Csr And Corporate Social Responsibility - 1667 Words

ABSTRACT Different scholars and professors have defined CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility in many ways. Generally, CSR includes the responsibilities that businesses hold towards the societies they carry their operations in (Cadbury, 2006). The European Commission defines CSR as â€Å"a concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment.† A more specific definition of CSR explains that businesses must identify their stakeholder groups and understand their needs and values and take those values into their operational and strategic decision making process (Cadbury, 2006). For a business to apply real corporate social responsibility, they must apply economical and ethical strategies in†¦show more content†¦Google acts similarly but with more interaction with the societies surrounding them. Google in the eyes of many is still considered the closest to surrounding societies. INTRODUCTION The four previously mentioned companies, carry around a positive reputation whenever they are mentioned. They are considered the most reputable around the world, thus there is a type of a â€Å"Halo Effect† that goes around them anytime they are mentioned. Besides being very popular and famous for their donations, all four companies are extremely active and genuine in all perceptions that measure or drive CSR. In order to act responsibly in a society, a company must first understand the elements of a successful CSR practice within an organization. First step starts with getting the support and participation of high profile executives that are willing to stand up for the strategy of practicing more social responsible operations. Then creating a visionary document in order for the public and stakeholders to read and see the ambitions and goals of the organization. ARGUMENT/ BODY Google ranked 1st in terms of best â€Å"workplace†. 51% of the consumers surveyed among the 15 markets, agreed that Google is an appealing place to work at and they treat their employees well (Smith, 2013). Google’s international success is related to social responsibility strategies. Around the world, Google has been able to stand and interact with local societies as a local company rather that an international foreign

Apple Swot Analysis Free Essays

Company background Name| McDonald’s Corporation| Industries served| Restaurants, Food| Geographic areas served| Worldwide| Headquarters| U. S. | Current CEO| Don Thompson| Revenue| $ 27. We will write a custom essay sample on Apple Swot Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now 56 billion (2012)| Profit| $ 5. 46 billion (2012)| Employees| 1,800,000 (2013)| Main Competitors| Burger King Worldwide,Inc. , Yum! Brand Inc. , Subway, Wendy’s Company. | McDonald’s is the world’s leading fast food restaurant chain with more than 34,000 local restaurants serving approximately 69 million people in 119 countries each day. More than 80% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local franchisees. Strengths 1. Largest fast food market share in the world. McDonald’s is the largest fast food restaurant chain in terms of total world sales (8%). It is the second largest outlet operator with more than 34,000 outlets, serving 69 million consumers every day in 119 countries. 2. Brand recognition valued at $40 million. Company’s brand is the most recognized brand in fast food industry and is valued at $40 billion. McDonald’s is also famous by the Ronald McDonald clown. . $2 billion advertising budget. McDonald’s spends on advertising more than the next 4 fast food restaurant chains combined. 4. Locally adapted food menus. The fast food chain is operating in many diverse cultures where tastes in food are extremely different than those of US or European consumers. Thus ability to adapt to local tastes is one of McDonald’s strengths. 5. Part nership with best brands. McDonald’s offers only most popular brands in its restaurants, such as: Coca Cola, Dannon Yogurt, Heinz ketchup and others. . More than 80% of restaurants are owned by independent franchisees. Therefore, McDonald’s can focus more on perfecting its serving system and marketing campaigns. 7. Children targeting. The company successfully targets very young children through offering playgrounds, toys with its meals and advertisements. Weaknesses 1. Negative publicity. McDonald’s is heavily criticized for offering unhealthy food to its customers, stimulating obesity and strong marketing focus on very young children. 2. Unhealthy food menu. Although McDonald’s tries to introduce healthier choices in its menu, the menu is largely formed of unhealthy meals and drinks. Such menu offering prompts protests by organizations that fight obesity and hence, decreases McDonald’s popularity. 3. Mac Job and high employee turnover. Mac Job is a low paid and a low skilled job, which is often seen negatively by its employees. This results in lower performance and high employee turnover, which increases training costs and add to overall costs of McDonald’s. 4. Low differentiation. McDonald’s is no longer able to substantially differentiate itself from other fast food chains (at least not enough to gain some market share) and opts to compete by price rather than by additional features. Opportunities 1. Increasing demand for healthier food. While demand for healthier food increases, McDonald’s could introduce more healthy food choices in its menu and reverse its weakness into strength. McDonald’s is trying to seize such an opportunity and soon plans to open only vegetarian restaurant in India. 2. Home meal delivery. McDonald’s could exploit an opportunity of delivering food to home and increase its reach to customers. 3. Full adaptation of its new practices. McDonald’s has redesigned its logo and restaurant design in 2006. In addition, it has introduced some new practices. In a result, remodeled restaurants have seen 8-9% higher than average market growth. McDonald’s should finish remodeling all of the restaurants and adapt the best practices in them as soon as possible. 4. Changing customer habits and new customer groups. Changing customer habits represent new needs that must be met by businesses. So far, McDonald’s has been successful in introducing its McCafe, McExpress and McStop restaurants to meet the changing customer habits and the needs of previously untapped customer groups. Threats 1. Saturated fast food markets in the developed economies. The fast food market in the developed countries is already overcrowded by so many fast food restaurant chains and this already proves to be a threat to McDonald’s as it barely grew through 2012. 2. Trend towards healthy eating. Due to government and various organizations attempts to fight obesity, people are becoming more conscious of eating healthy food rather than what McDonald’s has to offer in its menu. 3. Local fast food restaurant chains. Local fast food restaurants can often offer a more local approach to serving food and menu that exactly represents local tastes. Although McDonald’s does a great job in adapting its own menu to local tastes, the rising number of local fast food chains and their lower meal prices is a threat to McDonald’s. 4. Currency fluctuations. McDonald’s receives a part of its income from foreign operations. The profits that are sent back to US have to be converted into dollars and may be affected by the exchange rates, especially when the dollar is appreciating against other currencies. In 2012, McDonald’s profit was largely affected by appreciating dollar. Lawsuits against McDonald’s. McDonald’s has already been sued for many times and lost quite a few lawsuits. Lawsuits are expensive as they require time and money. And as McDonald’s continues to operate more or less the same way, there is high probability for more expensive lawsuits to come. References: 8. The New York Times (2012). How McDonald’s Came Back Bigger Than Ever. Available at: http://www. nytimes. com/2012/05/06/magazine/how-mcdonalds-came-back-bigger-than-ever. html? pagewanted=2;_r=0;ref=mcdonaldscorporation 9. McDonald’s Investors (2013). Company profile. Available at: http://www. aboutmcdonalds. com/mcd/investors/company_profile. html 10. Wikipedia (2013). McDonald’s. Available at: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/McDonald’s 11. United States Securities and Exchange Commission (2012). 10-K Form McDonald’s Corporation. Available at: http://sec. gov/Archives/edgar/data/63908/000119312511046701/d10k. htm How to cite Apple Swot Analysis, Papers

Demand Scenario Planned Capacity Expansion â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Demand Scenario Planned Capacity Expansion? Answer: Introduction Capital Budgeting is the most important constitute of financial management as it involves decisions making about the capital expenditures to be made under any project. As these projects requires the deployment of huge funds for a long term, project managers must study each and every element of project in details. Capital budgeting covers the critical analysis of project and all the alternative project plans considering various factors such as risk and return factor, the discounting rate, the technological and environmental factors, the initial investment requirements etc. While selecting a project, the project manager has to analyse and access the key variations that may occur in future while undertaking the project and comprehensively examine the projects behaviour in terms of profitability. For all the project planning decisions there are various techniques and analyses available in todays world which are advanced enough to understand the changes in the output that may be occurred due to input variations. These techniques are sensitivity analysis, simulation analysis, scenario analysis, breakeven analysis etc. The detailed discussion on such capital budgeting technique is given below: Sensitivity Analysis This technique is the most commonly used capital budgeting technique while making project planning decisions. The sensitivity analysis helps the managers to analyse the change in the project output with the changes in the key input variables (Saltelli, 2007). The basic purpose of using this approach is to examine the sensitivity of any project in terms of Net Present Value (Cao Wan, 2017). There is no inclusive list of variable input parameters but there can be factors like interest rates, useful life of asset, the fixed cost, variable cost per unit, selling price or the number of units to be sold, residual value estimations etc. that may get changed frequently over the life of project (Edmans, Jayaraman, Schneemeier, 2017). Before investing the huge amount of funds in any project plan the firm must identify the significant parameters that may undergo changes if the assumptions goes wrong. Once the key variable factors are identified the project manager must determine the percentage change in the NPV of the project if the input factors changes with a certain percentage. Sensitivity analysis is also known as what-if analysis (Baker English, 2011). This analysis has its own advantages and at the same time it has some limits which makes it unreasonable in certain situations. Following are some of the advantages and disadvantages of sensitivity analysis: Advantages: It enables the project managers to identify the key parameters which may impact the future cash flows of the project. It helps in analysing the cause and effect of variations in the input parameters thereby enabling the managers to take appropriate actions to control them and to plan the future course of actions for the uncertainties. The risk involved in the capital budgeting decisions can be analysed to a certain extent using this approach. Disadvantages: This technique does not provide managers with the firm decision rather it provides the relevant information that can be used in decision making. The assumptions that the variables are not dependent on each other is not reasonable in maximum situations. The probability consideration of occurrence of variations is lacking in the sensitivity analysis. The project managers while undertaking the sensitivity analysis bases his assumptions for the budgeting and forecasting purpose on three approaches that are optimistic pessimistic and expected. Scenario Analysis One of the most common way of analysing the risk involved in the investment to be made by the firm is the scenario analysis (Kalyebara Islam, 2014). Under this methodology the firm calculates the NPV of a project considering several scenarios. The scenarios that are considered under the scenario analysis are based on optimistic pessimistic and expected mind-sets. The analysis initiates with the consideration of base case scenario. The project NPVs are calculated using the base case scenario firstly and then the other possible scenarios are selected. There is no limit of numbers of scenarios a firm must consider while evaluating the projects effectiveness in changing situations (Erdmann Hilty, 2010). However, the three basic scenarios that are majorly considered while assessing the risk involved in any project plan (Ross, 2010). These are the worst case, best case and the normal case scenarios as the worst and the best case scenarios will give the decision makers a tentative range i n which the NPV of the project will fluctuate subject to the variations. The main purpose of conducting scenario analysis is to understand the combined impact on projects NPV of numerous factors that changes at the same time. Scenario analysis mainly involves following essential components (Suryani, 2010). First one is the selection of the important factors based on which scenarios will be established. Then to determine the number of scenario cases so as to analyse each factor that was previously selected. After determination of scenarios the firm will have to place necessary emphasis on each critical factor (Xuan Yue, 2017). Finally, the managers will have to allocate the probabilities to all the scenarios based on their significance. Even scenario analysis has its pros and cons which are discussed below: This analysis helps the managers to identify the possible situation a project may have to face in future and the potential implications and advantages of each situation. As all the possible outcomes under differing situations are analysed under this technique it gets easy for the firm to take appropriate decisions. Cons: Interpretation of the results provided by this analysis is difficult for the firm as it involves probability distribution. Moreover, it is difficult to decide as to which scenario must be given the preference. The parameters i.e. the uncertainty and impact of each scenario is extremely subjective and hence complicated enough to be measured. Scenario analysis is the extended application of sensitivity analysis. As sensitivity analysis uses variation in single input variable to determine the projects sensitivity, it gives less clear picture of risk analysis of a project. Whereas, scenario analysis takes into consideration more than one input variables to understand the implications of changes on the projects performance in profitability terms. Scenario analysis also considers the probability distributions of the key input parameters which is ignored in the sensitivity analysis (Gotze, Northcott Schuster, 2016). Break-even Analysis This analysis is used to decide how much output the company must sell to cover the overall costs of conducting the business. Breakeven analysis is commonly known as the cost volume profit analysis as it analyses the relationship between the most important elements of any business i.e. the cost, profit and the sales elements. Breakeven technique calculates the level of sales in both monetary terms as well as in units, a firm must achieve in order to cover the total costs of business so that it does not suffer any loss (Gutierrez Dalsted, n.d). Break-even point is the point where firm neither incurs any loss nor earn any income. The main tool to conduct breakeven analysis is the breakeven charts which indicates the overall relationship between the total cost total fixed cost and total variable cost and the total revenues of the business of the company. Breakeven analysis is conducted on certain assumptions which are as follows: All the business costs can be divided into categories i.e. fixed cost and variable cost. This analysis does not take into account the semi variable costs. Behaviour of costs and the revenues of the business functions in linear fashion. Methods of production, technological factors and efficiency of business remains same. Breakeven analysis expects that there does not arise any change in the level of inventory. Total fixed costs of a business are also assumed to be constant for all the levels of output in this analysis. Selling price per unit also remains same. Due to the above assumptions breakeven analysis is not relied upon by the decision makers in every business. The assumptions puts limitations on the analysis as it totally ignores the concept of semi variable costs (Tsorakidis et al., 2011). Also, it ignores factors like technologies that keeps on changing in todays era. Because of the unrealistic assumptions this technique losses it practical implementation in business. Despite of various loopholes in the methodology of breakeven analysis there are certain reasons which compels the business managers to implement this approach in their businesses to determine the appropriate level of sales it must make to cover its total costs. It is considered as a suitable approach in following circumstances: Before starting a new business, a firm may use break even analysis for the feasibility test of the business plan. For the price fixation of the products mix manufactured by the company as it will determine the desired level of revenue from sales. In the evaluation of alternatives options available with the company and the special orders that it may take besides its regular market demands. To determine the minimum level activity of business without putting it jeopardy. Breakeven analysis is also ideal for measuring the profit and the losses at different levels of output in the business. Simulation Analysis Simulation is the quantitative approach of dealing with the managerial business problems using few models like mathematical or the physical models on which process of simulation is run. This technique uses few experiments by adopting trial and error approach where a series of trials are run on the simulation model to judge the projects behaviour in terms of output. Simulation analysis does not offer an optimum solution to any business problem but it aims to provide the possible set of out for the given inputs (Choe, 2016). In finance world simulation often provides assistance in the determination of risk adjusted NPV of a project. Also, it offers distribution and allocation of projects NPV over certain factors like discounting rates (Lima et al., 2017). Monte-Carlo simulation is the most common type of simulation used in the business and is mostly used by the project managers. The distinguishing feature of this analysis is that it offers the managers with the NPVs with their probability distribution and not with the single point estimation of NPVs. This technique initiates with the mathematical modelling of the project or any managerial business process requiring solution (Tavare, 2013). This process of project modelling involves identification of the key factors that may influence the project and the interrelationships between them (Chiarella Iori, 2002). After process modelling the plotting of probability distribution of project NPVs based on the expected cash flows of project is undertaken. Once the probability is distributed to all the key variables the standard deviation is calculated to analyse the risk involved in the business. Simulation technique has some advantages and some disadvantages with it which are discussed below: Advantages: It insists the business managers to consider the uncertainties involved in the project and the inter-dependencies of various factors impacting the project growth. Gives the opportunity to the decision makers to represent the complex business problems through a mathematical model as these are complicated enough to be solved with simple set of skills. Disadvantages: Difficult project modelling process and probability distribution of external variables. Probability distribution of NPV is not accurate and hence it may be misleading the decision makers. Risk free rate is used as discounting rate in calculation of NPV of a project in simulation analysis and therefore it is difficult to interpret the results of this technique. Practical analysis of capital budgeting techniques Sensitivity analysis Sales price 10 Discounting rate 10% Units 10000 Useful life 5 VC 5 Initial investment -20000 Fixed cost 500 YEARS Cash Flows PVF@10% P.V. of Cash Flows 0 $ -20,000 1.000 $ - 20,000 1 $ 49,500.00 0.909 $ 45,000.00 2 $ 49,500.00 0.826 $ 40,909.09 3 $ 49,500.00 0.751 $ 37,190.08 NPV $ 1,03,099.17 Suppose the selling price changes from $10 to $8 Variables Sales price 8 Discounting rate 10% Units 10000 Useful life 5 VC 5 Initial investment -20000 Fixed cost 500 YEARS Cash Flows PVF@10% P.V. of Cash Flows 0 $ -20,000 1.000 $ -20,000 1 $ 29,500.00 0.909 $ 26,818.18 2 $ 29,500.00 0.826 $ 24,380.17 3 $ 29,500.00 0.751 $ 22,163.79 NPV $ 53,362.13 Suppose the variable cost per unit from $5to $4 Sales price 10 Discounting rate 10% Units 10000 Useful life 5 VC 4 Initial investment -20000 Fixed cost 500 YEARS Cash Flows PVF@10% P.V. of Cash Flows 0 $ -20,000 1.000 $ -20,000 1 $ 59,500.00 0.909 $ 54,090.91 2 $ 59,500.00 0.826 $ 49,173.55 3 $ 59,500.00 0.751 $ 44,703.23 NPV $ 1,27,967.69 From the above illustration it can be demonstrated that change in the selling price per unit has resulted in the changed NPV. Therefore, NPV is sensitive to the selling price variable. As the selling price per unit has decreased the NPV of the overall project has also decreased. And when variable cost is decreased the NPV has increased which shows that NPV is also sensitive to it. Scenario analysis Initial Investment $(100000) Life of Project 4 years Discounting Rate 10% Annual Cash Flows $20000 $30000 $40000 Probability 0.1 0.6 0.3 Years Cash Flows (.10) Cash Flows (.60) Cash Flows (.30) Total Cash Flows DCF @ 10% PV of Cash Flows 0 -10000 -60000 -30000 -100000 1 -100000 1 2000 18000 12000 32000 0.909 29088 2 2000 18000 12000 32000 0.826 26432 3 2000 18000 12000 32000 0.752 24064 4 2000 18000 12000 32000 0.683 21856 4 0 6000 6000 12000 0.683 8196 NPV 9636 The overall NPV of the project will be influenced by all the scenarios that is the worst case best case and the average case Breakeven analysis Break-even Analysis: Fixed costs Depreciation $ 50,000.00 Insurance $ 15,000.00 Rent $ 10,000.00 Utilities $ 8,000.00 Taxes $ 6,000.00 $ 89,000.00 Variable Costs Direct Labour $ 8,000.00 Direct Material $ 10,000.00 Overheads $ 12,000.00 $ 30,000.00 TOTAL COSTS $1,19,000.00 Number of units 10000 Selling Price per unit $ 15.00 Sales $ 1,50,000.00 Less: Variable Costs $ 30,000.00 Contribution $ 1,20,000.00 Contribution per unit =120000/10000 $ 12.00 Contribution Margin = 120000/150000*100 0.80 Breakeven sales in $ = Total Fixed Cost Contribution Ratio =$ 89,000.00 0.80 Breakeven Sales =$ 1,11,250.00 in units = Total Fixed Cost Contribution/unit Breakeven Units =7417 units This indicates that the firm should at least sell 7417 in order to recover the total cost involved in the business. Simulation analysis Demands Probability cumulative probability Range 10 0.1 0.1 00-09 15 0.25 0.35 10-24 25 0.2 0.55 25-54 40 0.35 0.9 55-89 50 0.1 1 90-99 random no: 48 78 9 51 77 Random No. Demand (Units) 48 25 78 40 9 10 51 25 77 40 Total Demand 140 units Conclusion It is therefore well established from the above study that the capital budgeting techniques plays vital role in long term investment decision making which involves deployment of huge funds in capital expenditures. Before undertaking a project the firm must critically analyse all the risks involved with the project. The project managers must carefully examine the probability of variations that may be occurred in future and the implications of such variations on the overall profitability of company. After studying the possible techniques of risk analysis in capital budgeting it is implied that there is no unique technique suitable for all the circumstances rather the variety of techniques are appropriate in variety of cases. As each analysis has its own benefits and limitations, the project manager has to keep in mind the projects characteristics and very nature whenever the risk is analysed using the above explained approaches. References Baker, H. and English, P., 2011.Capital Budgeting Valuation. Somerset: Wiley. Cao, X.R. and Wan, X., 2017. Sensitivity analysis of nonlinear behavior with distorted probability.Mathematical Finance,27(1), pp.115-150. Chiarella, C. and Iori, G., 2002. A simulation analysis of the microstructure of double auction markets*.Quantitative finance,2(5), pp.346-353. Choe, G. H., 2016, Stochastic Analysis for Finance with Simulations, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland. De Lima, J.D., Trentin, M.G., Oliveira, G.A., Batistus, D.R. and Setti, D., 2017. Systematic Analysis of Economic Viability with Stochastic Approach: A Proposal for Investment. InEngineering Systems and Networks(pp. 317-325). Springer, Cham. Edmans, A., Jayaraman, S. and Schneemeier, J., 2017. The source of information in prices and investment-price sensitivity.Journal of Financial Economics. Erdmann, L. and Hilty, L.M., 2010. Scenario analysis.Journal of Industrial Ecology,14(5), pp.826-843. Gotze, U., Northcott, D. and Schuster, P., 2016.INVESTMENT APPRAISAL. Springer International Publishing, Berlin. Gutierrez. P. Dalsted, N., n.d, Break-Even Method of Investment Analysis, Colorado State University, available at https://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/farmmgt/03759.pdf (viewed on 15-09-2017). Kalyebara, B. and Islam, S., 2014.Corporate Governance, capital markets, and capital budgeting. Dordrecht: Physica-Verlag. Ross, S., Traylor, R., Bird, R., Westerfield, R. Jordan, B., 2010. Essentials of corporate finance, edn 2nd, McGraw-Hill Education. Saltelli, A. 2007,Sensitivity analysis in practice. Chichester: John Wwiley and Sons. Suryani, E., Chou, S.Y., Hartono, R. and Chen, C.H., 2010. Demand scenario analysis and planned capacity expansion: A system dynamics framework.Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory,18(6), pp.732-751. Tavare, N.S., 2013.Industrial crystallization: process simulation analysis and design. Springer Science Business Media. Tsorakidis, N., Papadoulos, S., Zerres, M. and Zerres, C., 2011.Break-Even Analysis. Bookboon. Xuan, Y. and Yue, Q., 2017. Scenario analysis on resource and environmental benefits of imported steel scrap for Chinas steel industry.Resources, Conservation and Recycling,120, pp.186-198

There Are Many Issues That Face Todays Teenagers. Probably One Of The

There are many issues that face today's teenagers. Probably one of the most common is the issue of individualism or identity. The teenage years harbor some of the most confusing and impressionable years in the life of any human being. There are many expectations, both individual and societal, that play a large role in the development of each teenager. Though most teenagers find their way through these difficult years as their own person, there are some who never seem to fully understand who they are. This misunderstanding can lead to many problems in hood. When a child is born they are catered for about three or four years. Once the child embarks on their first journey away from home (school) there are some changes that occur in the child. For the most part these changes are minimal, for the child still retains the nature not to care or understand the art of conforming to those around him or her. Once a child enters the pivotal time in it's life called adolescence that confident child becomes an awkward teenager. What once never crossed the mind of that child now weighs heavily on the mind of that teenager. The most important thing for a teenager is to be liked by others. The easiest way for teenagers to be liked by others, they seem to think, is to conform to what others do. So the pattern begins. Teenagers create expectations for themselves by looking at famous people or perhaps even some of their peers. Teenagers will starve themselves to be thinner, but overpriced clothing, and even aquire the same interests as others, but to what end? The instability of caused during this time in a person's life causes them to be less sure of themselves than ever before. In an effort to be liked or popular or just simply not d, teenagers ten to give up their right to think on their own. Many just do what others say. This is a dangerous habit. There are so many unspoken expectations both that teenagers set for themselves and that society sets for them. Society has set an expectation that there is a certain ideal for a or guy to base their morality, beliefs and behavior on. Though these are small parts of these expectations, these are unreasonable expectations that cause teenagers to set unrealistic expectations for them selves. The intolerance of individuality leads to pain and the mindset that different is wrong. Insecurity is a great problem for many s. The inability to find onself can lead to depression and self-desruction. Teenagers are given a very difficult job-to figure out who they are. This may very well be one of the most important decisions or discoveries that any person can make. Though society is pushing expectations in our faces, I think if teenagers base their decisions on who they want to become, they will find the best choice is to be an individual. When one knows them, they can only then truly begin to see the world around them. It seems the only war we are raging is the war against ourselves. Todays teenagers can change the world. Celebrate the differences in people.