Managment accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Managment accounting - Essay Example The profit should be higher than the cost of production. There is increased desire by companies to know the behaviour of factors that drive to different cost .In increasingly competitive business environment organizations seeking to maintain or improve their competitiveness need cost information that is relevant and accurate. This system is based on cost modelling that traces an organization expenses both direct and indirect (Thukaram, 2007, p. 171). The activity based costing is fashionable because it has the advantage of advanced technology to the management of an organization. Hence; organizations are automating what previously had been manual jobs. The primary reason for the shift is also due to the different channels of distributing the variety of products and services, in addition the organization has been servicing different types of customers (Nolan, 2004, p. 17).Hence sufficient information can be obtained to make decisions about the profitability of different product lines. It also helps the organizations provide value added services or â€Å"top-ups† to existing products on actual cost incurred basis thus creating efficiency. The introduction of this greater variation and diversity creates complexity and increasing complexity results in greater overhead expenses. The fact that this expense overhead in recurring the labour expense does not mean that the organization is becoming inefficient, is means that the company is offering variety to different customers (Humphrey, 2007, p. 100).It traces indirect cost also called overhead to products, customers and services by identifying resource and their cost, the consumption of this resources by activities and performance of activities to produce output. Thus eliminating unprofitable items from the product line, thereby increasing profitability without increasing prices, a

UN Secretary Council Essay Example for Free

UN Secretary Council Essay If the UN Security Council decides a situation constitutes a threat to international peace and security, are there any limits on what it can do to address that threat? In your response, please refer to relevant provisions of the UN Charter. United Security Council constitutes of a group of representatives from United States organization member countries whose primarily responsibility as stated in the United Nations Charter as peace and security maintenance internationally. The intentions of United Nations founders were mainly to play a role in peace and security maintenance internationally through application of force where necessary. The charter of United Nations forbids the United security council from carrying out peace restoration operations using military efforts because the superpowers votoed most of such United Nations activities. This should mainly be applicable to the events of cold war crisis. For instance, on two occasions during the time of those regulations, in Lebanon and Congo, the United Security council gave out resolutions that demanded the missions to apply same measures of force so as to achieve their goal. Since the termination of that cold war, the United Nation Security Council gave authority to several United Nations operations which involved application of force to help in restoration and maintenance of peace. For instance, the United Security council authorized the application of force to restore peace in the former Yugoslavia and Somali which is quoted in the United Nation’s charter (Bailey 1998). It also authorizes actions with respect to peace threats, breach of peace and aggressive actions. Now given that the United Nations security council’s performance as the leader in operations of peace which involve application of force, most of the experts like the former United Nations Secretary General have in mind that it can be an appropriate organization in leading such a mission, although its operational structures and inadequacy of resources have been the major factor which limits the United Nations to perform effectively. Ban Ki Moon has just been elected Secretary-General of the United Nations. Some commentators have stated that he should be more of a ‘secretary’ than ‘general’; others say he should be more of a ‘general’ than ‘secretary’. What is the UN Charter basis for him to play either role? How much freedom does he have to define the role himself? The role of Secretary General of United Nations acts as the chief administrative officer in the organization. Ban Ki Moon who is currently the Secretary of United Nations should be governed by the principles stipulated in the UN Charter. Since the secretary is appointed by the General Assembly through the Security Councils recommendations, he is entitled to head the entire organization. As it has been commented by some individuals that he should play a role of a secretary other than General while others say he should play a role a General than Secretary, according to the UN Charter, neither can apply. This is because United Charter clearly states the duties of Secretary General which cannot be handled by either being in a Secretary or General. Some of his responsibilities in his duty performance as the overall head include, he should not seek or be instructed by any government or be authorized by an external organization. He should also refrain from actions reflecting his position as international official responsible to the organization. According to the above duties, he is entitled to play both roles of secretary and General. This is because, like in the work of report writing and presentation to the General Assembly, it shows a secretary related role. The case of heading all general meetings implies General related duties. Due to this reason, he should identify himself as a Secretary General. (http://www. burmalibrary. org/reg. burma/archives/199905/msg00161. html). What position does the High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change take on the â€Å"doctrine of preemption† as articulated in the US National Security Strategy of 2002? Is the HLP’s position sound? The high level panel entreats, challenges and change is a body of United Nations which addresses and analyses the threats to the international security and peace and also knowing their root causes. It also recommends range from social and economic challenges to utilization of force. The article also discusses the tasks and roles that the High level panel envisages for Security Council in light of challenges and threats which are clearly identified. Nevertheless, the panel does not insist or recommend on fundamental changes of the international paradigms legal which include the collective use of force in peace restoration. The panel’s focus on security reforms composition instead of the system that it operates in does not handle the problems with the latter and also impossibility of the former achievement. The panel as articulated in the US National Security Strategy of 2002 plays the same role as in the case of United Nations Charter where by although both stresses on security maintenance worldwide, in US, it is more specific. The US report states how the state can apply protection control measures before seeking assistance from the UN Security Council. It shows also how the state is advanced through carrying out investigations and detentions of terrorism weapons and destroys them before use in attacks. These places the strategies in front line as much has been achieved. The high level panel’s position is sound because most of the evil activities have been adversely been reduced except the normal regional crisis which can be handled locally. Kenneth Abbott and Duncan Snidal summarize why states act through international organizations as follows (â€Å"Why states act through formal organizations†, p. 8): States consciously use IOs both to reduce transaction costs in the narrow sense and, more broadly, to create information, ideas, norms and expectations; to carry out and encourage specific activities; to legitimate or de-legitimate particular ideas and practices; and to enhance their capacities and powers. These functions constitute IOs as agents, which, in turn, influence the interests, inter subjective understandings, and environment of states. To what extent does that statement reflect a realist, institutionalist and/or social constructivist perspective on the role of international organizations? According to Kenneth Abbott and Duncan Suldal statement on why states act through international organizations, their main focus was to outline the benefits associated with formal organizations. The rational institutionalism is perceives international organizations as helping the state in achievement of its ends. Through distributive and power questions, the role of international organizations is perceived as in creation of norms and also understanding. Independence and centralization are outlined as the main properties in formal organizations. International organizations as a representative in community allows creation and implementation values which enforce the international commitments. In reduction of cost, international organizations has laid down principles which structure the agency relationships so as to contain institutional checks and balances which reduce opportunistic behaviors by agents. In a single organization, checks can be facilitated through empowerment of bureaus which have partially at least opposing mandates, for instance changing the production managers through maximization of outputs and changing controllers through maximizing cost of production in the firms. In creation of information, ideas, norms and expectations, the states are carefully designed as series to safeguard in the international courts of crimes. This is in relation to response of fear of runaway international courts. With rational perspective, international organizations enables achievement of states ends through creation of norms and other understandings. In carrying out encourage specific activities, international organizations have embarked on delegation principles where by a conditional authority is granted to an agent which empowers the agent to act on behalf of the former. For this case, the agents and principals mutually constitute to each other. Here, the relationship between agents and principles is governed by contracts be it the agreement is not formally acknowledged. All forms of delegations are conducted through divisions of labor which gains from specialization whereby the gains interact with all the other benefits from delegation. The essence of delegation is mainly to focus on how principles should be designed to control their agents. Some benefits attributed with delegation include; specialization which is achieved through division of labor, policy externalities which benefits through cooperation and can delegate to an international organization in case of big policy externalities. There is also an advantage of decision making collectively whereby states can also delegate to the international organizations especially when they pose a socially intransitive preference or in case of problem encounter. Another one includes dispute resolution whereby a state can delegate the authority to international agent to help in resolving differences between themselves. The statement why states act through international organizations reflects reality because in most of institutions, such benefits have been achieved and yielded positive results. This is because although the role of international organizations differs fro state to another depending on the interests of a certain state, many states have achieved their goals for instance, in economic activities, rights of residence among others. Recent years have seen a growing trend towards the use of so-called ‘hybrid’ peace operations, in which more than one organization or mission is deployed, either sequentially or side-by-side. Discuss the reasons for this trend and the pros and cons of hybrid operations. Please illustrate your response with examples. Hybrid piece operations essentially entail application of joint force in peace keeping whereby unprecedented operations which include troop’s locations challenges are used. The commanding structure in hybrid operations has been unified and agreed between United Nations and the African union so as to function effectively aiming at the single mission even if it is reporting to different organizations. Most of limitations have been associated with hybrid peace operations for instance, around 11 years ago, Francois Mitterrand who is a French president vigorously requested the Africans to apply their own means in conflict resolution and at the same time have their own organized security. Also other skeptics like Walter Dow equally place argumentations which were against practices regionalized peace operations which includes employment of sub-regional or regional organizations to conduct peace operations which reach from low intensity to high intensity peace keeping, continued presence of conflicts resulting to human tragedies, all over the world combined with UNs uncap abilities to address the issue has shown negative attitude towards the regional peace operation. This also led to respectfully disagreement with arguments Don among others regions cap tics. According to the recent intervention by sub regional and organizations in Burundi, Sudan, Liberia and Cot d’Ivore, the change of defunct OAU in to a better promising African Union (AU) and other international programs intended to develop capabilities regionally. This shows that, in Africa, the delegation of peace operation aspects to such organizations can’t be considered as effective or undesirable. Instead, the increasing capacity and willingness of regional organizations in Africa should step to modified security challenges in the continent which are coupled with United Nation’s current overstretch and notable absence of many problems which are foreseen by regiosceptics for future regional peace operations within Africa. Also, according to many regiosceptics, no existing regional organization has the required capacity and experience to place meaningful conflict resolution and prevention through use of military without assistance from outside. They apply that the continent’s sub-regional and regional organizations suffer from resource and capacity constrants in interoperability, training sustained readiness among others. This brings doubt in the potentiality of improvements in the short term. In Germany institute of international security policies, another study shows massive weaknesses in control and commanding intelligence in gathering and analyzing and also doctrinal preparation. As many regiosceptics have had that weakness into account, they concluded that, the African militaries are left with no choice other than returning to outdated models of welfare where by the combatants utilize weapons from the Korean war which were the tactics of the first world war and the form of treatments used in the 19th century. The hybrid peace operation having more disadvantages than the advantages, I prefer the cons of hybrid operations as it has not fully achieved its goals http://www. stimson. org/fopo/? SN=FP20021018422 . References: Bailey S, (1998). The Procedure of the UN Security Council. Oxford.

Stability of Islamic and Conventional Banks

Stability of Islamic and Conventional Banks 1. Ratio Analysis The performance and the stability of banks can be quantified and measured through the analysis of their financial ratios. We can have several hundreds of ratios at our disposal. However, we will use only those that are common, and of some meaning for the analysis of the banks. Also, it is important to note that we should use only major and comparable ratios in order to fully understand the financial position of these banks as compared to all those ratios that may include some vagueness in the research. Mainly five categories of these financial ratios are used to eliminate the vagueness created by redundant use of the financial heads and items from the financial statements. Hence, the five categories are: (CFA 2009, p498): Profitability Ratios Activity Ratios Liquidity Ratios Solvency Ratios Valuation Ratios However, for the banking industry, which is our main concern, we will use only the first four categories, making an exception of the Valuation category. The financial stability department of the State Bank of Pakistan, which is the central bank of this major economy in the Muslim world, and actively involved in the promotion of Islamic Banking, suggests that the financial ratios fairly reflect the stability, health and the performance of the banks. Hence, these ratios can be used for our purpose. 2. Z-score Instead of just doing the Financial Ratios Analysis, we should also do the analysis of the banks insolvency risk, which is measured by the z-score. This will be done for both the categories of banking systems: Islamic Banks; as well as the Commercial Banks. The statistic based on z-score is calculated with the help of the data on the banks expected profits, the riskiness or the variation in such profits and the capital base of the bank. In other words, the following variables help to calculate the z-score and test it, we need the profit margin, its likelihood of occurrence and the shareholders equity available to compensate in case of the negative margins (losses). A z-score represents the number of standard deviations by which the return on asset have to decrease in order to incur a loss (a negative return). Z-scores can be measured by the following formula: z = (ROA+CAP)/ÏÆ' (ROA) where: ROA (Return on Assets) = Net Income / Total Assets; CAP (Capital to Asset Ratio) = Equity / Total Assets; and ÏÆ' (ROA) = standard deviation of return on assets (proxy for the variation of return). According to the formula, the higher z-score means that the equity base and the return added on it is much higher than the potential risk to the earnings as measured by the standard deviations. Hence, such usage of the z-score testing as the test for measuring risk is recommended by many researches in the field. By the definition of the z-score here, it can be said that it directly relates to the probability of a banks insolvency. It is necessary to evaluate and understand the extent to which Islamic banks are risky as compared to conventional banks. Z-scores will play an integral role in helping us identify the risk profile of Islamic banks. 3. Regression One of the most extensively used statistical measure of conformity is the use of regression and correlation. The extent to which two different datasets match in terms of moving together is evaluated by a regression analysis. This context will look closely at how the dataset we obtained for Islamic and conventional banks will be moving in tandem with the GDP and inflation (CPI) of their respective countries. A pooled regression test will be used to perform the respective tests and statistics generated from the regression such as the R-squared value will be used to make judgments on the relationship between the profitability and growth of Islamic and conventional banks with respect to their national growth and inflation. This test is extremely as it is crucial to understand the synchronization of growth of these banks with their national economies. It would be difficult to make pre-assumptions about either Islamic or conventional banks however, it has generally been seen that while conventional banks were wiped of several billions of dollars, Islamic banks stood their ground and even grew in some countries. Thus, bearing this in mind, a pooled regression test will enable us to identify the polarity of growth of Islamic and conventional banks with their respective economies. Chapter Four: 1.1 Financial Ratio Analysis: Financial statement analysis involves comparing the firms performance with that of other firms in the same industry. In this research, we are comparing banks with banks but having two categories within the banking industry: Islamic banks and the conventional banks. Ratio analysis also involves evaluating trends of the financial position of the firm over a time period. The ratio analysis of the firms financial statements helps the management of the firm to identify problems and deficiencies and then to take actions to try to improve performance. It also helps the decision makers to make operational as well as strategic decisions that would help the firm over a long period of time. Financial statements mainly comprises of the balance sheet, the income statement and the cash flow statement. The balance sheet and the cash flow statement both report the firms position at a given point of time. It gives the situation in which the company is standing at that point of time. And the income statement tells about the performance of the companys operations over a certain time period, usually a year. In other words, the financial statement analysis is useful to help anticipate the future conditions and as a starting point for planning actions that will improve the firms future performance. But with these lengthy and complicated financial statements, it is really time consuming for the decision makers and other stake holders to confer something. Hence, the financial ratios are used to help evaluate the financial statements. These ratios are taken from the break down elements of the financial statements. These ratios are easy to read and understand rather than the whole financial statements. Profitability Ratios Profitability is what every firm is seeking. The higher the profitability, the better is the performance of a bank. The profitability ratios show the combined effects of the liquidity, the asset management, and debt on the operations of the company as the profit is what comes out in the end of the income statement and this profit is what is mainly desired by the ownership and the management of a firm. One of the most important and most often looked at category of the ratios is the profitability ratios. These ratios are integral in that they help us estimate the degree to which revenues are converted into profits. A bank may be earning extremely high revenues in comparison to its competitors however, its profitability may be low signifying a lower efficiency. On the other extreme, a low earning bank may have a higher profitability signifying a greater efficiency. Thus, it is important to compare the relative profitability of the two bank streams and analyse them over several years data. Return on Assets: The performance of the firm is often and most commonly looked at through the ratio of net income (return) to total assets. In simple words, return on assets shows that what the company is getting out as net profits from its investment in the assets of the business. The assets in a companys statements are valued on the basis of original cost. Furthermore, the total return is usually the sum of the net income and the interest paid if any on the borrowings, as it is assumed that the assets may be financed by the borrowings. Banks also do have assets employed in their business, including the loans they have offered to the customers. The return is usually the spread between the rate of borrowings and deposits, which is net of all expenses incurred. In case of Islamic banks, the net income is the net profit earned from the investments through different financial instruments such as mudarbah, murabaha, musharakah, ijarah, etc. and the assets of the Islamic banks also comprise of the investments in different schemes through Islamic modes of financing. It can be seen from the graph that the conventional banks experienced a rise in the ROAA (Return on Average Assets) during the booming period from 2002 till 2007. However, in 2007, it started to decline and has been declining since. But, during this same period, ROA for the Islamic Banks have been rising on average. Although, the financial crisis in 2007 hit both banking systems, Islamic banks experienced a relatively lesser impact. It has fallen from 2.6 in 2007 to around 2.1 in 2009. The conventional banks on average were at their peak in 2006 at almost 2.5 and since then, its been falling and has reached 1.6 in 2009. The overall decline of the conventional banks is far greater than the decline in ROAA of the Islamic Banks. Return on Equity: Shareholders, the real owners of the company, are mainly concerned about the return on the equity they have invested in the business. They need to know the profitability of their investment in the company. Hence, the net profit of the company is measured as a ratio of the equity the shareholders have invested in this ratio. The main difference in the return on assets and the return on equity is that usually, the assets are financed by both the investors (such as shareholders) and the lenders (such as the banks); and the equity reflects only the investment by the shareholders. Hence, this measure shows the rate at which the company is returning the investment to its shareholder (in absolute terms and not in cash terms, as cash is paid out in form of dividends). In terms of the banks, the equity will be the shareholders money that they have invested in the bank to make it running. This will not include any loans that the banks management has obtained for its operations or assets. If this measure is giving out high results, it means that investing in a bank as a shareholder is a profitable venture. It can be seen from the graph that from our sample of banks, the conventional banks are slightly returning a better amount than the Islamic banks especially after the crisis of 2007. In this regard, we can say that the Islamic banks have taken a bigger impact as their average Return on Average Equity (ROAE) have fallen from 25 in 2006 to around 11 in 2009 as compared to conventional banks having 26 in 2006 and falling to around 16 in 2009. There can be several possible reasons for such results. It could be that after the crisis, the investments in equity for the Islamic banks have risen, or fallen for the conventional banks. It may be possible that the investors have seen Islamic banks as a safe haven and have taken out their money from conventional banks and put it into the Islamic banks as its equity. However, it could also be possible that with so many closures in the conventional banking, the competition is thinned out and the remaining banks are making higher profits than they would have been when there was more competition. There may be one or more explanations for such results however, the most popular of these is that the very basis that caused the credit crunch crisis was not influential in the operations of an Islamic bank and thus left them unscathed to a great extent. Efficiency Ratios: Efficiency of a company can be measured in many different ways. One of the basic indicator of efficiency is that how much of the earnings are used up as expenses. The ratio of expenses to earnings shows how much is the company efficient. If the ratio is low, then it is considered to be very efficient. If its high, then there must be some problem with the company. If it is high for the whole industry, then it can be seen that the industry is not very profitable. If the ratio is near to one, it signifies serious problems for a company, be it a bank or not. This is because if the earnings and expenses are closer to each other, then there is little room for the profits and denotes that the bank is not able to manage its operations efficiently leading to a very small net profit margin. This would definitely put off investors and is highly undesirable. Hence, the lower the ratio, the better it is. It can be seen that this ratio is quite low for the conventional banks as compared to the Islamic banks, especially after 2004. The conventional banks efficiency is being steadied even during the financial crisis. The expenses are hovering to around 40 percent of the earnings, which is reasonably lower than for the Islamic banks. When looking at the Islamic banks, the expenses rose from 40 percent in 2004 to 80 percent in 2005 and slowly falling back to 60 percent during the financial crisis but staying there during 2009 as well. Hence it is also possible to see that the Islamic banks efficiency have improved during this period as this ratio has fallen significantly. However, in this regard, the Islamic banks are not as efficient as the conventional banks. But we will also not ignore the fact that our sample does not represent the whole Islamic banking industry or the conventional banking industry and the results may be completely different for different samples. Assets Turnover (a type of Activity Ratio): The asset turnover ratio indicates how hard and efficiently the firms assets are being put to use. It is also known as the sales-to-assets ratio. It shows that what each dollar of assets has produced in terms of total revenue (or sales). â€Å"Sales† in the banking industry has different names. For conventional banks, the net interest income is used instead of sales. This is the interest earned from lending minus the interest given out on deposits. However, for Islamic banks, the interest-free system, the net profit on investments of different modes of Islamic finance is used as revenue. This is the major differing element of the income statements of the two systems. From the results of this ratio, it can be seen that the Islamic banks and the conventional banks have a very close and similar trend before the financial crisis as the asset turnover keep on rising till 2006. However, this is worth noting that the ratio for Islamic banks remained a bit higher than that of conventional banks. After the 2007 crisis, the conventional banks asset turnover fell sharply from around 0.08 in 2006 to around 0.055 in 2009. Whereas for Islamic banks; this ratio fell from around 0.089 in 2006 to 0.08 in 2009. Hence, the turnover for Islamic banks was not much affected by the crisis. This result may prove worthwhile to note that Islamic banks were having less risk during the financial crisis than the conventional banks. Though insignificant at the moment, this can be an important dimension in future studies involving Islamic banks and conventional as it provides insight into the risk profile of Islamic banks viz-a-viz conventional banking. Financial Leverage: Solvency ratio shows the financial leverage of a firm. When a firm requires money more than the equity it has risen from its shareholders and from within the business, it needs to borrow. This borrowing can be from anyone including the bank. However, usually it is required to give out fixed rate as interest payment regardless of whether that money is properly utilized and gained from or not. Whether the company is in profit or loss, the interest payments on the debt has to be given out. If the profit is high, the shareholders gain as the leftover profit after interest payments goes to them. However, in case of loss, the shareholders bear the burden as well because the interest payment still has to be paid. Because of this debt increasing the profit rate to shareholders in good times and reducing it in bad times, this debt is said to create financial leverage. Debt to Equity Ratio: The debt to equity ratio is a clear measure of the percentage that a company is indebted to the external sources. It gives out the rate at which the debt is as a multiple of the equity. If the debt is less than the shareholders equity, than this ratio would be less than 1. But if there is more external debt than internal equity, than this ratio will exceed 1. And this could be really problematic for a company. However, in todays world, high debt to equity ratio is considered normal. For a bank, whether a conventional bank or an Islamic bank, this ratio just indicates the ratio of the actual owners to the external lenders. However, in case of crisis, it is usually seen that the banks to go out of the business first had a high debt to equity ratio. Islamic banks usually tend to have lower debt indebted to them. As their core principle of interest free banking may not be fulfilled if they take on debt on interest. So all the debt they have is interest free and such type of debt is difficult to obtain. However, according to the result of this ratio here shows that Islamic banks debt to equity ratio rose significantly during 2004-2005 and was nearly equal to conventional banks ratio, but then it steadied around 1.6 during the financial crisis and after it. On the other hand, during this time period this ratio for conventional banks rose to 2.6 in 2007. And then the effect of the crisis took over and it fell to around 2.1 in 2009. It can be realized from this result that the shock of the crisis made the conventional banks realized that they have stretched too far from how they should be financing themselves. Hence, either they started to pay off their debts to reduce the risk of bankruptcy or the lenders started to get strict control over them. On the other hand, the Islamic banks were more relaxed as they did not have high debts to fear from and continued keeping a similar debt to equity ratio. Liquidity Ratios: Liquidity ratios are the indication for the company to know how much current assets there are to deal with the liabilities. In case of the banks, it shows how much loans are there to give out from the deposits available. Total Loans / Total Deposits: Banks give out loans to the customers (borrowers) are assets as they are receivables. Whereas, the deposits taken from the customers (depositors) are liabilities as they are payables to the depositors upon their request. Deposit is the property of the depositors; hence its the liability on the bank to pay the depositors back their money. This ratio for banks is similar to the current ratio used for other firms. It is similar to the ratio of current assets to the current liabilities. Hence, we can see that for Islamic banks, this ratio is lower than that of the conventional banks. This may be because many different financial instruments are used to finance those who want the funding. So many Islamic banks may not show all the investments as current assets or loans in this case. Also, it may be possible that perhaps a higher profit rate is charged by the Islamic banks as compared to the interest rate charged by the conventional banks and people are reluctant to fulfil their financing needs from Islamic banks in order to avoid higher rates to pay back. As the Islamic banks are growing and gaining consumer confidence, it may also be possible that the people are depositing their savings in Islamic banks much more than they are using its money for their financing needs, for a time being. Here, it is worth noting that the financial crisis did not affect this rate significantly for both the banking systems. Total Loans / Total Assets: As discussed above, total loans can be termed as current assets as they are the receivables. Hence, this ratio is about how much part of the total assets is this receivable loan. For the sample on hand, it is worth noting that the loan to total assets ratio for the conventional banks have slowly declined during the years and not affected significantly by the crisis. However, in the same time period, this ratio for Islamic banks has risen slowly. This may show that other assets for Islamic banks have reduced as compared to main current receivable assets. Growth Analysis: Growth analysis is the analysis used to measure and compare the growth rate of a company for different heads of accounts. It could be growth in sales, growth in assets, growth in liabilities, etc. Deposits Growth: First of all, we will look at the growth of the deposits. Although the deposits for banks are the liabilities, it shows the demand for the bank by the customers. If more and more customers start depositing in a bank, the bank is said to be growing in terms of customer base. In other words, the demand for the bank is rising. From the graph taken from the sample, it can clearly be seen that the growth rate of deposits have risen sharply for the Islamic banks. However, there is a major dip after the financial crisis from 35% to 25% in 2008. But after that, it has risen back to around 34% in 2009. In case of the conventional banks, there has been a growth in the deposits, but much slower than the Islamic banks. Also, there is a major dip in growth rate from around 24% in 2006 to around 11% in 2007. And moreover, the recovery that Islamic banks have shown after the crisis was nowhere to be found in our sample of conventional banks. The deposit growth rate rose from around 11% in 2007 to just around 14% in 2009 as compared to 34% for Islamic banks. Equity Growth: The equity growth directly shows the investors (shareholders) confidence as the deposit growth showed the customer confidence in the bank. Hence, it can be said that this ratio directly measures the success of a bank because if the bank is getting success, the shareholders (investors) will be putting in more money as equity to get higher returns in terms of profits. For our sample of the banks from the two systems, we can see that there are ups and downs during the sample time period. Initially, both the conventional banks and the Islamic banks equity growth have risen till 2005. But much before the crisis happened in 2007, there was a fall in investors confidence since 2005 for the conventional banks. This has been shown by the sharp decline in the equity growth from around 49% in 2005 to a mere 12% in 2007 for the conventional banks. But after that there was a sharp increase next year and then it again fell in 2009. But when we see at the Islamic banks, their equity growth was at its highest during 2006 and 2007 at around 55% when this rate was having a free fall for the conventional banks. However, the equity growth rate for Islamic banks also had a major drop in the aftermath of the crisis in 2008 when it dropped to around 22% but then bounced back in 2009. It is worth noting that the growth rate for the last year have increased for the Islamic banks and decreased for the conventional banks, thus setting out a trend for investors confidence in favour of the Islamic banks. From this financial ratio analysis, it can be observed that the Islamic banks were affected lesser than the conventional banks. 1.2 Z-Scores In this case, z-score is the test for financial stability of the two systems. Conven z-score Islamic z-score Overall Avg z-score 2002 7.046525 11.84681784 9.446672 2003 5.77853 4.605240229 5.191885 2004 10.33028 4.238655854 7.284467 2005 8.640415 4.21893723 6.429676 2006 10.80977 9.34741143 10.07859 2007 7.954082 12.91780713 10.43594 2008 6.356607 4.69090727 5.523757 2009 6.103882 5.737315593 5.920599 Avg 7.877512 7.200386572 7.538949 The table above shows the summary of z-scores for both the banking systems and the overall z-score as an average of both. There are some surprising results here. The z-score for Islamic banks is a little less than that of the conventional banks even though the results of the financial ratio analysis showed that the Islamic banks were exposed to less risk as compared to the conventional banks during this period, especially the period of financial crisis. In other words, the conventional banks are a little more financially stable than the Islamic banks. Looking at the trend of the z-scores during our sample time period, the graph shows that on overall, conventional banks z-score was higher thus showing that they were more insolvent as compared to the Islamic banks. However, it can be seen that there was a fall in z-score before and during the crisis in 2006 and 2007 for conventional banks and only during this period, the Islamic banks were less risky. However, the dip in the aftermath of the crisis for the Islamic banks showed that they became riskier especially after the crisis in 2008 and 2009. It is worth noting here that in 2009, the z-score for the conventional banks has a downward trend and for Islamic banks, it is rising. Hence, in the future, it may be predicted when the things get stabled that the Islamic banks would become less risky and more financially stable. Conventional Islamic ROA Equity/Assets Z-Score ROA Equity/Assets Z-Score Average 2.03 0.08 7.88 2.10 0.10 7.20 In the table above, the average results are shown. There is a higher return on assets for the Islamic bank during the period on average, and also a higher share of equity in assets as compared to the conventional banks. However, the z-score on average is lower for Islamic banks as compared to the conventional banks thus telling that even though there is less ROA and equity share in the assets for the conventional banks, they are more stable financially and have lesser risk for solvency. However, as mentioned earlier, there is a rising trend for the Islamic banks at the moment. Hence, once the dust settles down, we can have a clearer picture of the future of the two systems. However, the slight variations in the z-score do not differentiate the financial stability of the two banking systems by very much. Hence, it would be unwise to conclude something here at this point of time. 1.3 Regression Analysis Overall Regression: SUMMARY OUTPUT Regression Statistics Multiple R 0.803713 R Square 0.645954 Adjusted R Square 0.173893 Standard Error 1.94228 Observations 8

Hulot in Mon Oncle :: Jacques Tati Charlie Chaplin

Jacques Tati’s irrepressible Mr. Hulot, along with Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp character, is one of the greatest examples of the everyman. He walks through life with a whimsy that becomes his trademark. Although dialogue is sparse, he exposes the curious intricacies of life from behind his trenchcoat and pipe. In Mon Oncle, Hulot goes on outings with his nephew while Tati elucidates the rather arduous issues of modernity. Hulot goes back and forth between the bourgeois neighborhood and what can only be described as the â€Å"modern sector† with a carelessness shared only by the mischievous children and lackadaisical canines that roam the streets. Hulot has no job, but his days remain filled with admiring children, the talkative street-folk and vendors, and his meddling sister in the modern sector. Altogether, the film has one of the most meager, yet clever uses of sound. Tati can do more with periodic buzzers and whistles than the average film could achieve with all of its modern technology, which is concomitant with the issues within the film. The only two exceptions to the slight soundtrack are the clamorous and deafening sounds of construction during the opening sequence and the technological mishaps at the plastic factory, both being examples of the entropy of modern life. While Hulot’s sister and her husband stammer around figuring out whether their awkward fountain is spouting or the phone is ringing, the altruistic Hulot contorts his window so the reflection prompts a caged bird to sing with delight. Tati parodies the sterile efficiency of the modern sector. First there is a montage of cars, each traveling at a uniform distance from the next, never an arrow unfollowed. In comparison, the Arpels (the sister’s family) step clumsily along the circuitous stone paths in their garden. The ineffable Hulot chooses either to walk freely, incongruous with the paths that have been laid out, or to navigate them deftly as if he were engaged in a game of hopscotch like the little children outside of his house. At times, Hulot can maneuver the cobblestones with obliviousness shared only by the family’s dachshund. The people’s movements in deference to the courtyard’s gravel squares are reminiscent of the characters moving around the checkerboard floors of a country estate in Renoir’s Rules of the Game (1939). The silly characters of Mon Oncle play around in a modern world that makes little sense to Hulot. He finds himself uncomfortable with the strange angles of the art-deco chair and grimaces humorously. His bout with the futuristic kitchen brings to memory a similar scene in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936) in which an unsuspecting

Arnott

Problems exist through the current limited business scope to make ends meet. It also appears that the move to expand (diversify the business is meeting with â€Å"opposition† from ‘long -time employed' staff, major ‘obstacles' to the company's growth through diversifying the activities by introducing a new project have been identified and must be dealt with as far as possible and as quickly as possible by employing the strategies mentioned in my recommendations. A satisfactory resolution can only bring about a much more stable working environment and hopefully, greater profitability and business expansion.Background details: The main parts of the problems, from the company's historical background and the current situation, have come about as a result of the economic recession and the anti-change attitudes of the present staff-in particular of the inconsiderateness of the Project Manager. The business suffered significantly as a result of the drought years; the need for new grain silos diminished and resulted with a negative impact on the Company. The Managing Director correctly saw the need for expansion and diversification – especially when the company's infrastructure and staff expertise could be utilizes for the purpose.An opportunity presented itself when Christine met an old friend, Philip Thomson, who had successfully done an engineering project overseas. Another opportunity for expansion also came when It was found that a new Freeway Infrastructure was to be built using steelwork beams which the Arrant engineering firm could produce using skills Like those possessed by Phillip Thomson. The bid for the production of the beams was successfully made, with a time frame of six-months for completion. However, problems arose immediately: there were staff resentments, â€Å"unnecessary' delays occurred, and it appeared staff were â€Å"sabotaging† he project.The â€Å"old-timers† within the staff resisted change, and were resentful of the fact that they were not consulted- and used the excuse that Instructions were not ‘clear enough, that correct specifications for constructing the curved steel beams were not clearly explained to the staff, in particular, to the designer. As a result, two beams became ‘useless' and three weeks of time wasted. Major Recommendations: I would suggest Immediate action be taken to halt further production of the steel beams, In order to avoid additional losses through labor and material costs.The Motor Vehicle Freeway Infrastructure Project Authority should be contacted to inform them that there in some slight problem being experienced with the construction of the steel beams and there might be a minor delay with the completion of the 12 bridge support beams. However, your company will do its best to complete the work on time. Provide updates frequently. If necessary, suspend all bonuses to staff, with survival would be greatly, if not totally, reduced or elim inated. Have a meeting with the three senior staff members: the Project Manager, David Dobson, the QualityAssurance Manager, Heath Jones, and Philip Thomson, the new Project Manager in charge of the steel beams manufacture. Impress on them the need for the successful completion of the project as specified, and on time. If this doesn't happen then all will be lost, and most likely the Company will fold up and go under. The survival of the company is paramount; it is more important than the resentment of an individual or the unchanging views of a few. The result will affect all staff members. Success would bring greater opportunities for expansion and progress- of the Company and its staff.Mention that the current industry (the production of grain silos) has reached saturation point. Expansion and diversification is vital to industries, big or small, if they want to survive and be competitive. Seek ‘contributory remarks' and suggestions as to how the company can complete the new project work on time. The involvement would no doubt be seen as a Joint decision-making exercise, and would be more acceptable to the other staff members. Suggest that the new project must be considered more urgent, and in need of total support and commitment. All â€Å"surviving† companies have had to diversify in order to expand and prosper.Consider, when, or if the new project is successful, about establishing new â€Å"departments† within the company, so that the existing staff can be incorporated into either the ‘old' grain silos production section or move to the newer project areas whatever they may be in the future. Also consider the re-training of existing staff if seen appropriate. As well (and in complete confidence) the removal or retrenchment, of a trouble- maker' may be necessary, for the sake of the company's survival. Suggest that any further delays or ‘sabotaging of the Project would result in closure – and the end of all benefits.

Ethics on Walt Disney

According to an article from The New York Times, on May 9, 2012 The Walt Disney Company’s profits had grown up to 21% at Disney’s Cable TV gains and a surge in Resorts Business. Thanks to climbing ad sales and subscription fees at ESPN, another cable channel like ABCfamily has also helped the Walt Disney Company. Its quarterly profit 21% To $1. 14 billion dollars. The article started off by stating that Disney’s financial reported a Growth on retail sales report. In addition an operating income at Walt Disney Company Park and Resorts Surged 53% to $222 million dollars.A reason for this division growth was that they had high spenders. Which meant they wasted money on Disney’s products and not only that but there attendance increased on almost all there resorts worldwide. Just like in Tokyo an increase in spending up to 5%. This is ethical, because it shows that the resorts must be doing well that means people are going and spending their money even with thi s recession. Besides this there is an issue that Disney’s studios faced after filming the movie John Carter but they had a solution. After they had lost money from that movie they also had losses from media networks.Because As the result that they were working on their interactive media. Aside from their losses, Disney reported earnings per share of 58 cents for the quarter. Up to 18% from 49 cents a year earlier. Not only had that but Analyst expected Earnings per share of 56 cents. In the other hand there was revenue 6% to $9. 6 billion. This shows that it was am improvement for Walt Disney they do there accountings in an Ethical manner. Another good ethics of Walt Disney is there television portfolio, since they have a variety of studios.They manage different channels like sports and family channels that helps them set apart from there competition. ESPN is by the largest contributor to Disney’s overall probability. â€Å"Quite well positioned to remain the pre-emin ent sports brand,† said Disney Chairman Robert I. Iger. This statement shows that ESPN is doing a good job as it should and shows that not only that. But ESPN is still growing with their subscribers and fees. Lastly in the article, it states that since the release of the movie Marvel Inc. The movie has recorded the biggest opening. â€Å"It’s a great illustration of why we like Marvel Inc. o much. † Said Mr. Iger. In my opinion I think the Walt Disney Company is very successful. They have been around the business for quite a while. Not only that but they made products and films that are worth value. Great film from back in the days and still going on now. The Walt Disney Company hires employees and trains them to their best ability which not many companies do. They require safety and have their business standards set well. Just how their profits have increased. That’s shows their doing a well ethical job. They may not be perfect but they sure have accounti ng set well in their business.Because the fact that if they didn’t Walt Disney would be as well-known. Their resorts wouldn’t be considered one of the happiest places on earth. This Article states the ethical manner that Walt Disney has done yet they had issues but still they overcome them just like how ethical companies should. The Walt Disney Company hasn’t been affected in a huge drastic way that other companies have been affected. But yet I think that is example that an ethical company leads and that is Walt Disney. REFERENCE http://query. nytimes. com/gst/fullpage. html? res=9C01EFD9133AF93AA35756C0A9649D8B63&ref=brooksbarnes