Monday, August 3, 2020

The Definitive Guide to Gordon Growth Model

The Definitive Guide to Gordon Growth Model Whether you’re a shareholder, investor or a young entrepreneur wanting to try out your luck in the big business, you should know the essentials of how to choose the right stock you want to invest in.And with many things to take into consideration beforehand, it isn’t always easy to make the right move, but we’re here to help.The way you do this is by assessing the present value of stock using all kinds of methods and keeping track of parameters which give you the information about the value of the company you want to invest in stock and also using formulas and models to calculate the inputs you’ve gathered by doing research on a specific company.Now, one of the ways you do this is by using the Gordon Growth Model or GGM for short, which tells you how the value of a certain company will grow over a certain period of time.But before we jump into it, we should first explain some of the basics of assessing the stock in order for you to use this model properly.STOCK MARKET 101I re member, back in my junior year of college what I’ve learned from my economy course was just what’s a market and what is supply and demand, and it had nothing to do with stock markets let alone how they function and how to invest your money.This means that you don’t have to have a Harvard or a Stanford degree in economics in order for you to understand the basics of the stock market and to figure out which companies to invest in and which to avoid.Basically, there are five components you need to know before even considering investing in stocks:Stock â€" also called and equity is used to represent ownership interests of a company. This means that if you own one or one million shares in stock, youre an owner of the company on a small or a big scale depending on how many shares you have and your investments.Shares â€" shares represent your investment and are sort of a mutual fund you “share” with other investors. There are a few types of shares which are differentiated by thei r fee structure, but you don’t have to worry about that for now.Stock market â€" If youve heard of Wall Street, than you know what a stock market is. You come here and invest your money into the stock. Its sort of like gambling but with more risk and a lot more earnings.Growth percentage â€" The percentage at which a company grows in terms of value. We’ll later see how this can be used in your advantage.Return rate â€" A measure of the profit shown as a percentage of investment.Of course, there are many more parameters to take into consideration, and these are just the ones which help you invest in a stock if you were to stop reading this article right now.Later we’ll implement some more complex, but easy to understand points. DIVIDEND DISCOUNT MODELOkay, now that we’ve talked about the basics of the stock market, we’re ready to start explaining different models which are used to assess the value of a certain company.By knowing which model to use, you’ll have an easier t ime figuring out if you should invest your money.The Dividend Discount Model or DDM for short is used to evaluate the current stock value. And without having to give an abstract explanation, we’ll give you a practical example.Lets say theres a company, named XYZ and the stock of this company pays a 3% annual dividend, but you want to make 5% annually on your investment. Otherwise, it wouldnt be worth your time.This is called the required rate of return, or r in the equation. Source: wallstreetmojo.comNext, youre planning to keep the stock for a long term, and you assume that there is an infinite holding period and a constant dividend.So now, to calculate the stock price, we will use a simple formula.P = D / rOr when you implement the numbers from the example it is:Stock price = $3 / (0.05) = $60This formula tells you that if you buy a stock for $60, the annual $3 dividend will ensure you’re getting 5% back on your investment meaning if the Stock XYZ is trading below $60 you should buy it, and if it’s above $60, you should wait until the price comes down.And this model can be used for any asset which has a constant cash flow. And it doesn’t matter how much the company is worth as far as the dividend won’t change and we’ll hold the stock forever.Now that we’ve explained this model, it’s time to move on to our main one â€" the Gordon growth model. GORDON GROWTH MODELA while back, specifically in the 1960s, Myron Gordon, an American economist, developed a model which can be used to estimate the constant growth of a stock of a certain company.This is a version of the DDM, but instead of showing the current value of a stock, this model is focused on showing the constant growth.At first, it seems complex, but this is one of the easiest and most used models in calculating the dividend growth rate, and although its not quite perfect, it still gets some of the job done anyways.First things first, there are two basic forms of this GGM formula â€" the stable model and the multi-stage growth model.Stable Model FormulaThe stable model formula consists of the following parameters:Value of stock = D1 / r â€" gD1 = the annual expected dividend of the next yearr = rate of returng = the expected dividend growth rate (assumed to be constant)Now let’s incorporate this formula into an example and say that a company named ABC intends to pay $1 dividend per share next year and you expect this to increase by 5% per year.And let’s assume t hat you want the rate of return to be 10% on the ABC company stock.So currently the ABC company stock is trading at $10 per share and by using the formula above we can calculate the intrinsic value of one share of the company:$1.00 / (.10 â€" .5) = $20And what this formula is telling us is that the ABC company stock is worth $20 per share but is trading at $10 so the GGM suggests that it’s undervalued.The stable model assumes that the dividend is growing at a constant rate, which isn’t always a realistic assumption, so now let’s take a look at our next model.Multistage Growth Model FormulaThis model is used to depict a more realistic scenario where the dividends are not expected to grow at a constant rate so you must evaluate each year’s dividends separately and incorporating each year’s expected dividend growth rate.Now, let’s assume that there’s a company we want to invest in stock, named DEF, and let’s assume that during the next few years the company’s dividend s will increase rapidly and then grow at a stable rate. And we will calculate this by using the elements of the stable model, so here are the inputs:D1 = $1.00r = 10%ga (dividend growth rate, first year) = 7%gb (second year) = 10%gc (third year) = 12%gn (dividend growth thereafter) = 5%So now that we’ve estimated the dividend growth rate we can calculate the dividends of those years so we add 1 and just multiply the growth rate with the dividend (D = D*1 +g):Da = $1.00Db = $1.00 * 1.07 = $1.07Dc = $1.07 * 1.10 = $1.18Dd = $1.18 * 1.12 = $1.32Next we need to calculate the present value of each dividend in the course of the unusual growth period:$1.00 / (1.10) = $0.91$1.07 / (1.10)2 = $0.88$1.18 / (1.10)3 = $0.89$1.32 / (1.10)4 = $0.90Then we value the dividends which will occur in the stable growth period by calculating the fifth year’s period: De = $1.32*(10.5) = $1.39And after that we apply the Gordon Growth Model formula to determine the value in the fifth year: $1.39 / (0.10 â€" 0.05) = $27.80The present value of the stable period dividends are then calculated: $27.80 / (1.10)5 = $17.26And finally, you add the present value of your company DEF future dividends to get the intrinsic value of the company’s stock: $0.91 + $0.88 + $0.89 + $0.90 + $17.26 = $20.84After all this hassle we see that the DEF Company’s stock value is undervalued because it has a $20.84 intrinsic value compared to the $10 trading price.It takes some time to master this model, but with a bit of practice, you’ll be able to calculate the dividend growth of any company in minutes!CALCULATING INTRINSIC VALUEIntrinsic value assesses the value of intangible aspects of a company and is used to get some sort of security in your investments.The Gordon Growth Model helps investors in calculating the value of a share of stock exclusive, which is in the current market conditions.To calculate this mathematically, you have to have two circumstances in order to use the GGM:The company you’r e buying stock for must distribute dividends, although analysts apply the GGM even when the stocks don’t pay dividends under the assumption what would happen if the stock did actually pay them.The rate of return (r) must be higher than the dividend growth rate (g) because otherwise, the result would be negative.For example, let’s assume that a phone company (I’m getting tired of using alphabet letters for naming companies) has a stock currently selling for $20, but they’ve changed their packaging and have new managers in charge.This can improve the company’s competitive advantage in the market, and some investors may calculate that the intrinsic value of the stock is $50 per share meaning $30 more worth than the selling price, making it a great investment.It’s important to note that the Gordon Growth Model is very sensitive when it comes to changes in both the rate of return and the dividend growth rate.Using the GGM shows you that a stock becomes more valuable when the dividend is increased, the required rate is decreased or the expected growth rate increases and it implies that a stock price grows at the same rate as the dividends. THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE GORDON GROWTH MODELHonestly, the Gordon Growth Model has its flaws, but it also has some advantages which make it one of the most used models in calculating dividend growth.The first advantage of this model is its simplicity but as you will see it can also be a disadvantage because it assumes a single constant growth rate for dividends which, in the real world, often changes from year to year.This is due mainly because companies often decide either to preserve cash when something bad or unexpected happens, for example, a budget deficit or when sales go down, and also spend cash to make an acquisition. Either way, as you can imagine, the growth rate is affected, at least temporarily.However, because the growth rate is unpredictable, it means that you can turn this into your advant age by investing in companies that seem to be falling down as long as their growth rate is higher than the rate of return.Economics are always better explained by an example than by abstraction, so let us take an example which is currently trending in the news.Recently there was some drama about the Huawei Google ban, and we aren’t going to get all political now, we just need to imagine if Huawei phones stopped using Google Services.Because Google is the number one search engine on the internet, Huawei phones not being able to use Google Services would result in sales decline because people will be less willing to buy a smartphone which cant even google anything.Now there are tons of different scenarios which can happen here, but we brainstormed 3 realistic ones:Google really gets banned on Huawei and sales go down, resulting in dividend growth rate decline, meaning you should pass from investing in Huawei stocks any time soon.Google gets banned, but Huawei manages to keep sales u p by using Yahoo or Bing search engines, this means that there will be a small decline in growth rate, but at in the long run, if the return rate is still higher, you should invest.Google doesnt get banned, and nothing happens, which can result in a sudden decline in sales during the period where the ban threats occurred, but after a while, the growth rate will come back to normal and maybe even increase, so you should certainly invest in stocks.If you want, you can do a little homework and find out what exactly is happening with Huawei and Google now and are sales going up or down or staying the same so you can later calculate the dividend growth rate to see if it’s really worth investing.Another disadvantage of the GGM is that the formula is very sensitive to changes in return rates and dividend growth rate, which we’ll show you in an example now.Let’s assume that we have two stocks we want to invest in and that they both pay a dividend of $1 and have a required return of 8% Stock A has a 6% (g) meaning that its value is = $1 * 1.06 / (.08 .06) = $53Stock B has a 7% (g) and its value is = $1 * 1.07 / (.08 .07) = $107As you can see, the value of stock B is more than double than the value of stock A and just because of a 1% difference.But that’s not all, because if the growth rate is higher or lower than the rate of return than the difference will be a lot smaller.If the stocks have a different percentage, for example:If stock A has a dividend growth rate of 1% then the value is = $1 * 1.01 / (0.08 â€" 0.01) = $14.43If stock B has a dividend growth rate of 2% the value is = $1 * 1.02 / (0.08 â€" 0.02) = $17Although the Gordon Growth Model has some flaws, it is still commonly used, especially by evaluating companies in banking and real estate industries where dividend payments are usually large, and growth rates are relatively stable.It’s also useful because it relies on inputs that are already available and are easy to estimate but you shouldn’t r ely solely on this model to evaluate stock but using it with other models can make a really great tool to quickly get a feel if you should invest in the company stock or not.FINAL WORDTo summarize, the Gordon Growth Model is great for easy evaluation of dividend growth rate and should be used for companies with larger dividend growth rate and at your own risk.The truth is there is no formula or model which can accurately assess the value or the growth of a certain stock, but you should use them to figure out if you should invest in it or not.At the end of the day, investing in stock is like gambling, but if you know what you’re doing and you do your homework on a company you want to invest a share in, you can always figure out how to do it with the least risk possible.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Understanding the Palestine Liberation Organization

Since its creation in 1964, the PLO has gone through several make-overs--from resistance organization to terrorist organization to quasi-occupying and governmental force (in Jordan and Lebanon) to close to irrelevance in the late 1990s in the Occupied Territories. What is it today and what power does it wield? The Palestine Liberation Organization was created on May 29, 1964, at a meeting of the Palestine National Congress in Jerusalem. The Congress meeting, the first in Jerusalem since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, was held at the then-brand new Intercontinental Hotel. Its earliest leader was Ahmed Shukairy, a lawyer from Haifa. His leadership was quickly eclipsed by that of Yasser Arafat. Arab Duplicity in PLOs Creation The blueprint for the PLO was drawn by Arab states at an Arab League meeting in Cairo in January 1964. Arab states, especially Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, were chiefly interested in channeling Palestinian nationalism in such a way that Palestinian refugees on their soil would not destabilize their regimes. The motive behind the creation of the PLO was therefore duplicitous from the start: Publicly, Arab nations averred solidarity with the Palestinian cause of reclaiming Israel. But strategically, the same nations, intent on keeping Palestinians on a short leash, funded and used the PLO as a means to control Palestinian militancy while using it for leverage in relations with the West and, in the 1980s and 1990s, with Israel. It wouldnt be until 1974 that the Arab League, meeting in Rabat, Morocco, officially recognized the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinians. The PLO As a Resistance Organization When the 422 Palestinian delegates claiming to represent half a million refugees formed the PLO in Jerusalem in May 1964, they rejected any plans to resettle those refugees in host Arab nations and called for the elimination of Israel. They declared in an official comuniquà ©: Palestine is ours, ours, ours. We shall accept no substitute homeland. They also created the Palestine Liberation Army, or PLA, though its autonomy was always doubtful as it was part of the armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Again, those nations used the PLA both to control Palestinians and use Palestinian militants as leverage in their own proxy conflicts with Israel. The strategy was not successful. How Arafats PLO Came to Be The PLA conducted several attacks on Israel but never amounted to a major resistance organization. In 1967, in the Six Day War, Israel demolished the air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in a surprise, pre-emptive attack (following rising belligerence and threats from Egypts Gamal Abd el-Nasser) and took over the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights. Arab leaders were discredited. So was the PLA. The PLO immediately began developing a more militant tenor under the leadership of Yasser Arafat and his Fatah organization. One of Arafats earliest moves was to amend the Palestine National Councils charter in July 1968. He rejected Arab meddling in the PLOs affairs. And he made the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a secular, democratic state for Arabs and Jews the twin goal of the PLO. Democratic means, however, were not part of PLO tactics. The PLO immediately became more effective than Arabs intended, and more bloody. In 1970 it attempted a take-over of Jordan, which led to its expulsion from that country in a short, bloody war that came to be known as Black September. The 1970s: The PLOs Terrorist Decade The PLO, under the leadership of Arafat Also recast itself as an outright terrorist organization. Among its most spectacular operations was the September 1970 hijacking of three jets, which it then blew up after freeing passengers, in front of television cameras to punish the United States for its support of Israel. Another was the murder of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a German police officer during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Following its expulsion from Jordan, the PLO established itself as a state-within-a-state in Lebanon, where it turned its refugee camps into armed fortresses and training camps used Lebanon as a launching pad for attacks on Israel or Israeli interests abroad. Paradoxically, it was also at the 1974 and 1977 Palestine National Council meetings that the PLO began moderating its ultimate goal by setting its statehood sights on the West Bank and Gaza rather than the whole of Palestine. In the early 198s, the PLO began edging toward recognition of Israels right to exist. 1982: The End of the PLO in Lebanon Israel expelled the PLO from Lebanon in 1982 in the culmination of Israels invasion of Lebanon that June. The PLO established its headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia (which Israel bombed in October 1985, killing 60 people). By the late 1980s, the PLO was directing the first intifada in the Palestinian territories. In a speech to the Palestine National Council on Nov. 14, 1988, Arafat recognized Israels right to exist by symbolically declaring the independence of Palestine while endorsing United Nations Security Council 242--which calls for the withdrawal of Israeli troops to pre-1967 borders. Arafats declaration was an implicit endorsement of a two-state solution. The United States, led by a lame-duck Ronald Reagan at the time, and Israel, led by the hard-liner Yitzhak Shamir, scorned the declaration, and Arafat was himself discredited when he supported Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War. The PLO, Oslo, and Hamas The PLO officially recognized Israel, and vice versa, as a result of the Oslo talks of 1993, which also established a framework for peace and a two-state solution. But Oslo never addressed two key issues: Israels illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories, and Palestinian refugees right of return. As Oslo failed, discrediting Arafat, a second Intifada exploded, this time led not by the PLO, but by a rising militant, Islamic organization: Hamas. Arafats power and prestige were further diminished by Israeli incursions into the West Bank and Gaza, including a siege of his own compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The PLOs fighters were to some extent incorporated into the Palestine Authoritys police force, while the authority itself took over diplomatic and administrative functions. Arafats death in 2004 and the Palestinian Authoritys decreasing influence over the Territories, compared with Hamas, further diminished the PLOs role as a significant player on the Palestinian scene.

Monday, May 11, 2020

My Bondage and my Freedom Essay - 1931 Words

At first glance, the book â€Å"my bondage and my freedom by Frederick Douglass appeared to be extremely dull and frustrating to read. After rereading the book for a second time and paying closer attention to the little details I have realized this is one of the most impressive autobiographies I have read recently. This book possesses one of the most touching stories that I have ever read, and what astonishes me the most about the whole subject is that its a true story of Douglass life. â€Å" Douglass does a masterful job of using his own experience to expose the injustice of slavery to the world. As the protagonist he is able to keep the reader interested in himself, and tell the true story of his life. As a narrator he is able to link those†¦show more content†¦Douglass thesis mostly focuses on slavery and how it destroys the humanity of all those involved. He also takes time to speak of the unthinkable deeds which took place between the masters and the slaves.In many cases, slave holders commit adultery and rape with their female slaves in order to produce more slave. â€Å"He can be father without being husband, and may sell his child without incurring reproach.†[3] â€Å"A master fathering a slave child destroys the very concept of fatherhood and of family. Family is antagonistic to slavery. He made a personal argument later in that same paragraph My father was a white man, or nearly white. It was sometimes whispered that my master was my father. The very existence of such a slave threatens the sanctity of the slaveholders family. â€Å"Genealogical trees do not flourish among slaves†[4] The father must either sell his own child, or raise him as a slave with all the abuse that comes with such a life.†[5] He writes in vivid detail about the common cruelties slaveholders inflict against their slaves, making it a point to show how dehumanizing slavery is not just to the slave, but to anyone who supports it. Douglass uses the character of Sophia[6] as a prime example of a person corrupted by slavery in order to depict a much broader sense of the evil powers slavery possess. Her face was lightened with theShow MoreRelatedMy Bondage And My Freedom1223 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"My Bondage and My Freedom† Slavery, Hardships, and Freedom? This book describes a day in a life of Frederick Douglass. In 2013, I saw a movie called ’12 Years A Slave’ reading this book and watching the movie was eye-opening for me. ‘My Freedom’ in this book explains that young Douglass suffered as a slave, when which he failed to flee his ‘Bondage’, then eventually he escapes that life. Douglass’s story continues to reverberate throughout his life and the American Dream that he conquered allRead MoreMy Bondage And My Freedom1393 Words   |  6 PagesIn 1855, My Bondage and My Freedom, was published by Fredrick Douglass. Douglass was a slave, but he was much more than just someone’s property. He was born in Talbot County, Maryland in 1818. Slavery during this time was in full effect. Families were being separated and ripped apart from one another, and sold to masters. My Bondage and My Freedom was an autobiography written by Douglass after he was free fro m slavery. This book is more than just a summary of a historian’s explanation of slavery;Read MoreMy Bondage, My Freedom Fredrick Douglass772 Words   |  4 Pageslong in finding out another important truth, what man can make, man can unmake† (Douglass 59). In My Bondage and My Freedom, Fredrick Douglass explains in detail the harsh and cruel realties of slavery and how slavery was an institution that victimized not only slaves, but slave holders, and non-slave holding whites. Fredrick Douglass could not have been more right with his observation of slavery. In my opinion, slavery is not only an institution, but is a prime example of a corrupt business modelRead MoreMy Bondage And My Freedom By Frederick Douglass1846 Words   |  8 Pageswas born in Talbot County, Maryland in 1817 as a slave due to his mother’s status. During his life he had faced many cruelties by his masters and failures escaping slavery. When he finally escaped slavery, he wrote an autobiogr aphy called My Bondage and My Freedom, which was published in 1855. This book impacted society by bringing realization on how slavery was inhumane, and needed to be abolished. Also, this book was so inspiring and successful, it had an abundant of reprinted copies in differentRead MoreMy Bondage And My Freedom By Frederick Douglass1885 Words   |  8 PagesThe autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass, illustrates the life and the journey of a born slave in Maryland, into liberation and the gradual understanding of slavery’s inconsistencies in general. He tell his story the public sphere, white non slaveholders, in hopes of helping them gain a better understanding of what slavery truly is from a first hand perspective. It starts off with a realization that he, his grandmother, and everyone around him belonged to someone named â€Å"oldRead MoreMy Bondage And My Freedom And Frederick Douglass Analysis1701 Words   |  7 Pagesequality. As it may seem imm oral to twist truths, if done correctly it will strengthen the authors message, without compromising the authenticity of the plot. One can see this in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, along with his, My Bondage and My Freedom. Both novels are accounts of Douglass’ troublesome journey from a slave to a freeman. These heroic accounts served as prominent and respected propaganda upon entering the abolitionist crusade. Despite the criticism garnered during Douglass’Read MoreMy Bondage And My Freedom 1855 Edition† Is One Of The Most1429 Words   |  6 PagesMy Bondage and My Freedom 1855 Edition† is one of the most interesting autobiographical narratives I have ever read. Fredrick Douglass wrote it and published in 1855. Various scholars have also praised the quality in the book. For instance, Stauffer puts it in his foreword that, The story is a profound meditation on what race, slavery, and freedom mean, as well as a demonstration of the power of literacy and faith† (Stauffer 16). â€Å"My Bondage and My Freedom† is the second book of Douglass’s threeRead MoreThe Unnatural Insitution Essay745 Words   |  3 Pagesnot found in nature. â€Å" Institutiones (161AD). Fredrick Douglass wrote My Bondage My Freedom as a marketing ploy based on Jurist Gaius’s idea. Slavery is an unnatural institution and it affects everyone. It affects those enslaved, those whom enslave, and even those who are not involved with either one. It is easy to see how those whom have been enslaved are affected. The most come, or easier seen is the simple lack of freedom. Those whom are enslaved are slaves and not free men, but the damageRead MoreFrederick Douglass, An American Slave1114 Words   |  5 Pages(Graves, 52 ) Frederick’s oratory skills left the largest impact on Civil War time period literature. Douglass’s most significant autobiographical works include: Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: My Bondage And My Freedom: and Life And Times Of Frederick Douglass. These three books are about the same person, and share a similar message, but are written by Frederick at different times of his life, looking at the past in different ways. In NarrativeRead MoreEssay Frederick Douglass and Slavery1448 Words   |  6 Pagesscarce meals, and other harsh treatment. His thirst for freedom , and his burning hatred of slavery caused him to write Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, and other similar biographies. In his Narrative, he wrote the complete story of his miserable life as a slave and his strife to obtain freedom. The main motivational force behind his character (himself) was to make it through another day so that someday he might see freedom. The well written books that he produced were all based on

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Infosys Case Study Free Essays

Oracle Customer Case Study Infosys Goes to University to Build Business Worldwide â€Å"The quality of the courses is very good and the materials are extremely well designed. We have also had extremely strong feedback from Infosys staff who have completed courses at Oracle University. † – Dr Subhash Chandra Rastogi, Head, Enterprise Solutions Academy, Infosys Technologies Ltd Infosys Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ: INFY) defines, designs, and delivers IT-enabled business solutions. We will write a custom essay sample on Infosys Case Study or any similar topic only for you Order Now These solutions focus on providing clients with strategic differentiation and operational superiority. Infosys creates these solutions by leveraging its domain and business expertise to offer a complete range of services. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, Infosys recorded revenues of more than US$3 billion with net income of over US$850 million. Infosys is a NASDAQ 100 company. Infosys uses a global alliance with Oracle to deliver Oracle-based systems and services to clients worldwide. These enable businesses to build a more flexible architecture to support faster deployment of new applications, achieve a consolidated view of their global supply chain, reduce costs by leveraging global sourcing, or employ predictive capabilities to exploit emerging opportunities or avert looming obstacles. To support Infosys’ status as a Global SI Partner—recognized at the Worldwide Certified Advantage Partner level—Oracle has provided extensive training support through its Oracle University educational resource. More than 3,000 Infosys employees globally have benefited through Oracle University-based knowledge, enabling them to deliver Oracle products and services to a high level of expertise. Oracle University courses typically run between five and 15 days, depending on the complexity of the product and associated business process changes. â€Å"The quality of the courses is very good and the materials are extremely well designed,† said Dr Subhash Chandra Rastogi, head of the Enterprise Solutions Academy at Infosys. We have also had extremely strong feedback from Infosys staff who have completed courses at Oracle University. † Copyright  © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published February 2008 Infosys Technologies Ltd Bangalore, India www. infosys. com Industry: Professional Services Annual Revenue: US$3. 09 billion Employees: 80,500 Orac le Products Services: Oracle University Key Benefits: Ensured more than 100 staff are certified in Oracle E-Business Suite, qualifying them to deliver the solution to customers worldwide Provided feedback into the beta version of Oracle E-Business Suite Enabled staff around the world to undertake training in their own time via online courses Enabled more than 3,000 employees to take various Oracle University learning programs through a range of delivery modes Oracle Customer Case Study Upskilling Delivers Results Infosys is one of the world’s most rapidly growing consulting and information technology services companies. In 2007, the company’s revenues crossed US$3 billion. Key to the company’s success is its low-risk, high-quality Global Delivery Model, whereby work is broken up into logical components to be completed in the most efficient location. With staff numbers rising sharply, in 2003 Infosys created an Enterprise Solutions Academy (ES Academy) within the company to manage the educational requirements of everyone from new recruits to 20-year veterans. The ES Academy currently has to service an annual intake that reached 1,740 engineers and MBA graduates in 2006. â€Å"This is a very different concept for a systems integrator, but we had to ensure our staff could get the expertise nd certification needed to service our clients to the very highest level,† said Dr Rastogi. While the ES Academy itself provides an extensive portfolio of training and certification courses, the academy has partnered with Oracle University to provide its consultants with training in Oracle products. â€Å"Oracle is constantly growing its portfolio of solu tions, upgrading existing products, and acquiring new product companies,† said Dr Rastogi. â€Å"Oracle University provides expert, in-depth training across the Oracle suite of products and services. There is no point in us trying to duplicate this effort or invest in something we don’t need to,† he added. Participating in the Oracle University program brings benefits to Infosys other than a more skilled workforce. As a strategic partner to Oracle, Infosys can also contribute knowledge to the development of new Oracle products and services. â€Å"We did contribute to the beta certification of Oracle E-Business Suite, with more than 150 Infosys consultants providing input to Oracle University as to where the product could be improved,† said Dr Rastogi. We now have more than 100 people certified in Oracle E-Business Suite—more than anyone else in the world— and they continue to provide lots of input to Oracle as well as staying appraised of new developments. † Copyright  © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published February 2008 Oracle Customer Case Study Oracle University Reviews Infosys Curriculum It often becomes viable for the ES Academy to deliver Oracle courses internally based on the level of demand, or for some basic products. For example, 85% of consultants that specialize in relatively ‘vanilla’ products such as Oracle9i Database are trained in-house, with the remaining 15% undertaking courses at Oracle University. â€Å"To ensure quality, we engaged Oracle University to review our curriculum content, materials, and questions for course attendees,† said Dr Rastogi. â€Å"They give us sound advice that ensures we deliver the best possible internal courses. † These courses do not cover newer products, or products taken on through acquisition of companies such as Hyperion or Demantra. About 95% of consultants that specialize in these new areas take the relevant courses from Oracle University. Overcoming the Tyranny of Distance Infosys’ burgeoning growth within India and worldwide has created a geographically distributed organization that makes delivering face-to-face training, a sometimes costly exercise. â€Å"This has posed a problem for us because people in India are not used to alternatives such as e-learning,† said Dr Rastogi. â€Å"People prefer to come to a classroom. â€Å"In addition, the firewall we apply across our systems prevents Infosys employees from viewing streaming audio and video. To create more flexibility for staff to access the online courses available through Oracle University, Infosys is establishing e-libraries in offices in Pune, Mangalore, and Hyderabad. These currently include 20 PCs where staff can access streaming audio and video. This number is expected to grow to 100–150 by late 2008 across various locations i n India. Employees working in Europe and the U. S. are already benefiting from streaming audio and video. The availability of online courses through Oracle University means staff will be able to undertake training without disrupting their client work. The benefits of e-learning apply to staff outside India as well. â€Å"Our certification program applies to employees regardless of Copyright  © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published February 2008 Oracle Customer Case Study country,† said Dr Rastogi. â€Å"We have 25 to 30 staff who specialize in Oracle E-Business Suite who work in Europe or the U. S. † Helping Ambitious Employees to Get Ahead A certification from Oracle University can provide ambitious employees with an edge in the competitive Infosys culture. Because it’s an external certification, it provides good branding for an employee,† said Dr Rastogi. â€Å"They become of greater value to Infosys and to our customers. † Infosys Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ: INFY) defines, designs, and delivers ITenabled business solutions. For the fiscal year ended Marc h 31, 2007, Infosys recorded revenues of more than US$3 billion with net income of over US$850 million. Copyright  © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published February 2008 How to cite Infosys Case Study, Free Case study samples Infosys Case Study Free Essays Case Study Infosys Strategic Human Resource Management Kaplan University October 31st, 2011 In October 2006 Harvard Business Review article entitled, Infosys: Strategic Human Resource Management† discusses the rapidly expanding computer software giant and the challenges it faced in maintaining its high performance and employee satisfaction. In this article, the company’s strategy regarding strategic human resource management was evaluated. This case study was written based on the information gathered from this evaluation and is based on three parts. We will write a custom essay sample on Infosys Case Study or any similar topic only for you Order Now The first part identifies the major issues preventing Infosys from achieving its goal to regain its top ten ranking for best performing company and best employer. The second part address the strategies the company chose to mitigate the issues identified. Finally, it will conclude with a summary of the analysis. Reasons Infosys Employee Satisfaction was on the Decline Infosys expansion rate exceeded the human resources available at the time. Despite this fact they continued to grow but had difficulty managing the expectations and communication of the new employees. As the company grew so did so did its inability to squelch the increasing diversity and disparity of an increasing number of employees. Strategic Management Jeffrey Mello presents Strategic Management in five distinct steps. (1) Mission Statement (2) Analysis of Environment (3) Organization Self-Assessment (4) Establishing Goals and Objectives (5) Setting Strategy (Mello, 2010). Infosys was challenged in following the steps in the strategic management process regarding its relationship with employees due to its rapid expansion. Once the process of strategic management steps are understood and followed sequentially the organization can align itself with the stakeholder’s objectives. If any of the steps are not followed or the employees do not buy into the goals or the communication is not successfully accepted, aligning the strategy with the stakeholder’s objectives may not develop effectively. Infosys has gone through some significant growth since its humble beginnings in 1981. With the company’s mission and core values et in place early in the start-up of the organization, they successfully earned the Business Today Best Employer Survey two years in a row. However, they faced challenges managing the human resource aspect of their organization the following year when they lost the coveted top employer survey. Despite the rave reviews by employees during the earlier years of the organization, the hierarchy of employees had become despairingly discontent. In the early days the company off ered stock options which made the employees very wealthy. This provided a sought relationship between candidates and employees alike. Expecting the same treatment as their predecessors, the newer employees we not offered the same strike price benefit due to a government agency. One of the issues was that both middle and senior managers were not in touch with their rapidly growing subordinates. The managers did not correlate the discontent with their employees doing less interesting work as well as not being richly rewarded as in years past. Another issue employees at Infosys disliked was the company becoming process oriented; this led to employees performing repeatable projects. Employees began to realize they were not being stimulated technically as they had been in the initial years. Many employees felt as though the organization was becoming too impersonal. Additionally, they also felt that Infosys was taking some of their bonuses away with the lack of equitable stock options that had become expected. How Infosys Tried to Link the People In an effort to revitalize the organization’s morale, Infosys strategized in multiple ways in which to gain buy-in to its goals and objectives. At its inception, Infosys had an employee oriented vision; they created a company that was not like any other Indian corporation. They felt the other Indian organizations were either too personal or too impersonal. Infosys set out to build an organization that was fair to all its stakeholders, shareholders, employees and customers alike. The company insured it was offering its employees’ salaries in the top 10%-15% in their competitive peer group and began offering stock options that vested in five years; this was a first in their peer group. The company exhibited extraordinary employee loyalty as part of its mantra. They always kept an open door policy regarding employee grievance resolution. They provided emergency assistance to families of employees, if needed, and created their own healthcare platform to ensure employees remained physically and emotionally healthy. Infosys went as far as creating extracurricular activities and hobby groups for their employees to foster a life-work balance. In conclusion, effectively linking the employees to the strategic management process by communicating and managing their expectations, the company can move forward to achieve its goals. Missing part of Mello’s five step process previously mentioned will effectively mismatch the organization’s needs with that of the employees. References Delqong, T. (2006, October 16). Infosys (a): Strategic human resource management. Harvard Business Review,  9(406), 1-11. Mello, E. A. (2010). Strategic human resource management. South-Western Pub. How to cite Infosys Case Study, Free Case study samples

Thursday, April 30, 2020

War Poetry Essay Summary Example For Students

War Poetry Essay Summary Rupert Brooke, who never experienced war himself, writes patriotic poems and glorifies dying in honor of ones country. In contrast, Wilfred Owen, who started writing poetry as part of his therapy for shell shock, writes about the senseless killing and traumatic events he and many other soldiers faced. In the famous poem The Soldier, Rupert Brooke captures the sense of love for ones country. Rather than focusing on the horrors of war and dying in battle, the author glorifies fighting for England, which is personified s a mother fugue in the following passage. Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. (9-14) Brooke uses words that have positive connotations, such as dreams, happy, laughter, gentleness, and peace, which give the poem a calm, soothing, and gentle feeling. Brooke describes soldiers dying for England without any gory details, and instead with pride and in honor of their country. Brooke does not portray the true artfulness of war like Wilfred Owens realistic poem, Dulcet Et Decorum Est. We will write a custom essay on War Poetry Summary specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Owen calls Dulcet Et Decorum Est, meaning how sweet and fitting it is to die for ones country, The old Lie. Having been through war himself, Owen believes many people have a misconception about war being glorious, and he certainly does not romanticizes it, as one can see in the first stanza of the poem. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots/ But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; / Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots (5-7). The rhyme scheme Owen uses creates Juxtaposition between the seriousness of the realities of war and the way it is described. Rhyming is usually used to make poems more lighthearted, yet in this case Owen creates a rhythm similar to marching soldiers. Owen depicts the suffering of soldiers and the realities of war with gruesome imagery, while Rupert Brooke focuses on the glorification and heroism of war. As Tim OBrien states in the novel The Things they Carried, If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel hat some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim off very old and terrible lie (68). This goes back to Owens idea of The old Lie. He believes that if anyone were to go to war and experience the traumatizing events he did, they would not say that dying for your country is brave and honorable. Participating in war is not an easy thing to do, and while it can definitely give a person a feeling of pride for fighting for their country, not every soldier chooses to go to war and not everyone feels this way about war.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Verb Endings in -ed and -t

Verb Endings in -ed and -t Verb Endings in -ed and -t Verb Endings in -ed and -t By Maeve Maddox While irregular verbs are often a focus of grammatical errors, regular verbs are a frequent source of spelling errors. Most regular verbs form their past tense by adding -ed to the base: accept/accepted. A few verbs form the past tense with a -t ending: build/built. Some spelling errors result from the fact that the -ed ending may be pronounced in one of three ways: /ed/ complimented /d/ loved /t/ equipped A common spelling error occurs with words that end with the sound /t/, but are spelled with –ed. For example, wrecked, might be misspelled as â€Å"wreckt.† Some of verbs that end with the sound /t/ do spell the sound with -t. bend/bent feel/felt keep/kept leave/left lend/lent lose/lost mean/meant send/sent sleep/slept spend/spent weep/wept Some verbs that end with the /t/ sound may be spelled with either -ed or -t. The -t ending for these verbs is more common in British spelling. burned, burnt dreamed, dreamt kneeled, knelt leaped, leapt leaned, leant learned, learnt smelled, smelt spelled, spelt spilled, spilt spoiled, spoilt Most American speakers would probably consider leapt, leant, learnt, smelt, and spelt out-and-out misspellings. Burnt, dreamt, knelt, spilt, and spoilt, however, do occur in U.S. speech and writing. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:75 Synonyms for â€Å"Angry†Disappointed + PrepositionUsing Writing Bursts to Generate Ideas and Enthusiasm

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Conservative John Birch Society Was Ridiculed But Had Political Impact

Conservative John Birch Society Was Ridiculed But Had Political Impact The John Birch Society was a political group on the extreme right that emerged in the late 1950s, determined to continue the anti-communist crusade of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy. The organization took positions which mainstream America regarded as outlandish.  As a result, it was often mocked and satirized. The organization, which took its name from an American killed by the communist Chinese at the end of World War II, was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, who had made a fortune in the candy business. Welch organized the group into many regional chapters which  spread his offbeat views while exerting political influence at the local level. In early 1960s the John Birch Society was embroiled in a number of newsworthy controversies. And in the 1964 campaign of Barry Goldwater the influence of the groups hardcore ideology was evident. Historian Richard Hofstadter, in a famous 1964 essay titled The Paranoid Style In American Politics, cited the John Birch Society as a modern example of a political group using fear and a feeling of persecution as an organizing principle. Despite criticism from the mainstream, the group continued to grow. In 1968, on the 10th anniversary of its founding, the New York Times, in a front-page article, noted that it claimed to have 60,000 to 100,000 members. It was producing a radio show that aired on 100 stations nationwide, had opened its own chain of bookstores, and was provided staunch anti-communist speakers to address groups. Over time the John Birch Society seemed to fade into obscurity. Yet some of the extremist positions, as well as the tactics of the organization, wended  their way into more mainstream conservative political groups. Traces of the groups ideology can be spotted in conservative circles today. Accusations from conservative pundits during the Trump administration that a Deep State is subverting democracy are  eerily similar to conspiracy theories about hidden forces behind the U.S. government promoted by the John Birch Society decades earlier. And talk of globalists manipulating the American economy echoes talk of pernicious internationalists in John Birch Society literature. Founding of the John Birch Society Following the death of Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1957, his followers, who fervently believed the United States was not only threatened, but actively infiltrated, by a worldwide communist conspiracy, were adrift. A businessman in Massachusetts, Robert Welch, who had made his fortune by organizing distribution channels in the candy business, called a meeting of other anti-communist activists. At a two-day gathering at a home in Indiana, Welch laid out his plans. He claimed the other attendees were 11 businessmen who had traveled from all regions of the United States, though they were never identified. In a rambling monologue, portions of which were later published and distributed, Welch essentially gave his version of world history. He asserted that a group that formed in Bavaria in the late 1700s, called the Illuminati, had helped spur the French Revolution and other world events, including World War I. Welch claimed that a secret group of international bankers had created the American Federal Reserve system, and controlled the American economy. Welchs exotic and convoluted theories of history seemed unlikely to gain acceptance with a wide audience. Yet his plan was to couple his dire warnings of secret agendas with the organizational skills he had developed in his business career. In essence, Welch proposed creating local chapters of the John Birch Society which would function much the way a neighborhood store would have retailed candy. His political ideas, geared to an audience of wary Americans during the Cold War, would be promoted at the local level. An early Cold War incident inspired the name of Welchs new organization. While researching a book, Welch had come across the story of an American intelligence officer who was also a Christian missionary in China during World War II. At the end of the war, the American officer, John Birch, had been captured and executed by communist Chinese forces. (Government records disputed Welchs account of Birchs death, which prompted Welch to claim pro-communist elements in the U.S. government had suppressed the facts.) Welch considered Birch to be the first casualty of Americas struggle against worldwide communism. By using Birchs name as a rallying cry, Welch sought to make resistance to communist infiltration the central mission of his organization. Public Perception The new organization found a receptive audience among politically conservative Americans who were opposed to changes taking place in America. The John Birch Society was fixated on a perceived communist menace, but it broadened that to include generally liberal ideas going back to the New Deal of the 1930s. In opposition to the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, Welch and his followers opposed the desegregation of schools. Members of the John Birch Society, often at local school boards, declared that integrated schools were part of the communist plot to weaken America. Wherever John Birch Society chapters appeared  there seemed to be controversy. Members accused local officials of being communist dupes or outright communists. By early 1961 news articles about the group were becoming common, and church groups, labor unions, and prominent politicians, began denouncing the organization as dangerous and anti-American. At various times Welch and his followers attacked Eleanor Roosevelt and former presidents Truman and Eisenhower. As part of its agenda against integration and liberal ideas in general, the group promoted the idea of impeaching, Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The groups billboards proclaiming Impeach Earl Warren appeared beside American highways. In early 1961 an American general, Edwin Walker, was accused of distributing John Birch Society literature to soldiers stationed in Europe. President John F. Kennedy was asked about the Walker situation during a press conference on April 21, 1961. Kennedy at first avoided mentioning the John Birch Society directly, but a reporter pressed him on it. Kennedy gave an answer:. Well, I dont think that their judgments are based on accurate information of the kinds of challenges that we face. I think we face an extremely serious and intensified struggle with the Communists. But I am not sure that the John Birch Society is wrestling with the real problems which are created by the Communist advance around the world. After citing  a number of points of conflicts with communist nations and guerrillas around the globe, Kennedy concluded: And I would hope all those who are concerned about the advance of communism would face that problem and not concern themselves with the loyalty of President Eisenhower, President Truman, or Mrs [Franklin D.] Roosevelt or myself or someone else. The following day, the New York Times published an editorial denouncing the John Birch Society as a addition to the lunatic fringe of American life. The editorial contained scathing remarks:   Lost in a world of fantasy, the John Birchers are busily looking for Communists in the White House, the Supreme Court, the classrooms, and presumably under the bed. Skepticism of the organization wasnt restricted to the nations elite press. A dispute over the group even became part of pop music history. Bob Dylan wrote a song, Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues, which poked fun at the group. Invited to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show in May 1963, the 21-year-old Dylan intended to sing that particular song. CBS Television executives, apparently fearful of offending pro-Birch viewers, wouldnt let him. Dylan refused to sing another song, and during the programs dress rehearsal he walked out of the studio. He never did appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. Impact On the Mainstream Much of America might have scoffed at the John Birch Society, but within the Republican Party the group was exerting pressure.   The presidential campaign of Republican nominee and stalwart conservative Barry Goldwater was influenced by the John Birch Society. Goldwater himself never explicitly aligned himself with the group, but in his famous line at the 1964 Republican National Convention, Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, many heard echoes of the John Birch Society. As American society changed in the 1960s, the John Birch Society continued to rail against the Civil Rights Movement. Yet Robert Welch refused to support Americas involvement in Vietnam, as he contended it was being sabotaged by communists within the United States government. Familiar themes of the John Birch Society became part of the campaign of independent presidential candidate George Wallace in 1968. Following the 1960s, the organization seemed to fade into irrelevance. Mainstream conservatives such as William F. Buckley had denounced its extreme views, and as the conservative movement transformed itself leading up to the  1980 election of Ronald Reagan, it kept a distance from Robert Welch and his followers. Welch died in 1985. He had retired from the organization he founded after suffering a stroke in 1983. Legacy of the John Birch Society To many Americans, the John Birch Society was a peculiar relic from the 1960s which had faded away. But the organization still exists, and it can be argued that some of its extremist rhetoric, which drew jeers decades ago, has seeped into the mainstream of the conservative movement. Accusations about government conspiracies which are regularly touted in venues such as Fox News or conservative talk radio do seem similar to conspiracy theories that once circulated in books and pamphlets published by the John Birch Society. The most prominent proponent of conspiracy theories today, Alex Jones, on whose program Donald Trump appeared as a presidential candidate, routinely  echoes longstanding John Birch Society assertions. In the summer of 2017 Politico published an article about John Birch Society chapters in Texas. According to the report, the groups members had been successful in getting the Texas legislature to introduce bills aimed at such things as restricting suspected United Nations activities in Texas and curtailing the rumored spread of Sharia Law in America. The article contended that the John Birch Society was alive and well, and the group was gaining new members.