Houston Astros and Enron Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Houston Astros and Enron - Assignment Example As a prominent sports team with a large fan base, it is a force to be reckoned with in the sports of American baseball which is perhaps the most popular team sports in the United States and also a major part of the American culture as a pastime when families bond together. When its sponsor Enron Corporation suddenly collapsed back in 2001, the Houston Astros found themselves in the embarrassing position of being endorsed by an organization which symbolized corporate greed. It is the aim of this brief paper to examine the options available to the said sports team and as an illustrative case study on how to properly handle a seemingly public relations disaster. Discussion Professional sports today in America and elsewhere in the world is characterized by the increasing intrusion of commercialization through corporate sponsorship in the form of company advertisements and marketing promotions. American sports organizations are privately-owned teams and as such has to be managed well like any business enterprise and has to turn a profit for its owners. In this regard, many of such sports organizations have turned to corporate sponsors to earn much-needed additional revenues to offset higher expenses in the form of maintenance of its home stadium and to pay the often-exorbitant professional players' fees. In other words, the sports team owners are in a quandary of sorts, as they have to sacrifice the purity or sanctity of sports in favor of commercial ads to make their sports teams a viable on-going enterprise. There is a prevalent practice of selling the naming rights of a stadium to a corporation for a huge fee. Problem Definition – in the case of the Houston Astros, they had sold the naming rights for their new ball park to Enron Corporation for a 30-year period to the tune of $100 million and in turn, Enron was given all the rights to put up advertisements, banners, and all sorts of the paid endorsements accruing to the Houston Astros sports team, such as the opportunity to put Enron's name on all interior and exterior signages to include even the uniforms of game-day staff. A part of the deal included spending for a luxury suite and season box seats (Jensen & Butler, 2007, p. 28). When Enron collapsed, the sports team had to find a way to dissociate themselves from it. Case Analysis – the sudden collapse was an unprecedented event in American business history for it was the largest bankruptcy filing ever and worse, Enron represented the corporate scandal involving dubious accounting practices, insider trading, and other types of malfeasance. The Houston Astros found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being associated with the company most hated by Americans who lost their jobs, pensions, and life savings. Evaluation of Case Facts – the naming rights that Enron Corporation entered into with the management of the Houston Astros was a valid business contract but the extremely bad name or reputation that Enron soo n earned after its collapse when sordid wrongdoing came to public knowledge made it untenable for the sports team to continue with the contract because it is now a public relations crises in relation to its valued publics, in particular its avid sports fans. Consideration of Alternatives – Houston Astros has to find a way to get out of the now-useless contract with Enron as the corporation is in no position to honor its end of the bargain in terms of annual installment payment for the naming rights of the stadium. The sports team has to resort to the courts to discharge it from its obligations

Internet Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Internet Security - Essay Example The chief purpose of the web security is to inaugurate the rubrics and the procedures that are used in contradiction of the attacks on the internet. Typically, the internet provides an apprehensive channel that is cast-off for swapping data, which hints to high peril of interloping, or deceit. There are different forms that have been established to protect the transfer of data, one of them being encryption. Several forms of web security are being used in this modern generation and have been an improvement from the time the internet was introduced. This paper looks at a form of web security known as the network layer security. There are different layers of communication, which have different stratums of communication and they contain different and unique security challenges. This form of security also known as the layer 3 in the OOSI model is mostly vulnerable for many denials of service attacks and information privacy problems. There are several protocols, which are used in this netw ork layer commonly known as internet protocol (Blaze et al, 1996; Blaze et al, 1999).). In many cases, the standard protocol technique, which is employed by the IPSEC, involves summarizing a coded network layer-packet, which is usually placed on a standard network packet, which normally makes the encryption more vivid to the transitional protuberances, which must process packet headers for the drive of routing. The outgoing data packets are usually legitimate, scrambled, and condensed just afore being delivered to the grid, and inbound packages are decompressed, proved, and decrypted immediately upon delivery (Blaze et al, 1999). The main management in the protocol is usually delivered in simple cases. two hordes can share the key agreements protocols to negotiate the terms with other interested parties, and at the same time use the terms to as part of the condensing and encoding package transmutes (Harkins, & Carrel, 1998). Security network has several advantages as compared to the many applications that are provided in other places in the protocol stack. There are usually several network semantics from the web applications, which take advantage semantically and automatically in the many network layer security and their surroundings. The most significant network layer provides extraordinary tractability, which is not possible at advanced or the lesser intellections. The different codes can be constituted from the various ends in order to safeguard the traffic from the two codes. Moreover, the codes can be configured from, route-to-route in a manner to safeguard the traffic which passes over a certain convention of linkages. In addition, the codes can be encrypted to from edge-to-edge in a manner to protect the traffic since it takes a path between trusted networks through an untrusted network. However, the codes can be used in the manner other arrangements such that the nodes can be branded as proper safety end-points (Stewart, 2002). The design of encapsulat ion has a great advantage over the methods that are used for the fundamental verification and gives out the discretion service as not a theoretically problematic while other grid coat conventions have developed to a certain point of being homogeneous and used for profitable maximization (Fossen, 2003). Conversely, there are problems, which happen with the prevailing values for the system layer securities. The problem is that the network layer securities do not discourse whitest the administration of the whole decorum, which administers the way packets are handled during this process and the clouds of administering encoding the protocols. The security etiquettes shield the packets from interfering though they do not protect the hosts, which are mandated to exchange different kinds of

Why is the story called, The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

Why is the story called, The Yellow Wallpaper - Essay Example The commonality between the two stories is that both of them tell about a husband’s suffocating grip on a woman’s life. In these stories, a husband has not been presented in a direct negative light; rather a husband’s care and kindness for a wife ironically prove to be harmful for a wife. The irony lies in the fact that in a patriarchal society, no matter how much a husband tries to be caring like the narrator’s husband in Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, and kind like Mrs. Mallard’s husband in â€Å"Story of an Hour†, they are the patriarchal annihilators of the women’s freedom. In her story Gilman shows that a woman’s status in patriarchy is rather detrimental to her psychological growth, though ironically the narrator’s husband mistakes such restriction for his wife’s betterment. The narrator’s husband assumes that women were devoid of any intellectual capability. Therefore, he suggests that the protagonist refrains himself from any type intellectual and outdoor activities. In contradiction, the narrator strongly feels that participation in outdoor activities may improve her condition. The protagonist thinks that her betterment lies in something else than a restricted situation, â€Å"I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house† (Gilman, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†). Gilman refers to the fact that women’s confinement within the four walls of their husbands’ house hampers their normal psychological growth. In the story, the narrator often refers to the suppressing presence of her husband in her life. At some point, referring to the seriousness of her condition she says, â€Å"If a physician of high standing, and oneâ₠¬â„¢s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?† (Gilman). Here Gilman refers to the patriarchal constructs of the word, â€Å"husband†. For her, â€Å"one’s own husband† or ‘husband’ is empowered with the authority of ‘a physician of high standing’ who can rule on the psychophysical condition of his wife. Gilman shows that the patriarchal term ‘husband’ is as harmful for a wife as a physician, who is ignorant of his patient’s situation, is harmful to his patient. In her story, Chopin deals with the same story of a woman’s lack of freedom in a round-about way. In contradiction to others’ expectation Mrs. Mallard senses the gush of complacent freedom hearing the news of her husband’s death. She feels sad. But concurrently she also feels the complace nce at her oncoming freedom, as the narrator describes Mrs. Mallard’s joy in the following manner: â€Å"There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name† (Chopin, â€Å"Story of an Hour†). At the news of Bentley’s death, she feels the prospect of living a life of enormous freedom and joy. But since in patriarchy a woman is not accustomed to express herself freely, she fears even to acknowledge the source of mirth and ecstasy. Though â€Å"she was striving to beat it back with her will† (Chopin, â€Å"Story of an Hour†), she fails to do so. Indeed it is her self-realization and her acknowledgement that the death of her husband and the prospect of living a free life are the sources of her ecstasies. But gradually before the unexpected

International History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International History - Essay Example The widest description of civilization is however the definition of a more complex lifestyle that encompasses urban culture and practice of complicated activities such as farming and construction of complex structures. In doing such complex activities therefore indicate a state of sophisticated way of thinking, change of taste, and improvement of behavior. Civilized communities are now described by the way they live i.e. organized leadership (governments), literacy, social integration, economic coordination and other cultural characteristics. The general question of concern is why early civilization materialized along river valleys The answer to this question is that rivers provided a source of dependable livelihood throughout the year. As the old adage goes, water is life; rivers provided a supply of water for farming, for people's consumption and other domestic uses. Rivers also worked as micro climate regulation influencing vegetation, type of weather, natural features and topography besides the land around river is usually very fertile and hence encouraged farming (McEvedy, 2002 p.30). Whereas people appeared to be dependant on these rivers, there river stimulated innovations that lead to emergence of new and refined institutional organization, technology development and economic management. Civilization along river valleys was a self determining factor and no relations whatsoever to other rivers but had some similar characteristics. Some of the early river civilizations that have been described are along R. Nile, R. Indus, R. Tigris and R. Euphrates (McEvedy, 2002 p.34). Contrary to river valley civilization, barbarian civilization also emerged at the same time among groups of people that practiced nomadic pastoralist. Barbarism describes a situation that reduces civilization process due to communal disintegration caused by lack of industrial progression. Such societies lagged behind in technical development and were deemed low-grade compared to other communities. Some of communities that endured this civilization set back developed to become nomadic pastoralists and practiced free farming. The emergence of Nomadic pastoralist has been described to be a consequence of Neolithic Revolution. Domestication of animals and more so herbivores and farming, cleared more land and pastures, as a consequence, communities had to migrate to other areas in search for greener pastures (McEvedy 2002 p.38-40). Factors that contributed to such migrations included seasons of droughts, overpopulation, attacks from other hostile communities and search for water. Historic ally it has been ascertained that Nomadic Pastoralist lead to development of hostility among pastoral communities towards others and they have been feared a lot even today. Coercive-Agrarian Civilization The agrarian civilization begun with the river valley civilization and the major characteristics of this civilization were; invention of writing, organization of communities into empires and construction of buildings and monuments. Invention of Writing The earliest writings of late years Before Christ are not considered as writings but rather as symbols. The earliest symbols were used to communicate messages to people and their complexity gradually grew to include rows aligned and could bring to mind an intuition of a clear text. It is very hard

Law Revision Kit Certified Public Accountants Essay Example for Free

Law Revision Kit Certified Public Accountants Essay ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. This publication may not be lent, resold, hired or otherwise disposed of by any way of trade without the prior written consent of the copyright owner. Â © THE REGISTERED TRUSTEES STRATHMORE EDUCATION TRUST 1992 INSTRUCTIONS FOR STUDENTS This study guide is intended to assist Distance Learning students in their independent studies. The course has been broken down into eight lessons each of which should be considered as approximately one week of study for a full time student. Solve the reinforcement problems verifying your answer with the suggested solution contained at the back of the distance learning pack. When the lesson is completed, repeat the same procedure for each of the following lessons. At the end of lessons 2, 4, 6 and 8 there is a comprehensive assignment that you should complete and submit for marking to the Distance Learning administrator. SUBMISSION PROCEDURE 1.After you have completed a comprehensive assignment clearly identify each question and number your pages. 2.If you do not understand a portion of the course content or an assignment question indicate this in your answer so that your marker can respond to your problem areas. Be as specific as possible. 3.Arrange the order of your pages by question number and fix them securely to the data sheet provided. Adequate postage must be affixed to the envelope. 4.While waiting for your assignment to be marked and returned to you, continue to work through the next two lessons and the corresponding reinforcement problems and comprehensive assignment. On the completion of the last comprehensive assignment, a two-week period of revision should be carried out of the whole course using the material in the revision section of the study pack. At the completion of this period, the final Mock Examination paper should be completed under examination conditions. This should be sent to the Distance Learning Administrator to arrive in Nairobi at least five weeks before the date of your sitting the KASNEB Examinations. This paper will be marked and posted back to you within two weeks of receipt by the Distance Learning Administrator. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We gratefully acknowledge permission to quote from the past examination papers of the following bodies: Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examination Board (KASNEB); Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA); Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Understanding The Dell Direct Distribution Channel Commerce Essay

Understanding The Dell Direct Distribution Channel Commerce Essay The direct model refers to the fact that Dell does not use the retails channel, but sells its PCs directly to customers through its website, this way the intermediary steps that may add time and cost are eliminated, and Dell is directly linked to its customers. The direct approach allows Dell to build a relationship, which makes it quick and easy for customers to do business with Dell. Supplier DELL Final Customer The build-to-order model enables Dell to keep inventory down very low compared to competitors like Compaq and IBM. Dell has a low inventory of five to ten days, while Compaq and IBM have inventory of four weeks or more. Dell purchases a significant number of components from single sources. In some cases, alternative sources of supply are not available. In other cases Dell may establish a working relationship with a single source, even when multiple suppliers are available, if the company believes it is advantageous to do so when considering performance, quality, support, delivery, capacity and price (Annual Report, 1996). If the supply of a critical single-sourced material or component were delayed or curtailed, Dells ability to ship the related product in desired quantities and in a timely manner could be adversely affected. Even where alternative sources of supply are available, qualification of the alternative suppliers and establishment of reliable supplies could result in delays and a possible loss of sales, which could affect operating results adversely (Annual Report, 1996). An Event:- On 21 September 1999, an earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck Chichi, Taiwan. It had devastating consequences. Baum (1999) reports that after the disaster more than 2,200 people lost their lives, more than 50,000 buildings were destroyed and total industrial production losses were estimated as $1.2 billion. This area features high production concentration of many other computer components, e.g. motherboards (more than two-thirds of world consumption in 1999) and notebook displays. Local producers of computer memory, TSMC and UMC being the leading Taiwanese suppliers, lost significant quantities of work in progress at the time of the earthquake. Sherin and Bartoletti (1999) report that production lines could not restart at the first couple of days after the event as sensitive critical-path equipment had been damaged. The world markets of memory chips reacted very fast to this news, as supply was constrained at the last part of 1999. The spot price of memory chips went up fivefold. computer memory increases were not passed on to consumers as higher product prices, but they were absorbed by the company and were passed on to investors in the form of less stock repurchases. Dell Computer Co. (2000a) announced that during the fourth quarter of 1999 it lost $300 million in revenue due to the Earthquake. Literature Review The global presence of DELL with sales offices in 43 countries, sales presence in 170 countries, 6 global manufacturing sites in Brazil, Tennessee, Texas, China, Ireland and Malaysia clearly defines its leading position in the computer systems market. The annual revenue for Dell Inc was $ 61.8 Billion (FY 2008- 2009). By cutting .the middle man and building PCs, enterprise products like servers, storages, solutions to order, Dell has revolutionized an industry once inundated with unsold inventory and products that quickly became obsolescent. Dells integrated supply chain has allowed it to gain market share while remaining profitable. Dells business strategy includes direct route to market, Supplier relationship and E- Commerce. Dell Direct Model Supplier Relationship (Just In Time Strategy) E- Commerce Direct Model: Dells business model is the envy of many competitors. Most other competitors are in the process of developing a direct market strategy but the transition from existing sales channel is not simple. Dell continues to gain market share by using its knowledge about its customers. First of all, the model eliminates the need to support a widespread network of wholesale and retail dealers, which allows them to avoid dealer mark-ups; avoids the higher inventory costs associated with the wholesale/retail channel and the competition for retail shelf space; and diminishes the high risk of obsolescence associated with products in a rapidly changing technological market. Supplier Relationships: Dell.s integrated supply chain allows it to keep only four days of inventory. Component price in computer industry falls almost 6% a week. The company can provide the component price decline to its customers quickly. In addition, Dell shares demand information with suppliers, so ensuring that inventory is kept to minimum. Dell also enhances cash flow by effectively paying suppliers after customers have settled invoices. Dells relationship with their suppliers has played a key role in their success story. They have found a way to get most suppliers to keep components warehoused within minutes from Dells factories in Austin, Penang, Malaysia, and Limerick, Ireland. This has led them to reduce their number of suppliers from 204 in 1992, to only 47 today, all of whom have been willing to cooperate with their warehousing plan. These suppliers manage their own inventories, while they run parts to Dell as needed. The biggest advantage for Dell is that they dont get b illed for the components until they leave the suppliers warehouse. Dell doesnt take these components until an order is placed, which saves them a lot of money because the prices of PC parts can fall rapidly in just a few months. E-Commerce: Dell has developed a process whereby they can assess the lowest possible price within an hour. Dells e-commerce infrastructure allows dynamic pricing strategy, whereby the same product and service can be sold at different prices, depending on the buyer. As a result of their innovative transformation, Dell sells more than $30 million per day on the Internet, accounting for 30% of their overall revenue. Dell views the Internet as the most genuine and efficient form of their direct model, providing greater convenience and efficiency to customers as well as to Dell. Theoretical Model :- Supply Chain Disruption, both potential and actual are the enemies of all firm. Supply Chain disruption can be defined as Unplanned and Unanticipated event that has disrupted the normal flow of goods and material within a supply chain. Risk Prevails in three categories i.e Internal risk , External Risk and Network related risk( Juttner et al. 2002). Risk can be catogorised in variables. Variables suggested by Ritchie and Marshall ( 1993) include environment, industry, organisation , problem specific, decision maker related variables. Supply Chain Disruption:- Anything that affects the flow and supply of raw material, sub component, finished good from all the way from origin to the final demand point. On the basis of the severity of impacts and their likelihood or probability of occurrence, the major established attributes of disruption can be classified as follows: The most vital attribute of disruption is the inherent cause of disruption. For example, Murphy(2006) categorized disruptions into natural events, external man made events, and internal- man made events. Blizzards, labour strikes, and product recalls would be examples of each category respectively (Murphy 2006). Another vital attribute is on how many spheres or disciplines of the supply chain have been affected by a given disruption at one time. The third vital attribute is whether or not the disruption is associated an environmental change. Disruptions that cause an environmental change usually impact some form of the infrastructure for either a long time period or permanently. The fourth and the final attribute of disruption is the duration of the disruption itself. The framework tests the supply chain risks based on the above mentioned attributes and classifies them as deviation disruption or disaster, based on the severity of the disruption over the supply chain and the probability of occurrence as a parameter for risk calculation, assessment, prevention or mitigation. In order to see the different aspect of risk management in a supply chain, a frame work prepared by Manuj and Mentzer( 2008) has been reviewed.The schematic diagram of the framework is shown below. The framework is created in view with firms having a global outreach who source from different countries. This framework provided is a comprehensive one with both risk management and mitigation factors incorporated in to it. This framework proved to be ideal for risk management and mitigation in Dell, a truly global firm. The framework adopts 5 step approach for Risk management and Mitigation. Risk Identification: Risk identification is an important stage in the risk management process. Consequently, by identifying a risk, decision-makers become aware of events that may cause disturbances. To assess supply chain risk exposures, the company must identify not only direct risks to its operations, but also the potential causes or sources of those risks at every significant link along the supply chain (Christopher  HYPERLINK #idb3et al.HYPERLINK #idb3, 2002). Hence, the main focus of supply chain risk analysis is to recognize future uncertainties to enable proactive management of risk-related issues. Risk Assessment and Evaluation: After the risk analysis, it is important to assess and prioritize risks to be able to choose management actions appropriate to the situation. One common method is to compare events by assessing their probabilities and consequences and put them in a risk map/matrix Risk Management Strategy: Different strategies are adopted for various risks according to their importance and nature. Various strategies are suggested in the framework, such as Avoidance, Postponement, Speculation, Hedging, Control, Risk Sharing/Transfer, Security etc. Implementation of Supply Chain Risk Management Strategy:- Once the various strategies have been decided, plans have to be made for implementing the strategies based on their priority. Mitigation of Supply Chain Risk: Mitigation is the most commonly considered risk management strategy. Mitigation involves fixing the flaw or providing some type of compensatory control to reduce the likelihood or impact associated with the flaw. A common mitigation for a technical security flaw is to install a patch provided by the vendor. Sometimes the process of determining mitigation strategies is called control analysis. Expansion of the Framework and explanation of Potential Source of Disruption Recovery:- The global SCRM frame work designed by Manuj and Mentzer (2008) was applied on the Dells Value chain to analyze and identify the Risk. The framework was expanded and broken in to various stage and then applied to the Dell Value Chain. Risk Identification: In this phase various risk were identified by brain storming. The risks were classified in the following sub heads. Supply Risk: This includes of Wrong Supplier selection ,Natural Calamity like Earthquake, Hurricane, Low Inventory levels, Quality Issues , Supply disruption and Price escalation. Operations Risk: This includes Exchange Rate, Country Factors, and Virtual integration network breakdown. Demand Risk: This includes New Competitor, Technology Changes and Demand Fluctuation. Security Risk:- This includes Information system breach and Freight breaches. Risk Assessment and Evaluation: In this phase we have calculated the RPN number. Probability and impact of disruption were quantifies on the scale of 1 to 10 based on the hypothesis on the most severe to be 10 and the least severe to be 1.Eventually the most probable to be 10 and the least probable to be 1. Multiplying the Probability and Probability, RPN was calculated. Risk Management:- In this phase we have suggested the various ways by which an organization can minimize the impact by the risk which were identified in the Risk identification. Risks having high RPN number such as Supply Disruption , Low inventory Level should be attacked first, gradually coming down to the lesser RPN numbers and taking proper measure to minimize the risk. Risk Mitigation: Identifying the severity of disruption, risk mitigation strategy was defined. The academic framework by Manuj and Mentzer(2008) was tested hypothetically over the case of severe supply chain disruption faced by Dell and other computer systems manufacturer, during the time when Taiwan, one of the largest manufacturing base for semiconductor and motherboard production and assembly, suffered an earthquake, which is critically analysed as an unplanned unorganised risk for any functional supply chain in the manufacturing scenario.. After the step wise approach of finalising the framework and implying and expanding it over a real time already occurred situation of crisis it was inferred that severe supply chain disruptions have a great impact on the firm. The existence of a clearly articulated risk management plan for disaster-induced supply disruptions has not appeared in Dells official announcements during the six month period after the event in Taiwan. The inherent supply chain agility of this CDM Company, however, offered it several means of recourse during the month that followed the disruption. Dell operates on a configure-to-order basis, thus the final decision on product configuration rests with Dells customer. The moment an inputs price increases, customers may modify their configuration preferences by requesting less of the expensive input. Veverka (1999) reports that Dell changed its marketing strategy after the Taiwan earthquake in an effort to shift consumer preferences towards low memory products. A second ingredient of Dells supply chain strategy, long-term contracts with suppliers, did not deliver steady prices; despite expectations to the contrary in the PC industry press (Deckmyn, 1999). Baljko-Shah (2000) reports that Dell was forced to buy regular DRAM memories after the Taiwan earthquake, while their prices were high. Dell was planning to incorporate in its most innovative product line best-available technology memories (RDRAM). Contrary to earlier announcements, computer processor unit (CPU) suppliers did not make available on time CPUs compatible with the new technology memories. Dell ended up buying conventional memories during the earthquake-induced shortage in order to meet advertised commitments to increased memory capability in its innovative products. Dell Computer Co. (2000a) announced that during the fourth quarter of 1999 it lost $300 million in revenue. With respect to the framework by Manuj and Mentzer ( 2008) , the disruption at dell, in the case of earthquake in Taiwan at the supplier base, disrupting the dells supply chain can be covered by deploying the Risk resilience. The key points to mitigate the damages caused by the Supply Chain disruption are recommended as below. Postponement of Risk :- Postponement entails delaying the actual commitment of resources to maintain flexibility and delay incurring costs (Bucklin, 1965). It appeared that an increasing trend toward off-shoring provided a motivation for form postponement. Yang et al. (2004) also argue that with increasing attention to mass customization, agile operations, and e-business strategies, there should be more interest in postponement; however, there has been an absence of empirical research supporting this implication. Since global supply chains face high risks, postponement becomes increasingly valuable as the proportion of off-shore components in the final product increases. Therefore, as a preliminary observation, we believe that as the proportion of off-shore components in the final product increases, the likelihood of a supply chain considering investment in form postponement will increase. Speculation of Risk: Speculation (also called selective risk taking) is a demand-side risk management strategy that is the opposite of postponement (Bucklin, 1965). It includes such actions as forward placement of inventory in country markets, forward buying of finished goods or raw material inventory, and early commitment to the form of a product, all in anticipation of future demand. In the interviews, speculation emerged as the most commonly used strategy to address uncertainty in the business Environment: Hedging of Risk: In a global supply-chain context, hedging is undertaken by having a globally dispersed portfolio of suppliers and facilities such that a single event (like currency fluctuations or a natural disaster) will not affect all the entities at the same time and/or in the same magnitude. For example, dual sourcing can be used as a hedge against risks of quality, quantity, disruption, price, variability in performance, and opportunism (Berger et al., 2004), but dual sourcing requires more investment than single sourcing. Transfer of Risk:- The transfer of risk primarily encompasses a risk sharing strategy in a case of severe supply disruption by sharing it with 3rd party suppliers and allies. CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATION, IMPLICATION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:- Conclusion:- Supply chain risk management is a decision process often requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Typically, risk mitigation and contingency planning entails skills in operations strategy and supply chains. After a close analysis of the Dell Direct Supply Chain system considering the impact of the Taiwan earthquake on the dell by the frame work developed by Munoj and Mentzer ( 2008). The overall objective of the framework is to reduce the impact of disruption and understanding the various factors that play a role in the post- disruption recovery and decision making process. Dell Computers doctrinal commitment to minimal inventories, however, is well known. Companies with similar strategic commitments are unlikely to be interested in risk mitigation policies involving emergency inventories along the supply chain. In this case, risk transfer is left as the main option to consider, including contracts with emergency suppliers and insurance contracts. In light of Kunreuther and Bantwals (2000) discussion on rigidities in the successful introduction of Cat-Bonds, one alternative risk transfer instrument, the latter task may be challenging strategy to apply, but appears to be worth the effort. Scope for Future Research :- The Supply chain Disruption Management framework and disruption management process model have areas of interest that have not been able to be explored in this research leaving multiple area for future research. First area of research is understanding of the decision making process and its operational and behavioural factors. Second area of future research is the impact on the risk that disruption and firm strategies have. Putting to practice supply chain theories in order to bridge supply chain strategy with company financial performance is a daunting task. Supply chain theory attempts to clarify the complex interconnections among many actors in supply networks. Yet, it is unclear whether simple formulas for supply chain performance, encompassing a few variables, will have general application to business practice. In addition, it is difficult to design empirical studies that would isolate the effect of supply chain strategy on business performance from other company decisions and environmental variables. The study of supply chain disruptions may provide an interesting exception to the latter restriction, in that disruption impact may test whether supply chain management affects Company risk structure. There is a fast growing literature on alternative methods of risk transfer. It would be interesting to explore whether the latter methods may shield customised product direct marketing companies from investors uneasiness after disruptions in component markets.

Morals of The Milagro Beanfield War :: Milagro Beanfield War Essays

Morals of The Milagro Beanfield War The Milagro Beanfield War, written by John Nichols, demonstrates several themes on life. They range from the interactions of the rich and the poor to the hot arid farming climate in New Mexico. All of which have significant importances in this famous novel. Perhaps the most important theme that is represented in this novel is the idea that people should do what is wright no matter the consequences. People are constantly faced with the choice of right and wrong. What they choose not only effects themselves, but everyone else involved. That is why being true to yourself is being true to everyone. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? Yet if I am for myself only, what am I?"(p. 1). This theme carries the plot throughout the book. Milagro is a small agricultural town located in the hot arid state of New Mexico. Joe Mondragon, a man of his mid 30's, provided for his wife and two kids. He was a farmer, but a farmer with no fields. During the 1935 Interstate Water Compact, much of the water was transferred to big-time farmer's fields, like Ladd Devine. This would not have been a problem except for the fact that Joe's field was located on the west side of Milagro and all of the water flowed to the southeast side. All of the people of Milagro were unhappy about this change, but no one would say or do anything that would oppose the Devines. One day, Joe had had enough and tapped into the water supply. He knew that watering his father's field would cause problems, but he didn't care. Day after day Joe worked in his fields, preparing them for harvest. People from all the town gathered each day to watch Joe work. While Joe worked on his fields, the Devines worked on a plan to get rid of him. They did not like the idea that Joe Mondragon, a simple farmer, had not conformed to their ways. The Devines involved several various people in order to get rid of Joe, but all of these people could not stop Joe from obeying his morals. Bernabe Montoya, the Milagro town sheriff, and Sheriff Kyril Montana, a government officer, were assigned the duty of arresting Joe. They worked hard and diligently to arrest him, but time after time, they failed.