Saturday, August 31, 2019

Management labor relations

Ladies and gentlemen, our professor dry. Carl Minoan, good morning! As I stand here in front of you, I'm still wondering why the Labor (pertaining to the employees), and the Management (the employers), of the organizations are experiencing conflicts, misunderstanding, issues arising and other things that both parties opposed each other's beliefs that tend to happen to build a Labor union on a specific organization, weird isn't?Because I did not experienced those things in my organization even once though I am hearing complaints from my colleagues. I will share something to you, when I was a newbie in the company that I am working with, as an auditor I was able to checked and accessed all the necessary documents of our company, specifically the payroll. I discovered that not all employees were well compensated some are earning below minimum, we doesn't even have much benefits like health card, leaves more than 5 days, security of tenure, bonuses and allowance etc. But then nobody has the courage and strength to fight over the management to ask for those they believed that they should have been enjoying. I felt self-consciously bothered and concern to my fellow employees, that if they discover the big difference of their salary to those who are newbie, no experience young professionals and a newly grads from respected universities and colleges, they might feel envious and unfair for just earning such wages.Maybe because a lot of them are afraid to lose their Job and might not be able to find a better job because mostly of my co-employees especially those who were at the age of ass's and above, those in the company for 10 ears and above were not a college graduate and they said they were just lucky that they have their Job for living, though they have a choice to leave the company.We are very few whom I believed lucky to earn and offered to have an aggressive Income. And most of them have a huge debt to the company, because our boss allows them to vale an average of 10,000 for every senior or old employees whom our boss considered them as loyalist, and which everybody thinks that this is the way that the management strategy to make their employee to stay longer.In our company we have our own savings account, in which every payday it is deducted already on our salary and being deposited to our personal account, but we are not allowed to borrow It or get It even In the most In need situation, we are Just allowed to make cash advances to the company, but the approval of the amount of the cash advances that you can borrow to the company really depends on our boss, considering the reason why are you borrowing a money, your position, your years of working in the company, your revises vale and your performance; but if she is angry or not k with you, your request to have a cash advance might be rejected.Yes we have salary Increase, the management every six months review the salary of the employees, and the increase depends to the performance of cour se, but the big factor for them to Increase your salary is if they like you or not. If they had a bad experience with you even once or even simple mistake you've made that they really did not forget, I tell you, just wait ND pray to the government to make a salary increase and that's the only way for you experience it. Our management was really very smart; most of the time they make the Increase as part of allowance of the employee so that it will not be Included in other employees.Those people who hold a team or position, department heads and supervisors are those lucky that the management is giving importance, and giving what we deserved. And I can definitely say that they would really be a pro management. As I go along and I'm gaining knowledge about Labor Unions, I wish hat my co-employees especially those whom I believed need more than they are getting, for they have a definitely not an easy Job, they should ask help of those strong trade unions outside the organization, to hel p them to bargain their needs to the company for their own sake and for the benefit of the majority.This company really needs a strong labor union. To the management, if they want to keep their employees welfare, they should give what their employees' needs because through this the management is not Just helping their employees, but this could play a major ole in the company, the employees will and might be an asset of the company by working so hard because they are getting what they think they deserved to have and this serves as a motivation to the workers.Conflict will be minimized; strikes and boycotting will be prevented. Though we all know that salaries and wages are part of company's expenses, but employees are also an asset to the company, without them, production and operation will not be possible, every worker are important, every individual in the organization is essential. And as an auditor of the company I could ay that the company is really earning a lot, and these empl oyees should exercise their rights.I could say, even if the labor union does not exist in the company, both the labor and the management should have set a meeting or forum to talk about the goal of both parties, whether for the sake of the company as a whole or as individual, through meetings of their department heads or managers, so that both parties needs and wants for a harmonious relationship and for both parties benefits could meet; or else better seek help to outside labor or trade unions.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Comparison of Reliance Mutual Fund with Others

A PROJECT REPORT ON â€Å"COMPARISON OF RELIANCE MUTUAL FUND WITH OTHERS† UNDERTAKEN AT INDIA INFOLINE LTD. BARDOLI [pic] SUBMITTED BY: DIMPLE M. SHARMA (10BBA52) GUIDED BY: Mr. NAVIN H. SAPARIYA BBA PROGRAMME (Year 2012-13) [pic] VIDYABHARTI TRUST COLLEGE OF BBA & BCA, UMRAKH I DIMPLE SHARMA from Vidyabharti Trust College of BBA & BCA, Umrakh hereby declare that the project report work entitled â€Å"Comparison of Reliance Mutual Fund With Others† submitted by Ms. DIMPLE M. SHARMA Id no. 0BBA52 during December 2012 to February 2013 has been undertaken as a part of 6th Semester of BBA syllabus of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat. I declare that this report has not been submitted to any other university or institute for any other purposes. DIMPLE M. SHARMA (10BBA52) This Project work is written in accordance with the Bachelor of Business Administration course prescribed by Veer Narmad South Gujarat University for two month project work.I am greatly thankful to India Infoline Ltd. , Bardoli for giving me an opportunity to work on this project at their company. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Viral Chauhan, I/c Principal of BBA College who gave me the chance to do this project report under India Infoline Ltd. , Bardoli. I wish to express my deep sense gratitude to my guide Mr. Navin H. Sapariya; whose constant help and support at all stages of this project has enable me to complete it. I am thankful to my company guide Mr.Parag Khatri, for providing his valuable suggestion and guidance which has given final touch to the report and also for sharing his rich experience for the contents of this report without whom this project would not have been completed successfully. Last but not least, I am also grateful to my parents, colleagues whose continuous support has always boosted my moral towards working on this report. DIMPLE M. SHARMA (10BBA52)As a partial fulfillment of BBA Programmed all students are required to undergo training for 2 months with respected to this I have prepared a project report on Comparison of Reliance Mutual Fund with Others. The project is based under the assumption that, As Mutual Fund being a new investment avenue in the market people likes to get some information about Reliance Mutual Fund. I want to measure the performance of Reliance Mutual Fund Schemes compared to others. In the duration of 8 weeks, I studied various Mutual Fund Schemes of Reliance & Open – Ended Fund like Equity Fund.In order to compare the schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund & Others, I collected weekly net asset values of Reliance Mutual Fund Schemes & Open – Ended Fund Schemes for the period of 2007 to 2012. I compare schemes by calculating risk & return thereby to measure the performance of different schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund & Open – Ended Fund in equity schemes. In the Equity Fund Schemes, the years from 2009, 2010 & 2012 Reliance Mutual Fund is well performing among others. |Ch. No. |Topic | |Page No. |1. |Introduction | | | | |About Company Profile | | | | |About Topic | | | | |About Reliance Mutual Fund | | | |2. Research Methodology | | | |3. |Data Analysis and Interpretation | | | |4. |Findings | | | |5. |Conclusions | | | |6. |Recommendations | | | |7. References | | | | |Bibliography | | | CHAPTER: – 1 [pic]Introduction [pic] COMPANY PROFILE INTRODUCTION OF INDIA INFO LINE PVT. LTD. |VISION OF THE COMPANY | |â€Å"Vision is to be the most respected company in the financial services space. | | | | | | | | | |INTRODUCTION | |5 paisa is the trade name of the India Infoline Securities private limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of India Infoline ltd. paisa | |holds membership of both the leading stock exchange of India viz. the Bombay stock exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange and is | |also a Depository Participant with NSDL and CDSL. It has tied up with the leading banks for funds transfer facilities Viz. City Bank, | |Centurion Ba nk, ICICI Bank and UTI bank the group has a membership of a Multi Commodities Exchange (MCX), National Commodities and | |Derivative Exchange of India (NCDEX) and the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX). |India Infoline Ltd was founded in 1995 by a group of professionals with impeccable educational qualification and professional | |credentials. India Infoline is listed on BSE and NSE with a market capitalization of over $ 150 million. | |The India Infoline group, comprising the holding company, the India Infoline Ltd. And its wholly owned subsidiaries offers the entire | |gamut of investment products ranging from Equities and Insurance ,Fixed deposits ,GOI bonds , Loan products and other small saving | |instruments. It also owns and operates web sites, www. indiainfoline. om and www. 5paisa. com. | | | |India Infoline is a forerunner in the field of equity research. India Infoline’s research is acknowledged by none other than Forbes as | |â€Å"The best of the webâ₠¬  and â€Å"a must read for investor in Asia†. India Infoline’s research is available not just over the internet but | |also on international wire services like Bloomberg (code: ILL), Thomson first call and internet securities where it is amongst the most| |read Indian brokers. The India Infoline group has a significance presence across the country with over 500 branches in over 300 cities | |across India.All these offices are networked and connected with the corporate office in Mumbai. The group has invested significantly | |in technology and research, the result of which are there for everyone to see. The 5 paisa trading interface is one of the most | |advanced platforms available to retail investor in India. The group has membership on BSE and NSE for equities trading. It has a SEBI | |license for Portfolio Management under which, various schemes are offered, which have been continentally beating the benchmark indices | |since inception. | |THE INDIA INFOLINE LTD. |India Infoline Ltd, being a listed entity, is regulated by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). It undertakes equities | |research which is acknowledged by none other than Forbes as Best of the web must read for investors in Asia'. Its various | |subsidiaries are in different lines of business and hence are governed by different regulators. The subsidiaries of India Infoline Ltd | |are: | |India Infoline Securities Private Ltd. |India Infoline Securities Pvt. Ltd. is a 100% subsidiary of India Infoline Ltd, which is engaged in the businesses of Equities broking | |and Portfolio Management Services. It holds memberships of both the leading stock exchanges of India viz. the Stock Exchange, Mumbai | |(BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). It offers broking services in the Cash and Derivatives segments of the NSE as well as the | |Cash segment of the BSE. | |India Infoline Commodities Private Ltd. | |India Infoline Commodities Pvt.Ltd is a 100% subsidiary of India Inf oline Ltd, which is engaged in the business of commodities | |broking. Our experience in securities broking empowered us with the requisite skills and technologies to allow us offer commodities | |broking as a contra- | |Cyclical alternative to equities broking. We enjoy memberships with the MCX and NCDEX, two leading Indian commodities exchanges, and | |recently acquired membership of DGCX. We have a multi-channel delivery model, making it among the select few to online as well as | |offline trading facilities. |India Infoline Distribution Co. Ltd. | |India Infoline. com Distribution Co Ltd is a 100% subsidiary of India Infoline Ltd. and is engaged in the business of distribution of | |Mutual Funds, IPO’s, Fixed Deposits and other small savings products. It is one of the largest ‘vendor-independent' distribution houses| |and has a wide pan-India footprint of over 232 branches coupled with a huge number of ‘feet-on-street', which helps source and service | |custom ers across the length and breadth of India.Its unique value proposition of free doorstep expert advice coupled with free pick-up| |and delivery of cheques has been met with an enthusiastic response from customers and fund houses alike. Our business has expanded to | |include the online distribution of mutual funds, wherein users can view and compare different product offerings and download | |application forms which they can later submit to the product provider. | | | | | | |India Infoline Insurance Services Ltd. | |India Infoline Insurance Services Ltd is also a 100% subsidiary of India Infoline Ltd and is a registered Corporate Agent with the | |Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). It is the largest Corporate Agent for ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd, | which is India's largest private Life Insurance Company. | |India Infoline Investment Services Ltd. | |India Infoline Investment Service Ltd is also a 100% subsidiary of India Infoline Ltd. It has an NBF C license from the Reserve Bank of | |India (RBI) and offers margin-funding facility to the broking customers. | |India Infoline Insurance Broker Ltd. | |India Infoline Insurance Brokers Ltd. is a 100% subsidiary of India Infoline Ltd and is a newly formed subsidiary which will carry out | |the business of Insurance broking. We have applied to IRDA for the insurance broking license and the clearance for the same is awaited. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |OPERATIONS | |This is where the 5paisa subsidiary of the India Infoline group, comes in. They operate their functions through their domain knowledge | |and database on in depth research of complex paradigms of commodity kinetics, offers their customers a unique insight into behavioral | |patterns of these markets. Their customers are ideally positioned to make informed investment decisions with a high probability of | |success | |India Infoline commodities private ltd. offers the investors the opportunity to participate in this market by facilitating trading in | |commodities futures.They are the members of Multi commodity Exchange of India (MCX) and National Commodity Exchange of India | |(NCDEX). Their main function is to provide the investor with the complete range of commodities for trading, in both the morning as well | |as evening sessions. | |Trading can be online, over the phone or at their branches. Highly qualified, well trained relationship managers are available at their| |investor points across the country, to help the investor make the best of commodities trading! | |Besides all the above functions, they also leverage their skills in research, investments in cutting edge technology and understanding | |of investor’s requirements to ensure that their needs are taken care of.Thus, they perform the function of adding value to the | |investor’s money. | | | | | | | HISTORY & MILESTONES |Year | | |2011 |Launched IIFL Mutual Fund. | |2010 |Received in-principle approval fo r membership of the Singapore Stock Exchange | | |Received membership of the Colombo Stock Exchange. | | | |2009 |Acquired registration for Housing Finance | | |SEBI in-principle approval for Mutual Fund | | |Obtained Venture Capital license | | | | |2008 |Launched IIFL Wealth | | |Transitioned to insurance broking model | |2007 |Commenced institutional equities business under IIFL | |Formed Singapore subsidiary, IIFL (Asia) Pte Ltd | | | | |2006 |Acquired membership of DGCX | | |Commenced the lending business | | | | |2005 |Maiden IPO and listed on NSE, BSE | | | | |2004 |Acquired commodities broking license | | |Launched Portfolio Management Service | | | | |2003 |Launched proprietary trading platform Trader Terminal for retail customers | | | | |2000 |Launched online trading through www. 5paisa. com Started distribution of life insurance and mutual fund | | | | |1999 |Launched www. indiainfoline. om | | | | |1997 |Launched research products of leading Indian compani es, key sectors and the economy Client included | | |leading FIIs, banks and companies. | | | | |1995 |Commenced operations as an Equity Research firm | | | | PRODUCT & SERVICES Equities our core offering, gives us a leading market share in both retail and institutional segments.Over a million retail customers rely on our research, as do leading FIIs and MFs that invest billions. IIFL has rapidly emerged as one of the premier institutional equities houses in India with a team of over 25 research analysts, a full-fledged sales and trading team coupled with an experienced investment banking team. Private Wealth Management services cater to over 2500 families who have trusted us with close to Rs 25,000 crores ($ 5bn) of assets for advice. Investment Banking services are for corporates looking to raise capital. Our forte is Equity Capital Markets, where we have executed several marquee transactions. |IIFL’s investment banking division was launched in 2006.The business leverage s upon its strength of research and placement | |capabilities of the institutional and retail sales teams. Our experienced investment banking team possesses the skill-set to | |manage all kinds of investment banking transactions. Our close interaction with investors as well as corporates helps us | |understand and offer tailor-made solutions to fulfill requirements. | | | |IIFL Mutual Fund made an impressive beginning in FY12, with lowest charge Nifty ETF. Other products include Fixed Maturity | |Plans. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Credit & Finance focuses on secured mortgages and consumer loans. Our high quality loan book of over Rs. 6,200 crores ($ 1. 2bn) is backed by strong capital adequacy of approximately 20%. IIFL offers a wide array of secured loan products. Currently, secured loans (mortgage loans, margin funding, loans against shares) comprise 94% of the loan book. The Company has discontinued its unsecured products. It has robust credit processes and collections mec hanism resulting in overall NPAs of less than 1%.The Company has deployed proprietary loan-processing software to enable stringent credit checks while ensuring fast application processing. Recently the company has also launched Loans against Gold. Life Insurance, Pension and other Financial Products, on open architecture complete our product suite to help customers build a balanced portfolio. IIFL entered the insurance distribution business in 2000 as ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd’s corporate agent. Later, it became an Insurance broker in October 2008 in line with its strategy to have an ‘open architecture’ model. The Company now distributes products of major insurance companies through its subsidiary India Infoline Insurance Brokers Ltd.Customers can choose from a wide bouquet of products from several insurance companies including Max New York Life Insurance, MetLife, Reliance Life Insurance, Bajaj Allianz Life, Birla Sunlife, Life Insurance Corporatio n, Kotak Life Insurance and others. |Commodities | |IIFL offers commodities trading to its customers vide its membership of the MCX and the NCDEX. Our domain knowledge and data | |based on in depth research of complex paradigms of commodity kinetics, offers our customers a unique insight into behavioral | |patterns of these markets. Our customers are ideally positioned to make informed investment decisions with a high probability of| |success. | IIFL (India Info Line Ltd) – Corporate Structure [pic] [pic] ABOUT THE TOPIC COMPARISON OF RELIANCE MUTUAL FUND WITH OTHERS† What are Mutual Funds? |A Mutual Fund is a trust that pools the savings of a number of investors who share a common financial goal. The money thus | |collected is then invested in capital market instruments such as shares, debentures and other securities. The income earned | |through these investments and the capital appreciation realized are shared by its unit holders in proportion to the number of | |uni ts owned by them. Thus a Mutual Fund is the most suitable investment for the common man as it offers an opportunity to invest | |in a diversified, professionally managed basket of securities at a relatively low cost.The flow chart below describes broadly | |the working of a mutual fund: | |[pic] | | Mutual Fund Operation Flow Chart | | | | | | | | | | | |ORGANIZATION OF A MUTUAL FUND | |There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set up of a mutual fund: | | [pic] | | Organization of a Mutual Fund | | | |ADVANTAGES OF MUTUAL FUNDS | |The advantages of investing in a Mutual Fund are: | |Professional Management | |Diversification | |Convenient Administration | |ReturnPotential | |Low Costs | |Liquidity | |Transparency | |Flexibility | |Choice of schemes | |Tax benefits | |Well regulated | | | | | | | | | |TYPES OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES | |Wide varieties of Mutual Fund Schemes exist to cater to the needs such as financial position, r isk tolerance and return | |expectations etc. The table below gives an overview into the existing types of schemes in the Industry. | | | TYPES OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES BY STRUCTURE †¢ Open – Ended Schemes †¢ Close – Ended Schemes †¢ Interval Schemes BY INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE †¢ Growth Schemes †¢ Income Schemes †¢ Balanced Schemes †¢ Money Market Schemes OTHER SCHEMES †¢ Tax Saving Schemes †¢ Special Schemes – Index Schemes – Sector Specific Schemes | | | | | | | | | | | | | |FREQUENTLY USED TERMS | |   | |Net Asset Value (NAV) | | | |Net Asset Value is the market value of the assets of the scheme minus its liabilities. The per unit NAV is the net asset value of | |the scheme divided by the number of units outstanding on the Valuation Date. |   | |Sale Price | | | |Is the price you pay when you invest in a scheme? Also called Offer Price. It may include a sales load. | |   | |Repurchase Price | | | |Is the price at which units under open-ended schemes are repurchased by the Mutual Fund? Such prices are NAV related. |   | |Redemption Price | | | |Is the price at which close-ended schemes redeem their units on maturity. Such prices are NAV related. | |   | |Sales Load | | | |Is a charge collected by a scheme when it sells the units?Also called, ‘Front-end’ load. Schemes that do not charge a load are | |called ‘No Load’ schemes. | |   | | | | | High Risk, High Return Many investors purchase a particular stock with the intention of making a big profit over a short period of time. However, this action is not investing, but a pure gambling. The reason for this is that you are never guaranteed that you will get the high returns you hope for over such a short period of time.There may be times in which stocks have put a record on short-term growth, but these occurrences are very rare. On average stocks have returned from 10% to 12%. However, thi s doesn't mean that all stocks return at these rates. The stock market is characterized by the trade-off between risk and return. The higher the risk the investor is willing and able to take, the higher the potential rewards from the investment. Therefore, if a particular investment offers you high returns, it is an indication that it will come with a high risk burden. As part of the selection process, you should determine the risk level of the stock as well as your risk tolerance. If you are looking for high returns you should be able to meet high potential losses as well.Many investors prefer young technology-oriented companies over blue chip companies, because the first provide higher returns than the latter. However, the latter provides its shareholders with regular dividends to compensate for the modest growth. So, the next time you are offered a stock that is expected to triple in value over a short time period, think carefully whether to invest in it, because the chances of i t failing to reach this level of return is extremely high. Risk : Return (finance) the financial term for profit or loss derived from an investment. Return is the benefit distributed to the owner. A person making an investment expects to get some return from the investment in the future. But as the future is uncertain, so is the future expected return.It is the uncertainty associated with the returns from an investment that introduces risk in to an investment. Standard Deviation: For the more technically-minded, Standard Deviation is â€Å"the basic statistical measure of the dispersion of a population of data observations around a mean†. In trading language it’s an indication of price fluctuation; it measures how far the closing price is from the average closing price over a set period. The greater the difference between the closing prices and the average price, the higher the standard deviation will be. The closer the closing prices are to the average price, the lowe r the standard deviation . he relative rate at which the price of security moves up and down. Risk is found by calculating the annualized standard deviation or daily changes in the price. Risk = standard deviation of closing price [for n periods] / average closing price [for n periods] [pic] The variance and standard deviation measure the extent of variability of possible returns from the expected return. Several other measures such as a range, semi-variance and mean absolute deviation have been used to indicate measure risk but standard deviation has been the most popularly accepted measure. The standard deviation or variance however provides a measurement of total risk associated with security.Total risk comprises of two components namely systematic risk and unsystematic risk. Variance: The variance of a random variable is a measure of its statistical dispersion, indicating how far from the expected value the variance is the average of squared deviation about the arithmetic mean f or a set of numbers It describes how far values lie from the mean. In particular, the variance is one of the moments of a distribution. [pic] Risk and Beta: As far as an investor is concerned, the systematic risk is no very important as it can be reduced or eliminated through diversification. It is an irrelevant risk. The risk that is relevant in decision making is the systematic risk because it is undiversifiable.Hence the investor seeks to measure the systematic risk of security. Systematic risk is the variability in security returns caused by changes in the economy or the market. All securities are affected by such changes to some extent, but some securities exhibit greater variability in response to market changes. Such securities are said to have higher systematic risk. A higher variability would indicate higher systematic risk and vice versa. The systematic risk of security is measured by a statistical measure called â€Å"Beta† the input data required for the calculati on for beta are the historical data of returns of the individual security as well as the returns of a representative stock market index.For the calculation of beta, the return of individual security is taken as dependent variable, and the return of the market index is taken as the independent variable. Beta is a score that measures a market stock’ volatility or risk against the rest of the market. It is calculating using regression analysis. â€Å"The Beta of an asset, ? , is a measure of the variability of that asset relative to the variability of the market as a whole . Beta is an index of the systematic risk of an asset†. Risk also implies return. Stocks with a high beta should have a higher return than the market. If you are accepting more risk you should accept more reward as beta measures the Risk of a securities return relative to the market the larger the beta, the security is more risky. A beta of 1. indicates a security of average risk a stock with beta great er than 1. 0 has above average risk. Its returns would be more risky than the market returns. A stock with less than 1. 0 would have below average risk. A security can have betas that are positive, negative or zero. It is a historical measure of systematic risk of systematic risk. In using this beta for investment decision making, the investor is assuming that the relationship between the security variability and market variability will continue to remain the same in future also. Investor can find the best use of beta ratio in short term decision making, where price volatility is important. Beta shows sensitivity of Stock market with that of index. If positive than moves with market. And if beta is negative it has inverse relationship. † Correlation: The correlation is one of the most useful statistics. A correlation is single number that describes degree of relationship between two variables. Correlation is a statistical technique that can show weather that how strongly pairs of variables are related. For example height and weight are related taller people tend to be heavier than shorter people. The relationship isn’t perfect. People of the same height vary in weight and you can think of two people. You know where the shorter one is heavier than the other taller one.Correlation can tell you just how much of the variation in people’s weight is elated to their heights. Compute the correlation value, the formula for correlation are: [pic] Covariance: Intuitively, covariance is the measure of how much two variables vary together. That is to say, the covariance becomes more positive for each pair of values which differ from their mean in the same direction, and becomes more negative with each pair of values which differ from their mean in opposite directions. In this way, the more often they differ in the same direction, the more positive the covariance, and the more often they differ in opposite directions, the more negative the covariance.The covariance between two real-valued random variables X and Y, with expected values E(X) = ? and E(Y) = ? is defined as: [pic] [pic] About Reliance Mutual Fund Reliance Mutual Fund (RMF) has been established as a trust under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 with Reliance Capital Limited (RCL), as the Settler/Sponsor and Reliance Capital Trustee Co. Limited (RCTCL), as the Trustee. RMF has been registered with the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) vide registration number MF/022/95/1 dated June 30, 1995. The name of Reliance Capital Mutual Fund was changed to Reliance Mutual Fund effective 11th March 2004 vide SEBI's letter no. IMD/PSP/4958/2004 date 11th March 2004.Reliance Mutual Fund was formed to launch various schemes under which units are issued to the Public with a view to contribute to the capital market and to provide investors the opportunities to make investments in diversified securities. The main objectives of the Reliance Mutual Fund are: †¢ To carry on the act ivity of a Mutual Fund as may be permitted at law and formulate and devise various collective Schemes of savings and investments for people in India and abroad and also ensure liquidity of investments for the Unit holders; †¢ To deploy Funds thus raised so as to help the Unit holders earn reasonable returns on their savings and †¢ To take such steps as may be necessary from time to time to realise the effects without any limitation.Our Schemes Equity The aim of growth funds is to provide capital appreciation over the medium to long- term. Such schemes normally invest a major part of their corpus in equities. Such funds have comparatively high risks. These schemes provide different options to the investors like dividend option, capital appreciation, etc. and the investors may choose an option depending on their preferences. The investors must indicate the option in the application form. The mutual funds also allow the investors to change the options at a later date. Growth schemes are good for investors having a long-term outlook seeking appreciation over a period of time. Diversified Large Cap |Diversified Theme Based | |Diversified Multi Cap |Sector | |Diversified Mid Cap & Small Cap |Tax Saver | |Index |Arbitrage | |Banking |Balanced | DebtThe aim of income funds is to provide regular and steady income to investors. Such schemes generally invest in fixed income securities such as bonds, corporate debentures, Government securities and money market instruments. Such funds are less risky compared to equity schemes. These funds are not affected because of fluctuations in equity markets. However, opportunities of capital appreciation are also limited in such funds. The NAVs of such funds are affected because of change in interest rates in the country. If the interest rates fall, NAVs of such funds are likely to increase in the short run and vice versa. However, long term investors may not bother about these fluctuations. Ultra Short Term |Money Market Funds (Liquid Funds) | |Short Term Funds |Long Term Funds | |Monthly Income Plans | | Gold Gold is seen as a symbol of security and a sign of prosperity. Indian consumers consider gold jewellery as an investment and are well aware of gold’s benefits as a store of value. Gold is also recognized as a form of money in India, a tradable liquid asset. It is one of the foundation assets for Indian households and a means to accumulate wealth from a long term perspective. Gold investment has been in the culture of Indian tradition and has been on rise amongst the modern investors as well due to the financial uncertainty and inflationary pressures. Gold Exchange Traded Fund |Gold Savings Fund | [pic]Chapter – 2 research methodology RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Problem Statement: â€Å"Comparison of Reliance Mutual Fund with others. † Scope of Study: The scope of the project is mainly concentrated on the different categories of the mutual funds such as equity schemes, debt fun ds, balanced funds and equity linked savings schemes etc. Research Objectives: Primary Objective: †¢ To know the best scheme of Mutual Fund by different parameters. Secondary Objectives: †¢ Understanding the attitude & behavior of the distributors towards Reliance Mutual Fund (RMF). Understanding the competition for the schemes provided by different Mutual Funds Company. †¢ Finding out ways & means to improve on the services by RMF. †¢ To evaluate investment performance of selected mutual funds in terms of risk and return. †¢ Also to analyze the performance of mutual fund schemes on the basis of various parameters. Importance of The Study: This study provides the good comparison to Reliance Mutual Fund for improving in their services and takes a sound decision regarding it. Reference Period: Reference period is 1st January 2007 to 30th December 2012. Research Design: I have selected Descriptive Research Design. Data Collection: Collect data with the help of distributor (INDIA INFOLINE) and Internet.Sample Size 5 schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund & 5 schemes of Open – Ended Funds. Plan for Data Analysis: By stepwise like: †¢ Checking †¢ Editing †¢ Tabulating through Table, Charts & Graphs. LIMITATION OF STUDY: †¢ Data is collected from secondary sources which may not be as reliable as primary data so sometimes it may be lead wrong prediction about future. †¢ Data giving a prediction of market condition but other factors also affect to it so perfect suggestion may not be predicted. DIRECTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: The study is held for direct Company and research department head. [pic]Chapter: – 3 Data Analysis & Interpretations DATA INTERPRETATIONThe study is based on the weekly scheme returns of Mutual Fund as well as the weekly return of NIFTY INDEX. The series of scheme returns computed from weekly scheme prices of the nifty index for the period of 5 years from 1st Jan 2007 to 31st Dec 2012 and tak e top 5 Open – Ended Schemes to measure risk and return. Risk is measured by standard deviation, beta, etc. Performance of Reliance Banking Fund & Other: [pic] |Funds Name | Beta |Standard Deviation |Correlation |Covariance |Return | |ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund- |1. 03% |4. 7% |0. 86 |0. 0018 |110. 8% | |Growth | | | | | | |UTI Pharma & Health Care Fund- |0. 78% |4. 7% |0. 65 |0. 0014 |98. 41% | |Growth | | | | | | |TATA Balanced Fund- Growth |0. 77% |3. 9% |0. 93 |0. 0014 |82. 92% | |ICICI Prudential Discovery |1. 03% |4. 7% |0. 86 |0. 0018 |110. 8% | |Fund- Growth | | | | | | |UTI Pharma & Health Care Fund- |0. 78% |4. 7% |0. 65 |0. 0014 |98. 41% | |Growth | | | | | | |TATA Balanced Fund- Growth |0. 77% |3. 9% |0. 93 |0. 0014 |82. 92% | |ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund- |1. 03% |4. 7% |0. 86 |0. 0018 |110. 8% | |Growth | | | | | | |UTI Pharma & Health Care Fund- |0. 78% |4. 7% |0. 65 |0. 0014 |98. 41% | |Growth | | | | | | |TATA Balanced Fund- Growth |0. 77% |3. 9% |0. 93 |0. 0014 |82. 92% | |ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund-|1. 03% |4. 7% |0. 6 |0. 0018 |110. 78% | |Growth | | | | | | |UTI Pharma & Health Care Fund- |0. 78% |4. 7% |0. 65 |0. 0014 |98. 41% | |Growth | | | | | | |TATA Balanced Fund- Growth |0. 77% |3. 9% |0. 93 |0. 0014 |82. 2% | |ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund-|1. 03% |4. 7% |0. 86 |0. 0018 |110. 78% | |Growth | | | | | | |UTI Pharma & Health Care Fund- |0. 78% |4. 7% |0. 65 |0. 0014 |98. 41% | |Growth | | | | | | |TATA Balanced Fund- Growth |0. 7% | |ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund- Growth |1. 03% | |Reliance Banking Fund- Growth |0. 98% | |Reliance Diversified Power Sector Fund- Growth |0. 90% | |Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund- Growth |0. 86% | |UTI Pharma & Health Care Fund- Growth |0. 78% | Standard Deviation: Here, are the top 5 schemes that has moderate & low deviation which is somewhat good. Funds Name |Standard Deviation | |Reliance MIP (Monthly Income Plan) Fund- Growth |3. 10% | |Reliance Pharma Fund- Growth |3. 30 % | |Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund- Growth |3. 50% | |SBI Magnum Balanced Fund- Growth |3. 80% | |TATA Balanced Fund- Growth |3. 90% | Correlation:Here, are the top 5 schemes whose Correlation is High & Highly Moderate. |Funds Name |Correlation | |SBI Magnum Balanced Fund- Growth |0. 95 | |TATA Balanced Fund- Growth |0. 93 | |Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund- Growth |0. 92 | |Reliance Diversified Power Sector Fund- Growth |0. 91 | |ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund- Growth |0. 6 | Covariance: Here, are top 5 schemes who has moderate to low variation compared to others. |Funds Name |Covariance | |Reliance MIP (Monthly Income Plan) Fund- Growth |0. 0004 | |Reliance Pharma Fund- Growth |0. 0008 | |Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund- Growth |0. 0011 | |ICICI Prudential FMCG Fund- Growth |0. 012 | |SBI Magnum Balanced Fund- Growth |0. 0013 | [pic] Chapter: – 5 Conclusions Conclusion Every investor wants to maximize his returns at the lowest possible risk or he tries to minim ize his risk keeping his returns equivalent, both gives him higher profits. In evaluating mutual funds, investors usually consider only the past returns generated by the fund without considering the risk associated with it. From the project, I conclude that, After analysis of all the schemes of reliance mutual fund & open – ended funds, there are 5 schemes that as high risk involved but there is also high return accumulated with it. These schemes are Reliance Banking Fund,Reliance Diversified Power Sector Fund, Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund, ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund & UTI Pharma & Health Care Fund. Theory says that risk and return go hand in hand. And we can see that in these 5 schemes. Considering all the factors, the best scheme is Reliance Pharma Fund & Reliance MIP (Monthly Income Plan) Fund compare to all other schemes. [pic] CHAPTER – Recommendation †¢ After analyze the Risk and Return of all the schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund & Open – En ded Funds, I recommend that the Reliance Pharma Fund & Reliance MIP (Monthly Income Plan) Fund for the low risk takers and Reliance Banking Fund & ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund for the high risk takers.These schemes gives the highest return but there is also high risk compare to other schemes included in Reliance Mutual Fund & Open – Ended Funds. Those people invest in this schemes who believes that â€Å"High Risk, High Gain†. †¢ I also recommend that the SBI Magnum Balanced Fund and TATA Balanced Fund schemes are providing less return & having high risk so; there is highest risk to invest in these two schemes. [pic] Chapter: – 7 Bibliography ? www. mutualfundsindia. com/rankfund. rpt. asp ? http://www. personalfn. com/tools-and-resources/mutual-funds/nav-history. aspx ? http://www. indiainfoline. com/Aboutus/ ? http://www. reliancemutual. com/NAV/NAVDownload. aspx [pic] ———————– DECLARATION ACKNOWL EDGEMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TABLE OF CONTENTS

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Communicable Diseases Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Communicable Diseases - Research Paper Example These improvements were still strong up to one year following the program, and suggest that community organizations can effectively deliver sexual disease prevention programs. Further research will be needed to expand the concept to a larger portion of the population. The consequences of interactions between HIV, other STDs, and genital inflammation on infection transmission is the topic of study in a 2011 article by Mayer and Venkatesh. This review includes several clinical studies and meta-analyses on the topic and offers a brief summary of each. It is observed that the current approach to STD related HIV interventions is inadequate. STDs are certainly linked to higher HIV acquisition risks, but the data shows that treating the STD alone is not enough to reduce the threat. Instead, it is suggested that the genital tract damage and inflammation that can result from STDs is the key factor in increasing the risk for contracting HIV. The authors conclude by suggesting that a more robust method is needed in these situations, and it should address genital tract damage and the presence of other pathogens along with delivering direct STD

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The influence of e-commerce on the Modern Business Essay

The influence of e-commerce on the Modern Business - Essay Example A survey of academic literature reveals that there are both advantages and disadvantages in resorting to e-commerce. Advantages include lower costs, faster transaction times, and greater convenience in the management of consumer databases. The disadvantages principally concern security measures and the risks of electronic theft and fraud. The report also presents and analyzes the data gathered in a survey conducted among businessmen and customers who use e-commerce, as to the benefits they had experienced as a result of this patronage. The paper concludes with a summary of the report, and insights on the strategic usefulness of this commercial tool in future business transactions. Keywords Electronic commerce, electronic market, modern business, international commerce, EDI, EFT, WWW, information transformation, traditional business, differences. Table of Contents Title Page 1 Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Literature Review 5 E-commerce defined 5 Historical precursors that led to e-commerce 6 E-commerce applications classifications 8 Effects of information technology on electronic commerce 10 Criteria for e-commerce applications 10 Advantages of e-commerce over traditional businesses 15 Future modern business – Issues facing e-commerce in the future 17 Data gathering and analysis 18 Conclusion 25 Bibliography 27 Introduction The topic of this report is about the influences of e-commerce on the modern business. It will include what is e-commerce, give the definitions of e-commerce and explain the different professional nouns, such as B2C, B2B, B2M, B2A/G, C2C and C2A. After that, show the different between e-commerce and the traditional business and how the traditional business has changed today. Furthermore, give the development of e-commerce, show the important impacts of e-commerce, how e-commerce changes since 1970s and what is the main trend of e-commerce in business in different periods. Moreover, it will talk about how e-commerce wil l influence the trend of modern business. In addition, this report wills main focus on the definitions of the e-commerce and the profession nouns and the development of e-commerce. On the other hand, it also will compare the different between e-commerce, tradition business and the international commerce. Aim: This report aims to achieve the following: (1). Looking for different business ways between e-commerce and traditional. (2) Analysis how e-commerce will influence the future society. (3) Demonstrate the vulnerabilities of e-commerce. Objectives The specific objectives of this paper to attain the abovestated aims are the following: (1) Identify ethical, social issues of e-commerce (2) Give the recommendations and improve e-commerce (3) Make a research of how people think of e-commerce Questions: The report shall seek the answers to the following questions: (1) What are differences between e-commerce and traditional business? (2) What are the benefits and the vulnerabilities of e -commerce? (3) Will e-commerce play an important impact in the future? Literature Review E-commerce defined

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Ethics and Integrity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethics and Integrity - Essay Example I have also learned the two forms of organizing a marketing department, the functional organization and the geographical organization. The functional organization is the most commonly used form wherein a functional specialist directly reports to the marketing vice-president. It is relatively easier to set up this form of marketing department as compared to the later said form. However, this form may lead to difficulties in developing effective marketing plans especially when there are several products and markets to be considered, oftentimes leading to internal competition among specialists (Kotler and Keller, 2009). On the other hand, the geographical organization is often used by companies that operates on larger market such as those that has product lines available nationwide as well as in the global market. The main idea is to create sub-divisions and hierarchal levels such as regional, zone, districts, and individual sales reps. This form allow a better marketing plan since ever y area has its distinct product requirements and needs that are highly dependent on the race, culture, and social class of individuals in the each community (Kotler and Keller, 2009). ... The most important concept that I learned is about socially responsible marketing. According to Kotler and Keller (2009), the ever changing demands of customers, the government, and the media has to be addressed by a proactive approach in marketing. The employees should develop a strong sense of ethics, values, and social responsibility in order to have an effective marketing atmosphere within the company. By adopting and implementing high standards of business and marketing conducts the company is able to position itself to be perceived by the community as a responsible and well managed organization, thus resulting to an increase in young professional that would want to work in the company due to the perception that the company will be a good venue for them to nurture their skills and fulfill their social responsibilities. Above all, the corporate social responsibility should be a top priority of the company. This includes proper legal, ethical and social responsibility behavior. Le gal behavior dictates that the organization should ensure that their employees are well aware of the laws and will abide by these rules while carrying out their duties (Kotler and Keller, 2009). As a sales representative myself, I will make it a point to strictly follow the rules that I am bound with. Since our company offers medical products specifically cardiovascular devices, I will not lie to my costumers and mislead them through false claims about our products for the sole purpose of closing a deal. Instead, I will present them the actual claims of our company and provide them with the most up-to-date product information available in our network. Ethical behavior is a paramount consideration in

Monday, August 26, 2019

Staff recruitment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Staff recruitment - Essay Example (2) The employer will give an employee a minimum of two weeks'notice of the date of commencement of duty. one month ofcommencing employment. Junior Employees Liberty is reserved to both parties to apply to make provisions for junior employees. Part-Time Employees 9. - PART TIME EMPLOYEES (1) Part-time employees may be employed on a regular basis for less total hours or weeks in a year than full-time employees but for not less than 3 hours on each day and shall be paid for each hour worked in proportion to the rate of wage prescribed in Clause 5. Hours 10. - HOURS (1) The ordinary hours of duty shall be: (a) Thirty eight hours per week or; (b) An average of 38 hours per week with hours actually worked being 40 hours per week or 80 hours per fortnight; (2) The ordinary hours of duty shall be worked in five days of not more than 8 hours (excluding a meal break) between the hours of 6.00am and 6.00pm. Provided that the ordinary hours of work performed on any day of late night trading may be worked between 6.00am and 9.00pm. Provided further that the aforementioned spread of hours may be varied by mutual agreement between the employer and employee. 24. - HOURS (1) The ordinary working hours of work shall not exceed 40 in any one week, or eight in any one day, Monday to Friday inclusive. Such hours to be consecutive except for the meal break. (2) In any week in which a public holiday or the day in lieu is observed falls between Monday to Friday inclusive, the ordinary hours of work for that week shall be 32 hours, and in any week in which two public holidays or the days in lieu are observed fall between Monday to Friday inclusive,... (1) Part-time employees may be employed on a regular basis for less total hours or weeks in a year than full-time employees but for not less than 3 hours on each day and shall be paid for each hour worked in proportion to the rate of wage prescribed in Clause 5. (2) The ordinary hours of duty shall be worked in five days of not more than 8 hours (excluding a meal break) between the hours of 6.00am and 6.00pm. Provided that the ordinary hours of work performed on any day of late night trading may be worked between 6.00am and 9.00pm. Provided further that the aforementioned spread of hours may be varied by mutual agreement between the employer and employee. (2) In any week in which a public holiday or the day in lieu is observed falls between Monday to Friday inclusive, the ordinary hours of work for that week shall be 32 hours, and in any week in which two public holidays or the days in lieu are observed fall between Monday to Friday inclusive, the ordinary hours of work for that week shall be 24 hours. (3) The ordinary starting time shall not be earlier than 5.30 a.m. and the ordinary finishing time shall not be later than 4.30 p.m. Monday to Friday inclusive, or as otherwise agreed between the parties hereto. (2) All time worked in excess of ordinary hours on a Saturday before 12.00 noon shall be paid for at the rate of time and one half f

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Dynamic Content Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Dynamic Content Management - Essay Example The basic operation of a Web content management system was set out clearly in the 1990s by the then MIT (now Harvard) database expert Philip Greenspun (2003). CMS is defined as those: â€Å"principles and practices around developing, managing, maintaining, and deploying (web) content in an organization† (Nakano, 2002) CMS concerns itself with the organizational tasks, goals and roles which lead to high quality content and accurate, attractive, useful websites which are easy to use. The average organisation's Web site or intranet has anywhere between one thousand and one million pieces of content. By the time the organisation has reached this size, it has a substantial Web content management challenge. What is a Web Content Management System? From Cascading Style Sheets through XML, has now evolved into the web CMS environment, where USD6.4 billions is expected to be spent by 2007 according to IDC. In a Web Content Management system the design and presentation of content on a Web page is separated from the content creation process. This is because Web pages and links can be dynamically generated from information held in a database. TerminalFour’s Site Manager is an example of a commercial off the shelf product which has found favour with commercial, public and academic sectors. By making use of XML (extensible Mark up Language), a CMS can also allow content that is stored in the database to be repurposed for different devices such as mobile phones, handheld computers, kiosks and Web TV as well as PCs.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Study of on-line marketing of banking and financial services Essay

Study of on-line marketing of banking and financial services - Essay Example This study undertakes an examination of online banking services, in order to assess their provision in different countries, specifically Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. The interactive media, i.e, the websites of different banks are the subject of this study, in order to assess how effective they are in encouraging customers to avail of online banking and financial services. Bank websites are very important marketing tools and how attractively they are designed will impact upon customer usage. The objective in this research study is to see how effective bank websites are as marketing tools to promote online use of banking and financial services. While providing online banking may have initially distinguished some banks and set them apart, providing them with a competitive edge in a global economy, the service is now becoming widespread. More and more people even in developing countries such as China, are gaining access to the Internet, hence the novelty factor of online banking may soon wear out and the quality of the online experience is likely to shape customer perception of service. Therefore, this research study seeks to assess the comparative efficacy of different bank websites as marketing tools.

Forces in the Context of KFC Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Forces in the Context of KFC - Research Paper Example There are various economic forces that have a significant impact on the business operations of KFC. This organization is greatly affected by global and national economic factors such as inflation and interest rates, cost of labor, stages of business cycle, unemployment rates and growth rates of economy. The recession factor has affected the overall income of KFC and this has resulted into making employees jobless, and some employees were hired for few hours (Ohme, Birinyi and Gupta, 2010). This was majorly due to cutting down of budget by the company. Economic forces restrict customers to spend lavishly in such fast food outlets. Government procedures and policies to certain extent provide the required guidelines for smooth functioning of business operations of an organization. There are certain political forces that affect operations of KFC and these forces encompass some legal factors (KFC, 2014). The stability of political environment, position of government in relation to market ethics, government view on religion and culture, policies of government with respect to economy, and taxation policy on incentives and tax rates are the major forces that outlines the political environment (Ohme, Birinyi and Gupta, 2010). It can be stated that these forces can have an adverse affect or prove to be beneficial for the company. There are some regulatory and legal forces which need to be taken into consideration by the organization in order to achieve their desired goals and objectives. KFC need to maintain the regulations and rules in relation to hygiene factors such as proper training of employees regarding personal hygiene, safety and food, proper usage of utensils and hygienic work environment (Ohme, Birinyi and Gupta, 2010). It even comprise of the legal environment within which a firm operates such as in United States, there has been a legislation passed related to minimum wages and more recycle requirement. Technological forces can be considered as the major drivers in context of globalization. These forces help to increase efficiency levels of production and even some of these forces can be treated as technological developments. In KFC, technology is the most vital component as this facilitates customer satisfaction at its food outlets (Ohme, Birinyi and Gupta, 2010). The organization has been able to incorporate the latest technology into the system.  

Friday, August 23, 2019

Marketing Mix Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing Mix - Essay Example The paper will significantly concentrate on product, price, and place and promotional attributes of the selected product. It was Sony who manufactured a â€Å"LED-backlight LCD television† in the year 2004. However, Samsung was the first company to coin the term â€Å"LED TV† when they manufactured this product on their range of Edge-LED lit LCD televisions in the year 2009. There are even an enormous number of competitors in the marketplace of LED TVs such as LG, Vizio and Sharp. Focussing on the marketing mix strategy of Samsung LED TVs, the research paper will also try to recommend a few modifications in the existing strategy followed by the company. 2.0 Product The LED (Light Emitting Diodes) is a modern technology in the range of televisions. It has swapped the use of ‘standard florescent tubes’ in television. This technology is used by Samsung for producing high quality and fine images. This section of the research paper will focus on the product qual ities that are offered by the company along with the likely qualities sought by the customers. 2.1 Features that Customers Care the Most The features that are mostly sought by customers in the LED TVs are as follows: The images that are displayed by the LED TVs should be livelier The size of the LED TVs are expected to be drastically small, even hardly an inch The LED TVs should be energy savers and consume at least 40% of less power than that of other televisions The images produced by LED TVs are expected to be finer dark Last but not the least, the vibrant images’ quality should make the price paid worthy (Hall, 2011) 2.2 Features of Samsung LED TVs vs. Features of its Competitors The biggest competitors of Samsung LED TVs are Sony. It is better to compare the two with respect to a particular brand for making the differences distinct. Samsung C6500 vs. Sony EX700 The picture of Samsung C6500 has a stellar view with its input of High Definition signals. This feature makes t he picture look extremely bright. On the other hand, Sony EX700 has a major drawback of contrast degradation at the side angles that ranges to even more than 15 degrees off-centre. Thus, it is evident that the picture quality of Samsung LED TVs is better than that of Sony’s. The black level/contrast ratio of Samsung is better than that of Sony as in the dark scenes it maintains an inky black view. But the series of Sony EX700 maintains a view that is little ineffective than Samsung C6500. In case of appearance, Sony EX700 has a drawback of framing bezel which is wider. Moreover, it has a depth of 2.25 and a rotating table stand. On the other hand, Samsung C6500 has a depth of just 1.2 inches along with a bezel frame that has thickness of just 1 inch. The â€Å"swivelling chrome quadrapod stand† makes it look expensive and attractive (Wiley, 2010). 2.3 Consumers’ Criteria of Choices and Use of LED TVs The most important thing that the consumers look for while dec iding to buy an LED TV is the budget. It is important to decide on the amount that they can pay for buying the product as there are quite a few ranges of price in this category. Next, the customer should decide on whether they

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Is fundamental analysis redundant Essay Example for Free

Is fundamental analysis redundant Essay Introduction Shortly after the stock market crash in 1929, as the first batch of financial experts in the Great Wall, Benjamin Graham and David Dodd firstly mentioned the concept in a book called security analysis: Based on public information that intelligent investors are able to analyse securities and determine whether the current price of stocks and bonds is over or below their intrinsic value. The Critical thinking and strong logic make this theory become the foundation of nearly all investments theories in Wall Street. Warren Buffett, John Neff, Peter Lynch and other famous investors become the  best practitioners in fundamental analysis. This essay will firstly introduce the related theories of fundamental analysis. Secondly, the essay will explain free cash flow model to equity valuation and the qualitative and quantitative factors of fundamental analysis. Thirdly, choosing a particular company analyses the relationships between the leading financial ratios and its stock price. Finally, indicating why financial ratios and free cash flow model cannot explain Berkshire Hathaway cooperation’s stock price changed during global financial crisis. Theory Aasuumption Metholody Theory Fundamental analysis which is based on analyzing the intrinsic value of securities, focuses on factors affecting the stock price and its trend and lets investors determine what type of securities they choose to buy and when to buy. (Lee and Swaminathan 1999, 8 )The basic assumption of fundamental analysis is that value investors believe that the market price is determined by its intrinsic value and the stock price can reflect its intrinsic value in the long term. Cash flow model Fundamental analysts use cash flow model, dividend model to roughly estimate a company’s intrinsic value. They assume that the stock price of the intrinsic value is its present value of the stream of expected cash flows and the selected reference values are based on generating the cash flow data. For example, using free cash flow model to measure intrinsic value, investors firstly assume the observed company can increase at constant rate and then choose the reference value based on a constant growth rate (g)to estimate free cash flow the next 10 years. Secondly, they calculate the present value of the 10-year cash flow based on the constantly discounted rate (k). Secondly, they estimate the terminal value P10=free cash flow*(1+g)/(k-g) and calculate its present value. Thirdly, they get the present value of the company and calculate pre- share value: equity value/numbers of shares. Rational investors can make well-informed investment decisions according to the relationship betw een market price and intrinsic value. Qualitative factors On the company level, fundamental analysis focused on two factors: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative and quantitative analyses have a dialectical relationship. Both analyses should join together to analysis and inspect on a particular company. Although qualitative analysis is used for physical areas, with the usage to tackle non-financial information, it can be widely useful in business and finance fields.(kesh and Raja 2005, 167) The qualitative analysis of the company level is concerned with products and services, competitive advantage, management efficiency, corporate culture. Advanced products can get increasing cash inflows and improve company value (Carter and Demissew 2008, 63) because booming demand for products and services can lead to a high reinvestment rate of the company, this creates additional wealth.( Madden 2007, 125) Competitive advantage can includes producing capacity and the efficiency of a company’s design and cost controlling better than the industry’s competitors. Generating a competitive advantage for a company will creates stakeholder value. (Vilanova, Lozano and Arenas 2009, 63) The improvement of management efficiency can lower operating costs and company culture can enhance corporate image, leading to improvement of company value. Quantitative factors The quantitative factors in fundamental analysis are based on a deep understanding of financial reports which is the process of identifying opportunities and threats from the company, so investors must be concerned with the balance sheet, cash flow statement and income statement analysis. Financial statements consist of all important historical information about the company’s operation management during a specific time period (quarterly, annually). All these information provide an overview of a company’s business activities and can help managers assess the company’s wellbeing. (Dayanandan 2010, 116) Financial statement Different users are interested in different areas of the financial statements. For example, investors and equity holders are concerned with  expected earnings and dividends of the observed companies. Company’s executives usually focus on the company’s capacity. Therefore, based on historical reports, different users can get valuable information about what they concentrate on. Financial statement analysis includes selected data from financial statements to predict the company’s financial health.( Hagos and Pal 2010, 441) Applying these data from financial reports, such as profitability ratio, liquidity ratio, management efficiency ratio, debt ratio, market performance ratio analyses year by year to determine whether to buy or sell observed companies. Based on analyzing financial statements, financial analysts are able to use profitability ratio, including gross margin, ROE to indicate how efficiently revenue is generated. The liquidity ratio such as current ratio, net working capital can be used to prove the firm’s ability to generate sufficient liquidity when needed and to meet short term obligations. For example, current ratio is an indicator as a rate of current assets to current liabilities. It measures the liquidity status of a company. With a higher current ratio over time, this company will be able to meet its current obligations and experience less financial risk.( Zaki, Bah and Rao 2011, 315) Table1 Sourced by Berkshire Year ROE Total asset turnover Debt/equity P/E P/B closed Price 2003 0.105 0.588 1.32 12.7 1.34 $84280 2004 0.085 0.394 1.20 18.8 1.6 $87900 2005 0.093 0.412 1.16 15.5 1.45 $88620 2006 0.102 0.397 1.27 12.5 1.27 $109990 Table 1 above shows the some figures provided by Berkshire corporation’s annual report from 2003 to 2006. During this period, the stock price has a significant increase from $67600 in Jan 2rd, 2003 to $109990 in Dec 1st, 2006. And from 2003 to 2006, Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s net worth is $13.6billion, $8.3billion, $5.6billion and 16.9billion respectively. Graph1: Berkshire Hathaway(BRK) Inc’s stock price between 2003 and 2006 Sourced by yahoo finance The increase of Net worth can indicate the stock price’s change during this period. The gain in net worth during 2003 was $13.6billion, which increased the per-share book value of its stock by 21% from $41727 to $50498. Because of good quarterly reports and an annual report, the stock price reflected the company’s performance, rising from $67600 to $89490. However, between 2004 and 2005, the gain in net worth increased $8.3billion and $5.6billion. Although in 2004 Berkshire’s book-value gain of 10.5% fell short of the index’s 10.9% return, the net worth fell from $13.6billion to $8.3billion, leading to fluctuation of the stock price during 2004. In 2005, the net worth fell to $5.6 billion because hurricane caused loss worth of $34billion. And in the stock market, the price fluctuated and even slightly increased. However, the price reflected the company’s performance. As a multi-business company, its main business-insurance company called GEICO improved its management efficiency at nearly 32% and warranty numbers increased by 26%. On the other hand, insurance float of BRK’s insurance company increased from 46 billion to 49 billion. Due to the capital cost rate of mostly 0% and improving competitiveness, its stock price rose sharply. Financial ratios (price to book ratio and earnings per share ratio) measure share price compared to earnings, book value per share and indicate whether the market overvalues, undervalues and appropriately values the firm’ shares. Managers use to assess investors’ perceptions of future prospects. Some investors invest in stock market based on analyzing financial statements. Table2 Table2 shows mainly the relationship between the book value and stock price. Financial analysts are willing to use book value to measure the stock price. From the table 2 above, the book value of the Berkshire Hathaway increases from $14426 in 1995to $70281 in 2006 and the companys stock movements, rising from $31900 in 1995 to $110050 in 2006. In addition to particular years, these two charts reflect clearly whether a short term or a long term, the trend of the book value and stock price is roughly the same. In the long term, the growth rate of the net worth is a useful indicator to justify intrinsic value. From 1995 to 2006, the net worth of Berkshire Hathaway’s  net worth increased from $5.3billion to $16.9billion, more than 3.18 times growth during the period. Stock price had increased 3.44 times with book value 4.87 times. Although 1n 1999, the net worth fell to 0.358billion, in the long term, this company still had a significant increase in its stock market performance . Analysts also can apply activity ratios such as total asset turnover ratio and average payment ratio period to measure management effectiveness in managing its assets and to determine whether the investment in particular asset categories is too high or too low and also find out the efficiency or speed in converting accounts to sales or cash. (Dayanandan 2010, 114)Debt ratios such as debt to equity ratio and debt ratio can indicate financial leverage and the apparent financial risk assumed by the firm’s equity holders. Application Dow Jones Graph2 Dow Jones industrial index Sourced by yahoo finance Graph2 shows the change of Dow Jones industrial index before, during and after global financial crisis. The global financial crisis started in 2007 because the burst of housing bubble caused credit crisis especially in the debt markets.( McCarthy, Solomonand Mihalekl 2012, 1277 ) the stock market highly violated between 2007 and 2009. For example, in United States, the stock market increased to the peak in October 2007 with the Dow Jones Industrial Average about 14,000. After that duration, the Dow Jones dropped sharply from 12,000 in August 2008 to 6,600 in March 2009. After 2009, there is significant increase until now, rising to 14,929. Company- Berkshire Hatchaways Berkshires core business for insurance business includes the property casualty reinsurance and special class insurance company. For the past 25 years, this company has increasingly strong capital and little debt, for shareholders to create the value of more than 25% growth on average every  year. Table 3 shows analysis ratios and stock price from 2006 to 2012. Table3 Year ROE Total asset turnover Debt/equity P/E P/B closed Price 2006 0.102 0.40 1.27 12.5 1.27 $109990 2007 0.109 0.43 1.24 13.8 1.51 $141600 2008 0.046 0.40 1.41 38.16 1.71 $96600 2009 0.059 0.38 1.19 18.1 1.11 $99200 2010 0.08 0.37 1.29 14.9 1.24 $120450 2011 0.06 0.37 1.32 19 1.18 $114755 2012 0.077 0.38 1.23 14 1.1 $133000 Sourced by Berkshire Graph3 Berkshire’s stock price between 2006 and 2012 Sourced by yahoo finance The gain in net worth during 2006 was $13.6billion, which increased the per-share book value of its stock by 18.4% to $109990. In 2007, the net worth is 12.3billion, which increased the per-share book value of its stock by 11% to $141600. However, in 2008, the stock price fell to $96600, and then there is an increasing trend from 2009 to 2012. Total assets turnover ratio Total assets turnover ratio measures the management efficiency of the firm in managing its total assets to generate sales. A high ratio suggests greater efficiency. Figures shown in table3, the total assets turnover ratio during global crisis had slight change between 0.37 and 0.40. However, the stock price changed sharply, so the stock price can not reflect the stability of this ratio. ROE indicates the rate of return realized by a firms shareholders on their investments and uses as an indicator for the company’s operation. Return on equity (ROE) Return on equity (ROE) is the best indicator to learn how much money a company is making for its investors and measurement of the company’s operations. (Dayanandan 2010, 117) However, ROE is also sensitive to leverage. Assuming that proceeds from debt financing can be invested at a return greater than the borrowing rate, ROE will increase with greater amounts of leverage. From 2007 to 2008, the debt to equity ratio increased by 13.7%, from 1.24 to 1.41. However, ROE rate fell sharply from 10.9% to 4.6%. Although ROE overreact to debt change, Berkshire’s fundamental did not change in 2008. Most of Berkshires business is affected by the economic significant downward in 2009. However, its manufacturing services and retail generated a lot of cash flow and continued to consolidate their market competitive advantage. Berkshires two most important businesses: business insurance and utilities also had a good growth rate. These businesses produced a large amount of business prof its in 2008. P/E ratio P/E ratio is a common approach used by security analysts. In practice, investors usually use expected P/E ratio for the following year and analyse whether the stock price is overvalued or undervalued on the basis. P/E ratio indicates that a stock of its P/E rate over 30 is more likely to be overpriced. The P/E ratio in 2007 and 2008 is 13.8 and 38 respectively and the stock price during the period time of 2007 and 2008 is $141600 and $96600. The change of stock price is overreact to the pre-share earnings. P/B ratio P/B ratio gives some idea of whether an investor is paying too much for what would be left if the company went bankrupt immediately. From 2006 to 2009, P/B ratio increased or decreased had no direct correspondence with the stock price. However, to most companies, the book value is always lower than the stock price. Because most companies have intangible assets such as brand name, specialized skillsï ¼Å'product pricing power. These factors can not reflect in the balance sheet, but the long term trend of the market value is similar with book value. It seems that when P/B ratio increases, the gap between book value and stock price increases. On the other hand, the gap shows investors are willing to hold the stock due to its intangible assets. Cash flow model All these financial ratios cannot explain what happened in 2008 and using cash flow model to estimate the stock price also cannot explain this situation. Because investors assume the company can increase at constant rate. Although they use long-term GDP growth rate to reduce the risk of assessing value, this growth rate cannot explain and predict what happened during the investing period. They also use CAPM to measure discounted rate given by the risk-free interest rate plus a risk premium. The formula is ki=Rf+(Rm-Rf)ÃŽ ²i. However, ÃŽ ²sometimes cannot estimate risk between the market and stock. For example, a company’s market value increases from 10billion t0 20billion is less than market value of the company from 10billion to 3billion. If the company still operate well, from the market side, the risk of buying a company of the market value of 20billion is less than buying the same company of its market value of 3billion. Conclusion Therefore, during global financial crisis, fundamental analysis was useless. It is clear that during some periods the stock price is overvalued or undervalued significantly from its intrinsic value, leading to highly volatility of market price. Any market volatility is considered as irrational performances, so these market valuations caused by behavioral finance which do not have impacts on the company’s assets valuations and  operations. (Adams, Armitage and FitzGerald 2012, 157). In the long term, the trend of the stock price is similar to the trend of its intrinsic value. On the other hand, in the short term, market price is influenced and fluctuated by political, economic, psychological factors, so market price is always undervalued or overvalued, but it is fluctuating around the intrinsic value. Some research show that sometimes earnings information cannot react to the stock market simultaneously and all the public financial information pose a gradual influence on the stock market for a while. During global financial crisis, the stock price sharply fluctuated because of financial behavior. Debt crisis caused by housing loan had a significant impact on people’s confidence. Trader’s low confidence let them make decisions irrationally. Reference list 1. Lee, C.M.C. and Swaminathan, B. 1999. Valuing the Dow: A bottom-up approach. Financial Analysts Journal 55 (5): 4-23. 2. Kesh, Someswar. and Raja, M. K. 2005. â€Å"Development of a qualitative reasoning model for financial forecasting.† Information Management Computer Security 13 (2): 167-179. 3. Carter, T. and Demissew, D.E. 2008. Value innovation management and discounted cash flow. Management Decision 46(1): 58-76. 4. Madden, B.J. 2007. Guidepost to Wealth Creation: Value-Relevant Track Records. Journal of Applied Finance 17 (2): 119-130. 5. Vilanova, M., Lozano, J.M. and Arenas, D. 2009. Exploring the Nature of the Relationship Between CSR and Competitiveness.Journal of Business Ethics 87: 57-69. 6. Dayanandan, R. 2010. Working Capital Management for Sustainable Cooperatives. Global Business and Management Research 2(1): 102-124. 7. Hagos, T.M. and Pal, G. 2010. The means of analysis and evaluation for corporate performances. Annales Universitatis Apulensis : Series Oeconomica 12 (1): 438-449. 8. Zaki, E., Bah, R. and Rao, A. 2011. Assessing probabilities of financial distress of banks in UAE. International Journal of Managerial Finance 7 (3): 304-320. 9. McCarthy, Mary., Solomon, P., and Mihalek, Paul. 2012. Financial Crisis During 2007 And 2008: Efficient Markets Or Human Behavior? Journal of Applied Business Research 28 (6): 1275-1281. 10. Adams, A., Armitage, S. and FitzGerald, A. 2012. An analysis of stock market volatility. Annals of Actuarial Science 6ï ¼Ë†1ï ¼â€°Ã¯ ¼Å¡153-170.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Literature Review Breast Cancer Screening Health And Social Care Essay

Literature Review Breast Cancer Screening Health And Social Care Essay Journals and articles were searched from search engines like pubmed, scientific journals, Google, Google books, Google scholar, British libraries, Health educator recommendations, and science direct periodic journals from university library. The key words used in searching the documents were barriers of screening, ethnic minority women, breast cancer, promoting uptake of screening, promoting quality of breast cancer through health education, government policies. Demographic statistics, Census reports and population statistics are also included. A total of 39 papers were found through the search engines and the number of articles used in the project is narrowed down to 15 based upon relevance and importance. The methods used in the research articles include questionnaires, qualitative analysis, extensive literature search, cross sectional studies, observational studies, census reports, mortality reports, statistics, demographic reports and review papers. RESEARCH FINDINGS: All the fifteen articles were researched thoroughly to analyse the primary objectives, methods employed, results obtained and comments over the conclusions pertaining to subject of interest. All these are summarised in the table below: Author, Year, Location Title Method/Study Results Comments 1. AK Jain and J Serevitch 2004. The Nightingale Centre and Genesis Prevention Centre, UHSM NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester. Breast Cancer Screening- How do we communicate with women of South Asian origin? Questionnaires and structured letters listing the objectives of study were sent to office managers and directors of 99 breast screening units in UK requesting them the communication practice with south Asian women of Indian, Bangladeshi, srilankan and Pakistani origin. Communication was also requested with units of larger South Asian women population. 67 of 69 questionnaires were returned to the office with particulars of initial Breast screening invitation procedures across the south Asian women, Mammographic, recall and breast assessment information and means of communication with the south Asian women in local languages like Bengali, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. The study reveals that many south Asian women dont get proper information on breast screening procedures and initiatives due to language and management barriers. Pictorial information and motivation in local languages is not given. Distribution of translated scriptures is poorly taken up. Conclusions of the research highlight the communication and financial barriers of the BSU. The recommendations of research include increased initiatives in local languages to the women who dont understand English and increase funding which enables them to improve patient facilities and screening uptake. 2. Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network 2005 , NHS Scotland. Management of breast cancer in women-A national clinical guideline Statistics and Doctor recommendations were collected to design a framework on managing breast cancer in women. SIGN was prescribed as a collection of guidelines for managing breast cancer patients and it includes surgery, therapy and care. Treatment procedures like radiotherapy, systemic therapy and physiological care were prescribed as techniques of improving care. Recommendations of care and surgery were include for information. Additional initiatives were mentioned to improve screening uptake among minority women. 3. Jo Freeman Douglas Eadie 2007. ISM Institute for Social Marketing. Breakthrough Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign: ISM Literature Review Six data bases, grey literature and small archives of data were researched on existing data on awareness programmes, current knowledge and perception of ethnic minority women. The research revealed that limited or inaccurate knowledge and awareness on screening programmes to be the main cause of poor screening uptake. Gender, cultural differences were influential in predicting attendance at screening centers. Perceiving importance of screening was major approach to be addresses. Research shed light on the problem areas and risk factors associated with breast cancer screening. Study focuses on multi-strategy interventions like educational packages, Inter-personal support, use of alternative community channels like community groups and ethnic media, Local publicity events like road shows to increase awareness of self examination and screening. 4. A Szczepura 2005. Ethnic review, Postgrad Med Journal. Access to health care for ethnic minority populations Extensive literature search is performed to identify the care process and quality in ethic minority people. Challenges for clinicians, managers and policy makers in ensuring quality care are discussed. Literature search revealed the primary factors influencing quality to be population diversity, linguistic competence, cultural disparities and lack of orientation and training programs suitable for special needs. The research focuses on the case study of breast cancer screening through NHS and identifies four reasons fro failure which are lack of knowledge on self examination and screening among ethnic communities, language and cultural barriers, inaccurate register of screening, lack of references and recommendations by health care professionals. The study concludes with highlighting improvement by interventions to increase awareness, improving risk perception and improve breast cancer screening for minority women. 5. P.T. Straughan and A. Seow 2000. Social Science Medicine. Attitudes as barriers in breast screening: a prospective study among Singapore women A multistage project was conducted to promote better understanding of Mammographic techniques in Singapore women. The methods included phase-I qualitative analysis, phase-II cross-sectional survey and phase-III prospective study. Items on FATALISM index, BARRIER index and early cancer DETECT index were studied as a result of the methods. Apart from the index results, the other important factors influencing screening uptake include social and cultural factors with perception. 6. Abdullahi et al 2009. Public Health. Cervical screening: Perceptions and barriers to uptake among Somali women in Camden Qualitative study was performed on seven focus groups and eight in depth interviews. The study revealed that there was lack of understanding of risk factors and fatalistic attitudes. Culturally specific barriers like embarrassing situation and past experiences accounted for poor screening uptake. Language barriers and cultural factors account for first stage poor screening. Improvement of language and communication in local language along with continuous support would improve screening uptake .Oral information with explanation about risk factors and advantages of treatment would improve health condition. 7. Ala Szczepura 2003. Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry. Ethnicity: UK Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot Final Report Colorectal cancer screening pilot tests are performed using records of Faecal Occult blood testing. The results focus on the disparities of treatment of cancer patients among the ethnic minority people. The screening uptake studies show the variation in high class areas and the ethnic minority even after equal awareness due to lack of initiation and courage among the ethnic minority. 8. Teresa et al 2007. Journal Of the national medical association. Breast Self Examination: Knowledge Attitudes and Performance Among Black Women A questionnaire was distributed to 180 black women, 18 years Of age and older in metropolitan areas through the church council developed by the authors. Another group comprises participants above 41 years. The survey explained that the frequency of breast self examination is associated with knowledge of self examination. Most of the respondents indicated to have practiced BSE from couple of years. 50% indicated to practice regularly and less than half sample had no knowledge on the practice of BSE. The research revealed that knowledge and practice of BSE is more in the educated class and older people with high income when compared to uneducated lower class women. The study also focussed on attitudinal and demographic variables pertaining to BSE. It also gave a note on confidence and social approval for BSE. 9. Chee et al 2003. BMC Womens Health. Factors related to the practice of breast self examination (BSE) and Pap smear screening among Malaysian women workers in selected electronics factories A cross sectional survey was conducted among women production workers from ten electronics factories. Self administered questionnaire was collected from 1, 720 women workers. Later statistical analysis was performed by bivariate and multivariate tests like chi square test, odds ratio and binomial regression. BSE rates were recorded as 24.4% a month and 18.4% for pap smear testing in period of three years. Women over 30 years and older, women with upper secondary education and above, answered the questionnaire on BSE correctly. Proportion of pap smear tests were recorded to be high in older married people bearing kids or couples on contraceptive pills and answered the questionnaires on pap smear tests. In comparison with national rates, screening practices were recorded as low in the Malaysian women. Health care factors, socio-demographic factors and education were related as barriers for screening. Educational and promotional strategies were directed for better screening rates among Malaysian women. 10. Cannas et al 2005. Survey methodology for public health researchers, Health education Research. Factors associated with Mammographic decisions of Chinese-Australian women Study involved research over sample of population suffering with breast cancer. 20 Chinese-Australian women were recruited for studies from different Chinese organizations like churches, community centres and clubs. Some of the participants discontinued due to discomfort in talking about the disease. Demographic data and open ended questions were used as a part of research An average of 8 informants among 20 participants has undergone Mammographic testing. Among the eight informants, 3 had it more than twice and the remaining four decided not to have any more. Among other informants who did not have Mammographic testing, 8 informants rejected Mammographic testing while the other four never heard about the term despite publicity. The study reveals that there are numerous factors responsible for poor screening uptake which includes organizational factors and influence of significant family members. The barriers were accounted to be fear of stigmatisation, fear of mammography and modesty. 11. Robb et al 2010. . J Med Screen, Pub med central. Ethnic disparities in knowledge of cancer screening programmes in the UK Cross sectional study and questionnaires were conducted using data from National health interview in 1998. The study resulted in enumerating foreign birth place and lack of adjustment to new culture as primary factors for poor screening among ethnic minority. The study revealed that foreign birth place and socioeconomic factors responsible for poor screening uptake. The study also revealed that foreign blacks are better in screening uptake than the Asians and Chinese. 12. Mark R D Johnson, May 2001. Mary Seacole Research Centre, De Montfort University Palliative Care, Cancer and Minority Ethnic Communities Census reports, hospital episode statistics data (HES), Health of Londoners project analysis, Patient records in hospitals and care centres. Palliative care defers from region to region and factors influencing difference were accounted as language barriers and lack of access and knowledge of palliative centres across the communities. The paper defines palliative care in terms of all types of cancer and highlights the maximum usage of this by the local people rather than the ethnic minority people due to lack of access. The paper calls for equality in treatment and increased awareness in relation to this. 13. Jamesetta Newland, Editors memo, The Nurse Practitioner. Breast Cancer Awareness More Than a Monthly Reminder The study is based on the data available in relation to Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in developed countries to increase breast cancer awareness. The letter highlights the improvement of health care through awareness and availability of genetic testing protocol for breast cancer in ethnic minority populations. The study focuses on the attitude of breast cancer patients and the fear to reveal the disorder. Patient education and support of health care professionals is of concern in the modern day to eliminate barrier of fear. 14. Wild et al 2006, British Journal of Cancer. Mortality from all cancers and lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer by country of birth in England and Wales, 2001-2003 The study is based on mortality data of cancer patients from 2001-2003 throughout the country with England and Wales as reference groups. The population data was collected from 2001 census to study rate of mortality. The number of deaths of women due to breast cancer were recorded as 33, 291. Mortality was recorded high in England and Wales and then women born in North and west Africa. Lower mortality rates were recorded in Eastern Europe and Asian countries. The data revealed the mortality rate of women due to breast cancer in England and Wales calling emergency actions and research to decrease the number of deaths due to breast cancer. 15. NCIN, 2010. National Cancer Intelligence Network, NHS, National Cancer action team. Evidence to March 2010 on cancer inequalities in England The Cancer registries are researched extensively for the data on all individuals Diagnosed with cancer. The information includes age, gender, postcode of residence and hospital of treatment. Survey of population samples are also studied simultaneously. Cancer treatment inequalities are analysed to be based on these factors: Incidence and mortality, prevalence and survival of the patients, Awareness of the patient on treatment procedure and stage of diagnosis of the patient, Screening and patient experience during end of life care. The study focuses on inequalities of treating cancer on the basis of religion, culture and race. Numerous case studies are analysed to draw series of conclusions. Activities against the inequalities of treatment could improve the health condition of patients.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

People And Organisational Development

People And Organisational Development This paper deals with the various problems organizations face while implementing change. It looks at change both from the organizational point of view and the individuals perspective focusing more on the latter. It considers the various process and models involved in change management. The paper compromises gists of a case studies which is attached as an appendice. Finally the paper concludes by pointing out the drawbacks and offering suitable suggestions for the organization undergoing change taking into account the short term and long term benefits. NOTE: Case study summarized in appendix 1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  CCC- Coxs Container Company   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  BBC- Byfields Business College Introduction Change is a continuous process which every organization or individual undergoes at some point. Defining change management is sometimes a very complicated process. To find the exact definition to fit the purpose underpins the professionalism of the organization. Voropajev (1998) states change management as an integral process related to all internal and external factors in projects, influencing project changes. It also involves identification of possible changes already occurred and coordinated changes across the entire project. (Appendix) write out the 6 points in Voropajev BNET Business Dictionary best describes it by keeping it simple and states it as â€Å"the coordination of a structured period of transition from situation A to situation B in order to achieve lasting change within an organization.† To make it simpler we can describe it as the changes organizations perform to realize benefits or to develop a profit making business. Change is the requirement for competitive success. Change is not a simple process done overnight, it requires thoughtful planning and implementation and should involve consultation and involvement of all the people (stakeholders, employees, consumers) who are going to be affected by the change. Change management faces both internal, external factors and approaches related to projects. Hence managing change is a very important. Change is not a single action or initiative. It involves various theories underpinned by Cameron Green (2004) such as Organizational change Team Change Individual change Cultural change The core objective to be put forward is whether the organization is entitled for benefits due to the changes suggested and the dis-benefits the organization will face if the changes are not initiated. Change needs to be measurable, realistic and achievable for it to have an impact on the organization and individual. Burnes (2009) identified the two dominant managing change approaches as identifying the strengths and weakness of organizations, and situations they are designed to address. But even by applying this does not cover problems organizations face. Burnes (2009) also states that both planned and emergent changes have benefits both practically and theoretically but they neglect other approaches. So a framework built to fit change is a better option and making it flexible for future changes goes even further. The ADKAR model (Appendix) proposed by porsci () acts as a useful tool and when realized in a sequence of steps helps individuals and organizations to manage successful change. Many organizations used this to good effect and Jeff Hiatt (1998,2006) developed it further and prioritized on individuals when achieving change successful. Reasons for Changes Problems facing Coxs Container Company (CCC) Nearing retirement of Founder Managing Director High Market Competition Reduced margins Erica Wilson survey entirely on her own Fear of job cuts No training Change not consulted with employees Cultural issues Non co-operation of manager employees Addition of new consultant Lack of communication between top management employees 2/3 staff work in the production department Are people ready to change? What is the best strategy for change? What is the best leadership style Vermeulen (1997) Resistance to change We (human beings) have always constituted to the major share of resistance to change. The bulk of scientific evidence suggests that the more the individual is enabled to exercise control over his/her task and relates his efforts to his fellows it is lot more likely to gain a positive commitment. Paton James (2008) This shows a basis of a democratic government. A fair amount of disagreement and resistant is often seen in change because it is disruptive and stressful. Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) suggested four ways why people resist change Parochial or narrow-minded self-interest Misunderstanding Low tolerance to change Different assessments of the situation People tend to posses fixed ideas and follow certain rules which have worked well for them in the past. But due to advancement in technology, science and trends different organizations tend to be updated with the latest advancement which requires changes or perhaps even re-organising the way they work. Organizational personnels not adapting to this change face the 4 change resistance stated above by Kotter and Schlesinger. But the leader has to assess the situation before implementing the new changes. BBC CCC (Appendix) both dont indicate the assessment being carried out taking all stakeholders involved in the change. Who Performs the Change? A highly debated question is that not many people like change and the people making the decisions come in the firing line if it backfires. Habits are part of every persons life but is counterproductive when it deals with change. Change process or change curve evolves through number of mental phases. Denial Frustration Negotiating or bargaining Depression Acceptance Experimentation Discovery of delight Intergration Baekdal, Hansen, Todbjerg and Mikkelsen (2006) Leaders or managers are the people who initiate the change. As mentioned earlier by Cameron Green (2004) the various changes taking place usually the initiator plays a huge part. At BBCs (Appendix) the director forced changes which affected the work environment and a lot of resistance from employees was portrayed but it invariablelly brought down the performance. Two rather contrasting points to put forward both in BBC CCC the individuals accepted change and the individual repelled changes respectively. John l Thompson 73 Role of Leader in Change Management Leaders seem to infer the phrase change management as means of getting the organization to perform what they want. Cramm (2003) in her research article stress that this only affects the people. This could only lead to the lack of the vision not being migrated from the head of the leader to the hands of the employee. Even strategic planning can go to the drain if there is lack in vision. VISION  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  STRATEGY  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  IMPLEMENTATION Leaders need not possess single recommended style. Thompson (1997) Some are autocratic others democratic in the way they make their decisions. Each relies on different strengths such as planning and analyzing, some are intuitive and visionary. What exactly we need of leaders is going up to people and involving them as part of the process. Gaining Inputs Stakeholder views Likes Dislikes Cramm (2003) states that â€Å"true spirit of change management is enabling all employees to express and apply their knowledge in a way that benefits each of them and the organization.† Burnes (2009) also emphasis that employee empowerment as crucial to successful change, especially when there is attitude and culture involved. For this in turn leads us to motivation being an important criterion. He further compared three theories in order to understand employee involvement. Depth of Intervention Cognitive Dissonance Psychological Contract Burnes (2009) There are a few key aspects to be considered by leaders or managers who take on challenge of change. Recognizing group consent a major influence on willingness to change Convey and emphasize two trust Training a part of building process Allowing enough time for change Encourage people to adopt basic idea to fit the real world and them   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Vermulen (1997) et al. Deal Kennedy (1988) The employees have to be convinced that this change is going to benefit them and is done taking into account the best interest of the organization and the employees. Fragmented leadership is a huge cause of outputs being brought down. There always is a need for a well structured plan to achieve transformation. Carr Littman (1990, p. 195) et al. Vermulen (1997) identified nine steps needed for successful cultural transformation process. Planning for cultural change Assessing the current state of quality culture Training managers and the workforce Management adopting and modeling the new behavior Making organizational and regulation changes that support quality action Redesign individual performance appraisal and monetary reward systems to reflect the principles of total quality management Changing budget practices Rewarding positive changes Using communication tools to reinforce TQM principles Hence the leader has to pay extensive attention to cultural change since it is a sensitive issue. Diagnosing and analyzing the organizations character will provide assessment of the strength and weakness. This can be further built upon. This makes the implementation a easier procedure to be carried out. Managing the Individual Culture Changing organizational structure can be done rather quickly but the cultural change is a long process and consumes time. Kanter (1992) et al Burnes (2009) The fact that many people or even teams are repulsive towards the word change is that they are worried if their individual roles and responsibilities would be affected. People are more suited towards performing actions which they are familiar with. Hence Cameron Green (2004) stress the fact that managing the individual and people within the organization is an important criteria. Thompson (1997) states that if culture and power is overlooked, implementation may not be possible. Baekdal, Hansen, Todbjerg and Mikkelsen (2006) state that change management is more about the people and higher efficiency does not come from working harder but from within. Higher efficiency comes from motivation, complete understanding for the entire process and self worth. This has to be focused on a large scale if the company is to improve. The strategic leader plays an important part in the culture of the organization. Attitudes and behavior of employees are affected as well as willingness to accept responsibilities and taking measured risks due to these changes. The culture of an organization is associated to the personality of the individual. Culture and communication cannot be separated and for this to be put in place common assumptions have to be made. Catwright et al Mullins (2005) sees culture as a system of management authority and states three ways employees react. They identify themselves with their organization accept its rules when it is the right thing to do. Internalize the organisations values when they believe they are right and They motivated to achieve the organization objectives Catwright et al Mullins (2005) There are many types of cultures seen in organizations which are cited in Mullins (2005) pg 892 893). But person culture plays as a huge part usually. It sometimes could be people getting together to agreeing with a certain system like the one of sharing cakes on Fridays at BBC. This atmosphere has worked well and has not hindered their success. But forced changes made by the new management has affected the working and led to inefficiencies. Every organization has its own unique culture and large organization posses a mix or cultures. Different people like working in different environments and they get more satisfied and this makes them happy which reflects on their performance. But Dean Kennedy et al Burnes (2005) categorise corporate cultures bearing two factors The degree of risk associated with the organisations activities and The speed at which organizations and their employees receive feedback on the success of decisions or strategies. Change Factors Free market competition is a driving source for organizations and individuals to innovate and change Communication communication strategy Involving people who are going to be directly affected by the changes is crucial and setting up a communication strategy is vital. This has immense effect on reducing the uncertainty people face and assures them of their involvement. By implementing this particular procedure the employees are draw into discussions and gives them the right to debate about the changes. This discussion can convince them why the change is needed rather than just being told to do changes which they really dont know why is being suggested. This can reduce anger, frustration etc being cultivated. This is best described in a mini case study cited in Burnes (2009) where the trade union convenor for NHS had problems with the top managements way of implementing change. Change was not consulted but ordered. This de-motivated the entire department and lack of staff support was evident. The situation seemed not like changing until the new chief executive taking the post on the very first day saw the problem and went to the head of the union. This was a huge step forward since it gave the union head and its employees the assurance of their involvement and them being heard out. This resulted in changes not being possible previously were possible now. It required only a little bit of courtesy and thought to initiate this step. This small win was a big step forward which contributed heavily to the change process. 500 words Management Union Meetings Having management union meetings to address the problems facing the organization and the drop in operational quality is needed. The fact that none of the changes have been discussed with the union is seen as a drawback. The management and the employees can come to mutual agreements and speak over conflicts which are hindering the changes from not being employed. Perhaps suggesting a few compensations to employees might work in favour of the management. Corbett (1994) Drawbacks of Change To every positive there is a negative. If change is not realized tendency to rely on a particular area is too strong and critical factor needed for success will not be built upon. In this every changing world change is the essence for success. Case study at McDonalds Thompson (1997) the smallest change such as change in menu also affects the people involved in making the food since they are accustomed to making the same previous menu. The motivation and moral is suppressed due to this change which will affect quality and time initially. But the organization is going to benefit so this change has to be realized. Forced change and accepted change are two changes which are not discussed often. Case Study Wave management Since over 2/3 of the companys employees work in production department and the fact that they have been working for the past 10 years, managing them to adapt to the changes is critical. Two main steps to put down are Involvement of employees in changes Finding ways to manage them Ezzamel, Green, Lilley Willmott (1995) state that organizations should be leaner, creative and adaptive. Bureaucracy hierarchical control have a lot of drawbacks. Having a network with a shared culture will make the employees committed to the core values of the organization which will bring down the cumbersome hierarchy and its cost. This is needed since there seems to be a vacuum when it comes to confrontation between top management and employees. This new wave management can lead to lot of future emphasis such as Problem-solve through participation Facilitate employee self-discipline Effectively develop HR Flexibly appreciate contingency ambiguity Ezzamel et al. (1995) Ezzamel et al. (1995) also state that managers are not required enforcing rules to control workforce. But this could lead to some problems with respect to disciplinary and motivation. Having cross-functional managers is a way to bring the top management and employees closer. This will bring self disciple as well as a constant monitoring process together which will benefit the organization. This eradicates functional specialism and boundary wjich are seen as obstacles for project management. Strategic management The steps mentioned below is probably the basic best process in achieving change. Planning to achieve the desired output needs a strategy to be implemented. Morgans (1986) et al. Burnes (2009) organizational metaphors 8 point description is good but many people rather prefer Johnsons Scholes (1993) et al. Some problems cannot be solved but only managed and adding value helps to manage change. Values such as awareness, responsibility, teamwork, tolerance and teamwork are supreme just as flexibility and change readiness. Specify time line Specifying the time line for the change to take place is often neglected by organizations. As seen from CCC or BBC case study (Appendix) there is no mention of time frame which does not help to achieve short term or long term wins. This could sometimes weaken the change process and become barriers for change management. Drawing time lines analyzing time lines are crucial to planning and implementation process. 500 words Remedies Motivation Engaging people Ways to make them understand (Educate Regulate them of the situation) Stats (projections) Positive attitude we are not victims, dont take it personal, global competition Get out of a comfort zone loss or opportunities Be a better player you fail company fails Re tool and re invent yourself einstien slogan Ask better questions + attitude Poor planning involve team communicate Dont see the point why will they want to change If ROI is not there then no company will be happy Motivation Manage change Setting Exampes Managing change is an important ingredient to achieving change. It is the responsibility of the management and many organizations fail to do so. There is no point blaming the workers. McCormic () states that effectively dealing with emotional response to change as a key criteria. Managers have their reasons to resist change. This may be due to the fact that they might feel that the change is not going to have effects or lack of trust in the management. Possible solution Top management needs to consider solutions from managers and them in turn from workers. People disagreeing must not be beaten down for their expressions. Top management must review the suggestions and analyze there is enough funds (Executive Sponsorship) to carry out the process if agreed. Open communication two way and honest opinions must be given Expectations must be robust and everyone must be aware of the change. Reporting system must be initiated on mutual grounds. By implementing these steps most managers will tend to be won over by the management and the employees will follow suit. Cultural effects on TQM Culture plays an important part in an organization involving every individual contributing to it and helps change over a period of time. Management plays the most important roles in achieving this transformation. Vermulen (1997) Vermulen (1997) identifies companys culture as major issue hindering TQM and change. Companies through is policies and day to day actions usually send signals defining what is important and proper which in turn helps employees act accordingly. If an audit could be carried out like questionnaires, personal interviews etc this can assess the situation and a feedback system would be created which helps gain commitment and awareness of the present situation. Vermulen (1997) states management must accept and follow accordingly even though there might be differences more than conformance. But what this does in the CCCs situation is that since 2/3 of the company employees work in the same department and are of similar cultural background. This is not always the solution. What effects change can bring STUDENT ID : 469131Page 8