Automotive Industry in UK Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Automotive Industry in UK - Coursework Example It is here that the researcher has chosen the automotive industry because it has one of the most used product, automobiles. Automotive manufacturing companies such as the Ford Motor Company, Hyundai Car (UK) Ltd, Toyota Manufacturing UK Ltd, and Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd will be the research correspondent. The companies will be analyzed based on their reported facts and figures as to productivity, competence and profitability. This paper aims to be a useful tool for those who are interested in investing into the said industry by looking to the financial ratios to be presented as to its profitability. It aims to be valuable aid for investment decisions. It also aims to be a useful related study to those who would want to perform such a similar analysis in the future. A study conducted by Ernst and Young, a world -respected accounting and auditing firm, shows that the United Kingdom is Europe's favorite destination in terms of monetary investments. After learning of this new research, Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers announced that this is a "ringing endorsement" for foreign companies to set up shop in the United Kingdom. This recognition is when many EUROPEAN countries were made alternative choices. In fact, the Ernst and Young company's Investment Monitor Report shows that the UK had an increase in foreign investments by as much as thirteen percent in 1999. This UK ratio is double the investment increase in the European investment. Also, the market share of the foreign investments has also risen. The accounting firm explained their by findings by stating that there were two thousand two hundred forty three that entered into the European arena which represents a five percent increase in 1999. However, there were five hundred seventy fi ve investments that specifically reached the United Kingdom. This represents a chunky thirteen percent increase for from the prior year investments of only five hundred eight investments in this land of the King Arthur fame in the same year -1999. Further, the United Kingdom companies also invested in the other European countries to the tune of twenty six percent. This is a two percent increase investments (Autoindustry, 2ndMay 2001).In the article Development and Dependency in Southeast Asia: the Case of the Automotive Industry, the year 1988 saw the Malaysian national car, Proton, gain a seventy -three percent share of the Malaysian automotive industry market. One good reason is that the company is the beneficiary of its governments' exemption from complying with the Malaysian government's forty percent ID. This fee is being paid by other automotive manufacturers inside Malaysia. Also, the foreign competitors of the company are being imposed very high import duties on their CBUs e ntering the Malaysian circuit. In the past, Proton had been the mocked by its critics when it just started operations because it had to overcome huge losses which would prod other less -brave and adventurous companies to fold up their operations in this Southeast Asian Country. Happily, Proton was able to survive its real world test and transform a losing automotive venture into a profit generating endeavor with a stroke of

Provide an insight into the relative strengths and weaknesses of Essay

Provide an insight into the relative strengths and weaknesses of internal and external recruitment - Essay Example sed to legally get hold of an adequate number of qualified individuals at the right place and time so that the people and the organization can select each other in their interests. This means that the recruitment process gives the organization a number of potentially qualified job candidates from which employers can make well judged selection to fill available jobs (Dessler, 2002). Recruitment might be carried out through internal or external sources. In instances when internal recruitment does not generate the number or quality of staff needed, the organization has to recruit from external sources (Community for human resource management, 2008). Internal recruitment is recruitment which takes place in the organization. It is the hunt for in-house personnel who have the skills and attitudes to accomplish the requirements needed and to facilitate the organization attain its goals.  Internal vacancies can be promoted within the business through staff notice boards, intranets (website whose viewing is limited to the organizations members), in-house magazines, newsletters and staff meetings. In case of internal recruitment, employees are transferred from one department to another based on their competence and knowledge. The can also be promoted from one department to another with additional benefits and greater responsibility according to his or her competence and skill. This can be done through job postings which is advertising a vacant position to employees and mentioning its requirements. Upgrading or demotions are another example of internal recruitment. Retired and retrenched employees may also be recruited once again if there is a scarcity of competent personnel or the work load increases. Recruitment of such individuals saves time and costs of the organization as they are previously conscious of the organizational set up and the regulations. The dependents and relatives of deceased employees and disabled employees are also employed by numerous organizations

Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 13

Research Paper Example They are thus, very important as far as underground movements are concerned. We thus see how such networks are important from a political point of view as well. These websites also open up certain avenues for communication between people who are in conventionally inaccessible positions. Celebrities and politicians are thus, able to connect more directly with their fans and voters. They also help companies and firms to reach out to their clientele through advertisements that are cheaper than other media. Apart from this, it also leads to the creation of communities that would not be possible in the real world. The virtual reality that is created through such networks enables the dissolution of narrow parochial bonds. All of this has a negative side as well as social networks can be used by miscreants and anti-social elements as well. They can also be incorporated into the power structures of our society, thus blunting their revolutionary potential in a certain sense. The immense number of users of Facebook and Twitter bear testimony to the changing face of human relationships. People like Stuart Wooster feel that human relationships are being redefined in today’s world by such social networks. Such networks lead to the creation of a virtual reality that is capable of sustaining itself and people tend to feel connected with other people even without having seen them in a long time (Wooster). Such websites are able to provide one with a sense of being with a lot of friends even if one is not connected to those friends in any ostensible way at a certain point. One may have several ‘friends’ on Facebook whom one may never have met more than once. The conventions that Facebook gives rise to make it possible for several people to be contacted at once, leading to a fragile bond being created between those parties. This makes it possible for people to know about different people at the same

International Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International Business Environment - Essay Example This paper will examine the European Union’s agricultural subsidy: whether it does more harm than good. According to Myers and Kent, there are several reasons why countries subsidizes agriculture: first is that governments consider it a prime responsibility to keep their citizens fed, so there is the perceived duty to support farmers and double crop production; secondly, farmers worldwide have often been included in the poorest sector of society so policymakers feel that they deserve help.(2, p. 40) All in all, the rationale behind agriculture subsidies is to ensure that there are adequate food supplies, the prices for farm products remain stable and to help the farming sector more competitive and in the process help the poor and develop rural communities. In the European Union, agricultural subsidies rake billions of dollars of expenditures each year, constituting nearly three-quarters of the annual total budget of the EU. (1, p. 339) Support for agriculture is handled by a Common Agricultural Policy or CAP. Here, the policy uses a variable levy to bring the world price of an agricultural import up to the domestic price level as well as subsidizes exports of its surplus commodities on world markets, driving down prices for other potential exporters. The diagram below demonstrates this: Agricultural subsidies such as those of the EU’s have devastating effects on the international market, especially on the poor countries. Subsidies lead to over-production that is dumped on the world market, depressing world prices; and these subsidized imports enter developing countries’ markets with lower tariffs as a result of the AoA and IMF and World Bank conditionalities. (4) It is impossible for farmers from poor economies to compete with the low prices of agricultural products and usually go out of business. Unfortunately, this destroys local and rural production as imported and considerably cheaper agricultural

Matthew Broadrick Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Matthew Broadrick - Essay Example His father provided him with a stage at the age of seventeen in a workshop construction. His occupation grew majorly in two Neil Simon schemes that include the play, Brighton Beach Memoirs (1982 and 1983), and the famous film Max Dugan Returns, launched in the year 1983. He reprised the position of Eugene in the Biloxi Blues in the year 1988; he also participated in the second installment of the Simon trilogy, for both Broadway production and in the film adaption. In the third and the final installation of the trilogy, Jonathan Silverman replaced Matthew. He had his first big-screen success in the light comedy War Games in the year 1983 (Mecchi 1). He produced some of the best films that happened to be among the great hits in the film industry that include Project X (1987), which starred Helen Hunt whom he dated, Inspector Gadget in the year 1999, addicted to love in the year 1997. He has also appeared in other films that include Out on a Limb in the year 1992, the Night We Never Met in the year 1993, The Road to Wellsville in the year 1994, and The Cable Guy in the year 1996, which he produced with Jim Carrey that gave him The Best Fight award nomination. He had a car crash in year 1985, as he drove in Ireland with his beloved fiancà ©e Jennifer Grey. In that accident, a woman and her daughter were killed. In that case, he was free but he paid a fine to the relatives of the victims. In the car accident, he broke his leg. He returned to the New York stage in the revivals of old show plays such as ‘show the public how to succeed in business without much trying (Mecchi 2). In the year 1996, Broadrick co-produced the Infinity. He worked with his mother, and she wrote the screenplay. He did not manage to succeed as a director. He married Sarah Jessica Parker, who is also an actress. In his life, he dated Lili Taylor and was engaged to Helen Hunt. Broadrick came back to Broadway in musical

Drawing on personal experience and theories covered in module, prepare Essay

Drawing on personal experience and theories covered in module, prepare a detailed argument to a sceptical audience justifying the advantages and effectiveness of group and team performance - Essay Example A group can be defined as ‘any number of people who interact with each other, are psychologically aware of each other, perceive themselves to be a group, and purposefully interact towards the achievement of particular goals or aim’. (Rollinson & Broadfield, 2008: 305) This is the accepted definition of a group which will be used throughout this paper. From this definition it can be seen, as Rollinson and Broadfield point out, that the group will necessarily be small, it does not include the coincidental gathering of people and the goals of the group are formed within it and may not necessarily correspond with the goals which the organization in which the group functions places upon it. The main advantage to working as part of a team is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Each member of a team brings their own unique skills and talents and so there is a large pool of resources from which to draw. If harnessed in the right way, this can be a formidable force and potentially far more successful than the work of an individual alone. A sceptic might argue that these different ideas and approaches can lead to conflict, and this is certainly a risk which must be seriously considered when putting together a team. However, by choosing team members which compliment each other and managing the group successfully, these pit falls can be avoided. Rollinson and Broadfield (2008) argue that the key to the success of a group, and the way to avoid the potential issues mentioned above, is cohesion, so that each member works for the good of the group. They note that cohesion tends to be greater in mature groups. If the group can overcome the initial stages of forming and storming, it is likely that it will achieve long-term cohesion in the norming and performing stages. They note that cohesive groups are more productive, more dedicated and tend to suffer less from issues such as absenteeism. However, they also warn that cohesive groups can in turn

Proxy Server Essay Example for Free

Proxy Server Essay Annotations: This research paper is an extract from an about 100 pages enfolding diploma thesis of Martin Eisermann, student at the Fachhochschule Rosenheim (University of Applied Sciences), Germany. It contains the results of performance tests, accomplished with MS Proxy Server 2.0, MS ISA Server and Linux Squid Proxy. This work reflects the personal impressions and test results of the author, made with web performance testing software, described later in this document. The paper is a translation from German into the English language, so it might not be written with the best phraseology. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows XP, Internet Information Server (IIS), Web Application Stress Tool, Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, Proxy 2.0 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries/regions. Other products and Company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of the respective owners. 1. Executive Summary This technical research paper contains the results of a performance test scenario with the Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) server, which should make clear, how good proxy servers can improve the speed of a web server. At the beginning, it describes the structure of the test scenario, with aspects of hardware and software. Then, a product will be chosen from a variety of different test tools, which compete with each other. The benefits and drawbacks of every product will be elucidated. The next chapter explains, which products will be compared with the MS ISA server and why they were selected. The following test results are representing the biggest section in this research paper. Finally, there is a short summary of the newly gained cognitions. 2. Test scenario To get an impression, how proxy servers can improve the performance of a network or of a single web server, the following scenario was build: 100 Mbit 100 Mbit Webserver (IIS 5.0) Proxy Server Workstations ill. 1 The workstations shown in illustration 1 are simulating the internal LAN (local area network) clients, which are among themselves connected with a fast Ethernet switch (100 Mbit). The web server, which is also connected with 100 Mbit, simulates the Internet. However, this network capacity is mostly not found in small and/ or middle enterprises, but for compensation, the web server is an outdated machine. The technical data of all components used for the tests is described in table 1. Technical data: System web server proxy server Workstations CPU Pentium AMD Duron Pentium II MHz RAM 200 800 400 96 MB 512 MB 256 MB OS Win XP Prof., IIS 5.0 variable Win NT 4.0 Prof. Tab. 1 3. Test tool selection In the Internet, it is not difficult to find programs, which can execute diverse performance tests for web servers. Many of them, especially if they are build for Linux, are free of charge, but if one likes to have graphical analysis it gets more difficult. Often one has to decide using a Microsoft Windows 32-bit application, which, in general, costs a lot of money. Another problem is the possibility to integrate a proxy server to the web testing tools. Most tools dont support that. Of course, this is comprehensible: which operator, who wants to test his web server performance, likes the results be influenced by a proxy? But in this scenario, it is absolutely necessary. Regarding this two product selection preconditions, there arent left a lot tools. Three remaining products are the WebPolygrah Benchmark Tool from Measurement Factory, Microsofts Web Application Stress Tool and the Web Performance TrainerTM from Web Performance Inc. On a first look, they all three seem to offer the wished functionality. a) WebPolygraph Benchmark Tool: The WebPolygraph Benchmark Tool is freely availably at http://www.webpolygraph.org. The tool was originally developed for Linux based systems, but in between there are also MS Windows 32-bit binaries downloadable. The actually available documentation in the Internet is not sufficient to set up a test environment quickly and without intensive knowledge of the product. More examples and more detailed descriptions would help a lot. A graphical user interface is not implemented, too. b) Microsoft Web Application Stress Tool Also freely available is Microsofts web testing utility, the Web Application Stress Tool. It is downloadable at http://www.microsoft.com. The documentation, which can be found in the Internet, is clearly structured and useful. The handling of the product is intuitive for experienced Windows users. The missing integration of a proxy server in its configuration setup, makes the tool nearly useless, but Microsoft offers a solution: one have to install the Microsoft Proxy Client (or the Microsoft ISA Firewall Client) on the machine, which is used to perform the web tests, then the tests are working suitable. There is only one more problem left, which will get clearer in the next few minutes: There is no proxy client or firewall client available for Linux! And because there is a Linux product in the test environment, the Stress Tool is not useful at last. c) Web Performance TrainerTM 2.4 Finally, the software product from Web Performance Inc. (http://www.webperformanceinc.com) fulfilled all preconditions: graphical user interface, proxy configuration, easy understandable, Internet based documentation. All installation problems and handling questions where answered fast and competent. The product handling is similar to the Web Application Stress Tool, but there are versions for both, Linux and Windows operating systems. The demo version only supports an amount of 25 users, but Web Performance Inc. offered a time limited 3000 user version, for the tests. At this point many thanks for that again. 4. Test specification The web content for the tests is completely static, that means pictures and html-files, No dynamic pages like asp or php were inherited. Reason: these pages are normally not cached in a proxy server. The amount of data used is about 4.8 MB. The test run time is determined to 30 minutes. Significant performance differences should be visible within this time. The Web Performance trainer v2.4 can increase the number of concurrent users by 25 every minute. So, at the end of the test, a maximum number of 750 users can poll the web server. 5. Choosing the proxy products If someone tests the speed of a web or proxy server, he would not now, if his results are good or bad, if he doesnt make a comparison with other products. For this reason, beside the ISA server, the Microsoft Proxy 2.0 and a Linux Squid proxy were other test candidates. The decision for MS Proxy 2.0 is easy to explain. It is the original product, Microsoft build the ISA server on. It also runs on Windows 32bit operating systems and Microsoft propagates, that the ISA server runs about 10 times faster. The Linux squid proxy is in the test field, because it has the same functionality like the MS proxy versions, but runs on a completely different platform. Another reason is, that Linux and squid are both freeware products and thats a big advantage. 6. The test results The most important results, if one tests the performance of web or proxy servers, are described with the data: Total Hits, Errors, Hits/sec and Bytes/sec. In all following diagrams, the colors are defined as follows: Total Hits Errors red Hits/sec Bytes/sec black yellow (with factor: 0,001 kB/sec) green 6.1 Web server (standalone) For a first view, the next two illustrations are showing the test results of the web server, without a proxy: Ill. 2 Ill. 3 While the 30 minutes test duration there were only 111.451 hits and 298.778 errors recognized by the Web Performance TrainerTM and only 470 users could by simulated at all. In the first minutes of the test, the amount of kilobytes per second is relatively high (~ 550) but from minute 11:00, they decrease to an average number of 165 kb/s. A stable result of only 50 hits per second can be metered. Already explained before in this paper, the used web server is an old computer, so these bad results are nothing to wonder. How good the results could get with proxy servers in front of it, will be shown in the next chapter. 6.2 MS Proxy 2.0 vs. MS ISA-Server In a first step, the two Microsoft products will be compared with each other. Already their total hits within this 30 minutes, differ a lot. The ISA-Server has about four times better results than it’s predecessor, while the total number of errors is just about three times higher. MS Proxy 2.0 – Total Hits: 206.953 – Errors: 74.572 Ill. 4 Ill. 5 MS ISA-Server – Total Hits: 781.851 – Errors: 232.879 So, the superiority of the new product is verified. Surprisingly, the count of errors of the MS Proxy 2.0 loose their nearly parallel growth with the total hits line in the 8th minute, and increase much slower in the next 22 test minutes. For this effect couldn’t be found a reason. MS Proxy 2.0 – Hits/Sec – kB/s Ill. 6 MS ISA-Server – Hits/Sec – kB/s Ill. 7 The comparison of the hits/s, shows that the MS Proxy 2.0 cannot exceed the previous peak values of the web server a lot, but holds them constantly (~ 550 kB/s at ~120 hits/s). Whereas the ISA server lies with it’s ~500 hits/s explicit over the MS Proxy 2.0. A ten times higher rate, shown in the small illustration 8 (submitted by Microsoft), cannot be proven. Ill. 7 6.3 Linux Squid vs. MS ISA server The second test candidate is the squid proxy server, based on the operating system RedHat Linux version 7.2. The software products can be downloaded freely from the Internet (http://www.redhat.com; http://www.squid-cache.org). The squid version, used for the test, is release 2.4 stable 1-5. Linux Squid – Total Hits: 1.335.949 – Errors: 303.204 Ill. 9 MS ISA-Server – Total Hits: 781.851 – Errors: 232.879 Ill. 10 This comparing test shows significantly, the higher performance of the squid proxy in opposite to the MS ISA server: it is nearly doubled. The amount of not completed requests is irrelevant higher. Further results like hits per second and kilobytes per second are making this even clearer. Linux Squid – Hits/Sec – kB/s Ill. 11 MS ISA-Server – Hits/Sec – kB/s Ill. 12 In the first six minutes, ISA and squid are competing with each other and are reaching values of 2.600 kb/sec. But then, the performance of the ISA server slackens and even decreases to an average value of 2.200 kb/s. Whereas the performance of the squid proxy reaches its limit not before the maximum possible network throughput rate (at 100 Mbit) of about 4450 kb/sec in the 9th test minute. Then the average value also decreases a little until circa 4300 kbytes per second. 7. Summary The squid proxy, running on a freeware product, is apparently the fastest proxy server within the three test candidates. Its normal implementation is not hard, if the corresponding administrator has little knowledge about Linux. On the other hand, which corporation is in the need of this high caching rates? Who has 750 users that make 1.35 million web requests in 30 minutes? So, if there is already a Windows based network, which perhaps already implemented a MS Proxy 2.0 server, there is no real need to change to a Linux proxy variant instead of updating to an ISA server. On further reason, to prefer the MS ISA server instead of the squid proxy in an existing Windows based network, might be, that all already implemented user groups can be left and later used in the ISA server configuration after an update. Implementing the authorization structure of a Windows 2000 or NT domain on a Linux computer is certainly possible, but probably not easy for a typical Windows Administrator. And implementing the users on two security