Owens & Minor case for aligning supply chain incentives Essay

Executive Summary Statement of issues: Due to the changes of business environment, O&M suffered a continuous loss on business. Instead of acting individually, customers formed buying groups and combined buying power to gain advantages in negotiating gross margin with distributor. With the increased popularity of JIT and stockless idea, customers want to shift cost and risk associated with inventory to distributor, and they also want distributor to provide better services at its own expense. Moreover, competitions from private label distributors and manufacturing distributors further squeezed profit margin of our company. Owens and Minor play a very important role in the entire SC. They are in charge of providing information to manufacturers on product flow. Their services to the hospitals include storing the inventory in their warehouse and making constant shipments based on stockless and JIT strategy, thus taking all the financial risk in inventory handling and storage. They don’t add value to the product itself, but they do add a lot of value to the SC. The nature of distribution has changed over time. The bargaining power of hospital has increased due to mergers and alliances, pressuring the distributors to reduce their margins. Upstream members of the SC have also put some pressure on O&M to take additional cost in their operations. If the ABP strategy could be successfully implemented, both distributor’s and customers’ incentives could be allied. Customers would be willing to order expensive products via distributors’ channel instead of buying directly from manufacture. Generally, customers who could reduce or simplify the activities happened through the supply chain would adopt ABP faster. Also, customers who understood and were willing to develop a sustainable relationship with distributors would adopt the ABP first. ABP was a new concept and its value had not been proven. Aggressive  implementation of new idea such as ABP might drive customers away and fed competitors. There are internal obstacles exist in the ABP implementation. Hospitals have to restructure its organizational structures to fit in ABP system. Rearranging employees and reallocating facilities would increase the distrust to ABP system. Also, a substantial amount of investment is needed for establishing the EDI system. How to overcome these obstacles and make ABP implementation smooth is a big challenge. In order to illustrate the idea of ABP more clearly, we have come up a simple pricing matrix based on ABC method. We have identified two cost drivers and separated fixed and variable costs from general cost information. However, for simplicity we have not considered the cost difference of EDI and non-EDI ordering in this simple matrix. Owens and Minor should carefully deal with its customers’ resistance to the new pricing system by making them truly understand the new system and benefits they would get after the implementation. Owens and Minor also needed to launch a pilot program before full implementation and provide help and support to its customers to insure the success of the implementation. Statement of issues Historically O&M was doing very well in the industry, however, for recent years company suffered continuous loss on business. At the end of 1995 O&M had ended with an $11 million loss due to decrease in gross margin and an increase in expense. There are many reasons that caused this result, and we are going to identify the most important ones. Healthcare industry has changed a lot since 1980. Historically, hospitals purchased healthcare products individually. However, in order to achieve economies of scale and gain more control over supply costs, hospitals joined forces with other hospitals to form large buying groups. With such combined buying powers, hospitals are much more powerful in negotiating gross margins  and service levels with distributors. Distributors are forced to cut gross margins and increase service level. A quote from O&M manager can illustrate this situation very well: â€Å"whoever had the strongest will would win the price†. Apparently, in current supply chain, the relationship between distributors and customers is not harmonious. Moreover, with the increased popularity of Just-In-Time and stockless management ideas, hospitals are reluctant to hold large inventory because they wouldn’t benefit from JIT whose primary principle is to lower inventory carrying cost by ordering when needed. Instead, they want distributors provide Just-In-Time delivery service. Also customers require special handlings such as smaller package and different products batching and these services are at distributors own costs. Distributors also experienced margin pressure from the manufacturing side because manufactures do no compromise on the already low healthcare product price. Competitions in the industry also results profit decline of O&M, especially with distributors who also produce healthcare products entered the market. Those distributors are able to offer extremely low price to customers because they are the manufactures as well. Even though O&M commits to provide better service, it lost many customers because of this. Analysis of Data Services rendered by O&M and changes in Distribution. Owens & Minor play a tremendous role in this industry’s Supply-Chain. They are in charge of providing information to manufacturers on product flow such as: market trends, buying patterns and product penetration, so that their suppliers use this valuable information in order to manage their operations and production schedules. By doing so, manufacturers are able to produce the right quantity of supplies, which in turn reduces stockouts and/or excess stock costs, in other words O&M provide the necessary tools for the upstream members to have adequate inventory production planning. As for their customers, their role is to purchase the products from the manufacturers and ship those medical supplies to their warehouse where they will store them until delivery to the hospitals. So O&M owns and manage the inventory themselves, taking all the financial risk associated with product handling, shipment and storage. â€Å"O&M’s main operational functions included receiving, put-away, order picking and shipping†. O&M don’t add value to the product itself since they just act as an intermediary to pass the products from the manufacturer directly to the hospitals, however they do add value to the Supply-Chain. They enrich the SC with the necessary information needed to avoid phenomena such as the Bullwhip Effect and they bring expertise in stockless and JIT inventory management systems, consequently lowering costs along the chain. However, it is certain that the nature of distribution, that is, the role of O&M has changed through time and not for the greater good. This change has occurred mainly with its downstream partners the hospitals. They have shifted they costs to their distributors and demanded better and faster service without any additional rewards, this is why O&M relies heavily on its logistics department to make process more efficient. This was made possible for hospitals due to their increase in power by merging or joining forces with other hospitals. Voluntary Hospitals of America member hospitals represented $1.2 billion in annual revenue to the company, meaning that O&M’s switching cost is too high. They are able to minimize their own costs by forcing distributors to hold their inventory and transport in smaller units, sending it to the nursing and surgical units instead of leaving it at the loading dock as before. Margin pressures have also been present upstream with manufacturers, which were reducing discounts even as small as 0.5%, thus lowering significantly up to 31% distributors net profits before tax. A main issue taken from this case is that incentives along the Supply-Chain are not aligned. The risks and rewards of doing business are not fairly distributed across the network. Even if the manufacturers and hospitals are better off with the cost-plus strategy, the whole SC still does not have a win-win situation and they might lose against other Supply Chains. The truth  behind this issue lies in that there is no trust in the SC, this assumption is made given that nobody wants to share critical information, which enhances Impact of Cost-Plus Pricing on the members of the Supply-Chain. On the side of the distributors O&M, engaging in a cost-plus pricing strategy means charging a 7% markup, meaning that profits lie on expensive products, which they don’t have the change to deliver cause Hospitals bypass them and deal directly with manufacturers in order to avoid the 7% increase in prices. The most important aspect to consider about this strategy is that it does not take into account the services added. In addition, this method caused the effect of Distributor giving more and better service holding more inventories, which increases carrying costs and risk of damage during storage. Distributors enforce supply-chain speed without any additional profits. On the customer’s side, cost-plus pricing implies less risk on inventory carrying cost, creating more incentive for hospitals to order frequently due to flat rate. Nevertheless, there is some unethical activities in which they can participate. They can avoid paying high costs on expensive products to their distributors by jumping them through the SC and dealing with manufacturers instead, an activity called â€Å"cherry-picking†. Finally, the manufacturer engaging in cost-plus strategy needed to handle some shipment to deliver, mainly expensive products, to hospitals. This resulted in inefficiency for both parties due to the fact that manufacturers required hospitals to buy in bulk and they did not have the space or management systems as distributors did to handle the product. Mishandling, damaging and loosing expensive items often occurred in the â€Å"cherry-picking† process. Alternative Courses of Action for O&M. Based on our five quantitative and qualitative decision criteria: cost, time, ease of implementation, customer satisfaction and future benefit for the  company, we are able to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative and help us make the best decision. 1)Status Quo: The easiest option for O&M is to keep operating as they are, which is not the best alternative for them for financial reasons. They currently have customers who are not profitable for the company, customers who keep asking for higher service at the same price that would keep profit margins low as personnel costs increase. For the year of 1995 they incurred a net loss of $11.3 million, which compared to last year’s profit of $7.92 million represents a dramatic and also unstable change. Based on this data, the assumption is that the upstream and downstream partners will not change their business habits and incentives will keep unaligned and that the company will not be able to reduce costs to an extent where they can offset service costs and generate profits. O&M will keep generating loses for the company and will ultimately yield to bankruptcy. The time to implement is inexistent, since no actions are made. The cost of implementation is also inexistent; nevertheless the company’s cost on the long run will be very high because cost-plus strategy is not profitable for them. There is no ease of implementation. The customer’s benefit is high, since they don’t have to pay additional service and inventory carrying cost. The future benefit for the company is very low, might loose contract with clients because of their lack of ability to fulfill all products and keep taking all the costs. 2) Vertical Integration: Our second proposed alternative is vertical integration, which means to acquire a manufacturing plant. By using this strategy, O&M would be able to create its own healthcare product brand and reduce the purchasing price on that. Thus, O&M could offer a more competitive price to its customers and might get some recovers from the high operating costs. However, there are some problems associated with this alternative. O&M had to spend time on finding suitable acquiring target, understanding manufacturing process and integrate the manufacturing plant into the company system. Therefore, this strategy requires a relatively longer time period to get things work. On the other hand, in order to do vertical integration, O&M had to prepare a huge amount of cash. Based on the fact that O&M’s current cash flow was very tight, acquiring a manufacture  would have a big impact on company’s financial health. Implementation of this strategy would be quite diffi cult as well. Since O&M had no experience on healthcare manufacturing, it has to get familiar with the process from very beginning. Also, how to control manufacturing cost at a competitive level is a new challenge to O&M. Because O&M can create its low-cost private label products under this strategy, it has the incentive to promote private label products to hospitals. However, hospitals do not like private label products since it limits the scope of choice so under this strategy customer satisfaction level is low. In general, vertical integration is effective in reducing company’s cost on healthcare products purchasing but requires a substantial investment and long implementation period. Customer satisfaction is also low in this case. 3)Selected ABP: Another alternative that O&M could use is to use ABP system only on certain type of customers. More specifically, O&M could choose unprofitable customers to implement ABP and keep its profitable customers status quo. The time required for this alternative will not take too long, less than 6 months would be a reasonable estimation. The majority of time would be spent on the analysis of profitability of customers. The challenge of implantation this alternative is to make sure the customer profitability analysis would be done under a proper and correct result would be produced. To estimate customer satisfaction after the implementation, we needed to split our customers into two groups. Those customers determined as â€Å"profitable† to us under current cost-plus system would likely to maintain the current satisfaction level, but customers viewed as â€Å"unprofitable† would feel less satisfied since they would have to pay more after ABP implemented. The downsides of this alternative are the risk to drive some customers away and the increased complexity of our pricing system which might lead increased error rate. The good side is that O&M would benefit in the long run because of the elimination of unprofitable customers. If O&M would have all the information and could develop correct ways to conduct the analysis, this alternative would be a possible choice to lead O&M succeed. 4)ABP for all Customers: this final alternative considers implanting ABP to all customers, both profitable and non profitable. The cost of this option  is higher than â€Å"Selective ABP† previously mentioned, due to the fact that all customer base will be subject to EDI technology and connecting to all of them takes organization within the company and thus training cost by employees for both O&M and hospitals. The time to implement will be longer compared to Selective ABP; however based on our assumption that O&M will be located higher on the learning curve, their time per implementation per customer will be less the more customers they have previously served. The easiness of implementation therefore is not easy due to the large customer base dealt and new systems and training needed. However, the future benefits, not only for O&M, but also for the entire SC will be substantially improved in the sense that incentives would be aligned. Based on previous analysis on alternatives, we conclude that â€Å"ABP for all customers† is the most feasible solution that can maximise company’s profits, as well as aligning the incentives along the SC. This is important not only for the short term, but also for the long term of the entire chain. Impact of ABP on Customer Behavior. Before the implementation of ABP (activity based pricing), the current dominant form of pricing in the medical/ surgical industry was cost-plus pricing. If the ABP strategy could be successfully implemented, both distributor’s and customers’ incentives could be allied. Under ABP, the distribution fee was no longer based on the value of item but the value of service. In that way, Owen & Minor’s customers would begin to think about the real cost of various activities through the supply chain. Instead of wanting to order as less as possible per time and increasing order frequency, customers would begin to seek a way to reduce the order frequency to reduce the distribution fee charged by Owen & Minor. Also, since now the fee was not determined by product value, customers would be willing to order expensive products via distributors’ channel instead of buying in bulk directly from manufacture. So the possibility of mishandling, damaging and lost of expensive items would be reduced. From the distributor’s side, it would be more happy to provide good service because it would be paid based on the service it provided not the value of item. Of course, it’s unlikely to ask all Owen & Minor’s customer to turn to the new pricing system at the same time. Depends on the type of customers, some of them might be adopt the ABP quicker and with less resistance. Generally, customers who could reduce or simplify the activities happened through the supply chain would adopt ABP faster. First, customers willing to simplify or reduce the order frequency would be more likely to adopt the ABP. By doing that, the fee charged by distributor would be decreased. Also, those customers often ordering large amount of expensive items would adopt the ABP first. By doing that, it shits the risk of mishandling, damage and lost to the distributor. Compared with previous fee charged by item value, now they would more likely to pay less but get better service. Furthermore, those customers who understood and were willing to develop a sustainable relationship with distributors would adopt the ABP first. They understood that if distributor was losing money because of the improper pricing system, the entire supply chain would collapse someday and both of them would be hurt finally. There were also risks associated with ABP for Owens and Minor. ABP was a new concept and cost-plus pricing system was still a dominant form in the medical/ surgical industry. It was hard to convince customers adopt the new and even unproven concept. Some customers might turn to other competitors and the relationship that needs built over long time might get hurt. Proposed ABC pricing matrix In order to have a better demonstration, O&M designed a simple pricing scheme using activities-based costing. The pricing scheme is based on two major cost drivers–number of purchase orders per month and number of lines per purchase order. The number of orders was tied up to O&W’s fixed administrative costs and number of lines was tied to variable costs such as the labour handling cost of different products. This is a very primitive matrix because it only listed two cost drives and priced based on them. In reality, there should be a price for every value-adding service provided by distributor and the number of cost drives is huge. However, this simple  pricing matrix could effectively show our clients that their operating cost is associated with level of service they demand, and lower cost is achievable if they can optimize their behaviors. Because we designed this pricing matrix based on two cost drivers, costs included in matrix are directly related to number of ord ers and lines. For example, fixed order costs such as procurement, labeling, account management fees and variable costs like shipping & handling, delivery, interest cost are all included. However, some costs are not comprised in the matrix. O&M believes all costs associate with number of orders are fixed but there are variable costs incur in placing orders. Activities such as taking orders, processing and staging & processing are not free so in the future we need to include these costs in more sophisticated pricing matrix. Moreover, operating cost of an EDI system and a non-EDI system are very different. For simplicity reason we just ignore the difference and assume identical prices for both systems but actually using non-EDI system would incur more cost due to high level of manual works. We have worked out some simple examples on ABP and it shows that company’s profitability increased dramatically under ABP system. Please refer to exhibit #1 fro more details. Risks & Challenges. Although this selected alternative presents many future benefits for the company and the Supply-Chain, certain risks are involved. Risk associated with ABP for Owens and Minor. ABP was a new concept and cost-plus pricing system was still a dominant form in the medical/ surgical industry. It was hard to convince customers adopt the new and even unproven concept. Some customers might turn to other competitors and the relationship that needs built over long time might get hurt. Customer’s entire internal system such as budgeting and incentive programs are formed based on old cost-plus system, and a change in pricing structure is very time consuming. Restructure of pricing system will also affect customer’s buying personnel because their compensation was related to the percentage they negotiate with distributor, and under ABP structure that percentage disappeared Employees on the customer side might have problems understanding the system and change their behaviors to reap maximum savings. Organizational structure will be adjusted to fit ABP which means some employees will be reassigned or resigned, but this decision will have negative impact on morale and productivity. EDI system implementation requires a substantial commitment in resources. Sharing valuable information with customers can be misused at their advantage with O&M’s competitors. The main challenge will be to build mutual trust among the parties involved. Implementation Plan. The successfully have a fully implemented ABP system; we suggest the following action steps: 1.Establish ABP System within the company first and find out cost drivers (services which incur costs). Upgrade IT infrastructure to facilitate further implementation steps. 2.Analyze the benefits of SC based on ABP, benefits such as: improvement on inventory management, aligned incentives to efficiently compete with other Supply Chains, reveal hidden costs on activities, and build long-time relationships, among others. 3.Communicate to selected customers with the previous benefit analysis. 4.Initiate ABP pilot program. 5.Setting up EDI and give continuous support. 6.Adjust and upgrade ABP system based on feedbacks from pilot program 7.communicate to all customers with the success of pilot ABP system 8.Full ABP implementation. (For suggested time-line refer to exhibits.). Conclusion In general, we do see huge potential benefits on the implementation of ABP system. However, risks and challenges will emerge from this alternative and opposition will be strong on the customer side. The implementation steps provide an easy guideline to have a successful ABP system in the SC.

Political regimes between China and India Essay

When people are seeking new opportunities in other countries, China and India is popular choices for investor as the two most populous on the Earth. Both are emerging economies that have illustrated average GDP growth greater than 7 percent over the few years*. Noticeably, both India and China are largest avoided by the global economics crisis in 2010,maintaining above GDP growth when western countries are suffering economics contraction. Despite of successful changes, we still need to consider further elements for our investment. It includes regimes, laws, economy environment and population. However, if I want to do a mobile game company, I will choose China. In this essay, I will discuss above elements in China and India and also describe why China is better to do a mobile game company. At first, the regime background and regulation are two basically part to decide investment. Over the past 30 years, China has witnesses a continuing transition a capitalist political economy with a highlighting on market competition, international economic integrations and capital accumulation. In other words, It has opened its door to the direction of liberalization. Therefore, China requires to join the WTO for the demand to open its markets in anticipation, which is a new program of legal reform motivated. Thus, Chinese government is reducing to control business whose ownership is government-dominated or state-owned enterprise (SOES) but consolidate SOEs in some sectors to be global leader in their areas. As a result, foreign company can enter these fields but difficult compete. On the other hand, China is encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI) in almost sector, especially germinated industry. It is a great opportunity for e-business. However, in this stage, of approximately 130.000 SOEs four thousands are privatized per year. For regulation, while destination of investment will strictly limited or altogether closed, the law allows foreign inventors to decide a diversity of investment entities in China. Chinese regulatory agencies have divide business actions and sector in three categories: encouraged, prohibited, and  restricted. It also sets out that sector or industries fall in to the encouraged, restricted and prohibited sectors. It is not only determining how much and through what legal entity the investment can take place, but also foreign investment is allowed (Sweeney, 2010). A further point is that if we specify these polices in e-business, we will find that e-business is easy to enter and also be encouraged by Chinese government. In addition, in e-business this sector, the tax remains vague, generally lower than other nations, because China has developed their e-business later than others and is immature. Yet it also means more intellectual property issues. Similarly, a process of market liberalization is also building in India. Some have claimed that (Vollmer, and Sabine, 2013) that, prior to 1991, FDI was extremely regulated and was banned in almost sectors by Indian government. Yet a second wave of reforms has forced the liberalization process from 1991. It has opened the India economy for foreign investment in almost categories. A variety of measures were taken by India government, such as current account convertibility, allowing foreign institutions to invest in securities and shares of India companies. However, foreign investment in some sectors of economy was restricted by India. The Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) Regulations, which is most import law for foreign invertors, has banned some sector like atomic energy and banking. In other sectors, such as mining, telecommunications, and pharmaceutical, the proportion of investment in a company is covered by the FEMA regulations. Lately, many FDI has required Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval. Obviously, industries are requiring a license to operate, and to need for approval for restricted industries. A of critical goals for government is that to increase the FDI approvals to actual percentage. According to survey evidence (Bajpai and Jeffrey, 2000), FDI approvals were of the order of $54,268 million from April 1991 to September 1998, while actual FDI during the same time was a mere $11,806 million. Thus, actual FDI as a proportion of FDI approved was only 21.7 percent the same ratio is much higher in China. Furthermore, in India, FDI approval is base on the national level. Therefore,  licensing requirements, registration, and mandated. Investors have to control separate negotiations at the local level should like approvals be required because approval are not managed through national level offices. So, if we do business in India, we cannot avoid a complex of approval and also face some corruption from government. As a result, a mere $3.2 billion was settled by India while China succeeded actual FDI inflows of around $45.3 billion in 1997. Second, we also consider another a significant element that tariff, when we decide to do business in a country. For tariff, since 1990 a dual corporate income tariff regime has maintained by China: one regime for Chinese Delivered Ex Ship (Des) and another regime for Foreign-Invested Enterprises (FIEs). According to An (2012), to compare with Des, FIEs receive preferential tariff treatments provided by the Chinese government, base on dual corporate income tariff. Many Foreign investments were enticed into China because of the dual corporate income tariff. In order to compare with India, the tariff rates are approximately the highest in the world (Mohommed,2014). This limits its attractiveness as an export platform for labor-intensive manufacturing production. Nirupam and Jeffrey (2000) have found that, on quotas and tariffs, India out of 59 countries being ranked. India is ranked 52 on average tariff rate in 1999. Reductions of tariff rates (between 0 and 20 percent) required much greater openness to averages in East Asia. Most significantly, as many exporting countries of East Asia has been successful over past several decades, tax tariff on imported goods used for export and on imported inputs into export production should be duty free. For instance, tariff in agriculture, An (2012) has argue that the average bound rate in other developing countries for agricultural imports such as China and Brazil is 16 percent and 35 percent respectively, whereas India is 113 percent and higher than its 37 percent average bound rate for non-agricultural products. Therefore, tariff will be a huge barrier for foreign investor to enter India market but China has not this major impediment to larger FDI inflows in. Lastly, why I want to do business, especially mobile game in China? In above, we can find these reasons: (1) easy to create a company because of the regime, (2) e business is a support industry by Chinese government and (3) Lower tariff than India. In comparison, India has several main barriers to expand FDI into marker: (1) Restrictive FDI regime because of the approval (2) Lack of transparent sectorial polices for FDI (3) High tax rates by international standards (Sebastian, Rodney, Parameswaran, Ashvin and Yahya, Faizal 2010,8) . These advantages and disadvantages just are creating an e-business, mobile game, company. When we enter a foreign market, we have to recognize such as buying power, consumption behavior, and labor cost. In these points, India has some unique strength. As we all know, IT industry is dramatically prosperous and has a huge population as well, which means e-business company use lower price to hire employees. In other words, we can get cheaper IT human resources in India than China. In order to compare the market, we have to recognize more about guanxi, which is controversial terms in China’s political economy. It is a complex consumption behavior. However, the number of mobile phones has been growing at about 9 million monthly in India. India is making the second-largest mobile phone market after China because the total number is potentially to exceed 330 million by the end of 2008.It is most significant thing when we want to do a mobile game company, incredible market. Despite of some drawback in China, it is still a more reasonable choice for a mobile game company. In conclusion, India and China have emerged impressive GDP growth rates over the past few decades. Both are largest population and market on this plane. For India, a new and free market, stable business environment, and lower labor cost are magnetically for settle business, yet some major barriers are still considerable. For China, while a comparatively complex market and a part of sectors, it is a better opportunity to do a mobile game company. Largest mobile phone market brings great platform for a mobile game. Numerous mobile phone users can experience. Fantastic GDP growth is  promising these demands in a new entertainment industry. Low tariff is a important element for a foreign company more competitive. Therefore, at this time, we want to do a mobile company in both China and India, China is a worth choice. Reference: Sweeney, M. (2010) ‘Foreign Direct Investment in India and China: The Creation of a Balanced Regime in a Globalized Economy’, Cornell International Law Journal, 43(1), pp. 207-247. Sebastian, Rodney, Parameswaran, Ashvin and Yahya, Faizal. 2006. ‘Doing Business In India’. New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. 8(1): 17-40. An, Z.2012.’Taxation and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-experiment in China’. International Tax and Public Finance, 19(5), pp. 660-76 Vollmer, and Sabine.2013.’How to Do Business in India’. Journal of Accountancy.215(3):26-31. Aggarwal,and Alok.2008.’ Emerging Markets: India’s Role in the Globalization of IT’. Communications of the ACM.51(7):17-19. Mohommed .2014.’A Comparative Sample Study on the Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment In the East, South and South East Asia’. Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University Press. Joshi, A. (2011). Two Competing Asian Giants: Some Facts. China Report, 47(3), pp. 201–21. —- Nirupam, andJeffrey,D.2000. ‘Foreign Direct Investment in India: Issues and Problems’ .Development Discussion.3(1),pp .75-79.

Coping with a wafler

Dealing with People that Make Your Life Difficult Principles of supervision week 4 Individual work 2 Abstract This paper will discuss the waffled employee and how does It compare to a hasty person. The term â€Å"waffled† generally refers to an individual who has a tough time making and sticking to decisions. Introduction A waffled is a person that stalls and changes his or her mind often. Most of the time, a â€Å"waffled† means well but fears making the wrong decision. I honestly don't see anything wrong with a person not wanting to make the wrong decision.Just be mindful of the consequences. Waffled Like most of us, a when faced with a situation, a wafer will weigh in on the pros and cons. The only negative aspect to a wafer is that his or her stalling in a fast-paced environment can be seen as a problem. The best possible way to connect with a waffled Is to develop a professional relationship, one close enough to show her she Is welcomed or liked. The key goal to co ping with a waffled is make the Individual feel accepted, a part of the team. Making a suggestion like going to lunch or how was your keen, helps out a lot when faced with a waffled.It's best that when dealing with a waffled to always provide feedback, whether good back and let the individual know you are here to help. Waffled vs. hasty person I think a waffled will focus on fitting In versus a hasty person who doesn't care to fit In. A hasty person may often display a nasty demeanor toward others for no reason at all. They could be having a bad day and they will blame you for it. A waffled is usually a pleasant individual. I have a co-worker on my job, who upon completion of this assignment, reminds me of a wafer.

Article Review Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Article Review - Research Paper Example The research question of this study is: What do current advances in genetic research say about the genetic causes of intellectual disability and autism, and what are some of the effective tools of diagnosing intellectual disability and autism? This paper reviews this article through describing its research design and findings, as well as identifying flaws and relevance of the study in society and understanding human development. This study did not explain its research design, and it does not specifically ascertain whether it is a systematic review or meta-analysis. After reading the article, it is inferred that it is a basic review of existing studies on the genome of autism and intellectual disabilities. The sampling of articles came from respected journals. It is possible that Feero et al. (2012) conducted the study using peer-reviewed journal databases and it reached its findings using relevant themes and recurring outcomes. The research findings of this article explained the pote ntial genetic causes of intellectual disability. The article explained copy-number changes, deletions, and duplications. A copy-number change refers to the deletion or duplication of an elongation of DNA as compared with the reference human genome. Feero et al. (2012) used research that stressed that some patients with syndromic kinds of intellectual disability showed deletions in the same chromosomal region, where normal cohorts would have a different number or set of chromosomes. These researchers stressed the identification of specific copy-number changes in affected patients, when compared with control subjects, where they showed that novel microdeletion and microduplication syndromes were connected with intellectual disability and autism. For three studies that this article used, they determined that heterozygous deletions of 17q21.31 were connected with moderate-to-severe intellectual disability, hypotonia, facial dysmorphic features, occasional cardiac and renal abnormalities , and seizures. These deletions were not present in healthy control subjects. This article also noted that deletions of 16p11.2 were present in around 1% of those with autism spectrum disorders, but these deletions were also related with intellectual disability with no autistic features. Feero et al. (2012) recommended physicians to conduct chromosome microarray analysis and not the usual standard karyotype analysis, when conducting early diagnostic workup of children with developmental delays and intellectual disability. Feero et al. (2012) also showed that there is a significant overlap among the copy-number changes that have been determined for intellectual disorders. Studies showed microdeletions of 15q13.3 that are related to intellectual disability, autism, and schizophrenia. Moreover, microdeletions of 1q21 are connected with autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy and, most frequently, with intellectual disability. This article also noted studies that analyzed genes on the X chr omosome, partially because X-linked forms of intellectual disability can be passed on through unaffected females in families, permitting pedigree analysis. Moreover, mutations in PTEN are linked with autism and macrocephaly in some patients and mutations in SHANK3 have also been determined. Feero et al. (2012) highlighted the importance of sequencing of the protein-coding parts

Second Language Learning. Application Of Language Strategies In School Thesis

Second Language Learning. Application Of Language Strategies In School - Thesis Example Twelve percent represents the number of children that need special care and attention. Numerous studies indicate that a good number of English language learners are represented in special schools. Other states show that there are over fourth percent of these students in special schools. Other studies have indicated that, in other states they represented by only one percent. An English learner consists of many different children of different age groups. These students have different stages of acquiring English language. Most of the states have established different programs that are used to educate the English learners. Some of the programs are; English as a second language. In this program, emphasis has been put on learning and using English in the classroom setting. The students may be placed in class as English second language learners. The second program is bilingual transitional, here second language students are allowed to use native language in learning English as a second lang uage. Development bilingual education is the third program. In this program the students’ native language is developed as well as English language. The English language learners have a right to acquiring English as a second language, and they need support from teachers to acquire the English language effectively. The term student with limited English proficiency is used by the federal government and state laws or English language learners or English learners to describe the English second language learners. These terms are used because they give focus on what the students are achieving. English language learners refer to the group of students whose native language is not English, and are not in a position to take part in the learning process using English. Second language learning or acquisitions refers to the process whereby a child or an individual learn a second language in this case English normally abbreviated SL. The second language learners acquire English language fol lowing similar stage, but the rate at which a child stays in a given stage depends on the individual different of the learners. The stages of acquiring language are one the pre-production stage where the learners keep on repeating what the teacher says, two early production stage, in this stage the students develops vocabulary and speak. Stage three the learners have developed vocabulary up to 3000 words, and can communicate with simple phrases and simple sentences that may not be grammatically correct. Stage four is the intermediate fluency at this stage the students are in a position to a position to use complex words and construct complex sentences. They have also developed more than 6000 vocabulary. Lastly the fifth stage, the students at this stage are near fluency and can speak like the native speakers, and it takes them four to five years to get to this stage. Some researches have indicated the use of language strategies to teach English language learners to produce positive effects among these students. This notion has brought lots of interest in investigating the effects of using language strategies in teaching English language learners. Learning strategies depend on the individual language leaner and the instructional procedures employed by the teachers during the teaching learning process. This paper presents effective language strategies for special education English language learners. It is often thought the bilingual children growing in English speaking countries live in two different worlds. These are; English language culture and their home language culture. This make the student face problems while learning English as their second language. Some of the bilingual chi

Risk Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Risk Management - Essay Example These risks are likely to affect the construction of high rise building that may result into delay in completion of the high rise project and overrun of cost allocated for the project. The brand name of the construction company is also likely to be affected by these risk factors. The exposure to the identified risk factors is likely to affect the high rise construction project as it would impact the project cost and schedule of the construction of the high rise building. Thus the prioritization of risk is done based on the anticipated overrun of cost and time of the high rise construction project. The delay in approval from the government, conflict of interest over the proposed construction, etc. may lead to delay in completion of the high rise construction thereby incurring additional expenses for the project. Since the high rise building is being constructed in a commercial district, the schedule of construction is extremely important as the floors are to be sold to the corporate houses which have paid a considerable proportion in advance. The allocated budgetary expenses for construction also need to be met as overrun of cost would lead to financial risk for the construction company. Thus schedule risk and financial risk is the most important in construct ion of the high rise building (Karim, 2012, p.1). Apart from the schedule and financial risk, the technical political and social risks are also important. Technical risk may occur due to lack of communication between the company and its workers due to which the quality of construction may be hampered. Political interventions may crop up on issues like labour wages, safety of the workers, etc. Apart from the political risk, any form of non-cooperation by the labour, injunctions from the people of the community may pose social risk which is considered by the company for building a high rise in the commercial district. After identification of the possible risks, the treatment of these

Tourism Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Tourism Marketing - Essay Example 'The private sector comprises individual tourism enterprises that operate in a competitive, commercial environment using a business ethos and private sector capital. The public sector comprises the State Tourism Organizations. Funding is provided by taxpayers and ratepayers' (Advance Tourism 2005). The private sector operates as small regional or locale unites with strategic marketing plans. However, tourism needs to be marketed effectively aiming at the regional and local tourist. This paper will render a supportive hand to the local and regional tourism initiators. There are number of factors that need to be at the back of ones head while sketching and implementing a tourism marketing project. 'Tourist activities involve an amplified utilization of vulnerable habitation and this utilization often leads to a degradation of resources' (UNCSD NGO Committee 1999). The above stated words only prove how tactful one needs to be while compiling marketing strategies to influence the locale community. Tourism brings forth swift changes in the host community. ... The private sector operates as small regional or locale unites with strategic marketing plans.However, tourism needs to be marketed effectively aiming at the regional and local tourist. This paper will render a supportive hand to the local and regional tourism initiators. There are number of factors that need to be at the back of ones head while sketching and implementing a tourism marketing project. 'Tourist activities involve an amplified utilization of vulnerable habitation and this utilization often leads to a degradation of resources' (UNCSD NGO Committee 1999). The above stated words only prove how tactful one needs to be while compiling marketing strategies to influence the locale community. 1.2 Change and TourismTourism brings forth swift changes in the host community. While the international tourists bring in a rapid evolution in the local cultures and behavioral patterns, it is important for the state owned and private service providers to let the locale and regional people feel that their traditions and values are safeguarded and exhibited before the world. This confidence must be encouraged and cultivated by the local and regional marketing strategies (Poon A 1993). Tourism is the system of leisure or holiday travel, away from home for the day or overnight. The components of tourism include activities, facilities, transport and (when overnight) accommodation as well as local and international tour operators' (Bruce D. & Hoctor Z. 2001). This statement beyond any doubts can be considered as an affidavit for the seriousness of influencing the local flock towards successful and sustainable tourism program and activity. It elucidates the hidden aspects of the domestic market for the success and

Child Birth Booth Camp Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Child Birth Booth Camp - Research Paper Example The class was headed by a rather experienced instructor in medical field and childbirth in particular. The instructor was a well-trained, long-term nurse and a catholic doula whose name was Rosemary Antunes. She was a mother of eight and a grandmother of six Rosemary was a graduate of St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing, and said that she has over thirty years of experience as a Registered Nurse. In addition, she said that she had served as the school Nurse at Christendom College. Apart from these, she has also served labor and delivery sector at Fauquier Hospital with extensive experience in variety of settings. She informed us that she first became interested in working as a delivery nurse because of her mother. From the experiences she gained from her mother’s deliveries, she told us that giving birth a great moment in a woman’s life especially first timer and is therefore very important to treat women with kindness and respect through the entire process of concep tion to birth. Her philosophy has been to promote life among mothers and their children by helping them give birth safely. She offers teachings on the same in two area hospitals. She has also worked as a certified doula, offering personalized support and encouragement to women in labor. The class started around 9 am and ended at 5 pm. In the class, topics relating to pregnancy and childbirth were taught. Discussions on the same were conducted with the aim of equipping first time expectant mothers and their partners with knowledge and information on how to handle childbirth. The class constituted various practices. Comfort was ensured to allow healthy stay and learning especially given the much time allocated for all the lessons. The majority of the learners were Caucasian couples with the exception of one African American couple in the classroom. During the introduction the male participants were asked to introduce their partners, many referred to them as their wives whereas others

Strategy Implementation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Strategy Implementation - Essay Example We need to shift with it and we implement every strategy with result-oriented mindset" (Ambrosini, pp. 123-126). McConnon (pp. 46-51) mentions that Intel recognizes the need for continually analyzing and reviewing its strategies in order to meet the changes and challenges that come from the external environments so as to meet the stakeholders' expectations. Intel strives for business renewal and revitalization as a way of dealing effectively with the impact of the information society on today's dynamic industry. This paper discusses Strategy Implementation in the context of the case study of Intel in a concise and comprehensive way. Intel is an innovation-driven organization that strongly believes that competitive advantage can be achieved by choosing the right option at the right time so as to create value to Intel's key stakeholders: its customers. To achieve this Intel uses the following key drivers: According to Edwards (pp. 46-47) due to Intel's successful early days into the semiconductor industry, Intel established itself as one of the leading brands in the hi-tech sector. Intel managed to create and develop such an established and well recognized brand by being able to launch new products as well as being able to reinvent itself (e.g. moving from semiconductor memories to microprocessors). In other words, management created a dynamic internal environment where people were encouraged to accept 'change' as part of Intel's corporate culture. This was achieved through designing a matrix structure that favored and facilitated the flow of information and knowledge across the organization. Intel managed to create an internal environment that requires employees to deal with challenging corporate goals (i.e. result orientated) and beliefs (i.e. attention to details/quality, professionalism, etc) in a team-based and open-minded workplace. Given the dynamic industry Intel is operating in, innovation can be obtained through investing heavily in Research and Development (R&D). All the above-mentioned strengths may only feature in an organization that has great managerial vision; in other words, Intel's management was able to analyze the changing patterns of the industry, make choices (see the "buying options") and implement them quickly (i.e. strategic flexibility) in order to achieve competitiveness. Finally, another major strength may be identified: Intel believes that listening to its customers and working close with its business partners is a pivotal factor in the search for competitive advantage and, indeed, corporate success (Einhorn, pp. 52-53). Culture was of great importance to Intel. The 2-in-a-box management philosophy enabled top management to form a complementary and well-balanced team by combining philosophical and pragmatic skills. The 2-in-a-box philosophy reflects Intel's culture: it requires both strong personalities (egos) and teamwork (a philosophical dichotomy). Intel's culture is focused on being aggressive and direct, as suggested by Bob Noyce (1988) "people get respected or get ahead because of their abilities, not their position. You can always tell the boss he's wrong". Being a knowledge-based

Business Planning and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Planning and Development - Essay Example Horlicks is regarded as one of the leading health food drinks all over the world. Brothers namely James and William Horlick of England were the co-inventor of Horlicks. In the year 1873, James and William had established a business to manufacture their own brand of infant food. After 10 years, both the brothers gained patent for their company as a dried milk. From the year 1887, the company marketed its offerings by the name of â€Å"malted milk†. Malted milk had become very popular at that time because it was mixed up with ice cream. Horlicks contains a massive range of vitamins and minerals. It keeps nervous systems healthy. It gives energy to people. Horlicks was the first launched product that is used to increase the nutrition of infants. Horlicks was used in London as hot protein drink when the Olympic Games were held in the year 1948. At that time, Horlicks was very popular because it provided required energy to the players. Consequently, it is comprehended that since th e era of World War II, Horlicks has been marketed as an energy boosting health drink to facilitate its reach amid a wider section of target audience from infants to sports persons. At present, GlaxoSmithKline is the manufacturer of Horlicks in the regions such as the United Kingdom, India, Bangladesh and South Africa among others (Horlicks, 2011). A PEST Analysis to Discuss the Effect of Recent Events on the Modern Communication Efforts of Horlicks It can be apparently stated that the political, economic, social and technological factors significantly affect the marketing communication activities performed by a company. Any kind of changes in events can cause major strategic changes for a brand to market its product. A brand might require altering its pricing and promotional strategies in keeping with changes in economic condition of a nation. Similarly, in case of Horlicks as well these factors have had a considerable influence. Political Environment Political influence can origina te for a product from diverse sources which in turn can affect a brand’s marketing and operational strategies. In relation to Horlicks, it is determined that political factors such as government polices related to food safety can create a significant impact on it progression (Jordan, 1998). In this regard, it is observed that the advertising standards authority (ASA) in the United Kingdom had in recent times objected the commercial tagline used by Horlicks i.e. â€Å"Taller, Stronger, Sharper†. Horlicks has used this tagline in countries such as India as well to provide a commercial direction to its offerings. In addition, Horlicks has utilised the aspect of exam fear prevailing amid children to create a niche market for it’s a majority of variety of products. However, such an approach is viewed as an attempt to cash in on the target consumers fear, insecurity and anxiety (Shukla, 2012). Thus, governing authority in countries such as the UK have clamped down on this kind of promotional endeavour, which in turn can influence Horlicks’s marketing communication efforts. Economic Environment The UK economy has changed from the year 1970. Since that period, there has been a steady rise in the level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which has

Why the Electoral College Is Good Essay Example for Free

Why the Electoral College Is Good Essay â€Å"The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.† John F. Kennedy. Former President Kennedy expresses how imperative it is that every person has a say in the government. Contention 1: Proper representation is lost. When there is an election, the Electoral College does not give an accurate representation of the people because they vote for representatives, who in reality cast their votes. Not only that, but a candidate can win an election with just 270 electoral votes. South Sea Republic Organization in 2008 explains: â€Å"The Electoral College is an indirect voting mechanism. US citizens vote for representatives who then cast ballots for the US President. The electors do not have to cast their ballots as per the popular will in that state; they can defy the voters if necessary. This was done to protect against tyranny or a noble trying to usurp the democratic system. The convention however is that the electors vote in a block as per the citizen voters’ wishes.† CNN explains: In our current system, the president is elected by the Electoral College and not directly by the people. The number of electoral votes each state receives depends on its population and representatives are chosen to vote on behalf of the people in the state. To win, a candidate has to win 270 electoral votes, which is a majority. If neither candidate gets that, Congress determines who wins. A few times, the American peoples choice for president hasnt actually been elected or represented. The new system would also nationalize the presidential campaign. Contention 2: States are being excluded. Right now, candidates spend most of their time campaigning in battleground states. They do not try to win over voters in small states, such as Ohio and New Hampshire. Oxford University in October of 2011 furthers: By itself, California now has fifty-four electoral votes, making it more valuable to a candidate than sixteen smaller states with three votes each. †¦ Campaigns should allocate a disproportionate amount of their resources to large states because the pivotal voter in a large state has more power to swing the campaign than a similar voter in a small state. According to Northeastern Political Science Association in 2002: â€Å"In terms of state advantages and disadvantages under the contemporary electoral college, it was found that the electoral college in the 1990s contains partially countervailing biases which result in a net advantage to large states as much as 2.663 to one, and a net disadvantage to states with from 3 to 21 electoral votes.† This evidence shows the public that when one person lives in a more populated state, their vote counts more than 2.5 times more than one in a less populated one. This is not fair for the people in the smaller state because they still have as much equal rights than the people who live in larger states. On top of that, the less populated states have a larger disadvantage because the larger states grow at higher rates than others. This reduces the votes that smaller states have. If bigger states like Texas and California gain more people, then the people in smaller states get less representation. Thus, larger states have more power. Contention 3: Electoral College lowers voter turnout: The University of Georgia in 2011 shows that â€Å"Making a statement on the overall effect of the Electoral College system voter turnout is difficultNevertheless, we can make comparisons between the model’s predicted turnout under actual resource allocation and predicted turnout if resources were allocated equally across states. †¦If the number of visits †¦observed across all states in 2004 were allocated so that each state had an equal number of visits and equal media saturation, the average predicted state turnout is .618, an average increase of 3.1% in voter turnout. † In some states, the electoral college system boosts turnout. Competitive states (particularly battleground, but also some leaning states) receive a great deal more campaign activity, as do states with more Electoral College votes, which translates into higher turnout. However, this boost in a few states leaves smaller and less competitive states—the bulk of states in number—wit h lower turnout.

The Phantom of the Opera Essay Example for Free

The Phantom of the Opera Essay The phantom of the opera is e novel by a French writer Gaston Lecroux. It was first published us a serialization in a French daily newspaper named â€Å"Le Gaulois† from September 1909 to January 1910. This story sold very poorly upon publication In book form and it was even out of print several times during the twentieth century . But the book is overshadowed by the success of its various film and stage adaptations The most notable of these were the 1925 American silent horror film depiction and Andrew Webbers Musical on 1986 The story take place in Paris on nineth century and is a romantic drama with a little action . There are three main characters , Eric , Christine and Raoul. Un fortuanally they are a love triangle with cristine in the middle . Raoul was cristine; s childhood friend . He saved her scarf from the sea and since they remained friends. Cristine’s mother and father both being dead and she lives with Mamma Valerious , the elderly window of her father’s benefecrtor Cristine’s father was a famous fiddler who played folk music and during her childhood Cristine listen many stories from her father about the â€Å"Angel of Music† who is the personification of musical inspiration. Before he died told her and Roul the story of Little Lotte , a girl who is visited by the Angel of the Music and possesses a heavenly voice Eventually Christine take a position in the chorus at the Paris Opera House. She begins hearing a beautiful, unearthly voice which sings to her and speaks to her. She believes this must be the Angel of Music and asks him if he is. The Voice agrees and offers to teach her a little bit of heavens music. The Voice, however, belongs to Erik, a physically deformed and mentally disturbed charismatic genius who was one of the architects who took part in the construction of the opera. He has been extorting money from the Operas management for many years. Erik kidnaps Christine to his home in the cellars. He plans to keep her there only a few days, hoping she will come to love him, and Christine begins to find him attractive but when she unmask him feeil horror by his ugly face which according to the book, resembles the face of a rotting corpse. Erik change his plans and he decides to keep her with him forever, but when Christine requests release after two weeks, he agrees on condition that she wear his ring and be faithful to him. Up on the roof of the opera house, Christine tells Raoul of Erik taking her to the cellars. Raoul promises to take Christine away where Erik can never find her and to take her even if she resists. Raoul tells Christine he shall act on his promise the following day, to which Christine agrees, but she pities Erik and will not go until she has sung for him one last time. Christine then realizes the ring has slipped off her finger and fallen into the streets somewhere, and begins to panic. The two leave. But neither is aware that Erik has been listening to their conversation or that it has driven him to jealous frenzy. During the week and that night, Erik had been terrorizing anyone who stood in his way or in that of Christines career, including the managers. The following night, Erik kidnaps Christine during a production of Faust (by drugging the gas men and switching the lights off, he spirits Christine off the stage before anyone turned the lights on). Back in the cellars, Erik tries to force Christine into marriage. If she refuses he will destroy the entire opera house and everyone inside with explosives he haw in the cellar Then Cristine realise that Raoul and Persian , an old friend of Eric’s from the past hae come to resue jer but they are trapped in Eric;s torture chamber. Attemping to save the people above she agrees to marry Eric. Raul and Percian find a way to escape and they fall into where Eric keeps the barrels of gunpowder. Fortunately, the Persian, Raoul, and Christine escaped and Erik is broken-hearted and asks them to bury him with the gold ring when he died. When the advertisement is published that â€Å"Erik is dead,† they make sure that Erik is buried next the lake. The author claims the truth of the existence of Erik. He tells that Christine and Raoul eloped to the Scandinavia. He also says that they found a skeleton under the Opera house,a skeleton which he attributes to the Opera ghost

Cross Cultural Business Training And Communication Management Essay

Cross Cultural Business Training And Communication Management Essay Culture affects every part of a business from initial communication to building team synergy. To conduct business in a foreign country, one must understand the traditions and values of the society, along with consumer needs. Estimates show that more than half of all international joint ventures fail within 2-3 years because of the lack of cultural competency.   Certain issues need to be addressed for a business to ascertain what is culturally correct in a country. Resolution of these issues comes through direct experience with the culture to determine the needs and desires of the population, then addressing these in culturally appropriate ways. Behavioral assessments and adjustments need to be made constantly by employees to effectively penetrate a market and culture to be successful. In todays business world this is now essential for building and maintaining a competitive global advantage. (2010, June 8).  Cultural Savvy A Global Cross-Cultural Consulting, Coaching Training. Re trieved October 10, 2010, from : http://www.culturalsavvy.com/index.htm Providing a cross-cultural training experience is an investment that will reward a company in the long run. Companies that institute these types of programs have a competitive advantage over those that do not, as training reduces culture shock, affectively alleviates inappropriate situations, and ultimately creates lasting relationships with international partners. Culturally savvy employees are more effective leaders as they can better relate to situations outside their realm of comfort, with ease, and continue to build on them for the future. China and Indias current business relations; future endeavors When looking at China and India and their current relationship, one must consider, first and foremost, their size. China has recently over taken Japan as the worlds second largest economy, with Indias own recovering economic status coming in close behind. For centuries they have shared advanced ideas, inventions and philosophical traditions. They have reemerged as leading techno-economic nations, and recent developments and exchanges between them indicate that the ball is already rolling in the direction of globalization for common good. No two nations are better equipped than India and China to show the world how the common concerns of humanity can be addressed through mutual respect, friendship, healthy competition, and sharing of resources. Both Democratic India and Communist China have embarked upon ambitious science, technology, and economic development programs through centralized planning. Both emphasize self-reliance through local initiatives, restricting the flow of foreign capital and technology. ((Ahmad, A. A. (2010, February 10). Share The Worlds Resources. Retrieved October 5, 2010, from http://www.stwr.org/india-china-asia/india-and-china-conflict-competition-and-cooperation-in-the-age-of-globalization.html)) Prospects for India and China Prospectively speaking, India and China are facing an energy crisis that needs to be addressed today. India must create 15 million new jobs a year to keep the younger population employed. China has 17% of the worlds population and only .8% of the oil reserves, with an economy growing at a rate of 8-10% every year. China and India alike are actively seeking imports to meet their energy needs. China recently invested in oil interest in Russia and the Middle East.   China and India continue to compete with each other for oil resources, however an opportunity can be created here where they can cooperate. Discussions have been taking place between CNOOC, The Chinese Oil Conglomerate, and Indias Oil and Natural Gas Commission. Discussions include developing a committee of oil producing nations to determine the supply and price of crude oil, for the benefit of importers in rapidly developing countries, and exploring acquisitions strategies to meet these needs. China and India have allocated a large amount of capital to research and development, consequently they are producing more innovations than any other countries in the world after signing the Indo-China Inter-governmental Science and Technology Agreement. These two countries are highly trained in the fields of science and technology which make them a diverse resource to outside countries wanting to utilize those talents. Specific joint projects are proposed at inter-agency levels in such diverse fields as meteorology, ocean science and technology, space science and technology, and biotechnology.   These two countries graduate millions of students each year that are inundated with the knowledge to produce and actively participate in the global production of goods and public services. With these numbers, manufacturing may be at stake in the western world, by combining these efforts they are causing a power shift from manufacturing countries. (Ahmad, A. A. (2010, February 10). Share Th e Worlds Resources. Retrieved October 5, 2010, from: http://www.stwr.org/india-china-asia/india-and-china-conflict-competition-and-cooperation-in-the-age-of-globalization.html) Insights into China   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  China is the worlds fourth largest country (9.6 M sq km) in area after Russia, Canada, and the US. China is located in Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea. China is surrounded by fourteen neighboring countries namely: Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam. The Land   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chinas terrain consists mostly of mountains, high plateaus, and deserts in the west, and plains, deltas, and hills in east. China has extremely diverse weather, from tropical in the south to subarctic in north. The lowest point of China is Turpan Pendi, 154 m below sea level, and the highest point is Mount Everest at 8,850 m. Total area of China is 9,596,961 sq km, land area being 9,569,901 sq km and water area being 27,060 sq km. The land consists of 14.86% arable and 1.27% permanent crops. 83.87% of land is used for other purposes. 545,960 sq km consists of irrigated land. The natural resources of China include aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, and magnetite. China has the worlds largest hydropower potential. The natural hazards include frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts), tsunamis, damaging floods, droughts, e arthquakes, and land subsidence. People and History On 1 October 1949 Peoples Republic of China was established. The most recent promulgation of the constitution was done on 4 December 1982 with amendments in 1988, 1993, 2004. The flag of China is red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars in the upper hoist-side corner. The color red represents revolution, while the stars symbolize the four social classes: the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie, united under the Communist Party of China. Beijing is the capital of China. Major cities include Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Harbin, and Chengdu. China has five official religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism. The ethnic groups include the Han Chinese at 91.5%; the Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uighur, Tujia, Yi, Mongol, Tibetan, Buyi, Dong, Yao, Korean, and other nationalities comprise the remaining 8.5%. The languages spoken in China include S tandard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect, official), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, and minority languages.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   China is the worlds most populous country with 1,330,141,295 people (July 2010 est.). The birth rate is 12.17-births per 1,000 of the population, and the death rate is 6.89 deaths per 1,000 of the population with the population growth rate being 0.494%. The male to female ratio being 1.06. The life expectancy for males is 72.54 years and females is 76.77 years. The median age is 34.1 years, with 33.5 years for males and 34.7 years for females. The literacy rate is 90.9%, 95.1% for males and 86.5% for females. As of 2000, percentage of population age 15 and over having no or incomplete primary schooling is 15.6%. Those that have completed primary is 35.7%, some secondary is 34.0%, complete secondary is 11.1%, some postsecondary through advanced degree is only 3.6%. Education China has a vast and varied school system to provide for its population. There are preschools, kindergartens, schools for the deaf and blind, key schools (similar to college preparatory schools), primary schools, secondary schools of diverse disciplines, and various institutions of higher learning. Chinas basic education involves pre-school, a nine-year compulsory education from elementary to junior high school, and the standard senior high school education. It also has special education for disabled children, and education for illiterate people. The Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education, which took effect July 1, 1986, established requirements and deadlines for attaining a universal education system, tailored to local conditions, and guaranteed school-age children the right to receive an education. China has over 200 million elementary and high school students, who, together with pre-school children, account for one sixth of the total population. The Central Government has prioritiz ed basic education as a key field of infrastructure construction and educational development. Public Administration China has a communist government. The administrative divisions include 23 provinces which consist of: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; and Taiwan. There are five autonomous regions consisting of Guangxi, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Xinjiang Uygur, Xizang (Tibet) and four municipalities consisting of Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Tianjin. Economy During the past 30 years, Chinas economy has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade, to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector. It is now a major player in the global economy. In the late 1970s, reforms were started with the phasing out of collectivized agriculture. The reforms led to the expansion of fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, gradual liberalization of prices, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment. The labor force consists of 813.5 million people. These numbers consist of 39.5% agriculture, 27.2% industrial and 33.2 % services. The unemployment rate is 4.3%, and the population below the poverty line is only 2.8%. The GDP growth rate of the country compared to other countries is 9.1%. The agricultural products include rice, wheat, p otatoes, corn, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, apples, cotton, oilseed, pork, and fish. The industries in China include consumer products, such as footwear, toys, and electronics; food processing; transportation equipment, such as automobiles, rail cars, locomotives, ships, and aircraft; mining and ore processing of coal, iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals; machine building; armaments; textiles and apparel; petroleum; cement; chemicals; fertilizers; telecommunications equipment; commercial space launch vehicles, and satellites. The Chinese government has vowed to continue to reform the economy and emphasize the need to increase domestic consumption in order to make China less dependent on foreign exports for GDP growth in the future. (The World Factbook. Retrieved August 31, 2010 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html) Cross Cultural Training plan The term cross cultural training refers to a variety of different training courses. Each in essence aims to develop awareness between people where a common cultural framework does not exist. The main purpose of cross cultural training is to simulate problems that may arise in the workplace due to cultural differences and be prepared with resolutions to these problems. In todays economy, it is becoming increasingly essential to conduct business globally. For a multinational company to experience long-term success, its employees must have an understanding of the beliefs and values of the country in which they are conducting business. (Cross Cultural Training. Retrieved November 09, 2010 from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/training.html) Cross-cultural training includes both general orientation and specific skill development. General orientation consists of self-assessment, dealing with change, stress management and identifying attributes, and cultural awareness including national values, general dimensions, and work place incidents.   Specific skill development consists of knowledge acquisition, area studies, language studies, host attitudes, and skills training, such as case studies, area simulation and behavior modeling. Training includes providing the information to the trainee about national culture and attitudes in the host country. The trainee should be trained to handle different situations in a simulated environment. (Rohmeter, N. (2005).  Human resource development: challenges and opportunities. Daryaganj, New Delhi: Anmol Publications PVT. LTD) One major issue surrounding cross-cultural training includes getting beyond culturally determined stereotypes, how to raise and deal with stereotype. Most often, the common thought is, Life would be a lot simpler if people would just see things our way. Without realizing it, we carry those misconceptions and stereotypes into meetings, conferences, trainings, or even social gatherings that can make communication difficult and hard work. This break down in communication leads to in-effective work strategies, and also a non-productive work environment; in reality, the only person that can be changed is you. By learning about another culture i.e. their beliefs, values, common practices, and social norms, ultimately this will open up the communication lines. Other issues of cross cultural training include: feedback, how to counsel employees, coaching and team building, resolving conflicts (those include various ethnic groups at work place). (The Library. Retrieved November 09, 2010 from h ttp://www.impactfactory.com/library.shtml) Need for plan It is critical for managers to develop effective communication between employees. Training deals with interpersonal interaction. It provides management staff with the knowledge and skills to effectively supervise a multicultural staff. It results in a hospitable and understanding work environment. Cross cultural training covers areas such as values, morals, ethics, business practices, etiquette, protocol, and negotiation styles.   It helps in developing successful business relationships. It provides managers with a thorough cultural profile of the target country, highlighting similarities and differences between the target and home country. It also discusses factors that may arise regarding family, personal and business relationships, and runs interactive simulations that reflect realistic situations in the target culture. People and practices differ across cultures People can react very differently to a situation based on cultural differences. The need to motivate employees varies by culture. What motivates employees to work in India may not be a relevant motivator to Chinese employees. Therefore the trainees will need to become familiar with the differences in the employee motivation across cultures. The differences in the way motivation is perceived by the employees will need to be taken into consideration for performance appraisals everyday business decisions.   The expatriate will need to perform the same tasks he has performed in his home country in a new environment with new environmental stressors. The cultural stress will affect the performance and yield of job related duties. Expatriates failure in cross cultural environments is often due to inability to adapt to the new culture. The skills that have been shown to generate success are: -Show respect to the values of the new culture -Ability to be non-judgmental -Ability to understand ones limits in relation to knowledge and perception of the culture -Ability to empathize -Flexibility Rohmeter, N. (2005).  Human resource development: Challenges and opportunities. Daryaganj, New Delhi: Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. Designing of cross-cultural training Linguistic barriers are a major area of the crossings of two cultures. This major form of expression needs to be addressed to even begin to understand another culture, but then it is closely followed by those things around us that we would use to describe a culture. Language barriers, and breakdowns can lead to ineffective business plans and can damage relationships with potential clients. English is used for most transactions, but the usage of English tends to change with the countrys context.   In order for the expatriate to learn to communicate in China, we will enroll them in a 3-month Survival Chinese course taught by Surfchinese.com. The first program will consist of three 50 minute classes per week.   This course is designed for those who have no experience with the Chinese language.   Through this class, the expatriates will learn about 100 topics that are used in daily life, in addition to culture tips and interaction with a Chinese teacher.   Ã‚  The course is a ra pid learning course based on oral Chinese to help them deal with their practical needs in daily life. (Survival Chinese. Retrieved November 09, 2010 from http://www.surfchinese.com/class/SC1.asp)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After the completion of Survival Chinese, we will continue to enhance the language skills of the expat by continuing to a Business Communication course. This course is designed to help the businessperson learn the essential communication for business circumstances.   The course progresses through three levels starting with Basic Communications such as, time schedules, business banquet, marketing, and business consulting. The Intermediate Level moves to business topics such as, business greetings, conversations in the office and trading.   The Advanced Level will progress to allow the use of Chinese to perform more complicated communications such as negotiations, presentations, or business meetings. Since these are online courses the expatriat can continue with the language training throughout the transition to China and as long as needed until they are competent in the communications needed for their professions. (Business Chinese Courses. Retrieved November 09, 2010 from http:// www.surfchinese.com/class/BC1.asp)   Timetable and steps of the plan The timetable for training our India managers in China has 3 phases. The overall process will take roughly 30 days, with some continuing education to follow. It is important for our managers to not only learn and understand the culture, but it is equally important for them to stay current with it. Having a good grasp will generate a higher level of respect, and that will generate a higher level of business. Documentary training 3 day training The initial phase will be a 3-day training phase, or 24 hours, covering the culture and what is acceptable through documentary training. Language, behaviors, and demographics will be topics discussed during this time. Proper greetings and gestures should also be mentioned here. A pre-test will be administered to gauge our managers knowledge, so we can tailor the training program to the level of knowledge of our group. A documentary training program about the countrys geography, economics, and sociopolitical history helps to show cultural differences between the home and foreign countries.   It is expensive to send the trainee abroad for training; it is more economical to train in the home country with videos and books to learn about the foreign culture. Cultural and field simulation trainings and exercises 7 days or 40 hours The second phase will be approximately 7 days or 40 hours of applying the knowledge received in step one through cultural simulation trainings and exercises. It will be the responsibility of those in the group to be active in the community, talk to the local people, and learn firsthand the quirks of the culture that has been taught to them. A short synopsis will be required pending completion of this phase to showcase real experiences and application of the lessons up to this point. Cross Cultural Simulations are easy ways to get people involved in learning about different cultures. It allows them to actually be immersed in the culture and experience what someone of a different culture may encounter in a new country. By allowing yourself to step into someone elses shoes, you are able to see the basic similarities, differences, obstacles, first impressions, and interact with culturally different groups. Simple simulations can be played such as how many ways can you come up with to say hello in different languages; the Story of my name, where you give an inside look into the meaning or origin of your name; case scenarios, multicultural games addressing counting, stereotypes, and English as a second language. (Wilderdom, (2006, February 11). Multicultural, Cross-cultural Intercultural Games Activities. Retrieved October 19, 2010, from http://wilderdom.com/games/MulticulturalExperientialActivities.html) Role playing is a training simulation that allows a trainee to be placed into specific situations that may be encountered. Creating specific simulations can help others become more aware of the challenges faced and behaviors that may be primarily cultural, rather than natural. Instructions 1.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Make role playing cards depicting certain attributes for different cultures. Each person should get just one of the secret instructions to act out during the meeting. 2.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Tell the group they are to read their individual instructions by themselves, and not let anybody else know what they are. Tell them they should intentionally act the way their instructions indicate during the group activity. 3.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Role-play for about 20 min. 4.   Ã‚  Ã‚  At the end, allow at least 20 minutes to discuss the questions provided. The different cards that people are to follow should be specifically pertaining to an attribute of a culture. For example: You are someone from a cultural group that believes men and women should be separate. You would never shake hands with the opposite sex, and prefer to be seated in the same sex groups during meetings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another example would be: You are from a culture that it is common to greet hello with quick kisses on the cheek or long handshakes. Friendships are important, you ask a lot of questions to get to know someone and gender-mixed relationships are common.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While playing this game it is extremely important to stick to the roles given, while not giving away that this is what you are actually portraying. This in effect puts the player directing into the shoes of someone who is of a different culture. It allows them to see first-hand the challenges that can be faced, and ultimately allows them to see how they can be more accepting and responsive when faced with someone whose common practice is opposite of their own. After the meeting, you should allow for questions to be answered pertaining to: 1. How they felt during the exercise? 2. Describe what happened during the exercise. 3. What did you learn? 4. How does this relate to the real world? 5. What if you had known why the others were behaving as they did? 6. How can you apply this?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The focus is to learn by doing, rather than by showing. These simulations allow you to gain a firsthand experience of a different culture, but also allow you to make those mistakes that are inevitable between the mix of cultures. It allows you to address those mistakes or downfalls that may occur in a watered down version of a culture, and how best to handle those situations once they occur. Even though a full-blown culture experience will have unexpected situations that arise, this allows for highlights into a culture and the firsthand experience at what to expect. Implementation of the Plan The next 2 weeks or 13 days will be spent implementing some of the learned strategies to determine if any of them are viable. This encourages those that came up with the ideas and motivates those who did not. Hopefully, this will build a team atmosphere and establish who the true leaders are. During this time we will be able to evaluate where the company stands at this point in the training process. A closing test will be administered to recap the lessons learned and to promote continued practice of the new strategies. The next 7 days will be a research and development phase. This is a good time to have the group come up with a clever and creative way to market the business, and break into the scene so to speak. The group will start with a SWOT analysis, followed by a marketing plan, explaining in detail their ideas for market penetration. Spouse and family issues Another important area to address for any candidate who is incorporating their family into a cross-culture scenario is to provide the candidates family with sufficient training on the host country. It is better to train the spouse and family members of the trainee, so they can adjust to the new culture. Training the family enables the employee to concentrate more on the work that will lead to success of the business and not have the added stress of the adjustment time of both themselves and their families. Budget for the plan Language Training 1 Survival Chinese. Online 3 months of language classes. 3 classes per week. 36 Lessons $810 Language Training 2 Business Chinese. Online 3 months of language classes. 3 classes per week. 36 Lessons $810 Documentary Training 3 8 Hour Days $3750 Cultural Simulations 7 Days -40 Hours $200 Implementation of the Plan 2 Weeks $0 7 Days $0 Total $5570Estimated Budget for the Cross Cultural Business Plan Per Individual * This plan does not include Spouse and Family training. Language training would be approximately $7 per 50 minute session. Cultural Training is approximately $1250 per day per person. *Cultural simulation cost in this example is based on a Chinese community within the city of the expat. Pricing would be greater if travel is required to a Chinese Community. *Implementation of the Plan is based in an office setting and would not require additional funding for travel, per diem, etc. Expected results in cross cultural training Cross-cultural training has many benefits to be gained by participants and the business. Measuring the effectiveness of cross cultural training can be challenging, but it is rather clear that cross cultural competence has the potential to make a significant contribution to top and bottom line results as well as the individuals performance. Cross-cultural training increases cross-cultural competence i.e., the ability of the individuals to perform effectively and confidently in other countries or with foreign nationals. This training helps to develop new skills, attitudes, and gain new insights. The main benefits of a properly designed and customized cross cultural training are: Greater understanding of the customs and beliefs of other cultures. Better relationships and communication with people from other cultures. Insight into needs and opportunities of the global market. Greater level of adjustment to living and working in a new environment. Develops inter-personal and listening skills. Change in Motivation Levels:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Motivation is considered to be a goal-oriented behavior. It may be either intrinsic or extrinsic. Motivation levels are of great importance in the business world. During the cross-cultural training programs, one tries to enhance the motivation levels of the expatriates by the various training programs. These programs increase the work performance of the expatriates and also build confidence in them. By enhancing the trainees personal experiences in a specific culture, he becomes more aware of situations he may encounter. This ultimately relieves the stress and culture shock of a situation, allowing their true motivation to show through, and business transactions to be conducted smoothly. Change in Competency   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Competency can be defined as the ability to perform the prescribed work efficiently. The cross-cultural training increases the skills, knowledge, and behavior of the person. These three qualities combined can be termed as Competence.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Competency is the general requirement for a person to participate effectively in various organizations and communities. This training program increased levels of competency in the expatriates, which helps them with their work activities individually, and enables them to rely on the skills provided and learned through simulations, and cultural interactions. Change in Organizational Effectiveness   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Organizational effectiveness is considered one of the key factors for success of the company. It can be defined by the effectiveness in which the organization achieves specific outcomes. This is a cumulative effort put forth by all employees, which makes an organization effective and productive in their goals.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The success of the company is dependent on the organizational competence and ethics. The effectiveness of an organization is not measurable, but can be evaluated based on the profits they earn. Thus cross cultural training can enhance the effectiveness of the organization by building confidence and enthusiasm in the workers.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion cross cultural training programs prove to be profitable to both countries, the families, and the employees who are involved in the business exchange. With the training as a guide, the expatriates as they get to know about the culture, customs and most importantly the working style of the foreign country. A company with employees knowledgeable about the culture of the country in which they are performing business will be more adept at meeting the goals of the organization. This knowledge will also increase consumer confidence in the company, and enhance the relationship between the countries i.e., China and India.

Chaos In The Currency Markets : Currency Crisis Of The EMS :: essays research papers

Chaos in The Currency Markets : Currency Crisis of The EMS 1. What does the crisis of September 1992 tell you about the relative abilities of currency markets and national governments to influence exchange rates?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The currency markets and national governments both have abilities to influence exchange rates. Like other financial markets, foreign exchange markets react to any news that may have a future effect. Speculators are the part of the currency markets that take currency positions based on anticipated interest rate movements in various countries. Day-to-day speculation on future exchange rate movements is commonly driven by signals of future interest rate movements. By using the signal, speculators usually take the position before the things actually occurred. Sometime, if high power enough, the speculators position can influence the exchange rate movement. The government controls is one of the factors affecting exchange rate. The government can influence the equilibrium exchange rate in many way, including direct intervening (buying and selling currencies) in the foreign exchange markets and indirect intervening by affecting macro variables such as interest rates. 2. What does the crisis of September 1992 tell you about the weakness of fixed exchange rate regimes?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From European currency crisis of September 1992, it shows us that there are weakness of the fixed exchange rate system. When exchange rate are tied, a high interest rate in one country has a strong influence on interest rates in the other countries. Funds will flow to the country with a more attractive interest rate, which reduces the supply of fund in the other countries and places upward pressure on their interest rates. The flow of fund would continue until the interest rate differential has been eliminated or reduced. This process would not necessarily apply to countries outside ERM that do not in the fixed exchange rate system, because the exchange rate risk may discourage the flow of funds to the countries with relatively high interest rate. However, since the ERM requires central banks to maintain the exchange rates between currencies within specified boundaries, investors moving funds among the participating European countries are less concerned about exchange rate risk. 3. Assess the impact of the events of September 1992 on the EU 's ability to establish a common currency by 1999.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A major concern of a common currency is based on the concept of a single European monetary policy. Each country's government may prefer to implement its own monetary policy. It would have to adapt to a system in which it had only partial input to the European monetary policy that would be implemented in all European countries, including its own. Chaos In The Currency Markets : Currency Crisis Of The EMS :: essays research papers Chaos in The Currency Markets : Currency Crisis of The EMS 1. What does the crisis of September 1992 tell you about the relative abilities of currency markets and national governments to influence exchange rates?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The currency markets and national governments both have abilities to influence exchange rates. Like other financial markets, foreign exchange markets react to any news that may have a future effect. Speculators are the part of the currency markets that take currency positions based on anticipated interest rate movements in various countries. Day-to-day speculation on future exchange rate movements is commonly driven by signals of future interest rate movements. By using the signal, speculators usually take the position before the things actually occurred. Sometime, if high power enough, the speculators position can influence the exchange rate movement. The government controls is one of the factors affecting exchange rate. The government can influence the equilibrium exchange rate in many way, including direct intervening (buying and selling currencies) in the foreign exchange markets and indirect intervening by affecting macro variables such as interest rates. 2. What does the crisis of September 1992 tell you about the weakness of fixed exchange rate regimes?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From European currency crisis of September 1992, it shows us that there are weakness of the fixed exchange rate system. When exchange rate are tied, a high interest rate in one country has a strong influence on interest rates in the other countries. Funds will flow to the country with a more attractive interest rate, which reduces the supply of fund in the other countries and places upward pressure on their interest rates. The flow of fund would continue until the interest rate differential has been eliminated or reduced. This process would not necessarily apply to countries outside ERM that do not in the fixed exchange rate system, because the exchange rate risk may discourage the flow of funds to the countries with relatively high interest rate. However, since the ERM requires central banks to maintain the exchange rates between currencies within specified boundaries, investors moving funds among the participating European countries are less concerned about exchange rate risk. 3. Assess the impact of the events of September 1992 on the EU 's ability to establish a common currency by 1999.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A major concern of a common currency is based on the concept of a single European monetary policy. Each country's government may prefer to implement its own monetary policy. It would have to adapt to a system in which it had only partial input to the European monetary policy that would be implemented in all European countries, including its own.