Bussiness Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bussiness Ethics - Essay Example Speaking more plainly, I think that it is in the best interest of the people that the government hires private military contractors to provide assistance in national defense. Though Sandel did not position himself—directly, on any particular side of the debate, he effectively raise and postulates two critical issues regarding the hiring of private military contractors—using, in particular, the case of Blackwater Worldwide as an example; one is regarding fairness and freedom and the other with regards to civic virtue and common good (81). Blackwater Worldwide which now renamed its company Xe Services was founded by former Navy Seals including its former president and founder Erik Prince. Blackwater trains its own personnel to carry out high-risk operations around the world and had successfully secure contract with the US government under President George Bush. Since 2007, the company has been involved in a string of lawsuits, investigations, and intense public scrutiny w ith their involvement in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan (â€Å"Blackwater Worldwide†). With the questionable conduct of Blackwater Worldwide, why would I still think that private military contractors should assist in national defense? Well, compared to the many utilitarian advantages, I believe that the pros far outweigh the cons.

Interest in pursuing graduate studies(Masters, Business Information Essay

Interest in pursuing graduate studies(Masters, Business Information Technology) - Essay Example As a child, I was deeply interested in technology and its applications in the daily life of people. How comfortable it made everyone's life! During my teenage days, the computer boom occurred and just about overnight, everyone owned a PC- and they refused to ever shut it down! My first computer was brought in the house amid huge excitement; everybody was amazed by the functions a simple dull-grey box could perform at the click of the button. Perhaps it was due to such an introduction that my interest for 'technology' soon developed into a curiosity for exploring the world of 'information technology' in particular. With encouragement from my parents, and a determination to take my interest to another level, I undertook several courses to develop skills in this field, many of which were far beyond my academic curriculum. I armed myself with knowledge of Microsoft Office, Visio, and Kofax Ascent Capture. I mastered languages like C, C++, HTML and XML. The more I studied it, the more pas sionate I become for this field. When the time came, I had no doubts deciding to pursue IT for undergraduate school. But that was not my sole career aim. As much as I wanted to contribute to IT, I wanted to venture into the business world and manage a company of my own. Thus, besides doing a Bachelors of Commerce Degree in IT Management at college, I successfully completed a Diploma in Business Management.

Newater Brand And Singapores Water Reclaimation Environmental Sciences Essay

Newater Brand And Singapores Water Reclaimation Environmental Sciences Essay Water is an essential element for the survival of all living things in the world; including human beings. The current consumption of domestic water per capital in Singapore stands at 158 litres per day (Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources 2011).As Singapores population and economy is increasing, the industry and its people requires more clean water daily.However, Singapore does not have sufficent source of natural water supply for the growing consumption and have been heavily dependent on Malaysia to supply raw water since the 1961 agreement between both neighbhouring countries.However, Singapore has now decided not to extend her water agreement which terminates this year (Singapore Press Holdings Ltd 2010).Therefore, can the government still cater to the growing water demands of its population? 1.2 Singapores Water Reclaimation Study The solution to the above problems lies in the unlikely sources from dirty and used sewage water.Scientists in Singapore mastered the process of using reverse osmosis technology to produce safe and clean drinking water for its population.Every housing and toilets are well connected to an independent sewerage system and as long as the residents keep flushing, the country will never run out of sewage water! This technology was projected to solves 7% of the countrys demand during the introduction but now this figure is expected to rise rapidly to replace the initial water agreement with Malaysia when it expires this year. Imported water from Malaysia supplies 33% of the water needs.There are also local catchments throughout the country which provides 50% of the water needs and the remaining 10% through desalinated water by converting seawater (Cezar Tigno 2008).However, for research purpose of this study; the focus will be purely on Singapores recycled water which is branded as NEWater. The NEWater Brand NEWater is the result of high graided reclaimed water which is the output of treating used and dirty water.It has been certified a pass grade after being scrutinised by over 65 000 vigurous scientific tests and has even surpassed the requirements of the World Health Organization.Its most notable and recent award includes the Water Project of the Year held by Global Water Awards in 2009 (PUB 2010).Figure 1 below shows a screenshot of a NEWater Bottled drink which is 100% made from recycled water. Figure 1. Screenshot of NEWater bottled drinks (Ong Dailin 2009) These bottled drinks are the combined efforts between the PUB(Public Utility Board) and the Ministry for the Environment and Water Resources(MEWR) since initiating the Singapore Water Reclamation Study in the year 1998.Since its interception in 2003, NEWater has primarily served Water Fabrication industries and also acted as a coolant for large machineries.In due time, it was introduced to household residence (Lin Jiamei 2010). However, PUB has constantly backed off from the idea of selling the product commercially to mainstream consumers.Its main objective was to raise the awareness with its residents and it achieved that by distributing a sample of the NEWater bottled drink at a public exhibition during the National Day Parade Celebrations in 2005.Currently, there are a total of 5 NEWater plants in Singapore.They are located in Kranji, Ulu Pandan, Seletar, Bedok and in Changi.SembCorp NEWater Plant located in Changi is the latest and the biggest project to date.This project is a jo int collaboration between SembCorp and PUB (Net Resources International 2011). CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 NEWaters Advanced Membrane Technologies Figure 2. Screenshot of 16 and 8 inches Advanced Membrane System (PennWell Corporation 2011) The entire NEWaters process is actually based on Advanced Membrane Technologies.The two major equipments involved in this techological process includes the NEWater Pilot System and the nanofiltration or Reverse Osmosis membrane skid.Firstly, the Pilot System consists of Ultrafiltration, Reverse Osmosis and Ultraviolet disinfection units.Secondly, the Nanofiltration membrane skid is highly versatile in performing feasibility studies on liquid waste treament and recovery. Figure 2 shows the screenshot of a 16 and 8 inch Advanced Membrane System used in Bedok NEWater Plant in Singapore.This assembly consists of a spiral-wound and a tubular pressure vessel where different types of Reverse Osmosis and Nano Filtration membranes could be tested based on the liquid wastes nature and requirements.This test skid allows easy optimization of membrane operations through various imperative process parameters such as flow rate and pressure (Temasek Polytechnic 2011).PUB regularly conducts more than 80,000 tests on a monthly basis to cover up to 290 water quality parameters pertaining to physical, biological and chemical conditions (AsiaOne 2011). 4.2 NEWaters Treatment Process Figure 3. Flowchart of NEWaters Factory Treatment Process (PUB 2002) Figure 3 illustrates the brief flowchart process of a typical treatment process of NEWater in Singapore.The first process refers to the collection of dirty and untreated sewage water from home and industries.These water will then be channeled to water reclamation plant to process for the treatment.After which they will known as treated Secondary Effluent and will be linked to their respective NEWater factories in Singapore.This is where NEWater is transformed through 3 key stages.The first stage is known as Microfiltration. The ultrafiltration membranes involved in this process are from Canada.In this stage the Secondary Effluents passes through membranes to filter out and a few contaminants will be retrained on the membrane surface.These include suspended solids, disease-causing bacteria, viruses, colloidal particles and protozoan cysts.The filtered water that passes through the membrane will contain only dissolved salts and organic molecules which will follow to the next stage; Rev erse Osmosis. Figure 4. Multiple Barrier Approach for the development of NEWater (PUB 2002) In the Reverse Osmois process a semi-permeable membrane is used where its small pores allows diminutive small molecules like water molecules to pass through.This process will removes smaller sizes of bacteria, nitrate, sulphate, heavy metals, chlore, aromatic hydrocarbons, disinfection through products and pesticides.At this stage, the NEWater is already of a high grade water quality and proceeds to the next stage of Ultraviolet Disinfection(UV). Figure 4 clearly shows the multiple barrier approach to eliminate the different impurities during each development of the process before proceeding to the next stage. The final stage is Ultraviolet Disinfection.These Ultraviolet Disinfection units comes from England.In each individual units, there will 6 UV lights which will emit up to 800 degress in temperature.Since the boiling temperature of water is at 100 degree celsius, the water will be encased in a quartz casing. The pH level of the water will drop to acidic level since it has went through the first and second stage and now has lack of minerals and salt.Sodium Hyroxide will be added further to bring back the pH level.The resultant outcome from this final stage is NEWater, which will then be pipped out to various homes and industries across the country (PUB 2010). CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 3.1 SWOT Analysis of NEWater Michael Porters SWOT Analysis is used to identify the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats for NEWater in Singapore.Table 1 below, shows the SWOT Analysis Model for this innovative product. Table 1. SWOT Analysis of NEWater Strengths Humans produce dirty and untreated water on a daily basis without fail.Its a natural process and one that is vital for the core development process for NEWater.This process was illustrated in Chapter 2.Currently in Singapore, there are a total of 5 NEWater plants.The latest and biggest among those plants was constructed in Changi.Together with the other existing 4 plants, 30% of the water demands in Singapore will be solved by these plants.In addition, NEWater process and technology is not dependent on any weather conditions as its direct source is from the dirty and untreated water; discarded by humans.These plants are also environmental and nature-friendly as they dont require any natural resource for its production.In fact, the SembCorp NEWater plant in Changi; is the only large scale recycling plant in the world ever to be constructed on top of a water reclamation plant (FaverSham House Group Ltd 2010). With the water agreement signed by Singapore and Malaysia in 1961 before independence is poised to expire this year; it will poses no adversities to Singapore due to its reliance on the local NEWater plants to match the water demands of its citizens.As often in the past 50 years, Malaysian politicans would use water as a factor during serious bilateral disagreements with Singapore.More often,Singapore often had to submit to their favours as they have an upper hand in supplying water to the country.Now, this issue will no longer be a thorn between both these countries anymore as Singapore will no longer need to depend on them for imported water.This would also enable to bridge the broken relationship between these two countries (AsiaOne 2011). Weaknesses The entire infrastructure and cost of building a NEWater plant is a costly affair.For example, the SembCorp NEWater plant was constructed at a cost of $180 million in June 2010.Such cost will increase drastically when more NEWater plants are required to meet water demands in the near future.The machines in these plants are also of high cost and maintainence (Vincent Wee 2009).Secondly, Singaporeans are traditionally accustomed to drink directly from the taps and view the NEWater as dirty and unacceptable for drinking.They believe that NEWater isnt strong enough to eliminate toxic materials and chemicals which can be washed away at homes or small businesses.Currently, this proves as a big pschyological barrier in the mindsets of these people to readily accept the NEWater technology in Singapore (Singapore Press Holdings 2002).As explained in Chapter 2, the entire process of NEWater is complex and goes through various stages before completion.Since these processes are complicated; any human or computerized errors at any stage will not allow the product to be delievered within the required standards. Opportunities Currently NEWater is only channeled to homes and industries but is yet to be sold as a commercial bottled drink in the market.NEWater could enter the mineral water industry as a bottled recycled drink to compete with other brands in the market as well.This will enable the product to gain both awareness and confidence among Singaporeans.These bottled drinks which are made and manufactured in Singapore could also be marketed as a global product to target a wider audience. Attractive pricing will lure customers to this product since it has passed International Quality and received many global awards as explained in Chapter 1.3. Threats Everyday the world discovers new, emerging and deadly epidemic viruses due to the advancement of technologies.Toxic materials also play an integral part in poisoning the NEWater and imposes a severe threat to mankind.Therefore more stringent and sensitive instruments are required to perform additional parameters in the quality of the technology to ensure that the output NEWater is virus-free and safe for drinking.Any lapse in such technology will result in a huge disaster in Singapore (Amresh Gunasingham 2009). Summary Based on the SWOT Analysis, its evident enough that NEWater has more positive factors than negative factors internally. Externally, it has a balanced opportunities and threats for the product.It has numerous strength factors which makes it a reliable and innovative product in the current technological world.Therefore, the product still has scope for marketing it internationally and locally.However, It also has to keep abreast with the toxicological and microbiological issues affecting it externally. 3.2 Financial Implications for NEWater Technology Although the infrastructure for the construction of such NEWater plants are high in cost as well as maintainence due to the technology involved in these machines; the local consumers are buoyed by the fact they were paying much lesser than what they used to pay before the interention of NEWater.For example, before the introduction of NEWater, Singaporeans had to pay $1.15 per cubic metre. Now, this price was lowered by 15 cents to $1 per cubic metre. With the demand for NEWater rising to 30% through industries and homes; a price reduction will benefit the local small businesses and consumers as an incentive. The operational efficency from these NEWater plants also played an integral role in the price reduction by the Government when it was introduced in April 2007 (May Wong 2007). CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION 4.1 Future Direction for the NEWater Technology With the current NEWater Technology solving up to 30% of Singapores water demands, more NEWater plants will be commissioned.Currently, the other 33% of Singapores water demands are satisfied through imported water from Malaysia.In an event of a distaster or a severe drought in Malaysia, Singapores water supplies will also be affected in the process.Therefore, to reduce the over reliance on imported water from Malaysia, Singapore will need to develop more NEWater plants to meet the water demands of its population.It is also economical as the production of water will be within Singapore and fears of a price hike from Malaysia on its imported water will also be eliminated.This will also pave the future on the usage of untreated sewage water into a safe and drinking water culture for the entire country (Victoria School 2005). 4.2 Futher Improvements for the NEWater Technology NEWater Technology is the only realistic solution available for Singapore to solve its future water crisis, besides its existing local catchments and desalination process which are dependent on weather and sea water sorely.However, NEWater has yet to be a commercial and global product.NEWater could be packaged in attractive bottles and sold globally.International and local celebrities could be used as Models to promote the drink so that worldwide and local customers are attracted to it.The pricing of NEWater as a bottled drink should be lower than the existing mineral water drinks in the market.The pricing will definately be a pull factor for most budget minded consumers who wish to try out a new and different taste than compared to most mineral water drinks in the market.A proper marketing mix through Product, Price, Place and Promotion should be practised by PUB to market its innovative product of the 21st century.Free sample sized bottles can be distributed in public road shows as a bait for customers to purchase the product. PUB should also tie up with major fast food outlets and restaurants in the Food and Beverage Industries like Macdonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC to bundle up NEWater as a package and sell together with their signature dishes to their loyal consumers.This will enable a wider market penetration rather than common advertisements in Television or the Internet. 4.3 Conclusion NEWater is a growing brand in Singapore due its economical and simple soultion to future water crisis.However, efforts must be made by the Government to market it to the local singaporeans on the product and its safety as there are many Singaporeans still grippled with the pscyhological barrier of drinking from recycled water.PUB has yet to make its product a global brand and is keeping it as an internal project.PUB should break free by selling its product on the stores and enter as a new competitor in the Mineral Water industry.This will speed up the process of educating the locals here who are quite new to this technology. On the other hand, PUB should place constant and high importance on its Research and Design Department for the NEWater project to constantly update the machines and ensure that safety isnt compromised through complacency.New and sensitive instruments are a must to ensure proper test is conducted at its highest quality.Only when PUB, has decided to balance its NEWater brand globally together with up-to-date precise technological instruments; it can achieve unprecedented quality for a local-made recycled drink!

Les Miserable Essay -- essays research papers

t  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Les Miserables   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Les Miserables is one of the most captivating plays of our lifetime! It grabs the audience and pulls you in head first. You can't take out eyes off of the stage, and even if you can, the music will take your breath away! I have seen the play 3 times and I don't think I enjoy anything in this world more than watching that play!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Les Miserables starts off on a chain gang in France. The sheriff comes out and gives one of the convicts his release papers. This convict is the lead role who name is Jeran Valjean, who has served 19 years on the chain gang for stealing a mouthful of bread. Jean Valjean leaves the prison and sets out to find work. But no one will give him work because of his tattoo which reads 24601, his prison ID number. Then in the time when he couldn't be more down a priest invites Valjean to stay with him. Despite the kind priest taking him in and feeding him, Valjean decides to take the silver from the table. In the run he gets captured be the police. But instead of telling the truth about Valjeans thievery, he gives the criminal more silver and sends the police away. He makes Jean Valjean promise that he will become an honest man with this silver.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next scene in 10 years later set in a factory where we meat the other main character, Fantine. As she is reading a letter her perverted boss snatches it up with his hands and re... Les Miserable Essay -- essays research papers t  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Les Miserables   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Les Miserables is one of the most captivating plays of our lifetime! It grabs the audience and pulls you in head first. You can't take out eyes off of the stage, and even if you can, the music will take your breath away! I have seen the play 3 times and I don't think I enjoy anything in this world more than watching that play!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Les Miserables starts off on a chain gang in France. The sheriff comes out and gives one of the convicts his release papers. This convict is the lead role who name is Jeran Valjean, who has served 19 years on the chain gang for stealing a mouthful of bread. Jean Valjean leaves the prison and sets out to find work. But no one will give him work because of his tattoo which reads 24601, his prison ID number. Then in the time when he couldn't be more down a priest invites Valjean to stay with him. Despite the kind priest taking him in and feeding him, Valjean decides to take the silver from the table. In the run he gets captured be the police. But instead of telling the truth about Valjeans thievery, he gives the criminal more silver and sends the police away. He makes Jean Valjean promise that he will become an honest man with this silver.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next scene in 10 years later set in a factory where we meat the other main character, Fantine. As she is reading a letter her perverted boss snatches it up with his hands and re...

Past Tense Morpheme

Morph In linguistics, a word segment that represents one morpheme in sound or writing. For example, the word infamous is made up of three morphs -in-, fam(e), -eous. A morpheme can be realized by only one morph. Thus, for example, the morpheme meaning table is represented by just one morphological form, the morph table, and the morpheme meaning difficult is realized by only the morph difficult.The English past tense morpheme that we spell -ed has various morphs. It is realized as [t] after the voiceless [p] of jump (jumped), as [d] after the voiced [l] of repel (repelled), and as 2162 after the voiceless [t] of root or the voiced [d] of wed (rooted and wedded). We can also call these morphs allomorphs or variants. II. Allomorphs:Allomorphs are variant forms of the same morpheme or variant phonological realizations of the same morpheme such as the past tense morpheme ‘ed’ has various allomorphs as t/d/Id and negative morpheme has many allomorphs expressed by the prefixes, unfriendly, illegal, irregular, intolerant, and impossible. The indefinite article is a good example of a morpheme with more than one allomorph. It is realised by the two forms a and an. -Allomorphs are different forms of the same morpheme, or basic unit of meaning.These can be different pronunciations or different spellings. Example: There are three allomorphs of the morpheme -s in English. Compare the sound of the -s in ‘cats', ‘dogs' and ‘foxes'. Exercise 4: (allomorphs) The past-tense morpheme (ed}) can be pronounced in three different ways. Based on the pronunciation of the past-tense morpheme, divide the following words into three groups. (Crashed, hinted, popped, accustomed, reached, classified, kissed, banged, lulled, lined, divided, fitted, flowed. )

Crazy Eddie Essay

1) Red flags were the increase on short-term investment receivables why would an electronic company have short-term investments in the first place. Increase of prepaid inventory in 1987 should be alarm nearly double from 1986. The company gross profit margin was stable of around 13%-16% average there was no need to increase inventory prepaid. Also lack of accounts payable and account receivable was a sign every retail company should have bad debt expense or allowance for doubtful accounts as customers may commit fraud to purchase products. The inventory age of went from 80 in 1986 to 111 in 1987 yet cost of goods sold primarily consisted of inventory was average from 1984 to 1987 2) Several audit procedures could have been performed to attest Crazy Eddie wrong doing A) The falsifying inventory count sheet would be detected if the auditors randomly performed inventory count and compare it to the Crazy Eddie sheet and consulted with inventory experts of how companies can deceive auditors. B) Bogus email could been investigated by requesting back support documentation to support the memos and also if this was mentioned  during executive meetings by reviewing the executive board minutes. Also by contacting the vendor and reconciling their receivables to payables of Crazy Eddie. C) Transhipping sales would have been by reviewing account receivable process from start to finish. Review payment of the sale invoices and checking shipping department log of when transshipment was done and of course contact the buyer to authenticate the sale to place. D) Consignment of inventory is to also audit their inventory and compare it to Crazy Eddie log and review of the contra ct between both parties how they operate the consignment agreement 3) As auditors they analyze the industry they are in and even compare financial records of other companies in the same industry for regularities and irregularities. During the 80’s it was evident that the electronic industry was declining and ever changing leaving certain products to being obsolete. Transhipping made it difficult, as they were able and justify the reasoning for buying large number of products however auditors should be able to communicate with supervisors of the life shelf of products and be able to produce aging schedule for each product they sell. 4) Lowballing in the audit context is to charge a client cheap in order to offer other services at fair or premium costs. Other services perform by the same firm of the independent client does violate its independence as the firm footprint with the company gets bigger and creates conflict of interest as some can be audits of services they provided to the company violating external independence and objectively 5) Member of the audit team if a third of the sample size I requested cannot be find I would suspicious and question if the sale even took place. Also means that I will need to select more sales with that time period to see if more exceptions appear. Also I would receive their sales process and witness the process for deficiencies and evaluate other ways to detect red flags for example selecting sales from shipping department or warehouse department for possible red flags as well. 6) I believe its common for audit members to join clients team as management already know the value he brings and since Sarbanes Oxley and PCAOB does not prohibit the practice will continue on. That person is familiar with their accounting system therefore he will be more efficient that bringing a person new also the relationship with audit firm can be strengthen and less problematic having that person as an liaison during the audit period. The cons are the negative light and question the independence of the audit firm. The person may have extensive knowledge how to deceive and commit unethical transactions without his former employer knowing. Facts Eddie was born in 1947 into a large close Syrian family. and dropped out of high school at the age of 16 years old and peddled television in Brooklyn neighborhood. By 1969 Antar and one of his cousins have funds to open consumer electronic store called Crazy Eddie. Crazy Eddie was nickname given to Antar through his behavior towards customers, vendors, and subordinates. For example Antar would block the exit door even locking door until the individual agreed to buy something anything Antar distinctive trait was the inability to trust anyone outside his big family circle and mostly relatives hold company positions in all capacity. Crazy Eddie was know for marketing advertising antics in 1972 Antar hired radio personality know as Dr. Jerry as Crazy Eddie’s advertising spokesman. Discounting policy was the theme to the campaigns promising to refund the difference of the selling price and lower retail price with the 30 days of purchase. In the early 1980’s electron industry exploded lead to increasing growth to Crazy Eddie by 1987 the company product sales were the following Antar encourage to upsell the customer and to purchase extended warranty as the electronic was already insured by the manufacturer lead to high profit margin Crazy Eddie would purchase large amount of quantity and avoid large concessions expenses that allowed him ‘’transhipper ‘’ commonly known as secondary supplier to smaller stores in the New York City area . In1983 Crazy Eddie decided to go public to raise capital for expansion but  was delayed over year for the IPO as underwriter discovered several discrepancies of the company financial records and relatives role in the business key example his wife and mother received 6 figure salaries for little or no work. Recommended Antar to hire CFO with public company experience and hired his cousin Sam Antar as his CFO. The sale of stock was tremendous success and with the permission of the SEC issued 200,000 more stock. One way to sway financial analyst for positive reviews was to invite them to his store and show his salesman skills to close sales . One analyst wrote ‘’Crazy is a self disciplined competently organized firm with a sophisticated management and a well trained, dedicated staff’’ Based on the 1984-1987 financial statement and rave financial reviews investors from the IPO realized 1,000 percent increase In 1986 Antar resigned from the company but remained chairperson member but after a few weeks he completely withdrew from the company. By 1987 the end of the electronic bubble, increased local competition, diminished supplier leverage, and family issues most notably bitter divorce as a result family members picking sides were the indication of the Crazy Eddie downfall. Mismanagement of the company and poor financial reports plummeted the stock as regulatory officials started investigating. November 1987 the company was taken over by two individuals while performing due diligence they uncovered 65 million inventory storage Extensive investigating SEC alleged Antar was worried about company stock and ordered staff commit fraud by overstate/understate balance sheet items like overstate receivable by 2 million the following yellow understating payables by 9 million dollars. Overstated inventory with non-existent products Prepare bogus memos reports and entered in company accounting records Included consignment & goods to manufacturer as revenue Overstating transshipping inventory transactions Understating COSGS Peat Marwick was the Crazy Eddie accounting firm but the underwriters  suggested to hire bigger recognizable firm and comply to hire Main Hurdman that merged with Marwick was the independent auditor for modest ‘’lowball’’ fee while offering over non-auditing services to make up the difference. Hurdman charged Crazy Eddie 85 thousand for auditing service while charging millions to do their computer inventory systems. Questioning Hurdman independence and objectively as Crazy Eddie accountant were former Hurdman staff. Hurdman defense was Antar would properly stock year end inventory to hide any shortages and systematically conceal documentations of shortages and to junk their computer operated inventory system and return to manual system making difficult to determine actual ending inventory at time period the entire accounting department participating in the collusion to throw off auditors. In 1989 Crazy Eddie lost line of credit and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Antar was arrested with 17 counts of financial fraud in 1993 and publicly admitted to defrauding investors by manipulating accounting records in May of 1996. Lawsuit was settled in 1993 in the amount of 42 million to various defendants including Peat Marwick Analysis Crazy Eddie problems started with the idea to increase its expand the heavily tied family business and decided to take the company public than have venture capitalist provide the capital instead. We can see why it went public electronic started becoming the norm and disposable income complimented the fast growing industry. Crazy Eddie had the advantage similar to Wal-Mart being able to purchase large quantities at a low rate and taking a step forward to being second supplier to small business. Crazy Eddie failed to acknowledge or wasn’t aware of the product cycle and wasn’t able to forecast of where the industry was headed nor did it know the life of technology it was buying would not outpace demand. Management at Crazy Eddie raised concerns regarding experience and education to make sound decisions to operating and financing structure the company needed also family had to be problem as some relatives received a salary just because they’re family. After going public the Antar realized financial ratios had to be sound and used his power to convince the public that his company was  growing despite the current trends. His power was used to commit fraud and deceive the public in order to maintain the stock price like Enron would do a decade later and had the support of the entire accounting finance decision as no one reported to the SEC of their wrong doing Recommendations Recommendations for Crazy Eddie are to have the right management in place from executives to senior positions. Individuals that understand the industry trends and operate as efficiently possible. Finance department needed not only strong accounting department but an even stronger internal audit department that can properly perform Sarbanes Oxley section 404, SAS 69, SAS 99, SAS 109, SAS 115 for internal control practitioners to identify, prioritize, evaluate, and test the controls in place to prevent fraud and other financial statement material errors. Internal audit needs to be candid with external auditors and share information that can benefit external auditors during the financial audit a lot of sensitive valuable information went rogue that could been used to detect operations inventory fraud. References Sarbanes Oxley Section 404 Internal Control Practitioners Statement on Auditing Standards 69 The Meaning of Present Fairly in Conformity With Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Statement on Auditing Standards 99 Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit Statement on Auditing Standards 109 Understanding the Entity and Its Environment and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement Statement on Auditing Standards 115 Communicating Internal Control Related Matters Identified in an Audit

Fair Trade Essays

Fair Trade Essays Fair Trade Essay Fair Trade Essay Fair Trade: Consumerism for Global Justice Introduction The Fair Trade movement is rapidly becoming an emerging and dynamic strength to respond to the negative influence of globalization, or rather, to the contemporary international trade injustice. While on the other hand, there is criticism on fair trade, claiming that fair trade is not fair and it goes against free market theory. This term paper aims at introducing the development of fair trade, justifying its economical and ethical significance on the international trade and production chain, and also reflecting on its limitations from different respective. The term paper is structured starting from conceptual framework, which focuses on defining the term of â€Å"fair trade†, introducing the related international organizations, and a brief overview of its current development. And then, the paper takes a close look at how fair trade functions under its own standards and price system. Furthermore, both the benefits and criticism of fair trade on producers, consumers and the intermediary are discussed, finally the conclusion is defined that fair trade is an effective marketing exercise but is not the mainstream market model. Conceptual framework Fair trade Although there is no universally accepted definition of fair trade, Fair trade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) most commonly refer to a definition developed by FINE, an informal association of four international fair trade networks (Fair trade Labelling Organizations International, World Fair Trade Organization formerly International Fair Trade Association, Network of European Worldshops and European Fair Trade Association): fair trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to ustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair trade organizations, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade (FINE, 2001). Sushil Mohan (2010) also d efines Fair Trade as â€Å"an organized social movement which promotes environmental and labor standards and social policy objectives in areas related to the production and trading of Fair Trade labeled and unlabelled goods†. : By comparing the two definitions, it should be noted that the former one explicitly mentions political and ethical objectives. Besides, it’s crucial to know that the fair trade movement is not involved directly in commodity production or trade, but rather it provides producers and workers with particular forms of market structure and contractual terms that bring benefits to them. And also, it focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries. During the past 50 years, the mainstreaming of fair trade product catalog goes beyond traditional products such as coffee, cocoa, tea, handicrafts, honey, etc. Fair trade is making inroads into other commodities as well. These new products include minor food items (quinoa), perishable fruits and vegetables (bananas, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and horticultural produce), processed products (juices, wine, beer, chocolate, rice and sugar) and non-food products (Sushil Mohan, 2010, p. 23). In 2009, fair trade certified sales amounted to approximately 73. billion (about ? 2. 8 billion) worldwide, produced by over 1. 2 million producers and workers; producers also benefited from pre-financing of around 7100 million (? 83 million) (FLO, 2009). The table below (FLO, 2009) shows the level and growth in the sales of a sample of main fair trade products from 2004 to the end of 2009. Table 1 Growth in sales of some fair trade products, 2004–09 |2004 |2005 |2006 |2007 |2008 |2009 | |Coffee sales in metric tonnes |24. 22 |33. 99 |52. 06 |62. 21 |65. 81 |73. 78 | |% growth | |40. 0 |53. 16 |19. 49 |5. 79 |12. 82 | |Tea sales in metric tonnes |1. 97 |1. 70 |3. 88 |5. 42 |11. 47 |11. 52 | |% growth | |33. 00 |127. 88 |39. 61 |111. 53 |0. 50 | |Rice sales in metric tonnes |1. 38 |1. 70 |2. 99 |4. 21 |4. 69 |6. 05 | |% growth | |23. 00 |75. 18 |40. 97 |11. 34 |29. 18 | |Fruit juice sales in metric tonnes |4. 54 |4. 86 |6. 31 |24. 92 |28. 22 |45. 58 | |% growth | |7. 00 |23. 01 |294. 98 |13. 24 |61. 53 | |Banana sales in metric tonnes |80. 64 |103. 88 |135. 76 |233. 79 |299. 21 |311. 47 | |% growth | |29. 0 |30. 70 |72. 21 |27. 98 |4. 10 | | Source: FLO (2009) Fair trade consumerism In academic research, the word â€Å"Consumerism† has different meanings in different contexts. When associated with fair trade, consumerism can be defined as a moral doctrine in developed countries. According to this view, consumerism is the vehicle for freedom, power and happine ss. All of these things lie in the consumer’s ability to choose, acquire, use and enjoy material objects and experiences (Gabriel Y and Lang T, 2002, p. 8). Since long, consumption has been defied as â€Å"a private matter, indirectly, but firmly, linked to virtuous mechanisms in the public sphere† (Roberta Sassatelli 2006). And recent research shows that the importance of the self-identity as a determining factor in ethical consumption has been identified before (Shaw D Shiu E, 2002), those findings indicate that practices on fair trade consumerism must themselves be seen as functional in the construction and expression of a self-identity which always has a moral dimension (Varul MZ and Wilson-Kovacs D, 2008, p. 2). How fair trade works Fair trade standards FLO (2006) formulated two distinct sets of fair trade standards, which acknowledge different types of disadvantaged producers. One set of standards applies to small-scale producers, who don’t depend on hired workers all the time, but run their farm mainly on their own and their family’s labour. The other set applies to hired labors, whose employers pay decent wages, guarantee the right to join trade unions, ensure health and safety standards and provide adequate housing where relevant. The Standards Unit (SU) within FLO is responsible for developing and revising fair trade standards. Fair trade standards refer to: (a) generic standards, (b) product standards, (c) fair trade minimum prices (FTMP) and fair trade premiums (FTP). Producers and traders must meet applicable standards for their products to be certified as fair trade. Fair trade prices According to fair trade standards, most products have a fair trade price, which is the minimum that should be paid to the producers for their goods. This fair trade minimum price (FTMP) is intended to cover the average producers’ costs of sustainable production (COSP) per product. If global or regional minimum prices are determined, otherwise national prices are set. Producers or workers (in the case of hired labour situations) of fair trade products also receive a fair trade premiums(FTP) in addition to the minimum price. The determination of a minimum price may involve the determination of the related premium (Andreas Kratz, 2010). Impact of fair trade Benefits to producers Stable income and long-term trading partnerships For most products, fair trade standards determine the price paid to producers. The fair trade price  acts as a safety net for farmers at times when world markets fall below a sustainable level. The fair trade standards also require that producers can obtain partial pre-payment of the contract, which ensures the small-scale farmers have sufficient cash flow. This allows them to plan ahead and invest in new technology or planting that should ultimately increase their income and help them to develop their businesses (Nicholls A and Opal C, 2005, p. 7). Table 2 Arabica Coffee Market 1989-2010: Comparison of Fairtrade and New York Prices [pic] NB Fairtrade price = Fairtrade minimum price* of 125 cents/lb + 10 cents/lb Fairtrade premium** When the New York price is 125 cents or above, the Fairtrade price = New York price + 10 cents *Minimum price was increased from 121 cents/lb on 1 June 2008 **Premium was increased from 5 cents/lb on 1 June 2007 The NY price is the daily closing price of the second position Coffee C futures contract at ICE Futures US (Source: FLO, 2010) Social premiums and ethical outcomes According to FLO, fair trade helps farmers and workers to tackle poverty, improve the quality of their lives and invest in their futures. Throughout the unique trading chain, producers are empowered to participate in the decisions that affect themselves. Fair Trade Federation (FTF) also points out that, members seek to eliminate discrimination based on race, caste, national origin, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, union membership, political affiliation, age, marital, or health status. Members support workplaces free from physical, sexual, psychological, or verbal harassment or abuse. For instance, in 2006, the Kuapa Kokoo Cooperative in Ghana received a premium of US$150 per tonne of cocoa which is invested back into the communities. This has helped to fund the drilling of about 300 boreholes, and the establishment of seven schools as well as funding links with the medical school in Ghana (International Development Committee, 2007, p. 21). Sustainable production According to Fair Trade Federation (FTF), fair trade seeks to offer current generations the ability to meet their needs without compromising the benefits of next generations. Members actively consider the implications of their decisions on the surroundings and promote sustainable production. They reduce, reuse, reclaim, and recycle materials wherever possible. For instance, all farms and co-operatives must have resource management plans in place. Certain pesticides are prohibited on all farms. Many farms use fair trade premia to invest in organic certification, which demands a higher fair trade floor price (Nicholls A and Opal C, 2005, p. 7). Impact on consumers The Department for International Development of UK (DFID) points out that fair trade has made an important contribution to raising awareness among consumers about development and ethical trade issues. Moreover, this awareness can create pressure for changes in favor of poor countries. For instance, Starbucks has made an excellent example in this respective. Starbucks began purchasing Fair Trade Certifiedâ„ ¢ coffee in 2000, helping grow the market for Fair Trade Certifiedâ„ ¢ coffee in the U. S. And in 2009, it increased the purchases to 40 million pounds – making it the largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certifiedâ„ ¢ coffee in the world. While increased awareness of ethical issues does not definitely turn into consumption actions, there has been a steady conscious increase in fair trade sales. According to the Fair Trade Foundation, price is not the only concern on people’s minds when they go to the supermarket. Mike Barry of Marks Spencer in UK commented that the FAIRTRADE mark gave customers certainty about the origins of the product in the context of many different brands. He considered that there was a high level of trust in the FAIRTRADE brand (International Development Committee, 2007, p. 24). Impact on intermediary According to International Development Committee of UK, fair trade and the success of fair trade labeling, has led companies to think about the supply hain of the wider range of products they sell. Although the amount of fair trade products is still limited among the total sales, the concept of fair trade has begun to enter the mainstream in the supply chain and what’s more, the economic framework has been set up. Thus an important impact of fair trade may ultimately steam up other traders to perform their responsibilities. In response to t he new trends of the coffee industry, the German Coffee Association took the initiative to create a Common Code for the Coffee Community. Nestle, Sara Lee, Kraft and Tchibo, representing 40% of the world coffee-roasting market, have all signed the Common Code which seeks to improve working and environmental conditions on coffee farms. The Code requires producers to pay minimum wages to workers, not to use child labor, to allow union membership, and to protect the environment (International Development Committee, 2007, p. 9). Criticism on fair trade Perspective of intermediary Fair trade affirms non-economic values of cooperation and solidarity which challenge the capitalist imperatives of competition, accumulation, and profit-maximization. (Gavin Fridell, 2007) In the market, every part wants to make their profit maximization. Nowadays, in the competition between the producers and intermediary, the intermediary is much stronger, so they use this power to minimize the price of the producer, and sell the products with a much higher price to the consumer market, to get most of the profit. In the fair trade system, Fair trade removes the unfair dealing away with the person doing most of the hard work. The intermediary must give the producer a fair price for them doing the sustainable production. Normally this â€Å"fair† price means a higher price than what the producer got before. For this, the cost for the intermediary increases, if the consumer market price stays the same, intermediary’s profit decreases. But as every intermediary wants to keep their usual profit, then the decreasing profit became a problem. In order to solve this problem, the intermediaries either increase the price on the consumer market, or buy less fair trade products. The Adam Smith Institute claimed in 2008 that Fair trade has had little effect on the decreasing percentage of final sale value ending up with the producers as only a fraction of fair trade premiums reach producers. This claim is based on a calculation that only 10% of the fair trade premium for a cup of coffee at a popular London chain goes to purchase fair trade coffee beans instead of standard beans (Marc Sidwell, 2008). This situation has led Tom Clougherty of the Adam Smith Institute, to describe fair trade as little more than a marketing ploy. Perspective of consumers â€Å"Fair trade reveals the social and environmental conditions under which goods are produced and brings producers and consumers together through ‘ethical consumerism,’ which challenges the commodification of goods into items with an independent life of their own. (Gavin Fridell, 2007). Basing on how the fair trade works, if the intermediary wants to keep the usual profit, one of the solutions is to increase the consumer market price, which is the reason why most of the fair trade goods are priced higher than the normal market price. When consumers are making their purchasing decision, the key factors are not the product attributes anymore in favor of the alternative character- Fair Trade, to make the global commodification more justice. Even at the very beginning of Fair Trade Movement (back to 1960s), the slogan of it was â€Å"Trade not Aid†. But when we take a closer look at fair trade, something can be found: This purchasing model is in conflict with the economic theory (under the certain budget line, consumers desire to buy as much products as possible, which means the consumers would like to buy the more cost-effective products). So this fair trade purchasing behavior does not benefit the consumers themselves that much, the main reason for the consumer to do it is the â€Å"ethical† reason. Therefore, the decommodification is through â€Å"ethical consumerism†. Given the fact that ethical consumerism does not appeal directly to self-interested motivation, some people claim that the future growth of ethical markets is very limited. Perspective of producers The Adam Smith Institute sees fair trade as a type of subsidy that impedes growth. The price on fair trade market is not decided by the market, but the FLO or other fair trade organization with the lowest protection price. Furthermore, fair trade can resolve some poverty issues in some extend, but can not solve it fundamentally. Perspective of production chain [pic] From this chart, we can learn that: firstly, compared to the normal trade market, if the intermediary can keep their usual profit, there is not much difference between fair and unfair trade. So fair trade is just an alternative option for them to the different segment market. And the reality is that most fair trade farmer groups are currently only able to sell a fraction of their production on Fair Trade terms; they must sell the rest to conventional buyers and local traders at lower prices. Secondly, the consumer is playing one more role in this Fair Trade business circle: monitoring whether the trade is fair, whether the producers get a fair price. Now the consumer outgoing is â€Å"Money† + †Monitor†, and the incoming is â€Å"Product† + †Ethic†, compared with the normal trade (outgoing: Money; incoming: Product). If we make a function about these, those would be: Fair trade market: U(Price-Fairtrade)+U(Monitor)=U(Pro)+U(Eth) Normal market: U(Price-Normal)=U(Pro) So U(Eth)=U(Monitor)+U(Pice-Fairtrade)-U(Price-Normal)= U(Monitor)+U(Price Difference) This means buying the fair trade products, the ethic gain that consumers get should be equal to the price difference plus the additional monitoring responsibility that the consumers should take. If this function cannot be equal in a long term, the consumers would feel loss, then this business model cannot last for too long, or at least cannot be promoted widely in the whole world market. Conclusion It can be concluded that fair trade reflects a brand-new approach to producer-consumer transaction, which aims at maintaining the Fairtrade mark’s predominance in an increasingly competitive market for ethically-branded products. On one hand, the movement is essential, since there is every reason for smart consumers to make other choices and the producers suffer from the decreasing market price. On the other hand, fair trade is working â€Å"in and against† the market, because it is involved what it needs to play to ethical assumptions that are implied by market practices. So fair trade is an alternate, branch trade model in the market compared to the mainstream model. Reference List Andreas Kratz (2010): SOP development of Fairtrade minimum price and premium, Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, Internet: airtrade. net/fileadmin/user_upload/content/310510_SOP_Development_of_Fairtrade_Prices_and_Premiums. pdf Bacon, C. (2005): Confronting the coffee crisis: can Fair Trade, organic and speciality coffee reduce small-scale farmer vulnerability in northern Nicaragua? , World Development, 33(3): 497–511. Gabriel Y and Lang T (2002): The unmanageable consumer, p. 8, SAGE Publications, Lo ndon. Gavin Fridell (2007): Fair trade coffee and commodity fetishism: The limits of market-driven social justice, Trent University, Canada. International Development Committee (2007): Fair trade and development, Seventh Report of Session 2006–07, Volume 1, Great Britain. Koppel H. and Schulze G. (2008): Inefficient but effective? A field experiment on the effectiveness of direct and indirect transfer mechanisms, University of Freiburg, Germany. Marc Sidwell (2008): Unfair trade, Adam Smith Institute, London, p. 28. Nicholls A. and Opal C. (2005): Fair trade: market-driven ethical consumption, p. 7, SAGE Publications, London. Roberta Sassatelli (2006): Representing consumers: contesting claims and agendas, Palgrave, London. Shaw D. and Shiu E. (2002): Ethics in consumer choice: a multivariate modelling approach, European Journal of Marketing, 37(10), 1485 – 1498. Sushil Mohan (2010): Fair trade without the froth, The Institute of Economic Affairs, Great Britain. Varul MZ. and Wilson-Kovacs D. (2008): Fair trade consumerism as an everyday ethical practice – A comparative perspective, University of Exeter, Great Britain, Internet: http://people. exeter. ac. uk/mzv201/FT%20Results. pdf Product Product Consumer Ethic Intermediary Money Producer Money Monitor