The Impact of Shell Inc on Nigeria: Case Study

Introduction

Background to the case

Over the past few decades, concerns over the practices of Shell Inc, one of the world’s leading oil producers has increased in the Nigeria Delta, especially in relation to human rights violations, environmental degradation and lack of corporate social responsibility. The close association between the company and former dictatorial regimes in Nigeria brought massive violation of human rights as the government sought to protect the company. According to Manby (2012), the company has been funding successive Nigerian regimes to gain access to more oil fields and cover up its environmentally destructive practices in the area. Following massive demonstrations by the local Ogoni people in the Niger Delta since early 1990s, the company sought government protection. With effect, the Nigerian military government, then under general Sani Abacha, involved the police force, which in turn violently cracked down and terrorized the local Ogoni people. Several people were arrested, while others killed or displaced (Olukesusi, 2008). In 1995, the government of Nigeria, then under military dictator Sani Abacha, manipulated the court system to execute Ogoni activists who were against the malpractices by Shell Inc and other companies in the Delta region (Frynas, 2011). Consequently, Ken Saro-Wiwa, a renowned author and activists, was executed alongside eight other Ogoni leaders in October the same year after a sham court proceeding. According to Downing (2010), this event marked the beginning of a series of court proceedings at the international and local courts to seek justice for the Ogoni people. The purpose of this paper is to review a case study on the impact of oil exploration and production in the Niger Delta, with special reference to environmental degradation and its consequent violations of human rights in the region (Idemudia, 2010). Studies have yielded substantial evidence to show that Shell Inc Nigeria is and its activities in the region remains an environmental and security threat. In fact, the company has acknowledged and accepted that some of its activities in the region are harmful to the environment. However, it is evident that it is doing little, if anything, to take responsibility and reverse its impacts on the environment. For instance, the company is yet to inject any significant resources towards coping up with the environmental challenges in the region or even attempt to reverse the impacts its actions have had on the environment. Instead, Shell Inc has evidently used substantial amount of its resources to cover up its malpractices, especially in covering its historical and current collaboration with local leaders and security institutions in violating the rights of the local Ijaw and Ogoni communities (Frynas, 2011).

History of Shell Inc. and damages to the environment in Niger Delta

Formerly, known as the Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell is a multinational explorer and producer of oil and natural gas with its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. According to the company website, most of its operations and business are conducted from its offices in London (Frynas, 2011). Despite being one of the most prestigious corporations in the world it is equally one of the most controversial. This company is  whose respect to environmental conservation and human rights has been questioned. Specifically, the company’s practices kin southeastern Nigeria is a case example of its poor corporate social responsibility, human rights violation and damage to the environment (Idemudia, 2010).

The company began its oil exploration and production in the Niger Delta after traces of oil were discovered in the area in 1958. This was actually an agreement between the British colonial government in Lagos and the company. The role of the British government was to provide protection and support to the company, while company would provide the government with taxes in return. It is worth noting that the local community was not involved in the deal.

With the coming of independence in early 1960s, the new Nigerian government under Nnamdi Azikiwe did not terminate the deal; neither did it try to consider the plight of local Ogoni and Ijaw peoples living in the area. Throughout 1960s and 1970s, there were massive oil explorations in the area, which gave Shell Inc the advantage to enhance its oil production and exportation. Massive oil pipelines were established to transport the products to the coast, especially to the Calabar Coast and Port Harcourt. This came with massive oil spills, gas flaring and removal of vegetation cover as well as people and animals was evident over the next decades.

From late 1980s, a number of individuals and groups raised concern over Shell’s malpractices in the region. However, the government, led by successive military dictators, acted quickly in protecting the company. Ken-Saro Wiwa and other environmental and human rights enthusiasts and activists took a number of steps, including mobilizing the local Ogoni people to press the government and the company to end the environmental degradation and compensate the local community (Olukesusi, 2008). However, the company was not willing to take responsibility; neither was it willing to stop the damages. The results were that the demonstrations turned violent, with the government troops entering the area at the request of the company to quell down the opposition between 1990 and 1995. The arrest, detention and trial of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni leaders/activist raised an international outcry over the human rights violation by the government and the company. The trial and subsequent execution of the 9 Ogoni leaders, popularly known as the “Ogoni 9” in September 1995 brought into limelight the situation in the region, exposing the company’s long history of malpractices and human rights violation.

Since then, a number of cases have been filed in the United States, Netherlands and Nigeria to force the company reconsiders its practices, compensate the locals and give back to the community through effective corporate social responsibility programs. These are discussed in the following section.

The current issues

Currently, Shell Corporation has more than 90 oil fields in the Niger delta, which are spread over an area of approximately 30,000 km^2. In addition, it operates more than 1,000 oil wells, over 70 flow stations, more than 10 gas plants and at least 2 major oil terminals at the Nigerian coast. In total, Shell’s networks of flowlines in Nigeria cover more than 6,000 km. it is worth noting, however, that the presence of shell in Nigeria is actually a joint venture between Shell plc, Total TEPGN, Agip and Nigerian national petroleum company. The collaboration between these companies and the government is significant to the history of this case.

Currently, a number of issues revolve around the struggle between the company and the locals to resolve the impacts of the company on the environment and the locals. First, environmental devastation, which began immediately the company entered the delta in 1958, is the major cause of conflict between the company and the local Ogoni and Ijaw groups. Massive use of land for oil exploration, mining, production, transport and waste disposal has seen a loss of massive tracks of useful land. According to Manby (2012), the company has destroyed the land to an extent that the entire ecosystem has been interfered with, making it impossible for human, animal and plant existence, despite the fact that the delta is among the most important wetlands and marine ecosystems in the modern world. The impact of shell’s practices in the region affects the lives of more than 26 million people living in the region and relying on the delta for food, housing, clothing, economy and trade. In fact, the assigning of massive tracts of land for oil exploration and production to the company by the government displaced millions of the inhabitants, impoverishing them and forcing them to live in crowded shanties in towns and villages. In addition, the government’s crackdown on the 1990-1995 protests in the Ogoni land has left thousands of people displaced, most of them now exiled in Benin and other makeshift camps in southeastern Nigeria. According to reports, these people are still leading miserable lives.

Secondly, the company’s method of waste disposal such as remnants of refinery affects the environment. For instance, gas flaring and spillage of semisolid waste materials on the land affects the environment and the living things around. According to Manby (2012), gas flaring, a method used by the company and other of its kind to dispose off some gaseous by-product of oil drilling, affects lives more than any other product. This is because the gas is burnt through flaring, which emits large number of chemicals and materials in the air and land. In fact, it has been shown that gas flares contain a number of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals such as benzene, carbon and lead. According to biomedical studies, carcinogens like benzene have a high potential to cause mutations in chromosomal genes and their protein products in both plants and animals, causing several genetic diseases and cancer. It is worth noting that Nigeria is only second after Russia in terms of gas flaring, producing more than 20 billion m³ of burned gas per annum. Despite the fact that this gas can be reused to produce energy for the less energy efficient West African region, the company opts to burn it to avoid the cost of disposing it in any other way. Moreover, the company opts to pay an annual fine rather then dispose the gas in a better manner.

Oil spills are also evident in various parts of the Nile Delta. Since 1958, it has been estimated that shell and other companies have spilled more than 1.5 million tons of oil on the land and water in the delta. This has greatly affected human and wildlife in the region. In fact, oil spills, in addition to land degradation, have reduced flora and fauna as well as the amount of available land for economic and social use.

Ethical issues

Apart from environmental degradation, Shell Inc has repeatedly violated human rights through funding previous dictatorial regimes that killed detained and displaced people in the region, especially the Ogoni and the Ijaw people. Despite its record as a perpetrator of human rights violations and environmental destruction, the company has run various advertisements and initiatives to cover up its malpractices by portraying itself as a “green company”. In fact, it has been said to be involved in “Greenwashing”, a practice in which the company uses advertisements to cover up its dirty record.

 

 

References

Downing, D. H. (2010). Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media. London, UK: Sage Publications

Frynas, J. G. (2011). Oil in Nigeria: Conflict and Litigation Between Oil Companies and Village communities. London, Li Verlag

Idemudia, U. (2010). Community Perceptions and Expectations: Reinventing the Wheels of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in the Nigerian Oil Industry. Business and Society Review, 112(3), 369–405

Manby, B. (2012). The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria’s Oil Producing Communities. New York: Human rights watch.

Olukesusi, F. (2008). Legal and institutional framework of environmental impact assessment in Nigeria: an initial assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 18(2), 159–174

 

 

Executive Summary

This report focuses on the input that Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) can have on our economy. The rational for looking at the company is to analyze its work ethics as well as corporate culture and try to replicate them in our local conditions to gauge its overall impact on the economy. Indeed, the company has been successful because it undertakes a thorough analysis of the market before making any move to enter. By entering our market, TMC will greatly improve the economy of our country on various fronts. The company will create employment on three areas: the direct employment, intermediate employment as well as spin-off employment. Besides, the company provides an example of the best management practices that can be emulated by other firms in their operations within the country and beyond. In fulfilling its mandate, it is recommended that the company respects and adheres to set laws sand regulations. In addition, the government should lower tariffs to help the company produce cars that will results in lower cost.

Company Description

Toyota Motor Corporation is an automobile manufacturer with headquarters in Japan¹. The company was incorporated in 1937 in Japan and has an estimated total workforce of about 320, 000. According to Toyota-global.com, TMC’s net worth in 2012 was a slightly over $1 billion dollars². From its inception, the company has successfully grown to become the leading automaker in the world. The company’s first product was the AA sedan car. After two decade, TMC started exporting its cars to the US. Toyota’s success in the global market has been pegged on a wise execution of marketing strategy. For instance, in 1984, the company changed from direct exports to joint ventures in the US and other parts of the world. In the recent past, TMC has entered into the hybrid segment to keep in pace with market needs and trends³. The company’s strategy is to venture into other markets by continuously producing high quality cars that resonate with the needs of the customers all over the world.

Toyota’s International Strategy

            Toyota is one of the leading automobile manufactures in the world with a presence in over 180 countries across the globe. However, its main activities are concentrated in Japan, the US, Europe and Asia. The main competitors of Toyota include the Ford Motor Company, General Motors Company, and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. TMC has a strong financial performance, which is pegged on its ability to produce quality cars that appeal to its targeted groups³. Toyota believes in the philosophy of the right car at the right time. Behind this philosophy is the production process that is rooted on the notion of kaizen⁴. Kaizen is a Japanese term that refers to continuous improvement though R&D. The focus on continuous improvement is mooted on the desire to fulfill client needs and aspirations.

In 2002, Toyota introduced its global strategy that was aimed at achieving a 15% market share in 2010⁵. This 15% goal encapsulates the company’s global strategy of being the market leader in the automobile industry. The global vision articulated in 2011 is a distillation of what the company pursues as it seeks to be the first choice for consumers.6 To achieve this feat, the company embarked on improving its production processes, R&D as well as gathering market intelligence. This would be realized by heavy investments in technological innovations, proper human resource management, and new production systems⁷. Indeed, Toyota carefully selects its R&D centers carefully. For instance, R&D efforts for Asian markets are carried out in Thailand. The other centers include the US, Belgium, Japan, and Australia. The choice of R&D center is based on the presence of infrastructure, skilled labor, and favorable geographic location. Another significant consideration is political stability as well as the existence of manufacturing and sales affiliates⁸.

Toyota’s Marketing Strategy

Toyota Motor Corporations’ philosophy is to have the right car at the right place in its push to meet the needs of the customers as well as overcome competition⁹. The company’s belief in having the right car in the right place is achieved by conducting a thorough segmentation to identify the markets that have the potential to meet the company’s short term and long term goals. Toyota segments its global market on two fronts. These include the geographic and the psychographic segmentation¹⁰. In the first case, the company looks that whole world as its market. However, Toyota has identified unique geographic segments that play a critical role in reaching or accessing other market. The most notable of these are the US, China, UK, Indonesia, India, and Canada. The US is the main market as it takes about 30% of the company’s total output¹⁰. On the other hand, psychographic segmentation focuses on the personality traits that influence the buying behavior among consumers. In this regard, Toyota evaluates the distinct social classes in each society, the lifestyles, and statuses in developing its products. Indeed, the company’s cars are manufactured with customers in mind¹¹. For instance, because of the increased consciousness of the environment, the company has decided to produce cars that are eco-friendly. Another significant component of the marketing strategy is the use of personal selling across all the countries. The reason for this strategy is that customers look at various aspects before making the purchase decision. Therefore, more conviction can be achieved through personal selling

TMC can create employment on three areas: the direct employment, intermediate employment as well as spin-off employment. Direct employment refers to people who are directly employed by the company. Intermediate employment category carries the number of people who are employed by suppliers. Spin-off employment relates to those employment opportunities created because of expenditures related to direct and intermediate employees who get their pay from Toyota-related activities.

The process of erecting a motor vehicle plant requires also a large number of workers who will be directly responsible in the manufacturing process¹². In addition to the employees required by the company, there are those who are required by suppliers. Moreover, Toyota needs goods and services that have a direct as well as indirect role in activities of the company. It is in these activities that the company creates intermediate employment. Besides the company workers, Toyota Motor Corporation requires experts who must engage in research activities to determine the needs of the market¹³. As highlighted above, Toyota segments its market using several parameters. These segments comprise unique attributes that make it paramount for the company to produce cars that meet their expectations.

Company’s Logistics Approach

As highlighted above, Toyota’s choice of a locality of country is based on several factors including political stability, and good local infrastructures. In addition, Toyota looks at the market potential as well as growth prospects in a country before making its entry into the market. Management of the supply chain is one core competency of Toyota¹⁴. Indeed, to goal of the right car at the right place requires efficient management of the supply chain. Supply chain deals with efficient management of the processes from the supplies to the manufactures to retailers and eventually to the buyers. Toyota ensures efficient information and production through well-coordinated efforts. Besides, the company must contend with technological factors while dealing with competition. Through its research and development efforts, Toyota has kept ahead to its rivals in designing new cars such as the Prius¹⁶. In addition, technology goes hand-in-hand in meeting the needs of customers. Without product features that meet the needs of the market, Toyota would easily lose its market share to competitors like Ford.

Company’s Human Resource Approach

Toyota has established centers for training its employees on several aspects including quality and the company’s lifeline. The training focuses on instilling employees with the right attitudes in meeting the needs of the customers¹⁷. It also focuses on the need to maintain quality of the company products as well as addressing location-specific challenges. Based on the company’s philosophy of the Toyota way, human resources are continuously equipped with new techniques that make it possible for them to excel in the marketplace¹⁵. Indeed, the focus of location-specific challenges is critical as it goes to the core of the international marketing strategy. Each market has its unique attributes. It is impossible to duplicate a marketing strategy across many locations and expect the same results. Therefore, since each region has its own unique challenges, the training of the human capital on these aspects becomes an important facet in achieving success in the global market arena¹⁸. This approach ensures proper adaptation to a unique corporate culture as well as the mastery of local conditions. In this manner, the company strives to contribute to sustainable development through leadership and provision of innovative products¹⁹.

Summary

From this discussion, it is clear that Toyota has grown form being a national enterprise to a global player with outlets all over the world. If the company is allowed to open shop in this country, it will provide invaluable benefits to the economy. The fact that more people will gain meaningful employment cannot be gainsaid. Of critical importance is the valuable expertise and knowledge that even local manufacturers can glean from the Toyota way. In addition, local companies will most likely shift their focus to global market, instead of focusing on local and regional markets. These benefits will greatly boost the country’s economic fortunes. It is recommended that the company must adhere to government laws and regulations, including those related to the environment. Toyota must maintain the emission levels required by the laws besides minimizing noise as well as pollution. In addition, the government should lower tariffs so that Toyota can provide cars that match the needs of the citizen. This is based on the current tough economic conditions that emanate from the global financial crisis of 2007.

Conclusions

Toyota is a good example of how a company can use strategy to succeed in the competitive marketplace. Since its inception, the company has experienced exponential growth to become the world’s largest automaker. At the heart of development is the economic input of any given sector to the country’s economic development. Indeed, the creation of well-paying jobs, which end up improving the lives of the people, is an important facet in the socio-economic development of a country. More importantly, the motor vehicle sector requires an elaborate network of suppliers, dealers, and service providers. These networks spread across the country in a way that affects every aspect of national development. Toyota‘s exponential growth in many parts of the world show that it is an indispensable company in the socio-economic development. This report has highlighted the impact of the company in the creation of employment as well as it contribution to the reduction of carbon emission. Job creation and retention occurs because of the company’s investments. Therefore, it is critical to note that the company plays an important role in the economy of a country. In fulfilling its mandate, Toyota must adhere to set laws and regulations. In addition, the government can help in lowering the cost of the company cars to meet the needs of the citizens. This can be realized through reduced tariffs.

 

Notes

[1] Yasuhiro, Monden. Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-In-Time. New York: CRC Press, 2012), 78

²  Toyota-global.com. Toyota Motor Corporation Annual Report 2012. http://www.toyota-global.com/investors/ir_library/annual/pdf/2012/ar12_e.pdf (accessed March 26, 2013)

³Epts2012. (2012). “Toyota Global Vision and Strategy.” http://epts2012.ktenet.hu/Toyota_European_Sustainability.pdf (accessed March 26, 2013)

⁴Kurtz, L. Davia and Boone, E. Louise. Contemporary Business: 2009. (New York: Cengage Learning, 2009), 265.

⁵Kurtz and Boone, 34

⁶Epts2012. (2012). “Toyota Global Vision and Strategy.” http://epts2012.ktenet.hu/Toyota_European_Sustainability.pdf (accessed March 26, 2013)

⁷Monden. 257

⁸Andrew, Kumiega, &  Benjamin, Vliet, Quality Management: process engineering and best practices, (New York: Academic Press, 2011), 282

⁹ United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.. Transnational Corporations and the Internalization (United Nations Publications, 2005)145

¹⁰Monie, Lee and Carla, Johnson. Principles of Advertising: a global perspective. (New York: Routledge, 2012), 91

¹¹Lee and Johnson, p. 92

¹²Lee and Johnson, p. 103

¹³Lee and Johnson, p. 118

¹⁴ Lee and Johnson, p. 136

¹⁵Toyota. (2007). “The Quality Issue: Background and Future Prospects-Seeing the Quality Issue as an Opportunity for Renewal and Improvement/Firm Action Throughout its operations in each field”. http://www.toyotaglobal.com/sustainability/sustainability_report/special_story/the_quality_issue_background_and_future_prospects.html (accessed March 26, 2013)

¹⁶Victor, M. Catano, Recruitment and Selection in Canada. (New York: Cengage Learning, 2011), 18.

¹⁷Catano, 19

¹⁸Toyota. (2007). “The Quality Issue: Background and Future Prospects-Seeing the Quality Issue as an Opportunity for Renewal and Improvement/Firm Action Throughout its operations in each field”. http://www.toyotaglobal.com/sustainability/sustainability_report/special_story/the_quality_issue_background_and_future_prospects.html (accessed March 26, 2013)

¹⁹Kurtz and Boone, 34

Bibliography

Catano, M. Victor.  Recruitment and Selection in Canada. New York: Cengage Learning, 2011.

Epts2012. (2012). “Toyota Global Vision and Strategy.” http://epts2012.ktenet.hu/Toyota_European_Sustainability.pdf (accessed March 26, 2013)

Kumiega, Andrew and  Vliet, Benjamin.  Quality Management: process engineering and best practices. New York: Academic Press, 2011.

Kurtz, L. Davia and Boone, E. Louise. Contemporary Business: 2009. New York: Cengage Learning, 2009.

Lee, Monie and Johnson, Carla. Principles of Advertising: a global perspective. New York: Routledge, 2012.

Monden, Yasuhiro. Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-In-Time. New York: CRC Press, 2012.

Toyota. (2007). “The Quality Issue: Background and Future Prospects-Seeing the Quality Issue as an Opportunity for Renewal and Improvement/Firm Action Throughout its operations in each field”. http://www.toyotaglobal.com/sustainability/sustainability_report/special_story/the_quality_issue_background_and_future_prospects.html (accessed March 26, 2013).

Toyota-global.com. Toyota Motor Corporation Annual Report 2012. http://www.toyota-global.com/investors/ir_library/annual/pdf/2012/ar12_e.pdf (accessed March 26, 2013).

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Transnational Corporations and the Internalization New York: United Nations Publications, 2005.

Public Sectors Reforms

Introduction

Public sector reforms undertaken since 1980s have seen public organizations become more accountable and transparent to a certain degree. However, it is clear that the overall objectives are yet to materialize. Indeed, public organizations can now be called upon to account on their use of funds and overall provision of services to the public (World Bank, 2011). However, cases abound of misappropriation of fund, corruption, and poor services in most departments. In Ghana, for example, the Civil Service Reform Program (CSRP), which lasted for 6 years (1987-1993), shows that little success was, realized (Ayeni, 2001). After most African states got independence, the World Bank and other international monetary supporting institutions have been at the forefront in advocating for reforms in the public sector. The main aim of the reforms is to align the public service so that it can deliver services to the people. This however has been the global agenda for not only developing and countries on transition, but also the developed countries (Ayeni, 2003). Most African countries have been caught up on the crossroads in reformation of public institutions, which actually can be perceived as the measuring rod for the success of any public service institution. The Nigerian PSR for instance has had the reform debate for several years despite showing some signs of improvement during the early years after independence. Signs of deterioration started showing in during the 1980s when it failed to withstand the “challenges of modern, complex and development hungry society” (Adegoroye, 2006).

The rationale behind public sector reforms was to do away with medieval methods of running the government businesses in terms administration and other service delivery related issues and adapt to new methods which could see countries self sustain themselves in socio- economies, politics and technology development (Svensson & Dollar, 1998, Peng, 2008, Holzmann, 2009). The reform could now pave way to New Public Management, NPM (Vetterlein & Park, 2010) which eventually could look at primary issues of internal reorganization for maximized outputs in effective service deliveries.

World Bank initiated NPM to some African countries like Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia in an effort to reform their public service through donor support (Ayeni, 2003). There has been several failures and success recorded from these countries, with some states reversing the gains from this program like cancelling the bill to check on wages in countries like Ghana. In Kenya on the other hand, the program was reversed between 1994 and 1996 by hiring of teachers despite retrenching of civil servants through early retirements in an effort of reducing the costs of the public administration. These measures reflect some of the efficacy measures advocated by the World Bank to many development countries (Vetterlein & Park, 2010). The reforms have been of great importance to most African countries with most leaders embracing it with a perception that the reforms would be effective in overhauling the whole public sectors and brining the desired change that can appease the public as well as the development partners (Svensson & Dollar, 1998, Peng, 2008, Holzmann, 2009).

Indeed, it is only a change of management that occurred, but little was achieved in terms of accountability and minimizing corruption. Accordingly, there is a need for a thorough evaluation of these programs to determine the causes of failure and what should be done to fully liberate the public sector. A set of recommendation is provided to lead public sector reforms in this direction.

Discussion

It was increasingly clears in the early 1908s that investment projects would achieve low levels of success in an environment where policy frameworks are distorted. I the 1990s, it was also established that neither good policies or any investment that is essentially good can succeed in an environment that is full of dysfunctional institutions as well as poor governance (Svensson & Dollar, 1998, Peng, 2008, Holzmann, 2009). The realization that most countries were not making progress in development prompted development partners to shift their assistance, especially to the developing economies, from financing infrastructural development to pushing for reforms in the financial sectors. The rational for the shift in this approach was mooted by the realization that developing countries were held back virtually because of ineffective or poor policies. Accordingly, development partners nowadays peg their lending based on certain conditions (Svensson & Dollar, 1998, Peng, 2008, Holzmann, 2009). However, as has been acknowledged by many writers as well a s the World bank and other financial institutions, reforming the public sector is not an easy task because of the political inclinations as well as technical glitches (The World Bank, 2000). For instance, reforming the pubic sector would require a whole lot of changes that might include retraining of civil servants, retrenchments or downsizing which might be resisted largely by the civil servants. Indeed, to effect such radical changes in the public sector would require more commitment as well as consultations among the different players in the government, a majority of whom might have vested interests.

It is the agenda and duty of any country to spearhead and see success of its development projects, either supported or financed from the public docket or the World Bank. For the public to enjoy quality and better services, then the country has to make sure that its resources are managed in the rightful way. Such goals can be achieved through proper management of finances, laying policies effective to civil service and administration, willful delivery and payment of taxes, and coming up with methods of service delivery, which are fair and not corrupted. However, cases abound of failure of reforms to yield results among many countries. For instance, in the Italian public sector, reforms failed because of the failure of the leaders to grasp the purpose of the intended reforms. This is not a new situation since it is also the case with the private sectors.

The World Bank as well as other development partners have sacrificed their efforts in advising the central governments on the already existing projects, those that needs to be improved and those that are not there through such practices like increment of shares. A case issue is that of the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) (Nashat & Blindenbacher, 2010), which has studied the lending, and supporting of public sectors by other banks in the years between 1999 and 2006 on reform in various government institutions. The key areas were the management of public money, the civil service and administration, revenue, and finally anticorruption and transparency.

For the developing countries, the highest expenditure and employment is from the public sector, which sets the phase for the rest of the economy. In the recent past, the World Bank has pegged its lending on institutional reforms. It is not easy to access loans from the Bank if a government does not show seriousness in carrying out public-sector reforms. The reforms in the public sector mainly focus on accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency in the delivery of services (Ayeni, 2003). Because of this concern, it is important to note that effective support by the World Bank on development is actually dependent on improved governance practices. In most African countries, corruption has been deep-rooted and has consequently not seen any improvement in most core governmental sectors. This has seen the most vital government projects, especially in service provision to the public, become ineffective simply because of diversion of funds intended for development to personal accounts (Nashat & Blindenbacher, 2010). The sole cause for all this has however not been fully established though it has been associated with greed and poverty among leaders and individuals in the developing countries. This can be termed as lack of transparency of the highest order despite interventions of World Bank in putting aid sanctions in some of these countries. As pointed out earlier, expenditure just like employment comes from the public sector but the latter has been so much rampant in most developing countries. This has resulted because of the existence of unfinished government projects, which could create employment for the jobless or due to corruption.

Corruption of course has been common in most governmental employment sectors whereby people who do not qualify and incompetent to some job positions corrupt their way through. To some extent, corruption has contributed to misappropriation of the development funds making some of the government projects come to a halt. Commissions such as anticorruption commissions have been created in most developing countries but have realized little success in curbing out corruption in the public sector. In addition, the taxation sector has also failed in most developing countries to deliver fully and transparently. Indeed, the taxation regime is one of the most key government agencies in collecting and remitting income to the government coffers. However, it has not succeeded in many countries because of several issues. The central governments have failed to come up with strategies to harness taxes both from simple and multi investors. The issue of tax evasion by individuals or companies has been common due to failure of government check and balances within the public sector. This of course is a big failure despite the fact that the World Bank has been keeping a keen look on the improvement of these core central sectors dealing with the control of the public finances.

The failure of reforms in public sector can be attributed to fear among those who are entrusted with reforms. Indeed, implementers have to content with the fact the reforms might not run as expected (Boffey, 2012). This is mainly the major cause of failure in the reforms agenda. The next problem is the related stakeholders who would like the status quo to remain. The second biggest challenge for reformers is to get all stakeholders to agree on any anticipated changes in the pubic sector (Boffey, 2012). This is the most problematic since most people reject any change that might affect them in one way or the other.

Summary

In summary, public sectors reforms have experienced little progress over the last 20 years, especially in developing countries. Reforms and implementing reforms is geared at changing relationships between society and the state or between governmental institutions. Therefore, the means by which the reforms come in go “to the heart of who governs” (Bekke et al, 1996:6). The PSR introduced by World Bank in the 1980s has been of little success, since out of the projects it supported in most developing countries only about a third of them have shown some success though with no promises of sustenance from the mother donor. A good case study of a country that has bought and succeeded concerning the PSR is Mauritius, which has shown improvement in service delivery to the public (Sacks & Apostolov, 2003). From reports, the workers salaries’ are paid as earlier as two days before last day of the month. The country has actually won itself a prize in 2007 as country number two in the pan-African Public Service Excellence Awards. The rest have just but recorded failure simply because in most countries it was only treated as paper work with paper work solutions. Though the project had a span of about 20 years, it was hastily introduced in these African states. The World Bank approach to this issue failed to address such factors like politics brought about by behavioral and local circumstances of man and cultural change in the whole system. The New Public Management has not gone without criticism, even from the World Bank officials. The first criticism is that it was outdated. In addition, it has been accused of being ineffective in delivering the desired changes. This however has brought some mixed reactions since in most case studies; there have been reported cases of decrease in unemployment and corruption going down.

Indeed, according to the World Bank, although most countries borrowed a lot of funds to institute public sector reforms, most of the funds were misused because of corruption by government officials as well as inefficiencies in procurement procedures. Further, the World Bank indicates that performance only improved in some sectors such as in tax administration, financial management, and transparency. However, with respect to the public service, nothing tangible ever changed. Moreover, measures undertaken to curb corruption like the setting of anticorruption laws and commissions only resulted in lip service since nothing really changed.

Recommendations

Because of the failure of reforms in the public sector, it is imperative for countries as well as the development partners to design PSR with the recognition that political and sequencing issues usually influence their full implementation. In addition, it must be appreciated that each country has its unique attributes when it comes to the management of the public sector. Without understanding these features, it will be futile to design a comprehensive reform package to be applied across the board. Indeed, what works in one country might not work for another country.

This means, strategies for dealing with PSR, for instance tackling corruption, it is mandatory to undertake an assessment of what types of corruption are detrimental to public sector reforms so that funds can be channeled though different organizations. Additionally, there is a need to strengthen the public service so that it can execute it mandate fully. This can be achieved by providing a framework and setting parameters for determining success levels in the public sector reforms. Moreover, attention should be given to proper financial management by public institutions as they go on with their work. This will lead to more accountability and reduction of corruption in these institutions otherwise endless agony will continue being felt by individuals and the country as a whole.

 

 

Reference List

Ayeni, V. (2001). Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries: a handbook of Commonwealth experiences. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.

Ayeni, V. (2003). Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries: a handbook of Commonwealth experiences. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.

Boffey, D. (2012). NHS Chief Raises Fears that Health Reforms will end in ‘Misery and failure’ Retieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/13/david-nicholson-fears-nhs-reforms

Holzmann, R. (2009).Social Protection & Labor at the World Bank, 2000-2008. New York: World Bank Publications

Nashat, R. & Blindenbacher, B. (2010). The Black Box of Governmental Learning: the learning spiral-a concept to organize learning in governments. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Peng, W. M. (2008). Global Business. New York: Cengage Learning.

Sacks, C. C. & Apostolov, M. (2003). Trade Facilitation: The Challenges for Growth and Development-Volume 763. New York: United Nations Publications

Svensson, J. & Dollar, D. (1998). What Explains the Success or Failure of Structural Adjustment Programs. World Bank: World Bank Publications

The World Bank, (2000). Reforming Public Institutions and Strengthening Governance. Washington DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction. Retrieved from http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/Reforming.pdf

Vetterlein, S. & Park, A. (2010).  Owing Development: Creating Policy Norms in the IMF and the World Bank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

World Bank. (2011). Public Sector Reforms. Retrieved from
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTOED/EXTPUBSECREF/0,,menuPK:4664077~pagePK:64829575~piPK:64829612~theSitePK:4663904,00.html

 

Access, Problem, Incident and Event Management

Table of Contents

Definition of Key Terms. 3

Executive Summary. 4

Introduction. 5

Main report. 5

Analysis of access and event management implementation. 8

Conclusions and Summary. 10

Recommendations. 10

References. 12

 

Definition of Key Terms

ITIL                                                                Information Technology Information Library

IT                                                                    Information Technology

CSFs                                                               Critical Success Factors

CM                                                                  Configuration Management

CI                                                                    Configuration Items

SLAs                                                               Service Level Agreements

 

  Executive Summary

Modern organizations are facing operational complexities due to the fast changing operating environment. In order to remain competitive companies are adopting modern information technology applications. These modern IT applications have the capability to support a lot of uses that enable organizations to achieve their visions. These include access, event, problem and incident management capabilities. These capabilities ensure these IT resources can be used securely, are user friendly, adaptable and can be customized to meet the specific needs of each organization. These applications also can be configured to report any problems and incidents that pose danger to business operations to ensure they are resolved in time.

Introduction

Modern organizations face an unprecedented level of turmoil and dynamism due to increasing environmental turbulence in modern times.  This turmoil is triggered by among other things; rapid globalization, rapid changes in technology, increasing competition and complexities in customer needs (RANUM, 2004). Modern companies are encountering increasing complexities in their day to day operations. In order to achieve competitive advantage, organizations are turning to modern information technology applications which have access, event, problem and incident management capabilities inbuilt in them (Anonymous, 2009).

Main report

Access management offers organizations the ability to control access to computing resources to ensure that only those who are supposed to have access to certain applications access them. This ensures that there is accountability in the use of resources within an organization (Anonymous, 2009). This is because if information falls into the hands of the wrong people it can jeopardize an organization’s survival. Controlled access into computing resources also increases competitive advantage by ensuring clients issues are addressed on time. Access rights can be acquired through service requests through the help/service desk in an organization. In modern organizations access requests by staff wishing to access computer applications must be approved by line managers to ensure accountability and enhance security (Anonymous, 2011).

Event management is supposed to smooth out business bumps before they grind an organization into a halt. Business bumps could include virus attacks, computer outages, loss of valuable information, service outages, security breaches etc (BARTHOLOMEW, 2002). Modern information technology applications are not only highly scalable and robust but have the strategic vision of addressing evolving enterprise requirements. Modern applications are able to map and prioritize events that have huge business impact and optimize event-to-incident/problem resolution processes. Modern applications are able to integrate the whole process of event-to incident to service desk tools (Anonymous, 2006). This ensures that events are escalated either functionally or within the organizational hierarchy to ensure they are resolved on time. For example, when the status of a major customer account is noted to be falling into huge arrears event management interface could notify the finance manager and the chief executive officer which could initiate corrective measures to remedy the situation (Anonymous, 2006).

Problem management is a computer interface that enables resolution of underlying issues that may lead to incidents. Recurrent incidents are very detrimental to an organization as they may lead to erosion of market share, loss of competitive edge or eventual closure of an organization (Anonymous, 2006). Know error record is maintained in problem management to assist system administrators to resolve issues. Modern organizations are currently moving from a system of reactive problem management to proactive problem management (WOLF, 2004). Timescale setting in problem management is very important to ensure system problems are resolved on time to forestall adverse impact on business operations. Help/Service desk is very important in problem and incident management as it receives problems and incidents from users or events and escalates them to system administrators and/ or developers to resolve (Investment Weekly News, 2011).According to WOLF (2004) problems can be detected by service desk functions/tools that receive notifications from users and other applications. Problems can also be detected by operational personnel who interact with a system on daily basis. Modern systems have fault management systems that detect incidents which may also point out problems that require resolution. Problem management models are important in effective problem resolution and management as they lay out the processes/procedures that must be adhered to in problem resolution within SLAs (Investment Weekly News, 2011).

Incident management is a very important computer interface that enables incidents to be detected on time and resolved before they have an adverse impact on the operations of a business.  Incidents could include virus attack, downtimes, internet outages, unauthorized access etc. Modern incident management requires that timescales are established to ensure incidents are resolved on time and normal operations are restored (Anonymous, 2006). Modern organizations prioritize incidents to ensure serious incidents with the highest potential to impact business operations are resolved fast to reduce their impact on business operations. Incident management models are developed by progressive organizations to ensure efficient management of incidents (Anonymous, 2005). These models ensure incidents are resolved on time and expeditiously. Critical success factors (CSFs) in incidence management include establishing an effective help/service desk to resolve and escalate incidents, ensuring incident detection and resolution  procedures are in place and well understood, and ensuring skilled incident resolution personnel are in place.  For example in the case study of Purbeck Oil and Gas it has been noted that unexplained service outages have been long and frequent (Anonymous, 2005). The call centre recorded a total of five security breach notifications.  The organization has also noted that staff does not seem to appreciate the importance of configuration management (CM) which is a pointer to poor IT skills within the organization (Anonymous, 2010). The unexplained service outages are incidents that require effective incident management models to resolve. The service outages pose a threat to business operations and require immediate resolution. These frequent service outages are a pointer to serious underlying issues that require problem management interface to resolve. The five reported security breaches imply that the organization does not have effective access management in place to vet those who access its IT systems. The security breach notifications point to good event management within the system which escalates events to the call centre once they occur (Anonymous, 2010).

Analysis of access and event management implementation

Access and event management processes are crucial in ensuring ITIL conformant solutions for problems and incidents identified achieve the intended objectives. Access management ensures only the right users of certain computer applications access them thereby blocking those who are not authorised to access the services (KIM, 2007).  Access management executes organizations policies and actions defined in security and availability management of ITIL. In modern organizations access rights are granted by the access and availability manager. The role of the access and availability manager is to grant access rights to IT resources and applications (KIM, 2007). He/she also restricts the availability of the service and vets those who request to be granted access rights to ensure the interests of the organization are secured. The access manager also revokes the rights whenever he deems necessary. In modern organizations whenever a staff member requests for access rights to certain computer software to perform certain tasks he/she completes access rights request form that must be signed/approved by the respective line manager and access manager before the rights are granted (Anonymous, 2005).

Event management on the other hand may be inbuilt in the system and can be used to inform, warn or report exceptional events. Information events are normally used to inform staff on certain occurrences. These might include attainment of certain targets, receipt of funds, sales levels at certain periods etc. Warning events are normally used to inform staff about particular occurrences that are worth noting (SHEN, LIN and ROHM, 2009). These may result in incidents or not. Exceptional events are normally incidents which demand for resolution to forestall disruption to business operations. Event management require configuration of items (CIs) to ensure events are noted and channelled to the help desk. Service desk personnel are supposed to resolve the events or escalate them to the right technical staff to resolve (FOUAD, 2005).

The reported major incident which was resolved by the incident management team in a financial services company in 40 minutes but resulted in aftershocks that lasted for a period of 80 minutes is a classic case of poor incident and problem management process. Good incident management process requires that timescales be set in resolving incidents (KIM, 2007). Incidents must be prioritized to ensure those incidents that pose a huge impact on the business of an organization are given a lot of attention and are resolved within set time frames to forestall disastrous impact on business operations. According to WINTER (2006) repeated occurrence of incidents poses the risk of completely disabling the operations of an organization. Problem management in meant to identify underlying issues that cause incidents and enable resolution of problems because they cause major incidents like the one experienced by the financial company. Aftershocks were caused by underlying problems that had not been identified and resolved. An error record is very important and would assist the organization to keep track of major errors and thereby develop methods of resolving major problems (CONRY-MURRAY, 2005). Purbeck Oil and Gas faces challenges with financing IT infrastructure as the finance manager feels that the IT manager does not factor in cost implications of the decisions that he makes. Event management will help solve the problem because the finance manager will be notified about major events that have a huge impact on KPIs of the company once they happen. This will enable him to appreciate the value of IT infrastructure and reduce his opposition towards expenditure on IT resources (BASU, GOPINATH, ANJUM and HOTCHKIES, 2009).

The importance of the help desk/service desk cannot be overemphasized. The help/service desk at Purbeck oil and Gas can help the organization to coordinate various important affairs in the company. These could include recording incidents and resolving them where they can. The service desk can monitor performance levels at various workstations and report progress of various important tasks (FEST, 2005). This will ensure minor incidents are recorded and resolved before they become major incidents. The solution to the problem at the financial institution is to institute incident management process that ensures incidents are reported on time before they pose a big threat (KALIN, 2005). Instituting a good event management process can also ensure exceptional events are recorded at the service desk. This will ensure incidents are escalated to the technical staff who can resolve them on time before they pose major security risk to an organization (NEEL, 2005)

An ITIL conformant solution is important because it has a lot of advantages. The first advantage is that it can be implemented quite fast and progress is easily monitored than a manual process. An ITIL conformant solution enables an organization to manage risks that pose a threat to its business (CONRY-MURRAY, 2005). An ITIL conformant solution is fast, effective and can be applied in a large organization. The main disadvantage is that staff may not have the necessary skills to implement the solution effectively which may lead to failure. The other disadvantage is that it may be very expensive to implement (LUDWIG, HOGAN, JALUKA, LOEWENSTERN and AL, 2007).

Conclusions and Summary

In conclusion event, incident, problem and access management are important functionalities that complement each other. Event management can help to identify incidents that require resolution before they pose danger to businesses operations. Incidents that keep on recurring are a pointer to underlying issues that need to be addressed through problem management models. The service desk is very important in ensuring event, incident, problem and access management function effectively in an organization

Recommendations

Organizations must train their staff continually to enable them utilize computer resources available in the organization effectively. For IT applications to function effectively a service desk staffed with well trained and knowledgeable staff is very important since it coordinates the various applications and reports problems that are encountered in the day to day use of computing resources. Each organization must put in place effective access, incident, problem and event management processes to ensure it benefits from the computing capabilities offered by modern ITIL.

 References

Anonymous (2011, Feb 15). RSA Launches Industry’s First End-to-End Incident

Management Solution. PR Newswire.

Anonymous (2010, Sep 09). IT Monitoring and Incident Management Mobilized to a Whole

New Level with Rove Mobile Admin 6.0. Business Wire.

Anonymous (2009, Sep 09). Concerro Adds Location-Based Graphical Interface to

CommandAware(R) Hospital Incident Management System. Business Wire.

Anonymous (2005, Nov 07). Intergraph’s Incident Management Solution on Display at 12th

ITS World Congress. Business Wire, 1

Anonymous2006, Jun 07. BMC Software’s Competitive Thrust Continues; – New BSM

solutions deliver unparalleled early warning and problem response capability; –

Proactive incident and problem management, unified service level management

solutions help customers align IT resources with business service metrics. PR

Newswire, 0.

Anonymous (2006, Jun 21). Gartner recognize HP as “Leader” in Enterprise Computing

Solutions. Al Bawaba, 1.

Anonymous (2006, Mar 27). RealOps Announces Immediate Availability of AMP Network

Problem Management Module; Module Drives ITIL-Based Automation of Network

Problem Management Processes in IT Operations. Business Wire, 1.

Anonymous(2005, Feb 14). GuardedNet(R) Launches Latest Innovation in Security

Information Management. PR Newswire, 1.

BARTHOLOMEW, D., (2002). Event management: Hype or hope? Industry Week, 251(4),

3. 29- 33.

BASU, A., GOPINATH, D., ANJUM, N. and HOTCHKIES, S., (2009). Feedback in incident

reporting – more needed. Clinical Governance, 14(1), pp. 38-41

CONRY-MURRAY, A., (2005). Security Event Management Gets Specialized. IT

            Architect, 20(11), pp. 29-37.

Data Storage Device Companies; RSA Launches Industry’s First End-to-End Incident

Management Solution. (2011).Investment Weekly News, , pp. 1266.

FEST, G., (2005). Identity Management: A Corporate Headache Fuels It Splurge ; Access-

rights oversight climbs the company ladder. Bank Technology News, 18(9), pp. 1-

1,46+.

FOUAD, T., (2005). UNIFYING INCIDENT MANAGEMENT: OPEN

CHANNELS. Occupational Health & Safety, 74(6), pp. 69-72.

KALIN, S., (2005). How to tackle Identity and Access Management. CIO, 19(5), pp. 1.

KIM, J.K., (2007). Three essays on critical incident management systems, State University of

New York at Buffalo.

LUDWIG, H., HOGAN, J., JALUKA, R., LOEWENSTERN, D. and AL, E., (2007).

Catalog-based service request management. IBM Systems Journal, 46(3), pp. 531-548.

NEEL, D., (2005). FRONTRANGE COUPLES HELP-DESK, IT SERVICE

MANAGEMENT       TOOLS. CRN, (1137), pp. 27.

RANUM, M.J., (2004). Beyond Security Event Management. Network Magazine, 19(6), pp.

74.

SHEN, Y., LIN, F. and ROHM, C.E.T., (2009). A Framework for Enterprise Security

Architecture and Its Application in Information Security Incident

Management. Communications of the IIMA, 9(4), pp. 9-19.

WINTER, M., (2006). Problem structuring in project management: an application of soft

systems methodology (SSM). The Journal of the Operational Research

            Society, 57(7), pp. 802-812.

WOLF, L.J., (2004). Can You Handle the Headaches? Analyzing and Optimizing the

Effectiveness of the Incident Management Process. Information Systems

Security, 13(5), pp. 9-20.

 

 

Film Theory and Analysis regarding Siegfried Kracauer

Introduction

Film theory is a field of study that analyses the different tactics employed by film-makers to bring the film to life. Many times when people watch a movie, there will be one outstanding element of the film that will whether endear to them or make the movie repulsive to them. This unique characteristic of film is highly subjective to both the creators of the film and their audiences. What appeals to one person may very well put off another. This is the perfect embodiment of the adage “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” The man in this context refers to anyone who has a stake in the film, whether a viewer, the production crew, scholars or a film critic. This study aims to find out how different film-makers piece their movies together to come up with either great or terrible movies. Film Theory has two key branches namely: realism and formalism.

Siegfried Kracauer has been a key contributor to the realism branch of Film theory and according to him; the film comes to life through its act of taking snapshots of reality. Basically, no matter how much an artist wants to convey his or her message through a film, all they really accomplish is to convey what has always been in existence. According to him, this is the greatest and most practical application of film since of all forms of Art; it is the only one that has this capability. Realism in film as the name suggests is all about practical elements that are authentic, tangible and at the same time shown in the film. For this realism to be actualized in a film, it requires the existence of three key elements. These are Ontology, Epistemology and Aesthetics. The level of realism in a film is highly dependent on how these three attributes of a picture come into play.

Ontology as applied in Siegfried’s work is the basic nature of the film itself and without this, cinema becomes obsolete. This is a collection of elements that make up the film without any form of manipulation on the part of the film-maker. Epistemology on the other hand is concerned with the way viewers piece together the film’s elements to make sense of the movie they are watching. The film’s ontology essentially makes up this collection. This hence means that epistemology is the manner in which an audience member perceives the film. Last but not least we have aesthetics and this is an analysis of how a film’s ontological aspect makes the transition into something artistic. Aesthetics hence delves into possible ways that the directors of the film can make use of the ontology not just as accidental additions to the film but rather as a form of art(Kracauer).

In his book, Kracauer takes the example of still photography and its application to filmography as a chance to present to the viewer the real world as it is. This is well in line with the definition that has been provided for ontology as a collective term of things that make up the film without necessarily being included in the script or story-line. Both photographs and film footage are mechanical means of capturing the world in verbatim. For this reason, it is necessary for anybody involved in the recording of a film to be aware of this so that he or she can apply creativity in the process of capturing this(Kracauer).

The capture of the real world elements in the exact manner that they are existing enhances the film’s capabilities in four key ways. Firstly, it adds the element of realism to the film by making the motion picture to appear as though it was not staged or scripted. This is an example of the application of ontology to film since the media portrayed is showed in its natural state. The term nature suggests something that is raw and in no way affected by any artificial means. The ambiance that needs to be captured is one that is natural in every way and it should be as if it exists in complete isolation of humanity. This may come off as ironical given the fact that a prerequisite for any motion picture is that it has a clear script that needs to be followed to the letter. Kracauer hence suggests that there should be a level of seamless fluidity between what is staged and what is unstaged(Kracauer).

Another capability that is lent to motion pictures by the act of mechanically capturing the moments and their environment is the element of continuity. Continuity of a film is all about the flow of life that is exhibited by the film itself as a whole. The different scenes can only be meaningful to the viewer if there is a ‘fabric’ that is used to piece it up together. Without this fabric, a movie is nothing more than a collection of video clips that are neither here, nor there. Without continuity, even the most important conversations are rendered useless for a lack of context. Elements in the movie’s world which may not have been scripted are very important in showing things such as the lapse of time. The order of events captured by the camera recording the film is also very important as it assigns the film some direction. The diurnal patterns as experienced in life should also be captured for visual presentation. The manner in which a viewer pieces the film together is an example of how epistemology comes into play. Some people will experience progression through changes to the scene while others will depend on stage directions or the context of the conversation. It is upon the film maker to take this into account while considering different ways in which continuity can be perceived(Kracauer).

With photography and videography, a motion picture gets to easily employ the street and the road dynamic as locations for the dynamic story. In a film, no matter how dramatic the scripted events are scheduled, the surrounding captured should be that that aids the film’s flow by allowing the object of the recording to interact in an almost accidental manner with his or her surroundings. For a motion picture to deliver to its audience a somewhat realistic outlook of affairs, it needs to show how the subject’s affairs are dependent on chance and accidental interactions with the surrounding and those found in it. Normal life depends a lot on things we take for granted and it is these very things that determine the exact location or position that we are in in life. Therefore it is essential for photography to do the same for film since this will have the effect of making it more life-like. This is where the artistic element of the film is concentrated and it is a combination of ontology and epistemology. The way people perceive ambiguous elements of a given film are the ultimate measure of the film maker’s artistry(Kracauer).

Finally, another objective that photography achieves for motion picture is the presentation of the content of the film in a rather undramatic or casual manner so that the person viewing will simply find it. This is to say that the portrayal of the world and unscripted elements in a motion picture are supposed to be captured in a somewhat sub-conscious manner. This way, a person watching the film gets to simply discover these elements as the motion picture progresses, much like people do in real life.The capture of the film should have an element of subtleness rather than out rightly drawing the audience’s attention towards something. This makes on experience the film in the most natural way possible, without artificial stimulation of one’s attention as this may serve as a distraction. The element of realism is bet maintained by keeping the watching experience as realistic as possible. This is another example of how ontology plays a part in bringing the film to life, that is through the dependence on the basic nature of objects that are presented(Kracauer).

Siegfried Kracauer believed that the mechanical capture of the real world through photography had been tapped only scarcely and still had so much potential in regard to the ways it could enhance the realism of a film. The power of film and photography lies in the fact that it records existing phenomena exactly as it is. This means that interpretation of the film is beyond the control of the people who were involved in creating it. The actors, film crew and director are all mere accessories to the story that is being told. No matter how hard these persons try to portray a particular message, meaning is dependent on the viewer’s devices. There is nothing that is more appealing than Art that has an immensely wide scope of interpretations. The presentation of indeterminate objects in film opens up the floodgates of varied perceptions that literally vary from person to person(Kracauer).

Each indeterminate object that is presented supplies its own set of perceptions that are affected by the audience member’s world view. A shot of the moonlit sky or a tree’s silhouette may not have been scripted and despite this, their impact on the whole experience on a given motion picture is bound to be profound. One person may see this as signifying a peaceful night while another may look at this as a sign of danger or vulnerability. For this reason, it is important that film-makers to appreciate the importance of appropriately capturing and including such elements to their motion pictures(Kracauer).

A prerequisite for the viewer’s active participation in this art form of cinema is that the said person has to be free. This is the freedom of mind during the entire screening process. It is unnecessary to express all of the story’s elements in a straightforward manner as this dulls the mind of a person watching it. If selected elements of the film being created remain ambiguous, an opportunity is created for the audience to fill up these parts with their own imagery thus guaranteeing everyone viewing a unique and personalized experience.

One technique that Kracauer proposes is the extensive use of open spaces for screening the films. This enables the motion picture being created to realize its power to properly present a story that is set on the street or on the road. The openness of the area creates an aura of unpredictability and this sets the perfect stage for the typical drama that is bound to crop up in the course of a journey. To some extent, such shots also give the story an element of mythic.

Application of Kracauer’s Film theory to Umberto, D (1952).

Ontology features a lot in this film through the presence of the old man’s personal effects such as books, the watch and the small room that he lives in. The idea of a maid for the land-lady and a pet for the old man are also examples of ontology. Epistemology comes into play when the audience associates the land-lady’s employing a maid as a sign of opulence or at least financial superiority relative to the old man who can only afford to keep a dog. Aesthetics come out clearly in the scene where the demonstration is taking place, at the hospital and also at the railway where the old man wanted to commit suicide. All of these scenes are highly unpredictable and the audience is kept at the edge of their seats waiting for any eventuality. The demonstration could have turned into a riot and the old man faces death at the hospital as well as at the train station. These did not happen but their possibility remained very real(Kracauer).

 

Bazin’s realist film theory

Whereas Siegfried Kracauer believed ontology in film to be the primary attributes of a medium when it is not playing an active role in film, Bazin laid emphasis on the process of the mechanical capture and not just the featured object. According to him, the technique employed during the recording will be crucial in maintaining a hint of reality that will be carried into the film. The key difference that arises in this regard is that for Bazin, the film-maker’s effort through recording is necessary for ontology to be realized.

When it comes to epistemology, Kracauer saw this element being realized largely in the mind of the person who is viewing the film by synthesizing the ontological aspect of the film and making sense of it. Bazin’s perspective agrees with this but at the same time goes an extra mile. He argues that epistemology also requires the viewer to have the belief of the existence of both the camera and the reality as separate entities. This viewer then believes in the fact that the camera has the ability to capture this reality as it is. The camera is hence very crucial in the realization of epistemology in film. A lack of understanding and appreciation for how the camera functions hence becomes a great hindrance to this. Doubts on the same can also hinder epistemology.

As far as aesthetics are concerned, Kracauer mainly focused on how the selection of the scene can be used to achieve cinematic artistry. An example is how he brings up the idea of using open spaces such as streets to bring out the dramatic effects. Bazin on the other hand lays emphasis on the use of specific techniques to enhance the viewer’s experience. For the retention of temporal integrity in the film, he proposes the use of long take. If the aim is to emulate perception, the motion picture can employ wide screen.

Bazin’s theory is different mainly because he channelled a lot of energy into discussing how specific techniques of shooting a movie can be used to bring out the elements of ontology, epistemology and aesthetics. While Kracauer had a rather abstract approach, Bazin seems to be keen on the practical(Kracauer).

 

 

 

 

 Introduction

Oil is a natural, flammable viscous liquid that consists of a mixture of hydrocarbons with varying molecular weights. Oil also consists of various liquid organic compounds found geological formations beneath the surface of the earth (Maugeri 2006). Oil is a crucial resource in the world economy. Without oil, some human activities would be impossible such as transport. Oil is the most important resource in the economy since it is the backbone to all industrial activities in all countries. Without oil, all economic activities would come to a halt. This is because people cannot process raw materials to finished goods and also they cannot transport products to the respective markets across the world.

History of oil

Oil is the most essential source of energy, and it is likely that this will be so for years to come. Crude oil forms when tons of decaying plant life built up over millions of years compacted under immense pressure over time. In 347AD, the Chinese drilled oil using bits that they attached to bamboo poles (Maugeri 2006). They burnt the oil to evaporate brine and for producing salt. During 450BC, Herodotus described oil wells in Babylon where they used it to walls and towers in Babylon. There were the presence of oil wells in Arderrica and Zacynthus. River Issus, a tribute to river Euphrates also had oil wells. In 325BC, Alexander the Great used oil during battle to scare away his enemies (Brantly 1971).

By the end of 8^th century AD, the Baku people were using oil for heating purposes since they lacked firewood. In the 10^th century AD, an Arabia traveller by the name Abu-Dulaf described and visited Absheron’s oil sources. Through his visit, he discovered two types of oil i.e. white and black oil. Traders dealing with oil exported white oil in Iraq, Iran and India as a valuable commodity (Maugeri 2006). In 1273, Marco Polo visited Baku in Persia where he witnessed people collecting oil from seeps to be used for lighting and medicine.

Polish people from Poland used oil collected from seeps to provide lighting through street lights during the 1500s. Baku in Persia goes in history as one of the main areas where people got oil (Maugeri 2006). In 1618, an Italian, Pietro Della Valle spoke of the great amounts of oil in Baku. In 1803, people from Bibi-Heybat Bay dug the first offshore oil well in the Caspian Sea. This oil well ceased to exist in 1825 when a storm ravaged all the oil wells in Caspian Sea. In 1814 people discovered oil wells near Marietta, Ohio. This well was about 500 feet dip. There was another discovery of oil deposits in Kentucky which people named Beatty well (Brantly 1971). This took place in 1818. The 19^th century was a turning point for oil mining and use. This is the time that marked the industrial revolution. During this time, people used oil for commercial purposes. People used oil in industries which acted as a source of energy.

Importance of oil

Oil is an essential commodity as it is the greatest source of energy in the world today. People use oil to produce products for industrial and residential use. Refined oil produces diesel and petrol which vehicles and aeroplanes use (Gunderson 2004). Oil is crucial in the production of electricity as it provides energy used to turn turbines and produce electricity. Some people in some regions use oil to produce heat during the cold season. Plastic is the most common thing in the world. People use plastic in almost all situations. Oil serves as a basis for plastic production of since it acts as a raw material.  Other household commodities that use oil include toothpastes, shampoos, shaving cream, perfumes, deodorants, soap and nail polish (Corley & Tinker 2007). All these commodities have oil compounds that industrialists use to make these products. Scientists use oil compounds to make medicines used to save lives. Pesticides and fertilizers also have oil compounds in their structures.

Oil provided 34 percent of all the world’s energy needs in 2008. Research shows that people will still use oil as an energy source. The IEA (International Energy Agency) states that oil will provide 30 percent of the world’s energy requirement in 2030 (Corley & Tinker 2007). One by-product of refined oil is crucial in the production of cement (Gunderson 2004). When industrialists refine oil, they use the by-products in production of various commodities. These include parachutes, cassette tapes, shower enclosures, tires, lipsticks, computer cases, candles, aspirin, and glycerine among many other products. This shows how much oil is of importance to the world.

Alternatives

In case there is depletion of oil reserves in the world, bio fuels will serve as the best alternative to oil. Bio fuels can be used as a source of energy to drive engines. Alcohol fuels can also serve as alternatives to oil (Sherman & Freemuth 2009). Ethanol in alcohol can be produced from sugar, corn and fibrous plants. These fuels include bio alcohol and biodiesel. Others include chemically stored electricity, hydrogen, no fossil methane and natural gas.

These oil alternatives serve as the best source of energy since they are non-pollutants. This will reduce the rate of pollution in the atmosphere (Roberts 2005). Algae can be used to generate energy for driving engine vehicles. Algae can yield 2000 gallons fuel in each acre of production in a year. Another alternative for oil would be ammonia which has zero emissions and is cheap compared to oil.

 

Conclusion

There are allegations that one day oil will cease to exist. This poses a risk to all key economic activities since industries require energy to function. Oil is the most consistent source of energy in the globe.  People need to use oil appropriately, and governments should set up companies that have skilled man power to search for new oil reserves. Discovery of new oil wells will ensure that the most vital commodity is in plenty. As much as oil is reliable, people should increase their efforts in inventing new sources of energy (Roberts 2005). This will ensure that the world never runs out of energy.

References

Brantly, J. E. (1971). History of oil well drilling. Houston: Book Division, Gulf Pub. Co.

Corley, R., & Tinker, P. B. H. (2007). The Oil Palm. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.

Gunderson, C. G. (2004). The need for oil. Edina, Minn: Abdo & Daughters.

Maugeri, L. (2006). The age of oil: The mythology, history, and future of the world’s most controversial resource. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Praeger.

Roberts, P. (2005). The end of oil: The decline of the petroleum economy and the rise of a new energy order. London: Bloomsbury.

Sherman, J., & Freemuth, J. (2009). Oil and energy alternatives. Edina, Minn: ABDO Pub. Co.

Shark Tank review

Reality television with business content exposes the audience to a vast array of business ideas and methods, as well as challenges that are being faced in dealing with businesses. One such reality TV show is the Shark Tank, which entails various aspiring entrepreneurs presenting their business ideals to a panel of investors-the sharks. Depending with the sharks’ interest to the business idea, offers to the entrepreneur can be made or rejected. This a review of Shark Tank season 4 episode 1 where the presentations Coatchex, BevBuck, and BuggyBeds are discussed, giving a further elaboration to Coatchex.

Season four of Shark Tank came with the highest number of business idea presentations in all its 26 episodes. Episode 1 had various presentations of which I highlight three of them. These are products-Coatchex, Bev Buckle, and BuggyBeds.

BevBuckle was created and presented by Jake Brenner who was seeking $50,000 for 10% stake from the sharks. The Bev Buckle is based on the concept of a buckle that can hold beverage using a magnet holder. It is a novelty product whose patent is held by Jake but had sold only 4,000 units in 4 year.  The accepted offer was from the shark Barbara Corcoran who offered $50,000 for 51% stake.

The next product BuggyBeds was created and presented by Maria Curcio and Veronica Perlongo, and were seeking $125,000 for 7 percent stake.  The product is based on the concept of using a glue trap that can detect bedbugs’ eggs before they hatched. The entrepreneurs had worked on the product for six months, of which they had witnessed success, and they held the patent. Currently, they were looking for distribution links. They got $250,000 for 25% stake from five sharks-Kevin, Robert, Mark, Daymond, and Barbara.

The first item presented in the episode was the Coatchex by Derek Pacque who was seeking $200,000 for 10% stake. The product is based on the concept of a coat check system that does not use a ticket. A name and photo is attached to the jacket and the user pays with a credit card. Derek was targeting this franchise to area developers. Derek shows belief in his product and he radiates energy of confidence and motivation on his business venture. Unfortunately, the sharks expressed high levels of uncertainty with this product, especially when Derek says he has no recorded sales yet and has not been able to test due to weather challenges.  Shark Mark stated seasonal problems with the coat, and states that looking to franchise the business is a terrible marketing idea. He also pointed out to an unclear business plan, although he liked the overall idea. Shark Daymond stated about the likelihood of competition on the product, while Shark Barbara did not understand why use of a ticket in the check system should be done away with. The only shark offer that Derek received was $200,000 for 33% stake from shark Mark, which shockingly he turned down.

Derek was confident in finding opportunities for his business and only needed more help in scaling the business. Agreeing to the $200,000 for 33% stake would mean giving a large chunk, about a third of his company to the investor. Derek was not probably ready for this kind of business equity with his company at the initial stages of the business venture.

However, the $200,000Coat Chex for 33% would have been one of the best deals given to a beginner entrepreneur with no proven record of sales yet.  Also, most investors are unwilling to invest in a business that seems to be seasonal. Yet, in this case, Mark was seeking only less than half the stake. It would have been a great opportunity for Derek to earn up the start up cost as well as have an opportunity to work with a seasoned billionaire. The offer would have helped him establish several CoatChex stores within a shorter time, and the price and valuation would have been determined faster with the presence of the CoatChex in various markets. On his own and without the adequate cash to franchise to several markets region wide or even worldwide, Derek may take a lot of time reaching out to the market. The disadvantage is that some players may have gotten the idea and will decide to come up with competing business models. Even if Derek makes it to keep the business up, he will be competing for market share with other new entrants and there is still uncertainty in this.

On the other hand, rejecting the deal may also not be so bad for Derek, as the product managed to get exposure to a wider audience. The show is a great platform that may introduce Derek to a wider audience some of whom will become the CoatChex target market.  Even if he left hanging the $200,000 for a third of his company, Derek’s presentation on the show has acted like an infomercial where he will reach out to potential customers.  It is now up to Derek to work hard to prove that his business model is worth a bigger investment negotiation.

In summary, the Shark Tank is definitely one of the superb business reality television shows that expose the audience to great business ideas as presented by aspiring entrepreneurs. It also teaches a lot about business pitching and conducting negotiation with investors that can help with funding for business start up, growth and expansion.

 

 

Work Cited

Shark Tank, season 4 episode 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QGu3BSjHpw,2012.

Introduction

Nutrition plays a key role in ensuring a healthy pregnancy. A pregnant woman needs to eat food that contains the required nutritional content for the well-being of her and the baby. When a woman conceives, there should be an increase in intake of nutrients because conception means that the woman is eating for two. Nutritionists recommend that pregnant women get nutrition advice from healthcare providers who will advise them on the number of calories they need to take each day (DeBruyne, et al, 2008). During pregnancy, a woman needs to change her diet for her safety and that of her child. This is because the wellbeing of the infant depends on how the woman eats. A woman passes nutrients to her baby through the umbilical cord meaning if she is lacking in any vitamins the child is lacking, as well.

Dietary requirements

Current weight and activity level determines the number of calories that a woman needs to take during pregnancy. The number of calories a pregnant woman needs varies daily. Study shows that when a woman conceives, her daily calorie intake will increase by 100 to 300 calories (Harding 2010). Nutritionists, however, recommend that women get advice from their healthcare providers who will advise them on how much weight they need to add during pregnancy and how many calories they need. Most health care providers recommend that women need to add about 10 to 13 kilograms during pregnancy.

A balanced diet contains nutrients from all food groups. These food groups include vegetables, fruits, fats, eggs, meat, fish, carbohydrates and dairy products. A woman needs to eat these foods in order to acquire the right amounts of energy for her and her baby. A pregnant woman needs to take 2500 calories a day (DeBruyne, et al, 2008). Ten percent of this should come from proteins. Proteins mainly come from eggs, fish, meat, beans and daily products. 250 calories should come from proteins. Fat should provide 35 percent of calorie intake a day. This totals to 825 calories (Lammi-Keefe, et al, 2008). Oils, nuts, dairy products and margarine contain fat. Carbohydrates should provide 1375 calories daily. This is 55 percent of the total calorie intake. Carbohydrates come from potatoes, corn, rice, bread and other grains.

A woman needs to eat lots of vegetables and fruits for her and her baby. Cereals provide good nutrients, which will help in the growth of the baby. Lean meat and low-fat dairy products should be taken in moderation. Foods that are high in sugar and salt should be utterly avoided while foods such as fish and chicken should not contain high amounts of mercury as this would harm the baby (Harding 2010). Other essential foods include dried beans, lentils, nuts and seeds that will offer good nutritional value to the woman and her baby. Health experts recommend folate for pregnant women. A pregnant woman should consume 600mcg of folate (folic acid) a day. Folate helps in the creation of the baby’s nervous system and preventing tube defects. Foods that are rich in folate include lentils, spinach, broccoli, asparagus and Brussels sprouts.

Foods to avoid during pregnancy

There are certain foods that a pregnant woman needs to avoid altogether. These foods may either cause food poisoning or harm the unborn baby. These foods may end up harming the baby and make the woman deliver a baby with birth defects (DeBruyne, et al, 2008). The first food to avoid is raw meat. Raw meat consists of uncooked seafood and undercooked poultry and beef. Intake of raw meat exposes pregnant women to the possibility of contamination with salmonella, coliform bacteria and toxoplasmosis. Deli meat may contain listeria. A woman should not consume deli meat because it may cause her to miscarry. When listeria crosses the placenta and reaches the baby, it leads to infection of the baby and even blood poisoning.

There are certain fish that contain high levels of mercury. Pregnant women should refrain from eating this fish since mercury exposure to mercury leads to brain damage and mental delays. Fish that contain high levels of mercury include sharks, tilefish, king mackerel and swordfish. Smoked seafood is also not recommended since it also contains listeria. Some fish face exposure to pollutants from industries. Women who consume fish from local lakes and rivers face this risk. This fish contain alarming levels of polychlorinated biphenyls because of exposure to pollutants. When a baby gets exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls, this causes birth defects (DeBruyne, et al, 2008). Worst case scenario is that the woman may deliver a still baby. Raw shellfish should not be incorporated in a pregnant woman’s diet. Intake of undercooked shellfish leads to people contracting seafood-borne illnesses. Examples of shellfish include clams, oysters and mussels.

A woman should never consume raw eggs during pregnancy. Raw eggs may contain salmonella which would cause health risks to the mother and her baby. Nutritional experts advise women from eating raw eggs for their safety and that of their baby. Soft cheese should not be included in the diet of a pregnant woman (Owen 2008). Soft cheese may contain listeria bacteria, which may cause the woman to miscarry (Lammi-Keefe, et al, 2008). Examples of soft cheese include brie, queso fresco, feta, Roquefort and camembert. Unpasteurized milk may also contain listeria and, therefore, pregnant women should take pasteurized milk at all times. This lowers the risk of contamination with listeria which subsequently lowers the risk of miscarriage or blood poisoning. Meat spreads/ pate also contain listeria, therefore, should not be consumed by pregnant women.

Studies suggest that moderate intake of caffeine is not harmful for pregnant women, but there are others that show caffeine intake leads to miscarriages. During the first trimester of pregnancy, women should not take caffeine as it poses a risk of a miscarriage (Lammi-Keefe, et al, 2008). Health care providers state that during pregnancy, women should only take 200mg of caffeine a day. Caffeine is dangerous during pregnancy because it eliminates fluids from the body. This may result in calcium and water loss. This is a characteristic of a diuretic. Doctors suggest that women should substitute caffeine with milk, juice and plenty of water. A large intake of caffeine during pregnancy leads to premature birth, low birth-weight, miscarriages. Babies may also get withdrawal symptoms (Lammi-Keefe, et al, 2008). The best way to prevent this is by refraining from caffeine intake.

Pregnant women should never take alcohol during pregnancy. There is no amount of alcohol that would not be harmful to an unborn baby. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy interferes with the development of the baby. When a woman consumes alcohol during pregnancy, the baby faces the risk of contracting developmental disorders such as fetal alcohol syndrome (DeBruyne, et al, 2008). This, however, depends on the timing, amount and pattern of use of alcohol. A woman should not take alcohol after delivering a baby. Studies show that there is a likelihood that alcohol will reach a baby during breastfeeding.

One day menu

During the thirty second week of pregnancy, the baby is getting bigger and hungrier than in the first and second trimester. The baby will require foods that will help in development of the body and brain (Webb & Whitney 2012). A woman should subject herself to a daily menu that will help in the baby’s development.

Breakfast

The woman can have broccoli-cheddar omelet. The finest omelets are those that are creamy inside. This offers 450 calories, one serving of protein, calcium and green vegetable (Webb & Whitney 2012). There is also a half serving of fat. The omelet should be eaten with buttered white bread that offers 125 calories, one serving of whole grain and some fat. One glass of orange juice that is calcium-fortified will offer 125 calories, one serving of whole grain and some fat. Sparkling water should also be included.

Lunch

For lunch, a plate of Mediterranean salmon salad sandwich will offer 405 calories, one serving of protein, vitamin C, calcium and green vegetable, two servings of whole grain a half serving of fat (Webb & Whitney 2012). Lunch should also include soy crisps that offer 120 calories, half serving of proteins and one serving of whole grain. For snack, walnuts and dried apricot will offer 290 calories and a half serving of protein

Dinner

A plate of sautéed halibut mixed with spring vegetables will offer 335 calories, one and half serving of proteins, vitamin C and green vegetables (Webb & Whitney 2012). She can serve the fish with wild rice that will offer 275 calories, two servings of whole grains, some fat and protein.

Conclusion

It is crucial for women to be careful about what they eat during pregnancy. During the nine months of pregnancy, a woman should ensure that the safety of her baby comes first. A good diet will ensure that the baby develops appropriately inside the womb. A good nutrition by the woman will enable her to deliver a strong and healthy baby. She should avoid substances such as alcohol that will endanger the baby. Pregnant women should avoid foods that will harm the baby and she should practice good eating habits.

 

References

DeBruyne, L. K., Pinna, K., Whitney, E. N., & Cataldo, C. B. (2008). Nutrition and diet therapy: Principles and practice. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Harding, S. (2010). Nutrition Requirements for Pregnant Women. Web. Retrieved on 25 March 2013. Retrieved from www.livestrong.com/article/119379-nutrition-requirements-pregnant-women/

Lammi-Keefe, C. J., Couch, S. C., & Philipson, E. H. (2008). Handbook of nutrition and pregnancy. Totowa, N.J: Humana Press.

Owen, P. (2008). What Should I Eat During Pregnancy? Web. Retrieved on 25 March 2013. Retrieved from http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/pregnantdiet.htm

Webb, F. S., & Whitney, E. N. (2012). Nutrition: Concepts and controversies. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

 

Norris Capital Investment.

Introduction

Norris Capital Investment is a UK based fund that provides subsidies in educational loans through its charitable fund. The registered members make regular contributions with the sole objective of achieving a sustainable growth and progress in its operations to finance all educational needs for all pupils and university students who are eligible for the assistance. Contributors are allowed to withdraw their contributions after a minimum period of five years in regulated proportions. The fund started its operations in June 2008; therefore the initial contributors will qualify to begin withdrawing their funds sometime in June 2013 if they are in need of their funds. There are other players in the market that rival Norris Capital investments in the same category of business and fund management.

The investment environment entails all the opportunities available in the investment market that Norris Capital investments might be interested in. These opportunities are varied and they can be either for a short term period or long term depending on the nature of the investment. For instance in the financial market the short term investments include Treasury bills, commercial papers, money market, common stock, Bonds and mutual stocks. The other long term investments are for instance direct and indirect property, securities and the long term property. These investment vehicles are found in different institutions and market structures. Before investing, the following criteria should be followed when the decision to invest has been reached. The length of the investment period should be decided and the objectives and targets of the investment determined. A plan should be put in place to evaluate and analyze all the investment choices. Norris Capital Investment is a fund oriented business firm. The nature of business fund investment is mostly short term.

Norris Capital Investment has assets worth over 13.5 million pounds.

Norris Capital investment Portfolio.

These are 35% UK Equities,UK corporate bonds are 15%, overseas Equities account for 20% while UK government bonds are 20% and the balance is cash and short term investment. The financial assets like stocks and bonds contribute positively to the income of Norris Capital Investment and the transfer of funds to attractive and profitable investment opportunities should be facilitated. Financial assets are the general claims to the generated income by real assets. The real assets only produce goods and services whereas financial assets determine the allocation of income or the wealth generated among the investors. The financial markets are simultaneously created and destroyed during the operations of a business. When a loan is paid, the claims by the creditor are written off and the obligation of the debtor ceases to exist. On the contrary, real assets can only be destroyed accidentally or when they are worn out.

Analysis of future strategy asset allocation is based on the choice of investment and the nature of investment. Norris Capital Investment follows the top-down approach. Capital and asset allocation decision should be made at the highest level of the organization, with the decision to choose from specific kind of securities to hold in each asset class directed to specific portfolio managers. The decision to allocate capital is the proportion chosen of the overall portfolio to be invested in safe but low return investment in money market securities versus risky and higher income securities like stocks. The asset allocation decision defines the distribution of high risk investment across an array of asset classes like company stocks, government bonds, real estate and property market and foreign assets. The decision in selection of securities describes the choice of specific and particular securities to retain in each asset category.

The treasury bills are risk free assets. The nature of treasury bills makes their value to be insensitive to interest rates fluctuation and also because of their short term period. Inflation uncertainty over a couple of weeks or even months is immaterial compared with the uncertainty and the inflationary nature of the stock market dividends. Most investors prefer to use a wider range of market instruments to check on risk and keep it at minimum level. Literally all the major money market instruments are interest free assets because of their shorter maturities and the nature of their safeness in terms of credit risk. For instance, the bank certificates of deposits (CDs) and the commercial paper (CP).

Active management is an attempt to relate and apply the human intelligence to determine deals that are the most profitable in the financial market. Active management is mainly the model for investment strategic decision. The active managers go for attractive stocks, government bonds, mutual financial funds and they calculate when to move in or out of market sectors and also place bets on the future general direction of financial securities and money markets with alternatives and other derivatives. The main objective of Norris Capital Investment is to make profits. In pursuit to their strategic goals, active managers look for information to be informed of the very best and most valuable information they can get so that they may develop complex and advanced proprietary selection in the trading system. Active management entails going hundreds of methods some which are fundamental analysis, technical or even macroeconomic analysis to get and determine the most profitable future or later investment trend. ( Bernstein, 2009)

Passive investment management fails to determine attractive and an unattractive securities or forecasted securities, the time markets or the market sectors. Passive managers will invest in a wide range of sectors of the market but accept the average income from various asset classes. Passive investors use very little information or even none at all that active investor’s fight for. Instead passive managers allocate their assets based on the historical data analysis and completely ignore the asset’s class risks and income, they diversify widely across all networks and maintain long term asset balancing among asset classes.

Index investing is a type of passive investing where portfolios are related based on securities indexes which sample various sectors in the market and are made up by the committee. These indexes are based on benchmarks and are restituted by the committees. When there is poor performance then the poor performance are deleted while good performance are added. The benchmarks are variable and are influenced by price momentum. Dow Jones industrial index i.e. a basket of 30 largest US companies. So far only one company is listed since 1929. Indexes are needed for local and international equities and fixed income, sectors, gold, and literally all asset classes and sub assets classes and sub asset classes. Active investment management finally, is really not achievable i.e. it’s a mirage which very expensive boosts costs substantially and reduces returns compared to the well designed passive portfolios. Active management doesn’t do better in bear markets or guide investors to avoid losses.

The investment process is made up of two wide tasks. These are security and market analysis under which the risk and the expected incomes or returns attributed to the entire possible investment is analyzed. The second part involves the introduction and formation of an optimal and accurate portfolio of assets. It involves the determination of the best i.e. low risk and high return opportunities available from logical investment portfolios and the choice of the best available. The formal analysis and choice of investment is called the portfolio theory. It’s made up of three basic concepts.

a).Investors naturally avoid taking risks and demand a higher reward for engaging in higher risk investment. This risk is the premium risk i.e. the difference of expected rate of income and the alternative risk free investment available.

1. b) Investors are allowed to quantify their personal tradeoffs among the portfolios risks and the expected return.
2. c) Finally the investors cannot evaluate the risks involved in an asset which is separate from the portfolio they are a party to. The best way to measure the risk of a certain asset is to assess its effect on the volatility of all the portfolio of investment. Following these approach, the risky securities may be useful as portfolio stabilizers and low risk assets.

The capital Asset Pricing model (CAPM) is a concept that gives a definite prediction of the nature of relationship that exists between the risk of a certain asset and the expected return. They serve two primary functions. It gives a bench rate for evaluating other investments. It also gives the educated income on assets that have not been traded in the given market. Risk averse investors measure all the risk of the optimal and risky premium portfolio by its own variance. Investors expect the payment or reward or risk premium on each type of assets depending on the contribution of each asset to the risk of the portfolio. The beta of a stock measures and compares the stocks contribution to the variance of the individual market portfolio. Hence any asset or portfolio, the required or needed variance is the function of beta. (Graham, Dodd, 1996)

The following are the assumptions undertaken in this model. Investors are not affected by price i.e. they are price takers because they are not affected at all by their own trades or businesses. The investors plan and have one similar holding period. It’s a myopic behavior i.e. it ignores literally everything that might occur at the end of the stated single trading period. Investment is limited only too many public traded financial assets, such as stocks and bonds and to the risk free borrowing or any loading arrangement. No one is authorized to invest in non trade or in any other assets like education. It’s assumed that investor will pay all their taxes and no transaction cost on any trade and or lend. Also investors don’t pay taxes on their returns all their investments. It’s assumed that the investors have similar beliefs concerning taxes and may be calculated variances and maybe even others.

All the investors will definitely choose similar Market Portfolio (M) I.e. market value weighted portfolio of all the existing securities. The market portfolio will be an efficient and effective portfolio. The tangency portfolio is the optimal Capital allocation line (CAL) derived by each investor. The capital market line (CML) the line from the risk free rate through the market portfolio, M, is also the actual attainable capital allocation. All investors hold M as the risky portfolio differing only in the invested amounts.

The risk premium in the given market portfolio will be proportional to its own risks and the degree also matters of risk aversion of the representative. Also the nature of risk on individual assets or be will be proportion to the relative market portfolio. And the better coefficient of the security. Bi=Cov (RI, r m)/a2 M.

In conclusion the portfolios selected by Norris Capital Investments are not so competitive

As a fund firm has a lot of operation cost and most of their investments should be in short term investment vehicles like Treasury bills and in the money market. Commercial papers are also good in investing. After making the decision to invest then all options should be evaluated and the high risks and the high returns investments should be matched with the low risks and low risks returns investments.

References

Bernstein, W. (2009) The Intelligent Asset Allocator. Boston. McGraw-Hill,

Bogle, J. (1999). Common Sense on Mutual Funds. Wiley

Clyatt, B. (2005) Work Less, Live More, Nolo,

Dalbar (2012) Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior.

Graham, B., Dodd, D. (1996) Security Analysis. Boston. Mc Graw-Hill.

Gordon, M. (1962). The Investment, Financing, and Valuation of the Corporation. Homewood:  D. Irwin

Khan, M. (1993). Theory & Problems in Financial Management. Boston: McGraw Hill

Higher Education.

Vance, D. (2003). Financial analysis and decision making: tools and techniques to solve

 financial problems and make effective business decisions. New York: McGraw-Hill.

 

Murray, G. and Goldie, D.  Learn How to Manage Your Money and Protect Your Financial Future, 2010.  Excellent one hour read on active vs. passive and DFA.

Siegel, J. Stocks for the Long Run, Fourth Edition, 2008.

 

WEBSITES:

www.finpipe.com

information on equity securities

www.nasdaq.com

www.nyse.com

www.bloomberg.com

information on bond and market rates

www.inestinginbonds.com

glossaries on financial terms

www.bondsonline.com/docs/bondprofessor-glossary.html

www.investorwords.com

info on derivative securities

www.cboe.com/education

www.commoditytrader.com

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Analysis of relations of power among actors in the fresh vegetable supply chain in supply chain management

A supply chain refers to a system of organizations, activities, technology, information, resources and people involved in moving a service or product from the producer or supplier to the end-customer. On the other hand, supply chain management (SCM) is the planning and management of every activity involved in product/service sourcing, procurement, conversion plus all the logistics management activities.[1] The subject of power relationships among actors in a supply chain has of late been getting increasingly more attention. It is imperative to differentiate between, and deal with positive and negative effects of power with the aim of avoiding problems and use power as an effectual tool for supply chain management (SCM). Therefore, a vital challenge is to determine the role that power plays within supply chain networks, and how power affects SCM with special attention to cooperation and coordination, and if power can be used as a tool in promoting the overall effectiveness of supply chain. Thus, in the context of Russia and Vietnam, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the relations of power among actors in the supply chain of fresh vegetables. The two countries have chosen deliberately because many international firms have invested in the last two years in these two competitive markets.

In the context of Russia

Presently, a group of international players with immense power has emerged among retailers and manufacturers throughout the world. When processors and retailers enter a new country, they often encounter the difficulty of building up their procurement and distribution systems. Global food manufacturers and retailers have been able to obtain a competitive edge with regard to supply chains. Such global food processing firms as Campina, Mars and Danone operate their production in the suburbs of Moscow and other big Russian cities. A vast majority of branded food processors and retailers upon entering Russia often introduce their own models of business in their work with local suppliers; models of business which used to be effective in their countries of origin which in most cases is Western Europe.[2] Big branded fresh vegetable processing firms and retailers are considered supply chain captains. They usually coordinate and organize their suppliers and set the process standards all through the entire supply chain, and they are often the main gate-way to the end-customers and are also gate-keepers between consumer and producer. Nonetheless, power does not belong only to the manufacturers and retailers since suppliers might also find themselves in the position to select from retailers whom they wish to deliver to.

Fresh vegetable suppliers in Russia have traditionally occupied a powerful position with regard to relationships with domestic and local retailers. They are in a more dominant and stronger position and have an edge in contract negotiations with buyers. The powerful position occupied by Russian suppliers on the market is largely because of the supreme importance of the market of raw materials. One of the challenges experienced by international manufacturers and retailers upon entry into Russia is the uncooperative behavior of the suppliers. Local Russian retailers encountering the new reality struggle with global foreign competitors who come into the local market and bring modern supply chain management concepts.[3] The fresh vegetable suppliers in Russia occupy a powerful position because of the following reasons: weak enforcement of contracts, inadequate quality of delivered goods, low transparency of legal system, and difficulties in obtaining raw materials and supplies. Other reasons include persisting corruption in the country, high barriers of entry for instance complicated registration procedures, limited production capacity, challenges related with real-estate in cities, lack of production know-how, insufficient infrastructure in some regions leading to high costs of logistics, a supply chain characterized by distrust and lack of professionalism, and finally lack of financing for farmers. Thus, the question comes up of how power can be utilized as a tool for managing fresh vegetables supply chains in Russia. The question faced by retailers will be ‘how can they get suppliers or the farmers to do whatever the retailer desires them to do?’[4] Therefore, power is at the centre of every business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Power is also one of the influential and strongest tools for supply chain management.

Power in Supply Chains

            In supply chains, power is commonly viewed as the capability of a company to own and control essential assets in markets and supply chains, which enable it to maintain its ability to accumulate and appropriate value for itself by continually leveraging its suppliers, customers and competitors. In general, power in supply chain is the capacity, potential or ability of getting others to do something; to influence, control, determine or command the behaviors, decisions, actions or intentions of others in the pursuit of one’s interests against their will.[5] The six main types of power include coercive power, which allows one to punish others, and in the context of the supply chain network, it is reflective of the fear of a supply chain network member to be punished in the event that it fails to conform to the requirements of the focal firm/company. Informative power comes from the ability to elucidate current information and to show the logic of suggested actions. In case a firm has new information regarding customer demands, it can utilize it in persuading suppliers to deliver their products and become a part of the network.

Referent power relies on the ability of being attractive to others and depends on the interpersonal skills and charisma of the power holder. In the context of the supply chain, this power is seen when network actors desire to join the network. Legitimate power comes from a legitimate right to influence others, and a duty of accepting this influence, and in this case, a focal party/actor is identified by the members of the network as having a right to make particular decisions. Expert power is obtained from the special knowledge or skills of a specific subject. In a supply chain network, a focal company’s expert power can be attained if the network actors have the belief that it has a special knowledge which is important to them. Lastly, there is reward power, and this relies on the capacity of the power holder to give rewards to others. In the event that a focal firm has access to resources that are essential for other actors in the network, it may make these network actors to perform in a preferred manner.[6] In the fresh vegetable supply chain, using coercive power has an undesirable effect largely because the weaker actors might lose interest in the relationship.

 

Cooperation and coordination in supply chain management

Cooperation and coordination are very important areas of interest in supply chain management. Problems relating to cooperation often come about as a result of conflicts of interest. As such, every party involved – from suppliers of raw materials to consumers and everyone in between – should work more collaboratively, and if possible invest in information technology (IT) that allows them to share product information more easily. This is vitally imperative for the supply chain to work more effectively and efficiently. The basis of cooperation in the supply chain network is on the individual drive/motivation of its actors, and is determined by aligning interests through formal mechanisms, for instance contracting.[7]

Collaboration is essential in supply chain networks because of the following reasons: it reduces costs, increases quality, improves delivery, augments flexibility, stimulates innovativeness and cuts lead time and procurement costs. Because cooperation among the actors is sometimes not voluntary, retailers who are powerless have a big impact on the way collaboration is practiced along the supply chain. Some actors in the supply chain might be forced to take part; others are not totally accommodating of the idea to cooperate, and may want more support or influence in the process of collaboration. There is a spectrum of collaborative relationships between equal matching and forced participation, and idyllically, the relationship needs to be based on equal matching.[8] That is the reason why the focal actor managing the entire network of supply chain must utilize its power in aligning the interests of individual entities and stimulate cooperation amongst the actors.

Effects of power on coordination and cooperation

In the context of fresh vegetable supply chains, the role of power is indispensable in the sense that through its interactions with the other components of the relationship atmosphere, it could critically hinder cooperation. Conversely, power can be viewed as a means for organizing social interactions efficiently, and for enabling moderately stable relationships to develop between the cooperating social actors. Using coercive power has a potential of having a negative effect/result simply because weaker parties could lose their interest in the relationship. On the other hand, coercive power could have a desirable effect with regard to promoting coordination and development of stable relationships.[9]

Within the supply chain network of fresh vegetables, the perceived use of coercive power would negatively affect cooperation and positively affect coordination. Presuming that reward power is seen to have an element of coercion to it, then reward power would have a positive effect/result on coordination, because both punishment and reward rouse rapid changes in behavior. However, reward power will also provide extrinsic motivation that motivates one to conform to the requirements, so as to attain favorable effects and to create enduring and harmonious inter-organization exchange relationships. Within the supply chain network of fresh vegetables, the perceived use of information power would positively affect cooperation and negatively affect coordination. Successful coordination of exchange relationships generally has a positive effect/result on legitimate power. As power distribution becomes legitimate ultimately, a more standardized format of business is applied, for instance contracts. Nonetheless, the capability of taking legal redress, particularly to impose legal sanctions, may be seen as a punishment. Reward power has a positive result on both cooperation and coordination, although its outcome with regard to coordination is somehow stronger than on cooperation. As such, increased use of reward power will lead to improvement of coordination on the fresh vegetable supply chain. Reward will have a desirable/positive result and is attributed to the nature of relationships between buyers and processors. Managers should use reward power mechanisms for cooperation and coordination in relationships with buyers.[10]

Informational and expert powers have positive result on both cooperation and coordination, although the effect of expert power is somehow stronger compared to that of informational power. The positive result of these two sorts of power on cooperation is roughly equal. Thus, the results of informational and expert power are highly advisable because they bring positive effects on both cooperation and coordination. The result of legitimate power in the supply chain relationships of fresh vegetables is negative on both cooperation and coordination with roughly equivalent strength. Thus, similar as the result of coercive power, this type of power typically has negative result with regard to the management of supply chains. As such, using this power as priority management mechanisms is not recommended, just as in the case of coercive power. Referential power has positive result on both cooperation and coordination. Increasing use of this type of power is imperative in helping to improve considerably the coordination within the supply chain. Referential power is potent enough to inspire the actions of members of the supply chain in the Russian fresh vegetable business. Regarding the effect/result on cooperation, there is a trivial negative effect.

In the context of Viet Nam

In Viet Nam, the supply chain of fresh vegetable is typically characterized by numerous local and national small and medium-sized firms at the stage of production. The middle stage comprises trade-oriented medium sized companies, wholesalers, exporters, cooperative production and marketing societies. The upper end of the supply chain consists of large scale retail groups.[11] The analysis of the relations of power among actors in the fresh vegetable supply chain in Viet Nam emphasizes the significance of the institutional, historical, food trading, cultural and geographical environments in shaping the structure of the supply chains as well as the marketing relationships between the different stakeholders.

This Vietnamese supply chain represents the traditional fresh vegetable distribution channel from the rural province of Lam Dong to the capital city Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). In this supply chain, the fresh vegetables – tomatoes and lettuce – get to the market in different ways. First they can be sold by the supplier/producer to a collector who would grade them. This collector would then depend on another collector/broker to; find wholesale customers in HCMC markets, collect sufficient produce for transportation to the city, and to coordinate the transportation logistics. A wholesaler in the city will then sell the produce to retailers and secondary wholesalers. Secondly, the supply of the fresh vegetables from the producer to the wholesalers can also be facilitated by only one collector in a traditional marketing channel. Thirdly, a modern distribution system can be used which consists of metro cash & carry together with its network of tomato and lettuce suppliers in the remote region of the province of Lam Dong, and these suppliers are typically producer groups. Usually, the cash & carry business has the determination of improving its customer portfolio of the city’s 5-star hotels. Long-term relationships among the actors entails a lasting commitment from both individuals in the transaction which might nevertheless coexist with some adversarial behavior, for instance comparing prices with competing customers or suppliers within the market.

Generally, there is a positive impact of lasting commitment on establishing a successful inter-company relationship, and there is an indirect link between lasting commitment of business partners, and performance via the fostering of successful B2B relationships. Moreover, lasting commitment and the good inter-company relationships that result from it allow supply chain stakeholders to manage risks more effectively given the unsure context of Viet Nam’s produce marketing.[12]

Conclusion

Power is very essential among the actors in a supply chain, and there are several and types sources of power. The main types of power include coercive, informative, referent, legitimate, expert and reward power. For managerial implications, this implies that parties who gain power from other actors should recognize that these parties still possess some power which can be utilized opportunistically. Therefore, recognizing these sources can be helpful in working out strategies on how to handle this behavior. Moreover, utilizing power does not necessarily mean that coercive actions need to be taken. It also implies knowing and recognizing that power also esteems from the capacity to offer rewards which may lead to a change in behavior, and in turn, enhances corporation. Supply managers should be cautious in selecting the suitable mechanism of power and alter it to the problem setting as well as strategic goals.[13]

For successful management of supply chain networks, it is indispensable to have knowledge of the different sources of power. The example of such differentiation of power can as well be found in the Russian food retail landscape. In the event that the retailer gets the supplier to do whatever the supplier would not otherwise have done, then the retailer has the means that probably threatens the supplier in acting in a manner favorable to the retailer. In case the two parties do not have the same opportunity in attaining their goals and pursuing their interests, the retailer has a greater ability to attain her goals than the supplier has. Managers in particular need to be aware of the fact that depending on its source, power could have dissimilar effects/consequences on both cooperation and coordination. Power is not always negative, and depending on its origin, it might have dissimilar effects on coordination as well as cooperation. It has the potential of destroying a cooperative relationship or help to find solutions to problems of aligning and coordinating actions. The knowledge regarding these effects must be used adeptly for successful management of supply chain networks.[14]

The coercive or reward power ‘stick or carrot’ method may have outstanding outcomes on coordination because it offers extrinsic motivation to conform to the requirements so as to attain outcomes that are favorable, but overusing it could hinder cooperation. Conversely, other non-coercive powers such as referent power, informational power, legitimate power and expert power might be more suitable in facilitating cooperation albeit less effectual for coordination. This is largely because they are less expected to be utilized in targeting a particular performance or behavior, although they can provide intrinsic motivation as well as alignment of interests. In solving cooperation and coordination problems, it is vital for managers to evaluate the costliness of the selected power basing on the available source.

Works Cited

Belaya, Vera and Jon Hanf. Power and Supply Management: Insights from Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print

Flynn, Barbara and Jose Machuca. Managing Global Supply Chain Relationships: Operations, Strategies and Practices. Liverpool: Hart Publishing, 2010. Print.

Hugos, Michael. Essentials of Supply Chain Management (3^rd Ed.). London: Wiley. 2011, Print.

Perera, Manoshi and Jeevika Weerahewa. Analysis of Vegetable Supply Chains, 2008. Web.

Wincel, Jeffrey. Lean Supply Chain Management: A Handbook for Strategic Procurement. Belfast: Productivity Press. Print.

 

[1] Michael Hugos. Essentials of Supply Chain Management (3^rd Ed.). London: Wiley. 2011, Print.

[2] Manoshi Perera and Jeevika Weerahewa. Analysis of Vegetable Supply Chains, 2008. Web.

[3] Vera Belaya and Jon Hanf. Power and Supply Management: Insights from Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print

[4] Jeffrey Wincel. Lean Supply Chain Management: A Handbook for Strategic Procurement. Belfast: Productivity Press. Print.

[5] Barbara Flynn and Jose Machuca. Managing Global Supply Chain Relationships: Operations, Strategies and Practices. Liverpool: Hart Publishing, 2010. Print.

[6] Vera Belaya and Jon Hanf. Power and Supply Management: Insights from Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print

[7] Manoshi Perera and Jeevika Weerahewa. Analysis of Vegetable Supply Chains, 2008. Web.

[8] Vera Belaya and Jon Hanf. Power and Supply Management: Insights from Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print

[9] Jeffrey Wincel. Lean Supply Chain Management: A Handbook for Strategic Procurement. Belfast: Productivity Press. Print.

 

[10] Vera Belaya and Jon Hanf. Power and Supply Management: Insights from Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print

[11] Michael Hugos. Essentials of Supply Chain Management (3^rd Ed.). London: Wiley. 2011, Print.

[12] Manoshi Perera and Jeevika Weerahewa. Analysis of Vegetable Supply Chains, 2008. Web.

[13] Jeffrey Wincel. Lean Supply Chain Management: A Handbook for Strategic Procurement. Belfast: Productivity Press. Print.

[14] Manoshi Perera and Jeevika Weerahewa. Analysis of Vegetable Supply Chains, 2008. Web.