The effect of Value-Added Activity Based Costing and Economic Value Essay

The effect of Value-Added Activity Based Costing and Economic Value Added Measure and their impact on Process Improvement & Busi - Essay Example Though ‘True Cost’ in any situation is fraught with so many uncertainties, by and large the efforts made in its ascertainment paved way for efficient and alternative management practices with improved results. An introspective analysis might reveal that no Value Added Measure circumventing this basic philosophy can make a headway in process improvement or business profitability, for the simple reason that all the value added measures hinges primarily on productivity, which could be addressed properly only through revisit of the approaches to the ‘value’, which predominantly depends on reasonably accurate calculation of the cost of production. Economic Value Added Measures Economic value addition (EVA) is generally discussed with reference to the financial performance, and acts as a complementary tool in the measurement of the performance in a broader perspective, keeping in line with the expectations of the stakeholders, where the finer details of the cost i s not perceived as important as in the case of management practices of ABC. ... iency in the operations, EVA needs to be integrated with ABC in the long run, because the later is related to the factors not directly related to ‘cost’ but scores of other factors such as alternative investments, competition, government policies and international events, which nevertheless influences cost. Cost Management Cost management is the basic underlying factor for the success of a business. Hilton, Maher & Selto (2008, p. 5) states, â€Å"Cost management is important to organizations because it is more than measuring and reporting costs that have occurred. Cost management is focused on the future impacts of current or proposed decisions. Cost management is a philosophy, an attitude, and a set of techniques to create more value at lower cost†. Computation of direct (or variable cost) of material or labor is relatively simpler. But, in the modern business enterprises and in the society, the increase in the proportion of other costs over the period of time w hich hitherto have been considered as fixed and uncontrollable assumed significance, since the controllability of such costs could not be overlooked in a competitive environment. Vazakidis, Karagiannis & Tsialta (2010, p. 382) state, â€Å"The use of this method [ABC] with the cooperation of new technologies and new methods of management, can resolve all the deficiencies of Public Sector, so as citizens and companies will be better served†. Fundamentals of Activity Based Costing Hilton, Maher & Stelto (2008, p 148) state that â€Å"Studies of company practices indicate that a large number of companies, as well as some organizations in the public sector, are using ABC. Some companies have tried ABC and dropped it. Reasons for this include its implementation cost. In the case of Hewlett-Packard division that one

Thematical Analysis Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Thematical Analysis Assignment - Essay Example munication, decision-making autonomy, the use of project teams, and differentiated models including socialisation, formalisation, and centralisation (Ambos and Schlegelmilch 2007). The results of this study indicate that MNC units give high priority to their agenda on R & D and interdependent control mechanisms; also that political approaches have relatively weak predictive power as compared to contingency approaches. According to Pagell and Halperin (1998, p.64) the mulinational corporation has its home in one country â€Å"but operates and lives under the laws and customs of other countries as well†. The control mechanisms used in managing Research and Development international units are the various contingencies such as the role of communication and decision-making autonomy. theory and organisational power having the potential to unify the contingencies mentioned above into one framework, there is inhibition to the further progress and integration of this innovative development relating to control of R & D. This is because of the isolated treatment of individual contingency variables and the absence of a unifying theoretical framework. Data was collected from 134 R & D units of German MNCs with research and development units located overseas, to test the hypotheses (Ambos and Schlegelmilch 2007). The strengths of the research methodology are that the size of the sample is adequately large for drawing relevant conclusions from the study, and the variables are comprehensive, including centralisation, formalisation, socialisation, cultural distance, R & D unit size, embeddedness, interdependence, international adaptors, and international creators. No variable exhibits distribution or correlation problems. On the other hand, the weaknesses of the study include the fact that there is significant variance due to the sample size. The R & D units range in age from one year to over sixty years. The number of employees in the units also differ widely from 34%

Procrastination and Action Essay Example for Free

Procrastination and Action Essay Procrastination, like all of your behaviors carries consequences. Whether your behavior is conscious or unconscious, you will eventually have to deal with the effects. Its only natural to procrastinate at times but, the way you deal with your procrastination patterns will determine what effects procrastination has on your life. One of the most obvious effects of procrastination is the failure to reap the rewards that would come from taking action. If a student chooses to procrastinate rather than complete school work on time, there can be many terrible effects. Of course, his or her grades could suffer if that particular school or teacher penalizes for late work. Severe procrastination can end in failure if the work is not accepted because of lateness. Even in the best-case scenario, work completed under the stress of procrastination tends to be poorly done. Procrastination can also negatively affect a person’s home life. Imagine you procrastinated and left the dirty dishes in the sink after dinner tonight. That would not be such a big deal, right? Now imagine you did it for a week. Imagine the putrid stench, the mold, and the hours of scrubbing it would take to get rid of the dried food. Procrastination is bad, but procrastination over a long stretch of time is horrific. You might even give yourself food poisoning! Overindulging in procrastination at work will inevitably get you fired. If your boss asks you to do something now and you do not complete it until next week, do you think you will keep your job? Even if you do not lose your job, you will likely receive a bad evaluation and perhaps face a pay cut if you are not completing tasks in a timely manner. If you are fired and you have a history of bad evaluations, you will not likely receive a letter of recommendation from your old job. Without a good work history, it will be difficult or impossible to get another job. When you procrastinate you simple fail to take action on the very things you know will bring you the rewards that you desire. Although you know what you want and even what you need to do to get it, you still have to take action and its usually at this point where procrastination sets in. Because the results that you desire are often something bigger and better than what you currently have, you must step outside your comfort zone to get it. You might have to take actions that you are not comfortable with to which your unconscious mind reacts by protecting you against that which is uncomfortable. Although the short term effects of procrastination might seem as positive the long term effects are almost always negative. Failing to reap the rewards of taking action can have many knock on effects. Taking action on your ideas and desires is one of your most empowering gifts. It is the process by which you can make the intangible tangible. Through your actions and your behavior you create or manage your life. Its not only the direct results of your actions that create the outcomes, but often the very fact that you are actually consciously affecting the conditions of your life. It not just your actions, but rather your failure to take action that will have a greater effect on the rewards you reap from life. From this point of view the effects of procrastination is not just a direct but also an indirect loss of rewards. Every action is a cause set in motion that affects and builds on past and future events to the point, where we can never really determine the actual effect of one specific action. More than anything else, action opens you up to opportunity. Opportunity is rarely the result of you waiting for it. When you put yourself in line with what you want most through your conscious action you expose yourself to opportunity. Its never a case of whether you have opportunities but rather are you noticing the opportunities? But even more importantly, are you using the opportunities or are you procrastinating? One thing is for certain and that is when procrastination becomes a habit you wont even notice all the opportunities on your doorstep. You will live your life in distraction, constantly looking for short term pleasures to avoid the real challenges that will cause you to reap the real results. You will always turn a blind eye to the real opportunities. Those who succeed are rarely the people with the most or the most splendid opportunities. They are the people who saw and realized it. Out of all the negative effects of procrastination and indecision the failure to spot and act on opportunity is probably the saddest. So many people with so much talent fail to live up to their true potential because of procrastination. The rewards you reap from life will be either a direct or an indirect result of your actions or your inactions. Not only will procrastination prevent you from reaping the rewards but your inaction will prevent you from even being exposed to opportunity. Opportunity is knocking but you have to take action and at least open the door. There might be many reasons why a person chooses to procrastinate when he or she knows it is time to complete a task. Whatever the causes, the effects of procrastination can be catastrophic. Procrastination can be harmful at school, home, and work. If a student chooses to procrastinate rather than complete school work on time, there can be many terrible effects. Of course, his or her grades could suffer if the teacher penalizes, work that is sent in late. Even in the best-case scenario, work completed under the stress of procrastination tends to be poorly done. Procrastination can also negatively affect a person’s home life. Imagine you procrastinated and left the dirty dishes in the sink after dinner tonight. That would not be such a big deal, right? Now imagine you did it for a week. Imagine the putrid stench, the mold, and the hours of scrubbing it would take to get rid of the dried food. Procrastination is bad, but procrastination over a long stretch of time is horrific. You might even give yourself food poisoning! Not only will procrastination prevent you from reaping the rewards but your inaction will prevent you from even being exposed to opportunities. Procrastination, like all of your behaviors carries consequences. Whether your behavior is conscious or unconscious, you will eventually have to deal with the effects. The effects of procrastination are something that we all have to confront and deal with from time to time. Procrastination is what derives people from their work, study, and even determination. Focus is what is needed in our every-day lives, and though it is tempting to delay what is needed to be done, no excuse is worth it.

Hamlet: The Man behind the Madness Essay -- ophelia, shakespeare

What drives Hamlet to his madness? How does it relate to Ophelia’s madness? Are Hamlet and Ophelia both truly mad? These are some questions that I contemplated as I read Hamlet. The main character, Hamlet feigns madness after learning of his father’s murder; however, he becomes mad later on in the play. Is it possible that Hamlet became so wrapped up in his father’s murder that he was unable to distinguish fantasy from reality? At the beginning of the play, Hamlet has learned that his brother, the newly king, Claudius, murdered his father. In Christian Wertenbaker: What is the riddle in HAMLET? (Sirs.com, 2011) it is stated, â€Å"From then on, Hamlet has to find his own way. He has become a seeker of truth. Unless he verifies the facts for himself, he cannot do the act† (1). This shows that Hamlet can’t back away from what he is meant to do. In his eyes he sees himself as being chosen to avenge his father. In fact, Hamlet proclaims, â€Å"The time is out of joint. O, cursed sprit, That ever I was born to set it right† (I. V. 207-208)! Already Hamlet is stressed out by his misfortune. He sees no other option, but to kill his uncle. After his meeting with the ghost, Hamlet becomes obsessed with death. It is obvious that Hamlet is wrestling with the idea of whether or not he can commit the act. At this point he is capable of reasoning, but prior to this he was wily enough to invent his false madness. He has not lost his ability to discriminate right from wrong; therefore, he is not mad. To be mad a person loses total reasoning. Still he is determined to discover whether or not Claudius did really murder his father. So, Hamlet organizes a play that reveals the truth about his father’s death. This play serves as a strategy to force Claudi... ...f action have been eaten up by thought, he to whom the universe seems infinite, and himself nothing; whose bitterness [75] of soul makes him careless of consequences, and who goes to a play as his best resource is to shove off, to a second remove, the evils of life by a mock representation of them - this is the true Hamlet† (2). To me this means that Hamlet is what the audience or reader makes him to be. He is not mad, but a part of everyone. He is seen in the audience. This play contains a truth, the truth of life. Hamlet’s character contains many feelings that are shared such as sorrow, dread, and lonely. For Hamlet’s character lives through the reader. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. â€Å"The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print

Slaying the Dragon Essay -- essays research papers

Slaying the Dragon: How Asian Women were Portrayed in Movies â€Å"Slaying the Dragon† by Deborah Gee is a comprehensive look at media stereotypes of Asian and Asian American women since the silent era. From the racist use of white actors to portray Asians in early Hollywood films, through the success of Anna May Wong’s sinister dragon lady, to Suzie Wong and the ‘50s geisha girls, to the Asian-American anchorwoman of today. The movie also shows how stereotypes of exoticism and docility have affected the perception of Asian-American women. In many movies Asian women are sexually stereotyped as â€Å"exotic, subservient, compliant, industrious, and eager to please.† If not that, Japanese women are shown to be â€Å"inherently scheming, untrustworthy, and back-stabbing.† Whichever representation is used ...

Cell phones in high schools Essay

Now days using cell phones in high school is not an easy issue because cell phones and other smart electronic machines established with the fast moving of technology, so everybody has a cell phone from children to older people, its became an important thing in our life and we use it in a lot things even if it effect on our society because it has a lot of advantages it’s also has a disadvantages if we use it in a wrong way in school or other places. In this research I well talk about several points about using cell phones in high schools, the policy that school’s administration has taken about this issue and the advantages and the disadvantages of using cell phones in schools by students or teachers. Using cell phone in high school has a lot of advantages because it can be an educational tool in the class if the teachers know how to use it for teaching and important and improve their lessons. Students can also use it for research about their lessons and to answer difficult questions and even they can connect with each other after school for their projects and other studies. A lot of parents support the idea of using cell phones but outside the classes for example in the field to ensure the safety of their children if there is a sort of emergency. On the other hand there are also some dis advantages about using cell phones in high school and they are very disruptive to students and teachers. Also the phone could make egregious problems if they use the privet areas and publishing them. A lot of schools don’t have a policy of using cell phones by teachers inside the school, but they not allowed them to use it during lessons. Cell phones may be helpful for teachers if they are in activity outside the school to use it for emergency issues, otherwise it will cause a distraction during lessons. Another point we can consider it that it’s important that the bus driver has a cell phone because he will be away from the school when he with the children. To conclude using cell phones in high schools need more studies to apply it in the future. But could schools change their policy to use cell phones as an educational tool by students and teachers during classes? In the future â€Å"yes† it could be because technology well becomes our life in schools or anywhere else but we must use it in the good way and the school must control that carefully by a lot of strict policies.

Ethics Paper5

Ethics Paper5 Ethics Paper5 Ethical values are essential to the progress of all individuals and of any nation. Ethical values are crucial to the functioning of all business in general and society as a whole. Business and society depend on individuals making personal ethical decisions that are fundamental to responsible business operations and to an orderly society. "The purpose of ethics in accounting and business is to direct business men and women to abide by a code of conduct that facilities public confidences in their product and services" (Dr. Smith, L Murphy). The accounting profession has a long history of contributions to the efficient functioning of business operations, the capital market system and the economy in general. In the wake of corporate scandals and a struggling world economy, we look back at the accounting scandal at Enron, from an ethical perspective, the company which the media portrayed was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Enron was a large energy, commodities and services c ompany, marketing electricity and natural gas, and providing financial and risk management services around the world (Cunningham, Lawrence 2002). Enron Corporation was created in 1985, shortly after the federal deregulation of natural gas in North America. Enron was formed by the merger of two natural-gas pipeline companies, Houston Natural Gas, one based in Houston, and the other in Nebraska, InterNorth (Dobson, John 2002). The merged company owned 37,000 miles of intra- and interstate pipelines for transporting natural gas between producers and utilities. The complex industrial structure of Enron was vast and only understood by a few people outside of Enron at the time of its filing for bankruptcy in December 2001. There was no clear picture or complete information as to the true levels of its assets, liabilities and offbalance-sheet positions (Cornford, Andrew, 2002). This was a far cry from the firm which, in the 1980s, specialized in the provision of natural gas pipelines and r elated services (Cornford, Andrew, 2002). From these humble origins, Enron expanded relentlessly into trading activities in more 1,800 products or contracts and thirteen currencies which included bandwidth, pulp and paper, and contracts such as weather and credit derivatives (Cornford, Andrew, 2002). It was in connection with expansion into trading that Enron engaged in increasingly aggressive and creative accounting (Cornford, Andrew, 2002). The core of the Enron debacle are said to be accounting chicanery related to off-balance sheet financing, related party transactions and colossal failures of board oversight (Cunningham, Lawrence 2002). These accounting, corporate and auditing issues included the use of complex but apparently compliant accounting rules to mask or defer recognition of liabilities and losses; the development and sale by investment banks of complex accounting-driven structures and products to assist corporations to hide losses and liabilities, and thereby improve their published financial condition and credit ratings; and the introduction of highly leveraged employee stock option plans (Travis, Anthony 2002). It became clear in the SEC investigation that Enron had failed during the preceding four years to make proper disclosure concerning various â€Å"related party transactions† and to properly account for â€Å"off-balance sheet† transactions (Cunningham, Lawrence 2002). This resulted with twenty percent of Enron’s shareholders’ equity wiped out–a total of $2.2 billion. Enron’s external auditor was Arthur Andersen, which also provided the firm with extensive internal auditing and consulting services. In light of Enron's bankruptcy filing and following SEC investigation, Arthur Andersen, auditor and provider of consultancy