The Alphabet for Absolute Beginners

At this point learners need to be able to use the alphabet in order to assimilate new vocabulary and ask spelling questions about new vocabulary they will be learning in future lessons. You should take in an alphabet chart for this lesson, this chart should have pictures of various objects beginning with the various letters of the alphabet (pre-schoolers alphabet books would work well in this situation). Alphabete List Teacher: (Read the alphabet list slowly, pointing to pictures as you speak. The following list is just an example, make sure to use something with pictures if possible. ) A as in appleB as in boyC as in carD as in dogE as in earF as in flagG as in greatH as in houseI as in insectJ as in joyK as in kindL as in lightM as in magicN as in nightO as in orchestraP as in peopleQ as in questionR as in redS as in sureT as in truckU as in uniqueV as in videoW as in wowX as in xeroxY as in yesZ as in zebra Teacher: Repeat after me (Model the idea of repeating after me, thus giving the students a new class instruction that they will understand in the future.) A as in appleB as in boyC as in carD as in dogE as in earF as in flagG as in greatH as in houseI as in insectJ as in joyK as in kindL as in lightM as in magicN as in nightO as in orchestraP as in peopleQ as in questionR as in redS as in sureT as in truckU as in uniqueV as in videoW as in wowX as in xeroxY as in yesZ as in zebra Student(s): (Repeat the above with the teacher) Spelling Names Teacher: Please write your name. (Model the following new class instruction by writing your name on a piece of paper. ) Teacher: Please write your name. (You may have to gesture to students to take a piece of paper out and write their names.) Student(s): (Students write their names on a piece of paper) Teacher: My name is Ken. K - E - N (Model spelling your name.). What is your name?(Gesture to a student.) Student(s): My name is Gregory. G - R - E - G - O - R - Y Continue this exercise around the room with each of the students. If a student makes a mistake, touch your ear to signal that the student should listen and then repeat his/her answer accenting what the student should have said.

The Three Branches Research Paper - 2014 Words

The Three Branches Research Paper To start off I will be talking about the Legislative Branch. And the definition of the Legislative branch is: the part of the United States government that creates laws. Whenever you read about congress people in the Senate or House debating a law, you re reading about the legislative branch: the branch of the government that writes, debates, and passes laws. Making laws can be called legislating. First is how the Legislative branch uses the checks and balances and checks the other houses. The Legislative Branch can check the executive branch by a couple ways: Override the presidential vetoes with a two-thirds vote, may remove president through impeachment, and the senate approving treaties. The legislative branch can check the judicial branch by: removing judges through impeachment, creating lower courts, and the senate approving the appointments of judges. Next is the Speaker of the House and its role; his institutional role of presiding officer and administrative head of the House, the role of leader of the majority party in the House, and the representative role of an elected member of the House. The Speaker of the House is second in line to succeed the President, after the Vice President. The Senate President Pro Tempore’s job is; is similar to the Speaker of the House but more limited. For example of the Pro Tempore’s job is to act as in the President of the Senate or Vice President when he/she is absent. Next is the Majority andShow MoreRelatedEssay on Three Branches of Government725 Words   |  3 PagesClickable Rubric Assignment in the Student Center.   Instructors, training on how to grade is within the Instructor Center. Assignment 1 Branches of Government Create a flowchart of the three branches of government and associate two (2) Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) clauses for each branch of government. 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History of the Funeral Industry Free Essays

Funerals and burial rituals have been practiced for centuries. From mummification in the ancient Egyptian times to the extremely regimented practices of Muslims across the world, burial rituals differ greatly across the world’s societal bounds. The American funeral industry was never really established until after the civil war. We will write a custom essay sample on History of the Funeral Industry or any similar topic only for you Order Now Before the civil war, families would bury the bodies of relatives themselves. Messing with the natural course of decomposition by embalming the body was frowned upon during colonial times, but eventually began to gain popularity (Laderman). Although the practice of embalming corpses of the dead has been practiced for centuries, the U.S. began embalming the bodies of dead soldiers to prevent them from decomposing on the trip home. The person in charge of arranging and performing the embalming process was then known as an â€Å"undertaker† (funeralwise.com). After the war, the popularity of undertakers began to skyrocket; thus, forming an industry. The rapid spread of embalming practices and urbanization in the early twentieth century led to undertakers starting up funeral homes. Instead of the undertaker traveling to the home of the deceased, bodies were transported to the funeral home to be embalmed – relieving the families of having to deal with the logistics of death (Laderman). Although funeral directors, originally called â€Å"undertakers,† are well regarded professionals, the funeral industry has continually been tarnished by bad press, economic factors, and ugly controversies (Laderman). The most prevalent attack has been economic. Society has always considered the profession as a â€Å"swindlers paradise† because funeral homes often take advantage of grieving families by outrageously pricing their services. This is a constant uphill battle facing funeral directors of our day. The funeral industry has increasingly adapted to consumer demands, developing ways to cohere to the traditions of various societal groups. Although many ethnic/societal groups have specific funeral directors to take car of their dead, the rapidly emerging industry has become more ethnicity friendly and can adapt to any burial practice desired (funeralwise.com). This industry is looking at facing an economic boom as we reach the end of our â€Å"baby-boomer† generation, and they have come up with a plethora of creative ideas in order to cater their future. How to cite History of the Funeral Industry, Essay examples

Organizational Behavior at My Company. free essay sample

According to Stephen Robbins, author of our Organizational Behavior textbook, Organizational behavior Is a field of study that investigates the impact that Individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organizations The first component of this definition is to see the impact that the individuals have, followed by the impact of the groups, and then finally the impact of the structure.I will expand on each of these areas and relate them to the current practices within My Company. It is probable that the single most prevalent aspect of organizational behavior through the eyes of an employee would be the impact that they personally have on the company. What this Implies, is that when I try to describe the impact Individuals have to the company, It will be solely from my perspective as a non-managerial employee. Had my perspective been from that of an employee In a management-level session, It would most likely differ. We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Behavior at My Company. or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page From the experiences that I have had In the two and a half years that I have worked at My Company, it seems to me that individuals are encouraged to take the initiative to make their work as productive as possible. I have been part of many changes that have been initiated by non-management level employees to try and streamline and improve efficiencies within the company. This has led me to believe that one of the in-use espoused values is that of empowering all levels of employees with the ability to make changes that will directly affect their particular areas.When evaluating the group component and how that relates to the My Company environment, I am going to make the assumption that a group Is the equivalent of a department. These departmental aggregations help to Increase Internal accountability and define what each group will be responsible for. Each group has its own independent structure and operates a little differently depending on the style of the individual manager. Many of these groups (departments) can be broken down into subgroups to further delegate components of work.The outcome is that within each department or group there is a hierarchy where you will find different forms of dervish. Some of these subgroup leaders lead by being experts in their fields rather than having a title of being a manager. Within my group there is a distinct leader that I work for. I have found that if I am struggling with a project or if I cannot define the scope of a Job that I am working on often times I can rely on help from the leader of my group to help achieve the desired results. If for some reason components (Individuals) within my subgroup started to perform poorly, the outcome could have serious consequences to the productivity of our entire department. Conversely, if we were able to drastically improve performance metrics for our areas the group. This interdependence of the subgroups has helped our group to have more control of the aspects that will impact how productively the company will continue to be going forward. Through the process of defining the groups within My Company, I have made reference to the internal group structure.Instead of rehashing this same information and tying it back to the structural component mentioned in the definition of organizational behavior, I am going to relate how my manager is able to structure her team to be as effective and productive as possible. Looking through the four essential management functions (Robbins 5) defined in our reading material, (planning, organizing, leading and controlling) I am able to see how my manager struggles to constantly apply these ideas in her day to day responsibilities.Our group organizes weekly meetings where we try to plan what tasks we would like to undertake in the near future. My manager is responsible for keeping these meetings in focus so that overall group objectives are met. Through controlling and delegating within these meetings, she has shown the ability to lead our group and utilize different strengths f individuals to maximize our effectiveness. Being able to take more of an observational role in this situation has helped me to understand the different idiosyncrasies that exist within our company and department.

Human Trafficking Essays - Crime, Sex Crimes, Violence Against Men

Human Trafficking What is human trafficking? Human trafficking is the trading of humans for explicit reasons from one country or area to another. They can be traded for forced labor or sexual exploitation. The way human trafficking usually begins is by targeting the victims "vulnerability until she's broken down and trapped" (Mandou Ashmar). The human trafficker will promise a well paying job to the victim in a big city or foreign country. Once the victim accepts this offer, they fly to their new destination and are forced to work for little or no wages to pay off a "smuggling fee" debt. In the process of trafficking, the trafficker may threaten the victim by taking their documentation and telling them they'll deport them if they report their exploitation. Lies about what may happen if they do report to law enforcement are told to them; for example, that they will serve jail time or get raped by police. Some places victims will usually be hidden are behind locked doors in brothels and factories. Other times, victims will be out and about and perhaps talk to community members. But since people lack awareness of human trafficking, it would be hard to identify the victims that are suffering this heinous crime. It is estimated that there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking around the world; thousands of those being in the United States. Human traffickers in the United States usually target men and women, adults and children, and foreign nationals and U.S. citizens. I chose this topic because human trafficking is something that happens all around the world, yet not much people speak on it. Los Angeles, California is reported one of the worst child sex trafficking areas in the Unites States. I did not know that until I searched up top three states for human trafficking and I was shocked. Los Angeles is such a big city and I don't live to far from there so to think that one of my siblings, friends, or even myself could have been a victim is terrifying. We should not be afraid to step out of our houses to go for a walk or go to the store in fear that something like this may happen to us, our children, or anybody. More awareness needs to be brought to the subject because it affects everybody and it needs to be stopped. There are many ways to recognize human trafficking taking place. One of them is the Internet, "The internet is a great resource, use it, all you have to do is Google "human trafficking" and "anti-human trafficking organizations" to fi nd resources and organizations" (Mandou, Ashmar). Also, schools are a target for traffickers since children are very vulnerable so parents need to be aware and pay close attention to that. I was so nervous the day I presented my first speech. As I did speeches two and three, those nerves started to go away just a little. I know I probably didn't sound nervous but inside I feel like I'm shaking. I have come to realize though that mostly everybody in this class is nervous when it is time for them to present. What I would like to improve upon in the remaining weeks is my speed. I talk way to fast which makes it hard for the audience to keep up with all the information I am talking about. Also, I would like to improve my eye contact. When I lock eyes with somebody I tend to forget what I am going to say next for some reason so I need to work on that. Lastly, I need to stop reading from my paper so much. I know referring to a speaking outline would help me look into the audience more rather than using a working outline.

group dynamics can help you when working in groups as part of your master programme and in your career. Essays

critically discuss how an understanding of group processes/ group dynamics can help you when working in groups as part of your master programme and in your career. Essays critically discuss how an understanding of group processes/ group dynamics can help you when working in groups as part of your master programme and in your career. Essay critically discuss how an understanding of group processes/ group dynamics can help you when working in groups as part of your master programme and in your career. Essay critically discuss how an understanding of group processes/ group dynamics can help you when working in groups as part of your master programme and in your career. By katfount It is generally acceptable that successful teams arising long-term, after hard work. But what do they mean by team? According to Pattison (2013), there is a differentiation between the terms group and team, because groups need time and effort in order to be transformed into teams, having common sense of purpose as a starting point for their progress. This essay will address three main theories, oncerning the development and the format of successful teams. Students, especially postgraduate ones, are requested to deal with various group assignments, having the opportunity to learn how to cooperate with their peers. The groups are usually multicultural with different educational and social background. Therefore, it is essential to find ways in order to communicate and collaborate, respecting the cast of mind of each culture. A similar situation exists also in working environments, where employers, consider teamwork skills as essential requirement for hiring new mployees (Levin, 2005). According to Levin (2005), team-mates tend to adopt a specific role that reflects better their personality. This statement is based on Belbins Team Roles Model, consisting of nine different roles. The Co-ordinator has leadership skills and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the others but lacks of creativity. The Shaper is also a passionate leader but he possibly can hurt peoples feelings with his criticism. On the other hand, the Plant is very intelligent, trying to find new and innovative ideas, sometimes unorthodox ones, but he is less ociable, and The Resource Investigator is also clever and he tries to find ways to make useful external contacts for the future. It is common for this type of leader to miss his passion soon. : A real Monitor evaluator Judges each aspect of teams work, forming an overall view of the situation. In other words, this role Judges everything and everyone with an unpleasant way. As regards the Implementer, this role acts like a soldier in a battle, but lacks of decision making abilities. Similarly, the Team Worker supports his colleagues, finding ways to maintain a close connection etween them but dislikes being the leader. Furthermore, the Complete- finisher pays much attention to the details in order to avoid mistakes, finding ways to organise every single detail. Finally, the Specialist is characterised by his valuable working experience, which gives a professional dimension to teams work. A common mistake for him is to stick to the technical details and to neglect other serious aspects (Levin, 2005). The above mentioned theory can work extremely well in every group but could you imagine what happens if one of these roles is missing? To make atters worse, Belbins Team Role Theory can be successful only in case that none of the nine roles is missed of the same team, because if there are, for instance, two or more Implementers, it could be impossible for this team to work properly. Another regarding to the lifecycle of teams. Each team should pass through four different stages: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. According to Levin (2005), Forming is the first stage, where new people are meeting and set a leader, who tries to from the teams strategic plan, while during Storming is quite difficult for the roup to make decisions because each member has its own point of you and the leader should make efforts to avoid the conflicts and generate ideas. During the next stage, Norming, there is cohesion between the members, who can easily make decision and identify the strengths and weaknesses of groups work. It is common for this stage the members to socialise outside the working environment, strengthening their bond. Finally, during Performing the group works ideally, as the team roles are distinguished, each member expresses ideas and then make a Joint decision. As regards the leader, his role is more to oversees rather than decide. Tuckman added a fifth stage, called Adjourning, which describes what is happening when teams come to an end. To be more specific, during this stage the teamwork is finished successfully and members tend to go your separate way, feeling insecure for this change. In spite of that, Tuckmans Team Development team theory is considered as an overgeneralization because it is not easy to clarify when one step ends and another begins. It is possible one step to overlap the other, depending on the works volume. Moreover, this theory does not take into consideration the special haracteristics of each member like the educational background, the working experience or the personality, which affect peoples ability to work successfully. An equally significant aspect of teams development is the cultural background as it is quite difficult for people from different cultures to collaborate effectively. This is the reason why Geert Hofstede has tried to examine the features of cross cultural team work. According to Hofstede (2010), there are five different dimensions of culture. The first index is called Power distance (PDI) and it is referred to the inequality of power mong the members of a team, as they accept a different degree of power, forming, consequently, a hierarchy. As far as Individualism (IDV) is concerned, this dimension measures whether the bond between the members of a team is strong or not. In general terms, it describes the fght between individualism and collectivism. The third dimension is called Masculinity (MAS), being related to the characteristics of each gender, as it is believed that women and men build different working skills as members of a team. Uncertainty avoidance index (IJAI) has to do with the peoples feeling of insecurity and anxiety about future ventures. Finally, there is a new index, the Long term orientation (L TO), suggesting that people from cultures with long term orientation tend to believe that everything is a matter of good timing and planning, as opposed to short term orientated cultures, which pay respect to tradition and values. Like any other theory, also this has a grey area as Hofstede did not include some important stimuli, which affect peoples behaviour and contribute to the formation of a culture, such as the political, educational or professional background of a person that affects his behaviour in the community. Moreover, people of the same nations could have different cultures, depending on individual believes. To sum up, through my short experience as a member of a multicultural team, I members to realize the transaction from one step to the other. In my opinion the daily contact with the group strengthens members relationship and through the problems that they should face, they build a strong bond. Although, the key to success is firstly to listening to others opinion and then to have clear team objectives, being comfortable with conflicts, having trust, respect and common sense of purpose. Following this technique the success is guaranteed and this is a valuable treasure for the future ventures in the world of work. REFERENCES Hofstede, G. H. et al. 2010. Cultures and organizations: software of the mind: intercultural cooperation and its importance for survival. 3rd ed. New York; London: McGraw-Hill. Levin, P. 2005. Successful teamwork! : For undergraduates and taught postgraduates working on group projects. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Pattison, L. 2013. Professional Skills and Employability. United Kingdom: Pearson, Higher Education.

200 Villagers Houses Burnt Down Again Near Barrick Gold Mine in Papua Essay

200 Villagers Houses Burnt Down Again Near Barrick Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea - Essay Example This behavior of the national court is known to be a result of Barrick Limited request. The expected impact on the company as a result of such unethical behavior will have severe impact on the company’s reputation, sales and stock prices as it has violated human rights of the citizens of Papua New Guinea and also demonstrated lack of environmental responsibility. However, this extent of this impact depends on the extent of public awareness and international community/communities about this issue. Barrick Gold Corporation cannot be considered as an ethical corporation as it has violated the human rights of the villagers of Papua New Guinea and also has failed to do business in environmentally friendly and sustainable manner. Barrick Gold operates its but Porgera subsidy as a joint venture with the local government. It is possible to suggest that actions undertaken against the local citizens of Porgera village were initiated solely by the government of Papua New Guinea, however, it doesn’t relieve the company from ethical responsibility. One of the competitors of Barrick Gold is Sumatra Copper & Gold plc. This company has established a detailed Code of Business Conduct, which covers â€Å"a wide range of business practices and procedures† and sets up guiding ethical principles for all employees and managers of the company (Sumatracoppergold.com, 2014). Also, the company seeks to minimize the environmental risks at the company’s sites and comply (Sumatracoppergold.com, 2014), while Barrick Porgera Gold mine obviously fails to do so, despite its claims (Barrick.com, 2014). In order to address the problem there should be undertaken some serious measures and initiatives. First of all the company has to adjust its financial plans to the sustainability principles, which pursue not only economic benefits, but also social and environmental benefits. Thus, the company has to adjust the whole strategy to become socially and

Critically think about the drop in crime in the US at the end of the Essay

Critically think about the drop in crime in the US at the end of the nineties - Essay Example There was another hypothesis developed that the drop in crime rate was due to the introduction of the Three Strikes Law. This allocation provided that any felony criminal who was arrested on a third offence would be sentenced to life imprisonment (Rushefsky, 2007, 535). The first of the states to allot this was the State of Washington, subsequent steps to continue with this step taking place in Colorado, Arkansas, Nevada and so on. This practice has led to a general reduction in the rate of crime n the United States, with the year 2010 being the safest moments of all. With the homicide division having the lowest record of crime, there has been a decline in other divisions such as violent crimes, rape and robbery. (Press 2010, 135) In conclusion, there are two hypotheses describing the decline in the rate of crime in the United States. The introduction of the Three Strikes Law and the legalization of abortion have contributed to the decline in crime in the United States (Wilensky, 2002, 235). However, there has also been overall improvement in the administration of

Go to a Web site for a company selling business-to-business products Essay

Go to a Web site for a company selling business-to-business products or services. Compare this Web site to one selling consumer - Essay Example Their target group is medium to large scale tour operators who offer online reservation facilities. Travelocity, http://www.travelocity.com  is a large travel agency which targets anyone interested in traveling. Their target group is heterogeneous. It included regular travelers, people on vacations, business personnel as well as diplomats representing all the social classes. Although it is operated in the US it provides many local sites for the outsiders. If the home pages and the contents are compared Pegasus infoCorp has used much professional way to publicize their information. Their service and current clients are listed and they have used an animation (a globe and several annotations) to give an overall idea of their service. The home page of the Travelocity is much customized to it target audience, the travelers around the world. It directly provides booking facilities and other information required for travelling such as maps, hotels, car hires, activities. Non like the Pega sus infoCorp, Travelocity provides details on special discounts and package rates and have used inspiring annotations making it more competitive. They continually play a slideshow of those packages at the top the site.

Evaluating the financial performance of Deloitte LLP

Evaluating the financial performance of Deloitte LLP All of the research topics are appealing although challenging but it was apparent that I have to choose the topic that meets the research requirements such as accessibility and quality of information and clear understandability of what is required in a particular topic. After spending a lot of time in selecting the best topic for me, I came to the conclusion that I should go for topic no. 8 The business and financial performance of an organisation over a three year period. The rationales behind choosing this topic are: I have been trained in ACCA studies as how to evaluate an organisations performance using ratio analysis and other techniques. The research on this topic will help me to consolidate my knowledge and put me in a strong position to carry out this study. Accessibility and the quality of the information required for this topic was much easy to obtain as compared to other topics. To carry out the business and financial evaluation I need the audited annual reports and other strategic information of an organization which should be relevant, reliable and readily available thus enhancing the quality of this research project. Part of the accountants role is to help companies in analysing and interpreting the financial performance and position of the organisation and advise the client in which particular areas they are performing well or where they need improvements and to answer such questions as to why the particular ratios are boosting or declining. Without any doubt, this research will help me in my practical life as an accountant. Reasons for choosing the organization: It was clear in my mind from beginning that I should undertake the research on an accounting firm because it is within my profession. I made my mind that I will pick any one of the big four i.e. PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), KPMG, Ernst Young and Deloitte Touche Tomatshu. As these firms are LLPs (Limited liability partnerships) I faced the difficulty of the amount of information available because LLPs are not under the same extent of public domain as compared to public listed companies which publish substantial amount of information and are subject to regulations regarding the disclosure of the information. First I thought that I should carry out research on PwC as it ranks number 1 in big 4s but when I started searching on the internet about big 4s then I found much information about Deloitte and even their website and annual reports were much comprehensive so I decided to choose Deloitte LLP. The main reasons for choosing Deloitte LLP were: It is one of the largest professional services firms ranking 3rd (Vault Accounting firm ranking 2008). This ranking is based on the sales revenue generated by the firm and other factors such as working life etc. I wanted to carry out the research on a top ranked firm as there is a lot to learn from successful firms. Deloitte LLP is the market leader in the professional services industry and a very reputable organisation. Undertaking the research on this firm will help me explore why this firm is flourishing. Moreover, after finishing my ACCA qualification I would like to work in an accounting firm and doing the research on Deloitte LLP will help me understand the nature, market, culture and governance of the accounting firms. Project Objective The objective of this research project is to evaluate the business and financial performance of Deloitte LLP with last years and with its competitors PwC for the years ended 31st May 2006, 2007 and 2008. The Research Questions I identified the research questions which will help me achieve the project objective. Focusing on these questions will help me keep the research on track and to the point. These research questions are: What are the firms objectives and what strategy has been adopted to achieve them? How did the firm perform in terms of profitability and what are the main factors affecting its performance? What are the trends in the liquidity position and is the cash management of the firm effective? Is the organisation growing? If so, what sources of finance does it use and how does it impact on their gearing levels? How has the organisation been influenced by the current economic downturn and how will it impact on the next year performance? The Research Design To evaluate the business performance of the firm different modules such as mission analysis, Porters five forces and SWOT analysis have been used to analyse the industry and evaluate firms strength, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. To interpret the financial health of the organization, ratios have been calculated for three years which are then used as a basis for historical and competitor benchmarking. These techniques include comparing the financial performance of the organization with its prior years and those of its competitors. Focusing on financial ratios are not enough to come up with the whole picture so other non-financial performance indicators have been used as well. Trend analysis has been used to identify the changes from year to year. These analytical techniques will assist to analyse, interpret and evaluate the organisations performance and support to come up with the appropriate conclusions. Part 2 Information gathering To evaluate the business and financial performance of Deloitte LLP, I require reliable, qualitative, quantitative and sufficient information that not only focuses on financial and business perspective of the organisation but also industry specific knowledge such as is the market growing or declining, who are the market leaders and what is their strategy. During the information gathering stage, I have not just collected the information about the firm but also kept an eye on its competitors activities. This parallel approach helps me in benchmarking exercise. Types of research methods: Based on this, two key sources of information were used i.e. primary and secondary sources. Both of these methods have their own pros and cons. Primary research is more reliable, relevant and is tailored to the research needs. However, this approach is very time consuming and expensive and usually not available as compared to secondary sources which are readily available and easy to access but may not meet research questions and is less reliable. During the information gathering stage, less field research has been undertaken and contacted the firm only if any particular information is not available from the secondary sources. Primary research was done for one particular issue that arose during the research and that was to understand the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and its member firms. The only method used for this primary research was emails. However, most of the information required for this research was available from the secondary sources and have been listed below: The firms website: The organizations website www.deloitte.com provided me with much of the information about the firms history, their vision and strategy, leadership, the services in which they are specialized, the industries to which it provides services and the latest news about the firms activities. However, to critically evaluate the organizations performance I need to seek more information outside the companys website as every company is tempted to give a positive image of their organization so I went ahead and used its competitors website as well and other external media. Annual reports: The annual reports of Deloitte LLP are the vital source of information for this research and are easily accessible from the firms website. The information obtained from the annual reports is used in calculating and interpreting the financial ratios. The financial statements also include last year performance which helped me a lot in analyzing the trends in performance and moreover it includes the graphs and charts that assisted me a lot to understand it in less time. However, there is too much information in the annual reports so its easy to get overwhelmed. Books: To get the initial guide on how to start the project I have read BSc (Hons) in applied accounting published by BBP learning media. The book guided me on how to approach this project in a more formal and organised way and facilitated me in every stage of the research from choosing the research topic to writing the skills and learning statement. Other books that I used for the project are drawn from ACCA syllabus. These books are used with the aim to refresh my mind with what I have learnt in ACCA studies. Electronic researches: A vast majority of information is available in the electronic media which benefited a lot during the research stage. The websites are used to get the latest news and other related information. These websites not only provided me the information about Deloitte LLP but also that of its competitors and market. Regulatory body website: The Professional oversight board is a UK regulatory body which specializes in auditing, accounting and oversights the accounting profession. The website used in this research was www.frc.org.uk. The website contains reports about the accountancy market and key facts and trends. Part 3 The analysis, results conclusions: The firm: Deloitte LLP is the UK member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT), a Swiss Vereinwhose member firms are a network of legally separate and independent entities. Swiss Vereinis the structure that is recognised under the current composition of Swiss law where organizations are established as Limited liability business. Swiss Vereinorganisations are characterised with a corporate organisation that is decentralised. (Swiss Verein). DTT does not provide services to clients, or direct, manage or control its member firms. This decentralised structure allows DTT organisation to establish policies; member firms apply these policies in quality assurance processes that comply with the local regulatory, legislative and professional requirements. (Annual report 2008) Business Analysis: The Mission strategy: The firms mission is to be recognised as the best professional service provider and its slogan is To help clients and people excel. The firm achieves this by identifying and focusing on the needs of clients, providing the high standard professional services and by investing in their people. (Mission statement). Our mission makes reference to our people, as management recognises their importance in achieving our vision, (Deloitte Orla Graham, HR manager). Deloitte aims to be the number one firm for career and personal development and they have a clear strategy to achieve this. Its strategy involves providing continuous training and development opportunities to their staff to ensure that the services provided to the clients are up to the highest standard of quality and complies with all the regulations.In the past, Deloitte has focused on scale and global coverage but now it is focusing on the standard of excellence (Deloitte Vision strategy). In 2003, Deloitte was recognised as the UKs fastest growing professional firm and in the last few years the firm was acknowledged because they have broader range of skills and highest quality services showing their proficiency. Their strategy focuses on four elements: Broader range of capabilities than its competitors Focus on quality The environment where people can develop and excel A culture that emphasis teaming and high performance (Annual report 2008) The Services offered by the firm: The firm specialises in four services which are Audit, Consultancy, Tax and Corporate finance. These services are provided in different industries such as non-profit organisations, real estate, sports business group, manufacturing, tourism, hospitality leisure, technology, media communication etc. Porters five forces and market analysis: Porter five forces is the framework for industry analysis that identifies the five factors which influence the performance and position within the given market. Although there are several thousand firms in the market but the audit and consultancy market is highly concentrated and dominated by the big fours in the UK and globally. Deloitte touche, KPMG, PwC and Ernst and young audit all of the FTSE 100 companies and represent 99% of the audit fees in the FTSE 350 showing that the market is much concentrated by the big four accountancy firms.. There are two segments of the market. The first one is FTSE 100 companies and FTSE 250 which are covered by the big four and the other segment is the smaller listed companies which are serviced by both the Big four and mid-tier firms (Oxera Report- April 2006). Threats of new entrants in the market are low because of high costs, long payback period and significant business risk. Threats of substitute within accountancy market are also very low because audit, tax and other accounting services are required by law and regulations. The accountancy market in the UK is still growing, but at a much slower rate than in the late 1990s (PRlog Press release 11 April 2007) The main clients of big four accounting firms are the top ranked companies listed on the stock exchange and the stakeholders (lenders, shareholders etc) of these FTSE companies require them to appoint big four accounting firms for professional services because they have the expertise and technical capability to deal with the complexity of these companies which restricts the buyer power within the audit market. As seen, these companies have effectively no choice of auditors other than Big 4s as large companies do not favor the mid-tier firms There is a strong competition in the market particularly between big 4s. Tendering process is been used to gain new clients. However, these firms may find it difficult to offer clients different services to gain competitive advantage as most of the accountancy services are standardized. Switching rates in the market are low- around 4% per year on average for listed companies. Few companies have an explicit policy of switching auditors at regular intervals and competitive tendering does not occur frequently -nearly 75% of the companies surveyed tender once every five years or less, and more than 70% of the FTSE companies have not held competitive tendering in the last 15 years. Organizing tenders, and then changing auditors are costly to both the accounting firms and companies. (Oxera Report- April 2006) SWOT Analysis: The SWOT analysis of Deloitte has been conducted solely with the aim of understanding and evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and is detailed below: Strengths: Reputation Brand of the firm Deloitte has been enjoying good reputation and has brand awareness in the market. This reputation and brand are the intangible unique resources and facilitate the firm to attract multinational clients, this helps them to charge premium for the quality services provided and thus increases revenue and profitability. Skilled staff and effective leadership As the firm is in service industry, keeping an effective management team is a key for its success. The senior management team has been drawn from wide range of sources and helps the firm to have diversity in the skills and this could be evidenced in Sunday times, where Deloitte has been listed in the Best big companies to work and also have been named as the No. 1 graduate employer in finance and professional services in the National Graduate Recruitment Awards, (Award winners) taking the award from PwC which has held top spot for the past three years. These highly qualified and experienced staff flourishes the firm to provide the clients with best quality services in a professional manner. . Quality Culture The firm has a high quality and high performance culture. This is achieved by embedding quality into people via learning, training and awarding employees with high performance through competitive reward strategy. This facilitates the firm to offer quality services to its clients which results in high customer satisfaction rate. Weaknesses: The structure The firm operates as a limited liability partnership. Under this structure, partners have limited liability and are not responsible for the misconduct of the other partners but due to this structure the firm may find it difficult to raise finance other than relying on partners and bank loans. Opportunities: During the current economic downturn, most of the companies are reviewing for cash flow management, risk management policies to ensure there are appropriate procedures in place to avoid any losses, and optimising costs etc. This brings an opportunity for Deloitte to enhance its business and risk management services to advise on the risk practices adopted by the clients. Moreover, during the recession a lot of companies are filing for bankruptcies which may also result in increase in consultancy service demand as clients may be looking for administration and restructuring advice. Deloitte is utilising this opportunity as this could be evidenced when Louise Brittain (UKs leading insolvency practitioner) joined the firm in its reorganisation service practice and will aid the firm in getting high profile appointments. ( Deloitte Press release 12 Feb 2009) Deloitte has been appointed as administrators of Land of leather (furniture store retailer), Woolworth Plc (the high street retailer), Entertainment UK (UKs leading distributor of entertainment products) showing that the firm is well equipped to meet the opportunities. However, these opportunities are short term in nature and the firm needs to identify other long term opportunities from the market that exploit their strengths. Threats: As accountancy is not a recession proof profession, the current economic crisis has brought threats for Deloitte and may have serious consequences. As Deloitte LLP provides audit services to clients that involves giving appropriate opinion on the truth and fairness of the financial statements and on the going concern assumption (whether the clients will be in existence in the foreseeable future). During this financial crisis, accounting firms need to have prudent approach in carrying out the audits of clients as during the recession the clients may be tempted to use dubious accounting practice to retain the shareholders confidence. Also, auditors are under pressure to carry out detailed testing whether the client is able to borrow money from its bank due to insufficient borrowing facilities in the economy. Inappropriate opinion given on the future existence of the client may put auditors in the risk of being sued for negligence and may result in fines and penalties. Moreover, many companies have filed for bankruptcies which will reduce the client base for Deloitte and will impact on the performance. Non financial performance evaluation: Staff satisfaction: One of the critical success factors for Deloitte is the skilled and highly motivated staff. These people are the unique assets and will underpin the performance of the firm. The survey conducted by the The Workplace Engagement Specialist shows high level of pride and job satisfaction among staff with 76% staff proud to work for the firm and 72% find their job stimulating. Deloitte spends about  £12m a year on developing its employees and has a dedicated team of trainers who can help their staff and every staff member has a career development adviser. (The Workplace Engagement Specialist) Quality: Quality is the core competence of Deloitte and a key factor in retaining the existing clients and attracting the new appointments. Deloitte has a high performance culture where providing the high quality service is paramount which helps the firm to gain competitive advantage. Their Quality Agenda focuses on three elements; clients, infrastructure and people. The firm emphasises in understanding the clients expectations and this is achieved by working closely with clients, embedding the quality into their people and infrastructure which focuses on effective leadership, internal training programs, professional standards and review assessments. (Annual report). New partners / talent: Recruiting the required level of staff is as important as maintaining the skilled staff. It is essential for the firm to bring new talent. The firm is seen as continuously investing in people; in 2007, there were 11,000 partners and member staff working across UK. In 2008, this number increased to 12,000. Deloitte has high staff turnover rate of 17% (Sunday times) as compared with its competitor PwC which was 13% (PwC Annual Report 2008) indicating staff is less satisfied with the firm comparatively and leaving at a higher rate than PwC even though PwC has more number of staff than Deloitte still their staff turnover ratio is low. Financial performance evaluation using Ratio analyses: Ratio analysis is the widely used technique in evaluating the organsation`s financial performance because this method helps to summarise the results in a simple way and moreover inter firm comparison helps to conclude how is the organisation performing in relation to industry and other organisations within the market and encourages to think out side the box. The main indicators used to evaluate the firms performance are sales growth, profitability, liquidity measures and financing arrangements and are discussed below. Sales Trend Analysis: The revenue of the firm is constantly increasing. Gross revenue increased by 11.5% in the year ended 31st May 2008 as benchmarked with last year exceeding the  £2000m target to  £2,010m. The competitor PwCs revenue was  £ 2,244m in 2008 which was a 7% increase in revenue as compared to last year showing that Deloitte is growing rapidly as compared to its competitors. The Deloittes revenue and that of its competitor PwC has been shown in the following graph comparing the revenue from year to year. The group is managed by the matrix structure which incorporates both service lines and the nature of the market to which services are supplied (Annual Report 2008).The sales revenue analysed by service line/segment has been shown below. Interpretation: Revenue analysis 2006: Overall, turnover grew by 15% to  £1,559m and 32%, 27%, 24% and 17% of the revenue was contributed by audit, tax, consultancy and corporate finance respectively. The consultancy division performed very well in 2006 as the divisions revenue grew by 22% and this growth has led the Deloitte being recognized as the markets leading business consultancy service provider. In 2006, the audit division contributed the substantial amount of revenue and increased by 17.2% during the year as the audit market share in FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 continues to grow. Revenue analysis 2007: Revenue grew by 15.6% to  £1,802m when PwCs revenue grew by only 6% to  £2,107m indicating that Deloitte is growing at the faster rate than its competitors. The reason for this growth was the strong market, reputation and talented staff which have given Deloitte the opportunity to gain new clients and win many new assignments from existing clients all across business segments and industries according to Chief executive. In 2007, the firms revenue grew by higher rate than its competitors which was 6.1% for PwC LLP and 10.5% for KPMG LLP. Once again, the significant amount of revenue was contributed by the audit division. The consultancy division is also growing but at slow rate as compared to last year. Overall, all the divisions revenue grew and ultimately resulted in a healthy progressive year. Revenue analysis 2008: In 2008, the firm exceeded its  £2b target and reported a strong growth of 11.5% given the complex markets. Deloitte is seen as having a superior performance than its competitors PwC as their revenue only grew by 7%. On this excellent performance, Deloittes CEO claimed that they have surpassed their competitor PwC in terms of standing in the market place but PwCs new chairman, Ian Powell denied Deloittes claims that it has overhauled its rivals in terms of reputation saying it was pretty difficult to prove. (Accountancy age -14 Aug 2008) The reason for this growth is the Deloitte brand, the experienced professional staff and managements efforts to identify and capture high growth opportunities. All the divisions are growing but at slower rate as compared to last year. The reason for this could be the UK economy shrinking which has restricted many business opportunities for organisations which certainty impacts consultancy and corporate finance divisions. Moreover, in this economic crisis, clients are forced to reduce costs so they may have appointed mid-tier firms which may have influenced Deloitte`s performance. However, audit division grew by 11% and is now the co-leader in the share of FTSE 250 audits. (Annual report 2008). Profitability ratios: Profitability ratios measure the performance of the management and the return they are generating from the assets invested in the business by the partners. Gross profit margin: Gross profit margin measures the firms profitability from its operations and represents the relationship between sales revenue and directly related costs in providing services to clients and is calculated as: Gross profit margin = Gross profit / Sales revenue x 100 The gross profit margin of year ended 2006, 2007 and 2008 are 49%, 49% and 50% respectively showing that the firms gross profit is increasing. As Deloitte is in service industry, the only directly related costs are staff costs and expenses disbursements on client assignments and gross profit is calculated as the difference between the sales revenue and these directly related costs. The firm gross margin is nearly constant in the last three years. This shows that the firm is very efficient in controlling its costs in relation to its sales and in a better position to cover its other costs such as interest, tax etc. The staff costs are the major cost in providing services and represent 36.3%, 36.8% and 35.5% of sales revenue in the last three years, which are nearly constant. Net profit margin: It is the ratio that measures the overall performance of the firm after all the expenses have been deducted such as interest and tax and is calculated as: Net profit margin = Profit after interest and tax / Sales revenue x 100 There was an upward trend in the net profit margin in the last three years and net profit margin was 29%, 31% and 32% in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively. As seen in the chart, where PwCs net profit margin is declining from 35% in 2006 to 33.3% in 2007 and 30% in 2008 Deloittes net profit margin is increasing. However, where the sales revenue increased by 12% in 2008 net profit margin only increased by 3% which shows that although the firm is growing in terms of revenue and profitability but not in a consistent way i.e. if sales are growing then net profits should also increase by the same proportion (although it is very ideal situation) but it is not the case with the firm. Overall, the firms net profit margin is increasing. The net profit margin of Deloitte was higher as compared to competitors net profit margin which was 30% for PwC and 20.40% for KPMG in 2008. Even though the competitors revenue and net profit was higher but the net profit margin ratio was low as compared to Delo ittes indicating that the firm is earning high profitability rate than its competitors. Profit per partner: The profit per partner of Deloitte and PwC LLP is shown below: The profit per partner calculated above represents an average figure but partners share profits based upon the evaluation and the contribution of each individual partner to achieve the strategic objectives of the firm. Although the firms average number of partners also increased from 641 to 672 members in 2008 but it didnt deteriorate the average profit per partner because of rising profits. As seen in the chart, where Deloittes average profit per partner is increasing PwCs profit per partner is decreasing. The profit per partner is consistently increasing which will ultimately results in partners more confidence in the firms performance. Liquidity ratios and Cash flow management: For a successful firm, making a healthy profit is not enough; the firm must be effective in cash management because cash is considered as the lifeblood of the organisation. Profitability measures are subject to criticism of manipulation and short termism but cash/liquidity measures are hard to manipulate and gives an indication of the firms solvency position. The liquidity ratios with their interpretation are given below: Current ratio Current ratio measures the firms ability to cover its current liabilities (short term debts and obligations) by its current assets. Higher current ratio indicates that the firm is liquid. The ideal ratio is considered to be 2:1 i.e. the organization has twice assets to cover its current liabilities but it differs from industry to industry. Current ratio is calculated as = Current assets / Current liabilities The firms liquidity position is steadily improving. In 2006, the firm has a cash balance of  £10m and an overdraft of  £22m showing a net deficit of  £12m but the firm has other liquid assets to cover its current liabilities thus a current ratio of 1.7. This overdraft had been repaid in the next year with the cash cash equivalents of  £51m showing a healthy cash position with a current ratio of 1.9. In 2008, the company has a strong liquidity position when it accomplished the ultimate benchmark level of 2:1 which was in line with PwCs current ratio of 2:1 and was higher than KPMGs which was 1.5:1. The reason for this is that the firms current assets grew by 19% while current liabilities increased by just 6% in 2008 and is moving towards more stable position. Receivables Day Ratio: Receivables day measures the average number of days the receivables take to pay for the services provided. The firm has an effective working capital management if the receivables pay within the credit period given to them as the firm will also be able to meet its short term obligations as they fall due. Receivables day ratio = Receivables / Credit sales x 365 The receivables day ratio has been constantly improving from 116 days in 2006 to 104 days in 2007 and 101 days in 2008 showing that the firm is recovering its money back from receivables more efficiently. However, the receivables collection period of the firm is very high as the competitors collection period which is in the range of 80-90 days indicating that Deloitte is offering its clients extended credit terms to boost revenue. Although the firms sales revenue is increasing with an increase in receivables yet the firm managed to keeps the receivables collection period improving. Operating cash flow ratio (OCF): OCF ratio measures the liquidity position. Using cash flow as opposed to income or profit is a better measure as it expresses the firms ability to pay its short term debt from the cash generated from its operations. If the ratio is less than 1, it indicates that the firm is not raising enough cash from its operations to meet its short term obligations and may indicate the need to raise additional funds from other sources to pay its debts on time

Relationship between Caliban and Prospero in Act I of The Tempest Essay

The short extract taken from â€Å"The Tempest† helps us learn a lot about the characters Prospero and Caliban and their relationship within the play. Prospero, when we first meet him, emerges as a very controlling and dominant figure on the island, mainly because he refers to the character Caliban as his â€Å"slave†. This shows us that Prospero must be a powerful man and that he has authority over the island and its people. Prospero uses his power to abuse Caliban, and he threatens him with phrases such as â€Å"thou shalt have cramps, side-stitches...† if he does not comply with his orders. But when Caliban refuses to obey him, Prospero resorts to insults in order to control him because he tells Miranda, his daughter, â€Å"But, as ‘tis/We cannot miss him† meaning that they cannot survive on the island themselves. Through the language used, we quickly learn how Prospero believe that he is â€Å"above† Caliban, because he calls him names like â€Å"savage†, â€Å"hag-seed† and â€Å"poisonous†. Caliban, however, is not a weak and passive slave as one might expect. Instead he threatens both Prospero and his daughter, â€Å"...