SU Case Study Euro Disneyland free essay sample

In American and French cultures, power distance is not distributed equally. In these cultures, it is derived from the level of management and the position one has in terms of power distance relationship. Second, uncertainty avoidance -? it is the extent to which people create beliefs when they feel threatened by ambiguous situations in order to avoid them. This cultural dimension is relative in both French and American cultures. In both cultures, threatening situations exist and personnel are advised to avoid risky and ambiguous situations as much as possible.Third, individualism. Individualism is the inclination of people to look after, foremost, themselves and their immediate family only. American culture is highly characterized and depicted by individualism. In organizations, employees look after oneself along with his immediate family. In the other hand, the French always highlight group and team dynamics. They always emphasize what is best for the group. And lastly, masculinity; masculinity is very apparent in American culture where money, success and material things are valued dominantly. We will write a custom essay sample on SU Case Study Euro Disneyland or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In the French ultra, on the other hand, there exists a tradeoff to femininity because they do not emphasize materialism. 2. In what way has Trampers research help explain cultural differences between the United States and France? According to Trampers research, there are several cultural differences between the French and American culture. The four organizational cultures that he highlighted are: Eiffel Tower Culture -which is characterized by strong importance on orientation and hierarchy to the task; followed by Family Culture which focuses on orientation and hierarchy to the person;Guided Missile Culture which stresses the importance of orientation to the task and equality in the workplace; and lastly, Incubator culture which characterizes strong emphasis on orientation to the person and equality. In the USA, there exists an egalitarianism philosophy that is mainly characterized by a guided missile type of culture. This type is further exemplified by the presence of a formal organization that promotes task orientation and support for people in the workplace. In this type of work environment, a manager is the one making decision for the greatest good Of he group, for the greatest number.In the northwestern European culture, the Eiffel Tower organizational culture is then exemplified. The French is more laid back, subdued, and includes traditional approaches to their management style. In the French culture, a bureaucratic organization is common. 3. In managing its Euro Disneyland operations, what are three mistakes that the company made? Explain. A mistake that Euro Disneyland made is their lack of fully understanding the French culture. Their decision to serve wine in Euro Disneyland restaurants was an essential factor to meeting the needs of the French culture.Another fault of Euro Disneyland management was their lack of communication to and between French farmers, politicians, villagers, and even bankers. And last was their excessive admission pricing into the theme park and hotels as well as food purchases. This investment then became a so-called cultural Coherency. It was further characterized as American provincialism. There French culturally prefer a Victorian style to the Disney theme park and instead of French managers filling in managerial sections, expatriates were hired. . Based on its experience, what are three lessons the company should have learned about how to deal with diversity? One lesson Disney should have learned about is the importance of marketing research. It is important to know what consumer want and how things are done in their culture. Management should have researched on preferences, tastes and practices of French culture. Second, they also should consider the country climate, and third, the country food preferences, practices and food consumption patterns.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling Review

'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling Review The Jungle Book is one of the works for which Rudyard Kipling is best remembered. The Jungle Book falls in line with works like Flatland and Alice in Wonderland (which offer satire and political commentary underneath the genre title of childrens literature). Likewise, the stories in The Jungle Book are written to be enjoyed by adults as well as children- with a depth of meaning and symbolism that delves far beyond the surface. Relationships and events related to The Jungle Book are important to any human being, including adult men and women, with or without families. While the tales can be read, or children may listen to them from an older reader, these stories need to be re-read later, in high school, and again in later adult life. They are enjoyable in every subsequent reading and the longer one lives, the broader is the frame of reference one has against which to draw the stories into perspective.The Kipling stories offer a marked perspective of a reminder of human origins and history as well as animal. As the Native American and other Indigenous Peoples often state: All are related under one sky. A reading of ​The Jungle Book at age 90 will reach several more levels of meaning than a childhood reading and both are just as brilliant an experience. The stories can be shared inter-generationally, with interpretations shared by all. The book is a group of stories that are actually quite good for â⠂¬Å"Grandparents in the School† types of family literacy programs of the current day. Importance of the Tales Kipling is still much quoted, via Gunga Din and his famous poem â€Å"IF,† but The Jungle Book  is also important. They are important because they address the prime relationships in one’s life- family, coworkers, bosses- and everyone’s relationship with Nature. For instance, if a boy is raised by wolves, then wolves are his family until the last one dies. The themes of The Jungle Book revolve around noble qualities such as loyalty, honor, courage, tradition, integrity, and persistence. These are good to discuss and ponder in any century, making the stories timeless.My favorite Jungle Book story is of a young mahout and his elephant and the legend of the elephant dance in the middle of the forest. This is Toomai of the Elephants. From wooly mammoths and mastodons to our zoological parks, to the Elephants Sanctuary in the American South to Disney’s Dumbo, and Seuss’s Horton, elephants are magical creatures. They know friendship and heartache and can cry. Kipling may have been the first to show that they can also dance. The young mahout, Toomai, believes the tale of the infrequent event of Elephant Dance, even when the seasoned elephant trainers try to dissuade him. He is rewarded for his belief by being taken to that very dance by his own elephant, spending time in another world that few can enter. Faith makes entrance possible, so Kipling tells us, and there is the possibility that childlike faith can be translated to any number of human events. â€Å"Tiger-Tiger† After Mowgli left his Wolf Pack, he visited a Human village and was adopted by Messua and her husband, who both believed him their own son, previously stolen by a tiger. They teach him Human customs and language and help him adjust to a new life. However, the wolf-boy Mowgli hears from Grey Brother (a wolf) that trouble is afoot against him. Mowgli does not succeed in the Human village but makes enemies of a hunter, a priest, and others, because he denounces their unrealistic comments about the jungle and its animals. For this, he is reduced to the status of the cowherd. This story suggests that perhaps the animals are more just than Humans.The tiger Sheer Khan enters the village, while Mowgli takes half his cattle to one side of a ravine, and his wolf brothers take the rest to on the other side. Mowgli lures the tiger into the middle of the ravine and the cattle trample him to death. The envious hunter broadcasts that the boy is a wizard or demon and Mowgli is exiled to wander the c ountryside. This certainly shows the dark side of human beings, again suggesting that animals are nobler creatures.​ Other Favorite Tales Other favorites from this collection are â€Å"The White Seal†, the tale of a Bering Sea’s seal pup that saves 1000s of his kindred from the fur trade, and â€Å"Her Majesty’s Servants†, a story of the conversations heard by a man among the camp animals of the Queen’s military. The entire collection observes mankind from a stance of needing improvement that is possible if they listen to animal wisdom.

Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

Preamble to the U.S. Constitution The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution summarizes the Founding Fathers’ intention to create a federal government dedicated to ensuring that â€Å"We the People† always live in a safe, peaceful, healthy, well-defended- and most of all- free nation.  Ã‚  The preamble states: â€Å"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.† As the Founders intended, the Preamble has no force in law. It grants no powers to the federal or state governments, nor does it limit the scope of future government actions. As a result, the Preamble has never been cited by any federal court, including the U.S. Supreme Court, in deciding cases dealing with constitutional issues. Also known as the â€Å"Enacting Clause,† the Preamble did not become a part of the Constitution until the final few days of the Constitutional Convention after Gouverneur Morris, who had also signed the Articles of Confederation, pressed for its inclusion. Before it was drafted, the Preamble had not been proposed or discussed on the floor of the convention. The first version of the preamble did not refer to, â€Å"We the People of the United States†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Instead, it referred to the people of the individual states. The word â€Å"people† did not appear, and the phrase â€Å"the United States† was followed by a listing of the states as they appeared on the map from north to south. However, the Framers changed to the final version when they realized that the Constitution would go into effect as soon as nine states gave their approval, whether any of the remaining states had ratified it or not. The Value of the Preamble The Preamble explains why we have and need the Constitution. It also gives us the best summary we will ever have of what the Founders were considering as they hashed out the basics of the three branches of government. In his highly acclaimed book, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Justice Joseph Story wrote of the Preamble, â€Å"its true office is to expound the nature and extent and application of the powers actually conferred by the Constitution.† In addition, no less noted authority on the Constitution than Alexander Hamilton himself, in Federalist No. 84, stated that the Preamble gives us â€Å"a better recognition of popular rights than volumes of those aphorisms which make the principal figure in several of our State bills of rights, and which would sound much better in a treatise of ethics than in a constitution of government.† James Madison, one of the leading architects of the Constitution, may have put it best when he wrote in The Federalist No. 49: [T]he people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived . . . . Understand the Preamble, Understand the Constitution Each phrase in the Preamble helps explain the purpose of the Constitution as envisioned by the Framers. ‘We the People’ This well-known key phrase means that the Constitution incorporates the visions of all Americans and that the rights and freedoms bestowed by the document belong to all citizens of the United States of America. ‘In order to form a more perfect union’ The phrase recognizes that the old government based on the Articles of Confederation was extremely inflexible and limited in scope, making it hard for the government to respond to the changing needs of the people over time.   ‘Establish justice’ The lack of a system of justice ensuring fair and equal treatment of the people had been the primary reason for the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution against England. The Framers wanted to ensure a fair and equal system of justice for all Americans. ‘Insure domestic tranquility’ The Constitutional Convention was held shortly after Shays’ Rebellion, a bloody uprising of farmers in Massachusetts against the state caused by the monetary debt crisis at the end of the Revolutionary War. In this phrase, the Framers were responding to fears that the new government would be unable to keep peace within the nation’s borders. ‘Provide for the common defense’ The Framers were acutely aware that the new nation remained extremely vulnerable to attacks by foreign nations and that no individual state had the power to repel such attacks. Thus, the need for a unified, coordinated effort to defend the nation would always be a vital function of the U.S. federal government. ‘Promote the general welfare’ The Framers also recognized that the general well-being of the American citizens would be another key responsibility of the federal government. ‘Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity’ The phrase confirms the Framer’s vision that the very purpose of the Constitution is to protect the nation’s blood-earned rights for liberty, justice, and freedom from a tyrannical government. ‘Ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America’ Simply stated, the Constitution and the government it embodies are created by the people, and that it is the people who give America its power. The Preamble in Court While the Preamble has no legal standing, the courts have used it in trying to interpret the meaning and intent of various sections of the Constitution as they apply to modern legal situations. In this way, courts have found the Preamble useful in determining the â€Å"spirit† of the Constitution. Whose Government is it and What is it For? The Preamble contains what may be the most important three words in our nation’s history: â€Å"We the People.† Those three words, along with the brief balance of the Preamble, establish the very basis of our system of â€Å"federalism,† under which the states and central government are granted both shared and exclusive powers, but only with the approval of â€Å"We the people.† Compare the Constitution’s Preamble to its counterpart in the Constitution’s predecessor, the Articles of Confederation. In that compact, the states alone formed â€Å"a firm league of friendship, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare† and agreed to protect each other â€Å"against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.† Clearly, the Preamble sets the Constitution apart from the Articles of Confederation as being an agreement among the people, rather than the states, and placing an emphasis on rights and freedoms above the military protection of the individual states.

Part (a) Outline the argument that there is increasing uncertainty Essay

Part (a) Outline the argument that there is increasing uncertainty about identity in contemporary society. Part (b) How much control do we have in shaping our o - Essay Example This helps to send signals to others how we want to be seen as. A document like a passport signifies that you belong to a particular nation, even though the physical appearance may have changed over a period of years. Identities are formed depending upon how I see me and how others see me. Identities are the product of the society in which we live and how we relate to others. Conflicting and multiple identities also develop when the same person exhibits different characteristics or attributes as a parent, husband, or an employee at different times, in different situations. There is also a connection between how I want to be and the influences, pressures, and oppurtunities around that affect me. Conflicting identity can also arise when how I see myself differs from how others see me. The organization of society is important in shaping our identity. Louis Althusser emphasizes that interpellation links the individual to the social. Interpellation is a process in which the people recognize themselves in a particular identity, for instance, people identify themselves as ‘that’ when they see a particular advertisement. Social scientists relate work based identities to class. A class is a group of people who share common interest, experiences, and lifestyles. Different economic systems create different social groups, which involves some degree of inequality. The unequal distribution of materials creates different social class. Gender relations are another source of inequality. Men are considered the breadwinner and women’s identity is merely an extension of their role as wives, homemakers, and mothers. Hence, distribution of work between men and women also carries these marks and identities. Young children need to know whether they are boy or girl. Gender identity is constructed not just through the biological body but also through the social and cultural classification system. Social class provides a sense of belonging and

Caribean Ensemble Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Caribean Ensemble - Essay Example Choosing only one student performance within the group, it is possible to show bright interactions between this popular/classical theme and the history of music, cultural backgrounds, instrumental history, where all factors help to get a deeper understanding of --- at first sight --- famous and well-known composition. These interactions will find out the deeper layer of these compositions' reasoning, definitely. Additionally, except the aforesaid ones, there also were such as: 'Take 5: Dave Brubeck;' 'Tomorrow: Annie (The Musical);' 'Oye Como Va: Tito Puente;' 'Footsteps: Machel Montano;' 'Rolling the Deep: Adele and Paul Epworth;' 'I'll be There: Berry Gordy, Bob West, Hal Davis, and Willie Hutch;' 'Under the Sea: The Little Mermaid;' 'Oh, What a Night: The Four Seasons;' 'Hungarian Dance: Johannes Brahms;' 'No One: Alicia Keys;' 'Habanera from 'Carmen:' George Bizet;' 'One Note Samba: Antonio Carlos Jobim.' As we could see, the program of the World Festival, 2013, was so ambitious that every single should be regarded as a 'special event' in it. G1/4. I Shot the Sheriff: Bob Marley 'I Shot the Sheriff: Bob Marley' belonged to the first group of the Carribean Ensemble at York University. ... Having had many subgenres --- early reggae, roots reggae, dub, etcetera, --- this genre exploited drums (for example, snare drum and tom-tom drum), bass, guitars, keyboards, horns, and vocals. (We will evaluate all these items within Marley and The Wailers' song and its student interpretation.) From the perspective of music theory, reggae had 'lower tempo' than ska and rocksteady. (Bradley, 2000, p. 41) Accordingly, it could be characterized by the 'offbeat rhythms', (Barrow, 2004, p. 21) and by a prominent fact that reggae was played in '4/4 time.' (Manuel, 2006, 11) Harmonically, it used 'simple chord progressions;' (Barrow, 2004, p. 23) furthermore, its 'rhythmic pattern accents the second and fourth beats in each bar,' with the drumer's 'emphasis on beat three.' (Manuel, 2006, p. 12) First of all, 'I shot the Sheriff' was a social-oriended song about sheriff's (not deputy's) murder, which was made from the narrator's face. In the composition it could be heard synthesizer, The Wai lers' horus, bass, drums, guitar, and leading vocal. It used offbeat rhythms, 4/4, lower tempo, and simple chord progressions; second and fourth beats have been emphasized in each bar, with the drumer's accent on beat three. These means of musical expression, along with the offset and syncopated rhythm-section, producted relaxive, but ideologically very intensive, reggae hit. Moreover, aforesaid suggestions on reggae music and particularly on current musical form should be applied to the student performance. Therefore, it could be stated that the very motif was maintained successfully, overall tempo was lower, than in ska and rocksteady; there was constant reggae offbeat, 4/4. From the other point, students were not always in the right time-space presence of the current

The Function Of Subtitle

The Function Of Subtitle According to Mitterer H, McQueen JM, their book named Foreign Subtitle Help but Native Language Subtitle Harm Foreign Speech Perception. Understanding the foreign speech is not easy in common, especially because of unusual mapping between sounds and words. It is known that audiences in their native language can use lexical knowledge (about now words ought to sound) to learn how to pronouns an unusual foreign word in the movie. Subtitles are normally prepared in a movie, to provide lexical information, support perceptual learning about foreign speech for those audiences. According to Cai Q, Brysbaert M, his book SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese Word and Character. Subtitles are also makes video more accessible for people with hearing disabilities or deaf. It is hard to listen when the unfamiliar regional accent is in unfamiliar foreign languages. The unusual foreign vowels and consonants may mismatch more with native sound categories, seriously will fail to match any native category. This situation arises, for example, when we watch a film in a non-native language, a Malaysian listener, fluent in English and Chinese, watching a Thailand movie. He or she may have considerable difficulty understanding the language used in the movie. To adopt all those films or movie into target language culture, filmmakers use dubbing, voice-over and subtitles to make the movie more acceptable to those foreign countries. Besides, subtitles can translate speech, signs, letters and show sounds to aid the deaf and hard of hearing to understand more and follow the plot of the film. According to encyclopedia, it said that subtitle is used to interpret previously unheard words in a movie for those audiences. The ability to encode rules and to detect rule-violating events outside the focus of attention is vital for adaptive behavior. Our brain recordings reveal that violations of abstract auditory rules are processed even when the sounds are absent. When subjects performed a task related to the sounds but not to the rule, rule violations impaired task related to the sounds but not to the rule, rule violations impaired task performance and activated a network involving supratemporal, parietal and frontal areas although none of the subjects acquired explicit knowledge of the rule or became aware of rule violations. The finding that this happens even when subjects do not present the sounds supports the hypothesis that abstract rule encoding occurs unintentionally. The temporal and structural characteristics of the relevant brain response (MMN) were virtually identical in all conditions, that is, when subjects were ignoring the sounds, when they attended the sounds but rules were task-irrelevant, and when they attended the sounds and rules were task-relevant.( Schrà ¶ger E, Bendixen A, Trujillo-Barreto NJ, Roeber U ,2007) According to the Wikipedia, It announces that subtitles displayed at the bottom of a movie or television screen that translate or transcribes the dialogue or narrative in the movie. It is also giving additional information about its content like monolog, mind-thinking and emotion. Those subtitles can be in different categories: narrative, forced, content, titles only, bonus, localized and extended/expanded. While distributing content, subtitles can appear in one of 3 types: Hard (also known as hard-subtitles or open subtitles), Prerendered (also known as closed subtitles are separate video frames that are overlaid on the original video stream while playing), Soft (also known as soft-subtitles or closed subtitles). The positive effects of subtitles According to Mitterer H and McQueen JM, their book Foreign Subtitle Help but Native Language Subtitle Harm Foreign Speech Perception, what the group found the greatest advantage of subtitles is the fact that it preserves the original audio track. Thanks to the subtitles, the actors speak with their original voice, and the ambience sounds are not disrupted by voice-over or inserted dubbing recordings. When the audiences read the subtitles, they will more understand about the action, emotion and the expression by the actors in the movie. Thus, the audiences will become more interest and can be followed the part on the movie. The subtitles in a movie also focus on the speech act of characters. Audience can follow the movie by reading the subtitles at the bottom of the screen. It serve as an aid not only for the deaf and hard of hearing, but also for people who learn the foreign languages or who need visual aid aside form audio input for study. It is to ensure the studying foreign langua ge process is effective. So the effects are more important than lexical elements. Subtitles in the language of the film indicate which words are being spoken, and so can boost speech learning about foreign speech sounds and pronouns. The listeners can learn to interpret an ambiguous phoneme on the basis of disambiguating lexical contexts. That is why the movie always has prepared the foreign subtitles for the audiences. According to Cai Q, Brysbaert M, the book was named SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese Word and Character. Subtitles given the prior work on lexical retuning within the native language, and the suggestion that adaptation to foreign-accented speech is in part lexically driven, may be lexical retuning also in second-language listening. That is, listeners may be able to retune speech-sound categories based on their knowledge about how foreign words ought to sound or pronouns. Within subtitles, those listeners can learn about unfamiliar regional accents in a foreign language in the movie by reading subtitles prepared. It is a mechanism of lexically-guided perceptual learning. English subtitles should give provided in the most of the films, because it is international language. It can provide the extra information about the words being spoken by a character. According to encyclopedia.com, subtitles are a very useful ways of communicating what is being said on the movie to deaf people. Subtitles are also used for many other reasons than this, and deaf people often prefer not to have them or to use another method because of the drawback of subtitling. In addition, foreign movie are often subtitled to allow the people who do not know the language to follow the action. As a good example, a lot of Thailand movie are subtitled with English for the audiences to make sure the movie acceptable by others in foreign countries like Malaysia. According to the United Kingdom News and magazine, there wrote some comment about the subtitles. Subtitles can provide an additional source of information about the words that being spoken, and hence the sounds being heard, and so ought to reinforce lexically-guided learning. Our database is the first to include information about the contextual diversity of the words and to provide good frequency estimates for multi-character words and the different syntactic roles in which the words are used. The word frequencies are freely available for research purposes. Subtitles are a good estimate of daily language exposure and capture much of the variance in words processing efficiency. According to the Wikipedia, it announces that subtitle is a blessing and it really helps the people to understand the plot of the movie. It is also not a problem for people who watching movie in an overload background music and ambient noise environment. It is a good reason why the parents can take care their child when watching a movie. If you do not understand a word that have been spoken by the actor, you may look at the subtitle, it helps hearing impaired people understand a movie. People will more understand what the characters are saying and get a better idea of what is happening. The negative effects of subtitles Subtitles are limited both in time and space. An average subtitle consists of one or two lines of text, maximum 35 characters each. This limitation combined with the fact that on subtitle is at most displayed for four seconds gives us hard time to cover long utterances in dialogs.(Richard Curtis, 2003) According to United Kingdom News and magazine, another main disadvantage is the subtitles are mainly aiming at literate people with reading skills developed to a high extent. It is required from audience to read quick enough and do not only concentrate on the subtitles, but also the image above or just behind the subtitles, and often requires from them to use both skills simultaneously. Is that impossible concentrates on both in a whole movie? Of course, for non-deaf people they can still hear the emotion in an actors voice even if it is in a different or foreign language but it is not easy to follow so many things. Other countries prefer to dub program and film-where an actor speaking the language of the country where it is to be shown is recorded over the original language. But this is costly and time consuming and only worth the while of the crew if it is to be shown to a large number of people. But again, similar arguments prevail with regards to nuances being lost-especially as the subtitles tend to be an exact translation rather than taking idiom into account, and emotions being lost. Leo Freedman has a comment about the problem. I saw a superb subtitle mistake a couple of month agoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦there was a report on the news about a new employment policy that would benefit millions of unemployed and impoverished Indian citizens à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the subtitle read If this policy works, it may be set to achieve even more that my hammock man Ghandi! That kept me amused for weeks! Or maybe Muhatma had a hammock company I am unaware of? According to the Wikipedia, it said that translation of subtitling is sometimes very different from the translation of written text. Usually, the editor will watch the picture and listen to the audio sentence by sentence when a film or a movie is subtitled. The editor may or may not have access to a written transcript of the dialog. Especially in commercial subtitles, the editor often interprets what is meant, rather than translating how it is said, meaning being more important than form. The audience does not always appreciate this, and it can be frustrating to those who know some of the spoken language, because spoken language may contain verbal padding or culturally implied meaning, in confusing words, if not adapted in the written subtitles. The editor does this when the dialog must be condensed in order to achieve an acceptable reading speed, it purpose being more important than form. The result suggested that foreign subtitles are very helpful but that native-language subtitles provide no benefit or less benefit. Only one study focused on phonological processing; negligible benefits for non-native subtitles were found. Clear predictions can nevertheless still be made about the effects of subtitle language on speech learning. If lexically-guided retuning operates in second-language listening, and is open to any influence from subtitles, then the influence should depend on the language of the subtitles. According to encyclopedia.com, the native subtitles may be easier for observes to read, but providing misleading or misunderstand information about the phonological forms being spoken. If the audiences are more concentrated in reading the subtitles than is watching the movie, he or she will not learn the new language. The audience can hear the original sound, voice of the movie and see the correct timing of expressions on the actors faces as they speak their lines? This is hard to finish reading the subtitles at the bottom of a movie because it is past fast and not easy to digest. Lowering sight towards the bottom of the movie while reading the subtitles can become tiresome and/or distract from appreciating details, facial expressions and the emotion of those actors. The audience might be having such a good time reading the subtitle that is could prevent from watching the actual movie, it could block things in the movie and make audiences hard to focus on the action.

The Financial Detective

PAPER: We believe that Company I represents the Smaller Producer of printing papers and Company J represents the World’s Largest Market of Paper. Being the world’s largest paper maker indicates having a larger inventory, more current assets (esp. since it owns timberland and several facilities), and higher cost of goods sold than other paper makers. The inventory for Company J (10. 9) is larger than the inventory for Company I (8. 8); the current assets for Company J (32. 6) are higher than that for Company I (27. 2); and the cost of goods sold for Company J (82. 9) is higher than that for Company I (75. ). We also expect that, as the world’s largest paper maker, their products will move on the marketplace better than a smaller producer of paper. Thus, Inventory Turnover should also be higher. Here, Company J (7. 11) has a larger inventory turnover than Company I (6. 75). Receivables turnover, which tells how many times accounts receivables have been collected in a given period, should be higher for the world’s largest paper company than it would be for a small producer of specialty paper. Company J’s (11. 64) receivables turnover is higher than that for Company I (8. 68). The facts also state that the world’s largest maker of paper has been rationalizing capacity by closing inefficient mills, implementing cost-containment initiatives, and selling nonessential assets. This implies that the company would have a larger asset turnover ratio than other paper companies. Company J (1. 20) has a larger asset turnover ratio than Company I (. 73). It is probable that since the small producer of paper has most of its product marketed under branded labels, that it would have a higher value of Intangibles, such as trademarks, than the larger company. Here, Company I (14. 6) has an intangibles value that is significantly higher than Company J’s (1. 9) intangible value. Based on the above analysis, we believe that Company I is the small producer of printing, writing and technical specialty papers, and that Company J is the world’s largest maker of paper, paperboard, and packaging. RETAIL: From the financial ratios and the notes attached, it is apparent that Company N is the rapidly growing chain of upscale discount stores while Company M is the firm known for its low prices, breadth of merchandise and volume riented strategy. ASSETS Receivables: Company M has lower receivables of 1. 4 compared to company N with 17. 0 and this reason is to the fact that company N offers credit to qualified customer as a means of marketing strategy. Inventories: Company M has higher inventories of 24. 5 compared to company N with 16. 7 and this reason it attributed to the strategy company M adopts. Company M has a wide breadth of mercha ndise and volume oriented strategy amount to this high inventories on the balance sheet. Intangibles: There is a 93. 3% difference compared to company N with low intangibles. This reason is due to the operational strategy company M adopts. Company M possesses either or all of these following; Goodwill, Partnership rights or Patent rights. Analyzing the information provided accurately, one or more of the of the aforementioned rights exit because for company M to sell some products at very low prices, there must be an existing kind of memorandum of understanding between the producers and company M. LIABILITIES & EQUITY Deferred Taxes: Company M has deferred Taxes of 3. with company N having O. From the information of company M provided, it is possible that the deferred tax is an evidence of capital gains that might have risen from the proceeds of divestments of several non-discount department-store businesses. Debt in Current Liabilities: Company M is 75. 4% high than company Nâ€℠¢s Debt Current Liabilities. This can be as a result of the lease contract entered by company M. Depending on the lease agreement; Company M might have an overdue payment for the lease for a period within a year. INCOME STATEMENT Depreciation: It is understandable why company N has a high depreciation than company M and this is due to the reason that M is a lease copy therefore no depreciation is paid for leasing except a rental payment. There is an exception when the lease is a finance lease. Net Income: Company N strategies pay off because shareholders of any company want to maximize their investment or returns. Company N is making almost double of company M’s net profit, and also considering the fact that company N is making 85% of company M sales. MARKET DATA Beta: Companies in the same industries usually have different betas, one of the reasons this can happen is the kind of financing or debt equity ratio. The higher the debt equity ratio the higher the beta: this shows why company N has a higher beta compared to company M that has a lower debt equity ratio. Dividend Payout: Company M has a higher payout ratio of 31. 12%. Reason why company N might have a low payout ratio can be attributed to investment in future projects with positive NPV due to the rapidly growing chain of upscale discount stores. ASSET MANAGEMENT Receivables Turnover: This shows the degree of realization in accounts receivables. Company N has a lower turnover rate, a lower rate implies that receivables are being held longer and the less likely they are to be collected. Also there is an opportunity cost of tying up funds in receivables for a long period of time. Company M is 29 times higher than company N. From the above analysis, it is obvious that financial ratios of companies in same industries can never be the same but can only be similar. The kind of strategy and technology a company adopts tells a lot about differences in financial ratios. COMPUTERS: We believe that Company E is the company focused exclusively on mail-order sales and Company F is the company that sells a highly differentiable line of products. In this industry one company focuses exclusively on mail-order sales of built-to-order PCs, including desktops, laptops, and notebooks. Besides the company allows its customers to design, price and purchase through its web site. In contrast the other company has a retail strategy intended to drive traffic through its stores. With regards to the SGA expense, as well as depreciation, we can assume that the company resulting with the highest values is of course the one having more stores compared to the one conducting most of its transactions on an online basis. In this case the high value of 23. 1 in selling, general and administrative expense and the high value of 1. 8 in depreciation belonging to company F fit the description of the company with more retail stores. Another important financial data confirming this finding is the intangible data. From the Exhibit 1, the company E has a value of 0 in intangibles which is not surprising due to its business orientation. Company E is an assembler of PC components manufactured by its suppliers, therefore not having any claim of ownership of intangibles. On the other hand, the intangible value of 1. 2 of company F is due to the fact that company F has a variety of proprietary software products. In addition, the price to book ratio is lower for Company F (5. 3) than for Company E (17. 46). This is in line with our analysis because the facts state that the retail store has a declining market share, so the lower price to book ration would match the description for a company with a lower market share. Based on our analysis above, we believe that company E is the company focusing exclusively on mail-order sales of built-to-order PCs, and company F is the company having an aggressive retail strategy intended to drive traffic through its stores. NEWSPAPERS: We believe that company P is the diversified media company that generates most of its revenues through newspapers sold around the country and around the world and that Company O is the firm that owns a number of newspapers in relatively small communities throughout the Midwest and southwest. We believe this because Company P has a larger amount of current assets (other and total) and net fixed assets than CompanyO. Company P operates in not just the United States but it also operates in countries all around the world, which it means it will have a lot of assets than Company O. FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS ASSETS RECEIVABLES:Company P is higher than Company O and this can be attributed to the fact that company P has an international presence. This will result to a huge customer base compared to Company O. higher customer base would yield more credit sales. result to its revenues all over the world in the sense that it will have a lot of customers and there can be delays in monetary transactions. Since its business has international presence it can adopt a business strategy of offering a high volume of credit sales to customers. INVENTORIES: The two companies are at par have the same ratios. This means that there is an equal amount of goods and services available in the stock of both companies. INTANGIBLES: Company O has a higher intangibles value than company P because although company O is a smaller company it has acquired a Customer good will, employee morale, increased bureaucracy, and aesthetic appeal than company P which is a more diversified media company. DEBT MANAGEMENT TOTAL DEBT/TOTAL ASSET:Company P has a higher ratio compared to O. Most of company’s total debt are short term financed and this is to say that in the next period, the company can have a lower total debt to total asset ratio compared to company O. Based on this current standing it shows that 26. 81% of company’s P asset is financed by debt. INCOME/EXPENSES NETINCOME: Company O is almost likely to succeed more than company P in its operations because of its decentralized decision making and administration. Looking closely at the net income figure of both companies, company O net income is higher than company P net income. EBIT AND NET PROFIT MARGIN: Company O has a higher EBIT because the company is more profitable than company P. Company P has a lower net profit margin value than company O which indicates a low margin of safety, higher risk, and that a decline in sales will erase profits and result in a net loss. Company O is better in this aspect because of the adopted business of decentralized decision making and administration, which led to better success in its operations. MARKET DATA DIVIDEND PAYOUT: Company O has a higher ratio than company P which means it has a higher percentage of earnings paid to its shareholders in dividends. The shareholders of company O are benefiting better from the company than the shareholders of company P are. The reason for this could be that company P may be trying to invest in a project that is preventing it from paying shareholders adequate dividends BETA: Company P has a higher value which means a higher expected return of a stock or portfolio which is correlated to the return of the financial market as a whole than company O. PRICE/EARNING RATIO: Company O has a higher ratio than P. Over the years smaller firms have performed better in terms of returns. Shareholders of company O are willing to pay more for the shares today in anticipation of great prospects of returns in the future. ASSET MANAGEMENT RECEIVABLES TURNOVER: Company O has a higher turnover value because it has a higher number of number of times that account receivables are collected during in a period than company P. LIQUIDITY CURRENT RATIO AND QUICK RATIO: Company O has a better and higher value of the two ratios than company P so it means that company O has more current assets and cash equivalents to cover its liabilitie when due than company P. Based on our analysis above, we believe that company P is the diversified media company that generates most of its revenues through newspapers sold around the country and around the world and that Company O is the firm that owns a number of newspapers in relatively small communities throughout the Midwest and Southwest