Measuring Business Performance Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Measuring Business Performance - Coursework Example According to Chary (2009: 19.7) efficiency is defined as the ability of a business to produce a desired effect, service or a product with a minimum amount of effort. While effectiveness is defined as the degree or extent to which objectives are achieved, it is being successful in realizing or achieving what is required. Wharton (2012) defines effectiveness as the total output that is generated while efficiency refers to the economy in the utilization or use of resources to perform a task. Assume a lathe operator assigned to make bushes, makes 500 bushes per shift using 25 kilogram of steel rod. The effectiveness is that the operator makes 500 bushes per shift while the efficiency is that the operator produces 25 bushes per kilogram of steel rod. i) Higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency contribute to better results. They enable the company to increase their productivity by producing lower cost goods and services than competitors. This therefore makes the company to make higher profit for each unit sold or offer lower price than competitors to the customers (Wharton (2012: 24). ii) The company is able to develop a competitive advantage over its competitors. Higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness enable organizations to produce high quality goods and services. The organization is able to utilize their resources optimally to achieve desired output thus being ahead of their competitors (Chary, 2009: 19.8). iii) Finally, achieving higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency enables businesses to learn how to energize their workforce to focus on common goals. It helps the organization to manage and direct their human capital towards goal achievement and mission fulfillment. The organization is therefore able to create better communication, leadership, interaction, direction, adaptability as well as positive environment (Chary,

Theoretical relationships between market structure and bank Essay

Theoretical relationships between market structure and bank performance - Essay Example Besides, most banking institutions are failing to engage with customers due to the rising competition from other customers. As opposed to this, it remains the duty of the bank to re- arrange itself in order to beat the other competitive banks in the market. For instance such a bank needs to sell its services well to its potential clients outside through sales representatives ( Gutek, Barbara, & Theresa, 2000). The market structure is normally very sensitive for any institution to sell its services to the publics. The banking institutions at time sell customer products and services they do not comprehend. This makes it easier for banks to really charge these services rather than focus on customer needs which is the most important aspect in the market. High concentration in market encourages organizations to collude. A bank in a more concentrated market will earn higher profits than a bank operating in a less concentrated area ( Etro,2009). In order a bank to know the relation that exi sts between market structure and their performance it should employ or investigate the effects that are caused by changes in the structure or formation of the market. There are two theories that are used to explain how a bank can determine its profitability and understand better its relation with the market structure. They are namely; the structure-conduct- performance (SCP) and the efficient-structure (E-S) hypotheses. The bank will also use the following measures to evaluate the banks performance; return on asset (ROA), return on capital and return on capital ( Baligh, 1997). Structure-conduct-performance theory Structure-conduct -theory determines the degree of a firn’s performance....Most banks may therefore end up in lobbying in order to stop or delay the success of any competitive policy. The market power may however be lost if banking institutions establish non-competitive prices in their products and services. This theory mainly uses market share to measure efficient structure hypothesis. This hypothesis is negatively related with profitability. Market power is the ability of a company to control the prices in the market by manipulating the demand or the supply of goods and services or both. The ability of a company to control prices can have a negative effect on the bank performance due to lower interest rates that will have to be charged on the clients when acquiring loans from the commercial banks. This is due to monopoly in provision o services and goods which money supply low ( Etro,2009). â€Å"Quiet life hypothesis† indicates that the banks tend to enjoy the market power through foregone revenues and the savings on the costs, while the â€Å"efficient structure hypothesis† describes companies are able to make bigger profits into the company than their competitors due to maximum efficiency and not sales or provision of services.

Cuban Missile Crisis Essay -- essays research papers

On October 22nd, 1962, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States of America, addressed the nation on television. In his seven-point speech, he informed his audience that long-range nuclear missiles, capable of â€Å"striking most of the major cities in the Western Hemisphere, ranging as far north as Hudson Bay, Canada, and as far south as Lima, Peru† (JFK library p. 3) were being installed in Cuba by the Soviet Union. President Kennedy discussed the United States’ response, which included the placement of a naval blockade around the island of Cuba, a request for an immediate convening of the United Nations Security Council, and a heightened military alert. However, it was his third point which sent a chill around the world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Third: It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (JFK Library p. 3) With these words, President Kennedy informed the world that the Cold War was perilously close to turning hot, and the world stood on the brink of nuclear holocaust. Almost twenty years since the end of World War 2, after two decades of mounting tension between the Soviet Communist Empire and the Western allies, the dreaded nuclear showdown was underway. America and the Soviet Union were on a collision course. How had this come to pass? Although the announcement came as a great shock to the public, the Cuban Missile Crisis had not occurred â€Å"overnight†; it had been building for more than two years. In mid-1960, Cuba signed agreements with the USSR and Czechoslovakia, and almost immediately U.S. Intelligence detected the start of a massive, secret arms buildup on the island, sponsored by the Soviets. (Johnson, Hatch p. 2) Soviet ships began arriving at Havana, and the Cubans unloaded them under extreme secrecy. Over the next year, U.S. Intelligence recorded deliverie... ...ations, to ensure the carrying out and continuation of these commitments (a) to remove promptly the quarantine measures now in effect and (b) to give assurances against the invasion of Cuba. (Goldman, Stein p. 3) On October 28, the Russian Premier conceded to President Kennedy's demands by ordering all Soviet supply ships away from Cuban waters and agreeing to remove the missiles from Cuba's mainland, and the world breathed a sigh of relief. Looking back on the crisis, Robert McNamara believed the world was one step away from nuclear war. That step would be the President ordering invasion of Cuba. What was not known at the time was the presence of 43,000 combat-ready Soviet soldiers in Cuba, or the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons along Cuba's shore. Khrushchev had also given a standing order to his generals that if he couldn't be reached in the event of an invasion, they had authority to launch battlefield nuclear weapons. If Kennedy had invaded, the Soviets would have used nuclear weapons and President Kennedy would have had no choice but to retaliate. The response would likely have been an attack on Soviet soil, and global nuclear war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Marketing Concept

In the article â€Å"Pow! Romance! Comics Court Girls† by Matthew Phillips, it features the comic company’s new market. Male readers have always been the comics company’s target market for the past several years. Commonly, the main character portrays the strength of male gender. In the launching of the new comic series, â€Å"The Plain Janes†, â€Å"Re-Gifters†, â€Å"Clubbing,† DC Comics set a new target market, which are the female readers. It is a big opportunity to expand the possible customers for their market. Their market strategy is that they made the titles more appealing to the women. They based it on fantasy and romantic storylines to get girls’ attention. They emphasized female strength and their interests. By this strategic move, comic-book industry had their most significant growth. The Diamond Comics rose their sales to a 15% increase while Marvel Entertainment's publishing-segment revenue — which includes sales to booksellers and comic shops — rose 17% to $108.5 million. This market strategy is very advantageous for both parties. It provides materials for the female readers and also an additional market implying additional income for the company. The benefit of the market expansions is advantageous not only to the customers but more importantly to the company itself. The â€Å"Nolan Ryanx Pitches Virtues of U.S. Beef To Dubious Japanese† written by Amy Chozick, was all about the campaign on how to win back the Japanese customers on buying U.S. beef products. It has been very evident that the demand for beef had decreased since it was banned in Japan at 2003 due to the outbreak of mad-cow disease. It was a big challenge since there is a huge decrease in market and also competition was intensified. Japanese ordered more than 50% of their beef from Australia. By using a promotional strategy on the declining market, their market sales had been saved. Baseball legend Nolan Ryan was made as a campaign model. The slogan â€Å"Beef makes you strong!† was thrown during a ceremonial first pitch during a baseball game at   A concession stand called the â€Å"American Meat Booth† sold boxes filled with American beef and featuring Mr. Ryan's photo in the meat aisles at major grocery stores under in Chiba, a Tokyo suburb, last month. The campaign starring Mr. Ryan was featured in more than 2,000 different beef-related promotions over a three-month period. Once the problem was identified, promotional strategies (advertising campaign) are useful in uplifting the image of the product (U.S. beef) to the customers (Japanese consumers). Using Nolan Ryan, a well-known pitcher, as the endorser has a big impact on the Japanese since Japan is fond of baseball. He is also a credible person in line with meat knowledge since he also has his own cattle farm. In effect of this campaign, the American beef monthly sales had been doubled according to Philip Seng, president of the Denver-based federation. The cost of the promotion has not been stated but the ideal is that it should be relatively lower than the revenue. He admitted that there is a lot more to do to regain the past demand, after the sudden decline in sales due to the negative connotation of the mad-cow outbreak, but as their sales imply, the promotional campaign can be said successful.    Marketing Concept Marketing philosophy has experienced three major shifts during the history of commerce in the United States. First it was production oriented, then sales oriented, and currently it is consumer oriented. Till the late 1920s, companies had limited production capacity, and there was continuous demand for their products. The belief at that time was that, one can sell as much as one can produce. The entire company used to focus on production and Marketing was limited to taking order and supplying products on time. With the introduction of mass-production, production capacity caught up with and, in many areas, exceeded demand. Now, the businesses were sales oriented. Their philosophy became selling as much as one can, by using advertisements and other promotional activitiesThe end of World War II bought a world of choices to the consumers and a lot of competition to the existing players. There started a heavy competition for the consumer dollar. Businesses quickly came to realize that if t hey were going to get their share of those dollars, they were going to have to become more consumer oriented. This change in philosophy became known as the marketing concept.The Marketing concept relies on marketing research to define market segments their size and their needs. It is the philosophy that the companies should analyze the needs of their customers and then make decision to satisfy those needs better than their competition. (www.NetMBA.com)Thus, the marketing concept is essentially establishing a tangible relation between a company’s capabilities with customer needs. However, this is not the only factor that is taken into account. The marketing environment has other competitors who are planning the very same strategies to lure consumers. Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwest Airlines says†We don’t have a Marketing Department; we have a customer department† And in the words of a fords executive â€Å"If we are not customer driven, our cars won’ t be either† (Kotler, Armstrong. 2006). Companies that have embraced the marketing concept have found that it has had a strong impact on sales. They have also found that, in many respects, it has changed the way they operate.In addition the volatility of the marketing environment like and changes in the political, economic, social and technological environment, should also be taken into account, while developing a strategy. Any organization that applies the marketing concept essentially puts its present and potential customer’s needs as a guideline for its marketing and organizational operations.For e.g. – Consumers need to eat when they are hungry. What they want to eat and in what kind of environment will vary enormously. For some, eating at McDonalds satisfies the need to meet hunger. For others a microwaved ready-meal meets the need. Some consumers are never satisfied unless their food comes served with a bottle of fine Chardonnay. (http://www.tutor2u.net/bus iness/marketing/marketing_concept.asp)However, after creating a desire in the consumers, the pricing should also be sufficiently affordable, make them actually purchase the product.The Marketing concept first analyzes the needs of the consumer and then decides the appropriate product to fulfill those needs. Being customer driven, the marketing concept starts with a target market and customers. The company then focuses on the needs of these consumers and integrates all its marketing activities towards building an effective relation with these customers.For e.g. – The shift in buying behavior from marketplace to â€Å"marketspace â€Å"made Microsoft enter into online automobile retailing with CarPoint.com. While CarPoint could not â€Å"sell† or deliver any cars, it could shift much of consumer search, comparison, and decision-making, including pricing, from the physical platform of the traditional car dealer to the virtual world of the Web (Boyd, Walker, Mullins, 200 6).As is clearly seen above, such customer-driven approaches succeed, when the consumers know what they want. There is a clear need which is fulfilled by a combination of product and promotional mix. In many cases however, the customers do not know what they want or need. For e.g. – 25 years back, the concept of e-books or for that matter cell phones for a regular usage was something an average customer could not foresee.Such cases call for customer driver marketing, where the company understands the customers even better than the customers themselves. As Sony’s Akio Morita says â€Å"Out plan is to lead the public with new products, rather than as them what kind of products they want.† (Kotler, et al, 2006) SONY Corporation was the first to come up with the idea of a â€Å"walkman†, when they observed that consumers like music to be with them always. It is just as if they well â€Å"humming the music†. The idea, which was initially fiercely oppose d, became a milestone in the company’s history.Marketing CommunicationAccording to Philip Kotler – Any Company’s marketing strategy requires more than just developing a good product, attractively pricing it and ensuring its ready availability to its consumers. The strategy must include communicating with its current and prospective customers, and what they communicate should not be left to chance. (Kotler et al 2006)Companies use a wide range of marketing communications to promote the company, their products and their services. A company’s total marketing communication mix consists of a combination of tools like advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personnel selling and direct marketing tools (Kotler et al. 2006).Each of these categories involves specific tools. Advertising includes brochures, flyers TV/radio broadcasts etc.   Sales promotion includes free demos, discount coupons, Sale etc. Public relations includes sponsorships, press releas es etc. Personnel selling includes trade shows, sales presentations etc. Direct marketing includes telemarketing, direct selling etc.Before any company decides to go in for a specific blend of the above mentioned tools, it should first decide the message to be passed across, the recipients or audience for the message, way and means of presentation and its timing. In addition the follow-up actions after the message is passed across should also be decided, in order to avoid confusion when the orders or product information requests do start coming in.Owing to the advancements in Information technology, the consumers are now becoming increasingly aware of various choices available to them. The markets hence are seen to becoming more fragmented. Targeting these different fragmented groups becomes a challenge for the company, especially when they wish to portray different images of the company to the consumers, without affecting the overall company’s brand image. This calls in for Integrated marketing communications,IMC , the integration of the company’s entire communications channel to deliver a clear and consistent message to the consumers, regarding the organization and various products. (Fill, 2004)The first step of any marketing communication strategy is awareness. Awareness in turn starts from curiosity.   A motion-control company launched its products in the Nuremberg market fair for the first time, by placing big boxes of candies in their stall. Needless to say, this attracted the curiosity of many people, who would later become its customers, to the stall just to ‘have a look at what is going on’.There is another thing which goes hand-in-hand with awareness, the target market or audience. This factor sets the tone of the promotion in question, and the kind of message to be passed on. There are two extreme end of the tone – humor and emotional. Companies use emotional appeal concepts like patriotism, family closeness, anim al welfare, sharing and giving etc. to promote their products.For e.g. – Salvation army uses moral appeal as a pull toward its goal of seeking attention. At the other end of the spectrum are the humorous ads, which are gaining more and more acceptance amongst American audience. According to various studies, light natured ads catch the attention of consumers. In one of its popular ads Budwieser and Bud light featured a wannabe donkey that wears fur hoof extensions and brays in effort to becoming a part of the Budweiser Clydesdales team (Kotler et al 2006).Message structure and format is very important, especially when print media is the desired mode of communication between the company and its consumers. Even the tele-ads are very much concerned about the overall logo and messages displayed on-screen to its consumers. The most popular example of this is the Statuary warning written on cigarette packs.They are always there, always mentioned and always displayed and yet the bala nce of injurious-yet fashionable is clearly visible in all of these ads. Yesmail sends clients’ promotional e-mail messages to targeted consumers who said â€Å"yes† when asked whether they wished to receive promotional offers in certain categories of interest (Winer, 2006).Choosing the media of communication is the next step. The is chosen based on getting the maximum amount of visibility and the media that creates lasting impression on the minds of consumers There are many channels that can be used in this case. For e.g. – the success of Harry Potter, collapsible scooters, the Chrysler PT Cruiser, and The Blair Witch Project is all due to word-of-mouth publicity (Kotler, Keller, 2005).The print media includes advertisements in magazine, newspapers, pamphlets etc. The most popular media still remain as the television and radio, though internet marketing is fast gaining over them.After the entire process of communication is done, one of the steps that should alw ays be done is collecting the feedback from the consumers. This is done so as to know the effectiveness of the communication on the minds of the consumer.This total marketing communications program used while promoting a company or business is called the promotional mix. Success is all about integrating separate approaches such as PR, internal and direct marketing into one complete marketing strategy. All the promotional elements which are used to gain customers must be planned and then implemented in a coordinated way. (Smith, Taylor, 2004).ReferencesBooksFill, C., â€Å"Marketing Communications: engagement, strategies and practice†, 2nd ed.,2004, FT Prentice HallKotler, P. Armstrong G., â€Å"Principles of Marketing†, 11th ed, 2006, PearsonKotler, P., Keller, K., â€Å"Marketing Management†, 12th ed., 1 March 2005, Prentice HallMullins, J., Walker, O., Boyd, H., â€Å"Marketing Management: A Strategic Decision-Making Approach†, 6th ed, 17 Oct 2006, McGr aw-Hill/IrwinSmith, R., Taylor, J., â€Å"Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach†, 4th ed, 1  July 2004, Kogan PageWiner, R., â€Å"Marketing Management†, 3rd ed, 31 May 2006, Prentice HallWebsitesâ€Å"Marketing concept and orientation†,http://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/marketing-orientationâ€Å"The Marketing Concept†, Oct. 2003, One Vision Ltd.â€Å"10 minutes Guide – Marketing Communication†, 2004, The Chartered Institute ofMarketinghttp://www.cim.co.uk/mediastore/10_minute_guides/10minguide_marketingcommunication.pdf

Definition and Examples of the Historical Present Tense

In English grammar, the historical present is the use of a verb phrase in the present tense to refer to an event that took place in the past. In narratives, the historical present may be used to create an effect of immediacy. Also called the  historic present, dramatic present, and narrative present. In rhetoric, the use of the present tense to report on events from the past is called translatio temporum (transfer of times). The term translation is particularly interesting, notes German English literature educator Heinrich Plett, because it is also the Latin word for metaphor. It clearly shows that the historical present only exists as an intended tropical deviation of the past tense. (Plett, Henrich. Rhetoric and Renaissance Culture, Walter de Gruyter GmbH Co., 2004.) Examples and Observations It is a bright summer day in 1947. My father, a fat, funny man with beautiful eyes and a subversive wit, is trying to decide which of his eight children he will take with him to the county fair. My mother, of course, will not go. She is knocked out from getting most of us ready: I hold my neck stiff against the pressure of her knuckles as she hastily completes the braiding and the beribboning of my hair. ... (Walker,  Alice. Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self. In Search of Our Mothers Gardens: Womanist Prose, Harcourt Brace, 1983.) There is a famous story of President Abraham Lincoln, taking a vote at a cabinet meeting on whether to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. All his cabinet secretaries vote nay, whereupon Lincoln raises his right hand and declares: The ayes have it. (Rodman, Peter W.  Presidential Command, Vintage, 2010.) Verbs in the historic present describe something that happened in the past. The present tense is used because the facts are listed as a summary, and the present tense provides a sense of urgency. This historic present tense is also found in news bulletins. The announcer may say at the start, Fire hits a city center building, the government defends the new minister, and in football City, United lose. (Language Notes, BBC World Service.) If you introduce things which are past as present and now taking place, you will make your story no longer a narration but an actuality. (Longinus,  On the Sublime, quoted by Chris Anderson in  Style as Argument: Contemporary American Nonfiction, Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.) An Example of the Historical Present in an EssayI’m nine years old, in bed, in the dark. The detail in the room is perfectly clear. I am lying on my back. I have a greeny-gold quilted eiderdown covering me. I have just calculated that I will be 50 years old in 1997. ‘Fifty’ and ‘1997’ don’t mean a thing to me, aside from being an answer to an arithmetic question I set myself. I try it differently. ‘I will be 50 in 1997.’ 1997 doesn’t matter. ‘I will be 50.’ The statement is absurd. I am nine. ‘I will be ten’ makes sense. ‘I will be 13’ has a dreamlike maturity about it. ‘I will be 50’ is simply a paraphrase of another senseless statement I make to myself at night: ‘I will be dead one day.’ ‘One day I won’t be.’ I have a great determination to feel the sentence as a reality. But it always escapes me. ‘I will be dead’ comes with a picture of a dead body on a bed. But it’s mine, a nine-year-old body. When I make it old, it becomes someone else. I can’t imagine myself dead. I can’t imagine myself dying. Either the effort or the failure to do so makes me feel panicky. ... (Diski, Jenny. Diary,  London Review of Books, October 15, 1998. Report title At Fifty in  The Art of the Essay: The Best of 1999, edited by Phillip Lopate, Anchor Books, 1999.) An Example of the Historical Present in a Memoir  My first conscious direct memory of anything outside myself is not of Duckmore and its estates but of the street. I am adventuring out of our front gate and into the great world beyond. Its a summers day — perhaps this is the very first summer after we moved in when Im not yet three. I walk along the pavement, and on into the endless distances of the street — past the gate of No. 4 — on and bravely on until I find myself in a strange new landscape with its own exotic flora, a mass of sunlit pink blossom on a tangled rambler rose hanging over a garden fence. I have got almost as far as the garden gate of No. 5. At this point, I somehow become aware of how far I am from home and abruptly lose all my taste for exploration. I turn and run back to No. 3. (Frayn, Michael. My Fathers Fortune: A Life, Metropolitan Books, 2010.) The You-Are-There IllusionWhen the reference point of the narration is not the present moment but some point in the past, we have the historical present, in which a writer tries to parachute the reader into the midst of an unfolding story (Genevieve lies awake in bed. A floorboard creaks ... ). The historical present is also often used in the setup of a joke, as in A guy walks into a bar with a duck on his head. ... Though the you-are-there illusion forced by the historical present can be an effective narrative device, it can also feel manipulative. Recently a Canadian columnist complained about a CBC Radio news program that seemed to him to overuse the present tense, as in UN forces open fire on protesters. The director explained to him that the show is supposed to sound less analytic, less reflective and more dynamic, more hot than the flagship nightly news show. (Pinker, Steven.  The Stuff of Thought, Viking, 2007.) A Warning From the PastAvoid the use of the historical present unless the narrative is sufficiently vivid to make the use spontaneous. The historical present is one of the boldest of figures and, as is the case with all figures, its overuse makes a style cheap and ridiculous. (Royster, James Finch and Stith Thompson,  Guide to Composition, Scott Foresman and Company, 1919.)

Empress Carlota of Mexico Her Tragic History

Empress Carlota, born Princess Charlotte of Belgium (June 7, 1840  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ January 19, 1927) was briefly the Empress of Mexico, from 1864 to 1867. She suffered from a lifetime of serious mental illness after her husband, Maximilian, was deposed in Mexico, but escaped his violent fate. Early Life Princess Charlotte, later to be known as Carlota, was the only daughter of Leopold I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, king of Belgium, a Protestant, and Louise of France, a Catholic. She was a first cousin of both Queen Victoria and Victorias husband, Prince Albert.  (Victorias mother Victoria and Alberts father Ernst were both siblings of Leopold.) Her father had been married to Princess Charlotte of Great Britain, who was expected to eventually become Britains Queen. Sadly, Charlotte died of complications the day after giving birth to a stillborn son after some fifty hours of labor.  Leopold later married Louise Marie of  Orlà ©ans, whose father was the king of France, and they named their daughter Charlotte in memory of Leopolds first wife.  They also had three sons. Louise Marie died of tuberculosis when Charlotte was only ten. From that point on, Charlotte lived most of the time with her grandmother, Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies, Queen of France, married to Louis-Philippe of France. Charlotte was known as serious and intelligent, as well as beautiful. Meeting Emperor Maximilian Charlotte met Archduke Maximilian of Austria, younger brother of the Habsburg Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I, in the summer of 1856 when she was sixteen.  Maximilian was eight years Charlottes senior and was a career naval officer. Maximilians mother Archduchess Sophia of Bavaria was married to the Archduke Frances Charles of Austria. Rumors of the time assumed that Maximilians father was actually not the Archduke, but rather Napoleon Frances, son of Napoleon Bonaparte. Maximilian and Charlotte were second cousins, both descended from  Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria and Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, parents of Charlottes maternal grandmother Maria Amalia and Maximilians paternal grandmother Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Maximilian and Charlotte were attracted to each other, and Maximilian proposed their marriage to Charlottes father  Leopold.  The princess had been courted as well by Pedro V of Portugal and Prince George of Saxony, but loved Maximilian and his liberal idealism. Charlotte chose Maximilian over her fathers preference, the Portuguese Pedro V, and her father approved the marriage, and began negotiations over a dowry. Marriage and Children Charlotte married Maximilian on July 27, 1857, at age 17. The young couple lived first in Italy  in a palace built by Maximilian on the Adriatic, where Maximilian was serving as governor of Lombardy and Venice beginning in 1857. Though Charlotte was devoted to him, he continued to attend wild parties and visit brothels. She was a favorite of her mother-in-law, Princess Sophie, and had a poor relationship with her sister-in-law, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, wife of her husbands older brother, Franz Joseph. When the Italian war for freedom began, Maximilian and Charlotte fled. In 1859, he was removed form his governorship by his brother. Charlotte  stayed at the palace while Maximilian traveled to Brazil, and he is said to have brought back a venereal disease which infected Charlotte  and made it impossible for them to have children. Though they maintained the image of a devoted marriage in public, Charlotte is said to have refused to continue marital relations, insisting on separate bedrooms. Empress of Mexico Napoleon III had decided to conquer Mexico  for France. Among the motivations of the French was to weaken the United States by supporting the Confederacy. After a defeat at Puebla (still celebrated by Mexican-Americans as Cinco de Mayo), the French tried again, this time taking control of Mexico City. Pro-French Mexicans then moved to institute a monarchy, and Maximilian was selected as the Emperor. Charlotte  urged him to accept. (Her father had been offered the Mexican throne and rejected it, years earlier.)  Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, insisted that Maximilian give up his rights to the Austrian throne, and Charlotte talked him into renouncing his rights. The couple departed from Austria on April 14, 1864.  On May 24 Maximilian and Charlotte - now to be known as Carlota - arrived in Mexico, placed on the throne by Napoleon III as Emperor and Empress of Mexico. Maximilian and Carlota believed that they had the support of the Mexican people. But nationalism in Mexico was running high, and other factors were at play that would ultimately doom Maximilians reign. Maximilian was too liberal for the conservative Mexicans who supported the monarchy, lost the support of the papal nuncio (the envoy representing the Pope) when he declared freedom of religion, and the neighboring USA refused to recognize their rule as legitimate.  When the American Civil War ended, the United States backed  Juà ¡rez against the French troops in Mexico. Maximilian continued his habits of relationships with other women.  Concepcià ³n Sedano y Leguizano, a 17-year-old Mexican, gave birth to his son.  Maximilian and Carlota attempted to adopt as heirs the nephews of the daughter of Mexicos first emperor Agustin de Ità ºrbide,  but the American mother of the boys claimed that she had been forced to give up her sons. The idea that Maximilian and Carlota had, essentially, kidnapped the boys further eroded their credibility. Soon the Mexican people rejected foreign rule, and Napoleon, despite his promise to always support Maximilian, decided to withdraw his troops.  When Maximilian refused to leave after the French troops announced they would pull  out, the Mexican forces arrested the deposed Emperor. Carlota in Europe Carlota convinced her husband not to abdicate, and she returned to Europe to attempt to gain support for her husband and his precarious throne. Arriving in Paris, she was visited by Napoleons wife  Eugà ©nie, who then arranged for her to meet with Napoleon III to get his support for the Mexican Empire. He refused. At their second meeting, she began crying and could not stop.  At their third meeting, he told her that his decision to keep French troops out of Mexico was final.   She slipped into what was likely a serious depression, described at the time by her secretary as a grave attack of mental aberration. She became afraid that her food would be poisoned. She was described as laughing and weeping inappropriately, and talking incoherently.She behaved strangely. When she went to visit the pope, she behaved so strangely that the pope allowed her to stay overnight at the Vatican, unheard of for a woman.  Her brother finally came to take her to Triest, where she remained at Miramar. Maximilians End Maximilian, hearing of his wifes mental illness, still did not abdicate. He attempted to fight the troops of Juà ¡rez, but was defeated and was captured. Many Europeans advocated for his life to be spared, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.  Emperor Maximilian was executed by a firing squad on June 19, 1867. His body was buried in Europe. Carlota was taken back to Belgium that summer. From then on, Carlota lived in seclusion for the last nearly sixty years of her life. She spent her time in Belgium and Italy, never recovering her mental health, and perhaps never fully knowing of her husbands death. In 1879, she was removed from the castle at Tervuren, where she had retired, when the castle burned. She continued her strange behavior. During World War I, the German Emperor protected the castle at Bouchout where she was living.  She died on January 19, 1927, of pneumonia. She was 86 years old. Sources: Haslip, Joan. Crown of Mexico: Maximilian and His Empress Carlota.1971.Ridley, Jasper. Maximilian and Juarez. 1992, 2001.Smith, Gene. Maximilian and Carlota: A Tale of Romance and Tragedy. 1973.Taylor, John M. Maximilian Carlotta: A Story of Imperialism.

Accounting homework questions Example

Essays on Accounting homework questions Assignment Sur Finance and Accounting May 11, Variance analysis is a popular decision making aid in many organizations. The premise upon which the approach derives its support comes from the realization that a company’s performance is determinable through comparison of actual performance with budgeted performance. Usually, a specific variance enables the management to understand whether a process is performing worse or better than was anticipated in the budget. Additional management tools include investment analysis tools such as net present value, by which the management can establish the most profitable investment areas of the business. This paper explores these management tools using practical real life cases from different corporations. 1. Activity Variances for June Revenue Variance = Actual Revenue – Planned Revenue = (53.40*3,100) – (53.40*2,600) = 165,540 – 138,840 = 26,700 (F) Personnel Expenses Variance = Actual - Planned = (39,700 + (12.60*3,100)) – (39,700 + (12.60*2,600)) = 39,060 – 32,760 = 6,300 (U) Medical Supplies Expenses Variance = Actual - Planned = (1,800 + (10.40*3,100)) – (1,800 + (10.40*2,600)) = 32,240 – 27,040 = 5,200(U) Occupancy Expenses Variance = Actual - Planned = (8,200 + (2.30*3,100)) – (8,200 + (2.30*2,600)) = 15,330 – 14,180 = 1,150(U) Administrative Expenses Variance = Actual - Planned = (6,100 + (0.20*3,100)) – (6,100 + (0.20*2,600)) = 6,720 – 6,620 = 100(U) Total Activity Variance = Actual - Planned = 26,700 – (6,300 + 5,200 + 1,150 + 100) = 26,700 – 12,750 = 13,950(F) 2. Efficiency variance for power cost Overheads Efficiency Variance = (Actual Hours*Overhead Rate) – (Standards Hours for actual Production*Overhead Rate) (Dalci Tanis, 81) =53,240*5.10 – 7,000*7.5*5.10 = 3,774(F) 3. Segmented income statement for the company (Accounting for Management, 1) Sales Channel Total Retail Wholesale Sales Revenues 740,000 500,000 240,000 Less: Variable Expenses Variable Expenses 346,000 245,000 101,000 Contribution Margin 394,000 255,000 139,000 Less: Fixed Costs Fixed Costs 152,000 79,000 73,000 Traceable Fixed Expenses 128,000 90,000 38,000 Total Fixed Costs 280,000 169,000 111,000 Profit Margins 114,000 86,000 28,000 4. a) Company’s income from processing a batch of the common input into X and Y Cost of common product = $71 Cost of processing = $10 Total production costs = $81 Revenue from Selling Products A and B: Sale of A = $29 Sale of B = $45 Total revenues = $74 The company makes $74 – $81 = -$7, For every batch of common product, the company makes a loss of $7 b) Selling each of the intermediate products, A and B as is vs. further processing Selling the intermediate products as they are incurs the company a loss of $7 per batch of common product. Hence, it worth considering alternative processing options. Total costs to produce the intermediate products (from previous calculation) = $81 Additional cost to make A into X = $14 Additional cost to turn B into Y = $29 Total cost for processing past the intermediate products = $124 Sale price of X = $39 Sale price of Y = $91 Total sales = $130 Total profit with additional processing = 130 – 124 = 6 The company would make a profit of $6 dollars per batch through further processing of the intermediary products. Selling the products at the intermediary stage makes the company a loss of $7. Therefore, further processing increases the company’s profit margin by $13 dollars a batch. Consequently, the product processed further into the final products X and Y for additional value. 5. Net present value of the project at 14% discount rate Cash outlay to fund the project: Direct investment $100,000 Cash savings in funding due to currently unused warehouse space: 0.25*200,000 = $50,000 Therefore, Actual investment cost = 100,000 – 50,000 = 50,000 Year Cash Flow Discount Factor (Given 14% discount rate (Boehlje Ehmke, 5) Present Value 1 17,000 0.8772 14,912.40 2 17,000 0.7695 13,081.50 3 17,000 0.6750 11,475.00 4 17,000 0.5921 10,065.70 5 17,000 0.5194 8,829.80 Present Value 58,364.40 Net Present Value = Present Value (of Net Cash Inflows) – Present Cash Outlay of the Project NPV = 58,364.40 – 50,000 = $8,364.40 The NPV of the project at 14% discount rate is $8,364.40 Whether to Accept or Reject the Project If is greater than zero (NPV0), the investment would be worthwhile, and therefore the project can be accepted. Since the NPV is positive, the project is worthwhile and is worth undertaking by the company, as it will result in accumulated earnings worth $8,364.40, according to the present value of money. The project will generate more cash inflow that will be the cost necessary to complete it. Works Cited Accounting for Management. Segment Reporting and Profitability Analysis-Segmented Income Statements. Accounting for Management. 2012. Web May 11, 2012 Boehlje, M and Ehmke, C. Capital Investment Analysis and Project Assessment. Purdue University. 2005. Pp. 3-5. Print. Dalci, I and Tanis, V. Activity-Based Variance Analysis: Another Approach to Overhead Costs Variance Analysis. Review of Economic and Business Studies. 2005. 9(10) Pp. 73-100. Print.