Segmentation and Possible Target Markets Case Study - 1

Segmentation and Possible Target Markets - Case Study Example This is because both of these drinks initially originated from the United States hence the people identify with the brand. Behavioral aspects of the people of the United States also determine the marketing segment. The people constantly enjoy a soft drink as compared to the other part of the world where beverages like tea possess more popularity. Hence, the United States is a market segment for coke and diet coke based on geographic, psychographic and behavioral patterns (D’Altorio, 2010). The product coke targets towards the whole population in the market. However, Coca-Cola Company takes exceptional effort to ensure that various age groups associated with this brand. As a result, teenagers become a market segment for the Coca-Cola Company. Teenagers are a notorious market segment that proves hard to impress various times. However, Coca-Cola takes up the challenge to identify their brand with the young generation since teenagers constantly consume soft drinks. Teenagers provi de a good market segment since they are an ideal target for both coke and diet coke. While Coke aims at the general teenage population, diet coke appeals easily to teenage girls who are health conscious and prefer to consume a low-calorie soft drink. Coca-cola targets the teenage population by placing their products in school vending machines. In addition, the social media plays a crucial role in ensuring the brand advertises itself to teenagers through popular sites such as facebook and twitter. One of the advertisements by coca cola targeting teenager is the global ad campaign that uses the love of music by teenagers to appeal to them (Chapman, 2011).Women in the United States are a market segment specifically due to their consumption of Diet Coke. Since the release of the product in 1982, diet coke receives appraisal and acceptance in the United States market as a feminine drink. This is because the drink attracted more female customers than it did male customers.  

JFK Assassination Essay Example for Free

JFK Assassination Essay Introduction November 22, 1963 is considered one of the darkest days in the history of the United States. Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas was the setting for one of the most horrific moments ever captured on video, in what has become one of the most controversial topics in US history. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy has raised many theories about what exactly happened that day in the fall of 1963. Many wonder if the lone gunmen theory published by The Warren Commission is the truth, or better yet was even possible? Other questions such as why was certain evidence overlooked and in the case of the President’s limousine and clothing, why were they washed and repaired before the proper investigation could be performed on them? Many books have been written on the subject of the JFK assassination, and I in fact would have to end up writing a book just to mention and discuss all of them. Simply to avoid that, I chose to discuss only a few topics and give my own two cents on what could have been done better to investigate the assassination of the 35th President of the United States. I first want to focus on the mishandling of critical evidence that many experts say would easily answer certain questions. For example the mishandling of evidence that might have proven that there was more than one shooter, and where exactly the shots came from. Second, I want to look at how that evidence would have helped in answering those questions and how they may have directed us towards a guilty suspect or suspects. I have heard investigators say that you only get one shot at a crime scene, and once it is gone, you never get a second chance to redo it over ever again. It’s important to keep that in mind as regards to the JFK assassination because the lack of proper investigating is what has lead to there being so many myths about the assassination becoming fact, and the truth slowly being drowned underneath. Obviously, I will not be able to solve this case today, but I’d like to think that if I was given a fair and honest chance to be there in Dealey Plaza on the 22nd of November 1963, I could have provided our country the closure that its been looking for, for over 40 years now. Mishandled Evidence Video footage, eyewitnesses, firearm, bullets and casings, police on the scene during the crime, and most important of all, they immediately had a suspect. So why couldn’t the Dallas police department solve the most infamous murder of the 20th century? Disregarding all of the conspiracy theories and focusing on the crime scene investigation aspect, it seems that this case was all but in the bag when it was dropped into the lap of the Dallas police department. Poor mishandling of evidence seems to be the main contributor as to why so much speculation arises when the JFK assassination topic comes up. A famous picture from that day is of a detective holding up what at first was thought to be a German-made 7.65-caliber Mauser, but was later identified to be an Italian Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5-caliber carbine (Lancer, 1996). The interesting detail in this picture is that the detective is holding the Italian Mannlicher-Carcano with his bare hands. In another photo from that day, a different detective is walking out of the Texas School Book Depository with the rifle in his hand, and again is carrying the rifle with his bare hands. Now obviously since the rifle did belong to Lee Harvey Oswald, the Dallas police department was more than likely able to lift a fingerprint off it. But simple procedures such as the proper handling of evidence is what can make or break an investigation, in this case the Dallas police department choose the latter of the two. In addition, another problem raised by poor mishandling of evidence was the Paraffin tests of Lee Harvey Oswald’s hands and cheek. In his book Reclaiming History, Vincent Bugliosi says that the â€Å"Dallas Police performed a paraffin test on Oswalds hands at the time of his interrogation to determine if he had recently fired a revolver and the results were positive, indicating the presence of nitrates from gunpowder residue on his hands (Bugliosi, 2007). But here’s where the plot thickens, according to an online article written by Pat Speer; earlier in the book Bugliosi said that the Paraffin Test was inconclusive on the grounds that â€Å"the mere handling of a weapon may leave nitrates of the skin, even without firing it† (Speer, 2007, para. 4). Even worse, later on in Pat Speer’s article titled â€Å"Bugliosi Fails the Paraffin Test,† Speers brings up the fact that even though the paraffin tests on Oswalds hands were positive, the tests on Oswalds cheek were negative. My point of all of this is simple; if Oswald did fire a rifle that afternoon, and he did so with the intentions of being deadly accurate, common sense and simple logic tells us that he would have had to put the rifle up to his check in order to fire it accurately at his target. Even with little knowledge of firearms or possessing any skills and or knowledge in using them, we can easily deduce that Oswald or any assassin for that matter would have had some form of gunshot residue on their cheek after accurately firing a rifle at President Kennedy. But the most frustrating and disheartening part of the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy is the carelessness and maltreatment of the autopsy. After President Kennedy was illegally transported form Parkland hospital in Dallas to Bethesda Naval hospital in Washington, the mishandling evidence and the lack of operating according to procedures by untrained staff and personnel continued. An example of this is that none of the doctors who performed the autopsy were trained on how to trace a bullets trajectory through the human body (Ramsland, 2009). The pathologist, a Naval officer by the name of Commander James J. Humes was ordered not to do a full autopsy, instead he was instructed to find the bullet lodged in President Kennedy’s body (Ramsland, 2009). More mistakes that are outlandish were made as the Commander burned his autopsy notes because they were covered with blood. And after only two hours, which is said to be an incredibly short amount of time for an autopsy, Commander Humes prepared President Kennedy’s body for embalming. Bad photos by an inexperience photographer, and poor X-rays didn’t improve the situation either, examples of this are the photos of the head wound that Kennedy suffered. The pathologist did not shave the hair around the wound; consequently, the photograph of the area had poor visibility and almost no detail. Small and simple mistakes are contagious, and after time can add up into making a big difference. This was proven to be the case on that fateful day in Dallas. Redoing the Crime Scene I have pointed out many of the mistakes that were made during the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Some of those mistakes may have been done intentionally; others may have been made on accident, that is a topic of discussion for another paper. The questions now are, could those mistakes have lead to clearing up some of the mysteries surrounding the JFK assassination, and how could they have been corrected. In addition, can modern day technology rise above those mistakes and produce a clear and definitive answer into the JFK assassination. I think we can agree that the mishandling of the rifle and the inconclusiveness of the Paraffin tests are easy mistakes to correct, that’s pretty much CSI 101 stuff. However, the investigation gets tricky as regards to the autopsy and the procedures that needed to followed there. First, trained and experienced pathologists needed to be performing the procedure, and need to perform the full autopsy, y-incision and all. Proper notes and sketches of the procedure need to made and kept on record, as well as the determination of whether a wound is an entrance or exit wound. I bring this point up because Commander Humes was unable to determine which wounds were the exit and which were the entrance wounds (Ramsland, 2009). Appropriate photos of the autopsy need to be taken, and the basic process for taking the photos needs to followed so investigators can work with them later on. An example of this would be the photos of the fatal head shot wound and trying to make any determination from the photos. As I stated earlier, it is near impossible to draw any conclusions because the hair around the wound wasn’t shaven as it was supposed to have been in order to enhance the detail and clarity of the wound. Unfortunately, we cannot go back and rework the crime scene or re-gather evidence in its original form. However, modern science and technology allows us the opportunity to take what evidence we do have and analyze it in ways that weren’t possible back in 1963. Let us take bullet trajectory for example; today, bullet trajectories are often determined and calculated using a computerized simulation to help in reconstruction. This method raises much debate, but at the same time, it has been useful in complicated cases. Whether it would be helpful in this particular case can be debated all day long, but the fact remains that if the initial evidence from 1963 that we have is accurate, than this method of mapping the bullets trajectory is more than likely to deliver us the answers we are looking for. Finally, could new technology help us determine where the bullets came from? Was it the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, or could the shots have come from the infamous lone gunmen on the grassy knoll? Using new technology, we have the potential of figuring this out by analyzing the bloodstain pattern in the limousine before it was cleaned and repaired. A team of experts brought together by the Discovery Channel has reproduced the JFK assassination. â€Å"Using modern blood spatter analysis, new artificial human body surrogates, and 3-D computer simulations, the team determined that the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository was the most likely origin for the shot that killed the 35th president of the United States† (Bland, 2008, para. 1). Experts simulated the assassination by recreating the scene as close as humanly possible to what happened that day in Dealey Plaza. After the simulation was complete, it was determined that â€Å"most of the simulated body material had spattered forward into the car, consistent with a shot that entered the back of the head and exited toward the front† (Bland, 2008, para. 10). This helps strengthen the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only assassin that day in Dealey Plaza, and that he alone assassinated John F. Kennedy. This type of computer investigation has only been available for close to five years now, it is probable however, that criminologists will keep on making use of 3-dimensional crime scene reconstruction to help recreate events and gather evidence that a 2-dimensional picture alone cannot divulge. Unfortunately for us though, with so many mysteries surrounding the JFK assassination, even when evidence such as this seems to be as hard as concrete, many still f ind it hard to believe. Conclusion It sometimes seems that we will never know what really happened that day in Dallas; too many clouds have surrounded the assassination and made it incredibly difficult to understand the facts about what truly happened that day. Nevertheless, if we ignore the conspiracy theories and simply look at the facts of the case we can conclude that it was mishandled from start to finish. I am no crime scene investigator, but I feel safe in saying that the men who investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy did a lousy job, and the only good that could ever come from studying their mistakes is using them as example of what not to do. Mishandling of evidence, botched autopsy, and failure to follow in the most basic criminal investigation practices and procedures is what has lead to what should have been an open and shut case, turning into a long drawn out nightmare. We can easily look back and say the investigation should have been done this way, and the autopsy do that way, and that many of the errors that were made were elementary and the motives behind them questionable. However, we cannot go back, and instead of looking to the past for answers, we must look to the future for them. Technology has shed some new light on the investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and has pointed us in the direction to what more than likely happened that day. As stated earlier, the mystery surrounding the assassination of JFK is unprecedented, and no other case not even the assassination of Julius Caesar has so much secrecy, obscurity, and ambiguity been present. Will we ever know who murdered our former president and how? With the mishandling of the evidence collected back in 1963, it just may turn out that we may truly never know. References Bugliosi, V. (2007). Reclaiming History: Norton, W. W. Company, Inc. Bland, E. (2008, November). Tech puts JFK conspiracy theories to rest. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27705829 Ramsland, K. (2009). The Magic Bullet. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/ballistics/4.html?print=yes Speer, Pat. (2007, July). Bugliosi Fails the Paraffin Test. Retrieved October 2, 2009, from http://www.whokilledjfk.net/paraffin_test.htm (1996). Ballistic Evidence. Retrieved October 4, 2009, from http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Rifle_Bullets/index.html

The Internet Essay example -- essays research papers

The Internet Imagine a place where people interact in business situations, shop, play video games, do research, or study and get tutoring. Now imagine that there are no office buildings, no shopping centers, no arcades, no libraries, and no schools. These places all exist in a location called the Internet - "an anarchic eyetem (to use an oxymoron) of public and private computer networks that span the globe." (Clark 3). This technological advance not only benefits people of the present, but also brings forth future innovations. People use the Internet for many purposes, yet there are three popular reasons. First, there is the sending and receiving of messages through the electronic mail. Second, there are discussion groups with a wide range of topics in which people can join. Finally, people are free to browse into vast collection of resources (or databases) of the World Wide Web. Electronic mail (e-mail) brings a unique perception into the way of communication. Although, it did not replace the traditional means of communication such as letters and telephone calls, it has created a new method of transmitting information in a more efficient way. E-mail saves time between the interval of sending and receiving a message. Sending an e-mail message halfway around the world can arrive at its destination within a minute or two. In comparison, a letter can take from a few days to a couple of weeks, according to ...

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, by Erving Goffman

The book I chose to do my paper on is â€Å"Stigma Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity† by Erving Goffman. Goffman was stood out from other sociologists because he did not follow the normal rules that the others lived by. This rebellion often was thought to be caused by his lack of professional manners, and made it difficult for some to be in his company. However, Goffman was not like other sociologists due to his love was data not simply sociology. He primarily exhibited his work via essays and believed in not expecting too much because he realized that only so much could be achieved with the current level of knowledge in micro social science. The idea of not expecting too much led to Goffman adopting a naturalistic view of social science in an attempt to understand the micro social world. His first naturalism belief was that you must go out and observe. Secondly, he believed that we are each a natural control group, and that we can get gauge theories based on the compatibility that they have with our own lives. Thirdly, Goffman felt that it was necessary to â€Å"get a good initial database†, and that it was ok to look beyond the typical sources. His sources consisted of whatever he deemed worthy, which goes in hand with his fourth belief of being open to various data sources. Goffman’s fifth and final naturalism belief was that multiple data sources should be used. Naturalism made Goffman stick out from other theorists, but that was just one of many things that made him unusual. His preference of neither process nor structure made him even more unusual when compared with other social scientists. His unwillingness to prefer one over the other was born from doing so would be denying human beings and human social organizations ... ...dling us â€Å"normal† people and looking beyond our unkindness or rudeness (Goffman, 1963, p. 116). Contrary to what most probably think there is not always much difference between normal and stigmatized people. After all we are all susceptible to a sudden physical stigma or the removal of a physical stigma (Goffman, 1963, p. 132). Some people are also able to deviate from the social norms without being classified as stigmatized (Marley, 2008). Works Cited Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. Marley, J. (2008, November 6). Book Review: Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from The Amazing World of Psychiatry: A Psychiatry Blog: http://theamazingworldofpsychiatry.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/book-review-stigma-notes-on-the-management-of-spoiled-identity/ Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, by Erving Goffman The book I chose to do my paper on is â€Å"Stigma Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity† by Erving Goffman. Goffman was stood out from other sociologists because he did not follow the normal rules that the others lived by. This rebellion often was thought to be caused by his lack of professional manners, and made it difficult for some to be in his company. However, Goffman was not like other sociologists due to his love was data not simply sociology. He primarily exhibited his work via essays and believed in not expecting too much because he realized that only so much could be achieved with the current level of knowledge in micro social science. The idea of not expecting too much led to Goffman adopting a naturalistic view of social science in an attempt to understand the micro social world. His first naturalism belief was that you must go out and observe. Secondly, he believed that we are each a natural control group, and that we can get gauge theories based on the compatibility that they have with our own lives. Thirdly, Goffman felt that it was necessary to â€Å"get a good initial database†, and that it was ok to look beyond the typical sources. His sources consisted of whatever he deemed worthy, which goes in hand with his fourth belief of being open to various data sources. Goffman’s fifth and final naturalism belief was that multiple data sources should be used. Naturalism made Goffman stick out from other theorists, but that was just one of many things that made him unusual. His preference of neither process nor structure made him even more unusual when compared with other social scientists. His unwillingness to prefer one over the other was born from doing so would be denying human beings and human social organizations ... ...dling us â€Å"normal† people and looking beyond our unkindness or rudeness (Goffman, 1963, p. 116). Contrary to what most probably think there is not always much difference between normal and stigmatized people. After all we are all susceptible to a sudden physical stigma or the removal of a physical stigma (Goffman, 1963, p. 132). Some people are also able to deviate from the social norms without being classified as stigmatized (Marley, 2008). Works Cited Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. Marley, J. (2008, November 6). Book Review: Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from The Amazing World of Psychiatry: A Psychiatry Blog: http://theamazingworldofpsychiatry.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/book-review-stigma-notes-on-the-management-of-spoiled-identity/

Food and Beverage Essay

What does the term ‘right of admission’ mean ? (6) It means that a Proprietor allows the customers of his hotel and he reserves the right admission with him . Entry of customers subject to rights of hotel owners. It also means that the store owner or management are allowed to deny entry to potential customers without giving just cause . The decision as to who is allowed in or out is usually up to the store owners discretion , which can be in good judgement or not . The right of admission notice also allows the shop security to search your bag or your person at their own discretion. For proper justifications , the owner may restrict the Right of Admission to certain categories of people or customers in the following events : (i) If the customer is a nuisance under the influence of alcohol , drug or lunatic . (ii) If the customer is naked (though simple dress code is allowed) (iii) If the customer is below 18 years of age , that too in a restaurant /hotel who has been given a permit for serving alcohol or drugs. (iv) If the customer is fighting or disturbing or causing annoyance to other customers. Etc -If the owner does not use his above ‘Right of Admission’, then another customer can sue the Hotel/Restaurant for deliberate negligence with criminal abetment and for ‘defiency in service’ besides for ‘damages’ to untold extents. QUESTION 2 Give five characteristics of a good beverage manager and explain in your own words why these characteristics are important. (15) (i) People-oriented A beverage manager must be comfortable leading their employees and working with public . In fast food restaurants , some managers also work as cashiers. In fine dining establishments the manager is expected to walk the floor and talk to the patrons . At the same time they have to ensure their employees are working efficiently . If a customer has a complaint , its usually up to the manager to smooth things over and make sure the customer wants to return in the future . (ii) Honesty In some cases beverage managers work for the owner of the establishment , who has entrusted his/her managers with the restaurants profits and supplies . Stealing from the establishment or other dishonesty is a fast way to lose the owners trust and make it difficult to find a similar position in the future . (iii) Organized Advance preparation is a key success factor in restaurant operations. Beverage managers must be strong administrators . Your employees will rely on you to decide what days and times they are working and what their responsibilities are so scheduling staff hours is a key task , as well as handling payroll. Your employees will expect to be paid regularly and at the same time each week or every two weeks , whatever the schedule is . (iv) Willing to learn and lead It will be the beverages managers responsibility to make sure the restaurant does not face liability issues, so he will need to stay up to date on safety certifications and management techniques. Employee retention can be a major success factor in the quality of services and reduce new employee expenses , such as training time , new uniforms and the time it takes to learn the job . (v) Flexiibility with hours His hours will depend on the venue for which he works. If he works in a restaurant or a bar , he might at times need to work late at night . He must be prepared for all situations if his goal is to work in management . QUESTION 3 What is the difference between on-consumption and off-consumption of liquor ? (6) (i) On – consumption On consumption liquor is liquor which can be sold and consumed on licensed premises. E. g hotels , clubs , and restaurants (ii) Off- consumption Off consumption liquor is liquor sold that is going to be consumed off the premises. Examples of these premises include shops , liquor producers and liquor stores. QUESTION 4 Why should the requirements of a bar control system be identified independently of the requirements of an accounting system ? (8) The requirements of a bar control system must be identified independently of the requirements of an accounting system because the bar control system is actually controlled by the accounting system . And the bar control system focuses on the stock available for the customers . A bar control system controls issues from the store or cellar . The accounting system ensures the compliance system with accounting policies and procedures . QUESTION 5 Explain the possible causes of discrepancies between sales at selling price on the bar liquor stock sheet and actual sales recorded. (10) Discrepancies in stock management refers to the difference between actual quantities of stock of material available in a bar and the available quantities as per stock records . Major causes of stock discrepancies are: Any discrepancies between sales at selling price on the bar liquor stock sheet may indicate theft by employees or customers . Not taking stock takes occasionally and spontaneously. Actual liquor stock issued from the store being different from the quantity recorded . Actual quantity of liquor received from the store being different from the quantity recorded. Liquor stored at the wrong place and therefore not considered during physical stock verification . Losses during storage for reasons such as evaporation and losses handling . Errors in ascertaining quantities physically available . Receipt or issues entries made in records under wrong item . There could be spillages . An employee could be over or under totting . QUESTION 6 If sales at cost price are R1650 and sales at selling price are R6600: (a) What is the percentage of cost of sales (show the formula you use ) ? (4) Cost/sales*100=cost of sales R1650/R6000*100 1 /4 25. = 25% cost of sales (b) What is the gross profit percentage ? (2) 100%-% of cost of sales 100%-25% = 75% QUESTION 7 What is the difference between a cocktail and a shooter ? (5) (i) Cocktail : An alcoholic drink consisting of a spirit or several spirits mixed with other ingredients , such as fruit juices , lemonade , or cream (ii) A shooter: a shooter is usually a mixed drink that amounts about 2 to 3 tots in a shot glass. They are generally drunk quickly , rather than being sipped . QUESTION 8 Why do cocktails have the potential to improve the gross profits of the bar ? (4) Cocktails have a potential to improve the gross profits in a bar because they are pricey than any other liquor . Its easy to generate sales from the customer that you already have . This is were a good cocktail list can be a greatest asset . If someone comes in and orders a Campari and soda , and you can up-sell them to an Americano , everybody wins . Its also easy to create new and unique cocktails with a little something extra to entice the customers, which can easily sell. With cocktails its easy to cut costs to increase profit without increasing sales volume. iQUESTION 9. Why would you want to garnish a cocktail ? (3) Garnishing a cocktail will add character or style to a cocktail as garnishes are decorative ournaments . You can garnish with eg carrot sticks , cherries , cinnamon , cocktail olives , pepper , salt etc QUESTION 10 Explain the difference between the shake method and the stir method of making cocktails . (8) (i) Shake method Is the method by which you use a cocktail shaker to mix ingredients together and chill them simultaneously. The object is to almost freeze the drink whilst breaking down and combining the ingredients. Normally this is done with ice cubes three quarters of the way full . When you have poured in the ingredients , hold the shaker in both hands with one hand on top and one supporting the base and give a short, sharp, snappy shake (ii) Stir method Is a more gentle technique for mixing cocktails and is used to delicately combine the drinks with a perfect amount of dilution . You stir cocktails that use only distilled spirits or very light mixers . Stirring takes longer than shaking to chill a drink. You can stir cocktails effectively with a metal or glass rod in a mixing glass. If ice is to be used , use ice cubes to prevent dilution , and strain the contents into a glass when the surface of the mixing glass begins to collect condensation . QUESTION 11 What does the term ‘bruising’ mean with regards to making cocktails ? (2) Its what happens when you shake a drink for too long. If you put your liquor in a shaker and then shake for a second the drink comes out cold . If you shake it for too long then the drink becomes bruised meaning there are pieces in the actual drink . QUESTION 12 Give the recipes for popular cocktails based on each of the following (nine recipes) . Rum , Brandy, Gin (15) (a) Rum (i) Daiquiri- 11/2 tots light rum (ii) Mojito-2tsp sugar 3/4ml lime juice 6-8mint leaves ? ml sugar syrup club soda 1 lime,halved 2 tots light rum Mint sprig for garnish (ii) Hurrcane-2 tots light rum 2tots dark rum 2oz passion fruit juice 1oz orange juice Juice of half a lime 1tbsp simple syrup 1tbsp grenadine Orange slice and cherry for garnish (b) Brandy (i) Apple Fizz-ice cubes (ii) sidecar – ice cubes 2parts apple brandy 3tots brandy 5parts carbonated apple juice 3parts triple sec 50ml lemon juice 1part lemon or lime juice Lemon slice to garnish. (ii) Metropolitan cocktail- ice cubes 3tots brandy 2parts sweet vermouth Sugar syrup to taste 2 dashes Angostura bitters (c) Gin (i) Bring it home – 2 tots Organic Nation Gin (iii) Delilah-11/2 tots Gin 11/2 tots Elder Flower Liquer ? tots Cointreau 11/2 measuresAlmond Syrup ? lemon juice 11/2 measures Lemon Juice Garnish: Cherry and lemon wedge (ii) Cherry bitch- 6 tots Bulldog Gin 1bag black currant tea 3-5 fresh cherries ? measures lime juice ? measures apple juice 1 measure syrup Garnish – orange peel twist QUESTION 13 As the bar man manager you are training a new bar man. Explain to him (or her ) in your own words how to serve a whiskey and soda . (5) Whisky should be served always with some ice tray and soda. These are the two perquisite of serving whisky. Being high in alcohol content , whisky blending requires spring water , and some tangy tinge. Different people like their whisky served in their own ways . So it would be a good idea if you place whisky with ice and soda in separate beakers . QUESTION 14 What glass would you use for serving Cognac or South African Liquer Brandy ? (1) Balloon Brandy Snifter Glass QUESTION 15 What is a Sambuco , why is it popular and how is it often served ? (3) Sambuco is an Italian liquor flavoured with maniseed that is often found in clear or white form . The most common way of serving sambuca is neat , on the rocks , with fresh water added or in coffee in place of sugar . Sambuca con mosca (neat with coffee beans floated atop) is a common Italian way . QUESTION 16 What is meant by the term ‘binder’ with reference to a cigar ? (3) The binder is what keeps (or binds) the filler leaves together . It is also a tobacco leaf , usually having little or no flavour , which is used to bind and contain the filler tobacco inside of a cigar.

WPU essays

WPU essays A University should be a place of delight, of liberty, and of learning How could the Seton Hall University help me achieve intellectual independence and assist me in pursuing a life of ideas? Seton Hall University would allow me to fulfill my perfectionist ideals; I would be able to compete with the best and the brightest. Moreover, the non-academic life within a dynamic campus, and a strong sense of community would enhance the challenging courses that the university has to offer. It is not simple to find a distinctive institution with incredible resources as well as personal attention. With a small faculty-to-student ratio in all classes, I could truly have significant interaction with the professors while simultaneously retaining the knowledge Id be acquiring. The hands-on experience with up-to-date equipment would be like a dream come true as Id encompass myself with ubiquitous, influential technology which is taken for granted by the common person. Taking advantage of the broad spectrum of undergraduate programs, I would improve my ability to think quantitatively, solve complicated problems, and apply my knowledge to the real world. Therefore, I have always been interested in the field of buisness, for it embodies my favorite subjects. As my calculus teacher frantically writes the equations of integrals on the board, I jot down the notes with a clear understanding of what the signs stand for and the logic behind them. Business is a major that is expected to continue experiencing growth, especially strong in areas emphasizing technology. Our society is becoming more technologically driven day by day, and is always on the look-out for expansion and increasing efficiency. By choosing Buisness as a profession, I am able to contribute to the well-being of the society as well as rigorously challenging my intellectual abilities. Although both frustration and jubilation will ensue as I endeavor to find creative solutions to d...

SAT Test Dates 2016 - 2017

SAT Test Dates 2016 - 2017 SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you're looking for SAT test dates for 2016-17, look no further! The 2016-17 SAT testing year marks the first full year of theredesigned SAT, which shifted the scoring scale from2400 to 1600 and introduced a combined Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score. Continue reading to get info onallofficial 2016-17 SAT test dates, registration deadlines, and score release dates. We also offer tons oftips on how to find the best SAT test date for you! SAT Test Dates 2016-2017 The SAT testing year follows the school year, running from the end of summer (August) to the beginning of summer (June). The exam isadministered seven times a year (six internationally) on Saturdays; however,those withreligious or other exemptions may requestalternate test dates.All SAT test dates, registration deadlines, and score release dates for 2016-17 have been officially confirmed by the College Board. SAT Test Dates 2016-17 (U.S.) Test Date Normal Deadline Late Registration* Online Score Release October 1, 2016 September 1, 2016 Sept 20, 2016 October 27, 2016 November 5, 2016 October 7, 2016 October 25, 2016 November 29, 2016 December 3, 2016 November 3, 2016 November 22, 2016 December 22, 2016 January 21, 2017 December 21, 2016 January 10, 2017 February 23, 2017 March 11, 2017** February 10, 2017 February 28, 2017 April 13, 2017 May 6, 2017 April 7, 2017 April 25, 2017 June 8, 2017 June 3, 2017 May 9, 2017 May 24, 2017 July 12, 2017 *The late registration deadline is one week earlier if you are registering by mail. **Regular SAT only. SAT Test Dates 2016-17 (International) Test Date Registration Deadline Online Score Release October 1, 2016 September 1, 2016 October 27, 2016 November 5, 2016 October 7, 2016 November 29, 2016 December 3, 2016 November 3, 2016 December 22, 2016 January 21, 2017 December 21, 2016 February 23, 2017 May 6, 2017 April 7, 2017 June 8, 2017 June 3, 2017* May 9, 2017 July 12, 2017 *SAT Subject Tests only. As you can see from the tables, there are moreSAT test dates inautumn than there are in spring. The College Board staggers the dates like thisto align with college application deadlines. Theseautumn dates essentially offer seniors last-minute opportunities to improve their SAT scores before applying tocollege. The 2016-17 testing year also marked the final year with aJanuary test date.Starting in 2017, an earlier August test date will replaced the January test date. This August test date will not be available internationally. From 2018 onward, however, the March test date will be offered outside the U.S. toadminister the regular SAT (noSAT Subject Tests). Warning: SAT Test Dates May ChangeSign up to Receive Free Updates // Choosing anSAT Test Date: 4 Questions to Ask Yourself Deciding on an SAT test date isn’t easy. But by asking yourself the following four questions, you’ll be able to select the best SAT test date for you in no time! #1: When Are Your College Applications Due? More important than anything else, you should knowexactly when your college application deadlines are - and should therefore choose an SAT test date that'll for sure get your scores to your schools in time. Most regular decision deadlines are around January 1, and most early actiondeadlines areNovember 1 or 15. The College Board sendsout students’ free score reportsto schoolsabout three to five weeks after each test date. (Exactly how many weeks this will take depends on the test date. Refer to the â€Å"Online Score Release† columns in the tables above for more info.) Unfortunately, not all schools process SAT scores immediately upon receiving them. In fact, some schools can takea week to process scores. This means you may have to waitsix or more weeks until your SAT scores are accepted and processed by your schools. And if you'll be ordering additional scorereports, you can expect an even longer waiting periodofaroundseven or eight weeks.Therefore, it's critical you choose an SAT test date well before your deadlines! To help you decide on a test date, we've created an extensive table ofcollege application deadlines (includinglate application deadlines). Thelatest recommended SAT test dates should have little to no trouble getting your scores to your schools in time, whereas the latest possible dates pose a far greater risk ofdelivering your scores late. Remember, if yourschool doesn't receive or process your SAT scores by itsdeadline, your application could bedisqualified, so plan accordingly! College App Deadline Latest Recommended SAT Date Latest Possible SAT Date* October 15 August August November 1 August October November 15 October October November 30 October November December 1 October November December 15 November November January 1 November December January 10-15 December December February 1 December December February 15 December December March 1 December December March 15 December December April 1 December March April 15 December March May 1 March March May 15 March March June 1 March May June 15 March May July 1 May June July 15 May June August 1 June June August 15 June June September 1 June June *These test dates may or may not get your scores to your schools in time, so take caution! #2: Will You Retake the SAT? Another important question to ask yourself iswhether you'll want to retake the SAT should you fail to hit your goal score. Generally, we recommendtaking the SAT two or three times in total: First, as a junior during your fall semester. Second, as a junior during your spring semester. Third, as a senior directly prior to or during your fall semester. If you didn’t take the SAT for the first time in the fall of your junior year, that's OK- just take it as soon as you can, preferably in the early spring. Even in this case, you should still have plenty of time to take the SAT once or twice more, either in the summer (remember, there’s anew August test date!) or in the fall of your senior year. Also, try toavoid scheduling back-to-back test dates. Doing this will only tire you out in the end, as you'll lack sufficient study time in-between tests. I suggest spacing out your test-taking scheduleso you're not taking the SAT more than once a semester. #3: How Long Will You Prep For? Before choosing an SAT test date,calculate how much time you’ll need to studyin order to hit your goal score. A solid SAT study schedule generally laststhree to six monthsand ranges from10 to 150 total study hours, depending on the number of points by which you want to improve yourbaseline score. (A baseline score is the score you get on anofficial SAT practice test before beginningany SAT prep.) Below are our estimates for the number of prep hours required to make the following total point improvements on the SAT: 0-30 point improvement: 10 hours 30-70 point improvement: 20 hours 70-130 point improvement: 40 hours 130-200 point improvement: 80 hours 200-330 point improvement: 150 hours+ As you can see, smaller point improvements require significantly fewer study hours than larger point improvements. But how you allocate these hours is up to you. For example, ifyou’ve got three months before test dayand want to improve by 100 points (40 study hours), you could study for a half hour every dayor for three and a half hours every weekend. Ultimately,you decide how to arrange your study schedule- justtry not towear yourself out! #4: Are There Any Conflicts You’ll Need to Work Around? Finally, don't choosean SAT date that'll conflict with any major commitments you have. Take time to ask yourself: do you have any plans you absolutely can't reschedule? Are you currently preparing for a school play or a sports tournament?When are yourAP exams? Be sure you consider the time leading up to a test date and not just the test date itself.Ideally, you'll haveplenty of time to prep for the SAT in the months leading up to it, so look for datesthat aren't surrounded by tons of activities and events. Remember, overwhelming yourself is the last thing you should be doing before the SAT! What's Next? Curious about SAT test dates for other years?We've got articles onSAT test dates for 2015-2016 andprevious years and the current year. We also offer a handy guide tofuture SAT test dates with projections for the next three years! Once you've decided on an SAT test date, your next step is to register for it! Read our comprehensive guideto learn how to sign up for a test date, select a test center, and pay for the exam. Ready to get your best SAT score ever? Read the pros and cons of possible prep methodsinour free ebook. And if you're aiming for a perfect score, our resident SAT expert will teachyou everything you need to know, so you, too, can achieve a 1600 on test day! Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today!

Crucible Evaluation essays

Crucible Evaluation essays When Arthur Miller sat down to write the Crucible, it is obvious he took many things into account. The presentation of the book is very well thought out. As for the history aspect of the book, it is obvious that he did a lot of research even though there are still some discrepancies. Lastly, he did an eloquent job of getting his point across while still portraying the factual information of the witch trials. The presentation of the book is very well thought out. The recommended age for the play would probably be high school and beyond. The age is so high because of the psychological detriment and deeper meaning of the text. Christopher Bigsby calls the play, An intense psychological drama and a play of epic proportions, in his introduction to the play that was published in the 1995 edition. It would be advisable that the book be saved for those who arent weak at heart. The fact that the topic is presented in a play form makes the book run smoothly, and lets the reader see things from an objective view. There is always something happening, and you are there for the most important parts. The play form definitely adds a certain flare that a novel would have lacked. There seems to be no information left out of the play. There are no gaps, so the reader isnt left wondering. The historical time period researched a great deal by the author. The thought of the time period, such as the predominant fear of the devil are portrayed accurately. Some of the new perspectives given in the play are that the church and court can be wrong. In a day and age where you put a great deal of your life into the church, that in itself was very innovative. There were, however, some minor mistakes in the historical accuracy of the play. Some of the more noticeable ones are that the people involved in the accusing of witches were more than just a handful of girls, there were many more judges than ...

Single-sex Schools Offer Higher Quality of Educational Experience to Essay

Single-sex Schools Offer Higher Quality of Educational Experience to Students than Coeducational Ones - Essay Example The English being the pioneers of educational systems, many countries looked up to them for benchmarks that they could follow for their own education systems. This is how the trend of single-sex schools emerged. It entered the United States and stayed there till the late 19th century, but as the aspect of modernization is predominant there, single sex schools are now scarce, being limited to only private communities and some catholic schools. With the change in the overall psyche of the people worldwide, and women empowerment being one of the major game changers for education system, the women were accepted as equals everywhere. This demanded that they are educated at the same level as men to be able to compete with and support them in different walks of life. Women were no longer confined to households and humanities education and this started the trend of co-educational environment. Co-education, like the name suggests, refers to an educational setup where men and women are educate d equally. In contrast to single-sex schools, both the genders get to interact with each other, work together and maintain friendships with each other. In a world where social skills are imperative to get anywhere, co-education allows both the genders to be equipped with such skills. They tend to be more socially comfortable and possess positive interpersonal attitudes. There have been several studies to gauge the effect of the education system on both the genders. The identical outcomes of almost all researches conclude that academically, girls fare well in single sex school and boys do well in a co-educational environment. The reasons are not clear so far but the general perception for such a conclusion is that the comparison of... This report approves that the counter arguments in case of co-education cannot be ignored. Like mentioned earlier, the comfort level of each gender within an environment of their likeness is higher and allows them to develop accordingly. There is a positive aspect to it, but the real world is not so. In practical life, humans are bound to interact with, live with, and socialize with the opposite gender. Thus, they should be equipped with the societal attitude that is necessary for such a setup. Where the success of female students cannot be argued in single sex environment, their presence in a co-educational environment makes it less disruptive and relationship with the facilitators is generally better, also honing them for the real world. This essay makes a conclusion that the counter arguments mentioned above are just some of the many that have been highlighted over the years. No research has given solid results regarding which schooling system is better. The quality of education imparted is also dependent upon the curriculum covered, teachers, facilities etc., and gender mix cannot be the only determinant for the quality of education being imparted at an institution. Though, in today’s world, socializing and interaction has become a key trend all over. It is imperative that students are made to study in an environment that teaches them gender equality and acknowledgement of the other’s presence. They should be abreast with the expected societal norms and this is possible only if they have not been restricted to mingling amongst the same gender.

Policies and practice in health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Policies and practice in health - Essay Example Diabetes could cause several harmful and long term impacts upon the human health due to which the importance of combating this problem with the help of adequate health policy has been widely realized. The healthcare professionals and healthcare policy makers widely agree that it is very imperative to formulate and implement sound policies and health plan to address the issues and concerns associated with the human health and diabetes effects (Ekoke et al, 2001, p98). In United Kingdom the prevalence of diabetes has considerable increased over the last few decades and every passing year is adding thousands of people in the list of diabetic patients in the country. The situation is becoming worst with each passing day because the problems of obesity and overweighting have also become problem due to which the type2 diabetes is also becoming very common among the people. Since the ratio of diabetes has been continuously increasing with alarming rate, the situation demands the wakeup call by the health campaigners so that this ratio could be reduced and the main factors behind the increase in diabetes cases could be worked out (Diabetes UK, 2001, p83). ... sing numbers of diabetic patients in the country has built pressure upon NHS because it has the responsibility of formulating policies to prevent the accordance of such diseases with such a high rate. While responding to this critical need NHS has worked on several strategic healthcare plans to assure the safety of the citizens from diabetes and other health problems that could evolve from diabetes (Hoffman R et al, 2002, p1748). NHS has demonstrated that the main objective of its health plan related with diabetes is based upon the objective of reducing the number of diabetes patient and improving the care for the people suffering from this disease. NHS diabetes policy aims to develop partnership with the healthcare staff so that these people could also be motivated and properly trained to deal with the people having diabetes (Department of Health, 2010, p23). The National Health Service plan for diabetes instructs the healthcare staff to offer structures and proactive care to the pe ople so that they could be able to manage their own health conditions at their own by taking adequate care of their disease through proper awareness and information about diabetes. NHS has also set up several local diabetes networks to robust the mechanism and policies implemented at the national level so that the benefits of the policies could be spread at local level as well. In this regard, NHS has worked for joint working relations between the Local Health Boards and the Local Diabetes Service Advisory Groups. The place register and clinical management system are also assured within the healthcare centres to allow systematic management and monitoring of the healthcare policies and their outcomes (Department of Health, 2010, p23). There have been several important plans and policies

The Dixie Group - a case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Dixie Group - a case study - Essay Example The Familytique, the Peppercorn Cottage and the Michaelmas house too need to integrate their sales activity as they come under the shops category. The market square which is a public place for the traders which happens every Wednesday, they book their stall in advance. The payments collected from them should be properly listed and receipts are given in return. These should be integrated using program based information system. The management information system provides information to support management decision making. Pre-specific and pre-planned reporting to managers is accomplished by information reporting systems. Support for managers is accomplished by decision support systems. Information for top management is provided by executive information system. The information system provides information on the operations of the system to management for the direction and maintenance of the system (control). It is important to understand information system in the context of their use in information processing, which is also called data processing. â€Å"an information system uses the resources of hardware (machines and media), software (programs and procedures), and people (specialities and end users) to perform input, processing, output, storage and control activities that convert data resources into information products.† (James A. O’Brien). Thus the information system performs operational, managerial, and strategic support role in the business. These need to be a good information system to integrate the business activity to achieve the goals. The operations information system uses the data generated by and used in business operations. That is, it record and process data update it and produce it into reports. Physical processes are controlled by process control system and office activities are supported by the office automation system. This would help the organisation to achieve an organised

United Methodist Church Doctrine on Homosexuality Research Paper

United Methodist Church Doctrine on Homosexuality - Research Paper Example Accordingly, the manner by which the church as been called to weigh in on moral and ethical issues that relate to the modern era has been profound as society has grown and evolved over the centuries. A single and intractable stance is not only not realistic, it presents a stoic entity that is unable and/or unwilling to deeply analyze the trends and needs of current society and seek to reconcile them in the light of Christian doctrine. For purposes of this brief analysis, the author will seek to consider whether or not the United Methodist Church should broaden and expand the manner by which doctrinal factors define the relationship between Christian beliefs and whether or not homosexuality should be permissible or not. Whereas it is true that a literalist approach to the issue from a scriptural standpoint lends on to only one conclusion concerning homosexuality, the same cannot be said with respect to a contextual understanding of the practice of homosexuality within scripture. Due t o the fact that either of these approaches necessarily yields a foregone conclusion, this particular response will seek to engage the reader by taking a mixed methods approach; thereby leveraging the strengths of a literalist approach as well as the strength and determinacy of a contextualist approach to scripture. As it stands, the current doctrine specifies that the church is accepting of homosexuals; however, a more nebulous interpretation of the â€Å"sinful† nature of homosexuality exists. Moreover, ministers are prohibited from marrying individuals of the same sex. Due to the fact that the United Methodist church places scripture at the core of its understanding and teaching with regards to the importance of developing and maintaining a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ and seeking to the individual for salvation, a scriptural approach to the issue is the only approach that would be both relevant and necessary to seek to answer the question at hand. From an interpretation of Scripture, there are approximately 5-8 verses (depending upon the means that are employed to count these) that deal specifically with homosexuality and deem it as â€Å"unift† or an â€Å"abomination† in the eyes of God. Not surprisingly, most of these texts, and/or references as noted above, are found within the Old Testament. Whereas it is not the view of the United Methodist Church that the Old Testament is merely a fanciful story book that has little if any current day application, the fact of the matter is that a great majority of the Levitical laws cannot and should not be meant to apply to the current time. One might just as easily consider the Levitcal injunction against a woman aiding her husband if he is in mortal combat with another.1 By the same token, one could point to the way that Levitical law promotes an understanding that the female gender is somehow during their period. Naturally, although some of these may seem as somewhat comical during the current time, if a particular church or group of believers sought to take these directives literally, then truly a miserable interpretation of the love of God as exhibited elsewhere throughout the Bible must necessarily be reflected. By very much the same token, one can and should integrate with an appreciation for the way in which slavery is represented throughout the Bible, in total, there are over 100 texts concerning the legality and rules overseeing slavery as an accepted and

Business and Management Decision Making BZ Essay

Business and Management Decision Making BZ - Essay Example The hospitality services of the Glasgow University offers a wide range of catering service. The food products and other catering services are offered to a wide range of consumers starting from students, professors and other staffs. This as a result makes it a lucrative business for the University. Moreover, academic departments are also forbidden to outsource food from any other outlets. This as a result, has made them captive customers for the Glasgow University hospitality services. However, the institution also faces significant amount of competition from outlets outside the campus. These outlets include restaurants, pubs and other eateries which are in close proximities from the university campus. This as a result makes it easier for the students and staff to have an alternative option for eating outside the campus. This can be described from a theoretical stand point by highlighting the Porter’s five forces of competition. The Porter (2008) mentioned that the competitive force not only arise from the rivalry among existing firms, but also from four other direction. The Porter five force analyses will help to assess the level of competition faced by the Glasgow University hospitality service. This data will be then utilized to analyse the required changes that are required to make the service offering at par to the desired level. Power of Buyers: The power of buyers can be described in terms of their switching cost, which is indirectly proportional. If the switching cost of the buyers is low, then their bargaining power increases (Dalrymple, 2008). The availability of several restaurants and pubs in the close proximity of the university campus makes it easier for the customers to choose from several available options. However, outsourcings from outside eateries are not allowed in the campus. This as a result, reduces the buyers’ power slightly. Thus, the overall

United Methodist Church Doctrine on Homosexuality Research Paper

United Methodist Church Doctrine on Homosexuality - Research Paper Example Accordingly, the manner by which the church as been called to weigh in on moral and ethical issues that relate to the modern era has been profound as society has grown and evolved over the centuries. A single and intractable stance is not only not realistic, it presents a stoic entity that is unable and/or unwilling to deeply analyze the trends and needs of current society and seek to reconcile them in the light of Christian doctrine. For purposes of this brief analysis, the author will seek to consider whether or not the United Methodist Church should broaden and expand the manner by which doctrinal factors define the relationship between Christian beliefs and whether or not homosexuality should be permissible or not. Whereas it is true that a literalist approach to the issue from a scriptural standpoint lends on to only one conclusion concerning homosexuality, the same cannot be said with respect to a contextual understanding of the practice of homosexuality within scripture. Due t o the fact that either of these approaches necessarily yields a foregone conclusion, this particular response will seek to engage the reader by taking a mixed methods approach; thereby leveraging the strengths of a literalist approach as well as the strength and determinacy of a contextualist approach to scripture. As it stands, the current doctrine specifies that the church is accepting of homosexuals; however, a more nebulous interpretation of the â€Å"sinful† nature of homosexuality exists. Moreover, ministers are prohibited from marrying individuals of the same sex. Due to the fact that the United Methodist church places scripture at the core of its understanding and teaching with regards to the importance of developing and maintaining a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ and seeking to the individual for salvation, a scriptural approach to the issue is the only approach that would be both relevant and necessary to seek to answer the question at hand. From an interpretation of Scripture, there are approximately 5-8 verses (depending upon the means that are employed to count these) that deal specifically with homosexuality and deem it as â€Å"unift† or an â€Å"abomination† in the eyes of God. Not surprisingly, most of these texts, and/or references as noted above, are found within the Old Testament. Whereas it is not the view of the United Methodist Church that the Old Testament is merely a fanciful story book that has little if any current day application, the fact of the matter is that a great majority of the Levitical laws cannot and should not be meant to apply to the current time. One might just as easily consider the Levitcal injunction against a woman aiding her husband if he is in mortal combat with another.1 By the same token, one could point to the way that Levitical law promotes an understanding that the female gender is somehow during their period. Naturally, although some of these may seem as somewhat comical during the current time, if a particular church or group of believers sought to take these directives literally, then truly a miserable interpretation of the love of God as exhibited elsewhere throughout the Bible must necessarily be reflected. By very much the same token, one can and should integrate with an appreciation for the way in which slavery is represented throughout the Bible, in total, there are over 100 texts concerning the legality and rules overseeing slavery as an accepted and

Feminism in the Light of Feminist Narratives Essay

Feminism in the Light of Feminist Narratives - Essay Example Barbara Findlen’s Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation is able to provide me a new way of understanding women’s struggle in the third wave. My previous understanding of feminism resolves in the surge of women’s situation from their old tradition as mere caretakers of the household, denied of education and employment, and had a limited right to suffrage. Feminism had been a political idea, had always been, and still is. When women earned their right to education and employment, bid goodbye to being merely relegated to the sidelines as a mother and wife, and finally being able to vote, I thought that the woman is then free and all she has to do is to ensure that this freedom is not taken from her. However, the third wave feminism proves that the feminist struggle continues on and the issues that every female must resolve are reflected on language, gestures, and movements of people and society in everyday living. My perceptions about the third wave feminist struggle made a shift or would I say, an improved turn over the course of the semester as aided by the authors of Listen Up. Not being a racist, but my previous consciousness on feminism has always been directed towards Europe, the proponent of feminism, neglecting or putting into sidelines the other female experiences in other parts of the world. The feminist struggle is not limited to a certain race, social class, or ethnicity, but encompasses all these and Findlen’s Listen Up was able to reiterate this point.

Organization Structure Presentation Essay Example for Free

Organization Structure Presentation Essay Marketing. Terry Davenport is a senior vice-president of Starbucks who leads the marketing department. He oversees the sales organization structure, the marketing structure and cross-functional project teams with their own structure, effectively affecting the organizational structure of the organization as a whole. Finance. Peter  J.  Bocian as the chief financial officer of the company under analysis. The financial function of the firm has access to key decision makers, and the structure of the company was created to force this. For instance, in the case of Starbucks, centralization became possible with new accounting technology. Human Resources. The management of Starbucks’ human resources affect organizational structure in a way that these resources are overseen as one large structure that encompasses the entire firm with several smaller structures supporting the functions of recruiting, benefits and training. Operations. As chief operating officer, Martin Coles of Starbucks adapts to the continuously evolving internal operations of the business, which impacts the organizational framework by having more structure. The operations function also helps to create and support a system of management hierarchy, authority, power and control. Partner Resources. As executive vice-president and Partner Resources head, Chet   Kuchinad is able to affect organizational structure through the inclusion of organizational links connecting partners to the parent corporation that would then account for the accumulation of profits for reinvestment. Technology. Chris  Bruzzo, chief technology officer, influence organizational structure through linking mechanisms that facilitate lateral relations among the organization’s many units such as the ones mentioned above. Research has shown that an IT-based change leads to a single impact or shift in organizational structure — an intervention occurs and a new stable structure results (Earl, 1996).

Importance of Corporate Governance for Fraud Prevention

Importance of Corporate Governance for Fraud Prevention In the era of globalisation, corporate scandals are no longer shocking news in corporate world. A recent corporate fraud has happened in Paris in Societe Generale Bank, where an employee committed a fraud of GBP 3.7 billions. It is not a new story for the corporate world as it has seen cases of BCCI (Bank of credit and commerce internationals), Polly Peck, Maxwell, Allied Irish Bank, Enron, Pamalat, Barings Bank, WorldCom, Xerox and many more. Frauds in Financial statements have become a common area of frauds now days. These frauds have increased the responsibility of auditors and also of government to pass effective laws so that scope of committing frauds can be reduced. Corporate Governance in any company is for that only. Companies are bounded by corporate governance guidelines and procedures, so that chances of fraudulent activities can be reduced. Meaning of Corporate Governance According Cadbury Report 1992, Companies are controlled and directed by the system of corporate governance. In companies, Corporate Governance is the responsibility of Boards of Directors. Auditors and directors are elected and appointed by the consent of shareholders, which give them the feeling of satisfaction that a suitable corporate governance system is working to reserve their rights and benefits. Corporate governance set the relationship between management, board, shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate governance enables directors and auditors to manage their responsibilities towards shareholders and wide stakeholders of the company. In contrast , corporate governance increased the confidence of shareholders that they will get an reasonable return on their investments, whereas for the stakeholders it provide the assurance that company manages its impact on society and environment in a responsible manner. Corporate governance include the combination of various laws, regulations, listing rules and voluntary private sector practices that facilitate the company to draw more capital, execute efficiently, generate profit and meet other legal obligations and general societal expectations. Corporate governance is about commitment to values, about ethical business conduct and about making a distinction between personal and corporate funds in the management of a company. Corporations pool capital from a large investor base both in the domestic and in the international capital markets. In this context, investment is ultimately an act of faith in the ability of a corporations management. When an investor invests money in a corporation, he expects the board and the management to act as trustees and ensure the safety of the capital and also earn a rate of return that is higher than the cost of capital. In this regard, investors expect management to act in their best interests at all times and adopt good corporate governance practices. Need for Corporate Governance A corporation is a body of various stakeholders include customers, employees, investors, vendors, government and society. It is necessary for any corporation to present transparent and true pictures to its shareholders. Today, this has become essential for the business world because every company wants to enter into the global capital and also want to draw the attention and also keep hold on the top human capital from different areas of the world. Company want the partnership with different vendors on the big collaborations and want to be in harmony and peace with the rest of the community. A corporation will never succeed until and unless it demonstrate and also it embrace the ethical conduct. Corporate governance in business is in relation to the ethical conduct. Here, the ethic is very much concerned about the different codes of principles and the values which help the person to differentiate and choose between the right and the wrong and as a result, help to choose from the other alternatives. Additionally, the parties which are involved in the conflicting interest give rise to the ethical dilemmas. Therefore, keeping in mind the principles which are totally based on culture, context and the value of the company, the manager make their decisions. For a business which is running good, it is very much important that it always go in the good direction by keeping the stakeholders expectations in mind. Well, corporate governance is not just the law,it is much more than the law and it cant be imposed and run by the legislation alone because its different parts comes from the managements mindset and their culture. The affairs of the organisation are conducted by the corporate governance in order to provide the fairness for all of the shareholders which comes from these three- accountability, integrity and the openness. To certify standards, the legislation can and should put down a general framework which is the â€Å"form†. The integrity and the credibility for process will finally determined by the â€Å"substance†. The substance is inevitably connected to the managements ethical standards and mindset. The corporations should always need to identify that the prosperous development and the growth of the company require the full support and the cooperation from their stakeholders and this is possible only when the corporation is following the best practices of the corporate governance. Here for shareholders, management of the corporation needs to perform as the trustees and avoid the difference of benefits among various sections of stakeholders, particularly between the owner and the other stakeholders. Corporate governance becomes the key element in order to improve the firms economic efficiency. With the help of the corporate governance, the corporations keep in mind the interest of the ample series of constituencies, and also of community where they are operating. Additionally it ensure that the board is accountable for shareholders. As a result, it guarantees that the corporations as a whole are operating for the benefit and profit of society. Though by taking the advantage of asymmetry between the shareholders, huge amount of profit can be made in short run, and by balancing the interest of all shareholders itself guarantee the growth and the survival of the corporation in long run. Heavy cost can be incurred if there is failure to execute the good governance which can be the regulatory problems. Many proofs suggest that those corporations or companies which do not implement and follow the significant corporate governance measures can give the considerable risk premium in the public market at the time when it is competing for the limited capital. In recent times, the analysts of the stock market received a high appreciation from the market for showing the relationship between the returns and the governance. For this context, different reports do not only talk about the governance in common but they also recommend the explicit alter investment which is totally based on weakness or strength of the infrastructure of the corporate governance of the company. The best thing about the credibility which is given by the procedures of a good corporate governance is that it help to provide the confidence of clients (national international) in order to draw more ‘pat ient, the capital for the long term, and also help to cut down the capital cost. All this increased attention is because of arises of the financial crises in different parts of the world. Like, the financial crises in Asia brought the attention of the corporate governance subject in Asia. Recently, the scandals in the US also disturb the unsatisfied corporate landscape and peace which are unexpected in a sense. These scandals lead to a new set of initiatives in corporate governance in US and trigger a new discussion in the United Kingdom with European union and in the rest of the world. Meaning of Financial Statement Fraud Financial statements are the picture of financial position of a company which includes balance sheet, profit and loss accounts, and trading accounts. Frauds here, means deliberately and intentionally done activities for self interest and cheating the second party. Under the Statement of Auditing Standards (SAS) 1101, it is stated that â€Å"Auditors should plan and perform their audit procedures and evaluate and report the results thereof, recognizing that fraud or error may materially affect the financial statement†. Accounting to Benny K.B. Kwok 2005, Misstatements in financial statements can arise from either by error or by fraud. Error refers to an involuntary misstatement in financial data of a company which include omission of an amount or disclosure, such as A mistake in gathering or processing data from which financial statements are prepared; An incorrect accounting estimate arising from oversight or misinterpretation of facts; and A mistake in the application of accounting principles relating to measurement, recognition, classification, presentation or disclosure. The usage of both the dishonesty to get the financial advantage illegally and intentionally falsification also disturbing the statements, leads to fraud which can be done by any person from the management, or the employees or any third party. In fraud following things involves â€Å"Falsification or alteration of accounting records or other documents; Misappropriation of assets or thefts; Suppression or omission of the effects of transaction from records or documents; Recording of transaction without substance; Intentional misapplication of accounting policies; Wilful misrepresentations of transactions or of the organizations state of affairs. Financial reporting in the UK is based on three principles:- Companies Act 2006 Accounting standards or specifically Statements of Standard Accounting Practices(SSAP) and Financial Reporting Standards And the requirements of the Stock Exchange. Companies Act 2006 According to the Companies Act 2006, accounting records maintained by every company must: Be sufficient to show and explain the companys transactions; Disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company at that time and Enable the directors to ensure that any Profit and Loss account or Balance Sheet gives a true and fair view of the companys financial position. Accounting records should contain day to day entries of all transactions, full record of companys assets and liabilities and full information regarding companys stock. According to Companies Act 2006 under section 145(B), if the financial statements of a company do not meet the requirements of the Act, the court may ask for revised financial statements and the cost of re- preparing financial statements would be bear by the party in abuse of preparing defective or false financial statements. Accounting Standards In UK, all accounting standards till 31 July 1990 used to be called Statements of Standards Accounting Practice (SSAP) which was formulated by the Accounting Standard Committee (ASC). SSAP was then gradually replaced by Financial Reporting Standards (FSA) produced by the successor to the ASC, the Accounting Standards Board (ASB). UK Accounting Standards laid down the guidelines regarding how particular types of transaction should be reflected in the financial statements of a company to present true and fair picture of companys financial position. The stock exchange listing requirements-Yellow Book Rules which governed the listing of securities of the stock exchange in the UK are known as the Yellow Book. According to Yellow Book, listed companies are required to publish their financial statements within six months of their financial year end. Most of the listed companies however, publish their financial statements quarterly. It is necessary from the point of view of shareholders because shares of companies are in the hands of general public and they need continuous information regarding firm financial position so that they can take right investment decision. According to SSAP December 1999, â€Å"the objective of financial statements is to provide information about an organizations financial performance and financial position that is useful to a wide range of readers for assessing the stewardship of the organizations management and for making economic decisions†. For the purposes of this discussion, we are talking about financial statement fraud in a major public company context; a context that can affect confidence in the financial system. We are not talking about what might be called internal fraud or a great many other types of dishonest conduct in corporate life. This is about projecting a false state of affairs on a large scale and in a very public context. DEFINITIONS Corporate governance is about promoting corporate fairness, transparency and accountability Wolfensohn, president of the Word bank, June 21, 1999. Corporate governance is the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as, the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. By doing this, it also provides the structure through which the company objectives are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance, OECD April 1999. OECDs definition is consistent with the one presented by Cadbury [1992]. According to Elliot and Willingham, â€Å"financial statements fraud is management fraud, the deliberate fraud committed by management that injures investors and creditors through materially misleading financial statements†. Key words used in the research: Currency option: In this option the possessor has the right to sell or buy the currency at a particular phase of the time at a particular price. In this the possessor doesnt have the obligation. Currency forward: The prices are locked in this contract so that the counterparties can sell or buy the currency on the upcoming or future date. Here the possessor who holds the contract are obliged to sell or buy the currency at a particular future date, at the particular quantity and on a particular price. These transactions are also called as outright forward currency transactions. Option: when the option is exercised to earn profit then it is known as in- the-money option. Call option: In this type of option, the buyer who wants to buy any assets, commodities etc. has the right to buy at a particular period of time but he is not obliged, whereas the seller is highly obliged to sell the assets etc. at a particular time to the buyer. A premium has to be paid by the buyer to hold this right. This option is carried out when the strike price is below the price of the market of the agreed commodities. Put option: In this option, the seller has obligations to buy the commodities, assets etc. from the buyer whereas the buyer has the right, but there is no obligation, to sell the agreed commodities, assets etc. at a particular period of time for a particular price. This option is carried out when the strike price is more than the price of the market of the agreed commodities. Prime broker: The person who settle down the cash and security for their clients in the financial market by charging them fees is known as the prime broker. They manage the money of their clients by using different strategy in the market. Research Questions and Objectives Research Questions Financial statements frauds -ethical or technical issue? How firms manipulate their financial statements? What are the motives of financial frauds other than monetary? What is the role of corporate governance in controlling these frauds? Research Objectives: To analyse the major areas of frauds. To examine role of top management in fraudulent practices. To analyse the efficacy of various acts and rules passed for enhanced corporate governance. To analyse the importance of financial statements in investment decision making. To explore the causes and consequences of financial statements frauds. Scope of study: Research study will be restricted to European countries financial statement frauds as US market is more explored than European market. Research will examine and critically analyse the case study of Ireland based bank named Allied Irish Bank. Remaining chapter shall follow the following planned strategy: Chapter Two: Literature review: It will cover 3000 words and include journals and articles citation. Chapter Three: Research Methodology: It will cover 1500 words. This section will give idea of data collection and also briefly explain limitation attached to it. Chapter Four: Data Analysis: This section will evaluate and analyse the data and follow the discussion. Chapter Five: Conclusion and Recommendations: This section finally concludes the research and provides recommendations. CHAPTER TWO Literature Review 2.1.1. Agency problem and Corporate Governance 2.1.1.1 Separation of ownership -origin of agency problem Agency problem resulted from separation of ownership from control (Berge Means 1932; Jensen Meckling 1976) is still prevailing around the world. Findings have proved that firms having weaker corporate governance policies and structure face greater agency problems; which allow senior managers to cook their recipe of extracting more private benefits and finally firm perform worse at all levels (Core at al. 1999). Evidence for such a weak corporate governance structure and higher agency problems can be found from Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. At the time Asian Crisis 1997, firms which had good corporate governance structure provided better protection to shareholders especially to minor shareholders and performed better during the crisis (Joh 2003 and Mitton 2002). In countries like USA and European countries especially UK, agency problems are higher as evidenced from corporate scandals in USA and UK for example Maxwell Corporation (1991), Polly Peck (1991), BCCI (1991), Enron (2001) , Barings Bank (1995), Parmalat (2003) and many more. The recent scandal happened in Societe Generale Bank of Paris 2008, in this also agency problem was the main reason for the frauds committed by the employer of the Societe Generale Bank of Paris. An Agency problem is very crucial problem which had taken birth during 19th century. Agency theory is defined as a â€Å"contract under which one party (the principal) engages another party (the agent) to perform some service on their behalf† (Jensen and Meckling 1976). The problems arises when the agent do not work in the welfare of principal. More cases of frauds, where involvements of companys top management were high, coming into light and the simple reason is principal agency problem. In the case of HealthSouth, CEO Richard Scrushy had instructed senior managers to show fraudulent income of $2.5 billion in order to meet Wall Street expectation. 2.1.1.1.1 Agency Cost Agency costs are another issue which is bear by the principal for the frauds committed by the agent. The result of agency problem is reflected in companys share price which can be seen as the loss to shareholders in terms of declined in the price of shares in stock exchange.Jensen and Meckling (1976) explained agency costs as the sum of monitoring costs, bonding costs, and residual loss. Monitoring cost:- In UK companies are required to follow Cadbury (1992) and Greenbury (1995) reports for corporate governance. Monitoring cost are paid by the principal to monitor the behaviour of agents. Monitoring cost generally include costs of conducting auditing, writing executive compensation contracts and sometimes cost of firing the fraud employees and other top managers or executives. All these costs are paid by the principal, but Fama and Jensen (1983) argued that these agency costs which are initially born by the principal, ultimately borne by the agents as the compensation of agents are adjusted to cover these costs. Some researcher further argued that monitoring will restrict the managerial initiative (Burkart, Gromb and Panunzi 1997). Criticisers of Cadbury Report (1992) have argued that high level of monitoring may restrict the managerial entrepreneurship. Bonding Costs As argued by Fama and Jensen( 1983), monitoring cost ultimately bear by agents which need to set up structure that will act in interest of shareholders or principal , the cost of establishing these set up or system is known as bonding costs. These costs are not always financial in nature; it may include additional information provided to shareholders. Denis (2001) further argued that â€Å"the optimal bonding contract should aim to entice managers into making all decisions that are in the shareholders best interests†. In UK, bonding structure which is imposed on closely held companies management, require companies to distribute all income after meeting all business expenses. Earning retention is big problem in UK; the mechanism of bonding may reduce the scope of this problem. Residual Loss â€Å"Residual loss arises because the cost of fully enforcing principal-agent contracts would far outweigh the benefits derived from doing so. Since managerial actions are unobservable ex ante, to fully contract for every state of nature is impractical. The result of this is an optimal level or residual loss, which may represent a trade-off between overly constraining management and enforcing contractual mechanisms designed to reduce agency problems.† (Patrick McColgan 2001:8). 2.1.1.2 Stewardship theory Agency theory is more dominant in the perspective of corporate governance mechanism, but this view has been criticized by many writers (Hoskisson et al. 2000; Blair 1995; Perrow 1986). Agency theory had limitation in explaining sociological and psychological involved in principal agent conflicts (Davis Thompson 1994; Davis et al.1997). Stewardship theory assume mangers as good stewards of the firms. Managers act diligently in order to attain high corporate profits and shareholders returns (Donaldson Davis 1994). In an empirical study performed by Tian and Lau 2001 in Chinese shareholding firms, they find stewardship theory has received strong support in comparison to agency theory. Further Phan 2001 explained that â€Å"whether the assumptions of Agency Theory can be generalised to emerging markets, with their different sociological, economic, and developmental fundamentals, remains an important research question†. In summary, agency theory has its roots in industrial and organisational economics. Agency theory assumes that behaviour of human being is opportunistic and selfish. Therefore, the theory recommends strong director and shareholder control. It suggests the fundamental function of the board of directors is to control managerial behaviour and try to ensure that managers act in the best interests of shareholders. 2.1.2 Review of Corporate Governance reports In this section, international reports on corporate governance will be critically reviewed which were published in last decades. The international reports considered in this section are as follows: â€Å"Report of the Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance† (Cadbury Report, 1992) â€Å"Where were the Directors? Guidelines for Improved Corporate Governance in Canada† (Dey Report, 1994) The General Motors Corporation Guidelines (GMC, 2001) â€Å"Committee on Corporate Governance† (Hampel Report, 1998) â€Å"OECD Principles of Corporate Governance† (OECD Report, 1999) Sarbanes- Oxley Act 2002 After the unexpected corporate scandals of renowned companies like Maxwell (1991), Polly Peck (1991), and BCCI (1991) among others in the UK, the committee for corporate governance under the guidance of Sir Adrian Cadbury along with Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and the other accountancy profession has been formed to address corporate governance issues. This report was known as Cadbury report which was first report in UK focused on the aspect of corporate governance such as financial reporting and reviewed the role of boards and auditors. This report was published in 1992. The Cadbury committee report finally draw two major recommendation for the structure of UK corporate board. Cadbury report suggests at least three non executive directors in the board and two of them should be independent from management. The positions of chairman and CEO should not hold by the same person. The purpose behind this set up was to reduce the individual dominance a nd ensuring higher level of monitoring for corporate board by introducing more independence. Beasley (1996) and Dechow et al. (1996) found that â€Å"firms with more independent boards are significantly characterised by a lower likelihood of financial statement fraud and earnings management†. In Canada, during 1994 Dey report was published. This report was the first fully fledged report on corporate governance which a company should follow in order to list on stock exchange. Toronto stock exchange (TSE) adopted these guidelines in 1995 which were laid down by the Dey report. All TSE listed companies required to provide the difference in their corporate governance guidelines and guideline laid down by the Dey report. After Dey Report 1994, other similar reports in other jurisdiction have been published. General Motors Corporation (GMC) in USA published its own corporate guidelines in 1994 after criticising by the shareholders regarding poor company performance and doubtful board practices. These guidelines were developed with consent of GMC board, its shareholders and other activists for corporate governance. These guidelines were welcomed by the institute California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and by the industry. GMC guidelines become the benchmark in USA for corporate governance. In UK, during 1998, Hampel Committee was formed to review the recommendations of Cadbury report (1992) and the Greenbury report (1995) relating to executive remuneration. The Hampel committee was also formed to cover some gaps by these two reports i.e. Cadbury report and Greenbury report. Hampel report suggests that good corporate governance goes beyond prescribed corporate structures. According to Hample Report (1998:15) on Corporate Governance Sir Hample â€Å"recommend that companies should include in their annual report and accounts a narrative statement of how they apply the relevant principles to their particular circumstances. Given that the responsibility for good corporate governance rests with the board of directors, the written description of the way in which the board has applied the principles of corporate governance represents a key part of the process†. Hampel report drew attention for the approach of box ticking which is a serious issue for corporate governance . It also examined the implementation of Cadbury and Greenbury report and suggested more clear recommendations on policies of remuneration, accountability and auditing. During 1999, Organisation for Economic and Co-operation Development (OECD) laid down principles of corporate governance for the listed companies of member countries of OECD. It cover main subjects areas like rights and equitable treatment of shareholders, role of stakeholders in corporation structure, disclosure and transparency of financial facts and figures and majorly role and responsibilities of board. OECD guidelines become starting point for local policy makers of corporate governance. After the ,shocking scandals of Enron and WorldCom, US congress along with NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) passed the reforms to address conflicts of interest and redefined relationship between companies and auditors. This reform was known as the Accounting Industry reform Act 2002 which is widely known as Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002. The main purpose of this act was to enforce the independence of external auditors. The act also reinforced duties and responsibilities for CEOs and CFOs by imposing strict penalties for misrepresenting companys quarterly and annual reports. The penalty for misrepresentation was personal fines of US$ 1 million or imprisonment up to 10 years or both. Sarbanes Oxley Act has intense effect on the corporate governance policies on US and rest of the world. NYSE also imposed additional requirement for listed companies, under which listed companies must have independent directors in majority and must disclose business code of conduct and ethics for directors, office rs including managers at all level, and employees. Whittington(1993) and Melis, (2004a) argued that â€Å"corporate financial reporting and corporate governance systems are highly correlated, with any improvement in either system having a positive influence on the other, and vice versa† Combined code issued in 2006 replaces the combined issued in 2003. Financial service authority of UK, require listing companies to be obliged by the combined code 2006 and carry out consultation before listing. This new code contains main principles and provisions. Combined code 2006 asks listed companies to make a disclosure statement for code and that should be in two parts. Some of the provisions are not or less relevant for small or new listed companies. Also some provisions do not apply to companies below FTSE 350. 2.1.3 Global findings for adoption of corporate governance guidelines According Stephanie Maier (EIRIS 2005:1) findings, â€Å"Only 25% of US companies separate the roles of chairman and CEO compared with at least 50% forcompanies in other developed economies. Swiss boards have the highestpercentage of independent directors(81%) Germany, Austria and Japanall have less than 10%. Only 4% of companies in Japan haveaudit committees comprising amajority of independent directorscompared to over 95% in the USA,Canada, the Netherlands,Luxembourg, the UK and Ireland†¢ Only 22% of companies in Singaporeand 25% of companies in Hong Konghave meaningful codes of ethics†. Board size: According to EIRIS 2005, average board size is minimum in New Zealand (7.2) and maximum in Germany (22.8). USA and UK comes at rank 7th and 8th with average board size of 10.7 and 11.4 respectively ( see appendices for details). Higgs Review (2003) suggested â€Å"An effective board should not be so large as to become unwieldy. It should be of sufficient size that the balance of skills and experience is appropriate for the requirement of the business and that changes in the boards composition can be managed without undue disruption†. Separation of ownership and CEO According to findings by EIRIS 2005, in UK nearly 97% separate the ownership under unitary board structure whereas in US only 25% companies separate the ownership under the unitary board structure. In Ireland and Luxemb Importance of Corporate Governance for Fraud Prevention Importance of Corporate Governance for Fraud Prevention In the era of globalisation, corporate scandals are no longer shocking news in corporate world. A recent corporate fraud has happened in Paris in Societe Generale Bank, where an employee committed a fraud of GBP 3.7 billions. It is not a new story for the corporate world as it has seen cases of BCCI (Bank of credit and commerce internationals), Polly Peck, Maxwell, Allied Irish Bank, Enron, Pamalat, Barings Bank, WorldCom, Xerox and many more. Frauds in Financial statements have become a common area of frauds now days. These frauds have increased the responsibility of auditors and also of government to pass effective laws so that scope of committing frauds can be reduced. Corporate Governance in any company is for that only. Companies are bounded by corporate governance guidelines and procedures, so that chances of fraudulent activities can be reduced. Meaning of Corporate Governance According Cadbury Report 1992, Companies are controlled and directed by the system of corporate governance. In companies, Corporate Governance is the responsibility of Boards of Directors. Auditors and directors are elected and appointed by the consent of shareholders, which give them the feeling of satisfaction that a suitable corporate governance system is working to reserve their rights and benefits. Corporate governance set the relationship between management, board, shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate governance enables directors and auditors to manage their responsibilities towards shareholders and wide stakeholders of the company. In contrast , corporate governance increased the confidence of shareholders that they will get an reasonable return on their investments, whereas for the stakeholders it provide the assurance that company manages its impact on society and environment in a responsible manner. Corporate governance include the combination of various laws, regulations, listing rules and voluntary private sector practices that facilitate the company to draw more capital, execute efficiently, generate profit and meet other legal obligations and general societal expectations. Corporate governance is about commitment to values, about ethical business conduct and about making a distinction between personal and corporate funds in the management of a company. Corporations pool capital from a large investor base both in the domestic and in the international capital markets. In this context, investment is ultimately an act of faith in the ability of a corporations management. When an investor invests money in a corporation, he expects the board and the management to act as trustees and ensure the safety of the capital and also earn a rate of return that is higher than the cost of capital. In this regard, investors expect management to act in their best interests at all times and adopt good corporate governance practices. Need for Corporate Governance A corporation is a body of various stakeholders include customers, employees, investors, vendors, government and society. It is necessary for any corporation to present transparent and true pictures to its shareholders. Today, this has become essential for the business world because every company wants to enter into the global capital and also want to draw the attention and also keep hold on the top human capital from different areas of the world. Company want the partnership with different vendors on the big collaborations and want to be in harmony and peace with the rest of the community. A corporation will never succeed until and unless it demonstrate and also it embrace the ethical conduct. Corporate governance in business is in relation to the ethical conduct. Here, the ethic is very much concerned about the different codes of principles and the values which help the person to differentiate and choose between the right and the wrong and as a result, help to choose from the other alternatives. Additionally, the parties which are involved in the conflicting interest give rise to the ethical dilemmas. Therefore, keeping in mind the principles which are totally based on culture, context and the value of the company, the manager make their decisions. For a business which is running good, it is very much important that it always go in the good direction by keeping the stakeholders expectations in mind. Well, corporate governance is not just the law,it is much more than the law and it cant be imposed and run by the legislation alone because its different parts comes from the managements mindset and their culture. The affairs of the organisation are conducted by the corporate governance in order to provide the fairness for all of the shareholders which comes from these three- accountability, integrity and the openness. To certify standards, the legislation can and should put down a general framework which is the â€Å"form†. The integrity and the credibility for process will finally determined by the â€Å"substance†. The substance is inevitably connected to the managements ethical standards and mindset. The corporations should always need to identify that the prosperous development and the growth of the company require the full support and the cooperation from their stakeholders and this is possible only when the corporation is following the best practices of the corporate governance. Here for shareholders, management of the corporation needs to perform as the trustees and avoid the difference of benefits among various sections of stakeholders, particularly between the owner and the other stakeholders. Corporate governance becomes the key element in order to improve the firms economic efficiency. With the help of the corporate governance, the corporations keep in mind the interest of the ample series of constituencies, and also of community where they are operating. Additionally it ensure that the board is accountable for shareholders. As a result, it guarantees that the corporations as a whole are operating for the benefit and profit of society. Though by taking the advantage of asymmetry between the shareholders, huge amount of profit can be made in short run, and by balancing the interest of all shareholders itself guarantee the growth and the survival of the corporation in long run. Heavy cost can be incurred if there is failure to execute the good governance which can be the regulatory problems. Many proofs suggest that those corporations or companies which do not implement and follow the significant corporate governance measures can give the considerable risk premium in the public market at the time when it is competing for the limited capital. In recent times, the analysts of the stock market received a high appreciation from the market for showing the relationship between the returns and the governance. For this context, different reports do not only talk about the governance in common but they also recommend the explicit alter investment which is totally based on weakness or strength of the infrastructure of the corporate governance of the company. The best thing about the credibility which is given by the procedures of a good corporate governance is that it help to provide the confidence of clients (national international) in order to draw more ‘pat ient, the capital for the long term, and also help to cut down the capital cost. All this increased attention is because of arises of the financial crises in different parts of the world. Like, the financial crises in Asia brought the attention of the corporate governance subject in Asia. Recently, the scandals in the US also disturb the unsatisfied corporate landscape and peace which are unexpected in a sense. These scandals lead to a new set of initiatives in corporate governance in US and trigger a new discussion in the United Kingdom with European union and in the rest of the world. Meaning of Financial Statement Fraud Financial statements are the picture of financial position of a company which includes balance sheet, profit and loss accounts, and trading accounts. Frauds here, means deliberately and intentionally done activities for self interest and cheating the second party. Under the Statement of Auditing Standards (SAS) 1101, it is stated that â€Å"Auditors should plan and perform their audit procedures and evaluate and report the results thereof, recognizing that fraud or error may materially affect the financial statement†. Accounting to Benny K.B. Kwok 2005, Misstatements in financial statements can arise from either by error or by fraud. Error refers to an involuntary misstatement in financial data of a company which include omission of an amount or disclosure, such as A mistake in gathering or processing data from which financial statements are prepared; An incorrect accounting estimate arising from oversight or misinterpretation of facts; and A mistake in the application of accounting principles relating to measurement, recognition, classification, presentation or disclosure. The usage of both the dishonesty to get the financial advantage illegally and intentionally falsification also disturbing the statements, leads to fraud which can be done by any person from the management, or the employees or any third party. In fraud following things involves â€Å"Falsification or alteration of accounting records or other documents; Misappropriation of assets or thefts; Suppression or omission of the effects of transaction from records or documents; Recording of transaction without substance; Intentional misapplication of accounting policies; Wilful misrepresentations of transactions or of the organizations state of affairs. Financial reporting in the UK is based on three principles:- Companies Act 2006 Accounting standards or specifically Statements of Standard Accounting Practices(SSAP) and Financial Reporting Standards And the requirements of the Stock Exchange. Companies Act 2006 According to the Companies Act 2006, accounting records maintained by every company must: Be sufficient to show and explain the companys transactions; Disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company at that time and Enable the directors to ensure that any Profit and Loss account or Balance Sheet gives a true and fair view of the companys financial position. Accounting records should contain day to day entries of all transactions, full record of companys assets and liabilities and full information regarding companys stock. According to Companies Act 2006 under section 145(B), if the financial statements of a company do not meet the requirements of the Act, the court may ask for revised financial statements and the cost of re- preparing financial statements would be bear by the party in abuse of preparing defective or false financial statements. Accounting Standards In UK, all accounting standards till 31 July 1990 used to be called Statements of Standards Accounting Practice (SSAP) which was formulated by the Accounting Standard Committee (ASC). SSAP was then gradually replaced by Financial Reporting Standards (FSA) produced by the successor to the ASC, the Accounting Standards Board (ASB). UK Accounting Standards laid down the guidelines regarding how particular types of transaction should be reflected in the financial statements of a company to present true and fair picture of companys financial position. The stock exchange listing requirements-Yellow Book Rules which governed the listing of securities of the stock exchange in the UK are known as the Yellow Book. According to Yellow Book, listed companies are required to publish their financial statements within six months of their financial year end. Most of the listed companies however, publish their financial statements quarterly. It is necessary from the point of view of shareholders because shares of companies are in the hands of general public and they need continuous information regarding firm financial position so that they can take right investment decision. According to SSAP December 1999, â€Å"the objective of financial statements is to provide information about an organizations financial performance and financial position that is useful to a wide range of readers for assessing the stewardship of the organizations management and for making economic decisions†. For the purposes of this discussion, we are talking about financial statement fraud in a major public company context; a context that can affect confidence in the financial system. We are not talking about what might be called internal fraud or a great many other types of dishonest conduct in corporate life. This is about projecting a false state of affairs on a large scale and in a very public context. DEFINITIONS Corporate governance is about promoting corporate fairness, transparency and accountability Wolfensohn, president of the Word bank, June 21, 1999. Corporate governance is the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as, the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. By doing this, it also provides the structure through which the company objectives are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance, OECD April 1999. OECDs definition is consistent with the one presented by Cadbury [1992]. According to Elliot and Willingham, â€Å"financial statements fraud is management fraud, the deliberate fraud committed by management that injures investors and creditors through materially misleading financial statements†. Key words used in the research: Currency option: In this option the possessor has the right to sell or buy the currency at a particular phase of the time at a particular price. In this the possessor doesnt have the obligation. Currency forward: The prices are locked in this contract so that the counterparties can sell or buy the currency on the upcoming or future date. Here the possessor who holds the contract are obliged to sell or buy the currency at a particular future date, at the particular quantity and on a particular price. These transactions are also called as outright forward currency transactions. Option: when the option is exercised to earn profit then it is known as in- the-money option. Call option: In this type of option, the buyer who wants to buy any assets, commodities etc. has the right to buy at a particular period of time but he is not obliged, whereas the seller is highly obliged to sell the assets etc. at a particular time to the buyer. A premium has to be paid by the buyer to hold this right. This option is carried out when the strike price is below the price of the market of the agreed commodities. Put option: In this option, the seller has obligations to buy the commodities, assets etc. from the buyer whereas the buyer has the right, but there is no obligation, to sell the agreed commodities, assets etc. at a particular period of time for a particular price. This option is carried out when the strike price is more than the price of the market of the agreed commodities. Prime broker: The person who settle down the cash and security for their clients in the financial market by charging them fees is known as the prime broker. They manage the money of their clients by using different strategy in the market. Research Questions and Objectives Research Questions Financial statements frauds -ethical or technical issue? How firms manipulate their financial statements? What are the motives of financial frauds other than monetary? What is the role of corporate governance in controlling these frauds? Research Objectives: To analyse the major areas of frauds. To examine role of top management in fraudulent practices. To analyse the efficacy of various acts and rules passed for enhanced corporate governance. To analyse the importance of financial statements in investment decision making. To explore the causes and consequences of financial statements frauds. Scope of study: Research study will be restricted to European countries financial statement frauds as US market is more explored than European market. Research will examine and critically analyse the case study of Ireland based bank named Allied Irish Bank. Remaining chapter shall follow the following planned strategy: Chapter Two: Literature review: It will cover 3000 words and include journals and articles citation. Chapter Three: Research Methodology: It will cover 1500 words. This section will give idea of data collection and also briefly explain limitation attached to it. Chapter Four: Data Analysis: This section will evaluate and analyse the data and follow the discussion. Chapter Five: Conclusion and Recommendations: This section finally concludes the research and provides recommendations. CHAPTER TWO Literature Review 2.1.1. Agency problem and Corporate Governance 2.1.1.1 Separation of ownership -origin of agency problem Agency problem resulted from separation of ownership from control (Berge Means 1932; Jensen Meckling 1976) is still prevailing around the world. Findings have proved that firms having weaker corporate governance policies and structure face greater agency problems; which allow senior managers to cook their recipe of extracting more private benefits and finally firm perform worse at all levels (Core at al. 1999). Evidence for such a weak corporate governance structure and higher agency problems can be found from Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. At the time Asian Crisis 1997, firms which had good corporate governance structure provided better protection to shareholders especially to minor shareholders and performed better during the crisis (Joh 2003 and Mitton 2002). In countries like USA and European countries especially UK, agency problems are higher as evidenced from corporate scandals in USA and UK for example Maxwell Corporation (1991), Polly Peck (1991), BCCI (1991), Enron (2001) , Barings Bank (1995), Parmalat (2003) and many more. The recent scandal happened in Societe Generale Bank of Paris 2008, in this also agency problem was the main reason for the frauds committed by the employer of the Societe Generale Bank of Paris. An Agency problem is very crucial problem which had taken birth during 19th century. Agency theory is defined as a â€Å"contract under which one party (the principal) engages another party (the agent) to perform some service on their behalf† (Jensen and Meckling 1976). The problems arises when the agent do not work in the welfare of principal. More cases of frauds, where involvements of companys top management were high, coming into light and the simple reason is principal agency problem. In the case of HealthSouth, CEO Richard Scrushy had instructed senior managers to show fraudulent income of $2.5 billion in order to meet Wall Street expectation. 2.1.1.1.1 Agency Cost Agency costs are another issue which is bear by the principal for the frauds committed by the agent. The result of agency problem is reflected in companys share price which can be seen as the loss to shareholders in terms of declined in the price of shares in stock exchange.Jensen and Meckling (1976) explained agency costs as the sum of monitoring costs, bonding costs, and residual loss. Monitoring cost:- In UK companies are required to follow Cadbury (1992) and Greenbury (1995) reports for corporate governance. Monitoring cost are paid by the principal to monitor the behaviour of agents. Monitoring cost generally include costs of conducting auditing, writing executive compensation contracts and sometimes cost of firing the fraud employees and other top managers or executives. All these costs are paid by the principal, but Fama and Jensen (1983) argued that these agency costs which are initially born by the principal, ultimately borne by the agents as the compensation of agents are adjusted to cover these costs. Some researcher further argued that monitoring will restrict the managerial initiative (Burkart, Gromb and Panunzi 1997). Criticisers of Cadbury Report (1992) have argued that high level of monitoring may restrict the managerial entrepreneurship. Bonding Costs As argued by Fama and Jensen( 1983), monitoring cost ultimately bear by agents which need to set up structure that will act in interest of shareholders or principal , the cost of establishing these set up or system is known as bonding costs. These costs are not always financial in nature; it may include additional information provided to shareholders. Denis (2001) further argued that â€Å"the optimal bonding contract should aim to entice managers into making all decisions that are in the shareholders best interests†. In UK, bonding structure which is imposed on closely held companies management, require companies to distribute all income after meeting all business expenses. Earning retention is big problem in UK; the mechanism of bonding may reduce the scope of this problem. Residual Loss â€Å"Residual loss arises because the cost of fully enforcing principal-agent contracts would far outweigh the benefits derived from doing so. Since managerial actions are unobservable ex ante, to fully contract for every state of nature is impractical. The result of this is an optimal level or residual loss, which may represent a trade-off between overly constraining management and enforcing contractual mechanisms designed to reduce agency problems.† (Patrick McColgan 2001:8). 2.1.1.2 Stewardship theory Agency theory is more dominant in the perspective of corporate governance mechanism, but this view has been criticized by many writers (Hoskisson et al. 2000; Blair 1995; Perrow 1986). Agency theory had limitation in explaining sociological and psychological involved in principal agent conflicts (Davis Thompson 1994; Davis et al.1997). Stewardship theory assume mangers as good stewards of the firms. Managers act diligently in order to attain high corporate profits and shareholders returns (Donaldson Davis 1994). In an empirical study performed by Tian and Lau 2001 in Chinese shareholding firms, they find stewardship theory has received strong support in comparison to agency theory. Further Phan 2001 explained that â€Å"whether the assumptions of Agency Theory can be generalised to emerging markets, with their different sociological, economic, and developmental fundamentals, remains an important research question†. In summary, agency theory has its roots in industrial and organisational economics. Agency theory assumes that behaviour of human being is opportunistic and selfish. Therefore, the theory recommends strong director and shareholder control. It suggests the fundamental function of the board of directors is to control managerial behaviour and try to ensure that managers act in the best interests of shareholders. 2.1.2 Review of Corporate Governance reports In this section, international reports on corporate governance will be critically reviewed which were published in last decades. The international reports considered in this section are as follows: â€Å"Report of the Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance† (Cadbury Report, 1992) â€Å"Where were the Directors? Guidelines for Improved Corporate Governance in Canada† (Dey Report, 1994) The General Motors Corporation Guidelines (GMC, 2001) â€Å"Committee on Corporate Governance† (Hampel Report, 1998) â€Å"OECD Principles of Corporate Governance† (OECD Report, 1999) Sarbanes- Oxley Act 2002 After the unexpected corporate scandals of renowned companies like Maxwell (1991), Polly Peck (1991), and BCCI (1991) among others in the UK, the committee for corporate governance under the guidance of Sir Adrian Cadbury along with Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and the other accountancy profession has been formed to address corporate governance issues. This report was known as Cadbury report which was first report in UK focused on the aspect of corporate governance such as financial reporting and reviewed the role of boards and auditors. This report was published in 1992. The Cadbury committee report finally draw two major recommendation for the structure of UK corporate board. Cadbury report suggests at least three non executive directors in the board and two of them should be independent from management. The positions of chairman and CEO should not hold by the same person. The purpose behind this set up was to reduce the individual dominance a nd ensuring higher level of monitoring for corporate board by introducing more independence. Beasley (1996) and Dechow et al. (1996) found that â€Å"firms with more independent boards are significantly characterised by a lower likelihood of financial statement fraud and earnings management†. In Canada, during 1994 Dey report was published. This report was the first fully fledged report on corporate governance which a company should follow in order to list on stock exchange. Toronto stock exchange (TSE) adopted these guidelines in 1995 which were laid down by the Dey report. All TSE listed companies required to provide the difference in their corporate governance guidelines and guideline laid down by the Dey report. After Dey Report 1994, other similar reports in other jurisdiction have been published. General Motors Corporation (GMC) in USA published its own corporate guidelines in 1994 after criticising by the shareholders regarding poor company performance and doubtful board practices. These guidelines were developed with consent of GMC board, its shareholders and other activists for corporate governance. These guidelines were welcomed by the institute California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and by the industry. GMC guidelines become the benchmark in USA for corporate governance. In UK, during 1998, Hampel Committee was formed to review the recommendations of Cadbury report (1992) and the Greenbury report (1995) relating to executive remuneration. The Hampel committee was also formed to cover some gaps by these two reports i.e. Cadbury report and Greenbury report. Hampel report suggests that good corporate governance goes beyond prescribed corporate structures. According to Hample Report (1998:15) on Corporate Governance Sir Hample â€Å"recommend that companies should include in their annual report and accounts a narrative statement of how they apply the relevant principles to their particular circumstances. Given that the responsibility for good corporate governance rests with the board of directors, the written description of the way in which the board has applied the principles of corporate governance represents a key part of the process†. Hampel report drew attention for the approach of box ticking which is a serious issue for corporate governance . It also examined the implementation of Cadbury and Greenbury report and suggested more clear recommendations on policies of remuneration, accountability and auditing. During 1999, Organisation for Economic and Co-operation Development (OECD) laid down principles of corporate governance for the listed companies of member countries of OECD. It cover main subjects areas like rights and equitable treatment of shareholders, role of stakeholders in corporation structure, disclosure and transparency of financial facts and figures and majorly role and responsibilities of board. OECD guidelines become starting point for local policy makers of corporate governance. After the ,shocking scandals of Enron and WorldCom, US congress along with NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) passed the reforms to address conflicts of interest and redefined relationship between companies and auditors. This reform was known as the Accounting Industry reform Act 2002 which is widely known as Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002. The main purpose of this act was to enforce the independence of external auditors. The act also reinforced duties and responsibilities for CEOs and CFOs by imposing strict penalties for misrepresenting companys quarterly and annual reports. The penalty for misrepresentation was personal fines of US$ 1 million or imprisonment up to 10 years or both. Sarbanes Oxley Act has intense effect on the corporate governance policies on US and rest of the world. NYSE also imposed additional requirement for listed companies, under which listed companies must have independent directors in majority and must disclose business code of conduct and ethics for directors, office rs including managers at all level, and employees. Whittington(1993) and Melis, (2004a) argued that â€Å"corporate financial reporting and corporate governance systems are highly correlated, with any improvement in either system having a positive influence on the other, and vice versa† Combined code issued in 2006 replaces the combined issued in 2003. Financial service authority of UK, require listing companies to be obliged by the combined code 2006 and carry out consultation before listing. This new code contains main principles and provisions. Combined code 2006 asks listed companies to make a disclosure statement for code and that should be in two parts. Some of the provisions are not or less relevant for small or new listed companies. Also some provisions do not apply to companies below FTSE 350. 2.1.3 Global findings for adoption of corporate governance guidelines According Stephanie Maier (EIRIS 2005:1) findings, â€Å"Only 25% of US companies separate the roles of chairman and CEO compared with at least 50% forcompanies in other developed economies. Swiss boards have the highestpercentage of independent directors(81%) Germany, Austria and Japanall have less than 10%. Only 4% of companies in Japan haveaudit committees comprising amajority of independent directorscompared to over 95% in the USA,Canada, the Netherlands,Luxembourg, the UK and Ireland†¢ Only 22% of companies in Singaporeand 25% of companies in Hong Konghave meaningful codes of ethics†. Board size: According to EIRIS 2005, average board size is minimum in New Zealand (7.2) and maximum in Germany (22.8). USA and UK comes at rank 7th and 8th with average board size of 10.7 and 11.4 respectively ( see appendices for details). Higgs Review (2003) suggested â€Å"An effective board should not be so large as to become unwieldy. It should be of sufficient size that the balance of skills and experience is appropriate for the requirement of the business and that changes in the boards composition can be managed without undue disruption†. Separation of ownership and CEO According to findings by EIRIS 2005, in UK nearly 97% separate the ownership under unitary board structure whereas in US only 25% companies separate the ownership under the unitary board structure. In Ireland and Luxemb