Alexander the Great Essay 9

Alexander the Great Alexander the Great was a king and conqueror. He is commonly referred to as â€Å"the most powerful leader of all time. † What is it that makes him such a powerful leader? What has he accomplished that has made him so significant? Were his accomplishments positive or negative? These are all questions that when combined as one create a debate that has been going on for decades. There are those who admire Alexander’s military achievements and ability to carve out the largest empire the world has seen. Then there are those who perceive him as a selfish, cruel madman with drinking problems. This paper will outline the different sides taken on Alexander and the question as to what his significance/influence was and whether it was good or bad. Alexander the Great was the son of Phillip II, king of Macedonia. Phillip had always done much to prepare him for a military and political future (Lewis 48). Alexander served as a regent for his father at the young age of 16 for the start of his military career. After the assassination of his father he obtained the throne in 336 B. C. E. and leader of the League of Corinth. In 335 B. C. E he crushed Macedonia’s borders and destroyed the city of Thebes. This caused Athens to join the league with no fight. 334 B. C. E. was the year of his first great victory, which opened Asia Minor to conquest. He then, in 333, met the Persian King for the first time and caused him to flee by charging even though Alexander was outnumbered. This was the beginning of the end for Persia. Alexander went on and in his 13 year reign was conquering the Mediterranean, forming new cities, and producing an empire touching on 3 continents and encompassing 2 million sq miles (O’Brien 44). Such work is something one should be proud of and many agree that conquering all of Persia in such a short amount of time is Alexander the Greats biggest accomplishment. Balcer obviously agrees with that stating that Alexander succeeded in forming the largest western empire of the ancient world and removing Persian intervention in Greek affairs (Balcer 121-122). Sacks obviously agrees as well saying that his â€Å"principal achievement was the conquest of the empire of Persia,†(14). The perspective of many scholars is that Alexander really was â€Å"the greatest leader† and through the conquering he undertook he achieved many great things. This is the side of the debate in which scholars find Alexander’s significance to be a positive thing. It is argued he was a â€Å"military genius with iron will and boundless ambition,† (O’Brien 45). Scholar Edmund Burke clearly supports this idea in saying that in his accession to the Macedonian throne his foundation of Alexandria, conquest of the Persian Empire and his strategic and tactical genius makes him a â€Å"legend† (Burke 67). He was not the only scholar to refer to him as a legend for a professor at Boise State notes that Alexander exhibited tremendous bravery, didn’t let a wound stop him, never lost a battle, had those around him believe he was invincible, and knew and loved his men. Combining all these factors created an army that could not be stopped and its accomplishments outdid anything that had been seen yet. Alexander and his troops had become a â€Å"legend,† (Knox). Alexander had also been seen as the reason for successfully spreading Greek culture that still exists today. Oriental and Greek cultures blended and flourished as a result of the Empire, making Greek culture his true legacy (Balcer 124). The Hellenistic Era took place right after Alexander’s death and he is said to be the one who ushered this fascinating era. (O’Brien 46). The scholars are right, Alexander truly is a legend for he was the finest battlefield commander of the ancient world and remade the map of the ancient world (Sacks 14). Not just anyone can achieve such success, there seems to be something extraordinary about this man. Yet, not everyone agrees that he was so extraordinary. Yes, he did carve out the largest empire and at an amazingly rapid pace but his aims and ambitions were different than spreading Hellenism throughout the western Mediterranean and near the east. He was a self-confident man who only wanted to conquer for self-pleasure. Alexander is the reason that corruption and peculation were treated with casualness during this time. His pleasure was when his peoples were loyal to him and that was all that was necessary for his approval. It was because of him that Macedonia lost its manpower through the strenuous battles he continuously fought. He left it as a weakened kingdom. His empire is given so much credit but it was only based on rapid military conquest and died right after his death (Stoneman 92-94). It is believed that Alexander conquered to rule, not to blend cultures. Heavy drinking led to disastrous incidents and hastened his death. An example of such a disaster was the burning down of Persepolis in a drunken revel. This is not an attribute of a good leader. He also lacked long-range planning and neglected his kingdoms future by exhausting himself in warfare while he delayed fathering a royal successor. His selfishness is proved by his act of casually killing any threats to the throne at the beginning of his reign (Sacks 15). Those who see Alexander in a negative manner obviously have quite strong opinions about it. They see him as more of a madman than the most powerful leader. It is easy to see where they get their assumptions from for they look at the bloodshed part of Alexander’s reign. Instead of focusing on the rare ability he had to conquer so successfully the use the old journals and other texts used to learn about Alexander and don’t see past the drunken stories and jump to the negative side of his actions to make them cruel. Those who make assumptions about him being the greatest military leader of all time look at the historical records we have of them and analyze his tactics realizing they really are extraordinary. No other person has conquered so much, so fast and left such a legacy. I agree with those who see him as a significantly positive influence so its easier to see where they are coming from. I look at the whole picture; his achievements were unlike anyone else’s in history and as a King he was only trying to do the better for his country. He deserves the credit he has received for spreading Greek culture; there is no other way it would have happened. Scholar Burke put it perfectly when in his article he states, â€Å"when mention is made of a man of action and genius, there is perhaps no one of the ancients who so quickly comes to mind as Alexander the Great† (Burke 67).

Colgate Marketing Essay

Colgate is famous for having a long history of strong relationship with its retail trade partners. This Company delights consumers around there world with a an array of Oral Care, Home Care, Personal Care, and Pet Nutrition products. Small stores around the world are just important to Colgate as large ones. Behind the success of Colgate’s brands are carefully developed business and marketing strategies. Based on consumer and shopper insights, the Company works closely with local merchandisers and shop owners to offer a relevant assortment of products and merchandising services to get high visibility in each store. With a view to promoting their oral products to their target market, the company has been able to use various marketing strategies approaches. In line with above the line promotions, the company uses television, radio and newspaper advertisements and many more. In addition, the company also promotes their products in famous magazines and internet banner ads as well. It can also be said that Colgate-Palmolive also uses via-the-line promotion approach. This is done by considering a via the line communication approach. The company does this by hiring an advertising agency which helps them to make a better advertising campaign for their products. The company had 1713 direct stores as of may 2010. The oral care distribution network isdistribution network is spread across 90 cities in India. The company products are availableacross 4.3 mn retail outlets. Flag ship Brand  ± Colgate Dental Cream is the largest distributed product in the Toothpaste market available in 4.1 MM stores. 1.1.1.Political 1.1.2.Economic Charging higher premium which focused on consuming and lower income classes. Pricing done on the basis of price points Packaging would be customized on the basis of price points. In June, 2012, Colgate-Palmolive announcedcapacity expansion plans in India by opening its fifth production facility in the country with an investment of $20 million. With Procter & Gamble likely to have postponed its decision to enter into the Indian toothpaste market yet again, Colgate has more room to continue building its market share in the fast-expanding Indian oral care market. Colgate currently occupies half of the Indian oral care market and competes with Unilever and local player Dabur. Colgate has continued to grow its market share in Indian oral care market despite stiff competition from Unilever and other low-cost competitors. Its market share in terms of volume increased to 54%last quarter, two percentage points higher than the prior year period. The Colgate brand is almost synonymous with oral care products in India thanks to its deep distribution network and effective marketing strategies, along with focused market activity to increase toothpaste use. Colgate also occupies a 26% share (by volume) of the nascent but fast-growing mouthwash category. The strategy is to phase-out unproductive toothpastes in the baking soda/gel varieties specifically Colgate Baking Soda & Peroxide Oxygen Whitening Frosty Mint Striped Gel, Colgate 2in1 Oxygen Whitening and Cavity Protection Winterfresh Gel. The product packaging will be advertising other Colgate products in an attempt to retain brand loyal users. By October 2011, these varieties of Colgate will no longer be produced for the United States market. In effect, this will generate more cash flow that can be diverted into the creation of new brands and new marketing campaigns thereby decreasing stress upon margin levels. The strategy is to phase-out unproductive toothpastes in the baking soda/gel varieties specifically Colgate Baking Soda & Peroxide Oxygen Whitening Frosty Mint Striped Gel, Colgate 2in1 Oxygen Whitening and Cavity Protection Winterfresh Gel. The product packaging will be advertising other Colgate products in an attempt to retain brand loyal users. . Keys to success can be determined based upon Colgate and its competitions’ past and current market share, trends, strengths and weaknesses. Over the past sixty years there has been a power struggle between Colgate, Aquafresh and Crest to acquire market share. As a category leader it is imperative to follow and predict trends within the United Statestoothpaste industry. Based on the MRI data, regular pasteoutsells beyond all other types of toothpaste and has the highest percentage of users. 1.1.3.Social 2.Geographic:- It depends on region, population, factor, urban conditions etc. On this basis for example, Colgate introduces a sun screen ingredients which protect from sun rays. 3.Demographic:- It comprise age, gender, income , life cycle of family and education. For example young people do not go for hair color treatment. 4.Psychographic:- it depends on persons thinking and what are the 5.Personality characteristic of him. It is a difficult marketing segmentation to implement because sometimes market may not aware of there life style of there people. 6. Behavioral:- It consists two things a) The benefits desired from the product. b)The rate at which customer is using product. 7.It can be applied on Colgate, the benefits from there toothpaste product are no plaque, no cavities, fresh breath, very low price , good quality and white teeth. Product Mix Product Focusing toward rural rich and consuming class by endorsing the development of ‘ Colgate Ayurvedic Toothpowder ’ . For Urban population, they would come up with the products suiting to young generation, for kids in the age group from 4-10 years. Unique Product and able to differentiate from all other products existing in the market e.g. Colgate Herbal White which promises a unique formula. Packaging-green colour ensures the ‘herbal ness’. Target Market Kids Brushing -more effective and fun for kids Sparkling gel comes in 2 exciting variants – Bright Pink gel , and Bright Blue gel ,yummy Bubble Fruit flavour Tweety and bugs bunny are favourites with kids The fruity bubble gum flavour – kids brush longer developing good oral care habits Family Strong teeth and fresh breath Developed using Colgate’s international expertise in oral care Unique formula protects teeth from decay Refreshing minty flavour makes breath super f resh Youth Icy wave of minty coolness Cooling crystals and emphasis on â€Å"taazgi†. In order to gain favorable PR and keep Colgate in the light of the media, this plan suggests a campaign that will donate a 1% of specially marked packages to a charity of ones choice. Partnering with www.charitynavigator.org to create a micro list of charities and their information. Purchasers will be able to choose and track the donations via the Colgate website by answering several demographic questions and entering a unique code. Facebook will feature a separate page that will promote Colgate, describe the donation campaign and charities offered by charitynavigator.org. Also, a downloadable iphone application will be created to track contributions. This marketing tactic will foster a positive image of Colgate, create an increase of sales in specific Colgate brands, harvest demographic customer information, draw added consumers to the Colgate website and more of a presence on Facebook. In order to gain favorable PR and keep Colgate in the light of the media, this plan suggests a ca mpaign that will donate a 1% of specially marked packages to a charity of ones choice. Partnering with www.charitynavigator.org to create a micro list of charities and their information. Purchasers will be able to choose and track the donations via the Colgate website by answering several demographic questions and entering a unique code. Facebook will feature a separate page that will promote Colgate, describe thedonation campaign and charities offered by charitynavigator.org. Also, a downloadable iphone application will be created to track contributions. This marketing tactic will foster a positive image of Colgate, create an increase of sales in specific Colgate brands, harvest demographic customer information, draw added consumers to the Colgate website and more of a presence on Facebook. This idea will be retrofitted to print ads as well by using the same twenty images with the smiling, foamy face and underneath the images will appear the Colgate slogan, â€Å"Colgate A World of Care.† This marketing campaign has the ability to touch a vast consumer base. Th ere is universality to the idea. The concept relates and is identifiable with people because â€Å"everyone brushes their teeth in the pajamas.† Maslow’s hierarchy of needs dictates that the identifiably social component of the commercial will appeal to the subconscious of viewers creating the added value necessary to enhance the image of Colgate and gain added market share. Choosing actors specifically by gender and racial profile can appeal to start-up and young bustling families. This commercial will attract potential users and reaffirm current consumers. The investment in a revitalizing campaign to improve the image of Colgate will inevitably increase market share by 1.00% or $11,141,377 at a minimum. Colgate donates millions of dollars annually to the ADA’s â€Å"Give a Kid A Smile.† Colgate is a direct partner with this ADA program. Colgate can position a positive image by presenting itself as a proactive, helpful productthat is good for teeth, but also for community and country as a whole. In order to gain favorable PR and keep Colgate in the light of the media, this plan suggests a campaign that will donate a 1% of specially marked packages to a charity of ones choice. Donations will grow parallel to product sales by partnering with www.charitynavigator.org to create a micro list of charities and their information. Purchasers will be able to choose and track the donations via the Colgate website by answering several demographic questions and entering a unique code. 7.1.1.Technological Marketing Strategies Market Dominance Market leader – dominance in Oral Care Catering to all the segments -long product line Massive advertising, awareness ,especially in child segment Product Differentiation Different packaging for all its product line Changes packaging according to product innovation Differentiation due to massive promotion on channels Create a different image in the eyes of consumers Innovation Strategy Pioneered in new product development and business model innovation Cutting edge technology- innovation strategy. Positioning and creating Brand Equity Consumer- more health and hygiene conscious Vast consumer base in India Sectoral opportunity in other oral products Smaller packs to drive growth Direct media promotions â€Å"Operation Jagruti† program Educate villagers about oral hygiene Its benefits vis-à  -vis traditional products like â€Å"Neem† Conducted by giving product trials and free samples The steps Colgate took were to redesign its distribution network, improve its transportation management system, update its logistics efficiency program, and develop customer cost-to-serve data. The use of integrated logistics systems encompasses materials management, material flow systems, and physical distribution aided by information technology. Through this use of ILS, Colgate has been able to shorten the order cycle time, reduce clerical labor, reduce error rate in documents and provide improved control of operations. It is made possible through the use of following activities by Colgate through ILS a) Sales Forecasting on the basis of which company schedules distribution, production and inventory levels. Colgate has a dynamic website with the title, â€Å"Colgate World of Care,†that details products, oral care, company history, e-newsletter and special offers. The website also has a social networking page called Colgate Smile to engage the consumer to get involved with their oral health and the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Colgate also has social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. Technology is changing daily life within the world markets from the way people create and use a shopping list to the cars people purchase. Toothpaste has a direct correlation with the toothbrush. Every year new toothbrush models come outclaiming superior plaque removal using such selling points as super sonic technology to blast away plaque build up or crisscrossing bristles to lift and brush plaque away. Also under the heading of technology are cameras and Facebook. Today people carry camerasat all times. Any event is now a potential photo shoot. The ease of access and spontaneous nature of camera usage requires the consumer to be aware of their smile at all times. Facebook will feature a separate page that will promote Colgate, describe thedonation campaign and charities offered by charitynavigator.org. Also, a downloadable iphone application will be created to track contributions. This marketing tactic will foster a positive image of Colgate, create an increase of sales in specific Colgate brands, harvest demographic customer information, draw added consumers to the Colgate website and more of a presence on Facebook.

Dissertation on Teamwork and Customer Service Quality Essay

1.0 INTRODUCTION This chapter includes the background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, objectives of the study, research questions, and scope of the study, significance of the study, limitations of the study and operational definition of terms. 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Phil (2002) team working is a group of people who work together towards a shared and meaningful outcomes in ways that combine their individual skills and abilities and for which they are all responsible. He added that a real team does not just happen but an organization has to work at it, create it, maintain and sustain it for the development and provision of quality standards and expectations to the customers. Organizations need teamwork in order to promote innovation and synergy, improve their goal achievement, promote professional development of team members, achieve time reduction targets and get cross-boundary ownership of tasks and problems. Ronald (2004) argues that customer service depends on the expectations of the individual customer. However, all attempts to define customer service tend to focus on the relationships at the buyer/seller interface. He further added that to achieve the customer service levels expected, an organization need to ensure that for each of these two categories: the systems, measurements and the people are in place to respond to each customer group or market. Juran (2000) says that quality is the degree of excellence that is fitness for the purpose. It can also mean the degree in which customer requirements are met. Quality is built at every stage and teams solve problems where everyone is responsible for the quality of the product. A customer is a person or an organization that buys goods or services from the shop, business, etc on a regular basis. Woods et al (2001) assert that customer service quality as the satisfaction of the agreed customer requirements. This means that the total customer service quality is the mobilization of the whole organization to achieve quality, continuously and economically. National curriculum Development Centre is an arm of the Ministry of Education and sports responsible for the Inter-alia development of curricula and related materials for various levels of education. The National curriculum Development Centre was established by NCDC act chapter 135, laws of Uganda Revised Edition 2000 whose history is decree No 7 of 1973. Baale(2010) a curriculum specialist in math for secondary at NCDC, team working is very crucial in the development and review of curriculum that result into the satisfaction of parents, stakeholders, learners, teachers and the general public. He emphasized that team work cannot be avoided when developing curriculum as it includes a panel composed of members from different areas such as subject specialists, practicing teachers, teachers associations, UNEB representative, ESA representative, teacher trainers especially from some Universities and employers or parents. Team work comes when a subject curriculum is being developed. In this case a panel of 18 members from various institutions sits and develops the curriculum. Baseline survey is conducted from parents, teachers and sometimes from learners which result into child based curriculum. Then pilot study of selected teachers from few schools is done and cluster meetings held by teachers who carried out pilot study. The education system preparation trains all teachers about the developed curriculum and NCDC specifies instructional materials to the ministry of education that are purchased and sent to schools where implementation starts. In a period of 5- 10 years the developed curriculum is supposed to be reviewed. Enyutu (2005) stated that available test results from a wide variety of sources had demonstrated prior to the curriculum review that a majority of Ugandan children entering primary school were failing to achieve adequate literacy and numeric standards. Dropout rates were high with only 22% of the 1997 P1 cohort progressing through to P7 in 2003. NAPE test results in 2003 indicated that only approximately 20% of P6 students achieved basic standards of literacy. The combination of these two pieces of information suggested that of the 1997 P1 entry cohort, only 4-5% achieved basic literacy. NAPE testing also revealed very large and unacceptable regional differentials particularly between Kampala and the north of Uganda. Bearing in mind the enormous efforts and the substantial investments in primary education made by the government of Uganda with strong support from its development partners over the past 10 -15 years, these outcomes were disappointing. In all cases the proposals in these related areas have been discussed with senior staff in the Ministry of education and sports departments concerned and with the agencies and development partners directly involved in primary education in Uganda and there has been a very large measure of agreement on the way ahead. Nevertheless, the primary review team did conclude that there were significant flaws in the current primary curriculum and a failure to provide both sufficient time and an adequate syllabus concentration on the achievement of early literacy and numeracy in lower primary grades was by far the most important problem that needed to be addressed. Failure to achieve basic literacy and numeracy in any language in lower primary grades inevitably has a devastating impact on educational quality and student performance in all other subjects. Failure to achieve early literacy was clearly the issue of greatest concern to parents and the wider community that emerged from the primary curriculum review research. It was also perceived to be one of the major causes of drop- outs. National Curriculum Development Centre seems to be using teamwork when executing its functions. It is against this ground that the researcher will investigate how teamwork at NCDC meets customer requirements. 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Many organizations are focusing on teamwork as a measure to improve the quality of their services delivered through brainstorming, innovation and creativity. Amidst these efforts results are not achieved due to poor coordination, lack of commitment by top management and limited funds. To address these short comings of teamwork visa-a-vie customer service quality in non profit making institutions one needs to access the level of involvement of all stakeholders in order to achieve overall performance levels (Tony 2005). NAPE (2003) report shows poor performance of children in literacy and numeracy skills in either local languages or in English due to insufficient orientation, training and support provided to teachers before the implementation of the curriculum. School supervision by the district inspectorate outside urban areas was almost everywhere insufficient to ensure good school management, the effective delivery of curriculum and regular teacher attendance. Therefore it is the interest of the researcher to know whether customer service quality is achieved through teamwork. 1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The purpose of the study will be to examine the impact of team work on customer service quality using National Curriculum Development Centre located at Kyambogo as a case study. 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: The research objectives will be: i. To find out the benefits of using team work in organizations ii. To examine the appropriate team work techniques used in organizations to achieve customer service quality iii. To establish the level of customer service quality at National curriculum Development Centre 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS i. Are there benefits of team work gained by National curriculum Development Centre? ii. What team work techniques does National curriculum Development Centre use to achieve customer service quality? iii. What is the level of customer service quality at National curriculum Development Centre? 1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The scope of the study will cover the subject, time, geographical and sample scope. 1.6.1 The subject Scope: The research will be limited to the impact of team work on one hand as the independent variable and customer service quality as the dependent variable. It will also focus on the achievements of team work at NCDC towards the development of curriculum for educational institutions in the country. 1.6.2 The Geographical Scope: The study will be carried out at National Curriculum Development Centre which is located at Kyambogo near Banda Trading centre off Kampala-Jinja road. NCDC will be an ideal case study because its core values include Respect and Team work, availability of well documented data, commitment to quality and Excellence. 1.6.3 The Time Scope The study will consider an operational time frame of a period of 2 years i.e. from the year 2010 to date. 1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: The study is expected to be beneficial in the following ways: i. The study guides planners and policy makers in making factual decisions on serving customers which ensures that all the customers, shareholders and management needs are met satisfactorily. ii. To the academicians, this research gives recommendations for future research and may act as a reference for the entire world regarding contributions of team work on performance of organizations. iii. The study helps the government and customers to identify how team working at NCDC develop curriculum that is relevant to the future career of the learners. 1.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS: Team work is working together towards a shared and meaningful out come in ways that combine their individual skills and abilities and for which they are all responsible. Customer service is the satisfaction of agreed customer requirements. Quality is the degree of excellence that is the extent to which something is fit for its purpose. CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 INTRODUCTION This chapter consists of what other people have said about the researched problem. The researcher therefore reviews some of the related literature for the better insight of the problem. The chapter includes definition of key terms, impact of team work on customer service quality, benefits of team work in organizations, team work techniques and the level of customer service quality. 2.1 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS Team work is a group of people who work together towards a shared and meaningful out come in ways that combine their individual skills and abilities and for which they are all responsible Phil (2002) .He added that real team does not just happen but an organization has to work at it, create it, maintain and sustain it for the development and provision of quality standards and expectations to customers. Ronald (2004) argues that customer service depends on the expectations of each individual customer. However, all attempts to define customer service tend to focus on the relationships at the buyer/seller interface. He further added that to achieve customer service levels expected an organization need to ensure that for each of these categories; the systems, measurement and people are in place to respond to each customer group or market. Michael (1999) stated quality as satisfying customers’ and stakeholders’ needs by means of sufficient mutually agreed deliverables that ,meet all the agreed requirements and specifications every time, on time and in affordable manner. It can also mean meeting the requirements of the deliverables that satisfy the needs which have been identified and agreed upon by customers, stakeholders and contractors. 2.2 IMPACT OF TEAM WORK ON CUSTOMER SERVICE QUALITY According to Baguley (2002), team work has a great impact on customer service quality. He raised the following points; Efficiency: Team working is important if people are to continue to be efficient members of the organization. Efficiency is whereby employee’s performance is improved up to the standards of the organizational goals. Team working helps employees to achieve maximum efficiency in their current jobs. It also helps the organization to meet its targets for developing and keeping people with the right skills to meet future needs. It applies to all levels of employees in an organization that is the strategic level, tactical level and operational level. Improved customer service: Team working involves different members of the organization working together and combining their individual skills and abilities to come up with something that is either a product or a service that will be highly accepted by the customers (Baguley, 2002). Innovation and Creativity: Sometimes teams of employees work together to develop new products or services through contributing and combining their different ideas and skills. This helps organizations to have new services for customers that eventually improve on its performance and create and sustain customers (Baguley, 2002). Allan Woods et al (2001) stated that team working requires meetings of teams, sections or departments to understand clearly who does what and ensure reliability which is the single most important aspect of delivering outstanding customer service. The teams organize themselves to take the advantage of the individual skills team members bring with them, work together as a group in ways that bring out the best results and every member of the team must be accountable to each other for the success of the whole team. Team working makes it possible to define and insist upon the maintenance of the standards on behalf of the customers and clients as most of the times customers do not specify their needs by referring to the teams’ attitudes or reliability standards but complain bitterly when the team falls below their perceived standards. Michiel and Harold (1997) observed that cross functional teams are used in new product development to shorten development cycle times, improve quality and reduce development costs. These goals are attained because the functional areas perform their tasks in groups rather than each functional area performing its task and passing the project off to the next functional area and the key functional groups usually design engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance, purchasing and marketing work on the new product and development simultaneously. Baguley (2002) said that team working involves integrating individual skills like problem solving, communication, inter personal skills, decision-making and functional skills for the desired out comes. He further added that a good executive team provides a model for everybody in the organization that encourages cooperation and commonality of purpose at all levels of the organization. An assembly team, erection team, machine shop team add value by creating tangible out comes or products which are specific and clearly defined by others and such products meet the expectations of customers. Bradfield et al (1998) are of the view that direct competition is one of the factors that make companies form development teams. They further stated that to be effective, production has to provide a means by which an organization can focus its resources to meet the needs of their chosen customers efficiently. First it is important to know where you are starting from, second is the decision on where you wish to go in future and the outcome should be a commitment by the organization to a deliberate policy on which customers to serve with products or offerings. Woods et al (2001) further observed that the essence of team working skills lies in good communication and open approach to people and ideas and that all communication skills should be used in promoting good customer service. They also noted that for any organization to meet the needs of customers there is need for team work to obtain feedback from customers and colleagues (both within and outside the organization) as well as about the need to establish planning cycles. Each cycle of planning and doing should therefore reduce the amount of uncertainties being faced and obtain feedback not simply from planning but by doing. Adair (1990) argues that innovation calls for a special form of creativity which he called team creativity. He said that all organizations are teams or at least they are potentially so. For effective production and marketing of goods and services these days, delivery on time, at the required quality and at a competitive price calls for a high performance team work. But to improve these existing products or to develop new products and services requires a different order of teamwork (team creativity). Organizations that practice team creativity will survive and prosper while those that do not will decline and disappear. All employees need to participate as each person at work has approximately 10,000 million brain cells, together with a full range of mental faculties, analyzing, synthesizing and valuing abilities. In all of us these processes can take place intentionally on a conscious plane of thought and also less intentionally in our un conscious minds, giving us insights, intuitions, brain waves, gut feelings, intimations and the occasional pear of a genuinely new idea. As a general principle people with a â€Å"hands- on† involvement in any product or service providing they have a modicum of interest in their work will tend to have new ideas for doing it better. The important thing from the motivational perspective is the feeling of being really part of the enterprise with a full share of responsibility in developing the quality of the product or service. Developing a quality team takes hard work because development of team skills, time and patience is not something you can decide to have one day, then achieve overnight. The entire organization is part of the same team working toward meeting the requirements of its customers. Whether management, front line or behind the scenes employees, everyone’s work contributes to the end result. There are also specific work unit teams (departmental) with specific goals and assignments. Teams working together can and should be responsible for identifying problems not previously recognized; finding the root causes of problems; suggesting who should work on problems; solving manpower assignments and scheduling improvements; and providing communication throughout the organization. To be effective, teams in the workplace must develop standards and skills, and then implement ongoing training and coaching to ensure they are put into practice (Anand, 1997).

Interview with Xiaochu of BenMo Public Relations Essay

Interview with Xiaochu of BenMo Public Relations - Essay Example Since I participated so actively in society, I was able to get a good idea of what society wants. I noticed that most PR companies did not seem to really be providing what the public actally wanted, they didn’t have that knowledge of the Chinese people that was necessary to make a true connection. Most of those foreign PR companies saw the potential in our country of almost 1.6 billion people and most of the time, and my idea was to adapt their professionalism and experience to provide a PR experience and service that was specifically tailored for our country .† Everyone knows PR. What we need here is something â€Å"by the people for the people† so to speak. I wanted to create a widespread, quintessentially Chinese central network, where a central figure was available whom the public could relate to and have access to. â€Å" I want my company to grow like a big tree and now, I am the seed. We have a long way to go.† X: You know, I have never really seen money as my main goal in any of the work that I have done or that I am doing. As I started my business, I never really bothered about how much money I made on an individual job, the only consideration I would bear in mind is how large a segment of the public I was able to gain access to, through my PR work. My theory was, â€Å"the bigger you get, the more jobs you get and the money will come naturally.† X: Well I have always believed in the strength of the word of mouth kind of advertising. â€Å"â€Å" Clients are our number 1 strategy in promotion of the BenMo. Word-of-mouth plays a central role of great influence, and clients are more likely to trust a friend or family member’s recommendation as opposed to an advertisement. X: Well, I would say the secret is knowledge of the media. As an ancient Chinese proverb says, you have to â€Å"know the inches† – in other words, deliver only the news you can support

My Management Philosophy Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My Management Philosophy - Term Paper Example In this paper, I will analyze my management philosophy and how it has been influenced by my skills, experience, and knowledge of other theories. The first philosophy that I consider significant is the principle of efficient planning. Managers may accomplish very little or no realizations at all if they fail to plan. This is because the lack of a plan means that a person may do anything at anytime. Planning begins with the determination of desired goals because they guide managers in choosing strategies that help them realize these objectives (Covey, 2013). After determining the desirable aims, managers then carry out research to help them choose the best approaches to realize them; the investigation may be carried out through extensive reading to find out how other organizations perform their tasks or it may be through testing and analyzing of past experiences. The next step after choosing the strategy to apply is implementation that involves putting the strategies into practice to achieve the goals. Evaluation then helps leaders to determine the goals that they have achieved and those that they have failed to accomplish so that they may develop techniques of improving the results. My experience as a human resource manager has made me to value this philosophy because whenever the department fails to plan, it ends up achieving results that are below its capacity. Also the fact that human resource division deals with recruitment means that the department has to plan to determine the type of employees to hire and those that need to be fired (Drucker, 2008). The second philosophy is that efficient communication is vital for the success of managers in their career and also for organizations that aim at realizing high sales and returns (Drucker, 2008). Communication involves exchanging information with other managers, employees, and subordinate staff members. Charismatic leadership style advocates for both verbal and non-verbal communication. This

Project management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Project management - Case Study Example The company is seeking to recruit a new project manager to lead the project. This paper has set the recommendations necessary and recommends the vice president to use the score model to come up with the best solution. ABS has in recent years acquired two companies, which are General Maritime Protection and the Western general insurance in Calgary. These two acquisitions positioned it as a major insurer in Canada. These companies function autonomously up to this date even after the merging of the three companies under a single legal entity. That is why an IT strategic plan was necessary which provided an IMSP, which could be shared by the HRM, financial management and sales and marketing management. The IMSP could lead the ABS Canada to solve these underlying problems. Vice president Jean Roberge felt that he needed a project manager to help him with the IMSP project. This project was an important one for the organization since it could enable the three companies solves their underlying problems. That is why an ideal project manager is important. Jean Roberge should come up with a checklist and then use the scoring model to select the ideal project manager (Kloppenborg, 2011). The first step involves him coming up with a list analyzing and indicating the purposes of the project and decides which ability is more important to realize the purpose of the project. He should consider IT technical ability and the negotiation abilities between the three companies should be considered. The next stage is for Jean Roberge to consider the most important aspects of each criterion with considerations of the project’s blueprint. He then finds all the candidates and scores them according to their scores. He is then supposed to use the scoring model to get the rightful candidate. He obtains this by multiplying the scores of the criterion with their corresponding weight. It is important that

Part 3 Policy Choices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Part 3 Policy Choices - Essay Example Third, these new environmental conditions favor the further development of genetic variations within the isolated group. Over a short amount of time, which can last thousands of years in evolutionary paleontology terms, the descendants of the isolated group become a new species morphologically different from the original population (Eldredge & Gould, 1972, p. 94-95; Gould 2002, p. 766-768). As a result, organisms rarely show any gradual evolutionary change throughout their phylogeny. Instead, new species appear quite suddenly in the fossil record. Working from the theoretical insights of Eldredge and Gould, Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones used PE to explain their observations on public policy. Baumgartner and Jones (1 993) found that for long periods of observations on different policy subsystems, policy change rarely occurred (p. 17- 18). However, on rare occasions certain policy conditions fluctuated such as the venue for a policy debate or the public's image of a specific policy problem. Fluctuations in venue and image often led to a quick policy change that was immediately followed by additional long periods of policy stasis (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993, p. 38). As a result, Baumgartner and Jones concluded that the evolution of any public policy followed a PE pattern rather than a gradual, incremental pattern. While Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones owed much of their insights on PE to Eldredge and Gould, they also used previous research from agenda-setting studies, the policy subsystems literature, and social choice theory to help configure the idea of PE to existing research on public policy. By using these three concepts from social science research, Baumgartner and Jones brought a theory from evolutionary paleontology to political science. This made PE a viable model of the policy process. With the incorporation of agenda-setting, the PE model had its basic political science foundation. Political scientists classify agenda-setting as a debate among advocacy groups, agencies, policymakers, the public, the media, and any other interested organizations over the problems that should be on the active policy agenda of policymakers (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993, p. 10; Kingdon, 1995, p. 3). Once on the agenda, governmental debates over a policy problem occur and the probability of policy change increases. Therefore, agenda-setting becomes important in the PE model because it helps to describe the most fundamental part of policy change. Bringing a policy problem to the agenda is a tough process. Successful agenda-setting usually happens when the public directs the right mix of attention to policymakers on a policy problem that already has various solutions advocated by organized interests (Hunt, 2002, p. 75-76). This helps to change the image of the policy problem from the perspe ctive of policymakers. Such a change in image also causes more policymakers to consider solving the problem with new legislation. When more policymakers know more about a specific policy problem, a change in venue for debates over the problem often occurs. By moving the policy discussion from its usual venue, such as a particular Congressional committee, policy change is more likely to occur. With the interaction of changing images and venues, more people become involved in the policy process and it becomes more open and more susceptible to change. This is an important

Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task Essay

Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task that was challenging, difficult, or frustrating. What did you learn from this experience - Essay Example My role was to ensure that all the variables were working and that the bank registered additional clients as a result of the efforts of the sales department. The organization was experiencing stiff competition that called for aggressive sales strategy. As a sales representative, I was tasked with reaching prospective customers and make them register with the bank and deposit cash into their accounts. The move aimed at increasing the bank’s loanable funds and borrowing from the bank. Traditionally, the bank used personal selling and promotional camps to boost sales. With this in mind, the department arranged meetings with potential customers and gave them the details about the bank’s services. The meetings would also allow customers to ask questions regarding our products in order to contemplate making investment decisions (Pride & Ferrell, 2012). The sales representatives camped in several places to improve the visibility of the bank and its financial products. Despite our efforts, I realized that the realized sales were very few and did not make much impact to the bank’s portfolio. I noted that personal selling strategy was not ideal for the bank since it only reached a small segment of the market (Pride & Ferrell, 2012). As such, I concluded that the bank would require an elaborate marketing strategy to improve sales. The Board of Directors asked me to compile possible strategies that would enable the sales department achieve its mandate. I was determined to prove why personal selling alone was not ideal for the bank. I tabled the results of the study before the Board of Directors. I recommended that the bank overhauls its entire strategy and include advertising in mass media and online marketing. However, the Managing Director of the bank was conservative and determined to maintain the status quo. He argued that the new strategies would increase the cost of sales of the bank, thus

Why is it important for the marketer to distinguish between customer Essay

Why is it important for the marketer to distinguish between customer acquisition, conversion, and retention when developing marketing strategies - Essay Example The dynamics of the three aspects are also very different, so telling them apart makes it easy for the marketer to develop an effective marketing strategy. Another important point is that all three concepts are methodical and systematic, meaning they have to be conducted in an orderly manner. Customer acquisition is always the first activity to be carried out, because customers cannot be acquired or retained if they do not exist. A marketer who can distinguish the three concepts is also more likely to understand that they must be conducted in an orderly fashion (Tracy 47). An ability to distinguish the three aspects gives the marketer the impetus to implement them effectively, and make the whole marketing strategy effective. Finally, distinguishing these concepts allows the marketer to identify possible mistakes made during the development of the marketing strategy. For example, if customer acquisition is not done effectively, the marketer can pinpoint the areas of weakness and develop appropriate measures to eliminate

Globalization of trade and business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Globalization of trade and business - Essay Example It was in many ways easier to change the focus, and praise the British for leading the world in abolishing the Transatlantic Slave Trade and slavery. There had been an unprecedented campaign by the middle class across the country, which could be turned to national advantage. The Royal Navy was attributed with a new moral mission. We could now paint a picture of slavery as an historic phenomenon, and to contrast it with a modern enlightened citizenship. That would be comfortable and convenient, but false. The tensions between property rights and human rights, which have been discussed since the Ancient Greeks, continue today. Globalisation means that international law now has to rise to meet the challenge of reconciling different traditions. It is not clear that the transition has been fully completed in the UK, as in other countries. Whenever governments emphasise their support for business as a priority, this may be interpreted as possibly implying further adverse consequences for other human beings. There are still silences to be broken. This declared recognition of human rights, as a consequence of abolition and emancipation, was at the expense of property rights and economic freedom for employers. Capitalists could emphasise profit over human rights, and demanded a laissez faire approach to regulation and legislation. Can one human being own another, or must they find ways of working together as fellow citizens Working together requires some kind of mutual recognition as fellow human beings and citizens, on the basis of acceptance of parity of esteem. In turn this assumes some degree of acquaintance and familiarity, meaning that people need experience of more than their own immediate social group. Rigid systems of social class represent obstacles. There is such a thing as society. It is not just a matter of individuals and their families. We need to deal with a wider range of relationships. In addition, we need to recognise the diversity of relationships that can be considered under the same headings. At work, where there are employers and employees, it is hard to envisage a model of citizenship based on full equality. Clearly the power is not equally distributed. In a capitalist society, property rights of the owners have implications for the workers. Adam Smith pointed out the distinction between owners and managers, and complained that the latter group, who are simply one category of employees, can tend to act as if they were the owners. He lamented the consequences of joint stock companies, and the ease with which managers could act against the interests of the workers and of the public. Under indusrialisation, the owners regarded other human beings as their property. The prime task of the owners was to ensure the financial success of their businesses. This was easier if the costs of labour could be minimised. They felt able to disregard matters that did not appear in their accounts. These attitudes could also be applied to the conditions of workers, working in factories and living in industrial towns. Typically such workers did not have the right to vote. Through limited access to education, it was difficult

Initial reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Initial reflection - Essay Example I never knew that using proper fluent English was an issue for the people living in that area. When I stood to make my speech and give thanks, that is the time I learned I was supposed to address the audience in a certain way. Slang is a native Black American language that originated from the slaves while working on the plantations. Slaves were forbidden from speaking any other language apart from English. The slaves led to the birth of Slang as a language among the Africa Americans people. I have lived in the poor people area of Amsterdam for about half a year that did socialize with black people. I moved to the suburbs where people spoke proper English, and I adapted to the system of proper English speaking people. From the time I joined University, I have been speaking in correct English. The charity event was dominated by Black people, and everyone was speaking Slang. Since the speech I was making was official, I thought speaking fluent, proper English was appropriate. Speaking Slang does not mean one is stupid and can’t read and write. We have people who speak proper English, but still don’t perform well in school. It shows proper English has nothing to do with performance in the subject. African American identifies itself with the way they speak. They do a lot of code-switching while speaking. It is who they are. Slang makes someone cool, and speaking proper English make people raise eyebrows as to what one says. It does not apply to all Africa Americans, though each time someone criticized my language, it was the Black people. I am used to speaking proper English now. My speech was written in proper and fluent English that many residents did not approve. Immediately after my first sentence, one of the kids interrupted me and demanded I speak a language more understandable. I had used the word â€Å"ecstatic† in explaining how glad I was to be part of the event. The kids insisted the use of simpler words like â€Å"happy† was

Patagonia Another Way of Doing Business Essay Example for Free

Patagonia Another Way of Doing Business Essay 1Introduction Patagonia was founded in 1957 by Yvon Chouinard who defines himself as a reluctant business man. He started his business as a way to climb and surf year long, seeking to build the best product to satisfy his passion. â€Å"Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. † –Patagonias Mission Statement Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes for climbing as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running. Customers are willing to pay a premium for the Patagonia brand and environmental ethic. The companys goal is as simple as it is challenging: to produce the highest-quality products while doing the least possible harm to the environment. Yvon Chouinard founder and owner of Patagonia has done business differently since the beginning of the company, placing environmental sustainability and social welfare of his employee before profit. Three examples of the company practice will show how marketing and business can meet ethical behavior. Patagonia: a different workplace environment Patagonia is hiring only passionate people (friends, family†¦) who are also product user so they don’t have to understand the customer because they are the customer. Patagonia has developed the Let My People Go surfing flextime policy to cope with the employee passion (surfing, backcountry skiing†¦). There are no private offices and the architectural layout keep communication opens. The cafeter ia where employees can gather throughout the day serves healthy, mostly vegetarian food. The company has also an on-site child care center, the presence of children playing in the yard, or having lunch with their parents in the cafeteria helps keep the company atmosphere more familial than corporate. Patagonia has a program that allows employees to take off up to two months at full pay to work for environmental groups. Patagonia fosters creativity and authenticity through its work environment and hiring process enabling the development of original products. 3Patagonia: The 1% for the Planet Initiative Since 1985, Patagonia has devoted 1% of its sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. The company has awarded over $46 million in cash and in-kind donations to domestic and international grassroots environmental. In 2002, founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, created a non-profit corporation to encourage other businesses to do the same. 1% For The Planet is an alliance of businesses that understand the necessity of protecting the natural environment. As of today 1401 companies are members of the 1% for the Planet Initiative and donate 1% of their sales to a network of 2,735 environmental organizations worldwide. More than a marketing campaign, The 1% for the Planet Initiative is a really strong statement from Patagonia (no matter what are the financial results 1% of its sales will serve the environmental cause every year), it has reinforced the company corporate social responsibility and ethical image, hence the loyalty of its core customers. 4Patagonia: The Common Threads Initiative This marketing program first asks customers to not buy something if they dont need it, then if they do need it, Patagonia ask that they buy what will last a long time and to repair what breaks, reuse or resell whatever they dont wear any more. And, finally, recycle whatevers truly worn out. Patagonia with The Common Threads Initiative is the first private company launching a marketing campaign telling its customers to buy less or to buy used gear. In September 2011 Patagonia launched an online marketplace in collaboration with eBay for customers to sell and buy their used Patagonia products. This feature is displayed on the homepage of patagonia. com. Recycling is what we do when were out of options to avoid, repair, or reuse the product first. Thats why I am so impressed with Patagonia for starting its Common Threads Initiative with the real solution: Reduce. Dont buy what we dont need. Repair: Fix stuff that still has life in it. Reuse: Share. Then, only when youve exhausted those options, recycle (Leonard, 2011). This new marketing campaign was unveiled at the New York fashion week as an experiment. Only a private company without public shareholder and a charismatic leader with strong belief can promote such a different business attitude. 5Conclusion Patagonia has always done business and marketing differently. In the seventies Chouinard Equipment had become the largest supplier of climbing hardware in the U. S. It had also become an environmental threat because its gear was damaging the rock. Yvon Chouinard and his partner decided to phase out of this business even it if was the main source of revenue for the company, it was the first environmental step for Patagonia. Instead of focusing on profit the company took a big risk by discontinuing a successful line of products to promote an alternative solution (aluminum chocks) for climbers. It became a success because Patagonia crafted the right product with the right message and stayed true to its core values. Today with the Common Threads Initiative they are pursuing the exact same philosophy and trying to push the industry to adopt more ethical business behaviors. Patagonia’s highly public search for a new way of doing business implies a new kind of relationship with customers, reinforced by unconditional guarantees, extremely high product quality and an explicit commitment to ethical codes of behavior (Reinhardt, 2000).

A history of refugees

A history of refugees According to the United Nations, a refugee is a person who flees their home country due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. From ancient to recent times, from poor areas to developed countries, refugees could be seen almost everywhere. Nowadays, although the global economy has been developing very fast, the problem of refugee still exits. With the old issues remain unsolved, the new ones also emerging, the situation of refugees did not improve a lot much. The number of refugees has kept raising and their geographical distribution has kept widening, how to find the solution to refugee problems has become a cross-century challenge for the whole world. Poverty is one of the fatal roots of the refugee problem. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in their report on the global food and agricultural situation, points out that there are still 13% of the human species on earth (about 800 million) are still starving. And the phenomenon is most serious in the African continent there were about 400 million people lack of food or clothes; Asia following Africa sees the less worst situation there are about 300 million people are still suffering from hunger all day long; And the population in Latin America who live under the poverty line reach the number of 70 million. We notice that, the number of refugees in each continent refers to a considerable proportion of the number of people suffer from starvation. The latest United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statistics shows that there are more than 2100 million refugees in total worldwide, of which 8.44 million in Asia, 5.33 million in Africa, 1.04 million in North Ame rica, 570 thousand in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe is home for 564 thousand refugees among whom mostly come from Africa, Asia and Latin America. In recent years, our whole world sees the continuous development of science and technology along with the global economy. However, food shortage is still a very fatal and serious problem. In a report released by Food and Agricultural Organization in March, it demonstrated that due to continuous natural disasters, there are now 60 million people living in 33 different countries are facing various degrees of food insecurity problems. The report, entitled Shortage of Food and Crops, said that some African area in the south of sub-Saharan region is facing the most serious food deficit 16 countries in that area are in extreme food shortage. In East Africa, although the situation of the year-long drought has been improved last year, yet 18 million people live in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania still need the international community to continue to provide emergency food aid. In Mozambique and other southern African countries, the recent outbreak of floods caused severe damage to crops, and these countries also need access to food aid too. Many countries in Asia are also troubled by the shortage of food. Serious food crisis has begun in Afghanistan due to continuing civil war and drought. East and Central Asia countries such as Armenia, Georgia and Tajikistan are also in the need of food aid due to the droughts happened in their domestics. Food shortages directly threaten the lives of local residents, in order to survive, the population in poor area was forced to leave their homes and become refugees of no fixed abodes. Another reason for refugee problems are very difficult to solve is the deteriorating economic situation and the over grown population in some certain countries. Lets take the case of Africa for instance. In recent years, with the African political situation is easing and the economic situation began to improve, people seem to think that everything is going to be OK. However, there are still many countries out there lack of funds for development and many countries are carrying very heavy debt. According to international organizations latest statistics, the total external debt of the entire Africa reached 360 billion US dollars. It is more than 24 times of what it was 30 years ago. Heavy debt, on the one hand, brings deathly heavy burden to the African countries, and also seriously hampered Africas economic and social development strategies. Africas share in international trade continue to decline, till now they only have 2% while the foreign direct investment put in the whole Africa c ontinent every year is only 1.5% of total international investment. Relatively backward economic conditions lead to the fact that the proportion of poor people in Africa is far more than that in other continents. Africas population accounts for over 12% of the total population of the whole world, yet, Africas GDP is only about 2% of that of the globe. Africa now has a population of about 700 million; the average annual population growth rate is 3%, with the growth in agriculture only goes to 2.5% per year. In some countries, there might be even negative growth in agriculture. There cant be enough food grown to feed the fast increasing population. Too fast growth of population has also caused a shortage or even depletion of natural resources in some parts of Africa. According to researches, every year in Africa, more than 4 million hectares of forests are destroyed. There are severe desertification in many areas which leads to abnormal climate change, floods, droughts and pests. Human destruction contributed a lot in creating this vicious cycle. The ecological environment in many African countries is deteriorating, many places are no longer suitable for living, and the former local residents were forced to leave and find other places to live. Besides, race, religious conflicts and territorial disputes caused intensification of the conflict and wars could be counted as another reason for refugees. In the Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict which has last for a century has one worst consequence that it created a ripple of Palestinian refugees and the problem of these refugees even have an influence throughout the whole Middle East region. The wave of refugee formed by this conflict was the biggest and longest one in history. Currently, among the 21 million refugees worldwide, the Palestinian refugees make up the biggest part with a number of 3.5 million in total. From the emergence of the first generation of Palestinian refugees till now, the problem of them has continued for over 50 years and we could not even clearly see the hope to solve it. The problem of Palestinian refugees has become a big obstacle to remaining peace between Israel and Pakistan. Balkans refugee problems caused by the ethnic conflicts are quite bad too. Since the broke up of the civil war in the early nineties in the 20th century, the number of refuges in the Balkans has reached millions, of which women and children are the majority. In March, ethnic Albanians extremists had a large-scale armed conflict with the government forces; it caused another new refugee flow in Macedonia. The long-lasting civil war in Afghanistan make more than 7 million refugees ran away to Iran and Pakistan. In South Africa, the largest number of refugees could be found in Angola and Mozambique. These two countries recent 20 years were occupied by civil war or natural disasters, millions of people become displaced refugees. In Central Africa, because of the armed tribal conflict between Rwanda and Burundi, more than 2 million refugees fled to eastern Congo (DRC) region, and led to the conflict between Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, as well as Burundi and Uganda. It once caused the refugee c risis. The situation of refugees in eastern Africa is also increasingly worse: the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia lasts for over 10 years forced thousands of refugees flew to other countries; The Sudans civil war which nearly lasts for 50 years, forced large number of refugees fled to Ethiopia, bar Doyle, Central Africa and Kenya to survive; Now, in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia and other countries, bloody conflicts and terrorist activities are still forcing local residents to flee their homes and become homeless refugees. Natural disasters are also important reasons contributed to the refugee problem which we cannot ignore. According to materials released by international organizations, that the average death caused by natural disasters every year is 1.44 million, 57 thousand injured and 5 million homeless. Severe famine caused by natural disasters kills at least 73.6 thousand every year. In the past decade, various types of natural disasters caused the loss of 608 billion U.S. dollars in total and millions of refugees left their home and become wandering. Refugees not only bring problems to developing countries, but also bring burdens to developed countries. Large numbers of people move from developing countries to developed countries every year and among them, there are a lot of illegal immigrants who just becomes the economic refugees. Their existence with uncertainty of safety and economical support lead to social problems in developing countries. After World War II, to deal with the refugee issue left in Europe by the war, the international community set up a temporary agency in Geneva to solve the European refugee problem in the year 1951. It was responsible for the specific work of resettlement of the refugees. Later on, with the increasing number of refugees all over the world, this agencys scope also expanded and finally become the current United Nations Higher Commission of Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR is funded mainly by contributions from the international community, 2% of the annual budget allocation by the United Nations, and the remaining 98% of pledges by countries. The annual budget of the UNHCR in the early ninetieth in the 20th century was 120 million and that in the year 2002 was 78 million U.S dollars. The current agent of UNHCR, former Prime Minister of Netherland Ruud Lubbers holds the opinion that to solve the refugee problem, the budget every year should at least be more than 110 million dollars. Resettlement work is a systematic project, in addition to rescue. At present, there are three major and general solutions to the refugee problems: voluntary repatriation; local integration and third- country resettlement. After the United Nations Higher Commission of Refugees was founded, the scope of its assistance activities continued to change: European refugees in the 1950s; focus move on to Africa in 1960-1970s; in the late 1970s, serious refugee problems have been all over Asia, Africa, and Latin American continents, the total number of refugees grow over 10 million; After the cold war in the late 1990s, ethnic conflicts and religious conflicts have become increasingly prominent in some parts of the world. Conflicts, civil wars and political instabilities led to large-scale influx of refugees. United Nations statistics show that in the last ten years in the 20th century, the number of refugees in the world increased by a variety of more than 7 million, from 15 million in 1990 to 22 million in the early of the year 2000. Among them, the worlds total number of refugee in 1991 was 17 million while this data became 23 million in 1993 and later in 1995 to a record 27 million. World Refugee Day occurs on June 20. The day was created in 2000 by a special United Nations General Assembly Resolution. June 20 had previously been commemorated as African Refugee Day in a number of African countries. In the United Kingdom World Refugee Day is celebrated as part of Refugee Week. Refugee Week is a nationwide festival designed to promote understanding and to celebrate the cultural contributions of refugees, and features many events such as music, dance and theatre. History tells us that the refugee problem is threatening our step of development in secure and peace. There are so many complicated reasons that cause the problem of refugee and there is no simple solution to it. Human beings must face the fact that we have these problems all around and work out ways to effectively eliminate this piece of dark shadow that has always been on our planet.

Concepts of Symbolic Interactionism

Concepts of Symbolic Interactionism Aspects of the contemporary society of Britain, such as the Education and Religion may be explained through the use of the sociological perspectives, functionalism and symbolic interactionism. These perspectives offer contrasting insights into the inner-workings of society and are useful in attempting to understand these aspects of social life, utilizing both macrosociology; the study of widespread social processes and microsociology; the study of society at a interpersonal level. Symbolic Interactionism is a social psychological theory devised from the work of Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead that studies how individuals act within society (Symbolic Interactionism, no date). The premise of this theory is that individuals behave towards different situations based upon the meaning that the situation holds to them, from physical objects such as trees to institutions such as the government, referred to as symbols. As Symbolic Interactionism is a microsociological theory, the perspective focuses on how the meaning of these symbols to a individual is derived from the interpersonal, social interaction in society. Then through an interpretative process upon experiences, the meanings an individual holds towards symbols will change (Blumer, 1986). There are many examples where individuals find social meaning through symbolic interaction, one being that without symbolic interaction many people would not smoke; however meaning is constructed through the medi a or peer groups and people rationalise that albeit the consequences smoking hold, smoking is desirable. Another social psychological concept of Symbolic Interactionism is Charles Horton Cooleys looking-glass self (1902), which explores how identity is formed. Charles concept states that an individuals identity grows out of interpersonal interactions, and the perception of others. This leads individuals in society to shape themselves around other peoples perspectives and opinions of themselves. The looking-glass self has three main components; firstly imagining how we appear to others, secondly imagining the judgement from others of that appearance and thirdly developing our identity through these judgements (Rousseau, 2002). Functionalism on the other hand is a macrosociological theory which originated from the works of Émile Durkheim, Functionalism is also known as a consensus perspective theory as the perspective does not deal with the issue of social conflict but rather at looks at the ideal in society. Durkheims view on the functionalist perspective looks at the macro-level of social structure, the social institutions, as to explain how these contribute to the stability of society; the core institutions being: family, government, economy, media, education and religion. To a functionalist these social institutions are designed to fill the needs of society, thus shaping society, creating stability (Crossman, 2016). The functionalist perspective argues that institutions only exist to serve a role in how society functions, if the role is no longer needed the institution would not be needed either and if new needs arise in society, institutions will be created to address these roles. As touched upon, Symbolic Interactionism is a micro-sociological theory looking at the interpersonal level of society and Functionalism is a macro-sociological theory which looks at society on the structural level. The difference between the perspectives is vast due to this difference. Using religion as an example Émile Durkheim argued that religion encouraged individuals of society to follow the social norms which Functionalist theorists perceive as bringing about stability through institution (Emile Durkheim the sociology of religion, no date). However as Symbolic Interactionism focuses on the micro level of society, instead of looking at religion as a institution and how it causes people to adhere to social norms, Interactionism looks at the symbolic meaning behind religion. A symbolic interactionist would observe the meanings people attach to such things as religious symbols, like a cross or a mosque, to see how they affect individual behaviour in society (Symbolic Interacti onism, no date). However there are similarities between these perspectives,ÂÂ   despite the differences as to what level of society the perspectives focus on, both theories are similar in how they group individuals together, be it through social class for functionalism and through symbols for interactionism. Education in Britain has changed drastically since the 20th century. The Education Act was introduced in 1944 which guaranteed education for free, for every child in England and Wales. This act also divided the schools into what is the norm today, primary education and secondary education. Throughout the 20th Century, education in britain was a complete contrast to education in contemporary society, corporal punishment was widely used; whereas today the education system has different methods of punishment and students have rights which prevent corporal punishment such as caning. Education in contemporary britain has evolved to be inclusive of gender and those with special educational needs as through the 20th century women and special needs were discriminated against and regarded as unintelligent. Education in contemporary britain has also integrated the use of technology, with the vast majority of students having access to smartphones and the like within school (Reporters, 2014)l. E ducation is at the forefront of modern day society with 33% of students earning a degree in 2000 in contrast to 3.4% of students in 1950. (Bolton, no date) Both perspectives attempt to explain this aspect of social life in contemporary britain in contrasting ways, the Functionalist perspective focuses on the the functions performed by the education system. A functionalist may argue that Education creates Social Solidarity. Social Solidarity is when individuals feel as though they are integrated into something bigger than themselves. Durkheims belief when it comes to education was that the system is built upon the common beliefs of individuals in society, Durkheim believed the system to be a product of collective thought rather than individual thought, therefore making the education system a expression of the collective conscious which adapts over time as societys values change, uniting society with shared values, which is known as value consensus (Hoenisch, 1996). Talcott Parsons (1961), an american functionalist which expanded upon Durkheims writings in the 1950s and 1960s, expressed his view on the education system can be related to c ontemporary britain as being useful to provide a trained labour force as, this is useful to contemporary britain due to it being a advanced industrial economy, which needs a complex division of labour in order to sustain (Cook, 2008). Talcott Parsons (1961) also argued that the education system is the bridge between family and society as a whole for students, preparing for their role in later life after their initial primary socialisation; which is where individuals learn and develop throughout their younger years (Agnihotri, 2008). Parsons (1961) believed that in the family, as the parents understand the unique abilities of their child, the parents will judge the child to a particular set of standards they have come to expect, this is known as particularistic standards. However due to the education system, children learn that outside of the family individuals are judged by universalistic standards, which is where rules and laws apply to all people, regardless of the character of th e person, education teaches this. From a functionalist viewpoint, education in contemporary britain is used to assign roles to people in society through the use of examinations and qualifications. Education also introduces meritocracy, which is a equality of opportunity; every student has a chance to succeed (Thompson, 2015). An interactionists perspective however will focus on studies on interpersonal interaction within the school, such as in the classroom, in the lunch hall and on the playground. Studies show that teachers perception of students can affect the learning environment, A study carried out by Robert Rosenthal (1968)ÂÂ   and Lenore Jacobson (1968) focuses on a group of students throughout a school year, at the start of the school year the teachers where told which students where intelligent and which where unintelligent. The study showed at the end of the year that the students which the teachers had been informed where intelligent performed better throughout the year than the students deemed unintelligent, although the students where labelled to the teachers at random. A Interactionist will look at how due to the teachers having that knowledge inadvertently caused them to praise the intelligent students more often, and spend more time with them. Interactionists will also look at how Soc ial Interaction contributes to gender-role socialization, studies show that teachers praise males more often (Jones Dindia, 2004) Functionalism is useful in understanding how the education system is more work focused in contemporary society with increasing vocational courses. The perspective allows us to see how roles are allocated in society and how the education system brings around a value consensus in society. Its also useful in understanding how society teaches children what the universalistic standards are. However Functionalism tends to look at the macro elements of the education system rather than at the interpersonal level where functionalism can be criticized due to ignoring negatives such as bullying. It can also be criticised due to the fact the Marxist perspective argues education is not meritocratic due to the fact private schools only benefit the wealthy. Symbolic Interactionism on the other hand is useful in understanding the interpersonal relationships between parties such as the teacher and the student, allowing researchers to understand how individuals behavior shape society through observati ons and gathering qualitative data, understanding how society come to learn gender roles and how the labelling theory works as shown in the study aforementioned; a student being given more praise makes the student believe they are intelligent and therefore tries to fit that label, which is known in sociology as the self-fulfilling prophecy. According to Manis and Meltzer (1978) Symbolic Interactionism also makes it difficult to understand on a broad level the education system in contemporary society due to being limited to only micro-social structures and that the perspective neglects emotional conduct, focusing only on logical behaviour. Bolton, P. (no date) Commons Briefing papers SN04252. House of Commons.

Imagry in the Fall of the House of Usher :: essays papers

Imagry in the Fall of the House of Usher Imagery in "The Fall of the House of Usher" The description of the landscape in any story is important as it creates a vivid imagery of the scene and helps to develop the mood. Edgar Allan Poe is a master at using imagery to improve the effects of his stories. He tends to use the landscapes to symbolize some important aspect of the story. Also, he makes use of the landscape to produce a supernatural effect and to induce horror. In particular, Poe makes great use of these tools in "The Fall of the House of Usher." This story depends on the portrayal of the house itself to create a certain atmosphere and to relate to the Usher family. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe uses the landscape to develop an atmosphere of horror and to create corollary to the Usher family. Poe uses the life-like characteristics of the house as a device for giving the house a supernatural presence. The house is described as having somewhat supernatural characteristics. The windows appear to be "vacant" and "eye-like" (1462). The strange nature of the house is further explained as around the mansion, "†¦there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity." (1462). This demonstrates that the house and its surroundings have an unusual and bizarre existence. Upon entering the house, the narrator views some objects, such as the tapestries on the walls and the trophies, fill him with a sense of superstition. He describes the trophies as "phantasmagoric" (1462). He further explains that the house and the contents were the cause of his feelings. He describes his superstition one night, "I endeavored to believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the phantasmagoric influence of the gloomy furniture of the room†¦" (1468). Hence, Poe makes use of the house to create a supernatural effect. Likewise, Poe describes the house to create a terrifying effect. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a horror story. In order to develop a mood to get the reader frightened, Poe must portray the setting of the story. The house is described initially by the narrator, who sees the image of the house as a skull or death’s head looming out of the dead. He is not sure what to think and comments of the properties of the old house: "What was it, I paused to think, what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the house of Usher?

Capital Punishment and the Bible Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Ess

Capital Punishment and the Bible      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Capital punishment has always been an arguable issue and for good reason. The Old Testament clearly calls for the death penalty on many occasions, whereas; many of the teachings of Jesus and others in the New testament readily denounce it.   Therefore, both advocates ands opponents of capital punishment have Biblical references to support their beliefs.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Opponents use the creation story to show that all are created in God's image.   Genesis 1:27a states that â€Å"God created man in his image.†1   God, thus, has the power to give and take away life as he chooses.   All men are to preserve life to the best of their ability.   M. Margaret Falls says that we cannot treat people as mere instruments to personal survival, success or fulfillment.2      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Advocates will also utilize Genesis   1:27 to prove that because man is created in God's image, man must preserve as many lives as possible,   Therefore, the death of one, who has murdered many, will spare the useless and countless deaths of others.   God's command to preserve life seems much more important here than the preservation of criminals.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Capital punishment is never used legitimately in the New Testament. Jesus' constant preaching of love and forgiveness shows his contempt for the harming of others.   One example of love is found in John 15:17 â€Å"This is my command:   Love each other.†Ã‚   An example of forgiveness is Matthew 6:14 â€Å"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.†      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Jesus practiced what he preached by not condemning guilty persons.   In John 8:1-11, Jesus did not let the people stone a wom... ...    Falls, M. Margaret, The Christian Century, â€Å"Against the Death Penalty: A Christian Stance in a Secular World, The Christian Century Foundation, Cicero, IL, 1986.    Finlay, Terence J., The Ten Commandments, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, NY, 1961.    Harrison, R. K., Numbers An Exegetical Commentary, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1992.    Hoekema, David, The Christian Century, â€Å"Capital Punishment:   The Question of Justification, The Christian Century Foundation, Chicago, IL, 1979.    Holy Bible, New International Version, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1973.    Kaiser, Walter C. Jr., Hard Sayings of the Old Testament, InerVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1988.    Steffen, Lloyd, Christianity and Crisis, â€Å"Casting the First Stone,† Christianity and Crisis, Inc., Syracuse, NY, 1990.   

Jewish religion Essay

Judaism is the Jewish religion. It is one of the oldest of the great world religions, and is the mother religion of both Christianity and Islam. Judaism was not founded by one towering personality, as were most other religions. Abraham and Moses are not regarded as founders. Abraham was the â€Å"father of the Hebrew people† and Moses was the â€Å"law-giver†. With the destruction of Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem in 586 B. C. began the scattering of the Hebrews over many lands. From then on Judaism developed as a religion without the priestly class of the ancient temple. Moreover, Judaism is one of the oldest beliefs that are still observed and practiced up to the present and considered as one of the first recorded â€Å"monotheistic† faiths. The Jewish’s values and history are the main part of the foundation of different Abrahamic religions like Christianity, Islam, Samaritanism and the Baha’i Faith. In 2006, Judaism’s devotees are approximately 14 million that makes Judaism faith as the eleventh-biggest organized religion globally. Unlike with other religions, Judaism is totally distinct in such a way that its â€Å"central authority is not vested in any person or group† but it abides in its writings and traditions. This would mean that Judaism religion does not have a head or a leader that oversees them but they rather obey what is written in its writings and traditions. Moreover, the Judaism church is continually bound to a number of religious practices and beliefs, specifically its belief that there is one, omnipotent, omni benevolent, transcended omniscient God who made the heavens and the earth and continually have its control over mankind. The conventional Jewish belief stated that the God who made the universe had made a covenant with the Jewish people only and gave his laws and commandments through Torah. Judaism‘s belief and practices are focused on these laws and commandments (see Asheri, Michael. Living Jewish: the Lore and law of the Practicing Jew, 1999). According to Jewish law, anyone who has a Jewish mother counts as a Jew, even if he or she is not religious. Many Jews do, however, actively follow the religious practices of Judaism. Judaism is one of the world’s oldest religions, beginning some 3,500 years ago in the Middle East. Today, there are about 18 million Jews. They live all over the world, but mostly in the United States, Europe and Israel. There are many different groups of Jews with different ways of practicing their faith. The main groups are Orthodox, Reform and Conservative Jews (see Jacobs, Louis. The Book of Jewish Belief (Behrman House, 2000). The intents of this paper are to: (1) know what Judaism is and how it started; and (2) to compare Judaism to Christianity. II. Background According to the Jewish holy books, the first Jew was a man called Abraham, who is known as the father of the Jewish people. He was the leader of a group of nomadic people, called the Hebrews. At that time, the Hebrews worshipped many different gods. Abraham taught his people that there is only one God and that they should worship only him. Jews believe that God made a covenant, or agreement, with Abraham. If Abraham and his people worshipped God and lived good and just lives, God would look after them and give them a land of their own to live in. This was the Promised Land of Canaan (see Shenker, Israel. Coat of many Colors: Pages from Jewish Life (Doubleday, 2001). The Jews settled in Canaan but centuries later, famine forced their descendants to move to Egypt in search of food. They worked for the Egyptians but were treated like slaves and their lives were extremely miserable. God remembered his promise to Abraham and sent a man called Moses to lead the Jews to freedom. Several times, Moses asked the Pharaoh to let the Jews go, but each time he refused. Only after God sent ten terrible plagues to Egypt did the Pharaoh change his mind. Moses led the Jews out of Egypt and into the desert. After 40 years of wandering, God guided the Jews back to the Promised Land (see Prager, Dennis, and Joseph Telushkin. Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism (Simon & Schuster, 1999). The Jewish scriptures are called the Tenakh. They are divided into three parts—the Torah (5 Books of Teaching), the Nevi’im (21 Books of the Prophets) and the Ketuvim (13 Books of Writings). The initials of the three parts—T, N and K—give the word Tenakh. For Jews, the Torah is the most important part of their scriptures because it contains the rules that teach Jews how to live their lives. These are the teachings that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai during the Jews’ journey through the desert. They are summed up by ten rules, or commandments (see Musaph-Andriesse, R. G. From Torah to Kabbalah: a Basic Introduction to the Writings of Judaism (Oxford University, 1998).

Fixed Assets

Accounting for Fixed Assets Accounting for Fixed Assets Second Edition Raymond H. Peterson John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright  © 2002 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. , New York. All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744.Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012, (212) 850-6011, fax (212) 850-6008, E-Mail: PERMREQ @ WILEY. COM. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authori tative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services.If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-09210-X. Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in this electronic edition. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www. Wiley. com To a number of people who influenced my life and prepared me for the job of creating this book: First, my mother, who not only taught me to read, but allowed me to experience the enjoyment of reading.She opened up for me the vast knowledge available in libraries. Dr. Wade Moorehouse, retired Professor of Accounting and former Chairman of the Department of Business and Economics at California State University, Hayward, who many ye ars ago, when I was an undergraduate student in his accounting course, stimulated my excitement about the accounting function. Blessed with classes of fewer than six students in a new university, we spent many class hours discussing the theory of accounting.These discussions had a large impact on my career direction. Earl Malone, a District Accounting Manager, who early in my career forced me to develop my own thoughts and not just rely on past practice. He also forced me to aquire the skill of dictation, which made the creation of this book a possibility. Dodie Peterson, world’s best secretary, who converted my ramblings into a manuscript. Contents About the Author Preface Chapter 1 What Is Accounting for Fixed Assets?Introduction Consumption of Benefits Characteristics of Assets Need to Change Chapter 2 What Is an Asset? Introduction Historical Cost Matching Principle Fixed Assets Property Plant Equipment Defining Assets Government Accounting User Fees Not-for-Profit Accoun ting xv xvii 1 1 3 4 9 11 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 20 22 24 24 vii viii Contents Chapter 3 Classifications of Asset Transactions Introduction Classification Systems Accounting Policy Decisions Coding of Transactions Property Record Coding System 7 27 28 31 33 34 39 39 39 40 44 47 48 49 49 52 52 54 54 55 55 56 57 58 58 59 59 Chapter 4 Determining Base Unit Introduction Definition of Base Unit Purpose of a Base Unit Establishing Base Units Decision Rules Difficulties in Establishment Land Buildings Equipment Criteria for Establishing Base Units Examples Spare Parts Chapter 5 Control of Property, Plant, and Equipment Introduction Asset Accountant Asset Custodian Inventories Property Record System Identification of Assets Farm Owner Applied Numbers Contents ixIdentification of Specific Asset Items to Be Tagged Bar Coded Tags Security Chapter 6 Asset Policies Manual Introduction Purpose Creating the Manual Partial Sample Manual Use of the Manual Property, Plant, and Equipment Custodianâ€⠄¢s Responsibilities Responsibilities of Asset Accountant Procedures for Purchase of Physical Assets Approval Limits Minimum Capitalization Level Items Always Charged to Expense Account Transaction Reports Data Definitions Chapter 7 Establishing Value Introduction Historical Cost Other Values Uses of Values Insurance Collateral for a Loan Purchase or Sale of a Complete Business First Creation of Property Record 0 61 64 65 67 67 67 69 69 72 72 73 75 75 75 76 76 77 83 83 84 84 85 86 86 87 87 x ContentsValuation Techniques Management Information Periodic Assessment of Value Chapter 8 Allocation of Costs to Accounting Periods Introduction Costs of Using up Assets Depreciation Estimated Life Cost Basis Allocation Methods Accelerated Depreciation Other Depreciation Concerns Tax versus Book Depreciation Balance Sheet Disclosure Not-for-Profit Organizations Chapter 9 Regulated Utilities Introduction Differences in GAAP Telecommunications Accounting Basic Property Record Telecommunications P lant in Service Chart of Accounts Railroads Property Accounts Cost of Construction Units of Property List of Units of Property Accounting for Engineering Costs 88 89 90 93 93 94 95 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 101 105 105 106 106 107 109 110 111 111 114 114 115 Contents xiCommon and Contract Motor Carriers of Passengers Carrier Operating Property Depreciation Minor Items Uniform System of Accounts—Tangible Accounts Account Definitions Chapter 10 Government Accounting Introduction Measurement Focus Fund Accounting Funding for Government Assets Accounting Standard Setting Measuring Service Efforts and Accomplishments Current Government GAAP Property Records Infrastructure Assets Measurement of Utilization Establishing Property Record Establishing Property Record Units Infrastructure Property Units Planning Accounting Policies Software Selection Off-the-Shelf Software Chapter 11 Not-for-Profit Accounting Introduction Accounting Definition of Not-for-Profit Organizations 117 117 117 11 9 119 119 123 123 124 125 126 126 127 128 128 129 130 131 131 131 132 133 134 135 135 136 xii ContentsAccounting Problems of Not-for-Profit Organizations Formal Accounting Standards Need for Change in Not-for-Profit Accounting Accounting for Property, Plant, and Equipment Creating Property Records Property Record System Documentation Chapter 12 Creation and Verification of Property Records Introduction Purpose of Property Record New Concept Requirements for a Physical Asset Database Property Record Units Coding Systems Property Record Codes for Motor Vehicles Other Codes Required Property Record ID Number Maintenance of the Property Record Database Responsibilities of Asset Manager Updating Records Recording Maintenance Costs Verification of Physical Existence Military Commander Approach Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Fully Depreciated Assets Reports from the Property Record System Chapter 13 Computer Programs Introduction Asset Database Software 138 139 140 141 143 145 147 149 149 1 50 151 152 155 155 156 156 157 158 158 159 160 161 161 163 164 165 167 167 167One-Write Systems Existing Database Programs Software Selection Off-the-Shelf Property Record Database Packages Review Copies of Software Evaluation of Software Packages Program Review Checklist for Program Review Database Fields Bibliography Index 168 169 169 170 170 171 172 175 176 179 185 xiii About the Author Raymond (Ray) H. Peterson is currently the senior partner of Ray Peterson & Associates, a consulting firm offering business assistance in establishing and changing accounting systems. He has served as the treasurer of a number of nonprofit organizations. He has over thirty years experience as a management accountant with the Bell System. He retired as Director of Financial Accounting with Pacific Bell. Mr. Peterson has managed the design of Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Companies detail property records.During the three-year breakup of the Bell System, he was appointed to a Federal Communication s Commission task force to create a new uniform system of accounts for telephone companies. The proposed system was adopted by the FCC and was installed in all telephone companies. Mr. Peterson served for 12 years on the Institute of Management Accountants Financial Accounting Standards Committee and its predecessor Subcommittee on Management Accounting Statement Promulgation. He received a BS from California State University at Hayward and an MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He also taught accounting and management information systems at Golden Gate University. xv PrefaceSince the first edition of this book in 1994, not much change has occurred to accounting standards for Property, Plant, and Equipment in business. The GAAP promulgated by the Financial Accounting, FASB, has been to further the concept of identifying the cost of an asset and spreading that cost over the accounting periods that benefit. Accounting for contributions, impairments, and financing of asse ts have been addressed by the FASB. In contrast, much has happened in the areas of Not-for-Profit and Government accounting for fixed assets. FASB ordered the capitalization of assets and charging of depreciation by Not-for-Profits. The government Accounting standards Board was created as an equal to the FASB with the authority and responsibility to promulgate GAAP for governments.They replaced the Government Finance Officers Association and its â€Å"Blue Book†, Governmental Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting as the â€Å"official† accounting rules for State and Local government. An early step by the new GASB was to suspend depreciation for â€Å"government† not-for-profit accounting. There was a determination of jurisdiction between FASB and GASB which are outlined in Chapter 10, â€Å"Government Accounting† and Chapter 11, â€Å"Not-For-Profit Accounting. † Then the GASB issued concept papers that moved government accounting toward th e practices long held as appropriate for businesses. These concept papers state that assets should be placed on the books at acquisition cost and that cost spread over the accounting periods they benefit. This is a major change in accounting for these groups.Past practice was for assets to be purchased and expensed in the current period, if purchased with general revenue, or not even recorded if purchased with bonds or other special revenue sources. There was considerable argument that these changes were not appropriate for governments. Implementation of GASB statement 33 and xvii xviii Preface 34 were delayed, but are now being implemented. The accounting for governments is not the subject of this book and government accountants are referred to GASB and GFOA publications in the bibliography for the details. However, some discussion is included because it will be of interest to the business accountant that is establishing accounting policy for business and not-for-profit organizatio ns.There has been considerable argument that fixed assets of businesses should be recorded on the books at something different than depreciated original cost, that adjustments should be made to reflect the market value up as well as down, and that book asset accounting should be changed from cost allocation to reflect some measurement of value. The public review and promulgation process of the GASB provide rebuttals to all of those arguments. I urge any accountant that holds those views to research the process that GASB statements 33 and 34 followed, much of which is available on the web site at http://www. gasb. org. This book is designed for accountants and managers who want to get the most from the physical assets of their organizations. Most readers are already familiar with the oncepts and practical application of total quality management (TQM) zero defects, and the other procedures that describe a continued process of improvement. Having made the process and management changes that brought about easy improvements in quality and cost reduction they are ready to answer the following questions: How are you applying the principles of continuous improvement to the management of property, plant, and equipment? Do you have a process in place that allows you to monitor the status of maintenance (or deferred maintenance) on your property, plant, and equipment? What is the age of the oldest piece of your production equipment? Do you have a plan in place for replacement of production facilities?Are there any quality problems in your production or service delivery system caused by property, plant, and equipment failures? What is the utilization percentage of the property, plant, and equipment? Can you determine the utilization of your most expensive piece of equipment? Do you have service or production problems attributable to equipment not being available at the place needed? Are all of your property, plant, and equipment being utilized to their fullest? Preface xi x Do you have in place a process that monitors the current condition, evaluates the future need for replacement, and brings to your attention needs to modify that plan? Do you manage your physical assets or do you put them in place, use them, and replace them when they are worn out?Do your plans include having the necessary cash to purchase replacement physical assets or will you have to do an extraordinary financing or fund-raising when you are surprised by their failure? Is there a plan in place for overall management or do you simply hope your assets will continue to allow you to produce your product or provide your service? The purpose of providing this book on accounting for property, plant, and equipment, is to provide the framework for you to install in your organization accounting processes and procedures that will allow you to manage long-term physical assets. How can a book on assets help answer these questions? All accounting students learn the basics bout assets within v arious accounting courses, however, there really is not much definitive information available on fixed assets in the accounting literature. The Accounting Principles Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board are both silent on the subject of accounting standards for fixed assets. Lacking a primary source for accounting standards, it is necessary to look to secondary sources, which also contain very little information on the handling of assets. Most accounting textbooks devote only a single chapter to capitalization of assets, and do not cover the subject in depth. Accounting periodicals have focused on valuation of assets, but offer little on specific concepts of capitalization.The issue of valuing at historical cost versus current market price has received considerable interest over the years. Now the FASB has issued statement 93 requiring not-for-profits to use historical cost less depreciation asset accounting. GASB has issued statements 33 and 34 that require that accou nting for all but a few assets. It is even more important to have this single reference to bring all these prospectives together. A number of organizations including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Management Accountants, and the Government Finance Officers Association offer courses on capitalization of assets. Most of these courses, however, cover either the tax implications of assets or the valuation question.Little in these courses describes how to establish asset policies, document them in a manual, and apply them within the company. xx Preface During 1989-1990, the National Association of Accountants (now the Institute of Management Accountants) replaced their original Statement on Management Accounting (SMA) on Fixed Assets with two statements relating to accounting for property, plant, and equipment. SMA 4J, published in 1989, described the accounting for property, plant, and equipment, and SMA 4L, published in 1990, covers control of property, plant, and equipment. A research issues publication called the Reporting, Control, and Analysis of Property, Plant, and Equipment was published in 1990.This collection of publications represents the majority of the available information on accounting for fixed assets. As a part of the IMA team coordinating those projects, I became convinced this book was needed. There is a need to emphasize that assets must be managed, not just purchased, used up, and replaced. The objective is to provide not only accounting for assets, but include that accounting in a process that will allow management to get the most out of the company’s investment. It is not always possible to create more debt in order to acquire assets. Therefore, some of our consumption must be sacrificed today in order to provide quality assets for tomorrow.In today’s complex business best quality and maximum utilization are going to give the best return on investment. Accounting for Fixed Assets contai ns more than the routine accounting processes. It also has the management framework that must surround the accounting process. The United States economy has been built since World War II as â€Å"a paper plate society. † We rapidly built our economy based on the philosophy of quick production without much concern for quality. We built automobiles that only lasted a few years, and, in fact, are still building houses in the same way that we did in the early 1950s. They require major renovation every fifteen or twenty years.Many of the houses of the early 1950s are currently the subject of redevelopment districts: they either require major repair or must be ripped out and replaced. We have built a tremendous economy and brought the majority of citizens to the highest standard of living of any culture with this â€Å"doit-quick† philosophy. It created many jobs, especially at the unskilled and semiskilled level, and brought the pleasure of accomplishment and the fruits of labor to the largest segment of U. S. citizens quickly. We have done so, however, for the sake of today and at the expense of tomorrow. But tomorrow has arrived, and we cannot continue to use up our assets. Those assets capable of bringing future benefits must be managed in a way that will allow those future benefits to occur. Preface xxiThe European and Japanese economies have grown much more slowly; jobs and the rewards that come from labors are just now reaching many segments of those cultures. However, the infrastructure base there, the assets like roads, houses, and other buildings, constructed in the 1950s is still in use and not in need of major repairs. A complete difference in philosophical approach was used in building the base for their economies. They have not sacrificed tomorrow for today, but in fact sacrificed yesterday for today—and today has arrived. Assets are those things we purchase today that will bring future benefits. But those assets must be managed to get those future benefits.To compete in a level playing field across the world, instead of in one where we make all the rules, we in the United States must evaluate our present practices. We can no longer afford to put two or three times the percentage of our gross national product into the nation’s dumps each year than competing countries do. We can no longer approach the building and operating of our businesses as we did during World War II. We learned there that we can build things quickly if they are only needed for a few years or are abandoned on the battlefield. Much of our managerial approach to business assets is alarmingly similar: build it, use it, and throw it away.To many, it is even worse than that; we buy it and don’t think about it again until it is worn out or disrupts the production line. Accounting managers must rethink their accounting processes for assets. To be value-added, accounting information must be simple and understandable, and must provide relevant, timely information to those who make decisions based on it. My goal in producing this book is not just to provide a comprehensive treatment of the details of accounting for fixed assets, but also to provide the management accountant with the processes to provide good relevant decision-making information for the officers of the company. Also, I provide the processes that are necessary to manage those assets.The book is organized to allow you to skip over the initial processes necessary to the system, and understand the principles and philosophy that are necessary in managing assets. I will also suggest a different approach to management of assets. An asset is current production that is not used up, and instead provides the means for future productivity. A hundred years ago, assets were known by business people as capital goods. Capital goods are something that must be managed for the future, not just to benefit current quarter earnings. Accounting for Fixed Assets 1 What I s Accounting for Fixed Assets? INTRODUCTION Most accounting professionals believe that all there is to be learned about asset accounting occurred in the introductory course on principles of accounting.Therefore, although this subject can become quite complex, it has not been explored in the accounting literature. In 1984 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) called for the rewriting of the uniform system of accounts for telephone companies, public utilities had not been following generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as outlined by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and its predecessors, but instead used procedures that had been outlined in 1934 by the FCC. The team responsible for making recommendations on the rewriting of the system of accounts established a basic policy that what was to be recommended would comply with current GAAP.The subcommittee responsible for reviewing and recommending procedures for property, plant, and equipment was frustr ated by the lack of definitive information on accounting for assets. The primary sources are very limited. The Accounting Principles Board (APB) and the later FASB have been nearly silent on the subject beyond defining depreciation and historical costs. Accounting Research Bulletin (ARB) 43 was issued in 1953 to summarize all previous GAAP. It requires that depreciation be calculated 1 2 What Is Accounting for Fixed Assets? and disclosed. Most of the additional discussion on tangible assets involved explaining why depreciation is appropriately calculated using historical costs.It is true that management must take into consideration the probability that plant and machinery will have to be replaced at cost much greater than those of the facilities now in use; however, depreciation must not be calculated on the basis of this expected inflation. ARB 43 in paragraph C5 goes on to state: The cost of a reproductive facility is one of the costs of the services it renders during its useful e conomic life. Generally accepted accounting principles require that this cost be spread over the expected useful life of the facility in such a way as to allocate it as equitably as possible to the periods during which services are obtained from the use of the facility.This procedure is known as depreciation accounting, a system of accounting which aims to distribute the cost or other basic value of tangible capital assets, less salvage (if any), over the estimated useful life of the unit (which may be a group of assets) in a systematic and rational matter. It is a process of allocation, not of valuation. After formation of the Accounting Principles Board, APB 6 was issued in 1964 continuing the authority outlined in ARB 43. The Board continued to support the use of historical cost as opposed to inflation accounting: The Board is of the opinion that property, plant, and equipment should not be written up by an entity to reflect appraisal, market or current values which are above cos t to the entity. APB 12, issued in 1967, requires the disclosure of depreciable assets and depreciation.In addition to total depreciation expense and the major classes of depreciable assets, it also requires disclosure of: †¢ Depreciation expense for the period. †¢ Balances of major classes of depreciable assets by nature of function, at the balance sheet date. †¢ Accumulated depreciation, either by major classes of depreciable assets or in total, at the balance sheet date. Consumption of Benefits †¢ A general description of the method or methods used in computing depreciation with respect to major classes of depreciable assets. CONSUMPTION OF BENEFITS 3 In 1984, the FASB issued Concept Statement 5, which included additional discussion of assets. However, it was also limited in scope, as one would expect in a concept statement.The discussion emphasized the recognition assumption of assets, clearly indicating that assets are consumed by their use and the cost shou ld be recognized in the accounting periods of their life. Consumption of economic benefits during a period may be recognized either directly or by relating it to revenues recognized during the period. Some expenses such as depreciation and insurance are allocated by systematic and rational procedures to the period during which the related assets are expected to provide benefits. â€Å"Any expense or loss (in future benefits) is recognized if it becomes evident that previously recognized future economic benefits of an asset have been reduced or eliminated. Since its creation, the FASB has entertained considerable discussion about assets, but the only statements issued cover specific assets: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Expensing versus capitalizing research and development The accounting for software Depreciation in not-for-profit organization financial statements Impairment of Assets Involuntary Conversions FASB Concept Statement 6, Elements of Financial Statements, has more material than any other on the accounting for long-term tangible assets. However, it addresses itself primarily to the definition, the purpose of accrual accounting, and the characteristics of an asset. In 1985, Concept Statement 6 added a definition of assets: Assets are probable future economic benefits obtained or controlled by a particular entity as a result of past transactions or events. 4 What Is Accounting for Fixed Assets?CHARACTERISTICS OF ASSETS Concept Statement 6 continues, enumerating the three essential characteristics of an asset: †¢ It embodies a probable future benefit that involves a capacity, singly or in combination with other assets, to combine directly or indirectly to future net cash in flows. †¢ A particular entity can obtain the benefit and control others’ access to it. †¢ The transaction or other event giving rise to the entity’s right to or control of the benefit has already occurred. This is the first discussion in promu lgated accounting rules discussing the definition and characteristics of an asset. The major thrust is that probable future benefit is the definition of an asset.To reflect it on the balance sheet, the entity must be able to obtain benefit from the asset and control others’ access to the asset. This statement also reviews the concept of future economic benefit and service potential as it relates to not-for-profit organizations. It states: In a not-for-profit organization, the service potential or future economic benefit is used to provide desired or needed goods or services to beneficiaries or other constituents, which may or may not directly result in net cash inflows to the organizations. Some not-for-profit organizations rely significantly on contributions or donations of cash to supplement selling prices. . . This discussion introduces the argument that depreciation of tangible assets is an appropriate expense of not-for-profit organizations. In a discussion of accrual ac counting, Concept Statement 6 discusses assets under a heading â€Å"Recognition, Matching, and Allocation. † In paragraph 145, it states: Accrual accounting uses accrual, deferral, and allocation procedures whose goal is to relate revenues, expenses, gains, and losses to periods to reflect an entity’s performance during a period instead of merely listing its cash receipts and outlays . . . the goal of accrual accounting is to account in the periods in which they occur for the effects on an entity of transactions andCharacteristics of Assets other events and circumstances, to the extent that those financial effects are recognizable and measurable. 5 There is a discussion of costs and revenues to determine profits for periods. Depreciation and assets are excluded from the matching concept. Paragraph 149 of Concept Statement 6 explains: However, many assets yield their benefit to an entity over several periods, for example, prepaid insurance, buildings, and various kinds of equipment. Expenses resulting from their use are normally allocated to the periods of the estimated useful lives (the periods over which they are expected to provide benefits) by a rational allocation procedure, for example, by recognizing depreciation or other amortization.Although the purpose of expense allocation is the same as that of other expense recognition—to reflect the using up of assets as a result of transactions or other events or circumstances affecting an entity—allocation is applied if causal relations are generally, but not specifically, identified. For example, wear and tear from use is known to be a major cause of the expense called depreciation, but the amount of depreciation caused by wear and tear in a period normally cannot be measured. This discussion appears to make the distinction between the matching principle for revenues and expenses and the allocation of the cost of using up future benefits. Although this distinction is subtle, it is t he point of basic disagreement between those who argue for inflation accounting and the depreciating of assets based on current market value and those who argue for depreciating using a lesser historical cost.Appendix B of Concept Statement 6 further discusses characteristics of assets, defining assets as â€Å"probable future economic benefits obtained or controlled by a particular entity as a result of past transactions or events. † Most of this discussion relates to intangible or nonphysical assets. The FASB, in issuing its Statement 2, Accounting for Research and Development Costs, also gives us some information on what makes up tangible physical assets. In their concern for the appropriate accounting for research and development costs, they conclude that all should be charged to expense accounts. However, they do give us their thoughts 6 What Is Accounting for Fixed Assets? bout which tangible assets should and should not be included in research and development costs. A prime consideration is that materials, equipment, and facilities that have an alternative future use (in research and development projects or otherwise) shall be capitalized as tangible assets when acquired or constructed. However, the costs of such materials, equipment, or facilities that are acquired or constructed for a particular research and development project and have no alternative future uses and therefore no separate economic values are research and development costs at the time the costs are incurred. All research and development costs encompassed by the statement are charged to expense when incurred.This reflects the concept that research and development costs will be used up during the span of the research project. Tangible assets that have a life beyond the current project, however, should be capitalized and depreciated over their useful lives. The preceding paragraphs summarize the present state of GAAP relating to property, plant, and equipment. Many subjects in acco unting have not been covered at length within the promulgated statements. Most with the significance of longterm tangible assets have been covered in more detail in secondary accounting material, but few secondary publications provide any indepth discussion on fixed assets.Research bulletins and disclosure drafts having to do with inflation accounting have not been allowed to creep into generally accepted accounting principles. Therefore, in determining the details of an accounting system for property, plant, and equipment with the FCC study in 1984 and 1985, the committee felt it necessary to use the secondary documents on assets. The documents were used to establish current practice and to form a model that telecommunications companies should use instead of the 1934 FCC regulations. The only additional definitive document discussing accounting for property, plant, and equipment was issued by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA, formerly the National Association of Account ants) as Statement on Management Accounting (SMA) 4.SMA 4 was issued in October 1972 with the title, Fixed Asset Accounting: The Capitalization of Cost. Several concepts outlined in the twenty-four-page statement include the following: Costs through preparation for use Extraordinary repairs Base unit Characteristics of Assets Extended life or increased capacity Written policies Capitalization policy Life greater than one year Self-constructed assets that include direct overhead No initial development cost Depreciation 7 The SMA 4 discusses a number of concepts which were then, and still are, common practice. All Costs to Prepare Item for Use All costs in addition to the invoice price to make an item of property, plant, and equipment ready for use should be capitalized in its historical cost.Extraordinary Repairs Normal repairs are charged to expense when incurred; however, extraordinary repairs that extend the life, increase the capability, or increase efficiency of the item should be capitalized during its life, the historical cost increased, and depreciation recalculated from that date forward. Base Unit The base unit concept is not dealt with in any other document. It outlines the concept that property units should have a policy determination as to what constitutes the property record entity that is capitalized. The base unit might be a complete machine or the individual components of that machine. This concept is important when establishing a usable property record system for a particular company. For example, entities that use light trucks as maintenance vehicles may wear out a number of trucks during the lives of hydraulic lifts, welding equipment, and utility beds.Written Policies It is important for each company to have an asset manual with written policies. Determinations of appropriate base units and other policies unique to a company must be described and documented. Without written policies, asset accounting will not be consistent over a period of time. 8 What Is Accounting for Fixed Assets? Capitalization Policy A minimum level of capitalization should be identified. Accounting records that cost more than the items are worth are not cost effective. Life Greater than One Year Policy should emphasize that items with a life restricted to one accounting period should be expensed no matter what their cost.Self-Constructed Assets All costs of preparing assets for use should be capitalized; however, only directly attributable or traceable overhead costs should be included. General and administrative overhead costs should not be capitalized. If a company is not in the business of constructing assets, overhead costs are not likely to be increased by an individual construction project. Therefore, if those costs were capitalized, expenses in the accounting period that the asset was being constructed would be improperly reduced. Additionally, the initial development cost of making a decision on which project to construct should not be i ncluded in capitalizable costs. Subsequent costs for a specific project, once the decision has been made, are capitalized.Depreciation The idea of the relative permanence of assets that are â€Å"fixed† is questioned by SMA 4. The statement notes that periods of nonuse should be excluded from the depreciation schedule: â€Å"Until these assets can be said to have completely satisfied the purpose for which they are intended— normal or acceptable production capability—they are, for the time being, suspended accounting-wise in a sort of hiatus, not producing income, hence not triggering depreciation against which it is to be set. † SMA 4 was replaced in 1989 and 1990 by Statements 4J, Accounting for Property, Plant, and Equipment, and 4L, Control of Property, Plant, and Equipment.These two documents were prepared from a research project published by the IMA Research Committee, reporting control and analysis of property, plant, and equipment. In other documen ts the discussion of accounting for fixed or physical assets is limited to a chapter, or a few paragraphs in accounting textbooks. No lengthy document has been published that brings all the concepts of accounting for property, plant, and equipment together. Need to Change 9 There are many articles on fixed assets in accounting magazines such as Strategic Finance, published by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the Journal of Accountancy, published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Most of these articles discuss theoretical issues of inflation accounting and depreciation.There are a number of accounting courses offered by such organizations as the IMA, AICPA, and the American Management Association, as well as by a number of accounting and appraisal firms. However, these courses are mostly directed toward the tax requirements of accounting for depreciation. Similarly, there are numerous off-the-shelf personal computer programs aimed at fixed asset accounting. Again, the primary purpose is to fulfill tax requirements and generate depreciation entries. Only a few provide for comprehensive property records. NEED TO CHANGE It has become obvious that management must change the manner in which they approach long-term tangible assets. The many production facilities built in the United States are wearing out.Government infrastructures of roads, sewers, sidewalks, and utilities are all suffering from the concept of â€Å"put it in place and forget about it. † The need is to get the most use out of these tangible assets. Much of the discussion having to do with inflation accounting for assets revolves around the problem that depreciation is not sufficient to cover the replacement costs of assets. The high cost of replacements, the dwindling supply of capital available, and high interest rates all require that new management control systems be put into place. With adequate control, management, and measurement of asset utilization, organizations can maximize the benefits from their investment in long-lived, tangible assets. 2 What Is an Asset?INTRODUCTION According to the Financial Accounting Standards Board Concepts Statement 6, assets are â€Å"probable future economic benefits obtained or controlled by a particular entity as a result of past transactions or events. † The Institute of Management Accountants’ Accounting Glossary adds a second definition as â€Å"any owned physical object (tangible) or right (intangible) having economic value to its owners; an item or source of wealth with continuing benefits for future periods, expressed, for accounting purposes, in terms of its cost, or other value, such as current replacement cost. Future periods refers to the following year or years. † (SMA 2A) In its broadest sense, an asset is anything that will probably bring future economic benefit.In looking at assets, the focus will be on longlived tangible assets, sometimes referre d to as fixed assets or property, plant, and equipment. Assets are classified into two categories: tangible and intangible. Tangible assets are assets that one can touch, hold, or feel. Typically called fixed assets in accounting literature, tangible assets are the physical things that a business uses in the production of goods and services. They constitute the production facilities, buildings, equipment, and vehicles. These operational assets of a business include furniture, computers, and similar items not used up within a year. Intangible assets are primarily financing items: stocks, bonds, mortgages, etc.These assets are outside the scope of this book. 11 12 What Is an Asset? Assets that are converted into cash during the normal production cycle are current. Current physical assets are referred to as financial assets. These are physical assets such as raw materials, work-in-progress inventories, finished goods, and goods held for resale. Physical items can be financial assets, h eld in inventory, in one business, whereas in other businesses or applications they may be fixed assets. An example of such a financial asset would be real estate held in inventory by a real estate investment and sales organization or builder, which would be a fixed asset for everyone else.Equipment manufacturers have financial assets in finished goods or inventory held for sale, as well as plant and equipment that will be sold to other businesses. The inventory is a financial asset; when sold for use in a production line it becomes a fixed asset to the purchaser. HISTORICAL COST Historically, asset accounting has not stimulated the interest of accountants and managers in the United States. Assets have been analyzed in depth in terms of alternatives and appropriateness of the investment prior to purchase. However, once acquired and put in place, assets such as buildings, furniture, production equipment, and motor vehicles are given little attention.Where management attention has bee n focused, it has been in terms of return on investment and major tax benefits, such as investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation expense allowed on tax returns. In fact, these government tax incentives to buy new equipment in order to stimulate the economy have influenced management to replace still-useful assets that have been depreciated on the tax records. But there is a new perspective emerging on the part of managers and accountants with respect to fixed assets. The high initial cost to purchase, as well as the high carrying costs of debt, require a rethinking of the management of fixed assets.Many of the same factors that are bringing about just-in-time accounting philosophies and zerodefect quality control within the manufacturing process are also influencing managers’ perspectives on asset management. Zero defects and quality circles of employees are aimed to reduce the high cost of lessthan-perfect products and reflect today’s need for greater preci sion. To accomplish this higher quality production, it is necessary to have highquality production equipment. This requires preventative maintenance to keep closer tolerances and less downtime. Equipment that Matching Principle 13 fails during a production run leads to extremely high cost when the line stops.Preventative maintenance is being regularly scheduled on either an hours-of-use or calendar basis. This approach has begun to replace the attitude of put it in, use it, if it breaks repair it; if it breaks too many times, discard it and replace it. In addition to the requirements of modern processing, a new perspective on the need to manage assets—those things that you have saved and paid for which will bring future benefits to the business— has come about as a result of the significant debt held by many businesses. The public’s attention has been caught by the high government deficit, which must be financed by acquiring increasingly more debt.Large existing debt and the threat of higher interest rates on new debt due to the lower financial ratings are causing many managers to reconsider how to manage the assets they already have. Getting the maximum future value out of existing buildings and production equipment has become a more important aspect of management. In addition to process requirements and debt concerns, the cost of disposal is also growing at an alarming rate. Replacing individual parts instead of entire machines will reduce the production of refuse. In the past, accounting records of assets have been kept primarily for the purpose of establishing balance sheet amounts. The historical cost of purchasing or constructing the physical asset is included in the accounting property record.This amount, less depreciation, provides the basis for a return on investment calculation, the division of net assets (original cost less book depreciation) by net income. MATCHING PRINCIPLE The matching principle of accounting calls for the ma tching of costs with the accounting period those costs benefit. The purpose of the historical cost record is to ensure that the costs incurred in the purchase of assets in a past accounting period will be spread over the future accounting periods that benefit. The costs recorded for each asset acquired include the purchase price and anything necessary to make it ready for production. All expenditures involved in the acquisition of an asset and getting it ready for use are capitalized as part of original cost.Included are the invoice price for the asset, transportation charges, and installation costs, including any construction or changes to the building necessary to house it. Other incidental costs are sales or use tax, duties on imported items, 14 What Is an Asset? and testing and initial setup costs. The total costs of acquiring and putting the asset into actual production use should be capitalized. The use in production at a reasonable production rate (as opposed to limited use d uring testing) is also the point where capitalization stops on the new asset and depreciation begins. The cost of an asset must be spread on a rational, systematic basis over the periods of its useful life. This limited accounting application of historical cost records has led to many incorrect decisions regarding asset management.Recognizing this limitation, however, does not mean historical costs records are not necessary. Records must be established to provide information on location, maintenance history, and future usefulness of assets. Today’s high costs of debt and the need to safeguard physical assets requires going beyond the matching principle in creating property records. FIXED ASSETS Historically, even the term that accountants use for the long-lived tangible assets of business, that is, fixed assets, expressed the opinion that once purchased it is fixed, long term, and does not require management attention. In the last few years, the more common â€Å"property, p lant, and equipment† has been used to describe the operational assets of a business.Managers have found it necessary to provide additional information about property, plant, and equipment and created records separate from the accounting property record. Additional information includes current market value for insurance and security purposes, and utilization and maintenance records. A single accounting record of tangible assets with normal accounting controls is far superior to multiple records. This integrated record with accounting controls has been made much simpler with the advent and widespread use of small computers. For example, recording maintenance expenses for large equipment items is now easy. In a motor vehicle fleet, actual maintenance costs can be recorded in the property record of each vehicle.This allows review to ensure preventative maintenance is scheduled and also to establish criteria for disposing of older motor vehicles when they are no longer economical t o maintain. It then becomes possible to evaluate motor vehicles based on their entire maintenance record, rather than retiring vehicles based on age or mileage alone. What are assets fixed in? Are they fixed in time, space, or value? It is doubtful that they are fixed at all. IMA defines fixed assets as Fixed Assets 15 â€Å"noncurrent, nonmonetary tangible assets used in normal operations of a business. † See property, plant, and equipment in SMA 2A. Past practice has been to handle fixed assets as a â€Å"sunk cost,† a past cost which cannot now be reversed and, hence, should not enter into current decisions.Differential cost is â€Å"the cost that is expected to be different if one course of action is adopted as compared with the costs of an alternative course of action; used in decision making. Contrast with sunk costs. † (SMA 2A) If it is a fixed cost, then it is also a sunk cost. Is it really an asset if you cannot sell it? If you cannot move it, modify it , or maintain it? Those are alternative actions; therefore, historical cost of property, plant, and equipment are differential costs, not sunk costs. The term â€Å"fixed† cost implies a sunk cost. This management treatment of fixed costs as sunk costs may encourage hostile takeovers using junk bonds.If the current management and stockholders ignore the alternative uses of their long-term tangible assets, an outsider may see a much greater short-term value. In a case like this the current managers and owners are treating the fixed assets as a sunk cost instead of a differential cost. Few assets are fixed in any way. Most are mobile, and will disappear if not accounted for or deteriorate if not maintained. Many increase in value just because of inflation. If they do not increase in value, their replacement cost certainly increases. Typically, insurance policies require that coverage be at least 80 percent of replacement cost or recovery is limited to market value prior to the loss.Even the government is learning that their fixed asset theory for infrastructure assets needs amendment. Roads, bridges, sewer plants, and buildings seem to be in need of replacement at the same time, because they were put in place and ignored. No plan was prepared to manage them, to determine the best maintenance practice. Now they are not assets, but sources of liability. While government has a limited liability from suits due to personal injury resulting from improper maintenance of roads, etc. , businesses do not enjoy this limitation. If an employee or customer is injured by one of your bridges, roads, or other holdings, you are responsible for the costs.Is that driveway or parking lot really a fixed asset? Or one to be managed so it will not become a liability? It is difficult to imagine something that should be called a fixed asset. Assets are not fixed in any way—not in place, time, or future income 16 What Is an Asset? or expense. The exception might be a work o f art or historical treasure; however, even these items, if not protected, will deteriorate. In defining assets, therefore, we shall use the terms property, plant, and equipment and avoid future use of the term fixed assets, which is in reality an obsolete term for property, plant, and equipment. PROPERTY Property includes lands and improvements thereon.Land is not depreciated and its cost lasts in our theoretical business model forever. The cost of land includes its acquisition cost—costs of appraising, recording, and obtaining title. It also includes the initial costs of making changes to it so that it can be used for the purpose intended. This cost includes removing old buildings, leveling, and perhaps cleaning up any toxic residue. When land is acquired together with buildings, the cost will be apportioned between the land and the buildings in proportion to their appraised value. If the acquisition plan contemplates the removal of the buildings, then the total cost includ ing removal is accounted for as cost of land. Any salvage value of the emoved buildings, when disposed of, is deducted from the cost of the land. Toxic residue cleanup provides a particular problem in accounting for land. If the extent of the toxic cleanup costs are known prior to purchase, it is assumed that the purchase price has been reduced accordingly. Then it is correct to include those cleanup costs in the cost of the land. However, where land is owned and toxic residues from past practice are discovered, the cleanup of these items provides no future value. Cleaning up these toxic wastes is similar to washing a rental car or limousine. You may not be able to generate any rental revenue without a clean and polished automobile, but it does not provide future value beyond that.Cleaning up toxic wastes makes the property usable; however, it does not provide future benefit: It can only restore the usefulness of the property to its level of use prior to recognizing the toxic proble m. Improvements that theoretically have an indefinite life are also added to the cost of land. Grading, drainage, sewers, and utilities are examples. These items are put in once and unless damaged by force or disrupted by plans for new uses of the land, they do not require maintenance. Therefore, their life is assumed to be that of land forever in the accepted business model. The proper treatment of property costs is an area that must be spelled out in the accounting manual for the firm so that all similar Plant 17 transactions are handled in the same way.The manual should translate these principles into specific accounting practices for the firm. For example, electric and gas utility installation to the meter or distribution point are usually a part of the land cost. Beyond this, location utilities and part of the individual building investment are to be included in the plant category. The acquisition of property may bring about other expenditures which should be added to its histo rical cost. Some of these are as follows: Contract price Real estate broker commissions Legal fees involved in the transaction Cost of title guaranty insurance policies Cost of real estate surveys Cost of an option that has been exercised Special government assessments Fees harged by government for changes in land use or zoning Cost of removing buildings Cost of cancellation of unexpired lease Cost to move tenant if payable by purchaser Payment of past due taxes if payable by purchaser Cost of easements or rights of way Assessments for the construction of public improvements Deduction of salvage value from buildings removed and sold Toxic waste cleanup Grading land and providing drainage Placing utilities PLANT The term plant has its origin in manufacturing, where the plant is literally used to house the production equipment. This includes buildings and other structures or improvements that have a limited life. Paved parking lots and sprinkler systems, as well as recreational and la ndscaping improvements, are included.Also included in plant are fences, roads, and grading and excavation costs necessary to construction of the buildings. The distinction between property (land) and plant is the 18 What Is an Asset? duration of usefulness. Improvements to the property that will have a measurable or estimated life should be depreciated over that life. Therefore, they are charged to the plant account. If they are of indefinite life, they are treated as property. All expenditures directly related to the purchase or construction of buildings or other physical plant are included in plant cost. Land includes the cost of preparation of a construction site. All costs for a specific construction are included in the cost of the product.Some of the other expenditures that should be added to the capitalized cost of the asset acquired are as follows: Contract price or cost of construction Cost of grading and excavation for the specific building Expenses incurred in removing tre es and other foliage for the specific building Costs of remodeling or altering a purchased building to make it ready for use Costs for architect’s fees, plans, and other planning events Cost of government fees and building permits Payment of prior year taxes accrued on the building if payable by purchaser Other costs such as security or temporary fencing, temporary buildings used during construction, or other costs directly attributable to the construction or purchase of the specific building Capitalized interest EQUIPMENT Equipment includes the machinery, computers, office equipment, and all other long-lived items necessary for the operation of the business.These items require more managerial control because of their portability and general usefulness for other than the purpose intended when acquired. They range in price from a minimum capitalization level to many millions of dollars for complex production machinery. Because of the wide variety of requirements for different items of equipment, we shall discuss them in several categories, including: Tools Building systems (heating, cooling, elevators) Equipment Irrigation equipment Furniture and office equipment Computers Printing presses Automobiles Tractors Trucks Trailers Aircraft Livestock Furniture and Office Equipment 19 Furniture and office fixtures are long-lived assets needed to run a business.In the service industries, except for buildings, these will be the major tangible assets of the business. The establishment of a reasonable minimum capitalization level has to be weighed against the other factors of managing this class of equipment. Office desks and chairs that are personally used by one manager will receive the attention necessary to safeguard and ensure proper maintenance as required. Many companies establish a $5,000 minimum capitalization level for these items. However, telephone equipment purchased may become obsolete or require significant maintenance after a short period of time. A lso, office copiers, fax machines, and computers have a need for greater management and future planning.It is important that these items not all have a requirement for replacement in the same future year. Inclusion in the property record, which subjects such items to the controls provided in that system, may in fact reduce the dollar value at which it is desirable to maintain capitalization. These items should be included in a detailed policy and outlined in the handbook on asset capitalization or its chapter in the accounting policy manual of the business. When the decision is made to capitalize a particular item of equipment, all costs involved in putting it into a condition ready for use should be included in the asset value. Some of the costs that may be incurred are: Contract price Commissions paid 20 What Is an Asset?Legal fees and other contract costs Cost of title guaranty insurance policies Cost of transferring title Freight, handling, and storage costs Sales or use tax and other taxes or fees assessed Costs of preparation of the space for installation (foundations, special walls, removal of windows) Use of cranes or other means of installation Installation charges Cost of testing and preparation for use Costs of reconditioning used equipment purchased DEFINING ASSETS Assets are not always easily defined. For example, a Berkeley, California, producer of â€Å"baby† vegetables for New York City upscale restaurants could not function without the regular and dependable inexpensive air shuttle of the crop each morning.The New York restaurants pay a premium for the product, but it must be picked that morning and delivered to New York City by noon for serving in restaurants that evening. Is the transportation link from San Francisco airport to New York an asset of this Berkeley producer? From an accounting sense, it is not; however, it continues to deliver future benefits to the company. Without that transportation link being available, there would b e no business; but it would be impossible to establish any value to that transportation link without a sale. If the business were to be sold, it is likely to command as an operating business more than the value of its individual components. This additional value will be included on the purchaser’s balance sheet as goodwill.Much of that goodwill can be a result of an existing working transportation system from the producer’s garden to the upscale restaurants. Goodwill is an intangible asset. Accounting recognizes it only because there has been an actual payment for it. It must be recognized somehow as its usefulness is used up over future periods. The asset exists whether it is recognized in the book of accounts as goodwill or not. However, this emphasizes the accounting concept of recognizing asset value in accounting systems for the purpose of measuring the decrease in its future usefulness in relationship to its original cost. In this Defining Assets 21 case, it is n ot a problem in defining the asset, but in establishing the asset’s value. There are other difficulties in defining an asset.In industries where investment in property, plant, and equipment is low in comparison to return on products, there has been no need to closely manage the investment in assets. Examples are restaurants where investment is limited to leasehold improvements. The concern of restaurant managers is keeping their lease and labor costs down. The investment in fixed assets required to run a substantial restaurant is small in comparison to its gross sales. The investment in leasehold improvements for a restaurant many times are sunk costs. They have value only to the end of the lease. It may also be desirable for marketing purposes to substantially alter them prior to the end of their useful life.Here the value is easily established based on what they cost to install. However, they might not be providing future benefits and therefore require replacement before th eir costs have been recognized. A different management problem exists when investment in capital items is large relative to the cost of production or when there are few other opportunities to use the assets for different purposes. Examples are oil refineries and pharmaceutical laboratories. Once the refinery or drug production facilities are constructed, they are not readily usable for any other purpose. There is also little opportunity to make decisions relative to alternative use of these assets.A grocery store location could be altered to become a restaurant or a hardware store, but an oil refinery would cost more to dismantle than it originally cost to construct. These cases raise the question of the value of alternative uses. The accounting principle of recognizing decline in service value through depreciation takes this into account in the concept of salvage value. Salvage value is the value which the asset has at the end of its useful life. The oil refinery would have a nega