Tuesday, December 24, 2019

How Much I Would Pay for a Bond Offered by Coca-Cola Essay

Essays on How Much I Would Pay for a Bond Offered by Coca-Cola Essay The paper â€Å"How Much I Would Pay for a Bond Offered by Coca-Cola" is an  affecting example of an essay on finance accounting. In the hypothetical scenario, I have been asked to assume that Coca-Cola is offering a bond of the face value of $2,000 which will mature in one year. That means it will be redeemed at $2,000 a year from today. Given the concept of the time value of money, I would definitely want to purchase this bond at an amount less than $2,000. How much I would be willing to pay for the bond would depend on the rate of interest being offered, the number of interest payments (whether quarterly, half-yearly or annually) and the prevailing interest rates in the market. It has been seen empirically that bond prices and debt market interest rates travel in opposite directions. When the interest rates are high and going up in the debt market, Coca-Cola would have a difficult time attracting attention to its bond issue and would have to offer it at a discount (Mathur, 197 9). Let’s say the prevailing interest-free rate on US Treasury bills is 7 percent. This means that the company would have to offer the bonds at a discount in excess of the risk-free rate, say 10 percent. In other words, I would agree to pay $2000- 200, or $1800 for the bond. We can also use the formula: Coupon Value * (1-[1/1 + interest ^ number of payments] /interest) + face value /(1 + interest ^ number of payments).Discount Rate for the Bond: $200/$2000 x 100 = 10 percent. Of course, this would also be affected by the number of interest payments per year and the number of years to maturity. In periods of falling interest rates, purchasers of bonds would like to be offered a discount when buying these debt instruments. However, bonds can also be issued at a premium if the company has a good reputation in the market. A company would only go for a bond issue if it is finding it hard to attract capital through the primary and secondary equity markets or where the issue of furt her capital would lead to control issues. On the other hand, issuing bonds creates debt obligations like interest payments.   Buying Bonds of Competitor Firms at a Premium or Discount: Regarding the case where I would prefer to buy bonds at a premium or a further discount as compared to Coca-Cola, I would prefer to buy Pepsi bonds at a premium and that of the Snapple Group or Doctor Pepper at a discount. This is because the battle for dominance between Pepsi and Coca-Cola is well known. At one point in time previously, Coca-Cola made a wrong move by seeking to rebrand the original mixture as Classic Coke and the modern version as New Coke or Coca Cola. This was not appreciated by the public and some even switched brands when they heard that Coke had sought to change the original formula and taste of their bestseller. The backfiring of this move saw Pepsi capture some of Coke’s market share and the experiment had to be abandoned. So I believe that it would be worthwhile to i nvest in Pepsi at a premium, this being Coke’s worthy and closest competitor.Looking at the discount option, I would prefer to invest in Dr. Pepper or the Snapple’s Group at a further discount, as I believe it has a long way to go in terms of both taste and popularity before it hopes to catch up with Coke, Pepsi or the Nestle Group. Still, in order to invest the remainder of the amount in the beverage or soft drink industry, these are the firms to invest in this industry sector.   Ã‚  Ã‚  What I have learned in Module 2 SLP: Through this module, I have learned that bonds can be offered at par, a premium or a discount, just like shares. There is an inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices. As a bond approaches maturity, its price also tends to match its maturity or face value. This is also brought out by the YTM or Yield to Maturity formula (Rao, 2011).

Monday, December 16, 2019

Zara Company Free Essays

string(104) " has significant implications for the determination of marketing strategy\)†Fahy Jobber, N\." Introduction The United Arab of Emirates is always open to local and international markets, and keeps abreast of the continuous change in the marketing environment. The economy in the UAE is very strong as it ranks in the world market and compete with major countries. People in these days consider more about fashion and they try to follow any new lines of fashion because they care about elegance and everything that can make them beautiful. We will write a custom essay sample on Zara Company or any similar topic only for you Order Now Zara is a brand that can satisfied people especially in the UAE because it products many of unique clothes, bags and shoes in a good price to be one of famous brand and known in the world. Spanish brand and one of a famous brand in the world which that is specialized in clothing and it founded by Ortega Goanna and Rosalie Mere in 1975. Brief background information about the brandZara is Spanish brand and one of a famous brand in the world which that is specialized in clothing and it founded by Ortega Goanna and Rosalie Mere in 1975. Zara known as one of the big and major selling brands and fashion retailer in the world and it is available in 86 countries in the world like Spanish which has a big number of Zara’s shop, Germany, Morocco and the UAE. Zara has around 1763 shops around the world which can make a big seller and profit for Zara. Zara started to be distributed in 1957 for different countries in the world and they opened there shops in the Middle East during 1998 until 2000 in different countries such as the UAE, Kuwait and Egypt. Zara has different lines fashion for different categories like male, female and kids too and they focus on fast and practical fashion which is product in weeks. Consumer product There several useful product that Zara provides to its customers. However, we chose makeup for women. We as female like to wear makeup always and we want Zara to produce those product because of the quality of their products. Like foundation is important one and lipsticks and mascara those are the main. These product will serve women specific the young girl because they like beauty cosmetics. The strength is the quality that Zara use with manufacturing its product so customer won’t suffer from it although the weakness is the competitors like HM they offer makeup for their customer with high quality and lower prices. B- Marketing Opportunities We have some idea, it will help Zara shop to improve and be better they can attract the customers through price cut and build more Zara shop in many different places it will be easy to visit this shop and buy more products, I think when Zara shop do the offers that will help them to find many customers. Product development is the creation of products with new or different characteristics that offer new or additional benefits to the customer, the process consists of the following stages coming up with a product idea, researching the idea, designing and planning.   Primary Research We evaluated the survey of people opinions about Zara. A total of twenty response, seventy five percent (75) were female. And twenty- five (25) percent were male. Most people were between two and thirteenth, and few of them were between fourteenth and twenty. We analyze the response in orders of question, and it turned out a huge amount of people prefer to visit Zara more than the other shop because they have excellent products. Not also they own one but even they think it reliable. From the study, most people who responded agrees to buy a product from Zara greater than the other products. According to the survey a small percentage of people are willing to buy this moment. On the other hand, slight amount of people is not interested in purchasing more products because it is very expensive and some people they don’t have the Zara shop in your country. Or it depends on some people taste and that’s why they don’t see Zara shop as a first choice. However, Zara company improve their products and service quality to coming up with a product. Marketing opportunities: The marketing opportunity is â€Å"A potentially favorable condition in which a business can capitalize on a changing trend or an increasing demand for a product by a demographic group â€Å"(Investors words, N.D).We think marketing opportunity linked to its productivity development. When it is at a high level, Zara’s profit will continue growth. The companies compete with each other, and they almost have the same competitive opportunities. The development, diversification, and innovation help the Zara and other companies to protect the opportunities of competitive.Human capital as well as technology information allow Zara to respond to the demand for its customer better than other companies (Lee.J, 2015). The clothes, perfume and chose industry need to understand the marketing opportunity to be in a good position in the market. There are many things that help Zara company to have a good marketing opportunity such as technological innovation and diversification. Innovation:The strategy of developing ideas that create value which is modern and suitable for people. When Zara’s company create creative and innovative ideas in its product and services, it attracts its customer to come to the shop and by more. We are now in the era of innovation, so all people look forward exotic and creative things. Diversification:Diversification is an administrative method that gathers many investments in one portfolio.Zara Design team are producing 18.000 different model of clothes per year, that’s about 70 every working day in a continuous process (7 innovation, 2013). Existing market segment and new market segment:We think new market segment attract people to come to the shop and buy because in these time people like the trend things. The existing market segment will not be developed and suitable for everybody. Segmentation and Targeting: â€Å"The identification of individuals or organization with a similar characteristic that has significant implications for the determination of marketing strategy)†Fahy Jobber, N. You read "Zara Company" in category "Papers"D).Marketing segmentation helps Zara Company to support profit and economic growth, improve customer retention, and more effective targeting of communication. The clothing is changing every day which means the targeted consumer would need to be following the current fashion trends.We can divide consumer segmentation to behavioral, psychographic and profile. Behavioral:The objective of Zara Company is to increase customer equity and customer satisfaction, so the company tries to do research that improves products and services and pay attention to occasions. For example in AlEad they introducing a new collection. Geographic:Zara Company opens many branches in our country to facilitate access to it. And also open the branches in the places that are suitable for people regarding weather and safety. Demographic:Zara opens its branches in the area of population concentration such as malls, to be easy for the customer to buy. If Zara opens its branches in the place that’s far from the population density, this will cause problems such as loss. Customer profile:The age range of Zara’s customer is various, and it includes children, teens and adults. The more age group buy from Zara are between 18-40 years. They have mid-range income which makes them able to purchase. Also, they are interested in fashion trends.(Lee, J.2015). Application of the marketing mix: All markets applies marketing mix to promote their brand or product. The 4Ps make up a typical marketing mix; product, price, place, promotion. Zara provides various products for their customers. Also the main strength and power of Zara Company is that it’s able to react quickly to the latest highly fashion, season needs and customer needs whether products or services. The following are the products line in Zara product mix; Clothes for men, women and kids Perfumes Shoes for men, women and kids 6.1 Product We want to develop a new product that Zara Company doesn’t considered about that is Makeup moreover Zara customers most of them are women they are loyal. As we see here the UAE community like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are developed and civilized, and they’re in line with the latest trends in fashion specially the females, they like modern, show, painting and to wear makeup every day. Zara Company did researches and studies about launching makeup for women soon with high quality, professional and qualified workers, new features such us multi-tasking (foundation cream, lipsticks, mascara and eye shadow†¦) with suitable prices so clients could save money. The company is willing to spend lots of money on attractive advertisements for this new products. Cosmetics products serve women to look more shine and beautiful. As well as it will help them with suitable prices that we put. The products will have the brand logo and label, so that it distinguished from other makeup brands. However, the packaging it will be freak, clear and attractive also with low cost so the makeup won’t be expensive. 6.2 Proposed price:Zara sits the price range depends on some factors such as countries, economy and number of costs, so every country has a different price of Zara’s brand. Also, Germany has different prices from the UAE, so they have a high price for the products more than the UAE or other countries in the Middle East who have Zara Brand because the economy is different and the cost too. In addition, Zara tries to give people a good quality of clothes at affordable prices so that can bring a lot of profit for Zara. The pricing in Zara in the UAE is around 115AED – 500AED. Moreover, cosmetics like lipstick is 29 AED, blusher 20 AED, foundation 80 AED, eyeshadow plate 55 AED and mascara 32 AED. Value: Zara gives people one of the unique and fashionable clothes in the world with good price that all people can buy. Zara uses pull system in their stores and produce a small quantity of each style because of big numbers of styles that they produce each month. Zara uses a good manufacturing method to avoid any threat that they face such as some disruptions because the weather and factory problems which can effect on the production. In addition, it is an important for any company to build their values to make their brand one of the famous brand in the world, so Zara makes this value by the trust with their customers and give them a good quality of clothes. The value in Zara is around 13 billion in a year and more than 3 million customers around the world. Cost:The high cost requires a lot of money and profit to make a sustainable profitability. The advertising and store promotion cost 3.5% from their revenue, the company does not cost alt of money on their advertising but they said that the company invested around 450$ million on commercials and logistics area. In addition, the sales index’s increased to 6%. Competitor: There are a lot of competitors of Zara such as HM and Mango because they are two big companies that can make some challenge to Zara. There are some similarity and difference between these three companies such as Zara is product fast fashion for different categories like male, female and kids and HM products for the same categories too but for practical and fashionable designs but Mango is special for only male and female without kids. The distribution in the world, HM has more distributed in the world more than Zara and Mango so that can effect on the number of the profit too because HM has a big profit in a year more than these two. The competitors also provide the similar techniques of promotion but Zara have to create creative and innovative promotion .For example in occasion it provide new collection with a good prices. 6.3 Proposed place:There are a lot of methods that Zara uses to be more distributed like having a lot of retail outlets in different countries.Also, Spain has a big number of Zara’s shops in the world, so this is a kind of exclusive distribution. In UAE we have many stores of Zara which are located in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, AlAin and Sharjah. The survey results show that Zara company should open new brunches like in Fujairah and Ajman. We prefer to open Zara in each city in UAE because to make it easy to access to it.We also think that Zara has to open new section which is Makeup. Makeup attracts women to come and buy. Because of the quality and suitable prices that will support people to buy.If Zara makes offers this will cause more distribution and this will help Zara to be more effective. 6.4 Proposed promotion: The brand should focus on promotion to be more famous in the world and because a lot of people these days use the internet and websites to do shopping and see the new products so the brand should focus on website, some application like Facebook and Instagram help Zara to have a lot of customers from different countries. Nowadays, people use social media all the time, Zara has to join to social media to attract people by commercial advertising in Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Moreover, release posters on the streets. Finally, they can put an advertisement in the cinema and television. In Dubai shopping festival, Zara takes the advantage of the opportunity and make offers that are the local people and foreigners happy with it. Conclusion Our report maintains data that we collected about Zara brand and how it began, who is the founder of, where is it location. Zara known as brand that has high quality of products and services that is it provides and manufacture. Zara organization is successful and the best brand between its competitors’ and has huge number of clients. Also the Zara company continues to develop itself always in order to not lose the customers. The prices are reachable and suitable for all people. We included primary research a questionnaire survey to get the evaluation of Zara from people. References group, i. w. (n.d.). Market opportunity. Retrieved from investors world: http://www.investorwords.com/19306/market_opportunity.html#ixzz5CF7EiPeqinnovation, 7. (2013, November 13). Process Innovation – Zara. Retrieved from 7 innovation: https://7innovation.net/2013/11/13/process-innovation-zara/Lee, J. Y. (2015, May 12). Final zara marketing strategy . Retrieved from slide share: https://www.slideshare.net/JiYoungLee26/final-zara-marketing-strategyRuddick, G. (2014, October 20). How Zara became the world’s biggest fashion retailer. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11172562/How-Inditex-became-the-worlds-biggest-fashion-retailer.html Appendices: questionnaire 1. -clothes-shoes-perfumes 2. Do you think Zara shop prices suit everybody?-Yes-NO-Not sure3. Do you prefer or suggest to open new branch in your city?-Yes-No-Not sure4. Are you loyal customer to Zara store (e.g. have a customer card)?-yes-No-Not sure5. Are you satisfied with products and services that offered by Zara?-Yes-No-Not sure 6. What do you think of the quality of Zara products? -Excellent-Good-Poor-Very bad7. How often do you visit Zara? -weekly-monthly-once in a Yearly8. Does Zara’s promotions attract you to come and buy?-yes-No-Somehow 9. What is special about Zara?-quality -prices-It offers all type of product (Perfumes, Bags, Dress and choses).10. Does Zara Company improve their products and services quality?-yes-No-Not sure How to cite Zara Company, Papers

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Wmc Vs Sap

Question: Prepare a report identifying the causes of failure and recommendations to adopt a new ERP system. Answer: WMC claims against SAP WMC has sued SAP and they have given plenty of reasons to believe that SAP is fraudulent software. On the other end, SAP didnt utter a single word and hence, there are possibilities that the claims of WMC against SAP are true. Few of the claims that WMC has made against SAP are as follows: - The ERP software was not tested before it was implemented at WMC and hence, the software didnt work as committed by the company. This software was used by small waste management companies and now, it isnt modified to meet the requirements of one of the largest companies. The software was used in small sized European firms. The operation in US waste management companies is different and complex than the European waste management companies. WMC claims that the demo which SAP presented to them was fake as the mentioned functionalities were absent in the software when it was implemented in the real environment. The company states that the professionals in European companies may not be great with technology but that is not the case with the US professionals and German professionals. There was a eighteen month contract between SAP and WMC. SAP promised to customize everything on SAP R/3 platform but the software was actually developed by some oracle based companies. A simple revenue management operation was not able to run when the software was first implemented at WMC. The professionals at SAP tried to make it work with plenty of codes but things didnt work. After considering the situation, SAP promised to rework on the situation and make things possible by 2010. WMC will have to wait till then and hence, they will have to make further millions of investment Risks of ERP implementation There are various risks associated with ERP implementation in the organization. These risks werent understood by WMC and hence, they had to suffer. Few of the risks that have created an impact on the ERP implementation at WMC are as follows: - ERP cannot be considered to be software that can be used without any modification. This is one of the biggest mistakes that WMC did. The purchase of ERP decision should be outsourced to a consultancy rather than that of making the decision themselves WMC should have hired people with experience to work full time on SAP rather than that training the existing resources. The top management should have given a lot of importance to this project. They should have stated to the employees that this project is of utmost importance. An appropriate business plan would have helped the organization to understand the benefits that they would have received from the implementation of software. The management should communicate with the employees on daily basis regarding what things should have been taken care and what the things that they should have taken care. What SAP should have done? SAP should have been careful in certain areas as that would have helped SAP to deliver what WMC was expected. SAP should understand the requirements of the customer before they start with anything. Few of the things SAP should have done so that WMC wouldnt have sued the SAP company are as follows: - SAP should understand that their work doesnt end at implementation. They should have allowed one professional from SAP to be at WMC so that queries can be answered and sorted immediately. SAP should look for ways by which they can justify that all the features mentioned in the demo is real What should SAP do now? The mistake is done but now, SAP will have to look for ways by which they can safeguard their reputation in the market. If SAP is able to prove that they have all the features that have been mentioned during the demo then the company can just relax but that is not the case now. SAP doesnt have anything to say and hence, there are possibilities that WMC is true. Few of the things that SAP can do so that they can safeguard the reputation that they hold in the market are as follows: - SAP should repay the money that WMC has invested in SAP implementation. WMC has made a huge investment and hence, they wont let go SAP. It is better that SAP makes the payment rather than trying to prove when they dont have anything to prove. To retain their reputation in the market, SAP should customize the ERP to meet their business requirements. For SAP is able to provide something that WMC requires then the organization will be happy. Going forward, now of the companies will doubt the capability of SAP. If SAP doesnt do anything then the future potential clients will doubt the capability of SAP and its software.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Shipping Rates Essays - Shipping, Merchant Navy, Freight Rate, Cargo

Shipping Rates THE THEORY OF FREIGHT RATES An amazing assortment of goods are moved over the worlds ocean trade routes. Of necessity, the carriers charge for the service they render. These charges vary almost as widely as do the cargoes, for they mirror both the shipowner's costs and the special conditions prevailing on the trade routes traversed by the ships. Ocean freight rates may be described as the prices charged for the services of water carriers. Each ship operator develops it's own rates, usually without consultation with the shippers. The charges reflect the cost of providing the carriage, the value of this service to the owner of the goods, the ability of the merchandise to support the expense of transportation, and economic conditions in general. Freight rates truly reflect the working of the laws of supply and demand. In tramp shipping, particularly, it is possible to observe how these factors influence the rise or fall of freight rates from day to day and from cargo to cargo. Tramp ships transport, in shipload (or ?full cargo?) lots, commodities which, like coal, grain, ore, and phosphate rock, can be moved in bulk. The fact that usually only one shipper and one commodity are involved simplifies the establishment of a freight rate for this particular movement. To the capital charges of ownership and the expense of administration and overhead must be added the cost of running the ship, handling the cargo, and paying port fees and harbor dues. Against this total is set the number of tons to be hauled, and the resultant figure is what the tramp must charge, per ton of cargo loaded, to break even on the contemplated voyage. If competitive conditions permit, a margin for profit will form part of the quoted rate. If however the p revailing economic climate is unfavorable, the owner has the privilege of retiring the ship to a quit backwater, there to wait until the financial skies are brighter. The tramp operator does not depend upon the longterm goodwill of the shippers, but is free to accept those offers which appear profitable at the moment. When adversity threatens, those charters are accepted which minimize anticipated losses. If there is a choice, the cost of temporary lay-up is contrasted with the loss which continued operation might produce, and the less expensive alternative is selected in a bow to the inevitable made with whatever grace that can be mustered. Liner-service companies, on the other hand, depend for financial prosperity upon the accumulated goodwill of shippers who, through the years, come to rely upon the regular and continued operation of the company's fleet. Temporary withdrawal from service whenever economic conditions are less than favorable is unthinkable. The liner will sail on her regular run, whether full or not, she will carry a wide variety of commodities, each with its own peculiarities, in quantities which can be estimated in advance more or less accurately, but never with complete certainty. The ports of call are known far in advance of sailing, and the total expense of working the ship can be calculated with acceptable precision. Since, however, the exact distribution of tonnage, commodity by commodity, varies with every trip, it is not possible to establish a rate that reflects the cost of transporting a single ton of a particular commodity as closely as does a tramp owner's computation. This is not to sugges t that liner-service operators cannot compute to a nicety the costs of owning and operating their ships. They know to a fraction of a cent their daily costs for amortization and interest on borrowed capital, and what administrative expenses they must charge to individual voyages. In the same manner that their counterparts in the tramping trade are able to fix individual rates, liner owners can determine what they should charge per-ton to carry a single commodity when it is offered in lots sufficient to fill one of their ships. From experience, the liner- service operators know approximately what is going to move, voyage after voyage, and have a good idea of what tonnage to expect. They must estimate the overhead to be charged against each commodity and the out of pocket costs of handling them at ports of loading and discharge. An apportionment of