Mergers & Acquisitions in Finance

Mergers and Acquisitions are important events in today’s business scenario. It is the phenomenon of either two or more companies coming together to form into one bigger organization or buyout of one company by another. These are business transactions in nature involving payment for each unit of stock.

A merger is a consolidation of two or more companies into one, an entirely new company. Acquisition on the other hand is the transfer of ownership and control of one company from the one group of shareholders to another. Leveraged buyout is observed in cases where a large proportion of debt is used for financing the buyout.

Types of Mergers

Mergers and Acquisitions come under three broad categories called horizontal, vertical and conglomerate mergers.

A Horizontal Merger is a merger taking place between companies belonging to one industry. The products of these companies are close substitutes.

A Vertical Merger is a merger which takes place between companies belonging to same industry, but the line of business is different. For example, a company in the telecommunications industry acquiring an internet service provider. Or a mobile phone based company acquiring a land phone based company.

A Conglomerate Merger is a type of merger in which companies which are totally unrelated coming together. For example, a company which is producing heavy engineering products acquiring a 7star chain of hotels can be considered as Conglomerate merger.

Why do companies buy other companies or two or more companies merge into one large company? The reason is that it is very easy to exercise market control when the amount of competition is reduced.

Other reasons include growing economies provide better opportunities which are best made use only through combining companies.

In an economy troubled by ever-increasing prices of raw materials, mergers and acquisitions provide economies to scale in production.

An entry into a new market can be made easier by acquiring an existing company. In this way, the expertise of the acquired company and the capital from the acquiring company can produce a new product whose cost can be very low when compared to other products in the market.

With the above advantages, mergers and acquisitions take place in an economy, which can give a different shape to the industry.

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Working Capital Management in Finance

Working Capital Management is yet another important short-term concept. Working Capital, as the name suggests is that capital which is required to run the day to day activities of a firm. These include the day to day operations such as buying of raw materials, maintenance of stock, producing the goods and selling these products.

Net working capital = current assets – current liabilities

Net operating working capital = current assets – non-interest bearing current liabilities

Equity working capital = current assets – current liabilities – long-term debt

All these activities require money. For some expenses, credit is provided and for some expenses, cash is to be paid without any delays. All these expenses have to be met for selling the goods at hand. Only after the goods have been sold, that the company can realize revenues and eventually profits. Until, that time, the company will have to bear the expenses.

The above mentioned raw materials, inventory, goods-in-progress, debtors and finished goods are all current assets. These current assets are meant to be realized within a maximum time of one year. Here cash flows of a company are the deciding factor in the working capital.

Working capital Management and Requirements differ from industry to industry and from company to company. Keeping the industry norms as a standard, a company will have to decide its own working capital range depending upon its scale of operations.

For industries where the concentration is more in producing goods, the investment in long-term assets such as plant and machinery is much greater in comparison to the current assets such as raw materials, creditors or debtors and other current assets and liabilities.

In companies which are into retail businesses, the investment in current assets and liabilities is much greater in comparison to the long-term assets such as land and buildings.

Firms on the other hand will also have to maintain a certain amount of cash on a daily basis. The degree of uncertainty in the future requirement of cash is one of the reasons for this.

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Dividend Policy Assignment Help in Finance

Dividends are those earnings which are distributed among stockholders of a company. These earnings are paid either in cash or in stock, generally on a quarterly basis and may be paid only out of retained earnings, not from invested capital. Dividends are only paid when the company’s profitability can support this payout. The more and regular the company’s profitability, the regular the payment of dividends. The amount of dividend paid for each share depends on the organization’s policy towards them. Organizations are not obligated legally to pay dividends, but to keep the investors interested in the organization, the management pays out dividend, though the percentage of dividends per share can differ from year to year, as it depends on the profitability of the company.

There are other factors also which decide the payment of dividend in the company. These include corporate growth rate, restrictive covenants, earnings stability, degree of debt and tax factors.

Dividend Policy

Dividend Policy is important in addressing certain factors such as:

Influences the investors’ decisions: General public which wants to invest in an organization will look for two factors, the profitability of the company and the overall growth rate of the company. Profitability will determine the company’s dividend payout ratio and of course growth rate of the company is also an important factor. So, a company seeking good investor support shall have to decide a dividend policy which can keep the investors happy.

Impact on finance program and capital budget of a company: Dividend policy is one of the factors influencing a company’s finance and capital budget. The profits of a company pertaining to a quarter or a year are generally taken into consideration. These profits are either saved as retained earnings or they can be paid out. Retained earnings are good source of generating internal finance. A company cannot in many circumstances save 100% of the profits or payout 100% of the profits as dividends. Many a times, it needs to strike a balance between dividend payout ratio and retained earnings ratio. The percentages can be 50: 50, 60:40, 70:30, etc.

A company cannot afford paying out high dividend rates every year. Instead, it can adopt a low dividend payout ratio which can be helpful during the years of low earnings as well.

High dividend ratio will affect the cash flow of the company. Companies with poor liquidity ratio cannot payout dividends because of less availability of cash.

High dividend ratio will decrease the stockholders’ equity, since dividends are paid from retained earnings. The result is higher debt to equity ratio.

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Skin and its functions Assignment Help

Skin is the largest single organ in the body, which serves three major functions such as, to protect the body in the environment, to regulate the temperature of the body and to transmit information from the environment to the brain. There are numerous protective functions of the skin. Over 70% of the body is composed of water. The water contains a delicate balance of chemical substances in solution. The skin watertight and serves to keep this balanced internal solution intact. The skin also protects the body from the invasion of infectious organisms, bacteria, viruses and fungi. These organisms are everywhere and are routinely found lying on the skin surface and deep in its grooves and glands. However, they never penetrate the skin unless it is broken by injury. Thus, the skin provides a constant protection against outside invaders.

The energy of the body is derived from metabolism or chemical reactions that take place within a very narrow temperature range. If the body temperature is too low, these reactions cannot proceed, metabolism ceases and the body dies. If the temperature becomes too high, the rate of metabolism increases. Dangerously high temperatures producing too high a metabolic rate can result in permanent tissue damage and death.

Skin and its Functions

The major organ for regulation of body temperature is the skin. Blood vessels in the skin constrict when the body is in a cold environment and dilate when the body is in a warm environment. In a cold environment, constriction of the blood vessels shunts the blood away from the skin to decrease the amount of heat radiated from the body surface. When the outside environment is hot, the vessels in the skin dilate, the skin becomes flushed or red and heat radiates from the body surface.

Also, in the hot environment, sweat is secreted to the skin surface from the sweat glands. Evaporation of the sweat requires energy. This energy, as body heat is taken from the body during the evaporation process, which causes the body temperature to fall. Sweating alone will not reduce body temperature, evaporation of the sweat must also occur.

Information from the environment is carried to the brain through a rich supply of sensory nerves that originates in the skin. Nerve endings that lie in the skin are adapted to perceive and transmit information about heat, cold, external pressure, pain and the position of the body in space. The skin thus recognizes any changes in the environment. The skin also reacts to pressure, pain and pleasurable stimuli.

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Respiratory Failure and Respiratory Arrest Assignment Help

Respiratory Failure and Respiratory Arrest or cardiac arrest is the most frequent pediatric pre-hospital medical problem. Of all conditions causing respiratory disease in children, asthma is the most common. Many other illnesses such as, foreign bodies and trauma can cause respiratory problems in children. Good estimation and early intervention for pediatric respiratory problems can avert serious illness and preventable death and may shorten treatment time in the emergency department.

It is necessary to focus on certain key physical signs and symptoms will allow the pre-hospital professional to rapidly assess the effectiveness of gas exchange in the airways and lung alveoli. Using PAT (Paroxysmal atrial tachycardia) is a first and important step in determining the severity of the disease, localizing the physiologic problem and beginning treatment. Appearance reflects the overall state of ventilation and oxygenation. Increased work of breathing indicates either airway obstruction at some level or a problem in gas exchange at the alveolar level. It is often an early sign of hypoxia or hypercapnia. Fading respiratory effort is a sign of severe hypoxia or hypercapnia. Cyanosis of the skin or mucous membranes also indicates severe hypoxia.

The initial assessment includes counting the respiratory rate, performing hands-on chest auscultation and obtaining pulse oximetry. This assessment not only provides a picture of respiratory function, but also helps prioritize general and specific treatments as well as invasive and timing of transport.

Respiratory Failure

Respiratory failure occurs when the infant or child exhausts his energy reserves or can no longer maintain oxygenation and ventilation. When the effects of the respiratory insult begin to overwhelm the child’s ability to respond, she begins to decompensate. Respiratory failure may occur when chest wall muscles get tired after a long period of increased work of breathing. An abnormal appearance or cyanosis in a child with an increased work of breathing indicates probable respiratory failure. An abnormally low respiratory rate and decreased respiratory effort, usually with bradycardia, also indicates probable respiratory failure. Respiratory failure must be treated immediately to restore good oxygenation and ventilation and to prevent respiratory arrest.

Respiratory Arrest

Respiratory arrest means absence of effective breathing. If ventilation and oxygenation are not immediately supported, respiratory arrest will rapidly progress to full cardiopulmonary arrest. Most episodes of cardiac arrest in pediatric patients begin as respiratory arrest. Intervening at this point will often prevent cardiac arrest. Early intervention in respiratory failure and arrest will have a far better chance of producing neurologically intact survivors than treatment of full blown cardiac arrest, which has an extremely low probability of survival.

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Motivation At Workplace: An Introduction

Motivation At Workplace is one of the primary ways through which employees are engaged effectively and efficiently within an organization for the accomplishment of its goals. Many of the human resource activities are directed towards increasing the productivity of employees. Many techniques for motivation at workplace are used by the human resources department in accordance with the other departments.

The need for motivation

In order to understand motivation clearly, we must understand the relationship between motivation and performance. Looking closely at performance, we can observe that performance is what the people do rather than the results of their work. It is a multi-dimensional concept where the in-role and extra-role of each employee is also counted. Motivation at workplace is the willingness of an employee to perform the job assigned to him. Motivation concerns the arousal, direction and persistence of an employee to perform the job that has been assigned.

Douglas McGregor was one of the first proponents of Motivation at workplace. He wrote about different human behaviors. These were clearly explained in his theories of X and Y. Theory X represents those people who are lazy, who avoid taking responsibilities and who have to be threatened to make them work. And Theory Y represents those people who are naturally inclined to work.

A detailed view of both these theories will reveal their differences.

Theory X	Theory Y
People are lazy	People are active and like to work
People need to be controlled and coordinated	People are self-controlled and self-coordinated
People need motivation to work	People do not need external motivation as they are self-motivated
People are not very smart	People are smart
People need encouragement to do a good work	People want to do a good work naturally

Both the theories in action

It is a known fact that people behave as per their opinions and opinions are based on personal experiences. In motivation theories also, the same can be observed. McGregor points that managers can be categorized as Theory X managers and Theory Y managers.

Managers under Theory X believe that people are generally lazy and they need to be motivated. The motivation can be either positive motivation or negative motivation. Positive motivation includes presenting awards or incentives for outstanding performances, whereas negative motivation includes instilling fear in employees. Employees are threatened of firing from their jobs because of lack of performance. The manager does not generally trust the employees and thinks that the employees do not take responsibility. The instances of Theory X can be seen in almost every place or every organization.

Managers in Theory Y on the other hand believe that people are naturally motivated to do their work and they do not require any kind of motivation and supervision. Managers under this theory assign responsibilities to their subordinates and find that the work is done without any delays. Employees are never threatened of firing from their jobs by the managers as there is no such complaint against people under theory Y of lack of performance. People under Theory Y are also self-motivated, smart and they know to do their work in the most efficient way and in the least time possible.

In today’s business and corporate world, when we look internally in an organization we can observe that both theory X and Y exist. These theories are found in almost all organizations. But, it is seldom found that an organization exclusively has Theory X people and another organization has Theory Y people exclusively. Theory X and Y people are scattered among the population and it is hard to pinpoint them.

For more details you can visit our website at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/human-resources-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com

These are some of our previous articles on Human Resources which include Human Resources – The new role, Human Resources Time Management, Recruitments & Selection Strategies, Compensation & Rewards

Human Resource Planning Assignment Hep

Human Resource Planning is an important step towards acquiring right people in the right place at the right time. Lack of accurate planning will hamper the organization’s position in the market. The organization may not function as expected because the right people may not have been put in the right places.

An effective Human Resource Planning will save the organization a lot of money because, when inefficient people are placed in key or strategic positions, the growth of the organization is affected and the organization can incur losses. An organization also cannot afford to be understaffed or overstaffed. If it is understaffed, the organization will have to hire more people which will incur an additional cost. If the organization is overstaffed, then the extra employees will have to be paid salaries with no productivity from their side.

An organization also needs to care of the career development of its employees. Employees are known to shift jobs, when there is no apparent career development options open to them in their organization. For this purpose a strategic human resource planning needs to be made so that it can encompass aspects such as hiring, training, the actual work, career development, etc.

The role of Strategic Human Resource Planning

The planning function of human resources is the driving force behind all the other functions. Staffing needs are identified before other functions are addressed. Once the staffing needs have been identified and the plans are completed, the remaining functions can be integrated into a cohesive plan. Only after this stage are the other stages or functions such as recruitment, training, deployment and career development are looked at.

Human Resource Planning is the process where the need of the organization are identified and there upon the right kind of people who fit the job are recruited. This is an ongoing process in many organizations as finding the right kind of people for the organization cannot be predicted in any case.

Human Resources Planning assists an organization in realizing its strategic objectives. The human resource needs of the firm are projected and the appropriate people are identified, hired, promoted, transferred and/or trained.

An effective human resource planning helps in adapting to an ever-changing environment of today’s business by giving more flexibility to the organization.

For more details you can visit our website at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/human-resources-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com

These are some of our previous articles, which include Human Resources – The new role, Human Resources Time Management, Recruitments & Selection Strategies, Compensation & Rewards

Training in Human Resources Management Assignment Help

In today’s competitive world, every organization has to adapt to new changes in order to stay ahead in the competition. The changes include the way many operations are performed in an organization. These include some of the simplest things to the some of the most advanced things such as implementation of a new technology, etc. For this reason, training is an ongoing process in any organization.

Training is the process by which people acquire capabilities to perform new operations or jobs and also perform old operations in a more efficient way. Training provides employees with specific, identifiable knowledge and skills for use in their present jobs. The skills that are taught at organizational level include “hard skills” and “soft skills”. Hard skills include teaching new technologies and new techniques to employees. Where as soft skills include communication, mentoring, managing meetings, team work, etc.

Training in Human Resources Management

The most common training topics include among others, safety, customer service, computer skills, quality initiatives, dealing with sexual harassment and communication. Training employees comes with many benefits as research suggests. These benefits include enhanced skills, greater ability to adapt and innovate, better self-management and performance improvement. Research has shown that organizations which provide adequate training to their employees brings improvements in effectiveness and productivity, more profitability and reduced costs, improved quality and increased social capitol.

Competitiveness and Training in Human Resources Management in an Organization

Many of the top companies in the world have recognized the importance of training their employees and managers. These companies have recognized that training is integral to the success of the business. The rapid in change in technological innovation have made it a compulsion for companies to train their employees on new technologies so that they would not fall behind in the competition. When employees of an organization fall behind, it is the company that is ultimately loosing.

There is a need for continuous training for the staff members which will develop their knowledge, skills and abilities. Employee training is also essential for retention of employees. The biggest reason for a change in job by many employees is career development opportunities. If the employees find career development opportunities in the present company itself, they would not move from the organization. Thereby the cost of layoff is reduced to minimum.

Performance Integration with Training

Integration of job performance, training, and employee learning needs to be done, in order to make them effective. The HR plays a crucial role in this integration. Some organizations that use real business problems have been very successful in optimally training their employees when compared to companies that use traditional methods. Today, many organizations are making sure that the training that they provide is very practical. It is in the sense that companies offering real business problems enhance the authenticity of training and make very realistic and interesting.

Training for Global Assignment

With the advent of multinationals, many companies from foreign origin are entering into the industry. And at the same time, national companies are entering international boundaries. In order that a person from a foreign country converses freely, without any issue, cross-cultural training is provided to employees. This cross-cultural training is very important because employees with training and experience in the technical aspects could not understand the host country’s culture. This can pose a threat to the company’s future.

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Human Resources – The new role, Human Resources Time Management, Recruitments & Selection Strategies, Compensation & Rewards

Concept of PNSA or Perioperative Nurse Surgeon Assistant

PNSA role stands for Perioperative Nurse Surgeon Assistant. Nurses play an important role in health care centers. In various cases they also look after the patient by providing direct care and prescribed medication by the doctor. Usually nurses’ work in shift basis, as the working hours can be increased depending on the position that they hold. A nurse who assists a surgeon in an operating room is known as perioperative nurse or operating nurse. Here, these perioperative nurses hold a responsibility of operating room’s activities such as, organizing, planning, directing and coordinating. Nurses who registered can specialize in patient care specialties according to their personal preference and job requirement. Only the registered perioperative nurse can assist a surgeon in operating room.

Preioperative nurses are also capable of working as circulator nurses and scrub nurses. A circulator nurse purely assists the surgeon by providing nursing care to the patient inside the operating room. Patient’s condition in an operating room is always being checked out before, during and after the operation by a circulator nurse to ensure the best outcome. UAP, Licensed vocational or Licensed Practice nurse may not be appointed for the role of the circulator nurse.

A scrub nurse, who provides assistance to the surgeon in sterile area such as tray within sterile towel and gloves, surgical instruments, sponges etc. Usually all the surgeon team members wear surgical gowns, caps, eyewear, gloves and scrubbed their hands and arms with disinfected soap. This sterile field can be delegated to UAP (Unlicensed Assistive Personnel), LVP or LPN.

The job of a nurse is not only to take care of patients must be able to handle other hospital units and should be capable of working with patient’s families etc. A perioperative nurse job can be divided into three parts such as,

1. The pre-operative: In the pre-operative part a nurse should be able to explain the operation procedure to the patient’s family. And must apply the proper medication along with anesthesia etc to get ready for the operation.

2. The Surgery: In a surgery a preioperative nurse should play the role of both circulator and scrub nurse to provide the total assistance in surgery.

3. The post-operative: After the surgery, a nurse assists or helps the patient in his/her total recovery.

The role of the perioperative nurse is purely required in the hospital surgical departments. Working as perioperative nurse, one can also become a RN (Registered Nurse) first assistant. Later on one can also become a clinical educator, medical sales professional or a consultant. Perioperative nurses have a chance of becoming nurse anesthetist with the help of higher education and advanced training.

Today nursing field has many opportunities in hospitals, health care centers, physician’s offices, surgery unit, ambulatory surgery and clinics etc.

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STP Strategies and Decision Making Assignment Help

STP strategies are so called because they represent a sequence of actions. These are Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning. These strategies are very much important in marketing as they determine the product of the company, the target market in which the product is released the positioning the product in the market. STP or Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning can be regarded as one of the best strategies for designing a product.

Segmentation is one of the most primary activities of a company. If a company wants to introduce a new product, then the company needs to survey number of industries to look for a promising, potential market where they can introduce a new product. Segmentation consists of dividing the market on the basis of the segments such as gender, age, preferences, culture, education, etc. People falling into these groups are taken into consideration and products are designed to meet their specifications. For example, a video game console making company today, will take into consideration the age of the game players. The general age of gamers today is teenage and early to mid twenties. Most of the video games are also developed taking into consideration their interests.

Targeting is the next step in the process of design and decision making. In this process a product is designed, keeping in mind one ore more segments that were identified during the market segmentation. Target marketing differs from mass marketing. Mass marketing, as the name suggests, is intended to reach the whole population at large. But, target marketing is intended to reach the specific audience. In the above example of video games, teenagers and young people are often targeted. Most of these games are played by boys and the best way to attract teenage and adult men is through action oriented games which are violent. So, in the gaming segment, the general targets are teenagers and young people. Children and preteens also come under a segment. The games designed for children are not so violent and these games are generally based on their favorite movie or cartoon characters like Batman, Spiderman, Ironman, Hulk, Superman, etc.

Positioning is the next step in the process of STP decision making. It can be described as the process in which the target market is targeted. This is done through proper advertising. Advertising, as we know is the process of communicating to the customer. The purpose of an advertisement is fulfilled only when it has effectively communicated to the target audience. The purpose of positioning is to place the product in such a position where the product and its perceived uses are known to the customers.

These actions are sequential most of the time, but there exceptions for the sequences to take place in the correct order. There are some exceptions, for example, when Mountain Dew was launched for the first time, it was promoted as carbonated water. But, after a loosing battle with the giant in the industry, Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew took a new avatar by endorsing extreme sports. Only after taking up extreme sports as their mascot, they were able to succeed in the market. In the case of Mountain Dew, the target section was the young audience. This was only realized after loosing the battle and then again concentrating on the younger generation through extreme sports were they able to succeed.

You can visit our website at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/marketing-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com for more details.

You can also refer to our older articles on Marketing which include Product Life Cycle, Market Analysis, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Lifetime Value

Significance of Information in Marketing Assignment Help

Markets and the companies operating in markets are linked by information. Increase in the amount of information available to the companies can lead to the complex decision making environment. Lack of proper information at the company’s end will make the process of decision making a mere guess work. Though guess work is a cheaper way of decision making, it comes with a great price. One wrong decision can lead to major mistake and even the closure of the company in some cases. Thus, marketing managers need to take more calculated decisions in a dynamic environment. The marketing management will need timely, accurate, valid and reliable information which can be used in the decision making as well as in making good plans. The accuracy of information is very essential in making correct decisions while avoiding costly mistakes by intuitive guess work. Accurate, valid and reliable information is very essential for a marketing planning and implementation control to survive.

Marketing managers often face a two-fold dilemma. The first issue is when adequate or no information is available to take a proper decision. The second issue is that, information is available in abundance to take a decision, but the information is not available in a standard format. In both the cases, decision making for marketing managers becomes a tough job. These information gaps must be reduced so that the process of decision making is not hampered.

The significance of information in Marketing Management

Time is one of the major constraints in the scarce and competitive markets. Taking quick decisions is as important as taking right decisions. In many cases taking right decision requires time and taking a hasty decision does not require time. So, a management must strike a balance between taking the right decisions and taking them in time. The management has to deal with lack of information in some situations and availability of information in others. The decisions in both these situations are time bound. The need for reliable information can be explained with these instances. Information management is therefore focused on collecting, maintaining and accessing available data for management decisions.

Data that is available can be pertaining to external environment and internal environment. These include

External Information	Internal Information
Macro Environment	Micro-environment
Economy	Top management
Technology	Financial
Socio-cultural	Production and technical
Legal-Institutional	Human resources
International	Purchasing
Market Environment	Public relations
Consumers	Marketing, markets, products, communication and prices
Intermediaries
Competitors
Suppliers

Both Internal information and External information help in Marketing Decision making.

One of the central area of work in Information in Marketing Management is converting data into information. We know that data is raw in nature. The data in its raw form cannot be read that easily. This data must be processed into meaningful information which can make sense. Whenever a survey is conducted by a company, the data that is collected is arranged according to the given criteria. This data is processes with the criteria in mind and the information thus obtained can aid in the decision making process.

With the improvements in technology, the collection and processing of information has become a less complex task. Thus the role of information management has improved dramatically with their significance in decisio making.

You can visit our website at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/marketing-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com for more details.

You can also refer to our older articles on Marketing which include Product Life Cycle, Market Analysis, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Lifetime Value

Marketing: Target Market Selection Assignment Help

The marketer develops a complete profile of the various segments found in the market, one or more is selected for a concerned marketing effort. This is known as market targeting.

How to select potential Target Markets

For effective targeting of market segments, segments must conform to the following criteria.

• Identification: Markets segments should be of such a nature that it is easily identifiable. Segmentation variables based on geographic or demographic information is easily identifiable, where psychographic information like lifestyle, activities and opinion is not that easy to identify. Potential market must be worthwhile to marketers and therefore be big enough and sufficient. Marketers can use demographic and geographic information to determine how large and profitable the target market is.
• Stability: Marketers prefer target consumer segments that are relatively stable in terms of demographic and psychographic factors with customer needs that increase over time. If this is not possible, the markets must at least be of such a nature that there will be early indicators of changes in the segment so that the marketing strategy can be adopted accordingly.
• Accessibility: It is the final criteria in target market selection. This implies that the target market must be economically accessible. Therefore, marketers must be able to reach the targeted market effectively at an affordable cost with the correct application of media such as radio, television, newspaper and magazines.

But before a target market is selected there are certain other criteria which must also be observed.

• Size and Growth of the Target market: A target market need not necessarily be large. A small one can be more profitable than one in which a large sales volume can be realized. Marketing management must be convinced that there are further growth possibilities and that investing in the target market under consideration does not have only a short-term dimension.
• Attractiveness and potential profitability: The attractiveness of a target market lies not only in its size and growth possibilities but also in the promise of long-term profitability. Attractive segments attract competitors and intense competition can have a detrimental effect on future profits. Serious threats to attractive segments are aggressive competitors who can launch price wars or intense advertising campaigns or even develop new substitute products.
• Resources and Skills of the organization: Promising segment opportunities that do not fit in with the long-term objectives set by management cannot be utilized. The same applies when resources and skills to exploit the opportunity are lacking. A segment can only be chosen as a target market if marketing management is fully committed to serving this target market better than any other competitor can.
• Compatibility with the organization’s objectives: Apart from the resources and skills of the organization, the choice of a target market must also take into account compatibility with the objectives of the organization. If it is found that the objectives of the organization cannot be fulfilled by the choice of a particular market segment, it should be disregarded.
• Cost of reaching the target market: When a potential target market is inaccessible to an organization’s marketing strategies or the cost to reach it is too high, it should not be considered.

You can visit our website at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/marketing-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com for more details.

You can also refer to our older articles on Marketing which include Product Life Cycle, Market Analysis, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Lifetime Value

Cost Accounting: Job Costing Assignment Help

A Job Cost System (job costing) accumulates costs incurred according to the individual jobs. Companies generally use job cost systems when they can identify separate products or when they produce goods to meet a customer’s particular needs.

Job Costing assigns costs to a specific unit or to a small batch of products that passes through production as a distinct identifiable job. Each job is a separate cost object. Different jobs can vary considerably in materials, labor and manufacturing overhead costs, so job costing accumulates these costs separately for each individual job.

Who uses job costing?

Job costing is common in industries that produce goods to meet customers’ specifications. Dell custom-builds each personal computer based on the exact components the customer orders. Since each PC is unique, Dell treats each order as a unique job. Dell uses job costing to keep track of the cost of producing each separate job. Job Costing would also be used by Boeing (airplanes), custom-home builders (unique houses), high-end jewelers and custom furniture and drapery manufactures.

This also includes examples such as homebuilders who design specific houses for each customer and accumulate the costs separately for each job and caterers who accumulate the costs of each banquet separately. Consulting law and public accounting firms use job costing to measure the costs of serving each client. Motion pictures, printing and other industries where unique jobs are produced use job costing. Hospitals also use job costing to determine the cost of each patient’s care.

However, job costing is not confined to manufacturers. Service providers such as hospitals and physicians, law firms, accounting firms and marketing firms all use job costing to determine the cost of serving their clients.

The companies use job costing when different jobs vary widely in:

• The resources and time required
• The complexity of the production process

As, a result the jobs are so different, it would not be reasonable to assign them equal costs. Therefore the cost of each job is compiled separately.

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Activity Based Costing in Cost Accounting

Activity-Based Costing is a particular type of cost accounting methodology. Cost accounting in turn, is a subset of Management Accounting. Management Accounting has an internal focus, as it is intended for use by management in decision making. The internal focus of Management Accounting contrasts with that of financial accounting applies generally accepted accounting principles to create statements intended for third parties outside the organization.

Management Accounting techniques, in contrast, use information from different disciplines including accounting and from multiple sources to assist management with internal problem solving. Here, we can understand that management accounting techniques may well differ from generally accepted accounting principles and these techniques will also differ from one organization to another. As a result they do not follow to any particular set of rules, a great deal of philosophical flexibility is left to the organization decision makers.

Cost accounting allows measurement and provides cost information. The more specific the unit of service in question, the more complex is cost measurement. It is far easier to determine the total costs of a specific unit of service, such as particular lab test. That includes the tracing and measurement of costs is one the difficult and the most important tasks for heath care organizations.

The concept of Activity-Based Costing

Activity-Based Costing has two major elements-cost measures and performance measures. Activity-based costing is a methodology that measures the cost and performance of activities, resources and cost objects. Resources are assigned to activities, then activities are assigned to cost objects based on their use. Activity-based costing recognizes the casual relationships of cost drives to activities. The basic concept of ABC is that activities consume resources to produce an output. Expenses should be separated and matched to the level of activity that consumes the resources. Specifically, the expenses that are needed to produce should be separated from the expenses that are incurred to produce different products or services or to serve different payers. This separation should be independent of how many units are produced or sold.

The ABC approach differs from the traditional approach because of its fundamental concentration on activities .An ABC approach uses both financial and nonfinancial variables as bases for cost allocation. A typical ABC approach utilizes more indirect cost pools than does the traditional approach and uses a greater number of cost drivers as cost allocation bases.

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Market Segmentation Assignment Help

The starting point of segmentation is mass marketing. In mass marketing, the seller engages in mass production, mass distribution and mass promotion of one product for all the buyers. Henry Ford epitomized this strategy when he offered the Model-T Ford in one color, black. Coca-Cola also practiced mass marketing when it sold only one kind of Coke in a 6.5 ounce bottle.

The argument for mass marketing is that it creates the largest potential market, which leads to the lowest costs, which in turn can lead to lower prices or higher margins. However, many critics point to the increasing splintering of the market and proliferation of advertising media and distribution channels, which are making it difficult and increasingly expensive to reach a mass audience.

Segment Marketing

A market segment consists of group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants. Rather than creating the segments, the marketer’s task is to identify them and decide which ones to target. Segment marketing offers key benefits over mass marketing. The company can offer better design, price, disclose and deliver the product or service and also can fine tune the marketing program and activities to better reflect competitors’ marketing.

However, even a segment is partly a fiction, in that not everyone wants exactly the same present flexible market offerings to all members of a segment. A flexible market offering consists of two parts of solution containing the product and service elements that all segment members value, and discretionary options that some segment members value. Each option might carry an additional charge. For example, automobile companies in India offer different versions of the same model with different features. The base model of the vehicle may not have an air conditioner or power steering or power windows. But, for models that have these features, the buyer has to pay a higher price. Similarly, domestic airlines in India offer economy class and business or executive class for travelers and the prices of these two options differ significantly. The executive or business class passengers get extra facilities, such as more comfortable seats, better menu for food, and greater preference while checking in and boarding the aircraft.

We can characterize market segments in different ways. One way is to identify preference segments. Homogeneous preferences exist when all customers have roughly the same preferences. The market shows no natural segments. At the other extreme, consumers in diffused preferences vary greatly in their preferences. If several brands are in the market, they are likely to position themselves throughout the space and show real differences to match differences in consumer preference. Finally, clustered preferences result when natural market segments emerge from groups of consumers with shared preferences.

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Debt Equity Ratio: How much Debt is to be Borrowed

If a person wants to buy a car that costs $10000. He decides to make and down payment of 60% or $6000 and asks a bank to finance the remaining 40%. The bank is quite willing to enter into the deal, since it holds a car valued at $10000 as collateral for its $4000.

This is a basic example of how a company would think in terms of raising finance through equity and debt. If the owners of the company provide all the finance and don’t rely on debt, then we can say the firm is an all-equity or an unlevered firm. On the other hand, a firm that uses debt financing is a levered firm. The more debt a firm has, the greater its financial leverage. Financial leverage is the use of debt to multiply the effectiveness of equity. Leverage can improve good results – or it can worsen results that are already poor. If it is used properly, financial leverage can be effective in improving financial performance. But there is a disadvantage: when we increase financial leverage, we increase the risk for the firm. So, for a company to succeed financially, it must employ the best debt equity ratio.

An all equity firm can borrow money by buying some of its shares back from shareholders, it has restructured its capital to include more debt.

	Before Restructuring	After Restructuring
Equity	1000	750
Debt	0	250
Total Capital	1000	1000

An enterprise may restructure in this way if it believes that

• It will improve the financial performance of the firm, or
• The share is undervalued in the market.
• How does the debt-equity mix affect the performance of a firm

We measure the performance of a firm by the ratio of net profit to equity. This ratio is called the return on equity (ROE) and is determined by dividing the net profit by the equity listed on the balance sheet.

ROE = Net profit/ Equity

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Risk-free Investment Model Assignment Help

Suppose there is no risk or a problem that needs to be faced. By claiming that there is no risk, one can assume that if an amount is invested in order to receive a stream of benefits in the future, all those future benefits are certain to arrive. This is problematic because the purpose of the analysis is basically to enable us to distinguish among projects. If the world were to entail no risk, this must mean that all the future cash flows would be known with certainty. Then so far, no investment opportunity could be any better or worse than any other. So a Risk-free Investment Model might only be a whim of fantasy but not in reality. It is not practical to think of a Risk-free Investment Model.

Suppose for instance that the prevailing rate of interest were 12%. Now suppose an investor wished to invest in a new machine. The price of the machine would be fixed in the market. Since the future cash flows that the machine could generate would be certain, then both buyers and sellers of such machines would be aware of these returns. Buyers would be prepared to pay any price up to that which would bring the returns down to 12%. At any higher price they would not buy, since other opportunities would be available to them giving this return. Sellers similarly would not price the machines any lower since buyers would be willing to pay that price which led to a 12% return.

Thus any asset in a world of risk-free markets would, as a result of the market forces acting on the asset price, generate more or less than the prevailing interest rate. Hence there would be no investment decision problems whatever, because all assets would be equally desirable as uses of the investor’s funds.

In general it can be said that a sum of money received now is preferred to that same sum receivable at a future time. The reason for this is neither inflation nor risk. Time preference must not be confused with inflation for, although it is true that in most western countries the value of money has consistently declined over time. Even if there were no inflation, present consumption would be preferred to that in t he future, even if the future consumption is absolutely certain.

This can be explained through opportunity cost. If a sum is received immediately, it can be invested in one or more projects and yield a return. A loan, for instance, will yield interest. The deferral of the receipt to a future time means that the opportunity to invest it now lost and the difference between present and future receipt can thus be understood as the opportunity cost of the investment opportunity foregone.

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