Corporate Valuation and Strategy ASSIGNMENT 3 VALUATION OF H. J. HEINZ

Corporate Valuation and Strategy 3 VALUATION OF H. J. HEINZ COMPANY AS OF APRIL 29, 2012 - Assignment Example The company’s products are manufactured and packaged in line with the required customer standards to provide safe and wholesome foods to the consumers. Numerous products are prepared from the company’s developed recipes (ANNUAL REPORT, 7) The process of food preparation includes a clear-cut selection of ingredients and prompts inspection it is imperative to note that the products are prepared through numerous ways, which include sterilization, fermentation, blending, homogenization, pasteurization, freezing, chilling drying and labeling. More over, the quality assurance processes are premeditated for each product and applied for quality and compliance with applicable laws. A wide range of raw materials is considered for production of the food products of this company. During the fiscal year 2012, the company is reported to have invested in productivity initiatives intended to increase manufacturing efficiency and effectiveness. This is intended for immense acceleration of the general productivity on the international scale (ANNUAL REPORT, 6). Some of the initiatives included the closure of numerous factories across the globe and decrease in the global labor force. The products of the company are sold through own sales organizations and independent agents or distributors which include retailers, manufacturers, bakeries, mass merchants and food service distributors, restraints and hotels. The intensive compliance of the company with the national, state and may be local government provisions has not caused significant effects on the budget, particularly on the capital expenditures, earnings or cutthroat position of the company. It is fundamental to note that, the company’s estimates on capital expenditures for the milieu control facilities for the remaining part of 2013 and the succeeding fiscal year are not material and no expectations has been hinted to affect the earnings in a material way (ANNUAL REPORT, 9). The Company maintains a regular trend of

Cumulative paper based off e-book provided Essay

Cumulative paper based off e-book provided - Essay Example My expectations were fulfilled when I read the chapter thoroughly as all core issues about crime and crime control were there in the chapter in detail. After reading the chapter, I learned the types of crimes occurring in the United States of America, as well as the some of the basic laws and official policies regarding crime control. The thing I liked the most in the chapter were the tables of statistics showing the types of crimes and number of victimizations for year some particular years. I also liked the tables showing changes in the rate of crimes from one year to another. However, I would have liked this chapter to provide a detailed knowledge of the ways to control the rate of crimes. Chapter 2: The second chapter of the book builds upon the knowledge shared in the first chapter of the book. This chapter includes a discussion on various perspectives of crime control and crime control strategies. These perspectives provide a clear knowledge of the significance of crime control for establishing peace. The chapter also includes a detailed discussion on the causes and consequences of crimes, as well as draws attention towards the limitations of retribution incapacitation and incapacitation of retribution. The chapter also includes a discussion on the basic goals and objectives of crime control and crime control strategies, such as, retribution, rehabilitation, incapacitation and deterrence. I thought of this chapter as if it would be having details about the perspectives of critics and supporters about different types of sentencing or crime control strategies. I did not have an idea that the chapter would also include a discussion about the causes and consequences of crimes. When I read the chapter thoroughly, my expectations were partially fulfilled as some of the issues that I had in my mind were discussed, such as, perspectives of crimes and crime control strategies, whereas the chapter did not highlight the perspectives of critics and supporters regardi ng appropriateness of sentencing models. After reading the chapter, I learned about the causes and consequences of crimes, as well as about the limitations of adopting different crime control strategies, such as, rehabilitation, incapacitation, and deterrence. The thing I liked in the chapter were the way causes of crimes in a society and their impact on the minds of people and overall society were described. However, I would have liked this chapter to highlight different types of sentencing models and the views of critics on them from different angles. Chapter 3: The third chapter of the book covers the theory of traditional policing and underlying concepts. It discussed whether the strategy of hiring more cops plays a significant role in reducing the number of crimes or not. The chapter also includes a discussion on different approaches that can be used to increase the effectiveness of police, such as, freeing up the resources, continuing with random or reactive policing, private security mechanisms, private policing, use of detectives, and other traditional approaches to policing. I thought of this chapter as if it would be having details about the theory of traditional policing, as well as about the effectiveness of traditional policing in controlling the crime rate in the United States of America. I also thought that the chapter would bring into light the limitations that traditional polic

The implications of Opportunity Recognition for entrepreneurs

The implications of Opportunity Recognition for entrepreneurs The Entrepreneur that starts up this business is Mr. Goh Cheng Hoy; he was born in 1959 in Penang. In 1983, Mr. Goh identifies the prospect of setting up a mattress manufacturing factory in Penang. He saw what others dont saw and he is the pioneer in bringing this business up in Penang. Not only did his company made name locally, his brand is also well known in the other part of the world as it is a major exporter of mattress. According to Donald Kuratko and Howard Frederick, entrepreneur is defined as a person who is innovative, recognizes and seizes opportunities; converts those opportunities into workable/marketable ideas; add value through time, effort, money, or skills; and assumes the risks of the competitive marketplace to implement these ideas. Entrepreneurs are often characterized by their ability to recognize opportunities (Bygrave Hofer, 1991) and the most basic entrepreneurial actions involve the pursuit of opportunity (Stevenson Jarillo, 1990). Entrepreneur is a person who can identify and recognise viable business opportunities. Opportunities lie everywhere, yet many people neglected and didnt notice there was one; however, entrepreneurs have the capacity to see what others do not. They are uniquely optimistic, committed, determined, creative and innovative. Although all people are unique by nature, all entrepreneurs have one common objective that is to create wealth from new or existing resources. The purpose of this paper is to review opportunity recognition literature in the entrepreneurial process and to discuss the implications of Opportunity Recognition for entrepreneurs. The opportunity recognition as presented here is only on an individual-level basis. Christensen et al. (1989) defines opportunity recognition consists of either perceiving a possibility to create new business, or significantly improving the position of an existing business. It both will lead to profit potential. Opportunity Recognition for new business is the central and important component of entrepreneurial process, (Christensen et al. 1994; Gaglio 1997; Gaglio and Katz 2001; Gartner et al. 2001; Kirzner 1997; Shane and Venkataraman 2000), and is the first and most vital steps in the entrepreneurial process (Christensen et al. 1994; Hills 1995; Timmons et al. 1987). Before one could proceed to others, they must first identify the opportunity that arise and take further step to make the opportunity into a profit making business. Without opportunity there is no entrepreneurship. This is further strengthen by the cited definition of an entrepreneur as someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to pursue it (Bygrave Hofer, 1991:14) Numerous scholars view opportunity recognition as a multi-staged and often complex process. The process perspective of OpR has proved to be a fruitful area of research because it acknowledges that OpR is a multifaceted phenomenon influenced by numerous factors. Long and McMullan (1984), for example, proposed a model of the opportunity recognition process with four stages: Prevision, point of vision, opportunity elaboration, and the decision to proceed. Pre-vision is affected by both uncontrollable and controllable factors, such as environmental and job forces, as well as venture alertness cultivation, moonlight venturing, and job selection. Ardichvili et al. (2003) suggest that the opportunity identification process begins when alert entrepreneurs notice factors in their domain of expertise that result in the recognition and evaluation of potential business opportunities. The issue of opportunity recognition, as opposed to opportunity evaluation, has received far less attention. Yet it is opportunity recognition that often drives deals. Until recently this aspect has been offered very little attention by scholars. However, there has been a growing interest into the process of opportunity recognition over the last few years, resulting in a number of published researches. The specific area of opportunity identification has been particularly enriched with insights through valuable academic in recent years. Namely, it is through the research findings and contributions of scholars like Shane, Lumpkin and Gilad that there are several affecting factors identified and modelled accordingly. Even though the joint efforts of the business practitioners and scholars, they have yet to produce a workable universal model, there are a number of framework variables that are being discussed and elaborated upon. Despite of a growing amount of published research work focusing on entrepreneurial opportunities, there is little empirical research and investigation into this area. The main question that puzzles most of the research relating to opportunity recognition is why, when and how someone generates or sees opportunities whilst others do not (Shane Venkataraman, 2000). Scholars argue that existing entrepreneurs are more likely than others to detect opportunities because of the knowledge they have learned from previous entrepreneurial experiences (McGrath, 1996; Ronstadt, 1998). Recent research on habitual entrepreneurship founds that opportunity recognition may be fuelled by prior entrepreneurial experience resulting in knowledge (Ucbasaran, Howorh, Westhead, 2000; Ucbasaran Westhead, 2002). There are two set of questions and debates surrounding opportunity literature. The first is whether opportunities are the result of serendipity or deliberate search (Chandler, Dahlquist, Davidsson, 2002; Gaglio Katz, 2001). The second is whether they are discovered objectively or created subjectively (Gartner et al., 2003). Existing knowledge is assumed to have the capacity to affect both the ability to search for information and the ability to take advantage of elements of coincidence or luck. Furthermore, both the discovery and creation of opportunities may be supported by the existing knowledge of the discoverer. Despite Shane (2000) states that opportunities are discovered without actively searching for them, he also supports the notion that prior knowledge is a pre-requisite for discovery. The discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities depends on prior knowledge, and people will be more likely to discover opportunities in sectors that they know well. Individuals who have developed particular knowledge through education, personal events, and work experience -idiosyncratic prior knowledge- are better able to discover certain opportunities than others. Therefore, all individuals are not equally likely to recognize a given entrepreneurial opportunity. The prior distribution of knowledge in society influences who discovers these opportunities. In sum, for opportunities to be discovered there must be a fit between an entrepreneurs prior experience and a venture opportunity. Prior experience must overlap with the knowledge domain of the venture opportunity (Fiet Patel, 2006). Shane (2000) takes into consideration the mentioned fit or overlap and proposes to assess the knowledge possessed by the entrepreneurs instead of identifying the knowledge needed to launch a new business. Conclusion An early step along a prospective entrepreneurs path to beginning a new business is the identification of an opportunity to pursue. In essence, the would-be entrepreneur must recognize that society currently deploys resources in a sub-optimal manner, so that a benefit exists to mobilizing and then reconfiguring them for use in a different capacity. In many instances, opportunity recognition results from an entrepreneurs creative insight into a new way to fulfill an unmet need. But even in well-established and highly visible industries, much of the information that serves as a necessary input to the creative process is available only to those with extensive industry experience. In part for this reason, considerable evidence reveals that nascent entrepreneurs most likely develop new ventures in domains in which they have broad work experience (for an early statement of this argument, see Brittain Freeman, 1986).

Nigerian Government: From Military Rule to Democratically Elected Governance. :: Essays Papers

Nigerian Government: From Military Rule to Democratically Elected Governance. Nigeria’s government has recently gone under a dramatic change. For my paper I decided to write on the topic of Nigerian government. When I interviewed a student, named Arit, from Nigeria, she told me how her country was formerly under military rule and had recently changed to a democratically elected government. Arit believes this is a good change for the country and it will help fix the destruction military rule left behind and pull Nigeria out of the dark. Military Rule Background The people of Nigeria suffered under the control of military rule and are now experiencing the recent change to democratically elected governance. One of the greatest problems in examining the background to military rule in Nigeria is figuring out when the seeds of the takeover and the tragedy of civil war were sown (Oyediran). When military rule first started in Nigeria, it was seen as a rescue operation and was not expected to last long. However, this was not the outcome. Nigeria gained independence in 1960 and out of the forty-three years post independence, the military ruled for twenty-nine years (Igbuzor). In January of 1966, the first military intervention occurred. Structure After the military gained political power the next thing they do is ‘abolish’ all political parties. The reason for this action is because the military sees such organizations as instruments of disunity, agents of strife, discord, and corruption. They also believe these organizations create the conditions that warrant the military intervening (Dudley 85). Nigeria’s military ruled government included: (1) Increased influence by political and military leaders of minority tribes (2) replacement of political party leaders by the military as general policy makers; (3) increased policy-making role for permanent secretaries and top echelons of civil service; and (4) replacement of the four powerful regions by twelve â€Å"states† (Imer 69). Problems However, abolishing the political parties does not destroy the political conflict. In fact, the strife is not eliminated but a vacuum is made between the leaders and the led (Dudley 86). Under military rule, the people of Nigeria were overwhelmed with corruption, fraud, embezzlement, and political instability (Johnson). These problems were reoccurring throughout the twenty-one years of military rule. First Elections The 1999 Constitution provided for a democratically elected government in section seven of the constitution (Igbuzor). February 28, 1999, Nigerians voted in a presidential election to put an end to military rule.

Variable Pay Plan: Gain Sharing

Employers are often faced with the challenge of looking for ways to boost productivity and profitability while at the same time, motivating employees to accomplish organizational goals. For many employers, variable pay plans have risen to meet this challenge. A variable pay plan ties pay increases to increased performance and productivity. One of the more popular group variable pay plans is called gain sharing. Under gain sharing pay programs, both the employer and the employee benefit from increased productivity. Therefore, gain sharing has often been referred to as a win-win pay program since it is an incentive strategy that ties pay to productivity. Gain sharing is a type of incentive plan designed to increase productivity by linking pay directly to specific improvements in a company†s performance. Gain sharing is used primarily when quantitative levels of production are important measures of business success. Gains are shared with unit/department employees on a monthly, quarterly, semiannual or annual basis according to some predetermined formula calculated on the value of gains of production over labor and other costs. The plan lets employees reap some of the rewards of their efforts through teamwork and cooperation and by working smarter and harder. Gain sharing plans offer the following:  · Directly ties pay to some important measure of company performance  · Results in productivity improvements when installed  · Appropriate for all groups of employees  · Improves communications and teamwork among employees  · Increases employee awareness of â€Å"the big picture†  · Improves job satisfaction and employee relations  · Increases employee participation through involvement in the system Gain sharing pay programs have the following disadvantages:  · Time consuming to design, implement and administer  · Requires employee orientation, education and training  · Accurate and timely production and cost data must be available  · If not already in place, gain sharing requires a shift to participative management and employee involvement Once you decide to add a gain sharing plan to your company you must pick the type of plan you wish to implement into your company. The following is a description of different types of plans a company could implement. A Value Added Plan is the cost of materials and services is subtracted from sales to determine a value added figure. Employee costs are then compared to this figure to arrive at a value added index. This index is compared to value added for future periods to determine if there has been an improvement in productivity. To the extent that employee costs are less than would be the case by applying a value added index to a value added, there is a productivity gain to be shared. A major challenge with this type of plan is removing the effects of automation from productivity gains. The Rucker Plan, essentially, this is a value added plan that contains special adjustments to account for base wage and other price changes, capital expenditures, and other costs unrelated to employee productivity. The Scanlon Plan is one of the more familiar gain sharing plans. It involves calculating total payroll costs and dividing by sales plus finished inventory figures to determine a plan ratio. Employee shares of productivity gains are determined by improvements of this ratio. The Improshare plan tells that increased productivity is determined by looking at the number of working hours that are saved in producing a number of finished units in a given period of time as compared to a base period. Its proponents stress that this measure leads to less waste and better quality control since only finished products are used in measuring the gains. The next is the Par Plan. This plan goes beyond other gain sharing plans by rewarding any successful effort to improve productivity. It does not single out gains solely from a productivity improvement standpoint. A â€Å"par† figure is determined based on all manufacturing costs compared to sales. Any improvement in this ratio determines the gain to be shared. The Gallway Plan gives employee incentives. The incentives under this plan are based solely on reduction in labor costs. The labor value of each product is determined and becomes a basis for determining the gain in productivity that is shared with employees. The first step in designing a gain sharing program is to determine what is to be accomplished by instituting a gain sharing plan. Is the objective to improve productivity? To reduce costs? To maintain or increase market share? Is the objective to improve organizational communication, employee relations or to promote employee participation in the organization? Is the objective to replace a compensation structure that no longer reinforces organizational goals such as improved product quality or customer service? The next stage is to determine how employees will be grouped under the program. Will employees be grouped by geographic location, product or service line, organizational group, payroll category or other employee characteristics? However the group is defined, it is important that it be self-contained and able to function as a â€Å"team. † The third step in developing a gain sharing plan is to determine what measures of performance are necessary to meet the stated objectives of the gain sharing plan. Measurements may be financial, operational or a combination of financial and operational. The fourth step in developing a gain sharing plan is to design the key elements of the program. Key issues at this stage include how do you measure productivity measures and award bonuses, handling variations in performance, and allocating or sharing the gains. After the plan has been developed and administrative issues addressed, the next step is to implement the plan and get employees actively involved in a team approach to performance improvement. This step might be accomplished by using formal or informal suggestion systems, quality circles, training sessions or set managed work groups with regular meetings. The final step after the plan is implemented is to ensure that it stays current with the development of the organization. During this phase of the process, a clear statement of plan documents outlining conditions under which the plan may be suspended, terminated or modified should be developed.

Promoting the Integration of Therapeutic Touch in Nursing Practice Essay

1. Describe the patient group in the study. English speaking adults with Dx of cancer expected to be on the unit the day following the intervention, whose medical conditions did not preclude their ability to comfortably receive TT or participate in the interview, and were able to give informed consent; 34 patient-participants completed the research process (16 women and 18 men), age range of 22 to 77 with an average age of 52 years 2. What was their health problem? Bone marrow transplant Patients. The focus of the study? Explore the experiences of nurses and patients on an inpatient oncology and bone marrow transplant unit when nurses had time preserved for exclusive offering of TT. 3. Who was providing the care? Two staff nurse-interventionists who were experienced and participated in TT education, and three nurse-interviewers who discussed the TT intervention with patient-participants the day following TT treatment. 4. What was the setting for the care? The study was conducted in an academic medical center on a 26 bed hematology/oncology in patient unit with bone marrow transplantation program. 5. What were the findings? 1) TT is a vehicle for comfort, caring, and presence that creates possibility and healing 2) TT invites a shift from disease-state focus to personhood focus that is freeing and reawakens the essence of nursing 3)TT is an intervention that illuminates the transformative power of nursing theory-research-practice. 6. What were the recommendations? Having a complementary nursing strategy, such as TT, that allows nurses an additional way to offering care that facilitates comfort, assists with anxiety reduction, and enhances sleep is of major significance. 7. How practical/useful is this information to a practicing nurse? I am not sure how practical TT is. First, you would have to have additional staff to allow for the time to educate seasoned nurses in TT and then to perform TT on the patients. You would also have to have the support of the administrative staff. However, I do believe that laying on of hands is an effective therapeutic tool. 8. What I wonder is†¦.. would there be a similar outcome in other specialty areas that patients have not had the opportunity to establish a trusting relationship with the nursing staff prior to TT.