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FORCE MANAGEMENT: FORM & JUSTIFICATION
INTRODUCTION
Just as it would be in any other organization, there is need to have mechanisms in place to aid in the management of a force. It would be naive to assume that in terms of organizational management, in the context of the forces, there is no need for management. This brief discussion paper aims to enumerate the different aspects of force management and discusses the different bases for the establishment of clear structure for force management. This paper is divided into four thematic areas. There shall be an attempt to ensure that there is synergy in the presentation.
THE PHASES OF FORCE DEVELOPMENT
As rightfully enumerated, force management entails, among other things development of organizational models, determination of organizational authorizations and document organizational authorizations. The three speak to different issues and needs in the superstructure of force management. For instance the development of organizational models comes first because it helps the management have a clear variety of models that can be adopted.
Secondly, the determination of authorization models ensures that there are clear hierarchical structures that can be exploited before an officer gets authorization to deal with a particular issue. This may be as serious as activities in the field of fire or simple administrative decisions at the camp. The last head among the three is the question of document organizational authorizations. There reaches a point where there is need for express and documented authorization for the carrying out of particular tasks.
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This part attempts to highlight the features of the paper on the foregoing. The Paper notes the evolving needs of the army and the USA at large and points out that the same must have an influence on how the United States treats and organizes its army. In a world where the interests of the states remain the same, there is an evolution in the form of the threats that the USA is facing.
This makes it a necessity to change the arrangement after reflection albeit the formation of the army in combat remains the same. The paper spells out the numbers that are already being scaled down be it those in the reserve or those in active combat. Importantly, the report noted the constant state of the government of the United States which is in a constant state of deficit which is intricately tied to the foreign interests of the United States.
In light of the foregoing, turn to the question of which of the three processes is going to be most affected by the issues enumerated by the paper. The paper comes at a time that the force is retreating form war. This is after more than a decade of are in Iraq and we are having the nature of combat in Afghanistan slowly evolving. I submit that the factor that is going to be most has to be the organizational models that are to be adopted going forward. With less direct combat the models of the force are going to change substantially.
This explains the reason why there is an ongoing research according to General Odierno which aims to help the force understand some of the best models that will work going forward.[2] It is suggested by the general that there is a real possibility that going forward, the nature of the military shall take the form of an expeditionary force which will be leaner and more efficient in light of the needs of the time and the overall budget of the united states of America.
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REFORM OF THE ACQUISITION SYSTEM: BETTER AUTHOTITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITY
There is definitely need to reform the force acquisition systems. The CRS Report discusses this extensively and specifically elucidates the issues surrounding question of accountability. The Report notes that the bases for reform range from the increased complexity of the acquisition process, the fluidity of the process which constantly changes thanks to legislative process, the slowly changing landscape of the acquisition process and the persisting costs and low performance.
There have been successful effort of reform. The Example given by Moshe is the Weapon Systems Acquisitions Reform Act of 2009. As noted, this Act did not bring in wide sweeping changes. It was pigeon holed to reform in the area of initial stages of acquisition and this explains why there was the creation of the portfolio of the Director of Cost Assessment and Project Evaluation, Director of Developmental Test and Evaluation, Director of Systems Engineering among others.
It is clear from a keen reading of the Act and its provisions that the intention of Congress was to insulate the government form faulty acquisitions of weapons which may fail after a lot of expenditure is incurred to purchase them.
However, a more important area of reform is what Moshe terms establishment of authority and accountability in the process of acquisition. In this area, we need to allow those persons with responsibility to be given the lee way to do what they are expected to do. For instance if a person is given the responsibility to deal with analyzing the potency of a particular product being purchased form a particular supplier, there should be a framework within which he is allowed to do so with little interference.
The problem we have currently is that ta large number of people can say no to the execution of diverse mandates regardless of how insignificant the said mandate is. In this case, we end up having bottlenecks on the form of bureaucracies. Ultimately, the process of acquisition is made slower and more costly. Suppliers would then rather deal with others or in more efficient markets and products.
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NEWLY PROPOSED INTEGRATION MODEL AND THE CHALLENGES THAT ABOUND
The lapse of a phase of war has necessitated the rearrangement of the outlook of the army to suit the changed times. The new model is based on the resource priority list which has, a priori, evolved with the times. As mentioned by General Ordieno, the budgetary constrictions require that the army strategizes on how it can continually have its presence felt effectively in the new era without drastically reducing its capacity and capabilities as one of the most lethal and well equipped armies in the whole world. A new outlook is being proposed.
According to the 2013 Army Strategic Planning Guidance, the aim is to sustain the capability of the army to meet its current and emerging combatant and commander requirements. A keen analysis of the proposed changes show that there is a greater preference for an army that strikes a balance between its active and reserve troops in a model that can actively deploy the said armies rapidly and flexibly. This new model deals with the question of excess costs which are often not required in times when there is heightened sensitivity on issues of budgetary allocations.
The new model will consist of a mission force pool, a rotational force pool and an operational sustenance force pool. The mission force pool is a force that is ever ready and is properly trained for combat for instance the 20th Support Command which will be maintained at the highest readiness level. The second pool will be manned and be fully equipped. These units move through the Reset, Train/ Ready, and Available cycles in preparation for a rotation into a known deployment.[5] The last category will not be fully equipped as those already deployed as the preceding two categories. They will be trained based on available training days.
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The challenge as noted by Odierno begins with proper financing of all these categories. Certainly, having a typology that only mans and equips according to need is efficient and sustainable only to the extent that there do not arise situations which overwhelm and require rapid deployment leading to an exhaustion of the standing and current combat battalions. An example is that troops such as the Calvary Regiment at the National Training Centre may end up being overwhelmed in case they are suddenly required for deployment.
RELIANCE ON COTRACT SUPPORT
I think that it is right for the army to reduce its reliance on contract support. As rightly pointed out by General Odierno, these are times when the overwhelming need for such contracts during the Iraqi and Afghan wars have reduced. The buildup in terms of orders that were put to the army reached unprecedented levels and it might be wise if the reliance on such contacts is cut down. The supply of goods and services on the basis of contracts cannot possibly be done away with entirely. However, to increase efficiency and cut down on expenditure it is a wise move to continue the reduction efforts.
Foremost, this will cut down on costs if the army personnel are properly equipped to deal with the issues of supply and demand themselves. This may take the form of equipping them with skills to maintain our systems. The officers better understand the needs of the army and in the event they are properly trained to deal, there will be a reduced rate of error and the civilians will be allowed to deal with civilian affairs.
Secondly, over the period, it has been discovered that some of those tasks were inherently public functions and could be better performed by army civilians as opposed to private individuals. This saw the conversion of thousands of portfolios into state jobs which however the same period has cut down operation costs by over 13%.
HQ, Department of the Army G8, Army Equipping Guidance 2013 through 2016 (Washington, DC: HQDA, 20 June 2013), 18-19
Statement of Moshe Schwartz Specialist in Defence Acquisition Before the Committee on Armed Services, Twenty-Five Years of Acquisition Reform: Where Do We Go from Here 29 October 2013. (On file with author)
[3] See the Statement of Moshe Schwartz Specialist in Defence Acquisition Before the Committee on Armed Services, Twenty-Five Years of Acquisition Reform: Where Do We Go from Here 29 October 2013. (On file with author)
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Transocean Strategic Management
1.0 Introduction
The paper will evaluate the strategic position of Transocean, a major player in global offshore drilling services in the oil and gas industry. Strategic management is a process that entails formulating and implementing main objectives as well as initiatives a company takes based on the available resources. It also takes into consideration the evaluation of external and internal environment in which the firm operates.
Founded in 1953, the company is headquartered in Houston Texas. Transocean administrative division has since shifted to Vernier, Switzerland for tax and client servicing reasons. Various models such as STEEPLE, Ansoff and Porter’s Five Forces will be used to paint the company’s strategic position when it comes to, macro-environmental review, competition, diversification strategy, market development, product development and market penetration. To wrap up, the paper will make recommendations regarding the direction the company has to take to remain sustainable.
1.1 Analysis of Transocean Limited
Transocean is a prominent global provider when it comes to offshore drilling services for energy establishments. The company owns and operates the world’s most multipurpose flotillas that concentrate on deep-sea and extremely harsh environment drilling (Deepwater.com, 2016). With a fleet of sixty-one portable offshore drilling components, the company offers powerful rigs for deepsea drilling. Transocean helps clients to establish and develop oil as well as natural gas stockpiles.
The company offers an exceptional drilling performance that is anchored in a solid experience that spans more than a half a century. Transocean shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the acronym RIG and Swiss Stock Market under the acronym RIGN.Transocean operates more than 140 offshore rigs in almost all mainmarine markets. Apart from offering drilling services offshore, the company offersdrill management services globally. Transocean operates not just the largest extreme-deepsea flotilla of drill ships global, but it is also the largest offshore fleet worldwide.
The company hires more than 20,000 employees with the technical expertise that is the envy of their business rivals(Deepwater.com, 2016). Moreover, Transocean provides management and accomplishment services for assessment and production firms regarding offshore drilling schedules. The company’s mission is to become a leading offshore drilling organisation that provides rig-based services with a global reach, by incorporating a highly dedicated workforce,state of the art machinery and ultra-modern technology, while concentrating on technically demanding environments (Transocean, 2007b)..
The company is dedicated to values that represent its focus, innovativeness, safety, trust and reliability. The company promises to surpass not just the anticipations of theclient, but employees and shareholders as well (Deepwater.com, 2016). Transocean’s strategic goals include getting aligned with its customers when it comes to supporting and ensuring delivery of clients’ business objectives.
The company conducts its operations with distinction which is characterized by safety and efficientoffshore solutions (Deepwater.com, 2016). In addition,Transocean keeps on enhancing its corporate culture and processes to optimize returns. Lastly, the company not only attracts but also nurtures and retains the industry’s best employees.
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2.0 Industry Trends
Drilling oil and gas was previously dependent on backlogs. Contract bores alter their rates based on their rig charges relative to retailing oil and gas prices. Usually, contract bores tend to wait on the day down, and speedily adjust their prices upwards depending on how the markets are performing (Redall, 2012). There has been a widespread pattern of extreme deepsea rig business with strong daily charges.
However, there has been a downward trend in mid-water rig markets. The most lucrative market lies of the Gulf of Mexico and West African coastal line, down to the south of Africa. The demand for deep-sea rigs is anticipated to remain jerky in the short-term(Helman, 2015).As of now, approximately 206 floaters are operating under contract across the industry (Deepwater.com, 2016).A large percentage of the total number is idle for completing major contracts.
3.0 Analysis the different types of strategic options
3.1Ansoff Matrix:
Existing Markets
Market Penetration
Product Development
New Markets
Market Development
Diversification
Existing Products
New Products
Transocean is a dominant player in a market that is not highly saturated. However, to remain at an edge over its closest business rivals, the company has adopted different approaches. Based on the Ansoff matrix, Transocean has been using a low pricing model to penetrate the market. When it comes to market development, Transocean has been offering ultra-deepsea drilling and management services in various parts of the world. What makes the company the envy of its business rivals is the fact that Transocean’s product development strategy works magic. Apart from ultra-deepsea boring services, the company offers rig and deepsea drilling consultancy services which is certainly some form of diversification hence competitive edge.
In short, Transocean operates in the same market by adopting a horizontal strategy in terms of expanding the product line. Lastly, Transocean has a predominantly diversified portfolio. To diversify risks, the company has necessitated mergers and acquisitions when it comes to financial management and technical expertise. The company operates in various regions such as the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, Middle East and the Arctic.
3.2Porter’s Five Forces
3.2.1Competition
Transocean threat of competition is moderate to high. For example, following a merge in mid-2007 between Rig and Transocean’s chief rival Global Sante Fe, this attempt reduced competition particularly, in ultra deep-water segments. While Transocean has almost a monopoly in ultra deep-water drilling, It is likely to enjoy less competition in ultra deep-water, especially in harsh climates that require technical personnel.
In fact, this contributed to the need for anti-trust lawsuit following the merger between RIG and GSF. Nonetheless, the firm has exposure to different offshore markets such as jackupsegment that is associated with intense competition in various regions globally as well as pricing (Porter, 2008). By and large, the organisation has less competition in ultra deep-water segments, with a somewhat intense competition in mid-water floater and also jackup segments.
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3.2.2 New entrants
Transocean enjoys a low threat of new entrants. With respect to offshore contract drilling sector, it requires huge investment in fleet and rigs before getting inflows from gas and oil organisations (Porter, 2008). This makes nearly impossible for new firms to enter this sector.
3.2.3 Substitute
The main threat of substitute is the changing the energy source from hydrocarbon to renewable sources across the world, which is not likely in the short-run (Turner, 2007). Therefore, the threat of substitute is low.
3.2.4Purchasing power
Transocean’s purchasing power is moderate. Much as exploration and production firms have power when it comes to negotiating, especially in mid-water floaters and jackupsegments, they have sufficient ability and provision of idle rigs. In essence, the buyers are in aposition to negotiate low daily rates in the contracts while ultra deep water segments maintain stringent rates (Schlumberger, 2008).
3.2.5Suppliers’ power
The supplier power is moderate. Transocean providers have some degree of power. For instance, suppliers like National Oilwell Varco take part in the decision making in constructing Transocean’srigs andother essential parts. Luckily, this is crucial for Transocean since National Oilwell Varco has a few plans of increasing the fleet of drillships. In general, benefits from pricing since they are the main clients to themajority of their specialised providers (Porter, 2008).
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3.3 STEEPLE
3.3.1 Social
The organisation takes part in various social activities, including charitable contributions to developing environmental initiatives to increase its reputation.
3.3.2 Technological
Technology is necessaryfor drilling sector as such Transocean gets its strength in technological development. While oil drilling and the ecology are related, so is technology and demand. Drilling in deepwater is more and more vital from drilling organisations since they are considered to be more profitable. The firm is positioning itself to capitalize in this segment. For instance, in 2007, Transocean acquired a drillship worth USD 470m to take advantage of deep-water drilling, which allows the firm to drill up to ten thousand feet.
Due to advanced underwater drilling, there has been a decrease in jackup rigs demand (Associated Press, 2007). This presentsTransoceanwith the opportunity to beat their rivals like Noble Corporation in the struggle for innovation. Currently, the firm is leading in deep-water exploration (Katsaros & Christy, 2005).
3.3.3 Economic
Cost is a major challenge for drilling organisations. As oil price rises, the cash flow increases too, which makes organisationsinvest considerably in drilling activities? Furthermore, the new techniques of recovering oil though they are essential in the growth of petroleum production, are leading to an increase in the gasoline price. Implicitly, thehigh price of oilis required to make drilling firms profitable. High global investment drives drilling.
With great interest to drill in foreign regions, global investors are significantly investing, hence leading to expansionof oil and gas sector (Maksoud, 2007).Even though raising oil cost will adversely influence Transocean, in reality, will be beneficial in the long run. Oil cost is inelastic. In other words, afluctuation will insignificantly affect demand. Therefore, increasing oil prices willboost cash flow for Transocean, which means additional business like funding new drilling projects.
3.4.4 Environmental
On environmental protection, Transocean is committed to enhancing its stringent police on Environmentalmanagement system (EMS). Transocean’s EMS visitation is conducting its operations in a standardised manner that fulfills the high levels of stipulated laws to drive continuous enhancements while instilling ownership across its facilities (Transocean, 2007a). The organisation is environmentally sustainable by way of using green products and assessment is utilized as part of routine operations.
The firm also focuses on recycling. Additionally, Transocean has set up a recycling plan, where recyclables are sorted and compressed in rigs. After compression, they are transported to Tech Oil Products and donated to a recycling hub in the ARC of Iberia.
Transocean has collaborated with different oil and gas firms such as Subsea 7, and BP in the SERPENT project. Thisentails necessitating access to the installations, in partnership with their customers to present scientific knowledge to experts in the SERPENT project (Dictionary.Cambridge 2012). In turn, the analysts conduct various projects including assessing biodiversity and effects of drilling on the environment.
The analysts also work on the company’s rigs to study marine species (Transocean, 2007a). By and large, Transocean protects the environment in which it operates to demonstrate that the company recognises the consequences of natural demand shifters.
3.4.5 Political/Legal
Oil presents this organisation with a strong political force. Because oil is the primary source of energy internationally, thus, the supply of oil is related to power regardingpolitics; oil firms leverage authority over regimes (Dictionary.Cambridge 2012). With no oil organisations, United States is likely to lose its dominance in developing nations remarkably. Though oil drilling firms are fundamental in giving regimes the authority, they are still regulated and work as per government laws, such as prohibiting drilling in particular regions like the Gulf of Mexico to protect the environment.
In 2007, the Congress was promoting the closure of a quarter-century ban on the production of offshore energy. This decree banned 85 percent of all drilling in United States’ continental shelf, greatly affecting oil drilling firms including Transocean (Kamalick, 2007). Furthermore, the Congress were supporting the opening of additional shorelines, which was associated with renewable sources of energy, as such they sought for support from environmentalists. While regimes exercise their authority on oil and gas providers, these providers, in turn, have authority over the very regimes.
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3.4.6Ethical Standards
Transocean aspires to ensure financial discipline in their disclosure, honesty and candor in all their engagements with clients, ahigh esteem for employees, customers and suppliers, the safety of employees, property and the ecosystem and technical leadership. Loyalty to these core values demands the company to execute its operations in tandem with thelaw and the utmost standards of business ethics.
In advancing that objective, the company embraces the Code of Business Conduct and Morality, the firm’s environment is also a corrupt free zone and an Anti-Corruption and Business Conduct Policy takes care of that. Again, directors and employees are not allowed to enhance the culture of inside trading. Nonetheless, all employees should adhere to the privacy policy.
4.0 Recommendations
Since oil is directly associated with international authority, oil drilling organisations have authority over regimes, nevertheless, with another alternative, Transocean should continuously go this direction to maintain the lead if the primary source changes
Much as the company has advanced drillship tools, it should take a notch higher by researching new products in comparison to its rivals.When it comes to maintaining competitiveness in oil and gas industry, Transocean should use differentiation strategy that will be vital in developing clients’feedback and service delivery. The differentiation strategy should focus on quality rigs, particularlydeep-water drilling and ability to survive environmental disasters such as hurricanes.
While this threat of substitute islow, in future it may reduce the demand for oil. For that reason, Transocean should create awareness among clients about the benefits of oil in comparison to other energy sources. This can be carried out through advertisements. For instance, the organisation should use ads that demonstrate even with the use of alternative sources such as ethanol, which is considered environmentally sustainable compared to oil. Ethanol requires aconsiderable quantity of biomass. In the even that US, ethanol from corn is employed on a large scale, then it will contribute to increased costs of corn.
The prices of beef will also skyrocket remarkably as cows feed on corn products. On the other hand, if Brazilian corn is used thatis produced from sugar; rainforests in the region will be cut to provide land to grow sugar. Creating awareness through ads will help Transocean increase the demand for oil while increasing the demand for petroleum products from the company.
The company should embrace Ansoff model to diversify its portfolio. Instead of concentrating on drilling and consultancy, the company can take a leap of faith and venture in other business like marine transport, finance, healthcare, real-estate, heavy metal processing among others. Diversification is critical because it will help the company spread risks, when oil business is at its low.
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5.0 Conclusion
The study set out to evaluate Transocean position in the offshore drilling services. The company’s background, values and strategic goals were highlighted at the outset. To understand the company’s product and market development; market penetration and diversification, the Ansoff Matrix was used. The Porter’s Five Forces were employed to establish the intensity of the competition. However, STEEPLE model was used to evaluating the company macro-environment. In the end, the paper touched on the best practices as assured by ethics codes. Recommendations were made regarding the corporation’s future.
6.0 Bibliography
Associated Press 2007. JP Morgan Securities analyst upgrades GlobalSantaFe, Transocean to “neutral.” Retrieved 17th March. 2016 from Factiva.
Berman, A. 2007. Drilling advances. World Oil, 19. Retrieved March 17, 2016 from Business Source Premier Database
Deep Sea Drilling Project 2015.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2015. Encyclopedia.com. 17 Mar. 2016 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
How Is Globalization Affecting the Key Actors in the International System?
Introduction
Globalization basically has no precise definition. In actual fact, globalization is in danger of becoming the truism of the modern era. Even so, the word globalization encompasses aspects of an extensive perception that there is a widening, deepening and accelerating of global interconnectedness in virtually every aspect of life (Rourke & Boyer, 2000).
At the core of globalization is a global shift; meaning, the globe being shaped by technological and economic forces, into a collective political and economic arena. The three main perspectives with regard to globalization include transformationalist, the sceptical, and the hyperglobalist viewpoints (Verma & Singh, 2010).
Hyperglobalists: those who hold this viewpoint maintain the world today is a more and more global world wherein countries are being subject to immense political as well as economic processes of transformation. These processes serve to erode and fragment countries and reduce the power of political leaders. In circumstances such as these ones, countries are becoming gradually more the ‘decision- takers’ rather than the ‘decision-makers’ (D’Anieri, 2011). The sceptical: those with this viewpoint strongly oppose the perspective of hyperglobalists and maintain that present-day global circumstances are not unprecedented.
According to them, although there has been an increase in social and international activity in the past few years, this has served to reinforce and enhance the powers of state in a number of domains (D’Anieri, 2011). Transformationalists: those who have this view maintain that globalization is producing novel economic, political as well as social situations that are actually altering powers of the state and the context wherein countries operate. Transformationalists do not try to envisage the outcome (Popa, 2014). They maintain that it is uncertain – but assert that politics is not just rooted in nation-states.
Globalization
Globalization can suitably be seen as a process which exemplifies a change in the spatial organization of social transactions as well as relations, resulting in interregional or transcontinental flows and networks of activities, interaction as well as power (Kilic, 2015). Globalization is typified by the following: integration of international/global economic decision-making, integration of international economic decision-making, exponential growth in global fiscal transactions, increases in global Non-Governmental Organizations and Activities (NGOs), and strengthened political International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006).
Furthermore, globalization is typified by 4 kinds of change:
(i) globalization entails a stretching of economic, political and social activities across political regions, frontiers, and countries.
(ii) Globalization involves the intensification of interconnectedness as well as flows of migration, finance, investment, and trade.
(iii) The increasing intensity and extensity of international interconnectedness could be associated with an increase of international processes and interactions, as the development of global communication and transport systems increases the rate of the dissemination of information, capital, people, goods and ideas (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006).
(iv) The rising intensity, extensity and rate of international interactions can be linked to their increasing impact such that the effects of distant occurrences could be very considerable in other places.
In fact, the most local events and occurrences could have considerable international implications. As such, the boundaries between international affairs and domestic matters can become more and more blurred. On the whole, globalization could be described as the broadening, increasing, accelerating and rising impact of international interconnectedness (Nederveen & Dasgupta, 2009). When globalization is thought of in this manner, then patterns of international relations and connections could be empirically mapped in all major domains of human activity.
Principal actors in international system
In the international system, the key actors include country government, international organizations, non-government organizations, multinational enterprises, inter-governmental organizations, and transnational corporations.
State Actors
On the modern world stage, the state is certainly one of the oldest and universally recognized actors. A State refers to a political unit which has sovereignty over a territory and the citizens in that territory (Gaur, 2015). Examples of states include sovereign country governments such as Italy, Canada, USA, UK, and Egypt among other countries.
Intergovernmental Organizations
Even as States are still the leading and main actors on the global stage, other important actors also exist such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). These are created by states, often through a treaty. The common IGOs are International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, International Criminal Police Organizations, and the World Bank Group. IGOs mainly do not have a way of enforcing state compliance with their decisions, perhaps except with the assistance of powerful nations (Kegley Jr. & Wittkopf, 2004).
Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
Not every actor on the world’s stage has governmental roles. NGOs are essentially not-for-profit voluntary organizations which support public good or pursue it. These organizations are by and large involved in such things as economic development, issues pertaining to human rights, social welfare, as well as humanitarian assistance. Common non-governmental organizations are Greenpeace, the Amnesty International, Oxfam, and the Red Cross (Nederveen, & Dasgupta, 2009).
Multinational Enterprises
Theother significant grouping of actors comprises multinational enterprises (MNEs). These are for-profit organizations with presence in more than 1 country. It is notable that some multinational enterprises such as Sony, General Electric, General Motors, and Wal-mart have very large amounts of monetary resources that equal or exceed the resources of smaller nations like Burundi, Fiji and Somalia. It is notable that an MNE’s interests do not essentially coincide with those of the countries wherein they do business, or even the MNE’s home country (Seitan, 2014).
Sub-state actors or domestic actors
These comprise groups of persons who have the same interests not beyond the countries which can affect the foreign policy of the State. Examples include tobacco sector and automobile sector in USA. These sectors, in essence, have interests in the country’s foreign fiscal policy so that they may sell automobiles or cigarette products overseas and decrease importations of competing products produced overseas. They can influence the decisions made with regard to their country’s laws with the aim of protecting the rights of workers (Antonelli, & Fassio, 2016).
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Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)
These are organizations whose members comprise at least 3 countries. These organizations are formed by countries to resolve common problems that give them authority of making collective decisions to deal with various problems and issues on the international agenda (Francioni, Musso & Vardiabasis, 2013). In IGOs, the representatives of country governments assemble to talk about issues which are of shared interests to member countries. There are 2 major kinds of Intergovernmental Organizations: the global Intergovernmental Organizations and the regional Intergovernmental Organizations.
Global Intergovernmental Organizations are organizations with universal or nearly universal membership; this means that each country is a member such as the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and the United Nations. Regional Intergovernmental Organizations are essentially a subset of countries as members basing upon a certain interest or region, for instance the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Kegley Jr. & Wittkopf, 2004).
There are several reasons that cause countries to create or join Intergovernmental Organization. As per liberal institutionalism, states form Intergovernmental Organizations since it is in their best interest to form. With Intergovernmental Organizations, some problems or issues could be resolved easily and cheaper than without them. In particular, liberal institutionalism is focused on collective problems, for instance the security dilemma, the appeal to execute competitive tariffs, as well as the difficulty in agreeing to protect the environment (Art & Jervis, 2011).
Countries should correspond with one another and oversee other countries in order to ensure that they are actually sticking to their commitments to acknowledge many of the problems. For instance, in the case of free trade, the World Trade Organization was created to coordinate the negotiation of tariffs and offer a mechanism for dispute resolution. Some of these tasks may be more complex and costly to implement without the Intergovernmental Organizations (Taylor et al., 2014).
There are times in which Intergovernmental Organizations are not only formed to resolve problems but also to offer a platform for discussing crucial issues (Art & Jervis, 2011). The United Nations General Assembly has no predetermined agenda but offers a forum for countries to talk about and debate matters that come up. Likewise, one of the goals of the World Trade Organization is to organize meetings at which countries would negotiate to resolve major issues (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006).
Common Intergovernmental organizations and their functions
The United Nations: This is in charge of maintaining international peace and security. It also develops friendly relations amongst countries. It also seeks to accomplish international cooperation in resolving global problems. Furthermore, it functions as a center for harmonizing the actions of states. World Trade Organization: this organization manages disputes that arise from trading partners.
It also monitors trade in agriculture and manufacture commodities. ASEAN: this organization promotes regional economic, social and culture cooperation amongst the nations situated in the Southeast Asia region (Vadlamannati, 2015). NATO: this organization is a system of joint defense in which the member countries agree to collective defense in response to a military attack by a country that is not a NATO member state.
Transnational Actors
These are actors which function below the state level. However, they function across the state borders. The 2 sorts of transnational actors include nongovernmental organizations and multinational/transnational corporations. Multinational/Transnational Corporations: Multinational corporations are firms which have headquarters in one country but do business extensively in other countries. Such companies are based in one country but have divisions that operate in other nations (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006). Put simply, such a firm is a big organization operating globally in different nations at the same time, with fixed facilities and staff members in state.
Types of multinational companies
Industrial corporations manufacture their products in production facilities in different states and sell them to businesses and clients located in different states. The biggest multinational companies operate in the automobile, oil and electronic industries. Virtually every multinational corporation has its headquarters in the Group of Seven countries. Examples of these firms include Sony, Honda, Toyota, BP, BMW, General Motors, Wal-Mart, Total and Apple. Financial institutions like banks: these do business globally but have more restrictions compared to industrial corporations (Mehrabanfar, 2015). Examples include international airlines like Asiana Airlines, Virgin Atlantic; Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Sheraton; and services like McDonald’s fast-food chain.
Multinational corporations are becoming more and more powerful as autonomous actors. A lot of the industrial multinational corporations, Wal-Mart for instance, have yearly revenues of tens of billions of dollars annually. Multinational corporations can match most global companies in monetary resources as well as size. The biggest intergovernmental organizations, which is the United Nations, has an estimated two billion dollars annual revenue, which is really small in comparison to over 250 billion dollars for the largest multinational corporations.
The biggest country economically, USA, has government revenues of over $2 trillion annually. This clearly demonstrates that the power of multinational corporations does not rival the biggest countries but in fact surpasses a lot of poorer countries (Francioni, Musso & Vardiabasis, 2013). Multinational corporations are viewed as citizens of the world and they are beholden to not any government.
Head of Dow Chemicals Company once envisioned to purchase an island to construct the company’s head office. In such view, multinational corporations act internationally in the interests of their global stockholders. In actual fact, they do not owe loyalty to any country. Multinational corporations are motivated by the need to maximize profitability (Nederveen, & Dasgupta, 2009).
The operations of multinational corporations support an international business infrastructure linking a global community of businesspersons. For instance, an American manager who arrives in Tokyo Japan does not find a confusing and puzzling scene of strange customs, locations, as well as languages. Instead, this manager would be able to move through a known series of faxes and telephone calls, multinational hotels, airport lounges, business conference facilities, and international news broadcasts – most likely hearing the English language spoken in all of these (Mehrabanfar, 2015).
Moreover, multinational corporations contribute to the development of their host country. As transnational companies operate in other countries, they create job opportunities for the locals in that country and in so doing help to stabilize the economy in that particular country.
Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
In the contemporary world, a lot of people find that by joining nongovernmental organizations, they may be able take part in the global system and lobby to influence international organizations. Most have joined as members of one or more nongovernmental organizations, which have roughly 30,000 members worldwide. Nongovernmental organizations are private global actors whose members are not countries, but rather volunteers from populations of 2 or more countries that have formed organizations to foster their common interests and ideals for the purpose of influencing the policies of intergovernmental organizations and country governments.
Nongovernmental organizations handle many international issues and seek changes in the world for various causes like human rights, environmental protection and disarmament, among others (Nederveen & Dasgupta, 2009). Many nongovernmental organizations pursue objectives that are very much respected and positive, hence do not result in any controversies or a lot of resistance.
NGOs interact with multinational companies, nation-states, and sub-state actors, plus other NGOs. NGOs are increasingly becoming recognized in the UN and other forums, as real actors together with countries but are not equal to them. Some of the groups have a political purpose, some a humanitarian purpose, while others have an economic purpose.
There are times in which nongovernmental organizations mix efforts by means of transnational advocacy networks (Antonelli & Fassio, 2016). By joining nongovernmental organizations, a lot of people learn that they may take part in the global system and lobby to influence multinational organizations.
Examples of nongovernmental organizations
A nongovernmental organization that particularly fights for human rights is the Amnesty International; a global movement of individuals campaigning for globally acknowledged human rights for everyone. They carry out research and generate actions aimed at preventing or ending serious human rights abuses and demanding justice for people whose human rights have been infringed.
The main issues which have been campaigned include freedom of the press, welfare of children, protection of civilians during armed conflicts, rights of women, disability rights, rights of people with AIDS, human impact of pollution and environmental degradation among others (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006). The other sort of nongovernmental organizations is the religious movement.
They are a politically active organization rooted in strong religious beliefs. Even though religious movements had a powerful influence in politics in the past decades for instance being able to cause a war between communities with different religious beliefs, religious movements these days are in fact peace makers between conflicting countries.
Political Groups that Advocate Violence: Terrorists
Political factions which support violence or terrorism may really not refer to themselves nongovernmental organizations, but they operate in more or less the same fashion which is by interacting with countries and with relevant populations or institutions by means of violence and terrorist attacks. These groups have great power. They influence the international relations between different countries. One group that is currently active is the Islamic State group.
International Criminal Groups
These actors are that are seen as transnational actors but they act in an illicit fashion. Most of these them have a great capacity of monetary resources which gives them the ability to influence the policies of the state (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006). Some international criminal groups can even threaten the security of the country. They are mainly operated secretly making it not easy for the authorities and the police to find them.
These groups are largely involved in various crimes including human trafficking, drugs, prostitution, as well as firearms. Examples of international criminal groups include the Sicilian Mafia in Italy, Yakuza in Japan, and also Triads in Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong, Macau (Art & Jervis, 2011).
Impacts of Globalization
There are several effects that emerge from globalization which impacts different economies of the world. The production of goods and services is affected by different elements of globalization. This has also seen the development of different approaches of production such as capital and other inputs and labor that are primarily dependent on the levels of globalization.
Additionally, competitiveness as seen in producing a good or service has resulted in the diffusion of technology that has resulted in the initiation of nations to other developed cities (Gaur, 2015). Having considered this, globalization is therefore ascribed as the force behind the efficiencies that have been experienced in affecting investment opportunities of different organizations within different nations and markets.
Investments are known to play a central role in technological transfer, formation of global investment and in industrial restructuring which have an effect in the national level (Luković, 2015). New technological advancements in different economies additionally remain an essential factor in globalization that stimulate competition and enhances the diffusion of nations through foreign direct investments.
Perception in world politics
Facts do not speak for themselves. Facts are organized by concepts, structured by theories, interpreted by worldviews and assessed in the light of individual and subjective value systems. Realism: this view depicts the world’s political system as a disordered chaotic struggle for security and power amongst competing nation-states. There is no higher authority besides these countries (Verma & Singh, 2010).
As such, countries individually, or alongside other countries, provide for their own defense. In essence, the only effectual way of assuring security is power. Idealism-Liberal Internationalism: this view maintains that there is reason to believe that the leading global role of countries may in fact be declining (Art & Jervis, 2011). Therefore, the world should be described not just in terms of country interactions, but also in terms of growing community.
Conclusion
In conclusion, even though countries remain as the most significant actors in the global system in today’s world, non-state actors have a growing power and influence in globalization. One of the biggest multinational enterprises has annual revenues which actually exceed some of the gross domestic product of poorer countries and this demonstrates their growing influences. As the world keeps globalizing, it would really not be easy to different between multinationals, states and other actors in a period of collapsing states and reemerging countries.
References
Antonelli, C., & Fassio, C. (2016). Globalization and the Knowledge-Driven Economy. Economic Development Quarterly, 30(1), 3-14. doi:10.1177/0891242415617239
Art, R. J., & Jervis, R. (2011). International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues (10th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
Bourguignon, F. (2016). Inequality and Globalization. Foreign Affairs, 95(1), 11-15.
D’Anieri, P. (2011). International Politics: Power and Purpose in Global Affairs (Brief ed.). Stamford, United States of America: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Francioni, B., Musso, F., & Vardiabasis, D. (2013). Key decisions and changes in internationalization strategies: The case of smaller firms. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 21(3), 240-259. doi:10.1080/0965254X.2013.790466
Gaur, A. (2015). Impact of Globalization on Trade and Employment. International Journal Of Multidisciplinary Approach & Studies, 2(5), 110-113.
Goldstein, J. S., & Pevehouse, J. C. (2006). International Relations (7th ed.). New York, United States of America: Pearson Education.
Kegley Jr., C. W., & Wittkopf, E. R. (2004). World Politics : Trend & Transformation (9th ed.). Belmont, United States of America: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Kilic, C. (2015). Effects of Globalization on Economic Growth: Panel Data Analysis for Developing Countries. Economic Insights – Trends & Challenges, 67(1), 1-11.
Mehrabanfar, E. (2015). Globalization Streams in Futures Studies. Informatica Economica, 19(3), 96-106. doi:10.12948/issn14531305/19.3.2015.09
Nederveen P. J., & Dasgupta, S. (2009). Politics of Globalization. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications India Pvt., Ltd.
Popa, F. (2014). The Inference of Globalization from the Regionalization Process. Economics, Management & Financial Markets, 9(4), 486-493.
Rourke, J. T., & Boyer, M. A. (2000). World Politics: International Politics on the World Stage, Brief (3rd ed.). New York, United States of America: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.
Seitan, S. (2014). Problems of the Impact which Globalization Has on the Macroeconomic Balance. Economic Insights – Trends & Challenges, 66(3), 49-57.
Taylor, P. J., Hoyler, M., Pain, K., & Vinciguerra, S. (2014). Extensive and Intensive Globalizations: Explicating the Low Connectivity Puzzle Of U.S. Cities Using A City-Dyad Analysis. Journal of Urban Affairs, 36(5), 876-890. doi:10.1111/juaf.12077
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Infinity Solar-Powered E-Bike Business Plan
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Infinity Solar-powered E-Bike is an innovative bicycle technology that allows users to enjoy a manual ride and experience an electric bike at the same time. While there are many varieties of e-bikes in the market, the Infinity bike is an exceptional model in that it is not only solar powered but it also has an electronic motor control, such that the rider can switch between three modes of propulsion.
Besides this, the bike comes with a speedometer, which helps the rider determine the speed at which they are riding. The Infinity solar-powered e-bike is bound to attract major fandom based on its unique features which make it ideal for protecting riders from knee and back injuries.
The Infinity solar-powered bike targets three customer segments: adventure riders, people seeking cheaper transport alternatives, and employees and students who commute regularly. To reach the customers, the company will utilize digital media and social media marketing. These methods are capable of effectively promoting the bike to the selected group.
To successfully implement this lucrative idea, a considerable amount of resources is required, including set up expenses, equipment and material, staff and marketing. The amount available to the owner is however limited, hence the need to seek funding. This business plan details information that may be necessary in informing the bank’s decision to fund the business. If successful, this will be the beginning of a highly rewarding business venture.
Introduction
As the world increasingly embraces ‘green energy’ to reduce the impact of global warming and natural resource depletion, valuable innovations have emerged in the market, with solar energy being described as one of the most sustainable sources of energy. Solar energy has been successfully used in lighting houses, water heating running machines and equipment and most recently for the solar-powered cars. In the same bearing, the motivation to build a solar E-Bike resulted from observing the endless possibilities that can be achieved using solar energy.
This is a form of energy that is not only freely available but cannot be depleted like other natural resources. This means that it will offer continuity while providing cheap energy to power the E-Bike. While the idea of the solar E-Bike is highly feasible based on research and projected benefit to individuals and the environment, the execution remains an enigma, partly due to the need for financial resources necessary to begin production.
This business plan details the major concepts behind the solar-powered E-Bike and the commercial viability of the venture. Through this business plan, it will be possible for the bank to understand the motivation behind this business venture and how the finances obtained will be used in setting up an exceptional idea that will influence future generations.
Business Plan
Business Name and Address
Name: Infinity Solar-Powered E-Bikes
Address: .,,.,,.,.,.,..,.
Proprietor’s Name and Address
Name: Jiachen Bonnie ZHANG
Address: ………………………
Business Form
This business is a sole proprietorship run and managed by the business owner.
Business Activity
Infinity Solar E-Bike is the newest innovation in the market, featuring a bicycle that has an integrated electric motor and a solar panel which can be used for propulsion. The unique bike comes with a direct charging system that allows the user to charge the bike from a power socket and a solar panel that feeds solar energy into a battery. This power bike allow the user to not only take a manual ride but also use the electric motor control and solar motor control to propel the bike, thus increasing comfort and offering flexibility. The bicycle has an electronic display on the handlebar that shows the speed and battery level at any time.
An additional feature that makes the Infinity E-Bike attractive is the fact that it is a portable and foldable bike. This makes it suitable for expeditions and long-distance adventures since they can be easily transported in a motor vehicle and retrieved when needed. The flexibility of the bike also allows users to carry it around when taking public transport and then unfolding it for use in navigating areas that are not covered by public transport. It is therefore very versatile and convenient.
Aims of the business
The solar E-bike was developed with the aim of providing users with a superior experience from ordinary bikes. The solar bike provides a cheaper option than driving a car, given that it can effectively run on solar power, requires to gas or insurance. The E-bike targets people who are working and constantly endure long hours of traffic during rush hour. With this bike, users can make it to work in good time.
The bike is designed to increase user comfort. Compared to the traditional bicycle, the Infinity E-Bike is friendlier to knees and joints, thus minimizing discomfort and chances of injury. The Infinity solar-powered e-bike provides a more upright seating position and this plays an imperative role in reducing back and neck pain. The ride is also in a position to watch for obstacles and cars more easily, thus reducing risk of accident. The e-bike does not get hot when riding uphill and riding in the wind is no longer a challenge.
The e-bike also comes with a security feature aimed at protecting the bike from theft. The e-bike requires a key to operate is heavier to move, hence making it harder to move than traditional bikes.
Objectives
To reach 5000 customers within the first three months of operation
To achieve $2,640,000 in sales in the first year of operation
Market size and growth
The idea of a solar-powered bicycle is relatively new and has not been optimally explored. However, as solar panels become increasingly portable and affordable, competition is expected to rise significantly, thus saturating the market. Solar bikes first came into existence in the 1980s but their bulky nature which consisted of a trailer to carry the solar panels negatively affected their popularity. Currently, solar powered bikes are sleeker and less bulky.
The manufacture of solar powered e-bikes is still on small scale and not commercially exploited, with innovations mostly consisting of individual creations and custom-made orders. This is associated with high manufacturing costs and low adoption by potential users. The same applies for electric-powered bikes, which have continued to gain in recent years.
Competition analysis
Competitors
Name
Developer
Strengths
Weaknesses
eZee
NYCeWheels
-Electric bike – Popular brand -Folding varieties -In the process of developing solar-powered bikes -Financial strength-Superior power in all terrains
– Expensive to use -Better variety emerging in the market – Bulky
ELF
Organic Transit
-Bicycle-car hybrid -Roofed -Stable and can be used by non-riders (Has 3 wheels) -No gas required, runs on solar energy
– Lacks flexibility for use as a bike due to its size -Designed for smooth roads -Cannot navigate small spaces like a normal bike
Solarbike
Jesper Frausig, Germany
-Sleek design -Solar panels on wheels saves on space Both manual and electric -Light and portable – full battery could propel the user for over 40 miles and go up to a speed of 30mph.
– Still in product development stage -No backup source of energy, only solar
Infinity solar-powered E-Bike
Strengths
Weaknesses
-Sleek design -Foldable -Speed reader -Solar and electric power -three riding modes -Cheap -No need for gar/insurance -High chair for easy survey of surroundings and traffic -Does not heat up when going uphill
-Heavy -New in the market hence no customer base -Not yet tested by customers on the ground -Lacks funding for development
Competitive Advantages
The Infinity Solar-Powered E-bike is designed in such a way that it seeks to provide great value for cyclists, by offering them three power modes. The user can choose to either ride manually or switch between solar and electric modes. This provides backup power and the rider is not likely to get stranded, such as when there is no sunlight. The bike provides a solution for people who want to enjoy a bicycle ride but may not desire the physical intensity involved in manual riding. Furthermore, the bicycle offers a cheap alternative to vehicle transport since it does not require the use of gas. The e-bike is of high quality and is expected to serve users in an effective manner while providing value for money.
Proposed Customers
Selecting a target market ensures that the company can design products that are tailored towards satisfying their customers (Chuwiruch, N, Jhundra-Indra and Boonlua, 2015). Proposed customer identification also ensures targeted marketing, thus enhancing efficiency (Johnson et al, 2014). The Infinity solar e-bike will target three types of customers:
Adventure riders: The e-bike is designed in such a way that it can overcome tough terrains and uphill riding. It is therefore perfect for people who ride for fun or adventure.
Individuals seeking cheap transport alternatives: The price of gas is highly volatile and maintenance of cars can be quite expensive. Public transport also has its limitations in terms of costs and convenience. The solar e-bike takes care of this by providing a cheap alternative that is also convenient.
Employees and students: This group of customers consists of individuals who must either go to school or to work every day; often spending significant amount of time in traffic. The e-bike promises to reduce the time taken to get to work by a great percentage, thus enhancing convenience. Furthermore, the e-bike is useful for traversing areas where public transport is unavailable instead of walking.
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Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy denotes the approaches taken in ensuring that the company’s products attract demand and that they can effectively compete with others in the market (Chuwiruch, Jhundra-Indra and Boonlua, 2015). A well-structured marketing strategy will assure high sales and profitability for the company. In reference to the marketing mix, the Infinity Solar-powered E-Bike will design its marketing strategy based on the following aspects.
Product
The Infinity solar e-bike aims at providing the highest level of customer satisfaction. This will be attained through producing quality products that are long-lasting, made possible through investing in high technology machines and quality input materials (Najmaei, 2014). To ensure maximum customer satisfaction, the e-bike will be made to accomplish all the positive features described. A return policy will be put in place, such that customers can return any faulty bike.
People
At infinity, the guiding principle will be to provide customers with the best quality e-bike and the best customer service possible, with the objective of turning them into loyal customers. Customer needs will be given first priority and every employee will be required to possess customer care skills and product knowledge necessary to provide effective feedback to customers. As noted by Valick, A. & Benavides (2011), responding to customer queries is not only a responsibility of customer care representatives and marketers but a common duty for all company staff; hence the need to familiarize with all product aspects.
Price
Price is a direct determinant of demand and the company must therefore set a price that is attractive for the customer while allowing a reasonable profit margin (Davari and Strutton, 2014). The pricing policy at Infinity will be to provide e-bikes at a reasonably low price. Due to the uniqueness of the brand, the bike will not be the lowest priced but it will be lowly priced for a product of its caliber. All e-bikes will be sold at the same price even where distributors and re-sellers are involved. This will enhance uniformity in price and hence create consistency. The cost for one solar-powered e-bike will be set at $1,100 per piece.
Promotion
This refers to the method of communication to targeted customers. This must be designed to appeal to the target market so that it can be effective in attracting customers (Davari and Strutton, 2014). Infinity solar-powered e-bikes will be advertised through digital media such as television and social media. Digital media is preferred due to its ability to show motion and hence give customers an idea of how the bike works instead of placing a still picture advertisement on print media (Kotler and Armstrong, 2015).
Social media is bound to be effective because the targeted market spends a significant proportion of their time on social media (Kumar, et al, 2016). Through videos and post shares, the company will ensure that the e-bike is advertised to target customers.
Place
The need to ensure that the customers can access the product easily calls for the creation of an effective supply chain (Kirovska, Josifovska and Kiselicki, 2016; Ashby, Leat and Hudson-Smith, 2012). In essence the company must ensure that the e-bike is accessible for potential customers through considering various channels of distribution including direct sales, franchising, wholesalers and retailers (Chelliah, et al, 2013). To begin with, the Infinity solar e-bike will be available in the United Kingdombefore expanding the company’s presence in other regions. The bike will be available in leading sports stores, supermarkets and individual retail stores besides direct sales from the factory.
Equipment
Effective production of solar-powered e-bikes will require the following equipment:
Equipment
Cost
Fork fixture
$1,675
Frame building tool
$4,100
Grinders
$300
Mill
$234
Lathe
$1500
Files
$150
Vacuum cleaners
$350
Bicycle assembly machine
$4500
Rim making machine
$7,000
Tube benders
$3000
Handlebar machines
$10,000
Welders
$6,500
Grinding and polishing machines
$13,000
End-forming machines
$9,500
The number of equipment and costs involved may initially be too high for the start-up company to afford. Accordingly, some of the equipment required will be leased for the first one year.
Key people and job functions
Financial Highlights
Forecast Profit and Loss Account
Infinity Solar-Powered E-Bike
Profit and Loss Account
For Period between August 2016 to July 2017
Sales
$2,640,000 (A)
Less variable costs
Materials
$550,000
Direct wages
$40,000
Transport
$230,000
Miscellaneous
$160,000
Total variable costs
$980,000
Gross profit
$1,660,000 (B)
Less Fixed costs
Salaries and wages
$150,000
Rent
$120,000
Equipment lease
$300,000
Electricity
$60,000
Telephone costs
$170,000
Advertising
$250,000
Insurance
$24,000
License renewal
$2,000
Taxes
$230,000
Depreciation
$5,000
Other costs
$3,000
Total fixed costs
$1,164,000 (C)
Net profit
$496,000
Break-even point
(A) x (C)
(B)
= 1,851180 units
Cash flow Forecast
Month
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
SALES
Volume
3
5
5
10
15
20
25
27
30
32
33
35
Value
33,000
55,000
55,000
110,000
165,000
220,000
275,000
297,000
330,000
352,000
363,000
385,000
RECEIPTS
Sales – Cash
33,000
55,000
55,000
110,000
165,000
220,000
275,000
297,000
330,000
352,000
363,000
385,000
Sales – Debtors
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Capital Introduced
100,000
140,000
250,000
Grants, loans
250,000
Total (A)
383,000
195,000
55,000
110,000
165,000
470,000
275,000
297,000
330,000
352,000
363,000
385,000
PAYMENTS
Materials
85,000
40,000
30,000
30,000
30,000
30,000
30,000
30,000
30,000
30,000
30,000
30,000
Wages/Salaries
8,000
13,500
15,500
16,000
16,000
16,000
16,000
16,000
16,000
19,000
19,000
19,000
Rent
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
Equipment lease
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
Electricity
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
Telephone costs
25,000
22,000
19,000
14,000
13,000
11,000
11,000
11,000
11,000
11,000
11,000
11,000
Advertising
30,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
15,000
15,000
15,000
Insurance
24,000
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
License renewal
2,000
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Taxes
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
230,000
Depreciation
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5,000
Other costs
250
250
250
250
250
250
250
250
250
250
250
250
Capital Purchases
200,000
0
0
0
0
0
150,000
0
0
0
0
0
Loan repayments
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
Drawings/dividends
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total (B)
424,250
155,750
139,750
130,250
129,250
127,250
277,250
127,250
127,250
125,250
125,250
360,250
CASH BALANCES
Cash flow (A) – (B)
-41,250
39,250
-84,750
-20,250
35,750
342,750
-2,250
169,750
202,750
226,750
237,750
24,750
Opening balance
350,000
-41,250
-2,000
-86,750
-107,000
-71,250
271,500
269,250
439,000
641,750
868,500
1,106,250
Closing balance
-41,250
-2,000
-86,750
-107,000
-71,250
271,500
269,250
439,000
641,750
868,500
1,106,250
1,131,000
Approach to value creation
The process of value creation for the solar-powered bike business entails a five step process from when the product is developed, to when it achieves value creation.
The first step has mostly been accomplished, having developed the concept of the E-Bike and how it will operate. Gallego, Rubalcaba and Hipp (2013) present the case for innovation, stating that creating value is about presenting innovative products and services. The E-Bike presents a unique innovation which will allow users to use a E-Bike with three functions namely; manual ride, electric motor control and solar power motor control. Electronic display on the E-Bike allows the user to read speed and battery level; further demonstrating the level of innovation. The E-Bike, which is also foldable provides exceptional convenience.
The second step is demand creation, which basically includes marketing the E-bike to potential customers and convincing them to buy it. This will involve showing the value of the innovation and how it will impact their lives, affordability and durability of the E-bike (Lynch, 2012).
Once demand has been created and sales made, the next step is to convert buyers into loyal customers. This will be achieved through ensuring that the E-Bike meets their needs as expected during the marketing stage (Rath and Mousumi Singha, 2013).
Next is to enhance customer satisfaction through meeting their needs and addressing any concerns they may have regarding the E-Bike. At this level, the customers are likely to refer potential clients based on their level of satisfaction (Johnson et al, 2014).
The final step to value creation is to make customers part of the organization. By working with customers as partners, the company can seek ways to further improve the E-Bike’s performance and probably develop a new product that is more innovative (Grant, 2016). This step sets pace for the next value creation process.
Factors encouraging entrepreneurship
In life, every day is a learning process and a chance to become a better person. When I initially lost my job as a Digital Social Media company manager where I worked for six years, the next best thing would have been to seek employment elsewhere. However, I was inspired by a drive for independence and an opportunity to make a difference in the society, hence my decision to venture into business.
Moving to entrepreneurship depends on the kind of product one is dealing with and whether customers might be interested. Having observed that bicycles are widely used as a means of transport and recreation, I thought that users might be interested in a bike that offered them greater capabilities than just the manual ride. Internet searches revealed that solar power is the next energy frontier and the idea of an E-Bike appeared best suited to help me achieve my objective.
It is notable that the high level of instability in the country has impacted employment significantly. Job security is no longer assured and even where available, the level of remuneration is barely enough to sustain a favorable purchasing power. Entrepreneurship however opens endless possibilities, particularly when the product is innovative and appealing to customers. I therefore found it reasonable to increase my earning capacity through entrepreneurship, not only to improve my life but also contribute to national building through creating employment opportunities for others.
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Developing and appraising personal potential as an entrepreneur
As an entrepreneur, it is important to understand my competence and potential. In this regard, I will apply various techniques in developing and appraising personal potential as an entrepreneur. This will mostly include taking professional tests and self-assessments available online such as BDC Entrepreneurs First. The site provides a list of 50 questions on entrepreneurial attributes, motivation, attitudes and aptitudes which the user is expected to fill in.
Once completed, the site makes an analysis of the responses, which will then be used in determining entrepreneurial potential (BDC, 2016). Common professional assessment tools include Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, The Entrepreneur Equation, the StrengthsFinder, Teamability and FourSight Thinking Profile.
Functional skills appropriate to the management of SME
In the management of SMEs, certain functional skills are necessary to enhance performance and resilience in a competitive environment (Botha, Vuuren and Kunene, 2015). These skills include:
Finance management: SMEs must be in a position to manage their finances in order to stay afloat. The management must therefore be capable of managing cash flow, credit and have knowledge on financial reporting (Ayub, 2014).
Marketing: Being a small business, there is need for high level marketing to promote growth. Every contact with customers should be a chance to market the company (Goodman and Dingli, 2013). Functional skills also necessary include advertising and public relations.
Personal business skills: These include oral and written communication, computer skills, negotiation skills and organizational skills among others (Botha, Vuuren and Kunene, 2015).
Problem solving: The management of an SME should be capable of dealing with challenges and problems whenever they occur (Goodman and Dingli, 2013).
Dispute resolution: When working with a team, disputes and conflicts are also likely to emerge. The management should be in a position to resolve disputes amicably to enhance collaboration.
Conclusion
Infinity Solar-Power E-Bike presents an innovative product that is bound to change the face of solar e-bikes. The e-bike provides customers with a unique brand with flexible capabilities, demonstrated by its three function modes. This sets the bar higher because the rider can either use the manual, the electric motor control or the solar power motor control. The target customer group is expected to find the bike useful, both for navigation and fun expeditions.
As a cheap alternative to cars, the bike’s demand is expected to increase tremendously following its introduction. To enhance successful launch and sale of the product, various factors in the marketing mix are put into consideration to ensure that the product appeals to customers. The price of $1,100 is relatively cheap and the quality is excellent.
These characteristics coupled with effective promotional strategies, customer service and convenient access to the e-bikes will ensure that the company realizes adequate profits to make the business successful. The Solar E-Bike has great potential and at this juncture, the idea’s execution is only limited by unavailability of funds, hence the need to seek funding in the form of a business loan.
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Promotional Strategies
MistAway Case Study
MistAway is a mosquito misting system that is designed to control mosquitos and some other troublesome insects from one’s courtyard. It is a permanently installed system that kills all mosquitos within its perimeter all year round. To ensure that MistAway is familiarized and is used more than the other methods of mosquito control, the manufacturers have employed a number of promotional strategies. The push and pull promotional strategies have been used intensively through Mistaway.com website.
MistAway Company guarantees installation services to their customers, which is an example of Push promotional strategies. With this type of promotional strategies, a seller gives offers so as to attract customers, something which they have effectively done through their installation programs. Through the dealers, customers are guaranteed of consistent maintenance services for their systems. A pull strategy is yet another intensely used promotional tool, as MistAway manufacturers use advertisement to a great extent in luring customers to use their services. With this approach, the seller creates a need so that buyers find it necessary to use their services. MistAway manufacturers show a number of videos about the effectiveness of the system as compared to other methods. Besides, they have educational videos on the advantages of the system and why individuals should install it in their backyards.
The use of pull and push approach is effective in serving the marketing strategies of MistAway manufactures. Teaching people about the utilization of particular technologies, and helping them see the effectiveness raises their demand for that product. Further, guaranteeing of assistance regarding maintenance and installation services reduces their cost.
MistAway manufacturers could be targeting homesteads and other institutions as hotels. Provision of outdoor mosquito control is a good idea for places that are designed for providing comfortable and serene environments.
Though the strategies used by the MistAway manufacturers is valid, it may not be sufficient for them to reach a wider market. The website-based advertisement may not arrive at a large number of potential users, which limits their organizational targets. So as to have an improvement in this aspect, the company may employ other platforms such as social media, televisions, and others.
Healthcare marketing activities and strategies should be unique from other forms in the sense that they should be focused on patient and user outcomes rather that profit making. Healthcare marketers should give priority to the welfare of patients and the whole population. It should not be carried out to lure persons to use services that are not designed for them. Accountability and care should be an essential part of all healthcare advertisements.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Strategic planning and implementation: Strategic planning in action: Good Samaritan Hospital of Maryland. Baltimore, MD:
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The Four Business Elements: A Consultancy Report
Instruction
Elbanna (2009) asserts that the use of the four elements concerning the business management to different corporate is considered one of the most important aspect. Nonetheless, proper and successful implementation of a business financial program requires the full application of the four famous four functions concerning the management of the business (Elbanna, 2009).
The major purpose of creating incorporate the best business ideas is to ensure that the best business ideas have been applied in parliamentary procedure to create a solid institution and production background, which is likewise run by a highly productive team (Ajmal et al., 2009). Therefore, this paper will delve on determining how the appropriate implementation of the four business elements can be employed to manage the Outdoor Adventure called Outdoor Paintball Park.
How the Four Business Elements can be used to improve the outdoor venture
First, it is worth noting that the Outdoor Adventure Paintball Park is one of the most contemporary businesses that offer Outdoor Adventure. The appropriate adoption and the application of the business management tool is considered important, especially considering that the out adventure has continued experiencing some of the most important management inefficiencies (Rind Christensen & Klyver, 2006).
Therefore, the use of the P-L-O-C platform will help pinpoint some of the issues that have ended up affecting the company’s effective performance and how the move can improve the rate of the goal attainment (Elbanna, 2009). As a result, several issues will be covered during the recommendation stage, which includes important facts such as the;
The need for devising a proper and mind blowing business statement concerning the business
Creating a better way that will improve the management of scarce organizational resources such as the enactment of a proper and a functional personnel
Laying more emphasis on the need for recruiting employees through training in order to make them fit and ready to work within the new company
Creation of a proper mechanism that can be used to conduct tom improve the standard, as well as other forms of the measurable outcomes
Devising a good mechanism that can pave way for the effective achievement of the organizational achievements where the members should be encouraged to use the P-L-O-C principles and practices
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The Incorporation of the Proper Planning Procedure
First, it is imperative noting the use of a proper planning procedure is considered one of the most important aspects when it comes to devising the proper ways that can improve the business performance (Rind Christensen & Klyver, 2006). As the financial business consultant, one should understand that he/she is supposed to make sure the businesses can only be implemented through the appropriate setting of the business objectives (Elbanna, 2009).
Moreover, the consultant should also demonstrate, clearly, how the business owner(s) should come up with a proper management the set goals in a more clear and effective manner (Ajmal et al., 2009). Some of the business activities and aspects that can be improved through the appropriate use of planning procedure include;
The setting up of a good mission and vision statement- here, it will be appropriate devising an appropriate mission and vision statement for the new company since it is clear it lacks one. Thus, some of the recommended mission and vision statement are listed below;
“The achievement of happiness among the teenagers, working teams, and the young adults, through offering the best outdoor experience, is our ultimate and final goal as the Outdoor Paintball Park Community.”
“Strive to become the leading and number one company in providing ‘refreshing’ experience of the teenagers and the young adults while becoming a leading source of livelihood to the young adults”
The use of a clear and concise mission and vision statement can help to realign the general process of achieving the overall goals of the Outdoor Adventure. As such, it should be carried out in a more comprehensive and careful manner. In fact, this is the only way the organization will be able to meet its long-run objectives (Cobbold et al., 2004).
The Implementation of the Organizing Procedure
The organization should go ahead with the definition of the culture. It is worth remembering that the birth of the business came as a coincidence when the three family members joined hands (Ajmal et al., 2009). Therefore, in order to achieve a good way of improving the cultures, the organization should integrate it with the themes of the mission and vision statements (Parks, 2000).
The organizational structure should also be created where there should be a clear distinction of each and everyone’s role. The proper implementation of such procedures will help eliminate issues such as the development of conflict during the business development stage (Parks, 2000). Each member should be given the overall authority of achieving certain strategic objectives in order to avoid a collision.
The Incorporation of the Leadership Skills
It is an imperative noting Outdoor Adventure lacks a proper mechanism of defining its leadership hierarchy. Thus, the move has the potential of affecting not only the lowly ranked employees but also the target and potential customers (Cobbold et al., 2004). Therefore, in order to improve the leadership skills, the company should emphasize on the need to providing constant training and undertaking of seminars for the employees who are in the leadership positions.
The move will help expand their mind on how they can handle a diverse workplace and customers (Parks, 2000). As a result, the move will help meet their satisfaction. The other employees should also be empowered, through training them regularly, in order to promote their independent thinking to promote the organization (Cobbold et al., 2004).
The use Control Procedure
The Outdoor Adventure will need to devise a proper way that will be used to define standards, as well as measure the achievement of the target results. The move will make the achievement of the appropriate objectives are highly achievable. For instance, it can make of instruments such as the balanced scorecard (Chavan, 2009). According to Chavan (2009), the use of the use an instrument will help to translate the laid strategies, mission, and vision into a reality.
References
Ajmal, M. M., Nordström, F., & Helo, P. (2009). Assessing the effectiveness of business consulting in operations development projects. Int J Productivity & Perf Mgmt, 58(6), 523-541. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17410400910977073
Cobbold, I., Lawrie, G., & Issa, K. (2004). Designing a strategic management system using the third‐generation balanced scorecard. Int J Productivity & Perf Mgmt, 53(7), 624-633. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/175542509109653459
How Is Globalization Affecting the Key Actors in the International System?
Introduction
Globalization basically has no precise definition. In actual fact, globalization is in danger of becoming the truism of the modern era. Even so, the word globalization encompasses aspects of an extensive perception that there is a widening, deepening and accelerating of global interconnectedness in virtually every aspect of life (Rourke & Boyer, 2000). At the core of globalization is a global shift; meaning, the globe being shaped by technological and economic forces, into a collective political and economic arena. The three main perspectives with regard to globalization include transformationalist, the sceptical, and the hyperglobalist viewpoints (Verma & Singh, 2010).
Hyperglobalists: those who hold this viewpoint maintain the world today is a more and more global world wherein countries are being subject to immense political as well as economic processes of transformation. These processes serve to erode and fragment countries and reduce the power of political leaders. In circumstances such as these ones, countries are becoming gradually more the ‘decision- takers’ rather than the ‘decision-makers’ (D’Anieri, 2011).
The sceptical: those with this viewpoint strongly oppose the perspective of hyperglobalists and maintain that present-day global circumstances are not unprecedented. According to them, although there has been an increase in social and international activity in the past few years, this has served to reinforce and enhance the powers of state in a number of domains (D’Anieri, 2011).
Transformationalists: those who have this view maintain that globalization is producing novel economic, political as well as social situations that are actually altering powers of the state and the context wherein countries operate. Transformationalists do not try to envisage the outcome (Popa, 2014). They maintain that it is uncertain – but assert that politics is not just rooted in nation-states.
Globalization
Globalization can suitably be seen as a process which exemplifies a change in the spatial organization of social transactions as well as relations, resulting in interregional or transcontinental flows and networks of activities, interaction as well as power (Kilic, 2015). Globalization is typified by the following: integration of international/global economic decision-making, integration of international economic decision-making, exponential growth in global fiscal transactions, increases in global Non-Governmental Organizations and Activities (NGOs), and strengthened political International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006).
Furthermore, globalization is typified by 4 kinds of change:
(i) globalization entails a stretching of economic, political and social activities across political regions, frontiers, and countries.
(ii) Globalization involves the intensification of interconnectedness as well as flows of migration, finance, investment, and trade.
(iii) The increasing intensity and extensity of international interconnectedness could be associated with an increase of international processes and interactions, as the development of global communication and transport systems increases the rate of the dissemination of information, capital, people, goods and ideas (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006).
(iv) The rising intensity, extensity and rate of international interactions can be linked to their increasing impact such that the effects of distant occurrences could be very considerable in other places.
In fact, the most local events and occurrences could have considerable international implications. As such, the boundaries between international affairs and domestic matters can become more and more blurred. On the whole, globalization could be described as the broadening, increasing, accelerating and rising impact of international interconnectedness (Nederveen & Dasgupta, 2009). When globalization is thought of in this manner, then patterns of international relations and connections could be empirically mapped in all major domains of human activity.
Principal actors in international system
In the international system, the key actors include country government, international organizations, non-government organizations, multinational enterprises, inter-governmental organizations, and transnational corporations.
State Actors
On the modern world stage, the state is certainly one of the oldest and universally recognized actors. A State refers to a political unit which has sovereignty over a territory and the citizens in that territory (Gaur, 2015). Examples of states include sovereign country governments such as Italy, Canada, USA, UK, and Egypt among other countries.
Intergovernmental Organizations
Even as States are still the leading and main actors on the global stage, other important actors also exist such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). These are created by states, often through a treaty. The common IGOs are International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, International Criminal Police Organizations, and the World Bank Group. IGOs mainly do not have a way of enforcing state compliance with their decisions, perhaps except with the assistance of powerful nations (Kegley Jr. & Wittkopf, 2004).
Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
Not every actor on the world’s stage has governmental roles. NGOs are essentially not-for-profit voluntary organizations which support public good or pursue it. These organizations are by and large involved in such things as economic development, issues pertaining to human rights, social welfare, as well as humanitarian assistance. Common non-governmental organizations are Greenpeace, the Amnesty International, Oxfam, and the Red Cross (Nederveen, & Dasgupta, 2009).
Multinational Enterprises
Theother significant grouping of actors comprises multinational enterprises (MNEs). These are for-profit organizations with presence in more than 1 country. It is notable that some multinational enterprises such as Sony, General Electric, General Motors, and Wal-mart have very large amounts of monetary resources that equal or exceed the resources of smaller nations like Burundi, Fiji and Somalia. It is notable that an MNE’s interests do not essentially coincide with those of the countries wherein they do business, or even the MNE’s home country (Seitan, 2014).
Sub-state actors or domestic actors
These comprise groups of persons who have the same interests not beyond the countries which can affect the foreign policy of the State. Examples include tobacco sector and automobile sector in USA. These sectors, in essence, have interests in the country’s foreign fiscal policy so that they may sell automobiles or cigarette products overseas and decrease importations of competing products produced overseas. They can influence the decisions made with regard to their country’s laws with the aim of protecting the rights of workers (Antonelli, & Fassio, 2016).
Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)
These are organizations whose members comprise at least 3 countries. These organizations are formed by countries to resolve common problems that give them authority of making collective decisions to deal with various problems and issues on the international agenda (Francioni, Musso & Vardiabasis, 2013). In IGOs, the representatives of country governments assemble to talk about issues which are of shared interests to member countries. There are 2 major kinds of Intergovernmental Organizations: the global Intergovernmental Organizations and the regional Intergovernmental Organizations.
Global Intergovernmental Organizations are organizations with universal or nearly universal membership; this means that each country is a member such as the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and the United Nations. Regional Intergovernmental Organizations are essentially a subset of countries as members basing upon a certain interest or region, for instance the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Kegley Jr. & Wittkopf, 2004).
There are several reasons that cause countries to create or join Intergovernmental Organization. As per liberal institutionalism, states form Intergovernmental Organizations since it is in their best interest to form. With Intergovernmental Organizations, some problems or issues could be resolved easily and cheaper than without them. In particular, liberal institutionalism is focused on collective problems, for instance the security dilemma, the appeal to execute competitive tariffs, as well as the difficulty in agreeing to protect the environment (Art & Jervis, 2011).
Countries should correspond with one another and oversee other countries in order to ensure that they are actually sticking to their commitments to acknowledge many of the problems. For instance, in the case of free trade, the World Trade Organization was created to coordinate the negotiation of tariffs and offer a mechanism for dispute resolution. Some of these tasks may be more complex and costly to implement without the Intergovernmental Organizations (Taylor et al., 2014).
There are times in which Intergovernmental Organizations are not only formed to resolve problems but also to offer a platform for discussing crucial issues (Art & Jervis, 2011). The United Nations General Assembly has no predetermined agenda but offers a forum for countries to talk about and debate matters that come up. Likewise, one of the goals of the World Trade Organization is to organize meetings at which countries would negotiate to resolve major issues (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006).
Common Intergovernmental organizations and their functions
The United Nations: This is in charge of maintaining international peace and security. It also develops friendly relations amongst countries. It also seeks to accomplish international cooperation in resolving global problems. Furthermore, it functions as a center for harmonizing the actions of states. World Trade Organization: this organization manages disputes that arise from trading partners.
It also monitors trade in agriculture and manufacture commodities. ASEAN: this organization promotes regional economic, social and culture cooperation amongst the nations situated in the Southeast Asia region (Vadlamannati, 2015). NATO: this organization is a system of joint defense in which the member countries agree to collective defense in response to a military attack by a country that is not a NATO member state.
Transnational Actors
These are actors which function below the state level. However, they function across the state borders. The 2 sorts of transnational actors include nongovernmental organizations and multinational/transnational corporations. Multinational/Transnational Corporations: Multinational corporations are firms which have headquarters in one country but do business extensively in other countries. Such companies are based in one country but have divisions that operate in other nations (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006). Put simply, such a firm is a big organization operating globally in different nations at the same time, with fixed facilities and staff members in state.
Types of multinational companies
Industrial corporations manufacture their products in production facilities in different states and sell them to businesses and clients located in different states. The biggest multinational companies operate in the automobile, oil and electronic industries. Virtually every multinational corporation has its headquarters in the Group of Seven countries. Examples of these firms include Sony, Honda, Toyota, BP, BMW, General Motors, Wal-Mart, Total and Apple.
Financial institutions like banks: these do business globally but have more restrictions compared to industrial corporations (Mehrabanfar, 2015). Examples include international airlines like Asiana Airlines, Virgin Atlantic; Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Sheraton; and services like McDonald’s fast-food chain.
Multinational corporations are becoming more and more powerful as autonomous actors. A lot of the industrial multinational corporations, Wal-Mart for instance, have yearly revenues of tens of billions of dollars annually. Multinational corporations can match most global companies in monetary resources as well as size. The biggest intergovernmental organizations, which is the United Nations, has an estimated two billion dollars annual revenue, which is really small in comparison to over 250 billion dollars for the largest multinational corporations.
The biggest country economically, USA, has government revenues of over $2 trillion annually. This clearly demonstrates that the power of multinational corporations does not rival the biggest countries but in fact surpasses a lot of poorer countries (Francioni, Musso & Vardiabasis, 2013). Multinational corporations are viewed as citizens of the world and they are beholden to not any government.
Head of Dow Chemicals Company once envisioned to purchase an island to construct the company’s head office. In such view, multinational corporations act internationally in the interests of their global stockholders. In actual fact, they do not owe loyalty to any country. Multinational corporations are motivated by the need to maximize profitability (Nederveen, & Dasgupta, 2009).
The operations of multinational corporations support an international business infrastructure linking a global community of businesspersons. For instance, an American manager who arrives in Tokyo Japan does not find a confusing and puzzling scene of strange customs, locations, as well as languages. Instead, this manager would be able to move through a known series of faxes and telephone calls, multinational hotels, airport lounges, business conference facilities, and international news broadcasts – most likely hearing the English language spoken in all of these (Mehrabanfar, 2015).
Moreover, multinational corporations contribute to the development of their host country. As transnational companies operate in other countries, they create job opportunities for the locals in that country and in so doing help to stabilize the economy in that particular country.
Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
In the contemporary world, a lot of people find that by joining nongovernmental organizations, they may be able take part in the global system and lobby to influence international organizations. Most have joined as members of one or more nongovernmental organizations, which have roughly 30,000 members worldwide. Nongovernmental organizations are private global actors whose members are not countries, but rather volunteers from populations of 2 or more countries that have formed organizations to foster their common interests and ideals for the purpose of influencing the policies of intergovernmental organizations and country governments.
Nongovernmental organizations handle many international issues and seek changes in the world for various causes like human rights, environmental protection and disarmament, among others (Nederveen & Dasgupta, 2009). Many nongovernmental organizations pursue objectives that are very much respected and positive, hence do not result in any controversies or a lot of resistance.
NGOs interact with multinational companies, nation-states, and sub-state actors, plus other NGOs. NGOs are increasingly becoming recognized in the UN and other forums, as real actors together with countries but are not equal to them. Some of the groups have a political purpose, some a humanitarian purpose, while others have an economic purpose.
There are times in which nongovernmental organizations mix efforts by means of transnational advocacy networks (Antonelli & Fassio, 2016). By joining nongovernmental organizations, a lot of people learn that they may take part in the global system and lobby to influence multinational organizations.
Examples of nongovernmental organizations
A nongovernmental organization that particularly fights for human rights is the Amnesty International; a global movement of individuals campaigning for globally acknowledged human rights for everyone. They carry out research and generate actions aimed at preventing or ending serious human rights abuses and demanding justice for people whose human rights have been infringed.
The main issues which have been campaigned include freedom of the press, welfare of children, protection of civilians during armed conflicts, rights of women, disability rights, rights of people with AIDS, human impact of pollution and environmental degradation among others (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006). The other sort of nongovernmental organizations is the religious movement.
They are a politically active organization rooted in strong religious beliefs. Even though religious movements had a powerful influence in politics in the past decades for instance being able to cause a war between communities with different religious beliefs, religious movements these days are in fact peace makers between conflicting countries.
Political Groups that Advocate Violence: Terrorists
Political factions which support violence or terrorism may really not refer to themselves nongovernmental organizations, but they operate in more or less the same fashion which is by interacting with countries and with relevant populations or institutions by means of violence and terrorist attacks. These groups have great power. They influence the international relations between different countries. One group that is currently active is the Islamic State group.
International Criminal Groups
These actors are that are seen as transnational actors but they act in an illicit fashion. Most of these them have a great capacity of monetary resources which gives them the ability to influence the policies of the state (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2006). Some international criminal groups can even threaten the security of the country. They are mainly operated secretly making it not easy for the authorities and the police to find them.
These groups are largely involved in various crimes including human trafficking, drugs, prostitution, as well as firearms. Examples of international criminal groups include the Sicilian Mafia in Italy, Yakuza in Japan, and also Triads in Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong, Macau (Art & Jervis, 2011).
Impacts of Globalization
There are several effects that emerge from globalization which impacts different economies of the world. The production of goods and services is affected by different elements of globalization. This has also seen the development of different approaches of production such as capital and other inputs and labor that are primarily dependent on the levels of globalization.
Additionally, competitiveness as seen in producing a good or service has resulted in the diffusion of technology that has resulted in the initiation of nations to other developed cities (Gaur, 2015). Having considered this, globalization is therefore ascribed as the force behind the efficiencies that have been experienced in affecting investment opportunities of different organizations within different nations and markets.
Investments are known to play a central role in technological transfer, formation of global investment and in industrial restructuring which have an effect in the national level (Luković, 2015). New technological advancements in different economies additionally remain an essential factor in globalization that stimulate competition and enhances the diffusion of nations through foreign direct investments.
Perception in world politics
Facts do not speak for themselves. Facts are organized by concepts, structured by theories, interpreted by worldviews and assessed in the light of individual and subjective value systems. Realism: this view depicts the world’s political system as a disordered chaotic struggle for security and power amongst competing nation-states. There is no higher authority besides these countries (Verma & Singh, 2010).
As such, countries individually, or alongside other countries, provide for their own defense. In essence, the only effectual way of assuring security is power. Idealism-Liberal Internationalism: this view maintains that there is reason to believe that the leading global role of countries may in fact be declining (Art & Jervis, 2011). Therefore, the world should be described not just in terms of country interactions, but also in terms of growing community.
Conclusion
In conclusion, even though countries remain as the most significant actors in the global system in today’s world, non-state actors have a growing power and influence in globalization. One of the biggest multinational enterprises has annual revenues which actually exceed some of the gross domestic product of poorer countries and this demonstrates their growing influences. As the world keeps globalizing, it would really not be easy to different between multinationals, states and other actors in a period of collapsing states and reemerging countries.
References
Antonelli, C., & Fassio, C. (2016). Globalization and the Knowledge-Driven Economy. Economic Development Quarterly, 30(1), 3-14. doi:10.1177/0891242415617239
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Opportunity costs stem from trade-offs that exists as a result of scarcity of resources. It is necessitated by decisions to make choices between one or several options that must be given up for one alternative to prevail (Bouman, 2011). Opportunity cost in economics is the costs of the opportunity missed as a result of the alternative given up. It can be expressed in monetary terms or in any other terms of time and it includes both implicit and explicit costs (Mankiw, 2014).
The opportunity costs of watching Good Times are the costs that would be forgone as a result of the choice made to watch Good Times in concert. The alternative costs of watching Good Times are watching the Hot Stuff that basically costs $150 as the entry fee besides the time required to drive to the concert. The implicit and explicit costs of watching Hot Stuff have been valued at $225 while other costs include the hours needed to drive to the location to watch the Hot Stuff concert.
Since the explicit costs have been estimated to be $150 then the implicit costs would be $225 – $150 which equals to $75. The opportunity cost of watching Good Times can be estimated to be $75. But the cost of the hours that would be forfeited in case of travelling to watch the Hot Stuff would also have to be considered. The hours required to prepare for the exam are also valuable and the choice of watching Good Times means that those valuable hours would be saved. The opportunity costs of watching Good Times is watching Hot Stuff.
Opportunity-cost analysis has a lot of practical applications in business operations as long as scarcity of resources exists. The value of the next second best alternative must be considered when deciding the product to be rolled up from the factory. Opportunity costs are never reflected on the Balance Sheet nor in the income statement but the costs are real and must be considered (Mankiw, 2014). The only problem is that quantifying opportunity costs is rather difficult as it relates mostly future events besides most people overlook it (Waggoner, n, d).
To conclude, the opportunity costs of making any decision is literally what is given up as a result of the decision. Opportunity costs are made up of implicit and explicit costs. In economics, profits are calculated based on opportunity costs while in accounting, only explicit costs are used. It is worth noting that opportunity costs is the value of the best alternative, for example the opportunity costs of going to college would be the wages that may have been earned, or the value of the experience that would have been gained or the value of all the activities that one may have missed while studying, or the money paid for tuition or the interest that would have been earned.
The opportunity cost is the value of one alternative not the value of all the aggregate hence the opportunity costs would be one of the most valuable alternative listed. Due to scarcity, resources are limited and only one alternative among many others must be selected. Either the time or the income is always limited due to scarcity hence the opportunity cost in economics is the costs of the opportunity missed as a result of the alternative given up.
References
Bouman, J. (2011). Principles of Microeconomics, Columbia, Maryland.
Mankiw, N. G. (2014) Principles of Economics, Cengage Learning
The St. Francis Care Clinic healthcare facility is developed to assist in meeting current health care demands and to improve access of care for residents in this community. The healthcare facility aims at providing safe, effective, timely, equitable and patient centered care to patients from diverse backgrounds. The primary care services will be provided by nurse practitioners (NPs) who will offer different experience to provide holistic care, open communication, therapeutic listening, and skills in counseling (Pinson, 2008).
The facilities vision is to deliver affordable and high quality of care to patients in order to promote the health as well as the well being of the citizens. The healthcare facility will seat on 1500 Square feet commercial office (leased). The facility has only one direct primary care clinics and 12 physicians. The indirect competitors are two emergency departments found in the one local medical center.
The competitor’s strengths are that the local medical centers have established physician providers with established referrals process. The critical key to success of this clinic is public education on services health services delivered and in managing reimbursement procedures (Buppert, 2014).
Monthly cost estimation
Expenses
Cost ($)
Clinical sites expenses
53,000
Supplies
25,000
Employee structure and expenses
72,450
Malpractice insurance
60,050
Utilities and overhead expenses
14,695
Accounting fee
20,000
Continuing education expenses
13,435
Total
258, 630
The clinic start up expenses will be obtained from a business loan of $100,725 with interest of 9% that will be paid out over 7 years. Although the clinic is expected to be profitable, the cash revenue is expected to remain negative until year 3. The loan repayment in the first year interest is estimated to be $10, 824.
The cost of operations in year 1 is estimated to be 120,121 and sales of $154,000, indicating a small profit in year 1. With addition of more healthcare services in year 2, the operating income is expected to reach $60,662, and the trend is expected to increase in the subsequent years.
The business is expected to grow and expect more income as the loan diminishes. The fixed costs are expected to remain the same with little or no depreciation. On the other hand, the variable cost will increase with increase income. I will contribute $50,000, bringing the total start up expenses to $150, 725.
The healthcare services that will be delivered in this clinic include primary care such as physical examinations, diagnosing, screenings, treatment as well as management of chronic and acute healthcare disorders. Other services that will be provided include preventive care, immunization, diabetes management, HIV/AIDs and smoking.
The facility will accept all public medical covers such as State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Medicaid and private medical covers. The Medicaid reimbursement will be calculated based on rate per unit, whereas the commercial insurances will be based on the company’s own policy. Managed care organizations will be reimbursed based on the negotiated contracts (Sally and Reel, 2013).
Summary
In summation, the estimated costs and assumptions indicates that the clinic is a viable nurse managed healthcare setting. The start up of this healthcare facility will require funding from loan and adequate time to return the amount of money borrowed. However, the projected revenue and expenditures indicates that small profit will be made. To reduce the negative cash flow, I may consider looking for partners or applying for grants so as to reduce the start up expenses.
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