Table 4: Industry sales Mar ‘ 12 Industry sales (in crores) % change Change in industry sales (quarter)(%) Dec ‘ 11 Sep ‘ 11 Jun ‘ 11 Mar ‘ 11 Dec ‘ 10 20841. 87 17953. 16 15649. 20 17017. 73 17388. 15 14201. 79 16. 09026 14. 72254 -8. 04179 -2. 1303 22. 43633 Table 5: Industry Growth Projections (for different values of ‘r’) using Free Cash Flow Model Company Name Ultratech Ambuja ACC Shree Cements Madras Cements India Cements JK Cement Average P/B ratio as on 26/08/2012 3. 66 3. 64 . 5 4. 55 2. 19 0. 68 1. 14 2. 765714286 ROE (from March 2012 BS) Cost of Capital (%) Growth (%) 19. 02 15. 28 18. 42 10. 55 18. 78 7. 21 13. 75 14. 71571429 10 11 12 13 14 7. 329288 8. 895631 10. 46197 12. 02832 13. 59466 Table 6: Ratio Calculations Ratios Profit Margin (%) Asset Turnover (%) ROE (%) Return on Assets (%) Net Operating Profit Margin (%) Net Operating Asset Turnover (%) Return on Net Operating Assets (%) = NOPAT/Avg. Net Operating Assets JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras CementJK Cement 2011-12 8. 154156 12. 06512 77. 80004 55. 62438 17. 04343 20. 87036 6. 343937 6. 711146 10. 83703 15. 17511 139. 8798 83. 81691 15. 15882 2010-11 1. 654139 7. 964254 79. 85371 47. 82047 3. 49563 12. 67786 1. 320891 3. 808544 4. 320325 11. 0728 126. 2029 68. 65512 5. 452374 2009-10 10. 84236 12. 59667 88. 57764 56. 65368 22. 29768 25. 09332 9. 60391 7. 136478 12. 51604 16. 10394 160. 5309 81. 84813 20. 09211 2008-09 8. 421552 14. 40591 94. 35595 63. 17162 16. 78291 32. 91344 7. 946235 9. 10 0446 10. 11265 17. 00776 212. 7993 93. 59998 21. 51965 2007-08 16. 62175 20. 30998 107. 4567 75. 2185 41. 51821 50. 27496 17. 86118 15. 31816 17. 88877 21. 64552 209. 9905 128. 6868 37. 5647 Madras Cement 12. 71931 7. 602044 13. 18078 15. 91926 27. 85493 13 Interest Coverage (%) Leverage – Measure 1 Debt-Equity Ratio Current Ratio Quick Ratio Debt Turnover Debt Collection Period (days) Inventory Turnover Inventory Holding Period (days) Operating Cycle (days) NFO NFE NFR Op. Spread FLEV*Spread ROE = RNOA + FLEV*Spread (Advanced Dupont Analysis) JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras CementJK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement JK Cement Madras Cement 392. 0551 615. 8751 2. 686571 3. 109805 0. 837413 1. 0309 99 1. 197299 0. 601965 0. 833253 0. 343679 35. 22924 16. 62681 10. 21879 21. 65177 5. 924257 5. 223089 60. 76712 68. 92473 70. 9859 90. 57651 401. 46 1719. 03 68. 278 101. 808 0. 170074 0. 059224 -0. 01849 0. 067969 -0. 01548 0. 070076 13. 61077 19. 72691 254. 5852 468. 6705 2. 646419 3. 328794 1. 150731 . 609198 1. 367937 0. 931981 0. 916991 0. 599238 33. 11155 15. 49891 10. 87234 23. 22745 7. 497843 4. 941565 48. 01381 72. 85141 58. 88615 96. 07886 802. 04 2307. 32 62. 958 81. 466 0. 078497 0. 035308 -0. 02397 0. 040713 -0. 02759 0. 065515 2. 693658 14. 15354 666. 585 579. 4166 2. 321729 3. 516204 0. 939762 1. 647142 1. 144753 1. 00381 0. 764784 0. 639154 30. 43733 22. 88671 11. 82758 15. 72965 8. 619538 5. 233222 41. 76558 68. 79127 53. 59316 84. 52092 705. 23 2034. 43 34. 363 98. 455 0. 048726 0. 048394 0. 152195 0. 083413 0. 143027 0. 137394 34. 39482 26. 92014 619. 7696 717. 6917 2. 112058 . 616684 0. 580401 1. 954809 1. 968687 0. 982285 1. 675142 0. 628742 30. 17987 33. 40915 11. 92848 10. 77549 10. 69177 6. 127751 33. 67075 58. 74912 45. 59923 69. 52461 -143. 99 2006. 67 28. 147 65. 807 -0. 19548 0. 032794 0. 410675 0. 126398 0. 238356 0. 247085 45. 35528 40. 62774 851. 7743 1451. 897 2. 324494 3. 28205 0. 626681 1. 714777 1. 762163 1. 019801 1. 467784 0. 702189 26. 72182 31. 59228 13. 47214 11. 39519 10. 49671 6. 782897 34. 29647 53. 07467 47. 76861 64. 46986 37. 91 1183. 64 20. 216 26. 782 0. 533263 0. 022627 -0. 15762 0. 255922 -0. 09877 0. 43885 27. 68721 71. 73993 14

Jose Rizal Novels

University of Perpetual Help System Dalta Alabang-Zapote Road, Pamplona III, Las Pinas City Dedication of Jose Rizal’s Novels: Noli Me Tangere And El Filibusterismo Submitted to: Mr. Mason (Professor in Life and Works of Rizal) Submitted by: Rosemarie R. Lubay Noli Me tangere â€Å"In the annals of human adversity, there is etched a cancer, of a breed so malignant that the least contact exacerbates it and stirs in it the sharpest of pains.And thus, many times amidst modern cultures I have wanted to evoke you, sometimes for memories of you to keep me company, other times, to compare you with other nations – many times your beloved image appears to me afflicted with a social cancer of similar malignancy. Desiring your well-being, which is our own, and searching for the best cure, I will do with you as the ancients of old did with their afflicted: expose them on the steps of the temple so that each one who would come to invoke the Divine, would propose a cure for themâ₠¬ ¦ † El FilibusterismoTo the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don Jose Burgos (30 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old). Executed in Bagumbayan Field on the 28th of February, 1872. â€Å"The Church, by refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime that has been imputed to you; the Government, by surrounding your trials with mystery and shadows, causes the belief that there was some error, committed in fatal moments; and all the Philippines, by worshiping your memory and calling you martyrs, in no sense recognizes your culpability.In so far, therefore, as your complicity in the Cavite mutiny is not clearly proved, as you may or may not have been patriots, and as you may or may not have cherished sentiments for justice and for liberty, I have the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I undertake to combat. And while we wait expectantly upon Spain some day to restore your good name and cease to be answerable f or your death, let these pages serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over your unknown tombs, and let it be understood that everyone who without clear proofs attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood! †

Free Essays on Letting America Be

Letting America Be In the beginning of the poem, â€Å"Let America Be America Again,† Hughes writes about America as if it were once a country which people were able to â€Å"dream,† and be â€Å"free,† or never did â€Å"scheme.† However, our country was basically a place to take refuge from religious oppression and to make a lot of money for the country who supported us financially. Letting American be what she intended to be, is the spirit Hughes is trying to convey. We need to revive â€Å"the dream that’s almost dead.† Without the dream we once had, our country would not be what she is today. The spark of hope that things will get better always kept the â€Å"blue-collared† crew of America going. The â€Å"sweat and blood† and â€Å"faith and pain† held our country by the threads. Through the rain and snow, our country was built from the bottom up, by the workers of America. The workers of America, who never had the â€Å"American dream† come to a reality knows freedom is a whimsy thought which one day might come true. Our scheming country was hungry to find gold in the soil, to find riches in the soil through all means. â€Å"Tangled in that ancient endless chain† our country scurries around grabbing land and gold attempting to satisfy the need. To further increase our economy, minorities were shipped in to be bought and sold as slaves, or indentured servants. The price to come to America created indentured servants, working until they no longer owed any money. The many who came across â€Å"to build a ‘homeland of the free,’† and those who â€Å"sailed those early seas† came to America, searching for their means of a home. Where does the word free fit into a place such as that? I am sure people dreamed America to â€Å"be the dream the dreamers dreamed,† yet such disgraceful events took place. America boasts proudly of her freedom and equality, yet she never had it. Equality was only in the air of white ... Free Essays on Letting America Be Free Essays on Letting America Be Letting America Be In the beginning of the poem, â€Å"Let America Be America Again,† Hughes writes about America as if it were once a country which people were able to â€Å"dream,† and be â€Å"free,† or never did â€Å"scheme.† However, our country was basically a place to take refuge from religious oppression and to make a lot of money for the country who supported us financially. Letting American be what she intended to be, is the spirit Hughes is trying to convey. We need to revive â€Å"the dream that’s almost dead.† Without the dream we once had, our country would not be what she is today. The spark of hope that things will get better always kept the â€Å"blue-collared† crew of America going. The â€Å"sweat and blood† and â€Å"faith and pain† held our country by the threads. Through the rain and snow, our country was built from the bottom up, by the workers of America. The workers of America, who never had the â€Å"American dream† come to a reality knows freedom is a whimsy thought which one day might come true. Our scheming country was hungry to find gold in the soil, to find riches in the soil through all means. â€Å"Tangled in that ancient endless chain† our country scurries around grabbing land and gold attempting to satisfy the need. To further increase our economy, minorities were shipped in to be bought and sold as slaves, or indentured servants. The price to come to America created indentured servants, working until they no longer owed any money. The many who came across â€Å"to build a ‘homeland of the free,’† and those who â€Å"sailed those early seas† came to America, searching for their means of a home. Where does the word free fit into a place such as that? I am sure people dreamed America to â€Å"be the dream the dreamers dreamed,† yet such disgraceful events took place. America boasts proudly of her freedom and equality, yet she never had it. Equality was only in the air of white ...

Response Question Example

Response Question Example Response Question – Coursework Example Response question Response question The study requires review of articles that have objectives of exploring the implication of poverty on leadership and students. In fully exhausting important elements for the above research study, putting together a systematic literature review is of great importance in grounding for an upright piece of research. In which case, concept mapping comes in handy in pinpointing and arranging the relevant information considered of worth for this research topic; and arriving at a less daunting creation of literature review. Two main purposes of concept mapping that may serve right for this particular case include; summarizing the obtained information from a given source and finally harmonize information from diverse sources (Hart, 2001). The following is an illustration of how mapping proves useful for the topic:Mapping to give summary of information from multiple sources Given the large number of articles talking about the implications of poverty backgrou nds on leadership and students, it would be of importance to summarize the information. Mapping is crucial in this case since it will help in summarizing information, from the diverse sources, that would then create meaning for the intended concepts of study. This way, a network type of mapping will illustrate the eliciting understanding of the concept of poverty background implications. The following figure depicts an example of mapping showing implication of problem based learning:Figure 1 depicting example of mapping which can be used to summarise information from multiple sourcesMapping to obtain and summarize major points from a relevant articleThis will involve drawing a concept map, containing level of hierarchies that depict the important points related to implications of poverty on the leadership behaviors and students. The hierarchies starts by listing the topic of the article then highlighting the objectives and major points coming therein.In conclusion, mapping proves fe asible for the success of coming up with an upright literature review for the above research topic. The aforementioned aspect of mapping will help in consolidating and structuring a literature review that captures all the important information required to root for the expected results. References Hart, C. 2001. Doing a Literature Search: A Comprehensive Guide for the Social Sciences. NY: Sage

Coordinate Geometry and Points on SAT Math Complete Guide

Coordinate Geometry and Points on SAT Math Complete Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Coordinate geometry is one of the heavy-hitter topics on the SAT, and you'll need to be able to maneuver your way through its many facets in order to take on the variety of questions you'll see on the test. Luckily, though, coordinate geometry is not difficult to visualize or wrap your head around once you know the basics. And we are here to show you how. There will usually be two questions on any given SAT that involve points alone, and another 2-3 questions that will involve lines and slopes and/or rotations, reflections, or translations. This makes up a significant portion of your SAT math section, so it is a good idea to understand the ins and outs of coordinate geometry before you tackle the test. This will be your complete guide to points and the building blocks for coordinate geometry- how to find and manipulate points, distances, and midpoints, as well as strategies for solving these types of questions on test day. What is Coordinate Geometry? Geometry always takes place on a plane, which is a flat surface that goes on infinitely in all directions. The coordinate plane refers to a plane that has scales of measurement along the $x$- and $y$-axes. Coordinate geometry is the geometry that takes place in the coordinate plane. Coordinate Scales The $\bi x$-axis is the scale that measures horizontal distance along the coordinate plane. The $\bi y$-axis is the scale that measures vertical distance along the coordinate plane. The intersection of the two planes is called the origin. We can find any point along the infinite span of the plane by using its position with regard to the $x$- and $y$-axes and to the origin. We mark this location with coordinates, written as $(x, y)$. The $x$ value tells us how far along (and in which direction) our point is along the $x$-axis. The $y$ value tells us how far along (and in which direction) our point is along the $y$-axis. For instance, This point is 7 units to the right of the origin and 4 units above the origin. This means that our point is located at coordinates $(7, 4)$. Anywhere to the right of the origin will have a positive $\bi x$ value. Anywhere left of the origin will have a negative $\bi x$ value. Anywhere vertically above the origin will have a positive $\bi y$ value. Anywhere vertically below the origin will have a negative $\bi y$ value. By breaking the coordinate plane up into four quadrants, we can see that any point will have certain properties in terms of its positivity or negativity, depending on where it is located. Distances and Midpoints When given two coordinate points, you can find both the distance between them as well as the midpoint between the two original points. We can find these values by using formulas or by using other geometry techniques. Let's look at each option. No distance is too much for a genius with a plan. Or a genius who is hungry. Either way. Image: Gwendal Uguen/Flickr Distance Formula $√{(x_2−x_1)^2+(y_2−y_1)^2}$ There are two options for finding the distance between two points- using the distance formula, or using the Pythagorean Theorem. Let's look at both. Solving Method 1: Distance Formula If you prefer to use formulas when you take standardized tests, then go ahead and memorize the distance formula above. You will NOT be provided the distance formula on the test, so, if you choose this route, make sure you can memorize the formula accurately and call upon it as needed. (Remember- a formula you remember incorrectly is worse than not knowing a formula at all!) Let us say we have two points, $(7, -2)$ and $(-5, 3)$, and we must find the distance between the two. If we simply plug our values into our distance formula, we get: $√{(x_2−x_1)^2+(y_2−y_1)^2}$ $√{(−5−7)^2+(3−(−2))^2}$ $√{(−12)^2+(5)^2}$ $√{144+25}$ $√{169}$ $13$ The distance between our two points is 13. Solving Method 2: Pythagorean Theorem $a^2+b^2=c^2$ Alternatively, we can always find the distance between two points by using the Pythagorean Theorem. This way takes slightly longer, but doesn't require us to expend energy memorizing extra formulas and carries less risk of us remembering the formula wrong. Remember that you are given the Pythagorean Theorem on every SAT math section, so you never have to fear mis-remembering it. It is also a formula that you've likely had to use much more often than most other formulas, so odds are that it's familiar to you. Simply turn the coordinate points and the distance between them into a right triangle, with the distance acting as a hypotenuse. From the coordinates, we can find the lengths of the legs of the triangle and use the Pythagorean Theorem to find our distance. For example, let us use the same coordinates from earlier to find the distance between them using this method instead. Find the distance between the points $(7, -2)$ and $(-5, 3)$ First, start by mapping out your coordinates. Next, make the legs of your right triangles. If we count the points along our plane, we can see that we have leg lengths of 12 and 5. Now we can plug these numbers in and use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the final piece of our triangle, the distance between our two points. $a^2+b^2=c^2$ $12^2+5^2=c^2$ $144+25=c^2$ $169=c^2$ $c=13$ The distance between our two points is, once again, 13. [Special Note: If you are familiar with your triangle shortcuts, you may have noticed that this triangle was what we call a 5-12-13 triangle. Because it is one of the regular right triangles, you technically don't even need the Pythagorean Theorem to know that the hypotenuse will be 13 if the two legs are 5 and 12. This is a shortcut that can be useful to know, but is NOT necessary to know, as you can see.] Midpoint Formula $$({x_1+x_2}/2, {y_1+y_2}/2)$$ In addition to finding the distance between two points, we can also find the midpoint between two coordinate points. Because this will be another point on the plane, it will have its own set of coordinates. If you look at the formula, you can see that the midpoint is the average of each of the values of a particular axis. So the midpoint will always be the average of the $x$ values and the average of the $y$ values, written as a coordinate point. For example, let us take the same points we used for our distance formula, $(7, -2)$ and $(-5, 3)$. If we take the average of our $x$ values, we get: $${7+(-5)}/2$$ $$2/2$$ $$1$$ And if we take the average of our $y$ values, we get: $${−2+3}/2$$ $$1/2$$ $$1/2$$ The midpoint of the line will be at coordinates $(1, 1/2)$. If we look at our picture from earlier, we can see that this is true. It is difficult to find the midpoint of a line without use of the formula, but by thinking of it as finding the average of each axis value may make it easier to visualize and remember, rather than thinking of it in terms of a "formula." Now, just measure the midpoint of an endless stretch of road- no problem. Typical Point Questions Point questions on the SAT will generally fall into one of three categories- questions about how the coordinate plane works, counting questions, and midpoint or distance questions. Let's look at each type. Coordinate Questions Questions about the coordinate plane test how well you understand exactly how the coordinate plane works, as well as how to manipulate points and lines within it. In the $xy$-coordinate plane, how many points are a distance of 4 units from the origin? A. OneB. TwoC. FourD. More than four For a question like this, it may be tempting to answer C, four. After all, there will be four distinct points 4 units from the origin, two on the $x$-axis (one right and one left), and two on the $y$-axis (one up and one down). But answering this way would disregard the realities of circles. Imagine that we have circle with a midpoint at the origin whose circumference touches each of the points 4 units from the origin. Now, if we remember our circle definitions, we know that all straight lines drawn from the center of the circle to the circumference will all be equal. We also know that there are infinite such lines. This means that there will be infinitely many point that are 4 units from the origin. These points may have "weird" coordinates (as in non-integer values), but they will be points 4 units from the origin all the same. Our final answer is D, More than 4. Counting Questions Counting questions are exactly what they sound like- you will be given a diagram of the coordinate plane (or, rarely, you must create your own) and then you will be asked to count distances from specific point to specific point. On occasion, you may also be asked to count seemingly "odd" measurements, like the values of your $x$ and $y$ coordinates. For instance, For this question, you must first understand what absolute values mean. From there, it is a simple matter of counting the x and y values from their coordinate points. For a question like this, the most efficient path is to work from our answer choices. Since our answer choices are NOT in order of "greatest to least," it will not help us to start with the middle answer choice and work our way from there, as we would normally do when plugging in answers. Knowing that, let us simply work in order from first to last, until we find our right answer. Point A is at coordinates $(-3, -3)$. So let us find the sum of their absolute values. $|x|+|y|$ $|−3|+|−3|$ $3+3$ 6 Since we are looking for the value 5, this answer is too large. We can eliminate answer choice A. Point B is at coordinates $(-4, 1)$ $|x|+|y|$ $|−4|+|1|$ $4+1$ 5 Success! We have found the answer choice that gives us coordinates whose absolute values add up to 5. Because there will only ever be one correct answer on any SAT question, we can stop here. Our final answer is B. Midpoint and Distance Questions Midpoint and distance questions will be fairly straightforward and ask you for exactly that- the distance or the midpoint between two points. You may have to find distances or midpoints from a scenario question (a hypothetical situation or a story) or simply from a straightforward math question (e.g., "What is the distance from points $(4, 5)$ and $(8, -2)$?"). Let's look at an example of a scenario question, Rosa and Marco met up for dinner and then drove home separately from the restaurant. To get home from the restaurant, Rosa drove north 6 miles and Marco drove west 8 miles. How far apart do Rosa and Marco live? A. 8 milesB. 10 milesC. 12 milesD. 14 miles First, let us make a quick sketch of our scenario. Now, because this is a distance question, we have the option of using either our distance formula or using the Pythagorean theorem. Since we have already begun by drawing out our diagram, let us continue on this path and use the Pythagorean theorem. Now, we can see that we have made a right triangle from the legs of distance we have already. Rosa drove 6 miles north and Marco drove 8 miles west, which means that the legs of our triangle will be 6 and 8. Now we can find the hypotenuse by using the Pythagorean theorem. $6^2+8^2=c^2$ $36+64=c^2$ $100=c^2$ c=√{100}$ $c=10$ [Note: if you remember your shortcuts for right triangles, you could have saved yourself some time and simply known that our distance/hypotenuse was 10. Why? Because a right triangle with legs of 6 and 8 is a 3-4-5 triangle multiplied by 2. So the hypotenuse would be $5*2=10$.] The distance between Marco's house and Rosa's house is 10 miles. Our final answer is B, 10 miles. "The worst distance between two people is misunderstanding"- Unknown. Or, you know, 10 miles. Strategies for Solving Point Questions Though point questions can come in a variety of forms, there are a few strategies you can follow to help master them. #1: Always Write Down Given Information Though it may be tempting to work through questions in your head, it is easy to make mistakes with your point questions if you do not write down your givens. This is especially the case when working with negatives or with absolute values. In addition, most of the time you are given a diagram with marked points on the coordinate plane, you will not be given coordinates. This is because the test makers feel it would be too simple a problem to solve had you been given coordinates (take, for example, the question involving absolute values from earlier). So take a moment to write down your coordinates and any other given information in order to keep it straight in your head. #2: Draw It Out In addition to writing down your given information, draw pictures of your scenarios. Make your own pictures if you are given none, draw on top of them if you are given diagrams. Never underestimate the value of marked information or a sketch- even a rough approximation can help you keep track of more information than you can (or should try to) in your head. Time and energy are two precious resourses at your disposal when taking the SAT and it takes little of each to make a rough sketch, but can cost you both to keep all your information in your head. #3: Decide Now Whether or Not to Use Formulas If you feel more comfortable using formulas than using the slightly more drawn-out techniques, then decide now to memorize your formulas. Remember that memorizing a formula wrong is worse than not remembering it at all, so make sure that you memorize and practice your formula knowledge between now and test day to lock it in your head. If, however, you are someone who prefers to dedicate your study efforts elsewhere (or you simply feel that you won't remember the formula correctly on the day of the test), then go ahead and forget them. Use the Pythagorean theorem instead of memorizing the distance formula and wash your hands of memorization altogether. There are multiple ways to solve most SAT math problems, so your choices should best match your own personal strengths and weaknesses Image: ljphillips34/Flickr Test Your Knowledge Now, let's test your point knowledge on some more real SAT math questions. 1. What is the midpoint of the line that begins at coordinates $(-3, 2)$ and ends at $(5, -10)$? A. (6, -4)B. (4, -1)C. (1, 4)D. (-1, -6)E. (1, -4) 2. 3. (Refer to information in question 2) 4. (Refer to information in question 2) Answers: E, D, A, B Answer Explanations: 1. To find the midpoint of the line connecting two points, we must take the average of each of the values along a particular axis. First, as always, it is a good idea to take a moment to map out the coordinates of our given points. This will help us keep track of our information, especially considering there are negatives involved. First, let us take the average of our two $x$-values. ${-3+5}/2$ $2/2$ 1 Now, let us take the average of our two $y$-values. ${2+(-10)}/2$ $-8/2$ $−4$ The midpoint of our line will be at coordinates $(1, -4)$ We can see that this is likely the correct answer, as it neatly fits into our diagram. Our final answer is E, $(1, -4)$. 2. Here, we have a counting question. We are not being asked to find the linear distance between two points, F and W, but to find them along a grid. So let us draw the various pathways from F to W. As you can see, the shortest paths from F to W are all 3 3$1/2$ units long, which makes 3$1/2$ the m-distance. Our final answer is D, 3$1/2$ 3. Again, we have what amounts to another counting question. This is also a definite case of when it is a good idea to draw pictures so that we do not repeat potential $m$-distance routes from F to Z. So let us find our routes. First, start by finding one of the most direct paths, which in this case is a distance of 4 units. Next, trace all the paths that follow the lines from F to Z. If any of our new paths span less than 4 units, it will of course become our new m-distance, but for now we are working under the assumption that the $m$-distance is 4. All of our paths travel a distance of 4 units, making this our m-distance. If you were careful to keep track of all your paths and not count any of them more than once, then you will see that there are 6 routes from F to Z that will measure the minimum distance. Our final answer is A, six. 4. Now, this question may seem tricky because it looks, at first glance, almost exactly like one of our questions from earlier in the guide, which asked us, "How many points are 4 units from the origin?" In that case, the answer was "infinitely many," because all the points 4 units from the origin formed a circle, and there are always infinite points on a circle. In this case, we are being asked to find all the points ${m-3}$-distance from a particular point. This is NOT the same as asking for the number of points 3 units from a point (in this case, point F). Why not? Because the problem defined $m$-distance as the minimum distance traveled along a grid, not the distance in all directions. So if we start tracing all the distances ${m-3}$-units from F, we can start to see the pattern. Once we've mapped out all the possible lines ${m-3}$-units from F in one quadrant of our map, we can expand it outwards to see the shape that emerges. We can see that all the points ${m-3}$-distance from F form a square. Our final answer is B, a square. Think you deserve a treat for all that hard work. The Take Aways Understanding the coordinate plane and how points fit in it are the basic building blocks for coordinate geometry. With these understandings, you will be able to perform more complex coordinate geometry tasks, such as finding slopes and rotating shapes. Coordinate geometry is not an insignificant part of the SAT math section, but luckily success is mostly a matter of organization and diligence. Be careful to keep track of your negatives and all your moving pieces and you'll be able to dominate those point questions and all the coordinate geometry the SAT can throw at you. What's Next? Ready to tackle more SAT math topics? You're in luck! We've got guides for every math topic on the SAT, so come check them out. From probabilities to polygons, fractions to functions- we've got you covered. Running out of time on the SAT math section? Check out our guide on how to beat the clock and maximize your SAT math score. Bitten by the procrastination bug? Our guide will help you overcome all those procrastinating woes and get you back on track in no time. Looking to get a perfect score? We've got your back with our guide to getting an 800 on the SAT math section, written by a perfect-scorer. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Math strategy guide, you'll love our program. Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Information Sensitivity and Protection of Data Essay - 4

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Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Essay

Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis - Essay Example ituations are critical to be accurately identified and resolved to avoid any fraudulent activities like exploitation of financial statements, inside trading, kickbacks, etc by the companies and to make them abide by the accounting laws. As like modesty and ethics, obedience is also top of the list trait taught to younger generation by the elder ones. They are tamed to obey the authorities: parents in the beginning, later teachers and ultimately the Boss! One of the traps employees mostly fell into is â€Å"follow what your boss is saying†. They are pressured by the boss to behave in an un-ethical manner and tamper the numbers to overestimate company’s value. The most damaging trait found in many people, whether they are aware of it or not is the inability to work with patience and view any problem or judgment from different angles. They want definite answers and jump to conclusions based on the first thing that comes to their minds. Strict work conditions such as time stress, fatigue, and etc work as a fuel to fire. Under such circumstances the employees are at high risk of taking short cuts and behave unethically by ignoring and not fully analyzing the facts. Many a time’s exploitation of the financial facts is done in greed to gain benefits for the individual, company or for both. There might be some large percentage of shares involved for the individual from the benefit the company as a whole will receive because of the unethical activities. Where else sometimes, the employee has to â€Å"cook the books† out of his own interest as it’s for company’s benefit. In any case it is done as to gain benefit without pointing a gun at someone and without anyone getting hurt. The white collar nature of this crime makes it very tempting for individuals and companies. Over estimating company’s ROI (return over investment), Equity, Etc involves ample interest of company’s owners. This provides them with the opportunity to attract more investors to invest in

Using Nonlinear Programming and Queuing in Quantitative Decision Essay

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Descriptive writing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Budgeting in Health Care Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Budgeting in Health Care Organizations - Essay Example There are numerous other types of budgets such as annual statistics budget and revenue budget and they vary according to their purposes (Gapenski). These budgets can vary across different health care institutions. The reason for this is the diversity of the financial structures, organizational culture and reporting systems of organizations (Finkler and McHugh, 2008, p.171). The process by which health care organizations design and implement budget based on such organizational structure, culture and reporting system determines whether they will achieve budgeted operating margin targets. This is demonstrated in the experience of University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics (UUHC). It was found that the institution's personnel are not knowledgeable on budgeting and finance and that there is no organizational mechanism or aspect of the organizational culture that encourage the education of the staff. As a result, expenses always exceed the budget and what is worse, the extra expenditures are found to be unnecessary (Clark, 2005, p.79). Budgeting, or correct budgeting, is important because it supports the operation of the health care organization. ... lth care institutions and it needs budgeting in order to maintain positive performance and deal with problems, such as "shrinking revenues and rising expenses" (Schwieters and Harper, p.76). The benefit of budgeting is aligned with the importance of cost information. As managers and hospital personnel are informed about budgeting and cost, a sound operating budgeting process can finally be implemented in order to achieve financial health. This point was explained by the intervention introduced at UUHC in 2004 to improve budgeting results. The organization pursued an aggressive education drive for its staff about budget and finance, "offering incentives to stay within budgets, holding budget variance meetings with managers, and requesting corrective action plans from managers". The result was improved budgeting performance. The intervention model highlighted by the case of UUHC included an important tool in budgeting: variance analysis. It is a method that focuses on comparisons of ac tual results and budgeted expectations for each line in the budget of each cost center in the health care organization (Finkler, Ward and Baker, 2007, p.200). The flexible budgeting variance analysis is one of its types that is widely used in health care organizations. The methodology follows a framework of gathering information the comprehensively cover the composition of departmental expenses. This could lead UUHC, for instance, to subdivide total variance (the difference between standard prices and quantities and actual prices and quantities) into three: price, quantity and volume (Baker, 1998, p.128). Baker explained these three in detail: Price variance pertains to the proportion of the overall variance caused by the differences between actual and expected price input; Quantity

Summarize the reasons for the failure of Lehman Brothers Essay

Summarize the reasons for the failure of Lehman Brothers - Essay Example hat the problems of the Lehman Brothers were well published over the media which gave time to the derivatives market to prepare for the worst (The Economist, 2008). The statement was pretty correct as the credit-default swaps market had not been broken but buckled up (The Economist, 2008). The bank was unable to assess the risk of the borrower or trading partner which resulted in defaults paralyzing the cash flows of the bank. According to The Economist, a senior bank executive quotes this mistake of deregulated leasing â€Å"the mistake of a lifetime† (The Economist, 2008). The Lehman Brothers was caught up amidst US$ 613 billion of debt of which US$ 160 billion was held by international investors as unsecured bonds. The European pension funds and the individuals in Asian markets had believed in the high rating of the Lehman Brothers and put their investments in this unsecured bonds. The price of this unsecured bonds collapsed quickly destroying the share price of the company to half overnight. The shareholders had already witnessed downfall of the prices of shares in the past few months. These losses caused a spiral in the money market. International investors pulled off US$ 400 billion from the money market funds which was supposed to be a safer investment. This action was taken when a fund suffered losses which were loaded on Lehman’s debts (The Economist, 2008). Dick Fuld was the CEO of the Lehman Brothers at the time of the collapse of the bank. The Lehman Brothers has been the 4th largest investment bank in the US since 1994. Mr. Fuld has been partly blamed for the collapse of the bank and the losses made by the investors. The CEO enforced many policies and precautions to avoid any financial storm, but still the bank revealed US$ 2.8 billion losses in the next quarter. On the 15th of September, 2008, the share price of the bank went down 94% as compared to the previous year. The redundancy of 24,000 employees caused a great human cost. All these factors

Budgeting in Health Care Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Budgeting in Health Care Organizations - Essay Example There are numerous other types of budgets such as annual statistics budget and revenue budget and they vary according to their purposes (Gapenski). These budgets can vary across different health care institutions. The reason for this is the diversity of the financial structures, organizational culture and reporting systems of organizations (Finkler and McHugh, 2008, p.171). The process by which health care organizations design and implement budget based on such organizational structure, culture and reporting system determines whether they will achieve budgeted operating margin targets. This is demonstrated in the experience of University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics (UUHC). It was found that the institution's personnel are not knowledgeable on budgeting and finance and that there is no organizational mechanism or aspect of the organizational culture that encourage the education of the staff. As a result, expenses always exceed the budget and what is worse, the extra expenditures are found to be unnecessary (Clark, 2005, p.79). Budgeting, or correct budgeting, is important because it supports the operation of the health care organization. ... lth care institutions and it needs budgeting in order to maintain positive performance and deal with problems, such as "shrinking revenues and rising expenses" (Schwieters and Harper, p.76). The benefit of budgeting is aligned with the importance of cost information. As managers and hospital personnel are informed about budgeting and cost, a sound operating budgeting process can finally be implemented in order to achieve financial health. This point was explained by the intervention introduced at UUHC in 2004 to improve budgeting results. The organization pursued an aggressive education drive for its staff about budget and finance, "offering incentives to stay within budgets, holding budget variance meetings with managers, and requesting corrective action plans from managers". The result was improved budgeting performance. The intervention model highlighted by the case of UUHC included an important tool in budgeting: variance analysis. It is a method that focuses on comparisons of ac tual results and budgeted expectations for each line in the budget of each cost center in the health care organization (Finkler, Ward and Baker, 2007, p.200). The flexible budgeting variance analysis is one of its types that is widely used in health care organizations. The methodology follows a framework of gathering information the comprehensively cover the composition of departmental expenses. This could lead UUHC, for instance, to subdivide total variance (the difference between standard prices and quantities and actual prices and quantities) into three: price, quantity and volume (Baker, 1998, p.128). Baker explained these three in detail: Price variance pertains to the proportion of the overall variance caused by the differences between actual and expected price input; Quantity

Transformation of Asean Community to Aec and the Effects to Thailand Essay Example for Free

Transformation of Asean Community to Aec and the Effects to Thailand Essay Recently, the world has experienced financial crisis, those countries that have been powerful and have strong economies such as the members of European Union (EU) such as the United Kingdom, France and Greece, are facing a big financial collapse. So now a new economic community is arising with intense competition because new markets are developing and financial opportunities are sought. Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one of significant players in the world’s economy for centuries. It has emerged strongly from the financial crisis offering the new opportunities for investors and businesspeople. The interest and attention of investment are moving to the ASEAN area more and more each year because of the available untapped market in the ASEAN and the potential of being the production base that eases and facilitates those new incoming traders and investors. Many investors have kept their eyes on the region’s performance and its transition into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) which is the newest area of economic integration in the world. To study this economic bloc is significant in order to capture the great opportunities and prepare to be ready in taking the supreme advantages from the AEC. In the transforming processes, some practices will be applied to the members and that can make the difference between failure and success of the AEC project apparent. This could lead to a modification of the plan for AEC integration in the future, from the beginning of origin point to the change of community which takes place in four phases, its visions and four pillars. They should be taken into consideration to learn how it works to move forward because this economic community will possibly be the new engine of the world economy. This essay consists of an introduction, explanation and clarification on the ASEAN and the AEC. In order to critically examine the AEC; most of its dimensions will be discussed. There are three areas included in the paper which are, firstly; identify and describe both communities’ purposes of existing as well as the characteristics of the community, these explanations can be used to explain and clarify what the AEC represents in the past, present, and future. The detail of each four-pillar, the core targets of the AEC, will be carefully interpreted. Secondly; the benefits of the AEC will be briefly examined. And lastly, the challenges that the AEC may face in the progression of it transformation from ASEAN will be analysed. Some suggestion will be offered in the conclusion. What are ASEAN and AEC? Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand. The founding members are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. After that Brunei Darussalam, Viet Nam, Lao PDR and Myanmar, and Cambodia joined in 1984, 1995, 1997, and 1999, respectively. At the beginning, â€Å"it was for political purposes and was declared a preferential trade area in 1977.† (Frankel and Wei, 1997, p.312) that is the point where the ASEAN started moving towards the economic community and move further in 1992 when the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) was established. Source: International Monetary Fund, 1994, World Economic Outlook, October 1994: A Survey by the Staff (Washington) Its performances have been outstanding. Apparently from many measurements, for example, the increasing of ASEAN’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the indicator that used to calculate health of the areas’ economy, compares to other countries’ is remarkable. In figure 1, from 1960-70, its Real GDP was 5.6. It has gradually increased and in 1990-2000, the real GDP was 7.6 which comparable with Republic of Korea, slightly lower than China and even higher than Japan that was at 2.5 (Larsen F., Aziz J., 1997, p.309). The Real GDP Growth of the ASEAN-6 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) is forecasted to reach 6.0% on average from 2011-2015 while the EU’s real GDP growth before 2015 will not be more than 3% (The Conference Board, 2012). Additionally, the inflation has remained stable which reflects the notable performance of the ASEAN in setting fiscal and financial policies. Furthermore, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows that was unattractive in the past, now it has distinguished among the world FDI inflows. As of 1995-2005, the FDI inflows of the ASEAN was about US$15,773 to US$38,083 million (ASEAN FDI Database, 2006, p.13) but after that it has been rocketed to US$47,075.6, US$ 38,266 and US$76,207 million in 2008-2010, respectively.(ASEAN Foreign Direct Investment Statistics Database, 2012, p.1) Part One: Purposes of Establishing AEC The main purpose of the establishment of ASEAN was cooperation in many areas such as economic, social, and etc. that promotes the regional peace and stability. (Economic Community Factbook , 2011, p.viii) Even though, there are many changes in the framework of improvement in the ASEAN, the shared vision â€Å"outward looking, living in peace, stability and prosperity, bonded together in partnership in dynamic development and in a community of caring societies†(ibid., p.viii) is maintained and used as fundamental outline in the future for every ASEAN nations. In 2003, all ASEAN members decided to create the more committed and strong economic community which is called â€Å"AEC†; they targeted to reach the plan by 2020. But then in 2007, they have changed to accelerate the established to 2015. The understanding on core four-pillar of the AEC can acknowledge the main purposes of the AEC and build an awareness on how the opportunities will be occurred in the region. Regard to the four-pillar (ASEAN Secretariat, 2012, p.3-14), first is ‘Single Market and Production Base’, the ASEAN attempts to bring 10 nations to become one market and a key production base of the world by executing â€Å"Five Free Flows† which are; firstly, Free Flow of Goods by creating a tariff liberalisation and a trade facilitation within the region. Making the custom process more ready and standardised to build an ‘ASEAN Single Window’, this flow leads to economies of scale, and reduction in cost while increasing productivity, to the region. Secondly, Free Flow of Services which liberalises every service sector to leverage the flexibility within the ASEAN. Thirdly, Free Flow of Skilled Labour, support efficiency and effectiveness of qualified professionals’ mobility. Fourthly, Free Flow of Investment eliminates restricted regulations that not facilitate free flow and openness in an investment. Lastly, Free Flow of Capital that integrat es the ASEAN’s financial market and capital market to ensure the trade’s strength and flow. The willingness of each nation to consolidate market is the problem that brings the most difficulty in success this pillar. The second pillar, ‘Competitive Economic Region’, aims to create the appropriate competition environment within the ASEAN by setting policies in order to protect the customer right and businesses in the ASEAN. The most important component of this pillar is an infrastructure development which includes the transportation and logistics services. The crucial point is to enhance the efficient and secure transport network; not only physical infrastructure, e.g. road and rail, but also the soft infrastructure such as high-speed connection on internet and ICT application. To ease inter-border investment and financing on regional infrastructure are the most significant leverage to create a competitive economic in the region. The infrastructures are important in catching up the world’s advancement and speed up the equal competition within the region. The third pillar, ‘Equitable Economic Development’, purposes to support the Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV) and SMEs in the region for creating the fair competition and promoting the advanced competitiveness environment. It also aims to strengthen the ASEAN’s competitive capacity in international level. The gap that exists within the region can slow down the process in success of this pillar. The last pillar, ‘Integration into the Global Economy’, even though it has existed over the decades that ASEAN has signed Free Trade Area agreement with major partners in the world market, the AEC will act as the one partner to the other markets, for instance, with China where the ASEAN benefits most because of its early economic recovery. Part Two: Benefits of AEC In 2012, the ASEAN is in the phase III of the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint which consists of four phases, the master plan in creating the AEC, which some benefits and obstacles in turn into new economic community have appeared and those can be learned in order to adjust the new plan, maintain the effectiveness of it and hasten the efficiency. Regard to the four-pillar, the benefits of the AEC are; attract new FDI both from within and outside the region as a result of larger market, openness and free flow within the ASEAN that are caused by non-tariff barriers. These can promote the technologicals improvement and hasten the trade integration of the region which leads to the independence from external regions’ economy. In the past, the ASEAN has relied its economic growth and trade with the major partners such as United States and European Union. As the AEC becomes more integrated, the more productivity growth and more strength in international competition capacity it will be and it will also less vulnerability to external crisis. The economies of scale is another benefit that the AEC can received if the successful of the ‘Single Market and Production Base’ happens which bring about to the cost reduction in production because of the tariff liberalisation. As soon as the free flow of skilled labour occurred, the level of education will increase dramatically which improves the living standard and income standard. Not only well-beings will arise but also the decreasing of poverty in the region will truly happen. By adding the new infrastructure to region, the convenience in communication, travel and trade will support the competitiveness of the ASEAN. Part Three: Challenges of Becoming AEC When the massive progression takes place, the challenges and problems that present obstacles and slow down the processes of transformation will occur and cause difficulties in reaching the goal. From the earlier processes till 2012; the third phase, the problems that struggle the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint have been reviewed and observed through the scorecard measurement that evaluates each phases of four-pillar. The percentage of completed tasks comparing to the benchmark is showing both successful and unsuccessful performance of the AEC. Source: Adapted from ASEAN Secretariat (2012).Chartering Progress toward Regional Economic Integration .ASEAN Economic Community Scorecard, 8-15. Retrieved August 21, 2012, http://www.aseansec.org/publications/ASEAN_AECFactBook.pdf According to the scorecard the most successful area in the four-dimension is the ‘Integration into the Global Economy’; phase I achieved 100% and phase II achieved 77.8% (on average of 85.7%), as suggested in the prior part that ASEAN have done many agreement with world partners so it is the task that every nations in ASEAN can do best as a result of well experienced. The most difficult part is ‘Single Market and Production Base’; phase I achieved 93.8% and phase II achieved 49.1% (on average of 65.9%) and closely followed by the ‘Equitable Economic Development’ that is on average of 66.7%. These are the areas where the ASEAN cannot do well because of the gap between members, obviously that ASEAN-6 and CLMV are very apart in standard of living and education which lead to lack of attention from those laggards in improving equality abilities toward the AEC, as well as the behindhand infrastructure development countries such as the Philippines, Lao PDR and Vietnam that have to catch up with others (Basu Das, 2012, p.4) the lack of financial support could be the main cause because to build up the strong infrastructure network, it requires massive financial investment not only for the construct platform but also the management tasks. Those other countries are also slow in implementing the plan, for example, in Thailand; the corruption has slowed the development progress. In Cambodia and Myanmar, political restrictions and barriers are controversial and unpredictable. Another challenge is the ASEAN nations see each other as competitors not partners, for instance, Thailand and Vietnam in Rice industry, they compete to lead in the sector, they not intend to become the single market in reality. Moreover, trade within the ASEAN is relatively low compared with other regions in the world (A. Frankel J. Wei S., 1997, p.312). This causes the weakness of the ASEAN in competing with other regional integration because its economy, including the export and import, depends on other countries and leads to financial weakness. Lastly, the language struggle is a major issue. People in the ASEAN are lacking in linguistic skills, except in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, they cannot speak English and Chinese which are the main business median languages so it seems to bring the inequality to the people in region and slow the success of ‘Free Flow of Labour’. Conclusion The AEC is the most crucial task that the ASEAN has to complete in order to have a sustainable growth in financial and economic affairs in the future. Though the establishment of the ASEAN was long, the gap between nations still exists. And even though outstanding performance is the most attractiveness from investors, the readiness in infrastructure is still questionable. Towards the AEC era requires hard working and cooperation within the ASEAN, the success of the AEC can come from the readiness of individuals in region. Thus, education is the fundamental factor to create understanding in the AEC’s purposes. It can empower people to obtain the most benefits from the AEC and not to be taken advantages by foreign investors. The foundation principles of the AEC are the four-pillars which will assist it in becoming a single market and key production base of the world. With an appropriate competitive environment and a developed uniformity the region can become a significant global economic engine. People should also be well-informed about the positive sides as well as the challenges in the transformation to the AEC so they can take full advantage of these opportunities. Nevertheless, the AEC is like other economic communities, it is essential to have a consistency in development, discipline and commitment of each nation in the community. As can be seen from the failure of the other communities such as the EU, the carelessness and indiscipline can cause on uncontrollable crisis that can affect people around the world and diminish confidence. Bibliography ASEAN FDI Database (2006).FDI Flow to ASEAN 1995-1st Quarter 2006.Statistics of Foreign Direct Investment in ASEAN, 13. 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